by Max Lockwood
Alec shrugged. “I don’t think so. He took all of his supplies with him and he has Derek’s gun. It does make him look pretty guilty, though. I mean, if he really did shoot Melissa, it would make sense that he’s trying to get away from the group.”
“Because he feels guilty?”
“That, or because he knows he no longer has our loyalty.”
Elaina frowned. Without Natalia and Will, it really was the end of an era. She knew it was irrational to feel any kind of resentment toward Melissa or Thomas, but they were just so different from Natalia and Will, back when they were part of a functional group.
Elaina did feel connected to Thomas, mostly out of obligation. He had saved them at a time where it was a risky thing to do. Technically, Alec and Elaina rescued him too, but he wasn’t at risk of being executed.
“We’re going to need water soon,” she said, shaking her empty water bottle. “Since Will is not reliable, what do you suggest we do?”
“I can go out and look,” Alec replied. “I bet I could find some and return within the hour. It’s best if we keep moving. Staying in one spot for too long always gets us in trouble.”
“Let’s check on Melissa first,” Elaina suggested. “If she’s well enough, maybe we can all go.”
The two opened the door of the office to find Thomas and Melissa still sleeping. Upon hearing the door creak open, Thomas jumped up from his spot on the rug.
“Just us,” Alec said, reassuring Thomas. “We were just checking in on you guys.”
Thomas’s face burned red. He didn’t think that Alec and Elaina knew that he had spotted them kissing the previous night, but seeing them together brought back his embarrassment. He tried to downplay this embarrassment and act casual, something he wasn’t great at.
“Oh, yeah, we’re doing fine,” he said, leaning awkwardly against the couch.
“So—Melissa’s fever broke?” Elaina asked, confused by his strange demeanor.
“Um, let me see,” Thomas said, resting his hand on Melissa’s forehead. She was a little clammy, but not hot. “Yeah, I think the fever is gone,” he said, a smile appearing on his face. That seemed to be a good sign that her health was returning.
“Is she well enough to keep going?” Alec asked, looking at his watch. “I don’t want to outstay our welcome.”
Thomas gently nudged Melissa awake. She whimpered, but she didn’t say Samuel’s name. That was also a good sign.
“How are you feeling?” Elaina asked. “It’s probably time for your antibiotic. I forgot last night.”
“That’s okay. Thomas gave it to me,” she responded.
Thomas raised his eyebrows. “You were dead asleep. How did you know that?”
“I don’t know. I was just kind of floating in and out of consciousness all night. I had the strangest dreams—dreams so realistic that I don’t even know if they were truly dreams.”
“Sounds like fever dreams,” Elaina said, preparing the syringe for another injection. “So, do you feel any different?”
“I still don’t feel good, by any means,” she said, sitting up a little. “I have a pounding headache and my shoulder is killing me. I feel weak and tired too. But I feel a ton better than I did yesterday. I think the antibiotics are really helping.”
Elaina pulled her bandage off and tried not to gag at the smell. It didn’t help Melissa that hygiene was basically nonexistent in their current situation. She needed to have her injury cleaned.
“Yeah, we probably have to take care of that before we can leave,” Elaina said through clenched teeth as she stuck the bandage back on.
“Then I’ll get some water,” Alec said, collecting empty bottles around the room. “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
With that, he turned around and strode out of the room. Elaina hovered in the doorway, unsure of what to talk about. She felt like a third wheel with the other two.
“Are we leaving soon?” Thomas asked.
Elaina nodded. “If it’s possible,” she said, looking toward Melissa. “We want to make sure you’re well enough to travel. Otherwise, we might put ourselves at greater risk.”
“I don’t really remember getting here,” Melissa said, “but I think I’m feeling better now than I did then. If I managed to walk in here, I think I can walk out of here.”
“You’ve hardly had anything to eat or drink in over twenty-four hours,” Thomas protested. “You’re not ready to get back on the trail. If we had to run, you’d get left in the dust.”
He handed her one of the last bottles of water and the protein bar she’d declined the night before. She reluctantly opened both and took a tiny drink and a tiny bite to appease the other two.
“Finish both and we’ll talk,” Thomas said. “You need to get your energy up. I think we should wait another day or two.”
“I don’t know if we can afford that time,” Elaina said. “What did that girl tell you about the quarantine border?”
“That it’s constantly moving and most of Colorado is wiped out.”
“Right. Do you have reason to trust what you’ve heard?”
Thomas nodded. Whether or not Elaina believed Bethany was real, she was using his information against him.
“Then we don’t have time. Alec will be back soon, and when he returns, we’ll clean up and go.”
Elaina left the room to gather supplies. From the cabinets, she grabbed anything of use. Unlit candles, matches, towels, and equine medication went into her bag. She tucked empty food wrappers into drawers, trying to hide any trace of them.
Thomas followed her and watched as she packed up. She seemed to weigh the pros and cons of each item she found within seconds before moving on to the next item. It was like watching a robot carry out a task.
“What about Will?” Thomas asked.
Elaina continued her search. “What about him?”
“Did he come back?”
She sighed and turned around to face him. “No.”
“Is he going to come back?”
