To Hell And Back (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 2)

OUT NOW!

The man she once hated, has been absent for over a month. Left responsible to run the hotel with Bethany and Gordon while the zombies still rule the Earth, the missing Lucian isn't her only problem. Her health begins declining for reasons unknown to anyone and her sleep is filled with nightmares of Lucian being locked up and tortured. Determined to get to him she leaves the hotel alone with only one plan. Save Lucian. Taylor Mckenzie must walk into the very depths of hell to get to him, but no one just walks straight into Lucifer's domain and back out without their being consequences.
New allies will join them, the worst enemy you can imagine will try to claim her and someone she loves will be used to send her straight into a trap. No one ever said an apocalypse would be easy to live in, but the things Taylor must face takes difficult to a whole different level. 

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Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Back-Zombie-Apocalypse-Series-ebook/dp/B00H9IP5DI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386984278&sr=8-2&keywords=cm+chidgey

 

Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hell-Back-Zombie-Apocalypse-Book-ebook/dp/B00H9IP5DI/ref=la_B00CPN7VBG_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386984206&sr=1-5

 

Smashwords.com: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/387857

 

Barnes & Noble

Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1) is now available as a nook book on Barnes & Noble!

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/demon-hotel-cm-chidgey/1115951860?ean=2940044621039

One Of The Enemy (Hidden Descendant Series, Book 1) is now available as a nook book on Barnes & Noble!

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1115951877?ean=2940044621183

Book Covers

 

 

 

 

The first cover is for the second book in the Rakshasa Series and the second one is for another series I am going to start at some point when I have more details as to everything that happens in it. Neither of these books will be out quite yet, but I felt like making covers and came up with these, so here they are. Hope you like them.

To Hell And Back (Zombie Apocalypse, Book 2)

Second book in this series is coming soon, here is the trailer.

Out Now!

 

 

What happens when the world is no longer what it once was? Zombies now walk the earth and with it comes more dangers than just the risk of a bite from one of these undead creatures. After an attack at a camp that Taylor believed to be safe from the walking dead she is left alone with Eric until he goes missing. It isn't long before it's apparent to her that being a girl alone is a bad thing for a lot of reasons even after teaching herself to fight. A big mistake gets her into a bad predicament and to her surprise she is saved by someone she hates.
Being in an apocalypse doesn't seem to be making anything easy though. Someone she thinks is a friend turns out to be her worst opponent. Arguments with her childhood enemy no longer end with hate, but turn into passion. She thought she knew everything about him, but he tells her a secret that he is forbidden to reveal and her life almost comes to an end more times than she cares to count.

 

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Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse, Book 1) - Excerpt

Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse, Book 1) - Excerpt, full book coming soon.

Unedited version, may change slightly when released.

Prologue

 

12 years ago.

I am six years old and my name is Taylor Mckenzie, it is not Tinkerbell like my stupid neighbour, Lucian Adams keeps calling me. Ever since he moved next door four years ago he keeps annoying me. Just because he is eight he thinks he can get away with anything and because he is older parents believe him over me.

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him playing catch with his friend, Gordon. I wanted to just go over there and kick him, he had messed up my game with my dog. He had pushed over the trash can so everything went rolling away and then blamed it on Patch! Patch hadn’t done anything though, I had seen Lucian do it, but now Patch was locked in his cage for being bad and I was not happy!

Boys were definitely the worst, my sister, Trisha was always screaming at Mummy for not letting her out with boys. She was seventeen years old and she was crazy if she wanted to spend time with boys.

Mummy and Daddy kept telling me to come out and play with Lucian, but I didn’t want to and now he had made sure I would be bored out here. He was so mean, but next week we would all be going to Australia. Why did they think it would be fun to invite him and his Mummy to Australia? He would spend the whole time annoying me, I liked his Mummy though, she was nice, I don’t know how he got so mean.

I’d rather his Mummy came and we took Patch instead of him, Daddy had told me that Patch wasn’t allowed to come though, some people were going to look after him for us because he was afraid of airplanes. I didn’t know why he was scared though, Daddy said that it would be like flying and that sounded really fun until Lucian said that I was used to flying anyway because Tinkerbell flew all the time.

Maybe they would just move somewhere else soon and I wouldn’t have to see him anymore.

 

8 years ago.

“Hey Tink, watch out for the spiders.” Lucian called before running into his room.

Yes, despite all my hopes that they would move, they still lived next door and the Australia trip had become a yearly thing since I was six. This was the fifth one, we always came to Queensland and Lucian always tried to scare me with the spiders, but the truth was that they didn’t really bother me. I didn’t like spiders, but it’s not like the idea of them being in the room kept me up as long as they kept to themselves I didn’t care. He probably knew that by now, but he never passed up a chance to say something annoying. Our fights and arguments with each other had only developed more the older we got, we had mud fights, food fights, snowball fights, water fights, you name it and we had probably done it. Most people in our neighbourhood avoided us nowadays so that they didn’t get caught in the crossfire and my parents and his Mum had learnt by now to let it run its course instead of trying to stop us. We argued about almost anything and when a girl from school got caught in our argument she burst into tears and I realised then how strange it was that no matter what happened I never resorted to tears and in typical Lucian style he had no problem telling me how weird I was.

