the end of Everything (New Adult Erotic Romance) (3 page)

Oh, God! It was like I was so scared I
couldn’t think, couldn’t run, couldn’t do anything. Mr. Grayson was
dead. No, he’d been dead and he’d tried to eat me. My thoughts
bounced crazily around in my head. Now he was really dead. Really,
really dead. Oh, God! I felt so weak and trembly it was like my
veins had turned to ice and my legs to rubber.

“Faith.”

I froze. Not moving, not breathing.

“Faith,” the person said again and moved
toward me.

“Gideon?” I couldn’t believe it.

“Yes, it’s me. Are you okay?”

“Oh, my God!” I was utterly incapable of
saying anything else. I flung myself at him, sobbing hysterically
with relief. He threw the bloodied weapon in his hand down and his
strong muscular arms closed around me.

“Shush,” he murmured, holding me tight as he
gently stroked my hair. “He didn’t bite you, did he? You’re okay,
right?” He ran his hands all over me, checking for injuries.

“I…I’m fine,” I said, my breath catching in
my throat. “Oh, my God, Gideon!” Okay, I know I’d said that like a
million times already but that was my first encounter with a Risen
Dead and he or it, whatever it was, had nearly killed me. I’d
almost died! Just thinking about it got me hyperventilating. My
chest heaved and my lungs struggled for air.

“Shush,” Gideon said, holding me close. “It’s
okay, baby. You’re alright.”

Had he just called me baby? Oh, my God!
Suddenly I remembered Ma and Pa.

“Gideon.” I started coughing and couldn’t
talk. He rubbed my back soothingly and I closed my eyes and stayed
quiet in the circle of his arms trying to catch my breath. As I
gradually calmed down I realized I could hear each beat of his
heart, smell his own peculiar Gideon scent of green grass and
earth, but now it was overlaid with the masculine scent of his
perspiration.

“Where are Ma and Pa, Gideon?”

He sighed and his breath stirred my hair.

“They’re gone, Faith.”

“Gone?” What did he mean ‘gone’? “What do you
mean, ‘gone’?”

“Look, we shouldn’t really talk here. It’s
not safe. Let’s go back to the house.” He released his hold on me
and I felt like reaching for him again but controlled myself. I’d
never felt safer than right there in his arms.

“Get in the car.”

He picked up the thing he’d hit Mr. Grayson
with and I realized it wasn’t a bat. It was a piece of PVC pipe. He
threw it into the backseat of the Chevy and slid in behind the
wheel. I got in on the passenger’s side. Of course the ignition
started right away when he turned it. I sighed. He was so perfect,
not even a car could resist him. I stifled a hysterical giggle.
Clearly, I was going crazy but he didn’t even notice. He pressed
the pedal to the metal and we roared out of the bridge and tore up
the road, heading home. He kept quiet the whole way and I noticed
how tired and drawn he looked and how messed up his clothes were.
His shirt had grass stains on the sleeves and, why had he been
walking? Where was his truck? My mind was filled with a thousand
questions.

I jumped out to open our gate and then closed
it behind him. We drove up to the house in silence. I unlocked the
front door and we went in. Gideon made a point of locking the
door.

“Gideon, what--?” He’d marched straight up
the stairs.

“I need to bathe, Faith. Give me a few
minutes and I’ll be right back down.”

“Alright.” What else could I say? This was a
new, somber Gideon, not the funny, amiable guy I’d known all my
life. What had happened in Acadia? Were Pa and Ma dead or had he
meant they were caught up in the Rapture?

I went into the kitchen to fix him a peanut
butter sandwich, poured out two glasses of apple juice, and then
waited patiently for him in our living room. He was down in about
fifteen minutes, shirtless, in his pajama pants, his hair wet, his
feet bare.

“Think we should turn some of these off,” he
said, going into the kitchen to flick off the light and then doing
the same in the hallway and in the living room until only a small
lamp was still on. Not satisfied with that, he went to the windows
and drew the curtains. I watched him, my mouth dry despite the
juice.

He sat down beside me on the sofa, grabbed
the sandwich from the small coffee table, and polished it off
without speaking. I curled up and watched him, dreading whatever I
was going to hear. He gulped down the juice.

