Sundown Series | Book 5 | Vengeance Read online

  Breathing deeply, Max sat next to his head and leaned against the rock wall. As shelters went, they weren’t in a bad place. Looking at her watch she realized she had been working on Griffin for almost two hours. They weren’t going to be getting out of the forest before dark, and she needed to build something to protect them from the elements. She hesitated, looking down at Griffin, not wanting to leave him alone.

  “I’m not going far. I just need to get some supplies to build us something for the night,” she reassured the sleeping Griffin.

  He can’t hear you, Max, she said to herself. Sighing, she went back the way she had come. When she got to the soldier’s body, she decided to drag him well away from where Griffin hid. Just in case someone decided to come looking for their lost man, she didn’t want them stumbling on her and Griffin when they were vulnerable. The man was heavy and Max struggled to move him. She pulled him to a small hill and pushed him down the slope. The body flopped and rolled until it hit a tree at the bottom with a sickening thud. Max wondered if she should feel bad for throwing the man down the hill, because there was no remorse in her mind. She decided it didn’t matter, and she walked back to collect the limbs she needed for their shelter.

  Using rope and a tarp, Max used the nearby trees to stretch the tarp over the top of the boulder and Griffin. The tarp gave them an extra few feet on either side, plenty of space for Max to sleep as well. She used the limbs to cover the tarp from any unwanted eyes. She also leaned them against the wall and rope holding the tarp to create a more hidden place. Dusk was coming as Max finally sat near Griffin’s head again. He hadn’t moved or made a noise since the groan, and Max was scared. She knew at the very least he had a concussion from the bump on his head. But if he had internal bleeding on his brain or anywhere else on his body, there was nothing she could do about it.

  As Max slowed, she started to feel the aches in her own body. Her arm was the loudest as it yelled in pain at her. She remembered the near miss and stopped to handle her own wounds. She used an extra strip from the shirt she had already cut to create a bandage after she cleaned the cut on her arm. She wasn’t sure she would need stitches, as it didn’t seem to deep. Once the bandage was tied off she was satisfied with her mobility.

  She busied herself with eating tuna from a small pouch and sipping the water she had left. They always had rations in their packs, but depending on how long they would need to stay put, she wasn’t sure they had enough. She thought about the store a mile away. If Griffin couldn’t move for a long time, Max would have to go up there, alone, and get food for them. They couldn’t stay there too long. Max was no doctor, but the one thing she did know was his broken leg couldn’t go untreated for too long. The possible complications were endless and all of them left Griffin vulnerable during the apocalypse. She would never turn her back on him and if he needed her to protect him, she would do that with everything she had.

  Max knew she was getting ahead of herself. She was already thinking as if Griffin was crippled. With the fall he took, she knew they were lucky his leg wasn’t a compound fracture. That would have been a risk Max wasn’t ready for. Serious infections were deadly in survival situations. Though they had Charlie back home, they were effectively across the world from her help. She looked at her watch again and felt the panic intensify when she noted that Griffin had been asleep for almost five hours. She tried to remember what she knew of concussions. She knew it was unlikely to be fatal for him to be sleeping with a concussion, but the unconsciousness had to be caused by the blow to his head.

  “Griffin, baby, wake up, please,” Max said. Carefully, she shook his uninjured shoulder.

  It was chilly as night fell, and when she pressed her hand to his face, Max knew she needed to make sure he didn’t get too cold. She unpacked his sleeping bag and unzipped it. She knew she couldn’t get the bag under his body, and she worried about the cold ground. The best she could do was tuck the edges of the bag under him as far as they would go. She checked his bandaged injury and was glad there wasn’t more blood than expected. She double checked that the cut didn’t need stitches. To be sure, she added a few butterfly bandages to it and covered it back up with clean gauze.