We were now getting ready to go on one of Dad’s long walks he had planned out, I never looked forward to them, they were long and tiring and he barely let us have any breaks. Last year I had come back with so many blisters on my feet that I thought they would fall off much to Lucian’s amusement who of course didn’t have a single one. Since Trisha hadn’t been with us I had been the only one complaining and I had a feeling since she was absent this year too it was going to be a repeat experience.

We all met at the front door where Dad was filling up a rucksack with bottles of water, a map, a book of Australian wildlife, some snacks and a torch. I really hoped we wouldn’t need the torch, the idea of being out there in the dark seemed even less fun than walking out there in the day.

“You walk up here with me Luc and you walk back there with Mum Taylor, I don’t want to be held up by a fight between you two so keep your distance.”

I saw the grin on Lucian’s face before he turned to follow Dad leaving me with just the back of his black hair covered head to see before his Mum followed and then I followed with my Mum next to me.  

As I had thought we hadn’t even been walking for that long when my feet began to hurt, my Mum was holding my hand and almost dragging me along so that I wouldn’t fall behind. I kept up with her help, my feet had been worse than this before so I kept going.

The Australian heat beating down on us through the trees didn’t help at all, we were all breathing heavily and I was sure we must be coming to a stop soon, but Dad just kept walking and looking at his map. I was sure that a ten year old shouldn’t be sweating this much and I was so thirsty, but I knew if I asked for water now I probably wouldn’t have enough for later so I kept quiet and forced myself to keep walking.

I was glad when Dad’s steps became slower as he started matching wildlife to the pictures in his book so that he could find out about them. It proved how tired I was when I didn’t mind stopping so close to spiders for my Dad to compare them to his book.

When he sped up again though I groaned and started dragging my feet before whining out. “Mum, my feet really hurt.”

“Mine too sweetie, but we have to keep up with the others.”

I nodded and took abut ten more steps before I couldn’t take it anymore and tugged on her hand when we stood in a clearing. “Mum, please can we sit down for just a few minutes?”

“Joseph, we need to take a break!” She called to them and they were the best words I had heard all day.

I let out a breath of relief before letting go of her hand and sitting down on a close by log.

“Surely we should have stopped for a break before this?” Lucian’s Mum asked as they walked back towards us.

“I was trying to get us to this spot on the map, but I can’t seem to find it.” My Dad answered.

“You mean we’re lost?” Mum asked in outrage.

“No, no Nikki, I’m just not sure where that spot is.”

“Which means we are lost!” She said raising her voice.

I groaned, great we might be lost in trees full of spiders. This was the sort of thing that Lucian would do to me.

“Dad, can I have some water please?” I interrupted their argument.

He took his rucksack off and pulled water out without even stopping the shouting back and forth. I took the water without even bothering to thank him knowing that there wouldn’t be much point and took a mouthful, it felt amazing sliding down my parched throat.

“Aww, is the walking too much for Tinkerbell?” Lucian asked with a smirk taking his time to drink some of his water.

I glared at him not bothering with any words knowing that I didn’t have the energy to waste after all this walking. After taking another mouthful of water I did it back up and waited to find out what my parents were going to do. My Dad was now looking at the map and Mum came and sat next to me while Lucian’s Mum savoured her water.

“No spiders around here are there?” Mum asked me looking around us suspiciously.

She was even more frightened of spiders than I was and clearly the idea of spiders in the trees was really bothering her. “I hope not.” I answered.

Suddenly a few birds flew out of close by trees and I jumped letting out a little squeak and dropping my bottle of water having sudden images of spiders jumping out of trees at us.

Lucian started laughing at me and I glared at him again before leaning down to pick up my bottle from behind the log. Since I was still glaring at him I never looked down before picking it up and that was the biggest mistake I had ever made.

I felt it before I looked at it, there was a sudden intense pain in my wrist making me drop my water bottle, cry out in pain and look at my wrist to find a spider biting me. It pulled its teeth out and I could actually see it rear back to bite me again when I jumped to my feet and started screaming my head off. My sore feet were forgotten, the heat from the sun seemed like nothing, all that existed was the searing pain in my wrist as I shook it trying to get it off.

My Mum being the closest one to me grabbed at it suddenly making it direct its attack at her after landing on her hand. She must really love me if she was willing to get a spider off of me when I knew how frightened she was of them. I didn’t stop screaming even though it was off of me because it started biting my Mum stabbing its fangs into her arm repeatedly. My Mum was screeching for Dad to kill it, everything seemed to move so slow and it seemed like it took forever for my Dad to get there, but I was certain he had started moving towards us the moment I had started screaming. I was so happy for Dad’s wildlife book at that moment when he used it to hit the spider off of Mum’s arm before stamping on it killing it outright.

