I nod. “I do,” I say, and I’m not lying. It has to be killing Aaron to stand by and watch while his people are hurt or missing. “You’re just doing what you think is right for the rest of the group. It just so happens that I think you’re wrong. Will you wait here?”
He nods his head. “Of course.”
“If I’m not back by tomorrow morning, you should go one without me.” I lean forward and kiss his cheek, surprising him. “If I don’t come back, make sure you keep an extra close eye on Daisy. Every person that leaves and doesn’t come back is just another reason for her to end her life. Don’t let that happen to her.”
Aaron pulls me close and wraps his arms around me. I bury my face in his shoulder, silently hoping this isn’t the last time I ever see him. “Take care of yourself, Maddy. If you don’t come back…”
“I will. Don’t worry about it. Just take care of everyone else while I’m gone.”
As I jog across the parking lot, I can feel Aaron’s eyes on me every step of the way. I know he doesn’t want me to go, but I have to do this. Felicia trusts me, and there’s nothing that can stop me from going after her and Levi. There are so many obstacles against me though—time, zombies, the bandits, and even my lack of tracking skills. I’m not sure how I’ll find them, but I know I have to at least try.
I duck between two minivans and come out on the street. Before I can go any farther, I hear rushed footsteps hurrying to catch up with me. “Madison, wait up!”
Reluctantly, I stop and wait for Todd to catch up to me. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Todd stops in front of me and takes a deep breath. “I’m coming with you,” he says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “You can’t do this all on your own, and I don’t think you should go running off on your own.”
“Todd—”
“I think Aaron wanted to ask me to come with you. He was torn between wanting to protect you and wanting to protect the rest of us. So he didn’t think it would be fair to ask me to go with you, but I could tell he was worried about you, and I offered to go. It saves him from having to get on his knees and beg me to keep you safe.”
I snort. “You think you can keep me safe?”
Todd smiles, looking friendlier than he has since the day I met him. “Yeah, I think I can keep you safe. I may not look it, but I’m a lover and a fighter. With me watching your back, you won’t have to worry about a thing.”
“I don’t think it’s my back you’ll be watching.”
He chuckles but doesn’t say another word as the two of us set off down the street. Even though I’m not sure how much help Todd and his shotgun will be in a fight, part of me is glad that he’s here now. I’m sure neither of us knows anything about tracking, but his presence is still oddly comforting.
“Madison, do you see that?”
I stop and look over where he’s pointing. Lying on the ground in front of an abandoned house is a body that wasn’t there when we passed by earlier. Todd and I hunker down beside it and examine the body. I can’t be sure, but I think he is one of the men that attacked our group. Most people that die out here are killed by zombies, but this man’s cause of death is clearly the massive hole in his chest that could have only come from a shotgun at close range—like the one Levi took from Janelle.
“It had to be Levi,” I say, getting to my feet. “Do you think he’s still nearby?” Looking around the neighborhood around us, I come up empty handed. Levi is nowhere in sight, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t nearby somewhere, waiting for help to arrive.
“Madison, I doubt he’s still in the area. You were out cold for probably the better part of thirty minutes. Levi and those creeps have a huge head start on us, and there’s no telling how long this dude has been lying here. We have to be reasonable about this.”
I sigh. “I know. I just wish something could go right for us. It seems like everything that happens is worse than the thing before it.”
Todd puts his hand on my shoulder. “Keep your chin up. We’ll get through this.”
I really hope Todd is right, but I’m not sure he is. I have a feeling that this day will end in heartbreak, just like all the days before it. But I can’t let that feeling of dread show. I can’t let Todd think I’ve given up. So even though I’m no longer as positive about this mission as I was when starting out, I square my shoulders, keep my chin up, and follow Todd down the street and away from the dead bandit.
