I see a few go for the chocolate pudding first, but I want to try something new, something I’ve never had before. I hesitate with the glass against my lips, and Anders, Evan, and Mary are watching me with amused expressions on their faces. I can’t be sure, but it looks like Mary might actually be smiling behind her own glass of raw milk.
“It’s not going to kill you,” Evan says with a chuckle.
Anders laughs. “I already told her that.”
I sip slowly at it, encouraged by their carefree attitude. It’s fresh and cold, and surprisingly sweet, and thicker than store bought milk. The foreign taste is odd, but not necessarily bad. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever tasted, but I’ve been drinking the store bought stuff for my entire life up to this point. If I had a choice, I’d most likely stick with the store bought stuff just because of how familiar it is.
Around me, the others are having a similar reaction to their own glasses of raw milk. Daisy takes one sip and grimaces, refusing to drink anymore, and Todd nearly chokes as it hits his tongue. He sets it aside, but Madison eagerly moves it closer. She’s already downed half of her glass, and it looks like she really likes it. Ryder and Reese sip slowly at theirs, probably not outright hating it, but knowing that the nutrients will do their permanently malnourished bodies some good.
I take another sip and set it down, opting to go slow and not make myself sick. Besides, the food is calling out to me. It doesn’t take long for me to finish my plate, and Mary tells us to help ourselves to seconds if we’re still hungry. I take a little bit more, hoping to actually fill my stomach with good food while we’re here. Looking around, I notice the others are all deep in conversation with one another, and the atmosphere in the room is so light and carefree, like the world hasn’t really ended and we’re just a normal family gathered to eat a nice meal together.
It’s because Trey’s not here.
I see Mary glance at his empty chair a couple of times throughout the meal, and I can tell she’s worried about him. The wind has been blowing steadily worse throughout the night, and it’s finally beginning to snow, just like Mary predicted. He’s still outside in this weather, with probably only a coat and some boots to keep him warm. There’s no telling where he might be, or if he’s going to be okay. Even though he’s clearly unstable and possibly dangerous, he hasn’t done anything to harm any of us, and I’m not sure we can just let him stay out there without trying to find him.
My thoughts stay with Trey as the others finish up their meals and begin to help Mary clear away the dirty dishes. Evan asks Ryder to hang back for just a minute, so I grab his dishes along with mine and head into the kitchen after Mary. We stack all the dirty dishes near the sink and Mary tells us she’ll take care of them in the morning after the snow stops and someone can head out to their well and draw up some clean water.
“What do you think Evan wants with Ryder?” Reese asks.
“Unfortunately, I think it’s about Trey.” When Reese frowns, I continue. “He didn’t show up for dinner, which means he’s outside in this brewing blizzard without any gear or supplies. I have a bad feeling that Evan is going to ask Ryder to help him find Trey.”
“You’d be right,” Ryder says from the doorway. Evan is with him. The lines on his face are deeper than usual, making him look even older. “Evan wants anyone who is willing to help him form a search party and find Trey. He may be a prick, but it’s not right to let him stay out there and die from exposure, especially since there are plenty of capable people in here to help look for him.”
Todd groans. “Are you serious? The dude is a fucking psychopath, remember? He’s happy that the world ended. You did hear him say that, right? We’re probably better off without him.”
“But we’re not going to be here forever,” Ryder says patiently. “And Evan and Anders won’t be able to run this place by themselves for long. Trey doesn’t do much around here, but it’s less extra work for them to handle. The storm isn’t too bad out right now, but it is getting worse as it goes on. There’s no harm in partnering up and giving the property a quick search.”
“This place is huge,” Madison says with a frown. “Realistically, how are we going to cover so much ground with so few of us?”
“I don’t know,” Ryder admits. “But we’re going to try. Evan has been a hospitable host to us, and we owe it to him to at least try. If Trey’s not a complete and total idiot, he’ll have sought out shelter by now, which will hopefully narrow down our places to look. We’ll split up into partners, and the less capable searchers will check the buildings closest to the house, while the more capable groups take any of the buildings farther out in case he put some real distance between us and himself.”
