by M. J. Haag
A sign to the left caught my attention.
“Kerr, we need to check that building,” I said, pointing at the large brick structure. Finding a hospital this close to the edge of town was pure luck. I just hoped that wouldn’t be the only bit of luck we had today.
The fey veered that direction, crossing over the lanes and running through the snow toward the hospital. The front windows of the first wing of the building were broken open, and the floor inside was dusted with snow.
“Wait here,” Molev said. “We will check for infected first.”
The majority of the group waited outside with Kerr holding me in their center. He didn’t seem to mind that I had an arm looped around his shoulder or that I leaned into his warmth. My breath misted in the cold air, but I didn’t complain. Outside in the cold was better than inside with any infected.
It wasn’t long before Molev returned and waved us forward.
“We found a room with many pill bottles like Mya showed us.”
He led the way to a large space that looked like it had once been a nice pharmacy attached to the hospital. Most of the shelves were empty, and the protective barrier behind the counter was smashed.
Given the state of things, I half expected to find empty shelves when Kerr took me around to the back. However, there was a lot of medicine left.
“Take anything that is not an empty bottle or container.”
I wouldn’t know what most of it was even if I read the label, but any medicine was better than no medicine. That one of the fey found a book under the counter with descriptions of most of the common pills was a bonus.
As soon as they had everything in bags, Molev motioned the group toward the door. I expected us to return to the entrance. Instead, he continued the search for medical supplies. I knew it was logical to keep looking. We hadn’t run into any trouble, and the pharmacy had supplied us with a good deal of medicine. But, Whiteman and Tolerance needed more than that. Sutures, bandages, and other supplies. However, I wondered if we were being smart. How much longer would our luck hold out?
Each corner we turned, my heart pounded a little harder. I kept expecting to see a barricade or an infected shambling towards us. But the halls were eerily empty.
Locked supply closets, drawers, or cabinets were not a problem for the fey. They broke into any space that might have something useful. And, often, it did.
Being inside the cold, dark building was fraying my nerves, though. There were just too many supplies left in the building for it to have been cleaned out by the fey or Whiteman’s crews. That meant the cars on the road hadn’t been moved by humans.
As soon as I found enough sutures to last Whiteman for a while, I called a halt to the search. Molev nodded and led the way out of the building. I clutched Kerr tightly, glad that he’d kept me in his arms the entire time, and I didn’t take a normal breath until we stood outside.
Several fey ran the supply bags back to the truck while the rest of us continued in the direction we had started. It felt only marginally safer to be in the daylight with space to run. The lack of businesses on this side of town made it apparent, though, that there wasn’t much more for us to scavenge unless we wanted to go into homes.
Molev stopped in the middle of the road and held up his hand. The group stopped and stood there in silence.
I pressed a little closer to Kerr. His hand against my leg made a soothing motion that didn’t quite do the trick. My pulse was jackhammering too hard. My eyes darted around, searching the buildings, the shadows, and the snow for any sign of infected.
Without a word, the fey turned around and sprinted back toward the truck. I watched over Kerr’s shoulder, but nothing appeared.
It wasn’t until we reached the truck that I found my voice.
“What was wrong back there? Did Molev see something?”
“No, I didn’t,” Molev said from beside us, startling me. I’d been focused on Kerr and the fey loading the supplies into the back of the truck.
“The infected near Tolerance avoid us because they know they will die. However, infected everywhere else still try to attack us or trap us. We have yet to find a town as quiet as this one. Something is wrong here.”
I couldn’t have agreed more. My gut was telling me to run far and fast. Although, to be fair, it’d been telling me that since the moment Kerr jumped over Tolerance’s wall with me this morning.
“Then, we’ll skip any more scavenging here and continue on,” I said.
“Yes. I think that is for the best.”
Molev opened the door, and Kerr set me on the step-up. After a quick map check, I started the engine. The fey ran ahead, retracing our steps. Just after the hospital, I took a left and followed 13 along the outskirts of town.
At first, it seemed like we were heading away from town. But, it didn’t take long for houses to pop up on both sides of the double-laned road. Too many houses not to attract some infected attention at the sound of the truck’s passing. Yet, nothing came.
The further I drove, the more the cars jumbled the outer lanes instead of the shoulders, creating a channel. Someone did this on purpose. Why? My hands clenched the steering wheel, and I waited for something to move. For those car doors to open and let infected out like before.
When I came to an intersection with a fast food sign on the corner, I took a moment to wipe my sweaty palms on my jeans. Molev’s words kept replaying in my head. None of this felt right. Where were the infected?
We passed another pharmacy on the left. There wasn’t a single car in the parking lot, yet the snow on the ground was churned to a grey slop. Footprints and drag marks. The first signs of infected, more numerous than I’d ever seen, terrified me. I pressed down on the gas and sped past.
The front door of the pharmacy burst open, and infected came streaming out, the noise of their groans reaching me inside the cab. I watched in the mirrors as most of them shambled after the sound of the engine. Some of them actually ran, though. They scared me more than anything.
