Age of Z: A Tale of Survival (33 page)

“I have never been more aware of that in my life than at this moment,” Alexa said, shaking her head again. “Over a hundred miles in two and a half days. Carrying me.
Geez
.”

Casey smirked.

Alexa fell silent for a few moments, and seemed to be thinking. Casey let her; if there was one thing he'd learned about Alexa ever since breaking out of that pod, it was that his best friend would always talk when she was ready, which was often. Sure enough, after a few minutes of silence, Alexa finally said slowly, “LS, I really don't remember all that much for the last part, but...”

“Yeah?”

“What you said... about your goal. Did you really mean that?”

Casey met her eyes. Alexa was staring at him, wide-eyed but looking a little hesitant, unsure. Casey thought back to the words he'd said, that night he'd found Alexa half dead and nearly set upon by zombies.

Your goal is finding your family. My goal is making sure you do
find them, got it?
“Yes,” he answered, without a shred of hesitation.

Alexa blinked, like she was surprised by the straightforward answer, but then her hesitant expression melted into a genuine, thankful smile.

“Thanks, LS,” she said softly, voice hoarse sounding again, and Casey suspected it had nothing to do with a lack of water this time. “I just... I've wanted to find them for so long, and this time I thought... I mean, I didn't think I'd... thanks. For... for everything.”

“Sure,” Casey answered, a little uncomfortably. He might have been around for a few months now but he still really wasn't sure how to handle displays of serious emotion, and it was one of the few things he couldn't deal with by punching it, which left him out of his depth.

So he turned it into a confrontation instead, the only way he could cope with it. “But,” he said, with a trace of a growl in his throat, “You'd better not think of pulling a stunt like that again, got it? If you do I'm gonna be
really
mad.”

Alexa had the grace to look a mixture of sheepish and deeply apologetic. “Yeah, that sounds kind of dangerous,” she tried in a joking tone. Casey's glare intensified and Alexa's expression slipped to being purely sorry. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I didn't want you to worry or anything. I mean, that's why I tried leaving, so you wouldn't–”

“–which was
stupid
,” Casey interjected. “What, did you think I'd just shrug and leave you behind when I found you gone?”

“I don't know what I was thinking,” Alexa said defensively. “I was sick and it made me stupid, okay? I mean you were running yourself ragged trying to look out for me, and I didn't want us both to get killed on this trip, you know? Especially when you hadn't even figured out what you wanted to do with your life after I got you out of Gentech. I figured you'd only followed me because you felt like you owed me.”

Casey gave her an incredulous look, and Alexa raised her hands defensively, if a bit weakly. “I know better now! I promise. I won't make that mistake again. And I won't do anything quite that stupid in the future. I'm sorry.”

“You'd better be,” Casey growled back. “'Cause if you do try a stunt like that again, I'm going straight to the top and telling Blake.”

Alexa looked horrified. “You wouldn't.”

Casey nodded, and barely restrained his smirk. “You know I would. And then he'll keep you locked up for the rest of your life for sheer stupid. I bet it's a kind of insane these days.”

“Okay, okay! I'll be good. Scout's honor.” Alexa held up her fingers in a mock salute, and then said hesitantly, almost pleadingly, “You're not gonna tell him about this time, are you LS? Right? Bro? Please?”

Casey snorted, pretended to consider it for a moment, and then drawled, “I suppose I can forget to tell him this time... so long as you have learned your lesson.”

“I have learned it so well if they had tests on it I'd be getting straight A's,” Alexa insisted. “We cool?”

“Alright. Just don't do it again.”

“Promise.” Alexa looked a little relieved, like something major was off her chest, and then asked more calmly, “So... we've been here for three days. Uh, what do I have to look forward to?” She lifted her arm and stared at the IV line taped to her skin, and then looked back to Casey.

Casey sighed. “You were pretty bad when we got here. They're honestly shocked you survived at all, but it means you're gonna be in recovery longer than usual too. They're estimating at least two weeks for the antibiotics to take full effect and stabilize you totally, maybe longer. They've been stressing how important it is for you to take it easy in that time–bed rest, light exercise at the most, no traveling. Especially since it'd be easy for you to get sick again for a while.”

Alexa winced. “Ouch. And it's what... late August by now?”

Casey nodded, and Alexa's face fell for a moment. She didn't say anything, but Casey could practically see her doing the math in her head. By the time Alexa was fit enough for traveling again, it would be anywhere from early to mid October–too late to venture out towards the mountain range and the potential hidden settlements within that had been the reason for the whole trip in the first place.

The risk of being caught out in increasingly cold weather and potential snowstorms was just too high, and would be a great way for Alexa to give herself pneumonia all over again–or half a dozen other injuries and illnesses that had nothing at all to do with zombies.

It meant they would be forced to winter at the Base until spring, meaning Alexa's chances at finding her parents or her aunt and grandpa had just been pushed back half a year at least.

But Alexa said nothing, and the unhappy expression on her face vanished almost instantly, replaced with a tired smile. “Well,” she said, “That sucks that we're stuck here. Like a lot. But I guess at least I'm alive, right? That's way more than I was expecting. I must be one of the luckiest people ever.”

Casey got the feeling that Alexa did believe that, at least a little. But he also knew Alexa wasn't quite as enthusiastic as she'd like to pretend. He knew his friend was happy to be alive, but he knew that the delay was also frustrating Alexa to no end.

He knew, also, that Alexa was trying hard not to voice just how much the news was affecting her, because she didn't want to appear selfish or ungrateful after Casey force-ran himself over a hundred miles carting a nearly dead body just to make sure she lived to begin with.

It definitely gave Casey something to mull over. But all he said for now was, “Yeah. Sure. It had nothing to do with the fact that you were with me.”

