The Withered Series (Book 1): Wither

by Miles, Amy

  His gaze falters and he looks away. “You’re the only person I’ve got left.”

  “Well,” I smile and pat his leg. “I guess that makes us family.”

  Even as I say family I recognize that the word doesn’t fit. Not for us. Not now. I have begun to care for Cable and that scares me. In more ways than I care to think about.

  TWELVE

  I walk in silence, listening to the fire spit and crackle behind us. The woods are illuminated by the flames, both directly behind us and further into the distance. I remain by Cable’s side, his arm around my shoulder, allowing me to assist him.

  The pack on my back is heavy, filled with hammers, chisels, a small ax and a pretty wicked looking mallet, but it is not nearly as heavy as my heart. Eva was not with Alex’s group when I emerged with Cable from the barn.

  I spotted Alex first. He worked with Sal to toss unfamiliar bodies into the flames. The two story farm house was ablaze, sending a plume of smoke into the night air that would easily be seen for miles around. Victoria puttered about, randomly kicking at the deceased. I’m not exactly sure what her point in doing that was, but the old bat wasn’t exactly all there the last time I saw her. She seems worse off now.

  When Alex looked up and saw me under Cable’s arm, a sad smile lit his face, but it quickly vanished when I told him Devon had fallen. I didn’t say how or why. Cable noticed but didn’t say anything.

  It didn’t take long for the barn to catch fire. In the flickering flames I could see some of the Withered Ones in their moaning march across the fields. I knew they wouldn’t make it with the flames setting bits of hay in the yard alight, but there was no point in trying to stop them. They would probably continue marching until the flames finally consumed them. A part of me felt that was a better fate than their endless, mindless walk.

  Now, Alex leads the way through the dark woods. He has two packs on his back. As does Sal. Victoria refused to take more than one, garnering her another livid glare from me. When I first met her this might have bothered her, but now...she seems different. Like the last cog on her gears finally popped off.

  None of us speak as we head into the woods. The forest feels safe and I for one want to stay clear of people for a good long while. We have supplies enough to last us a few days and some crude tools that can be used as weapons if it comes to it. We will make it. The question is…for how long.

  It’s not just the military we have to watch out for, or the gangs tearing apart St. Louis brick by brick. Now it’s the survivors in small towns that we will meet. Those people desperate enough to put a gun to our head when they want something.

  And what about the virus? We are no closer to discovering how it ticks. Hiking through the forest isn’t about to help that situation either, but none of us are ready to face another slaughter. Ours or anyone else’s.

  From time to time I look toward the other fire well off in the distance, wondering who started it and if there were any survivors. Is it a coincidence that both fires started around the same time? Did the same men who follow Alex’s group follow another?

  The moon rises high overhead. A bitter cold descends but we don’t stop. Moving keeps us warm. Cable shelters me from much of the brutal wind. He must be suffering. His coat was lost to the battle. He has only a thin long-sleeve shirt to protect him from the winds now.

  “Wait up!”

  Alex pauses and circles around to me. Cable’s teeth chatter. “We can’t stop.”

  “Cable is freezing. Do you have anything to spare?” Eric took all of our supplies, including the last of the clothes we’d scavenged.

  I look to Alex and follow his gaze as he turns to look at Sal. The sleazy creep crosses his arms over his shoulder and shakes his head. Anger simmers low in my belly but Cable’s weight holds me back. “Alex?”

  “Let me see.” He swings his pack off his shoulder and kneels. The sound of the zipper is loud in my ears. The woods are quiet tonight. Far too quiet for normal. It is unnerving.

  I watch as he shifts cans and used bottles half empty with water. He removes a worn cloth that is stained pink. When he looks up at me there is pain in his eyes. I look away, biting my lip to keep back the tears. I want to ask about Eva, to hear what happened at the end, but I’m afraid of hearing it. I want to believe that she survived, that she lived to hold her baby, but I don’t believe it anymore. Not really.

  “It’s all I’ve got.” Alex holds out a small blanket. It is threadbare and tattered on the edges but large enough that it could shield Cable’s back and arm.

