by Cal, Sarah
Emma imagined there was some judgment in their stares, and she almost felt bad. She had been the one advocating for them to sticking close together to begin with, and it was her idea to leave? Well, not just her idea lone, but she felt a lot of the stares were aimed at her. Or maybe it was just her and her imagination.
But there was just no way she could stick around, not with the risk it carried to her friends and family. She did feel for these people. They were scared and hungry just as she was. But she wouldn’t just let that deter her, not now. Back when this was all so fresh and she was still adjusting to how much the world had changed, maybe this would have been daunting, but she had been through and seen too much for something like this to bother her to such an extent.
A part of her felt sorry for them, but not enough to coddle them. If they wanted to be left behind, then they could stay by themselves. She cared more for her family and friends than a bunch of strangers anyway, though Emma felt like she was losing something just thinking that.
Whatever. If she was being honest with herself, it was something she’d lost quite a while back.
The only problem with their plans, and one of the reasons they were stalling so long, was because of her sister. While Merry could stay up now longer than she could after she first woke up from her injury, she was still nowhere near healed. Emma watched her sister as she stood from where she’d sat inside the car since Emma put her there, worried.
“How are you?” she asked, anxious.
Merry tried to give her a smile, though it dissolved into a grimace as she raised a hand to her head. “Just a little woozy.”
But Emma followed the movement of her hand, wondering if that was the whole truth. “I think Carol already told you about telling us when you’re in real trouble, Merry. If your head hurts, I could—“
But Merry cut her off. “Carol said I’d taken enough painkillers. Too much might do more than good. We don’t have anything to tell the time, but a lot of time needs to pass before I take any more meds, just to be safe. I took one a few moments ago.”
“Has it not kicked in, or is it just not so effective,” she asked suspiciously.
Her sister shrugged. “How would I know, Emma? I mean, not all the pain goes away, but I’m just fine being able to think.”
“But will you be able to walk?”
Merry hesitated, and Emma knew it wasn’t a good sign. “To be honest... there is an ache in the back of my head. It grows less, but it won’t stop. And I’m having trouble sleeping.”
Emma frowned. “Merry, I see you sleep more often than not since you got hit in the head. What does that mean?”
Was it even safe to let her keep falling asleep? Or was Carol the one that kept interrupting her sleep... but if she was still worried about a concussion, Emma felt she wouldn’t have given Merry any meds in the first place.
“The thing is,” Merry said. “I close my eyes, and everything is black for a bit, but then I’m startling awake. Only, I’m still so tired, so I fall asleep again. That’s why you see me asleep so much.”
Emma bit her lip, half glad Merry didn’t try to lie and claim she was fine, but a part of her had wanted that little bit of reassurance, even if it was a lie. Was this even normal for people when they got hit in the head? Emma had asked Carol at some point what to expect, but she had said that it could be different for everyone, so all they could do was watch and wait.
She hated the watch and wait. And now, they had run out of that time.
“Are you sure you can walk? Maybe we should stick around for a while...”
But her voice trailed off, because that wasn’t possible. She really did believe they needed to leave. The food they had left would get them through the next few days, if they limited the rations even further, but not much longer than that. The children, and Merry especially because of her injury, would need to eat a lot more than they currently were to stay healthy. And if they waited too long, and they had to walk far, they wouldn’t get far on empty stomachs.
Curse those bastards! They really should have considered something like it could happen with such a large party. Maybe they would have been better off somehow squeezing in the other cars, no matter how uncomfortable. It might only have put off the inevitable betrayal, but it was better than being left stranded without all that many options. If she could go back, Emma would have left them all to get caught and possibly killed by the people that attacked her town. She felt a little bad about thinking that, but it was gone almost immediately. She had every right to be mad at them for what they did.
Merry sighed, dropping the hand from her head, though she still looked a little pale. “I’ll just have to endure it, Emma. You were right, we need to get out of here. And to be honest, I don’t like being around this many strangers.”
She sent a look of unease to the group that would be staying behind.
Emma was getting tired of people telling her she was right, but she supposed it made sense, in her sister’s case. She had been hit over the head by the last group, and they had all been strangers. She hadn’t gotten anything concrete from Merry about the incident, but Emma knew she had tried to fight back and it didn’t mean anything in the end.
“Well... what if I—”
“I could lend a hand,” Chase cut in before she could offer. “I’ll help Merry in the walk.”
The look he sent at Emma told her not to argue, and she didn’t. He was stronger than her, he would be better of helping her sister, because no matter how light, her weight wasn’t exactly negligible. Emma would just exhaust herself faster, and they would both need assistance depending on how far they ended up walking. Chase could go farther, for longer than she could, probably, on the low rations they had.
“All right,” Carol finally said. “I think everybody going along is ready now. So which direction should we walk in?”
“How about we try through the forest area?” Chase suggested, wrapping an arm around Merry and helping her move. “We might find some food along our way there.”
