He wasn’t going to read into it because there was no time for that, either.
During the last few days, he’d really loved spending time with Alice. Somehow, despite the dead world, they’d forged an intimate connection. They’d found love in a place where they should never have found love. They’d found hope in each other. They’d found a little bit of peace and Mark didn’t plan on giving that up anytime soon.
Or at all.
Or ever.
“It was just watching me,” Kyle said slowly. “There have been a few like that, yeah? You guys have seen them, too. Right?”
“Yeah,” Mark said. “We’ve seen them.”
“What’s wrong with them?” Kyle seemed to think Mark had the answers. Mark was used to that at this point. He was a born leader, a natural. He was good at guiding people and keeping them on track. He was good at telling people what to do. Goodness knows he’d done enough of it in the military. This was different, though. He hadn’t had training in zombie survival.
He hadn’t gone to any briefings on what watchful zombies were like.
He hadn’t read any safety manuals on how to defeat them.
Mark was on new ground here.
“I don’t know. Maybe they’re the ones that changed first. Maybe they were the ones closest to the source of the contaminant.”
“Like, these are the original zombies?” Alice asked. “And the other ones were the zombies that changed later? Like maybe these zombies weren’t bitten, and that’s why they’re creepy, but the other ones were bitten, and those ones are just violent. They aren’t weirdoes.”
Mark shrugged, gripped the steering wheel tighter. He wasn’t sure. None of them were.
“Just an idea,” he said. “Or, you know, there’s always the radioactive theory.”
“They aren’t radioactive,” Kyle said quickly. “They’re just, different. It’s like they’re still alive somehow. It’s like they’re still conscious.”
“But why are they different?” Alice said, voicing once more what they all wanted to know.
The paved road turned to gravel and the houses began to disappear as Mark drove. Soon they were in the woods. He drove slowly, carefully. He didn’t expect there were many undead out here. No, out here his biggest worry was accidentally hitting a tree or popping a tire on a sharp rock or a stray nail. He didn’t need that.
They’d gotten out of Raven.
Sort-of.
They’d at least gotten out of the library. Now, if they could just get to the place Kyle had found, if they could just get to this haven, then they could finally have the rest they’d been looking for.
“How far are we, Kyle?” Mark asked.
“A few minutes.”
“This place is close, huh?”
“You can see part of the lake from the building Torrance was in. The lodge and cabins are on the other side of it.”
“How big is this place?” Alice wondered aloud.
“Big enough for all of us to live comfortably,” Kyle assured them. “Big enough for us to have a home.”
Big enough for everything to be okay, thought Mark.
Everything was going to be okay.
Chapter 3
Nothing was going to be okay.
Kyle struggled to control his breathing as Mark guided the oversized SUV to the lodge. Where the hell had he managed to find this thing, anyway? It was the perfect anti-zombie vehicle. It was big and heavy. It was sturdy. Nothing could penetrate this vehicle.
But finding gas for it was going to be impossible.
They’d need to conserve their gas as much as possible. This could be their getaway car, their when-shit-hits-the-fan car.
And the fact that Kyle was even thinking about “when things got bad” showed him just how long he’d been living in survival mode.
It had been nearly a week since he’d seen his friends and he was overjoyed. Relieved. He was glad they were still there, glad he hadn’t fucked up their friendships beyond salvation. He had been nervous, really, that they would leave without him. They had talked about leaving before they’d been separated. The library was a good, solid place to hide, but it wasn’t a sustainable place to remain.
There was no water, after all.
Plus, it was out in the open. Anyone could wander by and see it. If humans with bigger guns came by, they’d have no trouble taking the building by force. Not that they’d want to, but Kyle had learned long ago that people couldn’t be trusted.
Not really.
He leaned back against the seat and wished he had been braver. He still couldn’t quite believe he’d admitted to Mark he’d been scared of a creepy zombie. A watcher, as he’d started to think of it. There were many of them. They scared him more than the normal ones.
Normal zombies were slow, boring. They were too easy to kill, really. Unless one caught you by surprise, it wasn’t much of a threat. The watchers, though? They were terrible. They seemed conscious. They seemed aware. Kyle wasn’t sure how it was possible, but there you go.
Nothing was impossible anymore, not in this new world.
He finished giving Mark directions and soon they were parked outside the lodge. Mark pulled right up front and parked by the door. The SUV was loaded up with supplies. Once they’d gotten everything inside, they would move the vehicle and park it beside one of the many cabins that was scattered in the forest.
If someone came by, they wouldn’t immediately be able to tell the lodge was inhabited.
Kyle liked that.
“Come on,” he said, hopping out of the car. “Come see what we’ve done.”
Torrance appeared in the doorway. Mark and Alice both hugged her. Kyle was surprised at their friendliness. They had only met her once, through the window, and neither one of them had seemed that impressed with her.
Still, he appreciated the gesture. He’d gotten to know Torrance well over the last few days. They’d been stuck with only each other until he’d managed to get to Mark and Alice, so they’d had plenty of time to talk. The lodge was big enough that they’d had their own space, though, so they’d also had plenty of time to be alone.
