I shook the idea out of my head. How could I even think of that? There were innocent people down there. Children. It wouldn’t work. Besides, three zombies had already done enough damage. I couldn’t believe Tanya thought we sent the attack.
Quinn grabbed my arm and directed me away from Tanya and Pam.
“We’ve got to evacuate the city.”
“Why?”
“Don’t you see what’s going on? Florida sent men up here to investigate what happened. They planted zombies in the back of the truck and blamed it on us. They are trying to rally the masses against us.”
“Yeah? So what else is new?”
“The people they sent here were the dregs of society. They were causing problems in Florida. They are still causing problems. This is the perfect excuse to wipe us off the planet.”
My stomach knotted. The color drained from my face. I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew Quinn was right. They were probably on their way to level the city.
“There are two thousand and eleven people in North Platte.” I couldn’t raise my voice over a whisper. “Where are they going to go?”
Quinn pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger and shook his head. “I don’t know. All I know is they can’t stay here.”
“What about Liet? What are we going to do with him?”
Quinn didn’t have the opportunity to answer. “Everything all right over there?” Pam asked. We faced her.
“No. I don’t think it is,” Quinn responded.
“Well, maybe you’d like to fill the rest of us in.”
Quinn glanced at me for a second, then back at Pam. “I think you need to call a town meeting.”
“For what?”
“Just do it!” I didn’t mean to yell at her, but I had no control over my emotions. The room spun and breathing was difficult, it just slipped out.
Pam hurried out of the room, and I sank to my knees.
I lowered my head and closed my eyes. I felt light-headed and nauseous. I couldn’t believe it was this hard. It wasn’t supposed to be this hard. I felt Quinn’s hand on my back.
“You all right?”
I looked up at him. “I’ll be fine. Just give me a second.”
Tanya moved so she stood in front of me. Her knees popped as she knelt down.
“What are we going to do now? Everything has been ruined.” She lowered her gaze. “I ruined it. I can’t believe I was so stupid to believe you would have sent zombies!”
I took a deep breath and stared at her face for several moments. Anger clenched my chest. I wanted to tell her it was her fault, that she should have known we would never do anything so devious, but it wouldn’t get us anywhere. Her eyes were red rimmed and her shoulders slumped forward. She probably didn’t stop traveling until she made it to the city. Rage kept her moving. Her desire to see me dead or maimed fueled her journey. After she found out the truth, rage was replaced with sheer exhaustion. Sadly, her journey wasn’t even close to being over.
Besides, I wasn’t mad at her, I was angry at the universe. I was upset that my luck had run out. The same rage that kept her moving was going to have to sustain me. We still had a job to do, we just had to rethink it.
“You didn’t ruin it,” I told her. “You were just reacting to a situation you thought we created. It’s understandable.”
She placed her hands on the floor and leaned forward. “I want to help you fix it. Please tell me what I can do.”
“First of all, we’ve got to get the people to safety. Then, we’re going to disappear.”
“And go where?”
“The only place we have left. The West.”
CHAPTER 2
I hated speaking in public. Especially when I thought the crowd would turn into a lynch mob and scream for my head. Quinn tried to make me feel better. He told me the people of North Platte knew what they were getting into when they rebelled, and in the back of my mind, I knew he was right. But he wasn’t the one on the podium. He wasn’t the one delivering the bad news. The one thing I hoped was that with my arm still in a sling, the workers would feel sorry for me.
The crowd gathered in the high school gym. I stood on a soap box in the middle of the basketball court, facing the bleachers with a bullhorn in my hand. As I stared at the crowd, I tried to pinpoint the men and women I thought would rush me first. I cleared my throat and brought the bullhorn to my mouth.
“First of all, I would like to thank you all for coming.” My voice cracked through the mouthpiece. Thankfully, the horn covered the majority of my face.
My cheeks and ears turned red. “As I’m sure some of you are aware, we had a visit from Florida within the past few weeks.” I expected the crowd to burst into hushed whispers amongst themselves, but I was met with silence.
I carried on. “We have reason to believe they are planning an attack. Perhaps planning on wiping us off the face of the earth.” I paused and flinched, expecting angry roars from the crowd. Again, I was met with silence.
“We think the safest course of action is to leave North Platte. We think we should head into the West.” I lowered the bullhorn. It was out now. If they were going to get angry, I couldn’t stop it.
Quinn sat in the front row, and I found his gaze. He nodded and gave me a thumbs up. I turned my attention back to the crowd, a knot developed in my stomach. I would have preferred them angry and yelling at me. At least then they would have reacted. All of them sitting there in silence made me nervous. Was I supposed to give them more information? Were they expecting something else from me?
“Is there any way we can be sure they are coming here to destroy us?” A voice spoke from the crowd.
I looked up to see a woman, probably in her mid-twenties, with a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy on her lap.
I shook my head. “No. Unfortunately, it’s all speculation at this point.”
“Then why should we leave on speculation?” It was an older man, close to 60, who wore a plaid shirt and sat with his arms crossed over his chest.
