“We have to hurry,” Sam says, dashing off into the trees. I race after her, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in my right side. I think Todd’s guess of a broken rib is spot on, because it feels like something is jabbing me repeatedly with every move I make. I hope it isn’t serious, because I don’t have time to slow down.
We make it back to the clearing, and I slip a backpack onto my shoulders, and take another in each hand. Sam gets the remaining ones, and we make our way back to the car much slower than before. The backpacks are heavy, and I’m exhausted and in pain. We have to stop twice so I can catch my breath, and I can tell Sam is trying not to snap at me to hurry up, which is surprising because she was always so much more patient than me.
We reach the vehicle, and we slide the backpacks onto the floor in front of Aaron. Todd is sitting in the backseat, cramped beside Aaron’s feet, and I climb into his lap as Reese starts the jeep. He drives through the back trails at what must be at least seventy miles per hour, and I try not to look at the trees as we speed by. Unfortunately, the only other place to look is at Aaron’s gray face and blood-soaked leg.
Sam peers into the backseat. “Faster, Reese. We need to get home now.”
The car lurches forward as we hit the paved road, pushing past eighty and well into ninety miles per hour. I take Aaron’s hand in mine and give it a squeeze. Even though I’m sure he can’t hear me, I beg him to stay with me, to just keep fighting and to never give up. The thought of losing Aaron now, after we’ve come so far and been through so much together, is absolutely heartbreaking. I can’t imagine a world without this man in it.
Time seems to go by at a snail’s pace, and I want to bash my head against the nearest window. Aaron and Janelle are bleeding to death, and we’ve been stuck on the road for the last forty-five minutes. Sam leans into the back seat and checks Aaron’s pulse. “His heartbeat is nice and strong. That’s a good sign,” she says.
“How much longer?”
“Ten minutes or so. Five if Reese really steps on it.”
“I’m already going ninety-five. If I lose control, we are all going to die. Do you really want me to go any faster?”
Sam sighs, but she doesn’t say yes. The last ten minute stretch of the drive back goes by the slowest, and I feel like screaming with impatience. Aaron is going to die…I just know it. There’s no way we can save him…or Janelle.
The jeep slows as we reach an open gate, and Reese maneuvers the jeep through a winding dirt trail. When we come around a curve, I see a two-story cabin secured in the woods. A wraparound porch looks to be in nearly perfect condition, as is the cushioned swing hanging from one end. A large chimney that juts out from the top has smoke rising from it in a dark billowing cloud, meaning that someone is already home.
Reese honks the horn twice before screeching to a halt in the driveway. The front door bursts open as we all pile out of the car, and I see two people rush out onto the porch. A large, muscular man sees us and stops. His eyes narrow in anger, until Sam hollers at him. “Ryder! Help my cousin get her friends inside!”
The man—Ryder—rushes down the steps and right to Reese’s side. He and Reese grab Aaron and pull him out of the backseat, careful to avoid catching the metal on anything. “Naomi, help me get the girl out of the back.”
“What should we do?” Todd asks.
“Grab the supplies and bring them inside. If you have any medical stuff, get it out and get it ready. Madison, there’s a blue tarp in the shed along the side of the house, go and get it and bring it inside.”
I rush off to do as I’m told. I dig through the contents of the shed, looking for the tarp. I find it folded up and sitting on a wooden shelf, and I grab it and run for the house, unfolding it as I go. Sam and the girl—Naomi—have cleared away the table in the living room to make room on the floor. Sam takes a corner of the tarp and we spread it out across the floor just as Ryder and Reese drag Aaron inside. They set him down carefully on the blue plastic, and I notice Janelle is lying on the couch, fast asleep, or unconscious. I can’t tell which.
“What do we do now?” I ask.
Ryder hunkers down next to Aaron’s leg and tears the fabric of his pants, revealing the wound. The piece of metal is about the size of a dinner plate, and thankfully most of it is still above the skin. Only a small portion of it is embedded in his thigh, but I don’t know how we’re going to get it out without killing him.
“Reese, get me the pliers, bandages, and iodine. Hurry!”