  “Thank you.” As I take the blanket from Alex I realize that his hands are shaking. He meets my gaze briefly before quickly turning back to his pack. The weight of Eva’s loss sits heavily on his shoulders. There is anger too. At himself? At me for leaving them behind? I honestly don’t know, and I don't have the stomach to ask. Not yet.

  Alex zips his backpack and slings it over his right shoulder. The second pack is larger and heavier, weighing down his left side, forcing him to walk unevenly. He returns to Sal and Victoria’s side while I see to Cable.

  “Your friends seem intense.” His teeth chatter so hard I fear he will bite his tongue.

  I set my pack on the ground and shake out the blanket. “They aren’t my friends. They just sort of took me in.”

  As I wrap the blanket around him, I notice how close we are. I can feel the warmth of his chest against mine as I rise onto my tiptoes to tie a knot around his shoulder. It won't do much to warm him, but it should at least be a buffer against the winds. I sink back to my flat feet. Cable grasps my wrist as I start to turn away. “Sometimes we don’t get to choose our friends. Especially not now.”

  I glance back toward Alex’s group. It is smaller now. Devon is gone, as is Eva and the two people they had locked away. Seven becomes three. How many more will be lost in the coming days?

  “I know.” I look down at his grasp on my wrist, remembering when we first met, how sure I was that his intentions weren’t entirely pure. He has proven to me time and time again to be honorable. I don’t think I could have found a better friend. I’ve surely never had one so good before, except Eva.

  “You miss the girl, don’t you?” He whispers as I ease into my pack and place his arm over my shoulder. Alex helps Victoria back to her feet and moves out. Cable and I remain a couple dozen paces back and a visible divide develops within our group.

  “I just wish I knew what happened to Eva.” Although Cable gently tried to pry information from me over the past few days about what happened to me between the time I left the apartment and arrived at the military hangar, I wasn’t overly forthcoming with details. All except for my need to see Eva again. The rest was better left unsaid.

  “Why don’t you ask them?”

  I shrug and feel the burn in my shoulder muscles. Helping Cable was never a question, but it is taxing. I don’t know how I will be able to keep up with Alex’s faster pace. He marches as if the Devil himself is on our heels. The trouble is...he just might be. “Sometimes not knowing hurts less.”

  “Are you so sure you want to assume the worst?”

  I look up at him and notice the sheen on his forehead in the moonlight. “Are you feeling ok?”

  “You mean apart from the knife in my side and the wrecking ball that slammed into my head earlier? Yeah. I’m good.”

  “No.” I slow down, noticing how labored his breathing in. “You’re sweating.”

  “We’re walking.”

  “It’s freezing out here.”

  “Is it?” He frowns and looks around us at the darkened woods. The fires have fallen behind us. The barren maple trees and towering pines spread ever before us. The terrain is uneven, dangerously inviting for a twisted ankle.

  I stop completely and force him to halt. I press him back against a tree and roll my shoulder once I’m free of his weight. He doubles over, clutching his side as he breathes deep, looking as if we’ve just finished a long distance sprint rather than hiked for an hour. />
  “Something’s wrong.”

  He shakes his head, his head bowed. “I’m fine.”

  “Liar.”

  His shoulder shakes with a deep throaty chuckle but he sucks in a breath as the pain hits. His arms quiver. “You’re barely on your feet, Cable.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you always this stubborn?” I plant my hands on my hips and wait for him to look at me. When he does, I see a glint of humor in his eye.

  “Not so fun when it’s being directed back at you, huh?”

  “Alex!” I cup my hands and call out to the woods. I can no longer see them or hear their heavy-footed traipsing. It’s a good thing we aren’t trying to be quiet; otherwise we’d be a dead giveaway. “Alex!”

  A moment later I see the swinging flash of a dim light heading toward us. I wait, using one hand pressed against Cable’s hunched shoulders to keep him upright. Alex comes around the side of a tree, a frown deeply etched onto his face.

