Lost World (16 page)

“They call me Tiny,” he says flatly, still holding my gaze. When none of us moves, he sighs. “You four are no fun. Brady. My name is Brady.”

“You got a place ‘round here?” Axl asks.

Brady tilts his head. He hesitates, and I’m not sure if he’s going to tell us. He’s pretty clean and he’s alive. Seems like he probably has a decent place. Maybe he has room. Maybe he’s the answer we’ve been looking for. Brady’s eyes sweep over us again, and I hold my breath. If I could somehow make myself look less threatening to him I would, but I have no idea what to do other than lay my weapons down at his feet. That’s not going to help Angus appear any more appealing, though.

“We’re not going to hurt you or steal your stuff,” I say. “We’re not looking for trouble. Just someplace safe.”

His eyes move to Angus, and his mouth tightens. Then he exhales. “I lived in a gated community before all this started. It was small—only twenty houses—and well-fortified. We wanted to keep the riff-raff out.” He jerks his head toward Angus, who swears under his breath. “When the dead started coming back, I took preemptive measures. Went from house to house and killed them before they returned or when they were still slow.”

“You could reach their heads?” Angus sneers. He spits at Brady’s feet again, barely missing the toe of his brown leather boot.

Brady snorts and says, “Carrying around the ladder slowed me down, but I managed.”

“For real?” Angus’s eyebrows pull together as his gray eyes narrow on the little man’s face.

Brady snorts again. “No, you buffoon. I used a gun like any
normal
person.”

Angus moves toward Brady, and Parvarti lets out a sigh. I know what she’s thinking. These two are worse than children.

“Will you two shut up?” I say, stepping in front of Angus before he beats the shit out of the sarcastic man. I can’t say that I’d really blame Angus all that much, really, but we have more important things to worry about.

I kneel down so I’m eye level with Brady, and his brown eyes study mine. They are intense and intelligent. Don’t miss a thing. No wonder he’s survived. It takes more than physical strength to make it through this. Doesn’t mean he couldn’t use the help though, and I think he’s smart enough to know that. We could help him as much as he could help us.

“You’re telling me you have a gated community nearby? Cleared out?”

Angus spits behind me, and when I cringe, the corner of Brady’s mouth twitches.

“I know what you’re thinkin’, Blondie, and it ain’t happenin’. There’s no way in hell I’m livin’ out the rest of my life next to this sack-a-shit.”

The corner of Brady’s mouth turns up even more. “Oh yes,
I’m
the sack of shit. I’m sure you’re just a barrel of fun.”

I dig my nails into the palm of my hand. “Stop it! This is serious!”

Axl swears and leans down next to me. “We got a group. Women, kids. We been on the road for weeks now. Just lost more people this mornin’. It’s rough out there, and we need a safe place real bad.”

Brady chews on his bottom lip while he studies Axl and me. “This group of yours, who would you say they identify with more? You three or
him
?” He jerks his head toward Angus.

“Us,” I say firmly, putting my hand on Axl’s knee.

Parvarti steps closer to my side. With the fierce expression on her face she reminds me of some kind of character in a video game. The unlikely heroine of the zombie apocalypse who saves humanity.

Brady nods slowly, looking us over again. “Far be it from me to deny anyone a safe place to live. I’d be more than happy to open my gates to you. It’ll be nice to have the company!” He grins like we’re going to a dinner party, not hiding from zombies.

“Thanks,” I mumble as I stand. This guy is different. I’m not sure how to take him. “How far away is your place? We have to get our people tomorrow. We walked a good fifteen miles today.”

“Not far. Ten minutes or so.” Brady grabs his backpack and slings it over his shoulder. “We should get going, though. It’s getting dark.”

Axl hasn’t said much, and he watches every move Brady makes. It doesn’t seem like he distrusts this guy, though. I think he’s just trying to figure him out. That makes two of us.

“Um…I’m Vivian. This is Parvarti, then you have Axl and his brother, Angus.”

“
Angus
and
Axl
.” Brady says the names like they taste funny. Then he shrugs. “So where are your people?”

Axl shakes his head as if he’s trying to clear it. “Post office, back in Millersville.”

“Post office? Why a post office?” Brady tilts his head and his eyebrow shoots up.

“Needed a secure place. One that would’ve been shut down by the government early on and wouldn’t be overrun with the dead or stink of rotted food. Post offices are secure. Just made sense.”

“Smart.” Brady frowns and looks over at Angus. “You sure you two are related?”

Parvarti snorts, and I
almost
laugh. He may be a bit different, but it might be a nice change to have this guy around after all. Comic relief. That’s something we could use more of for sure.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Angus spits at him.

Brady shrugs innocently, but his eyes sparkle. “Just curious, that’s all.”

Axl’s mouth twitches ever so slightly. “We got different dads.”

“Half-brothers. That explains it.” Brady’s eyes get big, and he elbows Axl in the hip. “Your dad must have been the smart one.”

