Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse
Chapter 116: Don’t Come Back

Chapter 116: Don’t Come Back

Désiré looked down at the small ball of flames on his hand for a moment before closing his fist, extinguishing the fire. "This is getting us nowhere," he sighed, looking at Luca. "We aren’t growing here in this room. We need to go out and test out our powers against other people."

Luca looked around the room at the other men, waiting for their input.

"’e’s not wrong," shrugged Ronan from where he was lying on his bed. Over top of his head was a black cloud of smoke weaving in and around itself like a dragon. None of them needed to touch the thing to know that it was dangerous, but they also didn’t know exactly what it could do.

"So’s, wadda we’s do?" asked Max from where he was standing next to the window. The snow had been done for a few days now, and everything had already melted. "We’s just gonna go out and fight de zombies?"

"Tsk," sneered Ronan, a slight smirk on his face. "You’s know, dat’s not right. We canna discriminate so much against de zombies. It’s no deir fault dey’s be ugly ta look at. I say dat anyone who’s crossin’ our paths be fair game."

"Including humans?" asked Luca, his face impassive as he listened to everyone’s opinions. He might have the final say in everything, but he would always listen to the others before he decided anything.

"No need to discriminate," chuckled Dimitri, tilting his chin toward Ronan. "Why’s should de humans be safe?"

"Because we have spent our entire adult life protecting people?" chuckled Luca, raising an eyebrow. "To Serve And Protect, remember?"

"Hard to forget," replied Ronan with a shrug. "I’s be more dan happy to serve Hattie ’n protect ’er in whatever ways she be wantin’."

"Plus, we’s be under orders to burn de world down... or did yous forget that fact?" interjected Dimitri, his face bright with amusement. "We canna burn de world down if we’re no gonna hurt a few humans."

There was an echo of grunts from around the room. Luca turned his attention to Salvatore, the one man who had yet to offer his opinion. "Burn," smiled Salvatore, shrugging his shoulders. "I’s want Hattie."

"Then it’s settled," agreed Luca with a nod. Coming to his feet, he looked over the five men in front of him. "Get ready, we’ll be leavin’ soon. I’s just gotta go speak ta René."

"Is you invitin’ ’im?" asked Dimitri, all mirth disappearing from his face. "’Cause I volunteer ’im as first target practice."

"No," Luca grunted. "He had his chance; now it’s gone."

---

A knock on the door made Alicia groan. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone today. Ever since René’s friends had backed off and all but disappeared, she was the one who had to go around putting out fires.

"Come in," she called out, sitting up on the couch. The apartment that she and René had taken now seemed to be the central hub where everyone went to. All she wanted was a single day to herself. Even René had become more distant from her, more critical of all her decisions.

Really, it wasn’t fair.

She was the one who had given them everything on a silver platter, and they weren’t grateful at all!

"Luca?" she blurted out, surprised to see one of René’s closest friends in their home. As if his name had called out to René, the other man came out of the office area and into the front room.

"It’s been a minute," smiled René, his accent completely gone. Alicia was more than a little proud of how well she had managed to get that back-country hick out of her man. Now, he was worthy of the position he would soon hold. "I missed you."

Luca cocked his head to the side, a small smile ghosting over his face as he stared at the other man. "It has," he agreed, his accent nowhere to be found. "I was just coming to inform you that the guys and I are taking off for a while. I don’t know when we’ll be back."

"Gone?" demanded René, approaching his best friend. Luca’s face was completely blank, so it was harder for René to read his face, but Luca still had little tells—like the way he spoke. "Look, I know you are pissed at me, but disappearing right now isn’t the best thing to do."

Luca chuckled softly, relaxing his shoulders a touch. Not enough for an outsider like Alicia to notice a difference, but it was enough for René. His best friend was still there, somewhere inside Luca.

"I’m sure the voice is driving you crazy right now," murmured René, leaning forward so that Alicia wouldn’t be able to hear the conversations. "But I can assure you, spend enough time with Alicia, and that voice will disappear completely."

It took Luca longer than it should have to understand just what René was saying. "I like my voice," he replied with a shake of his head. "And yours has completely abandoned you, thanks to Alicia."

"She has saved me, and she can save you, too. It’s not normal, the things the voices say. Hell, even having voices in your head isn’t normal," pressed René, grabbing Luca’s forearm and pulling him even closer to him. "Alicia has told me exactly what the future looks like, and you are standing by my side the entire time. We need to go back to how it was before that woman took you all away from me."

"I agree," nodded Luca. "We need to go back to a time before that woman took you away from us." The tight smile on Luca’s face made René realize that they weren’t talking about the same woman at all.

"She is gone," sneered René, stepping away from Luca. "You knew her less than 48 hours, and you are more loyal to her than you are to me. Tell me, LeBlanc, just what kind of gris-gris did she put on you?"

"I’m not getting into this with you," sighed Luca. "The team and I are going out to look for supplies. I was just giving you a heads-up as the person in charge of this base. I wasn’t asking for permission, nor do I really need it. Let us go, René, and pray to whatever God you believe in that we don’t come back."