“Did you ever watch The Walking Dead?” I asked Devon as we hiked through the trees.
It was quiet, the kind of quiet you usually only got in the middle of the night, but there was nothing relaxing about it because it felt unnatural. Spooky.
He glanced my way, frowning. “Sure. Didn’t everyone?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t like scary movies or television shows.”
He let out an ironic-sounding chuckle, nodding. “I guess I didn’t really see it as scary because, to me, zombies were too far-fetched to be frightening.”
“What do you think about that now?” I shot him a look out of the corner of my eye, finding it impossible not to smirk.
He let out a chuckle. “I think I was pretty naïve. Although I doubt I was alone in that.”
“Probably not,” I agreed.
“Why do you ask?”
His blue eyes swept over me the way they so often did, and the look sent a little shiver of pleasure through me. It was ridiculous that he could practically make me swoon in the middle of all this.
I had to shake my head to clear it so I could concentrate on his question. “I was just thinking that I wished I’d watched it. It was fiction, but a lot of the stuff that happened would be useful, you know?”
He twisted, walking sideways so he could focus on me. “You have a really good point.”
“Don’t let the blonde hair fool you,” I said, waving my braid at him. “I’m actually pretty smart.”
“I am very aware of how smart you are, Rowan.” He smiled, his expression relaxing as he flexed his arm. “And don’t let the muscles fool you. I, too, have a brain.” He paused, his lips pulling up into a little smirk. “Also, I’m not overcompensating for any other part of my body either. Just in case you were wondering.”
I flushed and looked away. “That never would have occurred to me.”
I didn’t attempt to convince him that I’d never thought about other parts of his body. It would have been pointless because he’d know I was lying.
He laughed just as we reached the end of the tree line, and he grabbed my arm, urging me to stop.
“Hold up.”
The road sat in front of us, with the school to the left of where we stood. Nothing but blacktop separated us from the building at this point, meaning if someone was watching, we’d be spotted the second we tried to get closer.
“What now?” I asked.
“I think this side is going to be as dead as the other area.” Devon didn’t look my way when he held his hand out for the binoculars.
I passed them over, and he lifted them to his eyes so he could scan the building. We weren’t super close, but even from here I could tell he was right. The people who’d taken over the building had boarded up the windows and covered the doors so no one could get in—at least not easily—but no one was in sight.
Devon lowered the binoculars. “Let’s head back to where Kiaya and Lisa are. Hopefully, they’ve had some better luck.”
We made our way back, sticking to the trees, then moved to the front of the building where the others had been headed. Here, pine trees lined the parking lot, and I expected to spot the two women before we’d gotten far, but they were nowhere in sight. It didn’t worry me at first; they could have been crouched behind one of the farthest trees. Maybe it was a better view from there. But then we got closer, and they still didn’t come into view, so we walked farther, reaching the final tree only to come up empty-handed.
“Shit,” Devon muttered. “Where are they?”
Everything in me tensed, and I once again found myself wishing I’d paid a little attention to one of the many popular zombie shows or movies. Surely, there had been scenarios in those fictional worlds that would help us get an idea of what to expect now. It seemed like anything could have happened to our friends, but I was so unfamiliar with the twisted and dark parts of the world that I wasn’t sure what to think. Was my imagination getting the best of me when I pictured my friends being held captive by men who would use them for sport? What other things were possible? Cannibalism, slavery, or simply being held for ransom? Were any of those things out of the realm of possibility?
“What do you think happened?” I asked.
Devon yanked the binoculars from my grasp. “I don’t know.”
He stepped between two trees, so he had a better view, the binoculars up and pressed to his eyes. My heart was going crazy, and dread had pooled in my stomach as I waited for him to tell me what was going on.
“They’re over there,” he said after few seconds.
“Where?” I moved to his side and took the binoculars, desperate to see what was happening.
It only took a few seconds to locate them. They were by the truck, standing with Max and another man whose back was to me, talking. Both Kiaya and Lisa looked relaxed, but I couldn’t figure out why they were over there.
“What do you think is happening?” I asked Devon.
I was still looking through the binoculars when the other man turned, and my gut twisted. Doug.
“Either someone spotted them or something else happened that made them go over. Not sure, but they probably didn’t tell anyone we were here. If they had, someone would have come looking for us by now.”
“True.”
I was focused on Doug as the four people talked, studying him like it was the first time I’d ever seen him. He held himself the same way he always had, somehow laidback and cocky at the same time. I had to admit it wasn’t that different from how Devon held himself—although I’d never tell him that. I had a feeling that despite his macho bravado, it would hurt his feelings. A lot.
Doug’s attention seemed to be divided equally between Lisa and Kiaya, while the other guy, Max, spent most of his time talking to the latter. It was difficult to say for sure from this far away, but it almost looked like she liked the attention. She wasn’t animated by any means, but she was talking to him. Nodding, even smiling a little. Kiaya was into this guy.
