A few minutes later, Justin gave a whoop of delight. “Everyone, look up. Do you see that?”
Everyone obliged him. “What are we looking for?” Daniel asked, peering intently at the cloudless expanse of blue skies.
“Was it a helicopter?” Patrick asked eagerly. “Or a military aircraft?”
Justin gave a dry chuckle. “Nothing that dramatic.” He nodded to his right. “Take a look at that billboard.”
It was an ad for some insurance company Amy had never heard of. But right below the male model with the big, cheesy grin were large, spray-painted words in block letters: COULD NOT WAIT. WENT TO GET DAUGHTER. MEET YOU AT FRIEND’S PLACE. P.S. WE ARE FINE.
“Garrett was here!” Marie exclaimed, clapping her hands. “He and Benson are safe!”
“I told you they were all right, didn’t I?” Amy said, awash with profound relief.
Justin smiled at her through the rearview mirror. “You sure did. Remind me to listen to you next time.”
Amy rolled her eyes at him, but she smiled inwardly, somewhat mollified.
“While we’re here, let’s stop for a bathroom break,” Patrick said, grimacing in pain. He rubbed his stomach, then glanced hopefully at Daniel. “Hey, you got any toilet paper in that bag of yours?”
“I am afraid not,” Daniel replied. “So sorry. But maybe you can find some leaves? I hear they are quite effective, as long as they are not poisonous.”
“What about you guys?” Patrick turned to Justin, his eyes wild. “You must have at least a wad of paper!”
Justin shook his head. “Sorry, pal. I’m afraid I don’t.”
“If you’re worried about the poisonous flora, just use a small rock to . . . scrape yourself clean,” Amy said, trying to keep a straight face. “But be careful – some of those rocks are wicked sharp. You don’t want to come back with tattered flesh dangling from your butt.”
“Oh, dear god!” Patrick cried out as he dashed out of the jeep and into the trees. When he disappeared from their sight, Amy cast a suspicious glance at the rest of the group.
“Seriously? No one has toilet paper?”
There was a long pause, and then Daniel pulled out a thick roll of paper from his backpack. He shrugged when his wife gawked at him. “I am saving this for a rainy day.”
Amy smirked. “Serves him right for stuffing his belly with all those baked potatoes. Maybe next time, he’ll learn to share.”
“What we did was not nice!” Marie chided, but her shoulders shook with suppressed laughter as she rummaged through her husband’s bag. “Do we have medicine for his stomach pains?”
“Just aspirin and cough medicine.”
Marie seemed at a loss. “I see. Well, we cannot help him, then. I hope he feels better when he comes back.”
“Don’t worry about Patrick. He’s a big boy.” Amy stifled a grin and patted Marie on the arm. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
***
Half an hour had passed, but Patrick was still in the woods. Amy yawned and leaned against the door, bored out of her mind. What was taking him so long? Was he lost? She wondered if they should go out and search for him. Maybe his condition was worse than they had previously thought.
“I’m going outside to look for him,” Amy declared to no one in particular. She sat up and was about to open the door when Marie stirred beside her.
“Wait,” she murmured. “We will go together.”
Justin rubbed his face tiredly and sat up in his seat. “We’re going to leave soon, so don’t go far.”
With a nod, Amy opened the door quietly and slid out with her golf club. Walter whined, and Marie paused to comfort him before joining Amy outside. The two women eyed their surroundings. For now, everything seemed quiet and still, but who knew what lurked behind the abandoned cars and trees. They had to be extra careful, just in case.
They hurried toward the trees to avoid staying out in the open for too long. Amy pressed herself against a tree trunk, hating how vulnerable she felt. “Patrick!” she called out. “Are you in there?”
Silence greeted them, and Amy’s annoyance flared. Where had he gone off to?
Marie came up behind Amy. “Let us go in a little farther,” she whispered. “I am sure he is around somewhere.”
“If we don’t find him within five minutes, I’m out of here,” Amy replied. “We’ve wasted enough time as it is.”
