Serg was struggling with his own zombie. He had out a large hunting knife, which he was using to try to slash at the zombie in front of him. It kept the zombie back a bit, but it wouldn’t for long.
In fact, if Ripley hadn’t come out from behind a tree and pounced on the zombie, Serg probably would’ve been dead meat. Thankfully, there was nothing that cat loved more than killing zombies.
Boden was bashing a zombie with his gun, and it was still twitching, but I doubted it could hurt anybody. Bishop was fighting off another zombie, but Serg joined in to help her fight it off. The only zombie left unaccounted for was the one chasing the kids.
I figured between Bishop, Boden, Serg, and the lion, they could handle the last zombie, and I took off in the direction I’d seen the zombie go. I wasn’t sure where they went, other than north, but it wasn’t long before I heard Stella crying.
I ran toward the sound of her cries, and when I was closer, I heard another noise mixed in with it. A zombie tearing and eating flesh. It was a very specific sound, but one I knew all too well.
I slowed down when I approached, trying to get an idea of what the situation was before I ran headlong into it.
All I could see was the back of a zombie, bent over as he gnawed on something. He was shirtless and clearly male, but his skin had a greenish hue to it, and his spine protruded almost like spikes from his skin. He was starving.
Stella was still crying, but I didn’t see her at first. Then I looked up. She was sitting in the lower branches of a pine tree, clinging to it, and staring down as the zombie ate what I presumed to be Teddy.
I grabbed a thick stick from the ground and snapped it over my leg, creating a pointed edge. The zombie looked back when he heard it, but I hid behind a tree. I waited for a few seconds, then I heard the zombie start chewing away at Teddy again.
I crept out from the tree and walked up behind the zombie. It was too engrossed in eating to notice me. It was in the middle of biting into one of Teddy’s organs when I drove a stick through its back, jabbing it right through the heart.
The zombie slumped forward, in what ended up being a bit of a blessing. It fell over the hole it had ripped in Teddy’s back, sparing Stella from looking at it anymore. Though I suppose she’d already seen enough.
And what I could see of Teddy’s body wasn’t pretty. His legs and pants were shredded, clawed up by the zombie’s hands. His mouth was open wide, frozen in an expression of horror, and his entire back was stained with blood.
“Stella, sweetie,” I said, turning my attention to the little girl hiding in the tree. “It’s okay. The zombie’s gone now.”
“No!” She shook her head, tears streaming down her chubby cheeks. “The zombies are never gone!”
“Well, they are for now,” I said. I moved closer to the tree, which meant stepping over Teddy’s body, and I held my hands out to her. “The zombies are gone, and everything’s okay. You can come down now.”
“No!” She clung onto the branch and kicked at me, like she was trying to shoo me away. “I’m never coming down again!”
“Stella.” I sighed and put my hands on my hips. “This is like the loft all over again. You came down from that, and that turned out fine.”
“It did not!” Stella pointed to Teddy. “He got eaten! And something happened to that lady back in the cabin! It’s not fine!”
“Well, yes, those things did happen but …” I trailed off.
But what? She had a point. She just couldn’t live in that tree forever.
“Is everything okay?” Bishop asked as she jogged up behind me. Boden and Daniels were following behind her, but at a much slower rate.
“Well, Stella’s in the tree,” I started to explain, but Bishop’s eyes had been locked on her. She’d probably been summoned by Stella’s cries, the same way I had.
Bishop looked down when she got close and slowed to a startled walk. She put her hand to her mouth, and her eyes widened as she approached Teddy.
“Oh my god.” Her voice trembled, and tears filled her eyes. She lowered her hand and circled closer to Teddy. She reached out like she meant to touch him, but she didn’t. “Oh, Teddy. Oh no.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, because I couldn’t think of anything better to say.
“No.” She pushed her lips together in a thin line and swallowed back tears. “It’s not your fault. And he died bravely, at least. That’s something.”
“Yeah, it is,” I agreed.
