Chapter Seven
D ane sputters. Blake’s expression contorts in fury and when I look at Rae and Otto, even they seem uncertain. Neither of them knows what I do, nor saw him last night. I’m sure of it.
From the way Nia is letting this play out, I don’t want to ask her now. Mason clearly has some standing here, and we are outnumbered. No one except for Emma and Callum are openly carrying weapons, but that doesn’t mean anything.
“The Citadel sent us,” I say. I feel bone-tired all of a sudden, though something zips down my spine when Mason turns his attention to me again. “We’re supposed to clear the place. Make it fit to be inhabited again.”
Callum sneers. Emma crosses her arms over her chest, unimpressed, and some of the others in the small crowd grumble.
“We live here,” Nia says.
Yeah, no shit. Mason takes a step closer to me, eyes reflecting some unnatural curiosity, and I keep my feet rooted to the flagstones to ensure I’ll stay where I am.
“It looks as though we have no need of your services,” Mason says, voice pitched as though he only wants me to hear.
“The train won’t come for a week,” Nia says, and she’s frowning at Mason now as though she blames him for this, somehow. “We’ll keep them here until then.”
Dane doesn’t explode, but I can see the loose grip he’s keeping on his temper. “ Keep us here?”
“For your protection as much as ours,” Nia replies with a shrug. “We’ll all be staying in the church until the zombies have calmed again.”
I exchange a glance with Otto. His brow is furrowed, and when he mouths calmed , I shake my head.
Nothing about this place is usual, least of all the way the survivors are dealing with it.
That was one of the biggest hordes I’ve ever seen.
And I’ve never seen one up and stumble away at sunrise, even if they prefer the dark.
Why aren’t they out there killing them? Why haven’t the zombies torn them to pieces?
“Where?” Rae asks.
“Up here,” Nia says, and now there’s a warning in her dark eyes. “The church is safe enough. The zombies never pass through those gates.”
I jerk my head up. Mason still watches me, and he tilts his head in much the same way he did last night.
Why would the zombies not come up here? That doesn’t make any sense at all.
I am itching to ask, to blurt out my growing suspicions and demand answers, but the consequences of that will, I suspect, be unpleasant. Mason seems to know it, too. His smile turns secretive, and when I turn my head away, I see Dane’s scowl.
“Let’s get you situated.” Nia scowls around, and eventually the others in the church disperse, most wandering outside.
She leads us up towards the altar. In the vestibule, the door is partially open, light spilling out. The entryway is narrow, a set of stairs descending beneath the church. They were all down there, then.
Mason has followed. He sees where I’m looking. “You’re getting it.”
I scowl. I don’t like that he can read me—or that he believes he can. He doesn’t know me.
“This should do,” Nia says. There’s space before the altar, pews pushed back and away. Nia gestures, and Emma and Callum pull one upright, then shove it back into place.
Dane pulls himself up to his full height, obviously trying to appear intimidating. Nia doesn’t bat an eyelid.
“There’s a hole in the fucking roof,” he says. “Not to mention that we’re, what, supposed to take your word for it that those zombies won’t just waltz right in here—”
“They won’t,” Mason says.
Dane’s face goes purple with rage. I step back, watching him with no small amount of interest. Rae seems just as happy to let this play out as I am, though she makes sure she’s standing between Dane and Autumn.
In fact, only Blake seems willing to step in, though he seems warier of Mason than Dane does.
“They won’t? They won’t ? What the fuck does that even mean? Have you ever dealt with a horde? They realise we’re up here—and believe me, they’ll fucking smell us if nothing else—then they’ll spend all night fighting to get inside.”
Mason’s expression doesn’t change, but something in his eyes does. Anger, I think. “Maybe we’ll offer you up first, then.”
“Mason,” Nia says, weary.
Dane starts forward, and at least Blake seems to have enough sense to pull him back. “Fuck this,” Dane growls. “We don’t need this. We’ll do just fine on our own.”
He looks at the rest of us, but no one moves to back him up.
Why would we? We all know the truth, even Autumn.
If those zombies come back tonight, it’ll be another sleepless one, whether we’re in the church or outside of it.
We’d be fools not to listen to the survivors here.
We can only hope, if they turn out to be wrong about the zombies, that they’ll let us through that door to hide with them.
“The zombies will not step on these grounds,” Nia says. “You have my word.”
Dane growls something, but he knows he’s lost. He shrugs out of Blake’s grip and stalks outside. Blake lingers only a second longer to glare at us all before he follows.
“We’ll sleep out here?” I ask. When Nia looks at me, I flick my gaze to the door.
“Yes. Not safe to have strangers sleeping among us. I’m sure you understand.”
“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Of course she’s hiding things. None of us trusts each other. But I want to trust that the church will be safe.
I nod to Rae, and she directs Otto and Autumn to begin organising their things.
There’s still some debris here, though Callum seems to have taken it upon himself to start cleaning up, too.
It’s easier for us to lay out our sleeping bags now, as well as to check we didn’t lose anything in all the excitement last night.
“I need to see where the zombies went,” I say, and Nia sighs.
“Isaac,” she says, “you seem like you really want to help. But things aren’t like you’re used to here. Our zombies are…” She searches for words and comes up empty.
“Different,” Mason says. “Like the rest of us.”
Emma startles, and Nia turns on him with a glare. Mason’s smile is beatific in response.
“You don’t need to worry about them,” Nia bites out. “Relax. I’m sure you don’t get much of that in the Citadel?”
She’s not wrong, but she doesn’t know what it will mean to fail a job, either.
Not like we’d get away with it if we lied; the Citadel would find out as soon as they sent survivors to repopulate.
