The Survivor Chronicles (Book 3): The Forsaken (24 page)

Riley's arms fell to her sides. "I don't want to do that."

Al had thought he would feel relief over her words, instead he felt as if he had just taken a toy away from a two year old. She was right, this was something they had to do, an answer they all had to find. "I'll go. They're less likely to shoot at an old man and I doubt anyone desires this body."

Riley choked on a laugh as she shook her head. "I can't ask you to do that."

"You didn't ask, I volunteered. We all need an answer, especially you. This will haunt you until you know and no one deserves to be haunted, especially not now. We'll get the rest of the gas and get everyone situated so that if we have to make a quick retreat we can."

"What if you can't get out?" she asked.

"I've lived a longer life than most."

"I'll go with you."

"Xander's right, a woman shouldn't go in there first. It's not sexist, it simply is a fact," Al told her.

"Let's get the gas," Xander said.

"You don't have to do this," Riley said to Al when the others returned to what they had been doing.

Al squeezed her arm and led her toward the car. "I do. It will be fine."

Xander and John carried the full cans over to the cars and filled the vehicles with them. "Maybe we should just go," Riley said as she hovered by his side. "There will be other places where we can try and find it."

Al glanced at her and then back at the building. "That might be true but this could also be our last chance. If I truly believed something was going to happen I wouldn't do this."

He watched as they finished topping off the vehicles before Carl dropped the cans into the back of the truck. Carl closed the doors and turned to Al. "Do you still intend to do this?" he asked.

Al nodded. "Just keep Peter away. I think it will get pretty ugly if he attempts to go in there."

"He won't go anywhere near that building, even if I have to shoot him myself," Carl vowed.

Al didn't doubt that Carl would shoot the man as his eyes turned toward the teacher standing beside the car. Things were going to get ugly within this group soon, the thought came unbidden to his mind but once it was there he couldn't shake it as he glanced between Carl and Peter. There was only so far Carl would be pushed. Mary Ellen may think that Peter would eventually mellow out again, but Al doubted it. He wondered who would come out on top when things finally hit a boiling point though.

"I'll be out soon," Al told them and placed his gun on the dashboard of the car.

Al waited till the others were settled into the vehicles before approaching the building again. Xander drove behind him and parked outside the front door. Xander leaned over and opened the passenger door and pushed it open for him in case he had to make a hasty retreat. He'd meant what he said about the people inside probably not seeing him as much of a threat, but even still he had to take a calming breath and wipe his sweaty palms on his pants before knocking on the door. The glass doors hadn't been painted over but he was still surprised when a curtain was pulled abruptly back and a man's face appeared.

The man was even shorter than Al at about five foot and appeared to be in his fifties. He tilted his head to look up at him as he pressed the barrel of his gun against the door. "Get away from the door!" he commanded as he tapped the metal gun against the glass.

"I'm not here to take anything, I mean no harm," Al said as he held his hands up beside him. "I simply want something you don't even need,"

"Why would you want something we don't need?" the man demanded.

Al glanced toward the cars. "We think we may have a way to help the sick ones that just ramble aimlessly around. Not the cannibalistic ones, but the others. A medicine."

The man's lined face twisted as he eyed Al from head to toe. "We're not giving out any medicine."

"Wait!" Al said when the man went to turn away. "It's L-Dopa, it will do nothing for you,
nothing
. Please, just one bottle. We're not even sure it will help, but if it does it's worth a try."

The man's head turned to the side; he said something to someone else before turning back to Al. "Where are your friends?"

"They're in the vehicles, they're not getting out."

"Do you have any weapons on you?" the man inquired.

"No."

The man craned his head to try and see around him, Al kept his hands raised as he stepped to the side so the man could get a better view of the vehicles. "You can come in," he said. "But if the others get out we will kill you."

"I'll be right back!" he called to Xander. "Whatever you do,
don't
get out of the vehicles."

