The Town of Last Haven: A Zombie Novel

Part 23

Tanner played the daydream in his mind--Julia running to him with arms open, planting kisses on his face when she saw him again for the first time in months, abandoning Luke Wallace and running away with him, taking her family with her, too.

Tanner had no need of Luke--he wanted him dead. Julia was his, not Luke's, and he was ragingly jealous of the man.

Even days after Tanner had killed the wanderers gathering in their little suburbia, he was outside again hunting--with Julia, mind you. She was a skilled hunter--like a blonde-haired Katniss with the ability to hold a real gun.

As Tanner and Julia were out hunting beyond the borders of the small town that they made home, Luke was back home with his mother and the others--he was chopping wood for fires to come. Natalie and Opal were with him, the Labrador chewing on an old rawhide bone. Natalie was blowing her hot breath into her gloved hands trying to generate heat, but she was still cold. Austin was elsewhere, and Trent and Clarise were with Luke's mom.

"Has Julia said anything to you about Tanner?" Luke asked Natalie out of curiosity.

Julia and Natalie had always been close, both telling the other everything with the exception of Julia and Luke's bedroom activities. That she kept from everyone, and Luke wasn't about to brag about banging the sister of his young friends.

"What would you like to know?" Natalie asked, poking holes in the deeper snow with a stick she'd picked up from the ground beneath one of the pine trees in the backyard. "Would you like to know if my sister has lost her feelings for you? Something like that? Don't waste your breath or fear on that; Julia still loves you."

"I don't doubt her," Luke said, chopping another log with his ax. "But I doubt Tanner will keep his hands off her."

"My sister can hold her own. Believe me. The last time we visited New York City--before the apocalypse, mind you--she punched a guy in the throat because he was drunk and hitting on her."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Did you get hurt?"

"No," Natalie smiled, then continued, "but he did." The two shared a laugh, then Luke went back to chopping the wood into logs. "Our parents taught us to stand up for ourselves, hold our own in a fight. We're the badass Brown siblings--no doubt about that." She then paused, rubbing her hands together again. "Julia's holds the title of the ultimate badass if there's a prize for it." She smirked. "I think you'd take great pleasure in seeing my sister kill some more wanderers."

"The wanderers I don't mind," said Luke honestly. "It's just... I hate how Tanner looks at her. He was always a bit wired--a bit crazy before his folks died, but now it's like everything is out of whack, you know what I mean?"

Natalie nodded. "So, you've seen it, too." Her cheeks heated up and turned a strawberry pink as she brushed her gloved hands against her flesh. "Tanner isn't much in a fight, though, so I don't think we need to worry about him... doing something to her." Natalie paused. "I'd still kill him myself if he tried to do anything to Julia. That's my sister you two love."

Luke's brows knitted into one as he thought of Julia. Everything about her drew him in--her smile, that laugh, those lips; that personality, that protective aura, that kindness. Luke felt himself damned for ever breaking Julia's heart in the first place, but his own top priority was to protect Julia and all that meant to her.

Luke had to protect Julia--protect her sisters, her brothers, their dog, their way of life.

Natalie moved closer to Luke in the yard, now hearing Opal barking from elsewhere. She leaned against the chopping block that was little more than an upright stump in the ground from a long-gone dead tree and crossed her arms over her chest. Snowfall had begun minutes ago, and only now was it beginning to stick to Natalie's winter coat and blonde hair.

"I don't trust Tanner with my sister." She said with a sigh. "I'm worried about her... even though I know she could kill him faster than she'd kiss him."

"What do you propose we do? Keep Julia from Tanner? Kill Tanner outright if he tries to put a hand of malice on Julia?" Luke was beginning to sound like a character from Lord of the Rings, and Natalie knew that much too. She crossed her arms and touched her chin with a hand, thinking deeply as Luke thought this matter up to Natalie. If Julia would listen to anyone's advice, it would be her sister's advice--she could be incredibly stubborn, but she always listened to Natalie.

"Do you love her?" Natalie asked Luke. He set down the ax and leaned on it with a slow exhale.

"Yes," Luke said. "I love Julia more than anyone."

"I still haven't entirely forgiven you for what you did to my sister," said Natalie slowly, "but she has, and I want to see her happy. So, if that means she still wants you in her life--in our lives, I'm alright with that." Natalie stood tall again, coming to stand before Luke with her hand pulling something out of her deep purple parka. "Just know, Luke," she said sweetly, "if you so much as break my sister's heart again, you'll no longer have that life you love... or the toy you were born with."

Sweat protruded on Luke's brow. "I'd expect nothing less from a Brown sister, but when did you become the executioner for my manhood?" He glanced down, seeing Natalie's thin hand curled tightly around one of the knives from the kitchen.

"I protect my own," said Natalie with a hard smile. She paused, turning, then stopped to look back at Luke. "Do you think my sister is the one for you?" she asked, raising a thin eyebrow.

"Your sister is the only one for me, yes." Luke looked to Natalie with such truth in his eyes, but she still wasn't certain. In the lesser of two evils--one evil being the cheating Luke, the other being the obsessive Tanner--Natalie debated between the two, unable to truly decide one way or another.

Family matters were always complex, weren't they?

"Natalie, your sister is the only one for me--the only one I'll ever want. Believe me."

Natalie breathed a sigh, then turned her back on him. As she walked away--sticking the knife back in her parka--she smiled. No one was off-limits in the murder department if it meant saving her sister--unless, of course, it was one of their own blood line. She would kill Tanner and she would kill Luke--if only to save her sister, but she didn't think it would ever come that far to make that choice.

"She thinks you're the one for her too," said Natalie to Luke. "Don't forget that."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said in response.