Colony Z: The Complete Collection (Vols. 1-4) (8 page)

When the group left the hotel in the morning, they had no cars to drive. Though Owen sent James and the 10-year-old Aaron to check cars for keys, they found nothing worth taking anywhere. It was times like this that Owen desperately wished for a way to suck the gasoline out of cars. It was such a waste.

But they had a long ways to go, and there was no time for complaints. The worst was over, but the longest stretch lay ahead of them.

Around six that evening, after a long day of trekking and hoping to find transportation to no avail, the teenagers and young ones complained of being tired. Owen knew they would have to stop soon, but they were still on an interstate. There was nothing nearby.
He knew they were near Portland, Maine, and all the potential islands that could be found there. But they hadn’t touched a single remaining town since Boston.

Owen hadn’t planned for this. Until this point, they had always been able to find something. But he could not, for the life of him, see anything in the distance. It was as though the freeway were all that existed. They would never find safety before darkness, and who knew how many creatures lay in wait in the trees beyond?

Becoming more and more desperate while still trying to keep his people calm, Owen pulled Eric aside.

“There’s nowhere for us to stop.” Owen found it easier to be blunt than to beat around the bush. Eric was smart. Anyone with eyes could see that they had very limited options for sleep this night.

“What do we do? Hike through the night? We will need shelter before it gets dark. There has to be something.”

“You don’t think they’ll find us as soon as the night closes in, do you? We’ve been traveling for days. They don’t know where we are. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

Erik shook his head.

“No. You know as well as I do that they’ve been watching through the trees. Even if these ones don’t know who we are, you’ve felt their eyes following us. When the night closes in, they’ll attack.”

“What do we do?”

“Why are you asking me? Aren’t you our fearless leader?”

“Eric, my children are here.”

Eric sighed and took a deep breath. He knew why Owen was asking his opinion over the others. He was one of the oldest in the group. Once in a while, that counted for something. Eric had been a father before the Zero-Hour hit. He had twins, just as Owen did, a boy and a girl. Owen was appealing to him for help because Owen expected him to understand his position. Safety was not a question. It was a dire need.

“Owen, I don’t know what we can do. There aren’t any cars on the freeway. There’s nowhere for us to hide away.”

“We need to keep hiking.”

James walked into the conversation, his backpack slung over his shoulder. He looked like a kid ready for his first day of eleventh grade.

“James, you aren’t a part of this conversation.” Eric tried to push him away, but James continued.

“They aren’t going to be a problem, boss. We can handle them.”

“This isn’t a game, James,” Owen growled. “I won’t risk my family to play hero.”

“Look around you, Owen. Do you see anywhere for us to hide? No. That’s damn right. There’s nothing out there but highway. And that highway isn’t going to help us. If we want to keep them away, we have to make them afraid of us long enough for us to reach another city and shelter.”

“Even when we find shelter, James, they’ll know where we are. It’ll be pointless.”

“At this rate, we won’t find shelter until it’s nearly sunrise anyway.”

“Quiet, you idiot! Do you want them to hear you?”

Both men looked around cautiously before turning back to James. Owen wanted to hit him but, for some reason, Eric seemed intrigued by what he was saying.

“You want us to stay up the whole night?”

“It’s our only option.”

“Do you have a way to fight these things that I don’t know about?” Owen stepped in. “Because, last time I checked, we were out of bullets. And a couple of knives aren’t going to kill an army of the infected.”

James smiled the same smile he had plastered on his face back at the high school. He took his pack from his shoulder, opened it, and showed Owen and Eric the contents.

“Where did you get those?” Eric whispered fiercely. “Did you take them from..”

“The arsenal in Atlanta? Yes I did.”

“Why would you do that?”

“We needed the ammunition.”

“You were twelve years old. What in the world pushed you to take all of those bombs and stuff them in your backpack? If Owen had known about this before now…”

“He would have taken them and we all would have died back at the high school weeks ago.”

Both men were silent as James continued.

“Look, I’m not saying I like using them. In fact, I’m terrified of them. But, respectfully, and realistically, we needed them. They’ve saved us once. And now they’re going to save us again.”

“I still don’t understand how a bag full of bombs is going to keep away thousands of zombies. You had a roof at the high school, James. You don’t have a roof here. You have a highway. They’ll surround you and tear you limb from limb before you ever get the chance.” Owen had had about enough of the ridiculous idea. “We’ve just got to find a shack in the woods or something where we can stay.”

“You want us to go into the woods?” Eric looked uneasy.

“We certainly can’t stay here. We have more coverage in the woods. More places to hide.”

“Sure, and more separation between us all. We’ll lose someone if we go into the woods tonight, Owen, we’re bound to. Maybe James isn’t completely crazy. Going off the road now would put us right in their camp. We can’t risk that.”

“Well we sure as hell aren’t staying out here and waiting for them to come after us.”

Eric sighed.

“You do whatever you want to do, Owen. But, remember, I warned you.”