Axl purses his lips, but the left side of his mouth pulls up even more than before. “Wouldn’t know.”

Angus starts walking, not even looking at Brady. Too bad he doesn’t have a clue where we’re going.

Brady heads the opposite direction, calling over his shoulder to Angus, “This way.”

12

SNOWFLAKES HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FALL when I stop in front of the sign that says,
Whispering Woods Hot Springs: 1 mile.
Almost there. I can’t believe we made it back.

“We should tear this down.” I kick the post, but it barely moves.

Jon runs his hand down his face, and for the first time I notice the gray streaks in his hair. Right above his ears and temples. They weren’t there when we first met, I’m sure of it. I always thought the concept of stress causing your hair to gray was an old wives’ tale, but I guess I was wrong. At this rate I’m going to be totally gray before my thirtieth birthday.

“Yeah, but we can deal with that later,” he says, blowing out a deep sigh. “I’m beat, and I know you have to be, too. Let’s just get back to camp and rest, maybe take a bath. We can worry about this in the morning. Who knows? Maybe the antibiotics have kicked in and Jake’s feeling better. Maybe everyone is getting ready to head out. They might just be waiting for us to come back.”

More than once we’ve discussed the possibility that Parv, Angus, and Darla never made it out of that town. Sure, they left us a message, but that doesn’t mean shit. They could have gotten picked off by those assholes after they left the pharmacy. Or they could have run into a horde. True, we haven’t seen a single zombie since we started walking, but we all know that doesn’t mean a thing. Sometimes they pop up out of nowhere after days of silence.

“Yeah,” I murmur.

We start walking again, and my legs are so heavy I find it hard to make them move, so I distract myself by counting down the seconds until we get to the hot spring. We can cover a mile in about twenty minutes, so that’s twelve hundred seconds. Two steps a second. That’s twenty-four hundred steps. It all seems a hell of a lot less daunting when I think about it that way.

When we get ready to round the last bend, my heart soars so high it feels like it’s reached the moon. Jon grins my way and I find myself returning it. It’s probably the first genuine smile I’ve given him since we met. If my legs didn’t weigh a thousand pounds each, I’d start running.

We turn the corner, and all the air leaves my lungs so fast I almost pass out. My legs stop moving at the exact second Jon’s do. It’s so sudden that anyone watching us would probably think we’d run into an invisible wall.

The Sam’s truck isn’t here.

“Where the hell is the truck?” Jon asks, his words so quiet they barely register with me.

“No,” I mumble, lurching forward a small step. Then the reality of the situation hits me so hard I feel like I’ve been shot and my body jerks back. “No!”

The scream rips its way out of me as I take off running. Jon’s footsteps pound against the pavement at my back, and my lungs are still burning from the lack of air, but a horde of zombies couldn’t stop me right now. It feels like the whole world is about to collapse, and I’m not even sure what I’m running to. It’s not like the truck is suddenly going to appear if I get there faster. It’s gone. There’s no other way to look at it.

I’m panting by the time I reach the entrance to the hot springs. Jon runs up behind me, and he’s breathing just as heavily. But the truck is still gone. I bend over and put my hands on my knees as I suck in a mouthful of air. Struggling to fill my lungs and calm my pounding heart. I don’t know what to do or what to say or where to go from here. It’s me and Jon, and the future feels so bleak and depressing that for a second I consider giving up. Laying down in the middle of the snow-dotted road until I’m covered in a blanket of white. I could drift off. Embrace the cold and let it take me away from the hell I’m trapped in. No one would blame me. I’ve suffered enough.

“Overrun?” Jon says, forcing me to look up.

He’s staring at the road, his eyebrows pulled down and a look of utter confusion on his face. That’s when I see it. The message scrawled across the road in orange spray paint.

H & J – Got overrun. Need fuel. Head back to the 1
st
town.

“What the hell does that mean?” Jon asks, still staring at the words.

My stomach jumps, and I have to fight back the urge to puke as I squeeze my eyes shut again and say a silent prayer everyone made it out okay. “A horde.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

When the nausea has passed—mostly—I open my eyes, but neither one of us moves. I don’t have the faintest clue what to do, and I doubt Jon does either. It’s getting dark, and what had started as a few flurries has slowly picked up. A steady stream of little white flakes now falls from the sky, and I know without a doubt it’s going to stick. The ground isn’t warm enough to melt it. Not with the constant temperature drop we’ve had. The other town was at least twenty miles from here, so there’s no way in hell we’ll be able to make it there tonight.

“We need to check it out,” Jon says.

“What?” I turn to face him, but he’s staring at the trail. Thinking about going down there makes my stomach lurch.

“The hot spring. I want to know what happened.”

Even though I’m not sure if I can face it, I nod slowly. Will we even be able to tell what happened? Do I want to know? I doubt it. Only, there isn’t anywhere else for us to go. We can’t stay here. Sleeping in one of those little changing houses may be our only option right now. As horrible as it sounds.

