CHAPTER 17
Turning the mood at the table into a more somber one than while the three of us were eating, I asked Blaine and Nick to tell me why they looked so serious earlier, when they first arrived home. Before either of them could answer, loud knocking sounded, coming from the front door.
Heaving a sigh, Nick stood, lifting me from his lap and placing me on my feet. "I'll bet that's Carlos. I told him to check back in with us later."
Carlos, who was a wolf shifter, was also one of the fourteen or fifteen new arrivals in Helena, all people who'd come after seeing the signs that Nick and Blaine had their men post.
I waited at the table while the two of them went to the door, expecting them to return to the table eventually so we could talk, but they never did. The only "talk" I got was Nick calling out an apology to me, saying that he and Blaine had to leave.
"We'll be back as soon as we can, but don't wait up for us."
I didn't, feeling somehow guilty or sheepish for allowing lovemaking to get in the way of us getting right down to business and having a talk about whatever was going on. I really couldn't blame myself too much, though. Even after a few weeks, I still found Nick and Blaine's bodies to be just as irresistible to me as they'd been on our wedding night, to the point that I wasn't sure if I could have even focused on any kind of a talk without making love to them first.
Not to mention that the three of us were supposed to be staying very busy trying to create a baby. Repopulating the world was of course one of the main points of Helena, in addition to being a community where people could live in relative safety, at least compared to the world beyond its walls.
In the weeks since getting married, I'd had some brief moments of doubt as to whether re-population should even be a goal for any community anywhere. These brief doubts had kind of surprised me, since normally, defeatism wasn't like me at all.
Throughout my life, I'd always wanted to move forward, and keep fighting, no matter what. And despite the fact that I'd learned that Ebony and Jessica were dead, my new love for Nick had Blaine had somehow renewed my courage and strengthened my resolve to keep going.
It was just that a baby was such a tiny, helpless creature. And the world had become such a violent, ugly place.
Helena wasn't ugly, though, and any violence usually took place far beyond its walls. It was this that made me think that a child could be safe. Also, knowing that my child was going to have two incredibly strong fathers made me think our child would be safe.
Further smothering my tiny doubts, I felt compelled to have a child to honor Jessica and Ebony's legacies in some way. I wanted to have a child because they'd been denied the chance to become mothers. And besides, I'd always wanted to become a mother myself. I’d always imagined that it would happen a few years after my third Olympics, not two years into a vampire zombie apocalypse.
Figuring that Nick and Blaine were surely out tracking or fighting Borderliners, and feeling terrible that they had to do so in such miserable wet weather, I fell asleep that night curled up with a thick blanket that held traces of their respective scents. Even though I hadn't known my two husbands long, I loved them both deeply already. I was even beginning to feel like I was addicted to them both, though not in any unpleasant sort of way, just in a way that I felt like I needed them beside me during the night, and I felt empty when they weren't.
The next morning dawned bright and sunny, but the cheery weather didn't match my mood. Shortly after awakening, I discovered that my period had arrived, and I unexpectedly found myself greatly disappointed. Considering the fact that my feelings about bringing a baby into the world had been just slightly conflicted, I'd expected that I might feel relieved if and when my period came.
I wasn’t, though, and I realized that I was indeed ready to keep trying and fighting. I wanted to help repopulate the world, and hopefully have a daughter who could do the same. But even more than that, I was just developing some deep, primal urge to give my husbands a child, a baby that would be ours. I was even starting to feel like I might want several babies.
Adding to my glum, disappointed mood, Nick and Blaine still weren't home yet, and I began to worry that maybe all hadn't gone okay the night before. One of the things I hated most about living in the new, post-apocalyptic world was complete lack of any kind of instant communication, like cell phones. Really, there wasn't much I didn't hate about the new world.
It wasn't completely lost on me, though, that I never would have found happiness with Blaine and Nick had the world not gone to hell, and if I hadn't traveled down to Kentucky in search of Jessica and Ebony. For that I was profoundly grateful.
I'd also come to realize that there were some other positives about a post-apocalyptic world, such as being part of a very tight-knit community like Helena. People in the village looked out for each other like family, making it an ideal place to raise a child, or several.
