Writing on the Wall s-1 Read online

  Writing on the Wall

  ( Survival - 1 )

  Tracey Ward

  “I’m a girl stuck in Neverland with The Lost Boys. I’m no Wendy, I can hold my own. I don’t need to wait around for Peter to save me, but I’m also not an idiot. I know my enemies.”

  It’s been nearly a decade since the world ended. Since Joss watched her parents die at the hands of a nightmare, a nightmare that stalks her even now, all these years later. That’s the problem with the Risen—they refuse to die.

  But Joss is a survivor. A loner living in the post-apocalyptic streets of Seattle. It’s a world dictated by Risen and the looming threat of the Colonists, a group of fellow survivors living comfortably in their compounds and patrolling the wild, looking to “save” the orphans of the end.

  Orphans like Joss.

  Like Ryan.

  As a member of an all male gang, Ryan is a threat as real as the Risen, a threat Joss avoids at all costs. Then one night their paths cross and Joss makes a choice that goes against all of her instincts. A choice that will threaten everything she has.

  Now a new outbreak is imminent and the Colonists are closing in. Joss’ solitary, secret world will be blown wide open and the comfortable numbness she’s lived in for the last six years will burn away leaving her aching and afraid.

  And awake.

  Tracey Ward

  WRITING ON THE WALL

  Chapter One

  It happened at Christmas. Quite a time for the world to end, but if we could pick and choose when Hell unhinged its jaw and tried to swallow us whole, we’d probably pick never.

  As it is, I suppose it could have been worse. Being nine years old and watching your neighbor break through the sliding glass door like it was made of paper isn’t the most traumatizing thing ever. His blood spurting from shredded wounds and dead vacant eyes that somehow still see you, really see you? You can come back from that. After a few weeks I’d even get over the black blood that dripped onto my brand new Cabbage Patch Doll with the blond hair and pretty, smiling eyes. It’s fine. That’s all fine.

  What you don’t come back from is watching him eat your parents. Literally, honestly, violently eat your parents. I saw it. All of it. Huddled behind the Christmas tree, peaking out through the fragrant green needles and soft glow of the multicolored lights, I watched it happen. And I remember. The sounds, the sight, the smell. I’ll never forget. Nearly ten years later I can relive it with perfect clarity, but I seriously try not to. Life is horrifying enough. I don’t need to borrow on past troubles.

  Today my trouble is a wolf. Have wolves ever really been an issue in downtown Seattle before? I don’t know, I was just a kid when crazy came to town, but I’m willing to bet not. They’re everywhere now. A lot of animals are. The city has become a wilderness in a whole new way. Used to be you had to worry about walking alone at night because you might get jumped by a member of a gang or a desperate soul pushed to the limit. Now you have to worry about getting jumped by an animal in a pack or a starving zombie desperate for your brain, not your wallet. There really aren’t that many of them left anymore, though. I mean, they’re around, don’t be fooled and don’t be stupid. I’m just saying it’s not like it was. Not like in the beginning. But right now I’m pretty sure the wolves outnumber the dead.

  This one is a dark gray color, long and lithe. He’d be pretty if he weren’t so deadly. And if he weren’t in my way. I need to get out and get fresh water from one of the rain traps I’ve set up on other buildings farther out. I make sure to never do it on my own building aside from one small hidden bucket for emergencies. It’s about half full but I’m thirsty and it’s getting late.

  I’m standing in the dark entryway of my building watching the animal wander the street, sniffing the knee high grass growing through cracks in the asphalt. The roads are a mess these days. Really makes me wonder where our tax dollars are going. I’m just about to step out and make a break for it while his back is turned when I catch movement in another doorway farther down the street. I freeze, waiting and watching, barely breathing. It moves again, too tall to be an animal and too precise to be a zombie. It’s another person. This bothers me more than anything else. I shrink back farther into the shadows, making sure I’m completely hidden, and I watch to see what the guy’s plan is.