Xander nodded but he kept his hand on the passenger side door to keep it open. The click of a lock brought Al's attention back to the door as the man pushed it open. Al stepped into the darkened interior of the store. Huddled near the cash registers was a group of at least twenty people watching him with wary eyes. There were a few children with them, curled within the laps of what he could only assume were their mother's.

Two men and one woman were holding guns by the front windows that had been blockaded with furniture but he didn't see any other weapons. That was something he was going to keep to himself though, he had no interest in taking what these people had from them. The windows had been painted over but he saw a few peepholes through the paint that allowed sunlight to filter through the furniture. Amongst the clothing racks he saw other people but he didn't get a sense of a lot of others within the cavernous building. Though he could smell spoiled food, it wasn't overwhelming. They must have taken all the rotten food into the back or perhaps they'd eaten most of it before it went bad.

A woman appeared from around one of the cash registers. In her hand was a small bottle that he could hear rattling as she walked. "Is this it?" she asked as she held it out to him.

He turned the bottle over in his hand to examine the word L-Dopa on it. "Yes, I think so."

"Do you really think it will work?" the woman asked.

Al lifted his head to meet her questioning eyes. "It's the only chance we have," he told her.

Xander,

Xander's fingers tapped on the steering wheel while he waited for Al to come out. His leg bounced up and down as he stared at the seemingly quiet store. "I should have gone with him," Riley murmured as she nervously watched the store.

"No, he was right," Xander told her but even still it was taking everything he had not to get out of the car and go after Al.

"What if this medicine doesn't work?" Bobby asked.

Riley's eyes were haunted as she turned to him, but her jaw was set in determination. "Then it doesn't work, but what if it does?"

"Peter may just flip his nut and try to kill us all if it does work."

Riley turned stiffly away from Bobby but her next words caused Xander's fingers to stop tapping on the dash. "I think Peter turning on us is inevitable, even if we don't try and save the others."

Her disturbing words caused Xander to turn toward her but her gaze was focused on the store once more. "Really?" he asked.

"You don't?" She didn't even turn to look at him when she asked the question.

Xander glanced at Bobby but his friend was staring at Riley as if he didn't know who she was. "You're being pretty cryptic there Ri, you ok?" Bobby asked.

She finally turned to look at them. "I'm not trying to be cryptic. I just don't think it matters what we say or do; Peter is eventually going to lose it. It's too much on him and he just can't handle this. He may have had some mental health issues before this; maybe he's even supposed to be on medication or something. We don't know anything about most of these people, but I do know that I feel as if we can trust them all, except for Peter."

Xander resumed tapping his fingers on the wheel as he leaned against the driver's side door. "I'm not so sure about Donald."

"He seems harmless enough to me," Bobby said.

"I have to agree, but we've known him for even less time than Peter so who knows," Riley said with a shrug. "What is taking so long in there?"

"We'll know if something is wrong," Xander assured her.

"Would we?" she muttered.

"Why do you have doubts about Donald?" Bobby asked.

Xander shrugged, he took hold of Riley's hand as her fingers started tapping on her knee. She smiled at him as her fingers entwined with his. "I don't know," Xander admitted. "We just don't know him, and what is he writing all the time?"

"Maybe he's keeping a diary," Riley suggested.

"Who would want to write down all of this?" Bobby asked.

"Maybe he would just like the world to know," Riley said.

"Know what?"

She turned away from the store to look at Bobby. "That he was here, that
we
were here, even if it's only for a short time more."

Bobby closed his eyes as he rested his head against the window. "Yeah, I can see that."

"I'm going to go in there," Riley said.

Xander tugged her hand when she went to open the door. "He said to stay here. You could get him hurt or you could get yourself hurt. Just wait."

"If something happens to him..."

"Nothing is going to happen to him and he didn't have to do this. This was his choice, remember that."

