Least Likely To Survive (25 page)

He looked back at me startled, and I didn’t miss the fear and alarm on his face before he stamped that shit back down.  He knew as well as I that now wasn’t the time to admit we had no fucking idea what we were doing.  Dogs and kids could smell fear.  “I haven’t gotten that far yet, but everyone make sure your stuff is packed and the weapons we have with us are in order.”  He snuck a glance at me to see if I agreed, and I just shrugged at him.  Sounded better than I would have at this point.

“But how are we gonna leave tomorrow without getting caught?”  Chloe couldn’t resist pointing this out; ever the obvious.

“Yeah, so we don’t know yet, but we’ll figure out it, so don’t worry, K?”  I half smiled at her and prayed she believed my nonchalance.  I was going to Hell for sure for lying to children.  Her eyes narrowed at me, waiting for my shell to crack, and when it didn’t, she shrugged and got up.

“Fine. 
Whatev
, just let us know.”  With that, she, Ty and Roscoe headed to the door.

“We’re gonna get some food, catch you guys later?”  Ty turned at the door, and darted a look between Jack and I that was so heavy I was sure his eyes would fall out of his skull and crack the floor when they landed.

“Sure, later.”  Jack gave Ty the all-encompassing man ‘head nod’, and with that the conversation was over.  Now if I could continue to avoid the other one, life would be peachy.

We sat in silence for a bit, each lost in our own thoughts.  I stared out the window down into the arena, finding myself sad at the thought it would never hold another crowd, and there would never be another band on the stage to test the limits of the undoubtedly impressive sound system.  Hell, it had only been a couple days, and I was already starting to ache for my smart phone and my DVR.  Odds were that I would never know the joy of modern living again, and I had to get used to roughing it.  Basic survival had become my new ‘norm’, and it sucked and I hated it, but it was better than being a zombie.  Or dead.

I stood up.  For some reason I couldn’t stand just sitting there anymore.  “I’m gonna take a walk, catch you later.”  I didn’t give Jack time to object as I rushed to the door and thrust myself into the hallway.  Alone now, and moving, the fog in my head started to clear, and I began processing the millions of thoughts that were circling like vultures. 

Once I cleared the hall, and passed the guard with barely a glance, I started aimlessly down the galley, and soon found myself back on the roof, where the weapons training this morning had gone so sideways.

I took a few steps onto the patio, towards the wall on the edge of the roof, but stopped when I heard gunshots.  I peered a little harder, and recognized Austin standing at the edge, taking aim below.  Damn, I was hoping to avoid him, for I don’t know, how about forever?  No such luck.  I steeled my nerves and walked over to stand next to him.  He pulled his head from the scope when he caught sight of me, and I didn’t miss the surprise on his face.

“Hey, Angie.  Didn’t think I’d see you out here again, are you okay?”  His face seemed to be colored with genuine concern, but I couldn’t trust my instincts with anyone in this damn place, so I made sure to keep my expression guarded.  I stopped next to him and leaned casually against the railing.

“Hey, no it’s cool.  I just don’t believe in killing out of anything but necessity.”  I shrugged at him, and gazed out into the parking lot, and was instantly sick at the sight of the crowd of zombies just milling about.  And of course the bodies just laid out.  I don’t think the bodies would have bothered me so much if zombies weren’t eating them.  There are just some things you can never un-see.

He looked down at me and smiled gently.  “I get that, and I can respect that.”  He put his hand on my shoulder, probably so I would know he was sincere.  When I didn’t return his smile, he pulled his hand away and turned his attention back to the crowd while fiddling with his rifle.  “So what brings you to the roof?”

Leaning down over the edge, I let it take my weight as I rested my chin over my arms.  I wasn’t sure how to answer, or what to say for that matter.  I didn’t even know why I was up here.  “I dunno, just went for a walk and ended up here.  Not really sure I meant to.”  I could feel my face scrunch with my own confusion, and apparently it was comical as he smiled again and chuckled at me.