We don’t get far before a single shot stops us dead in our tracks. We both stand in the middle of the empty street, trying to decide which direction the shot came from. Another shot answers the first one, and Todd grabs my hand with his free one, dragging me off down the street at a brisk run. I’m not sure how he knows which direction the shots came from, but right now I have no other option than to trust his judgment. The only sounds in the area are the loud slapping as our boots hit the street and our harsh breathing as we race around the corner and come upon a dangerous standoff.
Levi is crouched down behind an overturned black truck. Janelle’s shotgun is resting across his lap. His eyes are wide and fearful and I can see his hands trembling from our place down the street. He’s pinned down by three of the bandits, who are taking shelter behind a minivan. Todd and I whip out our weapons and run for the truck, shooting as we go. I fire two shots—one of which hits the brick wall behind them while the other shatters the minivan’s window.
Todd’s shot hits one of the bandits in the shoulder as he peeks out from behind the minivan. The bandit spins away from the minivan with a cry of pain, and he collapses facedown into the mud near his friend’s feet. Todd and I duck down beside Levi, who still hasn’t moved since our arrival. When I drop down beside him, he looks over at me and manages to speak. “Madison? What are you doing here?”
“Hey!” Todd snaps, startling us. “Talk later. We’re kind of busy right now!” He slides over toward the hood of the truck and he leans up across it, aiming his shotgun. The sound of the gun going off is nearly deafening this close, and I pray it doesn’t end up doing permanent damage.
Todd drops down beside me just as a handful of bullets hit the side of the truck. They sound like hailstones pelting a tin roof during a storm, and I force myself to keep in mind how much more dangerous bullets are than hail.
“Levi, where’s Felicia?”
“They’ve got her with them behind the minivan! I could hear her crying.”
The second the gunfire stops, I jump to my feet and spin around, firing off three more shots before ducking again. My head barely clears the open space before a shot flies by, hitting a parked car behind us. Todd scoots closer to me and cradles his shotgun close to his chest. “What are we gonna do?”
“We can’t leave without Felicia.”
“Madison—” Todd starts, trying to plead with me.
“No! We are not leaving her with these thugs.”
“Dammit, we are outnumbered and outgunned.”
“No we’re not. It’s three against three.”
“Three hardened thugs against a punk, a woman, and a thirteen year old boy! We can’t win this.”
“If you wanna go then go. I won’t stop you. But I am not leaving her!” I hiss, narrowing my eyes at him.
He opens his mouth, and a shotgun blast hits the bed of the truck, silencing whatever response Todd might have given me. He inches closer to me, brushing his arm against mine. Levi grips Janelle’s shotgun, takes a deep breath, and before I can stop him, he stands up and takes a shot. Seconds later, another blast rings out, and Levi stumbles back half a step before collapsing to the ground with a gaping hole in his stomach.
There’s a stunned silence between both me and Todd, and the two of us stare at Levi in horror. His hand trembles as it prods at the wound in his abdomen, almost like he can’t believe what he’s feeling. Levi lies back against the ground and begins to choke, and Todd and I sit there helplessly, knowing that we don’t have any of the equipment or skill required to save him
.
Todd jumps to his feet and fires another shot. He walks around the edge of the truck, firing shot after shot. The bandits flee from their hiding place, hoping to make their escape in one piece. One of them isn’t as fast and he takes a shotgun blast to the side, and he falls to the ground beside his dead friend. I peek over the hood of the truck just in time to see the remaining survivor race out of Todd’s sight.
“Levi!” Felicia screams, coming out from her hiding place behind the overturned minivan. She runs right past Todd and drops into the mud beside Levi. She grabs his hand and holds it close as tears fill her eyes and spill down her cheeks. “Levi, I’m so sorry,” she says, her voice cracking with emotion and pain.
“D-don’t be,” he manages to stutter between labored breaths. “N-not your f-f-fault.” He gasps, trying to draw in just one more breath to keep fighting.
I look over my shoulder at Todd, who is kneeling in the mud behind me. “Todd…” He watches Levi in stunned silence, but he wraps his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer. “Is there anything we can do for him?” I ask quietly, trying to keep my voice even.