“You know, Mr. Grayson passed me on the road.
I heard the car coming and I hid and watched it go by. He was
weaving all over, like he couldn’t drive straight. If I hadn’t seen
what I’d seen in Acadia I’d have thought he was drunk but something
just told me… I just knew whatever it is had gotten him, too.
Surprised he made it this far.” He stopped speaking and stared
blankly into space. I watched him in alarm. I wanted to grab him by
the shoulders and shake his story out of him but, at the same time,
I didn’t want to hear it. Gideon leaned back on the sofa and closed
his eyes. The minutes ticked by.

“Gideon!” I shook his arm.

His eyes snapped open, so dark with grief and
torment I shrank away from him.

“Faith, I don’t know how to say this.” His
voice shook slightly.

“Are they…are they dead?”

He nodded. I didn’t say anything, just stared
at him for a few seconds.

“No! They can’t be dead, Gideon. No.” But I
felt the awful truth of his words deep inside me.

“I saw them, Faith. They were… They were like
Mr. Grayson. Mindless. Hungry.” He dragged his hand across his eyes
as if he was trying to blot out the sights he’d seen. “Acadia’s
been over-run by the infected. I…I guess Pa and Ma got caught up in
the…plague or infection or whatever’s going on. Maybe they didn’t
realize the danger or it happened too quickly. I don’t know. There
was no-one around to tell me anything.”

“But how do you know Ma and Pa are…are like
that?” I demanded, hoping to punch a hole in his story. “Did you
actually see them?”

“They were by the square, under the clock,
you know.”

Of course I knew. The clock was on one side
of the square, above a fountain donated by some rich guy.

“They were just standing there. Not moving.
Swaying, kinda. At first, I thought they were okay but when I ran
toward them they turned around and I…I saw their faces.” His voice
dropped. “I killed them, Faith. I killed Ma and Pa. I had to. They
would have eaten me.” He shuddered and his eyes turned inward and I
knew he was seeing them in his mind’s eye.

“No, Gideon,” I whispered brokenly, in shock
and horror. No, I wanted to scream. He
hadn’t
killed them.
It was some kind of mistake. They were still alive. They would come
back and everything would be as before. He had to stop lying. But I
knew in my heart of hearts that Gideon was telling the truth.

“I’d parked near Graham’s Pharmacy and had
just gotten out of the truck when a man and a woman ran past. They
screamed at me to leave. They said ‘they’re coming’ but they didn’t
stop to explain. I cut across the alley leading to Main Street and
that’s when I saw John Bain, the vet’s son, shoot at this person, a
woman.” He paused. “A blonde woman. She could have been anybody’s
wife or mother but he pumped lead into her and she just kept
coming. Then this little boy attacked him from behind. I shouted,
tried to warn him but I guess he never heard me. The boy, I think
he couldn’t have been older than nine or ten, grabbed hold of him
and just started biting, ripping into John’s flesh. And then the
woman started in on him too. They feasted on him, Faith, and then
they moved on. The whole town was like that. It was carnage. Mauled
bodies and the Risen everywhere. Bullets can’t kill them, you know,
but I saw Dean Welling slice off one’s head with a machete before
another one got him. Ma and Pa had that same grey, dead look and I
knew they would eat me, too, if they could. Oh, Faith.” Tears shone
in his eyes. His voice trembled and he covered his face with his
hands. His shoulders shook. “I killed them. I killed my own
parents. I took Dean’s machete and I killed them.”

“Gideon!” I flung my arms around him. It was
my time to offer comfort but I didn’t know what to say. This was
unreal. Ten hours ago Ma and Pa had been walking and talking, had
been themselves, people with feelings and emotions, and now they
were dead. “Shush. You…” Words of comfort stuck in my throat but I
needed to say them. He needed to hear them. “You did what you had
to do. They’d have understood. I mean, they would have if they were
alive, really alive, in which case you wouldn’t have had to kill
them but, oh, God, I mean…”

He reared back from me, his eyes wet. “I know
what you’re trying to say and I know you’re right. I know that
here.” He tapped his index finger to his head. “But not here.” He
tapped the area over his heart.

“Do you…do you think they recognized you?
Could they have known it was you?”

“That’s all I’ve been thinking about. Did
they know it was their son who killed them?” His voice cracked and
he took a long shuddering breath. “But I don’t think so. I don’t
know what keeps them moving, God’s will, I guess, but I think
they’re dead inside. Their souls have gone and who they were is
over.”