I can’t take my eyes off of Aaron’s face, even as Reese comes back with the supplies. Ryder barks orders at everyone, and they rush to do as they’re told. Reese and Todd pin Aaron down as best as they can, and Ryder uses the pliers to clamp onto the piece of metal. “Sam, when I ease this thing out, pour some of the iodine over it, and then apply pressure right away. If we can’t stop the bleeding, he’s going to die.”
I hear myself whimper.
Sam scoots closer to Ryder, readying the towel in her hands. Ryder grabs the pliers and begins to slowly ease the metal out of Aaron’s leg. Only about an inch and a half of it is lodged in the flesh, and when it’s free, Sam immediately pours the iodine over the wound. Aaron begins to thrash, and Reese and Todd have to tighten their holds on him so Sam can wrap the towel around his leg. They secure Reese’s belt over the towel, fastening it in place. Blood begins to seep up through the beige towel, staining it red.
Aaron stops thrashing, and his body begins to relax once again. Reese and Todd relax their hold, and back away. “We’ll probably have to stitch the wound later, or it won’t heal right. Until then, he’ll have to sleep it off while the towel does its job. But, I think he’ll be fine.”
“What about the woman?” Sam asks quietly.
Ryder looks at Janelle, lifting up the bottom hem of her shirt. There’s a giant dark bruise-like area across her lower abdomen, and I can tell by the look on Ryder’s face that Janelle is in trouble. “No, I don’t think she’ll make it. I don’t know how to stop internal bleeding—I’m not a surgeon. I mean, she could make it, but I don’t think she will.” He looks at me and Todd. “Prepare yourselves for the worst.”
“What now?” I ask, refusing to think about what he’s just said.
Sam sighs. “We wait. That’s all we can do. Come on, we’ll get you guys cleaned up, find you all something to eat, and then you can get some sleep. We’ll keep an eye on your friends, and we’ll let you know if anything happens.” Sam leads us into the kitchen, where Naomi has a pot of warm water and is washing the blood off of Daisy’s arms. She still looks very unresponsive, and Naomi looks very uncomfortable taking care of a stranger.
“I’ll take care of this, Naomi. Why don’t you start something for lunch?” Sam looks at us. “What do you guys say to some Beef Stew?”
Naomi heads out onto the porch to boil water, and she comes back in just as Sam finishes cleaning Daisy. She moves on to me when Ryder and Reese join us. “Madison, tell me what you’ve been doing since the world ended,” Sam says. “We’ve got time. I wanna hear everything.”
I glance up at her, feeling oddly hollow inside. “Mom and Dad are dead,” I say flatly. “They died pretty early on. I was trying to live on my own when Aaron found me. He brought me back to this fortified school that he was in charge of, and for awhile, things were pretty good. We had food and shelter, but eventually, they broke down the fence, overwhelmed the soldiers there, everyone died, and the school burned to the ground.
“A group of us managed to escape, and Aaron kept us together, taking charge of our group. We made our way through the city, losing people along the way. During a supply run, Todd was bitten by a zombie, and we brought him back with us. It turns out the rumors we had heard were true, because Todd turned out to be immune to the disease or virus or whatever you wanna call it.”
Todd rolls up his sleeve and peels off the bandage, showing them the red wound.
“We decided to fly to Colorado where we thought it would be safer. Aaron knew t
hat we wouldn’t stand much of a chance on the road with so many people to look after. We made it to this base in Ohio, and we stocked up on supplies and ammunition. We found a soldier who had been stationed there, and he told us that the country belongs to the zombies now. But, he told us about a scientist in Montana who was supposedly having luck in creating a cure.”
Everyone stops what they’re doing and stares at me with disbelief. “Are you sure?” Sam asks quietly, almost like she doesn’t know whether to get her hopes up. “There’s a cure?”
“There might be. When the base got overrun, they lost contact with the scientist. But Roberts—the soldier—told us that the scientist claimed to be having some success turning them back into people. If he could get that cure to the base in Detroit that initially released the virus, they might be able to reverse the entire thing, I guess. But it would be a long shot.” I fall silent as Sam finishes scrubbing my arms.
