The Withered Series (Book 1): Wither (19 page)

None
of us speak as we head into the woods.  The forest feels safe
and I for one want to stay clear of people for a good long while. We
have supplies enough to last us a few days and some crude tools that
can be used as weapons if it comes to it.  We will make it.  The
question is…for how long.

It’s
not just the military we have to watch out for, or the gangs tearing
apart St. Louis brick by brick. Now it’s the survivors in small
towns that we will meet. Those people desperate enough to put a gun
to our head when they want something.

And
what about the virus? We are no closer to discovering how it ticks.
 Hiking through the forest isn’t about to help that
situation either, but none of us are ready to face another slaughter.
 Ours or anyone else’s.

From
time to time I look toward the other fire well off in the distance,
wondering who started it and if there were any survivors.  Is it
a coincidence that both fires started around the same time?  Did
the same men who follow Alex’s group follow another?  

The
moon rises high overhead.  A bitter cold descends but we don’t
stop. Moving keeps us warm.  Cable shelters me from much of the
brutal wind.  He must be suffering.  His coat was lost to
the battle.  He has only a thin long-sleeve shirt to protect him
from the winds now.

“Wait
up!”

Alex
pauses and circles around to me.  Cable’s teeth chatter.
 “We can’t stop.”

“Cable
is freezing.  Do you have anything to spare?” Eric took
all of our supplies, including the last of the clothes we’d
scavenged.

I
look to Alex and follow his gaze as he turns to look at Sal.  The
sleazy creep crosses his arms over his shoulder and shakes his head.
Anger simmers low in my belly but Cable’s weight holds me back.
 “Alex?”

“Let
me see.”  He swings his pack off his shoulder and kneels.
 The sound of the zipper is loud in my ears.  The woods are
quiet tonight. Far too quiet for normal.  It is unnerving.

I
watch as he shifts cans and used bottles half empty with water.  He
removes a worn cloth that is stained pink.  When he looks up at
me there is pain in his eyes.  I look away, biting my lip to
keep back the tears. I want to ask about Eva, to hear what happened
at the end, but I’m afraid of hearing it. I want to believe
that she survived, that she lived to hold her baby, but I don’t
believe it anymore. Not really.

“It’s
all I’ve got.”  Alex holds out a small blanket.  It
is threadbare and tattered on the edges but large enough that it
could shield Cable’s back and arm.  

“Thank
you.”  As I take the blanket from Alex I realize that his
hands are shaking.  He meets my gaze briefly before quickly
turning back to his pack.  The weight of Eva’s loss sits
heavily on his shoulders.  There is anger too.  At himself?
At me for leaving them behind? I honestly don’t know, and I
don't have the stomach to ask.  Not yet.

Alex
zips his backpack and slings it over his right shoulder.  The
second pack is larger and heavier, weighing down his left side,
forcing him to walk unevenly.  He returns to Sal and Victoria’s
side while I see to Cable.

“Your
friends seem intense.”  His teeth chatter so hard I fear
he will bite his tongue.

I
set my pack on the ground and shake out the blanket.  “They
aren’t my friends.  They just sort of took me in.”

As
I wrap the blanket around him, I notice how close we are.  I can
feel the warmth of his chest against mine as I rise onto my tiptoes
to tie a knot around his shoulder.  It won't do much to warm
him, but it should at least be a buffer against the winds.  I
sink back to my flat feet.  Cable grasps my wrist as I start to
turn away.  “Sometimes we don’t get to choose our
friends.  Especially not now.”

I
glance back toward Alex’s group. It is smaller now.  Devon
is gone, as is Eva and the two people they had locked away.  Seven
becomes three.  How many more will be lost in the coming days?

“I
know.”  I look down at his grasp on my wrist, remembering
when we first met, how sure I was that his intentions weren’t
entirely pure.  He has proven to me time and time again to be
honorable.  I don’t think I could have found a better
friend.  I’ve surely never had one so good before, except
Eva.

“You
miss the girl, don’t you?” He whispers as I ease into my
pack and place his arm over my shoulder.  Alex helps Victoria
back to her feet and moves out.  Cable and I remain a couple
dozen paces back and a visible divide develops within our group.

