by Perrin Briar
“By the way,” she said. “You have met people like us before. We’re Resistant. Like you. You’re Resistant. You have something in your blood that protects you, preventing you from turning into one of those things. It’s the reason your family turned but you didn’t. Whatever mutation you have, they don’t. But if you can find other family members, you might find they’re still alive.”
Miranda processed the information, letting it sink in. A smile spread across her lips the likes of which Dana hadn’t seen since they’d met.
“Thank you,” she said. “I had hoped some of the others might not have turned. They could be like me.”
Dana nodded.
“We won’t be taking all the food from this place,” Dana said. “There will be plenty more left for you once we’re done.”
“And perhaps, one day, I might find it again,” Miranda said. “The universe wills us where it will. Good luck in your adventures.”
“Wait,” Dana said. “Before you go, there’s something you might help me with. I’m trying to find a secret base. Somewhere with lots of soldiers, wire fencing. Something like that. Have you seen anything?”
Miranda shook her head.
“No,” she said. “But I have seen plenty of helicopters overhead. I suppose if there’s a base somewhere nearby, that might explain them.”
And off she went, disappearing into the forest, never, Dana suspected, to be seen again.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dana and Hugo were grateful they could finally stretch their legs. Without the fear of undead literally on their heels, they could enjoy the wide open spaces and fresh air.
A sign declared they had finally arrived at Washington State’s Olympic Park. Olympic it certainly was. Dana didn’t think she had ever seen such a large and diverse natural space before. Moss-draped bigleaf maples near the Hoh River, and subalpine fir sat upright on Hurricane Ridge. Wild elk grazed on a field beside the river with Mount Olympus’s summit dominating the view from Blue Glacier. It was gorgeous and otherworldly. Dana could think of worse places to spend the end of her species.
Hugo had been right. Without a plan, without knowing where they ought to begin their search, they might never learn where the secret base was. According to the details Hugo had unearthed, they ought to head to the northern area of the park. Black-tailed deer grazed on giant plains of wild green grass, giving the impression nature really hadn’t taken much notice of the apocalypse taking place in the rest of the world. It carried on the way it always had.
They stopped and ate under broad canopies, catching a few Zs while birds flitted through the air. They refilled their containers in the freshwater springs and picked some of the wild berries, fruit, and herbs from the bushes. Hugo had previously been in the scouts and knew what was okay to eat.
They were still wary, keeping an eye out for any undead. There would be some, Dana thought, lurking around in the deep recesses and shadows. There could be more people surviving out here. They would be armed with rifles, and if they saw Dana or Hugo, they could well find themselves without their heads for very much longer.
They still had their tent and camped out. They often didn’t sleep well, starting at the noises they heard in the underbrush. In places, the trees were too big to climb up and sleep in. But when they could, they did, laying instead on their backs, looking up at the stars.
“You don’t remember me, do you?” Hugo said. “I thought you might, the first time we met.”
Dana frowned.
“What are you talking about?” Dana said. “Of course I know who you are. You’re Hugo.”
“I mean, from before,” Hugo said.
“Before when?” Dana said.
“Before all this kicked off,” Hugo said.
“You mean the apocalypse?” Dana said, rolling over onto her side to look at him. “You knew me then?”
“Everyone knew you then,” Hugo said. “But the popular people don’t notice the unpopular kids so much.”
“I wasn’t popular,” Dana said.
“Compared to me you were,” Hugo said.
The new kid on the block would have been more popular than Hugo, Dana thought. But she didn’t say it.
“You knew me before all this and you never mentioned it?” Dana said. “Why not?”
“I didn’t want you to remember me as the loser at school,” Hugo said. “The one who wasn’t good at sports, and shy around girls.”
She did think that about him when they’d first met. She wasn’t about to say that either.
Hugo turned over and stared up at the starry night sky.
“I fancied you,” he said.
He’d rolled over so Dana wouldn’t see his embarrassed expression. But she could see still his cheeks. They were burning bright red.
“I don’t think you ever said more than a couple of words to me,” Hugo said.
“Did you ever say anything to me?” Dana said.
“No,” Hugo said.
“Then you can hardly blame me for not remembering you, can you?” Dana said.
“I suppose not,” Hugo said with a chuckle. “But we’re friends now, right?”
“Silly question,” Dana said.
“Which means…” Hugo said.
“Which means yes, we’re friends,” Dana said. “Does that make you happy?”
Hugo didn’t smile, didn’t grin. Dana’s confession of friendship appeared to make him even more upset.
“Friends can tell each other anything, right?” Hugo said. “Even stuff the other person doesn’t really want to know?”
“Usually, that’s what friends do,” Dana said. “Sabotage each other’s happiness. If you’re ever too happy your friends will make sure to pull you down.”
“Is that the way you see me?” Hugo said.
“Hugo,” Dana said, rolling her eyes. “What do you want to tell me?”
Hugo considered his answer for a long time. Dana sighed. She was exhausted and made no bones about it.
“When you decide whether or not you want to tell me, make sure to wake me up,” Dana said.
She rolled over and planted her face in some moss she’s taken from the forest floor.