We were both crying and my Mum shouted in between tears. “That’s it, we are never coming on one of these stupid walks again!”

“I know, I’m sorry love.” Dad said taking my Mum into his arms.

My whole body was shaking and my legs felt weak, but I refused to sit on that log again. I looked down at my wrist to see the two little holes there still bleeding.

“You ok?” Lucian asked from next to me.

I jumped and wiped my eyes before looking away from him. I really didn’t need him to use this later for something to laugh at me about.

“I’m f-fine.” I stuttered.

I wiped my eyes again refusing to cry anymore, but tears didn’t seem to stop coming. I wasn’t really crying anymore so it didn’t make sense that my eyes were still blurring.

“Are you ok sweetie?” My Dad asked me pulling me in for a hug now that Mum seemed slightly less hysterical.

I nodded against his t-shirt and gasped out. “I’m fine Dad.”

Now I was panting, that was weird. Apparently my Dad thought so too because he pulled back and looked at me as if he’d never seen me before. I blinked several times when he blurred into two people and I stumbled.

“Dad, I don’t feel good.” I admitted in between breaths.

“Taylor, what’s wrong?” Mum asked me and I thought I could detect a slight breathlessness in her voice.

“What kind of spider was that?” Lucian’s Mum suddenly demanded grabbing the wildlife book.

“I don’t know.” Dad answered as she started flicking through the book glancing at the dead spider on the floor after every few pages.

Suddenly she stood up and grabbed Dad’s map. “We need to get them to the hospital now.”

I took one step before my legs gave way and Dad scooped me up and followed her into the trees.

“What is it Stephanie?” Mum asked stumbling against Dad.

“Funnel-Web spider, we need to get them the antidote now.” She stopped. “Give me Taylor, you better carry Nikki.” She said to my Dad.

He handed me over quickly before scooping my Mum up and they started marching through the trees. Lucian of course kept up without a problem and was completely silent.

“How long does it take to spread?” Dad asked between breaths, but I knew that was from walking so fast with the extra weight of my Mum too.

“Anywhere from fifteen minutes to three days. It depends on a number of things, I hope we are going the right way.”

“We are, I can find the way back.”

From that point on everything seemed far away at one second and too close at another, things blurred and I couldn’t seem to make out anything. I could have sworn I heard Lucian trying to talk to me at some points, but I didn’t know if that was just my imagination or not. I heard the voices of my Dad and Lucian’s Mum, but they always sounded panicked and I couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying.

Then there were voices that I didn’t even recognize and I thought I heard my Dad crying, but that must have been wrong because my Dad never cried. I knew I wasn’t in Lucian’s Mum’s arms anymore, but I couldn’t identify where I was either and it didn’t seem to matter I was just so tired. I wasn’t even sure why I had forced myself to stay awake for so long, but I couldn’t find the energy anymore so I let sleep pull me under hoping my Mum would be there to hug me when I woke up.

 

The spider was on me again, only it was bigger and it wouldn’t let go no matter how much I shook my arm it clung on biting me repeatedly. I screamed and screamed until my throat was raw, but it was still there. My wrist was hurting so much where it was biting me and I just wanted my Mum there to save me and tell me it was all ok, but she never came and it never stopped biting me until my screams woke me up.

“Sweetie, wake up, you’re safe.”

It was my Dad’s voice and my eyes snapped open to find him sitting there next to me in a chair. A sob escaped my throat and I climbed out of what I now noticed was a hospital bed before crawling into his lap and crying against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and soothed me until I had finally calmed down.

It wasn’t until I lifted my head up to look at him that I noticed the red circles around his eyes as if he had been crying too. I looked around the room to find Lucian and his Mum sitting in here too, but where was my Mum? Lucian’s Mum still had tears running down her cheeks and Lucian for once didn’t look amused as if he was about to make fun of me.

“Daddy, where’s Mummy?” I asked calling them by the name’s that I had replaced with Mum and Dad a while ago.

“Sweetie…-“ Dad started before taking a deep breath seeming unable to finish a sentence.

“Dad, I don’t understand, you don’t cry.” I said wiping a tear off of his cheek when it fell.

“Your Mother is gone sweetie.” He whispered before more tears fell.

“No.” I shook my head. “Where is she gone Dad, what do you mean?”

When he refused to answer me I started screaming at him and hitting his chest. He had to tell me where she was, she couldn’t be gone. What did that mean anyway, where did she go, what was he even talking about?

I didn’t stop until Lucian’s Mum pulled me from his lap saying.

“She died Taylor.”

The words hit me like a slap to the face before I fell on my knees and cried and screamed for my Mum hoping it was all some mistake and she would come in the room at any minute and hold me, but she didn’t. Lucian’s Mum and my Dad were the only ones there to comfort me while Lucian watched from his chair with a look on his face that I couldn’t even identify.

