The Last Legacy (Season 1): Episodes 1-10 (14 page)

The back door sprang open, banging against the side of the wall, and a figure stopped in the entrance way. I didn’t recognize the shape at first—slender and dark, hidden by the door. My body tensed as I put my hand on my gun. The ticking near the front of the store distracted me.
 

“Lana.”
 

I let out an anxiety-filled breath and stood to greet Scarlet. I grabbed her, pulling her into the station. I peeked my head out the door. I paused, hoping to see Jim appear, but he didn’t. The back area remained empty. The door slammed behind me as I pushed Scarlet to the floor so we were sitting. Her shoulders rose and fell fast as she panted.
 

“Are you all right?” I asked her.

“Jim…he stay…I couldn’t.” She pressed her palm against her stomach, the other clutching the shirt over her chest. She shook her head as she spoke, her eyes full of tears.

“What about Jim?” My words came out harsher than I meant. I leaned towards her, shaking her shoulders. I had to know that he was okay. My shrill voice vibrated as hard as my heart. Her eyes did nothing to fix my spinning stomach.

Scarlet didn’t cure my loneliness, no matter how much I tried to convince myself that we’d be okay if Jim didn’t return. I liked her—trusted her. But she wasn’t Jim. She didn’t protect me or save me. Jim did. And he wasn’t fucking here. She pulled in a ragged breath. I sighed, relaxing my shoulders, but it didn’t stick.

“The eaters broke through, and I had to jump without him.” She paused to catch her breath, and I wanted to punch her in the face. She wasn’t telling me what I needed to know. If Jim was stuck in the library, I would go back and find him. If Jim got stuck somewhere, I had to go save him. It was what was right. He had saved me more times than I deserved. I shouldn’t have jumped first.

“I tried to wait for him, but he was stuck outside the window. I don’t know if he jumped, but the eaters came around the side of the library. I had to run down the main street. I didn’t see where he went.” She shook her head as tears rolled down her rosy cheeks.
 

“Did you see him? Was he hurt?” I didn’t care if she was sad anymore. The act got old. Hundreds of questions forced their way into my brain, most of them negative. He couldn’t take on more than a few eaters at once. I kept seeing scenarios play out—Jim getting cornered, Jim getting eaten, Jim hissing my name as his final word. My entire body shuddered.

“He wasn’t completely circled. I just don’t know where he went.”

She was useless. “Dammit.” I stood up and paced in front of the store. He’d have to be fine. He was fucking Jim—he handled my neurotic ass, saved me from his brother. He could handle the eaters. “He’ll make it. He has to. He’ll be here,” I said aloud, nodding my head to myself. I must’ve looked crazy, but it helped.

I told myself this a hundred times. Repeating the same phrases over and over again. If I told myself Jim would be okay, he would. He had to be. I had to believe that he was coming back or else I’d go insane. He wouldn’t just leave me after everything we’d been through. He told me he would protect me.
 

He promised.

What felt like hours had passed, but I knew it was probably only about forty minutes. I started to count the ticking clock but found myself falling into a daze. The quietness of the gas station grated against my skin. It could have been because I was searching for any sign of Jim. I craved the sound of his loud boots stomping against the pavement. I longed to hear his gruff voice, commanding me and ordering me around.
 

I just wanted him to come back. The fact that long minutes had passed told me that something had gone wrong. My nerves pricked all over my body. The hardness of the tiled floor of the gas station made my lower back ache; my butt had gone numb long ago.
 

Scarlet ate her way through the store, first the candy aisle and then the chips. I didn’t know where she put it since she had a skinny, little body. I had a feeling she didn’t do this in her normal life—probably more of a coping mechanism. She kept mumbling things to me as she walked by.
 

“I didn’t mean to run,” she had said. “He told me to jump, and I did,” she said another time. I just said “It’s okay” back to everything. I knew guilt was consuming her, and honestly I didn’t have the energy to comfort her. I was too busy listening for Jim, praying for his safe return.
 

“We have to go find him,” I finally announced to Scarlet. I couldn’t handle the waiting anymore. It was now the dead of the night. Maybe another fifteen minutes since the last time I checked. I knew the light wouldn’t come back for at least another six hours. Sitting here doing nothing ate me alive, my insides burning with unrest. My heart physically ached against my ribs.

“It’s too dark,” she said matter of factly.

“I have a flashlight.”

“But it’ll attract the eaters.” Scarlet jumped up from amidst the two aisles and grabbed my forearm. The flashlight in her hand illuminated her face. She had orange crumbs on her upper lip that she licked off. She frowned at me.

“Jim could be in trouble.” My voice seesawed on hysterical. Scarlet must’ve felt my desperation because she wrapped me in a one-armed hug, her knees pressing against my sides. I couldn’t be consoled. I didn’t even want to be. I just wanted to find Jim so we were safe again. “He’s out there, and we have to help him.”

“We can when it’s light out, Lana. For now, just take a nap and wait. Girls stick together, remember? There’s nothing else we can do anyway.” She pulled away from me. Her face filled with pity, and I looked away. I hated that emotion, hated people feeling it for me.
 

I didn’t respond to her right away. I knew that she was right, but Jim had saved me so many times. The thought that he was in danger, and I was just sitting in a gas station surrounded by food, irked me. I had to do something.
 

“Fine,” I grumbled, acting the part. I had to convince her that I would take a nap so she’d let her guard down. She smiled wide and let go of me.
 

“Wake me in the morning,” she said as she went back to the aisle she liked. She put her flashlight on her lap and turned it off. I leaned my head against the wall, the hardness biting into the back of my head.
 

I needed to come up with a plan. No matter what, I was going to go find Jim. I didn’t want him stranded with eaters surrounding him. He might need my help. I prayed that was what was holding him up. If he had left me, I didn’t know what I would do.
 

