Chapter 3

"We'll need to talk sooner or later."

I turn.

It's him.  Alaric.

"Not now."

"If not now then when?"

"You got Valentina pregnant.  Why do you want to talk to me?"

"Maybe because what happened between you and me meant something to me," he explains.

"What?"

"Huh?"

"What did it mean Alaric?" I ask him.

He shrugs, "It meant.  Man...I...I don't know."

That was the problem.  He wanted to talk but he didn't know what he wanted to talk about.  I have to admit he's attractive.  I like him.  I have to admit I like him more than I should.

"Now's not the time," I state.

"Yeah, you clearly have someone whose looking for your attention," Alaric states.

He turns and nods a little bit.  I turn and notice who he is talking about.  It's Iggy.  Iggy is mad as hell that I'm talking to Alaric and he isn't hiding it.  Iggy screws up his face in the most Iggy way possible and nods.

"He's just my friend."

"You sure about that?"

"Are you jealous?" I ask.

Alaric bites his lower lip, "Maybe a little bit."

"Stop it," I respond.

I don't want to smile.  That's the last thing I wanted to do.  I should stay away from this guy.  He was no good for me but for some reason he just makes me want to smile so hard.

"It's OK.  I know your jealous of Luna.  The damn girl has been following me around ever since all this started.  I got a stalker on my hand."

That's when I get serious.

"Luna isn't the girl I'm worried about," I state, "I'm worried about your relationship with Valentina."

Shit gets serious.

"I'll deal with it..." he explains, "But what happened between us you can't say it meant nothing."

I think about it for a minute.  I think about how his touch felt.  I think about how good it was to have him near me.  I think about all that.  But right now too much is going on.  Right now I don't have that feeling.

"I'm going to check on Iggy."

I know he doesn't want to end the conversation.  We can't talk too long though.  He knows why.  People are starting to realize  we whisper to each other a lot more than before.  Iggy is realizing it.  I go sit next to him and he doesn't say anything about it initially but I know he knows.  Then there is Luna.  She follows Alaric around like a lost puppy wanting attention.  I had heard rumors about how she had pictures of him from all his football games pinned in her locker.  You would think after she discovered him with another guy that she would fall back about it.  Maybe after she found out that he had gotten another girl pregnant.   Maybe even after he showed no interest in her.  That wasn't the case though.  Even now she looks like a bitch in heat every time Alaric is around.   I understood he was hot.  Hell he was far from your normal looking teenage boy, but at the same time I couldn't see putting my pride aside for a boy who showed me no love at all.

"You OK Iggy?"

I know when Iggy is clutching onto his rosary beads with them hanging from his bottom lips that things aren't going well.  He used to get like that before most of his football games.  The bus drive to the hospital is the most awkward one ever.  Everyone is silent.  Everyone but Michael Austin.

Michael is making wild noises.  The kind of noise a dog makes when it's being put down.  He's wincing at pain one minute and then the next minute he's scratching, scraping, biting wildly at anyone he sees.  We keep him on the back of the bus.  The rest of us move to the front.  Mr. Drake watches him but I don't think any of us feel good about being on the same bus as this thing.

"We should have cellphone coverage by now.  Don't you think?  There's roads everywhere.  Where's the cellphone coverage? No bars.  None.  0.  This some bullshit. I feel like a caveman."

"Fuck your bars.  Are YOU ok?"

"Besides the fact that Michael Austin is a zombie?" Iggy asks.

"Don't say that."

"I mean let's be honest."

"Zombies aren't real.  You watch too much damn tv, Iggy.  I told you about that.  That shit eats at your brain."

"Not the only thing."

"What?"

"Not the only thing that is going to eat at my brain."

I shake my head.  I look back at Michael Austin.   He's staring a couple rows up at Zoe and Valentina.  Both girls look scared to death.  I don't blame them.  We were trying with someone who was acting like some sort of animal.  I didn't get it.

"He'll be ok."

I say that because it's Iggy.  The same boy that grew up with me and used to fight Michael Austin back when I was 9 years old and Michael Austin wanted to steal my lunch.  I say that because he was the first guy that I knew.  He was the first man that I loved.  My father was never in my life.  He'd run off.  Some dead beat.  My mother had raised me.  My mother and Iggy.  And I wanted to protect his feelings.

