23. Max

23

Holding this knife to a man’s throat makes me feel powerful. Invincible. Like nobody will ever hurt me again. The only downside is I can’t kill him. At least not yet.

It’s an awkward walk, and only when I accidentally put a nick in his neck do I reposition myself and remove it, holding it out toward him instead while Griffin and I walk along either side of him with Emily behind us and William behind her. Buddy trots alongside her with his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth like we’re on a midday stroll. Except the sun is setting and we’ve got a brand new hostage leading us into a possibly dangerous situation. We have a lot of trust riding on this man, and I don’t like it. If I still had that grenade, we could throw it at the school and destroy everyone inside, making it easier for us to gain entry. Except that would also destroy everything inside, so…maybe not a good plan. Still, I miss that grenade. It was a beauty when it went off, though.

I keep chancing a glance back at Emily to make sure she’s still there, even though I know she is.

We dressed her in one of our oversized hoodies with the hood pulled over her head to hide her hair, and her small hands hide in the large front pocket. After the issues we’ve had with shitty men, we’re not taking any chances. I even asked Griffin for his handcuffs, but he caught on and refused to let me handcuff her back in the town to wait for us. I don’t understand why. It was a brilliant plan. Oh well.

When I look back at her again, my gaze roams across her body from head to toe. I tried to get her to wear a pair of pants I’d pulled off one of the dead guys, but she refused to. So then I put them on myself and she tried on mine, but they keep falling down. I hope her girly legs don’t give her away, because she’s so difficult to dress in a way that makes her unnoticeable. The rest of us have on hats or the hoods from our jackets to cover our faces, all of us dressed in black, the best form of disguise we could come up with in the moment. Except for Emily, with her perfect, tanned legs on display. My pants grow tight. Dammit.

“You doing all right back there, pet?”

“Yes,” she responds. I’m about to ask her more questions when my new hostage stops.

“Through there,” he says, pointing straight ahead. “There will be someone on patrol. We’ll need to get by them first.”

“Why don’t we go straight on through?” I reach behind me for Debbie.

“We don’t want to raise alarm before we can even get inside,” Griffin says from the man’s other side. “Let’s try to reason with them first. We don’t always have to go straight for blood.”

“Fun killer.”

Griffin rolls his eyes. I don’t see him do it, because it’s gotten dark and all, but I can feel it. “You don’t have to kill everyone you come across.”

“I didn’t kill you.” I push the man forward to continue leading us there. Then, before I move, I turn to Emily. “You all strapped in with those weapons I love on you?”

She nods her head beneath the hood and shows me her concealed weapons, including the knife necklace she wears beneath the hoodie, and even lifting her clothing to show the knife I hand carved snuggled inside her bra holster. I realize the man has turned to look at her, too, and I smack his head forward with a snarl. “Look at her again and I’ll shove this knife into your gut and then storm the school, my damn self.”

I wait until William has finished helping her lower the hoodie back down and then I move our little group forward.

We break the tree line and I see two men walking back and forth, securing the perimeter like the guy said they would be. I suppose I should probably learn his name. After all, we are going into the unknown, possibly facing a threat. He might even die.

Nah, I don’t need to know his name.

I lift my chin in a signal for Griffin to take it from here, and I fall back with Emily, sending William on ahead. I stop her and lift her hood back enough to see her amber eyes glistening in the pale moonlight. They look worried. Oh, nothing is wrong, pet.

“Are you worried?” I ask.

She thinks it over for a second before breathing out a “No.”

I grin. She acts fearless, but I know she’s likely shaking in her over-worn boots we’d snagged from a rotter. “Don’t hesitate to use those knives. Remember, stab first and don’t look back.”

“You give the best pep talk,” she says with a grin of her own. “But I don’t want to kill someone who doesn’t give me a reason to. They might not be dregs, or even the slightest bit dangerous, we don’t know yet. They deserve the benefit of the doubt. Like I gave you when we first met.”

Griffin laughs at that, but he doesn’t say anything I know he’s burning to say.

Leaning in, I kiss the corner of her mouth. Only the corner, though, because any more and we wouldn’t make it into that school and my new hostage would get a show. “That’s fine. I’ll kill everyone for you.”

Before she can respond, I pull her hood back up to shadow her face and walk beside her, following the rest of the group.

“Gregory?” One guard greets my hostage.

Oh, Gregory, that’s right. I remember him saying his name now. That’s a shame. I don’t normally care to know the names of people I’m doing to kill.

“We’re back.” Gregory doesn’t even bother explaining the four strangers with him and the absence of his four friends. Not to mention the one-eyed dog trotting happily by our side that wasn’t with him before. How ignorant are these guards? If Griffin follows through with turning our new town into a colony, these guys will not be guarding it.

“Welcome back.” The second guard pushes open the gate to the school property. Well, this is interesting. We could have killed him earlier and masqueraded as him and no one would have ever known, because these people don’t even recognize anyone who comes and goes. Hindsight and all that. Oh well, next time.

Our small group walks by and I let Emily go in front of me. To keep an eye on her, and not only for the view.

When we enter the building, there’s a small group of people huddled off in a corner. I can’t make any of them out and I can’t hear what they’re saying, but something feels off. Something tells me I should grab Emily and make a run for it. The medicine be damned. The others can find the insulin for her, but we shouldn’t be here.

My heart races and a thin layer of perspiration coats my skin. I don’t understand it.

The feeling hits me like a pair of nun chucks, but I shake it off. Which is odd, because I haven’t felt this level of unease in months. Looking over at Emily, she seems fine. Everyone else seems fine. I don’t know what my reservation is, but she needs this more than I need to run out of here, so I’ll do everything in my power to make sure this goes smoothly. For her.

Debbie might not drink tonight, but I’ll feed her tomorrow. Even if I have to come back here and face this unease alone.