My cheeks flushed at her comment, but her accompanied laughter seemed genuine. Again, my tongue tripped over my words. "He was only looking... We just... He wanted to make sure it was safe."
Meg's laughter faded away, along with the hard look that had been in her eyes. She was nodding before I even finished talking. "I know. I also had to make sure you weren't a threat."
The soft smile remained on her lips, easing my nerves, and I tilted my head to the side as I studied her. "How long have you been here?"
"Since day one."
My jaw dropped, and excitement bubbled in my stomach. "You were in Vegas when it got hit with the mist?"
She nodded her reply and asked me in turn, "Which city were you in?"
"I was in L.A. when Florida was hit, and we evacuated into the mountains. I never saw the mist." Meg gave me an odd look, so I held up my arm where the faint remnants of the scar could be seen. "I was bitten about three years ago."
It was her turn to be shocked, and her smile disappeared momentarily. Finally, she managed to say one word. "Bitten?"
"Yes. Never met anyone else like us until a few months ago."
"A zombie bit you, and you turned?"
I blinked. Zombie? I glanced through the window at the freaks beyond. I hadn't heard that term in a while. Zombie were undead, movie monsters that didn't exist. Those freaks of nature out there were real.
I looked back to Meg and nodded, letting her digest the information. She turned to stare out the window, a thoughtful look in her eyes. I let the silence stretch out a little longer before I had to ask, "Are you here alone?"
The look she shot back to me was blank, bordering on confusion. Slowly, her eyes hardened, and her lips twisted into a tight frown. "Can I trust you?"
I chuckled wryly, lifting both my hands in the air, palms facing her in an 'I surrender' gesture. "I followed you here without my weapons. I'm really hoping we can trust each other at this point."
"We don't get a lot of strangers here."
There it was. We. My stomach twisted, and suddenly I felt trapped, even though my situation hadn't changed. My smile gone, I swallowed hard and said. "No one likes strangers."
Meg sighed deeply, her eyes returning to the window. "I always figured there had to be more people left out there, and I used to imagine what it would be like when someone finally showed up. As the years passed, that changed, and I began to fear it..." She turned back to me, her green eyes sparkling. "Now you're here. I don't feel afraid, though."
Her silence was expectant, as if she was waiting on me to say something, but I wasn't sure what she wanted. Her eyes never left mine, and I began to squirm under her scrutinizing glare. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, and I leaned back in the chair, hesitant and wanting to keep my distance.
"What's it like out there?" She asked, and I blinked. I slowly released the breath I had been holding, hoping she didn't notice how uncomfortable I'd become. Trying to focus on answering her question, I realized it wasn't something easily answered. I opened my mouth twice before I finally got a word out, and it was lacking.
"Sad."
Her eyes didn't flinch, but her voice was softer, almost breathless. "Everywhere?"
"Mostly." I said gently, sensing that this was a big revelation to Meg. She must have been holding out hope that the whole world hadn't gone mad. I was reluctant to tell her otherwise, but it would have been cruel to keep it from her. "I've been through some towns that are doing okay, but most of the land has been overrun by the infected. Even if the infected don't bother the people like us, you have to watch out for the assholes."
Meg scoffed at that and leaned back, shaking her head. "Gordon's always been afraid of that."
I had to clasp my hands together on my lap to keep them from shaking. My nervousness was beginning to spread again. Why wasn't she answering my question? I couldn't keep the tenseness from my voice. "Is it just you and Gordon?"
"No." Meg shook her head, sighing deeply. "There's three of us. Three of us left, anyway."
"Left?" The word slipped out, and Meg shot another frown at me. She chose to ignore it and went on with her questioning.
"How did you wind up here? Traveling with her must be difficult."
"It is, but we couldn't leave her behind." I trailed off, not sure how much I wanted to explain about Stephanie's situation. Stephanie might not appreciate me telling her story.
Meg's eyes hardened again, but a second later, she relaxed. The quickly returning smirk threw me more than any hard look she could have given me. "And you thought Vegas was a good place to vacation with her? Show her the sites?"