  As the last light of dusk disappeared, Max found herself fiddling with random items in her pack. She counted and recounted the items they had for food. Both packs had Lifestraws and purification tablets for drinking water. Unfortunately, she had been so concerned with caring for Griffin, she hadn’t looked for a water source nearby. She mentally started a list of things she would do as soon as the sun came up, hoping that Griffin was awake and able to plan their next day. In the muted lantern light, Max studied Griffin’s sleeping face. She kissed his forehead lightly, hoping he knew he wasn’t alone between a boulder and rock wall. She wondered what fears had gone through his mind as he drug himself to his hiding place. Had he known she wouldn’t give up until she found him?

  Max set up her own bed near Griffin’s head. When she laid her head down on the small camp pillow from Griffin’s pack, she practically touched his head. She could smell him, dirt, blood, and maleness that in her mind was unique to Griffin. She could hear him breathing in the quiet of the night. If she could have, she would have laid her head on his chest all night to ensure it didn’t stop rising and falling. Exhaustion overtook Max, making her suddenly feel as if she had been ran over by a bus. Everything in her body was sore from her fights with the soldier and then her few slips and falls when she was looking for Griffin. She was pretty sure her backside was black and blue from one of the falls. She tried to find a comfortable position on the hard packed dirt. Every few minutes she would dig a rock out from under her and try again.

  Staring out at the horizon and the cloudless night sky, Max started counting stars. She tried to remember the names of all the constellations she knew. She wasn’t sure when, but she nodded off into a deep, dreamless sleep. When she startled awake, it was dark and she sat up quickly to check on Griffin. He had been asleep ten hours and Max tried shaking him and patting his face again. His eyes seemed to move under his lids, but he didn’t open and look at her. He made no noises. But he was still breathing and that was comforting to Max. She felt guilty for falling asleep for so long. The rest of the night she sat against the wall wrapped in her sleeping bag. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark and she could make out the shapes of the surrounding forest. The moon was only around the first quarter of its phase and didn’t give off a lot of light in the night. Nothing unnatural or natural moved between the trees, but Max wasn’t taking any chances.

  The first groan came when the sun was breaking its way into the sky. The noise was so low that Max wasn’t sure she heard it or that it hadn’t come from her own throat. When Griffin’s arm moved, she jumped to attention and moved so she was above his face. She looked at her watch again. It had been twelve hours since she had found him. He moaned again as she touched his face and whispered to him.

  “Griffin? Wake up, baby,” Max crooned in a very unMax-like manner. Sweet talk was not her forte.

  He groaned again and his eyelashes seemed to flutter against his cheeks. Max held her breath for a moment, waiting to see what he would do. She wasn’t sure how to prepare for him to open his eyes. Would he even remember what had happened or where he was? Suddenly his eyes flew open and the hazel orbs bounced around his surroundings. He tried to throw his body forward and Max pushed his shoulder back down.

  “No, no, don’t move. You’re messed up in some places. I’ve tried to patch you up best as possible but don’t move yet,” Max said. She pushed more forcefully down on his shoulders, forcing him to focus on her.

  “Max?” Griffin’s cracked voice came out barely audible.

  “Yeah, I’m here. You’re safe. Don’t move, ok? Nod if you understand.”

  His chin dipped for a second and Max slowly released him. He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath. When he didn’t open them again, Max leaned over his torso again and touched his cheek.

  �
��Still here. Feel sick,” Griffin whispered, his voice slightly louder.

  “Probably the head wound. You must have a concussion. I was worried you weren’t going to wake up at all.”

  “How long?”

  “How long have you been out?” She asked, and his chin dipped again, followed quickly by a grimace.

  “About twelve hours since I found you. I’m not sure how long you were out before I got down here,” she replied.

  “Down?”

  “You don’t remember? Babe, you fell off a damn cliff,” she replied, her voice ironic.

  “Fell? I remember the fight, I was fighting with a soldier, right?” He asked. He opened his eyes again and they focused on Max’s face, now more clear.

  “Yeah. I didn’t see you go over. But my guess from how things look, he fell straight down, dead on impact. You fell into a tree and it broke your fall, I think.”

