Chapter 12
The sound of something slamming forcefully into the sheet metal side of the bus startled me awake. I sat up in my makeshift bed, gasping and looking around.
“Son of a bitch!” Another crash. The bus shuddered.
“What's going on?” Jeb sat up from the seat behind me and rubbed his bleary eyes. “Are we being attacked?”
The bus shook again. Cya moaned from the very back seat. “Make it stop.”
“That sneaky little weasel!” A female voice joined the male one outside. Drake and Shayla, undoubtedly. “I always knew he was a coward.”
“What are they talking about?” Jeb asked.
“I don't know-,” I said and then stopped myself as I remembered my late night in the woods with Kennedy. Jeb looked at me curiously but I ignored him as I stood up. Outside, Drake and Shayla had progressed to screaming at one another.
“How could he have left us?”
“I don't know but he did.”
“He'll come back.”
“Like hell he will. He was gone the minute Conner died. Kennedy has always been a spineless coward.”
“What are we supposed to do now?”
“Nothing's changed.”
“Can you fix the bus?”
“Not without a radiator.”
“We won't get a radiator without Kennedy.” Shayla was snarling as I walked out of the bus and into the sunlight.
“We don't have a choice,” Drake told her. His face was florid with anger. His knuckles were bleeding from punching the metal armor that covered the bus. He focused his angry gaze on Jeb and I. “Get your weapons.”
“What's going on?” Jeb asked. He looked around. “Where is Kennedy? Did something happen?”
“Yeah. Something happened. The little coward ran off last night when he was supposed to be standing guard for us.”
“He wouldn't ditch us,” Jeb said. “Where would he even go? Are we sure someone didn't take him?”
“He took all our backup weapons,” Shayla announced as she dug through a cargo component that had been retrofitted into the side of the bus. “Little coward ran.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat but stayed silent. I had no doubt that Drake would be furious with me if he knew that I had watched Kennedy walk away.
“Why would he run?” Jeb asked. “That doesn't make sense. Kennedy has been a Scavenger for years. Why abandon us now?”
“Because he didn't want to-.”
“It doesn't matter,” Drake cut her off mid-sentence. “Kennedy doesn't matter. He won't survive long on his own and there aren't many places he can go for shelter. He can be dealt with later.”
“You know where he went?” I couldn't help asking.
“Of course I do. I already told you, I know everything about my Scavengers.” Drake focused his cold eyes on me and for a moment I wondered if he knew that I was aware of where Kennedy had gone. I steeled myself to keep my expression blank.
“Where did he go?” Jeb asked. “That city you were talking about? Ra-whatever?”
Drake shook his head. “It's not important. We'll deal with Kennedy after we get back up and running. Today, we need to focus on getting our bus fixed as quickly as possible. We need gas and we need a radiator. We still got a gas can, Shayla?”
“Yes.” She pulled the large plastic canister out of the storage area. “But we need tools too. Kennedy knows how to cripple us and he's done a damn fine job of it. We're lucky he didn't cut up our tires.”
“He knew I wouldn't sleep through that kind of destruction,” Drake snapped. He slammed his first into the bus again. The metal rippled under the pressure.
“I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't see our situation improving until our bus is fixed.” Shayla tucked the gas can underneath her arm and began striding away from us on the paved asphalt road. “I'm going to get us a radiator, if anyone else cares to tag along?”
We all hesitated for a minute and then Jeb shrugged and began jogging after her. I didn’t dare not follow. I ran back into the bus to get my machete, my jacket and my hidden gun and then followed after them.