I chuckled nervously and shrugged. "We knew there would be infected, but we didn't think it would be this bad. The highway coming in was fairly clear."
"For her sake, it might be best if you got back on that highway and kept going. The zombies just get thicker the further into the city you go."
I pursed my lips. Boulder City wasn't far enough behind us, but I wanted to hear more of Meg's story. "Hope you don't mind us hanging around for a few days? I need to find another vehicle since I lost the last one."
"Lost it?" Meg prodded before I had the words out, and I instantly knew I'd said too much. An eyebrow arched skeptically as she stared at me, and her voice was dry. "How do you lose a car now-a-days? Forget where you parked?"
I sighed, not able to lie to her. "A running vehicle is a hot commodity now. Some guys back in Boulder City took it. Same place we picked up Stephanie."
"The assholes, huh?"
"Yes." I grimaced and brushed a hand through my short hair. "They were definitely assholes."
"Sorry to hear that." She sounded sincere, but she was leaning forward on her elbows again, her eyes drilling a hole through me. "Did any follow you?"
It felt like a fist reached into my gut, gripped and twisted. My head was shaking back and forth unconsciously, not in answer to her question, but a denial to let Reed into my head. It took a few moments before I could focus enough to answer her, and by that time she was near scowling. "Only one of them could have followed us through that." I whispered. "And he was injured."
"Just one? Are you positive?"
"Yes." My voice turned firm as I got my emotions under control. Meg leaned back in her chair, but a cold look crept into her eyes that made my palms sweat.
"I have things here that I need to protect. I can't have you leading people to me. Did you leave a trail of dead zombies for him to follow?"
"No. After we got distance on him, the only... zombies we killed were the ones that frenzied." That sounded so wrong in my head.
"And that's why you burned them at night." She nodded to herself, and the coldness thawed, replaced by worry. She turned her eyes back to the window, and the seconds stretched into minutes. Her fingers absently picked at a loose thread in the chair fabric, and I desperately wanted to know what she was thinking. Even if she wasn't willing to risk talking to me, we would need at least a few days to get another vehicle running for Stephanie's sake. I hoped she wouldn't run us off before then.
Abruptly she stood and reached for the shotgun she had propped against her chair. She moved to the window to get a better vantage point of what she had been staring at. Her voice was tight with worry. "I was never alone here, not even from day one. The others left over the years. Said they needed to find answers. I guess I understand that, but I can't leave."
She paused, and I stood to join her. My mind whirled as I tried to figure out what could keep her here. "Why can't you leave?"
"Because someone here isn't able to travel."
My eyes followed hers to another building, a huge hotel and casino by the looks of it, and I realized she was looking toward this other person, the one she couldn't leave behind. Coldness wretched my stomach as I thought of Walter and his Misses, the one he couldn't leave behind, and my voice barely broke a whisper. "Why?"
"She's not like me and you. She's like Stephanie."
I exhale
d loudly with relief, then grimaced under the questioning look Meg gave me. "I thought... never mind. Do you want to leave?"
She shared the same problem Joss and I had with Stephanie. It wasn't that her companion couldn't travel, but that she wouldn't. They weren't willing to take that chance. My eyes fell on the throng of freaks that stood between us and that other building, and I understood why Meg was frowning at me.
"I never really considered it as an option." She finally answered. "It was always too dangerous. Gordon stayed with us. He said it's because he didn't think it was right to leave us alone."
"Gordon's like us?" I asked, and Meg nodded in answer. I wished she'd tell me her other companion's name. It felt like I had to drag every piece of information out of her as it was. "How did she get here?"
"She's always been here."
My jaw dropped, and Meg gave me a pained look. I said in a rush, "She survived the--"
"Yes. She was protected." Meg turned from me, and her hand reached up to rub her ear lobe, fidgeting. Abruptly, she gripped the door handle as if to stop the nervous movement. "I think I've taken up enough of your time. Joss's axe is over there. Feel free to look around. Just stay away from the Palace."