 

4 years ago.

I sighed and slammed my locker shut before leaning against it, I was having such a bad day. First, I had, had a bad night of sleep so I was exhausted when I woke up, then I forgot that we were having a pop quiz in English so I had got a one out of ten mark, then I had been kicked out of Math for falling asleep at the desk and I had just been disqualified from a test when I asked for a new pen because mine ran out. I swear the stupid teachers were ganging up on me to make my school experience hell.

I groaned when I saw Lucian turn the corner into the hallway, great that was all I needed. We still annoyed the hell out of each other, the only time he had stopped was for around a month when we had returned from that life changing trip in Australia. Then suddenly without any warning we were arguing and fighting full force again. It had taken me a while to understand that my Mum was killed and I survived, but the doctor had explained that the spider had injected a lot more venom into her so it had killed her quicker and apparently I was almost dead when we arrived. Understandably I was now absolutely terrified of spiders and I still had nightmares about that day. Trisha had moved away, we never heard from her anymore and my Dad was raising me the best that he could, but I wasn’t immune to the sadness that enveloped me every time I entered the room he was in.

“Hey, Tinkerbell!”

I just closed my eyes and didn’t acknowledge him just hoping he would go away, but of course that didn’t happen. When I knew he was standing in front of me I sighed and opened my eyes. He had one hand pressed against the lockers above my head and was leaning down all in my personal space with a smirk on his face. Just because he was annoying as hell though it didn’t make me oblivious to how attractive he was. He still had the same messy black hair and eyes so dark that they were almost black just the same as when he had first arrived in the house next door. What was different though were the muscles he was developing in his chest and shoulders. Every girl I knew wanted to kiss the guy, but that was because they didn’t have to deal with him all the time.

“Thanks for the paint splattered on the inside of my locker. I got detention for that you know.”

I smirked at him. “Thanks for the glitter you poured inside mine Adams. Was real fun trying to get all of the glitter out of my books. Did you want something?”

“Careful Tink, I might think you’re glad to see me.”

“I’m not in the mood today Adams, save it for tomorrow.” I said trying to slide along the lockers so I could get away from him.

He pressed his hand against the lockers close to my hip blocking me in. “Not so fast Blondie, your Dad needs me to give you a ride home later. Meet me out front after school.”

“Fine.” I muttered dreading the journey already. He had only just received his licence and he was a pretty crazy driver, the first time I had been in the car with him was the only time that I questioned if I had travel sickness or not, but it was just his driving.

“Don’t be late.” He said pushing away from the locker and wrapping his arm around the waist of a girl who I hadn’t noticed until now. “I don’t want to explain to your Father why you are walking home.”

“I’ll be there.” I muttered reluctantly.

The minute he turned his back and headed down the hallway with the girl I leaned my head back against the locker and closed my eyes. My eyes snapped open when I heard girls scream and guys chuckle from the opposite end of the hallway that Lucian was walking. Looking in that direction I didn’t notice what the whole thing was about. The girls had stopped screaming and the guys were walking down the hallway still looking amused, I figured they had just frightened them or something so I shrugged it off leaning against the locker again.

“Oi Mckenzie, what’s up?” One of the guys asked me. I think his name was Robert, but I wasn’t really sure because I never really spoke to these guys and they never spoke to me.

Instead of answering I simply frowned at them in confusion until the guy who was maybe Robert moved out of the way revealing his friend holding a tarantula in his hand.

“You like my friends’ new pet?” He asked.

Now if I was any other girl, I probably would have simply screamed, they would have laughed and then moved on, but with the history I had that I was sure they were completely unaware of I reacted to it just as I had every other time I had seen a spider since Australia. Taking a step away from them I glanced down at the inside of my wrist where the scars from the spiders’ fangs still remained on my skin.

Immediately images of that day flashed through my mind and my breathing became erratic. My vision blurred and everything seemed to be fading, I would have fallen backwards, but arms caught me and held me upright.

“Shh, it’s ok it won’t hurt you, just breathe.” Someone whispered in my ear.

I nodded and attempted to do just that, but the memories were so clear in my head that it was like I was there all over again. A whimper escaped my mouth and I started shaking.

“It’s not real, you need to breathe.”

The whispers sounded urgent and I tried harder to push the memories down. I couldn’t believe that this was happening in the middle of school, everyone probably thought I was crazy. My senses were still struggling to work properly and the voice sounded far away so I didn’t even know who was holding me up.

Slowly as I started to catch my breath my focus cleared only to find the guy still standing in front of me with the tarantula. They all had shocked looks on their faces, but the spider drew my attention quickly making me freak out again as I started panting all over again.

“Put that damn thing away, before I knock you on the floor!”

Now that voice I recognised, but I had never heard it so full of anger before. The guy with the spider scurried away quickly followed by the others and I managed to stand upright. I was still shaking and I felt weak, but the worst of it was over now. Slowly I turned to face Lucian and I was sure the confusion was written all over my face because before I could say anything he said.

