“The screams came from up ahead,” Ryan said. He gestured, and Velvet was about to start walking toward that direction when Ambrose turned to Eshe.
“Are you going to let Winchester and Grey know where we’re going?”
“No. They’re out.”
So, there were two other people: five total, if Velvet had to guess. That was a good number. It was a safe number. This group probably had a pretty good routine down of how they accomplished different things. Eshe was obviously the leader, and everyone deferred to her.
Winchester and Grey, if Velvet were to make assumptions, were probably the hunters of the group. Maybe it was their job to collect supplies or perhaps they just did things like keeping watch over the city: like Batman.
But with zombies.
“So, do you do this a lot?” Velvet asked as they started walking again.
“What?” Eshe wanted to know.
“Save kids.”
“Never,” she said.
“Why not?”
“There are never kids around,” Ryan said.
“Where do you think it came from?” Ambrose wondered out loud.
“It?”
“The kid.”
“Maybe it’s lost,” Velvet shrugged. It wasn’t unheard of. Perhaps the child’s parents were just traveling through town or maybe they were killed by zombies and the kid was wandering around alone. Either way, it didn’t deserve to die.
The scream came again. They were getting close. Velvet tried not to think about how wild this city was. She hadn’t planned on exploring tonight. It was still dark, and there were undead creatures lurking around in the darkness.
One jumped out from behind a car, and Velvet jumped back. Before she could raise her bat to hit it, Eshe leapt forward and swung her own bat, knocking the zombie down. Eshe turned and looked at Velvet.
“Uh, thanks,” Velvet said.
“No problem.”
“It is, actually.”
“What?”
“A problem. I should have had that.”
She’d been slow, and she hadn’t reacted as quickly as she should have. Moving slowly like that in the future would be problematic for her. If she moved too slowly, she wasn’t going to be able to keep living.
Why had she reacted so slowly?
It was so unlike Velvet. Normally, she was overly cautious. Normally, she was fearful to a fault. She always jumped and leapt. She was always on her guard.
The problem was that she wasn’t scared of Eshe’s group. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly how or why, but she had a feeling that this group wasn’t going to hurt her. They weren’t going to bring her any harm.
“It’s fine,” Eshe said, looking at Velvet. Even in the darkness, Velvet could tell that Eshe looked concerned.
“I think the kid is in the next building,” Ryan said, looking over. Together, they stared at it. The monstrosity of an apartment building loomed high in the sky, and Velvet wondered what horrors lurked inside.
Once more, a scream, but she didn’t have time to worry about that because she smelled something terrible.
“Zombies,” Ambrose said. She smelled it, too. “They’re here.”
Chapter Nine
Eshe looked up at the building.
How the hell had a kid gotten inside there? She wondered, just for a moment, if it was some sort of trap, but it couldn’t be. The chances of someone making it into the city where they lived without them noticing was low.
Then again, Velvet had done it.
Somehow, she’d managed to sneak into a building close to their haven, and Eshe hadn’t been the wiser. She’d been a fool, and she felt a mixture of both relief and exhaustion as she realized that things could have ended so much more terribly.
What if Velvet wasn’t who she said she was?
What if Velvet had wanted to hurt them?
The road they were on stretched forward for two more blocks before the apartments ended and the campus began. If zombies were going to approach, they’d have to come from either far down the road or from between some of the buildings. Despite the fact that there were roads between these apartment buildings, the structures themselves were all pretty high. This meant there was good visibility on the roads, but not much past that.
If there were zombies lurking around corners, collecting into little hordes, they could storm around any of the buildings and catch the group by surprise. Eshe didn’t think that would happen tonight, but it could, and she was nervous.
The scream came again. This time, it sounded more like a muffled cry. Eshe looked up. She didn’t see anyone inside, but she knew someone was in there: trapped. From the ground floor, Eshe couldn’t see what the hold up was. The first floor of the building actually seemed fairly secure, but obviously, the child had still gotten hurt somehow or found herself trapped within the apartment.
The little group of survivors looked at each other.
“There’s definitely someone there,” Velvet whispered.
“Just one person,” Ryan murmured.
Eshe had noticed that, too. It didn’t seem like the child had anyone with them to keep them safe or to protect them. There was no adult, no guardian.
Why the hell not?
Warning bells were going off in Eshe’s head, but she thought it was a little kid, so she was ignoring them. She remembered what it was like to try to survive without a parent. Although she’d been a legal adult when her mother died, she’d struggled with the loss of everything – her world, her dreams, and her parent.
“We can’t risk going inside right now,” Ambrose pointed out.
“I’ve been in this building a few times,” Eshe said. “I went in with Winchester and Grey when we first moved here.”
“It’s clear?”
“It was,” Eshe said. “We didn’t notice anything strange, but we only checked out the first floor.”
“Why didn’t you choose this building for our base?” Ryan asked.
