Authors: Megan Berry
I glance up and catch Ryan watching me in the rear-view mirror and give him a small smile.
“You two have a choice to make,” Silas says, breaking the silence as he turns from the front seat and looks into the back—avoiding eye contact with me—and focussing on Natalie and Hank. “We are heading to meet some friends of ours, so you two need to decide if you are going to go your separate way, or come with us.”
Hank and Natalie look at each other with indecision stamped on their faces.
“We are getting close, so you’ll need to make your mind up soon. If you aren’t gonna be part of our group, we can’t risk taking you to the place we’ll be holed up,” Silas explains, and his reasoning is solid. I hadn’t thought of it before, but if Hank and Natalie left us, they could come across another group and give away our location—and who knows what kind of maniacs might decide to pay us a visit.
“You don’t know what it’s like out here, but I think we should stay with these people,” Natalie says softly, her eyes on Hank. “They seem like good people, and there aren’t that many of those left anymore.” Hank’s eyes narrow as he looks at his wife’s face, probably wondering if something happened to her out on the road. I wondered the same thing myself when we first came across her this morning.
“What about your mother?” Hank starts to ask, but Natalie is already shaking her head.
“She didn’t make it,” Natalie says hollowly, and Hank puts his arm around her.
“I’m so sorry, Nat. What about my sister?” Hank asks with obvious trepidation, and Natalie shakes her head.
“She was one of the first to fall sick—it was actually strange—but she wasn’t bit when she turned,” Natalie tells him gently, and Hank looks shell shocked at the news. I feel bad for him. This must be a lot to take in all at once, and I also wonder if his sister had the uncommon blood that changed first, according to that doctor in New York.
“We’ll do whatever you think is best then,” Hank says at last, leaving the decision up to his wife. Natalie reaches over and takes his hand.
“We’ll come with you,” she tells Silas. “With the baby coming soon, I don’t want to be out on the road somewhere…” she looks nervous when she talks about the birth of her baby, and I don’t blame her. I can’t imagine. There are no hospitals, no doctors, not to mention bringing a helpless newborn into this nightmare. I feel bad for her.
“Sounds good,” is all Silas says as he turns back around. I sit and stare uncomfortably out the window as Hank cries and Natalie tries to soothe him.
We reach the trailer, and I’m out of truck before Ryan even has it in park. “What about you, Blondie?” Silas asks, still not looking directly at me as he double checks the straps holding down our stuff in the back of the truck.
“What?” I ask, not sure what he’s talking about and also feeling a little disgruntled that he kissed me when he thought he was going to die, and now he won’t even look at me!
“We aren’t that far from the cabin, but we’re all dirty and gross. Do you want to stay here for the night, or should I hook up the trailer?” I bite my lip, wanting to pick the cabin, of course, but not sure it’s right for me to make the decision for the rest of the group.
“Whatever you pick is fine by me,” Ryan says, and I give him a huge smile.
“I don’t care either,” Silas says, obviously figuring out that I’m hesitating because of him and the others.
I look to Natalie and Hank, and Natalie shakes her head. “We’re just grateful for the ride, we’ll go wherever you want,” she says.
“Thank you guys,” I tell them, starting to feel all kinds of emotions crash over me. This is it, the end of my journey, which has felt like it’s been months. I should be ecstatic, but I’m terrified. I didn’t realize it, but trying to get to the cabin has given me a purpose. I’ve tried really hard not to think about what would happen if I actually got to the cabin and Abby wasn’t there.
“It shouldn’t be more than an hour,” I murmur, knowing that it’s close to Watseka because that is where we always stopped for ice cream just before reaching Lake Manaruke each summer vacation. “I want to go,” I say, firming my resolve. I was tempted to put it off another day, but then realized that nothing would change tomorrow, and I will still be feeling the same way without any excuse to delay it.
