FULL OBLITERATION (Book #3)

𝕿𝖍𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

We're back on the safe end, all three of us. No one speaks a word, too busy taking a real good moment to understand what on earth just happened. I mean, we are all familiar with insanity thus far, but how much more insanity can one handle? How much is too much? So many weird things are happening, it's amazing how long a person can rationalise the irrational.

Nika, for one, almost appears like she's gonna faint. Supreme shock mixed with awe written on every pore of her olive-hued skin. Guess even research scientists have their limits... Not that I don't understand any of it myself. All I know is that when I kissed Carmen, not once did the lurkers try to attack us. They went from being confused to having no interest whatsoever.

"So kissing makes us immune to zombies now?" Jace splits the deafening silence in half. "Amber, babe, where you at?"

Sterlin holds back his laugh.

I'd laugh, or be disgusted, or at least feel some bit of catharsis if it weren't for my dad murdering me with his eyes. They are merciless, akin to a ginormous mirror about to smash into smithereens of razor-sharp jewels that Ima haveta dodge every one of those spikes in the process, except I get hit by all of them, all at once. He shoves his pistol into his holster and grabs my arm, dragging me away from the scene whilst making a scene. "What the fuck goes on in your mind sometimes?" he abruptly lets go of me to jab his fingers at my forehead.

I step back, pushing his arm away.

"Do not give me the silent treatment, Dean," Dad laughs out, infuriated to the core. "Do not fucking do that."

"There was a baby out there!" I gesture to the steel door. "Carmen, too! Would you rather they just die? What if it was Mum? What would you do then, huh?!" I knew I crossed the line by bringing Mum up again but I couldn't stop myself.

Dad pauses and stares at me fiercely. "Leave your mother outta this. You're the goddamn reason she went back for you guys in the first place," he points at me.

A part of my soul chips away. He can't do that. He can't just pin that shit on me...

"I'm sorry," he exhales, holding his chin. "I didn't mean that."

"Is that what helps you sleep at night?" I say in a hushed tone.

The banging on the doors gets harsher and reverse dent marks form on it. It tears our attention away from each other and that's the end of this discussion. For once, the lurkers did something right because this conversation wasn't something I wanted to know more about. The veins popping outta my father's neck could explode his swallow tattoo at any given moment. He takes his pistol out and motions with it, giving out orders. "Everyone get the hell away from those doors immediately! Emmett give a gun to anyone here who can bloody aim!"

"Right on!" Uncle Emmett nods. "Those who want to put up a fight, come with me now! Nika, get the rest to safety now!"

Nika grasps an elderly man's arm as the rest half-frightened-to-death people follow her.

"I am not leaving this place until every last one of those fuckers are dead!" Dad roars.

❖

We get more firearms from the infirmary. These shits feel light now, light because I am ready for a bloody massacre. I clench my fingers around it. Fresh blood oozes out between my fingers, staining the fresh bandages I had put on it not a second ago.

Dad's having a chat with his men and I overhear some of what they say.

"Kyle," Uncle Emmett joins up with him, "there's a butt load of them behin' those doors. Are you positive this is the right way to go?"

"Emmett, they need that bay for quarantining to find a cure. Most of the important equipment is there including the food packets in the auditorium. We got no other choice and they're breaking in too."

Sterlin checks out the machine gun. "Ready to gun down these cocksuckers?

"Born ready," Jace pulls back the chamber on his. "I want nothing more but to blow their rotten brains out. You, Dean? What you've got planned for them?"

Thought he'd never ask. "I want-"

"Dean!" Amber sprints to me with Carmen right behind her.

"Yo, babe," Jace steps forward. "You okay? What's up?"

"I'm fine," she huffs out. "De..." her voice trails off and her eyes land between Jace and I. She clears her throat, "where'd you find him?"

"Could ask the same..." Carmen shifts into her a lil.

The heck?

Jace and I both look at each other awkwardly, then at Sterlin.

Sterlin chuckles, "the name's Sterlin, ladies."

"Amber, what?" I ball my eyes at her. "It's dangerous here. You need to be with Nika and the rest."

"Right, um," she shakes her head, recollecting her thoughts. "Nika needs you ASAP!"

"Now?" I glance at the steel doors on its last hinges. "I'm busy now if you can't already tell."

"Nika said it's super important," Carmen adds.

"What's more important than blowing brains out?" Jace says with pure hatred at the lurkers.

"She wouldn't tell us why," she says to Jace and looks at me again. "But Nika said you might wanna be there before it's too late."

Too late?

"What on earth could be too la..." Then it clicks in my brain. "Fuck."

"C'mon," Amber spins around, "I'll show you the way."

"Take this, Carmen," I hand her my gun and I turn to the boys. "You guys give 'em hell. Don't leave a single one standing."

"Oh, don't you worry, Sylvester," Jace's eyes shine. "We'll give them so much worse."

"Love you man, be safe."

Jace and I go in for a quick embrace before I leave them to it. I know Dad can take care of himself so I don't say bye to him. When I turn around to follow Amber, a gust of wind blows onto my back. The doors have finally given up.

"GO TAE HEEL," Emmett roars in his Scottish accent and a shower of bullets erupt on the ravaged lurkers.

Hearing the empty shells rebounding off the ground is melodies to my ears. I close my eyes, only to open them and be greeted with a pitch-blackness with soft unknown lips pasted over mine.