Hunter Of The Dead (9 page)

Chapter Thirteen

“We need to get out of the valley.” Eden bit into a protein bar and tried not to watch Alejandro get dressed.

“Yes.” He pulled a shirt over his head and walked over to sit across the small table from her.

“But first we need supplies.” All they had left was a bottle of water and a few protein bars. It was barely enough to get her by for another day, let alone Alejandro, too.

“Yes.”

She finished the bar. “Are you going to say something useful?”

“Yes.” He grinned and demolished a protein bar. “There’s nothing here, but I am sure we can find more in other houses.”

Finding supplies was only the first step but they would figure out the rest later. They could climb out of the valley, if it came to that, but leaving felt like betraying Jordan. What if she really was alive?

Eden stood up, angry with herself. “Then stop screwing around and let’s get out of here.”

Alejandro raised his eyebrows, but didn’t comment as they put on their packs and weapons. “As you wish.”

She paused, took a deep breath, and tried to get a hold on her anger. What happened to Jordan and this village wasn’t his fault. “How do you want to do this?” When it came to shooting, Eden was the best they had, but she was out of her element here and they both knew it.

“You trust me to lead?”

“Yes.” She didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him when it came to relationship stuff, but he was a damn good killer, nearly as good as Taro and Kaede. Eden closed her eyes. As good as they
had
been. How was she going to live without her team, her family? No, she couldn’t go there. Not now.

Alejandro scooted his chair back as she opened her eyes. “We shall go down the north side of the street. I will take point and you will cover me.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath and cautiously opened the door. The sun had barely breached the horizon, a dull light that bounced off the mist covering the ground. There was no movement in the streets, and the village was as silent as it had been since she first walked through it. It was unnatural and the muscles along her spine stiffened with fear.

Taking the first step was a mental battle that seemed to last forever. She wanted nothing more than to retreat into the relative safety of the house and hole up until someone came to save them. But there was no one coming.
They
were supposed to be the saviors. The irony of it stuck in her throat and made it hard to breathe. Only the presence of Alejandro got her out of the doorway and into the street.

Eden adjusted Bernice on her back and drew her
bolo
. The mist was so thick she could see only three houses in either direction, which would prevent them from seeing any infected until they were practically on top of her and Alejandro. At least they would hear them first. She hoped.

She stopped and waited for Alejandro to pass her as he walked to the house immediately to their right. Eden’s footsteps echoed oddly, compounding the unnatural silence of the village.

The house they stopped in front of was the same size as the one they left. In fact, it could have been a twin if not for the different colored walls. The front door was shut, so there might be infected trapped inside. She could bang on the door and listen for movement, but the sound would draw any infected in the area. A no-win situation as far as Eden was concerned.

After a quick glance at Alejandro, she turned the handle and nudged the door open, ready to leap back at the slightest movement. There was nothing.

She moved into the main living space, carefully scanning the room for blind spots. Alejandro followed her, shutting the door softly behind him. There were two other doors, both closed, but after checking to make sure they were secured, Eden ignored them. What she needed was in the main room. There wasn’t much in the way of edible food, most of it gone bad from maggots or the heat. A cloud of flies lifted off the bowl of fruit when she came too close. Damn.

Eden covered her mouth and backed up. “We’re not going to find anything here.”

Alejandro moved to the kitchen cabinets, most of them hanging half off their hinges as if something had been thrown into them recently. Eden looked back at the closed doors, wondering if the cabinets had been broken before or after the infection came to this town.

“You are correct,
querida
. There is not much here.”

This village was too isolated and poor to have access to much of anything but what they made or grew for themselves. She moved to the other side of the room and carefully pushed open the shutters on one of the windows. At the back of the house there was what looked like it might have been a small herb garden before someone trampled all over it. Double damn.

“I don’t think we’re going to find anything anywhere.”

“We must try.”

The next house was larger than the first, shaped more like a rectangle than a square. Eden repeated the same procedure from the first, twisting the handle and nudging the door open with her shoe. From her position, she could only see part of the main room—the rest was cut off by a half wall.

