by R. W. Ridley
She wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered “You’re not leaving me again.” I pulled her out of the flailing mass of people... or what were once people.
Wes limped to us. “What in tarnation...”
“Damn it!” Gordy yelled, “He didn’t make it!”
“Who didn’t make it?” Wes asked.
“We don’t have time to discuss this,” I said. “We need to get as far away from here as we quickly as we possibly can.”
We maneuvered through the trees and headed down the mountain. Wes sucked in air with each step. The arrow was still protruding from his leg. He hobbled along stopping briefly every other step in order to muster up the strength to take another jolt of pain. As he planted his foot in the loose dirt and one more shot of agony soaked every nerve in his body, a thought came to him. “Wait! Where’s Ty and April?”
We all looked at each other. Gordy finally spoke up. “Who’s April?”
“A girl we picked up outside of Edisto,” Wes said. “She and Ty were together just before this whole mess started.” “What about Valerie?” Gordy asked. “Where is she?”
Wes and Lou traded a look. Neither one of them wanted to answer Gordy’s question so they simply didn’t.
Wes turned to head back up the slope.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I ain’t leaving Ty. I’m tired of losing people.”
He took one step and nearly flopped to the ground in pain. “I’d say that’s not going to happen,” I said. I called Ajax over.
I held up two fingers. “Pick two apes to find Tyrone and April.” He grunted and barreled across the fern-covered ground. He stopped on the edge of a small clearing and signed to a much larger silverback that I assumed was Ariabod. Ariabod in turn signaled to a young male gorilla to his left. They looked our way and then disappeared into the nearby bush.
“So help me,” Wes said breathing heavily. “Those monkeys better bring them back alive.”
“They will,” I said. “And they’re not monkeys...” Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Lou staring at me. “What?” I asked her.
“Are you real?” she asked.
I smiled. “I wish I knew.”
Gordy piped up. “Any idea where we’re going? And shouldn’t we be getting the hell out of here? Or did you forget the giant ant people?”
I strained to stop looking at Lou. I was afraid if I let her out of my sight she would vanish into thin air. “Yeah... sure, you’re right. Let’s go!” I said and then stopped short when I saw a boy who had been one of the dead who watched me sleep at the facility. He was standing amid a group of sapling pine trees. Our eyes locked and then the boy turned and headed down the mountain.
“Okay,” Gordy said. “I guess we won’t be going that way.”
“No,” I said my eyes still locked on the boy. “I think we’re supposed to.”
“Oz,” Gordy responded. “That kid was major stand-out-in-the-crowd-creepy, and that ain’t easy to achieve in this place.”
“I’ve seen him before,” I said. “He’s dead.”
“Nice!” Gordy shouted. “Just exactly where is the dead kid taking us?”
Ajax rejoined us. He cupped his hands with the palms up, moved his thumbs across his fingers, and then turned his right palm down. He flipped the position of his hands. He repeated the signs a few times.
“What’s he saying?” Wes asked.
“Don’t know,” I said.
Lou cleared her throat. “He’s saying ... ‘the land of the dead’.”
The End
of
Book Three