A headache brews behind my eyes, and I remember I haven’t slept, that maybe this jittery energy I feel around Mason is just down to exhaustion and the aftermath of fear.
“I just—”
“You could always come with me.”
I snap my head around to stare at Mason. His smile never falters. Nia sputters, clearly against the idea.
“It’d be good to have a helping hand,” he says. “Since I’m the one investigating .”
“Emma or Callum or anyone else could—”
“I want him to help me,” Mason says, and I swallow. “I want Isaac to help me.”
My breath catches at the way he says my name. Like it’s sacred, I think, then shake the silly thought away.
This is what I want, isn’t it? I want to talk to Mason, to see what he’s truly hiding, and it’s not ideal to go off alone with him, but it might be the only chance I get.
“Mason, I need to talk to you,” Nia says. She doesn’t touch him, but I can see she wants to grab his arm and drag him away.
Mason smiles at me. “Sort your things. I’ll come get you when I’m ready to go.”
He appears to have every intention of taking me with him. Why? Does he want to kill me? I don’t see why he would.
I’m not that easy to kill.
I join Rae and the others and lay out my sleeping bag next to Otto’s. He has to be as tired as I am because he’s watching the conversation between Nia and Mason play out with half-lidded eyes.
“Good idea or bad idea?” he says through a yawn.
“Fucking terrible one,” Rae mutters. She shoots Autumn a glare as though warning her to behave better.
I bristle. “We need answers, don’t we? We can’t return to the Citadel with nothing to show for it.”
Even Autumn doesn’t question that. There’s no lying when we return. Survival depends on our ability to clear a place and then others’ ability to reclaim it. If we leave even one zombie there, it risks an entire community.
It’s why we’re punished for failure. It’s why we’re rewarded for success.
“Don’t turn your back on him,” Rae mutters as I smooth out my sleeping bag, sorely fighting the urge to simply lie down and take a nap.
A shadow falls over me and Dane’s voice is quietly controlled when he asks, “Don’t turn your back on who?”
I freeze for a second, then push to my feet, whirling around to face him. “Mason.” I could lie, but what would be the point? He’ll see me leave and be pissed off about it anyway.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t think that’s a good idea,” Dane says. Blake is already grabbing both their sleeping bags and setting them up in the space Rae left for them. “Shouldn’t matter, though. I imagine we won’t see much of him.”
“I’m going with him to find out about these zombies.”
From the tone of the voices in the corner, I think Mason is wearing Nia down. That or she simply can’t stop him. I glance over as he pats her shoulder. She goes entirely still and only relaxes when he withdraws his hand.
“You’re not,” Dane retorts.
“It’s not up to you.”
“You’re on my team. It is up to me.”
I clench my jaw. “What’s your plan, then? We need to find out more about these zombies. We can’t go back with nothing.”
“If someone has to go with him, then I will,” Dane replies, and I like that even less than the idea of staying cooped up here all day. “I’ll get the information we need, and I’ll decide what we do with it.”
“That’s not how this works.”
“It is now!” Dane’s shout echoes up to the rafters, and Autumn flinches and moves back. Even Blake has his mouth open in surprise, but I don’t move a muscle.
Fuck him. He’s not my friend or my lover and he is fucking certainly not my boss. I can’t trust him enough for that. It’s obvious that him going with Mason would be the worst idea, since Mason clearly annoys him, and yet—
“Ready to go?” Mason asks, suddenly beside me. I’m certain his calm tone could be infuriating under other circumstances, but right now it’s a soothing balm in the face of Dane’s burning anger. “We’ve still got a few hours of light, and I think I caught their trail.”
“I’m coming with you,” Dane says before I can answer.
“You are not,” Mason replies. His tone is cool, eyes flinty.
Dane glares at him.
“I don’t want you. I want Isaac.”
Those three words are weighted. I’m not the only one to notice. Blake’s face colours with anger.
Dane goes still. “That’s not how this works.” He’s trying to control himself. I can see it.
Rae steps subtly in front of Autumn, and Otto is on his knees on his sleeping bag now, ready to leap aside should a fight erupt.
Mason’s not as tall or as broad as Dane, and though he’s wearing a long, black coat with a jumper beneath, I don’t think the outfit is hiding so much muscle. But there’s a glitter to his eyes as he takes Dane in, and I find my heart is racing again.
“It’s how it works here,” Mason says slowly, each syllable clearly spoken. “I want Isaac or none of you at all.”
Dane exhales noisily through his nose. I’m not really trying to piss him off. This is the best way to find out what’s different about the zombies here, and if Mason is involved, I’m sure I can get to the bottom of that, too.
But Dane doesn’t trust me, does he? He wants to fuck me, maybe even wants to keep me, because I know some of this display is about that, but he doesn’t trust me to do anything alone.
“You have your things?” Mason asks me, his tone friendly again. He seems to have decided to pretend Dane doesn’t exist and, all in all, it’s not the worst strategy.
“Yeah,” I say. “We’ll be back…?”
“Just before sunset. If they’re restless again tonight, they’ll be out after that.” Mason gives me another smile, then turns it on the rest of the team. “I promise I’ll bring him back in one piece.”
I exchange glances with Rae and Otto. No point in them coming looking for me if I don’t get back. No, that will be a clear sign to get out of here and work out where to hide until the train returns. Otto takes the sentiment with a discontented expression, but sleep might mellow his mood.
Dane swears and paces as I follow Mason out of the church. His anger makes my skin prickle. Mason glances back at me when we’re in the graveyard, halfway down the path.
“It will be fine,” he says, and despite my misgivings, a small part of me instantly believes him. “Let’s go.”