Love and Decay (25 page)

Soon I could smell the smoke and see it
billowing overhead. Several of the guards leapt into action, racing
for the building inferno.

The air felt dry and the ground had been
nothing but dirt and dust the entire way over. I crossed my fingers
that the conditions were just right for a challenging
distraction.

I gripped the blades in my hands more firmly.
I was ready to rescue Micah as soon as I could get to him.

The guards had stepped away from him as they
watched all their other guard buddies race for the fire. Micah
sagged against the post that held him captive. His shoulders
hunched over his bloodied torso and if it weren’t for that bound
leg, he would have collapsed on the ground.

“Another one!” Someone shouted.

A Colony soldier yelled, “Stay where you are!
Don’t move!”

The crowd huddled together. They weren’t
silent anymore. They were terrified. The fire caught quickly and
soon even I could see the flames as they licked at the two story
building. Across the square, on the other side, another building
was just beginning to burn. The guards on the wall started rushing
to help and soon everyone but the two hovering over Micah were
working to put out the fire.

I heard one of the guards shout, “Get the
people to help or this whole place is going to burn!”

Guards filed back into the plaza and grabbed
at men and women, forcing them to pitch in and help extinguish the
burning buildings.

The guards that had beaten Micah senseless
soon had to give up their fun job of torture to help out with the
spreading fire. Water stores were wheeled in on wagons and buckets
were passed quickly around. Wet blankets were thrown around the
perimeters and angry shouts boomed above the roar of the fire.

I turned to Crash. “Ready?”

He jerked his chin. “Let’s go.”

We sprinted into the open, heading straight
to Micah. He didn’t even notice us which gave me hope. But
unfortunately he was the only person that was oblivious to us.

By the time we’d reached him and his post,
several of the bystanders had turned around to watch us. I heard a
spike in volume and knew they were talking about us, but my mind
was completely absorbed with cutting Micah free and getting the
hell out of here.

Crash immediately started working on the
leather straps that bound Micah’s leg and I went for his hands.
Micah jerked away. His eyes were nearly swollen shut, so he
struggled to tilt his head back to see us.

“We’re friends,” I mumbled quietly. “We’re
here to get you out.”

His voice was weak and his mouth was so
swollen it sounded like he had stuffed his cheeks with marbles.
“This is because of you?”

“Yes.” I reached for his hands again and this
time he let me. The leather binds constricted his wrists to raw,
angry bleeding. I slashed them straight down the middle where his
hands separated. The leather straps fell to the ground and Micah
wobbled from relief.

“This whole town is going to burn to the
ground,” he struggled to say.

I hunched over so I was sure he could see my
face. “But you’re not going to die. At least not today.”

He wheezed. He had to lean over to suck
breath through broken ribs and all manner of pain. “Okay,” he
panted. “Okay.”

I bent over to help Crash with Micah’s leg.
We worked our sharp blades through the thick leather ties. We
remained as quiet as possible, but people had started to notice
us.

It would only be a matter of seconds before
the Colony guards lifted their heads from their tasks and saw
us.

The pressure built in my chest and adrenaline
spiked in my blood. We needed to go.

When Micah’s leg was free from the tight
bonds, he neared collapse, but Crash had enough foresight to stand
up quickly and catch him under the arm. Both men grunted from the
effort to stay standing.

“I can’t move my leg,” Micah winced. It was
the leg that had been tied up. His pant leg as well as his whole
body were drenched in blood as well.

I clutched his other side until I could slide
under his arm, supporting him. Obviously he was a grown man, but it
was hard to tell how old he was when his face looked like… well,
like that… but his body was as tall and thick as any of my
brothers.

I sagged under his weight and tried to stay
on my feet.

“We have to go,” I hissed at Crash.

We stumbled the first couple steps while
Micah’s leg dragged behind us. I made the mistake of glancing back
at the crowd and cringed when I found eyes on us. The guards were
still busy… but it would only be a matter of-

“Hey!”

“Hey there!”

