The Last Woman (All That Remains #1) (34 page)

“Let’s camp. It’ll be fun.
Besides, I’m starving, and I want to stretch my legs.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

Joseph hands me a pack of
peanut butter crackers. “Feed that baby. It’ll be awhile before we have
dinner.”

Airen’s face reflects his
approval. “Did you take your vitamins?” he asks.

“Yes.” I roll my eyes. These
two are going to drive me crazy, but I have to admit I’m glad for their
concern. They’re always preaching at me to eat, rest, and take vitamins. I
worked ten to twelve hour days throughout my first pregnancy and no one cared,
so to have not only the father of the baby care so much for me, but Joseph as
well, is such a heartwarming feeling. I’ve never felt so safe and loved. What
would my life be without these two kind, beautiful men?

The so called campground turns
out to be a few dirt patches at the edge of a field. At least there is a hand
pump that brings fresh, crisp water up from a well. Joseph pumps up a large
inflatable mattress while Airen puts up the four person tent. I assemble the
small propane stove and warm up our dinner.

We all feel better after we
eat. I devour two helpings of the canned beef stew and follow it with a candy
bar. Airen and Joseph have a few drinks, and we spend the next couple of hours
talking, telling stories, and laughing. It’s good to see Airen so relaxed and
light-hearted for a change. When the fire dies down, I make up the air mattress
with sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows.

“I get to sleep in the
middle!” Joseph exclaims, diving on the mattress.

Airen chuckles and shoves him
aside. “You lie in the middle, Abby. You’ll be warmer, and no making out once
I’m asleep.” He smacks me lightly on the ass.

“No fair! You kissed him.”

I giggle, and Airen groans, “And
you’ll never let me forget it.”

“I’ll never forget it,” Joseph
drawls in an exaggerated sultry voice.

“Isn’t he a great kisser?”

“I’m going to sleep,” Airen
mumbles, smashing his face into a pillow.

“I think we managed to
embarrass him.” I giggle at Joseph.

“Then our job here is done.”
He laughs, adjusting his blanket.

“I’m not embarrassed.” Airen
pulls me closer and wraps his arm around me. “I know I’m irresistible, but
apparently Joseph has the sexiest lips.”

“How did she describe them,
again?” Joseph asks.

“I believe the terms she used
were thick and full.”

“Hmm, not red?”

“Surprisingly, no.”

“Okay, enough. Conversation
over.” I pull the blanket over my head.

“Aw, I think we embarrassed
her,” Airen mocks, not unkindly.

“You’re both assholes.”

I settle down to sleep with my
back to Airen, his arm draped around me, his hand gently caressing my belly.
Joseph lies on his back, his leg pressed against mine. I’m so content, warm,
and comfortable cuddled between them. My breath hitches when I feel a strange
flutter in my stomach.

“Oh! The baby kicked!”

Airen rests his hand on my
navel, and the baby kicks again. “I felt it!” he exclaims.

“That’s the first time I’ve
felt him,” I whisper. Although I don’t know the sex, the baby has become him,
as far as I’m concerned.

“Joseph, you have to feel
this,” Airen says. I roll onto my back, placing Joseph’s hand alongside Airen’s
on my bare belly, but nothing is happening. Finally, I feel the strange
sensation again, and they exclaim in delight.

“Our baby is getting active.”
Airen’s voice is filled with joy. His warm lips find mine before he lays his
head on my shoulder.

Joseph kisses my forehead.
“I’m so happy for you, honey, for both of you.”

Have I ever been happier than
at this moment? I’m blanketed in love and support, basking in the warmth and
affection of these men. I’m so incredibly lucky. “You’re going to be Uncle
Joseph, you know, and godfather.”

“I’m honored, honey.”

“Being godfather means you
have to change all the diapers,” Airen warns. I drift off listening to their
lighthearted banter.