In addition to the threat of Wesley Archer and the Borderliners, though, there was also the ever-present threat of Huskers. Because of the village walls, small groups of them weren't a problem. As long as only residents who were shifters ventured beyond the walls, everyone would be safe. Non-shifter residents even occasionally ventured beyond the walls, too, to go out on supply runs and also to search for more survivors, particularly females. But only those with lots of experience fighting Huskers went on these trips. Usually Kathy went, along with Elisa and their husbands.
It was the threat of hordes that worried everyone most. Part-steel and part-wood, the walls around the village were strong, but they definitely weren't impenetrable. Not if a horde of several hundred Huskers was to catch the scent of humans and press the walls all in one large group. Hopefully, they’d never do this. Blaine, Nick, and the other men would kill them first before they could.
When Blaine and Nick still weren't back home by ten in the morning, I left the house, intending to go visit with Chris or Tracy and ask if they'd heard anything. However, the first person I came across was Kathy.
Strolling down the lane heading toward me, she seemed to kind of startle a bit when she saw me, and then I could have sworn I saw her narrow her round blue eyes. Just for a split-second, though, and she was still a good enough distance away from me that I really couldn't be sure.
If she had glared at me, it would be the first time in quite a while that she had. Since the wedding, she'd been generally nice to me, not that we'd been spending a ton of time together. Sometimes I got the feeling that she was specifically avoiding me, even though I had no clue why this might be the case. And really, sometimes I wondered if I was just imagining this.
When we reached each other, we said good morning, and then I right away asked her if she'd heard anything about Nick, Blaine, and the rest of the men who'd went out the night before.
However, to my disappointment, she shook her head. "Mike and Sam still aren't back yet, either...none of them are. Don't worry, though. I heard they went out just to track a group of Borderline fighters spotted heading east, to a little community called Pine Bluff. I think Nick probably just wants to see what the Borderliners are up to, if they're trying to get the Pine Bluff shifters to form an alliance with them or what."
"So, Wesley Archer hasn't given up on trying to fight us, then? Not that I really thought he would."
Kathy shook her head again, biting back a snort. "No...he definitely hasn't given up. Men like him rarely do when they want something. In fact, yesterday, he sent a messenger to deliver Nick an ultimatum."
"Which was what?"
"In short, hand over command of Helena to him, Wesley, or suffer the consequences, meaning another full-scale attack. Giving him half the village's women, goods, and assets, and continuing to do so indefinitely, is completely off the table now, not that it was ever really on, because I knew Nick was never going to do that. But now, Wesley wants everything. So, it seems another attack is inevitable. It's just a matter of time now. Just a matter of waiting for it to happen."
I hated the thought of that. Hated the thought of just waiting for an attack, not knowing if the village I'd grown to love would fall, and the two men I'd grown to love deeply would be injured, or worse.
Kathy started to say something else, but a distinct whooshing sound coupled with a faint creaking coming from somewhere out of sight but not too far away caught our attention. That was the sound of the village's massive steel gates being opened, hopefully meaning that all the men had returned.
With Kathy not far behind me, I sprinted to the gates, elated when I saw Nick and Blaine coming through, with all the other men behind them. My elation was short-lived, though, when I saw the grim looks on their faces after they'd each given me a squeeze and a brief kiss. It seemed clear that the Borderliners had indeed been trying to get the shifters of Pine Bluff to form an alliance with them.
When Nick, Blaine, and I got to the house and had a seat on the couch, Nick confirmed this, saying that from what they'd been able to gather at a distance, it seemed as if the Pine Bluff shifters had agreed to fight for Wesley Archer, whether temporarily or permanently. The evidence of this was that the Borderliners hadn't left Pine Bluff with any women or any other sign of having been given a "tribute," as usually required by Wesley Archer.
In fact, peering through binoculars, Nick had seen the apparent spokesman of the Borderliners sweeping an arm in a wide gesture across the village, as if possibly saying something to the leader of the Pine Bluff shifters about how grand the village could be once Wesley Archer gifted them with supplies to fix everything up, or something. Also, Nick had seen the Borderliner spokesman shake hands with the Pine Bluff leader shortly afterward, indicating that they'd struck some sort of a deal.