It was a relief to know I wasn’t the only person who found themselves distracted by a charming guy in the middle of all this.
“What do we do?” I asked when I’d finally lowered the binoculars.
“Stay here,” Devon said firmly.
I didn’t like that plan at all.
“You can’t be serious! What if they run into trouble?”
“We can see them.” He once again took the binoculars. “If something happens, we’ll be here to help. But you have to admit that sending them in there to get the scoop is pretty brilliant. It’s two women, and based on what I’ve seen of these guys, they’ll consider them non-threatening. But you and I both know they can handle themselves. It might be the best way to get the lay of the land.”
He had a point, but I still wasn’t jumping up and down about it.
“Fine.”
Devon shot me a grin. “Don’t pout.”
“I thought you said I looked cute when I pouted.”
“You do.” He was once again watching our friends. “But I can’t afford to be distracted right now.”
I snorted.
At this point, I had a feeling there was little chance of us spending time together without one or both of us getting distracted.
It seemed to take forever for Lisa and Kiaya to say their goodbyes. Once they did, however, Doug and Max didn’t move, and I tensed, waiting to see what would happen as they watched our friends walk away.
“I wish I could read lips,” Devon said.
“No kidding.”
He was the one looking through the binoculars, but even I could tell the two men were talking.
Lisa and Kiaya veered away from where we were hiding, so we headed off to meet them—being sure to stay deep in the trees. I was more anxious than I’d been since the day I watched from the pool while Kiaya and Devon searched the cars in Vega, and by the time our two friends had ducked into the trees, I could barely stand still.
“What the hell was that?” I
snapped as soon as they were in front of us.
“Apparently, we’re very bad at blending in,” Lisa said. “They spotted us. I could tell even before they headed our way, but once they had, I figured there was no point in pretending we weren’t here. Plus, we hadn’t seen anything unusual.”
“We even saw a few women come out and help unload the truck,” Kiaya said. “They were laughing and talking. It seemed okay.”
“And up close?” Devon asked.
“Pretty normal.” Lisa shrugged. “We saw some kids through the open door, but none came out. The women had gone back in by the time we got there, but so had everyone else except Max and Doug.”
“What did you think of them?” I asked.
“Nice guys.” Lisa gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, but he did seem nice.”
“He is nice,” I said. “It just didn’t feel nice when he dumped me for the busty cheerleader like we were in some sappy teenage movie.”
I cringed at the bitterness in my words. If we were going to live in the same building and work together, I was going to have to figure out a way to get over this. It had been years, after all. I’d moved on, dated other people, but the pain of his rejection had never really eased, and I didn’t know why.
“Okay, then,” Devon said, nodding. “Looks like we got what we came for. We should head back and talk to the others about it.”
He started walking, the rest of us trailing behind him, but I held back so I could walk at Kiaya’s side.
“Max seems nice.”
She shot me a sideways glance. “I’m not about to jump into a relationship in the middle of all this.”
“That’s not what I said.” I couldn’t hide my smile.
“I know what you said, but I also know what you meant. Yes, he is nice—”
“And dreamy,” Lisa called over her shoulder, careful to keep her voice low.
Kiaya shook her head. “Yes, he’s very good-looking.”
“Do you girls have to talk about me like I’m not here?” Devon shot back. “It’s embarrassing.”
Kiaya rolled her eyes, and Lisa, who was closest to him, gave him a little shove.
Ignoring Devon, Kiaya went on, “But it’s not going to happen. There’s way too much going on, and I have Zara to look out for.”
“You don’t always have to be so practical,” I said.
Leave it to Kiaya to approach an attraction the same way she approached us needing gas in Vega. Scientific and logical. Nothing like me.
She shrugged. “I’ve always been practical.”
We walked a few seconds in silence, her words sticking with me more than I would have liked.
“Do you think I’m crazy?” I said, keeping my voice low in hopes that Devon wouldn’t be able to hear me.
Kiaya lifted her eyebrows in surprise. “Does it matter?”
“Don’t do that. You know I respect your opinion.”
“I’m not saying that,” she replied. “I’m just pointing out that it doesn’t really seem like you can stop it at this point.”
“Sure, I can,” I argued. “Nothing’s happened. Not yet, anyway.”
Kiaya slowed, allowing more space between us and the others. “Rowan, he’s crazy about you. He watches every move you make. Thinks about you first no matter what. Plus, I know you guys have kissed more than once.”
“They’re just kisses,” I said, but the flush that moved through my body contradicted the words.
“It doesn’t seem like it from where I’m standing.”
I sighed, unable to deny her words. “But is it insane? I keep telling myself it is and that I shouldn’t feel like this in the middle of everything else going on, but I can’t help it.”
“Isn’t that how an attraction goes?”
“Yes, but you can help what you do about it.”
She nodded slowly, thinking my words over the way she tended to. “I can’t say it’s going to be easy, and it could make things harder, but life hasn’t stopped. Not completely. Not for us. You shouldn’t feel bad about finding something good in the middle of all the bad.”