“Naomi, go check the water, please.”
Sam pulls me closer and hugs me tight. “I’m sorry you had to go through all of that. I wish things could just go back to normal.” She pulls away and looks me in the eye. “And it sounds like maybe they can. Madison…would you consider going to Montana?”
“What?” Todd explodes, making Sam flinch. Ryder scowls angrily at Todd, but Sam stops him from saying anything with a wave of her hand. “Are you fucking crazy? We are not going to Montana, and then to Detroit. There’s no way. We’d never make it there alive.”
“But if there’s a cure—”
“No!” Todd says, standing angrily. “We are not risking our lives for a cure that we don’t even know exists. If you wanna go, then go. Have a good time. But we’re going to stay here and get on with our lives as best as we can. I’d like to live as long as possible, and going to Detroit kind of doesn’t make sense. At all.”
I put a hand on his arm. “Todd, this may be the answer to our problems. We could end all of this. Can you imagine not having to live in constant fear? Can you imagine sparing whoever is left in the world? We could make this nightmare go away, for good. Don’t we at least owe it to ourselves to try?”
He groans. “No, Madison. We don’t. What we need to do is stay here, get better, and live our lives to the fullest extent possible. Don’t go being a hero.”
Naomi comes back in with two large plastic bags. She squeezes them, mixing the contents. Reese gets down a handful of bowls, and they begin pouring thick, beef stew into them while Ryder searches through one of our packs and opens a thing of beef jerky. The smell is enough to make my mouth start to water, and I can see Todd eyeing the bowls the same as me. Naomi passes them out, and we dig into the food, practically inhaling it. Even Daisy rouses enough to eat, and I take that as a good sign.
Nobody speaks while we eat, and I get the feeling that I’m not the only one actually considering going to Montana. I can tell just by looking at Sam that she wants to go, and Ryder and Reese will not agree with her. Strangely enough, I haven’t even considered making the trip to Montana until Sam brought it up, but now that she has, I can’t stop thinking about it.
We should do it, I think to myself. We owe it to everyone to at least try. We could end it all. We could make it so the rest of the world can begin to rebuild itself. But, what are our chances of success? Is it even possible?
After we’re finished eating, I check in on Aaron one final time, before Sam shows us to the bedrooms. There’s one bedroom at the back of the house on the ground floor, and she leaves me and Todd to get undressed by ourselves. I can hear Sam talking to Daisy as she takes the girl upstairs.
“She’ll be fine,” Todd says, surprising me. “She just needs some time to get over the initial shock of things. I bet she’ll be back to her old self when we wake up.”
“Yeah, until she finds out Michael is dead. I’m sure that’ll put a cramp in her recovery.”
Todd pulls me close. “Try not to think about any of that for just a little bit. For now, let’s focus on getting some rest. You look exhausted, Madison. Things will be better later. You’ll see.”
I almost smile at him. “I thought I was supposed to be the optimistic one of the two of us…”
He chuckles. “You make me feel optimistic.”
We take off our dirty, blood-stained clothes, and we climb under the covers, trying to shut out all of the horrible things that have happened in the last few months. As soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m out like a light.
Epilogue
I sleep for nearly eighteen hours, waking up early the next morning. My entire body is stiff and sore in places I never knew existed, but my mind is feeling refreshed, and I feel ready to face the day. Surprisingly, the other half of the bed is already empty, and the only thing in the room is a pile of fresh clothes folded at the foot of the bed. I strip off my dirty under things and toss them with my old bloody clothes.
The new clothes feel great against my skin, and I can’t remember the last time I wore something that was truly clean. The pair of sweatpants are a little tight and the shirt is a little loose, but they’re comfortable and they’re clean, and that’s all that matters. When I’m dressed in my clean clothes, I pull on my boots and head out into the living room. Todd looks up at me from his place near the couch, and the look on his face says it all.
“Janelle died about an hour ago,” Todd says sadly. “She never even regained consciousness.”
