“Here’s the deal, Ty. You went out of your way to help your sister.” Ty started shaking his head. “No, no, you did. You could have just decided that the school knew best and that they’d be able to take care of her. But you pulled her out of the school like any mom or dad would.” I saw Ty swallow hard at the mention of his parents, and then I hurried on. “You thought it through. Your head was screwed on right, even though you must have been freaking out. You got supplies. You were a responsible driver and got off the road when you realized you were probably dangerously tired and encountering darkness, which was a driving condition you weren’t used to. You were attacked—which wasn’t your fault—and then you’ve been tirelessly trying to find your sister ever since. You couldn’t have done any more,” I said firmly.
He glanced up at me with shimmering eyes before putting his head back down again.
I cleared my throat. “In the interest of knowing what kind of trouble we’re dealing with, who exactly were these zombies that you were tangling with? Was it, perchance, a zombie family? A mom, dad, and kids?”
He looked at me again, nodding. “That’s the one. Did you see them, too?”
“I sure did. I’d even met them when they
weren’t
zombies, which makes the whole thing even worse,” I said with a sigh. “Real disturbing. I stayed in their house last night and raided their fridge. I locked the doors to keep them out and swiped their keys, so we could go there and stay tonight, if you want. After we look for Ginny today, of course.”
His expression was conflicted. “I like the idea of being in a house. But I feel like I need to maybe keep moving and find Ginny. If we finish looking through the woods and the road today, maybe I need to head for the retirement home?”
“Retirement home?” I asked.
“That’s where we were headed. My grandmother lives there and I was thinking it might be a good place for us to be, at least for a little while. It’s in a remote area and there is plenty of food and medical supplies there. It’s also gated—they have some residents that have problems with their memory, so the place is pretty secure.”
I was getting the idea and I had to agree that it sounded ideal. At least for a short stay, maybe even longterm. “I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, Ty, but I can’t really picture how Ginny is supposed to be getting there. So, you left her with the car, right? And Ginny is … what? Eleven or twelve?”
He nodded.
“Do you think that someone came up and hijacked the car?” I asked slowly.
Ty was resistant to thinking about his sister in trouble and I totally got that. And thought even more of him for it.
Ty said, “No, I think Ginny took off in the car. At the country store I’d given her a driving lesson so that she could get herself out of trouble if she needed to. She even ran down a zombie there.”
There was pride in his voice as he explained what had happened at the store. As I was listening, though, I couldn’t help thinking that there was a big difference between driving for a few yards and driving off down a rural highway to find a retirement home. Big difference. But I wasn’t going to share this with him. It looked like this whole scenario was what he was pinning all his hopes on.
“Tell you what. Why don’t we finish up what you were doing and make sure that Ginny isn’t on the perimeter of the woods. Then we can get out of here—get you over to see your grandmother.”
Ty nodded, but I could tell he was worried. “It’s still a ways away, though. And now I don’t have the van. It would take us forever to walk there.”
“You didn’t steal
all
my stuff,” I said in sort of a cocky voice. “I’ve got a bike.”
His frown deepened. “Even with a bike, it might take a lot of time. And I’d hate to take your bike from you.”
“No, I mean a
motorcycle
. The only problem is that there’s not a whole lot of room, especially with Mojo sitting on there,” I said.
His eyes widened. “Mojo rides the bike, too?”
“He sure does. Well, to the best of his ability. He gets the general idea—that he needs to stay on. I kind of curl myself around him to help keep him stable.” I was quiet for a minute, thinking. “Do you know who doesn’t need a car right now? That zombie family. And, considering the fact that they were obviously at home when they were … uh … zombified, I have a feeling there’s a vehicle in their garage, although I didn’t look. The key ring I’ve got does have a car key on it. Even if it’s not the right key, I do know how to hot-wire cars.”
Ty lifted his eyebrows.
“It’s a useful skill,” I said modestly.
“Sounds perfect. Then I can lead you and Mojo to the retirement home. If you don’t mind coming along,” said Ty.
