Chapter 13
Adam couldn't let go of Shelly's hand. He was worried that if he did, he'd never get it back. He knew that it was a ridiculous feeling. She wouldn't just disappear in front of him. But he didn't want to risk it.
The three continued to walk.
It was dark, but they were able to see a little of what lay in front of them because the moon was bright and their eyes had adjusted.
Adam looked back over his shoulder. He couldn't see the campfire anymore. They had left that far behind.
"I think that we should stop," Shelly said.
Adam quickly turned to the young girl. "Stop? Are you okay?"
"Yeah. It's just that we're far enough away from the camp. I don't think Sam or any of them will find us out here. And we don't know where we're going. We should wait until the sun comes up before we keep moving."
Adam thought about the young girl's words. She was right. Plus, there could be some of the creatures out here and he didn't want to come across them in the dark.
"Okay," he said.
Claire agreed.
The three sat down on the grass. It felt soft underneath them, and also a little wet. It was cold in the evenings. Dew covered everything.
Adam looked back to Shelly. "Are you sure you're all right?"
Shelly smiled. "I'm fine. Honestly." Then without a pause, she leaned over and hugged him. "I'm glad that you came for me."
Adam smiled back. It felt good that he had come through on his promise. That he had taken care of the girl
.
Protected her.
He turned to Claire. "How about you? Are you okay?"
Claire looked like she had been through a pretty rough time. She definitely looked worse off than Shelly. Her face was cut up badly. There were bruises on it as well.
"I'm fine," she answered. But her words came out flat.
Adam knew that she was anything but fine, though he didn't want to push her. He could only imagine what those men had done to her. It couldn't be easy for her to accept. He focused on her cuts and bruises in the moonlight.
Then his thoughts shifted back to Shelly. She didn't have any of the cuts and bruises that Claire did. And when he had found her, she had only been missing her shoes. But that didn't mean that those men hadn't touched her. That didn't mean that they hadn't...
He opened his mouth to speak. He needed to know.
But as he looked at Shelly, his mouth shut. He couldn't ask her, couldn't bring that up.
When he had a chance, he'd ask Claire about it.
*
Shelly lay in his arms. It was cool out and he was keeping her warm. But there was more to it than that. He felt strong holding the young girl. And he felt proud of what he - an
d
he
r
- had accomplished since everything had changed.
He could feel hear breathing. Her chest moved up and down underneath his arm. He bent over and kissed her on the top of the head. She didn't stir.
He decided that now was the time to talk to Claire.
He turned to her. She was looking off into the distance, toward the camp. Looking for sign of the men. Checking to make sure that they weren't following.
"I think we're okay for now," he said, trying to reassure her.
She turned to look at him. Her gaze seemed softer now. Though that might just have meant that she was tired.
She didn't say anything.
"Claire," Adam said. He reached out and touched her arm. She pulled away. "I'm sorry," he quickly added.
Claire glared at him, a moment of panic in her eyes. Then it fled. "It's okay," she said. "I'm just a little jumpy."
She had been thinking of Big Mike and all that he had done to her. First in the garage. Then at the camp. She knew that he was out there somewhere. And it would only be a matter of time before he came looking for her. He had a strange obsession with her that had grown since they met the others. It was as though he thought they were in love
.
Even though he had to keep her locked in a cag
e
.
"I understand," Adam said.
But did he
?
There was no way that he could understand what she had been through. She didn't think many people could.
She continued to look at him. She could see that he was trying to work up the courage to say something. She didn't know what it was. And right now she didn't really care. She just wanted some time to be alone and think. Except Adam wouldn't let her. She knew that he wanted to talk.
"I..well..." he began. He fidgeted with his hands. Glanced around in every direction. Then took a deep breath. He concentrated on her eyes and tried to calm himself down. He opened his mouth. "Did they hurt Shelly?" he asked. "Did they touch her?"
The question took her off guard. She hadn't been expecting it. It also softened her a little. She could tell that Adam was truly concerned about the young girl and that made her feel better about him. She looked him over
.
Shelly's hero. The man who had come to save them
.
Maybe all men weren't bad. There might still be some good out there.
She shook her head. "No." It was all that she said. She knew that she should have said more, but it had become hard for her to speak. With all that she had been through, she wondered if Big Mike had taken her voice from her as well. She started to cry.
