Desolation, p.10
Desolation, page 10
Probably not deliberately, and I doubted they’d had much of a choice. But that didn’t change a thing about the fact that I was out here, all on my own, pretty much defenseless considering the overwhelming odds I was facing.
And it wasn’t like this had been my idea, or I’d tagged along by choice.
I knew that thinking along those lines could only be trouble. It changed nothing, and my best chance of survival was still not giving up—not giving up hope, but also generally not allowing despair to take over.
I wasn’t dead yet.
I’d probably die from the fucking zombie bacteria soon, but so far, my mind and body were still working.
The least I wanted to do was spit on that asshole’s grave first.
I had no clue what had happened to Jared. Or Axel and Blake, but since neither of them had sent me into a hole to die, their whereabouts weren’t quite at the forefront of my mind.
My heart sank when a couple of minutes later, I saw another patch of churned… let’s face it, gore. This looked just as fresh as the first, plus it came with another level of gruesome knowledge: those reddish-brown smears leading away from the worst of it? Those were tire tracks. I guessed that this had been the place where the rest of our sortie group had driven in to the rescue, only they hadn’t managed to get to everyone in time.
That looked like at least three, if not five, bodies.
Had they left the dead?
Or had the zombies torn some of the still living people out of the cars? Hunted them down literally inches away from safety?
I didn’t linger. Not just because I was afraid the lurkers would sooner or later return for the rest.
I had zero intentions of finding out who the victims had been this time.
Even if that meant not spitting on Jared’s grave.
Who was I kidding? That asshole was alive for sure, maybe already back in the Enclave, enjoying all the creature comforts now entirely out of reach for me.
I had zero interest in analyzing why I was so obsessed with him right now. The answer was obvious. It was something easy to fixate on that distracted nicely from the truth: that I was alone, and that a good half of the people who had set out this morning were dead now.
And for what? Some photos, a couple of guns, and a handful of ammo packs?
We never should have come here. Not while the entire area was still infested, and not with only melee weapons to boot, although I doubted that firearms would have made much of a difference.
More so, I’d had no business tagging along. But what else was new?
Dehydration and the heat made my already miserable situation a million times worse, so I did my best to keep sneaking onward, from cover to cover, wherever I could find it. Whenever I heard something, I would either wait until I could pinpoint the source or for it to have moved. That meant I was moving at a snail's pace at best.
But then the gently sloping grassland turned to forest on both sides of the road, offering shelter from the heat—and, more importantly, prying eyes.
I didn’t trust that I was all on my own for a second, but so far, the lurkers had kept to their chosen MO, and that was enough for now.
And if worse came to worst, I’d have to climb a tree and sleep up there.
With the meadow still open behind me, I paused and chanced one look back. It was still quiet, but the usual forest sounds were absent.
Had our mistake been coming here at all—or simply dropping by at the wrong time of the day?
Sure, we’d seen zombies active during the night, but they seemed to have a much easier time during the day. Or was this simply true because we’d mostly been sticking to daylight hours, diurnal animals as we were?
Did any of this make sense, or was I just hunting for an excuse to curl up somewhere and sleep for fucking forever—or until something chanced upon me and ate me?
With a sinking feeling, I realized I’d likely soon find out when day inevitably turned to night and I would still be out here all on my own.
Grimacing, I scanned the seemingly empty meadow one last time before I continued trudging up the road, figuring with underbrush and dead leaves everywhere now, my progress would be quieter smack out in the middle of the road.
When nothing came screaming and screeching after me in the next five minutes and around the first bend out of sight of the meadow, I allowed myself to relax just a little bit. I still jumped whenever something rustled in the underbrush or a branch creaked, but with the quiet slowly invading my mind, adrenaline finally leaked from my veins.
Great. Now I was a stinking heap of wired tiredness, with the last of my strength waning.
With no change to my situation in general and absolutely no haste—except to get away from the lurking zombies that I knew I’d left behind—I decided to take a break. As much as I wanted to get as far away as possible from them, it made no sense to completely tire myself out so that I wouldn’t have the strength left to run away from the next best independent undead coming for me. Ahead, I couldn’t see a better spot, so I simply veered off the road and walked a good hundred feet into the woods, doing my best to step deliberately and quietly.
I ended up leaning against the trunk of an enormous oak tree and waited for a minute if anything would appear out of thin air. When that didn’t happen, I went around to the back and sat down sideways so I could keep an eye on the road while still fully supported by the tree.
Fuck, but I stank like a cesspool full of shredded zombie guts.
Nothing happened for what felt like five minutes, making me guess I was safe—or as safe as I was going to get.
I was just about to relax some more when I saw them.
Two lurkers popped out of the undergrowth on the opposite side of the road, exactly where I had left it.
They came forward slowly, looking this way and that, sniffing cautiously.
I was sure that they hadn’t yet seen me since they didn’t glance in the direction of my tree, but that was damn creepy.
And a good reminder regarding that tree-climbing business.
Chancing a glance up, I tried judging the lower branches of the oak.