  I know it’s a man. Not from any details of his outline or instinct or scent on the wind. I know it because statistically it’s probably true. There aren’t many women out here in the wild, not anymore. Most of us either died or entered the Colonies, of which there are too many if you ask me. There are several spread all over the city with hundreds of people in each one which to me sounds like a great way to spread the virus some more. Really bring on the second coming. I’m one of the few people, male or female, doing it alone and being a woman on the outside is not ideal. In fact, it’s downright dangerous and some of us can’t make it. There are a lot of predators out here and odds are one of them will get you eventually.

  Numbers don’t lie.

  So that’s how I just know this shadow messing with my plans is a guy. Probably part of a pack of his own, the thought of which makes me drop yet another step back into my building. I’m a girl stuck in Neverland with The Lost Boys. I’m no Wendy, I can hold my own and I don’t need to wait around for Peter to save me, but I’m also not an idiot. I know my enemies.

  After what feels like forever, he finally makes his move. The shadow rushes quickly and surprisingly stealthily through the tangle of weeds, grass and ravaged cars until he’s directly behind the animal. I shake my head at how utterly stupid a move this is and you’re about to see why.

  The wind shifts. The wolf smells him now and he’s on alert, his haunches going up, his teeth becoming exposed. He turns slowly toward the guy. There’s a long tense moment while they watch each other, neither moving a single muscle. My own muscles ache just from watching and I realize that I’m crouched down, either ready to fight or spring into a sprint.

  Fight or flight. I think. Come on, guy, what’s it going to be?

  Color me every shade of the rainbow surprised when he picks fight. He’s either crazy brave or just plain crazy. He runs at the wolf and I catch a glint of steel flash against the failing light of the day. He’s got a knife. It better be pretty big and he better be unbelievably fast with it. I’m trying to sort out why he would even attack this animal in the first place when they collide. The wolf snarls as the guy grunts, then they hit the ground and I can’t see them anymore. Now would be a spectacular time for me to get out of here. To either go upstairs, lay low and make do with my emergency water rations or head for the hills and find more.

  I’m scanning the sidewalk, surprised it’s still clear, and leaning toward the water idea when the guy cries out in agony. The sound makes me cringe and instantly hate myself for it. You learn not to empathize here in this mad new world. Sympathy will only get you killed. But something about the sound gets to me and I hesitate. He’s going to lose. He is going to die and the wolf is alone, meaning he won’t eat all of him. Either many more wolves will be here helping him feast when I get back, this guy’s buddies will be here cleaning up the mess of his desecrated body or the infected will have descended. No matter how you slice it, if he dies on my front porch like this, I’m not making it back in this building tonight. And with the possibility of Lost Boys this close to home, I probably won’t ever return.

  I swear under my breath, thoroughly pissed off. But I’m also trapped. I have to either do something or go back inside and be prepared to wait it out. Without water that’s going to suck. So I do the one thing I really do not want to do.

  I save a man’s life.

  I reluctantly pull out my knife as I silently close
the distance between myself, animal and idiot. From a distance I thought the wolf was pretty but up close it’s beautiful. It makes me even angrier that I have to do this. There’s not much beauty left in the world, I’d rather leave it when I can find it. Like walking around a flower somehow blooming in the broken pavement of a desolate road.

  I roll up on the wolf in his blind spot, his eye covered by the guy’s one good hand that’s trying desperately to keep dripping, gnashing teeth out of his jugular. It strikes me that it doesn’t look that much different from fighting a Risen. His other arm is a bloody mess pressed against the animal’s chest, coating his fur in red.

  When I’m within striking range, I slash at the wolf’s side. My knife goes in easy because if I do anything in this world right, it’s keep my weapons deadly. But I make sure not to sink the blade too deeply. I’ve decided I won’t kill it, a decision that is incredibly stupid but one I can sleep with tonight. I don’t want to kill it. I want it to keep running its patrols with its pack, keeping infected and Lost Boys at bay. I’ve only grazed it, only grabbed its attention, and even though it’s probably a really bad choice, I don’t regret it. Not yet, anyway.