“I
just wish I knew what happened to Eva.”  Although Cable
gently tried to pry information from me over the past few days about
what happened to me between the time I left the apartment and arrived
at the military hangar, I wasn’t overly forthcoming with
details. All except for my need to see Eva again. The rest was better
left unsaid.

“Why
don’t you ask them?”

I
shrug and feel the burn in my shoulder muscles. Helping Cable was
never a question, but it is taxing.  I don’t know how I
will be able to keep up with Alex’s faster pace. He marches as
if the Devil himself is on our heels.  The trouble is...he just
might be. “Sometimes not knowing hurts less.”

“Are
you so sure you want to assume the worst?”

I
look up at him and notice the sheen on his forehead in the moonlight.
 “Are you feeling ok?”

“You
mean apart from the knife in my side and the wrecking ball that
slammed into my head earlier?  Yeah.  I’m good.”

“No.”
 I slow down, noticing how labored his breathing in.  “You’re
sweating.”

“We’re
walking.”

“It’s
freezing out here.”

“Is
it?” He frowns and looks around us at the darkened woods.  The
fires have fallen behind us.  The barren maple trees and
towering pines spread ever before us. The terrain is uneven,
dangerously inviting for a twisted ankle.  

I
stop completely and force him to halt.  I press him back against
a tree and roll my shoulder once I’m free of his weight.  He
doubles over, clutching his side as he breathes deep, looking as if
we’ve just finished a long distance sprint rather than hiked
for an hour.

“Something’s
wrong.”

He
shakes his head, his head bowed.  “I’m fine.”

“Liar.”

His
shoulder shakes with a deep throaty chuckle but he sucks in a breath
as the pain hits. His arms quiver.  “You’re barely
on your feet, Cable.”

“I’m
fine.”

“Are
you always this stubborn?”  I plant my hands on my hips
and wait for him to look at me.  When he does, I see a glint of
humor in his eye.

“Not
so fun when it’s being directed back at you, huh?”

“Alex!”
 I cup my hands and call out to the woods.  I can no longer
see them or hear their heavy-footed traipsing.  It’s a
good thing we aren’t trying to be quiet; otherwise we’d
be a dead giveaway.  “Alex!”  

A
moment later I see the swinging flash of a dim light heading toward
us. I wait, using one hand pressed against Cable’s hunched
shoulders to keep him upright.  Alex comes around the side of a
tree, a frown deeply etched onto his face.

He
starts to speak but takes one look at Cable and closes his mouth
again.  “He’s hurt.”

“We
all are.”  A burn rides along Alex’s cheek and down
his neck.  The skin looks angry.  It needs to be clean but
he refused.  Apparently Cable and I aren’t the only
stubborn martyrs in the group.

“He’s
worse.  We need to stop for a bit.”

“Can’t
do it.”  He shakes his head and reaffirms his grip on the
two packs.  His gaze travels beyond me, back in the direction we
came from.  Fear pinches his handsome features, making them
distorted and ugly.

I
help ease Cable to the ground when I feel his legs begin to buckle
then rise and stare down Alex. “I’m really getting tired
of being treated like a pathetic, helpless little child.  I can
handle it so you might as well spill whatever little secret you two
have been keeping from me.”

Alex
and Cable exchange a glance. Alex shrugs but it is Cable who
responds.  “The military base was sacked.”

That
I didn’t expect. “What do you mean sacked?  How?  By
who?”

“The
gangs spilled over the river, took out most of East St. Louis a day
ago.  Guess they decided they’d like to expand their
horizons without any threat to oppose them so they sacked the base.
 Weird thing is, it looks like someone else beat them to it.”

Cable
gives me a warning glance so I remain quiet about our escape from the
base.  Alex sinks down into a crouch and I follow, if only to
keep at eye level with him.  If I start thinking about how sore
I am then I’ll be inclined to give up completely.  “Things
fell apart real fast after you left...after Eva…” Alex
looks away.  His adams apple bobs and he wipes his hands over
his face.

I
bite down on my lower lip and squeeze my hands into balled fists,
savoring the pain my nails inflict on the tender flesh of my palms.
 Alex grabs a stick and hurls it toward a tree, seeming less
than satisfied by the tiny smack of wood, probably hoping for it to
snap it half.