The two women ventured deeper into the trees, casting nervous glances as they stepped on dead leaves and broken branches strewn over the ground. They continued walking for a few minutes when Marie suddenly stopped and grabbed Amy’s elbow.
“Do you hear that?” she asked.
All Amy could hear was the sound of rustling leaves above them. Then she heard it: a deep, shuffling noise, followed by muttered swearing.
She raised a brow. “Looks like we’ve found Patrick.”
Marie went forward, softly calling his name. The shuffling stopped, and Patrick emerged from behind a thick, gnarly trunk.
“What are you girls doing here?” he asked, his face red with irritation. He wiped his sweaty face on his sleeve.
“It’s been more than thirty minutes,” Amy pointed out. “We’re leaving soon, so we thought we’d come and get you.”
Marie looked up at him carefully. “Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, yes,” Patrick said, brushing aside her concern. “No thanks to all of you. I know someone has a toilet roll, but of course you wouldn’t want to share it with me. Oh, no. Bet you all had a good laugh in the jeep just now. I swear, one of these days, I will –”
“Shhh!” Amy clapped a hand over Patrick’s mouth, frowning. “Do you hear that?”
“Get your hand off me.” Patrick swatted her arm away.
Marie stared hard at the rustling leaves overhead. “It is just the wind.”
But it was more than that. It wasn’t the sound of a gentle breeze swaying the branches and leaves. It was the sound of snapping branches and frenzied thuds on the dirt floor. Like someone was running.
And it was coming their way.
“Oh, boy. Time to go,” Amy breathed out, and the three of them began to run.
A distant snarl filled the air, causing a violent shiver to run down Amy’s spine. She leaped over a fallen branch and pumped her legs to go faster. She prayed that she wouldn’t trip and sprain an ankle. Not now. An unbidden image of Ms. Wentworth falling over the balcony and her death screams filled Amy’s ears, and she gritted her teeth.
It won’t happen to us. It won’t happen to me.
The snarl grew closer.
They were almost out in the open. To her dismay, she saw Justin idling around outside, stretching his body and swinging his blood-soaked baseball bat in a pretend game. Daniel was still inside the jeep, his legs propped up on the dashboard. By the looks of it, he was still napping.
“Get inside the car!” Amy screamed once she stumbled out into the light. Justin jerked around, surprised, then rapped loudly on the window to wake Daniel. Patrick surged forward, leaving the women to trail behind him.
“I’ve got this,” Justin said when they reached him. “Get inside.”
“But you can’t –”
“I said get inside!”
Without another word, Amy and Marie slid across the seat and slammed the door shut. Daniel stared at his wife for a beat, then stepped out of the jeep with his fire poker.
It happened in an instant. One second, Justin was standing a few feet away from the jeep. The next second, he was thrown against the jeep, struggling with the Runner on top of him. His baseball bat rolled across the hot asphalt and came to a stop at Daniel’s feet.
Quietly, Daniel snuck up behind the Runner and rammed his poker through its left temple. The Runner attempted to take a bite out of Justin’s neck before slumping over him. With a look of disgust, Justin pushed the deadweight away.
“Thanks again,” he said to Daniel as he bent down to pick up his bat. He was breathing hard. �
�This must be the third time you’ve saved me, right?”
Daniel gave a small grin. “Yes, but who is counting?” His smile faded. “Are you all right? Did the Runner bite or scratch you?”
“Oh, he scratched me all right.” Justin winced as he lifted his arms. Long, red welts ran down his arms, and a thin trail of blood pooled on the inside of one elbow. “But it’s nothing serious. Could have been a lot worse, I guess.”
Daniel nodded. “Yes. The Runner could have gouged your flesh off.”
“Well, we’d best move along,” Justin said, wiping the blood on his jeans. “We’ve wasted enough time already.”
When they settled into their seats, Amy leaned forward to look at Justin’s arms. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked, feeling nervous. “I mean, light scratches don’t infect people, right?”
“I do not think they do,” Marie answered. “You become a Runner when they bite you. Their hands are only dangerous because they can use them to rip apart your flesh.”
