Unit Sixteen.
He was young, but older than us. Mid-twenties. Couldn’t have been on the job very long. He wasn’t wearing his hat, his hair was longer than Trooper Sanders and Sergeant Rowner. It was short, dark, and what was once spiked with gel, now half-flat with sweat. His face was clean-shaven but his cheeks were flushed in deep rose from the heat.
The collar of his uniform was ripped, buttons unsnapped, and the sleeve of his jacket was torn at the seam, exposing a dark undershirt.
There wasn’t a radio on his shoulder, just a stain across his chest that immediately made me think of blood.
“Serg!” He shouted again, breathless and sprinting, “It’s one of—” He lost his footing, and I saw his face contort in panic, as he tumbled forward, tripping, his momentum causing him to slide across the ground on his chest, and spin.
Trooper Sanders and Sergeant Rowner jumped forward, but the young officer bounced right back up, ninja-like reflexes, yelling, “them!” but not without me first seeing the person running directly behind him.
My whole body tensed.
Oh shit.
It was him.
31
“Get in your vehicle,” Sergeant Rowner instantly instructed, not sparing us a glance. His eyes remained steady on the younger officer. “Sanders, be ready to shoot.”
The cop in front of me adjusted his stance, squaring off his legs, gun still raised.
“But—” I didn’t move. I couldn’t. The shock still hadn’t worn off.
“Now,” Sergeant Rowner demanded, nodding in preparation to Trooper Sanders. “Go. Get out of here.”
“But—wait, it’s—”
Suddenly someone threw a hand over my mouth, pulling me backward.
My eyes widened.
“Don’t argue.” Lewis. His voice was no louder than a whisper on my ear. “Do you want to get out of here, or what?”
My attention remained focused past Trooper Sanders, past Sergeant Rowner, past Unit Sixteen—who was running, arms pumping through the air, no gun in sight, struggling to hurdle as much of the thick, summer brush as possible, while trying to remain upright—and onto the limited view I had of the man chasing him.
I made an incoherent sound, and Lewis lowered his hand from my lips mistaking it as an agreement.
“But it’s Buck,” I said in protest, as he tried ushering me toward the backseat of his Jeep. I half-fought against him.
Trooper Sanders reflexively peered over his shoulder. “What did you just say?”
Unit Sixteen at that moment leaped onto the roadway from the woods, an exceptionally impressive long jump, but fell upon landing, rolling across the gritty ground, right past Sergeant Rowner’s feet. Or maybe he meant to do that, because the fall wasn’t ungraceful.
“Sanders!” Sergeant Rowner shouted. At the sound of his name, Trooper Sanders whipped his head around, remembering where he was. “Get them out of here.”
Bending down, Sergeant Rowner grasped Unit Sixteen’s arm, helped lug him up and pushed the young cop toward the police car, immediately bringing his hand to his radio on the shoulder requesting additional assistance, as Trooper Sanders instantly yelled at us.
“Get in your vehicle and get out of here. It’s an order!”
Buck was moments away from all of us. The young officer had created a larger gap by leaping through the brush instead of running through it like Buck was, but it wasn’t much of one. By the time I would climb onto the backseat and we’d start the engine, I knew he’d be right there.
Still, Lewis shoved me at the doorway.
I half-climbed through it, pausing, as Lewis opened the driver’s door and dove in to the front seat, starting the Jeep.
I didn’t want Buck to die.
But I didn’t want the cops to die either.
And I really did want out of there.
“The knee caps,” I yelled, just as Missy pushed me all the way inside. “Shoot him in the knee caps.” She slammed the door shut, and we were burning rubber out of there.
“Damn it, Dee, what was that?” Lewis kept his foot on the accelerator, weaving around both cop cars.
I turned in my seat when I heard the gunshots, but I couldn’t see where they shot him, the officers and their cars were in the way.
Exhaling, I faced forward again, sinking back down onto my butt. “I was just trying not to get him killed. Didn’t you say when you found him you were going to shoot him in the knee caps anyway?”
