Dead Living (19 page)

He looked at her. “Samantha, you know where
the keys are. Take Aaron to wherever he wants to go. Show him it's
pointless, then come back here. If you spot some easy gas, grab
it.”

Richardson went back to chopping wood without
another word. Sam gave Aaron a smile, pleased at her little
victory.

“Like I said. You go out, I'm going with you.
You ready?”

Aaron said nothing. He was frustrated. He
just wanted to help, and Richardson and Sam were actually
preventing him from doing so. He understood Richardson's thinking,
but he didn't understand Sam's.

“Why are you coming with me?” he asked.

They entered the school. She led him through
the hallways to the old office where Richardson kept the truck
keys.

“Cause we're friends.”

“I know. Larry and Richardson are friends
too. I bet they wouldn't risk their lives for each other
though.”

She shrugged. She didn't feel like analyzing
her feelings for Aaron now. “I'm safe with you. You're safe with
me. I don't want you going into walker territory without me.”

Aaron watched her as she fished the keys out
of an old desk drawer. He knew he was a lucky man.

“Fair enough.”

*****

The drive through Lexington wasn't too long,
only about twenty minutes. Like driving on the interstate, there
were times Sam had to slow down to maneuver around old cars, fallen
light poles, masses of dead bodies, and packs of walkers milling
about.

Aaron helped her navigate with a map he'd
found in the library. He wanted to head to an old Home Depot. He
helped his family raid one when he was just a child. He knew all
these years later there might not be anything to get, but even just
a little wood would help out. Susan needed two-by-eights and soil
for flower beds in the vegetable garden. Travis needed plywood and
tools to fix the smokehouse. Larry needed two-inch hose to fix two
of the broken shower stalls. Everybody needed something. Lexington
was a good place. It kept people alive, but people were shaken up.
The death of Nikki's friends was enough to get people talking and
afraid. Hope was starting to dwindle, and Aaron wanted to make sure
that didn't happen.

His own spirits fell when Sam pulled into the
back of the Home Depot parking lot.

There were walkers everywhere. Maybe a few
hundred or so stumbled around, and surely there were more inside
the old store. Cars and trucks were turned over on their sides. Old
carts littered the lot. One walker pushed one in a circle
constantly, nearly tripping over its own feet.

Aaron would have laughed if he weren't in
such a bad mood.

“See?” Sam said, gesturing in front of them.
“Nothing here but corpses.”

Aaron said nothing. He'd hoped that the
corpses would be manageable, that he and Sam could just park the
truck by the front door and quickly load up. Two sets of hands were
better than one, and with her help, he'd have no problem crossing
items off the list he'd written.

But the corpses weren't manageable. Even if
every single person at Lexington High came along, with weapons,
they would all die within an hour.

He wouldn't risk Sam's life.

To drive the point home, walkers made their
way to the truck. They started beating on the sides. It was just
light tapping at first, but as more walkers came, the louder it
got. A few started beating on Sam's window. She started driving
slowly to throw the corpses off.

“I'm sorry, Aaron,” she said. She put a hand
on his arm. “But you probably needed to see this. It's why we risk
our lives getting supplies in the city. You getting things for just
yourself in Baltimore is one thing, but for sixty people? Not quite
the same. We can't stay here, they'll be in this truck in minutes.
We gotta head back.”

Aaron didn't argue.

He wasn't happy, but he wasn't done yet.

Oh well. Plan B it is.

He had seen where Richardson kept the keys to
the truck. He also watched every move Sam made while driving.

He glanced at the Home Depot in the side
mirror as they drove away, knowing he'd be back again soon.

*****

Sam was pulled from her sleep by someone
knocking at her door. She slowly looked around her pitch black
room. It didn't feel like dawn. It was still the dead of night.

The knock came again, more forcefully this
time.

Aaron, I'm gonna kill you.

“Hold on,” she shouted. She didn't care if
she woke up her neighbor in the classroom next to her. “Give me a
second to get dressed.”