Nick went on to say essentially what Kathy had earlier, that a full-scale attack seemed inevitable, now with the Pine Bluff shifters adding to the number of attackers. "I don't want you to worry about a thing, though, Eva. Blaine and I have still have everything completely under-"
"But how can I not worry? How can I not, knowing that Wesley Archer and all his couple hundred shifters, plus the Pine Bluff shifters, are soon going to be coming for us?"
Making the faintest of sighs beside me on the couch, Nick took one of my hands. "You don't worry because even knowing what you know, you also know that we Helenian shifters are strong, and we've already beaten back all the Borderliners when they all attacked. We Helenian shifters are more than capable of defending our village and everyone in it."
"From hundreds of Borderliners and Pine Bluff shifters at once, though? Other shifters that might outnumber us four-to-one or even five-to-one?"
Sighing again, Nick squeezed my hand. "Have faith, Eva. No one is taking this village from us."
On my other side, Blaine took my right hand. "What he said. We're going to kick all their asses, Eva. We promise you that."
I turned my face to look at his and saw him wearing an unmistakable look of conviction. So unmistakable that I finally started to believe him and Nick. They could handle the Borderliners and the Pine Bluff shifters both. Turning to look at Nick again, I could see deep conviction in his eyes as well. He did know what he was doing. No one was going to take our village.
As if reading my thoughts, he gave my hand another squeeze. "That faith you're starting to feel...hold onto that. Try not to let it waver. This will all be over soon. We just need to get past one single fight, and then everything here in the village will be back to normal, and we can turn our thoughts back to building our family and our community."
"Well...okay. I do believe you and Blaine that you and all the other men will be able to handle everything. I am starting to have faith. But what am I supposed to do during the fight, whenever it finally happens? What are all the other women supposed to do? I get that regular human women can't go out in a fight against shifters, but I know I can't just sit here at home while everything is going on.
“I'm going to need some task to do...something I can do to help in the fight, whether it’s looking out from the guard tower with binoculars, and reporting down if I see any more shifters coming, or...." I paused, unable to think of any other way I might help. "Or whatever else needs to be done."
To my surprise, Nick said that there was something I could do to help. I'd kind of been thinking he was going to say I could "help" just by "keeping myself safe in the house" or something.
"If you really want to help, you can help Kathy and a few other women charged with driving back Huskers from the village walls during the fight. Kathy and a small group did this during the last fight when the Borderliners attacked, and this was critical in making sure that no wall-breaking hordes built up."
"What do you mean, 'built up?'"
"Well, whenever there's a fight raging, the noise attracts Huskers from the surrounding forestland. But instead of the noise causing them to directly attack us shifters, they seem to just catch a whiff of human scent and head straight for the village, coming up against the walls. Kathy and the others took care of them last time by stabbing them through the cracks in the walls, making sure that large groups didn't form at any time.
“This is part of the reason why we always have a guard up in the tower...all it would take to bring down part of the wall would be a group of a hundred Huskers, give or take...probably a much smaller group if the group was made up of shifters.
“Blaine and I and the others will take care of the shifters, though...we'll make sure they don't get near the walls. And as long as you and Kathy and whoever else joins in can keep large groups of Huskers from building up around the walls...we'll all be just fine."
Relieved to be able to help in the fight in some actually meaningful, important, non-token way, I immediately said I'd definitely help at the walls. "As long as I can stab Huskers with a screwdriver, anyway. Me and knives just don't get along."
Nick said me using a screwdriver would be just fine. "Whatever helps you get the job done."
"Well, good, then. I guess all there is to do now is just wait for the attack...which honestly, I hope is much sooner rather than later. I hate the thought of waiting for it."
Putting an arm around my shoulders, Nick scooted closer to me on the couch. "There's no need to wait anxiously, though. Whenever Wesley Archer moves in, whether it be day or night, we'll have advance warning because of the guard tower. We’ll at least have a little time to take our positions. And in the meantime...maybe Blaine and I can help distract you from the thought of an attack."
