Day Beyond the Dead (Book 1) (9 page)

     “I don’t hate you Gerard. I don’t. Even when you did what you did I didn’t hate you. I might have been really hurt and upset but I never hated you. So why would I hate you now? This is a really messed up situation and things got really messed up in general. I just-“

     “-I was lucky enough to have you for a while. Let’s leave it at that, ok.”

     “Ok,” Christa shook her head slightly, gave a half smile and started to walk away. Gerard quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her into the bathroom, pushed her up against the door and presses his lips to hers kissing her intensely. Christa puts her hands on Gerard’s chest and tries to push him off. Damion comes from behind Gerard and grabs him by the shirt and pulls him hard backwards slamming him into the sink and mirror. Gerard’s head hits the mirror and shatters it as he buckles under the pain of the sink hitting him in the back.

     “Keep your damn hands off of her! I won’t tell you again asshole.” Damion picks Gerard up off the floor by his shirt and proceeds to punch him again and again in the face. Christa is leaning up against the bathroom door covering her mouth as she watches. Gerard starts to bleed profusely from the nose as his eye starts to swell up. Christa grabs Damion’s arm as he swings it back to punch Gerard once more.

     “Damion stop!! That’s enough!!”

     “No it’s not!” He yanks his arm away from her and continues to beat Gerard. Christa runs down the hallway to find Darren, which she does sitting in the corner of the room. He looks up as she enters the room.

     “Darren please hurry! Damion is beating Gerard to death and I can’t stop him!” Darren jumps up and follows Christa down the hallway as fast as he can. By the time they get to the bathroom Gerard’s face is covered in blood.

     Darren rushes over to Damion and puts him in a headlock, “Damion damnit that’s enough!! You’re going to kill him! Get a hold of yourself!”

     “Good! That motherfucker deserves to die! I hope he rots in hell,” Damion yells as he struggles to get free from Darren’s grasp. Slowly Damion closes his eyes as he passes out. Darren promptly lets go of him and goes to check on Gerard who is breathing with much labor.

     “Oh my god. His nose is broken and there’s so much blood. It’s hard for him to breathe with all that blood in his airway and I’m sure the broken nose doesn’t help either. I’m going to have to get him out of here. Wanna help me?”

     “Sure let me take Damion into the room and I’ll come back to help you, k.” Christa puts Damion’s arm around her neck and proceeds to help him up. After they get down the hallway a little bit Christa looks at Damion, “You stay in here and take it easy. I’m going to go back and help Darren get Gerard into the next room.”

     “Like hell, leave him there.”

     Christa helps Damion down once they get into the room and goes to leave but turns around and stares at Damion. “Damion you didn’t have to do that ya know and you don’t have to act like this either. Don’t you get it? I love you with everything that I have and nobody is going to change that. Was he in the wrong for kissing me? Yes. Should you have kicked his ass? I’ll even say yes to that, but should you have almost killed him? No baby, no. I know you hate him and there is a long history behind it but let’s keep our eyes on the biggest prize. Self-preservation in a world where it seems its hell bent on just the opposite.” Damion watched as Christa walked off down the hallway.

     Christa walked over to Darren and put her arms around Gerard to help him up. She could hear the gurgles as he tried to breathe while exerting himself walking down the hallway leaving a trail of blood. She couldn’t help but feel bad for him. He deserved something but it wasn’t this. They finally got to the room and they laid him down gently on the bedding from the previous night. Christa got some water and a rag. She wiped down Gerard’s face gently until all of the blood was gone, except for the little that freshly flowed from his wounds.

     She looked down at Gerard and noticed him looking up at her through his right eye because his other was swollen. “Why? Why would you do something
so
stupid as that?? I can’t believe you would do that, especially after you said all that you had said Gerard. You will never learn.” Gerard started to try to laugh but only ended up coughing up blood.

     “Your man sure did a number on me.” Gerard paused and looked up at Christa, “but it was definitely worth it.”