  He starts to speak but takes one look at Cable and closes his mouth again. “He’s hurt.”

  “We all are.” A burn rides along Alex’s cheek and down his neck. The skin looks angry. It needs to be clean but he refused. Apparently Cable and I aren’t the only stubborn martyrs in the group.

  “He’s worse. We need to stop for a bit.”

  “Can’t do it.” He shakes his head and reaffirms his grip on the two packs. His gaze travels beyond me, back in the direction we came from. Fear pinches his handsome features, making them distorted and ugly.

  I help ease Cable to the ground when I feel his legs begin to buckle then rise and stare down Alex. “I’m really getting tired of being treated like a pathetic, helpless little child. I can handle it so you might as well spill whatever little secret you two have been keeping from me.”

  Alex and Cable exchange a glance. Alex shrugs but it is Cable who responds. “The military base was sacked.”

  That I didn’t expect. “What do you mean sacked? How? By who?”

  “The gangs spilled over the river, took out most of East St. Louis a day ago. Guess they decided they’d like to expand their horizons without any threat to oppose them so they sacked the base. Weird thing is, it looks like someone else beat them to it.”

  Cable gives me a warning glance so I remain quiet about our escape from the base. Alex sinks down into a crouch and I follow, if only to keep at eye level with him. If I start thinking about how sore I am then I’ll be inclined to give up completely. “Things fell apart real fast after you left...after Eva…” Alex looks away. His adams apple bobs and he wipes his hands over his face.

  I bite down on my lower lip and squeeze my hands into balled fists, savoring the pain my nails inflict on the tender flesh of my palms. Alex grabs a stick and hurls it toward a tree, seeming less than satisfied by the tiny smack of wood, probably hoping for it to snap it half.

  “They broke down the door less than an hour after you left. Devon and Sal nearly got caught trying to get Victoria out. Stupid, really. She moved as slow as molasses and couldn’t keep her trap quiet when she was told to.” He heaves a weighted sigh and sinks all the way to the ground. His hands splay over the cold earth, sifting decaying leaves. “I stayed with Eva till the end. I owed it to her.”

  “Did she...did she feel any pain?” My voice cracks. Cable reaches out for my hand and twines his fingers through mine. I’m grateful for his presence.

  “Pain?” Alex’s gaze grows distant as he slowly shakes his head. “No. Those last few minutes I spent at her side she didn’t feel much of anything. She lost consciousness within minutes after you left. I didn’t know what to do, how to help.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper, drawing my knees up into my chest. A tree root presses against my tailbone but I ignore it. “I wanted to come back…”

  “No.” He crosses his hands over his knees and I see dirt buried deep under his nails. “It’s good you got out.”

  “She didn’t.” Alex turns to look at Cable. “She was captured.”

  “By who?”

  I close my eyes and try not to remember the feel of the bag over my head, the fear of waking without senses, confined as a prisoner. I hear Cable giving Alex the rundown but I tune them out. As I think over all that has happened, a new thought hits me and I break into the guy’s conversation.

  “You never said Eva died.”

  Alex blinks. “Well, no. That’s because she didn’t.”

  My fingers uncurl as I scoot toward him. “Where is she? Who took her?”

  Alex frowns. “The military. I thought you knew that.”

  A blanket of cold falls over me. “Why her?”

  “They wanted her baby,” Cable says in an emotionless tone that seems out of place for him. All this time he has fought for what is good and right. Why this time would he not seem to care?

  “Why?”

  Alex rises, dusting his hands off on his pants. “I need to catch up with the others. We haven’t put near enough distance between us and those gangs, and I for one don't want them coming down on us in our sleep.”

  “Cable isn’t ready to move yet.” I protest, knowing exactly why Alex chose this moment to interrupt. What happened to Eva doesn’t sit well with him. How can it?

  Grunting with effort, Cable presses back against the tree and rises. I follow suit. His grimace releases when he is fully upright and he nods at Alex. “We’ll be behind you.”

  “I’ll try not to get too far ahead. If we get separated just head toward the sun.”

