Chapter 27
Ready or Not
Allie
The next day’s journey was slower, since there were now so many people without bikes.
Allie didn’t mind so much—she enjoyed the Soto-Millers and their addition to the group.
Rachel still side-eyed them and didn’t join in the conversations, but everyone else seemed to be bonding, including Ripper.
Allie couldn’t help but smile over that and how he’d dedicated himself to Jen and Ginger’s comfort as Ginger traveled in Gray’s wagon.
However, Cam had kept himself apart from the others, and she felt his gaze on her more often than not.
Goddess, she wished they could get some time alone.
They had so much to process yet, emotionally, but the need for his physical touch, skin-to-skin contact, had become a literal ache.
The night before, they’d slept near each other—by the time she woke up, she’d rolled close enough that she could feel the heat of his body, and her libido had risen with a vengeance.
The temptation to climb on top of him had been intense.
Wild how she’d gone more than a year without sex without any problems before meeting Cameron Hale. Suddenly, after barely a week of no orgasms, she’d become a horny, frustrated mess.
Patience, Allie. There will be time. Eventually.
While Cam and Manny scouted ahead, she walked with Zachary—he was easy to talk to, and they found they had a lot in common as older siblings and avid readers. His light-blue eyes were lovely behind the lenses of his glasses, but they weren’t as deep and warm as Cam’s.
Ugh. I’ve got it bad, and things are so fucking weird right now.
When Key pulled her aside during a bathroom break, she went without question, and Key’s news was interesting.
“I dropped a few hints to Jen that we had ‘help,’ you know, along the way?”
Arrested, Allie stared at her. “Is this going where I think it’s going?”
“They’ve had dreams too,” Key said. “But it was Tony who had them.” She took a breath.
“That’s the real reason they came to Missouri.
Jen was afraid to tell us—for obvious reasons—but relieved as hell to hear we understood.
Tony was like me, not affected by the Z-terror.
I got the feeling he didn’t tell them much about his guide, but I wonder if Sekhmet was involved. ”
Allie shivered a little, remembering her stray thought about people being drawn to this region. “That would be how Tony Soto was able to take himself out before he became a danger to the others. He had more than just his own strength on his side.”
Key nodded. “Yup.” Key went on to theorize that their connection to Tony’s goddess had been severed, which had to have been one of the reasons they nearly died in that last week or so of traveling south.
They’d been close enough to the Plant to have made it there easily, but they’d lost their guide and gone past it.
“Sek doesn’t talk to me, not like Morrigan does to you.
But I knew something was up yesterday, and I knew it had to do with Rachel.
Jesus, maybe Sekhmet even manipulated Rachel to get her into the right place at the right time.
And then I knew we had to find her before something bad happened—I thought it was to save her, but maybe it was to save them. ”
Allie couldn’t resist. “Like, save them from scurvy and aimless wandering? Or from Rachel?”
“Ha. Ha.” Key rolled her eyes. “I hope you’re not picking up one of my oldest son’s least adorable traits. Anyway, we’re leaving that girl at the Plant. Way too gung-ho for my peace of mind. Thank God we haven’t had to clear any buildings with her.”
“Was that why you and Cam weren’t super happy when she joined our group? I meant to ask.”
Key sighed. “I’m not going to talk any real shit about the woman, because most of it’s just reputation. But... yeah. Let’s just say she’s living up to it. Hopefully she does better at the Plant.”
“Okay. So, should we have a bigger talk with the Soto-Millers?”
“I think so. I filled Jen in on the basics—you and me, Sek and Morrigan. The rest can wait until we get to the Plant.” She sighed and began moving, stretching her arms above her head and shaking them out.
“Much as I hate to, it’s time to have a serious talk with Malcolm.
But I’m guessing he knows that somehow, since he summoned us, suddenly playing the family card. ”
“Do you think something’s up with him or with...” Allie gestured to all of the everything.
“I don’t know.” Key paced like a prowling cat. If she had a tail, it would be twitching.
“If you don’t mind my asking... what’s up with you and Malcom?”
“Oh, a whole bunch of old shit that doesn’t matter. And some new shit that does.” She grimaced. “Malcolm was the genius of the family, and my parents adored him for it. I was never as smart as him or as good as him—but that’s the old shit.”