“Stella.” Bishop turned her attention to the child, smiling up at her with tears in her eyes. “Are you okay, sweetie?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “But I’m never coming down.”
“How did you get up there, honey?” Bishop asked, wiping at her eyes. “Did you climb up there?”
Stella shook her head. “Teddy helped me up here. Then when he was climbing up, the zombie grabbed him and pulled him back down.”
“That won’t happen to you, Stella,” Bishop said. “We got all the zombies. It’s safe to come down now.”
“I already tried that approach,” I told her quietly. “The kid’s not budging.”
“Come on, honey.” Bishop held her arms up to the tree. “Come on down. I’ll keep you safe, Stella. I promise.”
“Remy!” Max shouted, and I turned to see him running through the trees toward me. Daniels was behind him, but moving more slowly.
“Hey, kid!” I stepped in between Max and Teddy, blocking his view as best I could. When Max reached me, he jumped into my arms, hugging me.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Max said, and I let go of him, putting him on the ground. “Are all the zombies dead?”
“They sure are,” I said. “Well, the ones that were attacking us, anyway.”
“Did everyone make it okay then?” Daniels asked me, and I shook my head. His eyes travelled over to where Teddy and the zombie lay dead, and he frowned.
“Thank you for taking my brother,” I said.
Daniels nodded. “It was nothing that you wouldn’t have done for me.”
“What’s Stella doing up in that tree?” Max asked.
“Um, she’s hiding out.” I put my hand on his shoulder, keeping him from walking closer to Teddy’s body.
It might have seemed silly to some that I was trying spare him from seeing that. After all the gore and death he’d witnessed, Teddy would just be another one in the long list of horrors he’d encountered in his short life.
But if I could make it so there was one fewer awful thing haunting Max’s nightmares, then I would do it. I’d always tried to shield him from seeing the worst of everything, and I knew that I couldn’t every time. But that never stopped me from trying.
“Stella, you’ve got to come down,” Bishop told her in a soothing voice. “We can’t stay here forever.”
“Max, why don’t you ask Stella to come down?” Boden suggested, since none of Bishop’s tactics seemed to be working.
“Come on, Stella.” Max stepped forward, but he was looking up at her. “You gotta come down from there eventually.”
“No, I don’t!” Stella insisted.
“Yeah, you do,” Max said. “You’re gonna get tired and hungry and you’ll have to pee. You can’t eat or pee up in that tree, and if you tried to sleep, you’d fall out. So you should come down now when we’re all here to help you.”
That argument seemed to be winning Stella over. She didn’t immediately denounce it as stupid, and she looked down at Bishop.
“It’s okay, Stella.” Bishop held up her arms. “I’ll catch you.”
“Oh hell,” Boden whispered.
“What?” I whispered back, wondering what his problem was.
Then he pointed, and I saw it right away. When Bishop lifted up her arms to reach for Stella, her shirt had ridden up in the back. There on her side, a few inches above her hip, was a large bite mark. The edges were ragged and bloody, fresh from her fight. A zombie had bitten her. She was infected.
“Shit,” I said.
Daniels and Serg must’ve have seen the same thing, because they both let out large sighs. Bishop was too busy coaxing Stella out of the tree to notice us, and it seemed to be working, so we let her keep going.
“Come on, honey.” Bishop’s hands were outstretched, and Stella was tentatively letting go of the tree. She moved closer to Bishop but hadn’t made an official move to get down yet. “I’ll catch you, sweetie.”
“You promise you’ll catch me?” Stella asked.
“I promise, honey,” Bishop said.
“And you promise you won’t let the zombies get me?” Stella sniffled.
“I cross my heart and hope to die,” Bishop said, and I grimaced.
Stella finally relented. She sat down and dangled her legs over the branch. Then she slid off the edge and fell into Bishop’s waiting arms.
“I’ve got you, sweetie,” Bishop said, cradling the little girl and comforting her. “Everything is going to be okay.”