  The animal leaps off the guy and turns to face me, seeing me as the new threat.

  “Get up.” I tell the body on the ground, never looking away from the wolf. “Slowly.”

  He does as I say and I’m surprised when he does it silently. I expected groaning and moaning, maybe even ungrateful proclamations of his ability to handle it himself. Had he done that I wouldn’t have hesitated to let the animal have him. But he gets up and comes to stand beside me, his knife at the ready in his uninjured hand.

  “Get out of here.” I tell him, my voice low and soothing for the wolf’s sake.

  “No way.” he replies quietly.

  “I wasn’t asking. Go.”

  “No.”

  I’m shaking mad now. His blood is dripping onto the pavement at an alarming rate and I’m doing the math in my head figuring how fast that crimson pool will bring the infected. Not long now.

  “Get the hell out of here. NOW.” I grind out through gritted teeth.

  The wolf takes an angry step forward, the low vibration of his growl sending the hair on my arms on end.

  “Not until he’s dead.”

  “Seriously?” I whisper incredulously. I shift my knife in my sweating palm. “You want wolf for dinner that bad?”

  “I want revenge that bad.”

  “This is for revenge?” I ask, feeling shocked. “On a wolf?”

  “He killed my brother.”

  “Unbelievable.”

  I should have let him die.

  I begin to back away from him and the animal, making my way slowly toward the sidewalk. They can sort this out together. I’m heading to one of my buildings with a water source. I’ll camp out there tonight and find a new home tomorrow. I hate it but with all this blood out front and him knowing where I live, no matter who wins this fight I’m the loser out of a home.

  I hate people more than ever and I like animals a lot less too.

  “Where are you going?” he whispers.

  The wolf is advancing, empowered by my retreat.

  “If you won’t leave, I will. Good luck with this. You’re gonna die.’

  Before I can make it two steps low growls emanate from up and down the street. I spot dark, lean wolves advancing on us from out of the growing shadows. So far I count six. Three each, he’s down a hand and he couldn’t even handle one at full strength. Now we’re both gonna die.

  “Shit.” the guy mutters, stepping back in line with me.

  I chuckle bitterly. “Yeah.”

  “We need to run. We can’t fight them all off.”

  “We can’t outrun them all either.”

  “No.”

  “Back up. Keep backing up and head to the left. There’s a doorway. That’s where we’re going.”

  He glances over his shoulder quickly, verifying that the way is clear.

  “You’ve been in this building before?”

  I nod sharply. “A time or two.”

  “There’s a door close by that we can close on them?”

  “Why else would I be taking us there?”

  “Sorry if I don’t trust the judgment of a total stranger.”

  I fight the urge to stab him. “You’re really saying that to the girl who just saved your life? If I’d known you were getting revenge” I say, my voice dripping in sarcasm. “I would have happily watched you die.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “You have no idea what you’re doing.” I whisper viciously.

  “I didn’t ask you to help me.” he nearly shouts, pissing me off further. “You didn’t have to be part of this.”

  “No, but you needed help. And you made me part of this when you staged your Shakespearean drama at my front door.”

  He glances at the building behind us again, frowning. “This is where you—“

  “Run!”

  I shove him in the shoulder, launching us both in the direction of the door. When we take off running, the wolves fall in step behind us and they are fast. I’m not even sure we’ll make it to the door unhurt. I quickly dart in front of the guy, making sure if they get ahold of anything it’s his dumb ass.

  We sprint over the cracked marble floors, the skitter of claws following close behind. I grab onto the door and begin to swing it closed behind me. And, no, I don’t check to make sure he’s going to make it. That’s his issue, not mine.