"Meg, wait." I reached for her, but stopped just shy of grabbing her arm. My hesitation let her get out the door, and soon she was jogging swiftly toward her home in the other hotel. I sighed as I watched her slip away. Slapping my hand against the glass, I hissed my frustration. "Damn it."
Grumbling, I turned to look where she had pointed. Joss's hatchet set propped in a corner, hidden from my view when we walked in. With one last look at Meg's retreating back, I scowled. Grabbing the hatchet, I headed to fetch my own weapons. I didn't feel like looking around. My only thought was getting back to Joss and Stephanie now that I'd blown my chance with Meg.
~ ~ ~ ~
Joss and Stephanie were already on their feet by the time I entered the restaurant. They stared at me expectantly, and I ground my teeth as I stomped across the room to thrust the handle of Joss's hatchet into his hands. "Hang on to it next time."
Joss looked at the hatchet and back to me before he tossed it gently into an unused booth. "What happened? We saw you go with her."
"Nothing." I grumbled, dropping into a chair with a huff. "I blew it."
"What?" Joss pulled a chair up to join me, but Stephanie stayed back, nervously rubbing her fingers over her belly.
"I blew it." I dropped my face in my hands and groaned. "I told her there were some bad people in Boulder City. It was enough to scare her off."
"And she just left? What did she say?"
It only took a few minutes for me to relay everything Meg and I had talked about. They were both curious about the news that Meg wasn't alone, although neither seemed to be overly concerned with it. When I was finished, Joss grabbed my hand firmly, and the serious set of his jaw twisted a new knot of tension in my chest. His eyes seemed to bore into mine.
His words were hesitant, as if he had to work up the courage, and I held my breath. "Did you ask her about... the cookies?"
"Jesus!" I spat at him, throwing his hand away, and he fell back into his chair laughing loudly. I stood to stalk around the room, annoyed with how pleased Joss was with himself. Even Stephanie giggled.
Stephanie sobered quicker than Joss, and she waited for his laughter to die down before she spoke. "What do we do now?"
I leaned against the wall and sighed heavily. "We do what's best for us. I'll start looking for a diesel and the parts to get it running. Hopefully we can find enough kerosene, but the oil shouldn't be a problem. If Meg isn't willing to talk by the time we're done, then all that's left to do is move on."
"Kerosene?" Stephanie's face twisted in confusion as she said the word.
"The small canisters they come in aren't contaminated, at least most of the time they're not. It's what I need to start an engine."
"They made their own gas at the hotel." Stephanie's voice shifted to that weak, insecure way of talking she had whenever she mentioned anything about the hotel. The comment was followed by an awkward silence.
I grumbled. "Well, that's one trick Dabrowski didn't teach me."
Ignoring the questioning look in Stephanie's eyes, I grabbed the pad and pencil from the table and ripped off the score sheet from the last round of Hearts I'd played with Joss. I didn't need that reminder lying around. Joss was leaning toward Stephanie, explaining that Dabrowski had taught me to convert diesel engines, and paying absolutely no attention to what I was doing. After wadding the paper up into a tight ball, I pegged it at him. It bounced off his forehead with a satisfying thump.
"Hey!" Joss jerked back, barely catching the pad out of the air as I tossed it to him.
"You and Stephanie write down some of the things you might want or need." I held the pencil out to him, and he frowned at me before taking it. "We'll take turns looking around. Meg seems pretty comfortable here, so I'm thinking it should be safe enough for us. She just wants us to stay away from her place."
"Alright." Joss said, staring at the blank pad in front of him. "Who's going first?"
I shrugged, and a big grin spread across his face. The thought of letting him run off on his own made me clench up inside. As his smile grew, so did my frown. Finally relenting, I said, "Find a gas station, or a map from someplace. Let's be smart about this."
"You got it." He said, moving to grab his hatchet. "Anything else?"
"Yeah," I said as I pulled my revolver to set in on the table and began to unbuckle the harness. "Take this with you."