“I wanted to be closer to the park,” she admitted. Although their apartment was one row of buildings back from the park, she liked knowing they were so close. Sometimes, Eshe would go walk through the deserted area and just pretend it was a normal, wonderful day. When she closed her eyes, sometimes she completely forgot she was living in a nightmare.
“What do we do now?” Ambrose asked.
Eshe knew what she meant. A zombie rounded a bend, heading toward them, and they were going to have to make a choice. There was another one right behind it. Soon, there would be more.
What were they going to do now?
Would they fight it in the dark?
Or would they come back?
“Help!”
A little voice yelled out and it just about broke Eshe’s heart, but she knew that walking into the building, even to save a kid, was going to be futile. At least at night, it would be. Maybe they could wait until morning.
With the sun, they’d be able to assess how to get into the building. Right now, it looked like there was a fire escape, but Eshe couldn’t judge how sturdy it was. She didn’t want to risk making it halfway up, only to fall because it was damaged and she hadn’t been able to tell in the darkness.
“Where are you?” Eshe called out, trying to locate the child’s exact position. If she was on the second or third floor, they might be able to risk it. Otherwise, they could come back.
“Inside!”
“Which floor?”
A little face appeared at one of the windows on the top floor, and Eshe was able to make out that it was a little girl. A trapped, scared little girl, who was waving. The window was slightly open, and the girl tried to shove it up and open even more, but it appeared to be jammed.
“I’m stuck!”
“How’d you get up there?” Eshe yelled.
Ambrose and Ryan were fighting the zombie that had approached, but there were three more coming now. Velvet raised her own bat to start fighting, but Eshe needed to get as much information from this kid as poss
ible.
How had she gotten into the city?
What made her go into that building?
Why was she screaming?
“I live up here,” the little girl said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“Didn’t mean for what to happen?” Eshe called out.
“Can you help me?”
Could they?
Maybe.
“We’ll need to break in the front doors or risk the fire escape,” Ryan pointed out. The first-floor doors were boarded over, but that could be taken care of with a crowbar to pry the boards off. It would be slightly time-consuming. That was time they didn’t have tonight.
“I think the fire escape is probably strong enough to hold our weight,” Velvet said. “We’ve got a bigger problem, though.” Velvet jerked her head toward the zombies that were approaching. Ambrose had already started fighting them.
“I didn’t know there were so many zombies in this part of town!”
Once more, the little girl was talking, but she wasn’t making a lot of sense. She was probably starving, Eshe knew, and that could be making her a little disoriented.
What did she mean that she didn’t think there were zombies in this part of town?
Where did she think they came from?
They’d always gotten the occasional straggler who had made their way into the city. Every so often, an infected person would wander down the streets of Fossilwood Grove and someone would go out to kill them. Nobody ever minded because they fought safe, but also because it was a good chance to get out some anger.
Nothing pissed you off quite like knowing you were living in a world where you’d never reach your dreams.
Eshe couldn’t really remember what it felt like to have dreams. Probably, they were things like falling in love or starting a family. Maybe she’d wanted a career. She tried not to think about the past too much. She tried not to dwell.
Dwelling only distracted you.
It only got you killed.
So now, they had a choice to make.
They had to decide whether they would risk it all to save this kid. It was a child they didn’t know. None of their lives would be different if this child died.
Only, Eshe couldn’t leave the kid.
She didn’t want to.
“Eshe!” Ambrose called her name, jolting her back to the present. There were more infected coming. Eshe looked back to where they’d come from, and she saw that there were zombies there, too. They were going to quickly be surrounded and overwhelmed if they didn’t leave like, now.
Sorry, kid.
Eshe looked up at the window. She saw the little girl’s face, and she saw how scared she looked.
Eshe also knew that they couldn’t save her tonight.
Not tonight.
She was going to be okay until morning. If Eshe thought there was even the slightest chance that the kid wouldn’t be fine, she wouldn’t go, but the kid was obviously resilient. Coming back in the morning would be safer for all of them. It would only be a few hours, and then they’d come back.
“We’ll be back at dawn,” Eshe called out to the kid. The girl’s face fell, but she nodded. She understood. She’d grown up in a world of the undead. She knew perfectly well how these things worked. You couldn’t always get the things that you wanted. You couldn’t always do the things you wanted to do right when you wanted them.
Right now, they had to get back to the apartment building.
Then they could figure out what to do next.
Then they could make a plan.
Chapter 10
Velvet felt a little sick when they got back to the apartment building where Eshe lived with her buddies. They invited Velvet inside, and even though it felt weird and awkward, she accepted the invitation. She had her backpack with all of her belongings, and she had her bat. The only thing Velvet didn’t have was Dennis.
There was still no sign of the mangy cat.
“You aren’t going to murder me, right?” Velvet laughed nervously at the door, glancing at her new companions.
“No offense, but fuck off or get inside,” one of Eshe’s friends, Ryan, snapped at her. Velvet didn’t want to cause any waves, so she just nodded and headed inside. She glanced over her shoulder one last time as she entered the apartment building.
