David slid across the seat and climbed out the other side. Walking to the front, he helped me out. That’s when we saw Devlin slumped over the steering wheel, unconscious. Blood pulsed from his nose. The driver’s side had taken the majority of the impact, and the front end of the car was crumpled and pushed in against Devlin’s legs.
“Devlin!” I screamed.
David dove across the car seat and immediately felt for a pulse.
“David?” I gave his pant leg a hard tug when he didn’t answer me.
“He’s alive. Just unconscious,” he answered. “Someone grab the first aid kit and get something to stop this bleeding.”
Juan opened his pack and pulled out a T-shirt and handed it to David. Rebecca opened the first-aid kit and grabbed the smelling salts, passing them through the car door.
“I hope he can smell with all this blood,” David said.
Rebecca shrugged. “Sorry. It’s all we have.”
David broke open the salts and waved them under Devlin’s nose. Nothing. He didn’t even stir. Tossing them out the window, he pressed a piece of Juan’s T-shirt to Devlin’s face to staunch the flow of thick, red blood. Moaning, Devlin tried to bat David’s hand away.
“Sorry, brother, but we got to get this bleeding stopped.”
“Dammit,” Devlin said, his voice muffled by the t-shirt David was pressing against his face.
“Can ya move yer legs?” Roy yelled.
Devlin tried to free his legs and shook his head.
“No,” David called. “He’s pinned. We need to get the jack out of the trunk and lift the dash off his legs.” David handed me the bloody T-shirt and climbed out of the SUV.
I scooted in the car next to Devlin. “Hey.” I cupped his face, pulling it gently to mine. “Are you okay? Really?”
“Yeah. Feel kind of stupid right now, but I’m okay.”
I smiled at him. “I hope you like the color purple.”
“That bad, huh?” He winced when he tried to turn toward me, his pinned legs keeping him immobile.
I licked my lips and shrugged a shoulder. “Some women might still find you sexy.” I leaned forward and softly grazed my lips over his. You could hardly call it a kiss. It happened so fast; it was over before it began. But it sent flames licking through my veins.
“Eva,” Devlin whispered.
“Shh.” I put my finger against his mouth to shush him, running it along the outline of his lips.
The men walked around the car, the iced ground crunching under their boots. The jack scraped against the car when they jammed it under the frame. I heard it all, but didn’t pay attention to it.
I focused on Devlin, running my hands around his head, down the sides of his face and neck, down to his shoulders, down his arms and across his chest to his waist. His hand snaked out and grabbed my wrists.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a low, gruff voice that made a shiver run down my spine, and my toes curl in my boots.
“I’m just making sure you’re alright.” That was mostly the truth.
Devlin licked his lips and slowly shook his head. “Your big, baby blues suck me in, Eva. Such an innocent looking face. So beautiful.” He let go of one of my wrists and ran his thumb over my bottom lip. “But you’re full of shit. Stop being such a tease.”
I burst out laughing. Devlin chuckled.
“Get in the car! Get in the car!” Roy yelled.
Everyone scrambled inside, jerking the doors closed just as the first animal slammed against the car. I sucked in a breath; Judy screamed. Rebecca and Juan leaned as far away from the cracked window they were sitting next to as they could.
“They were inside the tree line. I saw ‘em just as they came out. They musta smelled the blood,” Roy said between gulps of air.
I flinched as the animals hit the vehicle one after the other, growling and snapping their teeth against the window, leaving trails of foamy saliva.
Five infected wolves circled the car. Their fur stood on end along their spines. Their teeth bared, saliva dripped from them. They nipped and growled at each other as they circled. Two rolled on the ground fighting, one yelping when the other bit into its hindquarters.
“What now?” Juan asked no one in particular.
“Good question,” David said. “Are all the guns in the trunk?”
“I think so,” Juan answered.
“Let’s remember not to do that next time.”
“I have one.” Judy swung her handgun out of her jacket pocket.