“No, there isn’t. We’re not surgeons. We don’t have any sterile equipment. And we don’t have the training. All you can do to help him is put him out of his misery.”
His words take a second to sink in, and when they do, I’m left with a dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach. “No. Todd, no.”
“Madison, he’s suffering,” Todd says gently. “It’s wrong to make him wait to die. I don’t know how long it might take, but what if it’s like an hour? Can you imagine lying in the mud for an hour with a gaping wound in your gut?”
Felicia looks back at me with a dirty, tear-streaked face. “Please,” she says. “I don’t want him to suffer. And I don’t think he wants to suffer either.” She looks Levi in the eyes, and he nods his head, but when he opens his mouth, nothing comes out. “I’m sorry,” she says again. Still holding his hand, Felicia leans forward and presses her lips to his for what is probably their first kiss…and their last.
Felicia scoots away but she doesn’t drop his hand. The blood is rushing to my head and my heart is pounding in my chest as I raise my gun and level it at Levi’s head. I’ve shot several zombies in the head before, but this is entirely different. This is a young man I tried to train, a young man I tried to befriend, and a young man that is counting on me to end his suffering.
The gun shakes wildly in my hand, and I’m afraid that if I somehow manage to gather the courage or strength to pull the trigger, the shot will miss and I’ll just make Levi suffer even more. For a breathless minute, Levi and I lock eyes, and I find that I can’t look away from him. All I can do is stare into those eyes that look so young and scared. But there’s more than just terror—there’s understanding. Levi knows there is no other option, and he’s accepted that.
Todd’s hand softly touches mine, startling me so badly I almost drop the gun. His fingers curl around the grip of my gun as he pries it from my numb fingers. Without a word, he levels the gun at Levi’s head and pulls the trigger, ending Levi’s suffering and pain in a brief second, burning that image into my mind forever.
Chapter Twelve
Todd hands me back my gun and he walks away without a word, leaving me and Felicia alone with Levi’s body. I watch him walk away with a steely, guarded expression on his face. Surprisingly, part of me wants to go after him to make sure he’s okay with what just happened, or to thank him for taking that weight off my shoulders, or even both.
But Todd will have to wait for now. Right now I have to deal with Felicia, and one look at her tells me it’ll be a chore just to get her to let go of Levi’s hand, let alone get her to leave Levi’s body where it is.
“Felicia—”
“No,” she says, interrupting me before I can go farther. She brushes a strand of dingy dark hair from Levi’s lifeless face. “I’m not leaving until we find a way to bury him. He died a hero and he deserves better than being left in the mud like trash.”
I squat down beside her and force her to look me in the eye. “Honey, this is not about trying to dishonor him, or about trying to invalidate his sacrifice. It’s about the three of us staying alive. All of that gunfire might have attracted zombies, and if they find us, we’re in trouble. We’re out of ammo, we’re scared, and we’re alone. If we die out here, Levi’s sacrifice becomes meaningless. You don’t want that, do you?”
She sniffs and wipes at her eyes with the back of her hand. She smears blood across her forehead and I have to bite my tongue to keep from mentioning it to her. “No,” she says slowly. “I don’t want that. But I can’t just leave him out here to be stripped clean by those things. He deserves better than that, and I’m gonna make sure he gets it.”
I sigh. “Felicia, I don’t think we have time to bury him. And even if we did, we don’t have anything to bury him with. We can’t dig a grave with our bare hands.”
“We can use these,” Todd says, handing me a shovel. I take it from him, noticing he has one very similar to mine. He sees me watching him and he shrugs. “I thought I’d have a look through these garages, and I found these two shovels in one of them. It might take a little bit, but I think he deserves a proper burial.” Todd’s tone is flat and lifeless and I get the feeling he’s trying not to freak out.
That makes both of us…
“Where are we going to bury him?”
