Sundown Series | Book 5 | Vengeance Read online

  “Hey,” Griffin said, pulling Max from her dark inner thoughts. “Let’s just rest a bit. I could use some shut eye I think.”

  His voice was weak, and his eyes were barely focusing on Max. She felt guilty that he was trying to reassure her, when she should be caring for him She bolstered herself and helped him prop up just long enough to swallow the one pill she had left. She carefully arranged him on the back seat. He had to partially sit up so his broken leg could sit straight as it needed. Before she had the chance to wrap a sleeping bag around him, Griffin had passed out. Max didn’t know if it was from the pain or the meds, but she was happy he was able to escape some of it for a while. The sun had started to sink in the sky, and she knew it would be dark before she knew it.

  “I don’t know what to do,” she whispered to no one but herself.

  Max knew they would be stuck in the truck for the night at the very least. However, there was no way she could sleep with the infected groaning and smacking the windows. An idea dawned and Max climbed back to the front seats. She yanked open the glove box and smiled when she found what she was looking for. She pulled out the roll of electrical tape and spun it on her finger. She pulled the two emergency blankets they had from their packs. Using the tape carefully, she taped the shiny blankets to the side windows. The infected couldn’t reach the rear window or the windshield, so Max left them open so she could still see out.

  Once the job was done, Max felt better about their situation. Part of her had hoped that without seeing them, the infected would lose interest and wander away from the truck. The practical piece of her mind nagged at her to get real and come up with a better plan of escape. Suddenly exhausted, Max flopped into the front seat. She looked down at herself and realized she was covered in spatter from the infected, and she groaned to herself. She stripped down to her underwear and shoved the dirty clothes to the passenger seat floor boards. Using wet wipes, she worked on cleaning up the best she could. She noted the number of bruises that decorated her pale skin, a few of which were painful.

  She got herself dressed again. Her brain tried to focus on one issue at a time. Griffin was badly hurt. He couldn’t be expected to keep up with Max and outrun the infected. And that was only an issue if they could get out of the truck. They were both out of ammo, so whatever fight they had with the infected had to be hand to hand. Max was sure Griffin didn’t have the energy in him to fight, not to mention he only had one good arm to fight with. She concluded there was no way they were fighting their way out of the truck. With that decided, Max could force her in thoughts away from those issues, and focus on something she could do more about.

  Moments later, Max had all of their food laid across the front seat of the truck. With rationing they could make the food last three days. Will the infected leave by then? Max asked herself. She remembered the rule of threes. Three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, three weeks without food. They had plenty of air and shelter. She would have to crack a door at some point to let clean air into the truck, but they wouldn’t suffocate. They had enough water for a week or so. She also had a small pack of six water bottles under the backseat of the truck. They could stretch that. The food would be the problem, she knew. So, they needed the infected to leave before they starved to death.

  When night began to fall, Max woke Griffin up long enough to get water and some food down his throat. He was weak and not able to stay awake long after he swallowed the last bite. Max slowly ate a protein bar, chewing each bite longer than necessary, hoping somehow the process would make her feel more full. At the moment, Max couldn’t really think about her stomach and the protein bar sat heavily, almost making her feel sick. She sipped water, telling herself that there was no wasting food by puking. When the only light left was from the moon, Max created a makeshift bed across the front bench seat and curled up to sleep.

  She tossed and turned as she tried to block out the groans and banging from outside. She checked Griffin more times than was necessary, but Max felt reassured when she could see his face resting peacefully, instead of soaked in sweat. The noise of the infected didn’t seem to diminish, despite the window coverings. Max tried laying still and attempted breathing exercises that Alex always talked about. However, Max only lasted five minutes with breathing and cursed her sister for believing in crap mumbo jumbo. A few hours from dawn, exhaustion finally took Max and she was able to fall asleep.

  The window coverings helped keep the truck cab dim as the sun began to lighten the sky. Max had blocked out most outside sound, the only way she could find a way to rest. She was so deeply asleep, she didn’t hear the far off rumble of an approaching engine, or the sound of it stopping and idling less than 100 yards from their truck.

  Chapter Nine

  Max was lost in turbulent dreams. Infected faces pressed against windows, broken and scabbed over fingers clawed trying to gain purchase. Suddenly the glass was gone and the cab of the truck began to fill with infected climbing through. Max tried to pull her knife but when she reached down to her waist, she didn’t find any weapons. The first bite was into her thigh and in her dream Max screamed in anger and fear.

  “Max...Max!” Griffin’s voice was distant in her mind.

  A hand gripped her flailing arm and shook her. Max’s eyes popped open. Her gaze flew around the truck cab, reassuring herself that there were no infected munching their way through her thigh muscle. Once she felt reassured, she collapsed against the seat again. Griffin’s face strained over the seat, trying to look at her.

  “Are you ok?”

  “Sorry. Did I wake you?” Max asked.

  “No. I’ve been awake for a few minutes. Do you hear that noise?” Griffin asked.

