Chasing Colorado: (The Zombie Zovels #2) (22 page)

Most of the smaller cuts had healed, but a few of the deeper ones were taking a little longer.

“I fell through a glass table but they're healing now... it's a long story.” One I didn't want to talk about.

My bite itched under its dressing and I had to resist the urge to scratch it. I wondered what Anton would say if he knew about my bite mark? Would he be so kind then?
Drew and I aren't stopping for long, so Anton never needs to know
. I only hoped he couldn't smell it. Great, now I'm paranoid. I turned my head and sniffed the air, taking a deep breath in and out and filling my lungs with desert air but I was really checking to see if I could smell anything. My T-shirt was nearly dry, it wasn't a very thick material, and the sun had dried most of it on the way back.

“Your friend not joining us?”

I sighed and looked over at Drew.

“I don't know, he's a bit of a loner.”

Anton retrieved a pot from his tent and poured the beans in. We chatted about how crazy the world got at the end, right after it was declared an epidemic, and we talked about other random stuff, his name was actually, Anthony, but he didn't like it. And he liked to crack jokes, jokes that made me laugh so hard I was in tears. I caught Drew looking at me, shooting daggers my way. Jeez, what the hell? Anton seemed genuine enough, what was Drew's problem?

“Drew! Food!” I called over to him but got no reply. “Drew!”

He sat on his rock, dangling his legs over the side watching the sunset which was nearly over.

Anton served beans to me in a plastic bowl. I insisted Anton ate some beans but he refused as he had eaten on the way back and really wasn't a fan of beans. After I had finished, I scooped out the rest of the beans for Drew. I was still laughing from something Anton had said when I carried the bowl over to Drew.

“Hey, I think we should stay here tomorrow, catch up on sleep and rest. Anton says it's fine for us to stay.”

Drew just stared at me.

“I'm tired. I've been walking for days, and my legs hurt like hell, I just don't complain to you about it. I think we should stay, I'm not about to turn overnight, one extra day won't hurt.”

I got no response.

“He's actually a really funny guy, why don't you join us?” Still no response. “Here, you should eat some beans.” I said, dumping the bowl in his lap.

“
You should eat some beans
.” Drew mimicked me and I thought I was hearing things.

He sounded like a little kid.

“What was that!?” I laughed.

“What does every guy want after they've cooked a girl dinner?” he said, pushing the bowl back into my hands.

“You don't want it?” I said, confused, before I realized what he had actually said.

Was Drew jealous? Jealous I was chatting to Anton? No, that couldn't be it.

He was acting strange, though. I hadn't done anything to him so I didn't know what had brought this on. Was he mad at me? Mad at Anton? But why? The guy had cooked us dinner and let us stay the night under the watchful eye of his wolves, I was actually looking forward to going to sleep tonight and not having to worry about deadbies. Anton had done us a favor.

“No.” he said, standing up and towering above me.

“Did I do something-”

“No.” he repeated before walking off into the desert.

I watched the back of him walk away. Was this because he wanted to leave me and go look for his friends?

The word
Jealous
echoed inside my head but I quickly shut it out. There was nothing to be jealous of, Drew had had me on my own for days. I couldn't figure him out, one minute he was normal, the next he was biting my head off or being rude to me, and then the next he was completely ignoring me. I carried the bowl back to the fire and Anton raised an eyebrow.

“He's not hungry.” I said, sitting down and finishing the beans myself, no point letting them go to waste.

“Everything okay?” Anton asked, looking at me then in Drew's direction but he had disappeared into the darkness.

“I don't know, I think he wants to go and look for his group. Don't suppose you've seen any other people on your travels?”

He shook his head. “You are the only ones I've seen in months. I see travelers now and then but they stick to the roads and I keep my distance. Never can trust anyone these days.”

“Then why did you trust us?”

“You looked worse for wear, and your friend was scavenging the land for a meal, I thought it only polite to help, seeing as you turned up on my doorstep.”

I smiled and scooped another spoonful of beans into my mouth.

“Did you get separated from your friends?”

“Yes, there was this group of men.” I shook my head not wanting to think about Luke or go into too much detail about the whole thing. “I got away with Drew.”

“And you were
all
traveling to Colorado?”

“Yes, but now I don't know where any of them are, they could all be dead.”

“Do you think they're dead?”

“I hope not, but I don't think I'll see any of them again.”

