Love and Decay (16 page)

I looked down at my oldest nephews. “Lennon,
Vaughan, get into the truck. We’re going to hand you the toddlers
and you have to promise to hold onto them as tightly as you can
until we get in with you. You can’t let them go. Do you
understand?”

They tried to be brave, but I saw their
glossy eyes despite the darkness. Adela could help them of course,
but I knew they’d do better with their older brothers. “You get up
there too, Stevie,” Miller said.

With one arm constraining Halen as the little
boy fought with all that he had, Miller helped Stevie into the
truck while the guards got increasingly impatient behind us.

The boys scrambled up into the truck. The
space was too small even for them to stand up, so they sat
cross-legged with their arms held out to their siblings.

I passed Jagger off to Vaughan and made sure
Vaughan had a good hold before I quickly scrambled into the high
truck bed. Miller did the same thing. The toddlers kicked and
fought their own brothers, but we managed to get everyone loaded in
our truck without losing a little one.

I took Jagger back from Vaughan as soon as I
was situated. The back of the truck slammed with a resounding crash
and Jagger screamed louder in protest.

I held him tightly to my chest, hating that
he had to go through this. I hated that he had to face any of this
terrible world.

Miller scooted next to me and forced Halen to
press against his chest. We whispered soothing things to them, but
they were beyond exhausted, completely traumatized from our time in
the pit and now they’d been ripped from their parents. I understood
their frustrations.

But they also stressed me out.

Stevie crawled between Miller and me,
settling herself tightly against both of us. Vaughan pressed
against my other side and Lennon sat next to Adela on the other
side of the truck bed. We were smaller than the other two groups
and so we could spread our legs out.

I had no idea where they were taking us or
what would happen to us once we got there, but I knew we wouldn’t
live long once they figured out who we were.

If they figured out who we were.

It didn’t help that we had Diego, the famed
warlord with us. Or that my brothers could be easily recognized by
Matthias if he happened to be around. Not to mention his own
children…

Shit.

I hit my head against the wall. Shit. Shit.
Shit.

“We’ll figure this out,” Miller promised.

I looked at him. “How?”

He held my gaze, but I could see that he
didn’t know. “We have figured out everything thus far,” he reminded
me. “That’s a pretty good record, considering.”

I turned away from him. He was right. But
maybe he was also wrong. What if we couldn’t figure this one
out?

What if this was the final straw?

My stomach clenched and I pressed Jagger
tighter against me. Not for his sake, but for mine.

He settled down some. His screaming cries
died down into whimpers. He’d worn himself out and I suspected some
baby instinct inside him had finally kicked in. Halen too.

Soon, both toddlers were sleeping against us
while the truck roared over bumpy highway. We bounced and swayed in
the back, not able to make out anything in the near complete
darkness of the truck bed. A few cracks allowed light to slip in,
signaling that dawn was close. But without windows or a view of the
outside, I couldn’t be sure.

My own eyelids started to droop. It had been
a grueling day and night… lifetime. With nothing dangerous facing
me at this exact moment, I couldn’t help but give into the
exhaustion. Plus, with so many kids to cuddle with I was warm and
relatively comfortable… considering.

“Sleep,” Miller encouraged me, noticing my
struggle. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

I looked across the truck bed to see that
Adela and Lennon had already fallen asleep. I decided to give in. I
didn’t know how long we had left in this truck and I knew I would
need strength for wherever we ended up.

But just when I’d finally closed my eyes, the
truck started swerving uncontrollably. I sat up fast, keeping
Jagger against my chest. I wrapped an arm around Vaughan, too, and
Miller did the same to Stevie.

The tires screamed against the road while the
driver jerked from side to side. I struggled to stay upright as we
were tossed around in the back. Poor Lennon and Adela had been
unable to prepare and were slammed against the floor.

Adela’s sharp Spanish curses punctuated the
squealing tires. The driver drove over something and one of the
tires exploded beneath us. The truck spun out, turning circle after
circle before crashing with a violent jolt.