She whispered soothing words into Stella’s hair, then turned around toward us. She was rocking the child gently in her arms until she saw our faces. Daniels, Serg, Boden, and I were all standing in a line, staring at her grimly.
“What?” Bishop asked. She paled, and her gray eyes were scared, but she honestly didn’t seem to understand what would be wrong. “What’s going on?”
“Bishop, you’ve been bitten,” Boden said matter-of-factly.
“What?” She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t.”
“We saw it,” Boden said.
“You saw it?” Her eyes furrowed in confusion. “Where?”
“It’s on your back.” Daniels pointed at her, as if that would clarify the spot. “When your shirt rose up, we all saw it.”
“No, I didn’t get bit.” She shook her head again and turned, lifting up her shirt and trying to see it. “I was scratched. That’s all. I never got bitten.”
“Bishop, we know the difference between a scratch and a bite,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“But…” She’d started backing up, still holding Stella in her arms, and that’s when it first occurred to me that we might have a problem. “I might be immune. You’re immune. I could be like that.”
I was a little stunned to hear Bishop say that. I’m not sure how she knew I was immune, except that Bishop seemed like the kind of person that knew things. She was in charge at the quarantine. Or maybe she’d just overheard me talking with Daniels.
“You might be immune,” Boden agreed. “But you probably aren’t. We’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, though, and we’ll let you go off alone. But you can’t stay with us anymore.”
“You can’t!” Bishop insisted, and her eyes had gotten a wild glint to them. “You can’t separate me from the children! I’m the only one Stella trusts!”
“Please don’t make it harder than it is,” I said. “Just put Stella down.”
Stella, sensing the tension, had begun to cry again. She clung tighter to Bishop, which did not help the situation at all.
“What’s going on?” Max asked, sounding frightened. I’m sure he understood what was happening – at least the part about Bishop being infected. I think he’d asked more because he was afraid of what was going to happen.
“Just stay back, Max,” I said and stepped closer to Bishop. “Just put Stella down, and we’ll talk about it.”
“No.” Bishop shook her head fiercely. “I’m not letting her go. I’m not infected, and she needs me.”
“Bishop, be reasonable.” Boden stepped closer to her, so we were starting to circle her.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Serg stepping away. But Bishop didn’t notice. She was too focused on Boden and me, who were closing in on her.
“You were a good leader,” Boden went on. “You always did what was best for the people. And what’s best for the people is putting the little girl down.”
“I am a good leader, but you’re not,” Bishop said, and tears were fresh in her eyes. “Remy, you shouldn’t be listening to him. He’s wrong about this. I can take care of your brother and Stella. You can’t listen to him.”
“He’s right, Bishop,” I said. “And you know it.”
She backed away from us, but she wasn’t looking where she was going. Her eyes were fixed on Boden and me, and she didn’t see Serg coming up behind her.
Serg pulled out his hunting knife, and I nearly winced when I saw it, but I managed to keep my expression neutral. I didn’t know what he planned to do to Bishop, but we needed to get Stella away from her. If Bishop ran off with her and became a zombie, it would be horrendous.
“You’re wrong,” Bishop kept saying as if that would convince us somehow.
Then Serge was behind her. Using his free hand, he grabbed onto her hair, and she gasped loudly when he pushed the blade into her back. I’d been terrified that he’d stab her or slit her throat, but since she was still breathing, I guessed he was only pressing it there so she knew he had it.
“That’s my knife,” Serg said, his voice low in her ear. His grip on her hair held her to him, and her eyes darted around. “I don’t want to kill you in front of the little girl, and I don’t think you want that either. So put her down, and I’ll let you live.”
“Please,” Bishop pleaded, and Serg pushed the knife harder in her back, making her wince. “Fine! I’ll put her down.”
Serg still hung onto her, so she couldn’t run away, but he moved the knife back, so Bishop could bend down and put Stella on the ground. Stella tried to hang onto her, but Bishop pushed her away with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Come here, Stella,” Daniels said. He stood behind me and Boden, back with Max, and he crouched down and held his arms out to her.