Well, not
me
anyway. Once Drew got me to Argon, he would leave me and go and find his friends if they were still alive. I didn't know how long I had left. A few more days in this heat and I might pass out from heat exhaustion, that's why I wanted to stay here tomorrow and rest. I wasn't used to the heat, back at the prison I could stay indoors out of the sun, out here it was
sun
all day long. If we hadn't have found the stream I don't know what we would have done.

I looked over my shoulder trying to see if I could spot Drew, but I couldn't. Two of the wolves were asleep under the tarpaulin but one was sitting a little way out, watching the darkness.

“The wolves won't chase after Drew, will they?”

“No, not unless he makes the noises
they
make, they hate those noises, them groans and screams.”

“I think everyone hates those noises.”

Anton poured me a drink, he had boiled the water he had brought back from the stream and divided it into two containers, one was for drinking and one was for cleaning hands and washing up cutlery. I didn't tell him we both lapped up the water in the stream without boiling it.

I tipped the water into my water bottle, I thought it best to stick to my own bottle, Anton didn't say anything about it.

Anton ducked inside his tent, and I untied my hoodie and pulled it over my head, even though we were in the hot desert the nights were cool.

He came back out with a box but I couldn't quite see what it was, “A game of Scrabble?” he suggested, showing me the box.

“Sure. Why not?”

After a game of Scrabble, Anton gave me a blanket and I settled down under the tarpaulin, a good distance away from the wolf that had found me the first time. I felt safe with the wolves as our alarm system, but I was still wary of them. Anton insisted I was safe and the wolves would not hurt me, but it still didn't make me feel any better, I didn't want to wake up being gnawed on.

Drew had since returned and brought back his own dinner, he even built his own fire in the distance. I didn't bother him and let him get on with it.

I laid down on my back, at the edge of the tarpaulin so I could gaze up at the night sky, there wasn't a single cloud in sight, only stars. I glanced over at Anton to see what he was doing, he was eating what looked like a creepy crawly of some sort. Gross! I tilted my head to see what Drew was doing, he was sitting in the minivan seats, picking at the underneath of his boots, probably checking for holes.

After Anton had finished eating God-knows-what, he rolled out his sleeping bag and laid on top of it and the two sleeping wolves got up and went over to him, and laid down either side of him. Then Anton rolled onto his side, facing me, staring at me with his big, brown eyes. It was creepy and what Drew had said earlier about what men want after they cook a woman dinner crossed my mind. I quickly rolled over, turning my back on Anton. What if I was wrong and he wasn't to be trusted? What if he killed us in our sleep? What if he tried to rape me? No, he would have done it straight away, what was the point of feeding us and giving us shelter to just kill us or
rape
me? I shifted around uncomfortably and closed my eyes, and tried to ignore the crazy thoughts running through my head, like what Anton may possibly want to do to me.

Shuffling behind me, and something knocking into my back made me jump. I rolled onto my back, ready to fight off Anton, and found Drew smirking back at me as he settled down next to me. He laid down beside me, our shoulders touching.

“I thought you were...” I whispered, looking over his shoulder at Anton.

I thought it was Anton creeping up on me.

“Yeah, I thought as much. I saw the looks you were giving him, don't worry, he'll have to go through me first before he gets you.” he whispered back to me.

I laid still, listening to the nocturnal animals of the desert, hoping a snake wouldn't slither anywhere near me.

A cold chill made me shiver and Drew pulled a blanket over to cover my legs. He rested his arm behind his head, looking up at the sky. And I found myself gradually wriggling closer to him for warmth. I turned onto my side so I was facing him, still feeling a little cold.

Drew tilted his head to look down at me while I shivered beside him. He then abruptly started lifting his arm from where I had snuggled up beside him. Maybe it was a little too much for him. Some girl he hardly knew, trying to get close to him, an infected girl as well. But instead of moving away he held his arm up, inviting me to come closer. Another cold chill had me practically jumping into his arms. He wrapped his arm around my back, making sure my blanket was still covering me. I would have thought this would have been a bit weird, but oddly it wasn't. He stayed on his back, with his other arm behind his head, looking up at the stars, not saying anything, and I snuggled into his chest, I even had one of my legs resting over his.

“You smell like the ocean.” I blurted after a few minutes of us lying together in silence.

