36. Taryn #2
Gray threaded his hair, and he braced a rifle against his shoulder. His eyes were identical to mine.
My knife slipped from my finger, and the world around me disappeared. “Dad?”
Ben looked at me with relief, then his eyes quickly darted past me. “Taryn!”
I spun around, and in that instant, a rotter lunged. With a deafening shot from Ben, the creature's head detonated, showering my men, who had converged on it, with a gruesome mix of blood and brains.
“Thanks, Dad.” Beck was smiling like a lunatic.
“Don’t fucking call me that, boy.” He lowered his rifle slightly. “Pick up your weapon, Taryn.”
A laugh tore out of me as I grabbed my knife.
“Now let’s finish these fucks.” Ben nodded at me in approval.
His people surged through the fence. Men and women, holding rifles and bows. Much more disciplined than the trash Caesar had working for him.
They hit what remained of the compound from behind, and the balance of the fight shifted immediately in our favor. Rotters dropped, and Caesar’s men fell. Those who tried to run found armed strangers waiting beyond the fence.
Adrian subdued an enhanced man while Lucas forced another to his knees and slit his throat. Beck appeared from the smoke, bloodied and still smiling as if violence were his preferred language.
Colson loomed over Gideon, or what remained of him, with Wren beside him, both soaked in blood.
“Oh my god… is that Dad?” Wren kept her gaze on Ben, adoration in her eyes.
Under any other circumstances, I would’ve laughed.
Slowly, the noise thinned. The last rotter near the collapsed fence fell beneath someone’s axe. All that remained was the sound of heavy breathing and distant crying.
I looked toward the warehouse where the women were and saw the door ajar. A woman’s face appeared, then another. They didn’t come out, and I understood. They had no way to know whether these new men were any better than the old.
Beck reached me first. His hands went to my face, checking the bruises even though the fighting had barely stopped. “You good?”
“Yeah.” I pulled my arm back and punched him in the stomach.
His breath huffed out as he bent over. “What in the hell was that for?”
Lucas came up beside him, limping but upright, and Adrian wasn’t far behind.
Adrian smirked, watching Beck struggle for air, “We didn’t have time to tell you.”
“You had a couple seconds to spare while Gideon was going on and on.” I narrowed my eyes.
Lucas took me into his arms. “Don’t be mad, Menace. We didn’t want to ruin Ben’s grand entrance.”
I wasn’t really mad. All three of my men were alive, and so was my dad.
My breath caught when I remembered who wasn’t. “I found Lila.”
Adrian glanced around. “Where is she?”
Wren walked up with Colson by her side. “We’ll have to show you.”
“Is she alive?” Beck asked, looking at me in concern.
I found myself distracted by Ben giving instructions to a few of his people. I still couldn’t look directly at him for long without my brain short-circuiting.
I’d deal with that later. For now, it had to be all about Lila.
“No.” I shook my head in response to Beck’s question.
Wren moved closer to Colson, and he wrapped her into his arms.
“She tried to escape, and Nash said she’d been bitten.” I choked back a sob as Adrian pulled me into his arms. “He put her in a pen with other women who’d already turned.”
“Why the fuck were they keeping them?” Lucas came to my side and laced his fingers with mine.
“To terrorize the women who were still alive,” I said into Adrian’s chest.
Silence.
“What do you want to do, baby?” he asked as he kissed the top of my head.
“Give my friend peace.” I felt a tear roll down my cheek, wetting his shirt.
“Then that’s what we’ll do.” Beck hugged me from behind, enclosing me in a circle of warmth and love.
Ben came with us when we explained where we were going, and I was glad. I didn’t want him out of my sight for the time being.
As we rounded the corner, Lucas stopped in his tracks. “Jesus.”
Several of the women enclosed in the pen were milling about, snapping at the air. Another was crouched near the back, chewing mindlessly on something I refused to identify.
Lila was nearest to us. Her once-beautiful hair now hung in filthy ropes around her shoulders, darkened with grease and dried blood. She wore an oversized gray sweatshirt, stained almost black across the front, and men’s jeans cinched awkwardly around her waist with a strip of cord.
Nothing about her looked like the girl who used to stand beside me at Ashford High under the Friday night lights.
Except her face.
Enough of it remained beneath the rot to see the shape of her nose, the small scar near her eyebrow from falling off a bike when she was twelve. And around one wrist, beneath layers of dirt, was the bracelet that matched the one hanging on my wrist.
My stomach twisted.
Lila.
My friend.
Beck’s hand settled against my back as Lila snapped her head toward us and charged.
Lila hit the fence hard enough to rattle the entire enclosure. She threw herself against the chain-link again, teeth snapping at empty air.
Lucas came to my other side, and I leaned into him.
“I remember watching you two walk down the hallway," he said with a sad sigh. "She always looked at you as if you knew all the world’s secrets.”
Ben stood a few feet behind us.
“I remember what a sweet little girl she was, always following you around.” His eyes filled with sorrow. “She always talked too much.”
A broken laugh escaped me. “You thought everyone talked too much.”
“I’ve got his back on this one.” Lucas bumped my hip. “I had her in class, and she never shut up.” His voice was full of affection.
“She cheated on the last test you gave.” I laughed quietly. “She was so proud of herself.”
My laugh turned into a sob before I could stop it, and Ben looked away… but not before I saw the slight sheen of tears in his eyes.
Beck rubbed his hand slowly up and down my back. “She noticed me watching you at a football game,” he said, smiling faintly. “She kept glancing at me like she was deciding whether I was going to murder you or kidnap you.”
“She had good instincts.” Adrian smiled slightly, walking up behind me and dropping a soft kiss on my head.
Lila slammed against the fence again. No recognition on her face whatsoever.
I really hoped that if we could find a place for Finley to experiment with our blood, he could find a way to kill this fucking virus.
Wren stood tucked beneath Colson’s arm, tears running silently down her cheeks. I imagined that the sane part of her recognized that this could’ve been the real Robin’s fate too.
Behind Lila, the other turned women moved restlessly, clawing at the fencing, desperate for the taste of flesh.
Women who had names—families. People who might still be alive and looking for them.
I saw Ben glance towards the other rotters moving inside the pen, then signal two of his people.
A man and a woman approached the enclosure, neither spoke a word. But one by one, they put the other women down through the fencing.
It was quick, clean, and merciful. The snarling and moaning faded until only Lila remained. Ben’s people stepped back without being told and disappeared into the darkness of the compound.
I stepped closer.