Brandy Creek (Book Two Completed)

Part 16

I had let off steam, beating the shit out of that guy, but it was building back up. As we pass the carnage along the street I get madder and madder. That group had done awful shit, just because they could, we cleared most of them out and two survivors brought this to our door. That group is small compared to The Unwanted, I had very little dealings with them, but I knew of the bigger gangs, mafias, cartels, everything. It was my job to know of these things. Ideas and different thoughts run through my head as I drop the guys hands and make my way over to the canteen. I'm vaguely aware Mato and North start trailing me as I look for Adam.

When I spot him talking to a group of smaller people across the dinning room I speak up over the crowd. "Two men from the group we killed brought this hoard on us."

I watch Adam as his attention is brought to me, there's a hush over the cramped dinning room. "They were the last of that group, but there is another group. Before the zombies they were a large motorcycle gang called The Unwanted, they dealt in everything. Guns, drugs, and trafficking. I have no doubt that they are thriving in this new world, they are violent and have way more numbers then the group we just dealt with. Two men just did that." I point out to the door, where all the zombie bodies lay. "They could have done that to a smaller group, one a lot less prepared then us. Imagine what The Unwanted is going to be doing when there are no cops, no repercussions for what they do."

"It'll be a war." Adam says, there's a angry lit to his voice that just fuels my own.

"Its already a war with the dead." I say and motion around the room. There's a variety of people here, and I can hear the kids upstairs. "Everyone here is here because of that war. There will be more fights, because people like The Unwanted will want to rule. If we are still moving a group to the new settlement I will be a leader, but you will get the leader I was brought up to be."

I let that sink in for a second. Only a few people even knew what I meant, it was enough. "The people who come with will be trained to fight, we will work hard, night and day to make the settlement safe. Then we will go after those assholes, and any other asshole group like them."

"We are still going, right?" North asked Adam.

There's a hesitation, a murmuring of voices. I know some are confused, some are still processing everything that's happened recently. Adam finally gives us a nod. "Yes, go make the new settlement. I just want to be kept up to date."

There's a look from him that says there's more he wants to say to me. Just not in front of the huge crowd of people. I turn to a group that had been at our meeting earlier. "Everyone going pack your things and what you'll need for the next day or so. Tomorrow after breakfast we will leave for the new settlement."

Walking out I register that Mato moves aside and tells someone. "Follow her."

I walk past the piles of zombie bodies, past the people on guard and past it all to the cabin for Alpha team. Before I can reach to open the door, Lex is ahead of me, opening it for me. I just raise a brow at him before going in. When I go in, he closes the door and follows me inside all the way to the bedroom.

"Wanted to take a nap?" Lex says with a playful note in his tone.

I turn back to him, and cock my head. I had wanted to come here to shower and be away from people but this could work too.

"Strip." I tell him and both brows go up on his face.

"Strip?" I can see he's fighting a smile on his face, his hands go to the hem of his shirt and he lifts. "But why would I have to strip?"

"Think we both can fit in the shower?" I ask him. When the shirt is up and over his head there's a large smile.

"It'll be a tight fit but I'm sure we can manage it." I'm pretty sure its record time for both of us to strip, then I'm picked up and dragged off to the small adjoining bathroom. Lex leans over to the tub and starts the water, a second later the shower head starts. Before I could move towards the foot of the bath, Lex grabs my hand, pulls me to him and grab my chin with his other. His lips are on mine and I let out a soft sigh.

It feels so right, Lex kissing me and slowly moving us to the shower. He keeps the kiss light, with a playful nip here and there. When we make it into the shower without tripping or really separating I feel a smile in his kiss. I'm pushed against the shower wall, his lips soft and nipping, a hand at the back of my head. Its like its everything I really need right now to calm my anger. Lex is everything I need in that moment to take my mind off of reality, to have some fun and to not be alone for once.

"Tell me how much you want this." His lips brush mine as he speaks.

"I don't just want this.. I need this. I need you, all of you." He lets out a groan as my hand finds its way to his hair and I tug him down farther to me. I take over the kiss and he turns pliant, his mouth follows my lead and I feel him melt against me, pressing his body along mine.

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When we leave the bedroom, actually showered and redressed we find Seb in the living room with the baby. I stop in the doorway and look at him, did he hear anything?

Seb's soft smile travels from the baby to me, and his eyes crinkle as the smile gets bigger. "Its only weird if you make it weird."

I had to laugh at that, Lex passes me with a kiss to my forehead. "We are serious about this Nattie. We can share with each other."

"Its just still hard to get used to the idea of it." I tell him truthfully. I move over to the little couch and Seb puts the baby into my arms. "Everything is so different and so odd. Multiple partners, kids, all of it."

"There's zombies babe." Lex flops down onto one of the chairs near us. "Everyone's life is turned upside down."

"Nothing is 'normal' now." Seb uses finger quotes over the word normal. He couldn't be more right. My life had been planned for me once I showed promise, then I turned it around and made my own life. Still, that life had no long term partners or children in it. It was a life of violence, because I crave that violence. Now with zombies and gangs running wild, I can have that violence and its actually helpful here. My partners aren't strangers to violence, and what we do is just to keep everyone safe. For once I am doing something for others, and in it I found a family here. I just still have to wrap my mind around that.

Leaning back I look down into the little wrinkled face of the baby, and I felt.. bad. I actually felt guilty, and like shit. As the baby's face scrunches I have to take a deep breath, push those bad feelings away because I had been given a second chance. The zombie apocalypse had given me what normal life could never, and I had to take that leap and hoped I could handle this choice. Because I would never get this again.

"Hunter." I tell them, running a finger softly along the baby's double chin.

"Hunter?" Seb asks me. He reaches over and mimics my rub on the baby's face, he has a soft smile on his.

"I want to name him Hunter."