Page 60 of Dyana
Harris looked around, his eyes skating right over me as he searched the trees for any sign of me. Thanks to the jacket, I blended right in with the trees. When he shrugged it off, convincing himself that he was imagining things, and turned back to the car to try to get in again, I repeated the whistle. This time, he darted into the trees below without looking around first. I chuckled, letting the sound carry.
“Fucking cunt!” Harris screamed. “I know what you’re trying to do, and it won’t work. I’m not afraid of a whore.”
I remained silent as I stalked closer to him. Someone who isn’t afraid doesn’t feel the need to announce they aren’t scared.
“Fuck,” Harris hissed as he stumbled. He started to make a path back to the road for better terrain, so I grabbed a rock and tossed it below him. His time on the road was over. I wanted to drive him deeper into the woods. Harris scurried away from the sound just like I wanted him to. The further he traveled, the more desperate and clumsy he became. He once thought of himself as an untouchable God, and watching him reduced to a bumbling coward fed a part of my soul I didn’t often let eat anymore—the monster within.
I toyed with him, sending him up and down the hillside until the sun was high in the sky, before I finally got bored with it. Harris was slowing down and still bleeding, and I was ready to go home to my men. I made my move when he was resting against a tree.
I stepped in front of him and had my knife through the side of his neck and out the other side as he lifted his head in surprise. The blade sliced through his windpipe like butter, and he immediately began to choke. He scratched at my arms, but it was ineffective due to his weakened state.
“You don’t have much time, so I want you to listen carefully. You were never a man, only a monster. I’m sure some people cared about you before the apocalypse, and if I had one wish, itwould be that they could see you now. See you in your true form, and see you pay for your crimes once and for all. I win, Harris. You never broke me, and now you never will.”
I pulled the knife forward, slicing through his throat and causing blood to splatter all over me. As life faded from his eyes, I stabbed the knife through his eye socket and into his brain to keep him from turning. I let his body fall to the forest floor and then fulfilled my earlier promise and gutted him from sternum to groin. He may have been worthless in life, but in death, he’ll feed the forest.
I stood, feeling exhausted, but pushed myself to make it home again.
Home to my men.
My family.
Epilogue
Evan
Day One
Bryce had to physically restrain Jack from following Dyana into the woods. I understood wanting to go after her, but Cora was right; Dyana needed this. Now, hours later, we were growing increasingly impatient.
“If she doesn’t come back in the next five minutes, I’m going after her,” Jack growled as he continued pacing.
“You know,” Remi mused, “If we had just positioned him over where we want to add the coop extension, he would have had thetrench half dug for us by now. Now we have a weird divot in the yard.”
“I’m wondering how he’s going to know when five minutes is up,” Trent replied. “Is he counting to three hundred?”
I appreciated their attempts to lighten the situation, and if we were waiting on anyone but the love of my life to emerge from the forest, I might join in on the good-natured ribbing at Jack’s expense, but I couldn’t. Not when I was ready to charge after him. Bryce was still surprisingly calm, a fact that continued to annoy Jack if the glares he shot him every lap meant anything. I wasn’t sure which would happen first, Jack taking off after Dyana or Jack pounding on Bryce.
“Here she is,” Cora announced quietly.
My head snapped to the tree line to see Dyana emerge. She looked exhausted and was covered head to toe in blood. The three of us ran toward her, but Jack got there first.
“Is any of this blood yours?” he asked as I gently pried her hand off the knife. I handed it back to Cora, who held it with two fingers and wrinkled her nose as she gave it to Isaac.
Dyana shook her head no.
“Are you hurt?” I asked.
Again, she shook her head no.
“Good. Say goodbye. You won’t be leaving our bed for a week,” Jack said as he scooped Dyana into his arms and started toward our tower.
Bryce hurried after him as I turned to the others. “I would say he’s joking, but he isn’t.”
“No explanation necessary,” Derrick laughed. “If Cora pulled what Dy just did, we’d tie her to the bed for a week, too.”
“Noted,” Cora laughed. “As soon as I have this kid, I’ll make sure to find myself a dangerous situation to run off to.”
I laughed as I trotted after the others. When we got upstairs, Jack took Dyana straight to the shower, where we stripped offher blood-soaked clothes and cleaned her up. While Bryce and Jack got Dyana dried off and redressed, I fried up a few eggs to feed her in bed.
