Desolation, p.22
Desolation, page 22
Only when we hit the road did I feel like I could breathe again, that claustrophobic weight on my chest finally lifting.
Now the only thing I would have needed to make my day perfect was Jared taunting me about why I’d ever wanted to live in an overpopulated tomb.
For whatever reason, he passed up that prime chance.
Clearly, he was going easy on me today. Why I didn’t even want to consider.
The drive to meet with Mike and his people was thankfully uneventful, but also kind of boring. A couple of times we had to backtrack to avoid a larger group of undead that had somehow found their way into the mountains, and on four occasions, some of the men in the front cars simply got out and bashed them to pieces, leaving them discarded at the side of the road for someone else to take care of. Since we wouldn’t be returning the same way later tonight, I figured that was just as well, although it did seem careless to me.
But nobody asked my opinion, so far was it from me to offer it.
It was far from quiet in the car, which I was kind of relieved about. Blake had a lot to say about virtually everything, with Axel voicing his somewhat more thoughtful opinion at times. Jared had mostly snide comments—a shocker, I know. I mostly kept my mouth shut, listening and filing away details. Not because I was curious, but there was little else to do.
Mike’s people were already waiting for us at the agreed meeting point—a crossroads in the mountains a good thirty miles east of Asheville. Twenty men were waiting around five cars, eyeing us with a mix of disdain and curiosity as we rolled up to them, our numbers superior in every way. I wondered if that had been a deliberate lie on the Colonel’s side or whether the Asheville people had decided to short-change us.
That still made our potential force fifty people strong.
Fifty people who all knew how to defend themselves, all armed with weapons best used to dish out plenty of blunt-force trauma, and strong enough to haul large quantities of loot out of the overrun city.
There was a part of me that wanted to insist that I was the odd one out who didn’t belong.
Since I didn’t want Jared accusing me of being a liar yet again, I kept my trap shut.
Men started piling out of cars. I reached for my door handle, but Jared held me back, waiting until Blake and Axel were out of the vehicle. For once, he wasn’t staring at me but watching the others before finally turning to me.
“You going to keep up the brooding, mopey attitude, or can I rely on you pulling your fucking weight?”
I gave him a bland smile that I hoped looked as fake as it was.
“You really think you can bully me into cooperating by insulting my ego? Try again.” He didn’t say anything, but then he didn’t need to. The fact that he remained serious—and silent—spoke volumes that he meant it. I gave myself a petty five seconds before I relented—but rather than acquiesce, I instead asked the question burning on my mind.
“Did you know how low the stocks at the Enclave really are?”
Jared stared at me for several seconds straight before he frowned.
“Are you really that stupid or simply pretending to be?”
That stung.
“Willfully ignorant is more like it,” I admitted.
I couldn’t say who was more surprised by that: him or me.
His chuckle was real, albeit a wry one.
“I can see that.” He paused, briefly glancing at the others; gauging how much time we still had. Not much. Already, some of the men were getting restless, glancing our way, trying to see what the holdup was.
He remained serious as he caught my gaze again. “You weren’t even carrying a pack when you got to them. Admittedly, you were likely the least prepared person to join them, but most didn’t have that much more. Am I wrong so far?”
I shrugged, vaguely uncomfortable. “Between you dropping that heap of undead on our doorstep that night and when we tried to warn you about the mob, we went out for a loot run, bringing home two trunks full of stuff.”
“Exactly.”
When he didn’t say more, I frowned.
“Are you accusing me of not pulling my weight?”
He shrugged.
“You tell me. You have a habit of returning with less gear than you start out with. Including weapons, vehicles, and even fucking clothes.”
I hated that he had a point—and that he wasn’t just saying that to tease me kind of made the whole thing worse.
“That’s why I’m here now, I guess,” I muttered, having to look away from him. “And yes, I’m done moping. I was mostly nursing the rest of my hangover, not getting lost in woe-is-me rumination.” I flashed him a quick grin as I looked back at him. “You three don’t exactly need me to contribute to keep yourselves entertained.”
The sudden intensity in his gaze made me vaguely uncomfortable, but I’d kind of had that coming.
“I absolutely wouldn’t mind some more of your contribution, and not necessarily with those two assholes around.”
I held his gaze for another moment, hating how conflicted I felt—but then again, not. That was very superficial confusion, the nasty voice at the back of my mind calling me a fucking liar—and with good cause.
Choosing the high road this once, I grabbed the door handle and vaulted out of the vehicle, quite happy to face the music if it meant I could just get away from the asshole.
Why the fuck did I make it so easy for him to rile me up?
Since we were the last people to join the crowd, all attention immediately fell on us. I didn’t miss the way a muscle jumped in Mike’s cheek as he grimaced, recognizing us—or probably just me. I did my best to not stand out as I joined our crowd, not exactly ducking away from him, Zeke, and Noah—no surprise to see them here again—but there was no reason for me to single myself out.
Just my luck that meant I ended up a little too close to Seneca’s crowd—and wouldn’t you know it, more assholes present there than I was comfortable with.
