Those Who Remain (Book 2) (22 page)

I sprint to them and yank the boy away. With her eyes closed, she kicks relentlessly even without the added weight. I let her tire herself out, before crouching by her side. She’s hyperventilating, chest rising and falling rapidly. Her mouth is dry and she has dozens of scrapes on her arms and faces, but no dark lumps.

“Hey, it’s okay.” I take my gun off and place it on the ground. I lift both my hands. “We won’t hurt you.”

She blinks at me, hugging herself like a wounded animal. Her black eyes stare back at me with suspicion.

“What’s your name?”

When she opens her mouth no words come out, only vomit. Her eyeballs roll upwards and she passes out. I catch her before she hits her head against the ground.

The teen, now standing next to me, steps back. “Gross!”

“You,” I say to him. “Go find Nurse Felicity, tell her I’m bringing in a patient.”

“But… But she’s a zombie! You have to kill her before she bites someone.”

“Just do what I told you to!”

He nods, running away. I lift her, her head against my chest, careful not to hurt her. I turn to see Danny, standing behind me.

He looks at the girl, grabs her arms and twists a little in order to check for signs of the infection. “Who is this girl?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. I think she was lost in the woods, got sick and found our town. I’m bringing her to the school. Maybe Felicity can see what’s wrong with her.”

He blinks, a hand on the back of his neck. “Are you sure it is—”

“Not now. Take my gun. We need to move,” I interrupt him to avoid an argument. It takes a second, but he nods and does what I asked.

We race past the block, arriving to the main street. People look at us with frowns, and some even point at me. The news of the girl will reach everyone soon, if it didn’t already, so I’m not surprised when Linda Fords waits for us in front of the school. She’s flanked by Frank and another council member I don’t know the name of. I’m relieved my mother is nowhere near this.

“What’s going on here, Terrence? The Thompsons called us on the radio, talking about a zombie inside the town. Is that it?” She asks Danny, raising her palm to stop me from coming in.

“She’s not an
it
. It’s a girl. She’s sick, but she’s not bitten,” I say, placing myself between them. “We need to see the nurse.”

Linda raises one of her blond eyebrows. “Don’t get yourself involved, Hunter. You are not part of the council. We’ll decide if the girl is bitten or not, thank you.”

“You can’t spot a zombie even if it’s behind you, trying to eat what's left of your brain, Fords. Just let Lily pass, she knows what’s she’s doing.”

I look at Danny with a smile, shocked, but glad to see him standing up for me.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t exactly trust your judgment either, Terrence. You have a track record of bad decisions. So, put the girl down and let Frank see if she’s bitten. The town is scared. They trust us to keep them safe.”

“She’s right. You didn’t give my son a chance like this either. What’s so special about this girl?” Frank adds, moving his enormous figure in front of me. “Let me see her.”

He tries to reach to take the girl from my arms, but I step back. The sound of cars approaching stops us. Coming up from the main street, I spot Roger’s police car and a SUV behind it. He’s back early from the supply run. They park at the front of the school, a few steps from us. I’m thinking of calling him out to help when Frank yells.

“She bit me!”

The girl starts to thrash again, punching my chest in attempt to set herself free and run. She untangles herself from me and almost slips away, but Danny catches her.

“Hey! Calm down! We’re trying to help you,” he says to her, but receiving nothing but screams for his efforts.

Fords and Frank are far more worried about his hand, examining it, when Roger reaches us.

“What’s going on? Lily, is everything okay?”

He looks tired, shoulder slumped and low voice. His typical frown is deeper than usual. Part of me wants to ask him what’s the matter, but instead I explain the situation, telling him my theory that the girl probably ate a poisonous plant on the woods and now is sick. Danny holds her while Roger checks her for bites as well.

“The Thompsons said she sneaked inside their house. They caught her in their bathroom, locked her in thinking she was a zombie. Then, she jumped out of the second floor window and tried to run away,” Danny tells him. “She seems kinda crazy, but she has guts.”