Eric and James left Owen’s side and went to walk with their other companions. James looked put out, but Eric looked tense and scared. Owen couldn’t help but feel angry. What right did Eric have to act condescending to him? To tell him he was wrong? This was his Albion Tribe, and he would handle it the way he chose to. Why the other two men didn’t see what he saw was a mystery to him. But he knew what they would have to do in a couple of hours.

And, when that time came, Owen asked everyone to get off of the road and follow him into the woods. By now, the women and children were scared out of their minds. Word had spread that there was nowhere for them to stay for the night, but no one had dared to ask Owen what his plan was. Owen seemed nervous enough as it was.

They broke the tree line and made their way into the woods. Deeper and deeper they traveled; until Owen was sure they’d never find their way out again. But they continued in the direction he believed to be east; closer and closer to the rocky islands they would one day call home.

Or so he thought.

What Owen didn’t know, was that he wasn’t really traveling east at all. No, Owen had been going in circles for hours when he finally happened upon the center of the circle he had been traveling. A little camp, with a fire that had just been put out. Smoke still rose from the pit, but there was nothing left in the camp. Whoever had been there had left, and they had left not too long ago, and they had left quickly.

“There…there were people here, Owen,” Hannah said in shock when they arrived. “Owen, there were people here!”

“And just as well that they’re gone,” Owen said quickly. “Who knows what kind of terrible things they would have done to our people?”

Hannah did not reply. She would not argue with him now. Not when they were so lost, and she was so helpless. He would leave her there in the woods to be eaten alive by the zombies. She would not let it happen. She fell silent and stepped away from him. She reached for her children for comfort…

But only one reached back.

Hannah looked around her frantically.

“Where’s Michael?” She began to yell over and over. “Where’s Michael? I can’t find him! Michael!”

Owen’s heart stopped. The whole group looked around them, but no one saw the boy. The men who held the lanterns tried to help, but Owen had gone wild. He snatched a lantern out of James’ hand, threw it down, and shattered it in the fire pit, where it created an open flame.

“Are you crazy?” Hannah screamed at him.

“We needed the light!”

“Michael!” Hannah yelled again. And soon, everyone was off in different directions looking for the boy. Eric tried to pull them back together. He knew if it had been someone else’s child, Owen would have been able to lead a decent search party. But because it was his own boy, Owen did not have the capability. Even Eric could not stop him. After several moments, Eric took after him to try to talk some sense into him.

The camp was now empty.

Save for one thing that everyone, in their haste, had forgotten.

Judith Marie, the three-year-old child weeping from all of the loud noises, remained in the center of the camp.

Alone.

Swans Island- 2032

The night Michael’s younger sister, Helen, got married, his wife had pulled him aside.

“I want to talk to you about something.”

“Anything.”

“I know you.”

“…what do you  mean, Eva? Of course you know me. I’m your husband.”

“I mean, I’ve seen you before. Don’t you remember? Before this island, before any of this.”

“…I felt as though I’d seen you before when I picked you up on the beach…but I thought it was just a feeling. Eva, I was so young. How could I possibly remember?”

“Because you gave me this.” Eva reached into her dress pocket and pulled out a silver locket that Michael had not seen in more than fifteen years. And, suddenly, he remembered the memory. And the pain that came along with it. Tears streamed down Eva’s face.

“Your father murdered mine.”

Albion Camp-Mainland-2018

Michael hadn’t meant to leave his family that night. In fact, in the years following, Michael would hardly remember the encounter he had at all. Save for the girl.

He remembered the girl.

When Michael was just a baby, his mother had found it fit to slip a locket around his neck. Daddy had given it to her, and she hoped that, one day, he would give it to his wife.

He didn’t realize just how young he would be when he slipped it around her neck.

Michael had been left behind a few turns before the camp was found. One moment, he was looking at his mother. The next, everyone was gone. He didn’t know how to handle the situation. At first, he cried. Then, when no one helped him, he wandered. When he found he couldn’t find his family, he began to be afraid. The crying continued, but in fearful sniffles, ones his fellow companions could not hear.

“Mommy?” He yelled into the woods every thirty seconds or so. “Mommy, where are you?”

No one answered. Just the night.

Michael continued to do this for fifteen minutes until, finally, he saw movement in the trees. A streak of red flew through the browns and blacks beneath the moonlight. Who it was, he didn’t know. But he had learned to fear shapes that moved in the night, and he was instantly afraid.

“Hello?”

Then, seemingly from the depth of the night, a little girl, maybe a year older than him, walked into the clearing in which Michael stood.

“Hi, I’m Eva.”

“Hi, Eva, I’m Michael.”

“Are you lost too, Michael?”

“Yes.”

They looked at one another for several moments. Eva had never seen a boy her age before. They didn’t have any in her clan, and she looked him over. He looked funny. She said so.

Michael laughed at her.

“You look funny too. Are you a girl?”

“Of course I’m a girl.”

The two children laughed together, a familiar, nice sound in the quiet of the woods.

“What do we do, Michael?”

Michael shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno…wanna walk?”

Eva nodded. Michael took her hand, and they went off into the woods, glad for one another’s company. They felt silly calling for their parents now, since the other one wasn’t doing it.