  “I remember the tree. I tried to grab it.”

  “Makes sense. You didn’t hit the way the soldier did,” she replied. The image of the man with the broken neck flashed into her mind and she shuddered.

  “A lot hurts,” Griffin said.

  “So far all I found was a wound on your head. It wasn’t deep so I patched it up. I think your shoulder is dislocated, so don’t move your left arm. But the bad thing is your leg. It’s definitely broken.”

  Griffin groaned as he tried to lift his head again. His energy was gone almost immediately and he went limp.

  “Just rest. I’m right here. You’re safe,” Max said softly. She ran her fingers lightly over his brow until his breath calmed into sleep again.

  Chapter Seven

  When Griffin woke again, Max was stiff from sitting still with her hand on his uninjured shoulder. His moan was heavily laced with pain as all of his injuries made themselves known again. He tried to move, but Max hushed at him and moved to where he could see her. She carefully poured water into his mouth and insisted on sips instead of him guzzling the bottle down like he wanted to. His face was red and sweat was beginning to break out on his brow. Max knew he was trying to handle the pain quietly.

  “What hurts the worst right now?” Max asked.

  “It’s a tie between my shoulder and my leg. And not being able to move, everything is generally screaming at me now,” he replied.

  “The shoulder I can help some with. We just need to slide you away from the rock and the wall,” Max said.

  She quickly got to work, moving the limbs she had added to their shelter. Once the path was clear, Griffin used his uninjured arm to push himself into a sitting position. The strain caused him to sweat and go pale. Max was at his side, making sure if he did pass out, he didn’t fall and do more damage to himself. Once he steadied his breathing, he nodded to Max, letting her know he was ready. She moved to his broken leg, wanting to keep it as immobile as possible as they moved him. It was awkward and slow going, but Griffin used his working limbs to slide himself back until he was free of the nook behind the rock.

  Max carefully helped him lay back down, head cushioned on a small pillow. He closed his eyes for long enough that Max figured he had fallen asleep. She busied herself ripping a shirt from his pack to form a sling for his arm. She wasn’t sure how they were going to get out of their situation with Griffin having one broken leg and a lame arm.

  “I liked that shirt,” he grumbled.

  “Yeah? Well, I’ll steal you another one.”

  “You sure you can do this arm thing?” He asked, his eyes open now.

  “Of course I’m sure,” Max replied.

  “But you’ve never actually done it?”

  “Possibly. But I remember the method. We need to do it now, or you will continue to be in pain as more damage is done to your shoulder,” she said.

  It was clear by the look on Griffin’s face that he wasn’t too keen to trust Max and her unpracticed doctor skills. True, her father had taught her ample survival skills with medical care. But she had never actually been in a situation to do more than stitch a person up. Those types of situations didn’t just happen all the time in normal life. Max had to wait for zombies to become a real thing before she had a need to practice any of the other skills she had. Max had confidence in herself, mostly.

  Before he could protest more, Max took a hold of his wrist. He grimaced immediately, and Max knew she needed to distract him.

  “So, before you decided to jump off a cliff, I did get some information about Callahan,” she said. As she spoke, she carefully started a handshake motion with his wrist. She slowly began to move his arm, level with his body, but up to his side at a 90-degree angle. Griffin squeezed his eyes closed and gritted his teeth.

  “Yeah, so apparently Alex’s shot did more damage than we originally realized,” she continued. The arm was now at the 90-degree angle and she moved to continue to raise it. All the while she shook it slightly, as if she just met the man and they were sharing an overly long handshake.

  “So according to the soldier I found—ya know, before he died from you shooting him—Callahan will be traveling to California. Somewhere in the San Francisco area there is a bunker that has a doctor that can help Callahan. My guess is that bunker is also where ‘The Suit’ is hiding,” she said. As she continued the upward motion of his arm, a soft pop could be heard and Griffin’s breathing seemed to relax. Carefully, Max brought his arm back down and across his chest. She grabbed the bottle of water and a few pain pills from the first aid kit. Griffin carefully swallowed them as Max propped up his head.