He chuckled. “It's my deodorant.” he said, still holding onto me tightly.

“What deodorant? You don't have any. You used Josh's last time and that smelled of pine trees. I should know I had to use it as well.”

He chuckled.“No, but I have been wearing this T-shirt for well over a week. It's still got my old deodorant scent on it.”

“Oh, gross!” I said, lightly smacking his chest. “You know, I should really be disgusted, but for a week-old shirt, you smell pretty good.” I said without thinking. “I mean, you don't sweat buckets like me.” Okay, that sounded even worse. I promptly shut up before I said anything else stupid.

“Your hair smells like cherries.” Drew said.

“Good guess, it's the shampoo I used last.” I replied, playing with the cord from my hoodie.

“You warmed up?” he asked.

I wanted to say no. For once I was enjoying the human contact. I didn't want him to let go. But he'd probably had enough of my infected body lying across him.

“Yeah, I have, thank you.” I lifted my head about to move away.

“Where are you going?” he mumbled.

I thought I was hearing things so I placed my hand on his chest and tried to push myself up, but he kept his arm firmly around me, preventing me from going anywhere.

“Alex, stay, you're not the only one that's cold tonight.”

I looked at his bare arms and realized he slept every night in just a T-shirt, he never untied the long-sleeved, checkered shirt from around his waist. If he was
really
cold he could use that.

I rested my head back on his chest. “I just thought you wouldn't want the dying girl on top of you for too long.” I whispered.

“Well... you're not... dead.. yet.” he responded as though he was already half asleep.

“Drew?”

“Hmm..”

“Drew!”

“Yes? I'm still awake.” he mumbled.

“Are you sure we're safe here?”

“Ye-yes. Think so.”

Think so?

But a second later Drew's breathing changed and he was asleep. He obviously saw no threat from Anton otherwise, he wouldn't have even considered going to sleep tonight.

Day 13

Sore legs, floppy arms, useless body! Oh, yeah, and now I'm puking.

I woke up with a jolt. A gust of wind had caused the tarpaulin to rattle above my head.

It's just the tarpaulin, Alex, calm down.

Drew was already awake and sitting on a rock, holding his crossbow. Anton was by the fire cooking something on a stick. The wolves were lying in the shade beside the rock wall.

“Hungry?” Anton asked, holding up the stick which had a grilled lizard on the end.

“Uh... no, I'm not hungry.”

No more baked beans and chips.
I thought, feeling a little disappointed.

I stretched my arms and I must have stretched a little too much as my bite mark suddenly pulled and stung under the dressing. I flinched and made a little noise.

Anton turned to look at me.

“I think I must have pulled a muscle or something.” I said, trying to brush it off as nothing before I drew too much attention to myself.

Now all I wanted to do was scratch it. I waited until Anton looked away before I gave it a quick scratch which only made the itch worse. I think it needed cleaning and a fresh dressing.

I picked up my water bottle and took a few swigs. Drew looked my way and I smiled to say, hi. His lips twitched but he quickly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. I got up and went over to Anton. 

“Anton, I don't suppose you have any medical supplies in your tent?”

It felt rude to ask but it was ruder to snoop through his stuff when his back was turned.

“I ..uh, I have really bad blisters on my feet where my boots have rubbed.”

Anton stood up still chewing his lizard, walked over to his tent and ducked inside. He came back out with a First Aid box.

“This any good?”

“Yeah, that's great.” I said as he handed the box to me.

“I was going to go back to the stream and clean up,” I said, aiming my comment at Drew but he didn't respond.

“On your own?” Anton said.

“I'll be fine, I've got this if I need it,” I said, resting my hand on the knife at my side.

I was about to leave with the box when Anton stopped me, “Wait, I have something else for you.”

I waited patiently while he crawled back into his tent, he came back out with a handful of clothes and walked over to me, and placed them on top of the First Aid box. I looked down at what Anton had given me, an AC/DC T-shirt, clean underwear, (male boxer briefs but I wasn't complaining), and a pair of clean socks.

“And a new bar of soap.” Anton said, placing it on top, the words,
Hot Springs Motel
, were engraved into the soap.

I grinned and looked at Drew. “Clean clothes.” I said.

Drew didn't look impressed. Anton smiled and went back to his fire, and I wandered over to Drew.