“Even I have lines I won’t cross Blondie and that is one I’d never cross.”

Before I could even so much as thank him for his help he left and I was still wondering when these lines had appeared because as far as I was aware Lucian Adams couldn’t see the line between acceptable and not acceptable, either that or he just ignored it. At least I thought he had, but now I wasn’t so sure.

That afternoon when I met him after school though it was as if nothing had happened. He was back to his pain in the ass self and by the time I got home I wanted to punch him.

 

8 months ago.

“Stupid piece of shit!” I shouted at my car before kicking it in the bumper.

I had no idea why I was yelling at my car when I knew it was something Lucian had done to it. He had only been next to it for a few seconds checking the oil after my Dad had asked him to and now it wouldn’t start.

I was meant to be going to a party with some friends tonight, but it didn’t seem like that would be happening anytime soon. After letting out a growl of frustration I slammed the door closed and glared over at Lucian’s car.

It didn’t take long to decide to get him back so I ran over to their driveway before kneeling next to the tyres. I didn’t know much about cars, but I knew how to put air in the tyres so it didn’t take a genius to figure if I pulled the caps off of the tyres they would eventually be flat. So that’s what I did, I felt like some kind of criminal sneaking around to each tyre in the dark and unscrewing the caps, but it was soon done and I ran back to my house quickly to give my friends a call, they needed to know that I wouldn’t be coming to the party tonight thanks to a certain dark haired neighbour.

 

“Get your ass down here Tinkerbell!” Were the words that woke me up the next morning.

I rolled over in bed chuckling to myself before snuggling back under the covers planning to get a bit more sleep before school.

“Blondie!” The word was shouted from within my room making me sit up suddenly.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” I yelled at him. “Get out of my room!”

“You let the air out of my tyres!” He roared.

“And you broke my car!”

“I didn’t break it, I just disconnected the battery, it will take five seconds to put back, but all of my tyres are flat!”

I couldn’t help it I just started laughing.

“It’s not funny!” He growled at me.

I stopped laughing and glared at him. “And it wasn’t funny that you made me miss the party last night!”

“It was probably a stupid party anyway, it’s not good to get drunk.”

“Whatever Adams, we are teenagers, we are meant to get drunk. Now get out of my room.”

“Not until you give me back the caps you took.”

“I’ll give you back your cap thingys when you’ve fixed my car.” I shouted before pulling the covers over my head to ignore him.

“I’ll fix your car, but get out of bed you’re driving me to school and I can’t be late today.”

I grumbled and stayed where I was hoping he would just leave my room and fix the car.

Suddenly the covers were pulled from my bed completely leaving me lying on the mattress in my too big t-shirt.

“I tried being nice Tink.” Lucian said before he grabbed my ankle and started pulling me off.

I screamed and kicked at him. “Let me go, I’m going to get you for this!”

“I’m sure you will.” Despite my struggles he picked me up from the bed and carried me to the bathroom before slamming the door behind me and shouting through the door. “Get dressed!”

“I hate you!” I yelled at him.

“You too Blondie, you too.” He said before I heard his footsteps disappear down the hall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

5 months after apocalypse.

It had been about a month since Eric had been taken, he had been the only person to escape with me and not get eaten by the zombies. That had happened three months ago now. Losing everyone at the camp including my Dad and Lucian’s Mum had been bad enough, but now I was alone completely. I had no idea where Lucian even was, he had been at a friends house when all hell had broken loose and I hadn’t seen or heard from him since.

When Eric and I had set off from the destroyed camp alone he had protected me from the creatures and soldiers that roamed most places now, but now he was gone and everything was down to me. Over the last month I had been captured by the soldiers three times and had barely managed to escape. I had been training hard and I was quite proud of myself for the way I had fought my way away from the last group. They had seemed to find me in every one of the hiding places Eric and I had found, it made me wonder if they had tortured the locations out of him and then killed him, but I couldn’t think about that. All I really knew was that he had left and not come back, which was never a good sign.

I had been at this new location lying low for a week now not wanting to get in the soldier’s clutches again. The mere thought of them made me shiver all over, but I knew I was going to have to risk them getting me to search for supplies soon. I was hungry, thirsty and extremely weak. I knew that I was capable of fighting well now, but that was when I had felt stronger so I could either sit here and dehydrate or starve to death or I could take the risk and fight my way to some supplies.

It was obvious which path I had to take, I wasn’t the sort of person to just give up and I definitely didn’t want to get taken by soldiers again or have my brain eaten by zombies. Killing zombies had been fun when it was on a video game, but it wasn’t so entertaining when it happened for real. Most of the zombies were slow and died instantly when their heads were removed or their brains were damaged, but it was the stronger ones you had to watch out for that still seemed to have some intelligence. It wasn’t so easy to hack off their heads when they fought back and used some kind of ninja moves that shouldn’t even be allowed. Luckily though those guys very rarely came out of hiding and instead ordered the weaker ones out to fight.