“What’s your name?” Roger asks the girl. “What were you doing in someone else’s house?”

“Leave me alone!” She screams, for the first time forming proper words. “Let me go!”

“She’s clearly infected. She’s going to turn,” Linda comments, hands on her hips. “We should lock her up.”

“She needs a doctor, not jail,” I argue, arms crossed.

“Hold her arms, Danny,” Roger asks, moving closer and opening the girl’s dirty winter coat. She tries to bite him off and kick him, but he avoids most of it and takes out a bottle of pills from inside a pocket.

“I guess that solves the mystery.” He lifts the bottle for everyone to see. “I don’t think a zombie is worried about stealing medicine for stomach cramps. Don’t you agree?”

I smile at him, while Linda rolls her eyes. “Fine. So she’s not a zombie. She’s a thief. Thieves go to jail too.”

“She’s a kid,” Danny says, still trying to keep the girl steady. “Don’t you have a soul, woman?”

“Says the man who killed his own mother,” Linda spits back.

I step forward, ready to punch the woman, but Roger moves between us. The little girl stops struggling, fainting again.

“That’s enough. We’re going to take her inside the school to be examined. I’ll personally watch her, to make sure she doesn’t escape.” He takes the girl from Danny’s hands. “We also brought a doctor with us. She can examine the girl for bites. So that’s taken care of. You can go and tell the rest of the town there’s no zombie alert.”

Linda lifts her nose, but doesn’t argue. She, Frank, and the other council member leave us. I watch Danny from the corner of my eye, worried about his reaction. He was doing so well….

He stares at nothing before noticing my concerned look and giving me thumbs up. The gesture doesn’t convince me: his slumped shoulders and downcast eyes reveal how he really took Linda’s comment.

We get inside the school. In the nurse’s office, we find a woman I have never seen operating on O'Neil’s shoulder. Gutierrez stands next to her, gripping O’Neil’s hand. I’ve also never seen the chubby guy so distraught. As Roger places the girl gently on the bed next to them, I ask him what’s going on.

“Long story. Involves finding a doctor on our supply run. I tell you later.” He turns to Felicity and places the stolen pill bottle in her hands. “Lily thinks she ate something bad in the woods. She’s has been vomiting and clutching her stomach, she’s also might have hurt her knee falling from a second floor window. She tried to steal this.”

“Okay… Help me turn her then.”

We place her lying on her side, so when she vomits again she won’t choke. On our right, O’Neil moans in pain.

“Will she be okay?” I ask, eyes fixed on her unconscious form.

Felicity looks at the girl, then at us with an open mouth, but no answer. For a nurse, she seems too unfocused and hesitant for my taste. I’m worried the girl will get worse.

“Felicity, will she be okay?” I ask again, voice raised. “Say something!”

Roger places a hand on my shoulder. “Lily,” he only says, his soft tone telling me to control myself.

“I don’t know,” Felicity finally answers. “But… Shouldn’t I check for bites first?”

I groan, taking the girl’s left arm and extending it for the nurse. “See? She’s fine. Stop wasting time and give her something. Now. She’s alone and scared, and we need to help her. So do it.” I only realize I’m yelling after noticing Felicity and Roger’s wide-eyed, silent stares.

Roger takes me by the hand, pulling me away from the girl. He turns to Felicity, passing a pair of handcuffs to the woman. “Check for bites. If she has them, you can use these. We’ll be right back.”

We leave the room. Roger doesn’t let go of my hand as we stand in the corridor. I avoid his eyes, while he sighs.

“Lily, what’s the matter? Are you okay?”

I lift my hand to untangle myself from his grasp. “We should go back and look out for the girl. She needs someone to be there for her. She’s too scared.”

“Not before you talk to me. What’s got you so…?” I keep waiting for him to finish with “emotional”, but he never does. “Did something happen earlier today? Besides you finding the girl?”

