by Siara Brandt
They had been making their way through the woods for a good fifteen minutes now and each step took them farther away from the town of Willow Grove and the chaos there. There would be other survivors and some of them would be soldiers. Eventually, hopefully, they would re-group and then they would have to decide what their next move would be.
His muscles were working to their full capacity. His heart was pounding like a war drum, pumping oxygen thru his veins. Unlike her, he was used to physical exertion and combat. His senses had been honed sharp over the years by hard-bitten experience.
She had been asking questions along the way. In fact, she’d started grilling him from the very moment they’d gotten past the cornfield and entered the woods. About what was going on. About what was going to happen to the people back in town. About why the soldiers, why he, had fired on unarmed civilians and on their own men. He had briefly explained to her that he hadn’t been a part of that. Hell, all she had to do was to take a look at Rafe to figure that out. He’d been shot, too.
But he also understood that by asking her to blindly follow him, he was asking a lot from her. She had no reason to trust him. And every reason not to.
He knew that what had happened back there had shaken her. But it had shaken him, too. And there was something else on his mind as they trekked through the woods. He couldn’t help but think about what he’d heard earlier. That the woods were crawling with the infected. Zombies as everybody seemed to be calling them.
He didn’t have a problem calling them that anymore. He had seen one. In town. It had stopped him dead in his tracks. It had been feral. And it had been aggressive. Just like he’d heard they were. And they had been right. The infected didn’t look human anymore. As he watched, he had been shocked to see how many bullets it had taken to bring it down. The thing had seemed damned near unstoppable.
So getting across the river was starting to look like their best option, maybe their only option at the moment. That was the one driving thought burning its way through his brain as he led the way through the woods. He knew they wouldn’t be able to cross at the bridges because of the roadblocks. They would have to find another way. And he hadn’t forgotten about Rafe’s arm. They needed to at least get the bleeding under control before he bled to death.
“There’s another bridge,” he heard the woman say behind him.
Eli stopped and turned to look at her.
“There’s the old bridge. After they built the new one, they were supposed to tear it down. But they haven’t done that yet. That road leads to it.”
The road she was pointing to was little more than an overgrown dirt path.
“How far is the bridge?”
“Maybe a mile or so.”
During his briefing yesterday, no one had mentioned anything about there being a third bridge. It was possible no one knew about it. It probably wouldn’t be on the maps if it wasn’t being used anymore.
“It’s not in the best of shape,” he heard her say.
“Is it crossable?”
“Yes. I think so. At least it used to be.”
Eli squinted into the deep shade of the woods. Whether the bridge was crossable or not, they’d have to make it crossable.
After following the river for a while, they saw the bridge through the trees ahead of them. It didn’t look to be in very good condition, but Eli had seen worse.
When he turned, the woman suddenly stepped in front of him. “Look. I appreciate what you’ve done for me so far. But once we cross the river, I’ll be going my own way. I have to get to the Willow Grove Inn. I have family there.”
Before he could make any kind of a reply, a car rolled up slowly on the dirt road beside them and came to a stop
“You people need help?” the driver called out.
There was what appeared to be a family inside the vehicle. An elderly man with a long, thin beard was driving. A younger woman sat in the passenger seat beside him and three little kids were in the back seat behind them.
“I heard on the CB radio what happened in Willow Grove. And Arundel,” the old man said.
Ailin looked sharply at the Captain. Arundel?
“I know what they did to the soldiers back there, too,” the man said. “I don’t want any trouble. I just want to get my family to the other side of the river.”
“You won’t have any trouble from us,” Eli told him.
The old man’s gaze narrowed as he looked at Rafe. “He looks like he needs some medical care. We can give you a ride. It’ll be a tight squeeze, but you’ll be able to cover a lot more ground if you’re not walking. I don’t think these woods are very safe right now.”
Eli agreed. And he would feel a whole lot better if they weren’t trapped on this side of the river.
When they pulled up before the bridge, Eli eyed the ancient structure dubiously. “You sure it’ll hold us?”
“It’ll hold,” the old man assured him. “There’s a crossroad a ways ahead with a gas station and a restaurant. They’ve shut off the electrical power, so the pumps won’t work, but maybe we can siphon some gas and get supplies.”
It turned out to be just a small four-pump gas station in the middle of nowhere with a diner attached to it. Grandma Elda’s Restaurant, the sign said.
“This is the closest thing we’ve got to a truck stop,” the old man explained.
They were able to siphon some gas. After they got the gas, they went into the diner to look for supplies and a first aid kit. The doors weren’t locked but the place was empty.
“I wonder what’s happened to make everyone leave,” the young woman from the car said as she looked around.
Rafe was unbuttoning his vest and his heavy cotton jacket. Eli helped him slip both off, then he draped them over the back of a chair.
As Eli leaned over Rafe, assessing the damage to his arm, he gave a quick glance across the diner at Ailin who was pacing back and forth restlessly. “Hey, lady,” he called out. “You want to give me a hand with this?”
