Love and Decay, Episode 10 Read Free Page A

buried her face in his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck. I needed to help them. Not right now of course. I had to deal with Kane first. But Nelson and Haley deserved to spend some time together away from Zombies and little kids and…. anybody else.
    I caught Hendrix’s eyes and saw the fire lit behind his hooded gaze. He was thinking the same thing. We needed alone time too.
    I wasn’t exactly insecure about my feelings for Hendrix- I mean, he’d almost uttered the L word only a week ago.
    But I needed him. I needed him to reassure me. I needed him away from the responsibilities of his family, away from the military-slash-soldier version of his personality. I needed him with his arms wrapped around mine and his lips urging my reservations into oblivion. And even with my realistic outlook on a world in which only death prospered and decay thrived, I desperately needed to hear about love and promises of a beautiful future that would survive the choking tangles of disease and depression.
    “I’ll catch up with you in a bit, Hales,” I called over my shoulder and she lifted her head to acknowledge me.
    “Reagan, what we talked about, yeah?” she called out cryptically.
    “For life, babe,” I grinned at her.
    “Well….” she blushed a little and then cleared her throat. “Not for life.”
    I laughed and turned around, realizing I agreed with her.
    “What was that about?” Tyler asked when we started climbing the staircase to Gage’s office. It was on the second floor of the four floor complex and actually an office. The staircase, just like the rest of the building was lit with candles spaced evenly apart that hung from makeshift lanterns. Gage had outfitted this place to surprising functionality and despite needing to be careful you didn’t run right into one of the low hanging lights, made this upgraded-garage rather comfortable.
    I heard rumors that there were solar-paneled generators that they sometimes used for electricity too, but so far I’d never seen anyone use them.
    “Haley and I sharing a room,” I replied in a low voice. “You’re welcome to join us.”
    “Oh,” she paused midstride and then caught back up to me although we started to lag behind the boys. “You’re not moving in with Hendrix?” she whispered and our echoing footsteps hopefully covered the question from Vaughan’s super-hearing and Hendrix’s curious ears.
    I shook my head, “Not yet.”
    “Huh,” she grunted resignedly.
    “Ty, we’ve known them for like three months.”
    “Yeah, but that’s like….” she paused to calculate in her head, “that’s like a decade in Zombie Apocalypse years.”
    I snorted a laugh. “Not quite.”
    “Hey, you’re both still alive, you can’t keep your horny hands to yourselves, and you still have all your body parts. If this isn’t true love, I don’t know what is.”
    I just shook my head at her. “I’ll start having that conversation with you when you tell me what’s up with you and…”
    “There is nothing going on with Vaughan!” she hissed.
    I pressed my lips into a straight line to keep from smiling. I was not at all expecting that from her. And even though I found it mildly amusing, I didn’t really know what to make of her non-feelings for Vaughan.
    I cleared my throat and tried again, “I was going to say Gage.”
    “Oh.” Even in the dim light I could see her face flame with embarrassment. “What do you mean?”
    “I don’t know,” I shrugged. “He kind of…. he just seems interested in you, that’s all.”
    “No, he’s not,” she answered immediately. “He just, he knows me. That’s all. We grew up together. He knows what a psychopath my father is. He’s probably just making sure I’m Ok.”
    “He can see that you’re alright,” I pointed out. “And he can see that you’re not with your father anymore. There’s something else to it.”
    “He hated Logan,” she confessed in a rush of words since Gage’s office was just down