Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse
Chapter 42: Helping Them To Their Deaths

Chapter 42: Helping Them To Their Deaths

"What are you doing to her?" demanded Elizabeth as she gently took me from Jennifer’s leg and brought me into her embrace. "You are scaring the poor child!"

"I’m scaring her?!?" demanded Jennifer. I could hear the incredulous note to her voice and I could picture her waving her finger at me. "That fucking bitch took a chunk out of my leg! I’m hurt and bleeding, and you are more worried about that freak? What about me!?"

"Jennifer, just stop," sighed Elizabeth softly as she came to her feet, picking me up as if I weighed nothing at all. I mean, I knew I was small, but she was treating me like I was a toddler or something.

But I was smarter than to question her. Resting my cheek on her shoulder, I fought back a smirk. It was nice to have an actual mom on my side.

"You are a grown woman. I had asked you to wake her up so that we don’t keep the men from leaving when they want. Just what were you doing that made her react like that?" I felt Elizabeth shaking her head in frustration as she turned around and started walking away.

Hearing Jennifer screaming in frustration as she stomped her foot made me happy. The sound of her being hit and falling to the ground...

That was priceless.

"I’m too heavy for you," I murmured after a moment. "I can walk. I don’t want to be a burden."

"Oh, sweetie," purred Elizabeth, stroking my head for a moment. "You aren’t a burden. But you might want to stay away from Jennifer for a bit until she forgets about you. She is the favorite one right now, so we all have to be careful."

"Are you going to be in trouble because of what I did?" I asked. I didn’t have to fake the concern in my voice. Elizabeth was quickly becoming my favorite human, next to the guys, and I didn’t know what I would do if something happened to her.

I had to protect her, but how? I sucked at fighting, and the men in the camp towered over me and definitely outweighed me.

Then I remembered all the guns that went into Teddy at the police station. It didn’t take a genius to know how to pull the trigger, and enough bullets could take down anything.

Right. I now had the ability to protect those who were important to me. I would protect Elizabeth.

Feeling all confident in my plan as Elizabeth gently put me back on the ground, I realized that my arms were all empty.

Fucking hell! Where did Teddy go now!

That bear better not have up and walked away, or else I was going to give him a piece of my mind.

"He’s back on your wrist, mon ange," murmured Pride, and I felt him stroking my head just like Elizabeth had just a few seconds ago. "The second you let go of him in real life, he goes back to being the tattoo."

While he had sounded completely normal, there seemed to be something off about Pride. Even the way he was stroking my hair was different than usual.

"Are you sad?" I asked out loud.

"No, Sweetie," murmured Elizabeth as she took my hand and led me forward. "I’m happy I met you."

Nodding my head, I ignored the blush spreading over my cheeks. Right, I was around people now, I couldn’t reply to the voices in my head out loud.

"I don’t get sad," murmured Pride, and I could feel his lips pressing against my forehead. "I get even."

Cocking my head to the side, I tried to figure out what he was talking about. Reading my thoughts, Pride let out a long sigh. "I..." he started before stopping. "I picked the wrong thing," he finally hissed out like the confession was the worst thing to ever happen to him.

"I was wrong, and the others aren’t letting me live it down. I don’t like being wrong," he continued, sulking as he threaded his fingers through my own. With Elizabeth on one side of me and Pride on my other, I almost felt like I had a family.

’I’ll yell at the others,’ I offered, remembering this time to reply in my head. ’Everyone can be wrong once in a while.’

"I’ve never been this wrong before," hissed Pride, gripping my hand just a bit tighter. It was borderline hurting, but if the touch could soothe Pride, I wasn’t about to complain.

’Then I think you really are due,’ I chuckled. Feeling the heat from the fire in front of me, I let Elizabeth guide me to a large rock and sit me down.

"Stay here; I’ll get you some breakfast. You’ll have to be fast. We have five minutes before we are expected to line up again," she whispered in my ear, and I nodded my head dutifully.

I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, assessing me, trying to find my weakness.

One thing Pére had taught me was that you needed to show the weaknesses you wanted to show in order to hide the ones you didn’t want anyone to notice.

Everyone had a weakness, and those who liked control wouldn’t stop until they thought they had found yours. The trick was to show them only what you wanted them to see. "Elizabeth," I called out, my voice shaking.

I ’looked’ around the area for her, like I was scared to be by myself for even a second, and heard the huff of laughter from one of the men.

"She be righ’ back," called out the man I knew to be Jeremiah. "We’ll be makin’ sure she no leave you any time soon."

"Thank you," I called out, making my voice tremble. "You are so kind. Really. You have no idea how much I appreciate everything you are doing for me."

"I think you are a better con artist than Greed, mon ange," chuckled Pride, his voice whispering in my ear.

’It’s only polite to thank those who are helping you,’ I shrugged just as Elizabeth returned and put a plate in my hands. I was just relieved that Pride was happy again. I really, really hated it when he was upset.

"Helping you right to their deaths," agreed Pride. "That’s my good little angel."

I had no idea if I was going to bring death to the people around me, and except for Elizabeth, I really didn’t care. I was in it for their wishes... and they were about to be granted.