Thicker than Blood Read online

  The pitying look he’d had only seconds ago vanished, instantly replaced by one of sheer greed. The same greed he’d had in his eyes the day he forced this marriage on me.

  I was his.

  That was all there was to know.

  Folding me against him, he forced my cheek against his chest as if to comfort me, and ran his hand lightly over the fall of my hair. This was typical of him, treating me as if I were a good and docile wife, helping him maintain his illusion that a woman like me would ever love a man like him. In reality, he was a disgusting slob who’d used the end of structured civilization to rise to heights he never would have in the old world, to have the sort of women who never would have given him a second glance. It was a harsh assessment, but when a man like Mason forced a woman like me into a life such as this, I couldn’t help but be bitter and hateful.

  Guiding me slowly from the kitchen, Mason began pulling me up the stairs. I tried to move away, insisting that I wasn’t in the mood for sex, but as he continued pulling me, ignoring my protests, I gave up struggling. When we arrived at our bedroom, instead of following me inside, he shoved me into the dimly lit room and quickly pulled the door shut. The following sound of a click, signaling a key turning the lock, startled me.

  “Mason?”

  “It’s better this way,” he said through the door, his tone hopeful. “You can remember her happy.”

  My eyes rounded, wide with horror. “Mason, let me out!” I yelled, reaching for the handle. Desperately, I pulled on it, shaking it violently, but it didn’t budge.

  “Please, don’t do this,” I pleaded as I banged on the wood with my fists. “Please, Mason, you can’t do this!”

  “I’m sorry, Evelyn. I’m protecting you. I’ll let you out in the morning…when it’s done.”

  Over the sound of my pounding heart, I heard footsteps as he descended the stairs. Sheer panic gripped hold of me and I screamed for him to come back, to let me out. But he didn’t return. Of course he didn’t.

  Running to the window, I attempted to push it open, but just like the damn door, it wouldn’t budge. From my upstairs view, I could plainly see Mason bumbling down the walkway in front of our house. Looking up in my direction, his eyes found mine, his bulbous face, always covered in a thin sheen of sweat, was glinting from the reflection of the setting sun. His eyes were wide in apology, which was merely an act, because I knew he didn’t truly care. The only thing Mason cared about was keeping me here—keeping me for himself. Looking away from me, he continued down the path.

  I started pounding on the window, screaming at him, calling him all the names that I’d wanted to for the past three years, but never did. The hate-filled words that I’d kept buried inside me to keep both Leisel and myself safe, all came flying free from their cage. I continued pounding on the window, half expecting it to break, but it never did. Maybe I was too scared to hit it hard enough, though I wanted to. I wanted to smash it, to cause shards of glass to rain down on Mason’s head, slicing him open, to hurt him the way he was hurting me.

  “I hate you!” I screamed.

  Screeching in frustration, I sank to the floor, my screams dissolving into self-pitying sobs. I couldn’t help Leisel now. She was going to die, and I couldn’t help her. I couldn’t even be there for her at the end. As I pulled my knees up to my chest, my tears fell faster.

  What would I do without her? Leisel had always told me that I was the strong one, but I knew now it wasn’t true. Not when it was her I needed to keep me strong.

  • • •

  The moon was full, sitting heavy and pregnant in the sky when I heard Mason’s return. I strained my ears, listening intently for his footsteps on the stairs, but he didn’t immediately come for me. I could hear him stumbling around the house, no doubt having drunk too much, probably in an effort to wash away his guilt. Or perhaps he’d forgotten where he’d put me. Maybe he was so drunk that he’d even forgotten what had transpired earlier.

  It had happened before, him locking me up for being what he’d considered insolent. There were times that he’d forgotten entirely and let me out without another word about it, looking at me curiously in the dark while he attempted to remember what I’d done to deserve such punishment. Although this—Leisel’s execution—was hardly something I would consider forgettable. But this was Mason, a bumbling idiot, and anything was possible.