The soldiers spent their time capturing humans to feed the stronger ones, they weren’t even zombies, but they were working for them. It made me sick to think how cowardly people could be that they would start giving people to zombies knowing full well that they were going to be ripped apart. They were stupid too if they really thought that the zombie’s would never eat them if it came right down to it, just because they had worked for them it didn’t mean they would consider their brains off limits if they got hungry enough.

When the sun rose I was going to find some food and water knowing that it was less likely that zombie’s would be about, not impossible, just less likely so I sat in the small room that I had barricaded myself into and waited for light to appear through the hole of the crumbling roof in the corner. Most people had left the city by now or been eaten by zombie’s leaving almost everywhere deserted. I just had to find somewhere that food had been left and maybe if I was lucky there would be guns too because I was getting low on ammo.

The ammo wasn’t that important because I still had my samurai sword and bow and arrows, but the guns were back up in the case of too many zombie’s or a stronger one so it was better to be safe than sorry. If I had learnt anything since the zombie outbreak it was better to have more weapons than you needed than not enough. Nothing would be worse than being stuck in an army of zombie’s with one bullet left, which was why I now carried a sword at my hip, two pistols, a shotgun across my back, daggers in my boots and a bow with plenty of arrows over my shoulder. Ok, so it might weigh me down, but I had learnt to move more easily with practice and zombies were in for a surprise when they messed with me.

The minute the light from the small hole lit up the room I made sure my weapons were in place and pulled the chair out from under the handle of the door before opening it slowly and looking out into the alley. To my relief it was clear, well clear as in no zombies or soldiers considering it was covered in rubbish and broken furniture, but none of them were a threat to me unless zombie’s had started making undead pizza boxes or something.

I crouched and ran to the end of the alley before looking out on the street. There were too many places that I couldn’t hide, but I had to go through there if I was going to find some food since I knew this side of the city didn’t have a lot to offer. The random cars abandoned on the roads were the only cover provided giving me at least some illusion that I was hiding. I knew the soldiers were my biggest problem at this sort of time and I knew there were never more than about ten in a group so it shouldn’t be that hard to sneak past them if there were any around.

Taking a deep breath I wiped the sweat from my forehead wishing I had something to wet my dry throat with. The sun felt too hot and I knew I shouldn’t have let myself go this long without water, it was foolish on my part and could lead to a mistake. Knowing there was nothing that I could do about it now I glanced around the street quickly before making a dash for the closest car and ducking behind it. When my breathing had slowed I darted behind the next one, when I headed for the third one however, the sound of a gunshot echoed throughout the whole area as my shoulder exploded in pain. I couldn’t stop the cry that escaped my throat before I fell behind the car as I tried to block out my pulsing shoulder.

“Come out little girl, you didn’t really think you would escape us did you?”

I closed my eyes wishing it would go away as I felt shivers of fear run up my spine at the familiar voice of one of the soldiers who had taken me last time. Lifting my hand up to my left cheek I felt the burn mark shaped like a small wonky star, he had been the one responsible for putting that there. Knowing if I thought about it the images of what they had done to me would appear in my mind I pushed it down dropping my hand from my face and concentrated on thinking about how I was going to get out of this because there was no way I was going back there without a fight.

After kneeling up I pulled out my bow and an arrow before pulling the string back making my shoulder scream in pain. I lessened my grip on the string again before slowly looking up to locate any one of the soldiers through the window of the car. When one yelled for me to come out again it didn’t take long for me to identify him, this one was strolling between cars with his gun raised loosely as if he didn’t really consider me any threat. I smirked, this would definitely be to my advantage. Readying my bow again I leaned around the end of the car taking aim at him and let loose the arrow before ducking behind the car again trying not to make any sound when my shoulder started burning. The only indication that I had hit him was simply because I knew I was a good shot and the “oomph” before the sound of a body falling. If my aim had been as good as I thought he now had an arrow through his eye.

That horrible voice spoke again now. “Stop playing with us little girl and come out like a good girl, maybe I’ll go easy on you.”

I cringed wiping sweat from my brow before attempting to pull another arrow back, but my shoulder refused to cooperate and before I could stop it my arrow clattered to the concrete revealing my location to anyone in the area. Horrible voice guy must have been closer to the car than I had thought because he suddenly appeared next to me looking down at me with that grin that promised pain to anyone who crossed him. Before he had a chance to do anything I grabbed the arrow from the ground and shoved it into his thigh. I heard his howl of pain behind me as I made a run for it.

Before I could get very far though the world tilted and I could only put it down to a combination of the blood loss and lack of food and water. My arms were grabbed from behind and I was yanked back against a chest sending my shoulder into agony. At first I thought it had been horrible voice guy, but it proved it must be one of the others when I was pulled around to face him making me shiver in fear. He chuckled seeming amused that he had that affect on me as he threw the arrow on the floor that he had just pulled from his thigh.