“Yeah, but different circumstances.” He was incredulous. “We were trying not to confess anything I thought? Now they know we know about them.”
I crossed my arms like a child. “Well, we are getting away, so what’s the problem?”
“Would have just been better if you didn’t say anything. They could—” Sirens started blasting somewhere ahead of us, getting closer. “Shit.” Slowing down, Lewis began pulling to the side of the road. “Hold on, this is going to be a bumpy ride,” and suddenly veered off the pavement into the woods, barely skimming the edge of a tree. I bounced up and down in my seat a few moments, before he wedged us up against two other oaks and cut the engine. I peered out my window. I couldn’t open the backdoor, even if I tried.
“They could be coming for us,” he noted, when Missy and I stared at him like he was a mad man. “If they thought we had contact with the virus for even a second, they’ll be after us and Sergeant Rowner was already suspicious of us. I truly hope they didn’t hear you, Dee.”
A part of me hoped they did.
We sat there, in silence, waiting, wondering, and fearing.
Within a few minutes a line of cop cars flew past us, lights flashing, sirens blaring and nothing happened. We continued to just sit there, hardly camouflaged off the edge of the road, in the slight cover of trees, and never registered in their peripheral vision.
They weren’t looking for us.
Or they just didn’t expect us to have done something as juvenile as pulling off the road.
A few more minutes passed.
No more sirens.
No more gun shots.
Honestly I heard nothing.
“Okay—” Lewis said, placing his left hand back on the steering wheel and his right hand on the key in the ignition. “I think we are in the clear.” He turned the key, looking back at us. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Yes, let’s,” Missy grumbled, her opinion of this whole thing being ridiculous quite obvious.
Except nothing happened.
Furrowing his brow, Lewis faced forward again, trying the key a second time, holding it down longer. The engine sputtered but that was it. It never turned over. The car wasn’t starting.
He tried again.
And again.
“Are you kidding me?” A fifth time. Still same result. We weren’t moving. “Come on, you son of a—” Nothing.
He slapped both hands against the steering wheel in frustration. “I should have just stayed at the diner.”
Blowing out a long, frustrated breath, he clasped for the door handle, flung it open and it swung hard into the nearby tree. Another curse left him. He got out, peered down at the damage, shook his head, grumbled some more before stomping over to the trunk. Popping it open, he bent over the bumper, peering inside at the engine. Thirty seconds later, he slammed the trunk down and headed back toward us.
“Well?” Missy prompted when he didn’t climb back inside.
He stopped pacing. “I haven’t a clue. I own a diner not an automobile shop. Come on, I guess we are walking the rest of the way.”
Missy sighed. “Oh, fun.”
“Well we need to find Jason anyway,” I said, though I wasn’t feeling too positive about this either. One glance outside and I could tell it was going to be sunset soon.
“Not today, we aren’t,” Lew replied matter-of-factly. “We are going to go back to town or to Kyle’s. We will not be out here at night again.”
I opened my mouth to argue.
“Dee, it
’s just not safe,” he continued, looking in at us. “For many reasons. And if Jason is infected with this virus, it’s better to find him in the daylight anyway. So we don’t accidentally kill him or he doesn’t sneak up on us, and actually kill one of us.”
He had a point. As much as I hated it.
I considered our options. I really wished I had a working phone right now. I couldn’t accept Jason was infected with the virus. It was easier for me to believe Lewis just heard Jacob wrong. If I had a phone, I could check. Also, I could see if Jason left anymore messages since then. But where could I find a working phone around here?
Then I remembered my car.
My car charger to be exact.
“I have an idea,” I suggested, thinking mostly out loud. “My car should be parked somewhere on the main road. If we find it, we can cover more miles faster. Plus, we’ll be able to charge our phones—could attempt to make some phone calls, and even check if Jason or Jacob called again.”