Definitely liking the sound of that, I almost asked him what he had in mind, but then I caught myself. "Oh. I almost forgot. The three of us are going to need to take a few days off, because I got my period this morning. Which...." I paused to issue a deep sigh, completely unable to help it. "It's not like I thought for sure I’d become pregnant in the couple of weeks after our wedding or anything, but...I guess I'm a little disappointed that I didn't.
“And normally, I'd likely be up for a little distraction, but I just don't want to get into any of that during this time of the month. I know some people don't mind, but I'm just far too squeamish."
Sometimes even just dealing with my own used sanitary items could make me feel a little ill.
Nick said he understood, but his eyes betrayed a bit of disappointment. Blaine made a faint grunt that made me think that he didn't quite understand my squeamishness and was a little disappointed as well.
Nonetheless, unlike the last time they'd been forced to keep their hands off me for several days, my two husbands didn't stay away from me. In fact, they both soon served me lunch in bed and ate with me, with Nick saying that they wanted to pamper me during my "difficult time," a phrase that almost wanted to make me giggle for some reason, even though it wasn't at all an untrue way to describe things. My period could be a "difficult time," because in addition to my squeamishness, I often had terrible cramps and headaches, too.
After lunch, when I mentioned that my head had started to hurt a little, Blaine brought me two painkiller pills, as well as a single wildflower in a bud vase, melting my heart. Then, once they'd both showered, he and Nick rejoined me in bed for a long nap, having not slept at all the night before. Some hours later, I awoke first and studied their handsome faces in the sunlight, determined to never let anything ruin our happiness. I'd kill a hundred Huskers through the cracks in the village walls. I'd kill two hundred. I'd do anything I needed to do.
*
By the time Wesley Archer led his shifters in an attack on Helena three weeks later, everyone had started thinking that maybe he'd just given up for some reason. Maybe his men hadn't struck a deal with the Pine Bluff shifters, or maybe they had but it had somehow fallen through. Maybe Wesley had just spent some time reconsidering his plan, realizing that if the Helena shifters had driven back his army once before, causing many casualties, they'd likely be able to do it again, even if they had to face shifters from Pine Bluff as well. Surprising myself, even I had almost started to think that it was possible that Wesley had just given up. Almost. But not quite.
So, when a tower guard sounded an alarm around nine in the morning on a gorgeous, sunny, already-hot June day, I wasn't stunned, just ready. Ready to get the whole thing over with so that Nick, Blaine, and I could resume some semblance of our post-apocalyptic happily-ever-after, focusing only on surviving and building our family, instead of worrying about outside threats on top of it all.
Nick and Blaine had left the house hours earlier, so when I heard the alarm peal for a few seconds, then stop before pealing for a few seconds again, indicating that the attack was coming from the east, I jammed on my tennis shoes, grabbed two screwdrivers I'd kept by the front door for weeks, and flew out of the house. Once in the street, I met up with Kathy, who'd already unsheathed a monstrous-looking knife that she’d be using to stab Huskers.
Without even giving me any greeting, she glanced over at me, striding eastward. "Lily, Elisa, Tracy, and Diana will catch up to us at the wall. I'm going to send Elisa, Tracy, and Diana, to the north, south, and west, though. I just decided that earlier this morning.
“You, Lily, and I can handle the east, where the largest groups of Huskers will probably gather, but the north, south, and west shouldn't be completely unattended. Huskers can, and likely will, come from those directions, too, though maybe not in such large numbers. We'll definitely have our hands full in the east. Reverend Thompson is probably going to come join us once he shuts and locks the gates after all the men leave."
Reverend Thompson, who most people in the village just called Rev by this point, was the minister who married Nick, Blaine, and me. In his late sixties, and with various health problems, he wasn't sure if he could be effective at taking out Huskers, and in fact, he figured he'd probably only be in the way.
However, I reminded him that he had to kill Huskers while bringing his little grandson, Asher, to Helena. He'd said that he'd done what he had to in order to keep Asher safe, and I told him that that was what he needed to do now as well. Even though he wasn't the only one protecting Asher anymore, he could still help protect him within the village. Finally, Rev agreed, saying that he would do his best to kill Huskers until his arthritic knees gave out.
