Colony Z: The Complete Collection (Vols. 1-4) (27 page)

“Mark, I mean it.”

Mark looked the car, and then looked at Owen. The other boys were approaching, and pretty soon they’d start swinging. Owen was running low on options. He realized at this moment that he and Hannah were never going to see their parents again. If they didn’t get thrown in jail, that was. He knew now, now that Mark had seen Hannah, that it was too late to just drop her off. She’d have to come.

He’d gotten her into this mess, and now he had to get her out of it.

“I warned you.” Owen said.

Then he changed gears on the truck and floored it so quickly that Mark didn’t have time to move out of the way before his foot got caught under the tire. Owen heard a crunching sound and a scream as they went by, but he didn’t look back, even as the back tire hit the boy a second time. Instead he continued on ahead, Hannah staring at him in shock the whole time.

“Owen…Owen, how could you? Owen, take me back. I want to go
home.”

“Hannah, you can’t go home.”

“Owen stop this car
right now!”

“I can’t, Hannah! Do you understand me? I can’t!” Owen turned to look at her. “You will get
killed
back there, Hannah. That thing is gonna spread.”

“Owen…please…” But Owen didn’t respond. Hannah began to cry miserably. All she had wanted was one romantic night with her boyfriend and now look at her. She was in a truck driving away from the only life she’d ever known, fleeing the cops because of something she didn’t even do, with a kid who was acting like a madman.

And that madman didn’t answer her. Not for hours. They kept driving straight on, ignoring the police sirens in the next town over, ignoring the anger that they both felt for one another, ignoring the frustration and the hurt and the fear that they both felt in the pits of their hearts. They each believed the other didn’t truly understand the gravity of the situation. But, the truth was, they both understood perfectly. They each had a very different idea of how they wanted to spend the remainder of days Earth had left to survive.

In Owen’s mind, he wanted the route that lasted as long as possible. One that could maybe even stretch until they had grown old together and had their children. One that involved the love they felt for one another last night, before everything had gone wrong. Owen choose Hannah because Owen knew she was all he had left now. Otherwise, they would only be going back to pain, sorrow, and death. Something that he knew damn well the town they had just fled would be dealing with by that time in three days. Maybe less.

But, to Hannah, nothing seemed more rational than living out just a few more days with her family. It didn’t occur to her that she might die trying to do just that, or that it might even get her family into trouble and perhaps killed before they were meant to. She didn’t much care. All she wanted was for her father’s warm embrace, and for her mother to lecture her about going out too late at night. This was all horrible karma for sneaking around; she was absolutely sure of it. She would wake up in her bed, sweating like crazy, and the whole night would simply be a dream. A dream that was warning her about Owen. A dream that was telling her bad things would happen if she wasn’t careful.

But she knew this wasn’t a dream or a story. This was reality. This was her life. And this wasn’t something she could simply turn away from. She had to face it. And it looked like, despite her want for her family, she was going to have to face it with Owen. Unless she really wanted to jump out of a moving truck. Maybe if she pissed Owen off enough, he’d let her go just so he could get rid of her. Her mind was set on going home, on being in that little town and assuring everyone that everything that had just happened wasn’t her fault. That she’d had no control over any of it. And, most of all, so she could tell her parents that she was sorry; so sorry for not listening to them and so sorry for leaving.

Owen could practically feel these thoughts coming from his girlfriend. He knew she hated him. He knew she would try to get away if she could. And he didn’t want that. If he had truly believed going back would save her, he would have left her there in the first place. But she didn’t seem to see. She would spent one day, maybe two, there being questioned by police, EMTs, firemen, government officials, her parents, and half the town. Everyone would ask her where he was, and she would have to argue with herself over whether or not to even tell them the truth.

On top of that, she would be killed within a nightfall or two, because those monsters were going to materialize in other people. And the very last thing he would have ever wanted for Hannah was for her to see someone she really loved, like her father, turn into an It and attempt to kill her while she slept. Her nights would be worrisome, her days would be troublesome, and her every moment would be wishing she had come with Owen.

He knew this, but he couldn’t make her believe it. He couldn’t make her understand just how better this option was than the one she thought she wanted. But it didn’t matter. She was also a teenage girl. She was old enough to make decisions for herself, just like he was. And he had no right to hold her as some kind of a hostage.

But this was life or death. This was his future sitting right next to him, and if he just let that walk away, what did it show for him? What did it show for him if he couldn’t even keep the love of his life alive, despite the crazy option she wanted to run after? The difference between right and wrong wasn’t so cut and dry. How far would he go to keep her from trying to go home?

He didn’t want to dig their relationship into a deeper hole. After almost an hour of contemplating, he finally decided the best way to get her to stay with him was by her own will. And the only way to do that was to get her to continue the small strand of trust she had in him right now; the only thing that was keeping her from jumping out of the moving truck. Despite how angry she was, how shocked she was, and how confused she was, she was staying with him for the same reason she’d run into the woods last night. She trusted him. And the only way to get that to continue was to talk her through this, but tie her up and force her to stay for her own good.