Adam didn't know what was wrong. He had finally built up the nerve to ask her about Shelly, then she started to cry. Even after she had said that they hadn't touched the young girl.
He wanted to reach out and touch Claire again, but knew that that might upset her more. She had jumped the first time that he had touched her arms. He didn't want to see what would happen now.
"I'm sorry," he said instead.
Claire wasn't looking at him anymore. She had turned away from him. Her face was buried in her knees.
She couldn't stop crying. Her knees got wet. Covered in tears.
She had been through so much. Had experienced such horrible things. She wished that she could say she had the strength to get through them. But, right now, she didn't know. It felt horrible. It felt hard. It felt as though the pain would never end.
She continued to cry and couldn't stop.
"I'm sorry," Adam said once more. This time he spoke a little louder. He knew that Claire heard him because she turned her head to look at him, though most of her face was still pressed into her knees. "I'm really sorry."
Claire didn't know what Adam was apologizing for. He hadn't been there. He hadn't done any of these things to her. He was one of the good guys - or so she chose to believe. Shelly sure seemed to think so.
She turned her head more. Her eyesight was blurred. The tears continued to flow. But she could make him out, looking at her. She knew that he was concerned. Knew that he was worried. And that made her want to cry more.
Adam kept wanting to reach out and touch her. He didn't know if it would help, but there was something in him that said to do it. It was obvious that the woman was suffering. She needed comfort.
He raised his hand. It hovered in the air, unsure. In the end, he decided to go through with it.
He placed his hand on her arm and gave her a gentle squeeze.
He felt Claire tense, but she didn't pull away.
She wanted to. She didn't want him touching her. Yet there was something nice about it too. It felt comforting. Reassuring. She decided to leave it there, knowing that it wasn't going to harm her.
She pressed her face back into her knees and continued to cry.
Chapter 14
Sam stopped in the middle of the field. He was out of breath and couldn't go any further. He fell to his knees.
He had been shot at twice and escaped. Gregor hadn't been so lucky.
As soon as he had been startled awake, Sam had seen Gregor grabbing at his throat, blood running through his fingers. He had seen him charge at someone. And had heard the blast as he was shot in the chest.
When Gregor fell, Sam stood. Then the person shot a
t
hi
m
.
Sam hadn't had any intention of fighting a man with a gun. So he ran.
Though not before he got a look at the guy who had come into their camp and attacked them. He was sure that it was the guy from the apartment, the one who had stopped him from having his way with Shelly.
Sam slammed his fist against the soft ground. This was the second time that that man had interfered. And the second time that Sam had run away from him. It infuriated him. Embarrassed him.
He thought about Shelly. He knew that she would be out of the cage by now
.
Set free
.
That upset him more than the fact that he had been shot at, that he had run.
He had been so close to her, so close to getting her out. He had just needed to think a little bit more about how to do it. He had to plan an escape, figure out where they'd go.
Except now he wouldn't be able to do that.
He hit the ground again. None of this seemed fair.
He looked back toward the camp.
He supposed that he could march back there and try to get her back. He could fight the man who always came to her rescue. Kill him if he needed to. Then he could run off with Shelly.
It sounded good. But it didn't sound possible.
It was dark. The other man had a gun. Sam had nothing.
There might be a gun tha
t
h
e
could use at camp!
The idea excited him. Yet, he wasn't ready to act on it at the moment. He'd have to wait until it got a little brighter outside. He didn't want to risk running into his attacker. And he didn't want to search around when he couldn't see much of anything.
It wouldn't be long until the sun came up.
He grew even more excited. He could almost picture hunting them down, shooting the man, taking the girl. He wasn't exactly sure how he was going to find them, but he knew that it would be possible. They might have even left a clue at the camp.
He smiled and laid down on the grass. He looked up at the stars. Millions of them. And waited for the next day to begin.
Day 10
Chapter 1
Sam came upon the cage and looked around. Gregor was sprawled in front of it, his blood soaked into the soil.
There was no sign of of the young girl. No footprints, no markers, He couldn't tell in which direction she had gone.
He felt a rush of disappointment wash over him; which was quickly followed by frustration.
Sam kicked at the cage. The structure rattled. Then he marched to the campfire.
Carl and the other's hadn't come back, yet. And that was a good thing. Sam didn't want to be the one to explain that the women had been taken. He didn't think that any of them would be happy with that. Especially Big Mike.