Amy blanched at Marie’s matter-of-fact description of something so violent. “I guess that’s good news, then.”
Justin maneuvered the jeep around the cars and drove down the highway. Silence fell over everyone; it had been an exhausting day, and it was only mid-afternoon.
Amy yawned and leaned back on the headrest. She wondered when they would reach the farm. If things went well, they might even get a decent meal for tonight’s dinner. She was certain that Garrett’s friend raised chickens on his farm. Maybe they would have chicken pie, with salad greens and freshly baked cookies. Or roast chicken, with custard pudding for dessert. It would be nice to have an actual, homecooked dinner instead of all the canned and packaged meals they’d been living on . . .
She must have dozed off, because the next thing she knew, Walter’s barks startled her awake and rang in her ears. He wouldn’t stop, even when Marie comforted him with soothing strokes. His ears flattened and his posture tense, he faced the windshield and continued barking.
“Could you please control that mutt?” Patrick shouted. Before Marie could stop him, the man reached out and smacked the dog on its snout. Walter let out a pained yelp and frantically pawed at his nose.
“Don’t hit him!” Marie pushed Patrick away, grunting with the exertion. A brief struggle ensued in the backseat. Suddenly, Patrick howled and fell back when Walter leaped forward and bit him on the arm.
“Quiet down!” Justin shouted. “There’s no time for this.”
“That rabid dog bit me!”
Amy snorted. “He didn’t even puncture the skin.”
Justin braked and whirled around in his seat, his eyes blazing. “Cut it out, the both of you. We may have bigger problems here.”
“What is it?” Marie asked, breathless.
Daniel leaned forward, peering at the horizon. “I can see something in the distance. It is coming this way.”
That ominous statement was enough to silence everyone. Amy squinted her eyes, trying to see better. Up ahead, a black mass like a swarm of bees filled the highway. It was coming toward them. And it was fast.
The fine hairs on the back of Amy’s neck rose when she realized what she was seeing. They were Runners. Hundreds, maybe thousands. And they were running right at them.
Chapter 4
Justin made a U-turn and drove away from the monstrous sight.
“Where are we going?” Amy asked him once she found her voice.
His jaw tightened. “Anywhere but here.”
Patrick swore loudly. “Well, isn’t this just great? At this rate, we’ll never reach the farm by evening.”
“We do not have a choice,” Daniel argued. He turned around in his seat to glare at Patrick. “Do you think the Runners will only run past our parked vehicle? Will they not slam against the jeep, push it, and jump on the roof? Will not Walter bark at them, and will we not scream in fear?” He shook his head. “We will not last a minute. We must find safety until the stampede goes away.”
He was absolutely right. But where could they go? Obviously, they couldn’t continue along the highway; the insane horde would be right behind them for hours on end. How to shake them off?
A hoarse sound rose behind them in the distance, like many unintelligible whispers. It made Amy’s skin crawl, and she surreptitiously rubbed the gooseflesh that had sprouted on her arms.
Marie tapped Justin on the shoulder. “I remember seeing an interchange on the left. We should go there.”
“I have no idea where that leads.”
“We’ll figure that out later,” Amy answered quickly. “Let’s just hope the Runners don’t follow us down that route.”
With a grim nod, Justin pressed down on the accelerator and drove at an unrelenting pace until the interchange materialized before their eyes.
“Here goes nothing,” he muttered, and he swerved the jeep to the left.
***
They had been on the road for hours. At first, their plan had been to go down the interchange and wait out the stampede. Once they were sure it was long gone, they would return to the highway and continue toward the farm.
They just hadn’t expected dozens of Runners to make a left turn and give chase.
The Runners had been relentless. If it had been one or two, their group might have stopped to kill the stragglers running after them, but fifty-odd Runners chasing at a frenzied speed? They had no choice but to continue on.
And on.
