by Siara Brandt
She was also worried about her mother, especially since she hadn’t been answering her phone long before the phones had stopped working. That and the fact that she hadn’t come to get them, which she definitely should have done by now.
Kate prayed that she was all right. If only this zombie apocalypse had happened a month later, she thought to herself. Then they would all be living together already. This house had become too much for her to take care of by herself and they had decided to move in together.
She heard Athan ask Caleb, “Are we going to starve to death?”
Caleb assured him that no one was going to starve, but Kate could hear the worry in his voice, and the truth was that they really were facing a slow death by starvation if they stayed here. They had managed to collect some rainwater, thank goodness, but the food situation was getting critical. She didn’t want to expose them to the dangers out there, but she knew she was eventually going to have to make some difficult decisions. So far they had been lucky in one sense. None of them had turned into one of those things.
“I think we should try to make it to grandma’s house,” she said. “I’m going to try and start the car again.”
Caleb turned from the window, alarm showing in his eyes. “You already tried that.”
“We have to try again.”
“I’ll go out there. You stay here.”
“No, Caleb.”
She fought hard to keep the tears from welling up in her eyes. She needed to be strong for them, not the other way around.
“What if it doesn’t start? Are we going to walk to grandma’s?” Athan wanted to know.
Kate hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “We’re going to take this step by step,” she told them. “The first step is to see if the car will start. We’ll pray about it before I go out there.”
“What about that- ” Caleb began.
“You can keep an eye on it through the bathroom window and let me know if it shows signs of getting up. We just have to think this through very carefully,” she went on. “Surely we’re smarter than that- thing out there.”
They got everything ready, just in case the car did start. They had decided they wouldn’t turn it off again if it did turn over. They would just go. And should anybody come looking for them and they weren’t here, she left a note.
“JUST THINK ABOUT RESTING AND GETTING STRONGER for now. We can talk more later.”
But all Vayna could think of was that she had to find Ryland.
As she tried to take a deep breath, a wave of dizziness hit her again along with disturbing flashes of memory. Terrifying faces, snarls, growls. A searing pain in her back and in her arm. Something holding her down. Not being able to move or get away. And then something leaping out of the darkness. Something that looked like a lion, only more terrifying. At the very memory of those feral, glowing eyes, she closed her own eyes . . .
When she tried to get up, the man was at her side again, but he didn’t have to hold her down. A wave of nausea roiled up from her stomach and she heard herself groan. She sank back down.
But after a while she did manage to get herself to a sitting position, after which she sat very still, trying to will away the nausea.
“You look like you’re still in bad shape,” she heard. “Can I look at that arm now?”
She let him push the blanket aside, and her sleeve, to expose her arm.
“Where does it hurt?” he asked, manipulating the arm gently.
“Everywhere.”
“Ah, I see,” he murmured. “There’s quite a bit of bruising, but luckily there’s no bleeding. And no bites.”
She stiffened as he gently probed the bruised flesh, but he declared that nothing looked broken.
“You have a bad gash on your head, too,” he went on. “As soon as you’re up to it, I’ll bandage that for you. You think you could eat something?”
Her gaze shifted, alighting briefly on a bowl that was sitting on the table next to the bed. A wisp of steam rose up from the bowl and her mouth watered as she inhaled something that smelled delicious.
“You’ll probably feel better after you eat something. But take it slow,” he said as her tongue flicked out to wet her dry lips.
She sipped tentatively at the bowl, found that the soup was fragrant, salty and more satisfying than anything she’d had in a long time.
She sat up straighter and finished the entire bowl of soup. Her head still hurt, but not nearly as bad as before, and the nausea was gone.
“How did I get here?” she asked as she handed the bowl back.
“I heard the noise. I saw you fall and land practically outside the door so I pulled you in here. Do you remember anything about what happened to you?”
She remembered Arlend abandoning her and running away. She couldn’t forget that. And she might be safe right now, all because of this man, and she was grateful for that. But she was still trapped inside the city and she didn’t know if her son had made it out safely. That was the worst part of it. Not knowing.
She looked up. “You said I was alone.”
“When you landed here, you were. But I could see the silhouettes of two people at the top of the hill. They disappeared shortly after that.”
Disappeared. That could mean anything. But it could also mean that Ryland was still alive. That was the only thing that mattered to her.
ARLEND BIGGERS WAS BEYOND EXHAUSTED. Sleeping inside a car had to be one of the most uncomfortable, most grueling experiences of his life. The hard, narrow seat didn’t come anywhere near being long enough for his body, no matter how many positions he had tried folding himself into. As a consequence, he was sore all over. His neck and legs especially felt cramped, not to mention that one of the seatbelts had been digging into his back all night. He was sure he had a bruise.