  As hope blossomed inside me that today was one of those days, I got to my feet and tiptoed slowly toward the door. Pressing my ear against the wood, I listened to his slow and careful steps climbing the stairs, realizing that the footsteps I could hear were slow and cautious, and Mason was anything but. He was clumsy and heavy footed.

  The handle on the door jiggled. Glancing around the room, I searched for something to arm myself with, because I would kill him if I had to. I refused to stay in this room and allow Leisel to die, not when there still might be a chance I could do something to stop it.

  I decided on the table lamp; after all, it didn’t work anymore. This house—every house—was full of many things that didn’t work anymore, all set up to make us more comfortable, to help us forget the horror outside the walls.

  As the handle twisted again, I readied myself to swing.

  “Eve?”

  Jami!

  Bursting forward, I slammed myself against the door. “Get me out of here, Jami, please, get me out!” Again, I tried the handle, twisting it and pulling on it.

  “It’s locked,” he said, his voice sounding deeper than usual through the thick door. “Is there another key?”

  Though he couldn’t see me, I shook my head in answer. “There’s only one,” I whispered loudly. “But Mason keeps it on him.”

  “Fuck me,” he muttered. Several tense seconds passed and then he yelled, “Stand back!”

  I dropped the lamp. It fell to the floor with a loud clatter and rolled against my feet. Quickly, I scrambled to the other side of the room just as something heavy banged against the door with a resounding thud. Again and again, the loud noise echoed throughout the room, once, twice, and just after the third bang the door swung open, slamming hard against the wall. As it swung back, Jami caught it just before it could smack him in the face.

  Our eyes met, and he was grinning at me, a grin that made me weak for him. I didn’t love this man, but in that moment I felt something damn close to it. Running across the room, Jami met me halfway, and I threw myself up against his chest, pressing my lips against his, all while repeatedly mumbling my thanks.

  “How did you know?” I asked when I finally pulled away.

  He looked down at me, his eyes searching mine as if assuring himself that I was all right. “You’d never leave her alone like that.” He kissed me again, still grinning against my mouth. “Let’s go get your girl.”

  Pulling away from him, I took a moment to really look at him, his handsome face clearly expressing what he’d never said before. “Thank you,” I whispered, feeling overcome.

  Taking my hand in his, Jami pulled me through the house, not stopping until we’d reached the back door. There he pulled a ski cap from his back pocket, similar to the one he was wearing, then slipped it over my head and tucked my curls inside it. Grinning again, he pulled his gun from its holster, then led me from the house.

  Adrenaline coursed through me, both from the fear of getting caught and the excitement that maybe, just fucking maybe, our plan would work. And Leisel and I would soon be free of this place.

  Chapter Five

  Leisel

  “You shouldn’t be helping me,” I insisted, watching as Alex hurriedly unlocked my handcuffs. Ignoring me, he finished with my hands, then bent down to work on the shackles encircling my ankles.

  “What if we get caught?” I continued, knowing that it was likely we were going to get caught. There were too many people living in such a small space, a place that was heavily guarded. “You’ll be killed alongside me.”

  Alex remained as stoic as I’d always known him to be,
notorious for saying as little as possible. Finished with my shackles, he shoved them away and got to his feet. I remained where I was for a moment, seated on the hard bench as I rubbed my sore wrists and stared up in wonder at him. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why he was risking his own neck to help me escape.

  “I have a truck outside the walls,” he finally said. “Hidden in the woods about a mile and a half from here. Got food and water, a few gallons of gas stored inside. We just need to get there.”

  I gaped up at him. With the entire town on our heels, a mile and a half away might as well have been in China!

  I shook my head. “We’ll never make it.”

  Alex dropped to his knees, his dark eyes burning holes through my thoughts. There was a spark there, alit with a fever I’d never noticed in him before. But I had never noticed much, always consumed with my own problems, my own pain.