  “That’s hours away from rising,” I say, noting that the moon still hangs far too high overhead.

  “Devon told me about a town not too far from here. There’s a railroad that runs right into the heart of town. Keep it on your right and you will find us. We’ll set up camp and wait for your arrival.”

  “And if we don’t make it?” I ask.

  Cable steps forward and settles his arm around my shoulder. “He’ll move out when he has to. That’s the way things are now. You take care of your own.”

  I watch as Alex gives my friend an appraising glance. “You found yourself a good guy, Avery. Take care of him.”

  “I will.” Though I have zero intention of going it on our own. Despite having grown up as a loner all my life, the past few days have taught me a very important lesson: I need people, even if I don’t always want them.

  THIRTEEN

  I don’t really know how Cable and I made it through the night. His limp as we neared the deserted town was so bad I felt as if I would stumble with each step he took. My back ached and my heart thumped, pain shooting behind my eye. When we spied a candle in the window of a brick and white sided church I prayed that it was Alex and not some stranger looking to steal supplies.

  It took me less than a minute to sink into oblivion after we were inside. I welcomed it. Victoria’s mumbling and Sal’s snoring were not enough to wake me as the sun rose and fell once more on the land. When I finally roused the following morning, I felt rested but plagued with a penetrating ache that could not be ignored.

  “Filthy stinkin’ weasel,” Victoria says as she putters past. I sweep my gaze behind her to see the remnants of a haughty sneer on Sal’s face.

  “What’s that all about?” I ask, rolling to my side. The wooden pew was hardly a suitable bed. The sweater I used as a pillow has left my neck in a crook. I rub at the sore muscles, hoping that Cable has improved enough to not need me as a crutch today.

  Alex thrusts his knife toward Sal, the tip dripping with juices from an apple he just sliced open. My stomach growls at the sight. They must have come through one of the orchards not far from the base. “Victoria thought she could outsmart Sal. Bet him her food ration that he couldn’t solve one of her riddles. Guess ole’ Sal ain’t as dumb as he looks after all.”

  “That’s terrible. She must be hungry.”

  He shrugs and pops another piece in his mouth before passing me a slice. The flesh is softer than I would like but still tastes sweet
. “A bet is a bet. She’d have made him pay up if she’d won.”

  I draw my legs under me and reposition my sweater to cover my lap. The scent of mothballs has begun to fade at least.

  The air in the church holds a strong chill and I stifle a shiver. “What’d he stand to lose?”

  “His hair.”

  I blink, sure that I’ve heard him wrong. “His...his hair?”

  Alex nods and wipes his knife on his pants. “She says it’s not fitting for a man his age, and with his state of hair decline, to be wearing a mullet.”

  I clasp my hand over my mouth to stave off my snort, but it’s not enough. Giggles erupt from my lips and Alex’s grin broadens. It feels weird to laugh again. Haven’t had much reason to recently. “Even though I’d hate to live with her gloating, I almost wish she’d won,” Alex says.

  “Me too.” I raise my hands overhead and stretch, feeling each muscle pull taut. It’s going to be a long day.

  As I lower my hands I see Alex glancing at me from the corner of my eye. I blush and wrap my arms over myself, feeling self-conscious in my skin tight white shirt. If I’d had a better option I would have left any memory of my time spent at that military base firmly seated in the hottest part of the fire but clothing is limited now. I can’t waste needlessly.

  Turning to done my swear, I find Cable’s spot empty. I hadn’t realized he was awake. “Where’s Cable?”

  Alex shrugs and pops the final bit of fruit in his mouth. “Said he needed some air.”

  “In his condition?” I frown and hurry to lace of my sneakers. My white pants are stained and dingy, more brown than anything now. Rubbing my fingers along my pants, I feel the dirt embedded in the fibers. I feel gross but I’ll have to wait for a wash.

  Slipping out of the church, I sneak down the front steps and look around. Cable is nowhere to be seen. I creep out to the road and use an abandoned car to shield my body. The road splits in three directions. Cable could be down any of them.