I forced the truck to go a little faster. Ahead, I saw a familiar sign for one of the larger chain super centers. It would be another perfect place to grab supplies we desperately needed, but there was no way in hell I was stopping. A glance in the mirror showed that the infected from the pharmacy were still giving chase.
Movement ahead of the truck drew my attention, and I watched another swarm of infected pour from the super center as well. They ran in a group, coordinated and focused on the truck and my fey escort.
“Shit.” I floored it.
The fey running ahead of the truck sprinted faster, outdistancing the vehicle to meet the infected. Like the trap on the road, the fey met the infected head-on and fought with bloody ferocity until I was almost on top of the struggling mass. At the last moment, the fey jumped out of the way. Infected, not smart enough to do the same, were crushed under the tires of the truck or splattered on the grill. Gore coated my windshield, and I deftly turned the wipers on.
Rumbling past, I watched the mirrors. The majority of the fey were swallowed by the crush of infected still joining the fight from behind and to the side. Shock had my foot easing up on the gas.
Something thumped on my door as a shape rose to eye level.
“Do not stop for anything, Cassie,” Kerr ordered through the glass.
I floored it and barreled away from the fight. My eyes bounced between the view of the road ahead of me and the fight behind me. Heads and bodies flew. So many. After a moment, infected began to break away and run back toward the stores. At the infecteds’ retreat, the fey split away and followed in the truck’s wake.
How many times would this happen before I returned to Tolerance? How many times could this happen before I didn’t return to Tolerance?
I drove steadily for fifteen minutes before Molev gave the signal to stop. With shaking hands, I pulled over to the shoulder and parked the truck. I opened the door without killing the engine, though. At the first sign of infected, I wanted to b
e ready to take off again.
“Was anyone hurt?” I asked Kerr. He looked at Molev, who came running up to the side of the truck.
“Nothing serious enough to address now,” Molev said. “We should send a group back for supplies. That larger building is one that usually has much food.”
I shook my head.
“Given the number of infected that came out of it, it wouldn’t be worth the risk. There’s a lot of towns we’re going to pass through yet. We’ll have other opportunities.”
He grunted. Whether in agreement or not, I wasn’t sure.
“Was that normal?” I asked. “How do the infected know to hide in stores now? Do they really understand that we’re after the supplies in there, or was it just luck?”
“It is troubling,” he said, looking back the way we’d come. “The infected seem to be getting even smarter.”
“Yeah. Seems like it.”
Molev walked away without confirming anything, and Kerr hopped up onto the step so he was towering over me.
“Drink some more water, and eat something from the bag next to you.”
I looked at the lunch box. I knew I needed to eat but wasn’t sure if I could. Half the fey and the front of the truck were still covered in infected bits. Hard to have an appetite around all of that glop. Instead, I grabbed the water and made a show of drinking.
Kerr nodded and hopped down. As soon as the door closed, Molev signaled for the forerunners to go. I capped the water and started up again, wondering what the next run-in would bring.
Chapter Eleven
Once Molev signaled that we were going to be stopping for the night, I thought I would be relieved. Instead, I now watched the encroaching dusk with trepidation as I followed the fey down a dirt road off the highway.
Today had been a new level of hell in survival. The infected lying in wait in Clinton hadn’t been the last group we’d encountered like that. The undead were definitely getting smarter and had taken to lying in wait at places that had supplies. I didn’t know how anyone would be able to scavenge on a large scale now. Whiteman would be screwed soon.
Molev motioned for me to park, interrupting my dismal thoughts. I let the truck idle while several small groups of fey checked each of the nearby country homes. Lights flickered on in all three. Molev waved me toward the grand, two-story with snow-covered planters standing sentinel at the end of the driveway.
I cut the engine at the garage and watched the fey jog around the yard to check the outbuildings and nearby trees. The garage door opened to show two shiny new cars. The fey inside called to Kerr that the house was safe.
Kerr looked up at me through the window and reached for the door. He’d run beside the truck the whole day. He had to be tired. Yet, he reached up for me and lifted me down as if it were nothing.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Not really.”
I’d given the same answer at lunch, not that it had done me any good. I’d still ended up eating inside some trashed house on the side of the road. Blood had smeared a few of the doors, and the water hadn’t worked. But I’d been safe enough, thanks to the fey, and still able to use the bathroom. I just closed the lid instead of flushing. Something I’d gotten very good at since the first hellhound sighting all those weeks ago.
I felt sure this house wouldn’t be much different, which made it hard to be hungry or to want to stop and rest. But, my nerves were shot, and I couldn’t stop shaking. Far too many infected had tried chasing us down today.
“Come. We’ll find something to eat from the supplies.”
He picked me up and headed toward the back of the truck. It would have felt good to stretch my legs if they weren’t acting like they were made of Jell-O. Being carried gave me a moment to try to stop the tremors running through me. Kerr seemed to notice because his fingers made soothing little circles on the side of my thigh until he reached the cargo doors.
With a boost, Kerr helped me into the cargo hold. Someone had been smart enough to install hooks every several feet along the top and bottom of the support bars. Cargo straps were fastened from hook to hook, holding all the stacked goods in place.
