When the next couple of zombies came our way, I was busy killing one, Russ was farther up ahead of us, scouting the way, and Trevor was fighting another. Tera sidestepped the one nearest her, letting it sight Emily instead of her. She allowed the zombie to get within touching distance of the girl, with Trevor screaming for someone to help Emily, before she decapitated the thing, spraying blood all over Emily’s clothes.
Tera left Emily standing in the road in shock. We allowed Trevor to take care of her. How anyone could be that unused to zombies by that point in the apocalypse, I didn’t know. I thought we might be being unsympathetic, but I didn’t know what else to do with her.
Chapter 22
~~~Jason~~~
That night we camped in a school gymnasium. We scavenged what we could from the cafeteria and made camp in the one room in the building we could fortify.
Once we finished eating, Trevor spoke for the first time since Tera had decapitated the zombie in front of Emily.
“She could have died out there,” he said.
“We all could have died out there,” Russ said matter-of-factly.
“But she,” he pointed at Tera, “all but shoved that zombie Emily’s way.”
“I did. But I also killed it while your girlfriend just stood there looking at it…almost as if she were willing it to kill her…like she wanted it to get her,” Tera said, eyeing the girl suspiciously.
“No, she didn’t. She’s just scared. We have to…”
“We have to what?” I asked. “Take care of her. We are. Both of you have made it this far today without being turned. You’ve had plenty to drink and eat. We’ve killed nearly every zombie that could have gotten close enough to kill either one of you. You’ve been helpful. You’ve helped look for food when needed, and you’ve killed a couple of zombies. You’re on the right road to being a useful member of this group. She’s done nothing.
“I get it. You’re scared. We’re all scared.” I continued.
Emily jerked her head up at that, looking surprised by my admission.
“Yeah, I’ll admit it,” I said to her utter shock. “We’re all terrified of being outside of Shore Haven’s walls. Why do you think we’re in such a hurry to get back? Why do you believe that we’re pushing you so hard? We aren’t doing it because we don’t want to take you with us or because we don’t like you. We are doing it because we want to get home as soon as possible. We’re playing with our lives being out here. We could die at any moment in this world, and we know it. I don’t want to. But we came out here for a reason. We had to see if there was a vaccine. We took a risk. We knew we could die, but my thought is, and this is a mindset you need to have, ‘If I’m going to die, I’m going to go down fighting and trying to prevent others from dying.’”
A small flicker of understanding seemed to cross the girl’s face. She turned to look at Trevor for a long moment, before turning back to me. “I’ll try to do better. I don’t really want to die. I want to see Shore Haven.”
“Good,” Tera said. “Let’s go see what kind of condition the bathrooms are in here. I’m tired of squatting over grass.”
Emily smiled and followed her down to the dressing rooms under the gym.
The next day we made good timing. The kids did a better job at fighting. Emily didn’t kill any zombies, but that had more to do with lack of training than trying. We didn’t have time to stop and teach her much, so we killed the zombies she fought off or hobbled for us.
We bypassed the city with the hanging corpses and all the other places that we knew from our journey to the lab that were bad. The kids, surprisingly, didn’t complain about the small towns, miles of fields, and the country roads we traveled. They had enough experience to know the bigger cities were not good places to go through. The cities may house more supplies that we could use, but until the zombie population had diminished a bit more, we stayed clear of them.
That night we slept out in the open. I didn’t like doing it, but we didn’t have a choice. The last leg of our journey was a bit slower than the day before, but not by much. We ran into a horde that I was sure was going to kill us, but we made it out nearly unscathed. Tera had a dislocated shoulder, we all had cuts, scrapes, bruises, and Trevor turned his ankle, but he could walk on it well enough once we found him a boot in a medical supply store.
We were so close to the island once darkness fell that we decided to press on instead of finding shelter. I was eager to get back, and I won’t lie, I wanted to see Samantha, but I also wouldn’t have been selfish enough to make them continue if they felt they needed to stop, especially with their injuries. Every one of them insisted they wanted to go straight to Shore Haven.
