Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse
Chapter 155: No One’s Keeping You Here

Chapter 155: No One’s Keeping You Here

The screams of people getting tortured around him followed Max into sleep that night. The eyes of the helpless women and children stared up at him as they reached out to touch him.

The sound of their begging, pleading for their lives as the men he had always considered his family rampaged through their homes, destroying everything in their wake.

He had felt a connection to Hattie, just like the other had, and just like the others, the voice inside his head assured him that he was doing the right thing...

But his conscious knew better.

Before shit had hit the fan, he had made a promise, an oath, to serve and protect. There were no stipulations as to who he was supposed to serve and who he was supposed to protect, and he felt so damn proud knowing that he was making a difference to those around him.

Like Salvatore, he tended to fade into the background. People always seemed to forget that he was there, so he tried so hard... so damn hard to fit in... to be happy, to be flirty, to be something that he wasn’t.

And now... now he didn’t know if he could take it anymore.

It was almost better for him to eat his gun than to keep going forward.

Hattie was unique... but he really didn’t know if she was so special that he had to change everything about him to fit in.

As if Salvatore could hear his thoughts, the other man sat up from where he was sleeping beside him. All six of them were sleeping out in the open, under the bright stars in the sky, without a care in the world.

So far, they had yet to come across someone who was on par with them, and that was making them cocky...

Another thing he couldn’t stand.

"Go back to sleep," grunted Max, not even bothering to look at his best friend. He already knew exactly what Salvatore was thinking.

There was never any question as far as that man was concerned. The second he had laid eyes on Hattie, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was the only one for him. In fact, Max had seen it in Salvatore’s eyes more than once, the desire to kill all of them so he could keep the girl for himself.

How was that healthy? How could any sane person stand there and think about killing the men who had had his back more than anyone else.

They knew her less than 48 hours... and it was like a lifetime of bonding fell apart.

"Not worthy," sneered Salvatore before he laid back down and rolled away so that is back was facing Max.

That slap across the face was more than what Max could take at the moment, and yet it showed perfectly just how fucked in the head Salvatore was.

"He’s not wrong," murmured Dimitri as he sat in front of the fire. The large flames had died back significantly, leaving only a small, smoldering source of heat and light. "You really are not worthy."

"Fuck off," snarled Max, no longer caring about waking up his brothers. "You don’t get a say in any of this... you are not one of us."

"I’m not?" chuckled the voice that Max knew as well as his own. The expression on Dimitri’s face shifted slightly, just enough for the other man to know he was talking to his brother and not the demon. "He be more one of us dan yous are."

Max sneered at that, but he refused to be brought into a conflict that he was going to lose. Once again, the top three shat on the bottom four. And with Réne gone, that meant that everyone was expected to bow to Dimitri and Luca...

Which was something that he refused to do anymore.

"You don’t feel bad?" sneered Max as he struggled to control his emotions. The ground under them shook slightly as his temper started to expand. "The senseless deaths? The innocent who just wanted to live? What about them?!?"

"Senseless deaths? Innocents?" mused Luca as he, too, sat up. "I hate to break it to you, but in a world burning to ashes, only the monsters survive. Hell, I would almost say that we were doing them a favor. We didn’t rape the women, we didn’t eat the children, we went in and offered everyone the same option. Is it really our fault that they didn’t make the right decision?"

"So virtuous," sneered Max. "Just because we didn’t rape or eat them, that makes us the good guys? Fuck you."

"Imma sorry," grunted Désiré, joining in the discussion. "Since when haves we been de good guys?"

"Since before the zombies came?" reminded Max. "When we put on the badges and swore to protect everyone? When we ran toward the gunshots, when everyone else ran away? When Réne took a bullet, so an innocent bystander didn’t?"

Ronan stretched his arms over his head and cracked his neck from side to side. "Yous worse dan a chick," he sneered, turning to Max. "Yous only remember de good times... and dey only remember de bad."

"Remember whens we went to dat restaurant to eat somethin’ between calls and dey refused to serve us?" sneered Désiré. "Remember whens I took a bullet for a kid and de mere accused me of hurtin’ ’er son because I knocked ’im to de ground?"

"Remember when we were written up because a member of the public who Réne was trying to save claimed we were all sexually assaulting her?" interjected Luca. "Not everything is cut and dry, black or white. Everything in life is done in a shade of grey with three sides to every story."

"I know," sneered Max, already giving up. "I heard the same speeches you have." And this was the perfect example of why he never bothered to really speak up or against Luca. He had a way of twisting all your arguments until you looked like the stupid one. "What’s the point? It’s not like you guys care what I am going to say anyway."

"If that is how you feel, then you are free to leave," replied the demon living rent-free in Dimitri’s body. "No one’s keeping you here against your will."