Hugo didn’t sleep yet. He was too busy staring at the stars.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dana awoke to the sound of chirping birds. The sound was unfamiliar to her, and therefore a threat. She sat up and peered around, instantly awake. It was just the natural sound of the forest, she realized. For a moment, she’d forgotten where she was.
But then there was an underlying silence. Too quiet, like the creatures were attempting to keep themselves hidden and unseen. Dana peered over the edge of her branch to see several undead at the base of the tree. They didn’t appear to be looking at anything in particular. Why they had gathered there, she didn’t know.
Poe snorted in his sleep. It wasn’t too loud, but the undead had amazing listening skills. Mostly because their eyesight was so bad, Dana thought. She worried about waking the others up in case they made sounds. Hugo, she thought she could control. Poe… Not so much.
Instead, she would take the situation into her own hands. She reached over and picked up some acorns, snapping off their stems. She held them in her hands and threw them down at the giant leaves of the shrubs to her north. The undead didn’t seem to notice them. Perhaps they weren’t loud enough. Dana tried again, and this time one of the undead noticed. It approached the leaves, slowly and carefully, lumbering. The other undead, not wanting to lose their share of the food, followed after.
Dana took her time and picked her next target carefully. The slim tree yonder. It looked hard, like an object that smacked its surface might make a cracking noise. She threw the acorn-come-projectile. It sent a sharp crack off the thin bark. The undead went to investigate it. They must have heard another noise then, not caused by Dana, and disappeared into the foliage.
Dana needed to hurry. She poked Hugo in the ribs. He started awake, his eyes bleary and blo
odshot.
“Wake Poe,” Dana whispered. “We have to get out of here.”
“Where are they?” Hugo said, sensing Dana’s tone.
“They just left,” Dana said. “Wake him up quietly.”
“I’ll try,” Hugo said.
He crawled along to Poe who lay across a pair of branches.
“Poe!” Hugo said. “Poe! Wake up!”
Poe snorted, a sound that would have definitely gotten the undead’s attention if they were still below. With a quick glance over her shoulder, Dana began to scale down the tree. Hugo and Poe followed soon after, Hugo giving Poe a strong hand of support.
Dana waved for them to follow her. She led them around the tree and down a slight incline and through a large pair of bushes. On the other side, Dana, Hugo, and Poe froze. They backed away slowly, re-emerging on the other side of the hedge.
“Did you see—?” Hugo said.
“Yes,” Dana said.
“Should we—?” Hugo said.
“No,” Dana said.
It was hard to believe there were so many undead in this place when there had been so few in the rest of the forest. The clearing was literally crammed with the undead.
“How are there so many here?” Dana said.
“After all the… food is gone in the cities they’ll head wherever the next big food cache is,” Hugo said.
“But how did they know to come here?” Dana said.
Hugo shrugged.
“How does the wind know how to blow?” he said. “How does a pigeon know how to navigate?”
“You’re such a dork,” Dana said.
“Maybe they followed the helicopters here,” Hugo said.
Dana nodded. That sounded about right. How else could something from the city attract so many undead to this place? The military had unwittingly brought the undead to the very place they had intended on keeping safe. Smart move.
Chapter Twenty-Four
That night, they slept in a lodge they located the previous day. It was empty and had never seen a stitch of furniture. It felt like they’d gone back in time. The forest was massive, much larger than Dana had thought. Max was inside it. Somewhere. Secretly, Dana was already beginning to lose hope she would find her. It seemed every time they turned a corner there was another vast acreage to search.
Hugo was more somber than usual. He kept staring into space and reaching into his pocket. He rubbed something inside it. He seemed even more gloomy than usual. That night they fed on the dried fish they’d gotten from the boat on the lake. It wouldn’t last them much longer. They would need to set traps and locate native wild berry bushes they could harvest.
The difficulty was they had to constantly keep moving and couldn’t farm the same resources day after day. This, in turn, meant they couldn’t spend so long searching. It was incredibly frustrating.
Hugo glanced over at Dana for the fourth time in as many minutes, and this time acted on the impulse. He got up and stood before Dana.
“Can I sit?” he said.
It seemed an odd question. He never asked to sit before.
“Sure,” Dana said. “Pull up a floor tile.”
“I’ve been thinking about how we’re going to find the secret base,” Hugo said.
“Good,” Dana said. “So have I. I figure, the next time a helicopter comes, we can follow it the same way the undead did, only we’ll be able to locate the entrance.”
“No,” Hugo said.
“No?” Dana said. “If you’ve got a better idea, I’m all ears.”
She genuinely was. She had to admit, Hugo was a master when it came to coming up with plans.
“The helicopter might not come again,” Hugo said. “And if it does, we might not be in the right area of the jungle to follow it. Not to mention they’re a lot faster than we are.”
“So?” Dana said. “Instead of beating on my plan, why don’t you tell me yours?”
Hugo looked to the side. Dana had never seen him like this before. So uncertain.
“I can’t,” he said.
“Why not?” Dana said.
“Because even if there is a secret base…” Hugo said. “Even if there was, we wouldn’t find Max inside it.”