“I don’t believe so, no. We’re not going to wait for him or actively go looking for him. We have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. If he returns, he returns. If he doesn’t, we have to carry on without him.”
Thomas felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He knew that celebrating Will’s absence would be in bad taste, so he suppressed his elation.
“It’s probably for the best, anyway,” he said casually. “It’s in Melissa’s best interest if he’s not around. So when you say we should hope for the best, are you talking about his returning or staying missing?”
“I suppose we all have our own opinions about what’s best,” Elaina said, turning back toward the cupboards. “I don’t think it matters what they are at this moment. If Will happens to return, we can discuss what we want to do.”
Thomas chewed on a fingernail. He was still worried that Alec and Elaina felt loyalty to Will over Melissa. If he returned, he needed allies.
“You know that I wouldn’t lie about the things I’ve told you. After the wreck, Will scared me.”
“I know.”
“But do you believe me?”
Elaina turned around again and set her bag on the floor. “Yes, Thomas, I believe you. I just don’t want to participate in any battles unrelated to getting to a safe place and distributing my serum. Do you understand?”
Thomas nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Good. Help me search this place and start packing up. We don’t have much time.”
Thomas was pleased that he had Elaina’s trust, but he still felt weird about the whole conversation. She’d never really warmed up to him, not like Melissa had. Still, he supported her mission and wanted to help her if it was within his capabilities.
He got to work, starting on the opposite side of the old cabinets. Kneeling down, he wrenched open a cupboard that was sticky with some mysterious liquid that had dried. Inside were a shotgun and several boxes of its shells.
“Jackpot,” he whispered excitedly. Now he would have a proper weapon to defend himself with since Will took the spare handgun. He had seen these weapons in action too. This wouldn’t merely shoot a tiny hole in an infected person. At the right range, it could completely obliterate a threat in one shot.
“That’s useful,” Elaina said, looking over. “That’s used for hunting, isn’t it?”
Thomas examined the gun. “It looks like it was hardly ever used. My guess is that it was only used for putting injured horses out of their misery.”
“Oh.” Elaina grimaced, continuing her search. She found a tube of numbing ointment in a drawer and tossed it over to Thomas. “Why don’t you see if Melissa wants to use any of this? If we’re going to clean out the infected flesh, she might want to be a little numb for it.”
“Sure thing,” Thomas said, hurrying toward the office. He managed to keep a straight face until he had the door shut behind him.
“You look happy,” Melissa noted as Thomas burst in the room with a smile on his face.
“Will hasn’t come back yet. It sounds like Alec and Elaina have given up on him. Elaina said they’re not going to wait for him or go looking for him. I think you’re safe.”
Melissa let out a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s good news. I think another gunshot would be the end of me. Did she tell you anything else that’s interesting?”
She ate the last bites of her meal and washed them down with the last of the water. She was fully sitting up now and the color had mostly returned to her cheeks.
Thomas hesitated to answer. He didn’t have any other pertinent information, only gossip. He remembered what Elaina had said about not wanting fighting within the group and wondered if it extended to gossip.
“What?” Melissa asked, her eyes opening a little wider. “You know something, don’t you?”
“No, it’s nothing,” Thomas said quickly. “Never mind.”
“Tell me,” she ordered, her voice stronger than it had been in days.
“Fine,” he said in a hushed voice. “It’s just that I accidentally saw Alec and Elaina kissing last night. That’s all.”
Melissa’s face lit up. “That is interesting.” She giggled. “Tell me details.”
Thomas rolled his eyes. “There are no details. I went out to talk to them last night and saw that they were kissing. I ran back here immediately before they noticed I was there.”
Thomas liked seeing Melissa happy again. For so much of their journey, she was angry, petrified, or consumed with guilt. Finally, she had something to bring her entertainment.
“You love this, don’t you?” Thomas smiled. Her glee was infectious.
“It’s just so weird to think about.” She laughed. “I get it—Alec is pretty cute, and Elaina’s not bad-looking herself, but she’s a little socially awkward. I know they’re friendly toward each other, but I can’t imagine Elaina with any guy.”
Thomas nodded. He had also thought of himself as socially awkward from time to time. Maybe that meant that he had a chance with Melissa one day.
“That reminds me,” she said. “I had the weirdest dreams about you.”
“Really?” he asked, feeling himself blush again. “What were they about?”
“I don’t really remember,” she lied, speaking quickly. “They were just weird. Not like a bad kind of weird. Just . . . interesting, I guess you could say.”
Thomas didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just stayed quiet. He was extremely curious about what she meant by that, but he wasn’t going to press the matter further.
“What do you have in your hand?” she asked.
“Something for your shoulder,” he replied, thankful for the change in subject. “Here, I’ll help you with it. It’ll numb your skin so Elaina can dress your wound.”
Melissa pulled down on the neck of her shirt with so much force that it tore a few inches down the neckline. She pulled her top far enough down her arm that her wound was fully exposed, along with much of her upper chest.
With trembling hands, he applied a glob of the ointment on her injury, focusing on the nasty, red hole in her shoulder and not the lovely, smooth skin below her neck. When he finished, he took a few steps back.