“Shit! We gotta move!” Crash picked up his
pace, shoving Micah and consequently me into the closest alley. The
echoing sound of gunshots followed after us.

A voice screamed in the distance and I wasn’t
sure if it was because of us or the fires, but I pushed on. I
didn’t have time to do anything but run and focus on running.

The alley was barely wide enough to
accommodate all three of us. I bounced off the brick wall next to
me, jostling Micah who would wince and groan every time.

At the end of an alley, we rushed into
another. Crash took a sharp turn and then another sharp turn,
always keeping to the shadows.

Twilight turned to dusk, which was quickly
turning to night. The sun wasn’t visible anymore, so the shadows
from the building broadened over the ground and hid us in them.

Footsteps pounded nearby and Crash had us
press into an alcove of a building for several minutes. Angry
guards ran in every direction. I closed my eyes and tried not to
panic.

Crash and I continued to support Micah in an
upright position. He faded in and out of consciousness and every
time he blacked out his body would weigh us down.

A shout from the square forced the footsteps
to run in the opposite direction from us. I let out a breath of
relief and wiped at the sweat dotting my forehead.

“We’re not going to make it,” Crash
whispered.

“Don’t think like that,” I ordered. “We don’t
have a choice. We have to make it. If we don’t make it we end up
like this guy. Do whatever it takes.
But we freaking make
it
.”

Crash huffed out a breath. “Okay, yeah.
Alright, let’s go then.”

We started off again, navigating the maze of
buildings and streets as best we could. Sometimes Micah was awake
and could struggle along with us. Sometimes we had to drag him. A
few more times we ducked into hiding and waited out the search
party.

Our saving grace was that most of the guards
were fighting the fire. And by the sounds of things they’d be
dealing with those fires for a while yet.

I could hear the roar of the inferno from
where we were. Smoke saturated the air and the smell trailed us
everywhere.

“That way,” Crash grunted. “We’re almost
there.”

I took the lead on a corner and stupidly
didn’t check if the way was clear. A guard stood there as surprised
to see me as I was to see him.

Thinking as quickly as I could, I dropped
Micah’s arm and shoved him back into the alley. Crash never made it
around the corner.

The guard raised a gun and looked me over.
“You did this?”

“Yes.”

He stared at me with an unbelieving, wild
look in his eyes. It was too dark to make out his distinct
features, but I got the gist. Man, tall, middle-age… gun. “You’re a
girl.”

“A girl that will burn every single Colony
settlement to the ground if I have to.”

His gun didn’t waver, but his resolve seemed
to. “Why? For power? For revenge?”

“For peace.”

“You’re not going to-”

A gun shot rang through the air and the
victim made a horrific gasping sound and fell to his knees. His gun
jumped from his hands and landed a foot from me.

I lunged for it, picking it up quickly and
trying not to be traumatized by the man bleeding out at my
feet.

Luke stepped from the shadows, “Let’s
go!”

Crash appeared around the corner hobbling
with Micah. Luke sprinted over to take Micah’s free side and
dragged him toward the wall.

“Page!” Luke hissed as they passed me. “What
are you doing?”

I realized I had been frozen in place,
staring at the guy I didn’t believe would shoot me. Blood spread
out over his back, soaking his shirt in deep crimson.

I shook my head but it wasn’t enough to break
the shocked trance I’d slipped into.

“Page, damn it, let’s go!”

“You killed him,” I whispered.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled so hard it
hurt. “I shot him in the shoulder. I didn’t kill him. I wounded
him.”

When I looked again, I could see the man was
still alive and still conscious, even if he was also in a lot of
pain.

“They won’t be so nice though if they find
you standing here like this. We have to go
now
.”

I listened this time. Just when we’d slipped
through the wall, I heard someone shout, “Man down! Man down!”

I breathed a stupid sigh of relief for an
enemy that would not have shot to injure. He would have killed me.
Maybe in the next second.

Luke had saved my life and I was worried
about a man that wanted all of us dead.