     “Like I said, you’ll never learn.” Christa wiped off the blood on Gerard’s face that he had coughed up. She knew she needed to go check on Damion. After everything that happened she knew if she stayed with Gerard too long, especially nursing his wounds, that would only fuel Damion’s fire all the more. She headed into the next room and found Damion on the floor still but leaning up against the corner instead. She walked over to him and knelt down in front of him placing her hand on his arms that were propped up on his knees in front of him. “Can I squeeze in there?” She moved towards Damion and put her back to him and slide into his arms. She leaned her head back onto his shoulder. “There’s my spot.” She moved her face so that her lips were planted on his cheek where she softly placed a kiss.

     Damion just sat there with a far off look in his eyes for the longest time until he spoke. “It’s my fault ya know. I should have never went through with the divorce. It was hard for a reason. I never wanted to be without you since the moment I met you and that hasn’t changed ever. So I don’t know why I left and gave that piece of shit the opportunity to ever get close to you. I should have known. I mean he has wanted to be with you since we were kids practically. I can’t bear to think-“

     Christa moves her body sharply towards Damion, grabs his face gently and motions his eyes towards her, “-stop thinking. The only thing that should be in your mind is survival and of course me,” Christa gave a grin on that last note and moved in for a kiss. She knew just how to soothe her savage beast. She always has.

     After a while Darren walked through the door to the room where Christa and Damion were. “I know we need to leave but I dunno if that’s a good idea considering Gerard’s condition currently. I mean believe me, I don’t wanna be here anymore than you guys, probably more so. I just wouldn’t feel comfortable traveling with him in that state.”

     Damion thought for a moment and looked at Darren, “It’s not safe for any of us anywhere at the moment. There really isn’t anything here to really sustain us besides shelter and I don’t know about you but the bodies behind this building have freaked me out enough that I don’t wanna stay here at all. I can’t explain that. Can you?” Damion paused waiting for Darren’s reply but his silence was all the answer he needed. “I didn’t think so. What if there are vigilantes and they come back and kill us all? These are the scenarios I think of. I have to so we can survive. It will be rough but isn’t everything considering the state of the world today? There are two vehicles. I’ll drive one and you can drive the other. Christa is obviously with me and Gerard with you. We can take twice as much stuff and we have a backup vehicle just incase. Plus we look like more people in two vehicles which makes us a bit more formidable. Well at least we’ll look that way. You and I will go get the vehicles ready and then we’ll head out of here. The sooner the better.” Darren didn’t want to admit it but he knew Damion was right. It only made sense to leave. The bodies behind the building, that seemed to have left his mind due to Tara dying, quickly gave him the chills once more.

     While Damion and Darren were getting the trucks ready Christa was looking through the office for anything that was useable. Out of the side of her eye she saw the picture once again of Sgt. Donaldson. She walked over and took it out of the frame. She stared at it for a moment before folding it and putting it in her pocket. She couldn’t explain why but she felt this need to take the picture. So she did.

     She could hear footsteps coming down the hallway which she knew meant it was time to go. Damion turned the corner, “It’s time to leave. I got some jackets in the truck and a few thermals. If worse comes to worse we’ll be covered.” Christa nodded as she took Damion’s hand and walked down the hallway towards the trucks while Darren helped Gerard down the hallway. After they were in the vehicles Damion pulled out a long range walkie talkie and spoke to Darren, “You guys just came from the south before you got me so it doesn’t make sense going back the same way. Then again I really hate this snow. I think it only hurts us in the end. I don’t know, let’s take a vote. Who wants to go north and who wants to go south?”

     Christa looks at Damion, “That the only two options? What happened to east and west?”

     “Well the highway only goes north and south from this exit so it is just those two choices.”

     “True, but there are other roads besides the interstate. Maybe we could take those. I mean what harm could it be.”

     “I don’t know. This weather is pretty bad and that option doesn’t feel right to me. We could get stuck and find ourselves far from any civilization. Then what?”