It made a lot of sense that for a mission like this, the Colonel would send people who were rough and tough enough to survive but not necessarily those greatly missed, but did that mean that absolutely everyone here was out to get me?
Because of course it was that bunch of weirdos who’d come for me at the guard trials that first night when Kas and I had joined the Enclave. And while I would have had a hard time picking Blondie and his brother—or whoever he was to him—out in a lineup, they sure recognized me, their leers unmistakable as they did that stupidly typical bumping against one another as they murmured between them, all staring at me as if I was a piece of meat. No need to pick up fragments of sentences that all revolved around a different kind of, well, meat, and reference to “after-hours entertainment.”
I suffered through that for exactly one second. Then what little was left of my patience was spent, and I narrowed my eyes at them.
“You idiots know that we’re on the same side, right?”
Grins brightened.
I really should have grabbed my bat when I exited the car, but no, I had to do that in the most huffy way possible, to prove a point to the other asshole in my life—
Who currently followed the proceedings with a different kind of amused expression while he got ready to negotiate with Mike.
In a split-second decision, I stepped away from the idiots to almost join Jared instead, putting Blake conveniently between me and them.
“Stay right there, will you?” I whispered to him, getting a look of disinterested confusion back.
So much for situational awareness—but then someone had to be on the lookout for the undead rather than to guard my honor. I could do the latter myself, thank you very much.
Although I hoped none of that would become necessary.
At least I had my spiffy new combat knife—and if push came to shove, I was not afraid to use it.
“I’m honestly surprised to see you again,” Mike said in greeting, looking between Jared, Axel, Blake, and me, lingering the longest on yours truly, of course. “We kind of figured that you were lying and would take the chance not to get confronted about that again.”
Jared’s snort was as derisive as it was amused.
“Oh, come on. What’s a handful of white lies between friends?”
I felt myself stiffen before I could clamp down on the reaction. He’d never extended that courtesy to me. Then again, Axel had pretty much confirmed to me why that was the case.
A light frown came to Mike’s face, and his gaze darted to me once more. “That your opinion, too?”
I could have done without having to verbally join the conversation, but since he’d singled me out…
“There was a good reason for why I was out yesterday when I, strictly speaking, didn’t have to be,” I explained—well, lied. To a point. Or not. Sheesh, this was getting needlessly complicated! “The same’s still true.”
None of my companions called out my lie. When that baffled me, I realized except for the three men next to me, the others were likely oblivious to the exact terms of my sentence, including the Militia guys. If I could keep it that way, fine with me.
While neither Mike nor his son Zeke and Noah seemed happy about my statement, they also didn’t appear terribly interested in it. That made a lot of sense. In the end, what counted was that we had shown up—and in larger numbers than they had expected, judging from the cagey looks they still gave the bulk of our group.
Mike finally turned back to Jared, obviously done shooting the shit.
“More people means we’ll need to find more provisions, and there’s a greater chance of getting discovered, but that also means we can split into more, smaller teams and cover more ground at the same time. You ready to head to Asheville so we can establish our forward camp? We’ve scouted the area since we dropped you off yesterday, and we found a handful of good spots to fall back to if we need to scramble. Don’t expect it to get all cozy and warm. Fire would attract too much attention, as does wood smoke. We even bury our feces not to leave any concentrated stench behind to draw interest from the undead. Once we set out, we’ll go to minimum conversations, including joking around and generally being a pain in each other’s asses. I presume that won’t be a problem?”
I suspected at least some snide remarks now, but it was actually one of the men Plato had selected who answered.
“We’ve trained to operate independently of each other. Just give us a map and a general description of what to look for, and we’ll get the job done. So far, what’s kept us limited was the lack of proper loot and opportunity. No worries. We’ll share everything we find with you if you happen to want to stick around that cozy camp of yours instead of getting your hands dirty.”
Zeke looked offended, but Mike laughed hard enough to wipe tears from his eyes.
“I have a feeling we’ll get along just fine,” he told our group in general, although in passing, his attention stuck with me just a little longer than with the men. “You obviously know your people, so you split up as you see fit. Our initial plan was five targets, but if we can make it seven or eight now, even better. And yes, we have hand-drawn maps and checklists for you, ready to be distributed. Asheville sure is ripe for the picking.”
A lot of good-natured murmuring answered him.
I couldn’t help but cast a sidelong glance at Axel, finding him scowling until he caught me watching him.
Yeah, if it had been that easy, they’d have already taken care of everything themselves.
Just a matter of not getting eaten by tens of thousands of zombies. Easy peasy.
And yet, I felt the general giddiness in the air infect me as we filed back into the cars, ready to move forward. Just maybe this once, disaster wouldn’t strike.
I wasn’t going to make my safety and life depend on that, but a girl could hope.
12
It took us a good four hours to make it to the rendezvous spot with Mike’s scouts, and then another thirty minutes until we reached the spot they had designated for their forward camp—where we would leave the cars and travel on foot. Tomorrow, thankfully, since it was already in the afternoon, and nobody had any intentions of adding grueling night-time adventures after a day spent zig-zagging through the forested hills and mountains.