Why hadn't he thought of that before?
Now he felt a new emotion: fear. He didn't want to be here when the others got back.
He hurried over to a bag and picked it up. He started throwing a few supplies into it. Not much. There weren't many supplies left to be had. But something was better than nothing.
When he finished, he turned toward the house
.
Carl's hous
e
. He thought about checking it out
.
Something good had to be in there. Like a gun.
He normally would never have considered going in there, but Carl wasn't there now. There was no one to stop him.
*
Sam walked up to Carl's house. Even though he was alone, he had the feeling that he was being watched, that he was doing something wrong.
Just his imagination
,
he told himself.
He came upon the front door and walked inside.
He headed straight down the hallway and began his search. He looked in the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom. He picked up a few more useful things along the way.
Then he came upon the master bedroom. He stuck his head into the room and looked around.
He could see a few bags in the far corner, some clothes on a chair. What surprised him was that the bed was made. He didn't picture Carl as the type of guy to keep house.
He went further into the room.
Against the wall was a chest of drawers. On top of that were a few weapons. Mostly knives. He picked one up. It looked like it'd do some damage, but it wasn't what he had come for.
He placed the knife down and started searching through the drawers. There was nothing but clothes inside them. Neatly folded. Sam wasn't sure if they were Carl's clothes or not. After seeing the bed, he wouldn't be surprised if they were.
But, again, it wasn't what he had come for.
Sam started to panic. He didn't like being in this house to begin with. Now it seemed like he wasn't going to find a gun.
He turned and rushed over to the bags he had seen. They were empty.
He checked the closet.
He looked under the bed's blanket. Underneath the pillow.
Then he checked underneath the bed.
There he saw a box. A metal one with a lock on it. He pulled it out from underneath the bed and tried to open it. It clicked open on his first try.
It didn't make a lot of sense for Carl to keep a gun in an unlocked box underneath his bed, but Sam didn't spend much time thinking about it. He wanted to find a gun.
He pulled open the lid and began searching through the contents. There were a few papers. A small toy car. A book. No gun.
"Shit!" Sam swore.
Then he heard another click.
The sound had nothing to do with the box. Nor was it anything that he had done.
It sounded like a gun being cocked. And it sounded like it had come from straight behind him.
Sam turned around. The barrel of a shotgun was pushed into his face. He fell backward.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said. "I was just looking around. That's all."
He didn't know who he was talking to. He hadn't seen the person holding the gun. But he figured that he'd have to do some explaining. And quick. Especially if he didn't want to get shot.
"Why?" a voice asked. It was a husky voice. Deep.
Sam thought it sounded familiar. Though it didn't sound like Carl. And that was a good thing.
Sam pulled his hands away from his face and looked at the man. It was Big Mike.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Sam said again. "I'm sorry, man. I just...well...I needed to find some things."
"Why?" Big Mike kept the gun focused on him.
Sam thought that he was going to pull the trigger at any moment, so he'd better speak fast. Unfortunately, he didn't know how much he should say. "Because…well…" Big Mike twitched. Sam knew that he didn't have a lot of time left. "Because someone came and took the girls. I was going to try to..."
The big man didn't listen to the rest of what he had to say. He turned and walked out of the room.
Sam wasn't sure if he should follow him or not. He knew that Big Mike was going to the cage and, once he saw for himself that they weren't there, who knew what he'd do? He'd probably just start shooting anything that moved. Sam didn't want to be around for that.
Of course, if Sam tried to run away and Big Mike or any of the other guys caught him, that could be worse.
Sam got up off of the ground and decided to follow.
When he got outside, he stopped and looked around. The camp was still empty. Big Mike was alone.
That wasn't good
.
Had Big Mike gone crazy and killed them all? Had something happened
?
Big Mike was at the cage now.
No, this wasn't good.
Sam approached and saw Big Mike staring at Gregor.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I don't know. I was sleeping when I heard Gregor screaming. Then some guy shot him. He shot at me too. But I got away."
"And the girls?"
"The guy took 'em."
Big Mike raised the gun and pointed it back at Sam. Sam didn't know why
.
H
e
hadn't taken the girls. It hadn't bee
n
hi
s
fault. But he supposed that the big guy was mad, and he was about to take it out on him.