No one wanted to sleep on the ground again when they could easily be sleeping in beds before dawn.
The island was quiet when we crossed the bridge at around one-thirty that morning. We kept our eyes open for the remnants of the hordes that had invaded the island when the bridge came down. Everything was still.
A block from Shore Haven, I radioed Jasper to unlock the door. I promised him that we were clean and for the most part unharmed, so we didn’t need to go into quarantine. We just needed to get inside and crash. He protested, insisted, but I argued and held my ground, so he allowed us entrance.
Getting out of our gear and getting the kids set up in their own apartment took another hour. We didn’t wake Samantha or Kayla to help, deciding that making introductions could wait until the next day. Jasper tried to force me to give him a detailed explanation of what happened while we were gone, but I told him he was going to have to wait until the following day. We were tired, and I didn’t want to rehash it all at that moment.
Once in my room, I thought about crashing on the sofa without letting Samantha know I was back but decided I didn’t want to scare her in the morning when she woke to find someone on the couch. So I eased into the apartment and to my bedroom.
Samantha lay sprawled out in the center of the mattress, snoring lightly. I stood near the bed and watched her sleep for a minute before forcing myself to wake her. I knelt by the bed and reached out to move the hair out of her face. When that action didn’t wake her, I touched her cheek and whispered her name. She made a noise but didn’t open her eyes. I moved my hand to her back and began rubbing it and softly shaking her, while still whispering her name.
“Hum…” Samantha mumbled but didn’t open her eyes.
“Wake up. Just for a second,” I said, touching her cheek again.
“Jason?” she asked, shifting slightly and looking at me through half-lidded eyes.
“Yeah, it’s me. I just wanted to let you know I was back, so I didn’t scare you when you woke.”
“What time is it?” she asked, half-sitting up, looking for a clock.
“I’m not sure. Probably about three-thirty. Go back to sleep.”
Instead, she scooted over on the bed, pulled back the covers, and told me to get in before laying her head back on a pillow.
When I didn’t move, she said, “It’s too late…or early, to make the sofa-bed. Just get in. You sound exhausted.”
I should have argued. I should have gone into the living room anyway, but I was tired, and I wanted more than anything to crawl up next to Samantha, so I did.
I made a grunting noise while doing so, and she sprang up in the bed, demanding to know if I was hurt. The sight of her sleep-addled concern was adorable.
“I’m fine. I promise. Lay back down. We ran into a massive horde on the way here. The fight was brutal. I’m just sore. I probably have more than a few bruises. Nothing to worry about,” I said, pulling the blankets up around me and turning to her.
“Are you sure?” she asked, trying to pull the blankets back and my shirt up.
“Yes,” I said, grabbing her hand and stopping her from disrobing me. “I’m fine. Nothing that won’t heal in a day or so and with some sleep.”
She eyed me, but finally nodded, and lay down. I pulled the blanket up to her shoulder and le
ft my hand on her, rubbing her arm soothingly.
“Was it bad out there?” she asked, scooting a little closer to me, probably thinking my touch on her arm meant that I wanted to talk before falling asleep. I didn’t. I needed to soothe her…to reassure her that I was all right. But I couldn’t tell her that, so I answered her.
“Not as bad as I thought it would be. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.”
“Does Kayla know you’re back?” she asked. A slight slur in her words indicated that she wasn’t going to be awake much longer.
“No. By the time we got cleaned up, gave Jasper a quick rundown of things, and got the newcomers settled into an apartment, I was ready for bed. I came straight here.”
“Newcomers?” she asked with a bit more liveliness to her voice, and she started to sit up again.
I pushed her back down and said, “We picked up two more teenagers along the way. They’re fine. A bit spoiled, but they’ll be okay. I’ll tell you all about it in the morning. Go back to sleep.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked, scooting even closer to me.
