shoulder was screaming in pain and his vision was blurring in and out, a weird roaring filling his ears.
“I’m gonna go check outside,” Pete said. “Make sure there’s none left. Jay?”
The two men nodded at one another and ran out to the flames, maybe to behead the burning corpses of whoever was left. Sebastian limped across the room, picked up a bag of some sort, and began pulling out vials. Luke ignored him, focusing completely on Jackson.
“We’re okay,” he said. “We’re okay. We’ve survived. The horde’s gone.”
“I know,” she whispered. “I know that, but Luke…”
“What, baby?”
“It bit you,” she said.
Yes, why hadn’t he remembered that? The zombie’d ripped his skin away, the worst bite he’d ever had.
“I’m all right,” he reassured her, though he wasn’t entirely sure that he was. “I’ve been bitten plenty in the past. This one’s a tad worse is all.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “You’ll be fine.” Her hand took his, squeezing. Luke tried to apply some pressure back only he didn’t seem to have very much strength left.
“You have to be fine,” she added. “I need you, Luke. Without you I’ll never be me again.”
“You are you,” he said.
“Me the way I was,” she insisted.
“I don’t want you the way you were,” he whispered. “I like you just fine as you are. I should have realized. I didn’t, but I do now. You’re mine, Jackson. And I’m yours.”
She let out a small sob and lifted a hand to her mouth, pulling away only to look at her blood-covered fingers and shake her head.
“Freak and all?”
“Freak and all.”
Sebastian sat down next to them, passing Jackson a towel and a pack of antibacterial wipes as he did so. “Pressure to the wound, then clean it,” he said.
She nodded and pulled some wipes free before pushing the towel against his shoulder. Luke gritted his teeth at the pain, which was all consuming now, licking at the edges of everything. His strength was pretty much depleted. He’d told Jackson what he needed to and just wanted to sink into the blackness.
“Stay with me, Luke,” Jackson said, but her voice came as if from a distance.
“Let me give him this,” Sebastian said and through his blurred vision Luke could see a syringe.
“What is it?” she asked, pressing the towel a little harder. Pain exploded and he sucked in a deep breath. “Pain relief?”
“No.”
“Antibiotics?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Sebastian shook his head and Luke couldn’t help but notice that the gray hairs were tipped with blood. He looked exhausted, his hands shaky. “It’s an immune suppressant. An accelerator if you will.”
“A what?” Jackson was rubbing against the wound on his head now, cleaning blood away, maybe. Luke wanted to tell her to clean her own wound, wanted to do it for her, but he could find neither the words nor the strength to lift a hand.
“An accelerator,” Sebastian repeated.
“And what will that do?”
Sebastian paused before answering, or maybe Luke just imagined that, things were not making perfect sense. “If he’s infected,” Sebastian said slowly, “this will speed the process up. It depresses the immune system allowing the virus to take hold.”
Jackson gasped. “Speed it up? Depress his immune system? Are you fucking insane?”
“It’s best we find out immediately. We can’t take him back to camp like this, and we need to get moving. God knows if there are more hordes coming. We’re lucky to have survived this one.”
Jackson wrenched the syringe out of Sebastian’s hands, her movement blurring in front of Luke’s eyes. “You want to wipe out his last moments? Jesus fucking Christ, Sebastian. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“If he’s going to turn, we need to know,” Sebastian insisted. “We can’t take him back to camp if we don’t.”
Jackson crunched the syringe on the floor, lifted a leg, and stamped on it. Luke saw the wince chase across her face and guessed she was injured. He wished he could help her, but he was barely hanging on. Could he be infected? He had no idea how he could tell. His head was pounding but maybe that was the concussion. He felt sick but was it any wonder? And there was so much pain. Did that mean the virus was already consuming him? Did he want to know if it was?
“We can’t take him back to camp,” Sebastian insisted. “Nancy won’t let him in. You know she won’t. But we can’t stay here, either. It’s too dangerous. The fire will draw even more.”
“Fine. You go,” Jackson hissed. “All of you go. I’m not losing the last minutes of him so you can feel better.”
“It’s better for him this way. He—”
“He what?” she screeched. “Will give you the antibodies you need. You’re a piece of fucking work, Sebastian.”
The doctor reeled back. “I wasn’t thinking that! I just want to make this easier for him. Do you have any idea what it’ll feel like to turn? It will hurt him if it’s drawn out.”
“He’s going to be fine,” she insisted. “I’ll look after him.”
“And if he turns?”
“Then I’ll behead him myself. That’s my job, as it would be his.”
Jackson slicing Mandy through him. The image was clear in his mind. Her face would set into its battle lines and she’d grit her teeth and do it—he knew she would. But Luke knew too that it would be the end for her. The last little bits of normality she had would disappear if she had to behead the man she loved. He knew this because that was how it would be for him. Some things you never came back from, and this would be one of them.
“Get Pete,” he said, and the effort of those words was almost too much.
“It’s all right, Luke,” Jackson whispered, turning herself so that her body covered his wound. “I’m going to look after you.” She wiped the cloth against him, humming and mumbling words his ears were not able to pick up.
“Jackson…” he breathed, his voice catching on the word.
“And then we’ll start our journey again,” she said, her voice suddenly louder, but not because she’s raised it, he got that, just because his ears weren’t working properly. “We’ll go all the way to the coast. Sit on a beach and rub lotion on one another. Everything will be fine because we’ve got each other. That’s how it is supposed to be. I’ll catch fish. You like fish. Remember you told me? I’ll make a net or something and you’ll make a fire and we’ll eat them… and…” Her voice broke and Luke’s pain intensified in so many ways.
“I—”
She bent forward then and placed a light kiss on his lips. “I love you, Luke. I need you.”
And he loved her, so goddamn much, which was why he was going to do this.
“Pete.” He beckoned the other man forward, Sebastian trailing behind. Jackson moved back so that he could pull the other man down, until his mouth was level with his friend’s ear. He thought then of how it must have felt for Pete to watch his wife turn, how it was no wonder he hadn’t beheaded her. Pete too must have known it was something he’d never come back from. “Take her away,” he whispered. “Until it’s over. And then let Seb have me okay? Let him get his antibodies.”
Pete reared back, his gaze finding Luke’s, and even through the blur he saw the other man nod. “Take care, buddy.”
“Luke, what—”
But Jackson’s voice was cut off by an arm snaking around her waist and pulling her from Luke’s prone body. She screamed and shrieked and pushed against Pete. Luke swallowed the nausea, gritted his teeth against the
