Defensive Instinct (Survival Instinct Book 4) (8 page)

The woman appeared ahead of Riley, emerging from between two giant, leafy monster plants that Riley couldn’t identify. When Freya had first arrived at the Diana, she had essentially been feral. Although she had cleaned up and socialised since then, Riley could still see that other woman inside. Her hands were filthy, as she never wore gloves like the others when she worked, smudges of dirt having made their way to her cheeks. Her hair was kept brutally short, forever mindful of the zombie threat outside, while her dark skin was covered by long, tight clothing for the same reason. However, Freya also wore larger, looser clothes over top, around her torso and hips, deliberately hiding her woman’s curves. Riley didn’t know the whole story, but from what she did know, she understood the impulse. Around Freya’s waist was tied a band of leather, while on a belt below it hung a small pouch. The leather was a sling and the pouch contained stones, more or less useless against a zombie when compared to the long machete slung across her back, but effective against humans when combined with her deadly aim. Freya was not a woman to be trifled with.

Upon seeing Riley, she used the signs for
hello
and asked her what she wanted. By now, nearly everyone had learned sign language: being able to communicate in silence saved lives. It certainly made things easier for Freya, yet she still carried a small chalkboard and chalk for when she had to communicate with those few people who still didn’t know sign or weren’t completely fluent.

“I need your help with something,” Riley whispered.

What?

Riley looked around at the other people. Freya understood immediately, and gestured for Riley to lead them somewhere. Once they reached an empty hallway, Riley took a stabilising breath before continuing.

“I need your help running some tests.”

What tests? Why me?

“Because despite not knowing you very well, I trust you to keep a secret.”

What tests?
Her expression had become impatient.

Riley looked around one more time, confirming again that they were alone. “I’ll walk you through them, but the tests are on me. I found a lump in my breast.”

Evans was aware that Wycheck was missing almost the instant he got up that morning. He knew because Jasmine was shaking him awake, telling him that Wycheck was gone. She was practically hysterical about it, and if he hadn’t quickly picked up on her words, he might have thought there were zombies roaming amongst the party.

“Jasmine. Jasmine, calm down. Jasmine.”

She wasn’t listening, and continued to tug on his arm, wailing about Wycheck, garbling most of her words too much with tears to be understood.

“Jasmine,” he said more sternly, gripping her shoulder with his free hand. “Stop this right now. You’re not helping anything. Stop it.”

She didn’t stop.

With no remaining course of action, Evans removed his hand from her shoulder and then slapped her across the face. Jasmine gasped and released his arm as she fell over. It wasn’t a very hard slap considering Evans’ size, but it was enough to shock her.

“I get it, Wycheck is missing and you’re worried about him. Crying all over me only hinders me from doing something about it, so shut up and let me find out the facts,” he spoke quickly, getting everything in while she still lay curled on the floor.

Standing up, Evans first checked on everyone sleeping with him in the living room and adjacent kitchen. They were all quietly sitting up on their mats, having also been awakened by Jasmine. The light coming through the windows suggested that the sun had only just risen.

“Any of you see Wycheck head out?” he asked.

A lot of shaking heads and sleep mumbled ‘no’s responded.

“All right. Since you’re all up, someone might as well start breakfast, yeah?”

A few of them began stirring.

Stretching as he walked, Evans headed to the front of the townhouse where his party had slept the previous night. The front room was the same size as the living room in back, but fewer people had stretched out in there and all of them had taken a shift during the night, guarding the front of the house. They were also awake and waiting to hear from Evans.

“Any of you see Wycheck last night?” he asked. “Apparently he’s missing.”

“He—” Jasmine, who had followed along behind him, started to speak but Evans held up his hand to silence her. She could never be objective about Wycheck.

“Didn’t see him. Although
she
was badgering him all day yesterday,” Arman nodded his head in Jasmine’s direction. She scowled back at him.

“Let me know if you remember anything else.” Evans next stuck his head out the front door and questioned the two guards sitting on either end of the porch. They hadn’t seen anything either.

Walking upstairs, Evans could hear Jasmine padding up behind him. Three quarters of the way up, he stopped and turned to face her.

“You’re going to keep your mouth shut up here, alright? You’ve probably already scared the hell out of them with your caterwauling.”