“I told you not to escape.” He hissed seeming suddenly angry just as a few soldiers circled us. “Did you really think we wouldn’t get you again?”

“Fuck you.” I hissed before spitting at him.

He sighed. “Really, again? You enjoyed it that much?”

Before he could dodge it I swung my foot up full force between his legs. He actually roared at me before lifting his gun to my stomach and pulling the trigger. I automatically tried to dodge it, but I realised it didn’t miss me completely when my hip screamed in pain. Letting out a scream I struggled in the guys arms.

“You have to come with us now, I’m sure you don’t have the medical equipment to fix yourself up.”

“I’d rather die than come with you.” I hissed at him.

He shrugged. “Well, I can always lend you a hand with that.”

I gasped in pain when he punched me in the hip, suddenly the guy behind me let go and without his support I fell to the ground. It took a few moments before I could make out the sounds of gunshots surrounding me, not having any desire to get shot again today I stayed low to the ground as I got to my knees and grabbed my bow that had fallen from my shoulder when I was grabbed. Looking around I could see that all of the soldiers were now lying on the floor motionless and probably dead or curled up in pain and probably minutes from dying. There was however, no sign of where the ones responsible for it had gone.

I struggled to my feet knowing that I had to get out of here, daylight or not the zombies would be drawn to this amount of blood and I was in no condition to take them on. After stumbling for a few steps someone caught my arm holding me up, my brain felt slightly fuzzy and it took me a moment to realise I had stopped let alone that someone was holding me. When I looked up I found dark, almost black eyes and I knew I should know them, but for some reason my mind couldn’t figure out why. Instead I murmured.

“Don’t I know you?”

The only answer I got before I passed out was.

“I would hope so Tink.”

 

“Is she going to be ok?” The words sounded far away and I didn’t know if I was dreaming or if it was real.

“I don’t know yet, she’s dehydrated, been shot twice and her fever is sky high. She’s not looking good.” A woman replied.

“Well, do something, you have to save her!” The first person yelled. He didn’t sound very happy and the woman sounded slightly scared when she answered.

“We are trying, but until her fever breaks we can’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Then break her damn fever, try harder, you cannot let her die, do you hear me?”

A man answered then instead. “Calm down son, we are doing everything we can. Leave it to us and we’ll let you know when there is a change.”

Everything started fading again then and I didn’t hear anymore conversations, instead my dreams were haunted by spiders killing my mother, zombies killing my father and in the end that conversation just seemed like another part of my imagination. It was like I wasn’t really even in my body and every time I tried to get back into it I hurt so much that I just left again not ready to deal with the pain.

I didn’t know how long it had been when it was finally bearable, it didn’t hurt so much anymore, but my body felt so weak that it was as if it refused to listen to the movements that my brain insisted it do so I simply laid there feeling as if a single arm weighed a million pounds when I tried to move it.

“Is there any change?” A male voice asked from close by.

“No, she hasn’t woken up yet.” Now that voice I did recognise, but why the hell would Lucian Adams be here?

I really wanted to open my eyes to see, but they just wouldn’t cooperate.

“What do you think she was doing out there on her own?”

Lucian gave a heavy sigh. “I don’t know Gordon, but if she was alone from the beginning I don’t know how she lasted this long.”

Wasn’t Gordon the friends’ house he had been at? And I completely objected to that statement, I could look after myself. Who was I kidding though I had only been alone a month and already been kidnapped three times almost four and had stupidly let myself get weak because I didn’t have any water or food. I had always been good at finding the food and water when Eric was with me though it was just because the kidnappings had scared me.

“Why are you surprised, you could see that she can fight?”

Thank you Gordon, he saw my fighting skills even if they had sucked at that point.

“I do not doubt how well she can fight, but women on their own are easy prey to those soldiers as you saw. It wouldn’t be easy for her to survive with them one step behind her all the time.”

Well that was true, there had been way more soldiers since I had been alone. More than there should have been I would imagine. I mean how did they all suddenly know where I was? I was just being paranoid though, it’s not like they had a tracker on me or anything.

It wasn’t until long after Gordon had left that I managed to force my eyes open, I half expected Lucian to have left even though I hadn’t heard him move. That was why I was surprised when I groaned at the pain pounding in my forehead in objection to my opening eyes and he said.

“You’re awake, how are you feeling?”

I couldn’t help the snort that escaped me before I asked. “Who are you and what have you done with the Lucian who would have laughed at me for my stupidity?”

My voice came out husky and it hurt my throat to talk, but I managed to get the words out.

I saw him smirk after I blinked a few times and my vision cleared. “He decided it was more important to make sure you were going to live before he took the piss.”

I grunted. “Well, I’m fine I just hurt a bit.”

At least I did until I tried to sit up, then my shoulder decided to remind me it had been shot by pulsing down my entire arm making me cry out before falling back.

