Eighteen

A chorus of, “No, Eden,” filled the bunker along with Ghua’s stern, “No one may see your boobs.  I will feed you without looking.”

May blinked at the men and said nothing more.

“No one’s going to force any of you to leave.  If you really want to stay with these shitbags, that’s on you.  If you want to try it on your own, which I wouldn’t recommend because the infected are getting smarter, you can take a portion of the supplies tomorrow morning and go whichever way the wind takes you.  Or you can take a chance that what I’m saying is true, that there are survivors out there working together, and you can leave with us at first light.  There’s a truck outside to take us back to the base.”

As if mentioning the truck had conjured Nancy, the bodies parted to let Kerr through.  He once again carried Nancy in his arms.  The moment she saw her children, she started sobbing.  The kids jumped up and ran to her.

The heartfelt reunion was short lived, though.

“What about them?” Nancy asked.  “What about the men who killed my husband?  What happens to them?”

“What do you want to happen to them?” I asked.

“I want them to pay.”

“You mean kill them?”

Nancy’s hard gaze met mine, and I knew that was exactly what she wanted.  I looked at my tormentors.  Half of them glared back at me.  Half looked remorseful.  None of how they felt now, though, could change their past actions.  Nothing could.  The past was past.

“Killing them won’t bring your husband back.  It will, however, reduce the healthy human population by a few more.  Yes, we both know these guys really don’t add any value to that number, but given all the infected and hellhounds out there, it’s a number we need to hold onto if we can.  Plus, I don’t think you want their deaths on your head, Nancy.  You don’t want to be like them.”

She looked away, her eyes filling with tears.

“Thank you, Eden,” Oscar said.

“Shut up, Oscar.  I’m not standing up for you.  I’m standing up for her.  Now, hand over the supply keys.”

“Why?”

“Because these guys haven’t eaten since breakfast and ran the whole way here.  They need food.”

“It comes out of your half,” he said, fishing the end of the necklace that held the keys out of his shirt.

“You’re in no position to make the rules anymore.”

“We always treated you fairly.”

“Really?  Except for that whole keeping me against my will thing and wanting to use me as a breeder for the next generation of your sick little family, right?”

He deadeyed me as he threw the keys.  Ghua caught them and glanced at me.  Since arriving, all the fey had let me do the talking.  I wasn’t fooled by their silence, though.  They knew exactly what was going on and who the bad guys were.  They were just letting me deal with it until I needed their help, just like Ghua had done since the moment he’d found me.

“Go ahead and get something to eat,” I said.

I looked at Nancy and her kids.  Brenna, Nancy’s daughter, clung to her mom’s hand.  I had no idea what had happened to her while here and knew that Nancy probably wanted a private moment to find out those details.

“There’s a room that way with beds in it.  Why don’t you and your kids take a few minutes while these guys eat?”

Nancy nodded, grateful, and Kerr started toward the room I’d indicated.

Ghua glanced at Oscar before releasing Van.  I knew Ghua didn’t want to let him go with me standing so near.  So, I picked up a knife from the counter, something I’d dreamt of doing while living here.

“Go,” I said.  “I’ll be fine.”

Ghua stepped closer to me and pressed his forehead to mine, then walked back toward the food cage.  I wasn’t left alone, though.  Several fey lingered nearby.  How could they not?  The bunker wasn’t huge, and we’d just stuffed an extra sixty bodies into it.  I put the knife aside, knowing I wouldn’t need it with so many of them around.

“Are you really with one of those things?  Do you even know what they are?”

Van’s nasally voice made me smile slightly as I answered.

“Yes, I know what they are.  They are fey, who have lived thousands of years and were released from their prison along with the hellhounds.”

“Imprisoned fey?  You can’t honestly be siding with them over your own kind,” Oscar said softly, his gaze going to the nearest fey.

“And you think you’re my kind?”

“You know what he means, Eden,” Van said.  “You could have been with me.  I might still let you.”

“I have zero interest in being with you.  Ever.  When are you going to get that through your thick head?”

“You’d rather be with the grey monster that just touched you?  It looked pretty cozy.  We both know I’m a better option.”

I made a sound of amused disbelief.

“Oh, Van.  There’s no way you could ever hope to compete with him.  He’s stronger, smarter, kinder, and hung like a horse.  Seriously.  Like this big.”  I held up my hands like I was showing the fish I’d caught.  “Your pathetic excuse for a pole is laughable in comparison.”

He flushed.

“Is that all you want?  A big dick?”

His hate-filled tone and gaze didn’t bother me.  Yet, my taunting grin faded.

“All I’ve ever wanted was to feel safe and respected.”

“Me too,” May said from the table, reminding me that our conversation was far from private.

A few other workers made sounds of agreement.

I met Oscar’s expressionless gaze.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to be staying with you,” I said.  “Have fun getting your own supplies.”

