“I…thank you. I appreciate that.” Seeming on the verge of tears, the girl spun around and ran away.
He stared after her, disturbed. Perhaps, everyone was right. Perhaps, his job wasn’t to raid and fight enemies anymore. Not on the outside, anyway. Maybe his new job was to fight the enemy within and to look after those under his care. Because as much as Max was the leader, so too was he, and people looked up to him. Just like Jonathan said.
Chapter 12 - Nadia
“Caleb, I’m not going over this with you again,” Nadia said, her voice pitched low to prevent the other diners filing past from overhearing.
A few cast curious glances their way, and she reckoned it was pretty obvious they were having a fight. Especially when Caleb gripped her by the elbow and pulled her toward him.
“Why don’t you understand?” he asked. “You can’t just run off like that whenever you feel like it. We’re in a relationship now.”
“Why not?” she said, jerking her arm away. “You do. You never asked me if you could go with Ronnie.”
“But that’s different, I―”
“How is it different?” she said. “We’re in a relationship, right?”
Caleb sighed. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Nadia. Your arm isn’t a hundred percent yet. You know that.”
“Stop using my arm as an excuse. You just want me to sit here on my ass, doing nothing all day long,” she said. “I’m not a little princess.”
“That’s not true. I care about you, that’s all.”
“You know it is, but guess what? You can’t stop me from going out there.”
“Why do you have to be so stubborn?” he asked, throwing his hands in the air.
“News flash. I am stubborn. Look at me!” she said, pointing at all of her.
“Nadia, please. I love you, and I don’t want to lose you.”
“No, Caleb. Stop. Just stop,” she said, raising both hands to ward him off. “I will not sit on the sidelines while others fight my battles for me. That’s not who I am. And I most definitely won’t be guilt-tripped into doing it either.”
Caleb stared at her with a helpless look on his face, allowing his hands to fall to his sides. “That’s not what I’m trying to do.”
“Maybe you don’t realize it, but it is.” She sighed and shook her head. “You know what I am, Caleb. You know what I’m like. Maybe it’s time you decided if that’s really something you can live with…or not.”
“What are you saying?” he asked, his brow furrowed.
“I’m saying, maybe we need a time out.”
“What? You’re crazy!” His words came out louder than she wanted them too, and several heads turned their way.
“Whatever, Caleb. I’m sitting with Cat tonight. Think about it, and we’ll talk again in the morning. Okay?”
Without waiting for him to answer, she wound her way into the common room and took the empty seat next to Cat.
“Trouble?” Cat asked in a low whisper.
“You could say that, but it’s not important,” Nadia replied. “I want to hear all about you tonight.”
Cat laughed. “Let’s have dinner first. I’m starving.”
“Good to know not everything has changed,” Nadia teased. “You were always hungry, as far as I can remember.”
Cat pinched her in the ribs. “Look who’s talking. You eat like a horse.”
They got into line and waited for a plate of food each before sitting back down. It was simple fare, but good. Better than anything they’d had in ages. Chicken, rice, onions, and beets.
“Mm, this is good,” Cat said.
Her reaction was echoed by the rest around the table, and silence fell as everyone relished the meal. While they ate, Nadia watched the group from beneath lowered lids, impressed by the way they stuck together, like a family. The bigger kids would cut up the little kid’s food and help them clean if they messed, while even the smallest showcased remarkably good manners.
“You’ve been together a long time,” Nadia remarked.
“Months, maybe a year,” Cat replied with a shrug. “I’m not sure. I lose track of time.”
“Yeah, me too. It’s weird like that, isn’t it? No more calendars and watches.”
After supper, everyone excused themselves to go to bed. It had been a long day, and they were exhausted. Liz hustled the smaller kids away after Cat said goodbye, and she turned to Nadia. “So, I hear I’m bunking with you?”
“Yeah. Let me show you.”
Cat grabbed her backpack and followed Nadia to the room she shared with Ruby and Donya. Two bunk beds lined the walls, and Cat put her stuff down on the empty mattress.
