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“Just stay next to me.”
“So…do you ever lose men?”
Gabriel frowns, and I wonder if perhaps I shouldn’t have asked that question.
“Let’s just say that we started with double our number. Charlie never came back one day, but that was because of a honeypot. Ralph got sloppy. There’s been…a lot of questions that go unanswered.”
“I’m sorry…”
“No reason to be. My mind was never on them.”
It was on me.
Gabriel looks distressed. “Maybe I should go out and clear the street again.”
“You did that three times yesterday and two times this morning.”
He caresses my cheek. “Can’t be too safe. Not with you.”
I still can’t believe how perfect this is all turning out. That my once upon a dream fantasy has turned into reality.
It wasn’t easy, and there were hardships. I have memories burned into my brain that I’ll never be able to shake, but being with Gabriel gives me no regrets.
“It’s time, Gabe. You can’t shelter me anymore.”
He kisses my forehead. “I’d like to see you try to stop me.”
He makes me wear his black helmet, which limits my sight but guards me against grabby hands, which is a pretty good trade, then he hands me a sword and keeps one for himself. “Let’s go.”
I follow him down several flights of stairs, uncomfortable with the multiple layers of clothes.
Two pairs of pants weren’t enough. I’m wearing four. Don’t get me started on the number of shirts I’m wearing. Chances are, I’ll suffer heat stroke before a zombie bite.
We reach a side exit, but Gabriel, in true overprotective big brother fashion—yeah, I said what I said—stops me from exiting.
“You don’t have to do this. You never have to go out there.”
“We’ve gone over this.”
“They can send a helicopter—”
“Gabe—”
“There’s a goddamn field topside. It’s not like you’ll never see the sun again.”
“I have to do this. There’s no turning back for me. No telling me no.”
He nods, opens the door, takes a quick peek out, and says, “Then let’s go.”
The street looks eerily quiet. With all the glass and rubble littering the area, you’d think a small bomb went off. Not one big enough to level a building. Just enough to turn the area into an eyesore.
The thick stench is worse than I could have imagined. At the club, there was always a stink after rainfall, but being outside, it’s magnified.
“Seen enough yet?” Gabe asks, and even though I’m wearing his helmet, I can hear surprisingly well.
“I want to take one down. Just one.”
He starts forward, his eyes scanning the hidden recesses of the buildings as he walks. It’s creepily silent in a way that makes my skin crawl, and the vastness of my surroundings is just too much. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this.