“Maybe if you were a little friendlier he'd find you some clean clothes. You're starting to smell.” It was a lie, he wasn't the one that was starting to smell, it was the dressing under my T-shirt. Drew sniffed under his arm and I tried not to laugh.

I started walking, and soon had to stop to take off my hoodie and tie it around my waist. I didn't know what the time was but the sun was already high in the sky and I think Drew and Anton had been up a while. My boots crunched over the hot desert floor and it took longer than I remembered to get back to the stream. When I got there I took a few minutes to look up and down to make sure there were no deadbies around. I sat down at the edge, kicked off my boots, and tugged off my T-shirt. I twisted around and carefully peeled off the dressing. The bite mark looked manky and a trickle of pus started to leak from it.

“Eww!” I said, flinging the dirty dressing aside and using my dirty, unwashed T-shirt to stop the dripping pus.

I quickly got to work and opened the First Aid box. I wrung my T-shirt out in the stream and tried my best to reach around and clean it. It was so sore and I flinched every time I touched it and I was trying to be as gentle as possible. I didn't know if it would help or make it worse but I had to do something, I didn't want Anton to smell it.

I was distracted rinsing off my T-shirt, when a large shadow loomed over me. My hand flew to my knife as I snapped my head around.

“Jeezzzz!! Drew! Don't sneak up on me like that.”

“I thought you might want some help with your
blisters
.”

“I don't have any blisters.”

“I know.” he said, crouching down behind me.

I was only wearing my leggings and bra, and quickly covered my chest with one arm and peered over my shoulder at him.

He trailed a finger down my back and it still caused an electric shiver to course through my body which made every hair on my body stand up. I was about to stand up when he placed one hand on my shoulder to stop me going anywhere.

“What are you doing? Get away!” I said, trying to smack his hand away, I didn't want him looking at my bite...or smelling it.

“Just lookin',”

“Well, stop it!”

“No. You haven't cleaned it properly, there's pus and shit still comin' out of it, you need to squeeze it.”

“What! No! Don't. You. Dare.”

I tried to get up but Drew kept his hand firmly on my shoulder.

“Hold still.” he said, and I felt his fingers prodding my back, it felt like he was sticking them in an open wound it felt so sore.

“Ouch! That hurts like a bitch, stop that!”

“You should see what's comin' outta it .”

“I'd rather not, and I'd rather you not see it either.”

“It's infected as fuck, you need to get the gunk out and clean it.”

“Infected? Is that a joke? I'm already infected, and what would you have me clean it with? We have no alcohol or antibiotics.”

“No, but if Anton has some salt in that tent of his we could mix it with warm water and clean it.”

“Sure, remind me to ask him when we get back. I can say I need it for my french fries.”

“Don't be smart, Pretty,”

Pretty? Did he just call me pretty?

“Pretty?” I said, but he ignored me so I carried on our previous conversation.

“I'm just stating the obvious. If I ask him for salt he'll want to know what it's for, and I can't exactly boil a pot of water and strip in front of him.”

“You stripped in front of me.”

“No, I didn't. You just snuck up on me half dressed. Owww!” I squealed, flinching away.

“Give me that,” he said, holding his hand over my shoulder.

I handed him my damp T-shirt and he cleaned my back.

“That should do it.” he said, letting go of my shoulder and standing up, then he crouched down by the water and washed his hands off.

“So what do you make of Anton, do you think he's dangerous?”

“No. I think if he was he would have had his dogs kill us when they first found us.”

“You mean wolves.”

“Whatever.”

“Why are you being such a grouch?”

“'Cause I think we should leave. I don't think we should stay another night here.”

“Why not? You just told me you don't think Anton's dangerous.”

“I don't think he is dangerous, but what do you think he'll say if he sees your back?”

I ignored his question. “Why didn't you ask Anton to let you have some clothes? I'm sure he has some more spare.”

“I don't want his clothes.”

“Uh-huh.” I said, trying
to suppress a giggle as he pulled his boxer shorts down from riding up too high.

He was still wearing Josh's floral boxer shorts.

He caught me laughing. “I hate these boxers, they're too damn small!”

“Well, you're not having these.” I said, grabbing the clothes Anton had given me.

“We should leave today.” Drew said, reaching out and grabbing my arm.

“We've been walking for days, my legs need a break. If you don't think Anton's dangerous then we'll just refuel for a few days and move on.” I said, pulling free.