The news slowly sinks in, settling in the pit of my stomach like a lead weight. At first, I almost can’t believe it. Even though Ryder pretty much told us to expect the worst, on some level I believed things were going to be okay. Way, deep down where I didn’t even realize, I honestly thought Janelle would pull through. After doing so much to get to this place, I can’t believe Janelle died without knowing how perfect it is.
Todd seems to be waiting for me to react, so I say the first thing I can think of. “At least she’s with her family again.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in heaven,” Todd says with a frown.
“I don’t, but I think she did. And that’s all that’s important right now. She’s at peace, whether I believe in that peace or not.” I walk over to the loveseat to check on Aaron, and I notice that someone pulled a sheet over Janelle’s body out of respect. I look away from her body and focus instead on Aaron’s face.
Some of the color has returned, but he still looks awful. “Ryder says he thinks Aaron will make a full recovery. He might have a limp when he walks, but I don’t think it will slow him down all that much. Ryder has some kind of injury that prevents him from moving his arm fully, but he seems to do just fine.”
I smooth a strand of Aaron’s shaggy dark brown hair out of his eyes, and he moans quietly in his sleep. “Get better, Aaron,” I say, bending over to kiss him on the forehead. He stirs, but doesn’t wake up, and I look back at Janelle’s body. “When are we going to bury her?”
“In a little bit. Once Daisy wakes up. There’s some kind of blueberry granola milk crap out there for breakfast. It’s weird, but it’s not all that bad. You should go eat so you have some strength for later. I think it’ll be up to us to dig the grave, since we knew her and they didn’t.”
I nod, and head into the kitchen. Sam and Ryder are sitting there, eating spoonfuls of what looks like thin oatmeal. “There’s a bowl for you on the counter,” Sam says. “Help yourself, Madison.”
I fill the bowl from the pouch on the counter, and take a seat at the table beside her.
“I’m sorry about your friend,” she says, looking at me. “Were you two close?”
“Not really, but we went through a lot together. I guess it’s kind of impossible not to feel some level of connection with one another these days. Where are we going to bury her?”
“There’s a grove of apple trees a little ways from here. We can bury her beneath one of them if you’d like. That way you’ll be able to visit if you want…”
I nod. “That’ll work.”
The oats and blueberry d
oesn’t really have much of a taste, but I force myself to swallow it down anyways. Bland food is far better than no food, and as long as I have a chance to eat something, I won’t pass it up. We can’t afford to be picky anymore. Not when there’s so little left.
Daisy joins us as we’re finishing our breakfast, and Sam pours her what’s left from one of the bags. “I saw Janelle’s body,” Daisy says quietly, speaking for the first time since we found her after the crash.
“We’re going to bury her as soon as your done eating,” I say. “Todd and I are going out to dig the grave now. It might be awhile, so take your time.”
She digs into her food, and I head back out into the living room to grab Todd. “Let’s get this over with.”
“There are a couple of shovels in the shed,” Ryder says, actually sounding somewhat kind and less gruff. “Reese is gonna go with you guys to keep an eye out for zombies while you dig, but you shouldn’t have any problems. We haven’t seen a zombie in these parts for at least two weeks now. But be careful anyways.”
I head out back to the shed to grab the shovels, and I carry them out to the apple orchard while Todd and Reese carry Janelle’s body. She’s still wrapped in the beige sheet, and I’m glad I don’t have to have her staring at me with her lifeless eyes while I dig, or else I could never get it done.
We pick a spot underneath one of the apple trees at the end of the row, and Todd and I get to work while Reese keeps watch. We take turns shoveling out dirt, making a hole long enough for Janelle’s tall frame, and deep enough so that the rain won’t ever wash her body out. If we had to bury her twice…
I shake that thought away and get back to work. The hole is knee deep, and Todd and I take a quick second to wipe the sweat from our foreheads. After another ten minutes or so of work, the hole is deep enough. Todd and I climb out, and he and Reese gently lower Janelle’s body into the bottom. We silently wait for everyone to join us, and all too soon, we’re all present and accounted for, except for Aaron who is still asleep on the couch.
Zombie Country (Zombie Apocalypse #2) Page 26