by Baker, LJ
Janet rolled her eyes but a hint of a smile broke through.
Chapter Eleven
We walked for hours without another living, or dead, thing in sight. By noon, I was exhausted. I had to take twice as many steps to keep up with Janet and Derek. A month before, I would have been on the ground begging for a break, but thanks to Janet and her hardcore training, I was in much better shape. I would have thanked her for that if she wasn't purposely walking extra fast, making it nearly impossible for me to keep up. I was starting to think she didn't actually want me to keep up.
Janet and Derek chatted on about anything and everything, which went against everything she said we should do. She insisted just weeks before, that we needed to be quiet and alert when walking unprotected, so her behavior made no sense.
There was no way I could keep up that pace and still keep going the rest of the day. I slowed down a bit and let them go ahead a few yards. Oddly, Janet's pace also slowed so that she was going about as fast as I was at that point, but keeping the distance between us. She was laughing at Derek's jokes, and they weren't that funny. And, she was acting all girly. It was weird to see Janet like that with a guy.
I laughed to myself, and Janet turned to look at me.
"Everything okay back there?"
"Yeah, fine, just getting a little tired so I'll hang back here some. If that's all right?" If anyone deserved a little happiness, it was Janet. I owed her a lot.
"Okay, sure." She shot me an odd look. "We'll take a break soon."
Derek winked at me before turning back ahead. I was sure he knew exactly what I was doing.
We walked another hour before Janet finally decided it was a good time for a break. My feet were starting to ache, and I was starving.
"We will be at the location Will was last seen in about an hour at our current pace," Derek said as he opened up his massive backpack and pulled out a few energy bars for the three of us.
I unwrapped the bar and practically inhaled it. I wasn't used to starving anymore. "It's not like we are going to find him standing there waiting for us, so what's the plan?" I asked, my mouth still full of bits of granola and dried fruit.
Janet and Derek looked at each other and shrugged.
"Not really sure. Since we didn't find him on his way back, I guess we keep going. Maybe he got pushed further out," Derek said.
"How do we even know what direction to go in? I mean, even if he did get pushed back, it could have been in any direction. We could go in the opposite direction he went in," I asked, looking from Janet to Derek and back to Janet.
Derek dropped his head. I could tell he didn't think we were going to find Will alive, no matter what direction we went in. My guess was that he went along because of Janet. I tried to read Janet's face, to see if she felt the same way, but she wasn't giving it away.
"You don't think we are going to find him alive, do you, Derek?" He kept his head down and stayed silent. "What about you, Janet? You think he's dead too?"
"I don't know. I want to believe he's alive." She sighed and shook her head. "I just feel like if he was, he would have made it back to the base, or we would have found him by now."
I heard some branches snap nearby. All three of us turned to look, and Janet and Derek drew their weapons.
"Do not shoot. It is me." Hadley peeked out from behind a tree holding her hands up.
"What the hell?" Janet lowered her bow and stomped over to Hadley. "How did you get out here?" She pulled her out by her jacket and dragged her into the road where Derek and I were standing.
"I walked, same as you, silly. You walk really fast, Miss Janet. You know that, right?" Hadley tilted her head to the side and flipped her lashes over her eyes a few quick times.
"What are you some kind of ninja, kid? You've been following us for hours without making a sound. That's impressive." Derek dug another energy bar from his bag and tossed it to her.
"No, what it is is stupid. You shouldn't be here. This isn't some fun game out here, little girl. You can get yourself killed." Janet fumed.
It was nice not to be the one on the other end of Janet's anger for a change, though I did feel bad for Hadley.
"Hadley, why did you come?"
"I had to, Andi. I was meant to be here." She walked over, dropped her bag on the ground, and sat on top of it like a cushion. "It is just one of the things I know."
Janet looked up and threw her arms in the air. "This is just great. The voices in her head told her to follow us all the way out here so we could babysit her. Perfect."
Hadley opened the energy bar and nibbled on it. She seemed unconcerned with Janet's anger. She actually smiled up at me as if she were happy to see me. I wasn't quite sure what to think about her being there. It might be nice to have someone to talk to since Janet was occupied with Derek, but Hadley had no training with weapons, or even self-defense. Janet was right. She was a liability. We needed to keep out focus on finding Will, not keeping Hadley safe.
"Do you not think it is odd?" Hadley asked.
I thought a lot of things were odd, especially when it came to Hadley, but I answered her anyway. "What, Hadley?"
She finished her energy bar and shoved the wrapper into her backpack. "That there are no bodies."
It was kind of weird that we hadn't come across a single dead body, zombie or ally. Our soldiers were supposedly out here for a week fighting off a swarm of zombies on their way toward the base, and not all of them returned, so where did they go?
"She does have a point. Why haven't we found any dead bodies?" I looked to Derek, figuring maybe he had some answers.
He just shrugged. "I have no clue. Maybe the guys dragged them off into the woods or something. Our own dead they might have buried … or … honestly, I just don't know. No one said anything about moving them to me."
Janet looked just as confused. It didn't make sense for them to move dead flesh eaters any further than maybe to the side of the road. And they never would have taken the risk to bury our own people out there while fighting off a swarm. If anything, they would have put them in the truck and brought them back to the base.