Several of the eighteen women in Helena were pregnant now and had decided not to fight because of that, and two had recently given birth and weren't in any kind of physical condition to fight. To my great disappointment, and to a little bit of irritation and anger as well, several other women in the village simply refused to fight, saying they didn't want to get flattened and killed in the event that a portion of the wall actually did come down, despite best efforts.
I thought this way of thinking was a little backward, to say the least, because if a portion of the wall did come down, they might then be killed in their homes anyway, if a horde of Huskers rolled into the village. Whereas, if we all worked together, the chances of any part of the wall falling down would be significantly decreased. Kathy and I hadn't been able to change anyone's mind about refusing to help, though.
Chris and another non-shifter man who'd joined the community with his nine-year-old daughter in tow would be manning the guard tower during the fight, scanning through binoculars in all directions and letting our shifters know with blasts of the alarm each time a new wave of enemy fighters were joining the fray.
Using a complicated system of blasts and signals, they would even be able to let Nick, Blaine, and the rest of our shifters know what direction the new waves of fighters would be coming from. This advance warning from men who could see the entire battle area was expected to be a very significant help.
Once all of us Husker-slayers, including Rev, had assembled at the section of wall directly east, Kathy dispatched Tracy, Elisa, and Diana to their posts manning sections of the wall in different directions.
Then, almost shouting to be heard above the snarling and growling that was already intensifying to the east of the village, Kathy told Rev, Lily, and me that it was time for us to get into battle mode. "The Huskers are probably going to start heading out to the walls soon, if they haven't already, so grab your weapons and-"
"Look!"
Lily said that single word in a strangled shriek, and now she pointed at a section of wooden wall with a several-inch gap between two thick boards, where a gray-faced male Husker had stuck its face, moaning.
Immediately, Rev pulled a knife from his belt and began heading over to that section of the wall. "Let me send this poor soul to heaven, if that's where he was going before the virus hit."
Within seconds, more moans and faces between the boards announced the arrival of more Huskers, lots of them, and Kathy, Lily, and I joined Rev in getting to work releasing them from their current hellish state of being nothing more than bloodthirsty husks.
Between kills, I took a few peeks at the battlefield in the distance, hoping to see Nick and Blaine in their respective lion and tiger forms, but I was unable to see much more than a blur composed of hundreds of wild animals in a melee.
I could really hear the fight much better than I could see it. With roars, growls, and snarls intensifying along with the fighting, I would have had to cover my ears with my hands in order to not hear the din. And even then, it still might have been audible.
I could, however, see at least enough to know that during this early stage of the battle, Nick was doing just what he'd said he and his men would, which was keeping all the enemy shifters away from the walls and the village. Good thing, too, since Kathy, Lily, Rev, and I were quickly becoming swamped with hissing, moaning Huskers, who were beginning to come faster than we could stab them through their rotting chests and bloodshot eyes.
Within several minutes, the four of us were breathless, especially Rev, who I noticed was already beginning to wince in pain as he dashed along the wall on his creaky knees, stabbing Huskers fast and furiously as he went.
After another several minutes, with the Huskers still coming, but still at a manageable level, Kathy told him to take a break to take a slow walk around the interior of the wall to see if Elisa, Tracy, or Diana needed any help at their posts. Since the Huskers clearly seemed to be coming in from the east, shambling around the walls in the direction of the fight before catching human scent, it didn't seem like Elisa, Tracy, or Diana probably did need any help.
I knew Kathy was probably just letting a wheezing Rev off the job early, but that was fine with me. As long as things didn't get much worse, I knew Kathy, Lily, and I could keep things under control, and I didn't want Rev to injure himself continuing to fight further.
Seeming to be having difficulty catching his breath, he didn't argue with Kathy at all, just began walking off south with a weak wave, telling her to send for him if things got really bad. Although after Rev left, things only got really bad for Huskers.