That calmed him down. He studied the gun, then me, and his eyes flickered so quickly to Stephanie that I might not have noticed it if I hadn't of been staring straight at him. "You shoot better than I do. Don't you think you should keep it?"
"No." I said firmly, wrapping the harness straps around the holster and handing it to him. "Only use it in a dire emergency. I'll hear it and know you're in trouble."
He sucked in a tight breath before taking the harness from me. As he began to strap it on, he said. "How will I know if you're in trouble?"
"Don't be gone long." I smiled at him innocently. That wasn't my intention when I gave him my gun, but I was pleased I found a way to keep him from disappearing for hours. "And remember to stay away from the Palace."
"What's the Palace?"
"Another big ass hotel on the other side of that one." I said, pointing out the window. "You can't miss it."
He nodded as he continued to fumble with the harness buckles. The leather was stiff, and didn't want to cooperate with Joss's somewhat larger frame. He grew frustrated and glowered at me as if it was my fault, but I only chuckled as I stepped up to help him. Moments later, I handed him the gun, and he secured it in the holster.
"Don't shoot yourself, okay?" I murmured.
He scoffed at that. "I ain't taking it out until I get back here."
He smirked at me as he took up his hatchet and headed out the door. I watched him through the glass, first looking one way then the other, as if deciding where he wanted to go. Finally he turned back toward the highway and trotted out of sight.
I crossed my arms in front of me, preparing to worry for the next hour or so and reflect on my failure with Meg. Stephanie shifted in her seat behind me and drew my attention before I could get tangled up in my thoughts. Her voice had a forced cheerfulness when she spoke, but I found it somewhat endearing.
"So who is Dabrowski again?"
I grinned in spite of myself, thinking back to the crazy neighbor that lived next to my dad's cabin. I wondered if his paranoia had been enough to keep him alive. Stephanie was watching me expectantly, so I sighed deeply and relented. I shared my past with her the same as I had with Walter back in Dallas. It seemed I had left Dallas ages ago, and a lifetime before that when I'd last seen Dabrowski.
"I was definitely a different person back then." I finished. Stephanie had listened intently the whole time, hanging on to everything I said. I only wante
d to talk about the lighter things, but her curiosity didn't seem to have any limitations.
"Do you think your dad is still alive?"
I drummed my fingers on the table and chewed on my bottom lip. My first reaction was to say no, but the veiled hope inside kept me silent. Saying it out loud would make it true, and no matter how much time passed, I wasn't ready for that.
It took several moments before I could swallow the lump in my throat and answer her. "I followed what I thought was his trail into New Mexico. That ended in a camp of corpses and freshly-turned freaks, but none of them were my dad. I kept looking for something else for months, for some sign I might have missed, but I think I lost him long before I ever made it to that camp.
"By the time I admitted that to myself, I didn't know where to start looking again. Sometimes I avoided people, which I figured out was easy enough to do, and sometimes I stayed at a settlement. Got ran out once when they found out I was different. That's when I figured out I shouldn't share my secrets."
After her initial gasp, Stephanie cut in, "Why would people run you out?"
I smiled, but felt no humor in it. Looking at her, I asked, "Why would they let me stay? People are scared and most of them are barely hanging on. Having someone like me that can't be explained sitting right in the middle of them probably didn't seem like a good idea."
"Were they afraid you were going to turn into a red-eye?" She asked, staring at me hard.
"Probably. It took a long time before even I was sure I wasn't going to turn into a red-eye. I think people have a right to be afraid of us, don't you?" I asked, watching her from the corner of my eye. I tried to gauge her reaction as she frowned in contemplation. Joss hadn't talked to her about our condition, and it didn't feel right for me to be the one to tell her. He needed to fill her in soon, or I was going to skin him.
"But you're not a red-eye." She said thoughtfully, and I hoped she might jump to the correct conclusion herself. Then her teenage giggle came back full force, and I cringed. The moment was lost. It took an effort to not roll my eyes as she exclaimed. "You're a green-eye!"
The Phoenix Curse (Book 3): After Page 13