“Fancy a walk?” Nadia asked.
“Sure,” Cat replied, following her outside.
They walked along the grounds, staying just outside the perimeter cast by the spotlights on the walls and talked and talked. Cat filled Nadia in on everything that had happened since they’d last seen each other.
Nadia returned the favor, ending off with, “So here I am, and here you are. Crazy, huh?”
“You’re telling me.”
“I’m sorry about your mom,” Nadia said.
“Thanks. It’s getting better now. It used to drive me crazy trying to imagine what had happened to her. I’ve realized now, I’ve got to let it go.”
“It’s better not thinking about it.”
“True. I can’t believe you’re a carrier either. That must suck,” Cat said.
Nadia sighed. “It’s tough, but if it weren’t for that, I’d be a zombie twice over already. Plus, Dr. Lange thinks I’m the key to the vaccine.”
“If you’re a carrier, I wonder what Aiden is?”
“Yeah, that’s a real puzzle.” Nadia frowned. “Do you think he’ll let Dr. Lange have some of his blood? It won’t be much. A few vials, at most.”
“I’m sure he would. Aiden’s very responsible. Dee’s the crazy one,” Cat said with a laugh. “Kinda like you.”
“This world needs crazies like us,” Dee replied with a grin.
They paused by a tree on a slight rise, and Nadia sat down on a soft patch of grass. Cat settled down next to her, and they stared at the camp stretched out below them. It was quiet and peaceful, with crickets sounding in the background.
“This is nice,” Cat whispered.
“I know,” Nadia said. “I come here a lot to think.”
“About?”
“Brandon, Bobby…everything we’ve lost.”
“Brandon wasn’t your fault, Nadia. Neither was Bobby.”
“I know that now, but I still miss them.”
“I’ve missed you,” Cat said. “I’ve thought about you all this time.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
They exchanged hugs before settling into silence again until Nadia noticed something. “Look over there.”
Cat looked where she pointed, and they both spotted a furtive figure moving from building to building. Whoever it was, stuck to the shadows and never revealed his or her face.
“Who’s that?” Cat asked.
“I’m not sure,” Nadia replied. She craned her neck and caught a brief glimpse of a hoodie with a number on the back and jeans when the person stepped into a ray of light shining between a gap in the buildings. Something twigged in her mind, but she couldn’t quite grasp the memory.
“Should we find out?” Cat asked, sounding worried.
“It’s probably nothing. Someone like us who can’t sleep either,” Nadia replied with all the reassurance she could muster.
She didn’t want to alarm Catherine who was still new to the camp and its people. The situation bothered her, though. What if it was the chicken killer? Rather leave it and tell Captain Breytenbach in the morning. Or Max.
“Yeah, maybe,” Cat replied, rubbing her arms. “You’ve got a nice setup here. Better than our place.”
“What was it like?”
“It was great at first. We had water pumped from the river, electrici
ty from a solar system…we even watched DVD’s sometimes. There was a vegetable plot, we fished, and we could get all the supplies we wanted from the town.”
“I’m sensing a but here.”
Cat grinned. “But our luck ran out. The zombies became more and more active. They seemed drawn to our place in large groups and kept attacking. We were running out of ammo when you found us. The school bus was our ticket out, though I’m not sure where we would’ve ended up.”
“We didn’t see many zoms in town, though, Logan and I,” Nadia said. “The place seemed pretty peaceful except for the group that attacked Dee and Aiden, and the lot that showed up at the end.”
“That’s because we planned ahead. We drew a big bunch of them off the day before to let Dee and Aiden get the battery we needed.” Cat shook her head. “We’ve done it before, but they always seem to come back in even larger numbers.”
Nadia shivered. “The same thing is happening here. Dr. Lange says at a certain point, the zoms stop rotting. They become more resilient when they reach that stage and tougher too. Hungry, I guess, so they go looking for food.”
