by Lake, D. K.
"I'm just here to keep your ass out of trouble and stop it from getting eaten on the way to Washington and then I'm gone. Trust me, I'm so done with this running from psychos shit. Everyone is fucking crazy in these parts."
"Really 'cause when you left the first time I wasn't planning to go to Washington, that wasn't part of the plan. The plan was to just get me to Colorado and then you would leave. So why did you really come back?"
Drew ran a hand through his hair and chewed on his lip ring but said nothing more about what he was doing here. I didn't know what I wanted to hear. Did I want Drew to tell me he was here because he came back for me, that he couldn't leave me, that he thought about me every day I was gone?
"I can't believe he did that to you, used you like some lab mouse, doing what he wants to you. What else do you think he did to you in there?" Drew hissed, changing the subject.
"Stop it, they'll hear you. And he didn't do anything like that to me."
"How do you know, you were unconscious for fucking weeks!"
"Because I know him, I see the guy every day. I swear the guy is gay but there's never been a right time to drop it into the conversation to ask him if he is."
Drew grunted. "He was using you and playing with your life."
"Yes, but look at me now. He saved my life, so stop getting so worked up. And don't hit him again!"
"So you're not the least bit mad that he infected you again?"
"A little but it's all in the past. All that matters is that I'm alive now. Unlike most of my friends. I can't believe we just lost Ross and Zoe. Did that really happen or am I stuck in some horrible nightmare?"
"Your head is bleeding again." Drew frowned, stepping in front of me so our toes were touching, and checking my head, ignoring all the death talk and pretending he didn't hear it.
I happened to look over at where Lane and Nick were standing, talking in hushed voices and Lane was glaring at Drew and the way he had his hands all over me. I quickly swatted Drew's hand away from my face.
"What?" Drew said confused.
"Nothing. I'm fine. Stop touching me!" I said firmly as his hand came up again but stopped in midair.
"Nothing? You just batted my hand away."
"Lane keeps looking over here." I said quietly.
"So? He can look all he wants. I'm making sure you're okay and not bleeding to death. What Lane thinks isn't really my concern. He's obviously the jealous type, maybe I should just tell him I'm gay to stop him scowling at me." Drew joked.
Drew confused me so much. Was there anything to be jealous of? One minute he was trying to kiss me the next he was basically saying how much he wanted to get out of here and he was only here to keep my ass out of trouble. But I could keep my own ass out of trouble, thank you very much.
"Or you could tell him there's nothing to be jealous of. You're just accompanying us to Washington and then you're gonna split, right?" I said with a little too much venom in my tone, stepping away and his hand fell to his side as he stared at me.
I wish I knew what he was really doing here. I just wanted him to be honest and tell me, and that way I could finally stop thinking about it and stop trying to figure him out. He just made it clear he was leaving, so why not just leave now, we would be okay without him, why waste any more time here?
"I don't want to be your problem, Drew. I can survive without you to hold my hand. And we don't need you punching anyone else, so do everyone a favor and just go back to Dodge." I gritted my teeth and tried not to yell.
I was so emotional and angry. I just wanted to hit something. Drew's face, maybe.
"Maybe I will." Drew muttered, searching in his pockets and pulling out a packet of cigarettes.
He tipped the pack upside down and knocked one into his hand just as Lane and Nick walked over to us, I didn't think they had heard anything we'd said.
Drew was still staring at me with a furrowed brow as he puffed on his cigarette. I was waiting for him to say screw this and walk away but he just grunted and looked down at his crossbow.
"How bad is your head, Alex?" Nick asked, coming over to me and lifting the fabric to look. "It needs stitching." Nick said, assessing the wound.
"No shit." Drew grumbled.
"Do you think they followed us?" I asked no one in particular.
"No, they probably think we all died in the crash." Lane replied.
"And Ross just crawled out by himself." Drew said mockingly, shaking his head.
I wanted to smack him and tell him to stop winding Lane up, it was like he was purposely trying to annoy him. Maybe I should just let them punch each other in the face and get it over with, would that make this less awkward? I didn't even know why Drew was being so awkward all of a sudden.
"They won't follow us because we have nothing they want." Drew said, glancing at Lane with this look on his face like he was bored and speaking to him was too much effort.
That fucking look. I was so used to that look when we together in the desert and I was driving him mad with all my babbling.
"Let's just get out of these fuckin' woods and then we need to fix your face." Drew said, looking in my direction before grabbing my arm and pulling me with him. I wasn't used to this side of Drew, the side of him that kept me close, and won't let go of me. He was so confusing. I was used to him wandering off and leaving me for hours on end and leaving me to defend myself. I wanted to ask him what changed, and I wanted the truth as to why he came back. I sighed and let him lead me through the trees and we carried on walking quickly. I was secretly glad I was with Drew, he had really good night vision and guided me around everything on the ground that I would have never noticed so I didn't trip. I couldn't say the same about Lane and Nick who kept bumping into things, including each other and falling over in the grass. Drew kept telling them to keep it down and I just stayed quiet and held onto him. We walked for some time until we came out on a road. I let go of Drew's arm and wandered across the road and we all stood in the middle.