He wasn’t exactly ordering her to help, but he wasn’t asking her, either. Ailin knew the soldier needed help so she walked across the diner. She stopped short when she actually saw the wound. And the blood.
The Captain was holding a bottle of antiseptic in his hand.
“You ready for this, Rafe?”
“Give me a second.” Rafe drew a deep breath and closed his eyes. Then he nodded.
“Bullet’s gone clean through,” the Captain murmured in a low voice. “That’s good.”
As the Captain poured antiseptic over the wound, Rafe threw his head back and drew his breath in between his clenched teeth. “Lord, that hurts,” he gritted.
Eli glanced over to see that the woman had grown about as pale as Rafe was. Her hands were clasped together tightly and she was holding them against her chin. Those hands, he saw, were shaking. He wasn’t even sure she could hold onto the cloth bandage that he placed in one of her hands.
“Put pressure on that till the bleeding stops,” he told her. When she didn’t respond, he took her hand and guided it to the wound. “I’ll bandage that up when you have the bleeding under control,” he told her.
He looked at her more closely and asked, “You thirsty?”
She looked up at him blankly.
“I don’t want you passing out from the heat,” he said as he handed a bottle of water to her. “Make sure to keep yourself hydrated.” And then, without another word, he walked away.
Ailin lifted the bottle of water to her lips and sipped at the water inside, found that she was, in fact, thirsty. It was probably the hottest part of the day. The sun was straight overhead and it was pouring right through the windows. Of course, because there was no power, the air conditioning wasn’t working.
She looked at Rafe, who still looked alarmingly pale beneath the dark stubble of beard covering his cheeks and chin.
“Are you all right?” she asked him.
“Fine,” he whispered, but obviously he was still fighti
ng the pain.
“Do you want a drink?”
He nodded and she handed him a bottle of water while she continued to put pressure on the bandage.
“It isn’t as bad as it looks.”
She looked up from the bandage. “This isn’t bad?”
“I’ve had worse.”
She checked the bleeding. The wound was still oozing, but thankfully it was slowing down. She put pressure on it again and looked across the diner at the Captain who was rifling through the shelves in the cooking area. He seemed to have forgotten her entirely.
“Don’t let him get to you.”
At her questioning look, Rafe said, “Underneath that hard-ass exterior, the Captain’s not so bad. Really.”
She made no reply to that, but couldn’t keep from giving the captain another side-long glance.
“Eli’s just been in the military so long that he forgets there’s such a thing as a civilian way of doing things. But I’d trust him with my life.”
Eli.
Eli looked up as the old man walked over to him. He stroked his beard slowly as he watched Eli and said in a low voice, “Funny how this place is completely deserted. There are usually a couple of semis parked in the side lot.” He shook his head. “You would think that someone would be here.”
“Grills been on,” Eli said. “And food has been prepared. Whoever was here left in a hurry.”
“Could be they heard the explosions and the sirens and they went to check it out. Or it could be that everyone is trying to get somewhere else,” the old man went on conjecturing. “To their families, maybe.”
“That does make sense. They wouldn’t have been able to communicate with everything out.”
The old man nodded. “I had a CB radio at home. From what I heard, things aren’t much better on this side of the river. I’m headed with my daughter-in-law and my grandkids to my son’s house in Missouri.” He paused and then went on. “My other son,” he said as he jerked his head slightly in the direction of the young woman and the three children. “Was in the military, too. He was killed in Afghanistan.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Eli said.
“It looks like we’ve got a war going on right here,” the old man said as he held Eli’s gaze. “We’d best get prepared for it.”
“They’re heading for Missouri,” Rafe told Eli. “They said they would be willing to drop me off at my family’s farm on the way. I already told you I wanted to go home, Eli. This is my chance to do it.”
Rafe was from Missouri, too. He came from a large family. A military family. They were a close-knit group.
“We’ve talked about what we would do if something happened,” Rafe went on. “We agreed to meet up at the family farm. I don’t want to leave you- ”
Eli snorted under his breath. “You’ll feel even worse if I have to end up dragging your sorry ass along with me over my shoulder.” Eli quickly sobered. “It’s the right decision, Rafe. You’re going to need rest and antibiotics.”
“My sister’s a nurse. She’ll have medical supplies at the farm. We’d be glad to have you, Eli. And her.” He glanced over at Ailin who had just come out of the restroom.
“I might just do that,” Eli replied quietly. “But she’s got other plans.”
“Yeah,” Rafe nodded. “The inn. She probably won’t make it on her own.”
“Probably not,” Eli agreed. Then he drew a deep breath and released it in a slow sigh. He looked at Rafe and said, “She’s an unfinished mission. A temporary mission. That’s all.”
Eli was still watching Ailin as he ran a hand over the dark whiskers on his chin. “I’ll deliver her to her family, and then I’ll see about meeting up with you in Missouri.”
Eli slammed the car door and stepped back from the vehicle.
“Don’t forget my invitation,” Rafe reminded him as he looked out the car window.