“The yard behind us. It’s the best we can do. You stay here and wait while we get this done. If you see anything out here that moves, let us know so we can hide and not get eaten by dead freaks.”
Felicia nods her head and goes back to staring at Levi’s lifeless body. I don’t have any clue how I’m going to get her to let go of him when it’s time to put him in his grave, but I’ll deal with that when the time comes. For now, I get up and follow Todd over to the neighbor’s yard, and we find a soft patch that might be easier to dig through.
I force my shovel into the ground, work a piece free, and toss it aside. Todd and I stand close together, working in silence with our heads down. I’m not sure if I’m grateful or worried about the silence that stretches on between the two of us. On one hand, it might be nice to talk to someone who obviously feels the same way about our mercy killing as I do, but on the other hand, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to pull myself together once I open up about Levi’s death and our part in it.
I can feel my sanity holding on by a thread, and if I open up about what happened here today, I might never get that sanity back. And without my sanity, I’m a sitting duck in this harsh, cruel world that has no lenience, even for children like Felicia and Levi.
Todd and I dig in an uncomfortable silence. The only sound is the noise our shovels make as they slice through the dirt and Felicia’s muffled crying. Levi’s grave gets deeper and deeper with every shovelful of dirt that gets tossed aside. I’m not sure how long it takes for us to dig a grave deep enough to bury Levi’s body, but by the time the two of us are done, we’ve both worked up a sweat and my arm muscles are screaming from the effort.
“Stay with Felicia,” I say to Todd. “I’ll head inside and see if I can’t find a sheet to wrap him in.”
Without waiting for Todd to say anything, I toss the shovel aside, slide my handgun out of my waistband, and walk over to the front door. Blood splatters the outside of it, and I lean against the doorframe, trying to peer around the edges to make sure the coast is clear. When nothing jumps out at me or moves around, I slip into the doorway and take a better look around the place.
The rug in front of the door is bunched up, so I kick it aside and leaving it in a crumpled pile near the wall. I’m fairly certain that whoever lived here in the past won’t mind if their house gets a bit disturbed—if they’re even alive to come home someday. Judging by the state of the rest of the city, they’re either long dead, or long gone. Either way, it doesn’t really matter.
After closing the door behind me so nothing can sneak up and startle
me, I head into the kitchen. The cupboards are all open and the contents are strewn around the countertops, as if someone had rummaged through the bare shelves in a hurry, not caring what had been left behind. An overturned box of pasta spills into the kitchen sink and across the floor. A few stray pieces crunch under my feet as I walk through the kitchen.
The kitchen exits near the stairs. I take them one at a time, hoping I don’t catch my foot and trip, accidentally pulling the trigger in the process. It would be absolutely horrible if I survived herds flesh-eating monsters and bandits only to accidentally shoot myself while alone. And without the proper medical care which we no longer have, the smallest wound could be a death sentence.
When I reach the top of the stairs, I stop and listen. Silence fills the house, and the absence of sound is surprisingly spooky. There’s something about the quiet that has bumps breaking out over my arms and the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I can’t wait to get out of this house and back onto the street with Todd and Felicia.
I reach the end of the hall and nudge the door open with the toe of my boot. The room is dominated by a king-sized bed with a dark blue comforter and half a dozen large pillows. Skirting around the edge of the bed, I head over to the dresser and open the bottom drawer, searching for anything I can use to wrap Levi’s body in. There are a handful of folded sweaters, but nothing else.
My next best bet will be the closet. The door is open a crack, and I pull it open the rest of the way. A stack of folded towels topple down from the top shelf, and I bring my arms up instinctively, trying to shield my head and neck in case there’s something heavier under them. I kick them aside and stand up on my tiptoes, trying to see onto the top shelf where the towels were kept. The shelf is empty, as are the other two in the closet. There are no sheets and no extra blankets, meaning I’ll have to take the one from the bed.
Zombie Country (Zombie Apocalypse #2) Page 15
