Zone Zero: Vengeance (Book 3 of 3)

Chapter 15

The gun sounds and echoes through the room but I feel no pain. No wounds or bullet holes form on my skin and no blood pools at my feet.

I'm ok.

I open my eyes to find Logan still standing in front of me but with his gun pointed at a now lifeless James Childs. A bullet wound is dead centre between his eyes and his brains are splattered against the wall behind him.

Uncle James is now officially dead.

I find myself blinking a few times to make sure that what I am seeing is, in fact, real but the image never changes. James's vacant eyes remain fixated on Logan with a shocked look against his now still face.

He was not expecting Logan to go against him and to be honest, neither was I.

But what does this mean now?

"Logan?" I say in a barely audible whisper.

He hears me and turns to face me head-on. He looks broken and pained. Something I have never seen in him before.

"I couldn't kill you. And I knew he would kill you himself if I didn't."

I finally find my footing and stand to my full height and motion for my brother to come closer to me. He does so without hesitation and crashes into me, holding me tightly as I try to do the same with the little amount of hand movement I have due to the handcuffs.

"I'm so sorry Evie. I should have protected you better. Taken better care of you." He says through his tears.

"Don't say that. Don't even think it. You were and still are the closest thing I had to a parent growing up in this zone. And I wouldn't change a single second of our time here for the world because you were amazing at looking out for your siblings. Declyn and I owe you everything."

The mention of Declyn's name causes my throat to seize and the image of his death by my hand to flutter through my mind. I want to tell Logan that I finally found him but I am too scared. We are both in such a fragile state that if I tell him what became of our shared sibling it could break us both.

I have to tell him, I know I do but not right now. When we are safe and out of this godforsaken place I will sit him down and tell him the entire story but I cant right now. I just got my brother back and I cant cause a rift between us at this moment.

"Do you think he was telling the truth?" Logan asks speaking of what James revealed to us.

"I don't know. But regardless of the truth, we are still full-blooded siblings. And you are nothing like that poor excuse of a man."

Logan nods and pulls away from me completely before wiping his nose with his sleeve and taking a deep breath. He composes himself rather quickly but I can tell his mind is still racing.

"What do we do now Evie?"

I look down at my cuffed hands and then over to the dead body.

"We get the fuck out of here."

Logan understands my train of thought and begins digging through James' pockets for the key to unlock me. After a moment or two of searching, he finds it and unlocks my binds.

I rub at my wrists and see the visible welts that have formed from the silver of the cuffs. Hopefully, this heals quickly and stops hurting so much.

The rest of my body now has feeling and I can feel the blood coursing throughout me trying to bring me back to full strength. Unfortunately, I am not there yet and probably won't be for a couple of hours. So I choose to stall just for a few moments.