I pace around the corridor, dodging his questions like a spooked deer. Finally, Roger takes me by the shoulders. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

The way he looks at me, with nothing but patience and care, brings out everything I tried to hold back since leaving Father and seeing the empty cabin. Tears fall before I can stop them.

Roger hugs me, his right hand softly touching the back of my head. “It’s okay. You can talk to me.”

“Roger… I… Father’s gone. He really left. Dad’s gone. The cabin is cleaned out. He’s not coming back.”

He says nothing, but just being close to his chest and hearing his heartbeat, I calm down. He kisses my forehead, taking my face in his hands. “I’m here for you. I’ll always be here for you. No matter what.”

We hug, his arms and body heat comforting me. I don’t move for a good minute, happy to keep this moment intact. Then, a sigh escapes my lips. “I really thought he would come and find me. I really did. I’m… I miss him.”

There’s nothing else left to be said. Nothing I can do to change the past and we both know it. Roger holds me tight for a long time.

“Where’s Danny?” I say, noticing for the first time his absence. “I didn’t see him coming in.”

Roger shakes his head. “I guess he stayed behind.”

“I can’t believe Linda said that to his face. I should punch her in the throat.”

“She was out of line, but it’s over now.”

Roger’s agreement doesn’t have nearly enough outrage, but from his slumped shoulders and tired eyes, he probably doesn’t want to stir more trouble.

We break off the hug. “Now it’s your turn to tell me what happened out there. Who’s that doctor inside?”

With a sigh, he tells me about the three of them roaming the roads looking for gas to siphon and flu medicine. Between frozen cars and wandering infected, it seemed they were out of luck. Gutierrez finally spotted a car not covered in snow. Upon approach, two people, a man and a woman, stood and pointed guns at them. They were wearing Army uniforms and were in bad shape. Billy decided to use the woman as leverage to demand the car for us, but the man shot Billy without hesitation.

“Things got pretty tense after that. I was afraid Billy wouldn’t make it, but the woman turned out to be a doctor and she offered to operate on him. And here we are.”

“Can we trust them?”

“I think so.”

I nod. Roger’s a pretty good judge of character, clearly much better than I ever could be. If he trusts them, then I have no reason not to as well. All I have to do is ignore Father’s warnings in my head.
“Never trust someone, always expect the worse.”

Roger points behind me and I turn: Danny’s walking in our direction with his hands in his pockets and eyes downcast. He reaches us and barely manages a nod.

“Danny, where were you?” Roger asks, approaching his friend with careful movements, as if reaching towards a wounded animal.

“Are you okay?” I say, trying to spot signs of crying.

We are treating him like a broken thing, made of thin glass ready to shatter and he knows it. He gives us a shrug and thumbs up, then walks past us in the direction of the Felicity’s office. After trading looks, Roger and I do the same.

“So what happened out there? Who’s the crazy Army guy wandering around the town?” Danny whispers to Roger, eyes over his shoulder, perhaps afraid of the said crazy Army guy being around.

Roger tells him the same story he told me. Danny shares the fact that the soldier, called Sergeant Tigh, scouted the town to make sure we were trustworthy. Part of me is afraid he was actually looking for weakness in our defenses. And we have lots of weaknesses.

We enter the nurse’s office, where the Doctor and the Sergeant talk. They get up after seeing us.

I step in front of the Doctor and point at the girl on the bed. “Is she going to be okay?”

She nods. “Yes, she’ll be fine, we just need to keep her hydrated and assist her with the vomiting and pain. After two or three days she’ll feel much better. She’ll have trouble keeping food down, so we need to feed her things easy to digest, like mashed fruits.”

A wave of relief washes over me. I’m not sure why I care so much about this sick girl. Perhaps I see a part of me in her. Not once or twice I ran into the woods, after a terrible day of watching Father drink himself to oblivion and cursing my mother for leaving us. I wanted to find comfort there, but only got loneliness. After a while, I started to believe being alone was comfort enough.