by Max Lockwood
“What? No, Will, I think someone’s outside our room.”
“Are you sure you didn’t dream it? I had some pretty crazy dreams myself.”
“I’m pretty sure. Something woke me up and I just heard it again.”
“What did it sound like?” Will asked sleepily.
“I don’t know, like a crash or a bang,” Natalia answered, fairly certain that Will wasn’t taking her concern seriously.
“Was it coming from Alec and Elaina’s room?”
“No, why?”
“Never mind,” he giggled.
Natalia sat up and smacked Will on the arm. “I’m being serious. There’s something outside of our room and I’m not going to be able to sleep until I know that it’s gone.”
“Okay, okay,” Will said, rubbing his eyes. “Let’s call Alec and Elaina and see if they can help us out.”
He picked up the phone and put his ear to the handset. “I don’t think it’s supposed to be making that noise,” he concluded before poking at a few buttons. “Nope, definitely not. This phone doesn’t work.”
Natalia’s anxiety grew. The other two were probably fast asleep. Even if they were awake, the walls were too thick to be able to talk through.
“What do we do?” Natalia asked, hitting the shared wall with the palm of her hand.
“The door is locked. No one is getting in.”
Natalia scoffed. “You know just as well as I do that a locked door means nothing if someone really wants to get in. I’ve seen infected people do things that no ordinary person could do. If someone really wanted to break down this door, they could, and we wouldn’t be able to stop them.”
“What about that guy at the restaurant?” Will asked. “I stopped him, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but can you stop someone bigger than you? Can you stop more than one person? I’m really freaked out right now.”
“It’s going to be fine. I’ll just pop my head outside and see if there’s anything we should worry about. I’ll make it quick.”
“No,” she yelled, grabbing onto his arm. “Alec told us not to open our door for anything. You can’t go out there.”
“Wouldn’t you rather I check? I think you’ll sleep a lot better when you realize that it’s just a raccoon knocking over a garbage can or the wind blowing something against a fence.”
“What if it’s an infected person?”
“If that’s the case, I’ll just run back and lock myself in here. Keep your eye on the peephole and only open it for me.”
“I’m not letting you go out there alone,” she protested.
“Then you can come, too. I promise, I just want to find the source of the noise to put you at ease. When we’ve accomplished that, we can come back inside and sleep until we have to leave.”
Natalia looked at the door. She didn’t want to disobey Alec’s orders, since he was often right when it came to safety concerns. She also didn’t want to put herself at risk by going out into the dark.
But Will seemed like he had already made up his mind. In fact, he started to put his shoes on before Natalia gave her answer. He was going to check on the mysterious noise, just for her peace of mind. If anything happened to him while he was alone, it would be her fault.
“Fine,” she said, getting up from the bed. “I’ll come with you, but promise me that if we see anything suspicious, we make a run for it?”
“Of course. I just want to ensure that there’s nothing we need to worry about. Should we wake Alec and Elaina up?”
“No,” Natalia answered. She knew that if she even suggested finding the source of the noise, Alec would be angry. Even for a cop, she thought he was pretty cool and she didn’t want to disappoint him. The last thing she wanted was to not be taken seriously. “They don’t need to know about this. It will only take a second.”
As Will touched the door handle, the two heard something hit their front window. Natalia stifled a scream.
“What was that?” she squeaked, her hand covering her mouth.
“It sounded like a bird hitting the glass,” Will said. “Was that the sound you were hearing?”
“Not really. Whatever it is, it’s a lot closer now. Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“No,” he said with a sneaky grin, “but it’s the only one I’ve got. Grab the flashlight from the bag.”
Natalia picked up a small plastic flashlight that they had taken from the convenience store, the one that Will had used to make shadow puppets against the motel room wall, and followed him out the door. He took the light and shone it in front of them, illuminating a path down the outdoor corridor of the motel.
Natalia took careful steps, but Will powered ahead, taking her request to speed things along to heart. When she requested that, she imagined quickly peeking outside and returning when they didn’t see anything, not power walking into the darkness.
By now, many of the lights in the town were dark. Whether power outages were occurring or homeowners were abandoning their houses in order to evacuate, Natalia wasn’t sure. All she knew was that the darkness made her extremely uneasy.
“What if we run into infected people?” she asked again, looking for a definite escape plan or reassurance that they would get out alive.
“Then I’ll be glad I brought this,” Will answered, showing her a small pocketknife he had carefully tucked into his front pocket.
“You’re going to try to kill them?”
He shrugged. “If necessary, I guess. I was against the idea at first, but in the end, we’d be protecting healthy people from getting killed by these repeat offenders.”
Natalia saw his point, but still didn’t like it. She believed in Elaina and her serum. She just needed a little more time to refine and distribute it.
Sensing her hesitancy, Will added, “Only if necessary.”
“Okay,” she replied, putting her hand in his. They made their way onto the street, following any sound they could hear.
It wasn’t long before the light from the flashlight started to dim. The remaining light did nothing more than keep them from tripping on the cracks in the uneven sidewalk. It certainly didn’t illuminate any potential dangers right in front of them.