Where was Dennis?
She’d felt bad leaving him, but the idea of letting a little kid suffer had gotten the best of her. She couldn’t stomach the idea that someone might hurt the child.
Especially if that “someone” was a zombie.
How had a kid even gotten into that building, anyway?
How had a kid come to this place?
Velvet tried to push her thoughts aside as she looked back toward the apartment building. The first floor of the building still looked sloppy, messy, and undisturbed. Velvet guessed that was on purpose. If someone managed to enter the first floor, they’d probably think the rest of the building was empty and unoccupied. That was good since it meant they’d most likely just keep on going.
If someone was going to walk into a building in the middle of the city and find it perfectly neat, tidy, and filled with supplies, they’d probably be pretty tempted to stay there.
That was not something anyone wanted to deal with.
The idea of someone trying to come move in and squat in the building seemed terrible. Even though Velvet didn’t live here and didn’t really know anything about this group of survivors, she could tell that they were strong. They had to be. They’d survived this long, and they’d done it together.
Velvet wasn’t sure how people managed to survive in groups. She’d tried a few times, but for various reasons, things had just never turned out well for her.
“Straight back,” Eshe said.
“I’ll lead,” Ambrose offered, and she took Velvet’s hand.
Ambrose and Eshe each had flashlights, so even though the inside of the building was a bit dark, their chosen path was still visible.
“Thanks,” Velvet murmured.
“No problem.”
“It’s a bit of a problem,” Ryan grumbled. “What’s that kid doing here, anyway?”
Velvet didn’t turn around, but she heard Ryan locking up the first floor. They had minimal security because they didn’t want the building to look too lived in, but they still had a bar and a lock that they used. If someone or something really wanted to break in, they’d be disappointed to find all of the dust and broken furniture that filled the first floor.
“I didn’t bring her,” Velvet said.
“She might have followed you,” Ambrose offered.
Velvet bristled.
Who did they think she was? Did they really think she was the type of person who was so careless she’d bring a kid to a zombie fight?
No.
She wasn’t.
That wasn’t her, and it never had been.
“Nobody followed me,” she snapped.
“We don’t know that.” Ryan was insistent. He stared at Velvet, looking at her like she was the worst person he’d ever met. The realization that she truly was an outsider here made her stomach turn, but she couldn’t let him get the best of her.
“I’m telling you,” Velvet spun around. “It wasn’t me. Nobody followed me. I’m not that stupid.”
She wasn’t.
She wasn’t that stupid because she knew what happened when people got stupid. She knew what happened when people let their guards down. Velvet knew, perhaps better than most people, exactly what happened if you stopped paying attention.
That was how people died.
“Woah,” Eshe stepped forward and placed her soft hand on Velvet’s arm. “It’s okay. Let’s cool it, all right? It’s nobody’s fault.”
“But-“ Ryan started to speak, but stopped when Eshe shot a glare in his direction.
“That’s it,” she said. “Let’s get inside. We have a lot to talk about.”
They kept walking, carefully climbi
ng around the bits of broken furniture. It really was practically a maze of destroyed items. Velvet wanted to know if this had always been here, or if it had been brought in to make the place look “more” abandoned. She knew better than to ask right now, though.
Eshe seemed pissed.
Like the building where Velvet had started to nest in, this one had a staircase at the back of the lobby. They headed there and Ambrose pushed the door open. It didn’t squeak when it opened. Someone had been keeping it well-maintained.
“Do you keep this one secured?” Velvet asked.
“We’ve got something to block it off once we’re inside,” Eshe told her. “We don’t bar it off when we’re going out, though. We want to be able to make it back in quickly if we need to.”
“Smart,” Velvet nodded. She wasn’t a fan of locking doors when you weren’t inside, either. It was hard sometimes to remember what life had been like before. You’d kept your doors locked to keep other humans out. Now, there were so few humans that if you were going to lock your doors, it was just to keep zombies out. Most of the time, though, locking your door just slowed you down if you needed to hurry back inside.
The four of them went through the door, and then Eshe and Ambrose pushed a heavy dresser in front of the door. It looked like it was actually pretty difficult to move. Velvet offered to help, but the girls turned her down. Ryan just crossed his arms and glared the entire time. He really didn’t like Velvet, but she wasn’t quite sure why.
There was only one way to find out, though, and Velvet had never been shy.
“What’s your problem?” Velvet narrowed her eyes.
“What?”
“You, Ryan. What’s your problem with me? You obviously don’t like me. Is it because I’m Black?”
“What? No!” Ryan quickly shook his head, as though he couldn’t believe she’d been so blunt to ask. “Eshe is Black and I’m friends with her!”
“What the fuck?” Eshe turned to him. “Ryan, stop speaking now before you dig yourself into a hole you can’t climb out of.”
Beautifully Undead | Book 1 | The Chasing of Zombies Page 5