The sun rouses me a minute or
two before Airen. I’m facing him, my head on his shoulder and my hand on his
chest. Joseph is curled up behind me, his arm tucked around my middle, his legs
tangled with mine. Before I can extricate myself, Airen wakes.

“Look at him,” he whispers,
amused. “He loves you, you know.”

Shit, is he jealous? If so, I
can’t blame him. I would freak out if a girl was locked around him like this. “Not
like that, Air.”

“It’s okay. It doesn’t bother
me. Honestly, I’m glad because that means he’ll always look out for you and
help me keep you safe.” He nuzzles my neck.

“I’m a lucky girl.”

“Let me out of this tent if
you plan to get lucky,” Joseph says, stretching and yawning.

“Says the man cuddling my wife.”

“She’s so warm.” Joseph scoots
closer to me. “Besides, you were too far away.”

After we eat breakfast, we’re
on the road again. We were hoping to reach Carbondale today, but the weather is
hindering us, along with the detours around traffic jams and abandoned
vehicles. It gets worse as we approach larger towns, and there are more than a
few bodies. Thankfully, most have been reduced to skeletons, but it’s still
creepy.

It begins to rain in the early
afternoon and gradually becomes a steady downpour. Joseph strains to see the
road.

“There’s a hotel,” Airen
suggests. Joseph pulls into the parking lot of the Sleep-n-Eat. Needless to
say, it’s no paradise, but it will do to get us out of the weather. Airen
breaks the glass on the office door and reappears, grinning, with two keys.

“Lucky they’re old school, no
key cards.” Except for being dusty, the rooms are clean at least and have an
adjoining door. Joseph plops on the bed.

“Let’s order a pizza.”

“Oh, what I’d give for a
pizza.” Airen sighs.

“You’ll just have to settle
for chili tonight.”

“You’re feeding Airen chili?
I’m glad I have a separate room.”

We eat an early dinner and
play cards for a while to pass the time. The rain begins to let up as the sun
goes down. “I’m going to bed, guys. Good night.” I kiss Airen’s lips, and give
Joseph a hug.

“I’ll join you in a few
minutes. I want to finish this hand.”

“Take your time and have fun.
I can’t hold my eyes open.” I crawl under the blankets and drift off until I
feel the weight of a sleeping bag being placed over me. When I drag my eyes
open, Joseph grins at me, dimples flashing.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake
you.”

“Where’s Airen?”

“He’s unloading the truck. Are
you warm enough?”

“I am now.” I smile. “Thanks.”

“Get some rest.”

I fall back to sleep
immediately and barely register when Airen joins me a few hours later. I’m so
exhausted. It’s nearly dawn when I wake suddenly. Something feels wrong. Airen
is asleep beside me, and Joseph is snoring lightly from the next room. It’s
pitch dark in here. Perhaps I just had a nightmare.

“Ab? You okay, darlin’?” Airen
mumbles.

“Fine.” As soon as the word
leaves my lips, a hand lands over my mouth and another yanks me out of bed.

Airen yells, “What the fuck?
Joseph! Your gun!” A figure hits him in the head hard enough to knock him out.
I can hear Joseph struggling from the next room. The person holding me is
covering my mouth and nose, and I can’t breathe. The last thing I hear before I
lose consciousness is Joseph calling my name in a panic.
Oh, don’t hurt
them, please don’t hurt them,
I silently plead as I’m drawn down into the
dark.

I can feel movement and the
floor is hard and unyielding beneath me. I’m on my side and my hands are tied
with plastic zip ties in front of me. It’s dark, but a thin strip of light beams
in through a crack or a seam.

“Abby?” Joseph whispers. He’s
lying next to me, but I can barely make out his outline.

“Where are we?”

“Thank god you’re awake.” Relief
sounds in his voice.

“Airen?” I ask frantically,
remembering how they had attacked him.

“He’s on the other side of me.
He’s breathing, but they knocked him out.”

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay, honey. What did
they do to you?”

“He kept his hand over my
mouth until I passed out. That’s all I remember. How long have we been moving?”