“Dude, this blows,” Todd says, crossing his arms over his chest. “We’re risking frostbite and even worse just to find a douchebag that doesn’t even earn his keep. A guy who, may I remind you, would clearly not do the same for anyone else.”
“I know this is a lot to ask of you,” Evan says, “but I can’t let a young man die out there knowing I could have helped him. I just can’t. Please, say you’ll help us.”
Ryder puts a hand gently on Evan’s shoulder. “I’ll split our group up and assign areas to search. If you can think of any other buildings on your property that you haven’t already told me about, make sure you let me know so we can search those, too.” He turns to Daisy and Hannah. “Will you girls head out to the car and break out the winter supplies? There should be enough gloves and hats out there for everyone to have a pair.”
“Gloves and hats aren’t going to protect us from everything,” Aaron points out. “What if we run into other problems out there? We won’t be able to run as fast through the snow, and it’ll tire us out. Zombies don’t get tired chasing after us, Ryder. We’re putting ourselves at a huge risk for this guy.”
“I know,” he says. “And I wish we didn’t have to do it, but Evan and Mary are both really upset. And he’s promised to give us more supplies for our trip if we help.”
“We don’t need more supplies,” Todd says angrily. “We need our lives! We cleaned out the lab before we left. We’re set on food and ammunition for the rest of the trip.”
“We can never have too many supplies,” Ryder says. “I won’t argue with you anymore. If you don’t want to help, you don’t have to. You can stay here with Mary and wait for the rest of us to come back.”
Todd snorts. “Like I’m letting Madison go out there by herself.” He looks at her. “You and I are not dying for this psycho. If there’s even a hint of trouble, we’re coming back right away. Screw him.”
She nods. “I’m with you on that.”
“That’s fine,” Ryder says. “If anyone thinks they’re in danger, return to the house immediately. Do not put yourselves in harm’s way any more than being outside already will. Understood?”
We all nod in agreement, and Ryder starts to split us up into our groups.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I trudge through the snow, feeling extremely cold and bitter. I hate that Trey was stupid enough to head out for a walk knowing that a blizzard was coming, I hate that I can hardly feel my toes, and I hate that I’m not with Ryder right now. He and Anders are searching the farthest buildings from the house, while Reese and I take ones that lie on the outside edges of the property, not necessarily far out, just out of the way. Daisy and Hannah are both with Aaron, searching the buildings closest to the house, while Todd and Madison search the ones towards the middle of the property.
“This sucks,” I say, hauling myself over a thick fallen tree.
Reese pauses to help me over, before nodding in agreement. “Yeah, this pretty much blows. But we have to do it, for Evan’s sake. It won’t kill us to spend an hour or so looking for him. He can’t have gone far without any supplies or weapons. We should find him in no time, and then Evan will give us some supplies, hopefully some of that meat.”
“I just hope we find his dumbass soon, or we’re going to
freeze.”
“Cheer up,” he says. “Mary will have some hot chocolate waiting for us when we get back. That’ll perk you right up.”
“For once in my life I might want something a little stronger,” I mutter, earning a chuckle from him.
The first building comes into our view, and we hang back a ways, scanning the area outside for any signs of movement. Evan told us he hasn’t had any problems with zombies on his property, and it looks like he was telling the truth, because we haven’t seen a single one yet during our stay. There’s no sign of any tracks—either from Trey or zombies—but we have to check it out in case the snow has already buried them.
“What do you think they used this building for?” I ask, looking over the tiny building that is little more than a shack at this point.
“It’s probably a neighbor’s utility shed or something,” he says quietly. “They probably just used it to store tools and machinery they weren’t using. It’s not too big so it shouldn’t take too long to search. Come on, let’s get this over with. The sooner we find Trey, the sooner we can be inside warming up and getting some much deserved rest.”
