Chapter Nineteen
When we reach the mainland, Reese and I both help Ryder out of the boat, and he gasps with pain when we let him go. His face is pale and he’s started to sweat, and I wonder if we should have just stayed on the island and given him more time to rest. He’s definitely not going far in his condition, and I don’t want anything to happen to him.
Reese checks his rifle, and nods his head to Naomi. “You’re with me. The jeep is about a block from here; we parked it a ways away because we didn’t want anyone to see it. Sam, you stay here with Ryder, Tobe, and Melissa.” He looks uncomfortable at that thought for a second, but I shake my head.
“We’ll be fine. Just hurry back.”
He nods, takes one look at Naomi, and sighs. “Let’s get this over with. The sooner we leave, the sooner the group is back together. Come on,” he says, turning and jogging down the dock. Naomi takes one last look at me before following after him.
I tighten my grip on my gun, and move closer to Ryder. He wraps his good arm around my waist, and starts to scan the area around us. He might not be able to shoot, but he can still be on the lookout and with his training, he’s probably the best at noticing small things out of place. While he looks around, I study Melissa, the youngest member of our group.
She’s not only the youngest, but the most unstable. She just shaved her head, and she hasn’t said a word since Ryder and Reese rescued her. Not even a ‘Thanks for not leaving me behind’. She just sits there and stares off at nothing; even Tobe wasn’t this way when she first came to us.
Ryder leans closer and whispers in my ear, “You alright?”
“Yeah, I’m just thinking about Melissa,” I whisper back. She’s standing close by, but she isn’t paying much attention to anything. “She might be a hazard to our group. She’s definitely unstable.”
He nods. “I know. She just shaved her head. All she does is sit there and twitch. Even Tobe wasn’t this bad when we first found her. I’ll keep a close eye on her, and if she does anything suspicious, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks.”
We stop talking, and start paying more attention to our surroundings. This place is very exposed, and it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable, especially since Ryder won’t be of any use in a fight. If we get pinned down or ambushed, it’ll just be me capable of fighting. And I know that I won’t be able to take any Warriors; right now, I’m just glad that they’re about six miles from our position right now.
From my place on the end of the dock, I can clearly see three zombies. They’re wandering around aimlessly, and they don’t look like any threat to us, but I keep a careful watch on them anyways. They’re bloated from a mixture of decay and sun exposure, and they look mostly harmless.
One of them is closer than the others, and I consider killing him just to put him out of his misery, but I don’t want the noise from the gun to attract the attention of the others. Ryder hands me the hunting knife from his belt, and I grip it tightly in my hands. The zombie is only a dozen or so yards away, and I sneak up behind it.
Just as it turns, I reach out, and stab the knife right through the zombie’s soft head. It makes a wet, squishing sound as the zombie drops to the ground, and I pull the knife away. I wipe the infected blood off on my jeans, and head back to the group. Ryder’s watching me with a strange grin on his face, and I frown. “What?”
“Nothing. You’ve just changed since we met.”
“So have you,” I counter. “You’re a lot nicer to me now, and less sarcastic.” Tobe walks over to where we’re standing, and I smile at her. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” she slowly says. “I’m not sure why, but this morning when I woke up, I realize something. I’m still alive. I shouldn’t be, after everything I’ve gone through, yet here I am, right now, still with the three people that rescued me. I owe you so much.”
Ryder shakes his head. “You don’t owe us anything, Tobe.”
“I do,” she insists. “I owe you guys so much. You’ve saved me from the Warriors twice, and you’ve saved me from a ton of angry, flesh-eating zombies. When all this first started happening, I never would have thought I’d survive this long, let alone with good people.”
“Tobe, good people have to stick together.”
She nods. “I know. I’m glad you guys stopped for me that day in town. A lot of people wouldn’t have, but you didn’t stop to think about the risk to your own lives,” she says, biting her lip. She’s starting to cry, and I reach over and put my arm around her shoulder.
“Tobe, don’t cry.”
“Yes, please don’t,” Ryder says seriously. “I hate it when women cry. It scares me.”