“Does the new shit have to do with Sekhmet?”
“Mal never believed me about the dreams. About Sekhmet. When we made it to this area and came to the Plant, I tried to explain it, and he laughed me out of the room. Said the end of the world hadn’t changed me a bit.”
She began pacing again. “Fucker. He says he didn’t have the big-D Dream when so many others did. I don’t know what that means about him or if he was just lying about it, but I do know my brother doesn’t believe in anything he can’t see with his own eyes.”
“Even after you’ve demonstrated time and again?”
“Demonstrated.” Key huffed out an exasperated breath.
“As if I could get Sekhmet to perform on command. I couldn’t ‘demonstrate,’ and he’s an empirical kind of guy.
He thinks it’s probably psychosis brought on by trauma.
I have to admit, I wondered myself until I realized I could heal people.
” Key paused again, and her eyes landed on Allie.
“Then we found you, and I knew it was real.”
Allie nodded. “Same. I had my own doubts until you. Less likely to be trauma if other people are experiencing it too.”
“And the Soto-Millers. Seems like the sample size has increased—and you have an active power we can actually demonstrate. I’ve.
.. always been afraid to tell Mal I could heal.
” She shook her head. “Maybe it’s paranoia, but I feel like he’d poke and prod me to death then try to convince me to try to heal a zombie or some shit. ”
Awash in horror, Allie stared at her. “Like, seriously?”
“Oh, probably not.” Key threw up her hands. “But who knows? I love him, but I don’t like him, and I sure as hell don’t know how much I can trust him. It feels like he’s become a ‘for the greater good’ kind of guy, so at least there’s that. Makes him a solid leader but a fairly shitty brother.”
Her mouth twisted. “I haven’t seen him in around four months—I mean, we’ve sent messages to report big happenings, and people have passed on news from the Plant.
We know shit’s gone down there, with Z attacks and such.
And we know they’ve found more settlements and allies farther afield, so he’s been busy with that and amassing all the resources he can find—people are part of that. The more, the better.”
“I guess he’s not wrong about that.”
“Yeah.” Key stopped moving. “One thing about having a big region of connected settlements is that we’ve managed to do our circuits and deliveries without returning to the Plant for some time.
” She laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound.
“That’s been driving Odie nuts, of course.
It reminds me of Before, when you’d wait too long to check in with family members and then so much time would go by that it felt weird to try to call? So you kept not calling?”
“That was me and my sister,” Allie said. “Dad and I would text a lot, but I had a hard time staying in touch with her.”
“Yeah.” Key sighed. “It’s harder to stay in touch in Z land anyway, but somehow I’m making it worse, just because.”
“But you’re going to see him soon. And it might not be a fun visit, but you’ll be able to get that awkwardness over with.”
Key nodded. “More importantly, though, I’ve got to make sure he knows what we know.
Mal’s looking for the ‘why’ of the Zs. He always says they’ll never find a cure or a vaccine if they don’t know what created the zombies.
” She shook her head. “We need to tell him what we know, pool our information—scant though it may be.”
“How do you think he’s going to react?” And is he going to want to poke and prod me?
“I don’t know.” Key’s face was grim. “But if we don’t start working together, we’ll never really be a community. Sekhmet made it pretty clear to me last night that we need to get the Soto-Millers to the Plant and that I need to talk to Mal.”
“So that’s what we’ll do.” Allie tried to sound reassuring and confident. “We’ll see what happens—and maybe figure out a plan for if we need to leave quickly?”
Key sighed. “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst,” she muttered, and they rejoined the others.
Allie didn’t know what she’d thought the Plant would be like, but she hadn’t expected to see a huge working farm and several gleaming glass-and-steel buildings in such proximity.
When combined with the various houses and barns within the compound, plus the people on horseback and the livestock she could see, it looked like a small town out of a Western—although the field of solar panels to the east was decidedly modern.
She also hadn’t expected to see people mowing the open areas beyond and around the fields and buildings, as well as outside and inside wide-ranging and interesting barriers interspersed with layers of true fences.
The barriers reminded Allie a little of breakwaters, only pointy and more complexly arranged—a more complicated version of the spears through the chain-link fence at the Armory.
The curling steel draped around the tops of the barriers, definitely more than head height, looked like razor wire.