He finally gave up on sleep, sat up and slumped dejectedly in the backseat as he looked around him. Ryland’s note had said that he would be back as soon as he could, but where was he? Luckily, the car was parked in the shade or it would have already become unbearable in the heat. He peered groggily outside the windows with red-rimmed eyes. Nothing was moving out there, thank goodness.
Ryland had left him with a small amount of water and a meager supply of food that hadn’t done anything to appease his hunger. He had only a few swallows of water left and no food. He didn’t know how Ryland could have abandoned him like this.
Arlend had decided that he would rest here for the rest of the day and then decide what to do after that, although he was pretty confident that Ryland would soon return repentant and sorry that he had left in the first place. He even envisioned the emotional reunion as he sipped at the last of his water and picked up another magazine.
He had found some porn stashed under one of the back seats. If Vayna was here, she would have a fit if she caught him looking at it. But Vayna wasn’t here anymore and at least he had something to help pass the time while his son went chasing after a ghost.
After another hour passed by, he tossed the magazine aside and then got out of the car to stretch his legs and relieve himself. He didn’t go far from the car. He didn’t know what might be out there.
He looked around at his surroundings as he stood there with his pants undone. If he didn’t have to worry about his food and water running out, it wouldn’t be so bad here. It wasn’t like being in the city where you couldn’t make a move without someone watching you. Sure, it might get boring after a while, but right now, after all he’d been through, he was enjoying the peace and quiet.
There was a big white farmhouse at the far end of a clearing in the distance. He hadn’t seen any signs of life there the whole time he’d been here, but he had been watching, hoping that there might be someone there to help him.
Cigarettes were on his mind, too. He only had half a pack left and those had come from the car, as well. They were old and they weren’t what he normally smoked, but they were all he had.
The trampling of running feet suddenly disturbed the s
ilence. He immediately ducked down behind the car, clutching his unfastened pants around his waist. Someone went running by at a dead run. The man had blood streaming down his face.
As the man passed close to the car, his loud, frantic panting terrified Arlend. Without waiting to zip up or fasten his pants, he got back in the car as fast as he could and then crouched down on his hands and knees on the floor, trying to make himself as small as possible.
Something else passed by, but he didn’t even attempt to look and see what it was. He just stayed hidden on the floor and hoped whatever it was would go away. After a while he thought he could hear screams in the distance, but they were far away and there was nothing he could do about it. He had no weapon, not even his umbrella.
When it was quiet again, he peered carefully out the windows and gave up all thoughts of trying to make it to the farmhouse. So much for his peace and quiet.
That’s when he saw the keys. They were wedged between the seat and the console. If he was lucky, the car would start. If he was even luckier, there was enough gas to get him somewhere.
Chapter 13
Emma gasped and leaned closer to the window.
Was he crazy? Yes, he was absolutely, certifiably crazy. What was he thinking?
She watched him with the same breathless anxiety that she would watch a dangerous, high-wire act at a circus. Though he had nothing but a few boards to keep him from falling, Reyne didn’t fall. He didn’t even teeter or hesitate. He just walked across the beams like he was taking a leisurely stroll through a park.
She waited for an eternity for him to return, and when he did - across those same beams - she cried, “Are you insane?”
He stared back at her with a perplexed look on his face for a few moments. “What are you talking about?”
“Normal people don’t do things like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like that balancing act you just did.”
“You mean when I crossed that pergola?”
“Of course when you crossed that pergola. What else would I be talking about?”
He shrugged off her concern. “I wouldn’t have tried it if I didn’t think I could make it,” he said calmly. “Do I look suicidal?”
She stared at him a silent moment then threw her hands up in the air. “If you’re that reckless, I’m wondering what other dangerous things I should be expecting you to do.”
“I wasn’t being reckless. I knew I wasn’t going to have any trouble maneuvering it.”
“Really. And just how many pergolas have you maneuvered with a hundred screaming zombies beneath you waiting for you to make one tiny mistake?”
He stared at her for a moment. “I don’t think their thought processes are that complex. And there were thirty of them. Tops.”
“You counted them?”
He shrugged again. “No, that was just an estimate.”
The man had just scared ten years off her life and he was acting like it was no big deal. Exasperated by his nonchalance, she wasn’t finished. She had plenty more to say. “That had to be the most reckless act of lunacy I have ever seen. One slip - one slip - and- ”
She didn’t finish because now he was watching her with a kind of lopsided grin. “Hey, Em, don’t hold back, and don’t be shy about letting me know what you think.”
She gave him a murderous look and shook her finger at him. “I have every right to be worried. If something happens to you, that’s going to affect me too, you know.”
“Sure, yeah,” he said, instantly sobering though she doubted he was repentant at all for what he’d just put her through. “All that matters is that I didn’t fall.”
“But you could have. What were you doing anyway?”
“That was the only way to get to the bowling alley. Did you expect me to walk right through- how many was it? A hundred screaming zombies?”