She dressed in clothes that were so old and
torn she wouldn't have a choice but to throw them away soon. She
was surprised Aaron hadn't just barged in like he always did. She
opened her curtains for the moonlight and opened the door.

It wasn't Aaron.

“Richardson?”

She'd seen Richardson angry before, but it
was rare. He knew he always had to be positive, keep the happy
face. Everyone looked to him as the leader, and as a leader, he
couldn't afford to be seen angry or unhappy.

This was not one of those times.

“Where is he?” he asked.

Sam wiped the sleep from her eyes. “Is it
still night?”

Richardson stepped inside and gently closed
the door behind him.

“Where
is he?” he repeated.

“Who?”

“You know damn well who. Aaron.”

Like Sam always did whenever someone pointed
anger at her, she got angry back. “I don't know. It wasn't my turn
to babysit him.”

“Stop feeding me that shit, Samantha. You two
are best buddies now. You're always spending time together.”

“He doesn't
sleep
here, Richardson.
He lives in the library.”

“I know.”

Sam felt a knot in her chest. “And he's not
there?”

Richardson took a deep breath, trying to get
his anger under control. “When did you see him last?”

“We had dinner together in the cafeteria. He
said he had some things to do, and he'd see me later.”

“Did he say anything about going out on his
own, or just flat out leaving?”

“No.”

“Well, one of the trucks
is gone. I talked to Gabe who was watching the gate. Aaron left,
and told Gabe
I
said he could go. And dumbass Gabe believed him.”

Sam couldn't believe what she was hearing.
“What?”

“He
left
, Samantha. He stole our truck,
and he's gone.”

She was stunned. She felt miserable as she
sat on her mattress.

He's gone.

“He wouldn't just leave,” she said. “He'll be
back.”

Richardson almost laughed. “Oh, he will?”

“Yeah.”

“And why is that?”

“Cause we're friends.”

Richardson looked down at Sam. He'd never
told anyone before, but when Sam first came to Lexington, he almost
thought of her as a daughter. It was only when Sam made it clear
she wanted nothing to do with anyone that he kept his distance.

He sat next to her.

“Samantha, I'm so glad you finally made a
friend. And I don't know him too well, but I think Aaron is a good
man. I don't think he'd steal a truck and run, but you know he
isn't coming back?”

She turned to look at him. The moonlight
revealed just enough of her face to show her pain. “Why do you
think that?”

“Because he's dead by now, whatever it was he
was trying to do. He didn't even take his bow with him. And
everyone says he doesn't shoot a gun? He's already dead then.”

His words made sense, but Sam couldn't bring
herself to believe them.

“No. He's not dead. He lived in Baltimore,
with the walkers. He's tough.”

It broke his heart to see her upset. He
didn't think anything could ever upset her.

“I'll leave you alone,” he said. “Sorry to
wake you. I was hoping Aaron had said something to you.”

“No, nothing.”

Emotions Sam had little experience with
attacked her. She was angry, afraid, hurt.

Why would Aaron leave? What is he doing? Why
didn't he ask me to come with him? Why didn't he say goodbye? I'm
supposed to be his friend.

Richardson quietly left without another word.
Sam felt a tear rolling down her cheek. She didn't know why she was
crying, and that made her even more angry. She balled her fist and
punched the wall just under the window. The pain shot through her
hand as she shook it. The tears flowed freely, although she lied to
herself and said they were tears of pain.

*****

Aaron parked the truck near the front of the
Home Depot. He only had the moon to give him light, but he thought
he did a good parking job, considering it was his first time. He
killed the engine and left the truck, knocking over a walker in the
process.

He pushed his way through the horde of undead
to the broken sliding glass door. It was pitch black inside. The
stench of the undead was far more potent inside the old store. That
would be the hardest part of gathering supplies, just pushing
undead out of the way, and not vomiting from the stench.

He would have to wait until morning. He
couldn't see one foot in front of him inside.