“Geez, woman, you’ll be wantin’ to shoot them, not us,” Roy said, taking the gun from Judy. “Guess we can roll down the windows a bit and stick the gun out and try to hit ‘em.”
“Sounds as good a plan as any.” David nodded.
I slid my hand under Devlin’s coat, threading our fingers together. He squeezed my hand once and tugged me a little closer to him.
Slowly, Roy rolled down the window. It didn’t take long for the scent of blood to spark the interest of the animals. They swarmed the window, jumping at the glass. Their noses pressed against the opening.
Roy made five shots and four kills. The fifth animal was wounded so badly it was near death. When he climbed out of the car, Roy stood over it and put a bullet in its head—we left no survivors, human or animal.
“We need to move fast,” Juan said, looking at the blood seeping across the ground. “If there are more it won’t take long for them to be attracted by the blood.”
“Devlin, are your legs broken?” I cupped his face and forced him to look at me. His nose and eyes had started to swell, and his skin was turning deep purple.
“No, I don’t think so. They’re just jammed under the dash pretty good.”
“Okay, they’ve got the jack in place to lift the dash so we can pull you free.” I smoothed the hair out of his face. “Sit tight. It’s almost over.” I slid out of the car and got ready.
“Yeah, well, I’m not going anywhere.”
Juan jacked the car up and the pressure on Devlin’s legs slowly lessened. When the dash lifted far enough, I reached under and grabbed Devlin’s pant legs, tugging hard. Devlin swung his legs toward me. They cleared the dash a second before the jack gave way, the dash falling against the frame of the car with a loud crack.
I looked up at Devlin and heaved a breath of relief. He gave me a shaky smile. “That was a little close,” he said.
“Yeah, ya think?”
Seth bent down and looked inside the car. “Can you stand?” he asked Devlin.
“I’m not sure.” Devlin scooted toward the passenger door. When he tried to stand, his knees buckled and he face planted onto the frozen ground. “I think that’s a no.” He smiled.
“Okay, um…” David bounced on the balls of his feet, looking around. He ran his hand over his top lip. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to figure out what to do next. “I guess we need to get our packs out of the trunk. Maybe we can make a sling out of a sleeping bag and a couple of branches.”
“There’s gotta be some neighborhoods off the highway where we can crash,” Juan said.
“Yeah, but where?” Seth asked. The highway was lined with trees on both sides. It made for a pretty drive, but the trees hid everything.
“We can double back to the subdivision we just passed.”
Relief washed over us all. The thought of trying to carry Devlin over icy ground didn’t appeal to any of us.
“Good,” David said. “We’ll hike back that way.”
It took us over an hour to build a gurney to carry Devlin and make the half-mile hike back to the small subdivision. Once inside a house, we made Devlin comfortable on the couch and Roy started a fire in the small fireplace.
“I guess I’ll get dinner goin’,” Judy said. “We can have soup or… soup.”
“I’ll take the second one.” David grinned.
“Soup it is, then.”
I looked through the cupboards in the small, blue kitchen. “The
re’s some canned goods in here,” I called. “Some more soups, a few cans of stew, and some fruits and veggies.”
“That’ll help.” Judy said, followed by a shriek of, “Don’t open that, Roy!”
Judy’s warning came too late. Roy had already flung open the refrigerator door. The smell bombarded the little kitchen, making us gag.
“Blast it, Roy, what goes on in that thick skull of yours? There’s no damn electricity. Everything in there has gone rotten.”
“Yeah, I can smell that,” he drawled.
“Ugh, the whole house stinks.” Seth pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose.
“I don’t dare open the windows, not after meeting up with the pack of infected animals. We’ll just have to suffer through it,” Rebecca said behind the hand covering her nose and mouth.
At least we saved on supplies. No one had an appetite after that… except Roy. The smell didn’t seem to faze him at all.
“So, what’s the plan now?” Roy asked around a bite of canned pears.
“Try to find a car.” David shrugged a shoulder.