After we decide the area is clear, we head for the shed, moving slowly through the snow drifts that get larger by the hour. I don’t want to be out here any longer than we have to, so I try to quicken my pace. When we reach the shed door, Reese nods to me, and I take a few steps back, putting myself in front of the door. Reese grabs the handle on the door and stands off to my side, ready to pull open the door and let me deal with whatever may be inside.
I like that Reese trusts me enough to let me be the first one inside, but I push those happy thoughts away so I don’t get distracted and blow his faith in me. I nod back to him, and he yanks the door open, pulling it wide open and disappearing behind it. My weapon comes up and I shine my flashlight into the darkened shed. I wait at the entrance, practically holding my breath while I count to fifteen. When nothing stirs inside, I step through the open doorway and quickly scan the area around me, shining light on every inch of the building.
Reese moves up behind me, and he heads off to the left while I take the right. The floor is dirt and sawdust, and I can feel it sticking to the bottom of my wet boots. Which means I’ll have to go around back and clean them off before Mary will let me back inside to warm up and relax. Looking down, I shine the light around my feet, looking for any other signs of recent footprints. If my wet boots are picking up sawdust, then Trey’s would too if he’s been in here recently. The floor looks disturbed, but I can’t tell if it’s recent or if it’s even from me and Reese.
I feel my annoyance start to build again. We’re going to be out here all night finding this bastard…
Something clatters behind me and I whirl, bringing my weapon up. Reese puts his hands up, smiling apologetically. “Don’t shoot.” Lowering my weapon, I look around for the source of the noise. There’s a paint can on the ground near Reese’s feet. “Sorry,” he says. “I wasn’t watching what I was doing and I bumped it off the shelf.”
My heartbeat slowly returns to normal, and I feel myself start to relax. “You scared me,” I say with a nervous chuckle. “It’s too dark in here for that.”
“Sorry,” he says again. “Let’s try to stick closer together, just in case. Ryder will kill me if anything happens to you.”
“Or to you,” I point out, nudging him with my elbow. “Let’s hurry up and get this place searched. It’s giving me the creeps in here.”
Looking around, it looks like something possibly out of a horror movie. All kinds of tools line the walls, some sharp enough to cut off a man’s head. There are chains of all different sizes hanging down from the ceiling, and long tables that are covered by dirty sheets, hiding the contents beneath. This place looks like it might very well have been someone’s torture chamber back in the day, and I don’t want to stick around long enough to find any spare body parts or shallow graves beneath our feet.
Reese and I slowly make our way through the mess of machinery and tools, careful not to knock over anything else for fear our nerves won’t be able to handle it. I duck beneath a low hanging, thick chain capable of probably stringing up a person with ease, and my stomach tightens into painful knots. As we search every inch of the shed, we find no signs of any recent occupation.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Reese says. “I don’t like the feel of this place.”
As we turn back to the entrance, something catches my attention. I notice something drop to the floor and I turn, wondering if my eyes are just playing tricks on me in the dark. As I stare, a nearby knife hanging from the wall slowly drips blood. I watch it slide down the length of the blade before gathering at the tip and falling to the ground, staining the dirt beneath it. The blood is obviously fresh, and I feel my insides recoil.
“Reese…”
He stops and looks back, the beam of his own flashlight joining mine. We silently watch the blood drip down to the ground. I can’t be sure what kind of thoughts are going through Reese’s mind, but I see an array of expressions pass over him. Finally, he speaks. “Evan said they had something attack one of their cows recently. Maybe they butchered what was left and salvaged what they could. That could explain the blood.”
“Reese, this blood is fresh. Like within the last day or two,” I say. “Evan didn’t say anything about butchering an animal in the last day or two. Neither did Anders or Trey. Whatever this knife was used for, I don’t think Evan has any knowledge of it.”