I shrugged. “That choice is up to you. I’m just telling you what we know. Or what we think we know. After the group from Florida left here, Tanya,” she sat next to Quinn and I pointed her out, “came here to tell us about a zombie infestation.” I told them the story about the zombies in the truck and how they attacked in the storage yard. After I finished, I was met with silence again, but the crowd looked at one another, searching each other’s faces for an answer or more information.
Quinn stood from his seat and faced them. “What Krista is saying is that it’s better to be safe than dead. We don’t know for sure that they are coming to destroy us, but we have to plan for the worst-case scenario. Would any of you put it past The Families to see you dead?”
Members of the crowd shook their heads.
“They sent you here for a reason,” Quinn continued. “And now you are a threat to their power and means of control. They have already tried to rein in the people of Florida, to keep them afraid, what do you think their next logical step is going to be?”
“Why the West?” the woman with the child asked. “Why not somewhere further east? Maybe up north?”
“You know,” I said, “anywhere you choose to go outside of North Platte will be safer. But if Florida realizes you’re gone and wants to hunt you down, they probably won’t stop looking for you in the east or up north. I’m pretty sure they’ll hesitate coming after you in the West.”
“Where are we going to go in the West?” A teenager with stringy brown hair asked. “There are thousands of us.”
“And there are completely abandoned cities,” Quinn interjected.
“But they’ve been overrun with zombies.” The teenager’s voice squeaked. “How are we going to defend against that?”
His question got the crowd talking. They turned to each other, looking for answers, and they shot a multitude of questions down at Quinn and me, most of them I couldn’t understand. Quinn grabbed the bullhorn from me.
“People!” His loud voice quieted the crowd. “We understand your concerns, and we’re not sending you out there unarmed or unprepared. You’ve dealt with the zombie menace day in and day out, it’s not any different over there.”
“But there are more of them and we don’t have a wall to help protect us.” I scanned the crowd, but couldn’t tell who the speaker was.
“Yeah, there are more of them, but they aren’t unstoppable. They are slow, they are dumb. If you are smart, you will survive out there. You will have protection and shelter. It’s not like we’re leaving here without a plan.”
“Then what is the plan?” the man in the plaid shirt asked.
Quinn handed the bullhorn back to me.
“We are going to gather every supply we can find. Every gun, every can of food, every extra scrap of clothing, and anything else you want to take, and we’re loading it into the trucks. Once that is done, we’ll head into Wyoming. There are small towns, tiny places that the zombies haven’t touched, surrounded by mountains that you will call a safe haven. The natural landscape will aid in your protection, and you can do anything else to make sure you feel safe.”
“How long do we have?”
“Twenty-four hours. Anymore, and we risk Florida invading.”
The crowd rose from their seats, filing out of the gym and talking to themselves. No one spoke to Quinn or me, but they nodded in our direction as they passed. I didn’t draw an easy breath until the gym was almost empty.
Pam and Tanya stood from the bleachers and joined Quinn and me in the middle of the floor.
“That went pretty well,” Pam stated.
I nodded. “Thank goodness.”
She smiled. “Oh, we would have protected you for as long as possible if they had come after you.”
Quinn smirked, “No one was coming after you. They knew what they were getting into when they picked up the guns and rebelled against Liet. C’mon. Let’s get your stuff packed.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and we headed toward the door.
As we stepped into the hallway, we were met by a group of 15 people standing in a circle, the mother and child and man with the flannel shirt in the center. They turned toward us. Great, just great. They waited for us in the hall. They didn’t want to make a scene in the gym, so now they were going to exact their revenge. I hoped the worry and fear didn’t show on my face.
“If we may have a moment,” the mother said.
Quinn and I glanced at each other before focusing our attention back on them.
“Sure,” he said. He didn’t sound worried at all.
“I’m Lydia.” The woman placed her hand on her chest. “And this is Chester. He and I, along with everyone else, just had a few more questions for you.”
Quinn removed his arm from my shoulders and pushed his hands into his pockets. “I hope we can answer them for you.”
“First of all, do you have an idea of where you want to take us?”
“It’s a little town called Dashton. It’s in Wyoming, but you won’t find it on any map. It’s tucked between some canyons. It was founded by bandits, and they wanted to remain hidden, so the town has, too.”
More than likely, the people who founded the town were the same ones who created Quinn’s ranch. I was sure they needed two different places, just in case one was compromised, but I imagined there were probably more. Of course, I didn’t say anything out loud. I knew Quinn wanted to keep his place a secret. Even if these people were on our side, the fewer people who knew, the fewer could give directions if anything ever happened. Plus, I liked the idea of being able to vanish without anyone being able to find me. It would be like going on vacation if things got too out of hand.
“You’re still planning on invading Florida, right?” Lydia wondered. “I mean, this isn’t a turn tail and run and hope for the best. Some of our families are still down there.”
My chest felt lighter and my knees went a little weak with relief as it flooded my body. I couldn’t help but smile. “Of course we’re still going after Florida. We just have to regroup and re-organize the plan.”
Lydia took a deep breath, relief flooded over her face. “Thank goodness.”
“We want to be part of the planning and the invasion,” Chester stated. His tone implied it wasn’t up for discussion and we couldn’t deny him.