  “How’s that?” She asked.

  “So much better. Aches still, but the sharp pain seems to be going down,” Griffin replied.

  With her help, Griffin was able to sit up and lean carefully against the rock wall. She positioned his pack under his broken leg, trying to keep it somewhat elevated. Once he was sitting, she used the ripped shirt to tie his arm to his chest, keeping the shoulder immobile until they could get back to Charlie and she could look over his wounds. Max wasn’t sure how long they could wait with Griffin’s broken leg. However, she knew she wasn’t strong enough to move him on her own.

  Her mind was tormented with knowing what she did about Callahan. As she looked around at the forest that surrounded them, she was frustrated with how stuck she was. For a moment, a selfish part of her loomed up and smacked her in the head. That part of her wanted to leave Griffin, just long enough to get back to their safe zone and let her siblings know what she learned. She would come back for Griffin, 36 hours at the most. That part of her was overruled, though. When she looked down at Griffin, she knew leaving him for any length of time would be a death sentence for him. And she loved him too much to not take care of him.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” he said, looking up at where she worked on the position of their tarp roof.

  “Oh yeah? You know I’m thinking what kinda moron falls over a cliff on accident?” Max replied, trying to deflect from her true musings.

  “You don’t like waiting. It’s killing you. You want to go now, get your brother and sister, and go after Callahan. It’s eating you up to know where he’s going and that he’s vulnerable.”

  “I won’t leave you. But only because Jack would kill me,” she joked.

  “I know that. But that doesn’t stop you from thinking about it,” Griffin replied, a small smile on his face at the mention of their daughter.

  Max didn’t respond. Instead, she turned back to tighten the ropes she had holding the tarp over their camp. She arranged things around Griffin so he could easily grab anything he needed. Carefully, they worked his sleeping bag under him. Max stepped back to evaluate their progress. She felt they were sufficiently hidden from a view from above. Griffin’s eyes followed all of her movements, as if she were the only reality show on tv at the moment.

  “It was her face I saw last,” he suddenly said. When Max just looked at him, he continued, “Jack’s face. It’s starting to come back to me.”

  “The fall?” Max asked.
Griffin nodded slightly.

  “That soldier ran out of ammo and came running at me. I dodged and was fighting back, when he tripped and grabbed me as he fell backwards. He threw us both over the edge. I tried to grab onto the tree as I fell through it.”

  “It must have slowed you down, because the other guy didn’t fair nearly as well as you,” Max said.

  “I guess. I still hit really hard. I think the shoulder and head were from hitting branches on the way down. But the leg was when I hit the ground. At first the panic made the pain seem like less. I knew I needed to hide, knew if the soldiers found me, I’d be done. I kept seeing Jack’s face. Thinking about how I couldn’t disappoint her,” Griffin explained softly..

  “Kids. They sure get in your head,” Max said. Her words were harsh, but her tone was soft. She sat next to Griffin and took his hand. He laced his fingers through hers and squeezed.

  “When I laid between the wall and the rock, the pain started to break through the adrenaline. I couldn’t manage it and I guess that’s when I passed out.”

  “You were so damn still when I found you. I thought you were dead. I thought...” Max trailed off.

  “What?” He asked.

  “I thought I had lost you again, only permanently this time.”

  “Gonna have to work harder at that one, babe,” Griffin said with a slight chuckle that turned into a grimace.

  “Pain? I think you could take more meds.”

  Max made a move to stand, but Griffin didn’t release her hand. He tugged on her carefully until he could put his arm around her back. When he looked at her, their faces were close and he leaned forward to kiss her softly. Then he just hugged her to him. Max wrapped her arms around him and reveled in the feeling of his breathing and the beat of his heart. She had been so close to losing him. A small part of her screamed to attack and get Callahan while she could. But she pushed that part back so she could enjoy the warmth of her man.