“Yeah, that can happen I guess.” He started to remove the shoulder strap from the rifle and set the gun down before he continued. “It just surprised me to see you wandering about without your boyfriend.”

I’m pretty sure I peed a little when those words sunk in.  What the fuck was he talking about?  Could he mean me and Jack?  Fuck, were we
that
obvious?  “What are you talking about?”  I stood upright to face him, crossing my arms in challenge.  Seems I was doing a lot of that lately.

He held his hands up in surrender, “Calm down killer, I just thought, well, ya know, the way you and Jack are so close, I thought,
well
…” He trailed off and looked at me in question while rubbing the back of his neck. I searched his face for any clue that he might just be digging for dirt to pass on, but only found concern in those sparkly blues.

That was the question, wasn’t it?
Hmm
, well considering I hadn’t even really decided where I stood on the topic, I decided denial was my best bet.

“Oh, no, we’re just friends,” I played the indifference card and shrugged a little.  “We’ve just been through some shit, and surviving the apocalypse while trying to keep some random kids alive causes people to get tight, I guess.”  I looked at him, hoping he got my point and dropped the subject.

He smiled knowingly back down at me.  Fuck, this guy was tall.  “Yeah, I get that.”  Give the man a cookie; he knew when to butt the fuck out.

He didn’t say anything else, and the silence was weighing on me as I twisted an errant curl around my finger and glanced back to the freak show meandering below.  I briefly wondered what I was going to do when my roots came in; a natural redhead I was not.  Oh well, guess I was going to have to rediscover my natural color.  Although I hadn’t seen it in so many years I wasn’t even sure what it was at this point.

I knew I was letting inconsequential bullshit keep me from thinking about what I was really feeling, but I didn’t know Austin well enough to trust him, and I wasn’t 100% sure I trusted myself with those thoughts yet.

I looked over at Austin and watched quietly as he took apart his gun and began cleaning it.  The speed and the skill at which he went about his task impressed me.  So far I had figured out how to operate one, but hadn’t given much thought to cleaning them as I just disposed of one when it was out of ammo.  I tried to pay closer attention, thinking the skill may come in handy later.

After a few more minutes of this, he broke the silence.  “So are you planning to join the scouting team?”  He looked up from his gun.

“What scouting team?  Scouting for what?”

He looked back down at his task as he continued.  “We have a team that goes out for supplies.  Food, clothes, medicine, things like that.  You interested?”

No.  Emphatically no.  “Uh, probably not.”  I looked back over at the crowd of feasting zombies below.  “Not really a big fan of being out there unless I have to.”

Bumping his shoulder into mine with a playful wink, “Yeah, you’re probably a crap shot anyway.”

I didn’t mean to, but I took the bait.  “Fuck that, I’m
awesome
.”  I sneered at him and bristled.

He handed me the rifle he had just finished cleaning.  “Prove it.”

Shaking my head, “I don’t have to prove anything to you.”  I crossed my arms again and took a step backwards.  I really didn’t want to fall into this trap.

“No worries, I’m sure they’ll find something for you to do in the kitchen, or something.”  He pulled the gun back and started to put it back down.  Before it touched the concrete, I snatched it out of his hands.  He didn’t even have a chance to say something as I glared at him and fit the rifle against my shoulder, looking down the scope.  When I had a zombie at the far edge of the parking lot in my sights, I took aim and fired, scoring a direct head it; we both stared as it went down.  I didn’t say anything as I calmly handed the rifle back.

He stood staring at the fallen body for a second, and then looked back at me in wonder.  “
Damn
, that was wicked!”  The excitement in his eyes creeped me out; how could anyone get so excited about murder?

I was about to turn and leave when he spoke again.  “Angie, seriously, you’re an awesome shot, you really should think about joining us, we could use someone like you on the team.”  I still wasn’t sold.  This guy was disturbed if he thought I would enjoy pillaging for food while trying not to get eaten. 