We plunged into the brush. On this side of
the wall, there wasn’t a path to guide us or moonlight to
illuminate the way.

We stumbled our way through tangled
overgrowth and a dense pocket of old trees with snarled branches
and exposed roots. I could hear gun shots in the distance and if I
looked over my shoulder, the city seemed to be lit from within as
the fires continued to blaze.

“Did we destroy that entire town?” I asked
mid-run.

“Isn’t that what you wanted to do?” Luke
questioned. “Wasn’t that your whole plan?”

I didn’t answer. It hadn’t been my plan. The
only thing I’d wanted to do was rescue Micah… was to end this man’s
suffering and take away another victim of the Colony’s disturbed
law.

But instead, I’d likely burned an entire
settlement to the ground.

Nerves blistered through me as I wondered how
many people would have to pay for my actions. How many of those
townsfolk would be punished because of me?

Not long after we’d put distance between the
city and us, we could hear men rushing toward us. There was a
search party headed our way. We pushed deeper into the forest and
moved as fast as we could. Limping. Struggling. Pressing on despite
our capabilities and dwindling energy and skill level. Mile after
mile grew more difficult until we could barely make progress.

But still we pushed forward, refusing to give
up.

Refusing to get caught.

We eventually came upon a refuge in a
pre-apocalypse hunting shed. To gain entry to the locked door Crash
took off his shirt, wrapped his fist in it and broke the window.
Once the glass was cleared out, Luke and Crash helped Trish and I
inside and then we caught Micah as they tossed him in after us.

Once everyone was safely tucked away, we
moved to the far side of the little shed and sat low to the ground
against the wall. Shadows engulfed us, but if the guards found us
here, we would be easy pickings.

“Does anyone know where we are?” I
whispered.

Luke sat to one side and Crash sat on my
other. Crash supported Micah while Trish checked out some of his
surface wounds.

“I know the area,” Luke answered in a low
voice. If we can make it through the night, I can get us back to
the car.

I looked over at Micah covered in blood. Now
I was covered in blood. And Crash was as well. And if Trish kept
messing with Micah, she would be covered soon too. Plus, we were
well into the night by now.

If the Colony guards didn’t find us… Zombies
would.

I looked at the broken window and tried not
to panic. “Did I mess up?” My voice was so low that I wasn’t sure
anyone could hear me. I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone to hear me.

Luke’s hand landed on my knee and I flinched
from the contact. His hand stayed where it was though. He didn’t
move it. He didn’t relinquish the pressure. “No,” he said firmly.
“You saved a man’s life today.”

“At the cost of all of ours.”

I felt him more than I saw him shake his
head. “All of those people will be driven from the walls. Feeders
are attracted to the light at night. They won’t be able to resist
that fire. I think we have a chance.”

“Yeah, but what happens to those people?”

Luke made a sound in the back of his throat
and I could tell he was already impatient with me. “Fine, Page. You
made a snap decision that might have terrible effects. But you made
it. You went with it. And you saved one man’s life. I don’t know
what’s going to happen to those other people and right now that I
don’t care. I have this mission to focus on. These lives to worry
about. If I started thinking about all the chain reactions from all
the decisions I made over all the days that I have to make them…
I’d go insane. I’d lose my mind to the infinite potentials for
disaster and death. When you’re a leader you have to make tough
choices. When people follow you, you have to make decisions that
will get some people hurt. That will save some people. That will
inevitably affect everyone’s lives. But you can’t let that stop you
from deciding. You should understand the weight of it, the power of
your decisions. But you still have to decide.”

I ran a hand over my mouth and tried to stay
the sick feeling bubbling inside me. “I’m not a leader though. I’m
just here to help you. I have one mission. One. That’s it. I just…
I-”

Luke turned to face me more completely and
his hand slid to my thigh. “You’d better stop thinking like that
right this second. I watched you cut Micah free. I watched as all
the people in that town watched you cut that man free. Don’t tell
me you’re not a leader now. Not when a hundred people can identify
and describe you.”