She inched forward, keeping her back to the wall to her left. She made it a single step past the partial wall when a shape flew at her. Instinctively, Eden ducked, rolling deeper into the room. It might have worked if not for the rocking chair she ran into. The impact left her stunned for one fatal moment and then the zombie was on her. Eden got her arm jammed into the female’s neck before she lost a chunk of flesh to snapping teeth. The feeling of
déjà vu
made her dizzy, but this zombie was nowhere near as large as the other had been. She shoved it sideways towards the rocking chair, and rolled in the opposite direction. Before the zombie gained its feet, Alejandro was there, decapitating it with his machete.

They were both still for a moment, waiting to see if something else would attack, but the room was empty of threat. Eden snorted. No one in their right mind would dismiss Alejandro as a threat, but he wasn’t going to tear out her throat with his teeth.

She hoped.

“Something funny,
mi amor
?”

“No.” She chose not to comment on his choice of words. Now was not the time for the conversation about the new nickname. Eden climbed to her feet and staggered a little bit. The rocking chair had hurt; one more pain to add to her collection. She bit back a groan and walked to the kitchen.

There was a moldy loaf of bread and a handful of fruit that the flies hadn’t got to yet, probably because of the closed windows. Eden left the bread and took the fruit. “We don’t have time for this. Let’s get the hell out of this town.”

“The fruit will not last long.”

She turned around to find him cleaning his machete off with what looked like a hand-knitted blanket. “We can find some along the way.”

“Do you know what plants are edible in this area of the world,
querida
?”

“No.” She fought not to grit her teeth, failing miserably. “But it doesn’t matter how many houses we go to. Even if we find enough food to last us to the nearest town, it will be too much to carry. You may be superhuman, but I can’t haul an extra fifty pounds around while I’m trying to climb.”

He shrugged. “So leave your rifle. You are out of ammo, are you not?” Alejandro must have seen the refusal on her face because he said, “Think about this for a moment,
querida
. That gun is—what—ten, fifteen pounds?”

“Seventeen,” she bit out.

“
Exacto
. That is several days’ worth of food if we ration ourselves carefully.”

He had a point. But this was Bernice they were talking about, the single most important possession Eden owned, her last piece of Dad. “I won’t leave her.”

Alejandro threw up his hands and shot a look at the ceiling like he was asking God for patience. “Fine, do as you will. It is what you have always done. Just as you only hear what you want to hear.”

“That’s not fair.” She realized she was yelling and lowered her voice. “You don’t know a damn thing about me.”

“No? Then why do you insist on scoffing every time I speak of our past?” He paced to one wall and back again, the very picture of caged violence. “Why can’t you understand?”

Against her better judgment, Eden asked, “Understand what?” It didn’t matter. He was just going to lie again. She couldn’t trust him, no matter how much she wanted to.

Alejandro raked his hands through his hair, leaving it spiky. “Understand what, she asks.
El senor tiene misericordia
.”

“Spit it out, Alejandro.”

“I love you.
Dios
, why is that so hard for you to understand?”

Whatever she’d expected him to say, that wasn’t it. Eden blinked, frozen between wanting to believe him and knowing she shouldn’t. It was too much to deal with. She turned away and headed for the front door, stumbling a little. After a brief pause to curse under his breath, he followed her, keeping the same distance between them.

Which was good. How the hell was she supposed to respond to Alejandro? What was he thinking, dropping a bomb like that here, when they probably wouldn’t survive long enough to get out of the valley? Ass.

And she wanted to believe him. Oh, how she wanted. Eden reluctantly pushed it from her mind, locking his declaration away. Time would tell if he was lying or not and she’d have to live with that.

The street was as empty as before. Even with the sun fully in the sky, the mist hadn’t diminished in the slightest. But now, instead of being gray, it was a dull white. As far as Eden was concerned, it wasn’t an improvement. She started down the street before she realized they didn’t have a plan. Oh well, she wasn’t going to stop now and talk about it, not with his words still circling her head.

“
Querida
, I think now would be a good time to discuss a course of action,” he spoke so softly she could barely make out his words.

Eden matched his volume, grateful he was going to let the previous subject drop. “We head west.” It was the quickest way out of the village. Then they could circle south to the nearest cliff wall and get to work on climbing out of this hellhole.

Alejandro laughed softly. “That is most specific.”

She didn’t bother to answer. Right now, the top priority was getting out of town. While it seemed like most of the infected had moved on—probably following any survivors—there was no guarantee they wouldn’t migrate back. As far as Eden could tell, if there was no immediately available food source, the infected wandered without any definable pattern until going into their odd coma-like stance, able to stay still for days on end. She’d only heard stories about trying to hunt zombies after they reached the coma point, about the horror of being ambushed by something you hadn’t even noticed. It would be a mess of epic proportions.