If not for our experience on foot out in the open that had almost cost us our lives just a day ago, it would have been all too easy to think we had little to be afraid of. The small roads and complicated terrain were the best zombie deterrent as far as anyone could say, but even so we’d run into four larger clusters that had warranted annihilation. I’d only gotten out of the car once, and more to act as a lookout than an actual fighter. There were some upsides to tagging along with forty-nine machismo-juggling apes. But even so, we now had three people suffering from blunt-force trauma wounds who would likely get stuck with the cars instead of going into the city. Nobody had gotten seriously hurt, infected, or killed, but that was mostly due to our overwhelming numbers.
Tomorrow, we would be in the minority, and by a far larger factor than what we’d had to deal with anywhere before, except for maybe Charlotte.
Why, again, were we doing this?
The camp, as it was, wasn’t much to speak of, as Mike had already warned us. If not for three cars ahead of us taking a sharp turn right, it would have been easy to miss the unpaved dirt track cutting away from the meandering road we’d been following, driving at low speeds and with considerable distances between the cars. It turned out to be an old logging road, leading to what I realized must have been a clearing years ago, used for drying out logs before transport to the next sawmill, now mostly overgrown. Mike’s scouts had already felled the few thin trees that had sprung up in the middle but left the underbrush mostly untouched, reducing direct line of sight to well inside the entire area our cars took up.
If everyone had stopped moving, the overgrown clearing could almost pass as still undisturbed.
Now, of course, men were going this way and that, creating a lot of movement, and the sound of foliage rustling all around us seemed unbearably loud and obvious to me as I opened the door to get out of the SUV.
“Any moment now, and a velociraptor will come hurtling out of the trees,” I muttered, more to myself than as a general observation.
I heard Jared chuckle low under his breath as he got out on the opposite side.
“Were you even born when that movie hit theaters?”
I grimaced but made sure none of them would catch it.
As if there’d ever been money for me to buy tickets.
Not that this had ever stopped me, but…
I beamed a bright smile at him when he rounded the front of the car and came into sight. “I’ve always had a thing for the classics.”
“Ouch.” Jared dramatically clutched his chest. “You wound me, young grasshopper.”
When all he got from me was a deadpan stare, he shook his head, clearly disappointed. Without another word, he wandered off, presumably to antagonize someone who would care. Blake followed behind him, sledgehammer casually slung over one shoulder. That left Axel and me, who was sporting a sad smile.
“My daughter,” he offered as he caught my gaze. “She loved that movie when it came out. But for at least a year, she wouldn’t pass by the hedge behind our house in the night, convinced that a raptor was waiting there to eat her.”
His tone was soft enough that I almost didn’t want to ask about her.
It also made me wonder if that was the reason why he was acting borderline civil around me, particularly compared to the others—that I reminded him of his little girl.
“And after that year?”
He shrugged. “She got old enough that fessing up to such childish ideas wasn’t cool anymore, I guess.” He snickered under his breath. “Didn’t hold her back five years later when she started sneaking out after she thought her old man had nodded off in front of the TV. Maybe should have planted thicker hedges.”
Now there was clear pain laced with the nostalgia.
I had a feeling that wound was a lot older than the recent emotional trauma we’d all been sucker-punched with. So I didn’t ask, and he didn’t volunteer anything more.
While Mike remained adamant about us not using open fire, he didn’t protest when the leader of Plato’s bunch brought out a huge pot of lukewarm stew, meant for provisions for at least two days but soon gone since we shared it with the Asheville fighters. I waited until most of the men had gotten their share before grabbing a tin mug full of it, looking around for where to sit down to enjoy it.
That was when I noticed that while some of the guys were chatting in low tones amongst themselves, a lot of them were following my every motion with way too much attention. Of what kind was pretty obvious. I didn’t need to single out Blondie and his gang to know they were amongst the most obvious, if they hadn’t started it in the first place.
I considered whether it was worth making a point about nobody even thinking about being stupid but instead retreated to the SUV, eating my meal while leaning against the dusty side of the car.
Where was the asshole when I could have done with abusing him as a meat shield of a different kind?
I couldn’t believe that I actually had a use for him for once—and, of course, that was the time he decided he had to not stick around and annoy the living hell out of me.
That was where Axel found me five minutes later, offering me one of two bottles of warm beer he must have picked up from someone else. I thanked him with a silent nod and watched with moderate amusement as some of the attention I’d drawn immediately dropped away.
“You don’t have to play chaperone, you know?” I told Axel after the stew was gone, leaving only the abomination of a beer—but since it was a local brew, it was still better than water, just not as good as it could have been.
Axel snorted around his own sip. “And spend half the night patching up idiots who should have known better in the first place? This is the way of least resistance, trust me.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Aren’t you going to pelt out some platitudes about honest men being above their urges and me being in exactly zero danger?”
