“Holy shit!” Aaron said from the back. “Actually never been in a moving car before.”
“You’re no use to me if you get bit. Be more careful.”
“You know, you sure have a strange way of thanking somebody.”
“No jokes! No sarcasm! Just focus!”
“Fine. There’s the gas station, up on the left.”
She saw it. There were plenty of walkers nearby, but they were spread out.
“What the hell?” Aaron said as they got closer. He removed his quiver and backpack.
“What’s wrong?” She saw it a second after he did. There was a large dumpster in front of the only door to the gas station.
“You’re gonna have to get out and help me.”
“Shit.”
Sam put the engine in neutral and they both jumped out. Aaron shoved a corpse to the ground as they ran to the dumpster. The recklessness bothered Sam. It was like he wasn’t even worried about getting bit at all.
They shoved the dumpster out of the way as fast as they could. Aaron could hear the undead around them approaching. The closest few were maybe twenty feet away.
The gas station was a ruined mess. The maps that used to be up front near the counter were nowhere to be found. The floor was littered with old magazines, food wrappers, money, some busted ceiling lights.
“I don’t see a map,” Sam said. “And they’re getting closer.”
“On the floor,” Aaron said. He dropped to his knees and started rifling through the trash. “There has to be one here.”
Sam did the same. It took Sam a minute to finally find a map book of Baltimore and the surrounding area, but it felt like an hour. A corpse was at the door. Aaron shoved it to ground, like he did the other.
“Is this it?” Sam said.
He scanned the cover. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
They went outside. Aaron stopped Sam by putting an arm in front of her.
The undead had gathered.
There were five corpses between them and the car. Another five were approaching from one side. Two more, who used to be children, came from the other.
Sam was terrified. One of her many nightmares was finally coming true, being surrounded by undead with no way out.
Aaron just laughed. “It’s crazy how one turns into twenty, isn’t it?”
“Aaron-”
“You get to the car when I move, okay?”
“What are you-”
He charged at the five walkers in front of them before she could finish. They all went to the ground in a heap, including Aaron. Sam gasped, then her legs unfroze. She ran to the car and jumped behind the wheel. A corpse was trying to crawl in through the back window.
Sam didn’t hesitate. She put the car in drive and sped away. The corpse lost its grip on the back and tumbled to the ground. She ran over two more as she left the station and hit the street.
Aaron didn’t know why he was surprised as he pulled himself to one knee. Sam was a woman of her word. He watched as the Civic disappeared down the street, the sound of its engine fading in the distance.
Without food nearby, the undead once again had no purpose. The group that had gathered started to break apart, shuffling away randomly.
Aaron was upset. A lot of things hit him at once. His backpack was still in the car, which meant his only pictures of his family were gone.
Even worse, Sam was gone.
He had grown a little attached, even if he didn’t want to admit it. He knew they weren’t even close enough to be called friends, but it was nice to have someone to talk to. He’d been alone so long, he didn’t realize he missed talking.
The five walkers he tackled had gotten back up. Even any undead that Aaron assaulted wouldn’t hurt him. He looked at the closest one. Sadly, the walkers were the closest thing he had to friends, until Sam dropped in his lap.
“Can’t say Sam isn’t honest.”
He had taken three steps away from the gas station when he heard the roar of an engine, followed by the screeching of tires. The roar grew louder until Sam sped back into the gas station lot. She cut the wheel and hit the brakes. The back end swung to the side, knocking a group of walkers to the ground.
“Get in!”
Aaron threw open the passenger’s door and jumped in before the undead could gather. She sped away. She had no idea where she was going, but they had to get moving.
“I thought they’d be all over you,” she said. “Are you hurt? Are you bit?”
“No, I’m fine.” He smiled. “So much for not being a hero. Thank you.”
Her anger spilled over. “What the hell is your problem? You got some kind of suicide thing going on? Don’t do anything stupid like that again!”
“Sam, I-”
“Just shut up! I don’t want to talk to you right now.” She tossed the map in his lap. “Just tell me where the hell I’m driving.”
He opened the map. “Well, that means I have to talk.”
“Aaron, I swear, if you crack another one of your dumb jokes right now-”
“Turn right at Russell Street.”
“I told you before, I can’t read.”
“The second intersection coming up, turn right. You do know your left and right?”
Sam ran over three walkers as she plowed through the intersection. “Another stupid comment, and I’ll push you out myself.”
Aaron tried to be quiet. He really did, but he didn’t view the world like everyone else. To them, the world was a very serious and dangerous place. To Aaron, there was no danger, at least not from the undead. He still held onto his carefree side, the part of him that grew up with his wonderful family. Despite the rough life, his family had fun and loved each other, and Aaron had absorbed all of that. It was never too late to smile, even in the world of the dead.
He couldn’t help himself. “You’re really pretty when you’re mad.”
Despite the situation, or perhaps because of it, Sam almost laughed. She was still angry at everything. She was angry at the world for refusing to let people die a single time. She was angry at Aaron for carelessly tossing his body into a pile of walkers. Most of all, she was angry at herself for coming back to save Aaron’s life.