Jasmine nodded, her eyes urging him to hurry up. She knew who he should be talking to about it, but Evans needed to check on the others first and make sure none were panicking.

On the top floor were three bedrooms. Evans first headed to the largest one at the back of the house, as it contained the most people. Inside were three couples with their kids, some from prezombie relationships, some born afterward, and a few adopted. The youngest were clustered on the king-sized bed, while the parents were on mats near the door, all of them alert and waiting for Evans. Some of the older kids stood by their mats on the bed’s far side, ready to open the window and throw out a rope. The others were clustered by the bathroom door where they had slept.

“It seems Wycheck went off by himself in the night,” Evans told the parents, but speaking loudly enough for the kids to hear as well. “Jasmine here just had a panic attack about it is all.” He quickly turned his head to look at Jasmine, giving her a cold glance that reminded her to keep her mouth shut.

“Will you be sending someone after him?” one of the parents asked calmly.

“I haven’t decided yet; I’m still collecting information about what happened. He may have just gone for a walk and could be back shortly.”

The parents nodded, understanding that he had just gotten up like they had. As Evans turned to go to the next bedroom, he could see Jasmine itching to say something, most likely to beg for a search party. He didn’t give her the chance.

In the next small bedroom, an elderly, grey-haired, wrinkle-faced trio shared the double bed. They didn’t appear alarmed in the slightest, and were dressed neatly, ready for the day. Evans bet they had all been awake before Jasmine’s freak out and were alert enough to have heard every word. Still, they waited politely for Evans’ explanation.

“Wycheck’s wandered off. He say anything to any of you?”

They all responded in the negative.

“Well, everyone’s up now and someone downstairs should be starting breakfast soon if they haven’t already.”

Moving to the last room at the front, Evans expected more negative answers and he got them. The room had no bed and was shared by another six senior citizens—or close to—but they weren’t nearly as advanced in age as the other three. They were all right sleeping on mats and in sleeping bags like those downstairs. They even took shifts at the window during the night, providing a higher look out for the street below. Leaving them with orders to help the older three down the stairs, Evans returned to the main floor. Jasmine continued to dog his every step, her impatience all but radiating from her skin as he went into the basement.

Down there, on the carpeted floor and a few couches, slept the most rowdy of their group. The teenagers and twenty year olds who didn’t have parents were the fittest of the group but also the most likely to do something stupid. There had been a few mornings when Evans was woken up to be told that one of them had had some sort of accident. As he descended the steps, he saw that not all of them had been awakened by Jasmine’s screaming.

“What’s up, chief?” Elijah met Evans at the bottom of the stairs. He wasn’t the oldest, but he was the most responsible of the group and did his best to keep them safe from themselves.

“Wycheck’s gone off, and I’m wondering if anyone knows anything.”

“Oi! Wake up!” Elijah clapped his hands together.

Those who had still been asleep raised their faces toward the sound, their eyes blinking and squinting, while the words ‘five more minutes’ hovered on their lips. There were wild hair and limbs tangled in sleeping bags everywhere.

“Chief here wants to know if anyone has seen or heard about Wycheck going off on his own last night,” Elijah spoke loudly.

Some gave answers, mostly those properly awake, while others just put their heads back down or returned to whatever it was they were doing. Lately, cards had been a popular pastime.

“Think that’s all you’re going to get out of them,” Elijah said, turning back to Evans.

“Thanks,” Evans patted him on the shoulder then retreated back up the stairs. He had to pause halfway up to wait for Jasmine to turn and get out of the way. He tried to be nice and patient with everyone, but she was just one of those people who made it awfully difficult. Sometimes she reminded him of a small, yappy dog, often trembling about one thing or another. Thinking of that comparison now, he thought she might pee her pants as he finally moved to the back door.

Outside, the small backyard was wedged between a pair of fences, with the townhouse blocking the front and a garage corking the back. A quintet of tents had been erected on the grass, filling the backyard, and as Evans looked at their wired and prepared occupants, he realized he should have come out this way first. The tent sleepers had been close enough to hear the disturbance in the house, but the walls were solid enough to muffle the details.

“It’s all right, just Jasmine,” Evans told them, holding up his hands. He showed them that he hadn’t even brought his weapons with him, that’s how safe they were at the moment. Well, he wasn’t completely unarmed: there was the always-present knife strapped to his thigh, but everyone knew that Evans frequently carried much larger weapons.