There was a faint smile lingering on his face, one that he tried to hide from her. Didn’t he understand the seriousness of the consequences if he had fallen?
“And suppose you had been hurt, but not killed outright? There’s no way I would have been able to drag your big body back in here. Why would you take such a chance in the first place?”
“You said you wanted some chocolate.”
Her eyes narrowed as she stared back at him for an accusing moment. “Don’t put this on me.”
“I got back here in one piece, so you can stop worrying.”
“Until you decide to pull another crazy stunt,” she muttered under her breath.
He didn’t seem to be affected by her scorn in the least. In fact, he flashed her another boyish smile as he dumped his backpack and the contents scattered across the table between them. “You’ll forget all about that pergola when you see what I brought you. I hit the jackpot.”
She did forget. A little.
The table was piled high with granola, chips, popcorn, beef jerky, trail mix and crackers.
“But wait. That’s not all.” Out of his pockets, he pulled six cans of fruit drink.
“That’s natural fruit drink, not the fake stuff. And look at this stuff.” He reached into another pocket and drew out several foil packets. “Squeezable peanut butter. Weird, huh? Never saw that before.”
By the look on her face, that little walk across the pergola had been worth it.
“You were lucky,” she said, relenting a little. “I’ve never found anything in a vending machine.”
“Somebody did get there first and cleaned out the vending machines,” he said. “But they didn’t get everything. Someone had left a snack stash behind the counter.”
“And- ” he held up another surprise, the one he had been saving for last. “M&M’s. Bet you haven’t had these in a long time.”
No, she hadn’t. Her mouth was practically watering.
Because his smile was wholesome and honest and it reached his eyes, she couldn’t stay mad at him. It made her forget the dangerous risk he had taken.
“They used to serve pizza over there, once upon a time,” he said as he opened one of the packets of peanut butter.
“Did they?”
“Sounds good, doesn’t it? A pizza with black olives, peppers and pepperoni.”
“I’ll skip the peppers. But I’d probably walk across a pergola for a pizza of any kind.” She watched him as he opened a package of crackers. “Thank you for- everything. You know it’s just that I- don’t want anything to happen to you, don’t you?”
He glanced up at her while he licked peanut butter from the back of a finger.
“And next time I say I want something,” she chastised him. “Don’t listen to me.”
“THIS PLACE HAS BEEN SAFE SO FAR,” Jae told Vayna. “We don’t allow any lights at night and we keep sound down to a minimum. But . . . ”
He didn’t have to finish. “But the water supply is running low,” Vayna said. “And once they figure out we’re in here . . . ”
“They’ll come right through the walls,” he finished what she did not want to put into words. “Everyone here knows that,” he added. “They might not talk about it, but they know.”
After he sighed deeply, she asked him, “Do you need to find family members, too?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry to say that I was pretty alone in the world after my parents passed away.
“Anyway, I’m armed,” he went on. “That will give us an edge.”
He showed her not one but two guns that he had in concealed in hidden holsters on his body. “So of course I’m coming with you. Do you have any idea where to start looking?”
“We had a plan to go to Pleasant Hill. I’ll start looking for him there.” She looked up at him. “About the lions- ”
“I don’t know if there’s more than one,” he told her. “There’s one for sure. I’ve seen it myself. That’s one of the reasons I’m not letting you go out there alone.”
“Can we kill it?” she asked.
He didn’t answer her right away. Finally
he said, “There’s no reason to think we can’t.”
Regular lions were bad enough, but zombie lions? She didn’t even want to think about that.
“Whatever curse we’re afflicted with,” Jae said. “We seem to be passing it on to the animals. Some of them at least. That lion’s been feeding off the zombies. I assume that’s why it became like that.”
“How do we know it won’t- ” she began, afraid to put it into words.
“Come in here? We don’t. That’s another reason to leave this place. If you climb to the top of that ladder there, you can see what’s going on for quite a ways. I’ve spent a lot of time up there. For some reason, the zombies quiet down and almost go into a standing sleep state in the last couple of hours before dawn. They stay that way unless they’re disturbed. I don’t know why, but they all seem to do it to some degree. Maybe they need to rest just like we do. But things like rain or lightning and thunder will stir them up again.”
“I’ve been shut up in a condo since this whole thing started,” she told him. “So there’s a lot I don’t know. Do you have any idea what caused this?”
“I wish I did. Then maybe we would have some answers on how to stop it. It could help us survive. But as it is now, anybody’s ideas are only guesses. With communications down, even if someone out there does, or did, know the answer, we may never hear about it.”
“I couldn’t help but notice you took your wedding ring off after you got here,” he said, not looking at her, and hoping he was not overstepping any boundaries.
“I want to find my son,” she said. “As for my husband, I hope I never see him again.”