“They
broke down the door less than an hour after you left.  Devon and
Sal nearly got caught trying to get Victoria out. Stupid, really.
 She moved as slow as molasses and couldn’t keep her trap
quiet when she was told to.”  He heaves a weighted sigh
and sinks all the way to the ground.  His hands splay over the
cold earth, sifting decaying leaves.  “I stayed with Eva
till the end.  I owed it to her.”

“Did
she...did she feel any pain?” My voice cracks.  Cable
reaches out for my hand and twines his fingers through mine. I’m
grateful for his presence.

“Pain?”
 Alex’s gaze grows distant as he slowly shakes his head.
“No.  Those last few minutes I spent at her side she
didn’t feel much of anything.  She lost consciousness
within minutes after you left.  I didn’t know what to do,
how to help.”

“I’m
sorry,” I whisper, drawing my knees up into my chest.  A
tree root presses against my tailbone but I ignore it.   “I
wanted to come back…”

“No.”
 He crosses his hands over his knees and I see dirt buried deep
under his nails.  “It’s good you got out.”

“She
didn’t.” Alex turns to look at Cable.  “She
was captured.”

“By
who?”

I
close my eyes and try not to remember the feel of the bag over my
head, the fear of waking without senses, confined as a prisoner.  I
hear Cable giving Alex the rundown but I tune them out. As I think
over all that has happened, a new thought hits me and I break into
the guy’s conversation.

“You
never said Eva died.”

Alex
blinks.  “Well, no.  That’s because she
didn’t.”

My
fingers uncurl as I scoot toward him.  “Where is she?  Who
took her?”

Alex
frowns. “The military.  I thought you knew that.”

A
blanket of cold falls over me. “Why her?”

“They
wanted her baby,” Cable says in an emotionless tone that seems
out of place for him. All this time he has fought for what is good
and right.  Why this time would he not seem to care?

“Why?”

Alex
rises, dusting his hands off on his pants.  “I need to
catch up with the others. We haven’t put near enough distance
between us and those gangs, and I for one don't want them coming down
on us in our sleep.”

“Cable
isn’t ready to move yet.” I protest, knowing exactly why
Alex chose this moment to interrupt.  What happened to Eva
doesn’t sit well with him.  How can it?  

Grunting
with effort, Cable presses back against the tree and rises.  I
follow suit.  His grimace releases when he is fully upright and
he nods at Alex. “We’ll be behind you.”

“I’ll
try not to get too far ahead.  If we get separated just head
toward the sun.”

“That’s
hours away from rising,” I say, noting that the moon still
hangs far too high overhead.

“Devon
told me about a town not too far from here. There’s a railroad
that runs right into the heart of town. Keep it on your right and you
will find us. We’ll set up camp and wait for your arrival.”

“And
if we don’t make it?” I ask.

Cable
steps forward and settles his arm around my shoulder. “He’ll
move out when he has to.  That’s the way things are now.
You take care of your own.”

I
watch as Alex gives my friend an appraising glance.  “You
found yourself a good guy, Avery. Take care of him.”

“I
will.”  Though I have zero intention of going it on our
own.  Despite having grown up as a loner all my life, the past
few days have taught me a very important lesson:  I need people,
even if I don’t always want them.

I
don’t really know how Cable and I made it through the night.
 His limp as we neared the deserted town was so bad I felt as if
I would stumble with each step he took. My back ached and my heart
thumped, pain shooting behind my eye. When we spied a candle in the
window of a brick and white sided church I prayed that it was Alex
and not some stranger looking to steal supplies.

It
took me less than a minute to sink into oblivion after we were
inside.  I welcomed it.  Victoria’s mumbling and
Sal’s snoring were not enough to wake me as the sun rose and
fell once more on the land.  When I finally roused the following
morning, I felt rested but plagued with a penetrating ache that could
not be ignored.

“Filthy
stinkin’ weasel,” Victoria says as she putters past.  I
sweep my gaze behind her to see the remnants of a haughty sneer on
Sal’s face.

“What’s
that all about?” I ask, rolling to my side.  The wooden
pew was hardly a suitable bed.  The sweater I used as a pillow
has left my neck in a crook.  I rub at the sore muscles, hoping
that Cable has improved enough to not need me as a crutch today.