."Nathan has been gone since at least Monday."
"Three days? How have we not noticed?" Meaghan whispered.
"I don't know. I've been so busy with Mom and the fact that it's the anniversary of Becca turning I just haven't seen him."
"We're shitty friends."
"I have to find him." I grabbed a crate from one of the men and stacked it next to the rest.
"That's it," the ship's captain hollered from his deck.
I looked at the small pile that sat before me. "This is it? That can't be!"
"Aye, little lady."
"We had more last month," I informed him.
"Aye, everyone had more last month. Things are getting rough at the capitol."
"It's going to be winter soon! What are we going to do when it's snowing, and we can't go out to find patches of berries or nuts?"
"I'm sorry, missy." He put his cap back on and started his ship.
"Unbelievable," I mumbled to myself, staring at the meager pile of supplies.
The tiny shipment this month would never last. Food and supplies were running low everywhere. I feared for the winter. How many people will die this year? I shuddered at the thought. Winters were always rough, but we always had plenty of food. Not this year. I grabbed enough for my family. My mind was a million miles away, and I had to find Nathan. I knew they weren't going to be happy. I had no idea how I was going to tell them I was going out into the wild. Standing on the dock, I stared across the river. The steamship always created a tizzy amongst the undead. They walked up and down the banks of the river moaning and reaching out.
Occasionally one would fall in and be swept downstream. I imagined a small dam of undead somewhere down from us arms flailing as they reached out in search of fresh flesh.
The wild.
I laughed to myself. It used to be nothing more than part of the city. My college was out there. The best yogurt shop sat on a corner now overrun by undead and weeds. Outside our barricaded streets were nothing more than certain death for anything living that tried to traverse it. I hadn't been out there in years. Not since we put up the fence. Unlike Meaghan, I didn't risk it. I spent my shifts patrolling the streets and maintaining peace within our fortress.
I was terrified of becoming one of those things. I didn't want to die.
Why would Nathan go out alone? Why wouldn't he have told me! Or at least taken somebody with him. What was that man thinking?
I was so angry with him. I was so angry he'd put himself in danger and I was even angrier he made me worried. I spent the past four years blocked off from my emotions. Emotions were a dangerous thing now-a-days. Caring and worrying about someone meant getting yourself killed. In a world of undead it was them eat your neighbor or be eaten, and I wasn't about to be eaten. One major rule of the zombiepocalypse is that you don't fall in love. Emotions get you killed. Nathan made me very emotional. Now I had to find him even though it was the most foolish thing I'd ever done.
Chapter Five
Nathan's Missing
I stood outside the makeshift house staring into the small space passing as a living room. Mom sat in a chair knitting while Dad read a book he had read a hundred times while Sadie lay stretched out on her side sleeping. A deep sadness welled up in me. When I was younger I'd walked in on them sitting in the living room doing the exact same thing.
How do you tell them you're going out there again? They won't be happy. Mom always goes into such a spiraling depression.
Taking a deep breath, I walked through the door with a waning smile. I put the crate of food on the modest table in my family's new kitchen and lingered there for a few long moments. I grasped a can of mystery stuff. The label having been long gone. Despite having been there for four years, it wasn't home. It was just some place we were staying for the time being and Becca wasn't an undead. She was just off at another college or on vacation with her friends without me.
Nathan being missing quickly threw me back into reality. I was content being in the safety of the city. So, we lost a few luxuries, but we were alive. We were together. Well most of us were together. Either way it was well fortified. Mom smiled warmly and took the can from me. She was always so particular about organization. As Mom unpacked I grabbed my boots, more arrows for my quiver, and my leather jacket. I sat and unlaced my sneakers. My heart ached, and my stomach lurched.
What if you are too late?
"Why are you putting on your boots?" Mom stood at the table gripping one of the dented, rusting cans.
I didn't answer just pulled the boots on.
"What exactly are you doing?" Her voice went up an octave at my silence.
"Nathan's missing," I said softly, wiping at the tears that had made their way to the surface. I shrugged on my jacket and slung a bow over my back.
"Okay, so what are you doing?"
"I'm going to look for him." I pulled an extra magazine from the ammunition drawer and tucked it into my back pocket.