No fucking way was I going to get up there unaided. Not on a good day, but certainly not today that was anything but.
Not only were they in sight now, but they made no move to get back to their hiding space.
Just to be sure, I grabbed a short branch from the ground right beside me. As far as weapons went, it wasn’t a good one, but it was all I had.
Then I considered—and before I could wise up, I threw it as far away from me as I could, into the trees rather than toward the road.
It click-clacked against two thinner trunks before it noisily disappeared into the leaves and grass on the ground.
The lurkers halted immediately, squinted—and withdrew back to the other side of the road, not even poised to investigate what had made that noise nor where it had originated from.
If all of them behaved like that, none of us would be in any kind of peril.
I didn’t trust that for a second.
But it was all I got, so I’d better make the most of it, I figured.
Clambering onto aching legs, I held on to the tree until my world had steadied itself before I set out once more. Just to be sure, I remained parallel to the road for a good distance until I dared get back onto firm, not-noise-producing ground. The forest around me remained quiet, with not a single sign of the undead.
I stared back the way I had come as I caught my breath, then set out anew.
A good three miles from the clearing, I saw a small bridge in the road, hope flaring alive in my chest. It would be just my luck if it was simply a crossing over a narrow ravine, but with just a little luck—
And for once, my luck held. As it turned out, it was only a shallow creek the bridge spanned, but it was running water with zero good hiding spaces around it—ideal for a quick climb down to wash the worst of the worst off.
What I’d imagined as a quick climb ended up being more of an uncontrolled scramble that turned into a quick slide, but at least I got down in one piece, and it had been my intention anyway to fully wash myself, including my back, pants, and shoes.
The shock of the ice cold water hitting my overheated body was a stark but welcome one, chasing away some of the weariness that had taken over. The merry gurgling of the water on the smooth stones made it all seem borderline idyllic, making it easy to ignore the otherwise eerie quiet.
Still not trusting exactly how alone I was, I set to cleaning myself as quickly as possible, going as far as to tear my shirt off so I could give it a quick dunk and scrub to get the worst of the gunk off, then used it to wash my exposed skin. It took way too long for the water that came sluicing off me to be somewhat clear, the burn of the cold so bad that I started to lose the sensation in my hands.
Donning the wet shirt was a new level of discomfort, but since I wasn’t going to best any zombies in just my bra and exposed stomach, there was no way around that.
Glancing up at the steep slope back to the road, a moment of despair hit me.
Just how was I going to scramble up there if getting down had been almost too much to handle?
But who said I had to follow that damn road?
Looking up and down the creek, I tried to judge which direction it was going, but immediately gave up. With no means of navigation, it was impossible to consider my position relative to any point of reference I knew. It also was useless since I doubted the cars would be waiting another mile down the road. By now, they’d likely reached the Enclave. Even if they later sent another team, I had no idea where they’d be headed. My best bet was to stay clear of the undead until I got out of this damn forest and then find my way back—or not, since I wasn’t even sure I wanted to head back to what had become home for so many of us.
What had Xander and Osprey said when they’d been chatting about the neighborhood conflicts? That they’d clashed with something like six or seven other factions, among them the residents defending their boarded-up towns in the mountains?
I didn’t like considering the possible ramifications for me, but I was borderline sure that most of them would be happy to accept a single unarmed woman in dire need of shelter and protection. And they didn’t believe I was a borderline homicidal maniac on probation yet.
Plus, if the sniffing of the lurkers was any indication, they’d have a much harder time following me if I stayed close to the water.
I had two choices now—up-hill or down-creek.
As much as walking with the stream sounded easier, I chose to head farther into the mountains since it was a very gentle rise only. I knew that somewhere up there was the Blue Ridge Parkway with all those towns, while out in the open plains, the remnants of the zombie mob were still active. Not a hard choice after all.
I made good progress, but that still meant I was stumbling more often than not, falling into the creek more than once while trying to find ways over the rocks. It got easier when a small trail—either a deer trail or unmarked hiking path—appeared next to the gurgling creek, allowing me somewhat close to sure footing once more. Some hiking poles would have been nice, but then if I’d had some, I could have used them as a weapon and wouldn’t have had to stumble alongside the creek in the first place. I did find a thick, dead branch that I managed to break off to turn into a makeshift staff, even though it wouldn’t have made heads turn at a renaissance fair.
Take that, wizards!
Impossibly tired, I wasn’t about to give away my position by madly cackling to myself, so I did my very best to remain quiet.
Hours passed.
I slogged on until I got too tired, and rested and drank some more of the cold, clear water, only to puke up most of it once I trudged on. My legs hurt, then started to cramp when I realized that, just maybe, the water they’d given me at the Enclave might have been full of electrolytes that I had since depleted, but sadly, I didn’t happen on a random vending machine full of sports drinks.
At least the water was a welcome source of coolness in the oppressive heat of the day, even underneath the shade of the tree canopy.