Sunny surprises me by climbing into the truck next to me and snuggling against my side. “Why are you so sad?” she asks, reaching up and brushing away my tears. “Don’t you want to see your friend?” Her nose scrunches up in adorable confusion.
“I’m not really sad,” I tell her, having no idea how to explain this all to a six year old. “I’m just nervous, and excited,” I tell her, plastering a big smile on my face so she will stop asking questions.
“Why don’t I read you a book?” Ryan suggests to distract her, and I give him a grateful look as Sunny scrambles across the seats and plants herself in the small middle seat between the driver and passenger seats. Ryan digs a book about ponies out of his bag and starts to read.
Silas hops into the driver’s seat, having just hooked up the trailer, and rolls his eyes at Ryan, but he doesn’t say anything for Sunny’s sake, and then we are on our way.
The truck eats up the miles, and we start to see less and less zombies the further from civilization we get. I’m hopeful that will be a good sign for us. We reach the small grocery store at the base of the mountain, and Silas pulls into the deserted parking lot and digs out the map to examine it.
“The turn is just up there on your left,” I tell him, starting to vibrate, and I’m not sure if it’s from excitement or fear.
Silas folds the map up and puts it away. “I didn’t realize it was up on the mountain,” Ryan remarks.
“It will be a great defense against the zombies,” Silas agrees, looking out the window at the store. “Do we want to grab any more supplies while we’re down here?” he asks, and everyone in the truck shakes their head in unison.
“I just want to get there,” I tell him, no longer overly worried about what the others want. I need to know.
“We have enough to last us a while,” Ryan agrees. “I think we should see if we can set up a safe home base at the cabin and then come back without the people who don’t need to be down here risking their lives,” he says, and I frown.
“You’re not talking about me are you?” I ask, not wanting to be treated like I belong in a bubble, and Ryan shakes his head.
“Are you kidding?” he says with a small grin. “I wouldn’t dare–I was actually talking about Natalie, and Sunny…and I guess Hank, since he’s so weak right now,” he clarifies, and I relax.
“Half of our group is a handicap right now, you’re right,” Silas agrees bluntly, and I almost open my mouth to protest, but really, I don’t actually care. Natalie knows she shouldn’t be running through zombified grocery stores in her condition, Hank is half starved and weaker than a newborn calf, and Sunny is just a kid and has no idea we are even talking about her. I look at the little girl, obliviously playing with her doll, snuggled into Ryan’s side, and I feel good about not dragging her around anymore than we have to.
Silas puts the truck in gear and gets back on the road, carefully maneuvering the trailer so it can make it around the sharp turn that starts to immediately lead us straight up the mountain.
It isn’t your regular kind of road by any stretch of the imagination. The top of the trailer scratches against some of the lower hanging branches, making us all wince at the sound, but Silas doesn’t stop and I’m grateful. I think if we have to stop even one more time before actually reaching the cabin, now that we are so close, I will probably go crazy and run off into the woods, pulling my own hair out!
We wind around curves that are familiar to me and crest hills that make us feel a bit like we are on a roller coaster. Finally, we round the corner and get our first view of the lake as the terrain plateaus a little. We see a cabin up on the right, nestled away into the forest, but it looks abandoned.
“Is it that one?” Ryan asks, leaning forward to squint at it, looking for any sign of life. I shake my head.
“No,” I tell them, thankful that it isn’t because that house is definitely abandoned. For a few more miles, we wind along the road, which follows the lake around, and then another cabin comes into view. My heart stutters in my chest when I see people standing outside.
“Is that them?” Silas asks, starting to tap his brakes, but again I shake my head.
“That’s someone else’s cabin,” I tell them, my pulse hammering. We aren’t alone; there are other survivors up here.
The people openly stare as we drive by. They all hold a gun or weapon of some sort, but they don’t make any threatening motions towards us with them. It’s almost like they are just as afraid of us as we are of them.
