Lost World (20 page)

“You made it,” Brady says, the words coming out like a sigh of relief.

I hop down and let out a deep breath, but my shoulders are still tense. “Yeah. It was pretty bad, but we all made it.”

Parvarti nods when our eyes meet, but other than that there’s no indication that she’s happy about getting our friends out. She’s become so hardened. Cold and distant, even. She’s an asset to the group when it comes to defending camp and pitching in, but I’m not sure if she has any real desire to live. It almost feels like she’s just biding her time until it’s her turn to die, not trying to keep going.

I turn away from her when my insides constrict painfully, unable to think about losing Parvarti. We’ve been together since the beginning. I’m just not sure I could take a loss like that.

“I want to say hi to everyone, then we can move on.” I jerk my head to the back of the truck, and Brady nods.

Axl is already back there, and he’s just shoved the door open when I round the back of the truck. Light floods into the Sam’s truck and someone yelps, but no one moves. They all look shell-shocked.

When I pull myself inside, Al and Lila are the first people I come to. Something about the strained expressions on their faces makes me stop. No one has said a word, and it has me on edge. I feel like we missed something bad.

“How are you guys doing?”

Al shakes his head, and Lila turns her face into his chest, her shoulders shaking slightly. “Jake didn’t make it.”

My whole body jerks from the impact of his words. I shake my head as my eyes fill with tears. I can’t believe it. “What? No.”

This wasn’t supposed to be what happened. We weren’t supposed to lose children like this. Not from something so small. Not when there are so many horrible things we could encounter. Plus, Axl told me everyone made it! He lied to me, which makes this all so much worse to take in. Maybe he was just trying to cushion the blow, but I hate that he couldn’t be honest with me. That he gave me hope when there wasn’t any.

But isn’t that what we do every day? Cling to hope that doesn’t really exist just so we can make it through a few more hours.

Axl comes up beside me just as I turn away from the teens. His hand slides across my back, and even though his lie hurt me, I lean into him. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I search the darkness for Anne and find her curled up next to Joshua. Her face is so distorted with grief I almost don’t recognize her, and Joshua isn’t much better. The world has ended for them all over again. But…there’s something else there too, something I hadn’t noticed until now. The way Joshua’s hand strokes her head, and the way Anne’s arms are wrapped around his waist. There’s a closeness I didn’t notice until now.

“Shoulda told you,” Axl says, drawing my attention away from Anne and Joshua’s intimate moment.

I turn my face into his chest, wiping my tears on his shirt. Inhaling the scent of dirt and fresh air and outdoors that is so Axl. “I wish you had.”

Angus clears his throat, and I look up to find him cozied up to Darla. After the loss of Jake, I can’t even be bitter about it. We need to cling to happiness as hard as we can every second of every day because the end could come at any moment. There’s nothing safe anymore. Nothing sure or perfect. All of those things were lost when the world ended.

“We gonna head out or what?” Angus asks.

Axl nods and moves to the back of the truck, his arm still wrapped around me. Holding me tighter than he’s ever held me before. I can feel Jake’s loss in every breath my friends let out, and at this moment, I’m not sure how we’re ever going to be able to recover from what was taken from us today.

15

WHEN WE STEP OUT OF THE shelter in the morning, there’s almost an inch of snow on the ground. I hate snow. It’s one of the reasons I was glad to leave Ohio. But one good thing about it is it’s helped mask the stench. The overwhelming smell of rot that floated over the hot spring yesterday is more subtle than it was before we went to sleep. It’s still there—thanks to the heat rising from the water in front of us—but it’s nothing like it was. Maybe winter is a good thing. Maybe it will slow these hideous creatures down or even kill them. Then we’ll be able to start over for real. For good.

“Millersville,” Jon says when we reach the road and start walking. “That was the name of the town, right?”

“Yeah.” I pull my pack up higher and roll my shoulders. Every inch of my body aches from sleeping upright in that shelter. “It was twenty miles or so, which will take at least seven hours on foot.”

Jon exhales, and we both watch as his breath is carried away by the wind. “Let me know if you need a break, okay?”