I allow Jon to take my hand as we head down the trail and into the forest. Before we’ve gone five steps I get a whiff of death, and the deeper we go the more intense the smell becomes, until I’m forced to pull my shirt up over my nose. Still, it penetrates the fabric and makes my stomach twist uncomfortably. Saliva fills my mouth, and I do my best to take deep, soothing breaths, hoping to ward off the nausea. The rank scent of decay is something I’ll never be able to get used to.

When the hot spring finally comes into view, my legs give out. I slump onto a boulder, staring at the carnage below us. There are bodies everywhere. Littering the stone floor, bobbing up and down in the water like dead fish. Piled in masses that ooze black blood.

It looks like a bomb went off.

“Shit,” Jon mutters. “There are so many of them.”

“There’s no way everyone made it out of this,” I say.

Jon exhales and starts walking again. I have to force my legs to cooperate so I can follow. They wobble when I go down the stairs, and my already uneasy stomach lurches from the smell. The stench is stronger than ever, and I’m not sure if it’s because there are so many dead piled together like this or if it has to do with my condition. I’ve heard pregnant women complain about their sense of smell being heightened.

We reach the bottom and pick our way through the carnage. The area where the tents had been set up is clear, but almost every other inch of the ground is covered in death of some kind. Bodies or blood or other parts I don’t even want to think about. Which one of our friends died here today?

“Damn.” Jon stops walking and points toward three piles of rocks.

My mind can’t register what I’m looking at, though. They’re just a bunch of stones piled on top of one another. Sure, they weren’t here before, but they don’t seem very significant to me. This whole area is covered in rocks.

“They’re graves,” Jon says when I don’t react.

It feels like a slap in the face.

Three of them.

I close my eyes when the world sways. The faces of our friends flash through my mind, and I start to shake. We’ve lost more people. But who? Vivian? Axl? Parv? Of course, we don’t even know if Parvarti made it back here. Maybe she’s gone too, along with Angus and Darla. Then there would be six dead instead of three. Six fewer people in our group. The losses just keep piling up, and with each person I’m forced to say goodbye to, I feel like the weight on my shoulders gets heavier. How will we be able to go on after this?

“Hey.” Jon grabs me and pulls me against him. His arms are warm and strong. Reassuring. “It will be okay. Just look on the bright side.”

“There’s a bright side?” I say, rubbing my face against his jacket to wipe away the tears that have spilled over. Crying seems pointless these days.

“Yeah. Parvarti, Angus, and Darla made it out of that town.”

I pull back and look up, holding his gaze. “How do you know?”

“The note on the street. It was addressed to me and you. That’s it. Which means they made it back before the rest of the group left.”

“Oh,” I say, letting out a sigh.

He’s right, but it doesn’t make me feel any better because it doesn’t mean they’re alive right now. They could have made it out of that town just to get killed here or after they left the hot spring. If not, they’ll die tomorrow or next week, or next month. I don’t know when it will happen for sure, but I know it’s going to. It’s just a fact of life now. We don’t get to live. We don’t get to start over from here. The world is gone and so are all the people we once knew and loved. Sure, we’ve made new friends, created a new family, but it’s only temporary. Soon we’ll lose them just like we’ve lost everything else in this world.

Snowflakes land on my face, leaving behind tiny drops of moisture. A strong wind sweeps over the hot spring, and the steam from the water warms it slightly before it gets to us. But it also brings a smell so revolting my stomach jumps to my throat. Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to focus on something other than the smell. I breathe in through my mouth, hoping to avoid the stench, but then I can taste it. It’s thick and vile. Like eating rotten meat.

By the time the nausea has faded, I’m so beat I can hardly stand. I lean my head against Jon’s chest and close my eyes. “I’m tired.”

Jon’s arms wrap around me, and he kisses the top of my head. “Let’s lay down. We can talk about what to do next after we’ve gotten some rest.”

We huddle together in the small shelter, trying to keep warm. The wind howls, blowing so hard the walls around us shake. It’s even more frigid than it was when we settled in a few hours ago, and even though I’m exhausted, I can’t fall asleep. My teeth chatter so hard that it fills the air with a clicking sound, and every inch of my body is covered in goose bumps. Jon’s arms are wrapped around me, but I can’t stop shivering.

It’s going to be a long night.

“T-tell me ab-bout your w-wife,” I say, trying to scoot closer to his warm body. It’s impossible, though. If I got any closer we’d become one person.

“My wife?” he says uncertainly.

He lets out a deep breath when I nod, and for a second I wonder if he’s upset at me for asking. We’ve never spoken about her before, but I’ve been curious about her for a while. I know Jon how he is now, but I wonder what he was like before all this started. Who he married and if they were happy. What his hopes and dreams for the future were before the whole world went to shit.