Instant companions. That’s what the two became. As they walked through the woods, they laughed and teased one another. Michael asked her what her favorite color was, and flicked her when it wasn’t the same as his. She laughed. Just two children. Michael’s parents had been so protective all his life. He didn’t know he could have a friend like this. Judith Marie didn’t like to talk to him this way. She was always with Mommy or Daddy.

Finally, they stopped in another clearing.

“Eva?”

“Yeah, Michael?”

“What’re we gonna do?”

Eva shook her head.  “I dunno.”

“Is your Mommy and Daddy looking for you?”

Eva shook her head again. “No. Only my Mommy. My Daddy died a long time ago.”

“What did he die of?”

“A man shot him. Boom.”

Michael, who was much too young to fully understand what Eva was saying, and Eva, who was much too young to understand what she meant, didn’t realize the conversation they had just had, or how important it was.

“I’m sorry, Eva.”

Eva smiled. “It’s ok.”

“Was your Daddy nice?”

“Yeah…Mommy says he told everyone what to do. They all listened to him. He was ‘portant.”

“…Eva?”

“Yeah?”

“My Daddy says some men died a while ago by our house. Was your Daddy shot there?”

“Where were you?”

“Up there.” Michael pointed to the sky, thinking that it meant north. His parents kept saying that where they had been staying was up north, but he didn’t really know what that meant. Eva, however, understood.

“Up north. That’s what Mommy says…did your Daddy see my Daddy?”

“I dunno. He didn’t say…just that some people were there and died.”

“My Daddy was shot. Boom.”

“Uh huh.”

“Did your Daddy shoot him boom?”

“I dunno.”

“I like you, Michael.”

“I like you too, Eva.”

“Let’s be friends.”

“Ok, Eva.”

Michael pulled the locket off from around his neck.

“What’s that, Michael?”

“It’s for you, Eva. I want you to keep it.”

Michael put it around his new friend’s neck. He liked the way it shined against her red hair. He admired it. He admired her.

Everything that happened next happened so quickly that neither child knew quite how to react. Two men shot through the trees at the same time coming toward them.

“Eva!”

“Michael!”

Owen scooped Michael up into his arms and glared at the man across from him.

“Who are you?” He growled.

“That’s my Uncle David!” Eva said brightly. “Hi, Uncle David!”

“Sweetheart, you can’t go running off like that at night! You could have gotten killed!” Eva’s face fell as she looked at her uncle.

“But Uncle David, that’s my new friend, Michael.” Eva pointed to the boy in Owen’s arms.

Uncle David sighed. “I don’t know how you manage to find little boys in the woods and not the dead, Eva, but you’re mighty lucky. I’ve got the whole camp out looking for you.”

“Same goes for you, Michael,” Owen said angrily. “If you ever go wandering again…”

“But Daddy, I lost you!” Michael was scared now. He didn’t like his father being angry with him. Owen was so happy to see him that he just held him tighter in his arms and hugged him close.

“It’s okay, son,” Owen whispered. “I forgive you.”

“Say, who are you?” Uncle David said, now that both of the children were found. “We just broke camp a mile or so away from here, and we didn’t see you then.”

“Was that your camp?” Owen answered, his voice dry and suspicious. “Why did you break? It’s nightfall.”

“Zombies were right outside our camp. Kept circling. Like they were tracking something that kept going around our damn campsite. Probably coulda stayed, but we didn’t want to risk them noticing us.”

“Well, I’m sure glad I found my kid then. Where’s your group?”

“Not half a mile from here. We were moving pretty frantically. Got a lot of kids to take care of, you know. We have a couple big camo tents we set up at night. They’re stupid, dull creatures. They aren’t apt to find us.”

Owen fell silent as he realized he didn’t want to be talking to this man. He had a bad feeling about this conversation.

“Say, those things weren’t tracking you and your team, were they? Seems to me they were following you for hours, waiting to pounce on you. You’re welcome to stay with my clan and I. We lost our Alpha male a couple years ago…some coward shot him down south in Tennessee…you know how it is, idiots these days. Probably thought he was a zombie himself. He damn near looked like one…guy shot his best friend too, and he was pretty roughed up about it…anyway that was this girl here’s dad. Shame to lose her father so young. You got any other little ones?”

“Yeah…I do,” Owen started, carefully choosing his words. He didn’t want to let on that he knew this girl’s father, or so he thought. That he himself had been the one to take him out, most likely. This was the clan. Owen was certain of it. He didn’t know how, but he instantly knew it was them. The Lost Colony. They had survived. And he had to keep his own as far away as possible before anyone could find out. And so, he allowed the small talk. “I have a little girl. Her name’s Judith…”

And then, Owen realized that he hadn’t seen or heard his daughter in over an hour. Who was she with?

“Something wrong?”

“We need to go. Right now.” Owen turned away and started back into the trees. Uncle David yelled after him frantically.

“You can’t go back there, man! They’ve been tracking you! They’ll find you!”

But Owen didn’t listen. Owen didn’t care.

Judith Marie was alone in that camp. Something inside of him screamed this awful truth. And he knew she would not make it.