When we finally came to a stop, Jagger was
beneath me, crying again. I’d protected him the best I could with
my body, but that had been an insane ride.

My head filled with cobwebs for the second
time tonight and I tried to shake them free while making sure the
kids weren’t hurt too badly.

As we struggled to get upright, the back door
flung open and light spilled in the darkness. I blinked against the
brightness, but my fuzzy head couldn’t make sense of what I was
seeing.

It wasn’t until Halen shouted, “Mama!” that I
finally recognized Haley and Reagan standing just outside.

The kids scrambled to their moms while we
crawled out behind them. Hendrix and Nelson were right there too,
scooping up their kids and holding them tight.

“Thank you for watching over them,” Hendrix
told us. “For keeping them safe.”

I nodded quickly but had to look away. I
couldn’t stand to see my brothers, any of them, with tears in their
eyes. It made me instantly weepy. And right now, I would burst into
tears if I looked at either Hendrix or Nelson.

“What happened?” I asked no one in
particular.

King had his arm wrapped around Joss, holding
her to his chest. He pointed at the road, where the first two
trucks had crashed. They were a ways down the road, but their
engines were smoking and nobody was moving near them.

Our own truck had crashed into a tree on the
side of the road. The driver lay slumped over the steering wheel,
blood dripping from his temple.

The passenger side door was open, but I
couldn’t see any of our other captors around. And when I looked
back at the road we’d just traveled, long silver mats lay scattered
over the road, each covered in small spikes.

They reminded me a lot of the hole we’d just
escaped. Only these were meant for car tires, not humans or
Feeders.

Dawn had broken. The sun sat low on the
horizon. The sky above glowed pink with streaks of purple clouds, a
beautiful contrast to the confusion and ugliness on the ground.

“So
what
happened?” I asked. I hadn’t
gotten any answers from my visual investigation. Only more
questions.

Harrison shook his head, seeming just as
confused. “We’re not sure. We crashed and everything went upside
down. Then one of the guards opened our door and told us to free
our friends and get the hell out of here. Then he turned around and
ran off. We heard gunfire for a while, but it stopped.”

Hendrix stepped forward, Vaughan tight at his
side. The nine-year-old had completely dropped the tough guy act
now that he had his parents.

“I think we need to take the advice though.
Let’s get out of here.”

Diego stepped in to add, “How? Are we going
to take off running through the woods so they can find us
again?”

“Do you think there’s a spare?” Nelson
asked.

I didn’t know what that meant but Hendrix,
Harrison and King jumped right on the idea. They ran around to the
trunk of the truck I’d just escaped and started searching for
something.

I leaned into Miller, “What’s a spare?”

“Tire.”

Oh. Since Miller didn’t rush to help my
brothers, I had to assume this was because the Apocalypse had
happened when he was nine. He’d never had a chance to drive a real
car.

“We found one!” Harrison declared. “And by
one, I mean it’s a donut. But he thinks it will work!”

Diego looked at Reagan. “What is a donut? He
cannot mean the food.”

“It’s a small tire,” she explained. “They’re
going to change the flat one and use this truck to get us out of
here.”

Diego’s eyebrows raised but he seemed to get
it. He moved over to watch my brothers change the tire. His men
followed, commenting on the work in Spanish.

The Colombians joined too. Then Oliver and
Fang. Pretty soon, Nelson and Miller walked over as well, leaving
all of the women behind.

I glanced at Tyler, who was standing next to
me after she’d walked over to make sure her brother was okay.
“Aren’t they just changing the tire?”

“This is what men do, Page. They watch each
other do manly things.”

“Changing a tire is a manly thing?”

Her lips twitched, but she kept a straight
face when she asked, “Well, could you change a tire?”

“On a bike,” I said defensively.

“Not the same thing.”

I could see that. But I didn’t want to admit
that she was right. “It’s still weird.”

She nodded. “It is indeed.”

The tire took a while to change. Something
about rust and lug nuts and not having done this in a while. The
females stood watch while the men stayed entranced with the
tire.