I looked at the supplies we had gathered so far, knowing most of what was there without actually seeing it. The truck was already a quarter full. We had even collected a fair amount of chocolate from a convenience store in Montrose, which filled at least two totes. A decent supply of spices and seeds from a market in Butler filled another four. Most of that was luxury instead of necessity. However, we’d also scored cases of jars and other canning supplies, along with an assortment of jellies. It wasn’t the food and formula and diapers we needed, but the seeds for a garden and the canning supplies would help us next year, if we lived that long.
In the jumble of supplies, I spotted a few cans of chicken on top of a tote that someone must have found at the convenience store. I picked them up and showed them to Kerr.
“There really isn’t much here to make a real meal,” I said. “I’m sorry. I know two cans of chicken won’t go very far.”
He made no comment as he lifted me down and carried me straight into the house, the garage door closing behind us.
Inside, the fey were exploring the home. It felt safe enough in there, and it was warm. I’d never been more grateful for a house with heat.
Kerr stepped into the kitchen where one of the fey was digging through the freezer. He started tossing packages to another man near the table. That fey set each frozen item on the surface with a solid thunk.
“Can we eat any of these?” Kerr asked.
“It looks like fish and beef. It should be okay as long as it doesn’t smell bad when you thaw it.”
He set me on my feet, and I moved to look for pans.
Kerr stopped me with a firm hand on my arm.
“Sit. Eat.” Another fey threw a can opener to him.
While the fey moved around the kitchen, I sat at the table and ate the chicken from the cans that Kerr opened for me. I watched a fey dump all the frozen meat into a pot along with a few cups of water before lighting the stove. I couldn’t imagine what that was going to taste like.
Each cupboard was opened and emptied of anything that resembled a food item. Those items the fey took straight outside to the truck.
All the while, the sky grew progressively darker. I only managed to finish a few bites before I pushed the first can aside.
A distant howl reached my ears, and I froze. My eyes locked on the window where the last light of the day was only a memory. There’d be no resting once the sun set. Not in this house.
“Do we have to stay here?” I asked.
Kerr held out his hand.
“There is a room upstairs where you can sleep.”
Not arguing, I followed Kerr out of the kitchen and spotted fey settling down on the floors or any open piece of furniture, seemingly undisturbed by the sound of the hellhound. Maybe they knew it was too far away. I hoped that was the case. We reached a lit set of stairs leading up. It was the only surface without a fey sprawled on it. I looked at the top landing and didn’t see any fey up there, either.
“Why isn’t anyone upstairs?” I asked.
“Mya told us that you might like privacy at night.”
I swung my gaze to his.
“Nope. Not even a little. I’ll sleep down here.”
Kerr nudged me up the stairs, anyway.
“I heard it,” I said. “The hellhound.”
“You’re safe. Nothing will harm you. I swear.”
I didn’t believe him. Not for a moment.
“It doesn’t feel safe sleeping by myself,” I said.
“I promise you are safe.”
When I stubbornly crossed my arms, he picked me up and carried me the rest of the way upstairs.
I waited until we reached the landing to struggle out of his hold. I wasn’t stupid enough to risk us both falling to our deaths on the stairs.
“You can’t just take my choices from me.”
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He released me easily but frowned when I crossed my arms and didn’t continue down the hall.
“You’re tired,” he said. “Your skin is so pale the marks on your nose seem darker. The skin under your eyes looks grey like Tor’s.” He gently reached up and traced under my left eye.
“I will not leave you alone,” he said softly. “I will stay with you all night if it will help you feel safe.”
He held out his hand, and I knew he was asking for me to do more than accept his offer. He wanted my trust, too. I placed my hand in his and let him lead me to the bedroom at the end of the hall. The whole time, his thumb brushed the back of my hand.
I didn’t mind the contact a bit.
A day of riding adrenaline waves from the constant threat of infected left me feeling two blinks away from collapse and terrified at the same time. After just hearing that howl, the last thing I wanted to do was give in to my need for sleep. Yet, when I saw the large bed, neatly made and very inviting, I couldn’t help but shuffle toward the oasis.
I wouldn’t sleep. Not with those howls distantly disturbing the night and every single light in the room on. But, I could lie down and let my body take a break.
I sank into the soft mattress and stared up at the ceiling. When was the last time I had a bed to myself? That thought gave birth to another. What was Lilly doing? Was she playing with the toys? Was she as terrified as I was? Missing me as much as I missed her?
Kerr sat on the floor near the door. When he’d said he would stay, I’d thought it would be next to me. My face heated a little at the thought of sharing the bed with him.
Exhaling slowly, I noted how completely at ease he appeared.
“Doesn’t it bother you? Hearing the howls and knowing they’re somewhere out there?”
“I don’t remember a lifetime where I didn’t hear them. This is nothing new.”
I couldn’t say hearing that made me feel any better. I didn’t want to grow used to hearing the hounds. I wanted the old, safer world back, but as much as I wanted that, I knew it wasn’t a possibility. There was no going back; only going forward. That was something I’d started telling myself after the old commander of Whiteman announced the bombing of all major cities.