An hour later, they had managed to shake off the remaining Runners, but by then, they were hopelessly lost. They were hungry, cranky, and frightened, made all the worse by the darkening sky. Like it or not, they would need to stop and find shelter for the approaching night. Once they had food in their bellies, they would regroup and discuss what to do next.
“Let’s go into the woods,” Justin suggested as the jeep crawled to a stop. He rubbed his tired eyes. “After what happened on the highway, I really don’t want to stay out in the open.”
“There might be Runners in the woods as well,” Daniel pointed out.
Justin gave a dry chuckle. “Maybe two or three. But we can handle that. I just want to avoid the hordes.”
Who would argue with that? When no one opposed the idea, Justin drove slowly into the trees, finally coming to a stop near a small clearing.
“We’ll stay here tonight,” he said.
Justin and Daniel immediately stepped out with their backpacks to set up camp. Marie carried the backpack with Walter in it and went to find large sticks to make a small fire. As Amy opened the door, she paused to throw a glance over her shoulder.
“Aren’t you coming out?”
Patrick slouched in his seat. “I won’t be much use. I’ll just sit here and watch the jeep.”
Was this a good idea? What if he decided to steal their only means of transportation while everyone was outside? Amy bit her lip, thinking. Patrick had no idea where the farm was; only she and Justin knew the directions to the place. Without the rest of their little group, he wouldn’t even last a day out there.
Still, she decided to play it safe. She leaned toward the driver’s seat and flipped down the sun visor; earlier, she had seen Justin placing the keys there before stepping outside with Daniel. The small set of keys jangled as it landed on her open palm.
Patrick snorted behind her. “If I really wanted to steal this junk, you think a missing set of keys will stop me?”
“Probably not.” Amy leaned back and stared at him from across the backseat. She observed him for a while. Ever since their escape from the apartment building, they hadn’t really had a chance to sit down and talk about what had happened with Ms. Wentworth. They had been too busy surviving. But they had time now.
“What happened in Justin’s apartment?” she asked softly. “Why were you fighting with Ms. Wentworth?”
Patrick went on the defensive. “Changing the subject, are we?”
“No. It’s something that’s been on everyone’s mind, and you know it. I wou
ld say it’s a subject that’s long overdue.”
He eyed her carefully, and Amy wondered if he was going to jump up and flee. After a while, a look of resignation settled across his tired face.
“Look, don’t believe everything she said, okay? I know what that old bag told you, but she was lying. She was . . . forgetful.” He looked away. “Sometimes, she would eat the food, but then she would forget about it. And the next thing I know, she would be accusing me of eating everything. And she believed her own lies, too! It drove me nuts.”
When Amy didn’t say anything, he continued on. “Yesterday, I’d just about had enough. I thought, ‘Why not?’ No one believed me, anyway. I might as well become the villain everyone was accusing me of. At least I would be a villain with a full stomach, right? So I started smashing the cabinet that contained her food.” A look of regret passed his face. “I just didn’t expect that things would turn out the way they did.”
“You kicked her, causing her to fall off the balcony.”
“I was out of my mind with fear. She wouldn’t let go of me.”
His sorrow seemed convincing enough, but Amy felt unsure. There was something a little too neat about the story that painted him as the victim. Never mind the fact that she had also witnessed his greed for food. She had seen him hoarding candies and fighting about who should get the larger portions. Even the way he had devoured the baked potatoes without any regard for others made his story less believable.
The smell of cooked vegetables wafted into the jeep, and Amy’s stomach gave a rumbling growl. Marie was probably steaming them in a small pot. A thick vegetable stew would have been nice, but they had to conserve their water.
Amy narrowed her eyes. “This conversation isn’t over,” she said to Patrick. “Far from it.” And before he could say anything, she stepped outside to join the others for dinner.
“We’ll have to put out this fire soon,” Justin said as Amy and Patrick sat down beside the group. “We can’t risk it, especially if there are stray Runners around these woods.” He cast a hopeful glance at Marie. “Do you think the vegetables are done?”
“Almost,” she replied. “I cut the potatoes and vegetables into small pieces. They will cook faster that way.”
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