Emma sighed, shaking her head. “We’ve explored a good part of it, but we couldn’t cut through it to a neighboring town. And we didn’t find any food either. Honestly, I’m kinda sick of those woods after going through them for two days and getting nothing out of it.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to try. I don’t know this area that well, but we should be bound to find something if we go through that way. And besides, it’s a better idea than going along the road. What happens if we come across other people and they want to hurt us? We’d be in plain view, the perfect targets.”
While it was a valid argument, Emma wasn’t sure where they would meet people. Once they passed this town, it would probably be another long stretch before they get near another town, and they would see the houses before they got too close, so they could make a plan then. She gave her opinion, and the others threw in their thoughts.
As they were discussing it, someone pressed a knife to Emma’s neck.
Emma panicked, but staid still. She wanted to curse herself for being so stupid and letting her guard down. Just because these people hadn’t run off with the others didn’t mean they wouldn’t still betray them, and she’d let her anxiety over Merry and anger over the ones that ran away cloud her mind.
“Everyone needs to drop the supplies and leave without them,” the woman holding her said. “Do it now or I swear I will slit her neck.”
The knife dug in harder as if in warning, and Emma sucked in a sharp breath before she could stop herself as her heart jumped in her throat. Emma could hear the woman’s hot breath in her ear, and tried to wriggle free, but felt the knife slice part of her skin, and didn’t dare move again. She didn’t trust her combat abilities enough to get herself out of this situation without ending up dead or dying, which was as good as dead even with Carol around.
Tears of frustration stung her eyes as they met Chase’s, then Merry’s, and she saw the answering grimness in their eyes.
“Leave me be
hind.”
The breathing in her ear stuttered, and the knife dug in harder, but she didn’t care. She kept her eyes on her sister and her best friend’s widening eyes, like they couldn’t believe what she was saying. No one moved.
Emma tried again.
“Don’t be a bunch of idiots. I’m serious, so listen to me. Just go and leave me here.”
She might not have wanted to die, but she didn’t want to make things harder for everyone else. But everyone immediately began to take off their backpacks to leave behind, no hesitation, like she was really worth the sacrifice, and she wanted to curse again.
“You can keep the tents,” the woman granted them. “We have plenty enough here. Leave, now.”
Once she sent the others on their way, and they starting to walk away, her hold lessened enough that Emma no longer felt like every breath could potentially get her neck sliced.
As she let go of Emma, Carol was suddenly moving, fast, and went up behind the woman. Emma was pushed away as the woman moved to defend herself, and she turned back in time to see the result of the little tussle. Emma didn’t know where Carol got whatever she was holding in her hand, but the other woman lost as Carol stabbed her in the neck. The knife she held in her own hand was dropped as her fingers grew lax, hands going up to the gaping, bloody wound in her neck to try and stop the bleeding. In seconds, she was falling back to the ground, and Emma knew if she wasn’t dead, then she would be in not so long. Carol, the nurse Emma had seen jump to help people in need, just stood by and did nothing.
Everyone was left horrified, or so Emma thought, because it was how she felt. There was some yelling from all around, and the children began to cry. But Carol didn’t even look guilty.
“Jesus, Carol,” she muttered. “Was that really necessary? You could have just knocked her out and got the knife away from us.”
“It wouldn’t have been that easy without someone getting hurt, anyway. There was a window, and I took it, and I don’t think I made the wrong judgment.”
Emma met Carol’s eyes, hesitating. This wasn’t the first she’d had a knife aimed at her, and it wasn’t exactly fun. She’d also stabbed and killed someone with a knife before, when there was a planned raid on her neighborhood that she helped stop. But still... her eyes slid to the children. This was broad day light, and only one desperate enemy. Emma hadn’t seen the others to remain jumping to help her, so she must have acted on her own. It could have been handled without the bloodshed.
“I know the situation I was in and I’m grateful Carol, but don’t you think this was just a little overboard?”
“She was a danger to us all,” Carol insisted. “Even to these guys here.” And she waved her hand to the ones from the group that would have stayed. “I did everyone a favor, Emma.
Emma was a little frightened of Carol, but didn’t dare oppose her. She hadn’t seen the other woman quite like this. She’d gone with Emma on a revenge mission that would have involved killing, and Emma had seen her slit someone’s throat before, but that had been a mercy killing that the woman begged for. This was so far removed from that.
She wondered if this was what Chase had meant. There was a time, after their neighborhood got attacked and they all decided to fight back, and Emma had been involved in the killing of a lot of people. They were the bad guys, in her eyes, and considering what they would have done to Emma, her family and her neighborhood, she hadn't felt any guilt.
Actually, she had been a little too calm, and Chase had been the one to mention it to her. He wanted her to be bothered that people had died, that she had even killed some of them with her own hands, and it had been her idea to fight back in the first place, but all Emma had thought about was the threat to their family and their food security. The people were there to steal from them, and might have killed them.