"Like hell you are!" she shouted, dropping a can of beans on the ground.
"I have to," I replied firmly. She wouldn't stop me. Nobody would. I was going to find Nathan no matter what it took. I'd drag his dead and lifeless body back after I put a bullet between his eyes if I had to.
"Why?" Dad asked, putting his book down and taking off his reading glasses.
"For one, he's my friend. Secondly, it's my job."
"Your job is to protect the city. Someone else can have the job of search and recover." He narrowed his eyes and waited for my argument.
"Who, Dad? He has no family here. I'm his best friend. Plus..." I put my pistols in the holster and took a deep breath. I hadn't told them about the promotion I had been given with the Safety Guards. "I'm the commander of the new search and rescue team that the chief put together."
"She had no right doing that!" Mom screamed at me. "There are others she can use. Why you? Why my only daughter?
"I'm a detective, mom and I'm his best friend. I'm not going to sit here and wait around for him to come back or someone to volunteer to go out there for him."
"Well you're not going out there." She scowled at me with red-rimmed eyes and a sob escaped her lips. My mother sank to the ground, her body lurching with each sob.
"Yes, I am."
"Like hell you are." Her composure slipped. Her hands shook, and the can fell to the floor.
"Mother, stop. I'm going."
"I forbid it."
"I'm an adult and I have a job."
"You live under my roof. It's my rules."
"What are you going to do? Ground me? Not let me watch T.V? Oh, wait that's right there's no T.V."
"Watch how you speak to your mother," Dad said sternly.
"I'm going to look for him." I turned and saw Meaghan standing in the doorway.
She sighed heavily. "I'm going with her."
"No, you're not," I told her.
"You don't control me, Emma."
"Meg, you can't." I tried to mimic my mother's finality. "You're not part of the s and r team."
"Yes, I can, and I am. We just have to stop by my place, so I can tell my folks."
"I'm not letting you go." Mom grabbed my arm looking up at me as giant tear slides down her cheeks.
I looked into her worn, frazzled face. Her once beautiful, bright hazel eyes were dull and lifeless. Her silky, brown hair was now gray. Little pieces stuck out of the braid here and there. Wrinkles had formed at the edges of her eyes and mouth. Mom had aged twenty years over the course of four.
"I'll be okay. I'm the best archer left." I smiled while hugging her.
"There's hardly anyone left! It's not hard to be the best at something now-a-days!" she wailed, holding on to me.
"Wow. Thanks, Mom."
"What if one of those things bites you?" Dad asked. "What's the plan then?"
His black hair was streaked grey, but his brown eyes still twinkled when he laughed, and his deep dimples popped. Laughing was a rare thing anymore. His forehead was p
ermanently folded in wrinkles. My parents looked for older than they should have.
"They won't. I'll get them before they get me."
"I can't lose my last child," Mom continued holding onto me.
"You're not losing me, but you can't expect me to lose Nathan."
"Why do you care so much?" Dad folded his arms over his chest and studied my face.
"Because I think I love him," I finally admitted. "What would you do if it were Mom? Would you just leave her out there to the elements? Would you let her turn into one of those things? Plus, I fucking love him. I love Nathan. All right. I'm admitting it. I love Nathan Ricks and I'm not about to let him die out there. "
"He's so much older than you!" Mom cringed.
"He's six years older. It's not that much. Plus, after spending almost every day with the same person for years they tend to grow on you. I'm not letting him be lost. I can't. My heart can-not handle not having him."
"What if he's already been bit?" Dad cocked his head to the side and bit his lip.
"He hasn't been bit. He's smart, he'll find somewhere to hide and wait."
"Then go in the morning," Mom begged.
"No, I have to go now. He may not have till morning."
"But you just said he's smart."
"He is, but I'm not going to leave him out there with the undead! I don't know how long he's already been out there. He may not have food or water."
Meaghan chewed the inside of her lip for a few seconds while staring at the floor before speaking up. "What if he's in the city?"
"He would have come to me by now."
"Maybe he's hurt."
"Then I'll go around and ask first. But this discussion is over. I'm twenty-four. I can make my own decisions." I turned and walked toward the door.
"Be safe." Dad kissed my cheek.