Even as she left Aaron at the gas station, surrounded by walkers, she knew she would turn around and come back. She just needed to shake the corpse off the trunk. She had no intention of honoring her promise to leave him to die if he fell behind, and she hated both Aaron and herself for it. She didn’t know what had changed in her, but she didn’t like it.
I can’t read the map, she thought. I can’t get very far without him. That’s the only reason I saved him.
She knew she was lying to herself.
* * *
It took a few minutes to get to 295. Sam was thankful Aaron kept quiet. She wasn’t sure how much of him she could take. He studied the map, only occasionally looking at the road. She had to slow down at times to avoid dead cars, but managed to do so without corpses getting close. The Civic was much more maneuverable than a truck.
“I don’t get it,” he said. “Lexington is just a suburb. How is it safe?”
“It’s not safe completely. But look at Honeyton Road, where the school is.”
He found it on the map, and thought he saw what she was talking about. It was only a few turns off of 295. It was a long road, with no intersecting streets, with thick woods on both sides and the river not too far behind them.
“Deserted road?” he asked.
“Walkers show up every now and then, but not in force. We’ve always got our eyes open.”
“Watch out for that corpse,” he said, pointing. “We can’t hit every one of them. The car’s not in the best shape.”
“Do you know how to drive? No? Then shut up, and let me do the driving.”
As soon as she said it, something popped in the engine. Steam starting flowing out from under the hood.
“What? Oh no, come on now, just a little longer,” Sam said.
“
What’s wrong?”
“How the hell should I know?”
“You said you know how to drive.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m a mechanic, asshole! This is your car, ya know.”
The car slowed to a halt. Through the smoke Aaron could see walkers on the road ahead, plenty of them. There were a few behind them, and some on the opposite side of 295, trying to climb the concrete barrier.
“I can’t believe this,” Sam said.
Aaron shook his head. He let out a sigh, like this was all just a minor inconvenience.
He climbed out and slowly grabbed his things through the busted glass. He walked back to the trunk.
Sam was dumbfounded. She just followed him, her mouth open the whole time. She stayed close to his side and watched the undead approach.
Aaron looked at the sun overhead. He had a good idea of where north was, but he checked the compass on his wrist anyway, just to be safe. Sam noticed his watch for the first time.
“Aaron, come on. We have to run.”
He ignored her. He placed the map on the roof of the Civic. He tried to figure out where they were by the old exit sign up ahead, which was barely hanging on the metal frame.
“Let’s go, dammit!”
He took note of the wind at their backs. The undead wouldn’t smell Sam.
“Perfect,” he whispered.
She grabbed his wrist and tried to pull him toward the shoulder. The woods were just a few feet away. He didn’t budge, and instead pulled her close.
“You’re gonna have to trust me.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t, Aaron. You’re crazy! We have to run. I’ve survived longer on the streets than you, and you don’t do that by sitting still.”
The closest walker was fifteen feet away. Aaron didn’t show the slightest bit of concern. It drove Sam mad.
“You don’t run without knowing where you’re running to. You want to run the wrong way?” He pointed to the other side of 295, across the concrete barrier. “Go that way, into the woods. Keep the sun just to your left. You’ll run into a river.”
“What are you doing?”
He rolled his eyes. “Will you just go? I’ll be fine, just a minute behind you.”
Sam ran. She jumped over the concrete barrier into the woods. Aaron was nervous for a moment. If she turned to look at him, she’d see that the walkers paid him no mind at all. All eyes were on her. Luckily for him, she didn’t look.
He gathered his bow and quiver.
Aaron didn’t understand his relationship with the undead. He wasn’t sure if they thought of him as one of their own or not. It wasn’t like they couldn’t see him, he knew they could. He had his own theories, but he knew he would never know for sure.
He did know that walkers grouped together for a while would follow a leader, and he wasn’t sure if they thought of him as a leader or not. So he stayed around 295 for a minute, just watching them. One of them used to be a cop, and he immediately thought of Uncle Frank. Another had been in the navy, its once white uniform now torn, filthy, and bloody. The interstate was a melting pot of undead, from all races and walks of life. Aaron felt sad when he thought about the last days of the world. These people were probably all trying to escape, and start over with life. Now, they were trapped on the interstate forever.
When a corpse tried to climb the barrier, Aaron pulled it back. A few that were already on the other side shuffled toward the woods. Aaron shot them each in the brain with an arrow.
When he was satisfied the undead wouldn’t catch up, he jogged into the woods. Their moans faded and nature began to take over. He thought back to his life with his family. Crickets chirped, birds sang, squirrels ran through the trees.
In the middle of those sounds, he heard a few cries of pain.
He saw Sam leaning on a tree with her head down, holding her right foot just slightly in the air. He could hear the river in front of them.
“Sam? You okay?”
She turned to face him. Her face was twisted with pain, but she refused to cry. “I think I sprained my foot.”
He bent down and took her shoe and sock off as gingerly as he could. Her ankle was already twice its normal size.
