“Need a shower?” she asked with a sly wink, squeezing the handle and spraying in a sprinkler pattern.
He chuckled low in his throat. “Maybe later,” he replied, heat blooming in his belly at her insinuation. He stuck his hands in the tub and let her spray him down and then wet a towel to wipe the blood from his face.
“There he is,” Lily said as he dried himself off. “Want the grand tour?”
He raised his eyebrow. “Is there more?”
“No,” she said and trilled a laugh. “This is it.”
“I’m glad you all made it out okay,” he said, lowering his head. “Did you run into any trouble at all?”
She shook her head. “No, we had a clean getaway.” She crossed her arms. “Now, tell me what happened to you, mister.”
“No fucking way!” Maddox exclaimed, his laugh booming across the space as he doubled over.
“I think Ace is already regaling everyone with our tale,” Dante said with a chuckle, and took her hand, leading her over to the others clustered near Tate and Henry.
Ace wiped pretend tears from his eyes. “Yes, way!” he said, shaking his head. “He was such a fucking dick, and then he tried to sell me out, so we left his ass.”
“That’s amazing!” Maddox guffawed, and slapped Francis on the back as the large man walked by, carrying a bucket of soil from outside. “Did you hear that? They left Brandt in the middle of a zombie-infested town!”
“That’s not even the best part,” Dante cut in with a smirk.
Ace grinned. “He caught up to us later, all zombified.”
“No!” Maddox declared, raising his hands. “Tell me you shot that fucker in the face!”
At Ace’s nod, the other redneck whooped, doing a little jig. Lily rolled her eyes, glancing over at Abigail and her daughters, who were off to the side, thankfully occupied.
“What were you doing back at the prison, anyway?” Tate piped up, turning towards them with bright red eyes.
Ace shook his head. “We needed wheels, and this guy thought it would be a bright idea to snag a cop car,” he said, jerking a thumb at Dante. “Which we weren’t even able to get, anyway. We also needed some gear to fight the QXR, but of course the supply room had a keypad with a number code.”
“Ugh, of course,” Maddox moaned.
“Also thanks for tossing the keys to his cell in the toilet, asshole,” Ace added, staring at Maddox with disdain. “I lost rock paper scissors and had to fish ‘em out.”
“Ew!” Tate cried, wrinkling his nose.
“Thankfully there was no shit in there,” Ace said, but still glared at Maddox.
“Y’all are disgusting,” Lily quipped, shaking her head. “Anyway, did you take out all of those QXR guys, or are we going to have problems?”
Dante shrugged. “By our count, we’re pretty sure we got them all,” he said. “And we slashed all of their tires, so even if there are any left, they won’t be going anywhere by car. But we left a lot of hungry zombies downtown, so it doesn’t look good for any survivors.”
“What if somebody comes looking for their friends?” Henry asked, his words slow and sluggish. “I mean, won’t somebody come looking for them?”
Dante shrugged again. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he admitted. “They don’t seem like the type of guys to really care if they lose anyone. But they might come investigating to see if there’s resistance out here other than zombies.”
“Not out here though,” Tate said. “We’re out of the way, and this place doesn’t look like anything.”
Ace shook his head. “Probably best to set up a watch, anyway,” he suggested. “Just to be on the safe side.”
“You two get to sleep tonight,” Lily said firmly. “After the exciting day you’ve had.”
Her cousin stretched his arms above his head, cracking his back and shoulders. “And you are right about that, cousin dear,” he drawled. “I could use some eats and a nap.”
Bailey jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “We’ve got some stew going in the kitchen,” she said. “Come on.”
Lily hooked her arm through Dante’s, and they followed the young woman down the hallway to the cafeteria.
“You guys got set up nice in here,” he said, noting some of the classrooms cleared out with some sleeping bags and amenities set up. “For having to leave so fast.”
“Well, we weren’t sure how long we were going to have to stay, and we wanted to make sure it was comfortable for the little ones,” Lily said. “It’s pretty good what we managed to find in here, even with the building so old. I was amazed there was power, at least for the time being. Grabbing some camp stoves or something would be a good idea for the long term.”
Dante nodded. “A generator would be ideal,” he said, “but I don’t know if it would be a good idea to make that much noise. We don’t want to attract a whole pile of those things.”
“Speaking of, we’re going to have to talk about defense,” Ace piped up. “It’s all well and good to have doors that close, but if a bunch of zombies end up surrounding the building, that’s just a pain in the ass.”
Lily nodded. “Yes,” she agreed, “but first, we eat.”
Bailey grabbed the pot from the kitchen and tipped it, pouring the thick stew into some disposable paper bowls. “There’s no washable stuff in here,” she said. “I found a couple of mugs, but we figured we might as well use these up first.”
Dante smiled at her as he took his bowl and grabbed a few plastic spoons from the condiments table. They were in plastic packaging, so thankfully not as covered in dust as the rest of the stuff kicking around the area. The quartet sat down at one of the picnic table style benches, and Dante tossed Ace a spoon.
They dug into their stew like animals, and the girls shared
