Those Who Remain (Book 2)

by Priscila Santa Rosa

  She nods, walking to the nearest counter and passing me a bottle of the medicine and a cup of water. Together, we raise the girl’s head and help her swallow the drink.

  I sit next to her bed, eyes lingering on her handcuffs. “Does she need to be handcuffed? There’s no sign of the infection.”

  Felicity shrugs. “Just being safe. But I guess if you are sure she’s not dangerous, then it’s okay to take them out.” She extends her hand and offers me the keys. “You are the doctor after all.”

  I look at them, heart and head pounding. The guilt works its way into my heart once again. If I had not handcuffed Victoria, would things have gone so badly? Can I really say for sure that this girl’s suffering is justified in the name of making other people feel safe?

  When did handcuffing sick children become acceptable, and when did I start to believe it was?

  The keys feel heavy, the metal cold. I click them in and free her from the bounds.

  Sometime later, Tigh finds me sitting next to Billy’s bed, monitoring his vitals. Felicity left the room to find me some food, and both the girl and Billy are sleeping peacefully.

  “So? Are we about to become dinner?” I say with a smile, pushing a chair for him to sit next to me.

  With a sigh he closes the office’s door and falls on the chair. “No. They are preparing pizza for Movie Night. I think between cheese and fresh tomatoes, human meat wouldn’t fit with the rest of the toppings.”

  “Movie Night? Really?” I let out a short laugh, placing a hand on my mouth to muffle the sound. “How on earth did they manage to survive so far?”

  “They have some bare defenses around town. Also it is a pretty isolated place. Anything else must’ve been luck.” He looks at the door. “A truckload of luck.”

  We stay in silence for a long time, digesting the information. After months of thinking the worst, of expecting the end of the world, this town just proved to me it’s possible to retain some level of normalcy. Modern conveniences might have been destroyed for most part, but it doesn’t mean humanity is beyond hope. And with the possibility of a cure in our hands….

  “What do you want to do?” Tigh interrupts my thoughts with his eyes piercing me. “Do you want to stay?”

  I shouldn’t be surprised he already made that assumption. Part of me does want to stay. I could help the community with my skills, Tigh would help protect the town, and we both might find some peace. No more fearing for my life every second, walking and walking without knowing if there’ll be food tomorrow. No more chasing a dream that might be possible, but probably won’t.

  The idea of watching a movie on a Friday night almost breaks my heart.

  “No,” I answer after a long pause. I shake my head and sigh. “We should leave. We can’t waste time here.”

  Tigh looks at me for a second then takes my hands in his. A lump forms inside my throat and my eyes dart away from his face.

  “We could wait out the winter here, then find Akimi during the spring.”

  I gaze him directly. “If we stay… We won’t be able to leave. We’ll find some excuse to stay every time. The cure is too important. We have a responsibility to take it to the right people.”

  He nods. “Okay. We leave.” Tigh gets up and offers me a hand. “After seeing how Nightfall ends.”

  “What?” I laugh. “What are you talking about?”

  The Sergeant clears his throat, and moves his hand to his back again. “It’s the movie the town’s watching tonight. About… werewolves.”

  I blink and pretend ignorance. “Never heard of it.”

  “It’s… pretty popular. Was popular. At least, the boys back at the base told me it was. I thought you would know about it, since it’s about….”

  “About what?” I can’t help but smile at his hesitation.

  “It’s about some love triangle or something, I think.”

  It’s impossible to hold the laughter in any longer. Tigh’s expression is of utter embarrassment, I have never seen him so hot and bothered. He avoids my eyes and clears his throat.

  “Well?” He asks me, hands on his back and body straight as if he was greeting a superior officer. “Do you want to see the movie or not?”

  Before I can answer the door opens. The Sheriff, the woman from earlier and another younger man walk inside.