He glanced at Bobby as his friend surreptitiously twisted his hand into the tail of Riley's shirt. She wouldn't be getting out of this car if either of them had anything to say about it. Fortunately though, he saw the billow of the curtain as the door opened again and Al stepped out. Bobby released Riley's shirt as she opened her door but Al waved her back.

"Stay in the car," he called to her.

Xander leaned forward and held the door of the car open for him, Al slid into the passenger seat. "Are you ok?" Riley demanded before Al had settled in.

"Perfectly fine," Al assured her.

"What about the people in there?"

"They all seem to be in good health," Al answered as he closed his door. "They don't have much for weapons but they've barricaded themselves in there and they should be able to make a stand for awhile. They'll be ok."

"Did they..."

The bottle Al held up rattled in his hand as he showed it to them before handing it over to Riley. "L-Dopa pills."

Riley twisted the bottle in her hand as she examined it. "I was expecting something injectable."

"So was I," Al admitted.

"How do you plan on doing this?" Xander asked as he pulled out of the parking lot. "Kidnap one of those things and bring them with us?"

"Is it considered kidnapping if they have no knowledge of it?" Bobby inquired.

"Who knows," Riley murmured. "If we do that Peter may try and stop us."

"I don't think there's any way to keep this hidden from him, not if you decide to follow through with it," Al said.

"You went in there to get this, we will be following through on it," Riley said decisively. Her fingers ran over the cat's neck as she stared thoughtfully at the bottle. "I'm just not exactly sure how. We don't know how much time it would even take to have an effect on them. It could be days before we see any results."

Xander followed Al's directions as he drove out of the business area of the town and back into a more rural area that was speckled with farms. He spotted another mound in the distance but as they passed a cattle farm he was amazed to realize that some of the animals were still alive. The cows roamed the pastures and though they didn't look as if they were going to make it much longer, they were
alive
.

"I'll be," he breathed as he unknowingly slowed the car to take them in.

"Too bad we couldn't take some of them with us," Bobby said.

"It's difficult enough to maneuver through these streets without adding a trailer and some livestock to the mix," Al said. "But it's pretty rural where we're going so there's a good chance we'll come across livestock that is still alive."

"Let's hope so," Riley said. She rotated the bottle in her hand one more time before slipping it into the pouch on the back of Al's seat. "We'll talk to the others before we decide what we're going to do."

"I'm not sure how comfortable I'll feel hauling one of those people around with us," Bobby said.

Xander glanced at Riley in the rearview mirror but she didn't say anything as she turned to look out the window. "We'll talk with the others," Xander said and focused on the road again as Al led them onward.

Though they drove by endless farms, they didn't pass by many businesses again until they entered another town. "How far are we from the border?" he asked as he drove around a streetlight lying across the road.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted something moving behind the buildings but when he turned to look there was nothing amongst the lengthening shadows. The fact that it was so much easier to drive through these streets was a relief but he knew Al was right; the lack of quakes in this area had left a higher human population that he didn't want to deal with.

"About fifty miles."

"How much more rural is it where we're heading than here?"

Something in his tone must have caught Al's attention as his head came up from the map. He turned to look out the window before focusing on Xander. "There will be less people there," he assured him.

Xander was glad to hear that as he spotted a growing number of creatures moving through the backyards. "It's going to be getting dark soon," Riley said. "But maybe we can make it out of this state tomorrow."

She hadn't noticed the sick people following them yet, Xander realized as he searched the houses lining the roads. They had to get out of this area before nightfall. There just weren't many options right now.

"Al..." he started.

"I see them."

"Can you get us out of here?"

"I'm going to try," Al promised.

Xander went to make another right but a tree lying across the middle of the road stopped him before he could complete the turn. Beginning to feel like a rat in a maze, Xander was able to pull a U-turn and drive out of the road before they became trapped within it. "They're smart," he whispered. "Al..."

"Turn around," Al said. "This isn't going to end well."