Cat nodded. “Makes sense. It also makes me wonder if any of us really stand a chance in all this.”
“I wonder that too, sometimes, but we’ve got to stay positive.”
“I know. I have to be strong, especially for little Juan and Tessa. Lucy and Kerry too.”
“You’re fond of them,” Nadia remarked.
“Yes. They’re family now.” She looked at Nadia. “We all are.”
Nadia smiled before getting to her feet. “Well, we’ve got a long day ahead, so let’s get to bed, shall we?”
Cat jumped upright. “Right behind you.”
“I might even let you beat me at knife practice,” Nadia teased as they made their way back to their room.
“In your dreams. I could take you on any day.”
“Yeah? We’ll have to see about that.”
Their good-natured teasing reminded Nadia of old times, and she climbed into bed with a smile on her face. Until she remembered the mystery person with the hoodie. She felt like she knew who it was, but the memory kept slipping away.
Sleep on it. Maybe you’ll remember in the morning, she thought before drifting off at last.
Chapter 13 - Max
Max drifted in and out of sleep, his mind caught in the twilight zone between dreams and wakefulness. Phantom figures loomed around him in the dark, faceless bodies that reached out to grab him. An unknown threat. Danger.
He turned to run, but they were gone. It grew lighter, and suddenly thick mist flowed around him like a cloud. Streamers of damp vapor plucked at his skin, and the voices of long dead people whispered around him. People he’d never thought to hear speak again. His father John, Morgan, Lilian, her children, all called out to him in despair. They wanted to tell him something. They needed to warn him.
He craned his neck, trying to discern the words, but they were like echoes in the deep. Distant and far off. “Wait, I can’t hear you. Don’t go.”
The voices whimpered and faded away, the mist retreating into darkness once more. He was alone again.
Unable to settle down, he rolled around, his body uneasy and restless. Kirstin muttered in her sleep and threw an arm around him, pinning him down. For a time, her tactic worked, and he drifted off again, only to jerk awake when a fist hammered on his door.
He shot upright with a gasp, sucking oxygen into his lungs while blinking the fog from his brain. “What the hell?”
Kirstin, however, came awake with the sudden awareness of an old soldier, going from a deep slumber to complete alertness within seconds. She was up before him, slipping her jeans over her hips before running to open the door.
“Yes?” she asked, her tones clipped and businesslike.
It was Ronnie. “Come quick. There’s a fire.”
“Where?”
“The common room,” he shouted before disappearing into the darkness.
Max gaped at the empty doorway, snapping out of it only when Kirstin barked at him. “Max, the storerooms. Hurry.”
“Shit, no!” he cried as realization set in. The building that housed the kitchen and dining room also contained the storerooms. If they lost that, they were screwed. They might last a few days, at best. No more.
He jumped out of bed and pulled on his clothes with frantic haste, his heart banging in his chest. Kirstin was dressed before him in jeans, boots, and a vest. She slung her belt around her hips, arming herself with a knife and revolver.
“I’m going,” she said before darting out of the door, her hair streaming behind her like a white flag.
“Kirstin, wait,” Max shouted, jumping from one foot to the other to pull on his boots. But she was gone already, and he was left scrambling to catch up. For the first time, he noticed the tang of smoke in the air, and his heart sank. If he could smell it all the way here, that meant it was bad. “Not the storerooms. Please, God, not our food.”
When he was finally dressed, he ran outside, pausing for a brief second to orient himself. He needn’t have bothered. The direction of the fire was obvious, and the sky was lit with a fierce orange glow that could likely be seen for miles around.
People streamed toward it, and he fell in beside Lisa who sprinted past at that moment. Neither of them spoke, exchanging only a single loaded glance that said all that needed to be said.
When they reached the site, Max stumbled to a halt, his worst fears realized. The fire had engulfed the entire structure, and crackling flames reached up into the sky with long fingers.