I turned and went to find Ghua.  He stood by the supply cage, passing cans of meat out.  Ty had regained his feet and his attitude.

“You can’t just take all the meat,” he said, glaring at me.

“What, isn’t this the code you live by?  If you want something, take it?  Doesn’t feel so good to be the suppressed and downtrodden, does it?”

“Is that why you’re doing this?  Revenge?”

I studied him for a minute, remembering how he’d hit me with the butt of his gun.

“If you hadn’t taken those kids, I probably would have never come back.  But I had to, and I’m doing my best to make it fun for me.  So, is this about revenge?  Hell, yeah.”

He drew back to spit at me.  A fey stepped between us so quickly I had barely registered the move before I heard a crack.  Ty swore.  When the fey stepped back again, Ty was holding his cheek.

“No spitting,” the fey warned.

I grinned and turned my back on Ty.  Ghua stood just behind me, two cans of food in his hands.  His gaze swept over my face.  I wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he seemed to not like what he saw because he frowned at me and stepped closer.

“We will leave at first light,” he said.  “You will never need to come here again.”

My heart warmed that he understood my hate of this place.  Wrapping my arms around his waist, I hugged him close.

“Thank you.”

He pressed his lips to the top of my head.

“Fucking disgusting,” Ty said.  “What a waste.”

Ghua pulled back to look at me.  This time I knew he was looking for a reaction to Ty’s harsh words.

“I don’t think he learned any respect with just one slap,” I said.  “Oh, and he’s the one who bruised my head.”

Ghua grunted and looked over my shoulder.  This time a thunk rang out in the air, and I grinned.

“Come, Eden.”

Ghua took my hand and led me toward the kitchen where we both grabbed a fork to eat our tins of tuna.  Oscar and Van glared at me from their positions as if I were the bad guy here.  I didn’t feel a pinch of remorse eating the supplies that I’d risked my life for time and again while they stood by with their guns.

Before we finished eating, the other workers quietly got up, one by one, and left the area.  All of the workers headed toward the room with the beds.  Routines never died, it seemed.  Not even during a liberation.

The other fey ate, too.  Most of them consumed their canned meat of choice while standing in whatever space they could find.  Once everyone finished, most of the fey got comfortable sitting against a wall or laying on the cold cement floor.  A few remained alert and watched over the gunmen.  But, without their guns, they didn’t pose much of a threat.

I set my can aside and tossed my fork into the sink.  I didn’t wash it.  Whoever decided to stay could do that tomorrow.

Ghua sat against the wall in the kitchen and motioned for me.  I moved to sit beside him, but he pulled me into his lap at the last second.  I didn’t try to pull away.  The floor was hard and cold, and Ghua was warm and comfortable.  Snuggling against him, I closed my eyes.

*    *    *    *

The loud baying of hounds penetrated the fog of my sleep.  Yelling and screaming broke out.  The sounds layered over one another to create a chaotic racket.  I forced my eyes open and tried to understand what was happening in the bunker’s dim, red emergency lighting.

The fey who’d settled in near us had already jumped to their feet and were rushing toward the stairwell door.  Ghua shifted me off his lap onto the floor.  Before I could ask what was going on, he moved to block the kitchen’s only entry point.

Grunts and growls filled the air.

“Stop the second one,” someone yelled.

Second one?  Another howl filled the air, and I scrambled to my feet, realizing what was happening.  Somehow, the hounds had gotten in.

Ghua looked back at me.

“I will keep you—”

Something dark flew over the top of the fey in front of him and barreled right into Ghua’s chest.  He staggered back a single step from the impact then grabbed for the thing made of nightmares.  A hellhound.

I stared in horror as the hound’s massive jaw clamped down on Ghua’s forearm.  Ghua grunted and wrapped his other arm around the hound’s neck.

“I have it,” he yelled.

One of the other fey had already turned and was trying to grab hold of the beast as well.  Its short black fur didn’t glint in the red light, but its teeth did.  The hound shook its head, tearing into Ghua’s flesh further.  Terrified for Ghua and the rest of us, a sound escaped me.  The hound’s attention shifted, its glowing eyes pinning me.

It released its hold on Ghua and tensed, readying itself to jump over him.  Another of the fey thrust a spear through its side.  It didn’t yip or anything.  As if time slowed, I watched the thing start to spring upward.  The fey with the spear pushed harder, the veins in his face bulging with his effort until his spear erupted from the hound’s other side.  Yet another leapt forward, closing his hands around the bloodied shaft, the two fey abruptly stopping the hound’s upward progress.

Ghua turned and ran toward me.

He pushed me against the wall, caging me in with his body.  The sound of growls and splintering wood filled the air.  I looked up at Ghua, terrified.  That hound wanted me, and we both knew it.  Ghua’s calm gaze met my frightened one.