“A few days? Yesterday it was one day, now it's a few days. You'll soon be wanting to spend the week... You may not have many weeks left.”

“I don't need reminding.” I said through gritted teeth. “I'm going to get washed... over there.”

“Don't let me stop you.” he replied, going over to a rock and sitting down.

I gathered my things and paddled through the stream to the other side and kept walking. I stopped and looked back at Drew, he was facing the other way with his back to me.

I stripped off the rest of my clothes and squatted down in the water. It felt good to finally be able to have a wash and clean the desert dirt off my skin. Most of the time I kept looking back at Drew to make sure he wasn't peeking, and the rest of the time I was scanning the rock slope to make sure no deadbies were going to roll down it and land in the stream. After I was done, I quickly tiptoed back to the edge and pulled on the clean boxers and got my bra done up as fast as possible. I turned around to look for Drew and saw a deadbie stumbling down the rocky verge toward me. Drew was still perched on the rock looking the other way. I quickly searched the ground for my knife and realized I had left it back on the ground where Drew was. The deadbie's clothes were hanging off in tatty rags, its skin was reddish and it had blisters all over its face from the scorching hot sun. I looked around at what I could use and the only thing I spotted was a large tree branch lying on the ground across the stream. I ran across the stream, letting out a small yelp when I trod on a sharp rock hidden in the water.

I grabbed the branch and spun around to face the deadbie. It skidded down the slope with a wobble but quickly regained its balance and splashed through the water toward me.

“Drew!” I called, but he remained unfazed...that or he was purposely ignoring me.

I gripped the branch and took a deep breath, and braced myself. I took a step back as it approached, and another step, I had underestimated its height, I was a lot shorter and I had to swing high. I took one swing and barely clipped the thing on the chin. I swung again and managed to smack it on the nose. Why did I have to be so short? I took another step back and trod on a large stone which caused my ankle to give out under me and I fell onto my butt. The deadbie lunged toward me and crawled through the dirt, quickly reaching my feet. Its nails scraped the side of my foot and I wriggled backwards trying to put enough space between me and it so I could get back on my feet, but it caught my foot in its hand and dug its nails into my skin. I squealed as its nails broke the skin and I shoved the sharp end of the branch straight into its eye before it could get its teeth in my foot. I twisted the branch and heard a squelching sound as I pushed it further into its eye socket. Then all of a sudden Drew appeared and shot it in the head, and it was all over in a blink of an eye.

I let out a breath, loosened my grip on the branch and wriggled away from the deadbie, its hands fell to the ground but it stayed propped up by the branch that was still in its eye socket.

“Here, give me your hand.” Drew held out his hand to me and pulled me up onto my feet.

The side of his mouth curved up into a smile but he quickly tried to hide it as his eyes trailed down my legs. I realized I was only wearing my bra and the boxers Anton had given me. Mismatched was not the word. This was a crime of fashion.

“Don't say a word.” I said, trying not to laugh myself. “Didn't you hear me calling you?”

“Of course, I heard you, I was just finishing my smoke. I thought you wanted me to wash your back or somethin'” he said, with a devilish smile playing on his lips.

Was he flirting with me? I so couldn't figure Drew out.

I quickly splashed back through the stream and picked up the clean T-shirt and yanked it over my head. Then I slipped my leggings back on, followed by clean socks and my boots. Fighting off deadbies half naked wasn't the best idea. I scrubbed my underwear out and Josh's red T-shirt that was beyond saving, the dirt stains were old and stubborn and I gave up and wrung it out. I walked back along the stream and used the larger stones that acted as stepping stones to get back across the stream. I also found my knife I had left behind. Drew strolled back along the stream and came over to me, and I held the bar of soap out to him but he just stared at it confused and his eyebrows scrunched together.

“It's for washing with.” I said.

“I know what it's for, but there's no way I'm gonna strip off with you watching me.”

“I'm
not
going to watch you.” I said, and I felt my cheeks redden a little and told myself it was the sun warming them. “Like I would want to.” I added, realizing how childish it sounded once I had said it. “What I mean is, I'm going back to the camp, you can wash in the stream and do whatever you want in it.” And that sounded even worse.

I smacked the bar of soap on the rock and started walking back. I rolled my underwear and socks inside my wet T-shirt and stomped off. Five minutes later, I heard footsteps behind me, I looked over my shoulder and saw Drew following me.