Up ahead, the church loomed. Eden stopped, unable to stop the shiver that racked her body as the sight of all those clawed-open empty graves. There had to be at least ten of them, possibly more. Alejandro came to stand next to her, his shoulder brushing hers. The brief contact centered her as she tried to shake off the feeling of doom weighing her down. They had to cross the square. It was the quickest way through the village and Eden sure as hell wasn’t going to be scared off by heebie-jeebies.

“My bullets are over there,” she whispered.

Alejandro nodded and started towards the church. Eden stepped out into the graveyard, avoiding the obvious graves. Like before, it was impossible to take a step and not touch a grave, but at least she was able to avoid the disturbed ones. They reached the church without hands breaking through the earth to grab at her ankles and Eden breathed a little sigh of relief.

Moans cut through the mist. How the hell had the infected gotten so close without them hearing? Eden shot a panicked look at Alejandro, but his face was as unreadable as ever. They backed against the church, watching the mist.

The undead came out of the whiteness like monsters rising from hell. They should have slowed down in this relentless heat, their muscles breaking down and decomposing, but these ones moved nearly as fast as the newly dead. Males and female, most dressed in little more than bloody rags. More and more came, a freaking horde of them. Fear shorted out Eden’s thoughts. There was no way they could fight so many and survive.

Alejandro must have come to the same conclusion. He grabbed her arm and pulled her around the side of the church. As soon as they lost sight of the infected, Eden could breathe again. Barely. He shook her. “Look at me, Eden. I need you to run. Can you do that?”

She nodded even though she wasn’t sure. It seemed to be enough, though, because he pushed her in front of him. “Go.”

She ran.

Chapter Fourteen

Eden flew down the dirt road, the houses a blur on either side of her. She felt like they were the ones in motion while she stayed still, straining to move faster. The moans of the infected increased to a frenetic frequency as they gave chase. It shouldn’t have happened like this. Eden and Alejandro should have easily been able to outpace the undead without straining themselves. But there was no place for “should haves” in reality. In reality, Eden could barely force air through her tortured lungs and still the infected gained.

“The river,” Alejandro said behind her. He didn’t seem to have trouble keeping pace and he sure as hell didn’t sound scared. Eden wanted to hate him, but, insanely, it comforted her instead.

She started to ask him what river he meant, but there was no breath for talking. Instead she kept going, racing through the streets and hoping to God no infected appeared from between the houses she passed. Since Alejandro didn’t correct her, she figured she must be going in the right direction.

The village ended abruptly, the last house mere feet from the edge of the forest. Eden had to swerve widely to avoid colliding with a tree. She was forced to slow down and, even as her body thanked her for the break, her mind screamed to run faster.

Alejandro moved up until he was next to her. “You can swim, correct?”

She shot him a disbelieving look and nearly tripped over a root.

He ignored her silent reprimand. “We must cross the river. It is vast and will create a barrier as the infected cannot swim.” Sure, they couldn’t swim, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t follow. It was hard to drown when you didn’t need to breathe.

It wasn’t a great plan as such things went, but Eden didn’t have any bright ideas. She let Alejandro take point, falling in behind him gratefully. It was a lot easier to run when she knew what to avoid. The moans behind them were louder, closer, but she shut the sound out. If she didn’t, she might go insane.

The river came up nearly as fast as the forest. It wasn’t until Eden was ankle deep in water that she saw it at all. Alejandro had been right—it was wide. If they crossed, there was a good chance they could lose the infected. At least temporarily.

While she’d paused, taking in the river, Alejandro hadn’t. He was already waist deep and moving fast. Eden hitched Bernice higher on her back and followed. The mud along the river bottom sucked at her feet and the current threatened to topple her every time she took a step. Still, she wasn’t doing too badly until something swept along under the surface and knocked her feet out from under her.

Eden went under, sucking in water instead of air. The river dragged her down, defying every attempt she made to regain her feet—or breathe. She clawed at the bottom, desperate to slow her progress until she could get her feet under her, but it was no use. Her feet hit something and the impact flipped Eden onto her back, allowing one quick breath of air as she breached the surface. Then she went under again, this time headfirst.