He knew this wouldn't be a short trip, so he
came prepared. He grabbed a bag of vegetables Susan had given him,
and used the open door to climb on top of the truck. He took a bite
out of a tomato and pulled out a book he'd brought along. He'd read
in the moonlight many times in Baltimore. It brought back
memories.

While he read about the
history of the former United States of America, his thoughts kept
drifting to Sam
.

He forced the thoughts away each time, but
only for a few minutes until her lovely face popped into his mind
again. He felt silly, as they ate a wonderful dinner of squash and
chicken a few hours ago. They talked and laughed, and Aaron
successfully dodged some nasty glances from Carrie from the other
side of the cafeteria. Sam offered to knock her out, to which Aaron
politely declined.

After Aaron's family was murdered, he made
sure he stayed alone. He didn't hate people. He believed people
could be great or terrible, but didn't want to spend too much time
with anyone to find out which they were. With the undead, he was
safe.

Then Sam fell in his lap.

It was a strange trap. The more time he spent
with her, the more he wanted to spend. He felt terrible leaving her
behind at Lexington, but she would never understand the
relationship he had with the undead.

Would she?

He knew she was special. He finally had a
best friend. He liked Richardson, and thought Lexington High was a
great place. It was an example of the good people could do, but he
knew if Sam weren't there, he wouldn't be either.

His thoughts constantly shifted between
trying to read under the moonlight, and Sam. He took a short nap
until the sun finally peeked over the horizon.

Time to get to work.

He pulled his list from his pocket and gave
it a quick glance as he pushed his way into the store. Hammers,
nails, wood, saws, axes, push-lawnmowers, it was quite a long list.
He'd be busy for a while.

The Home Depot had been looted before over
the years, before the undead mass grew too large. There was still
plenty to find. Aaron had no trouble finding everything on his
list. The hard part was getting it all into the truck. He knew he
knocked down a corpse that used to work there twenty times. There
was just so many of them.

He carried two large bags of gardening soil
on his shoulders and walked slowly back through the store. He knew
the nutrients in the soil were long gone, but loose dirt was loose
dirt. As he walked down one of the aisles less crowded with undead,
he saw something that caught his eye.

It was a gas-powered generator.

It was a mid-sized model, large enough to be
on wheels. He'd never used one before, but remembered his father
and Uncle Frank talking about them many times, and how they wished
they had one.

An idea came to mind, something he read about
in an old magazine.

He smiled, then patted the shoulder of a
former employee. The walker gave him a moan.

*****

Sam sat on the front steps of the school,
only a short distance from the front gate. She sat there all day,
only moving to eat a quick lunch. Everyone that walked by saw her
mood, and wisely decided to leave her alone.

The hours passed. Sam knew the longer Aaron
was gone, the less chance he had of being alive.

She fought emotions so long throughout the
day that she grew numb. She sat there watching Gabe nap in a chair
by the gate. He would turn every now and then and give her a nod,
but knew better than to approach her.

As the sun started to set, the people of
Lexington wrapped up their chores. The children vanished inside.
Not many people stayed out after dark, as there just wasn't
anything to do, and deep down, people were still afraid of the
dark.

Garrett and Ray walked by. Sam expected them
to keep moving, but her mood took a turn for the worse when they
slowed down. Garrett gave her an ugly smile.

“So your bald boyfriend stole one of my
trucks?”

“He's not my boyfriend, Garrett. And he's
coming back.”

“He's already dead.”

Ray laughed. Garrett kept taunting her.

He gestured to himself. “You've had all this
in front of you since you got here, and you go and make the wrong
choice.”

She rolled her eyes. “Would you just get out
of here? Leave me alone?”

“You won't be able to resist me forever,
beautiful. You'll be mine one day.”

They walked away, laughing the entire
time.

Later in the evening, Paul Sorenson took over
for Gabe watching the gate. Sam guessed it was a nice break for
Paul, instead of hanging out with chickens all day, slaughtering
them for meat and taking their eggs.