  The Hunter's Daughter IX

  January 8th, Friday, 2 pm

  My feet rise above the snow as I follow the tracks on the ground. I try my best to forget the cabin I left behind. To forget our home abandoned, freezing and covered by darkness. Our kitchen’s cabinets open and bare. The bunk bed without sheets. The propane gas tank that fueled the stove, gone forever. Nobody is living there anymore. He left nothing behind.

  Except me.

  Father’s gone and we’ll never see each other again.

  Like Danny said, I could track him if I wanted. He left by car and didn’t even bother to hide the tire marks. But what good would that do? Father will never change. Never once in his life did he admit he was wrong. Everything Danny said was true, no matter how much I want to deny. I was blind to his faults, blind to his manipulations and the years of lies.

  What hurts me the most is the realization that he left without even trying to fix things. To apologize. I wasn’t even worth the trouble. The worst thing is that despite all that I still hope he’ll come back to me. I hate myself for that. I hate that I almost feel guilty for leaving him behind.

  Here I am, moping around again. This won’t do. I need to follow my own advice and get over it. So I focus on tracking.

  I find footprints that are too small for an adult, with a more erratic movement pattern than the previous one. There’s more than one human wandering on the woods? A lost kid, alone and confused? Maybe even….

  The idea of finding a little boy or girl turned into one of Danny’s zombies tightens my chest. Even after months dealing with infected people, I guess I haven’t really considered the possibility children also could be like that.

  I ignore Danny’s questions on why the rush. I don’t tell him about this. I don’t want to worry him without really knowing for sure. And I need to know for sure.

  For an hour, I follow the small prints in the snow. The kid stopped to rest twice, finding support against a tree and smashing leaves and twigs on the way. A strong smell of vomit tells us that we are closer than I expected.

  Someone is feeling sick.

  “Lily, what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  We move faster. I have a bad feeling about this, especially when the tracks circle around and take us back to the edge of town. Sick or zombie, the kid managed to find Redwood. I frown at the huge hole in our wire fence; a pole has fallen over with the weight of accumulated snow and yesterday’s strong winds. It’s supposed to be electrified, but since the generators are low on fuel, it probably stopped working during the night.

  I crouch over the last set of prints, comparing my hands to its size. That’s when we hear shouts. I bolt in the direction of the noises. Not even a block from where we were, I spot two kids standing together on a front porch. I run to them, Danny on my heels.

  “What happened?” I ask them.

  “There’s one of those things inside! Ma and Pop trapped it on the bathroom,” the oldest of the two tell us, pointing at the door.

  “Danny, stay with them. In case it gets out,” I say to him and receive a nod.

  Without needing any further details, I run inside the house, SIG Sauer in hand. Everything is silent. I move around the rooms, staying close to the walls and checking for any movement. As I approach the stairs, step by step, muffled voices come from the second floor. Not screams, but the sounds of a hurried conversation.

  “Hello? Is everything all right?” I yell.

  “We’re upstairs. We trapped it! Are you from the council?” A woman’s voice shouts from the top of the stairs. “Please kill it for us!”

  “Stay where you are, I’m coming
—”

  Glass shatters and a loud thump hits ground on my left. I spin and face the nearest window; my eye catches a fallen form in the yard outside. I dart closer to the glass in order to see it better. A little girl touches a bruised shoulder with a wince, her jeans are torn on the knees and she’s covered in dried earth from boots to black, messy short hair.

  My eyes widen as she forces herself up and starts to limp away.

  “Wait.” I try to open the window to reach her, but the thing won’t budge. “Stay where you are!”

  She turns her head, enough to see me… and my gun. She gets up and runs. I let out a frustrated groan, and leave the locked window behind, racing to the front door.

  Outside, I jog to the side of the house. Before I can reach her, the teen from before tackles the girl to the ground. She tries to fight him off, kicking, but he’s too heavy for her.

  I sprint to them and yank the boy away. With her eyes closed, she kicks relentlessly even without the added weight. I let her tire herself out, before crouching by her side. She’s hyperventilating, chest rising and falling rapidly. Her mouth is dry and she has dozens of scrapes on her arms and faces, but no dark lumps.