The occupants in three of the five tents had been travelling with Evans’ party for only a few weeks now, as opposed to the months and years of the others. They were still jumpy, and Evans couldn’t blame them. Everyone in his party had been part of one group or another before joining him. A few had been wanderers like himself, but most had been settled somewhere. They ended up with Evans when their camps were destroyed and they were forced to flee for their lives. Evans had been wandering since the start, before the zombies actually, and was well adapted to living on the road, but others weren’t.

“Wycheck has apparently wandered off. You know, the guy with the crooked nose who this one is always hanging around?” Evans hiked a thumb back at Jasmine: everyone knew who she was thanks to her loud and social nature. “She got a little upset about it. I’m looking for information. Old Salt? You were sharing a tent with him last night, what do you know?”

Old Salt, so named for his sea dog looks and nature, stepped forward. “He got up maybe an hour or two before sunrise. I thought he was takin’ a piss and went back to sleep. Didn’t wake up again until she poked her head in lookin’ for him. I guessed that maybe he was hidin’ from her. Told me she had been botherin’ him more than usual the last few days.”

Jasmine looked ready to strangle him. “You crusty old bastard.”

Evans held a restraining hand out toward her, making sure she didn’t try anything stupid for her own sake. Old Salt could be a bastard, but he was observant and honest. He would also defend himself, should Jasmine actually make an attempt at anything, which would end very poorly for her.

“Anyone else see or hear anything around that time?” Evans asked the other tent sleepers.

A few mentioned having woken up to hear someone outside, but when they heard that person go into the garage, they went back to sleep. Evans thanked them and apologized for not having come out and explained the situation quicker. Later, he would encourage Jasmine to go around on her own and apologize to everyone for the rude awakening.

Evans’ last stop was the extended two-car garage. Old Salt was now following him as well as Jasmine. No doubt he was cursing himself on the inside for not realizing sooner that Wycheck wasn’t just relieving himself. He would want to help.

The garage was filled with the smell of horses. Two large, predominantly wooden, supply-laden carts took up the space against the wall nearest the house. On the other side, nearly a dozen horses were crowded together against the wide rollup door. The space wasn’t really large enough for the horses, but they were put in there only at night and the large beasts were used to it. The party had been lucky to find the place; the garage, to which someone had added an extension for storage, was the only one in the area that could fit both the horses and the carts once the junk had been cleared out. From a wide shelf beneath the peak of the roof, the eyes of Leo peered down at the trio who had just entered the cramped space. Somewhere up there, Nathan, Leo’s partner in crime, was also hiding in the shadows, unseen.

“Yes?” Leo asked.

“Wycheck come through here? Over an hour before sunrise?”

“He did.”

“Know anything about it?”

“No.”

“All right. Well, breakfast is cooking if you want any and the horses can be let out whenever you’re ready. Don’t take any of them too far, though. We might need a couple to go looking for Wycheck.”

“Okay.”

“You didn’t try and stop him?” Old Salt grunted up at Leo.

“Why would I? He left the horses alone.”

Jasmine made a loud scoffing sound that wasn’t too dissimilar to the scraping of the horses’ hooves on the cement floor.

Evans turned and ushered Old Salt and Jasmine back outside before anything could get started. Leo and Nathan were weird: they didn’t think like other people did. They were more concerned about the horses than about any of the humans. Some of the other party members suspected they were actually a gay couple, but Evans didn’t think so. They certainly didn’t show any kind of affection for one another. In Evans’ mind, Leo and Nathan were the same person split into two bodies. As far as Evans knew, they weren’t related, but it was possible. They acted like brothers at times and had their own way of communicating with each other.

“We’ll have breakfast, and if Wycheck doesn’t show up in the meantime, I’ll hold a meeting to decide what to do.”

“A meeting? We have to go find him now!” Jasmine whined.

Evans didn’t bother to respond. Someone had lit the barbecue and was placing what remained of their meat upon the grill. They had come across some cows who had somehow managed to survive on their own and shot a pair for the meat and leather. The other cows they let go on their way, knowing that they had no more room for animals. The cooking beef smelled heavenly. If Wycheck didn’t come back for this, then he was definitely out of the area.