It seemed like she was speaking from the heart, and it almost made me tear up. I only knew the basics of what Kiaya had been through, but I hoped she was referring to something in her as well. To some shred of goodness that she’d managed to find when everything else seemed so hopeless.
“Thanks,” I said, sniffing.
She nodded then surprised me by saying, “Doug asked a lot of questions about you.”
“He did?” He’d said he was happy to see me, so I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. Very.
“He asked how you were dealing with everything. Especially your parents.”
“You’d think it would be harder to hold a grudge when someone is so nice.”
“Not if they really hurt you.”
“He did,” I said quietly. “He really, really hurt me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“Because you’re a good person, and you don’t deserve that.”
“So are you, Kiaya.”
I smiled, and she forced one out as well. Although, with Kiaya, everything always seemed so subdued, and this was no different.
“You two coming or what?” Devon called.
“Come on,” I said, rolling my eyes even though the concern in his gaze when he glanced back didn’t irritate me in the least. It filled me with a warmth that just might have been strong enough to get me through this whole thing in one piece.
10
The sun was crawling toward the horizon by the time we made it back to my neighborhood, but we didn’t head to my house. Instead, Devon turned into the first cul-de-sac and parked in an empty driveway. It was two streets over from mine, and even though I didn’t know the people who used to live there, I remembered seeing them sitting in the back yard when I went for walks around the pond. We’d wave to one another like neighbors did, occasionally calling out hello, but that was the most interaction we’d ever had. I’d seen both of them on the street since arriving in Troy, so I knew what had become of them. I just wasn’t sure if it was better or worse that I’d never gotten around to actually learning their names.
We climbed out in silence, the light mood from when we left the school having vanished. In the distance, zombies stumbled down the street, and while none of them were too close, these things could appear out of nowhere. Either from between houses or through a front door. We needed to stay alert and keep our eyes open.
“Unlocked,” I said, looking between my friends. “Right?”
“I don’t think it will matter,” Devon replied. “The odds that someone will steal the car are slim, but I think it would be better to lock it and hide the key somewhere nearby.”
My gaze bounced from him to the dead lumbering our way and back again. “Where?”
“I’m open to suggestions,” he said. “We need to make sure it doesn’t get wet and that it isn’t obvious to anyone who wanders by.”
“The mailbox?” Lisa suggested.
“That’s not bad,” Kiaya replied.
Devon nodded, already moving to the end of the driveway.
It took him a few seconds to stash the key, shoving it behind some old mail that would never be collected, then he was heading our way. “Four-forty-two. Make sure we tell the others the house number when we get back. Just in case.”
No one answered, but we all nodded.
From there, we headed toward the pond, using the small path between two of the houses, then taking the trail. There was little to no cover, but since there were also no zombies in this area, it didn’t really matter. They must have all stuck to the streets, either out of instinct or because that was where we made noise every time we drove the car in or out of the neighborhood.
The sun was making its way toward the horizon in the west and turning the sky yellow and orange. In the east, the pillar of smoke I’d been watching since yesterday was still present. It had al
so grown, seeming twice as wide as before and closer, too. I eyed it as I walked, once again trying to guess where it was located. Possibly one of the neighborhoods off State Route 55, which meant there were lots of fields and houses between us. Hopefully, we got some rain to slow it down or put it out before it could make its way here. I couldn’t stay in my house, but that didn’t mean I wanted it burned to the ground.
It was a quick and silent walk, and in no time the back of my house was in sight. I moved faster, anxious to be inside even though we hadn’t run into any trouble and there were no zombies nearby.
“No gate back here?” Kiaya asked as we approached my yard.
“No, unfortunately.”
She gave a shrug that told me she wasn’t concerned.
“You first,” Devon said.
The only reaction Kiaya gave when he scooped her into his arms was a tiny squeak. He swung her over the fence where she sat for a moment before jumping to the ground. When she landed in the middle of my mom’s flowers, I had a hard time not cringing. The sight of them being trampled was as painful as when that piece of ceramic had stabbed my back, but it was only a matter of time before they were gone for good. Mom was dead, and we were leaving. There would be no one left to tend to them. To pull the weeds or water the soil when it didn’t rain. No one to even care that they existed. Not anymore.
Once she was over, Kiaya dashed across the yard to the patio to grab a chair. I thought Devon would wait until she was back, but instead he scooped me into his arms just like he had with Kiaya.
“What are you doing?” I protested. “Kiaya is coming back.”
“No time to waste,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “Zombies could sneak up on us at any moment.”
“You just wanted an excuse to get your hands on me.”
“You better believe it,” he replied, winking.
He set me on the top of the fence, and I mimicked what Kiaya had just done, holding on long enough to get my bearing before jumping into the yard. I tried to propel my body over the flowers, not wanting to do more damage even though I knew it was futile, but my feet landed on them anyway, smashing the delicate purple blossoms.
Far Series | Book 2 | Far From Safe Page 21