"Where are we?" Lane asked, looking up and down the dark road before turning to Drew.
I looked at Drew as well, he was good with directions and usually knew where he was going and was kinda like a walking compass.
"How the fuck should I know?" Drew answered and it wasn't what I wanted to hear. "The only map we had was the one in Josh's bag, which also happened to be in the chopper when it went up in flames along with everyone else's bags."
I moved over to Drew and squeezed his arm to stop him from getting so angry with everyone and he winced.
"Don't do that." he hissed.
"Why, what's wrong with your arm?" I asked, moving around to the front of him and trying to look at his arm but he knocked my hand away. I suddenly remembered the blood dripping down his hand, it was the one holding his crossbow and he had kept it away from me for a reason.
"What have you done?"
"Nothing."
Lane and Nick came over to see what the fuss was all about. I yanked his arm in front of me and he hissed some more as I lifted up the sleeve of his t-shirt. He had ripped part of his long-sleeved flannel shirt that was wrapped around his waist and used it to wrap his arm. I carefully peeled the fabric back to get a better look at it and he let me, and Nick peered over my shoulder.
"You told me you didn't get hurt in the wreck." I snapped.
"I didn't. This happened before the wreck." Drew said, looking down at the wound.
"What happened? This is really bad! Why didn't you tell me?" I scolded him.
"You got shot." Nick said, studying the wound.
"Yeah, no shit." Drew grunted.
"What? You never said anything." I covered it back over.
"It's nothing. It just grazed me." he brushed it off like it was nothing.
"Still needs stitches." Nick said with his hands in his pockets.
"We need to find somewhere to stop for the night, we can't walk all night and Alex's head needs sorting out." Lane said.
"It's not as bad, it's
stopped bleeding, I think." I said, fiddling with the fabric and Drew casually pulled my hand away and dropped it at my side like I was some naughty kid picking my nose and we were in public and he didn't want to make a fuss.
"Look, there's a sign for a campsite up ahead." Lane said, pointing ahead of us.
I looked up at Drew and we both had the same no way look on our faces.
"Yeah, no. Dark woods, shitty tents with no solid walls, no thanks. We'll just keep walking, there must be a house along here somewhere." Drew said, nodding his head at me to follow him.
I went over to Lane and squeezed his hand and tried my best to muster up a smile and he started to walk with me.
"I feel bad leaving Ross out in the woods like that." I said quietly to Lane and Nick. Drew was in front of us, zigzagging all over the road as he smoked another cigarette. I remembered I still didn't have a weapon on me. I wanted to ask Nick if I could use his knife, I doubted he even knew how to use it properly. I wasn't too worried, we were far enough away from any town and not many deadbies survived in the woods on their own. I remembered that horde we ran into in the last lot of woods and we all had to hide up the trees. Yeah, let's not think about that. There was probably only a handful around here, and the majority of them had most likely wandered in the direction of the university where all the explosions were going off.
"He'll get eaten or something just as horrible." I said.
"No, he won't. I dragged him back to the helicopter and made sure he was close enough to catch fire." Lane told me.
"Wow, how thoughtful of you."
"Well, it's a lot better than being eaten, Alex."
"No, you're right."
Nick was being very quiet on the other side of me.
"Nick, are you okay?" He didn't respond and kept his eyes on the road. "Nick?"
"Sorry, what were you saying?" Nick looked up at me and pushed his cracked glasses up his nose. Poor Nick, he was as blind as a bat but hated contact lenses because they made his eyes itch, and now he had to make do with one broken lens but it was better than no glasses at all. If he had lost them altogether it would have been worse, we would have had to lead him around.
"I was just asking if you were okay? I know you and Ross were friends."
"Yes...I don't really know how I feel. It's a shock to the system, I guess it will start to sink in soon. It just doesn't feel real at the moment...and Robin. I had never met Zoe before but Ross had shown me a picture of her and he talked about her all the time."
"Yes, I remember, he never shut up about her." I mused.
"Maybe it was better this way. That they went together." Nick whispered.
"I think you're right about that. Ross wouldn't have been able to go on without her if he had survived, it would have broken him." I said, linking my arm in Nick's as we ambled along the road.
"I hope we find somewhere soon, I don't want to be walking all night." I yawned.
"Where's he going now?" Lane grumbled, looking at Drew in the distance as he vanished from the side of the road.
"What is the problem there?" Nick asked.
"What problem?" I asked.
"The tension between you two." Nick looked over at his brother.
"The guy's a dick." Lane replied.
"There's no need for that. He has saved my life, more than once, and again just now." I said, yawning again.
"That's only because he wouldn't let me touch you. He started yelling and telling me not to move you and then he just scooped you up and carried you out of the chopper and left me to deal with the deadbies." Lane said, catching my yawn.
"I'm sure he was just worried about me."
"Ohh..." Nick said and we both turned to look at him.
"What does ‘ohh’ mean?" I asked.
"Now it makes sense, the tension in the air, the way he talks to Lane. The way he is with you...the guy is completely in love with you."