Ahead, the creek went down a small waterfall that looked like I’d need some extra effort scrambling up the slope beside it. My mood tanked, but I forced myself to keep going until I reached it, briefly stopping to peer into the pools of water around where the cascade hit the ground. Not that I expected there to be trout around—and even less for me to be able to catch them bare-handed—but at least the water looked deep enough here to fully submerge myself if I dared.
Shock to my system be damned, but it felt good to feel all the salty sweat wash away with what remained of the zombie goo still clinging to my body, resistant to previous cleaning efforts.
There was even a convenient large boulder off to the side where I could rest, even more conveniently warmed by a stray beam of sunlight, perfect to stretch out on and let my clothes dry or at least warm up.
I was still scrambling up the submerged stones to get to the boulder when I noticed two things.
First, the boulder was wet in places, although it was well outside of the spray of the waterfall and the splash radius of the pool.
And second, there was a heap of discarded candy wrappers crinkled up right next to it.
I froze in my tracks, shivering from the recent dunking, staring transfixed at the scene in front of me.
Sure, anything could have left that residual water slowly drying in the sunshine. Same with the wrappers. The wind could have carried them along the ravine and they had simply gotten caught right there.
Only that the water was in exactly the position where a human would have sat down after washing up—just as I had intended to—and the wrappers were pristine, with not a speck of dirt on them, clearly left very recently.
Neither looked like what a rabid gang of the undead would have left behind.
My heart was still thudding in my throat as I cast around, searching for more clues.
I should have paid more attention while slogging up the creek. Looked for tracks like broken branches or other discarded items.
Maybe it was because I was still rocking the last of the withdrawal symptoms, but the signs of humans passing filled me more with trepidation than hope.
I still ended up crawling up onto that boulder to warm up, at least until I stopped shivering and felt a little more like myself again.
Sadly, the wrappers didn’t even contain crumbs. Whoever had left them made sure to pretty much lick them clean.
Now that I was looking for them, I easily found signs of passing, or at least where someone had used the surrounding vegetation to scramble up the steep slope next to the waterfall. I also saw some footprints—left by sturdy boots—not far from there. Then, more broken branches, and some sheafs of grass someone had knotted up, likely keeping their fingers busy while their attention was on the terrain and possible assailants. The grass was still green and fresh, barely starting to wilt, so it must have been dropped there recently.
Every time I heard branches creak—particularly when it came from up ahead—I stopped and listened, trying to determine if that had been a sign or just my paranoia. A few times I thought I heard shouts, but that turned out to be just the wind, unexpectedly coming around a tree or rock.
I stopped twice more at convenient places, always looking for more clues but not finding any besides footprints. They all looked the same, and I never found more than one set, which either meant I was following a single person, or more who were walking spread-out, using the same kind of footwear.
My bet was on the latter.
Nobody was as stupid as me, getting caught out here, all by her lonesome self.
The initial fright soon wore off and disappeared into the murky depth of the constant low alertness that seemed to have become my MO of late. Nobody had attacked me yet—including the lurkers from the Militia HQ. By now, I figured I was far enough away to avoid even the most far roaming of them, including stragglers from the mobs.
Who except for me was thinking it was a good idea to walk up the ravine, following the creek into possible oblivion? The water had thinned to the point where I could easily jump from bank to bank without getting wet now, making me expect to find the spring around the next soft bend—smack in the middle of nowhere. It had been a while since the hiking trail—or what I’d perceived as one—had veered off and disappeared straight up an incline too steep for me to want to chance it. Ending up in the middle of nowhere seemed more and more likely.
I had no fucking clue what I would do if that ended up being at the bottom of a cliff face, and no way out of there except to turn back.
Hours of slow but steady exercise sapped my strength but also did their thing to jump-start my metabolism. Drinking ice-cold water still upset my stomach, but it had been a while since I’d barfed anything back up. I even considered eating some grass or leaves to see if they would stay down, but nixed that idea before it could get appetizing. The last thing I needed was to kill myself by accidentally ingesting something like poison ivy. But one of those candy bars previously contained by the discarded wrappers I’d found? That started to sound mighty good.
The ravine around me suddenly opened up and flattened into some kind of plateau, the creek spreading out into a smallish lake with trees right up to the watermark. It was the first time since I’d left the road that visibility was more than shouting distance, making me both antsy—
And giving me a first glimpse at the people I had been following.
It took me exactly said glance to identify them.
I hadn’t expected my stomach to both flip with anticipation and sour with annoyance, but what else was new?
Of course it had to be Axel, Blake, and Jared.
Who else would have been waltzing through possibly hostile underbrush while littering indiscriminately?
My first impulse was to remain hidden in the trees, but after a moment’s—very brief—consideration I stepped out onto the sandy shoreline and hiked up to where the three men were currently sitting on the other side of the shore, again occupying some conveniently placed boulders. As far as I could tell, this small lake must have been the source of the creek, likely from an underground spring. All around, the forest was dense, but even from afar, I saw the signpost where some hiking trail markers were easily visible.