  Max sat up quickly and the first thing she noticed was it didn’t seem like there were infected around the truck anymore. The second thing she heard was grunting and the sound of flesh being struck. She looked at Griffin, who nodded when he realized she heard what he was hearing.

  “What the hell?” Max mused, as she made her way to a window to peer around the covering.

  Down the road she could see where the infected were heading. She couldn’t see much beyond that, so she climbed into the back with Griffin. She carefully kneeled behind him as he sat up to see as well. The first thing Max noted was the black Hummer parked at the side of the road. She knew that wasn’t a good sign, assuming it was a team coming to find the missing men she and Griffin had taken out at the distribution center. Her eyes followed the path of the infected. They had found an easier source of food, however it seemed to not be simple for them to get. Max could see a close-cut haircut on a man as he fought the infected. Body pieces and gore seemed to be raining down around him, as the man skillfully took out the infected as they approached.

  “Who could it be?” Griffin asked.

  “I’m not sure it’s a friendly,” Max replied.

  “He could have left us to die. Why take out the infected?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe he wants us alive? Keep an eye on him,” Max said as she climbed back to the front seat.

  She slipped her boots and weapons back on, preparing to fight the last of the infected if they ate the newcomer, or to fight the newcomer if he was a threat. She crouched on the front seat to see clearly out of the back of the truck. It was a man, Max could see that. The clothes she could see were civilian, but she knew that didn’t mean anything. His sandy brown hair, sprinkled with gray, was cropped short and that screamed military to Max. She carefully popped open the passenger side door.

  “What are you doing?” Griffin hissed.

  “We need to get out of here. Either we kill the infected and go, or this guy kills them for us. He’s the problem. If he’s here to kill us, we can’t get away with your leg and no vehicle,” Max whispered.

  “You can’t go out there alone.”

  “You can’t help me with this, Griffin. You just watch my back,” Max said with a small smile.

  Max slid quietly
from the truck. None of the infected noticed the movement, and she turned a full circle to check her surroundings. The man had drawn the attention of all the infected in the area, and it drew questions in Max’s mind again. No one just stopped and took on a horde of the infected for the fun of it. A gunshot rang out and Max dropped low. She knew the man was probably running out of steam, fighting the infected hand to hand. Shooting them made the job way easier. Except it alerted everyone around. Max turned to look at the man again and realized he was looking right at her.

  “Well, hell,” she mumbled.

  She hadn’t caught the attention of the infected, but the man from the hummer seemed to focus on her intently. Max pulled her tomahawk and whistled loudly. If she was going down, she would do so swinging. If the man was just a Good Samaritan, she wanted to help him. If he was there to kill them, he would have to try harder than to sneak up on them while they were in the truck. Her whistle drew the attention of the nearest infected. The head turned first and black eyes locked on her. Then the rest of the body turned, and one arm lifted toward her. Max realized there was only one hand because the infected was missing its other arm. It kept trying to push its shoulder toward Max, the infected mind not realizing there was no longer a limb there to use. She tried to not focus on the flesh that hung loosely from where the arm should have been.

  Her tomahawk struck hard into the head of the nearest infected. Max put all of her anger into the swing which embedded the blade deeper than she would have liked. She had to let go of the axe to let the infected fall, but she quickly grabbed the handle again and used her foot against the skull to pry the blade free. The cracking noise of the skull was louder than she had expected, but she tried to not let her mind wander to that. By the time she straightened, another infected was on her and she quickly swiped up with her tomahawk and caught the infected under the chin.

  The infected bounced back into another that was approaching and Max followed. She sliced across the temple of the first infected and kicked the knee out of the following one. As the dead infected fell, the knee buckled on the second. Moments later she slammed her axe blade into the eye of the infected on the ground, ending its dead life. Max yanked her tomahawk back and spun quickly to face the man that was now clear on the other side of the pile of infected bodies. Before saying a word, she pulled her 9mm and pointed it at the man. She knew the gun was light in her hand, she knew she was out of ammo. However, the man in front of her didn’t know that.

  “Doesn’t seem like the way to greet someone that just saved your life,” the man called to her.

  “It’s only a step below how I greet my friends and we aren’t that. Thanks for the help. We’ll be going,” Max said. She took a step back toward the truck, but continued to keep her eyes on the stranger.

  “I guess you’re low on those, right, Maxine? Not many friends around?”

  The man’s words stopped Max cold. Without a doubt, she knew immediately the man was from Callahan’s camp. The sound of her full first name brought back memories of being interrogated by Callahan. He insisted on calling her Maxine as he attempted to waterboard and electrocute answers from her. His men didn’t call her by a name normally, but if they read her file, they would have all the information they needed. Max squared her shoulders and took a step forward toward the stranger again. The quiet click of a door behind her indicated that Griffin was trying to get out of the truck to help her.

  “Who are you?” Max asked.

  “I want my children back and you’re going to take me to them,” the man said.

  “Your kids?” Max replied, genuinely confused at first. Then she looked at the man again and realized he looked familiar. The photos they had studied of the man named Liam Reynolds came back to Max’s mind. Even if she hadn’t seen the photos, she could now see the similarities between Liam and Easton. The boy took after his father.

