Ruth Dillinger was the greatest assassin in the world, only second to my parents. She was my father’s mother; she was shorter than me by a few inches, had copper skin just beginning to wrinkle and copper hair just beginning to grey. She was a chief’s daughter and had left when she met my grandfather Redford Dillinger the first, an ex black ops assassin who’d taught my grandma everything she knew and then trained my father who later trained me.She pulled me into a tight hug and I felt the operatives around us tense, she pulled back and snagged Luc’s gaze, “She’s hardly going to kill me Luc.” She muttered her eyes bright, “Is Redford here?”
My throat tightened again and I dipped my gaze away from hers, “Grandma, he’s dead. Dad is dead.” I whispered, “There’s a lot I have to tell you.”
We sat around the fire pit, my grandmother sat in front of me, her features drawn. Luc sat on her right and Mike on her left, their eyes on me; Shannon was playing with her sling and shooting glares my way. I took a deep breath and shut my eyes, the events of those days playing behind them, “We were living in the backwoods of Rosen when it happened; we packed up most of our things and went out into the town to gather up who was left and try to keep them safe, that’s all dad wanted, to make a difference in the Ungodly days of the first wave. We had set up camp one night, one of the townspeople had been bitten but we didn’t know until it was too late, he attacked his wife and children, by the time dad put a bullet in them the other zombies had arrived. We fought them, me and him, but the people we had brought with us were bitten, we had to put them down. There was a child from the town, she looked all right, and we were going to take her with us…” I could feel my throat tightening, the tears stinging the back of my eyes, “She bit him, I put her down. It took three days for the virus to spread through his body…I hesitated, he was my father, the man who raised me and trained me, I hesitated too long and he attacked me.” I removed the band from my upper arm to show them the white jagged scar of my father’s bite, I took a deep breath and continued on, “I was sick, I was going to kill myself before letting one of those goddamn things win, I took my father’s gun and placed it in my mouth… the fucking irony, an assassin with no bullets. So I lay down and waited to die, a few days later I woke up in Jaime O’Hara’s house, I begged him to kill me but he laughed and said, ‘Jo honey, if you were infected you’d be dead already, ‘ he let me stay with him for a few weeks and then they came, they ate his wife and his little girl, it drove Jaime crazy, that’s when he started the Games.
He had prisoners from a local jail fight against zombies, whoever won had to fight me, the zombies were easy to kill but the prisoners fought so much harder, especially when their prize was…me.” I felt the hot tears slide down my face, I stood and turned away from them, I wanted to be steel, and I wouldn’t let them see me break, “I escaped and made my way to the government, joined W.A.Z. and had them ship me out to you Grandma.”
I glanced back towards the fire, their eyes were bearing into me, Grandma got to her feet and pulled me into her arms, there were tears on her face, “You’re home baby girl, it’s going to be okay.”
She moved back and studied my face, “You have your mama’s looks and Red’s will, you’ll make it through this,” she said, the look in her eyes full of so much love, I had missed the old bat so much. Grandma Dillinger let go of me and looked at her operatives, “We ship out in less then three days, I want everything ready, there’s a whole town that needs to be saved but right now we’re going to eat dinner and forget our shithole lives.”
They let out a whoop and the three of them stood, they dispersed to collect our dinner, my grandmother followed after them. I took a deep breath and stared up into the night sky, I wanted to forget what had brought me here, as much as a girl wishes she was invincible she know she’s isn’t but I was sure as hell gonna be damn near close to it.
“Miss Jo?” He whispered from behind me.
I glanced back at Luc, I hadn’t looked at him while I talked, afraid to see pity in his deep emerald eyes but when I looked at him, those eyes held nothing but respect and it made my heart do a familiar flippy dance and heat stir in my belly, I wanted to jump this man’s bones, so not good for killing zombies; I took a deep breath, “Yeah Luc?”
He reached out and touched the scar on my bicep, it tingled and I’m not going to lie, him touching me was the best thing ever, “You did really well today but as long as you’re on my team, honesty is the best policy because next time I’m putting a bullet in you, understood?”
I must seriously be defected because touching and threatening turned me on even more, “Understood,” I breathed, lifting my gaze to his.
He stepped closer to me and cocked his head to the side as he studied me slowly, “Like what you see?” I mumbled, taking my own step forward.
“Yeah I do.” Luc replied, his gaze darkening. I shivered as he shifted forward again and loomed over me.
“Well now, I guess the question is what are you going to do about it?” I teased and placed my hand on his chest, I leaned into him, “Many things I hope.”
He opened his mouth to reply when the Zombies descended.
There was blood. So much blood. I am not steel and I am not invincible, the things of that battle were things I will not forget… Zombies bite; they don’t murder your grandmother with steel blades, something was wrong. So much blood. So much blood, where was Luc? Why did this happen? I could feel the darkness claiming me, they were going to kill me, and there was so much blood, so much blood, why? I am not steel.
I shuttered awake, my grandmother’s death still behind my eyes, I felt the sun against my face and glanced at Luc, we were the only two left, I felt pain rack my body and I stared at his muscled bandaged back, “Luc?”
He glanced back at me from his position; I could make out the glint of the Remington leaning against his shoulder, “Yeah Jo?”
I took a deep breath, “They weren’t zombies Luc,” I whispered, “We were betrayed.”
Tune in next time for W.A.Z. #3: The Lone Rangers
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