“I don’t really have anything else on my agenda,” I said in a light voice. It was good to see the kid sounding a bit more upbeat, more hopeful. “Now, the only obstacle to our whole entire plan is one tiny thing—the zombies.”
“Is that all?” Ty smiled.
“That’s right. Although I’ve made some discoveries about these undead friends of ours. They don’t analyze data very well. As a matter of fact, their decision-making skills are quite lacking. And they’re decidedly on the slow side, in terms of movement. What’s more, they appear to be attracted by sound.” I counted my scientific findings on my fingers. “The zombie family was hanging out around the house when I left it, but with a diversion, I’m sure we can grab the car. Do you think you’re up for a diversion?”
“I’ve already done it once or twice,” said Ty.
Finishing the search didn’t take long. There was no sign of Ty’s kid sister anywhere. We walked back to the zombie house. Although I wasn’t fat before, I was already starting to be a lot fitter than I’d been. Ty was mostly quiet, still having a lot on his mind. I’m usually quiet myself, but to help keep his spirits up, I continued bantering in a low voice until we got close to the house. Then I zipped my lips. If the zombies heard us coming, that wouldn’t help anything. From the edge of the woods, we crouched in the bushes to look at the house.
“I don’t see them now,” I murmured. “They might be on the other side of the house.”
“Shouldn’t they have had
two
cars?” asked Ty. “If both parents were there, I mean. At my house, I had to choose the van because I couldn’t get to my dad’s car in the driveway.” His expression turned bleak again.
“That would make sense, but there isn’t a car outside and that garage is strictly a one-car garage. Maybe their car was at the shop or something. Besides, I’m happy with the bike, so we don’t need two cars.” I pulled the keys to the house out of my pocket. “Okay, I’m heading in. Just stay hidden unless you see them. Even if you
do
see them, I can slip out the back if they’re at the front of the house. Diversions are the last resort, right?”
Ty nodded.
I took a deep breath and jogged up to the house.
Chapter Nineteen
Mallory
Ginny looked terrified, but I must have seemed safe enough for her to hazard getting in the car with me. I unlocked the doors and she climbed in. She was wearing denim shorts and a pink tee shirt and for the life of me I couldn’t tell how old she was.
“You’re safe now,” I told her, sounding confident although the truth was that I wasn’t sure. “You’re welcome to stay with me as long as you want. I’m on my way to a safe place—a house near the North Carolina/Virginia border.”
Her eyebrows drew together as she tried absorbing this.
I continued. “I have friends there and we can join them. They grow their own food and they’re in a very, very quiet area so there shouldn’t be too many people there. Or no people there.” I was starting to drive away again.
Her expression was alarmed. “But I can’t leave here. Not for good. I’ve lost my brother and I’ve got to find him.”
I’d been wondering what a small girl like Ginny had been doing out on her own. It sounded like she hadn’t really been on her own at all. “Your brother? Is he in the area?” I parked the car in a hurry on the side of the road because it looked like Ginny was going to jump out of the car if I didn’t stop moving.
“He’s Ty. He’s fifteen. He rescued me from my middle school and had loaded a van full of our stuff.” Her voice started getting choked up, so I gave her a minute.
“What kinds of things did he have in the van?” I asked, trying to let her regain her composure on the easy questions.
“Stuff to make water safe. Food. Weapons. We were in good shape. But he had to go use the restroom, so he went into the woods and told me to just stay put. Then these zombies came up and they were chasing Ty farther into the woods. He was yelling back at me to stay put.”
I nodded, looking down at my hands, which were folded in my lap. I didn’t want her to see the truth in my eyes. The truth that her brother probably hadn’t made it. That we really, really needed to get out of this area, especially if there were zombies close by. But I was going to let her tell her story first, before I started persuading her to leave with me.
“So you were alone in the van?” I asked. “Stuck, right? Did you … did you leave the van to run away? Is it around here somewhere?”
Ginny shook her head. “I wasn’t really stuck because Ty showed me how to drive. Not great driving, but enough to be able to get away if I needed to.” She stared out the car window at the woods as if Ty were going to show up at any second.