  “Liam Reynolds?” Griffin called from the truck, quicker to reaction than Max. Her mind was still reeling that the man had seemingly come out of nowhere to find them stuck in their scavenged truck.

  “Yes. And you Duncans have my kids. Where are they?”

  “How did you find us?” Max asked. She still hadn’t lowered her gun and her arm was beginning to ache. Thinking about the predicament, she realized if Liam wanted his children, he wasn’t going to kill Max before she gave him what he wanted. She slowly let the arm holding the 9mm fall to her side, but she didn’t holster the weapon.

  “Radio traffic. I heard there was an attack here. Before the team went dark, someone identified the attackers as Duncans. I have to say I’m surprised to find you though, Maxine. Kinda dumb luck,” Liam replied, arrogance lacing his words.

  Her mind raced and tried to figure out a way to handle the situation in front of her. She knew Easton and Candace believed their father was a good man. Yet, he had stood by and watched as Callahan had executed Marcus on a stage for all the camp to see. Max couldn’t forget that image, and she knew her sister couldn’t either. But Alex was one thing above most else, a good mother. She took care of Easton and Candace as if they were her own and she loved them. Even though she knew Liam did nothing to save Marcus, she was still searching for the teens’ father because she wanted to do the best she could for them. Max wasn’t so sure it was the right plan. However, here she stood, faced with the man that they had searched for. Now she had to decide what to do with him.

  “Max, we gotta take him back to the kids,” Griffin said quietly.

  “How are we supposed to make sure they’re safe?” Max shot over her shoulder. But, it was loud enough for Liam to hear.

  “Safe? Why would my own children be in danger with me? It’s you Duncans that are putting them in danger, by keeping them away from me and the safety of the military camp I can take them to,” Liam yelled.

  “Are you kidding? You are with Callahan, that makes you enemy number one in my book. So you should be really careful about who you’re yelling at, Reynolds.”

  “Major Callahan is trying to bring the country together during this plague. Until it can be controlled, we have to continue to function as a government and watch over the citizens. You and your people are doing nothing but putting people in danger.”

  “Tell me something, are you blind or just really that stupid?” Max said, putting one hand on her hip to stare at Liam.

  “Max,” Griffin’s voice warned.

  “No,” she said, “I want a real answer. What have we done that could possibly put anyone in danger, other than defend ourselves against the attacks that come from Callahan?”

  “You have the cure,” Liam said.

  Though, Max did note his voice seemed less sure of that. She remembered Marcus’ last words before his execution. “He knows there’s no cure and no chance for a cure! He’s trying to eliminate witnesses,” was what Marcus had yelled to the crowd before Callahan could stop him. Max wondered if Liam believed a thread of what Marcus was willing to die for.

  “I think you know that’s not true, but you have been swallowing that line for so long, it’s still what you puke up to anyone that will listen,” Max said.

  “I don’t care anymore about any of that. I just want to get my children and take them to safety.”

  “They are safe. Right where they are. With Alex, who has protected them since their mother asked her to take them,” Max said and she waited for Liam’s reaction. He stepped closer to Max, but his face had gone pale.

  “Whatever happened with my wife, I’m here now, and my children should be with me,” his voice broke on the word wife and Max couldn’t help but have some sympathy for the man. She pushed it down to the bottom of her stomach so she didn’t need to feel it.

  “I understand. Your kids have looked for you since we realized you were at Callahan’s camp. They saw you in photos,” Max said, but trailed off when she remembered what those photos showed.

  “Photos? How did you get photos of me?”

  “How about we get that Hummer moving and I’ll te
ll you the story? I need to get him to a doctor,” Max said, gesturing back to Griffin.

  She wasn’t sure Liam would believe her, but she needed the working vehicle to save Griffin. His leg, left for too long, may never be fixed and she knew he wouldn’t survive with a disability like that. Liam was sizing Max up, so she waited, but kept moving her eyes around the area. They were sitting ducks, standing in the middle of piles of infected bodies. Part of Max’s brain told her she should be impressed with the sheer number of infected that Liam handled on his own. However, she refused to let herself think anything positive about a man that stood by while Callahan executed one of her friends.

  “You’ll take me to my kids?” Liam finally asked.

  “Sure. I’m driving though,” Max said.

  “Not happening,” Liam immediately responded.

  “Look, I don’t trust you. You don’t trust me. Fine. But I’m the one that can get you where you want to go. The only way I’m doing that is if I’m behind the wheel. That way you can’t kill me or take me to Callahan,” Max said.

  Liam took a moment to think about that before nodding his head once. Max finally turned her back on him, knowing he wanted his children more than he wanted anything else at the moment. He wasn’t going to hurt either of them. At least not until he had Easton and Candace back. Max went to the truck and helped Griffin sit back down while she packed their supplies back up.

  “Do you think this is a good idea?” Griffin whispered.

  “We are looking for this guy, right? Alex will be super pleased with me for doing something she wanted of me in the first place,” Max whispered back sarcastically.