Life After The Undead (Book 2): Death to the Undead (29 page)

“Who knows?”
Quinn
said
quietly. “All
I
know
is
that we
don’t
have
to
worry
about
them
anymore.
If
they
want
to take
care
of
themselves,
then
they
can.
I’m
done
babysitting
others.”

Tanya
made
her
way
to the
fire
and
took a
seat
to
my
right.
I
stared
at
her
for
a
moment,
then
focused
my
gaze
back
on
Pam.

“Any
news
about
Liet?”

“Nah.
He’s long
gone.
We
haven’t
seen
any
trace
of
him.
But
to be
sure,
we’ve
placed
guards
in
strategic
places
around
the
camp.
He
won’t
get
back in without
someone
knowing.
In
fact, no one
will
get in without
someone
knowing.”

“Have
you
had
any
trouble
from
the tunnel?”
Quinn’s
voice was
laced
with
implication.

“Nope. Nothing.”

“Has
anyone
been
out to explore
what’s
out
there?”

Pam
shook
her
head.
“No.
We
figured
we’d
wait
until
you
got
back. We
didn’t
want
to worry
anyone
needlessly.”

Quinn
nodded. “Good
plan. We’ll
take
care
of that
first
thing
tomorrow.”
He
stretched
his arms above
his
head
and
yawned. “I’m
beat.
I’m
going
to bed.”
He
leaned
forward
and
kissed me softly
on the lips
before
heading
into the
cave.

I
watched
him
leave,
then
leaned
back on
my
elbow
and
stared
at
the
flames.

“Sounds
like
you
had
quite the
adventure
in Casper,”
Pam
commented.

I
snorted.
“It’s
not the
kind of
fun
I
normally
like
to
have.”

“Well,
if
anyone was
going
to come
out of it alive,
it
was
you
two.
You’re
too
crafty
to
go
down.”

Normally,
I
would
have
smiled
at
the
comment.
It
was
good
to know
I
wasn’t just
lucky,
but
that
I
had some
skill too
and
others
recognized
it.
It
was especially
nice
coming
from
Pam.
She
was
the one
who trained
me.
But
with the
amount
of
pain
still
radiating
through
my
body,
I
couldn’t
find the
desire
to
be
thankful.
We
were lucky,
there was
no denying
it.
We
survived
a
horde
attack
and
an
explosion.
In
reality,
though,
it
wasn’t
that hard.
The
zombies
were
slow, stupid, it didn’t take
much to
get
away
from them. They
had
numbers
on
their
side,
that
was
their
only
advantage.
If
they
cornered
you,
you
were
done
for.
You just
had
to
be
smart
enough
not to
get
cornered.
Every
once
in
a
while, they
would
surprise
an
unsuspecting
victim, pop
out of a
hiding
place.
I
never
understood
how
that
happened.
Was the victim not
paying attention? Zombies
were
predictable.
They
were
simple. So how did they
destroy
the
world?

“Must
have
been scary
out
there,
surrounded
by
all
those
zombies.”
Tanya
spoke
quietly,
her
eyes
glued
to
her
lap.

I
readjusted
so
I
could
face her. “It
had its moments,
yeah.
But
Quinn
was
with me,
I
knew
I’d
be
all
right.”

She
lifted
her
head
and
stared
at
me. “Must
be
nice
knowing
someone’s
got
your
back.”

I
was
a little
shocked
at
the
comment
and
didn’t
really
know how
to respond. I
glanced
at
Pam, who
shrugged,
then
back
to
Tanya.
I
was still
trying
to
get
used
to her
presence.
The
last time
I
talked to her in
Florida,
she
was
gung-ho
about
helping
the
rebellion.
She
couldn’t
wait
to be a
part
of history
and
topple
the
evil
tyrannical
regime.
At that
moment,
she
seemed
to
struggle
just
living.
She
had
no motivation.

Granted,
she
lost her
father
and
thought
it
was
our
fault.
She
became
hell-bent on
getting
revenge, but
when
she
found
out
we
didn’t do it,
what
was
she
going
to
do?
What
defined
her
life
and
gave her
meaning
was
suddenly
gone.
It
didn’t
help
that
Quinn
was
mad
at
her.
She
did allow his
best
friends
to
get
arrested
by
The
Families.
She
was
lost. She
wanted
to
belong,
but she
didn’t know
how.

“It
is.” I
didn’t know what else
to
say.
“Everyone
here
has
yours,
you
know.
No
one
is
going
to
let
anything
bad
happen
to
you.”

Her
face
crumpled
and
she
burst into
tears.
She
buried
her
face
in her
hands
and
sobbed
quietly.
Wide
eyed,
I
looked
at
Pam.

“What’s
going
on?”
I
mouthed.
Pam
shook
her
head.

“I
told
them!”
Tanya
blurted. “I
told them
everything!”

The
anger
instantly
flushed
my
cheeks,
and
I
set
my
jaw.
My
stomach
fluttered,
my
throat
tightened.
I
wanted
to
give
her the
benefit of
the doubt,
believe
she was
talking
about
something
else,
but
I
knew
what she
meant.
I
knew what
she’d
done.
I
wanted
to jump on top of
her
and
beat
her
bloody,
but
I
refrained.
It
wasn’t
easy,
but
I
stayed
in
control.
I
sat
silently,
waiting
for
her to
finish.
She
slowly
lifted
her
head
from
her
hands
and
wiped
her
eyes
on
her
sleeves.