“A bit?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

I groaned looking around the room. “Ok, a lot.” I was in a hospital like room and then it only just dawned on me that we had been through an apocalypse, hospitals weren’t even running anymore and most buildings were in ruins. “Where are we?”

He chuckled. “You like?”

I glared at him. “You know more than anyone how much I hate hospitals.” Since Australia, it was unspoken, but we both knew what I meant. They didn’t scare me like spiders did, I just didn’t like them.

He shrugged. “You needed to be fixed up, wasn’t my fault and technically we aren’t in the hospital. It’s just the hospital wing of the building so deal with it.”

I stuck my tongue out before saying. “I wasn’t talking about the hospital bit anyway, I meant all the buildings are like falling apart around here and this doesn’t look any different.”

He smirked seeming quite proud of himself for some reason. “You know that big hotel right next to where you decided to get shot?”

“I didn’t decide to get shot!” I growled at him before adding. “And no I didn’t notice it, I was too busy trying not to die.”

He rolled his eyes. “You could have tried harder and we are in that hotel.”

“Well, thanks for all that info Adams. “We are in that hotel.” Gee thanks a bunch.”

He chuckled. “Watch your mouth Tink or I might give you to the zombies.”

“Yeah, well once I’m healed I’ll be out of your way so don’t worry about it.”

His eyebrows drew together then. “You can’t just go back out there.”

I snorted. “I can and I will, where are my weapons by the way?”

He ignored my question and instead said. “You’re a girl, you can’t just go gallivanting around killing zombies!”

“So if I was a boy I could? That is completely sexist Lucian!”

“You’re more vulnerable than a man!” He yelled.

“I can fight just as well as a man thank you and better than some so that is crap!”

“I never said that Tink, b-.”

“My name is not Tink or Tinkerbell or anything to do with that little fairy that wears green!” I almost screamed at him.

He put his hands up in surrender, but I could still see the grin tugging at the corners of his mouth and it really pissed me off that he had only gotten more attractive in the five months or so since I had last seen him. “Just hear me out, you can stay here. There is plenty of room and quite a few of us are here now. There is food and water, clothes, weapons and medical supplies. Everyone is safe here and you can sleep knowing you’re not about to be snuck up on by zombies or soldiers.”

I frowned as I considered it until he added on with a smirk.

“We have to question you though to make sure you aren’t working for the zombies or anything.”

“You what?” I shrieked at him. “Do you really think I would work for the zombies, are you completely insane?”

“Everyone goes through it, it’s not like it’s only for you!” He shouted. “It’s to keep everyone safe.”

I grunted and looked away from him not in the mood to deal with his crap anymore. My whole body was sore, my hip and shoulder were painful and my throat felt dry, yelling certainly wasn’t helping it.

He sighed. “Do you have to be so immature?” Before I could even respond he added. “Do you want some water?”

That was enough for me to forget about the immature comment so instead I answered. “Please.”

He nodded and stood up before walking out of the door leaving me in the room alone. He wasn’t the one who returned with the water though, instead it was a middle aged woman with dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and a kind face.

“Hi honey, I’m Kate, I’m the nurse here. Lucian had some business to attend to, he said you needed some water.”

“Thank you.” I said when she handed me the cup.

I was so thirsty that I almost gulped it down, but I knew my throat wouldn’t agree with that so instead I took small sips. Water had never tasted so good and I almost moaned as it ran down my throat.

“How are you feeling?” Kate asked reminding me that she was still there.

I gave her a small smile. “I’ve felt better, but under the circumstances I guess I feel pretty good.”

She nodded. “We thought we would lose you there for a minute. You’re Taylor Mckenzie right? Lucian said he knew you before the zombies.”

“I am and he did.” I answered slightly surprised that Lucian had told them my real name. It wouldn’t have surprised me one bit if he had told them all that my name was really Tinkerbell.

“Do you need any pain pills?” She asked me when I winced as I took another sip of water.

I looked at her surprised. “How do you get hold of pain pills now?”

She smiled. “We send out a lot of teams, you’d be surprised what we can still find.”

I nodded. “Well thanks, but I don’t want to waste them I’m sure I’ll be ok without them.”

She nodded. “If you change your mind just shout for me, I’ll only be in the next room. You should get some sleep though, it will give you more of a chance to heal.”

“Thank you for the water.” I said just before she left the room.

Now that she mentioned sleep though I really was tired so I finished the water, put the cup on the small table next to the bed and tried to think about what Lucian had suggested. Staying here would obviously be the better option, I would be safer and things would be easier. I wondered if Lucian knew about his Mother yet, but that was silly, how would he know? I realised then that I was going to have to tell him, it must be horrible to not be sure what happened to her. It was the same with my sister, I had no idea what had happened to her and it broke my heart to think that she could be alone and scared somewhere.

Of course it was a bad idea to think about it before going to sleep because when I did I dreamt about her on her own and terrified. She may be the older sister, but I felt that I had to save her, she was the only family I had left after all. If she was still alive that is, but there was no way of knowing.

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