“Can you move it?”
She winced in pain, but moved it from side to side.
“Okay, probably not broken. Let’s go.”
“No.”
“We have to keep moving. We can walk the rest of the way to Lexington, but we can’t let them catch up. You can lean on me.”
“Just go without me.”
He ignored her. He slipped her arm around his neck and wrapped his arm around her waist. She pushed him back by the chest to look in his eyes. They were still uncomfortably close.
“I wouldn’t do this for you,” she said. “I would let you die.”
He smiled. “You’re a liar. Let’s get moving.”
They spotted the river, which was a beautiful sight, then turned and hobbled along next to it. Sam’s ankle throbbed in pain. She felt useless as Aaron helped her walk, and hated the feeling. She had to stop for a minute every so often. They walked for hours, until the sun started going down. Aaron stopped for a rest himself. His lungs were on fire and every muscle ached.
“Do you have any idea where we’re going?” Sam asked. She sat near the edge of the wide-flowing river and stuck her foot in the water.
Aaron said nothing. He sat on the ground and leaned back against a tree. He breathed deeply, then took a drink of water from a bottle they’d been sharing. He tossed it over to Sam.
He pulled the map out and sat next to her. “This river doesn’t run parallel to 295. It runs away from it slightly. There’s a bridge on the road your home is on?”
“Yeah, right before you really hit the walkers.”
“Well, this runs to the bridge. So we’re gonna pass your place by a bit. We can try to guess where it is through the woods, or just hit the bridge and use the road.”
“How far away?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s getting dark. I want to camp here tonight. We’ll definitely be there tomorrow.”
She leaned away from him. “That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s not safe to try this in the dark. I don’t want to go spraining any more ankles, and we’re both tired and hungry.”
“It’s not safe to sleep by a river with who-knows-how many corpses out there.”
He ignored her, not in the mood to fight. He climbed to his feet. “I’ll go fish up dinner. Do you think you can get a fire going? Just the wood around us will do.”
“You’re gonna get us both killed,” she said. “I don’t know why I thought you coming along would be a good idea.”
Sam instantly regretted what she said. She knew she was angry, tired, and her ankle still hurt. She was taking everything out on Aaron.
Aaron was frustrated. He was doing everything he possibly could to keep her alive, and she still had nothing good to say. He looked down at her, almost with a look of disappointment.
“You know, you keep saying how you don’t want any friends. I think you got that backwards. They don’t want you. I honestly doubt you have a hard time pushing people away. I bet no one wants to get close to you.”
He tossed her the lighter from his pack. Then he removed his shoes and walked into the cold river, which came up to his waist. He waited patiently for a fish to grab.
Sam opened her mouth. Seeing that look he gave her was worse than any sprained ankle.
Aaron, I’m sorry.
She couldn’t say it out loud.
* * *
Hours passed. Sam hobbled around and gathered enough wood to start a fire. It took Aaron’s lighter ten tries to start a flame, but it beat having to start the fire by hand. Sam hadn’t done that in years.
Aaron hadn’t said a word all night. He caught a good-sized catfish with his bare hands, and went about the task of gutting and cleaning it. He thought back to the many nights he and his
father would catch fish. Aaron wished his father was with him, instead of a woman who didn’t appreciate his company.
He didn’t have anything at all to help cook the fish. If he were home, he’d just grill it on his roof. Here in the woods, a small tree branch sharpened to a point would have to do. He impaled the catfish onto the stick and hung it over the fire.
The night was overcast. There was no moon to keep them company. The only light was from the fire. It threw wild, dancing shadows on the trees. He wasn’t sure if it was dragging Sam through the woods for hours, or the hypnotic fire, but he was very tired.
He dug out some fish meat and handed it to Sam. She took it without a word.
She finally worked up the courage to speak after taking a drink from Aaron’s last bottle of water.
“What’s the plan?” she asked.
Aaron stuffed fish meat into his mouth. “The plan is to get you to Lexington at first light. Then I go back home.”
“You should rest first at the school.”
“Yeah.”
Her voice hardened. “Aaron, I’m only saying this once, so you’d better listen.”
He rolled his eyes and looked at her. What now?
Her features softened, and she looked confused. “I, uh, well-”
“Spit it out, Sam.”
She was embarrassed and afraid. She took a breath and tried to calm down. She spoke clearly and carefully. “If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead, a couple times now. Thank you. Thank you for saving my life.”
He was quiet, not quite sure if his ears were playing tricks on him. “You’re welcome. You came back to get me at the gas station. So we’re even.”
“No, we’re not. You’ve given me food and water, and let me stay at your home, when you didn’t have to. And I haven’t been nice to you. I’m sorry.”
Sam hoped he appreciated how hard this was for her. She was opening up, and that was something she never did. He would ruin it with one of his stupid jokes.
He smiled. “It’s been my pleasure.”
He has such a cute smile.
Aaron finished his meal and pulled his framed pictures out of his backpack. He propped them up so his family could be nearby when he slept. He put the backpack on the ground to use as a pillow.
Dead Living Page 10