"Hadley, did you see any in the woods while you were following us?" Janet asked.
"Nope. Not a one. Weird, huh?" Hadley pulled a juice box out of her bag, popped the straw in, and sipped loudly.
Derek took a walk into the woods and looked around while I took advantage of the chance to sit and rest my feet.
"Why didn't you just leave with us, Hadley?"
"Come on, Andi, you know Janet would not have let me go and I had to come."
“Why, though? I know you said you were meant to be here and all, but why?" I knew Hadley saw herself as some sort of psychic or something, but even in a zombie apocalypse, I had trouble believing it was anything other than in her head.
Hadley smiled. "I know you do not believe me, but that's okay. Your belief is not required. It is what it is."
Half the junk that came out of Hadley's mouth made no sense at all, but I smiled and nodded to be polite. She was weird, there was no doubt about it, but I did like having her around.
Derek returned and picked up his pack. "Let's go, ladies. I don't think we should stay here too long."
"Did you see something in there?" Janet asked and grabbed her stuff as well.
"Nah, not a thing. Something just feels wrong about it, so I think we should keep moving."
I groaned, and my feet protested as I pushed myself off the ground and reached out to help Hadley up. We went back to Derek and Janet walking several yards ahead while Hadley joined me in the back. Every so often, she skipped in a circle around me, then returned to my side. She didn't seem to be paying any attention to our surroundings or to be looking for any sign of Will. Each time Hadley circled me, Janet turned to glare at her, but it all went unnoticed. As usual, Hadley was in her own little world.
It took us about another three hours of walking before we started seeing flesh eaters dead on the side of the road. There we
re a few stragglers walking about, but they were in bad shape and easy to take care of. Hadley turned her head each time and scrunched up her nose, disgusted. It was rare to see anyone bothered by it anymore, but then, Hadley wasn't typical.
“So, did you have some sort of psychic premonition about the trip or something?” I kept my voice low, to avoid more glares from Janet.
Hadley laughed and circled around me once more. “No silly.”
“Okay, then tell me why you came out here. Seriously.”
Hadley tilted her head up and gave me a curious look. “Sometimes people give me information because they want things from me. People always want things from me.” She frowned. “You are different. You do not want things from me. You come to see me, but you do not want things.”
“That’s because we’re friends, Hadley. Friends don’t need to get anything in return.”
“I have never had that. Friends.” She rolled the word on her tongue as if it were a foreign concept.
I liked Hadley. She wasn’t like anyone I’d ever known. She was a friend to me when no one else was, and I was grateful to her for that. She had a odd innocence about her that was so out of place in our strange, messed up world. She found joy in simple things like tea cups, yet there was a sadness behind her eyes. A look that betrayed her loneliness and separation. A look that I had no trouble understanding and connecting with.
Hadley took my hand in hers and smiled up at me. The last time I walked hand in hand with a girl was probably first grade, but for some reason, with Hadley, it seemed like the right thing to do.
Derek and Janet found a place for us to stop and take a longer rest. There was an occasional zombie hobbling about, but we were covered, so they couldn't sneak up on us. Derek once again reached into his massive backpack and pulled out some food for us to eat. I had a few protein bars in my pack, but certainly not enough for more than a day or two. Derek was very well prepared.
We sat for a while and rested. Janet continued flirting with Derek, and Hadley painted her nails, much to Janet's shock. I was pretty sure if Derek wasn't with us, she would have pounced on her and taken the polish away. Instead, she just glared at Hadley, who, of course, didn't notice a thing.
Janet pulled out a map and pushed it toward me. "We have a couple of choices to make."
I looked over the map, which made no sense to me out in the middle of nowhere. "What kind of choices?"
"We are here." She pointed on the map. "And there are a few different routes we can go. There's no way to know which way he might have gone, if he is out there."
I winced when she said 'if' he's out there. "Okay, so which way are we going?"
"See that's the thing. Any one of those ways could be right … or wrong. You are going to have to pick which one to try."
"Me? Why? I don't know anything about this." I pushed the map back at her and shook my head.
"Andi, you have to decide. It doesn't take any special skill, but I can't be responsible for this one. You pick a direction, and that's the way we'll go."
“Why do I have to pick?” Clearly, Janet knew everything.
Janet took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Because … if I pick the wrong way, and we don’t find him, you will blame me. You pushed to come out here. Now be an adult and make the hard decisions.”
I was about to protest again when Hadley fell onto her side and started shaking and repeating 'the only way to go is home' over and over. I stood frozen, watching her, as if it were happening in slow motion.
"What the hell?" Janet jumped up and took Hadley's head into her lap so she didn't hurt herself.
"She's having a seizure. Andi, do you know if she has any medical problems?" Derek checked her wrists and neck for a med alert.
I responded in my head, but the words didn’t come. The sight of her there seemed to turn off my brain’s ability to make sense of the world. She was just right there next to me. She was fine.