     “Civilization? Baby I don’t think anything is civilized anymore.”
     “You know what I meant. We wouldn’t be near any resources or shelter. I don’t want us to freeze to death. Well not most of us at least.” Christa gave Damion a look upon his last comment. “I was kidding Christa.”

     “Let’s just focus on our directions. I guess out of the two I would say head south but that is a double bladed sword because not only will it be easier for us to maneuver so will it be for the undead. So there are pros and cons in both situations but I rather be sure footed than not so yeah, south.”

     “Ok, one for south. What about you Darren?”

     “South. I’ve had enough snow to last me a lifetime personally.”

     “Ok, two for south.”

     “Wait a second, Gerard is telling me his answer.” A brief pause over the walkie talkie. “He said north because he rather go the road less traveled than the opposite.”

     “Figures,” Damion mumbled.

     “That kind’ve makes sense babe, but I don’t wanna freeze to death. Like I said there are pros and cons in both places. You’re the deciding, well the make it or tie up factor. So which is it?”

     Damion pressed the button on the walkie talkie, “I guess south it is. Follow me but let’s go slow. We don’t want a wreck early on. Ok?”

     “Ok. Lead on.”

     The crunch of the snow beneath the tires could be heard within the vehicle as they backed out of the garage into the elements. The sheer weight of the trucks was enough to give them good traction in the snow. Christa watched out the window at the passing scenery; forest covered with a blanket of snow as if it were laid there precisely, shadows moving like clockwork as they drove by. She couldn’t seem to shake the fact that so far they’ve lost one person in every place they have stopped. She hoped it was not a trend that would continue because their numbers were dwindling.

     Her eyes wander to Damion and he glances over at her giving her a quick smile. She wondered how much time they had left together and in that moment her stomach turned. She put those thoughts as far from her mind as she could and vowed to never let them back in. Truth is she couldn’t fathom being without Damion anymore. At the end of the world if Damion wasn’t here she really didn’t care if she was either. As a matter of fact she rather not be.

     “What are you thinking baby?”

     Christa stared at Damion a moment taking him in before she replied, “How much I love you.”

     “I love you too. I have for a long time. I don’t think I could ever stop loving you either. I could die and my love for you would reach from the other side.”

     “Don’t talk like that. I don’t like it. It puts thoughts in my head I don’t ever want. I wouldn’t go on without you.”

     “How can you say that? I love you and I don’t want to ever hear you say that. You hear me? If something happens to me, which it won’t, but if it does you better do whatever you can to survive. For me, ok?”

     “Don’t make me promise that Damion. Don’t. Bree is gone and if you’re gone I have nothing left to keep me here. Nothing. I can’t promise that.” Christa turned away from Damion and stared out the window.

     “C’mere. Sit next to me. Everything will be fine Christa. There’s no need to have such thoughts in your head because they won’t happen. I love you.” She scooted over towards Damion and sat next to him.

     “How are you doing?” Darren looked over at Gerard in the seat next to him and realized how exhausted he looked.

     “I’m fine. Never been better.” Gerard smiled through his busted lip.

     “You should get some rest. There is nothing else for you to do anyhow and it would probably be the best for you right now. Ya know, healing and all.”

     A long silence had transpired before Gerard broke it. “I’m sorry.”

     “What?”

     “I’m sorry.”

     “For what? What do you have to be sorry about?”

     “It’s my fault and all I can do is say sorry for it. Sorry isn’t enough in the least but it’s all I can do.”

     “Gerard, you have nothing to be sorry for.”

     “I thought I was in time. I thought I had gotten there in time to save her Darren, but I didn’t. I didn’t see a bite or a mark on her. I wish I had-“

     “-Gerard stop. Tara was no one’s fault. It was an accident. A terrible, horrible accident. That is on no one’s shoulder. No one’s so please do not say that again. If anything she was my sister. My responsibility. If anyone would own that it would be me, but as I said it was a horrible accident.”