“A year,” Jay admitted.
“A year?” I let out a whooshed breath. “How long after my surgery?”
“The day of.” Daisy swallowed hard and glanced up, her eyes hardening. “I went over to be there for you when you were done with the surgery, and Jay was so upset over not having kids now. One thing led to another, and…”
“It never stopped because I fell in love with her,” Jay finished.
It didn’t hurt me to hear like I thought it would, but it did make my anger feel validated. They were two people who should’ve been honest and protected me. What they did reflected on them, not me.
“You two really are fucked up,” Nathan muttered.
“We loved each other,” Daisy told him, but he shook his head.
“We should get to bed before the fire goes out. I’ll take first watch.” Micah got up and unzipped the tent. “And for the record,if you hadn’t fucked up, we wouldn’t have Tori. You’re idiots, but she’s amazing.”
“And for the record, lack of a sex drive is totally normal after a surgery like that,” Calix told him. “Even if she didn’t want sex, we would still be with her.”
“It’s just a really hot bonus that she has a healthy sex drive.” Nathan winked before helping me up.
They kept their mouths shut as we all piled into the tent. I moved in between Nathan and Calix, and Daisy and Jay went as far as they could to the other side and cuddled up. Micah sat next to the three of us and looked out the small screen window.
Nathan’s hand slipped up my shirt, and he rested his hand on my stomach, and Calix snuggled into my front, and I breathed in his clean scent.
Even with the conversation with Daisy and Jay, I fell asleep wrapped up in the comfort of the men who I knew cared for me while the river flowed outside the tent, a soothing presence in the darkness. I couldn’t even stay angry knowing how long their affair lasted. Whoever they were in the past was irrelevant. I knew I didn’t want anything else to do with them. I’d survive next to them, but that was it.
I just wanted to move forward with Calix, Micah, and Nathan, and that was exactly what I was going to do.
“Watch where you’re going!”Calix snapped at Daisy, stumbling to the other side of me as he swatted at his shoulder where she’d bumped into him.
“Woah, chill.” She held her hands up and raised her brow. “It’s not like I have a disease or anything.”
“But you could,” I retorted. “He doesn’t like being touched.”
“I see him touch you all the time.” She rolled her eyes.
“That’s me. You’re different. Respect his space.”
“Whatever.” She jogged up ahead of the group a bit.
The temperature dropped last night, and it hadn’t come back up yet. The mottled sky ranged from dark gray to dirty white, and it looked like it was going to snow any minute. I hoped we could make it back before that happened, but that was unlikely. We still had to camp somewhere tonight before we could make it to town.
My heart dropped as we came up one of the lower hills. “Oh, shit.”
Uncoordinated shuffling of the undead swayed back and forth, heading toward the direction of the town. It was a larger horde of at least thirty, and one look at Micah had my stomach twisting.
His lips were in a thin line, and his grip on his axe was so tight his knuckles were white. He scanned the area and paused toward the left. “Let’s take that path. It’s more southeast, but if we follow it, surely we’ll find something. If that horde is going to the town, we may want to consider other options.”
“But we need supplies,” Nathan told him, running a hand through his hair. “What if the path leads to nothing?”
“Then we have to go northeast a bit until we can recognize the scenery toward town.” Micah scratched his beard with a sigh. “We have no choice. We didn’t bring enough ammo to take out a horde of that size when they aren’t cornering us.”
“Yeah.” Nathan sucked in a deep breath before blowing it out and watching his breath swirl into the air. “You’re right.”
Changing course, we made our way toward the very small dirt path and kept our eyes on the horde that had been clueless of our presence.
It only took an hour before we came across a looming warehouse with broken boarded windows and crumbling walls sitting in the middle of nowhere.
“I’ve never seen this place on the map,” Nathan muttered before digging through his backpack and pulling the map out.