What I don't realize is that Iggy was trying to protect mine the whole time as well.

"I don't give a shit about Michael Austin," he responds, "He's a fake friend.  Right now my concern is getting you and Valentina home in one piece.  That's all I care about.  That's all that matters.  And one piece does not mean that my sister is pregnant with..."

He can't even say it.  Ignacio is so upset right now that he sighs deeply clutches his beads and bites down so hard that I swear he is going to break them.

"He's looking this way."

I turn and see him.  Alaric West.  His skin is the color of toasted sand.  His eyes are slightly grey today.  The perfect neutral tone between black and white.  Between love and hate.  I'm not sure what I feel about this guy when he stares over at me for a second with those eyes.  It's almost as though he knows we're talking about him even though he's at the front of the bus with Michael Power.

That's when Iggy stares at me, "He's looking at you..."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Not being ridiculous.  He's staring at you."

Was he?  Usually Alaric was the kind of guy to take charge.  The leader type.  Ever since Valentina announced that she was pregnant he got quiet.  I guess what do you do when you are going to be a teenage father.  I'm not sure he even thought about it yet.  You would think that would be on his mind.  Maybe even the snarling, drooling rabid dog that Michael Austin had become would be more important.  But for a moment I swear he looks, right at me.  As if I'm the only one on the bus.

And I hate that it makes my heart beat so much faster.

"He isn't shit."

I say that because I want to believe it.  I want to believe I don't give a shit about him. Maybe I want to make Iggy feel better.  It does make Iggy feel better.

He taps me on my back.

"That's what I like to hear.  I'm glad you haven't drunk the Kool-Aid.  As soon as we get back to Savannah we are getting that baby taken care of," Iggy states.

"Wait, now, Iggy what are you talking about---"

"I'm talking about my sister has a future.  A real future.  I'm not going to let some wannabe child star come into our lives and fuck things up.  I go hard about the people I love.  You know that," he tells me, "And I'm going to deal with this issue...one way or another."

The look in Iggy's eyes makes me nervous as he turns away.  I don't want to push him for more information on what he means but I know Iggy means business.  He never liked Alaric.  He called Alaric a leach millions of times before.  Now that leach had Iggy about to snap and I was nervous.  Real nervous.

I get up and make my way over to Mitch.  Iggy is freaking me out.

"I'm scared," I admit to Iggy.

I look over at Iggy.  He still has that glazed over look.  All I can think about is what he is going to do if Valentina refused to have an abortion.  What the hell was Iggy willing to do.  My heart is beating.  Those two were my heart.

"Is something happening that you want to tell me about?"

I think about telling Mitch.  I think about telling him about what happened between me and Alaric.  But truth was I didn't know what happened between me and Alaric in that cave.  Was Alaric gay?  Was he just curious?  Did he even know what was going on when it happened?  All I knew was that we were both scared and lost.  We found comfort in each other.  Luna caught us.  And what about Luna.  Would she tell?

What was the point of keeping it from Mitch if Luna spilled the beans first?

Would Valentina hate me forever?

"Nothing," I respond.

I feel like an asshole for hiding this from Mitch.  He confided so much with me but this was different.  My relationship with Valentina was so precious and he never could really understand it.  All I knew was that we had to get back to Savannah as soon as possible.

Luckily we were pulling up to the hospital now.

The driver, Quest, pulls up to the emergency room.  We expect to see some paramedics running out of the ER to help out but that isn't the case.  No one runs out of the ER.

"It's empty..."  Zoe Alexander announces.

She's right.  There is a silence in the air at the hospital.  We are in the middle of no-where but I'd still expect people to be visiting a hospital.  All the cars in the parking lot are parked.  No.

They aren't parked.

"The cars are abandoned," I notice.

I scare Mitch at that moment.  He looks at me.  The kid is shaking.  He's scared shitless.  I don't blame him.  What in all fuck was happening out here.

That's when Quest goes to the door.  He starts opening it.

"BACK THE FUCK UP!"

I turn at that moment and notice a security guard.  He runs up to us at that moment as soon Quest starts to get off the bus.  The security guard looks at us and he has this vision of pure fucking fear in his eyes.  I'm not sure what the hell he thinks we are but you would think we were a group of criminals fresh out of the county instead of a school bus full of teenagers.

"Yo---chill the fuck out..." Quest states.