Emma felt justified, then. She wondered if Carol felt that way now.
Chase had acted differently with her after that night, and it had lasted for way too long in her opinion. She didn’t mind people that were a threat dying, but she did care about Chase’s reaction to it.
Carol didn’t look like she cared, though. She saw a threat, and she got rid of it. In her eyes, she wasn’t wrong, and Emma felt just a bit ashamed for fearing her, no matter how little. Carol had just saved her life after all, even if it was extreme.
And if she let herself look behind the fear, the ruthless side of her even agreed. Hell, if she’d been in a position to, Emma would have stabbed the woman herself.
What did bother her, though, was that Carol had done it so uncaringly in front of everyone. Emma would have hesitated, and that might have cost Emma her life. Carol’s uncaring attitude, while a bit worrisome, helped her in a way.
Emma thought it was dangerous, though, that someone could be like that. But then, when Emma looked and saw Carol’s sister, her face was grim, but she didn’t look disapproving. She just sent a scowl at the body on the ground and looked away.
What did they go through that they take something like this so lightly?
Though, that wasn’t fair either. It wasn’t that they took it lightly, but rather saw it differently. Emma wasn’t going to be the one to start pointing out fingers like she’d never gotten blood on her hands.
But they’d lingered too long, and the children were traumatized enough. They needed to make room between them and the body, and Emma didn’t want to see it either. She might not have known the woman long enough to care for her, but this was the second time someone got killed and she felt responsible.
“Everyone, we should get moving,” she encouraged. “We can’t stick around here now, and there’s no more reason to say, so let’s go.”
Again, there was no hesitation. Trusting Emma, the others followed her, leaving only one or two stragglers behind.
Chapter Seven:
Emma led the way through the forest until nightfall.
The kids in the group didn’t like all the walking, and it was to be expected, but Emma didn’t want to stop. She felt, the more distance they put between them and all the people they were leaving behind, the better.
There might not be something better ahead, but they didn’t need people at their back, either. They stopped around midday for some short relaxation, and Emma heard the relieved breaths most of them released, not just the kids.
“Aren’t we moving a little slow?” Carol asked, looking around.
“Really?” Emma asked, doing the same. “Did we get this far before?”
Emma couldn’t really tell—the forest just looked like a lot of trees and rocks, twigs and underbrush, so she couldn’t tell the difference. By the frustration on Carol’s face, she wasn’t sure either, but she also wasn’t happy.
“Just how fast do we need to move, anyway?” Chase asked from where he sat beside Emma.
Barbara was on Carol’s other side and Chase had Merry leaning against her side. She looked pale, and she breathing was slightly heavy, but she had her eyes closed and Emma thought she was sleeping. Carol had mentioned it was good for her to sleep as much as possible, and Emma was taking her word for it. They were keeping their voices low. Everyone else was a short distance away with the kids, who were acting a bit noisy, but they were all careful not to lose sight of each other.
“We need to find someplace to stop at, soon,” Barbara said. “Being under the cover of trees is good for protection, but there isn’t a lot of floor space to sleep in. We’ll be hungry and exhausted too soon at this rate.”
“We can find some way to compromise,” Chase said sensibly. “If we move a lot faster, when it isn’t even easy to begin with, we’ll only get even more exhausted. There’s no guarantee we’ll find any place soon.”
“I don’t think these woods are all that large, though,” Emma mused out loud. “I don’t know exactly where we are, but I have seen plenty of maps for this region. We’ll get out of the trees at some point.”
“Yeah,” Carol muttered, “but when is the question.”
Could they take the lack of animals in here as a sign? She wasn’t much of a nature girl, usually she just tagged along with her family because it was a family trip. Chase, though, usually led camping trips, back in their old jobs as high school teachers.
“We don’t have all the time in the world,” Chase said. “But we can stand to lose a little, if it’ll get us farther in the long run. That’s the end goal, and preferably while we aren’t exhausted.”
“We don’t even have a solid way to tell direction,” Emma muttered. “We’re vaguely following the path of the sun, keeping to a straight line in the hope that we’ll get out on the other side of these woods. And that isn’t even the biggest problem for now,” she said before anyone else could add in an argument.
“What do you mean?” Carol asked with a frown.
“If we don’t want to get slowed down even further, we need to do something about those kids. They don’t have the energy, and I can tell they’re trying, but we can't make them keep walking.”
“I would offer to carry them—“Chase started but Emma cut him off.
“You have your hands full with my sister. I can carry one, and Karen wouldn’t mind carrying the other.”
Chase frowned at her. “There’s a reason I decided to help Merry instead of letting you do it, you know. If you stress your body out much farther, you’ll collapse, Emma.”
Carol arced a suspicious eyebrow her way, and Emma narrowed her eyes at Chase in annoyance.
“They’re children. I know they won’t be light, but they’ll be easier to carry. And it won’t be for the whole time, just a bit at a time. We can't wait for them to collapse in exhaustion first, Chase.”