With Kathy, Lily, and I really beginning to hit our stride as a team, the three of us began dropping Huskers like flies, making their corpses pile up four and five deep at several points along maybe an eight-mile section of wall.
However, after a while, Lily cut her hand badly in the exact same way that I'd done nearly two years earlier. She even managed to do this while wearing leather gloves that she thought would protect her from this very thing. Quickly soaking a bandage Kathy had pulled from her pocket, Lily tried to fight on, using my backup screwdriver as a weapon, but it soon became clear that she couldn't fight anymore, and Kathy dispatched her to the guard tower to see Chris.
"He's got a medical kit up there for emergencies, and he'll get you straightened out. Shout up to him, even scream if you have to, to get him to come down for you. I don't want you to climb up the ladder one-handed in case you get dizzy and fall. Now, go."
Clutching her crimson-bandaged hand, Lily began striding away, pale and clearly rattled. We'd previously discussed our respective squeamishness levels, and she told me that she never fainted at the sight of blood but that she wasn't "really too great with lots of it."
Being that I definitely wasn't too great with lots of it and did have a tendency to pass out when confronted with the sight of it, I felt like Kathy should accompany her to the guard tower to make sure she made it okay, but now that it was down to just the two of us, Kathy really couldn't be spared.
Just a few moments after Lily left, Kathy and I started dashing along the wall again, stabbing Huskers; and within a few minutes, we actually had them down to a very 30manageable level. There weren't nearly enough of them to break down the wall, that was for sure. Killing maybe two or three every minute or so now, Kathy and I continued along, and I realized that although her build wasn't exactly athletic, she was in better shape than most women half her age.
With her expression one of calm determination, she wasn't even breathing that hard. Though I was nowhere near to being winded, I, former Olympic figure skater, was actually breathing harder.
She and I worked so well and efficiently together as a team that after a few more minutes, we were actually able to take a break to drink some water and observe the shifter battle through a pair of binoculars.
Kathy looked first, soon saying that our men appeared to be doing just fine. "They've got their hands full for sure, but they're definitely holding their own. I don't even see any of our men injured or dead out on the field yet. There are many Borderliners and Pine Hill shifters dead, though...maybe even a dozen of them. But I don't see even a smudge of blue paint on a single one of them."
Wisely, so that our shifters could tell friend from foe, they'd quickly smeared blue paint on their foreheads and backs before streaming out the gate. Weeks earlier, red paint had first been suggested by a few shifters, just because it seemed like a fierce color appropriate for battle; but Nick had ultimately vetoed that idea, thinking that once the enemy became bloodied, it might once again become difficult to tell friend from foe.
After scanning the field until she spotted Mike and Sam and could see with absolute certainty that they were okay, Kathy handed the pair of binoculars off to me, grabbed her knife, and strolled away to kill a hissing female Husker who'd stuck its entire rotting face between a steel beam and a wooden plank maybe just ten feet away.
Gaze locked on Kathy, snapping its sharp fangs, it was clearly desperate to bite her and drink her blood, though that wouldn't be happening. Kathy dropped it with a single rapid stab to the eye, muttering something about how she wasn't going to get bitten that day.
After putting the binoculars to my eyes and looking through a wide crack between two thick wooden planks, I quickly located a ferociously fighting lion that I was fairly certain was Nick, who was a decidedly dark-colored lion, with fur nearly the same shade as dark maple syrup.
Blaine was also pretty easy to identify, because his tiger stripes were unique, with some of them tapering off into zig-zag lightning bolt-looking things on his sides. The fact that most of the fighting was happening on a very gently sloping hill that came down from the forestland to the east had also made it easy to identify them, because I could see nearly everything. Like Nick, Blaine was also fighting furiously, decapitating an unpainted enemy wolf with one snap of his powerful jaws.
Completely unable to see any more gore after this, I moved the binoculars to my right a little ways, not because there was much of anything to see to the southeast, because the battle was still really contained dead east, but I just wasn't quite ready to put the binoculars down yet. Once I had taken in what there was to be seen to the southeast, I immediately dropped the binoculars, gasping. "Kathy. Kathy. Help me find a ladder. I'm going over the wall."