Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 425: Wants To Kill Me

The smile remained perfectly pleasant on Luca’s face as he walked through the main market of the Sanctuary. People called out to him, waving him over or telling him that they had something new for him to see. Everything was absolutely perfect... even the imperfect were perfect.

Humans who seemed to be unhealthily skinny still had a glow about them as if they were at their peak of health. The dirt on clothes seemed to be almost intentionally placed, like the people wearing the clothes purposefully put it there, hoping to appear dirtier than they were.

"Luca, right?" smiled one woman as she almost skipped toward him. "I hear that you are going to be put in charge of the soldiers as Eric’s second in command. My brother is a soldier." The woman held up an apple in front of his face like she was the wicked witch, even as she looked like a princess.

"This is?" murmured Luca, his smile firmly in place even as hers made his skin crawl.

"It’s an apple, silly," smirked the woman. Picking up Luca’s hand that was hanging by his side, she turned his palm until it was facing up and placed the apple on the flat surface. "I’m Bella."

"And he’s not interested," chuckled a very familiar voice. Luca could feel his heart beating at her closeness, like every part of him was just waiting for her to arrive, but his actual body flinched slightly as he felt her hand on the small of his back.

"Alicia," smiled Bella, tilting her head to the side. "Funny seeing you here."

"I was looking for my—Luca," replied Alicia, her smile just as bright as Bella’s. "He’s late for a meeting."

"I see," nodded the other woman. "Then I guess I’ll have to let him go then... for now."

Alicia nodded her head with a hum before pulling Luca in the opposite direction. Looking over his shoulder, Luca could still see Bella staring at him, rooted in her original spot.

"You are not allowed to talk to other women, do you understand me?" hissed Alicia. The command in her voice caused Luca’s back to straighten even as his mouth opened to respond.

"Of course," he said, the words being pulled from his lips. "Your w—command is absolute."

For Luca, it was almost like an out-of-body experience. He could hear himself saying the words, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop them.

Alicia narrowed her eyes on him for a second before nodding her head. "I know that you try to make everyone happy, but I need you to only concentrate on me, okay? You’ve been acting differently lately, and I... I’m scared that you are going to leave me. You are too much of a good guy, and I’m scared that..."

She purposefully trailed off, her sentence hanging between them even as she looked over at him. "I am yours," replied Luca.

It was weird. The words sounded and felt so familiar, like it was a daily chant for him, but at the same time, saying them to this woman made him feel sick. The juxtaposition was getting so bad that Luca was contemplating carving out his own heart to see what was wrong with it.

"Sorry," grunted Luca after the silence had continued on for too long. "I really am sorry for making you feel like that," he continued, the words tasting like ashes on his tongue.

"You know what they say; a hero will let his lover burn to save the world," smiled Alicia sadly as she weaved her arm into his and pulled him forward. "I love that you are the hero, I love that you want to save the world, I’m just scared that you are going to give in to Réne’s demands and cut me from your life."

"Never," replied Luca, the word coming out of him so forcefully that he almost lurched forward. Clearing his throat, Luca continued. "I will never let Réne come between us."

It was strange... those words felt like truth.

The pounding in his head was starting to become so bad that his eyes were blurring. Something was wrong, he knew it... both sides of him knew it...

But for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what it was.

"Where is the voice in my head?" he asked as he and Alicia approached the ’City Hall’ tower of the New Dawn Sanctuary. It had actually taken him a long time to realize that the voice in his head was completely absent.

"Oh," shrugged Alica as she pushed Luca up the stairs. "I cured you of that a long time ago. No voices tell you to do something that you don’t want to do. Isn’t that amazing? You must notice a big difference. I know it took you a while to get used to it the first time, so don’t worry about it too much."

Once again, the truth and the lies were so interwoven in her words that it was hard for Luca to distinguish the two, but his mind had no problem doing it. "Sorry," smiled Luca, patting Alicia’s hand where it was resting on his arm. "I know I must be frustrating you with all my questions. I just don’t know who else to ask."

"You could never frustrate me," assured Alicia as she opened the door to the fifth floor. This time, she led the way, pulling Luca behind her. "I am happy that I am the first person you think about. You need to keep that up, and I’ll never be insecure again."

"It’s my fault that I made you feel that way in the first place," assured Luca. "I’ll need to be better at making sure that you’ll never have to question how I feel again."

Before Alicia could reply, the door to the conference room opened and Réne stuck his head out. "Hurry up. If you are going to call a meeting, you should have been the first one here."

His tone was brisk, like he was actually angry at Alicia, but Luca had never seen that happen before. Réne, being the house of cards that he was, would have folded if Alicia so much as slightly frowned at him. In fact, there were so many times that Luca and the guys had waited hours for her, and Réne didn’t even so much as ask her where she was.

"He hates me," sighed Alicia when Réne disappeared again. "I think he wants to kill me."