Quest isn't like the guys in our school.  I don't know him but I can tell he has this hoodlum way about him.  Just the way he speaks.  He doesn't look how he sounds.  He's an attractive guy.  Sharp haircut, straight white teeth and clear skin but he sounds like he is a gangster straight out of the bowels of GA.

"I said stand the fuck back."

"This is a public hospital," Quest argues back.

"STAND BACK!"

Just at that moment the security guard takes out a gun!  He points the gun at Quest.  Then I realize how scared the guard is.  He's shaking.  He's fucking shaking as he's pointing it at Quest.  Everyone on the bus screams.  It's the first time most of us have seen a gun.  It's damn near the first time most of us had a gun pointed anywhere near us.

Mr. Drake is the adult in the situation.  He steps in front of Quest.  He puts his hand out and raises them towards the guard to let us know that no one is armed.

"Listen we just want some help," Mr. Drake says, "I have a bus full of scared kids.  They are scared shitless."

"Anyone sick?"

"What?"

"Anyone sick?"

"No shit motherfucker," Quest says, "Why else would we be at a hospital dumbass?"

He was a hot head.  It was clear that this guy Quest was a fucking hot head.  I just want to tell him to shut the fuck up because he's making the security guard more and more nervous.  Maybe he doesn't realize how the security guard's hand is shaking the way it is.  Quest grabs his crotch and I swear he throws up a gang sign.  He starts speaking all crazy to the guard in the next few minutes and I can tell things are getting heated.

I look over at Mitch.  He looks over at me.

There is a feeling something is about to go down.

Where the fuck did they find the camp aides?  The local juvenile detention center?

"You want to die?" the security guard asks Quest, "You want to die?"

I swear this is happening right now.  My heart is racing.  I don't know what to do.

"Someone's sick!"  I scream.

I don't know what else to do.  This seems to get the security guard off of Quest and his attention is on me.

"Who?  Show me."

"Will you help him?"

"Of course.  It's a hospital," the security guard tells me, "Show me."

We take him to the back of the bus.  The security guard takes a look at Michael Austin.  He's getting worse and worse.  Looking at him now Michael's skin is damn near coming off.  And that's when it happens.

That's when he shoots!

He shoots Austin right in the middle of his fucking head!

"What the fuck?"

Zoe is screaming at this point.  Valentina is crying.  Mitch has jumped underneath his fucking seat.  I'm shocked at what just happened.  I watch as Michael Austin's body goes completely limp when he gets shot.

"What the fuck did you do?" Michael Power states.

Him and Alaric look like they are about to go after the security guard but the security guard waves his gun wildly at them scaring him off.

"Back off!  Back off! You hear me?  I won't say it again.  You put your hands up.  You stand over there!  I'm not going to say it twice.  NOW!  Move!  GO!  Go.  Good.  Good.  Now.  This is what we are going to do.  Show me who else is sick.  Which one of you motherfuckers is sick?"

The guard looks like an off duty cop.  I can tell by how he holds his gun.   Ignacio and I loved watching cop shows growing up.  We used to pretend to be Starsky and Hutch.  This cop is scared shitless.  He's acting crazy.  He is waving his gun from person to person.  Mr. Drake tries to get in front of him and talk calm.  None of that works.  The cop is just waving his gun around.

"Whose sick?" the cop asks repeatedly, "Whose sick?  Who!  Are you?  What's in that bag?  Is that throw up?  That's throw up."

He is pointing at Valentina!

"She's pregnant," Alaric attempts to defend her.

"No she's not.  No. She's sick!  Sick!"

He aims his gun at Valentina!

My heart skips a beat.  I don't know what else to do.  I just charge forward as fast I can tackling the cop as hard as I can.  The gun goes off a few times but manages to fall between the seats.  The cop punches me square in the face, chiseling my jaw.  I can feel the pain shoot through but all I know is this person was trying to hurt Valentina and I couldn't let that happen.

He punches me again and again.  I struggle to fight him off but he gets on top of me.  That's when I hear it.

BANG!

The cop releases me.

It isn't by his own free will though.  He releases me because he gets shot.  It isn't until his heavy body hits the middle of the floor that we all hear this heavy thud.  It becomes clear that the cop is dead.  He is completely dead.

I turn and notice who shot the cop.

It was Ignacio.