Stella cried, standing there bewildered for a few seconds, then she dashed past me and ran into Daniels’ waiting arms. He scooped her up and held her to him, letting her cry into his shoulder.
“What are you going to do now?” Bishop asked when she stood back up. Serg still hung onto her hair, with his knife in her back. “Are you going to gut me?”
“No, I’ll let you live if you promise to go away and never come back,” Serg said.
“What if I’m not infected?” Bishop asked, wiping at her nose. “Because I’m not.”
“I don’t care,” Serg said. “Don’t come back. Just go away.”
She sniffled, then nodded. “Fine.”
Serg let go of her, then circled back around to stand by me. He still had his knife out, in case she decided to try something, and her eyes darted between us.
“I’m not infected,” Bishop insisted, rubbing the back of her head. “I’m not. You’re making a horrible mistake.”
“We’re sorry if we are,” Boden said. “But I really don’t think we are.”
“I would know if I was infected,” Bishop said. “I would know! And I’m not.”
Stella started crying harder when Bishop shouted, and I just wanted her to get out of there. She’d been bitten, and we couldn’t risk having her around. It was way too dangerous for the kids, not to mention everyone else.
“You need to go.” I stepped closer to her. “We’re letting you live, but if you don’t go, that will change very quickly.”
She nodded, her eyes crazy but sincere. “You will be sorry.”
Bishop turned and ran off through the trees. It wasn’t until she was out of sight that I let out a deep breath. I put my face in my hands, and I just wanted to crumble. Everything that had happened in the past few days was weighing down on me like a ton of bricks, and I wanted to collapse.
“I’m sorry,” Serg said. “I should’ve noticed when we were fighting the zombies. I should’ve seen her get bit. I wasn’t paying enough attention. It’s my fault.”
“No, it’s not your fault,” Boden assured him. “It’s nobody’s fault.”
I turned back around and walked over to Max. He asked me what was wrong, but I didn’t answer him. I just picked him up and hugged him. Su
ddenly, all I wanted to do was hold him in my arms, to feel the weight of him grounding me here, holding me in this place.
Despite how hard things got, I had something keeping me here, something I needed to keep fighting for. And as long as he was here with me, I had to keep going.
I kissed the top of his head and swallowed back tears. “I love you, Max.”
23.
“She’s following us,” Boden said.
“I know.”
After we sent her away yesterday, we’d walked on without any breaks. Between the zombie attack and everything with Bishop, we didn’t want to risk slowing down for anything. A few times, I thought I’d seen or heard her scurrying around, but it could always be attributed to the wind through the trees or Ripley trailing us.
We slept in a cave last night, a small hole in a ridge. It was cozy to say the least, but it was easy to keep track of everyone. Boden and I traded off keeping watch, but neither of us saw anything more dangerous than an owl.
So far the worst that had happened after Bishop left was Stella crying almost constantly. She calmed down by nightfall, and Max got her to eat. He said she’d been the same way after the compound burned down, but she got over things eventually.
This morning seemed to be a dramatic improvement. She even walked along the trail with us, usually holding Daniels’ hand, but sometimes, she’d hold mine.
While Stella had improved, our situation had not. Bishop was now clearly following us. We could hear her, and I’d even seen her a few times moving through the trees. I kept half-hoping that Ripley would think she was a zombie and pounce on her, thus saving Bishop a lot of pain and suffering. Not to mention helping us out.
“She’s getting bolder,” Boden told me, his voice low in case Bishop was nearby listening. “I just saw her a few feet from us, barely even hiding behind a tree.”
“Did she still look human?” I asked.
“So far. But it won’t be much longer.”
The transformation from human to zombie varied from person to person. I’d seen it happen in as little as a few hours and as much as four days. It just depended. But really, any time now, and Bishop would turn into a monster.
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