“Huh.” I chewed that over then another
thought occurred to me. “Did…did you see anyone going up to
heaven?” If anybody should have been caught up in the Rapture, it
should have been Ma and Pa but maybe they weren’t righteous enough
for the Lord. Maybe they’d told lies when they were children or
stolen money. Maybe they’d had some deep dark secret I’d never
known.

Gideon shook his head. “Not a one.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

I thought this over. “I guess God is being
real picky.”

“Or, maybe Pastor Joseph and Pa and everyone
got it wrong and these aren’t the End Times.”

I stared at him. “What else could they be?” I
demanded.

He shrugged, looking exhausted all over
again. “I don’t know, Faith. I really don’t know but we’ve got to
figure out what we’re going to do.”

“Do?”

“We can’t stay here forever,” he pointed out,
patiently. “Our food will run out.”

“Well, at least we’ll have milk and…meat if
we kill any of the cows so we can stay for a while.” I searched my
mind frantically for possible options. “And we can scout around
other people’s houses in the area to pick up what we need. If
nobody’s there, I mean.” I felt ashamed proposing theft but what
choices had God given us? Were there many other people still alive
in our area? I hoped and prayed so with all my heart.

Gideon rubbed his eyes and yawned. “I suppose
we could,” he said. “I’m too tired to really think about it now. We
should go to bed and talk it over in the morning.” He rose to his
feet and turned off the lamp. I followed him up the stairs and we
said ‘good-night’ and went into our separate bedrooms but I was too
keyed up to fall asleep. I took a long bath, hoping it would calm
me down but, when I finally let the water drain away, I felt more
wired than ever. I shrugged into my nightgown and got beneath the
covers.

It was no use. My mind just kept going round
and round in circles. I thought about Ma and Pa dying, about poor
Mr. Grayson, about how everything in my life had changed so quickly
in the blink of an eye. Well, one thing remained the same.
Gideon.

I threw off the covers and padded down the
hall to his room. He’d closed his curtains but I could still make
out the shape of his form stretched out on the bed. His head was
buried beneath his pillows.

I crept toward him.

“Gideon,” I whispered. “Are you asleep?”

He lifted the pillow. “Can’t sleep. I keep
seeing them.”

I didn’t have to ask who.

“Can I stay with you? I don’t want to sleep
by myself tonight.”

“I don’t think I do, either.” He scooted
over, making space on his full-sized bed for me.

I clambered into bed beside him and he shoved
one of the pillows at me.

I wanted him to hold me like how he’d held me
on the bridge. I wanted him to kiss me and tell me that, despite
everything, things would be alright. That
we’d
be alright.
He was all I had left now. The world had tipped on its axis and he
was the only one I could hold on to. I opened my mouth to tell him
all of this but suddenly the image of him beating Mr. Grayson’s
head into a pulp came to my mind. Gideon had been through a lot
today. I could not imagine how he must have felt seeing Ma and Pa
turned into monsters. I couldn’t imagine the strength and courage
he must have had to summon in order to defend himself and send them
to their eternal rest.

I turned on my side, away from my brave
Gideon. He didn’t need the pressure of hearing me tell him how much
I was counting on him and how much I needed him. He knew all that
already, anyway. Or, he should. What he didn’t know was how much I
loved him and wanted him. But I couldn’t tell him that either. He’d
made it clear after our kiss that he didn’t want to hear that kind
of talk from me. My tears dampened the pillow. I hadn’t understood
anything about the affliction God had sent against mankind when we
first heard about it a week ago and I certainly didn’t understand
anything about what had happened today. Last night when I’d gone to
sleep I had a mother and a father who loved and cherished me.
Today, they’d both been taken from me. And I didn’t know why or
what any of it meant.

I guess Gideon heard my sniffles because he
shifted on the bed. A minute later, his arm came around my waist
and he spooned himself against my back.

“Don’t cry, Faith,” he murmured, his breath
ticking my ear. “I’m here. I’m still here.”

“I know but…I can’t believe they’re
gone.”

“I can’t either,” he admitted. “I keep
thinking I’m gonna wake up any minute now and find out it’s just an
awful nightmare.”