Page 127 of My Undead Love Life

23

OXI

My girlfriend’s boyfriend wasn’t dead.

That was something I never fucking expected to happen when I fell for her.

To be fair, there were a lot of things I hadn’t expected when the world ended. I hadn’t expected to survive this long, for one. I hadn’t expected to find Luck and Mad and somehow stay alive with them. I hadn’t expected to be trapped in a mall for two months with a woman who looked like snow and fire and made my own grief feel survivable.

I definitely hadn’t expected the man she loved, the man who had sacrificed himself in the tunnel for us all, to walk out of a storm with his rifle and save her from an undead snow leopard.

I hadn’t expected Frank and Jan to die in the room down the hall, either.

The warehouse still smelled like blood. No matter how much we blocked off that broken office or how many times Mad shoved another cabinet or stack of crates in front of the ruined door, I could still smell them in there. The weight of Frank handing over Olivia’s letter because he had kept it all that time and somehow known, or hoped, that it would matter.

It mattered. God, it mattered so much. They hadn’t even been in deep with my family, yet they knew I would need it. They didn’t even think they’d ever meet me, but…now they were dead.

Keith being alive wasn’t a bad thing. He was clearly a good man who didn’t deserve to go out the way we thought he had, even if it would’ve been a hero’s death. Him being alive was a damn miracle.

I knew exactly how much she loved him. I had known before, obviously. But seeing it was different. Seeing her fall into him as if her soul had found its missing piece was something else entirely. I was happy for them both, but that didn’t stop it from feeling like someone had cut my chest open.

I knew after she’d stood up to my mother for me that I loved her. Maybe I had known that before, when she looked at me without flinching after learning every ugly thing about my past. Even if Keith was back, it didn’t change my feelings for her. But what if him being back changed her feelings for us? For me. I didn’t think I could handle that. Not after my mother…or Olivia…or after Frank and Jan dying before the grief from my sister had even settled properly in my chest. Not after finally letting myself believe there might be a place in this ruined world where I belonged.

We spent most of the next day reinforcing the warehouse even more than we had the night before, boarding up weak spots, checking all possible entrances at least fifty times, and making sure nothing else could get in like those leopards had.

The place was big and drafty, all rusted shelving, cracked concrete, old offices, and dark corners that seemed to hold on to the cold. Every time the wind pushed against the metal siding, the whole building groaned like it would fall over.

We avoided the office where Frank and Jan had died. Mad and Keith had covered them the best they could the night before, and then we moved into a different room on the second floor, farther down the hall. It had one narrow window, a warped door, and less space than the first room, but it didn’t have blood smeared across the floor.

Mad and Keith worked well together. That bothered me too, which was ridiculous.

Mad would point out a weak spot, and Keith would already be dragging something toward it. Keith would test a barricade, and Mad would adjust the angle without either of them having to argue. They both had that same survival-minded focus, though it came from different places. Mad moved like a man trying to account for every possible failure. Keith moved like a man who had survived because he trusted instinct and acted fast.

Luck helped where he could, mostly hauling boards, crates, and whatever heavy shit Mad ordered moved. He complained the entire time, which was normal enough to be comforting.

Spencer moved between us all, helping where she could, checking in on everyone like she always did. She checked on me more than the others, and Keith stayed close to her the entire time. It made sense. They’d been separated for over two months. He had thought she was dead. She had thought he was dead. When she climbed a pallet to help Mad block a high window, Keith moved beneath her like he was ready to catch her if she fell.

We all did, but he was faster.

Honestly, I should have felt better about the situation than I did.

Keith didn’t get upset about Spencer and us. He didn’t get angry or try to pull her away from us. If anything, he’d accepted it really fucking well—accepted us. He hadn’t made her choose or looked at her like she’d betrayed him.

He understood. That should have made everything easier. Instead, it made me uneasy. It felt like I was part of something too good to be real, and I was just waiting for it to be ripped away.

By the time night settled over the warehouse, the storm had slowed to a weak, bitter fall of snow. The wind had eased, but the cold hadn’t, as usual. Everyone eventually drifted off regardless, though. Everyone except me.

I lay there for a long time with my eyes open, staring at the dark ceiling while Spencer slept curled against Keith. Luck was on her other side, and Mad was on the other side of Keith. I lay beside Luck.

The room was too small for all of us, but we made it work. Finally after a few hours of no sleep, I got up and dressed and slipped out of the room.

The warehouse seemed louder when I was alone. Every creak of metal echoed through the second floor. I moved quietly through the office area, keeping my gaze away from the end of the hall where the broken room was.

I found the entrance to the roof I’d seen earlier that day. It was a hatch in the far corner, on the opposite side of the second floor from our new room.

I pushed a shelf over to it, wincing when the metal legs scraped against the floor. It didn’t sound like I woke anyone, so I climbed the shelf until I could reach the hatch.

The hatch groaned as I pushed on it. Snow had collected on top, so it was heavy. I shoved harder until it gave. Cold funneled in immediately.