His lips pursed. As if he was reconsidering things now but his response surprised me. “Actually that is a good idea, Dee. I say we trek alongside the road just out of view just in case of cops still, and look for your car. But, I think if we don’t find it by the time we get to the dirt road that leads to Buck and Kyle’s trailer, we should head to their place instead. That’s the fastest route to shelter. Plus there’s a landline there. Town is too far of a walk anyway. That sound like a good plan?”
Actually very sensible, I thought. “Yeah, I’m okay with that. Missy?” I turned my face toward her.
She responded by reaching for the door knob.
We had been walking for a while. I had so many blisters on my feet by this point I felt like I was walking on a flaming pit of sharp sticks. Sweat filled my bra and the fabric of my shirt was tacky and glued to me like stuck on gum under a desk. We saw the road vaguely from where we were, and we’ve yet to see my car anywhere. There were multiple police cars flying by though. Sirens erupted through the woods every ten minutes it felt like. It was starting to make me a little on easy though everything as of late made me feel that way.
With good reason.
None of us were talking. Just huffing and puffing and wiping the salt of sweat out of our eyes. My hand throbbed, and yet, I could swear I was beginning to become numb to the pain. Or maybe I just hurt so much all over, it lost its edge.
Eventually Lewis began to slow down, sliding his backpack off his shoulder. “Alright, we really should drink something.”
I welcomed the pause.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Missy slicking her hair back off her forehead with the back of her hand and making a disgusted expression. Her face was so flushed and scraped she looked like a bruised strawberry. Her make up from yesterday also stained the corners of her cheeks, trailing to her earlobes from the constant smearing of her fingers and her earlier tears.
She wasn’t looking at me or Lewis though. Her attention was still focused toward the road where flashing lights were flickering through the trees continuously. We had just come up upon them in the past few minutes. From our path, we could clearly see the upcoming cluster of police vehicles–lights strobing in and out, parked haphazardly across the road. As if they had stopped abruptly and from great speeds. We heard voices and shouting, but I couldn’t make out what they said. No one was shooting though. I hadn’t heard a gunshot since the ones that were fired at Buck earlier.
For a split second, I considered this was all for him. Perhaps they couldn’t apprehend him, perhaps they killed him, perhaps he killed them, but then I remembered we went a different way. This wasn’t for Buck.
Lewis handed me a water bottle. “Here.”
When I saw him offer one to Missy next, I greedily drank mine, sparing only about two mouthfuls. I didn’t care. I was freaking thirsty.
Closing the cap, I motioned toward the lights. They both silently agreed we should check it out. So letting curiosity get the better of us, we cut across the heavy vegetation, the shadowed remains of daylight guiding our change of direction and crept closer to all the commotion.
Immediately three things were quite evident: one, even if we found my car we weren’t going to be able to drive it due to the amount of vehicles, troopers and cones crowding the roadway; two, since we couldn’t get to my car we probably would have to run the rest of the way to Kyle’s trailer if we were going to make it before sun fall; and three, most of the officers that were present were huddled together just beyond the view of their vehicles and we couldn’t see why. Their backs were toward us, and some were pacing, calling into their radios on their shoulders, but still not loud enough for the words to reach us.
If we crept closer, we risked being seen, and I knew that. But I wanted to. I wanted to not only walk, but run up to them. Run up to them and beg them to help us. Hell with being arrested, or being quarantined, if it got them to Jason faster than I could live with the repercussions.
I took a step, and someone instantly tugged on the strap of the sling around my neck. Pausing, I turned my head. Lewis.
Of course.
“Come on, your plan was a good one, but it’s just not going to work.” He peered at me apologetically. “If we hurry this way,” he said, pointing away from the cops. “We can pick up the trail to Kyle’s faster.”
I sighed, turning my face away, back to the road. I was seriously struggling with this decision. “Maybe we should just go ask them for help. I mean, they are right there.”