“You’ve seen these neighborhoods, David. They’ve all been gutted. Anything close to the highway is bare. No food, no ammo, no gas.” Seth had one arm over his head, the hand on the other pushing against its elbow.
David stood in the doorway, grabbing the top of the doorframe, he and stretched. “We passed a sign about five miles back that said there was a motel twenty miles east. I may find something there. Taking in account the five or so miles we travelled before we hit the tree, that makes it about fifteen miles away.” David let go of the door way and reached for his gun, inspecting it. “If I get up and on the road at dawn, I can make it to the motel, pick-up a car and be back before noon.”
“No way.” I shook my head. “You aren’t going out there in a forest teeming with Infected alone. No way.”
“Then what, Eva? What’s your plan?”
“Don’t yell at me, David!”
He jammed his hand through his hair, and around to the back of his neck. Rubbing his neck he looked at me through his long lashes. “What then?”
“We wait until Devlin is able to walk and we all go together. It should only be a day or two.”
“Our supplies won’t last that long,” Judy said quietly.
“We’ll make them last,” I snapped. “David isn’t going alone. It’s crazy.”
“Someone has to go, Evangelina.” David put his hand over mine.
I shook his hand off. “Fine, then I’ll go with you. You’ll need someone else to help you keep watch, and you’ll need another gun if you meet up with a pack of infected coyotes or wolves or whatever the hell those things were.”
“No,” Juan said. “Out of the question. I’ll go.”
“It’s settled then. We leave as soon as it’s light enough. We hoof it to the motel, grab the first car with gas, and hightail it back here.”
“Wait a minute. I didn’t agree to this arrangement,” I said looking between Juan and David.
“Neither did I,” Rebecca seconded. “I agree with Eva. We wait until we can all go. We watch each other’s backs.”
Juan walked to Rebecca and placed his hand along her jaw, pulling her face to his. He kissed her gently. “I have to go. You know I do. We can’t sit around and wait for our supplies to run out. David and I will be back before you even have a chance to worry.”
She batted his hand away. “I doubt that.”
Morning came, and David and Juan gathered their gear. “Okay, time to go.” David walked to the door, his boots clomping on the old wooden floor.
Juan and Rebecca stood next to the door. She was crying, begging her husband not to leave. I looked away. Some part of me felt responsible, although I didn’t know why. It had been Juan’s decision to leave.
“I’ll see you soon, Eva.” David gave me a quick kiss on the forehead before walking out the door.
You stupid, stupid man. Don’t leave! Stay where it’s safe… stay with me.
I sat on the edge of the couch staring after him. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned. Devlin’s eyes searched mine. He didn’t speak, just opened his arms for me. I moved into the croak of his arm, and settled in to wait.
In my mind I counted out the minutes, calculating how far they had to walk and how fast they could go. Both Juan and David were fit and strong. Considering the athletic build and stamina of both men, I figured they could easily walk the average four miles an hour, even with the icy conditions—as long as they didn’t run into any trouble along the way.
The motel was approximately fifteen miles from the house. At four miles an hour they should’ve reached it in just under four hours. Another fifteen minutes to a half-hour to find and hotwire a car, and then ten minutes to make the drive back. Four hours and forty minutes. I started my internal stopwatch.
At four and a half hours I paced from window to window, looking for signs of them. I was calm.
At five hours, my pacing had quickened. I was concerned, but still relatively calm.
At five and a half hours I stood at the front door, staring at the road. My calm was slipping.
David, where are you?
I looked outside, biting my nails and thinking of everything that could’ve gone wrong, like being chased by infected animals… or infected people. One of them could have fallen and gotten hurt, waiting for us to help them…
At six hours I felt the first tear roll down my cheek. My calm had evaporated.
David. Come back to me.
It’d been nearly seven hours since Juan and David left. I stared out the window without really seeing anything. My mind had started to shut down, protecting itself from the overbearing fear that pushed down, like I was sinking in a pool of quicksand.
At seven hours, twelve minutes, I ran to the door. The unmistakable sound of a car engine carried on the breeze.