"What?" I laughed but sucked in a breath and nearly choked on my spit. "Drew isn't in love with me. He can't stand me. I'm just a big inconvenience to him." I said, turning to look at Lane to see what he was making of all this but Lane was looking at me with a serious dead face.
"What?" I laughed.
"Nick's right, Drew's got a thing for you." Lane said in a low tone.
"He does not have a thing for me." I said trying to sound firm, but even I could hear the uncertainty in my voice.
"He was supposed to go back to Louisiana, but then he just randomly showed up back at the mall, claiming he had fallen out with Evan and that they got in a fight over which route to take. A load of bull if you ask me. Every time Ross turned up at the mall, Drew would corner him and they would talk, and I later found out he had been asking Ross to sneak him in so he could see you, but he told Ross not to tell me like it was some big secret that he wanted to see you."
I remembered Ross had once joked about me writing a letter to the ‘other one’ because he kept hounding him and demanding that Ross break him into the university and now I knew he was walking about Drew, not Josh. I had written a few letters to Lane, mostly complaining about how many needles Nick insisted on sticking in me, and I knew Nick had written to his brother and had Ross deliver them to the mall.
"But Drew can't stand me. He just told me not too long ago that he's only here to keep my ass out of trouble, he doesn't want to be here. He said he was leaving as soon as we get to Washington anyhow."
Lane snorted. "He told you that but it's a lie. I swear the guy has an unhealthy obsession with you, it's borderline creepy. If you had met him before you would have probably had to get a restraining order against him. I mean, he even looks creepy, like when he gets that look on his face like he's spaced out and not all there."
"That's just his bored look and I don't want to listen to any more of this, it's just silly."
Lane laughed. "And he's too skinny and looks like something out of a bad Alice in Wonderland movie with his green hair and piercings. I seriously don't trust the guy. The only thing I trust him with is you because I know he'll do anything to protect you because he's insanely obsessed over you, like a stalker. Did you see the way he was earlier? He aimed that crossbow at my face, Alex. I don't even know if he'll let us take you with us. I know I'll be sleeping with one eye open in case he kidnaps you in the night."
"Oh, don't be stupid, he's just being protective." I brushed it off. I didn't like the way he was making Drew sound like some psycho.
"And he's not in love with me." I said and both of them shared a look over the top of my head.
"I saw that." I said and Lane put his arm around my shoulders as Drew stepped out in front of us and made me jump.
I had forgotten he likes to lurk. I just hoped he hadn't heard any of that conversation. He hardly looked at me as he said, "Hurry up, there's a house down here."
He walked away and down a dirt track I hadn't noticed, hidden amongst the trees and most of the track was covered in weeds and grass that had seeded itself and grown. It blended in and we would have walked straight past it if it wasn't for Drew.
And I hoped no one else would notice it tonight.
Chapter 10
I picked my way through the weeds and managed to get caught on a ton of those sticky weeds and I ended up with little furry weed balls all over my skinny jeans. It was dark already and the further we went down the dirt track, it seemed to get darker and I didn't have Drew to hold on to. I heard Lane and Nick muttering words behind me but I wasn't really listening to them. I could just about make out the shape of a building in front, and I could see something moving around out front and I hoped it was Drew. I wondered how he had got down here and got back to us so quickly. He was like a ghost when he had no one to hold him back. He was walking around the side of the building, looking through windows but they had been boarded up.
I tugged my sleeve free from the tangled weeds and stepped out into the opening. Lane stopped beside me and waited for Nick to catch up.
"Is it safe?" I whispered
to Drew as he knelt down next to the front door. He didn't bother to answer me. I edged closer to him and looked down at the lock he was inspecting.
"Can't we just bash down the door?" Lane suggested, walking up behind us.
"Yes, let's make as much noise as possible." Drew muttered, and checked his pockets for anything to use on the lock. "The back is all shut up as well, it looks like no one has been here." he added.
"That's good, right? It means there might be some supplies and clean clothes we can take seeing as we have nothing other than what we're wearing." I said, but Drew didn't respond.
He was giving me the cold shoulder after what I had said to him. Okay, so I had been a little out of order, but I didn't want him to be here if he didn't want to be, no one was making him stay. I didn't want him hanging around if he was just going to be difficult and piss off Lane every five minutes.
I thought all the time they had spent back at the shopping mall together they would have become friends, but it appears Drew kept to himself all those weeks at the mall and didn't make any new friends. He didn't even appear upset about Ross or Zoe when they died, I'm guessing he didn't get to know them all that well.
"I thought you knew how to pick locks?" I said.
He stopped inspecting the lock and his eyes slid to the side to where I was standing but he didn't actually look at me. I think I had annoyed him.
"It's a little hard to pick a lock without the proper tool."
"Huh...like this?" I reached into my boot and pulled out his pocket knife that had about ten other sharp ends and I didn't know what most of them were for. Drew looked at me this time as I held out his pocket knife to him.
"Now you have no reason to stick around." I said as I slapped the pocket knife into his open hand.
Lane and Nick didn't know what I was talking about but Drew knew. He knew. He had always said as long as I had his pocket knife he would come back for it, now I had returned it to him and he could leave anytime he wanted.
