7. Griffin

7

Dregs. The scum of the earth. When the dead rose, so did they. People who are thrilled there are no consequences for hurting others and taking what they want. Some of them work solo while others band together in groups, and this group looks like a pretty big one. Laying traps in the road for the sorry souls who can’t defend themselves against a group their size. We’re screwed.

My palms sweat as my mind races for a way out of this mess. Ideally, we’ll all get out unscathed, and if we’re lucky, they won’t take anything more than our food. We can always find more food. It’s gotten harder to do as time went on and survivors scavenged everywhere they could, but we’ll make it work. As long as we can get out of this alive.

“William, pull down the middle of the seat so Emily can crawl through into the trunk.”

“Fuck that. I’m never getting in the trunk again. You get in the trunk.”

I knew she wouldn’t go for it. I should have stuffed her in there when we left the campsite. Tied her up and not let her out until we arrived at wherever it is we’re going. She kept asking about where we’re headed, but truth be told, I don’t know. There was no way we could stay in that clearing anymore, not with the smell. I should’ve tied her up and thrown her in the trunk last night the moment I realized she was no longer in the tent. Hindsight is a real bitch.

We get closer to the line of cars, and most of the dregs have their hands on their guns, ready to point and shoot. We are far too outnumbered here. The last time we ran into some dregs…well, it didn’t go well. And this time there’s more at stake.

“I mean it, Emily. Keep your head down and stay in the fucking car. All of you.” I put the car into park and get out, then lock the door before slamming it shut. I raise my hands in the air and step forward.

Car doors open and shut behind me and I clench my jaw, knowing that someone got out. I don’t know if it’s William or Max; I don’t dare take my eyes off of the dregs to look back and see. But I’m going to fucking kill them both if they get us killed. My ghost will revive them just so I can kill them myself.

“We don’t want any harm. Please, let us pass.”

“What’s it going to cost ya?” The man directly in front of me speaks, and I assume he’s the leader. He’s got the best posture of them all and the most lax stance. He’s the only one without his hand on a gun, trusting his couple dozen men to have his back. Not to mention he’s wearing a fucking suit. He doesn’t do the dirty work around here.

“We have food. We’ll give you as much as you want.”

The man chews on something. Maybe it’s gum, I don’t know, but he chews and then purses his lips as he thinks over my offer. I try to think of what else we might have to offer. We can give them tents, though our three tents won’t be nearly enough to house a group this size, and we’ll be left even more vulnerable in the night. So that’s pretty useless to them. We have plenty of weapons, but Max will give his life before giving up any of those. “We’ll take your food.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. This isn’t as bad as I feared. These are reasonable men, after all.

“And the girl.”

My back stiffens. I knew I should have forced her into the trunk. He probably saw her through the windshield. Why didn’t I at least put the damn visor down? “You can have the food and our tents.”

“And the girl.”

“Our food, tents, and the car.”

“And the girl.”

“That’s not an option.”

The man lifts his chin to someone behind me, and I freeze. No, absolutely not. She didn’t. She wouldn’t.

I turn my head slowly to look over my shoulder and see her standing there, with her amber eyes wide. Strands of her long dark hair have fallen loose from her ponytail and are fluttering in the slight breeze. She looks as scared as she did last night when I saw Max push her toward the horde of rotters. I wanted to kill Max when he did that, but right now, I’m going to need to kill a couple dozen dregs, plus my friends for letting her out of the car.

A part of me wonders why. She’s caused us nothing but trouble since the moment I laid my eyes on her. Still, I couldn’t live with myself if I agreed to it. I’m not that kind of man, and I made a personal vow to never become a dreg of humanity.

I immediately take stock of our situation. I’ve already identified all the exposed dregs, the weapons they carry, and the rounds of ammo attached to their bodies. It’s safe to guess there are more hidden in that line of cars. Regardless, we’re substantially outnumbered and utterly fucked. I look at Max and whisper, “You got the ball?”

His brows furrow. “Dude, this isn’t the time for soccer.”

Anger flows through me at the idiocy. I know he has that grenade. My eyes roam down his body to see if I can spot it, but he’s a one-man army and packs his weapons well so they’re not visible. He could have a rocket launcher on his body and no one could tell.

I turn back to the dreg man in the suit, knowing it’s useless but needing to buy myself some time to think. I make my voice light even though my blood is boiling. “Thanks anyway, but we’ll just head back the other way.”

The man shakes his head. “Afraid I can’t allow that. We’re taking the girl.”

The fight breaks out before I think of a plan. We’re already diving behind two cars, me and Emily behind our car, and Max and William behind another, when the bullets fly. Regardless of the bullets, our bigger problem is that we’re surrounded. Not a problem for Max, who’s already taken out the dregs high above in the telephone poles. I missed how he did it because he doesn’t have a fucking gun.

We sit here and let them waste their ammo. I hold a small blade between my thumb and forefinger and wait for the opening. The moment the firing stops, I use the reflection in a nearby car as my guide and fling my arm out, sending the throwing star sailing through the air and slicing the throat of three of the dregs along the way. Max lets out a whistle of appreciation and says something about the arcs of the blood spray, but I barely pay him much attention.

“Alright boys, you ready for a fight?” When three voices respond, my attention snaps behind me to Emily and I give her a dead serious look. “Get underneath the car if you won’t get inside of it.”

“Or what?”

“I’ll stuff you inside the trunk myself, and if I get shot doing it, then there might be no one to let you out.”

“Why are you so adamant about me staying out of danger? You don’t even know me. I can fight. I can help, I’m more useful than you think. And who knows, I might be the one saving your ass. You need me, Griffin.”

“I won’t let anyone die when I can stop it.”