Bernice dragged her down, its strap catching around her neck and nearly strangling her before she wiggled out of it. Her pack went next. Even without the extra weight, she couldn’t control her movements. The best Eden could do was get a quick gasp of air here and there.

Without warning, the water level went down, merely six inches instead of five feet. Eden rolled, gasping, until she hit something solid. Some instinct made her glance up when all she wanted to do was lie there and relearn how to breathe.

A dead man looked down at her as if wondering where she’d come from. No, that was impossible, Eden realized. He would never look at anything again. Maggots wriggled where his eyes had been, pouring out of his mouth when he moaned.

“Oh shit.” She rolled away, coming to her knees as she scrambled for her
bolo
. It came out of her sheath easily and she silently thanked Kaede for badgering her into upgrading to one the weapon wouldn’t fall out of.

The infected lunged, eerily accurate though it lacked the ability to see. Eden fought the impulse to get out of its way, knowing she only had strength for one blow. It came, arms reaching, fingers curled into claws. When it was less than a foot from her, she leapt, shoving her
bolo
through the soft tissue at the bottom of the jaw and into its brain. It went limp as true death took it.

Eden climbed to her feet, blinking angry tears from her eyes. Her pack was gone. So was Bernice. Hell, she had more things to worry about than a rifle, but Bernice had been Eden’s last link to Dad. She’d loved the damn rifle more than any other possession she owned—more than most of the people she knew.

Shaking her head, Eden waded to the bank of the river and, with a single backward glance, made her way into the trees. If she backtracked, Alejandro would find her. Even if he didn’t, she had to get away from this shallow part. It was too easy for the infected to cross and she wasn’t at the top of her game right now.

Fifteen minutes later she became aware she wasn’t alone. Eden wasn’t sure how she knew—there was no betraying rustle or smell—but she stopped, backing against a tree and bringing her
bolo
up. She tried not to notice how the tip of her blade bobbed ever so slightly despite her best efforts to keep it still. Whoever was out there wasn’t infected; the undead tended to jump first and think not at all.

When it became clear she couldn’t hold the
bolo
up forever, Eden cleared her throat. “Come out. I know you’re there.” Her voice rang uncomfortably loud.

A soft laugh tinkled from above.

Eden threw herself into motion, rolling away from the tree an instant before a dark shape landed where she’d been standing. She came to a stop in an ungraceful heap. “Damn it!”

Kaede laughed again, lounging against the tree with her arms crossed over her chest. “You look like shit, princess.”

For a long moment, Eden couldn’t move. Kaede was alive. She wanted to throw herself at the other woman and hug her, but Kaede had never been much for touching. Instead, Eden settled with climbing to her feet and leaning against a nearby tree. She couldn’t stop looking at Kaede, marveling that she was here to insult Eden when, by all rights, she should have been dead beneath several tons of rock. It was a lot to process. “You’re alive.”

And the other woman didn’t look so hot herself. There were dark bags under her eyes and a huge discolored lump on the left side of her forehead. Eden didn’t know what was more shocking that the Japanese woman was alive, or that she looked like she’d had the crap beaten out of her.

Kaede snorted. “Obviously.”

Eden tried to bite back the question but it was no use. She had to know. “Jordan?”

“Back at the camp.”

Relief sent her to her knees. Jordan was okay. In that moment, Eden actually believed there was a God watching over them. And, shit, maybe guardian angels too. Surely there had to be something keeping them safe because there was no way this was possible.

She smiled at her thoughts—or maybe she was smiling because her sister was
alive
. Eden closed her eyes and reined herself in. “Where?” That was the important question right now. She had to find Jordan so they could get hell out of dodge.

“There’s a problem.”

Eden opened her eyes and glared at the older woman. “Spit it out.”

“We found survivors, a big ass group of them, cloistered in the west end of the valley.”

That sounded like Jordan, always looking out for the victims. “And?” Obviously there was more to the situation.

Kaede hesitated, making Eden’s heart rate spike. Anything that bothered the other woman was a serious issue. “There is a man claiming to be a priest. He’s not like any priest I’ve met, but he has the support of the remaining survivors.”

“Okay,” Eden said slowly, wanting to shake the answers out of the other woman when Kaede hesitated again.