I said gently, “He sounds like an awesome big brother. What happened to the van, then? Did you drive off with it? Did it maybe … well, did it get wrecked?” Because if I’d been trying to drive a car at her age, I’d have wrecked, for sure.
“No. I waited, instead. The zombies were after Ty, they weren’t after me. So I was sitting in the passenger seat with the doors locked and staring at the woods. Really scared. Then on the other side of the car, there was a knock on the window. Men were standing there and they had guns.” She swallowed hard.
Now I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to hear the rest of this story. This little girl was precious. I fervently hoped no harm had come to her. “Did they see you?”
“They did.” She took a deep breath. “They told me to unlock the doors and open them and I did. Then they argued over me. One of the men kept grinning at me and he wanted to bring me with them.” She shivered.
“But the others didn’t?”
“The one who did want me was the man who got behind the wheel and started driving off down the road. So I’m not real close to where Ty and I were. One of the men didn’t really care either way whether I was with them, but the third man was like the leader of the group or something. He didn’t want me to come along because it was going to make more work or trouble for them. I was so glad when they just told me to get out of the van. Then they left. With all our stuff. The van, the food, the water, everything.” A lone tear trickled down Ginny’s face and she didn’t bother to brush it away.
“So they’re gone. Like, long gone, right?” I asked. I didn’t like our chances against a group of armed men. Again, I felt that urge to start driving away with Ginny as fast as I could to the border with Virginia.
Ginny shrugged. “I guess so. They stopped and let me out and then took off. They were leaving pretty fast. There was a …Mom had left a CD in the van. It was ABBA. They had the windows down and they were playing the music as loud as they could and whooping and hollering.” Her face was more stoic now, even though I saw another tear join the first one.
“Your Mom and Dad. They … you were separated from them?”
“My brother said they didn’t make it.” She looked gravely at me.
“And your brother … Ty … he didn’t come back?”
“He’s still in the woods,” said Ginny in a matter-of-fact voice.
I really wasn’t wild about hunting in the woods for Ginny’s brother. In all likelihood, he had suffered the same fate as Ginny’s parents. That meant, if we
did
find him, we’d be running away from him at top speed. And how devastating would
that
be for the poor girl? But I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to persuade her to leave. And there was no way I was going to leave this child here. I felt an instant pull toward her, an instant connection.
“How about this?” I asked, slowly. “How about if we call for Ty for a few minutes and satisfy ourselves that he’s not close by? Then … well, where were y’all heading? Was there somewhere Ty was trying to get to? Because maybe he found a ride, too.”
I could tell Ginny felt really torn. “I just don’t want to leave him here. He came and got me from school and everything. But I guess we could go to Nana’s. That’s where we were heading. Maybe that would be the best place to meet up.”
I listened carefully to her as she was working through it. Then I nodded thoughtfully. “I think you’re right. The woods go on for miles and miles and you said Ty was being chased pretty far in. Then you were driven away from where you started out. So we could search and search and miss him. He sounds like a very smart kid. And a resourceful one. He would think to try to meet up with you at your Nana’s house.” If he was in full possession of his mind, that is.
“It’s not really a house: it’s a retirement home,” she said. She was quiet for a few minutes and I didn’t speak either.
Finally she said, “I want to look for him for a few minutes at least. I can’t just drive away. Can we just walk through the woods for a little while?”
“Of course we can,” I said, stifling a sigh. “But we can’t be too loud. I think these zombies are attracted to noise. So let’s
look
. And maybe we can call him really quietly. And if we see a zombie, run as fast as we can.”
I pulled the car off the road. Actually, I was able to pull it into the woods pretty far, despite the tree cover. If there were bands of men roaming around and stealing cars and supplies, I didn’t want to be the next victim.
We set off into the woods. Ginny’s face was hopeful and apprehensive. I wasn’t looking forward to the moment when her hopeful attitude was completely dashed. She walked slightly ahead of me, head turning from side to side as she searched for her brother. I took up the rear and was looking for any lurching figures that
weren’t
her brother. Occasionally, we’d stop and she’d call out softly.