It was eerily silent. No wildlife flitted
around the trees that lined the highway. No hungry Feeders ambled
out of the woods to eat us. No men with guns chased us down.

“Where did they go?” Adela asked softly.
“They couldn’t have run far.”

“Maybe there’s something worse in the woods,”
Reagan added helpfully. “Maybe we’re about to get eaten by the
smoke monster.”

Haley snorted, “Was that a
Lost
joke?”

“Damn right,” Reagan grinned. “I think it’s
totally relevant.”

Haley giggled. “God, I miss Netflix.”

“What’s Netflix?” I asked. “What’s a smoke
monster?”

Instead of answering, Reagan shook her head
and said, “Page, you had the worst childhood. I feel sorry for
you.”

I wanted to argue with her… but she maybe was
right.

“Done!” Hendrix exclaimed. He dropped
something on the pavement and it clanked around at his feet while
he grinned at us, hands covered in black grease. “I am
amazing.”

“Sure you are, Babe,” Reagan assured him.
“Amazing.”

He ignored her sarcasm. “Okay, everybody pile
in. We’re going to have to make it work back there. Harrison, King,
Diego you can ride up front with me. But the rest of you are going
to have to squish.”

I glanced in the back. “There’s no way we’re
all going to fit. We’re going to have to sit on top of each
other.”

“So be it,” Hendrix answered. “We have to get
out of here now. There’s no time to check out the other trucks.
We’re going to have to make it work.”

Everybody groaned, but survival was more
important than comfort, so we obeyed. Haley and Reagan got in back
first and we handed them their kids so they could squish near the
back. The scientists went next, then the Colombians. Just when
Adela was about to board, we heard the telltale snapping of twigs
in the trees.

I pulled my blades from my back holster. The
men that captured us had never bothered to take them from me. I
realized then that they had to have had real bullets. Otherwise
they would have disarmed me right away.

I turned around just in time to see one of
the men that had held the flashlights stumble from the woods. He
had a large gash down the side of his face, starting at his
forehead, slashing over his temple and disappearing into his
hairline. Blood mingled with sweat and dripped down his face. He
was dressed in black like the other men had been, but he was
younger than them. I could see that right away.

“Good,” he panted, “you’re still here.”

Everyone had their blades ready, but the kid
didn’t seem worried.

“We’re leaving,” Hendrix told him.

The kid laughed. “I hope so.”

Hendrix tilted his head with confusion and
added, “And we’re not going with you.”

“Well, I was hoping I would be going with
you. Especially after I saved your asses.”

Nelson lowered his knife. “Who are you?”

The kid finally realized we didn’t know who
he was, so he lifted his hand, waving something black. “I’m the one
that radioed in for the road sand. I’m the one that got the
resistance to move their asses and intercede.”

“Road sand?” Harrison asked.

Followed by Hendrix’s, “Resistance?”

The kid quirked an eyebrow. “Road sand.” He
pointed to the metal mats in the middle of the road. “I forget the
technical term for them, but that’s what we call ‘em. They’re like
quicksand. Only for cars and such.” He waved the thing in his hand
once more. “And I called the resistance to get over here. Y’all are
either very lucky or very unlucky.”

A problem I’d been trying to figure out since
the start of this thing.

The kid took a breath and continued. “Y’all
are the Parkers, right? Am I wrong about that? I thought…” He
paused to count us. His fingers moved around our group while he
mentally calculated how many of us there were. “Damn, there’s a lot
of you. But I could have sworn you were the Parkers. And Luke said
to look out for the Parkers, so that’s what I was trying to
do.”

“Luke?” I stepped forward, lowering my
weapon. “You know Luke?” Sure there was probably more than one Luke
in the world. But only one on the entire planet that would be
looking for us.

The kid smiled, relieved we finally
connected. “Yes! Luke. I knew it. I knew you were the Parkers. Holy
shit! This is awesome!”

“So who are you?” Nelson had lost his
patience. And I didn’t blame him. The longer we stood here, the
more likely we were to get caught.

Again.