“The dipshit claims the infected are enemies of the Christian God. He quotes the Bible to the survivors and they’re eating it up. Jordan tried to talk to them, but he freaked out and said she was a demon or some shit.” Kaede looked up, letting Eden see how haunted her eyes were. “He’s going to throw her and Taro to the infected outside the gates.”

Eden’s stomach lurched. “Then why the hell are you here? Why aren’t you saving them?” They were wasting time sitting here talking. She lurched to her feet and started walking, but Kaede’s sharp words stopped her before she’d taken three steps.

“I had no choice.” She paused, as if fighting for words, her hand going to the lump on her forehead. “Taro smacked the shit out of me before he went in after Jordan. Left me in a damn tree.”

“What?” It had to be bad for Taro to hit Kaede. Hell, he’d never raised a hand to any woman as far as Eden had ever seen, let alone his sister. She was his everything—in a non-creepy way. Taro would never do anything to hurt Kaede. That he had spoke volumes. Eden swung around, ready to apologize for her harsh words, but the sound of someone crashing through the trees stopped her. Kaede was beside her,
nagamaki
drawn, before Eden registered the motion.

Alejandro burst through the trees, ducked Kaede’s swing with an effortless move, and half-tackled Eden. “You’re alive.”

Eden let him wrap his arms around her and tried not to sink into his embrace. Over his shoulder, she saw Kaede raise a single eyebrow. “Ah, the Columbian.”

Alejandro stiffened and let Eden go before he turned to face the other woman. “Kaede.”

“I hoped you’d gotten some sense and dropped dead.” Kaede whirled her
nagamaki
in a deadly pattern, her eyes never leaving his.

“Then I must apologize for the disappointment.”

Since when did these two hate each other? The animosity came off them in waves, so thick she could almost taste it. It didn’t matter; they didn’t have time for a pissing contest. Shaking off her curiosity, Eden stepped forward, keeping a careful distance from Kaede’s blade. “Jordan and Taro are in trouble. You said it yourself. We need all the help we can get.”

“His kind of help is the killing kind.” She turned her head and spat on the ground.

Eden wanted to roll her eyes. Kaede could have been talking about herself. But it made her wonder what had changed. They had never particularly liked each other, but dislike was a far cry from wishing someone dead, even for Kaede. “I know. That’s the point. This religious nut needs to be dealt with before he takes out the rest of our team.”

“Fine.” Kaede sighed. “There’s something more.”

Great. As if the threat of Jordan’s death wasn’t enough. “Tell me.”

“After he sends Jordan and Taro to their so-called brethren, he plans on walking through the infected and taking the survivors with him.”

Eden flinched. “They’ll be torn apart, killed, or turned.”

Kaede shrugged. “I know that. You know that. He thinks they’ll be protected by God.”

Fantastic. Eden had half a thought to leave them to their misery. Dad would have left them, would have concentrated on saving the surviving team members and getting out of there alive. Cutting their losses was the smart thing to do. The logical thing.

But Jordan wouldn’t leave those people, no matter how much they might deserve it. She was the better person by far. And there were probably kids in with the survivors; children who weren’t old enough to make a suicidal decision like that. Damn it. “We can’t let them to die.”

Alejandro shifted, bringing her attention back to him. “Your sister is alive?”

There were no words to encompass the joy she felt every time she heard those words. She went with a simple, “Yes.”

“That is good.” Alejandro’s tone was at odds with his words, but he’d never liked the idea of Eden being in danger, infected or otherwise.

Kaede gave him a long look. “Let’s go. We’re wasting daylight.” She started off, forcing them to follow or be left behind.

Alejandro kept pace with Eden, one step behind and to her left. “Are you well?”

She shot him a grateful look for the low volume of his voice. Kaede would hear, but Eden doubted the other woman would comment as long as they didn’t make a spectacle of themselves. “Mostly.” It was true. Her body felt like it’d been hit by a truck, but she wanted to skip for joy because her sister was
alive
. Damn, Eden would never get tired of thinking that.

“I—” He looked away. “When I saw you go under...Do not ever do that again,
querida
. I have tried living without you and it was not pleasant.”

Eden couldn’t meet the pain in his gaze, the blatant longing and...love... “We’ll talk about it if we ever get out of here.”

“I will hold you to that.”

“Do that.” Even as the words left her mouth, she had the feeling she’d regret them. Damn it. How did she get herself into this mess? Oh yeah, she dove in headfirst. Like always.