I didn’t think he’d be that cold, but one the same page, I didn’t know much about him. He said he’d get me to my location and move on. But I doubt he’d just leave out of the blue. I imagined more of a goodbye if he left. The optimistic part of me just hoped he’d change his mind and stay with me.

I decided to lay down in the aisle beside her. I made noise on the way there so she knew where I was. I didn’t want to tip her off of my ulterior motive. I shut off my own flashlight and laid down with a bag of chips under my head as a pillow. The dark ceiling and I stared at one another. I began counting the dots so I wouldn’t think of Jim.
 

Judging by the loud exhales of her breath, I assumed that Scarlet fell asleep. It had only been a few minutes. I didn’t want to waste more time sitting around. I flicked on my flashlight and paused, pointing it at the ground. I waited for a noise, a hint that she was awake, but silence greeted me.
 

I haloed her face with the beam. She didn’t budge, her eyes shut, her mouth wide open. Her head slumped to the side. Her red hair fanned around her face, strands dipping into her mouth. This was my one shot to sneak out, and I had to take it.
 

I couldn’t let my footsteps wake her so I crawled on my hands and knees until I was at front of the door. I stood up and fixed my jeans so they weren’t sagging, pulling my shirt down to cover my goose-bumped waist. I turned the knob as slowly as I did when I came in, the soft clicks sounding like explosions. Every centimeter something popped or creaked or echoed. I glanced over my shoulder, making sure she didn’t wake.
 

With a final twist, the door slid open, and I snuck out. It wouldn’t have been hard for an eater to squeeze in the door. Against the wall of the gas station was a metal bench. I put the flashlight in my mouth and grabbed the end of it, dragging it in front of the door. I found two more metal folding chairs and piled them on top for reassurance.
 

I let out a heavy breath. I needed to have a plan. I couldn’t just run down the streets in the darkness on a scavenger hunt to find Jim. Eaters were stronger at night and I wasn’t sure if I could take one on alone. I had to be smart. I stood in front of the bench and listened, taking in my surroundings.
 

A few crickets chirped. A crow sung far away. The wind blew low lying branches. An eerie chill crept up my spine, and I hugged myself, my arms around my stomach. I searched for distant screams or footsteps, but heard nothing. I walked towards the edge of the gas station and stopped when I felt the turn of the brick wall.
 

Two warm arms wrapped around me from behind. I screamed, but my cry for help cut off as a hand covered my mouth. I kicked and punched at my captor. The flashlight fell from my hands, clanking against the ground.

“Lana.”
His voice.
How was he here? I didn’t think, just spun around and wrapped myself around him. My stomach clenched as unwanted tears sprang in my eyes. I was so fucking relieved he was here. He didn’t leave me. He wasn’t dead.
 

I had never felt more pathetic than I did right then. No one could get more dependent than me. But I didn’t care. I needed Jim—for protection. I had turned soft since this whole war began. In my real life, I spent weeks alone, barely communicating with anyone. And yet there came Jim, my one lifeline. The only person to look out for me in this new world.
 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” He pried my arms off of him and held me at an arm’s length. I bit my cheek to keep myself from pouting.

“You’ve saved me so much. I couldn’t
not
try to find you.”
 

“I told you never to go out at night.”
 

“But you were missing,” I whined, sounding more like Scarlet than myself. I hated who I was becoming. But I couldn’t help it. I needed Jim. He had to have known that.

“But nothing. You could’ve been hurt, or worse, killed. Do you ever think of yourself?” His words hit home. I had gone through therapists like a whore goes through men, all of them trying to tell me the exact same thing. I didn’t think it was such a bad thing to be caring and help people. Apparently, I was the only person who thought this.

Coming from Jim, it felt like a slap in the face. I turned my back to him and flicked on my light, pointing it at the pavement.

“Sorry. I won’t care from now on.” I stomped towards the gas station, not caring about how loud I was anymore. It was just a few feet, but Jim instantly caught up to me, grabbing the inside of my elbow and spinning me to face him.

“Stop. I said I won’t care. You got what you wanted. Just keep pushing me away, Jim. Good job.” I clapped my hands and rolled my eyes at him, his fingers digging into my skin.
 

“Lana, just shut up for once.”
 

I had to fight the urge to slap him across the face. I was going to risk my life for him and instead of staying ‘thank you for caring,’ he berated me. I didn’t deserve it.
 

“This isn’t the old world anymore. You can’t just fix people.”

“I’m not trying to fix you! You just make this easier. Living and all that.” I waved my hands through the air.

“Well, you certainly make it a lot harder for me.” We stared at each other, the air charged with tension. His nostrils flared, his lips in a straight line.
 

“Thanks.” I narrowed my eyes at him even though I doubted he could see my subtle expression through the darkness. “Well, just leave then. You said you were going to ditch me, so here’s your out. You were probably debating it anyway. Right?” He was close enough I could see his eyes. They widened like I hit the nail on the head. Figured.
 

I threw the metal chairs off the bench and slid the bench over so I could get through the door. I knew my anger was misplaced, but he frustrated me. Jim was an asshole ninety percent of the time, but it was that ten percent where flickers of a good guy sparked that had me trusting him.

“Wait,” he whispered. I stopped in my tracks with my hand on the door. I panted, full of anger. I didn’t dare turn around and face him. His hot breath brushed along my neck. “I’m staying with you, Lana.”

“Why?” My shoulders relaxed.

“I don’t know…”
 

I pulled open the door to the gas station and immediately something whacked me in the face. My head whipped back, and I touched the warm, tingly spot on my cheek in amazement. I stared at Scarlet in question. Her eyes lit up with anger, her hand raised.