Dead Set - Book 2 of a Zombie Reverse Harem

Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

BLAKE SANDERS

I didn't feel good about breaking into the men's clothing store down the street from where we had parked. I could tell it was a small family business and I didn't want to cause any of the surviving owners any more grief than what they're already going through. Of course that is on the understanding that they had survived. I also knew that even if we did overcome the end of the world, the damage to the economy was irreparable. Still I didn't feel good about it.

Rather than putting through a window or busting the door jam. I chose to go around the back again and jimmy one of the smaller windows that led into a store room. Hauling my huge bulk through the tiny opening proved difficult but it went a long way to ease my guilty conscience at the intrusion.

Grabbing a pair of black jeans, a grey henley and clean underwear I threw a hand full of blood stained dollars onto the counter before searching to find a bathroom. I had done the same at the grocery and liquor store even though I was pretty sure no one was coming back. I may be a monster but only to the ones that deserved it.

Finding the small bathroom tucked in the back next to the storeroom I had just crawled into, I left the door wide open to let the light in from the store front. Without a window the small room was eerily dark.

Catching my reflection in the small mirror, I cringed. For once my outside finally mirrored the monster I was on the inside. Blood and gore clung to my skin and clothes as if they were a part of me. The stench of death and decay oozing from my every pore and filling the tiny room, reminding me of the sweet carnage that I had just created. Even though Damian had been in control, I was wholly present, front and centre for the cathartic massacre.

Guilt should be eating away at me for what I had just done, but truth be told I felt more remorse over breaking into this little shop than I did for the hundred or so people I had just cut down. Granted they were infected and by their rotted appearance, they were way beyond saving. At least now the traps had been "dismantled" and the stores were now safe for any other traveller that needed reserves.

Scooping my hands under the running tap, rinsing away the evidence of my rampage as I poured the ice cold water over my face and head. Almost like a baptism, freeing myself of the burdensome anger that had filled me since childhood. I felt lighter after every pass of the water.

Stripping out of my clothes, I threw the sopping mess into the corner of the room, saving my underwear -which had been spared from the congealed blood- to use as a rag to wash down my body enough, until I can get back to the cabin for a proper shower. The enticement of hot water and a hot body waiting for me had me hurrying through my wash. Now that I'd purged myself of the slaughterous cravings from deep within my soul, it was now replaced with a new craving. A craving that only a petite redhead could give me. My dick grew hard as I thought about taking her, rough and hard.

Using the hand soap and my underwear, I cleaned myself from head to toe before quickly getting dressed. I had purged. I felt good. And now I wanted our girl to sink into and then hopefully sleep away the exhaustion that laid deep in my muscles and bones.

Connor was making his way back to the truck at the same time as I was, carrying a heaving bag and a shit eating grin to match. I guess his expedition had proved fruitful.

"Got everything we need and more!" He announced proudly, lifting up the bag to show me, before throwing it in the back seat with the rest of our haul.

"Good. Now home." I grumbled like the caveman I was. Ready to get home and see our woman. Connor's brows knitted in confusion as I climbed into the passenger side instead of driving. I always drove. It was part of my need to control everything around me. But not today. Not now. I needed to let go of the reins I've been holding so tightly to for so long. Even if just for a minute. I was exhausted and I wanted to enjoy the freedom I had just found through letting go for however long it lasted.