The winter cold gave way to searing heat, and thick plumes of smoke billowed throughout the clearing, stinging his eyes and nostrils. He sucked in a breath and immediately regretted it, his lungs burning as he inhaled the acrid fumes.
A long line of people was already there, passing buckets of water from one to the other as they were filled in the ablution blocks. To no avail. The fire was too fierce and burned too hot.
In an instant, Max knew it was a lost cause. The only thing they could do now was to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading elsewhere. He ran toward the line of people near the front closest to the fire.
“Wait! Stop! It’s too late, you’re wasting your time!” He waved his hands like a crazy person as he yelled to get their attention. Several sets of wide eyes turned his way. “Wet the closest buildings. Stop it from spreading.”
A few caught on, most notably his mother Julianne who took over, directing the bucket chain towards the nearest bungalow and wetting its walls and roof instead. Max himself stormed into a nearby dorm room and ripped a sheet from the bed, putting it under the tap in the en-suite bathroom.
With the soaking sheet in his arms, he ran outside and began smothering the smaller fires that had started up on the lawn from shooting sparks. Lisa saw what he was doing and joined him. Soon, about half of the camp was copying him, setting out small blazes while the other half worked to save nearby buildings.
A loud boom rocked the ground they stood on, knocking several people off their feet. Another and another followed as the gas bottles in the kitchen exploded. Windows shattered, pieces of rock shot in all directions, and fiery debris rained down on the frightened people.
Max flung himself at Lisa who was the nearest, tackling her to the ground. “Take cover!”
Screams filled the air, and Max winced when a jagged piece of hot brick slammed into his leg. His calf muscle contracted with pain, and hot liquid filled his trouser leg.
There was no time for crying, though. The explosions started numerous fires in other locations, and Max scrambled to his feet. He hobbled toward the nearest blaze, dragging his wet sheet behind him.
“You okay?” he asked Lisa when she followed suit.
“I’m fine,” she answered, lashing the embers with a wet jacket.
He beat the burning patch of grass into submission, his breath rasping in and out of his lungs. Sweat ran down his skin in rivulets and
stung his eyes. His arms and shoulders ached with the effort of swinging the sheet, while a stitch had taken up residence in his ribs.
His lower leg was on fire, and blood pooled in his boot, but he gritted his teeth against the pain and carried on. With dogged determination, he forced his body to continue beyond the point of exhaustion.
Hannah appeared through the swirling smoke and grabbed his arm. “Max, help me, please.”
He stumbled after her until they reached a body lying prone on the ground. It was Erica, her face pale and streaked with blood. She was unconscious, her eyes shut. Hannah pointed at the injured woman. “Help me get her to the infirmary. She needs help.”
Max nodded and leaned down to collect Erica in his arms. She was a dead weight, her arms, and legs lolling like those of a rag doll. He managed to lift her off the ground with Hannah’s assistance and made his way to the clinic where a harassed Jonathan greeted him.
Several people crowded the tiny infirmary, each sporting various injuries from the blast, though none appeared to be too dangerous, at least.
Jonathan shone a light into Erica’s eyes, watching the pupils contract. “What happened to her?”
“Head injury,” Hannah replied, shoving Max out of the way.
Together, they set about treating Erica, and Max got the hint he was no longer needed. As he turned to leave, a hand gripped his sleeve. He turned around and looked into the eyes of Dr. Lange. “Yes, Doctor?”
“You’re injured,” Dr. Lange said.
“It’s okay, it’s nothing serious,” Max said.
“You’re bleeding all over the floor. Sit down and let me have a look.” Dr. Lange pushed Max onto the nearest bed, and he flopped down as the resistance leached from his muscles
He glanced down at his leg and blanched. A sudden wave of dizziness swept over him as he took in the blood soaking through his denim pants and dripping onto the floor.
Dr. Lange worked fast, cutting the material away with a pair of scissors before examining the wound. “It’s deep. You’ll need stitches, but you’ll live.”
Seize Another Day (Dangerous Days - Zombie Apocalypse Book 4) Page 10