I turn to look at him, but he’s staring straight ahead. It’s tough to get a read on him when he won’t meet my gaze, but the softness in his voice is unmistakable. He thinks he loves me, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

“I will,” I whisper, my eyes locked on his face.

Jon nods, and we walk in silence for a bit before falling into a nice pattern. Walking and talking. Revisiting our childhoods and teen years. Sharing the lives that now feel like a dream. Getting to know one another in a way we’ve never bothered to. I don’t even know why we never talked like this before now. Every word out of Jon’s mouth helps me see him in a new light, helps me understand the man he is and the man he used to be. Helps ease my perception of him.

“What made you move to Hollywood?” Jon asks.

We’ve been walking for what feels like days but has probably only been three hours or so, and I’ve already told him all about growing up in Ohio. About my parents and brother and the people I loved back in my small hometown. I guess my fame is the next logical topic.

“I was one of those kids. The one all the teachers and kids at school loved. The one who always had to be the center of attention. Everyone flocked to me, and all I heard my whole life was how great I was. How pretty and talented and smart. Having people tell me I should be an actress or a model became a normal thing, and I heard it so much that I started to believe it.” I pause and look at Jon, shrugging while I roll my eyes. He’s hanging on my every word, staring at me like I’m spouting the most unique and beautiful poem he’s ever heard. “Being adored is addictive, and I started to believe I deserved it. That people owed it to me. I couldn’t see my future as anything else.”

“Well, you got what you wanted,” he says, giving me an adorable grin.

When I laugh, the sound feels foreign on my lips. Wrong almost. But it’s genuine. “Eventually, yes. But there were a couple hard years where I felt like I couldn’t catch a break. No one would give me the time of day. When I auditioned for
Zombie World
, I actually went in for a small part. The casting director saw something in me and offered me the lead.”

“And the rest is history,” Jon says.

I laugh again. “In so many ways.”

We laugh together, and it’s nice. Relaxing and friendly.

Jon shakes his head and looks away from me, his eyes turning toward the road, then down. The smile melts off his lips. I follow his gaze and my heart stutters, almost stopping, then jumps into a rhythm much faster than normal. The snow covering the street in front of us has been disturbed. Long lines cut through the white dust, coming out of the woods to our left and continuing down the road. As if dozens of bodies staggered this way.

“The tracks are recent,” Jon says. “They haven’t been disturbed, and the wind hasn’t blown them away.”

“When?” I ask, trying to hold the panic in. It isn’t easy to remain calm, not when our friends are somewhere at the end of this road. Possibly in danger. “How long ago?”

Jon runs his hand down his face. “It’s hard to tell.”

I start walking faster. “We have to move!”

“What exactly do you think we can do about this?” Jon asks, jogging to catch up with me.

It’s irrational and I know it, but I can’t make myself stop. “I don’t know!” I call, pumping my legs faster. “I just know I have to get there. I have to know what happened. If everyone is okay.”

Jon nods, and we fall silent as we jog down the street. My calves ache and my body is heavy with exhaustion, and I have no idea how long I’m going to be able to keep this pace, but I know I have to try. That group is all we have left. Maybe all we’ll ever have.

I’m huffing when I see movement out of the corner of my eye. My feet slide across the icy road as I twist to see what it is, and my body slams into Jon. He reaches out to steady me, but I jerk away when a zombie breaks through the trees. Charging toward us.

“Shit!” I scream, trying to shove Jon’s hands away from me as I raise my gun.

“Hadley!” he calls, yanking me behind him, putting his body between me and the zombie.

He raises his gun, his arm steady as he takes aim. A split second later a gunshot echoes through the sky. The top of the zombie’s head is ripped away, and black goo rains down, sprinkling the white snow at our feet. The thing drops to the ground, but I’ve barely let out a sigh of relief when more pour out of the woods behind him. Staggering our way with their arms raised. Their snarls and grunts making every hair on my flesh stand at attention. The creatures’ putrid skin is coated in a layer of ice, and the black goo that usually pours from their bodies has frozen to their skin.

“Dammit,” Jon calls, aiming for another zombie as he walks backward, trying to keep me behind him.

I shove Jon’s hand out of my way and step forward so I can get a good shot. They may be moving slower than before, but there are still too many for him to take care of on his own.