“I am,” I whispered and kissed the top of her head. I settled into the bed, one hand still petting her until we both fell asleep.
The next morning I woke with her wrapped in my arms. She was moaning and whimpering, not from the feel of me holding her and my body-weight half on top of her, but from a nightmare. I shook her gently, whispering her name until she woke.
As she opened her eyes, she turned in my arms and said her sister’s name.
“No, it’s me, Jason,” I said, wiping tears from her cheek.
She began to cry in earnest then. I didn’t know what to say or do, so I only held her through it. When her sobs began to slow, she apologized for waking me.
“Don’t,” I said, rolling onto my back and pulling her on top of me a little. She laid her head on my chest and gradually calmed. “You have nothing to apologize for. We live in a nightmare. It’s only natural to have them, especially with the way you lost your sister.”
“It’s not just that…never mind,” she said, reaching over me to the bedside table for a tissue. I got it for her instead.
“What else is wrong? Does your leg hurt?” I asked, just then remembering she’d injured her leg.
“No, my leg is fine. It’s nothing really. I’m okay. Just a nightmare, like you said. What time is it?” Samantha asked, lifting her head to look at the clock.
“It’s still too early to get up. That was more than just a nightmare. Please talk to me.”
“It was a nightmare. I was dreaming that I was back in the store with Maddie. I was trying to fight her off, but I was losing. You were there, but…”
“But what?” I asked, running my fingers through her hair, trying to untangle the knots without hurting her and attempting to soothe her at the same time.
“But she’d killed you. And when I woke you were alive, and I was so relieved. I’ve been worried…no, honestly, I’ve been terrified since you left. I know that I shouldn’t have been. I know that I don’t have a right to be, that we aren’t…”
She cut herself off, and I understood why. She was about to profess feelings for me. Feelings she didn’t think she should have, considering that until we found her husband’s body, she was still married. I understood, but deep down I wished she hadn’t stopped herself. If she had said it, then I could have said it. Instead, I turned slightly onto my side, pulled her up my body a bit so that her face was buried in my neck, and wrapped myself tightly around her, and she did the same to me.
“I’m sorry I worried you,” I whispered into her hair. “I tried to hurry back to you. I shouldn’t have left you. I knew you were safe here, but I still worried. I won’t go without you again, I promise.”
She lifted her head to peer at me. The expression on her face told me that my words had shocked her. There was also some disbelief in her eyes.
I cupped her cheek, wiped tears away with my thumb, and tilted her face up with the intent on kissing her, but my intercom buzzed, indicating that Jasper had become impatient with waiting for me to wake. The man never seemed to sleep. I growled, tucked her into me—the mood long gone—and tried to ignore the buzz.
Jasper was persistent, though, and eventually, I hit the button on the side of the night table that would open the line, and said, “What the fuck could you possibly want this early in the morning, knowing I haven’t had much sleep.”
“I want to know what happened and who those two kids are,” he said, sounding a bit annoyed himself.
“I’ll tell you later. I’m going back to sleep.”
“You can’t. Kayla is already up. I’ve informed her that you’re home. I’ve talked her out of waking you once already. I don’t know that I can do it again. Tera and Russ will be up soon. No matter how late they stay up neither one of them can sleep past nine.”
“And the kids?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything out of the two or seen them on the monitors. I’m not to the point that I feel I need to look inside the room or call them.”
“He can just look inside any room he wants?” Samantha asked, lifting up onto an elbow. She sounded as if she was about to kick someone’s ass over the invasion of privacy. She knew he’d been able to see inside our quarantine room, and whereas she hadn’t liked it, she had understood the necessity. The situation with the kids was roughly the same.