“We can use all the help we can get,” I told him.
“Are there others who feel the same?” Quinn’s eyebrows were pushed together, his expression serious. “Or is it just the fifteen of you?”
“Oh, it’s pretty much everyone in town, with the exception of the kids,” Chester was overly serious. “We also want to know what you’re planning on doing with Liet and the others.”
Quinn looked at me as he pulled his hand out his pocket and rubbed the back of his neck. He focused back on the group. “We haven’t decided on that. Do you guys have any suggestions?”
A smile curled onto Chester’s face, deepening the wrinkles on his forehead. “Oh, yeah. We’ve got an idea, but I’m not so sure you’re going to like it.”
“Well, anything shy of killing him, we’re willing to entertain.”
“We wouldn’t kill him exactly.” Lydia looked at the others before focusing her gaze back on us. “We would just drop him somewhere in the West without any weapons and hope the zombies take care of him.”
Surprisingly, I wasn’t as shocked by her suggestion as I should have been. After all the pain, suffering, and heartache Liet caused, a little payback was in order. God knows how many men and women he sent to their deaths. Trust me, I entertained the idea many times after we took over North Platte, I just didn’t voice it out loud. I knew what Quinn would say, but there was also another issue with the plan: what if Liet survived? It was possible; people had been doing it in the West since the outbreak. Granted, his chances would be less without any weapons, but it wasn’t impossible. Then what would he do? I’m pretty sure he would relentlessly hunt all of us down and kill us, maybe even torture us to death. It wasn’t a risk I wanted to take. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.
Besides, we weren’t like him, so we didn’t need to enact a punishment like he would. We were the future of the nation, and we needed to show a little compassion. The possibility existed that no one would know what we’d done, but we’d know. Could we in good conscience continue on knowing what we did to another human being? I couldn’t speak for the group in front of me, but I was sure it would haunt me forever.
Quinn placed his hands back in his pockets. “Well, it’s an idea to consider, though I can’t guarantee one we’ll employ.”
Lydia shrugged. “We understand. We just wanted to put it out there.”
Quinn nodded and smiled. “We appreciate it. We have a lot of work to do to leave the city, I suggest you get home and get your affairs in order. There will be plenty of time to talk about Florida and Liet later.”
The group agreed and thanked us for our time before heading home.
“I guess I’ll get my things together, too,” Pam stated.
With a salute, she headed to the women’s house.
Tanya, Quinn, and I walked back to Liet’s old apartment. Tanya plopped down on the couch.
“My stuff is already packed,” she mumbled under her breath before focusing her attention on digging out dirt from under her nails.
“I’ll help you with your stuff,” Quinn said, and we headed to my room.
I stood in the doorway, staring at my belongings. At one point, I would have fought tooth and nail for them. It was my place of normal, the one area I could go to and feel safe, the one place that was all my own. As I contemplated what I should take, what was important, none of it seemed to matter. I felt like a stranger. Liet told me at one point that none of the stuff was really mine, it was his; he was just nice enough to let me have it. I argued with him about it, but as I looked around, he was right. None of the stuff had any meaning to me. It all reminded me of
him and how much I hated being under his control. I looked at the stacks of CDs. Which ones would I want to listen to? Would I even have time to listen to them? Were there any in there Quinn could enjoy with me? I glanced at the closet. What kind of clothes would I need? How soon would winter be moving in? How cold would it get? How hot? Was there something in there Quinn thought I looked good in?
Quinn stood in the middle of the floor, his hands on his hips as he scanned the room. He found a bag and grabbed it. “What do you want me to put in here?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“C’mon, now. You have to take something. Some clothes, a coat.”
“Then you decide.” I walked to the bed and sat down.
With a sigh, Quinn sat next to me. He placed a hand on my knee. “Leaving can be difficult. Maybe a little scary. And it’s hard to know what you’ll need out there. But whatever you leave behind, we can replace.”
“It’s not the leaving that’s hard,” I spoke softly, my gaze focused on my lap. “I actually can’t wait to get the hell out of here.” I looked at his face. “It’s figuring out what’s important. I mean, do I need my CDs? In the scheme of things, when will I ever listen to them again? What kind of clothes do I need? Besides, they all remind me of Liet. Do I need to take that memory with me?”
Quinn placed a hand on my cheek before leaning forward and kissing me. When he pulled away, he rested his forehead against mine. “No, you don’t. We can make some memories of our own, and we don’t need these things to do it. If you want to leave it all here, fine with me. We can find other stuff.”
“And what are we going to do with Liet? Killing him would be the best option, then we wouldn’t have to worry about him ever again, but I know we can’t. The zombies have caused enough death, we don’t need to add to the toll. And he could come in handy later.”
Quinn sighed. “I don’t know, Krista. I just don’t know. Right now, we’ll take him to Dashton. After Florida is taken care of, then we’ll decide what to do with him.”
“Okay. Sounds like a plan.”
We stared at each other for a while longer. I didn’t want the moment to end, but we had a lot of work ahead of us. Plus, my shoulder ached and I needed some pain pills. After I took those, I would be ready for bed. Quinn sensed my discomfort, and he pulled away.
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