“I’ve got the ones on the left!” I call, squeezing my trigger.

The zombie jerks back when my bullet enters his temple. He drops to the ground, and the one next to him follows when Jon pulls the trigger. We take aim again, and gunshots ring through the air as together we fire into the horde. I get one in the neck, and he goes down less than a foot in front of me. My bullet doesn’t stop him for long, though. The bastard drags himself forward just enough to get a good grip on my ankle. He pulls, and my feet slide out from under me. When I throw my hands back to brace myself, my gun drops into the snow. My body slams into the icy ground, and pain radiates through my elbows and ass, forcing a scream out of me.

“Shit!” Jon looks back and forth between me and the charging zombie as he fires, “Hadley, hold on!” He shoots the final zombie still standing, then rushes my way.

Jon may be three feet from me, but it feels like there are miles of space between us as I kick at the zombie’s face and scramble for my knife. My heel makes contact with the thing’s chin, and the sickening sound of breaking bone cuts through the chaos when his jaw snaps. The dead man still doesn’t release my ankle.

Jon grabs the thing’s tattered shirt and yanks him off me. The zombie flies back, landing on top of the bodies already piled on the road. He moans and tries to pull himself back up, but Jon is too fast. He raises his gun, pulls the trigger, and blows the zombie’s head off.

I’m still on the ground trying to catch my breath when Jon turns to face me. “Are you okay?”

I’m shaking when I pull myself to my feet, but I manage to get out a nod. My pants are coated in snow and my legs are covered in goose bumps, and I’m positive that pretty soon I’ll be shivering. But I’m alive.

“I’m okay,” I say. “Thank you.”

Jon swallows as his green eyes hold mine.

I hope our baby has his eyes.

The thought pops into my brain so suddenly it makes my head spin. It’s ridiculous, of course. I don’t even know if this baby is his. Still, the desire is there. To see a little version of Jon toddle around while I watch. With Jon at my side.

What a load of bullshit.

I tear my eyes away from Jon’s as the unsettling ache in my chest gets so intense it makes breathing hurt. “They look frozen.” I kick one of the bodies with the toe of my boot, and I swear its skin crunches. “It’s like they’re covered in ice.”

“It seems to be masking the smell, which is probably why they caught us off guard,” Jon says. “Slowed them down a little, too.”

“You think it will kill them?” For once, I’m the one asking him questions, and the look he shoots my way tells me the novelty isn’t lost on him.

“We can only hope.”

It’s impossible to say exactly how long we’ve been walking since I threw my watch out weeks ago, but it feels like it’s been days by the time we see the first sign for Millersville.

“One more mile,” Jon says. “Can you make it?”

“Do I have a choice?” I reply, the words coming out like a sigh.

He grabs my hand, giving it a little squeeze. “Come on. We can do it together.”

Something about those words makes my throat tighten until it feels like it’s going to close. I squeeze his hand in return and focus on putting one foot in front of the other. My calves throb, and there’s a part of me that wants to collapse right here in the middle of the road. Now that we’re close, I’m not sure I want to know what happened to our friends.

The tracks we’ve been following for the last few hours become obscured by different ones. Bigger ones that roll over the staggered footprints like they’re trying to crush the pack of zombies that dragged their way down this road.

Jon stops and kicks the snow next to the tire track. “Looks like a big truck.”

My heart goes into a thump, thump, thump rhythm that reminds me of a drum. “The Sam’s truck?”

He shrugs, but his eyes light up when he says, “Could be.”

We pick up the pace again, jogging as fast as our worn-out bodies will let us. My breathing is shallow and uneven and my legs heavy, but I want to get there as fast as I can. To find out if our friends are dead or alive.

When the first few houses come into view, there’s nothing happy about the sight. The streets are so clogged with zombies that it makes my knees weaken.

Jon swears as he pulls me off the road toward the woods. I stumble down the slight incline, tripping over my own feet as I attempt to find level ground through the thick layer of snow. We duck into the forest and don’t stop moving until we’re about fifteen feet in. Jon doesn’t let go of my hand and he doesn’t stop pulling, but he’s there to keep me from falling when my feet trip over branches and rocks that are too covered to see.