His eyes widened in surprise, as if that’s the last thing he expected me to say. “I don’t really think—”
“I agree,” Missy said, cutting him off. Her response instantly snagged both of our attentions, my brow furrowing in question. She half-shrugged. “I’m tired of walking guys. I’m tired of all of this. I just want to go home. And I think Hallmark has a better shot of not getting shot if the cops know about him.”
I winced. Shot. It’s like my best friend already assumed Jason was one of them.
She avoided my face when she spoke, as if she was fully aware how much her words were going to tug at my heart strings. “Jason might actually have a chance to survive then… I mean, if they can catch him, ya know?”
I let that image roll around in my head a moment.
“So that’s it? You girls just want to give up?” Lewis stood there glaring at us, flabbergasted.
“More like calling in reinforcement,” Missy replied. “Dee’s been right all along. We should have just called the cops from the beginning. Jason is already one of those zombies, Tony got shot, and Anubis is injured. This could have all been avoided if Kyle and I had just done our job and called for help in the first place. I’m so sorry, Dee.”
I resisted stomping my foot like a child and really losing it. I tried to quickly block the images now racing through my mind. “Jason does not have the virus, damn it. I don’t get why you assume he does. We don’t know he does.”
“Uh, hello, Jason is the one that said it,” Missy countered, in disbelief, using her hands to really emphasize her words. “You heard Lew.”
I shook my head stubbornly. “I don’t believe it.”
“You don’t want to believe it. There’s a difference.” She sounded so sure of herself.
“He said, he thinks… thinks,” I repeated in backlash. “It could be anything.”
Lew’s expression softened. “Dee,” he pressed, sympathetically, touching my shoulder lightly this time as if trying to console me. “You know Jason. He wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true.”
All those horrifying images of my boyfriend infected with the virus flooded my mind again. I inwardly cringed, realization hitting me. Lewis was right. Jason would never say something like that unless it was true, not when he lost people that mattered to him from it. Not when he knew our best friend was currently dying from the disease in New Jersey too.
This was a serious thing and Jason knew it wasn’t a joking matter. Somewhere out there my boyfriend truly thought he was infe
cted with this virus, and he must have been terrified. Terrified knowing if he died, his brother and sister would have no one. And neither would Duke.
I gulped. I would have no boyfriend.
“Well just because he’s sick with the virus doesn’t mean he’s already one of them,” I retorted, a bit defensively. Ok, I might have still been in partial denial.
“No, you’re right,” Lewis admitted. “But it’s better to assume—”
“I don’t have to assume anything.” I clenched my jaw, hoping to distract my sudden urge to cry.
“Well I think he is,” Missy interjected, and not even cautiously. Just straightforward— cold, blunt words rolling from her lips without hesitation. “And I think if he has any chance at all at surviving, we need to go tell those cops.”
I started to move on reflex, but this time it was her that snatched my bicep, stalling me. I glared down at her grip momentarily then up at her flushed face, really getting a view at that bruising scab on her chin. “Dee—look,” she continued, in a warning tone. “You are going to have to accept at some point you might lose Spencer and Jason. I’m sorry. But you have to.” Her fingers loosened from my arm but didn’t drop away. “We both have to.”
I quickly pulled from her grasp, moving away. “Not today, I don’t.”
“Help!” I shouted in the next breath, defiantly. “Somebody, help us!”
“Woah, shut up!” Lew blurted. “You’ll get us shot.”
I ignored him and started walking faster. “Help! Someone! Anyone! Help!”
I heard a grumbling behind me. Lewis was not happy with me. It was clear he didn’t want to involve the cops, but he didn’t have a choice now. I was whether he liked it or not.
I mean, I guess technically he could have run off alone to Kyle’s if he wanted to before the cops found us, but he didn’t. Instead it wasn’t long before his footsteps fell in sync with mine and he even started shouting too.
Because whether he agreed or not, deep down Jason meant something to each of us and he needed the help.
Dead Friends Series (Book 2): Dead Friends Running Page 23