“You’re limping,” Mark said when Torrance moved out of the doorway.
“Sprained my ankle,” she admitted.
“That’s why you didn’t help Kyle look for us,” Alice said, snapping her fingers. “I thought you were just being a bitch.”
“Excuse me?” Torrance looked hurt, but Alice just shrugged.
“Just being honest. I don’t blame you. I probably wouldn’t want to go look for strangers, either.”
“You should get off your ankle,” Mark said, pointing toward the couch in the main room of the lodge. “Sit down. We’ll unload without your help.”
Kyle was a little surprised that Torrance didn’t argue with Mark. She’d been arguing with him all damn week. Maybe it was because Mark was the new guy, or maybe because he towered over both her and Kyle. Maybe she was intimidated. Kyle wasn’t sure. He was just happy she was going to rest for once.
Mark motioned for Kyle to help him start unpacking the car. Alice went inside, presumably to help Torrance get situated.
“You guys sleeping together?” Mark asked casually. Kyle wasn’t offended. It was a fair question. Bold, but fair.
“No,” Kyle said.
“I don’t care if you are,” Mark said.
“I wish we were,” Kyle said honestly, and Mark chuckled.
“How’d she hurt her ankle?” Mark grabbed a duffel bag from the back of the vehicle and handed it to Kyle.
“We were gathering wood.”
“Gathering wood?” Mark raised an eyebrow.
“There’s a fireplace. A good one. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of wood on hand.”
“All right. So she twisted it. Any chance she got bit?”
“Nah,” Kyle shook his head.
“You sure about that? All it takes is a scratch, Kyle.”
“I checked,” Kyle lowered his voice. “I took care of
it.” He had felt embarrassed standing up to Torrance, demanding he check her over for scratches. It had been an intimate situation without an intimate setting and that bothered him more than it should have. He didn’t like feeling like he was violating anyone, but especially a woman. Torrance was sweet. She didn’t deserve to be treated like she was untrustworthy.
That’s exactly what Kyle had done, though.
The thought made him feel a little sick. He thought of the hurt in her eyes, the way she had casually shrugged as she pulled up her jeans so he could check her ankles. She was trying to make light of the situation, trying to make it seem like she wasn’t upset about what he was doing, but he knew he’d broken her trust in that moment.
“Good man,” Mark said, but Kyle didn’t think so. He didn’t speak again while they unloaded the rest of the bags and supplies. Mark and Alice had managed to do quite a bit in a short amount of time. Kyle wondered how much time they’d spent looking for him, if they’d been as worried about him as he had about them.
It was strange, being separated from your friends, your lifeline. Alice and Mark really were the only two people he felt were on his side. Kyle liked Torrance, but he hadn’t forged a solid foundation of trust with her yet. That would come with time. The truth was that he viewed Torrance as a companion, but Alice and Mark were family.
They were always going to be there for him, always going to look after him.
He’d been worried when he hadn’t been able to find them. He suspected they’d go back to the library and wait for him, but he didn’t know how much time he’d have. He didn’t know how long it would be before they stopped hoping and left Raven for good.
He had made it just in time.
Kyle suspected he would never stop feeling like a failure. He should have figured out a way to sneak around the Infected, but Kyle knew he would never truly admit just how terrified he’d been when he came out of the woods and saw the creature watching him.
It had been waiting.
It had been waiting for Kyle.
He had locked eyes with it, locked eyes with the zombie, and Kyle knew in that moment it was going to kill him. He didn’t know when or where or how, but the Infected on the balcony was going to hunt him down and it was going to turn Kyle.
It was only a matter of time.
Chapter 4
“I’m an idiot. I know.” Torrance sat on the couch in the center of the lodge’s living room and propped her foot up on the coffee table. Alice sat on the opposite end of the couch. She was close, but not too close. They were, at best, acquaintances. They weren’t friends. Not yet. They certainly weren’t snuggle-up-on-the-couch-and-share-secrets close.
Maybe someday.
“Why do you say that?” Alice cocked her head. Torrance was caught off-guard by how pretty Alice was. She had bright eyes and a button nose and her dark hair was long. It was pulled back in a loose ponytail, but despite Alice’s obvious lack of a shower, she didn’t look greasy or unkempt the way Torrance thought she certainly did.
No, Alice somehow managed to make living in the apocalypse seem easy as far as personal hygiene was concerned. Torrance wanted to ask her what the secret was, wanted to ask how Alice managed to look so put-together in the midst of horror, but she didn’t. Instead, Torrance bit her tongue.
“Shouldn’t have tripped. It was a rookie mistake.”
“It was probably dark.”
“It was.”
“And you were probably tired.”
“I was.”
“It happens. Don’t beat yourself up.” Alice shrugged and Torrance nodded. Kyle’s friend was being far too forgiving. Anything could have happened out here in the wilderness. If Kyle hadn’t been around and a zombie wandered by, Torrance would have been screwed. There was no way she could outrun an Infected right now. Not even one of the slow ones.
There was just no way.