“I know where you’re at,” Eli replied.
Rafe gave one last, lazy salute. “You take care of yourself, Sir. Watch your back. And- ” he added with a brief glance in Ailin’s direction. “Hers.”
Eli nodded and watched as the vehicle slowly pulled out of the parking lot and headed west for Missouri.
“I already told you, I have to get to the Willow Grove Inn.”
Yeah, she had said that. More than once.
Eli crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at her. “You know you’ll be going on foot.”
Like she couldn’t figure that out.
“I can’t help that. I’m still going. And- ” She squinted one eye up at him. “I don’t need your permission.”
Hell. What was that? A challenge?
It surely was. In fact, she looked so determined that Eli knew that short of throwing her over his shoulder again, there was no way he was going to stop her from doing what she had already set her mind to. So there was only one thing he could do.
Ailin told herself she couldn’t think about the Captain right now. She needed to decide what items to take with her. She didn’t have her purse and she couldn’t pay for what she took, but sometime, when things got back to normal, she would come back and take care of that.
She knew the Captain would be leaving her soon and then she would be completely on her own. Not that she actually needed him. But the world had turned upside down in one fell swoop and she would be all alone in the middle of nowhere with who knew what waiting for her out there. Who wouldn’t be intimidated by that?
She wanted to get to the inn, but suddenly she wasn’t at all sure that she was really prepared to face all the dangers that she might encounter on her own. And it wasn’t just because she was unarmed. Before this, she liked to think of herself as being invincible and capable of accomplishing anything that she set her mind to. But the truth was that in light of everything that had happened, the prospect of being completely on her own was a little bit unnerving.
Behind her back, Eli gave her a once over. Who wore gym shoes with a fancy skirt? Of course, with those long shapely legs, he couldn’t help but appreciate the skirt. The dark curls falling down her back would have been a turn on at any other time. But not now. He shook his head, dragging his thoughts back to what was important.
He didn’t want to be responsible for her. Unfortunately, some kind of protective instinct must be hard-wired into him, for the simple fact that he had already made the decision to stay with her. It wasn’t the easy choice, but it was the only choice he could live with.
He had never had time in his life for a real commitment. He had never missed one. Not that this was an actual commitment. If they weren’t in the middle of a zombie apocalypse he’d be happily on his way.
Like he’d told Rafe, she was an unfinished mission. He’d get her to the inn, hopefully in one piece, and then she was on her own. He couldn’t imagine being responsible for her after that. She just temporarily needed someone to look out for her. No way was she going to be up to dealing with a zombie. Not after the one he’d seen. Hell, a small squirrel had scared her earlier.
“Looks like it’s just you and me.”
Ailin turned around slowly, wondering just what he had meant by that.
But he wasn’t even looking at her. The Captain- Eli was busy stuffing every pocket he had with food. How could he even think of eating at a time like this? she wondered.
When he saw her watching him, he must have guessed what she was thinking. “You’ll be happy to have something to eat later.”
“I’ll be happy?”
“Yeah,” he said to himself. “That’s just what I thought. You didn’t even think about food and water. Both of those things are going to get pretty scarce around here in the next few days.
“And we need to get a move on,” he added as he picked up a map from the counter and shoved it into his breast pocket. “There’s always a chance that soldiers are going to show up. They’ll try to cover all the main roads. You probably didn’t think about that either.”
“We need to get a move
on?”
“Yeah,” he said with a quick frown in her direction. “As in you and me.”
He didn’t like the signals she was giving off. It looked like she was fighting him already. Just like she had fought him back in Willow Grove. He didn’t know her very well, of course, but she seemed to have that habit.
“I didn’t ask for your help,” she said warily.
“No. You wouldn’t.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you might be just a little too stubborn for your own good.”
Her eyebrows raised at that. “I don’t need your help,” she informed him, her chin lifting a little.
“Which proves my point,” he said as he stopped in front of her.
“What point would that be?” she asked as she stared suspiciously up at him.
“That you would cling to your independence at the exclusion of common sense. I’m offering you my help, but you’d rather run around out there weaponless, foodless, and clue- ”
“Excuse me? This may surprise you, but I can get my own food and water. That doesn’t take any special skills. Or do you think that because you’re are the big bad soldier and I’m just a helpless woman, you should be giving the orders here?”
He smiled. Almost. And then a gleam came into his eyes that made him look at the moment like he was the big bad wolf.
He instantly sobered. “No, honey. It’s because not only did I think of the food and the water, but I have the gun. And the map.”
She could get a map, too. She glanced at the counter. No, he had taken the last one.
As for a weapon, she swallowed and said weakly, “Maybe things have quieted down by now.” It was a stupid thing to say because even she didn’t believe that.
“What world are you living in? The last time we were in Willow Grove there were grenades going off and dead people in the streets.”
She gasped. Barely. But she quickly smothered it. “Aren’t you being a little presumptuous? How do you know I won’t be just fine?”