Sam wanted to run. Wanted to hide. Or maybe even fall down onto the ground and curl into a ball. Instead, he raised his hands and tried to plead with Big Mike. "Whoa," he said. "Easy with that."
Big Mike focused on him. His eyes narrowed. His mouth curved into a frown. "What were you doing in Carl's house?"
"Me? I..." Sam couldn't speak. He also couldn't take his eyes off of Big Mike's finger. He saw it move slightly over the trigger. It was only a matter of seconds before his face was blown off.
"Speak up," Big Mike said.
"I...well..." Sam started to feel nauseous, but he had to say something. "I was looking for a gun."
"Why?"
"Because I was going to go look for them."
Big Mike took a step forward. He spun the gun around so that the butt of it was facing Sam. Then he rammed it into Sam's nose. Sam fell to the ground.
"You were going after my woman?" Big Mike screamed. "You were going to try to find her?"
"No, no!" Sam raised his hands over his face to protect himself from a further attack. "No
t
he
r
. The other one. The young one."
Big Mike stopped and looked down at Sam. He lowered his gun from over his head. Yet, he could see Big Mike's finger back on the trigger. "The young one?"
"Shelly - the new girl. The one that Rick brought in. I was looking for a gun and I was going to shoot th
e
piece-of-shi
t
who took her."
"Do you know who took her?"
Sam could see the fire in the big guy's eyes. "I think so. The fuckin' guy attacked me before."
"You've met them before?"
Sam swallowed. "In the city. I was...well...I was just about to have my way with her when thi
s
piece-of-shi
t
shows up and tells me to fuck off. That's who came to free her."
"Hmm," Big Mike said. It wasn't much. But at least he had taken his finger off of the gun. Big Mike looked around. Then he turned back to Sam. "Get up."
"What?" Sam was still a bit in shock from all that had happened.
"Get up," Big Mike repeated. "Let's go find them."
Big Mike put out his hand for Sam. Sam glanced at it, unsure if he wanted to take it. He wasn't sure if he wanted anything to do with this guy. Not after he had just tried to smash in his face with the butt of a gun. But there weren't many other options.
He placed out his hand and grabbed Big Mike's. The big guy pulled him to his feet. Then he patted Sam on the back and smiled.
Big Mike started to walk away from the cage.
"Where are you going?" Sam asked.
"To find Claire. I thought that you were coming with me."
Sam continued to look at the big guy. He was still a bit taken off guard by the gun that had been slammed into his face. But he did want to find his girl. "What about my things?" he asked. "I left my bag in Carl's room."
"We can find whatever we're looking for out there." Big Mike pointed his gun out at the distance. "Let's go."
Let's g
o
. Sam still wasn't sure that he wanted to go anywhere with Big him. The man had just attacked him. Would have killed him. But Sam also knew that Big Mike was determined to get his Claire back. And, with that, he'd be sure to find Shelly.
"All right," Sam called out. "Hold up."
Big Mike didn't hold up. But it didn't take long for Sam to catch up with him.
Sam wished that he had had a chance to go back to the house and pick up the bag that he had filled. He wished that he could have had another chance to look for a gun. But there was nothing that he could do about that at the moment. Big Mike wasn't going to wait.
Just like Big Mike had said, he could find all of the things he needed later.
Sam came up behind him, then started to walk beside him. Big Mike was holding a fast pace and Sam had trouble keeping up. His feet eventually found a rhythm, but it wasn't all that comfortable. He turned to the big guy.
"What happened to the others?" he asked.
Big Mike didn't look at Sam. He kept his face looking out over the distance. "They died," he said.
"They died? All of them?"
"Yeah," Big Mike's voice conveyed no emotion.
"How?"
"Thos
e
thing
s
, They came out and attacked us. Right after we had found some travellers."
"Some women?"
"Yeah. Well, one woman. We almost had her. But then we were attacked. And killed."
"And they all died?"
This time, Big Mike looked at Sam. Just a quick glance out of the corner of his eye. But Sam knew that that would be the last time he asked about the surprise attack.
"Yeah," he said. "All of them."
They continued to walk until Sam could barely see the camp behind him. Sam had no idea if they were headed in the right direction. He hadn't seen where Shelly had gone off to.
"You think we'll find them?" he asked. He had just been trying to make conversation. But, as soon as he said it, he knew that it had been another stupid thing to say.
Big Mike turned to him. "Yeah, we will."
And that was it. They were on their way.