Sunny sits up in her seat and waves to them through the window, and one of the younger women slowly waves back. We pass a few more cabins, most abandoned, but some have cars in the driveway or people standing out front. With each live human I see, I begin to feel like there might actually be hope for humanity.
“It’s the next one,” I say, and my voice comes out in a whisper as we round the bend. I hold my breath as the familiar brown cabin comes into view. It looks exactly the same as it always has, untouched by everything else going on in the world. Three vehicles come into view parked outside the cabin, and I let out a strangled sound in my throat.
“It’s them!” I scream, startling everybody in the truck. I see Silas frowning at me in the rear view mirror.
“Jane. We need to be careful,” he warns me. “We can’t just burst in there, it could be anyone,” he says, his words dragging me down, and I shake my head in denial.
Ryan is frowning too, but he’s also nodding in agreement with Silas. “There are three cars,” he points out, more than there should be for just Megan and Abby.
“They probably brought people with them from the Camp,” I protest, not willing to believe anything other than the fact that my friend is alive and well inside those walls.
“I hope that’s true,” Ryan says.
“You should wait here, Ryan and I will go check it out,” Silas suggests, parking the truck along the road rather than pulling into the driveway and announcing our arrival, and I stubbornly shake my head.
“No. I’m going,” I tell him, not willing to give on this at all, unless they do something drastic, like tie me to the truck.
“Fine,” Silas snaps. “But you do as I say, and don’t take any risks.” I nod automatically—I’d pretty much agree to anything at this point.
“Will you be okay in the truck with Natalie?” Ryan asks Sunny, and the little girl nods.
“Nattie is nice, and she has a baby in her tummy,” the little girl replies, fondly patting Natalie’s stomach and making the pregnant woman smile.
“We’ll take good care of her,” Natalie promises, and Silas hesitates.
“I’m sure you are very nice people, but if you do anything like try to steal our truck or harm one hair on that little girl’s head, I will find you and kill you,” Silas promises, making my jaw drop.
Natalie looks offended that he would even suggest such a thing, and Hank looks ready to pee himself. “I’ll take care of her, like I said,” Natalie snaps, and Silas nods.
“Thanks,” Ryan says hastily as we pile out of the truck.
“We should do some recon first,” Silas says, pointing to a back window, and we pull our guns from our belts as we creep through the brush.
“That’s the living room window,” I tell them as we reach our objective, and I have to stand up on my tippy toes to see inside. The cabin looks like it always has with its large stone hearth, Navajo themed couches, and the bear skin rug… with the exception of the large man standing in the middle of the living room talking to someone who has their back to us, and my heart sinks. From what we are seeing, I can’t be sure who is occupying the house.
“Put your hands up,” a gruff voice behind us demands, and my heart plummets even lower. That is definitely not Abby! Silas and Ryan react much faster than me, spinning with their guns up. They don’t do as they’re told and instead aim their own guns at the man who’s snuck up behind us. I turn more slowly, bringing my pistol up level with the guy’s chest.
“We don’t want any trouble, man,” Silas tells him, and my world spins on its axis.
The man in front of me lets out a strangled cry when his eyes land on me, and he falls to his knees in the dirt and pine needles. My jaw drops, and I barely get my gun out of the way before he reaches for me.
Silas is faster though and slaps his hands away from me, pointing his gun in the guy’s face.
“Silas, don’t…” I manage to say, staring at the man with an unfamiliar black beard covering up half of his face.
Abby comes running around the corner and squeals, “Jane!” she shrieks, tears running down her face. Ryan automatically lowers his own gun, recognizing her and Megan, who’s right on her heels.
“Who the hell is this guy?” Silas demands, deducting on his own that the teenage girl running towards me is the long-lost friend I came to find.
“Dad,” I manage to get out and then collapse sobbing against my father’s shoulder. He squeezes me so tightly that I can’t even breathe, and my injured ribs ache in protest, but I couldn’t care less as I tuck my head into that special spot on my dad’s shoulder that is so familiar to me.