Since mine was the nearest ass for her to kick, though, I thought it best to explain. I turned to her and said, “No. Each apartment has a code to enter to allow such a thing. I entered it into their apartment’s system last night for security reasons. They are new to us, and whereas, I’m pretty sure neither was infected, we wanted to be sure they didn’t turn in the night. Also, Jasper needed to be able to watch them if he suspected anything suspicious going on with them or in the room. I’ll disable it in a day or so when I feel they are safe.”
“Did you at least warn them that you were doing it?” she asked, tugging the blanket up to her chest in an attempt to hide, even though I had reassured her that Jasper didn’t have that kind of access to my apartment.
“I didn’t,” I said, feeling a bit ashamed for not doing so.
She growled at me in annoyance, called Jasper a pervert, and got out of bed with the comforter wrapped firmly around her. She stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
“Thanks for that,” I said to Jasper. “Tell everyone we’ll meet here for breakfast in thirty. I’ll get the kids. When we’re ready, I’ll pull you up on the television in the living room so you can see us…unless you’d rather come down in person to hear their story.” I knew he wouldn’t, but I had to try.
He didn’t acknowledge my words or the fact that Samantha and I had been in the same bed. He only said he’d be waiting for my call.
I sighed and got up. Samantha was already in the kitchen making coffee. She’d thrown the comforter over the back of the sofa but had donned a pair of sweatpants. The way she moved indicated that she was annoyed, but not pissed, which was a good thing.
“He didn’t see us last night,” I said, stepping into the kitchen, but not approaching her.
“I know, not that there was anything to see, but I don’t want anyone getting the wrong impression or anything,” she said, though she visibly relaxed at my words.
“I’m sure he figured out we were in the same room, probably in the same bed. And I don’t care. I don’t care if they all know. I don’t care what they think about it either. And you shouldn’t.”
“I don’t. Not really, but I’m technically married.”
“Not everyone knows that.”
“They will when I announce that I would like to go looking for my family. They’ll think I’ve been using you, that I’m a…”
“They won’t believe any such thing,” I said, wrapping her in my arms. “For now, we’re simply two people sharing an apartment, in part because one of them is injured and needs medical ca
re.”
“In part?” she asked, hugging me back.
“The other part, we’ll discuss later after we’ve found your family and know for sure you want to leave your husband.”
“I promise you that I do and that I did before I…” She didn’t finish her sentence due to someone knocking on the door.
I let go of her so that she could go put on a bra, told the person behind the door that I would be there in a minute, as I too needed to make myself presentable. Boxers and a t-shirt aren’t appropriate attire in which to greet young girls.
Ten minutes later we were gathered around my kitchen table, eating food that Kayla had put together, while those of us who’d returned early explained to her, Jasper, and Samantha what happened before the kids told their story.
Chapter 23
~~~Samantha~~~
I didn’t say anything about leaving the first few days Jason and the others got back from their journey to the lab. I was still healing, and he was busy showing the newcomers around and getting them settled into Shore Haven.
By the fourth day, though, I was ready. I knew we wouldn’t leave that day, of course, but I wanted to begin planning. Jason could sense it too, because before I could say anything at breakfast that morning, the first one we’d had alone in his apartment, he told me that Jasper had made contact with another lab to the southeast of us who claimed to have a vaccine. He said they were planning another excursion.
My heart sunk at the words, as I knew in my gut that that meant that he was about to tell me that he couldn’t go with me because he had to go with them. Therefore, when he said, “That’ll mean that it’ll be just the two of us going to Ashlyn,” I only stood there, staring at him in stunned silence. He didn’t notice and continued. “Emily is refusing to leave Shore Haven, so Kayla has volunteered to stay behind with her. Kayla is using Emily as an excuse to stay here. I know she doesn’t want to leave the island. Emily seems grateful someone is staying, but that isn’t stopping her from trying to convince Trevor to remain as well. I’m sure he’s in love with the girl, but that doesn’t mean he’ll stay. I don’t know if he’s feeling cooped up in here or what, but he says he’s going with Tera and Russ to the lab.”
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