“Hey, I consider myself lucky to have even found you in the first place. That's like the craziest probability ever, you know?”

“Sure.” Casey rolled his eyes. “I was supposed to tell a nurse when you woke up. Now shut up and let me do that.”

After that, things started going a little better for them at the Base. Alexa still spent a lot of time sleeping, but she was awake for longer periods at a time increasingly more often as the days passed. Casey still spent a lot of time with her, especially when she was awake, keeping her company by chatting (or more often being chatted at) and playing cards.

But increasingly more often Casey found himself leaving the medical facility altogether to familiarize himself with the Base. He didn't really like leaving–much like New Avalon, the Base was crowded and exceptionally busy, and he preferred the solitude and quiet of the medical facility to the crowd of loud and demanding life outside of it.

However it was necessary, for a number of reasons. Casey felt that he ought to familiarize himself with their location, just in case; he was sure Alexa was familiar with the place, but since Alexa was bedridden, it would be up to Casey to navigate for the time being.

He also needed to start earning their keep, since his trade supplies would be running low soon. He'd rather have some backed up for emergencies, which meant he needed to find areas of the colony where he could work for food and start stocking up on travel supplies again.

Casey felt bad about abandoning Alexa in the medical facility all the same, though, and the first time he'd made to leave he'd asked Alexa if she was okay with it. Alexa had only smirked and said, “Hey, with you gone it'll be a lot less awkward for that pretty blond nurse that keeps hitting on me. I think the third wheel thing makes her uncomfortable.”

“You think she's hitting on you?” Casey asked, giving his friend a flat look.

“Please. Obviously she's hitting on me. I've been getting the royal treatment, what else could it possibly mean?”

Casey didn't have the heart to tell Alexa that she was getting the 'royal treatment' because Casey had paid extra in trade to ensure his adopted sister was well taken care of and comfortable, without any slip-ups or mistakes. Instead he rolled his eyes and said, “Uh-huh. Sure. Good luck letting her down gently, then.”

“Hah. I need no luck!” was the last thing Casey heard Alexa crow arrogantly, as he stepped out of the room and headed for the outside.

Casey had been truthful enough with Alexa, when he explained his reasons for needing to head out into the colony every day, and a large part of his time
was
spent working in exchange for trade goods or familiarizing himself with the Base. Much of it was similar to New Avalon, with organized facilities, a veritable swarm of civilians, and a strong feeling of life after so many encounters with the walking dead.

But things differed here too. The Base was landlocked, obviously, and possessed a lot more houses and apartments. The guard was largely comprised of military members and the youngest among them appeared to be in the early-to-mid twenties, differing vastly from New Avalon's largely volunteer force that ranged anywhere from young teenagers to middle-aged men and women.

The Base wasn't as well equipped for day-to-day living and lacked the vast quantities of electricity and communication opportunities that New Avalon possessed, but they had a lot more in terms of weaponry and firepower, which was probably what had let them hold off the swarms of undead in the middle of central U.S. for as long as they had.

All in all, it felt like an enclosed town, similar to the hundreds of towns Casey and Alexa had passed through before, except for the fact that it hadn't yet rotted away.

It was sort of fascinating, once Casey gradually started getting used to the crowds of people, but after the first few days it wasn't what interested him any longer. By then he was familiar enough with the Base's layout enough to be satisfied, and it was the people he focused on more. Because he had one more goal while he was outside the medical facility, and that was to start searching for some very specific faces.

Not long after Alexa had arrived at the medical facility she'd been changed into a hospital gown, and the staff had returned her clothing and possessions to Casey–including Alexa's wallet, balanced delicately on the top of the stack. Casey had seen Alexa pull it out on their travels, often when she thought Casey wasn't paying attention, although she did it less and less frequently since Gentech.

Curious, Casey had poked through its contents while sitting by Alexa's bedside. It was mostly empty, with a few crumpled bills of useless American currency, a torn museum ticket, and a gift card for some fast food restaurant that clearly would never be seeing any use.

Casey couldn't fathom why Alexa would continue to look at such useless trash from the last generation. Then he flipped open the wallet's second fold and spotted the photographs.

The first was a family of three together. A woman with light brown hair sat in a chair, while a heavy-set man with darker brown hair stood behind her with his hand on her shoulder. The man's other arm around the shoulders of what was clearly a much younger Alexa Winters. All three smiled at the camera and Casey got the feeling that, despite it being an obviously styled portrait, those smiles were genuine.

The second photograph was of a woman with bright red hair that nearly rivaled Alexa's. Casey could tell they were related from both that and the way their grins were the same.

The final photo looked more casual, and had been folded and refolded to fit into the wallet to the point when it was nearly falling apart. It was of a twelve-year old Alexa grinning and hanging onto the shoulders of a smirking gray-haired man. It took Casey a while to figure out the relation, until he surmised that
this
was 'grandpa'.

All of the photos were well-worn, with the colors fading from age, but they were well cared for as well, and it was obvious these people meant a lot to Alexa. Even without the obvious physical hints, it was clear these people were her family, the ones Alexa had struggled for three years to try and find. The ones they were here for. The ones they were forced to stop searching for until next year, due to unfortunate timing and worse luck.

Casey was stubborn and refused to give up quite so easily as that. So while Alexa was bedridden, Casey took it upon himself to look for the people in the photographs. Blake's intel suggested they were still in that mountain range, if they were anywhere at all, but Casey suspected there was always a possibility that Alexa's family could have made for the safety of a colony too.

Alexa herself had told Casey at the start of their trip that she hadn't been to the Base in almost two years, and anything could change in two years. So Casey memorized the faces in the photos, and carried the wallet with him in one of his cargo pants pockets to have on hand for identification.