Love and Decay by Rachel Higginson

We’d stayed with
Diego and gathered our strength and muscle again. After our
Colombia exodus, we had been road-ravaged and beyond exhausted.
Diego’s had been a safe haven of sorts.
    For the first time in our lives, we didn’t
have to worry about the constant threat of Feeders invading our
peace and destroying our happiness. Diego’s caging practices had
given us relief from the insistent fight and rest from never-ending
anxiety. It was nice.
    Just for a little bit.
    But it was also too easy to get sucked into
the perks of it. And it was way too easy to forget that on a moral
level, we didn’t agree with Diego.
    We were a kill or set free kind of people. We
didn’t believe in capturing Zombies and using them for personal
gain. We didn’t believe in manipulating the disease to our
advantage and prolonging the Feeders’ suffering by forcing them to
eat at our will.
    Even though Diego’s refuge had been near
nirvana for us, we couldn’t stay there forever because of this.
Despite his tempting invitation.
    I had to admit that even I had thought about
it. After the last several months my determination to kill Matthias
Allen had become somewhat muted. I needed energy again and my
strength back. I needed a few weeks to wrap my head around the
battle I was about to face and get my priorities in order. So while
I didn’t agree with Diego’s methods, I did appreciate them for a
short time. And nobody could argue that they weren’t
successful.
    Except for maybe the Feeders…
    But we’d left the horde safely locked away in
their prisons. We’d left the Territories behind too. We were back
to being our small unit of family, scientists and Colombians. Plus
a few temporary additions.
    Diego and a few of his men had decided to
accompany us across the border. They wanted to check out the Colony
for themselves. And I was pretty sure they were still making their
argument for us to stick with them.
    My brothers were making the opposite
argument. Hendrix and Nelson wanted Diego to join forces with Luke
and work together to take out Matthias Allen.
    Diego argued that he didn’t care what
happened to Matthias or the Colony as long as they didn’t interfere
with the Territories. We countered that Matthias was already
interfering with the Territories and it was only a matter of time
before he tried to invade.
    Diego added that he had us to stop them.
    We reasoned that it would be easier to defeat
Matthias if we had Diego’s armies on our side.
    This was the point of the conversation where
Diego reminded us his armies fought better on home soil, so we
should stay with him and fight Matthias away from the protection of
the Colony cities and supplies.
    And then it started all over again.
    This had gone on for weeks. Reagan and my
brothers had debated this with Diego almost constantly. And it
never went anywhere. My family would never back down. And Diego was
just as stubborn and set in his ways as we were.
    The problem was that we were right!
    He just didn’t’ see it yet.
    I was hoping once Diego met Luke, his opinion
would change. But only time would tell and the closer we got to
Luke’s base of operation, the more I doubted that Diego would stick
around.
    At this point, though… it was hard for me to
care what Diego decided. We were close now. So close. I could see
America in the distance. I could make out the line of battered
fence that once ran along the border between the two countries. I
could feel the closeness of destiny… the ever-increasing weight of
this mission I’d declared as my fate.
    Tingles shot down my arms as I looked at the
sun again, waiting for it to dip closer to the horizon. Soon.
    Soon, I would step back into the country of
my birth.
    Soon I would reclaim land that was intended
to be free. Land that was meant to offer hope and purpose and
liberty to all that stood on it and claimed it as theirs.
    Soon, I would risk my own freedom to fight
for a people that deserved peace… deserved justice… deserved