"Holy shit Iggy," I state.

Ignacio just looks down at the cop.  He has no emotion in his face.  He looks over at me.

"You OK?"

"Yeah.  Yeah I'm OK."

"That's all that matters," Ignacio states, placing the gun in his pants.

~

Ignacio has always dealt with fear a little different than other people.  He never really worried.  Valentina was careful.  She worried until things got resolved.  Ignacio wasn't that type of person though.  He never rushed.  He took his time.  He thought about it.  He prayed about it and then he made whatever decision he thought was right.

"Mr. Drake asked me to get your gun," I tell Iggy.

Iggy looks up at me, "He would send you huh?"

I nod, "Yeah he doesn't want any issues..."

"You mean he doesn't want me killing anyone else."

"Basically."

"No.  No he can't have my gun."

I sigh and take a seat next to him, "I told him you would say that.  Figures.  Promised I'd try though.  It was self defense.  You know that right?"

He nods.

"I promised your mom I'll bring you back in one piece," he states, "I plan on keeping that promise.  So no.  I have no regrets.  Tell Drake he can fuck himself.  Where are we headed now."

"Savannah."

"Bet there are cops waiting for me there.  Bet he told them what I did.  Fuck it.  At least I can say I got you two home."

"I don't think he'll call the cops."

Drake had taken Michael Austin's body out of the car.  He had them remove the cops body.  He left them in front of that hospital and he drove off himself like a bat out of hell.  Something had Drake spooked.  We all saw it.  Mr. Drake wasn't surprised at the cops behavior.  He seemed so calm and expected it.  He hadn't gone up to talk to Ignacio himself either.  He was acting weird, but then again we were all acting weird.

"If he does I need you to take care of Valentina."

"Don't say shit like that."

"I'm just saying.  No one else I trust more than you," he states.

He grabs the back of my neck and pulls me close.  Some people looking in would have thought he was going to kiss me.  I knew better.  Iggy likes to do stuff like this.  He likes to butt his head up against mine.  Our foreheads hit one another.  I can smell his cool breath up against my face and listen to the steadiness of his breathing.  We sit there for a few minutes.

It isn't until Mr.  Drake stops the car and announces, "Gas stop!"

We are almost to Savannah but it's night time.  I can tell Drake is nervous and the rest of us don't feel good about it either.  A handful get off the bus.  A handful don't.  I keep Ignacio close.  I don't want anyone messing with him or saying something out of the way about what happened.  I wanted to be there to make sure I took his side.

We find outselves in the gas station store.  It's empty.  The lights are on but no one's there.

"Free food, I guess," he states grabbing some chips and throwing a can of soda towards me, "Grab something for Valentina."

I open the can of soda, "So first you a murderer and now you're a thief."

Ignacio punches me hard in the arm. HARD as fuck before giving me an evil eye, "Don't start with me.  You know what happens when you do."

I sigh unable to feel my arm.  I don't realize at that moment that someone else walks into the store.  I look over and see none other than Alaric.  Alaric looks at us.

Ignacio looks back.

The tension is thick.

"Didn't mean to bother...whatever the two of you have going on here," he states.

I don't like how he says that.  It's almost implying something was going on that we didn't want anyone to see. That wasn't the case.  It was just me and Ignacio doing our daily thing where Ignacio showed off his pure strength.

"What is it bro?" Iggy asks him.

Iggy is short with Alaric.  Real short.  Other times he faked the funk.  He had to during other times.  They were on the same team.  The coaches weren't there now.  No one was around forcing them to work together.  This time it was clear from Iggy's body language how he felt.

I'm surprised when Alaric doesn't act turned off by it.

"I wanted to thank you guys for saving Valentina on that bus."

"That's our sister, of course we would help her," Iggy responds.

I love how Iggy refers to Valentina as OUR sister.  He never skips a beat with making me feel like I'm accepted.  We may not be the closest lately but the love was still there.  He stands there challenging Alaric letting Alaric know he's the outsider.  I don't' know why I feel a little bad for Alaric.  I assume he came over here trying to be nice but he's met with the biggest cold shoulder.

"Well what you did...don't feel bad about it."

"I don't need you telling me how to feel.  I do what I do to protect my fam.  And if...anyone...fucks with my sister they'll get the same treatment."

Iggy sounds cold.  Calculated.

Angry almost...