“Damn,” Will said, shaking the flashlight. “We should have grabbed more batteries.”
“Or, we could have left it in the bag instead of playing around with it at the motel.”
“No time to point fingers,” Will said defensively. “Just a few more minutes, and then we can turn around.”
They walked until the flashlight battery completely ran out. Natalia’s grip on Will’s hand tightened with every step.
“Wait,” he breathed. “Did you hear that?”
Her heart froze in her chest. She didn’t hear anything but the pounding of her own heart.
“I heard talking from the woods,” he said, pointing toward a dirt trail leading into a forest.
“Let’s turn back and let Elaina and Alec know,” she said, pulling him in the direction of the motel.
“They might be healthy people looking for help,” Will said. “How would you feel if you were abandoned in the woods? We should see if they need help.”
“Are you crazy? They could be infected. Even if they aren’t, I was kidnapped by two healthy people. Not all healthy people are safe.”
“I’m right here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Natalia was about to cry, but she didn’t want Will to see. She wanted to seem tough and cool, not whiny and scared.
“Is anybody in there?” Will called. They heard rustling in the trees. There was definitely someone there.
His eyes lit up and he took a few steps forward, dragging Natalia with him. They walked a few more feet inside the woods until the tree canopy covered the moonlight. Natalia stuck her arm straight out in front of her face. She couldn’t see or hear anything but the rustling of leaves underfoot.
Just then, she felt the air move in front of her face. Something or someone streaked p
ast the pair. Panic set in, and Will took off in one direction while Natalia ran off in the other, wrenching their hands apart. Natalia stopped to look for Will, but she couldn’t see anything.
“Will!” she screamed shrilly.
“Natalia,” he screamed in return. He wasn’t far from her. She started running toward his voice when her foot got caught on something. She flew to the ground, face planting in the dirt. She cried out in pain, calling for Will, but her voice was weak and muffled. She could hardly lift her head from its muddy imprint in the ground. She was cold and tired and just wanted to sleep.
“Will,” she whispered into the earth, hoping he’d come back and scoop her up and take her back to their warm motel room. He’d cuddle with her, just as they had before she ever heard the noises in the first place.
Footsteps came closer until they stopped right in front of her face. She smelled blood, dirt, and campfire smoke. Other footsteps echoed and she wondered if Will had found help out there in the forest. She was embarrassed that she was injured and dirty, but didn’t care as long as they could take her out of the forest.
“Don’t tell Alec about this,” she muttered as hands hoisted her to her feet. Her knees felt weak and she couldn’t find her footing. “Will, can you please just take me home?”
“I think she’s hurt,” a deep voice she didn’t recognize said. “Let’s get her and the boy inside and clean them up.”
Natalia opened her mouth to scream for Will and tried to thrash her arms and fight her captor off, but it was ultimately too much work, and she was far too tired to fight. “Will,” she cried, repeating his name until she completely drifted off.
Chapter Nine
When Alec got out of the shower, Elaina awkwardly shuffled back to the bed and sat down, facing the wall. She averted her eyes as he dried off and slipped his clothes back on under the towel around his waist. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, but she still felt uncomfortable by his partial nudity in her presence. She could practically hear Natalia’s jeers in her head.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, turning toward her as he pulled his shirt over his torso.
“Nope, just a little antsy to leave again.”
“I’m not looking forward to getting those two out of bed,” he said, gesturing to the adjacent room. “We’re waking them up about five hours early.”
“They’ll be fine. They get more sleep than either of us,” Elaina replied. “Are you ready?”
“Ready,” he answered, giving her a nod. “I wish this could have lasted a little longer.”
“What?” she coughed as she packed the rest of the supplies into a bag.
“This downtime. It’s nice to be in situations where I can feel normal again.”
“Oh, right,” she said, blushing. “Maybe next time, you’ll find a suite or some adjoined rooms and you won’t have to worry about splitting up and facing the wrath of two tired kids.” “Maybe,” he said hopefully. After a quick scan out the peephole and a glance out the window, Alec opened the door and peeked his head outside.
“All clear,” he concluded and they walked the couple of feet over to the next room. Alec rapped on the door with his knuckles, waited twenty seconds, then pounded with his fist.
“You sound like a cop,” Elaina snickered.
“I am a cop,” he smirked and continued to knock.
Elaina could see the annoyance bubbling under the surface as Alec continued to rouse the two from their slumber.
“They better not be doing anything other than sleeping,” he growled.
Elaina blushed. “I’m sure they’re just heavy sleepers. Or maybe they don’t know it’s us and they’re scared.”
Alec pushed his shoulder into the door and, to his surprise, it flew open under his body weight. Their supplies were lying around where they had left them, but there was no sign of Will and Natalia.
“Oh my God,” Elaina gasped. “They’re gone.”
Alec rushed inside and checked every possible space. He ran his fingers over the window and the inside of the door while Elaina watched in horror.
“There’s no sign of forced entry,” he panted, still frantically looking around. “What would possess them to just leave, though?”
