Flesh (Flesh 1)

“I want you to be happy. Also, I want you to be safe.”

“You want him to protect me. That’s using him, Daniel.”

He made a noise of disapproval despite her being spot the f**k on. Sometimes survival came first. Actual y, always survival came first. “He’s already protecting you. He chose to protect you.”

“Be honest.”

“Babe, I’m open to the idea of sharing you. Okay? And the fact is, there’s something between you and Finn. Now there’s a damn good chance the three of us are going to be sticking together for the long haul, so ignoring it is plain dumb. This is my reasoning.” He patted her on the head and gave her a smile, one that he hoped conveyed more love than sales tactics. “But yes, his ability to protect you has been noted. With the world the way it is these days, how could it not be?”

Al’s mouth widened in a pained expression, her lips thinning. “I get why you might think this is a good idea, Dan. I do. Did it ever occur to you that pushing me in this direction might screw things up spectacularly between all of us?”

Yes, it had occurred to him, and f**k he hoped not. Sincerely to the bottom of his soul.

Dan set his chin on her crown, caught one of the hands fiddling with the seam of her jeans and held on tight. “Okay. Let’s focus here.

Finn acted today to protect you. He risked his life and what he did was for you. He does not deserve to reap your shit for his efforts, babe. No matter where you are on the you and him getting together front, okay?”

She said nothing.

“Leave it for now. Why don’t you sleep on it?”

She snorted. “Right. Sleep.” There followed a long pause. He could almost hear the cogs turning in her overactive mind. “I know he killed for me, and I know I’m not being fair. I just … I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what?”

“Feel this way … Twisted. Confused.”

He deposited another kiss on the crown of her head. “Let it go for now. Give yourself a chance to get your head around it. You know, I have every faith in your good judgment.”

“Right,” his girl murmured. “You think fishes love the sea.”

Thus began one of the longest nights of his life.

The fires crept closer until a reluctant drizzle arrived. The air fil ed with smoke and steam and the scent of damp ashes. The rain made listening to the night much harder.

No one slept.

Dawn was a curiously quiet thing. No birds. No bike engines. Nothing. After al the chaos and commotion of the last few days, it was downright creepy.

Finn wandered over and hunched down in front of them, staring straight at his girl, who was studying the doorway over the kid’s right shoulder.

“We should move,” Ali murmured. The shadows beneath her eyes were as bad as the bruise on her face. They were al wel on their way toward wretched. “Maybe they passed out.”

“Maybe. Or it could be a trap,” Finn said. “We need to be careful.”

“Everything could be a trap,” Dan said. That they might not survive the next f**k up was best left unsaid. “Yesterday’s plan is still on.”

The kid continued to watch his girl with a steady gaze. “Alright, the vote is in. Let’s find another place to stage it.”

Progress was slow. Daniel had a bad feeling the end was approaching, for better or for worse. More skulking between flat, squat, square brick housing, doing their best to avoid high fences and dead ends as Finn turned down site after site to set the trap.

Delaying.

Who could blame him? Who knew how his girl would react the next time Finn had to kill?

The sudden wailing cut the air. It came from close by. They all dropped low, grasping their guns. They heard another long, pain-fil ed howl. It sounded solely of loss and anger. There had been a lot of it in the weeks after the sickness first hit, when people were dropping like stones.

He locked his hand around his girl’s wrist. Finn led them forward, over a buckled wire fence and into another overgrown backyard.

“Wait here,” the kid ordered.

Ali’s chin jumped up, and she shook her head. “No. We stay together.”

Finn took a step toward her.

“We stay together,” his girl reiterated.

The kid turned to him for backup. He just shook his head, wondering what came next.

The sound, shit, it had rattled him. Had rattled al of them, but Finn was still waiting. Problem was, he understood. He couldn’t let either of them out of sight. Fuck knew what would happen next. “What she said.”

Finn bared his teeth but they went forward.

A lone man was crouched over a massacre. Or the remains of one.

Trickles of blood stained brown ran across the twin lines of concrete leading out to the road, and it was black where it had soaked into the earth. Shreds of bloody clothing lay scattered here and there. People had been torn apart every which way. There was the odd shard of white bone sticking out of drying chunks of flesh. Half a rib cage lay tossed aside. God knew how many people had been butchered. Breakfast tossed about in his belly, wanting out, but his throat had shut up shop. He could barely f**king breathe. A lot of blood and unidentifiable chunks of who knew what? There was a sick fascination to it. Even Finn seemed stunned, hovering on the edges. One of the dickheads was making the racket, identifiable by the leather biker vest he sported. A couple of choppers lay tipped over nearby, chrome shining bright in the morning sun.

The man cried so loud he hadn’t heard them coming, didn’t notice them there. Yet.

Too late, Daniel tried to grab her, hold her back. Her mouth opened. “Oh … God.”

The biker raised his head, face red from all the caterwauling. “Dead. They’re all …” With a rumble of a noise he raised the gun and pointed it at Ali. “You did this.”

Finn’s bullets hit him at the same time as Daniel’s. They minced the man’s chest, leather and blood and meat. The bastard toppled backward, his bullets flying wild over their heads. Daniel felt one trim his hair. He hadn’t even thought to duck. He had, however, made his girl do so by pushing her down.

Ali knelt on the grass beside him. His hand had wrapped around the back of her neck, her skin bleached next to where his fingers gripped. She had nearly been killed. His pulse pounded through his ears. Nothing seemed real.

“Dan.” Finn stepped closer, face calm. “Let her go. It’s okay. He’s dead.”

Daniel blinked at the kid, waited for the words to hit him from a long way away. His hand remained wrapped around her neck, fingers set. He had given her more bruises. Shit.