Reese looks at me, his eyes narrowing. “What do you think it was used for?”
“I don’t know. It’s not zombie blood, that’s for sure.”
“I think we should head back up to the house and talk to Evan about this. Fuck Trey. It’s his own fault for getting caught out here in a blizzard.”
“Agreed,” I say, turning away from the bloody knife. “This place creeps me out, and I’m freezing my ass off. I’m thinking that cup of hot chocolate sounds pretty good right about now.”
We head back for the entrance, and Reese slams the door closed behind him. Without so much as a second glance at the shed behind us, we turn and head back for the house, taking a different path than before. If we’re going to quit early and head back, we may as well try to cover a little bit more ground. I hate having to forge a new trail through the snow when there are perfectly good footprints I can walk through leading back to the house, but I don’t want anyone to think that Reese and I didn’t at least try to find Trey.
I struggle to keep up with Reese through the tall snow drifts, so he occasionally slows down and lets me catch up. It’s getting too dark out to see anything in front of us aside from what’s illuminated by our flashlights, and I’m afraid of tripping over something buried in the snow and bringing Reese down with me. He keeps his flashlight focused on the ground while I try to light up our surroundings at eye level, just so we have a decent range of light, but it’s not working very well.
We don’t get very far before Reese stops suddenly, and I run into his back. “Sorry,” I say. “Why are we stopped?”
“Look down.”
Just in front of us is a fresh line of footprints, probably not more than a couple of hours old judging by how filled in with snow they are. Even though it’s been snowing pretty hard, these footprints are sheltered by a line of trees overhead, which keep most of the snow from falling down and filling them. “It’s gotta be Trey. Nobody else is searching out this way.”
Reese sighs. “We have to follow them.” I groan, and he hurries on. “We can’t go back to the house and tell everyone we found his tracks but didn’t bother to follow them. Ryder would be pissed that we didn’t take this seriously.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Come on,” he says, turning and heading in the direction they face. “Maybe there’s a building nearby that Evan didn’t know about that’s really close. We can find Trey and tell him to get his ass back to the house, and then we can head in ourselves. It might only take a
few minutes.”
Sighing, I follow along beside him, making my own way through the snow drifts instead of following in Reese’s footprints. He slows his pace to allow me to keep up more easily, but I’m still struggling. It’s nearly pitch black out already, and the temperature is dropping. I have two layers of socks on my feet, boots, a sweater, coat, and gloves and a hat, but I can still feel the biting cold. I almost speak up and tell Reese that I’m perfectly fine with leaving Trey out here, but I know he’s right to keep going.
We follow the footprints as fast as we can, hoping the rest of them don’t get buried by the falling snow. The two of us walk in silence, trying to listen for any signs of movement around us. It’s hard to hear over the sound of howling wind and the crunch of fresh snow beneath our boots, but I’m sure Reese and I will be able to pick up any noise Trey makes that might lead us to him.
The tracks curve, leading us further way from the house and out into the middle of seemingly nowhere. Reese stops and looks around, a heavy frown on his face. “Where is he going? There’s nothing out that way.”
“Nothing according to Evan. Maybe Trey found something Evan and Anders don’t know about?”
We scan the area, looking for any sign of a building. I don’t spot anything out of the ordinary, but I see Reese do a quick double take, and his eyes narrow in concentration. I focus my attention in the same area, but I don’t see anything that looks out of the ordinary. “Reese? What do your elf eyes see?”
He elbows me gently. “Over there. There’s a white building. It looks like it’s been built right into a hill. Maybe some kind of survivalist bunker or something.”
I strain my eyes, trying to catch even a glimpse of this white building, but it’s impossible through the snow. I don’t know how Reese has managed to spot it, but I take him at his word. “Lead the way. If Trey is smart, he’s holed up in there waiting out the storm. We can help him get back and then have a well deserved rest.”
Zombie World (Zombie Apocalypse #3) Page 32