Alaric turns to me, "And you.  You were...amazing.  Didn't know you had it in you."

He smiles at me.

I don't want to smile back especially in front of Iggy but I can't help it a little bit.

"Didn't know I had it in me myself."

"Well...you're amazing..."

He looks at me.  I look at him.  There is a pause.  A real pause.  He means it when he says it and for a minute he ropes me in.  He's pulling at my heart strings.

"Anything else you wanted to say man?"  Iggy cuts off Alaric.

Alaric looks at me.  He bites his lips. He opens his mouth as though he wants to say something to me but stops short when Iggy clears his throat hurrying Alaric up.  Alaric turns away from me and towards Iggy.

"I know you don't like me."

"I got no problem with you," Iggy states.

"We can cut the bull.  God knows what's happening out here.  You don't like me.  I don't like you.  But all three of us have something in common.  We want to keep Valentina safe.   If something happened to her or that baby..."

"What makes you think something won't happen to that baby?" Alaric asks.

"Excuse me?"

"Iggy please..." I start.

Iggy isn't having it.  He looks over at Alaric and makes it very clear, "My sister is going to have an abortion as soon as we get back to Savannah."

"That's not your decision."

"That's my sister."

Shit is getting heated between the two.  Really heated.  It doesn't take any time for Iggy to get in Alaric's face.  I swear I think he's going to hit him.  I don't know who would win either.  Both boys have amazing bodies.  Both boys were strong as hell.  Both boys had that tough Quarterback thing going on for them.  They both were leaders in a way.  They were both Alphas.  They weighed almost the same.  They could easily go toe to toe with one another if they wanted to.

A part of me was curious who would win but I couldn't let something like that go down.

"Stop guys, please..."

It falls on deaf ears.

Iggy gives him a look, "You will never have a baby with my sister.  I put that on my life.  You funny acting piece of shit."

"Funny acting. Wow..."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Oh yeah I do.  Do you want to go there?  We can go there if you want to go there."

I'm not sure what the two are talking about.

"You think I'm scared of your fucking threats man?" Iggy asks, "You don't scare me.  I don't like your ass.  And my sister does what I tell my sister to do.  She's going to leave you. She's going to get rid of that baby."

"You bitter piece of shit."

"I'm bitter but you know I'm right.  And you just can't take it," Iggy replies.

"We both know what this is really about..."

That's when I see something.  Screams outside.  The others outside are panicking about something.  I'm not sure what it is but I can hear Zoe's scream from anywhere.  It pierces the air.  Something is happening outside.  Something horrible.

"Guys...something's happening outside..."

"No.  It's time we let Sunday know what this beef between us is really about," Alaric responds to Iggy.

"Yo---you better not be talking about what I think you're talking about," Iggy responds.

I could care less what they are talking about.  People are running towards the store.  My heart is beating.  Something is happening outside.  I open up the blinds when I see what is chasing the others into the store.  I see the hills in the distance being blanketed.  People moving towards us.  Almost like a slow march.

But not a regular movement.

No this was different.

This movement was like Michael Austin.  Slow with twitching fast nervous reactions.  They move towards the bus.  They are coming from all sides.

Alaric and Iggy are so heated in their debate they don't even see it.

"We used to be friends didn't we?  Best friends when I first moved here in fact.  Remember that night we got real drunk..."

"I swaear to god I'll kill you," Iggy threatens Alaric.

Alaric is beyond being threatened.  He seems angry.

"Remember we were playing that game.  On three...we'd say the person we would have sex with that no body would expect.  No cheating.  That was the rules.  We'd say the name at the same time so no one had to go first.  On three.  Remember that game.  1..."

I  look over "The others are coming..."

Alaric ignores everyone, "2..."

"You better not," Iggy responds.

"They are all around the store," I'm trying to warn them, "Help me get the doors for the others.  Those things.  Those zombies.  They have us surrounded.  We can't even get to the bus."

"3..." Alaric said before turning to me, "Sunday.  That's what we both said Iggy.  We both admitted that we had a crush on Sunday."

My mouth drops right before Mr. Drake and the others come running into the store.  They lock themselves in pushing anything they can find in front of the door.  I should be frightened.  I am frightened because I look at Iggy and I realize what Alaric just stated and realize what that things between me and the boy that I looked at as my older brother would be changed forever.

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