  He jumps to the side just as a wolf is lunging to take a bite out of his back. Good on him for keeping himself safe, but that move leaves me wide open. Luckily I’m already shoving the door closed on the animals face. He rams into it, bouncing off harmlessly. But the door isn’t so much a door as it is a gate and when he lunges again he gets ahold of my coat. He jerks back on the fabric and I’m wrenched hard against the steel. I cry out in surprise and pain as my arm is twisted, then pinned at a strange angle. The guy yanks me back, pulling me from the animals clutches. I stumble against the wall as he releases me quickly to latch the door, barely snatching his fingers clear before they’re bitten off.

  “That was close.” he says, breathing heavily. Then he looks at me with a lopsided grin.

  I punch him in the face. The sound of skin on skin and bone connecting through meat vibrates through the small space. It takes him by surprise, sending him stumbling back a step.

  “What the—what is your problem?!” he cries, rubbing his cheek. His grin is gone.

  “With you? I don’t know where to begin! I’ve known you five minutes and you’ve almost gotten me killed twice!”

  “How was this my fault?” he demands, gesturing to the snarling wolves and metal. “You said there was a door! This is not a door.”

  “It’s not solid, but it’s still a door. It’s keeping them out, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t know, is it? Let’s ask your coat.”

  He points to my sleeve and I look down to find the fleece ripped wide open.

  “No, that’s okay.” I say sarcastically, glaring at him. “I have tons of clothes. I can afford to be missing a coat in the dead of winter.”

  “Sorry, princess, didn’t mean to destroy your wardrobe.” he mutters, glancing around.

  We’re deep in shadow but a small shaft of light is coming through one of the broken windows giving me my first decent look at him. He’s tall and lean with brown eyes and dark hair. He’s about my age, seventeen, and clean shaven so he must have a home somewhere with some amenities. Some comforts. His clothes also look decently clean which means he has access to water and a safe place to wash. I peg him solidly then and there as part of a gang.

  It doesn’t mean what it used to. He’s not a thug, at least I doubt he is. He’s just a guy who signed up to be part of a group that helps each other survive. Kind of like the Colonies but less like a prison. It’s another situation I can understand people entering into, i
t’s just not for me. Especially since these gangs are almost all men.

  His eyes land on me then and I’m annoyed that he caught me examining him. His brows crease together in confusion or annoyance and I wonder what he sees in me that makes him do it. I’ve looked in mirrors. I’ve seen old ads scattered around. I’ve even seen a few movies. I know what pretty is and I know I’m it; tall, thin (though that’s out of my hands really, I’d be fat if I could be), dark red hair, fair skin, pale blue eyes. Guess I’m not his type, though in the end of days I’m surprised to find a teenage boy so picky.

  And now I have to deal with him, probably all night. He can’t leave now and I can’t hide where I live, not unless I want to stay in one of the empty, blown out rooms somewhere else in the building. Pretty much every room but mine is missing windows or a door. Not ideal living quarters, even for one night. Not in the cold of winter. Not with blood outside.

  “Come on.” I tell him grudgingly.

  I lead him up the stairs as the wolves snarl and yap angrily behind us. I flip them off over my shoulder. He falls in step behind me without a word and part of my animosity toward him slips. We walk up ten flights of stairs before I take us out of the stairwell into a hall. This is where I live, or lived before he came around and ruined everything. My animosity is instantly back. I lead him halfway down the hall where I open the door to the warehouse apartment I’ve called home for almost a year now. It’s one of the first times I’ve actually gotten settled. I have more things in here than I can carry out on my back, a huge deal for me. Now I’ll have to leave almost all of it behind.

  As I hurry to light a couple of small candles for his sake (and the sake of my possessions I’d rather he didn’t trample over) I glance over my shoulder to make sure he closes the door. He looks around, sees the board I use to barricade it and quickly slips it into the braces that cradle it horizontally. We are now as safe as two teenagers in a world full of zombies can be. I fuss over the ripped sleeve of my jacket but I’m watching him out of the corner of my eye as he takes in my place. He seems surprised by it. He should be. It took a lot of time and a lot of effort to get it this way.