Apparently he caught the look on my face, and his features softened as he turned it down a notch.  He put a hand on my shoulder again, and smiled down at me.  I caught the slight dimple in his right cheek, and the way the impending twilight shone in his eyes. 

Wait, was he
flirting
with me?!  Seriously, what the fuck was going on the last few days?  Men rarely looked at me a week ago, now suddenly I’m what?  The last eligible female over 18 and under 30 left on the planet?  Maybe it was an inherent male trait to always have breeding on the brain to ensure survival of the species.  Now I wished I had spent more time watching The Discovery Channel, or whatever.

“I’ll think about it.  Gotta go.”  I didn’t let him say anything else and practically ran back to the door, leaving him staring in wonder after me.  When in doubt: bolt.  I was hauling ass back inside and didn’t stop until I reached the box we were temporarily living in.  I ran inside, slammed the door shut, and stood with my back against it, just trying to catch my breath.  Had the whole world gone mad?  Maybe I was wrong about the flirting, and he was just trying to cozy up to me so that I would join the dark side.  I heard they have cookies.  

I shook my ridiculous thoughts out of my head and as my breathing slowed, so did my head.  I shook it to clear it, and decided a long hot shower was just the thing to bring me back to reality.  I walked into the room Jack and I was sharing, and grabbed the clothes I had been wearing yesterday since they were clean again.  Once I had what I needed gathered I started my pilgrimage to the showers.

Chapter 16: Rock Stars and Scotch.

Once I was clean and wearing my own clothes, I felt miles better. My head was still a mess, but the hot water had done wonderful things for the knots in my back.  After I finished stuffing my dirty clothes back into the bag I had brought down with me, it occurred to me that if we were leaving tomorrow, we could all use another set of clothes.  There was just no telling how long we would be on the road before would could shower and change again.  I decided to head back the store we had been in the day before and pick us each up another set of clothes.  I knew Chloe’s size, and could speculate well enough for Ty and Jack.

I tossed the bag over my shoulder and headed out the door of the locker room, and started back down the nondescript hall towards the makeshift galleria.  I rounded the corner, and stopped trying to remember which way the shops were.  After looking around for a minute, I caught sight of the garish lights off to the left in distance, and continued in that direction.  I was checking out all the little stores on the way, and almost stopped to browse through the random crap, but decided not to waste my time.  As much as I loved trinkets, being on the run was not an ideal situation to be bogged down with crap.

I entered the store where Ian had taken us yesterday and stopped to figure out who to shop for first.  Thinking the boys would be easier, I headed to the Men’s Department, or
‘cubby’
, I should say, and got to work.

I started grabbing shirts, pants, socks and boxers in what I guessed to be good sizes, and once I had two complete sets, headed back to the girl stuff.  I stopped in the lingerie area, puzzled for a moment trying to remember what size Chloe needed, then as my gaze settled on it, I knew I had the right one and grabbed sets for us each.  Now that that was out of the way, I wandered back over to where the festive track suits were lined up, complaining under my breath the whole time.  I swear, if I get a chance to stop and not get eaten, I was hitting a Torrid.

Still mumbling to myself, I almost missed Private Winters with the woman my age, and the haggard mom from my group this morning walking over to me.  Winters smiled at me in greeting, which made her whole face light up and I had to stamp down the jealously over how incredibly pretty she was.  “Hi Angie, what are you up to?”

Okay, I knew she said this in all innocence, but after the day I just had, everyone was now a suspect.  I plastered a big fake smile on my face, and acknowledged the three women now standing in front of me. “Oh, ya, know, just picking some things up.  You can only wear the same outfit so long before it starts to grow legs and walk away without you,” I giggled a little, letting the merriment catch on.  On it did, as all three laughed in agreement.

“I was just telling Kim that,” said the woman my age whose name completely escaped me, as she gestured to the slightly older woman standing next to her.  Kim apparently agreed as she smiled in return, and shook her head as she held up an armful of children’s sized track suits.