  “Hey, it’s okay.” I take my gun off and place it on the ground. I lift both my hands. “We won’t hurt you.”

  She blinks at me, hugging herself like a wounded animal. Her black eyes stare back at me with suspicion.

  “What’s your name?”

  When she opens her mouth no words come out, only vomit. Her eyeballs roll upwards and she passes out. I catch her before she hits her head against the ground.

  The teen, now standing next to me, steps back. “Gross!”

  “You,” I say to him. “Go find Nurse Felicity, tell her I’m bringing in a patient.”

  “But… But she’s a zombie! You have to kill her before she bites someone.”

  “Just do what I told you to!”

  He nods, running away. I lift her, her head against my chest, careful not to hurt her. I turn to see Danny, standing behind me.

  He looks at the girl, grabs her arms and twists a little in order to check for signs of the infection. “Who is this girl?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t know. I think she was lost in the woods, got sick and found our town. I’m bringing her to the school. Maybe Felicity can see what’s wrong with her.”

  He blinks, a hand on the back of his neck. “Are you sure it is—”

  “Not now. Take my gun. We need to move,” I interrupt him to avoid an argument. It takes a second, but he nods and does what I asked.

  We race past the block, arriving to the main street. People look at us with frowns, and some even point at me. The news of the girl will reach everyone soon, if it didn’t already, so I’m not surprised when Linda Fords waits for us in front of the school. She’s flanked by Frank and another council member I don’t know the name of. I’m relieved my mother is nowhere near this.

  “What’s going on here, Terrence? The Thompsons called us on the radio, talking about a zombie inside the town. Is that it?” She asks Danny, raising her palm to stop me from coming in.

  “She’s not an it. It’s a girl. She’s sick, but she’s not bitten,” I say, placing myself between them. “We need to see the nurse.”

  Linda raises one of her blond eyebrows. “Don’t get yourself involved, Hunter. You are not part of the council. We’ll decide if the girl is bitten or not, thank you.”

  “You can’t spot a zombie even if it’s behind you, trying to eat what's left of your brain, Fords. Just let Lily pass, she knows what’s she’s doing.”

  I look at Danny with a smile, shocked, but glad to see him standing up for me.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t exactly trust your judgment either, Terrence. You have a track record of bad decisions. So, put the girl down and let Frank see if she’s bitten. The town is scared. They trust us to keep them safe.”

  “She’s right. You didn’t give my son a chance like this either. What’s so special about this girl?” Frank adds, moving his enormous figure in front of me. “Let me see her.”

  He tries to reach to take the girl from my arms, but I step back. The sound of cars approaching stops us. Coming up from the main street, I spot Roger’s police car and a SUV behind it. He’s back early from the supply run. They park at the front of the school, a few steps from us. I’m thinking of calling him out to help when Frank yells.

  “She bit me!”

  The girl starts to thrash again, punching my chest in attempt to set herself free and run. She untangles herself from me and almost slips away, but Danny catches her.

  “Hey! Calm down! We’re trying to help you,” he says to her, but receiving nothing but screams for his efforts.

  Fords and Frank are far more worried about his hand, examining it, when Roger reaches us.

  “What’s going on? Lily, is everything okay?”

  He looks tired, shoulder slumped and low voice. His typical frown is deeper than usual. Part of me wants to ask him what’s the matter, but instead I explain the situation, telling him my theory that the girl probably ate a poisonous plant on the woods and now is sick. Danny holds her while Roger checks her for bites as well.

  “The Thompsons said she sneaked inside their house. They caught her in their bathroom, locked her in thinking she was a zombie. Then, she jumped out of the second floor window and tried to run away,” Danny tells him. “She seems kinda crazy, but she has guts.”

  “What’s your name?” Roger asks the girl. “What were you doing in someone else’s house?”

  “Leave me alone!” She screams, for the first time forming proper words. “Let me go!”

  “She’s clearly infected. She’s going to turn,” Linda comments, hands on her hips. “We should lock her up.”