“Uh, yeah,” he muttered. “Let’s let Elaina take care of that stuff from now on.”
“Squeamish?” she teased.
“A little,” he lied. “I’m going to get her to look at it now.”
“Wait,” she said before he could escape. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Staying with me through the night. Every time I woke up, you were there. I really appreciate it.”
Thomas smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “No problem.”
Chapter Thirteen
Like clockwork, Alec burst back into the stables almost exactly an hour after he’d departed to find water. He returned with a bulging backpack and a content look on his face.
“Where are those matches?” he asked before anyone had the chance to greet him. “The water looks clear enough, but I think we need to boil it to be safe. Do we have anything to put the water in?”
“How about this?” Elaina asked, holding up a large metal bowl. She looked so relieved to see him back so soon.
“Perfect,” he said, smiling back at her. “I managed to find a water tank at an abandoned house not too far from here. I think if we stay on the trail, we’ll find more abandoned homes. We’re short on food, so we’ll eventually have to stop.”
Elaina grabbed a fistful of hay and bundled it into a dense ball. She carried it outside, grabbing fallen branches from the trees. Then, she tossed them into a pile and struck a match, adding it to the mix. The hay ignited but burned quickly.
“You have to arrange the sticks differently,” Thomas said timidly. He felt uncomfortable correcting a genius, but he figured he had more experience in these matters than she did.
“Go ahead,” she said, gesturing toward the pile. “I’ve never done this before. Teach me how to start a fire.”
“Well, you sort of have to arrange the wood in a way so the air can get in,” he said as he examined the sticks. “They have to be pretty dry too. Let’s see if we can find some better ones.”
Thomas stepped into the trees and scoured the forest floor. He carefully chose the driest pieces of dead trees available.
“Okay, these look like they’ll work,” he said, stacking them. “Then, take your kindling,” he explained as Elaina gave him a new ball of hay, “and put it underneath the wood. That way, the wind won’t blow it out immediately and it will give the wood some time to catch on fire.”
He struck a new match and lit the kindling in a few places, letting it slowly smolder. He added more as it turned black and ashy. Finally, the logs began to turn black, then glowed red. A few minutes later, they had a steady fire.
“Good work,” Alec said, placing the metal bowl of water on top of the fire. They watched intently as the tiny bubbles on the edge of the container turned into large bubbles that rolled through the water.
Once Alec was satisfied with the water, he used the sleeves of his jacket to carefully lower the hot water to the ground.
“Too bad we don’t have any coffee,” he said forlornly. He thought back to the last time he’d drank the stuff—back at the police precinct as he tried to sober up from his beer binge. He hadn’t had a beer since Will offered him one after attacking him. Will had been so cheerful and kind then. That was weeks ago, though.
Once the water had dropped to a lukewarm temperature, Alec, Elaina, and Thomas carefully filled every receptacle they had. Thomas filled his bag with his share of the bottles, making sure each one was closed tightly. He couldn’t afford to waste resources.
“What’s the plan?” a soft voice asked from the door. Melissa leaned against the doorframe, trying to conserve the little energy she had.
“You look good,” Alec said. “Feeling better?”
“I’ll feel better once I’m home,” she
said, answering that question for what seemed like the tenth time that morning.
“Me too,” he said. “For now, I think the plan is to strategically pick up supplies as we go down the trail. We need food and water. First aid supplies and weapons are always valuable too.”
“And information,” Elaina added.
“Yes, but our main goal is to get to a working vehicle,” Alec continued. “It’s a race to get to the border before it moves again. Can you walk?”
“I can try.”
“Well, do your best. Unfortunately, we can’t really take it easy.”
Melissa nodded. She understood the gravity of the situation. She was just as antsy to move as anyone else.
“Then I don’t see why we should wait around any longer,” Alec said. “Let’s go.”
Alec and Elaina walked quickly, eager to break through the border before they became trapped again. Melissa did her best to keep up, but she didn’t have the same strength that the older two had. Thomas did his best to encourage her to keep moving forward, but they inevitably began to lag behind.
“I’ve been thinking,” Elaina said, “and I get that we need to get to the border as soon as possible, but if we could find a place for me to produce more of my serum, I might have a better chance of getting out of here.”
Alec frowned. “I don’t follow. Wouldn’t that only delay getting to safety?”
“See, I’m not sure about that. Here’s the thing—what if we encounter the army or the police at the border? They’ll take one look at my face and lock me up. I’m still a wanted woman. I’ve got no credibility until I earn it again.”
Alec shrugged his shoulders. “What if we get through the border somewhere unprotected? There can’t be agents at every point.”
“No, but I don’t think I can just waltz into any university laboratory and start working. I’d be arrested in seconds. I haven’t proven my innocence yet.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” Alec said. “You were framed. You’re innocent until proven guilty.”
Elaina pursed her lips. “That only works in a society governed by logic and reason. I haven’t seen that for over a month. People are driven by fear. It makes them just as unpredictable and dangerous as the infected. I’m worried that I won’t be able to distribute the serum without some credibility. I can’t do it on my own. Just imagine what would happen if I showed up at the CDC with boxes full of vaccines. They’d shoot me on the spot.”