Seven hours, fourteen minutes, David and Juan walked through the front door.
“Where have you been?”
“We couldn’t find a car in that little hick town. It’d been picked clean, but we found a map that showed a smaller town a few miles up the road. We hiked there. It was in the middle of farm country and was completely untouched. We got a car and some supplies to go with it. But it took a little longer than we thought.”
“Ya think?” I slugged him on the shoulder. “You scared me half out of my mind, David!”
He laughed. He actually had the balls to laugh at me. Which, of course, made me cry.
He laughed harder. “Evangelina Mae, only you would be mad right now.”
Day Nine
We were awake before the sun. With just two hundred and twenty-five miles left in our journey, and a car to use, we planned to reach Area-One that day. We cruised down Highway eighty-one—the car’s gas mileage spectacular—we were on track to make it to the village without having to walk. Our excitement was almost palpable.
A loud bang followed by a flopping noise filled the car. Roy slowly pulled over to the side of the road. Why, I don’t know. It wasn’t as if there were cars behind us or anything.
“What happened?” Judy asked, looking out the window.
“I think we have a flat,” Roy answered.
“Tire?”
Roy sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Woman, what else would be flat?”
“Great. Now what?” Judy moaned.
“Don’t get your panties twisted. We’ll just put on the spare. It should take us the rest of the way. If not, we can pick up another car.”
David and Roy got out of the car, and walked to the rear. I watched David outside the window. His eyebrows were furrowed over his eyes and a slight frown pulled at his lower lip.
“Judy, pop the trunk,” Roy called.
The trunk opened and I heard a violent string of profanities fly out of David’s mouth. Startled, I jumped out of the car.
“Holy cow, what’s flushed your potty mouth?” I laid my hand on his arm. His hand covered mi
ne. “David?”
He looked down at me and smiled. “Nothing’s wrong.”
“Ah. That’s why you were cussing a blue streak, because nothing’s wrong.” I looked in the trunk. “Huh. Isn’t that where the spare should be?”
“Yep.” David blew out a breath. “If there was a spare that’s where it’d be.”
“Oh. I guess we’re walking until we find a car that the gas vampires haven’t drained.” I grabbed my pack and hefted it on my shoulders. Roy gave me a funny look. His hand on the lid of the trunk his other rubbing across his eyebrows. I smiled. “You know, Roy, the military. They drain all the cars of gas… so they’re the gas vampires.”
“Mm-hmm.” He nodded his head and gave David a what-the-hell-is-the-matter-with-her look before grabbing his and Judy’s packs.
Everyone grabbed their gear and started walking. Devlin hobbled on his bad leg with the help of a walking stick and Seth.
“Hopefully we’ll find a clean neighborhood,” I said, watching Devlin try to keep his balance on the icy road.
David didn’t answer. He turned his face to the sky and frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s gonna snow,” David said.
“How can you tell?” I looked at the sky. It was full of gray clouds, but looked like any other cloudy day.
“I’ve lived in the north a long time. I know snow clouds when I see them, and those are definitely snow clouds.”
“Oh. Well a little snow won’t hurt anything, I suppose.”
“Maybe. We need to get out of this countryside and into a city before the storm hits.”
“I like the rolling hills. It’s really pretty here. Where do you think we are? Kentucky?”
David didn’t answer. He scanned the skies, more interested in his clouds than conversation. I sighed and started walking.
As the day wore on, the wind grew colder, brutal. It stung when it hit our chapped faces. Covered in a fine sheet of ice, the ground crackled when we walked across it—or slipped. The clouds became ominous, and darkened the sun until it felt as though we were walking through the twilight, even though it was only mid-afternoon.
David was peering at the sky again when the first fat snowflake fell in front of me. I held my hand out to catch it, watching it stick to my purple glove. Having grown up in Southeast Texas, I’d never seen real snow as a child. The previous winter in Rosewood was the first I’d experienced it. The big, fluffy snowflakes still mesmerized me.
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