She tightens her grip around the knife that Max gave her last night, and I feel a pang of guilt at having stripped her of her weapons. “Huh. I’ve never had my own personal bodyguard. I don’t know what kind of martyr shit you’re trying to do, but right now you’re the one who’s the damsel in distress.” She throws the knife, and it goes sailing by my head.

I wrap my hand around her throat and press her head against the bottom of the trunk of the car before leaning in closer. I can feel her breath on my lips before I speak. “You’re going to need better aim if you’re trying to kill me.”

She smiles and her voice comes out as a rasp, even though I’m not cutting off her airway. “Look behind you, dumbass.”

I look behind me and see a dreg on the ground. The knife sticking out of his throat is responsible for the growing pool of blood around his head.

“We can both throw. Guess we have something in common after all. What a shame. Now if you’ll let me go, I’d like to retrieve that, seeing as it’s the only weapon you guys will let me have.”

I don’t let her go. Not yet, anyway. I look at her again and hesitate for only a moment before I pull a dagger from one holster on my waistband and hand it to her, along with the second knife I took off of her the night I first saw her. I’ve been so focused on protecting her, I let my guard down. That’s something that never happens. I owe her more than this right now. “Don’t use it to stab me in the back.”

She grabs them both. “Don’t hand me over to the dregs.”

“Deal.”

Music blasts from the car that Max and William are—were—hiding behind, and Max howls into the air with glee. “Dance for us, pet.”

“He’s got issues,” she breathes out.

“You have no idea.”

Moans soar through the air as rotters in the area make their way toward us. They drag their bodies across the ground and limp from the tree lines. A dreg shouts out in anger. “What is your fucking problem? You’ve drawn every rotter in the area.”

Emily and I stand up and join in the fight. We slash and stab at our attackers, and take the guns from the fallen and use them to take out their friends. It’s a bloodbath.

Max spins around, swinging his morning star with one hand and a knife in the other. He’s got blood on his teeth due to the fact he can’t stop grinning during his killing spree. Headlights illuminate him from behind and music blasts through the air. He’s having the time of his life.

A few rotters join the party, forcing the dregs to fight them off instead of us. At least it makes things easier on our account. “Get in the car,” I holler at Emily, Max, and William, but Emily ignores me. Her focus is on the car ahead. “What are you doing?”

“Is that a dog in there? You don’t even have the windows cracked, its gotta be a million degrees in there.” She approaches the car, but the dreg leader jumps in front of her and slashes his knife through the air, which she narrowly avoids by jumping back.

Max is the first to reach her. He breaks a window on the car and the dog jumps out, still barking.

The dreg in the suit looks like an apple with how red his face is turning from anger. “Either kill them or shut up, you mutt.” When the dog does nothing but bark, he kicks the dog.

“That’s it.” Emily charges forward and shoves her dagger into the dreg’s gut, blood spilling out onto his light gray suit. He shoves the dagger in deeper, twisting and turning it until he falls to the ground, dead. Then she drops to her knees and faces the dog with a smile on her face. “Come here, boy. I won’t hurt you.” She holds out her hand, her full focus on a stranger’s dog while war wages behind her back.

“We’re not safe yet, Emily, get in the damn car,” I call out to her, grunting when I kill another dreg who’s trying to get to her. I drop him to the ground and run the rest of the short distance to her, grabbing onto her arm right when she scoops up the massive dog in her arms. I drag them both back to the car, shielding her as best as I can while Max and William cover us.

William helps her into the passenger seat, which she somehow fits in there with this enormous dog still in her lap, and I jump into the driver’s seat. Slamming the car into drive, we peel out, running over the dead and injured dregs on the way. I drive the length of the parked cars until I’m able to get around them, and then Max throws something out the window. He cackles when the grenade explodes.

“You couldn’t have done that sooner?” I ask.

“We were in too close quarters. Didn’t want to hurt pet, here.”

“I’m not your pet,” Emily shoots back.

“Appears you’ve got one of your own now,” William adds. “That looks like a Belgian Malinois. They’re known for their intelligence, loyalty, and ability to handle stressful situations.”

“Hopefully, he won’t have to handle a situation more stressful than the one I just saved him from. Is that right, Buddy?”

“You’ve named it already?” I swerve to avoid a rotter that’s dragging its decaying body toward the music that’s still blasting from the car far behind us.

“It is a he, and his collar says Buddy, so yes, he already has a name.” Buddy licks her face, and she laughs and throws her arms around him in a hug. She’s so tiny, she practically disappears beneath that dog in her lap like that.

“This is ridiculous. We’re picking up strays now.” Emily glares at me, but I don’t retract my words. I don’t regret her saving the dog, and truth be told, if she hadn’t been there, I would have saved the dog myself. I’m just…I don’t know. Everything she does puts us all—including her—in even more danger. I’m supposed to rein it in. I should make her stop doing it. But truth be told, fighting for survival has never been this exciting before.

Thumping sounds out from behind us and I look in the rearview mirror, but there’s nothing back there. No one is following us. The thumping sounds again and I grind my teeth together. “Is there someone in the trunk?”

Max’s smile brightens my rearview mirror. “Willie boy here?—”

“It’s William?—”

“—found out that one of the dregs was a doctor. White coat and everything. Figured he might know something about the medical supplies our Emily here is looking for. So I helped him into the trunk to hitch a ride with us because I’m considerate like that.”

Emily’s eyes widen with excitement. Mine narrow with frustration. Max’s beam with pride. “Waddaya say, captain? Can we keep him?”

I blow out a sigh of defeat. This is getting ridiculous.

William lets out a strained laugh. “Come on. What’s one more hostage?”