"You're okay with this?"
"No, but you have a point. If roles were reversed and your mother was out there I'd be going after her."
"You can't be serious!" Mom slammed her hands on the table as the tears continued to spill down her cheeks.
"Let the girl be. She has a good aim. She'll be fine."
I could hear Mom sobbing as I walked out the door. I hated doing that to her and it broke my heart, but I had to find Nathan.
"I'll meet you at the border in an hour."
"Alright. One hour," I called as Meaghan ran down the street.
I sucked in the crisp autumn air and looked up. The sky was so clear and the stars bright. There had been a time when you would never be able to see the stars so clearly from the city. That was a time when nobody bothered to look toward the heavens. Nobody had to worry, and we didn't live day by day with death a broken fence away.
I'm going to find you, Nathan. I promise. My heart was betraying me. He'd wiggled his way in and now I didn't want to, no, I couldn't live without him.
I decided the best place to start was the only public place open late at night; the only bar left. Amazingly there was so much booze in downtown alone it managed to stay open every night. Or it could be that there were so few people left. Every night it seemed there were less and less folks sitting around the bar. The torches out front cast eerie shadows across the street and sidewalk. I could hear guitars and drums inside and saw my only cousin strumming away, a younger guy beating on the drums, and some chick I'd never met was singing. I didn't recognize the song, but it was better than hearing zombie stories or zombie moans.
"Hey, Bill." I sat at the bar looking around at the ragged faces. None of them were Nathan's.
"Howdy, Emma. What can I get for you tonight?" He put a partially clean glass in front of me. The health codes long abandoned, people were just happy to have a whiskey. Anything to forget the pains of life.
"No drinks tonight. I'm on official business. Have you seen Nathan?"
"Not today. Now that I think about it doc hasn't been in for a few days. Is he alright?" he asked, noticing my bow and quiver.
"I don't know." I kept voice hushed. I didn't want everyone to know that he was gone yet.
"He didn't leave the city, did he?"
"It's looking that way." I sighed heavily.
"What's the plan then?"
I cast my eyes down at the fading wood bar.
"You don't plan on going out, do you?" he asked in disbelief.
"If I have to," I replied in such a defeated way.
"What if one of those things gets ya?"
"I don't know, but I'm worried about Nathan."
"You aren't waiting till morning to go after him are you, Emma?"
I shook my head.
"Who's going with you?"
"Meaghan."
He nodded his head a bit. "Sorry, hun. I have no idea what happened to him."
"Thanks, Bill. I'll see you around."
"A shot for the road?" he asked, pouring something amber colored into a glass and pushing it toward me.
"Why not? I could use some liquid courage right about now." I picked up the glass and gulped it down.
My throat and chest burned as the liquid rushed through my body. "What the hell was that?"
"Whiskey. It'll put hair on your chest." Bill smiled.
"I'm a woman. I don't want hair on my chest." I coughed.
"Figure of speech, darlin." He laughed. "Before you go. Take this."
He reached under the counter and produced an enormous machete.
"Bill, I can't take that."
"Take it. You'll need it more than I will. How much trouble can I get into behind a bar?"
"But what will you have if something happens?" I asked.
"What is going to happen in the day or two you're gone?" A sly grin appeared, and he pulled out a large shotgun. "Plus, I have this."
"Alright, I guess that works." I grabbed the machete from him and tucked it into my belt.
"Why are you going out for him?"
"He would do the same for me."
"The only reason a man would risk turning into one of those or being eaten is if he loved a girl."
"A girl would do it for the same reason." I looked up at him wearily. I was really professing my love today.
"Then you find him, and you bring him back."
"That's the plan."
"Ah, young love during the zombiepocalypse. Nothing finer. Good luck," he said, tipping his worn fedora.
"Thanks, Bill."
I slunk out of the bar and headed down the street. I grasped the handle of the large knife tucked in my belt. It smacked off my hip with each step I took. There weren't many people on the streets, but I asked everyone I passed if they'd seen Nathan. Some knew him, some didn't. Those who didn't know him had no reservations in telling me I was crazy if I planned on leaving the border of the city. The wild was a dangerous place for a grown man, a little girl wouldn't last.
The Last Alive Page 5