  “She needs a doctor, not jail,” I argue, arms crossed.

  “Hold her arms, Danny,” Roger asks, moving closer and opening the girl’s dirty winter coat. She tries to bite him off and kick him, but he avoids most of it and takes out a bottle of pills from inside a pocket.

  “I guess that solves the mystery.” He lifts the bottle for everyone to see. “I don’t think a zombie is worried about stealing medicine for stomach cramps. Don’t you agree?”

  I smile at him, while Linda rolls her eyes. “Fine. So she’s not a zombie. She’s a thief. Thieves go to jail too.”

  “She’s a kid,” Danny says, still trying to keep the girl steady. “Don’t you have a soul, woman?”

  “Says the man who killed his own mother,” Linda spits back.

  I step forward, ready to punch the woman, but Roger moves between us. The little girl stops struggling, fainting again.

  “That’s enough. We’re going to take her inside the school to be examined. I’ll personally watch her, to make sure she doesn’t escape.” He takes the girl from Danny’s hands. “We also brought a doctor with us. She can examine the girl for bites. So that’s taken care of. You can go and tell the rest of the town there’s no zombie alert.”

  Linda lifts her nose, but doesn’t argue. She, Frank, and the other council member leave us. I watch Danny from the corner of my eye, worried about his reaction. He was doing so well….

  He stares at nothing before noticing my concerned look and giving me thumbs up. The gesture doesn’t convince me: his slumped shoulders and downcast eyes reveal how he really took Linda’s comment.

  We get inside the school. In the nurse’s office, we find a woman I have never seen operating on O'Neil’s shoulder. Gutierrez stands next to her, gripping O’Neil’s hand. I’ve also never seen the chubby guy so distraught. As Roger places the girl gently on the bed next to them, I ask him what’s going on.

  “Long story. Involves finding a doctor on our supply run. I tell you later.” He turns to Felicity and places the stolen pill bottle in her hands. “Lily thinks she ate something bad in the woods. She’s has been vomiting and clutching her stomach, she’s also might have hurt her knee falling from a second floor windo
w. She tried to steal this.”

  “Okay… Help me turn her then.”

  We place her lying on her side, so when she vomits again she won’t choke. On our right, O’Neil moans in pain.

  “Will she be okay?” I ask, eyes fixed on her unconscious form.

  Felicity looks at the girl, then at us with an open mouth, but no answer. For a nurse, she seems too unfocused and hesitant for my taste. I’m worried the girl will get worse.

  “Felicity, will she be okay?” I ask again, voice raised. “Say something!”

  Roger places a hand on my shoulder. “Lily,” he only says, his soft tone telling me to control myself.

  “I don’t know,” Felicity finally answers. “But… Shouldn’t I check for bites first?”

  I groan, taking the girl’s left arm and extending it for the nurse. “See? She’s fine. Stop wasting time and give her something. Now. She’s alone and scared, and we need to help her. So do it.” I only realize I’m yelling after noticing Felicity and Roger’s wide-eyed, silent stares.

  Roger takes me by the hand, pulling me away from the girl. He turns to Felicity, passing a pair of handcuffs to the woman. “Check for bites. If she has them, you can use these. We’ll be right back.”

  We leave the room. Roger doesn’t let go of my hand as we stand in the corridor. I avoid his eyes, while he sighs.

  “Lily, what’s the matter? Are you okay?”

  I lift my hand to untangle myself from his grasp. “We should go back and look out for the girl. She needs someone to be there for her. She’s too scared.”

  “Not before you talk to me. What’s got you so…?” I keep waiting for him to finish with “emotional”, but he never does. “Did something happen earlier today? Besides you finding the girl?”

  I pace around the corridor, dodging his questions like a spooked deer. Finally, Roger takes me by the shoulders. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  The way he looks at me, with nothing but patience and care, brings out everything I tried to hold back since leaving Father and seeing the empty cabin. Tears fall before I can stop them.