Tobe and I just stare at him. Both of us are amazed. “You’re an ex-Marine that kills Warriors, zombies, and survives a gunshot to the chest, and women crying is what scares you?”
He shrugs with his good shoulder. “What can I say? Some people are scared of spiders, others have snakes, and I have crying women. Plus, there’s just something about a beautiful woman crying that really gets to me.”
Tobe and I shake our heads, and I go back to watching the dock. The sound of an engine draws my attention to our left, and our jeep speeds into view. Reese parks it just ahead of us, and we spend the next ten minutes loading up all of our supplies. We have plenty of food thanks to the prepackaged meals, but I’m more worried about our water supply than anything.
We have about twelve bottles left, and I’m not sure how long that will last the six of us. I just hope we get wherever we’re going soon, or we won’t be in any shape to fortify our new home when we find it. It’s already going to be hard enough with Ryder unable to do much work, and it’ll be even harder if we’re dehydrated and slow.
When the jeep is loaded up, we all climb in. Reese drives, and Ryder sits up front with him. Tobe, Melissa, Naomi and I squeeze into the back and, even though we don’t have enough seatbelts, we make do. When we’re finally pulling away from the marina, I start to relax, and I get a good feeling.
We’re leaving behind the Warriors, and this time we’re not leaving any evidence as to where we’re going. They’ll never find us again, and we’ll be able to live out the remainder of our lives in peace, quiet, and solitude. We’ll be safe.
Naomi and Tobe talk about anything they can think of: favorite movies, favorite fashion designers, and favorite sports. It turns out that Tobe was a cheerleader when she was in school, which doesn’t surprise me since she’s so gorgeous, and Naomi did cheer for a couple of years before joining the cross country team.
They spend the next hour talking about famous cheerleaders that I’ve never heard of, and I try to tune them out. I have a couple of books in the back, and I turn around and start digging for one. I decided I needed something to keep me occupied from now on, and I start to read about vampires and witches. It’s not really what I like to read, but it kills the time enough so that I’m not constantly bored.
Reese stops the car when it gets dark, and the six of us get out to set up a makeshift camp for the night. We have blankets and Reese and Ryder have their sleeping bags. We divide everything between the members of our group, and come up a little short. I’m left without a blanket, and Ryder sighs, before handing me his sleeping bag. “You can take this. I’ll be fine.”
“We could share,” I offer. It sounds innocent, and like I’m just trying to solve our bedding situation, but Ryder and I both seem to take it differently. His cheeks turn slightly red, and I duck my head so he won’t see how embarrassed I am. I can’t believe I just suggested that…
He clears his throat. “Alright. That wouldn’t be so bad, I guess.”
Everyone sets up, and Tobe divides out some food. She opens a can of Vienna sausages, a can of spam, and a can of spaghettio’s. We use plastic spoons and just dig into the cans, not caring that our spaghettio’s gets on our spam, or that everything tastes very bad after days of amazing prepackaged meals.
Tobe disposes of the food, and
I Naomi and I find bushes to take care of some necessary business before turning in for the night. At first, I’m a little nervous to be crawling into a sleeping bag with Ryder, and it’s for two reasons. The first is that he’s still injured, and this sleeping bag is very small; I don’t want to hurt him in the middle of the night.
The second reason is that it’s Ryder I’m sharing with, and other than a few kisses, we haven’t really spent much time together as anything other than group members. We haven’t really talked about what we are, just how we feel about one another. I’m not sure if this makes him as nervous as it does me, but there isn’t much choice.
When I’m tucked securely into the sleeping bag, Ryder zips it up with his good arm, and I curl up against his good side. It’s a tight fit in the bag, but our combined body heat will keep us both warm throughout the night. When Ryder gets situated, he wraps his arm around me and pulls me closer.
I rest my head on his good shoulder, and he smiles down at me. “Comfy?”
I nod. “Yeah, I am.”
“Good. Now get some rest.”
I close my eyes, and it takes me almost an hour to fall sleep. But when I do, I have no nightmares of anything, just empty dreams that I know I won’t remember later.