“Maybe five minutes.”

I hear my own fear reflected
in his strained voice, and I scoot closer to him, dragging my sore ribs along
the floor to slip my tethered hands around his neck. Trying not to cry, I
stroke his hair and press my forehead against his.

“Oh, Abby, we’re in trouble,”
he whispers, his voice trembling.

“I know, but I’ve been here
before, Joseph. Sort of. We’ll make it out, but we have to stay calm, okay? Did
you see how many of them there were?”

“Four. Three men and a woman.”

“Did they say anything?”

“Not to me...but...it was
weird.”

“What?”

“They prayed. I heard them.
They thanked God for bringing us to them and swore to lead us into
righteousness.”

“Fuck.”

“My thought exactly.”

“That doesn’t sound like they
intend to kill us outright, at least.” I place my lips against his ear and
whisper, “I have my gun. I forgot to take my holster off before I fell asleep,
and I can feel it on my thigh.”

“Don’t do anything stupid when
we’re so outnumbered,” he warns.

“I won’t, but in case you’re
the one with Airen when he comes to, let him know.”

The van slows, and I kiss
Joseph on the cheek. “Go along and do what they ask, for now, please. Don’t
give them a reason to hurt you again.”

“I love you, Abby. Just in
case we don’t make it.”

“I love you too, Joseph, so
much, but we’re going to be fine.” I let go of him as the bright sunshine
floods in the open door.

“I’ll carry the girl, you two
get the hero, and we’ll come back for the other one. Watch him, Katie,” a man
orders.

When I see Joseph and Airen
for the first time in the light, my eyes fill with tears. They both have their
hands tied behind them. Airen has a black eye, and his jaw is swollen. A jagged
cut on his forehead is clotted with blood. Joseph’s cheek is bruised and
swollen, and his eye is black as well. It appears I got off easy.

I grit my teeth as they pull
me out of the van and the floor grates against my sore ribs. A tall, clean cut
man picks me up and carries me toward a large, wooden building. It looks like
it may have once been a stable for boarding horses.

“What do you want with us?” I
ask, striving to keep my voice calm.

“To save you.”

“From what?”

“Yourselves, the devil. We’re
going to help you know God.”

“Are you going to kill us?”

“Thou shalt not kill,” he
chants.

“My husband is really hurt. He
could die,” I point out.

“We have a doctor, and he’ll
take care of him.” He stands me on my feet and leads me through the stable
door.

“What is this place?”

“It was a fancy horse house
before we fixed it up. Now, it’s your home until God enters your heart.” Cots
rest against the walls, one made up neatly with a blanket and pillows. A man
appears from around a partition, a look of total shock plastered on his face.
He instantly drops to his knees and puts his hands behind his back.

“You have three new roommates
coming, Troy. Please show them around and explain the rules.” The zip tie is
cut from my wrists.

“Yes, sir.”

The other men carry Airen to a
cot and cut the ties on his hands. They return to the van and lead Joseph in a
few seconds later. A chain rattles at the door as they leave, and I dart to
Airen’s side.

“Airen! Wake up! Please, wake
up!” I cover his flushed face with kisses. Troy brings me a wet cloth, and I
wash the blood from his face and forehead, laying the cool cloth across his
head before taking his hand. Troy and Joseph are talking. He’s telling him
where the toilets are, I think, but all I can concentrate on is Airen.

The chain rattles as they
remove it from the door again. “Get on your knees! On your knees!” Troy pulls
Joseph down beside him. “It’s a rule, girl!” I shake my head and turn back to
Airen.

A small, rodent like man with
thinning hair enters carrying a medical bag. He’s followed by the man who
carried me in and one of the two who carried Airen. They’re obviously
bodyguards. I ignore them as the doctor approaches us.

“He’s still out?”

“Yes, he was hit in the head
with something. You were a doctor before the plague?” I ask. How the fuck did
he get mixed up with these people?