Xander didn't argue with him as he drove the car onto the sidewalk and turned back the way they had come. He caught a glimpse of Carl before he drove by the truck. Carl nodded to him and pulled the truck onto a front yard as he turned to follow them. Within the shadows of the woods he saw the figures hesitating; one even jumped up and down and shook its fists at them. Xander would have laughed at the almost comical action but there was no humor here.

"You think they're laying a trap?" Bobby asked.

"I'd put money on it," Al said.

Xander wiped the sweat trickling down the back of his neck away as those things began to move through the trees with them again. He continued to search the homes they drove by but though he felt vulnerable in the car, he knew they would never be able to defend themselves from within one of the homes. His knuckles were white as he twisted his hands on the wheel and glanced at the other vehicles in the rearview. The increased thump of his heart against his ribs was becoming almost uncomfortable as he shifted in his seat.

"Take your next right," Al said.

Xander didn't want to go anywhere that he thought those people might have set a trap, but as he made the turn he realized it was a road they'd traveled before. They were backtracking but at least they knew the way was clear. They were almost to Wal-Mart again when the people faded away and he was finally able to take his first easy breath in awhile as they drove away from the store once more.

Al gave him directions down a separate area of the town. Every turn he took, he kept expecting to come up across some sort of blockade within the road, some trap that had been set so that those things could pounce upon them and devour them. He glanced at Riley in the rearview; her gun was in her lap with the cat, her gaze on the outside world.

Bobby remained unmoving with his head against the window. "Did you ever think it would be like this? I mean did you ever really think the world as we knew it would come to an end?" Bobby inquired.

"No," Riley answered. "I never thought it would really happen. I'd thought about the zombie apocalypse but I certainly didn't expect cannibalistic humans to be running around trying to eat us."

"I never thought about it," Al said. "It just wasn't something that ever truly crossed my mind."

"I used to think about it, every once in awhile," Bobby said. "I read the comic books, I watched the movies and TV shows, but truth be told I never really thought it would happen. I didn't think I'd survive it either."

"Glad you were wrong about that," Riley said.

"So far."

Xander glanced at his friend but refrained from commenting. So far was right. He didn't like to think about it but he knew that it was true. He made another turn onto a road lined with hundred-year-old maples. Their lengthy branches touched each other over top of the shadowed road. The mansions tucked behind the maples now seemed to stand barren to the world as nothing moved behind the windows. The flashing of lights from the truck caught his attention and he pulled over to the side of the road.

He took his gun off the dashboard before opening the door. Carl was already halfway to them by the time he was out of the car. "What's going on?" Xander inquired.

"Night is coming; we haven't seen those things in awhile." Carl gestured toward the large homes surrounding them. "These all look empty, but more than that there may be a fair amount of food in them. We might not find better before the night sets in."

Xander examined the massive homes and nodded. "There could be people in them."

"There could
always
be people in them," Carl said.

"True," Xander admitted. Riley was still holding the cat in her arms when she climbed out but she put the animal back inside the car and closed the door. "Where do we start?"

Carl nodded toward the house behind him. "We should probably split up, it will go faster."

"What about Peter?"

"What about him?" Carl inquired.

Xander's attention turned to Peter as he climbed out of the car. "I brought him into the group so I should probably be the one to go with him."

Carl lit a cigarette and studied Xander through the haze of smoke that puffed up around his face. "Riley will probably go with you if you try to do that."

Xander glanced over at Riley as she spoke with Al. "I don't want her anywhere near him and I'm staying with her."

"I know. I think that if Peter is with Josh and agrees with this course of action he'll be fine, for now," Carl said. "Here they come."

Xander stepped closer to Riley as the others approached them. Carl told them of his plan to search through the homes. Thankfully, Peter didn't argue with them. In fact, he seemed actually pleased with the idea as he studied the homes surrounding them. "We should search the homes with the people we drove here with. It will be the easiest way to split us up," Peter suggested.