“I have no idea,” Elaina said, shaking her head.
“Didn’t I tell them to stay in the room and don’t come out under any circumstances?”
“Yes.”
“Then where the hell are they?”
Elaina racked her brain for any kind of information that they might be missing.
“They didn’t take anything with them,” Elaina noticed. “So, we can rule out the thought that they were going off on their own. They clearly didn’t intend to leave for long. Especially with Natalia as skittish as she is. I don’t think either of them would want to leave us.”
Alec bent down to rummage through the bags. He sifted through snack wrappers, a partially melted candle, a lighter, and the empty packaging from a flashlight.
“I think they planned to go outside,” he said, holding up his evidence. “I still don’t understand why, though.”
“We have to find them,” Elaina said sharply.
“I know,” Alec sighed. “I don’t have any idea where they might be, though.”
“Me neither, but the sooner we start looking, the sooner we find them. They can’t be far.”
Elaina rushed to the truck, eager to get in and start looking for the others. She was reaching for the door handle when Alec yelled so loudly that her heart leapt into her throat.
“Stop,” he ordered. “Someone’s been here.”
“What?”
“Just look at the truck.”
Elaina squinted. Alec brought out his own flashlight to point out what he saw. A window was shattered and it looked like pieces of the truck had been ripped off. A headlight had been completely taken off, and the hood of the truck had been carelessly closed, belts and tubes blocking the latches.
“It’s been stripped for parts,” Alec gasped.
“And all of our other supplies have been stolen and the gas cans are gone.”
After inspecting the vehicle and ensuring that no one was lurking inside, Alec unlocked the truck and the two got inside.
Alec turned the keys in the ignition and the truck sputtered and groaned. He turned off the truck and tried again, with the same effect. He tried to drive, but the truck spurted forward a few feet and died. He tried to revive it, but there was no saving the truck.
“Whoever stole our supplies and parts also siphoned the gas,” Alec said flatly, concentrating hard on not blowing up. A vein twitched in his forehead and Elaina was worried that he was about to rupture something. She didn’t want to speak for fear of being shouted at. Alec was livid, and she didn’t want to be anywhere near him, lest she piss him off even more.
“You don’t think—” he started.
“No, I don’t think that Natalia or Will would do this. What motive do they have to destroy our things? Besides, if they wanted the parts to this truck, why wouldn’t they just take the whole truck? No, there’s no way they did this,” Elaina replied, feeling her cheeks redden.
“You’re right,” Alec said. “There’s no reason they would do this. I just hope whoever ransacked our stuff didn’t get them, too. They’re not very big kids. If enough people grabbed them, they might not be able to fight them off.”
Elaina grimaced, thinking back to when she first met Natalia. There were a lot of infected people out there, and a lot of sick people, too. She didn’t like to think that there were such deplorable humans out there, but she’d seen many of them firsthand. She just hoped her friend was safe with Will.
“What now?” she asked, looking around. Besides the highway across the street, and a park to the other side, there wasn’t much in the area. They couldn’t have gone far, and they didn’t have many places to go.
“We go on foot,” Alec said, slinging a bag over his shoulder.
“Where?” Elaina asked.
“The woods,” he answered, pointing to the trail entrance.
“Seriously?”
He moved his gun to his back pocket and turned on his heavy-duty flashlight. “Footprints,” he said simply, illuminating several pairs of prints. “These look like Will’s sneakers.”
Elaina sighed. Leave it to her travel companions to disregard all common sense and wander into the woods in the middle of the night.
“Let’s get a move on,” Alec said, in full detective mode. “I want to find them by sunup. At the very least, I want to find the punks who destroyed our truck and give them a piece of my mind.”
“Aren’t we out of your jurisdiction?”
Alec rolled his eyes. “This isn’t about the law, this is about right and wrong.”
“Yeah, but the truck was stolen, after all.”
Alec turned around and looked at Elaina. She couldn’t tell if he was scowling or grinning.
“You are something else, Lainey.”
Her stomach flipped every time she heard him call her by her nickname. She wished he would stop doing that.
She was about to ask him about the logistics of exploring a forest they had never been to in the middle of the night, but he quickly shushed her.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “but it’s probably best if we’re quiet and listen for a while. If you want, you can hold onto me so we don’t get separated in the dark.”
She reached for the back of his sweatshirt, pinching the fleece between two fingers. Elaina hated the idea of getting lost in the woods, but wasn’t about to clutch onto Alec like a scared child.
They walked in silence, listening for any sign of the teens or the infected. Alec covered his flashlight with the bottom of his shirt, making the light a little dimmer.
“I can hardly see,” Elaina complained, nearly getting her foot caught in a root.
“I don’t want anyone to see the light,” he whispered back.
“But what if the others are looking for a way out of here?”
Alec turned to face Elaina. He had a grim expression on his face.
“My first priority is finding them and getting them out in one piece so we can continue on our way. I keep seeing footprints, so I know they’ve been here. But, if I look at this situation from a practical perspective, it’s hard to be optimistic.”