“How, um, how have you been holding up?” Torrance tried to fill the air with something. Noise. Words. It was all the same at this point. She had never been terribly comfortable with new people and right now, Alice felt like a stranger in her home. Like it or not, she really had come to view the lodge as her home, as her sanctuary. She had come to view the lodge as her place.
Hers and Kyle’s.
“Well enough, I guess,” Alice said. “We were worried about Kyle.”
“He told you about the watcher?”
“Yeah. He told us.”
“Fucking weird, right?”
“Have you seen them before?” Alice asked. “You were in that building awhile, right? Did you ever notice any like that before?”
“Sometimes,” Torrance admitted. “I always thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because they seem so different from the other ones. The watchful ones aren’t dumb like the others. They’re smart.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Neither do I.”
“Looks like you guys got some work done on the place, though,” Alice pointed toward the boarded-up windows that lined the walls of the lodge.
“That’s Kyle’s handiwork,” Torrance admitted. “He took apart some spare furniture we found lying around. A couple of the tourist cabins had tables, and he brought those in, too.”
“Where’d he find the tools?” Alice asked. “He must have needed, what? A hammer? A saw?” She stood and walked to the window, ran her fingers along one of the boards Kyle had painstakingly put together.
“Yeah. There’s a shed out back with tools and supplies. He found everything he needed.”
Alice smiled as she looked around.
“Well, imagine that,” she said. “Who knew the geek had it in him?”
“He’s not a geek,” Torrance felt the need to defend Kyle, felt a protective instinct welling up inside of her. Alice noticed and looked questioningly at Torrance.
“I wasn’t insulting him,” she said carefully. “I’m just impressed. I’ve known Kyle a long time. This is incredible. I don’t even think I would have been able to board these windows up so nicely.”
“Exactly what I was just saying,” Mark said, stepping into the lodge and dropping a pile of bags on the floor. “He did a great job.”
Kyle came in next to Mark and dropped his own bags. He looked a little shy, a little embarrassed of all the attention he was getting, but Torrance was glad to see him being appreciated.
After she’d gotten hurt, Kyle hadn’t been mad. Part of her wondered if he’d kick her out, if he’d leave her to fend for herself. She wouldn’t blame him if he had. It was a dog-eat-dog world out there now. There was no room for softness or decency anymore, yet somehow, he had helped her limp back to the lodge, he’d set her up on the couch, and he’d taken care of her all week.
He deserved to be appreciated. They’d spent a lot of time together while he worked on the lodge and she sat on her ass. They’d share many stories, many secrets, and many interesting experiences together.
Now that Mark and Alice were here, things would change. They would be different, but somehow, Torrance didn’t mind. She felt like she should, like she should be a little jealous of the way Kyle was so excited to see his friends, but she wasn’t. She was past that, and she felt older than she was.
Jealousy was a young woman’s game, at least in Torrance’s opinion. Jealousy was something high school girlfriends felt when their boyfriends spent the weekend with their buddies instead of with them. Jealousy was something childish, something immature, and it had no place in the world of adults.
Torrance was better than that.
At least, in her mind, she was.
Alice got up to help the guys finish unloading the SUV. When they finished, they moved the SUV to one of the cabins and parked behind it.
“That’s a good idea, you know,” Torrance said once everyone was back. “Hiding the SUV.”
“No one can see it from the lake, and even if someone wanders down to the lodge from the main road, they won’t notice it unless they get out and walk around,
” Kyle sounded proud of himself. Good. He deserved that.
Kyle sat down next to Torrance on the couch and Alice sat on one of the other sofas. Mark stood with his arms crossed, looking around the room.
“You did good, kid,” he said to Torrance.
“Why, thank you,” she answered. She wasn’t sure how she felt about being called “kid,” but it was a good compliment. She felt lucky to have remembered the lodge existed. It would have been easy to forget, easy to push out of her mind, but something had reminded her of its existence.
Fate?
She wasn’t sure she believed in that anymore, but she’d take it.
They chatted briefly for awhile. Mark and Kyle walked around the first floor and discussed additional security measures they could take.
“The problem with this floor is that we don’t want to block off the doors,” Kyle pointed out. “Even though the windows are boarded up, we still want to be able to escape if we need to.”
“We could make an escape route on the second floor,” Alice pointed out. “Get some ladders or some ropes or something.”
“That’s great until we want to bring something inside. Do we really want to haul boxes of food up to the second floor via a rope?” Mark asked. His voice wasn’t unkind and Torrance was a little surprised that Mark was able to lead the little group without offending anyone or stepping on any toes.
There was no doubt in her mind he was, in fact, the leader. There was something about him that radiated strength. Torrance knew he’d been in the military, but it was interesting to see him in action.
Despite the fact that he’d likely been hungry for the last couple of weeks, Mark moved like a tiger. He was tall and muscular, yet he moved with grace. He watched everything and was constantly looking around. No detail seemed to go unnoticed with him.
“I asked the same thing,” Torrance said to Alice. “About blocking off the doors.” She shrugged. “Kyle felt the same as Mark, though, and it makes sense. Still,” she looked pointedly at the men. “We should definitely find some ropes or ladders and prepare a way to escape from the second floor. You know, just in case.”
Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse (Episode 6) Page 2
