Chapter 1Helana

Chapter 1

Helana

The roof was fast becoming my safe space. Up here, the drama unfolding down below couldn't touch me. Up here, it was just me, my thoughts, and endless miles of fog filled wasteland.

Occasionally, a herd of zombies would wander past the perimeter guards, slipping through them in a blind spot. I watched about a dozen of them amble through the haze, only vague shadows, followed by the eerie sound of moans.

"Dibs!" I called out as I aimed with my crossbow. With an arrow notched, I sent the first one whizzing through the air. It pierced the zom's head with a satisfying sucking sound. It toppled over like a bowling pin, and I let out a whoop. "Fuck yeah, bitches, nothing but net!"

Three masculine groans sounded off to my right and left. I waved to my brother, Travis, who stood at the top of a makeshift crow's nest that poked through the roof of the hay barn. He and another man, whose name escaped me, shook their heads. My middle brother Scottie was perched in the oak tree to the left of the house. He'd set up a hunting perch and had settled in for the last few hours, hoping to catch some zoms.

It was a little game we'd begun playing last week. After my friends and I settled in, and I slowly came to terms with the fact that my family was harboring the last person in the world I ever wanted to meet, I was able to let loose with my brothers when I needed to blow off steam. We'd come out here just as the sun rose every morning, waiting a few hours in case any hordes slipped through. Usually it ended up being just one or two randoms staggering through the fog. We'd pick them off before sending Anubis and the hound dogs out to finish off the remains for their breakfast.

There was a wall surrounding the settlement, so we had to keep high enough to see over the top of it, but in a way it reminded me of the old video games we used to play when we were kids. We were a badass fortress, and I wouldn't want to mess with us.

"Miss Military thinks she's hot-shit boys!" Scottie shouted, and the others laughed. "How bout you save some game for the rest of us?"

I rolled my eyes. "You snooze, you lose, Scottie. It's not my fault your reflexes are slow." I scooted toward the ladder that would lead me off of the roof, knowing it was time for everyone to start their day, and soon, people would be looking for me.

The guys grumbled, and I climbed down. Travis flipped me the bird, and I just laughed. No matter how old we got, they never changed. I headed around to the back of the house and let myself into the old mud room. My immediate family, along with Nina and Missy of course, have rooms in the main house, while anyone else in the camp is either set up in hastily built homes of their own scattered across the property or in RV campers. Wyatt, Alex, Dante, and Ret were staying in our family's camper just behind the main house, where I could get to them in seconds and vice versa.

Truth be told, I wanted them with me in the main house, but my daddy wouldn't hear of it. He was old school in that way, and these men were still strangers to him. I understood, so I never complained.

I stomped up the stairs and into my bedroom, stripping down to my bra and panties, letting my respirator lay on the bed. It needed a good cleaning at some point today. I had my own bathroom, so I wasted no time taking a shower, though it was freezing cold seeing as we had no heating in the house. This was Nevada, so it didn't get very cold here, but since the zombie-making fog had blotted out the sun for so long, the temperature had dropped dramatically.

We still had generators and solar power, so the water pumped from the wells was fine to use. After a year on the road, I'd almost forgotten how it felt to be clean all the time. I scrubbed my skin until it felt raw and washed my hair three times before turning off the water.

Every day was more of the same now as I dressed in a pair of black fatigue pants, a black ribbed racer-back tank, and my thick military-issued boots. Leaving my pale hair wet, I arranged it into a long French braid that ended right above my ass. It was easier to take my mask on and off if my hair was out of my face.

As I finished getting dressed, the sound of footsteps approached my door. My hand instinctively went to the knife strapped to my hip as I prepared for whoever was coming in. It was just instinct ever since the shit hit the fan. The doorknob turned, and in walked Ret, giving me a small grin.

"Hey," she said, leaning against the doorframe. She was dressed the same as me; only her muscles were significantly more defined than mine. Ret was built like a sleek tank, though it still didn't take away from the feminine beauty of her face and hair. "I just wanted to see if you needed any help with anything today. I'm patrolling the outer wall with Nina today, and I was gonna take Anubis with me."

"He'll like that," I said with a smile. Anubis loved going on patrol. Every day this past week, he'd been whining to get out there and run as fast as he could, taking out the occasional straggler that wandered into our territory. "Go ahead without me. I've got a few things to do around here."

I wanted to cringe. Ret gave me a hard look, telling me she knew exactly what I had planned for today.

"Don't kill the poor woman," she said, folding her arms over her chest. Her smile was crooked, and there was a wicked gleam in her brown eyes that made my stomach flip.

"No promises," I said, crossing my fingers behind my back. I couldn't make that promise. Not when the object of my irritation was walking around my family's camp like she owned the fucking place.

Jessa was an unwanted surprise, and one that sucked all the thunder out of my reunion with my dad and brothers. The fates must have been having a field day up there in the heavens. What were the fucking odds that she would end up here, of all places?

"See you tonight?" Ret said, taking a slow step into my bedroom. She was so much taller than me. Nearly as tall as Wyatt.

I gulped, my stomach flipping yet again the same way it did every time Ret looked at me the way she was looking at me right now...with want. It was the same look I got from the guys, and one that I welcomed more and more as the days passed.

I didn't move away when Ret closed the distance between us, reaching out and cupping the side of my face with her gloved hand. "Don't let that bitch get to you. You're a million fucking times the woman she could ever be, and if the guys don't see that, then they're idiots."

She leaned in, her lips brushing mine gently. I sucked in a breath, my body inching closer, before I realized what I was doing. I kissed her harder, knowing she was waiting for me to take the lead. From day one, she made it clear that anything that happened between the two of us was completely my decision.

My body felt flushed and warm as her tongue brushed mine. She tasted like toothpaste and coffee, which was an odd but not unwelcome mixture.

I pulled back, my heart racing. "Ret," I breathed out her name, still feeling the heat of our kiss on my lips.

"I know," she said with a smile that was both playful and seductive all at once. "We can't do this right now, they're waiting for me at the front."

I moaned in frustration as she stepped back from me. "I'll see you tonight, then. Try not to die," I said, smirking at her as she secured her hair into a tight ponytail as she backed out of my room.

"You know it," she replied over her shoulder before disappearing into the hallway beyond.

I stared at the empty doorway as her footsteps faded down the hallway, wondering how the fuck I found myself in this situation. Not only was I sort of dating three different men, but also a woman, which I'd never even considered as an option for myself before.

Maybe dating wasn't exactly the right word for it though. Could you really date someone during a zombie apocalypse? I laughed, shaking my head as I continued to strap on my equipment. No, dating was definitely not the right word. It wasn't like we could go out for movie nights, dinner, or meeting the parents. We were all sort of thrust together violently, forced to grasp what little semblance of happiness we could find in this dead world.