“Kane says you don’t approve of our wall decorations,” Matthias pressed, gesturing with his hands toward the rest of the school.
I immediately lost my appetite, remembering how Feeders lined the walls in those cramped locker spaces, how their boney arms reached out into the hallway, brokenly trying to stretch for me; how their horrific moaning sounds filled the air and clawed and scraped inside my head. No, I did not approve.
“They should be shot,” I answered simply. “They’re disgusting reminders of the peril we’re in, it’s cruel and dangerous for you and your people.
“My people know better than to get near them,” Matthias pointed out. “A small child would now better than to get near them. And what is so cruel about their treatment? Their minds and souls have vanished. The only thing they are capable of living for is their addiction to human flesh. Even in their wasted states where they can’t hold their own body weight up without the help of those steel bars, still they reach and hunger for flesh. It has consumed them until they are less than human, less than even animal, until they are a species of terrifying creatures all their own.”
“So put them out of their misery!” I argued with enthusiasm. “They were once humans. They were once someone’s father or mother, son or daughter. They were brothers and sisters and neighbors and bosses and employees. They had purpose in life, they had happiness and love. You are degrading them and decimating their memory! And their mind might be dead, but what about their soul? Their hearts still beat, their blood still pumps. How can you judge someone’s soul when they are technically still alive?”
Silence met me, heavy and meaningful. I had been holding Matthias’s intimidating gaze while I made my speech but while his fury rolled off him in waves I shot Kane a quick glance to gauge his reaction. I expected his anger to match his father’s, but instead I found surprise and…. something like admiration.
“Well, hells bells y’all,” Matthias finally declared and his face broke out with a huge grin. His eyes were still ice and accusation though when he finished in good-humor, “I do believe we have a free thinker on our hands.”
“Matthias,” Linley chided.
“Kane, you are one lucky man, son,” Matthias smiled affectionately at him. “Best to hold on to her, break that spirit as quick as you can.”
Miller snorted a laugh, making it his first contribution to the table. He actually looked amused at that. Little bastard.
I sat in a kind of stunned disbelief at Matthias’s outright rejection of different thoughts and ideas, but was gathering momentum quickly. I was like a building storm of wrath. I felt my emotions center and spike until I saw only red and felt only anger.
And then the strangest thing happened.
Kane put a hand on my shoulder.
The soft, simple gesture broke me from my spell and I turned in confusion to watch him address his father. “I’m not interested in a broken woman, father. I like Reagan’s spirit. I’m drawn to her spunk and defiance. She’s like the life that’s missing in this dead world, the fight that has depleted and rusted away. I would never take that away from her.”
His thumb was rubbing a path back and forth across my shoulder blade and his smile was warm and familiar. His gray eyes were like silver with their intensity and his strong, cleanly shaven jaw relaxed for the first time all day. He was the weirdest person I’d ever met.
And after knowing Hendrix, that was a feat he should win an award for.
I really, truly felt this intense disgust for him. But in this moment he seemed to transcend that somehow. Yes, I hated Kane. But I also didn’t hate him in this moment.
But in this moment only.
There was something more than hate, something like awe- but only because he perplexed me and I didn’t know how to read him or what to expect from him.
“How cavalier,” Matthias laughed. “My son, the gentleman.”
After the meal, the entire assembly- of more than a hundred civilians and an equal number of guards- helped clean up and finish the day’s chores. By the time Kane walked me back to his house, it was dark outside. The moon was bright in the sky tonight, illuminating our path as we walked slowly along the sidewalks.
I was anxious to get back to his house so that I could start my escape, but I matched his pace and strolled leisurely through the empty streets.
When his elbow brushed against my arm I jumped, just stifling a squeak of panic.
He misinterpreted my reaction and reassured an idled fear since we entered this part of Arkansas. “There’s no danger of Feeders here, Reagan. We cleared out all the land surrounding us and there are enough men walking the borders that no Zombie can get through.”