“Nothing on this Earth will hurt you so long as I live,” he said.  “I love you, my Eden.”

Something crashed into him, and he grunted but stayed protectively around me.  Each jostle from behind made his face twist with pain until he closed his eyes against it.  I’d seen what the hounds could do, the infected that shambled around with missing parts because they’d been half eaten.

I knew what the hellhound was doing to Ghua.  My tears fell freely as his grey skin began to pale.

“We almost have it, Ghua,” one of the fey yelled.

The chaotic noise of the ongoing fight, the screams of the other humans, the howls of the hounds and the yelling fey, all faded into the background as I stared up at Ghua.  I placed my hand on his chest.

“I’ll stay with you if you promise to stay with me,” I said.

Ghua didn’t answer.

“Got it,” a voice said a moment later.

The jostling from behind Ghua stopped, and he stilled.  In the sudden hush that dominated the bunker, I listened to his panting breaths and reached up to cup his face.  He hadn’t yet opened his eyes.

“Are you okay?”

His knees gave out, and he slowly started to crumble to the floor.  I grabbed at his good arm, too afraid of hurting him more, but my hold didn’t stop his fall.  Kerr shook a handful of black dust from his hand and grabbed me before I could crouch down beside Ghua.

“No, Eden,” Kerr said, grabbing my arm to stop me.  “He can’t be infected by the hound’s saliva, but you can.  Avoid all the blood.”

I looked down at Ghua’s exposed back.  The hound had used its claws, ravaging the grey skin with deep furrows.  Holes the size of the hound’s teeth also marred the expanse.  Blood ran from the open wounds.  I grabbed a clean hand towel and handed it to Kerr.  He took the towel from my hand and applied pressure to Ghua’s back.

I looked up numbly at Molev, who strode into the room.  Like many of the fey, he bore signs of the struggle with the hound.  Their leader moved toward Ghua and inspected the wounds.

“The bleeding is slowing.  Ghua will live, Eden.  I promise you.”

“What happened?” I asked.  “How did the hellhounds even get in?”

“One of the humans opened the door for them.”

“What?”

He tilted his head in the direction of the main corridor, and I followed him out there.   The fey in the cramped space had suffered from the attack.  So many wounded sat leaning against the wall.  But, none of these fey were hurt as badly as Ghua.  However, it was a different story for the human who sat among them.  Ty.  As I watched, he vomited and held his stomach.

Molev wouldn’t let me move any closer.

“He will turn soon,” he said.

“What happens then?”

“We will remove his head.”

A soft murmur of voices drew my attention to the cage where another group of fey surrounded a man who lay on the floor.  The man’s lifeless eyes and blood coated middle told me he had died fighting.

One of the fey surrounding him, bent down and pressed his forehead to the dead man’s.

“In this life to the next, I will remember you, brother.”

As the fey stood, Ty groaned in pain.  With anger in his eyes, a fey walked to Ty and removed his head.  None of the fey reacted, and I was the only human present.  The act shocked me, but not because it had been Ty and he hadn’t turned yet.  More because it had been disgustingly wet sounding with some crunching.

“Mya will not like that he was killed before he turned,” Molev said, studying me.

“I’m sure not going to tell her.  But, if she happens to find out, I’ll be sure to let her know he wasn’t worth her consideration.”

He nodded his thanks and led me to the room with all the survivors.

The wall of fey clogging the entrance to the bunk room parted to let us through.  Oscar stood at the end of the fey passage, his arms crossed and his face red as he glared at us.  Further into the room, the workers huddled together.

“It’s okay,” I said.  “The hellhound is dead.”

“Both of them,” Molev said.

“We’re lucky we’re not dead,” Oscar said.  “These idiots wouldn’t give us our weapons when the attack started.”

“Good.  Unless you wanted to be dead like Ty, who, by the way, opened the door to let the hellhounds in.  You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Oscar uncrossed his arms and stared at me.

“That’s what I thought.”  My gaze shifted to the clock on the wall.  “Four more hours until dawn, then we’ll be out of your hair.”

I turned and went back to the kitchen where Kerr and another fey were lifting Ghua.

“Should you be moving him?” I asked, hurrying toward them.  Ghua’s eyes weren’t open yet.  My stomach twisted and churned with worry.

“He won’t be able to run and will be more comfortable traveling with Nancy’s children in the back of the truck.  To keep them, and you, safe, we need to wash off the hound’s saliva.”

I watched them leave the room then sat heavily at the table.  It would do no good to follow them.  Not only would Kerr likely warn me away again, I also knew how cramped the bathroom would be with three people.

Once they had Ghua clean, they brought him to one of the beds in the bunk room.  I sat beside him and waited for him to wake up.  He didn’t, and the hours till dawn stretched endlessly.