“What are you talking about?” Dana said.
Hugo shook his head, then focused again on Dana.
“I didn’t want to tell you,” he said. “I tried a dozen times, a hundred… I don’t know. I could never find the right words.”
“What are you talking about?” Dana said.
“Do you remember when we were in the basement of the university?” Hugo said. “Where we found Debbie. We had to get the door open and shoot all the undead. There were so many of them, and they were coming out so fast…”
He rubbed his arm at the recollection. This had been eating him up.
“Afterwards, once we had finished shooting, I searched some of the bodies, looking for a girl that matched Max’s description,” Hugo said. “And… I found her.”
Dana blinked at that.
“What?” Dana said. “What are you saying? What do you mean you found her?”
“Her face wasn’t in the best condition,” Hugo admitted. “But her hair color was the same. Her age was the same…”
“No,” Dana said, getting to her feet and pacing. “No. You’re wrong. That wasn’t Max. It couldn’t have been. Why are you saying this?”
“Because it’s the truth,” Hugo said, standing up.
“No,” Dana said. “It can’t be.”
“It is,” Hugo said.
“How dare you,” Dana said. “How dare you use Max like that, just to get out of your own cowardice.”
“I’m not using her,” Hugo said. “It’s the truth.”
“Stop saying it’s the truth,” Dana said. “This is bullshit. We’re here to find Max, and that’s what we’re going to do. Why would you even say something like that?”
She could tell by the glimmer of tears in Hugo’s eyes that he was telling her the truth. She turned away, unable to see that look on his face.
“No,” Dana said. “You’re lying. Max is out here, in the hidden base.”
“I was glad, in a way, that Debbie couldn’t remember where they took your sister,” Hugo said. “It meant I didn’t have to tell you what I saw in that basement.”
“Stop it,” Dana said.
“I have no reason to lie to you,” Hugo said. “What I’m telling you is the truth.”
“Stop it!” Dana screamed. “Stop it, stop it, stop it!”
Poe moved to the corner and shuffled his feet, making whining noises. Dana was scaring him.
“You deserved to know,” Hugo said. “We can’t waste our lives out here in the park. We’ll be searching forever. And that’s only if the horde of undead we found don’t get us first.”
“Then I’ll search forever,” Dana said. “First Debbie, and now you. Can’t anyone be loyal anymore? You don’t know the girl you found was Max. You can’t know that.”
Hugo reached into his pocket and took out a length of multicolored beads.
“I found these on the girl,” Hugo said.
Dana’s eyes shimmered. She wrapped a hand around her mouth. The beads matched the ones she wore on her wrist. Max had made them at school. She called them sister beads. Dana screamed at the top of her voice. Poe whimpered. Dana’s cries had the sound of someone who had lost everything they possessed in all the world.
“I’m sorry,” Hugo said. “I wanted to tell you sooner… But how could I? She was the reason—the only reason—you kept going, that you stayed alive. If you knew your sister was—”
“Don’t say it!” Dana said.
She shook her head, dispelling the idea from her mind.
“Please,” she said. “Don’t.”
“She’s gone,” Hugo said.
His hands hung by his side, shoulders slumped. He didn’t enjoy telling her this. How could he?
“Then why did you let me come out here?” Dana sa
id.
“Because you were driven,” Hugo said. “I don’t know what you would have done if you knew. You would have given up. It would have been the end for you.”
The cabin seemed very small and claustrophobic, pressing in on all sides. Dana couldn’t stand it any longer. Her breaths came in panicked gasps. She had to get outside. She threw the door open and, blind to any risks, ran into the clearing.
“Dana!” Hugo shouted. “Dana!”
But his voice fell on deaf ears. Dana ran until she could run no more.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dana cried for a long time, so long she thought she would die from dehydration. She didn’t drink to replenish the liquid she had lost. She didn’t think at all. She stayed outside, leaning with her back against a tree. Dead to the world.
If a zombie came she wouldn’t have put up a fight. She would have let them tear her to pieces. It would have been a welcome relief. To end it and finally be with Max.
And that was when she stopped crying, when she realized that ultimately, she would be reunited with Max. She could just as easily throw herself off a cliff and onto the rocks below, or willingly hand herself over to the undead. She wouldn’t let them get off so easily. Her death would not come at a cheap price. Max had waited this long for her. She could wait a little longer.
The sun was beginning its lethargic rise when there came a thudding of propeller blades above the forest canopy. Dana finally pushed herself up, her legs numb with pins and needles. She hadn’t moved in hours. She marched back to the cabin and pushed the door open. Hugo sat up, face heavy with fatigue and concern. He hadn’t slept a wink all night either.
“What’s going on?” Hugo said.
The helicopter was thudding louder overhead now. Wherever it was going, it was close by. At the moment, at least.
“Get your stuff,” Dana said. “We’re leaving now.”
Hugo scooped up his things and shoved them into his backpack. Dana did the same for Poe, helping him put his backpack on. They ran outside. They couldn’t see the helicopter, but the sound was clearly coming from a northerly direction.