“Hannah, we need to talk.” He said finally.

“Where are we going?”

Owen didn’t really know. Owen didn’t really have a plan. They lived in northern Michigan, and they’d been driving for a little over an hour. A small sign said ‘Marilyn Township- 6 miles’ on the side of the road as they passed.

Marilyn was farming country. There would be another big town for half an hour or so. Hannah looked exhausted. He needed to find her somewhere safe to stay; to sleep this all out of her system so she could think clearly. As a matter of fact, that didn’t sound so bad to him either. But they couldn’t exactly pull over into a motel and say, ‘hey, I need a room’. He didn’t have a wallet on him, didn’t have a phone on him, didn’t have anything to prove that he who he said he was or that he could pay for a room. And Hannah wasn’t much better off.

So the question wasn’t a matter of where to stay. He knew they couldn’t stay in the car. Officials in the next few towns would be looking for it, and they would be looking to shoot what with the dead body and the kid’s shattered foot. They would be marked as criminals and, until the dead rose, they would thoroughly hunted for. Everyone would expect them to try to find relatives, friends, coaches…someone they knew that they could stay with. It couldn’t be like that.

They’d have to find an outbuilding. A barn, or a shed, or something like that that wasn’t used very often. They’d have to stay there. The truck would be hidden behind some trees on a back road or something, so they could access it if they needed to go into town to get groceries or news or something like that. Owen didn’t have a long-term plan just then. He was thinking on his feet. And the best plan his feet came up with was a straw bed in a barn loft somewhere, and that would have to be good enough for Hannah.

“I’m not sure yet, but somewhere that you can get some sleep.”

Well, it wasn’t an entirely dishonest answer. He didn’t want to start out the conversation with, ‘hey, you’re sleeping on a hard floor tonight’.

“You think I’m going to be able to sleep?”

“I really think you should try. I know I’m going to. We need to clear our heads, take a deep breath…”

“A deep breath? Owen, you just ran someone over, dragged me all the way out here, haven’t said a word the whole way, and you want
me
to take a deep breath? I think you’re the one going crazy!”

“Hannah, stop it.”

“Owen, do you understand how much shit we’re in?”

“Hannah, I know…”

“And do you understand that my parents…the whole town…they think we’re murderers?”

“No one is going to think we’re murderers in a couple of nights when they see what we were talking about.”

“And that’s another thing. How can you just leave them there to die? Without warning them? Without even trying?”

“Hannah, damn it, use your brain! You’re a smart girl, I know you are. Think about it. I mean, honestly think about it. Do you really believe anyone is going to listen to us? Because if you do, please, by all means, turn around and start going home. I won’t stop you.”

Silence for several moments. Owen sighed.

“Hannah, babe, I love you. You know that. And you know I would never do anything that’s going to put you in harm’s way. I’m going to do everything I can to keep you safe, even if that means doing some things you don’t like. I don’t want to tie you down and make you stay in this car. When we get to the place that we’re staying, I don’t want to hide you behind some locked door. But, Hannah, I don’t care if you’re angry with me. I don’t even care if you hate me. At least you’re safe. And that’s what matters to me. You’re going to live through this. So you can do it by trusting me, or you can do it by hating me. But that’s an awfully lonely road to choose.”

“…why are you doing this?”

“I’m not the enemy here, Hannah. Those things are…and I’m going to regret that for the rest of my life. But I will not be the reason you die. I will
not
be the reason.”

“Owen…”             

“Hannah, look at me.”

Owen pulled the car over to the side of the road and Hannah stared. Nothing seemed to surprise her anymore. Nothing.

“I need to give you something. I’ve been holding onto it for a really long time. I bought it for you before our first date…because I was so excited…but I was too nervous to give it to you back then. It’s pathetic, I guess…but I always have it in my pocket when we’re together. I figure, one day, I’ll give it to you. I guess that’s today.”

“…you got me something before our first date?”

“Hannah, I loved you even then.”

Owen reached into his pocket, praying it would still be there, and found what he was looking for. He pulled out a silver locket. Hannah looked at it with awe. It had been a real bargain, for what it was worth, but it didn’t seem like Hannah really cared about the cost. She was too swept up in the fact that he’d spend money on her before he even really knew her.

Owen slipped the locket around her neck and kissed her slowly. When he pulled away, there were tears in her eyes. He couldn’t tell if they were a good sign, or a bad one.

“…I’m going to come with you, Owen.”

And, suddenly, there was nothing else to say.

So, Hannah and Owen continued driving on in silence. When they snuck into the big red and white barn some time after, and climbed up to the loft and found the almost perfect straw waiting for them to rest on, Hannah broke down in Owen’s arms, and he knew he had her. Sure, they might argue about it in the future, but right now he had her.