Derek grabbed my arm and snapped me back to reality. “Andi …”
"I have no idea. She's not quite right in the head, but I have no idea if there's anything physically wrong with her." I stood there helpless, watching her shake and twitch. Injuries made sense. Zombie attacks, strangely enough, made sense. Watching one of my only friends laying on the ground spouting nonsense and shaking uncontrollably was beyond my comprehension.
After a few minutes, the shaking slowed, and her voice grew quieter until she stopped repeating the sentence altogether.
"What the hell was she saying that for? I've never seen anyone talk during a seizure." Janet pushed Hadley's hair off her face and moved her head over to rest on her backpack.
Derek squatted down and took Hadley's pulse. Her eyes were closed and she looked like she was sleeping. He was a paramedic before the outbreak, so he had some medical knowledge, which was better than the rest of us.
"Can't say I've ever seen anything quite like that before, but I will tell ya, she could be out a while." Derek stood up and took a look around to make sure we were still clear.
Janet got up and walked over to Derek. "What do you mean a while?"
"Hard to say. Could be an hour, could be twelve."
Janet's mouth dropped open. "Twelve? We can't just sit here for twelve hours and wait for her to wake up."
"I'm sorry, Janet, but there's not much we can do about it. She may not be in any shape to go anywhere when she does wake up."
I looked around at our surroundings. We were safe enough in the middle of the day, but at night, it wasn't going to be enough. "We can't stay here in the dark. What are we supposed to do?" I looked at Derek, hoping he had some kind of idea.
He looked at Janet and sighed. "There's probably only one real option. I have a walkie I can use to call back to Holden. He can get someone to come out and pick her up. Problem is, we're out too far for it to work. I'll have to walk back probably five miles."
"Okay, so we'll wait here with her, and you go see if you can get her a ride."
"Janet, I'm gonna have to bring her with me. I can't just send her back alone. She should have someone with some medical background with her, and you two can't stay here any longer. There's only so many hours of daylight left, and you have to get moving and find someplace better to spend the night." Derek took her hand, and I thought for a moment I saw worry in her eyes.
"How are you going to take her with you if we can't wake her?" I looked down at Hadley still in the same position Janet left her in.
"I'll carry her. She probably weighs ninety pounds soaking wet. I can manage one little girl." He opened his pack and pulled a few things out to shove into Janet's bag, then zipped it back up.
"Derek …” Janet took his hands and looked up at him.
He smiled down at her and kissed her forehead. "I'll come find you. I promise."
Chapter Twelve
"So are you like, in love, with him?" I asked Janet as we watched Derek, with Hadley slung over his back, walk around a bend in the road and out of our sight.
"Mind your own business." She picked up her pack and turned to walk. "Which way?"
I was hoping after the whole seizure drama, Janet would have forgotten about making me choose. "Janet, I have no—"
"I'm not in the mood, Andi.” I could tell she was upset about Derek leaving and I couldn’t blame her for that. It wasn’t exactly my fault, but Hadley did follow us out here for me. So, by proxy, it sort of was my fault that he left and we were stuck out there alone.
I looked at our options. They all looked the same to me. I pointed to the left and shrugged. I had no clue which way Will would have gone, or if he even would have had a choice, so it was as good a direction as any. I tried not to think about the one in three chance that it was right. And that was assuming that Will stayed on a road and didn’t take off through the woods.
We walked down the road in silence. I was still tired, but Derek was right. We needed to find a place to settle in for the night, and with just the two of us, that was going t
o be harder, so it had to be somewhere decent. I could tell Janet wasn't happy about leaving without Derek and I didn't want to piss her off, but the boredom was killing me.
"So, Derek is kinda hot, huh?" I thought for sure she was going to tell me to shut up or maybe punch me in the arm again, but instead, she smiled.
"Hell yeah, he is." She tried to hide her smile, but it was no use. She was grinning like a schoolgirl.
"So exactly how long have you two been together?" I was excited for Janet. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was definitely her.
"It’s not like he asked me to go steady or anything. We've been getting closer for the last few weeks."
"Well with all the idiots on the base, he seems like an excellent choice. The way he looks at you is adorable."
Janet lowered her weapon halfway and relaxed her shoulders a little. "Talk about looks, I'm pretty sure Holden has a crush on you."
"You're crazy." I bumped her with my shoulder. “He said he knew Will from before the outbreak.”
“Yeah, they were friends, Will said.”
“Will doesn’t really talk to me about his life before this whole mess. I mean, a little about his family, but that’s it.”
“Andi, you have to understand, Will never really dealt with all his losses. For him, it’s easier to look forward, than back.”
“You say that like you understand that well.”
“Yeah, I guess I do. I’ve probably talked about my life a little more than he does, but yeah, it’s hard. I was happy back then. It was the kind of happiness that can’t ever happen in this world. Remembering that … it just makes everything seem … I don’t know … hopeless.”
“I found a letter my mom wrote me. She said that someday things were going to get better, and I’d be happy again. I wanted to believe her, especially after meeting Will. I wanted to think, maybe not soon, but someday, things would be normal again.”
Janet stopped and grabbed my arm. "You have to know that finding Will is a long shot. You might want to start preparing yourself for the reality that if we haven't found him yet, the chances aren't so good."