  “I don’t care,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “I’ve been outside the walls, Leisel. Many, many times. It’s not pretty out there, but it’s not pretty in here either, is it? I’d rather be free.”

  Free. The word sang through me like one too many cocktails, blinding me, drugging me with all its hazy, yet glorious possibilities.

  His hand found my shoulder as he bent down to speak with me face-to-face, and it took everything I had not to flinch away from his touch. Being touched by a man, thanks to Lawrence, was not something I associated with tenderness or comfort. Not in a very long time.

  “Don’t you want to be free?” It was more a statement than a question. A proclamation. A declaration.

  I shrugged his hand away. “We need to get Eve,” I said. “I won’t leave without her.”

  He frowned and his brow furrowed, causing delicate lines to appear on his otherwise smooth forehead, but he said nothing in response.

  “I won’t leave without her,” I repeated, unable to imagine myself in life anywhere without Evelyn. I couldn’t stomach the thought of leaving her behind in this awful place.

  “You won’t have to.”

  Both Alex and I jerked at the sound of another voice. As I shrank back in fear, Alex leaped to his feet and quickly whipped his gun free from the holster on his hip.

  Jami stood outside my cell, a ski cap hiding his unruly hair, his normally impish expression now serious. Seeing Alex’s gun, Jami’s hands went up in the air, including the one holding his own weapon.

  “I come in peace,” he said, giving us a half smile. “And I’m glad I don’t have to kill you too.” He nodded at Alex.

  “Too?” I whispered, fear slithering down my spine and chilling my blood.

  “Michaels and Davidson?” Alex cocked an eyebrow in question, and Jami gave him a single nod in response.

  “And Hamilton?” Alex asked, gesturing toward the door that led out into the hub of the station.

  Jami shook his head. “There’s too many out front,” he said quietly. “I could only clear the back.”

  “Never thought I’d be so goddamn happy to not have electricity,” Alex muttered, but he looked and sounded anything but happy. He turned back to me and unexpectedly held out his hand, the one currently holding his gun, and gestured for me to take it.

  My lips opened and closed, and for a moment I could only stutter through several puffs of air. Finally finding my voice, I cleared my throat and tried again. “I don’t know how,” I whispered.

  Panic was beginning to well inside of me. Both Alex and Jami were here, attempting to rescue me. And if Jami was here, that meant Evelyn was as well. Three people, three good people, all who could end up killed alongside me if we were caught. And two men were already dead?

  True, there was no love lost between me and the majority of the men who policed Fredericksville. Most were self-centered, self-serving, violent men who were more than happy to adhere to the tyrannical rules of this place. But dead? I’d only ever wished one man dead before, and that wish had been granted by my own hand last night.

  “This is the safety. Make sure it’s off before you pull the trigger. Hold it like this. Leisel…Leisel, are you listening to me?”

  I nodded dumbly at Alex, who was watching me impatiently and with more than a little annoyance. Clearing my throat again, I tentatively took the gun, clutching the thick handle in my seemingly too small and shaking hand. Then with a deep breath, I got to my feet. The weapon was heavy and awkward in my grip, making me feel like a child playing dress-up.

  “Eve’s watching the back,” Jami said to Alex. “And we’ve got five…no…”—he paused, glancing down at his watch—“three minutes to get the fuck out of here before the patrol circles back around.”

  “Let’s go,” Alex said, his voice deep, laden with determination that I didn’t share. I might have been standing, but it felt as if cement blocks had been strapped to my feet, my fear keeping me locked in place.

  “Leisel!” Jami admonished me in a harsh whisper. “Eve is waiting for you! Risking her life for you! Move it!”

  Evelyn. Her fate was my fate, and my fate would be hers. It was all I needed to propel me into motion. One step in front of the other, until I was sandwiched between my two unexpected saviors, and we were moving slowly but surely down the dark and narrow hall.

  It was a mindless march on my part. Consumed by fear, the only thought that kept me going was that I would reach Evelyn, that there was finally a chance we could be free of this place and this life that wasn’t a life at all. At least, not one that was worth living. Out there we might have a chance at some sort of happiness, and at the very least, freedom. Freedom was happiness, wasn’t it?

  My thoughts took a turn then, thinking of the infected, remembering how many there had been in the early days after the infection had hit, how quickly they’d ripped our lives to shreds. I quickly shook those thoughts away, knowing it would do me no good to overload my mind with more horrors than were already occupying it.

  We hurried down a small flight of stairs and took a quick detour through a damp and dusty basement, the only light from a flashlight in Jami’s hand. Then up another flight of stairs, through another corridor, fumbling in the dark until a faded exit sign finally came into view.

  And then I was out the door and into the night, the cool fall air a welcome balm on my overheated skin. A slim pair of arms wrapped around my neck, a familiar scent enveloped me, and I let out an exhale filled with hope.

  Until I saw the two dead bodies lying next to the Dumpster.

  Evelyn squeezed me tightly, kissing my hair and cheeks. “It’s going to be okay, Lei, I promise.”

  “One minute!” Jami hissed before pulling Evelyn off me. “We have to go now!”

  With a final worried look from Evelyn, they took off running, and then Alex grabbed my hand, ripping me free once again of my dark thoughts and crippling fear.

  We ran like the wind, like bats out of hell, toward the west end wall, toward our freedom, with only thirty seconds left before our escape would be discovered.

  Chapter Six

  Evelyn

  If this had been a movie, an alarm would have been sounding right about now, blaring obnoxiously to let everyone know that something was wrong, that someone was trying to get out. Or worse, someone was trying to get in. Right then, I would have welcomed such a sound; at least then we’d know whether our impromptu escape had been noticed or not.

  But in our world, such a noise was dangerous. A noise so loud would draw any and all infected from miles around straight to our walls. Insipid creatures with a one-track mind, hell-bent on tearing into anything and everything, but once they had a target, their one-track minds became even more deadly.

  Jami glanced down at his watch, then looked at me. “Game time,” he whispered, his words half lost to the wind as we continued to run.

  The next guard shift was due to report. Any second now they would discover the bodies, discover that Leisel was missing, and soon we’d be apprehended and probably executed on the spot. That thought alone drove me faster,
pushed me to run as fast and as hard as my body would allow.

  At the far end of our community was a path that split both left and right, and when we reached it, we looped to the left and around the back of the houses. Weaving between gardens, hopping over skillfully trimmed bushes, we passed blooming rosebushes, bright hanging baskets, and lawns with neatly cut grass.

  As if we were trapped in some crazy over-pruned oriental garden maze, we ran to the left one second and then to the right the next. Finally, we left the housing district behind us and headed directly into the farming and cooking quarter. Above us, tree branches hung heavy with ripe fruit, and at our feet were row after row of fresh vegetables.

  It was all so picture perfect and proper, as if we were part of one big happy Brady Bunch family. But it was nothing more than a facade. Sure, the fruit was juicy and the vegetables ripe, but there was no soul. So pretty on the outside, yet inside everything had died long ago and since rotted to nothing.

  A noise sounded off in the distance, something I belatedly realized was men yelling. I glanced to Jami with fear in my eyes, but he was already tugging harder on my hand, urging me to run faster.

  The food warehouses were on the opposite side of the road we were on, and as we approached them, Jami pulled me to a stop. Panting heavily, I glanced back the way we’d come, watching as the dark silhouettes of Leisel and Alex closed in fast. Her hair was flying out behind her, her pale face a beacon to me, something to cling to in the midst of this insanity. Pulling her to a stop alongside Jami and me, Alex released her. She came crashing into me, and I crushed her body to mine.

  Leisel’s shoulders shuddered as she cried softly against my neck, her anguish painful to me as well. I held her against me for a moment, whispering reassuring things into her ear, promising her safety, promising her out of this nightmare, until eventually she calmed.