Find Me (Life After the Outbreak, Book 2) (14 page)

It took us about another three hours of walking before we started seeing flesh eaters dead on the side of the road. There were a few stragglers walking about, but they were in bad shape and easy to take care of. Hadley turned her head each time and scrunched up her nose, disgusted. It was rare to see anyone bothered by it anymore, but then, Hadley wasn't typical.

“So, did you have some sort of psychic premonition about the trip or something?” I kept my voice low, to avoid more glares from Janet.

Hadley laughed and circled around me once more. “No silly.”

“Okay, then tell me why you came out here. Seriously.”

Hadley tilted her head up and gave me a curious look. “Sometimes people give me information because they want things from me. People always want things from me.” She frowned. “You are different. You do not want things from me. You come to see me, but you do not want things.”

“That’s because we’re friends, Hadley. Friends don’t need to get anything in return.”

“I have never had that.
Friends
.” She rolled the word on her tongue as if it were a foreign concept.
 

I liked Hadley. She wasn’t like anyone I’d ever known. She was a friend to me when no one else was, and I was grateful to her for that. She had a odd innocence about her that was so out of place in our strange, messed up world. She found joy in simple things like tea cups, yet there was a sadness behind her eyes. A look that betrayed her loneliness and separation. A look that I had no trouble understanding and connecting with.

Hadley took my hand in hers and smiled up at me. The last time I walked hand in hand with a girl was probably first grade, but for some reason, with Hadley, it seemed like the right thing to do.

Derek and Janet found a place for us to stop and take a longer rest. There was an occasional zombie hobbling about, but we were covered, so they couldn't sneak up on us. Derek once again reached into his massive backpack and pulled out some food for us to eat. I had a few protein bars in my pack, but certainly not enough for more than a day or two. Derek was very well prepared.

We sat for a while and rested. Janet continued flirting with Derek, and Hadley painted her nails, much to Janet's shock. I was pretty sure if Derek wasn't with us, she would have pounced on her and taken the polish away. Instead, she just glared at Hadley, who, of course, didn't notice a thing.

Janet pulled out a map and pushed it toward me. "We have a couple of choices to make."

I looked over the map, which made no sense to me out in the middle of nowhere. "What kind of choices?"

"We are here." She pointed on the map. "And there are a few different routes we can go. There's no way to know which way he might have gone, if he is out there."

I winced when she said 'if' he's out there. "Okay, so which way are we going?"

"See that's the thing. Any one of those ways could be right … or wrong. You are going to have to pick which one to try."

"Me? Why? I don't know anything about this." I pushed the map back at her and shook my head.

"Andi, you have to decide. It doesn't take any special skill, but I can't be responsible for this one. You pick a direction, and that's the way we'll go."

“Why do I have to pick?” Clearly, Janet knew everything.

Janet took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Because … if I pick the wrong way, and we don’t find him, you will blame me. You pushed to come out here. Now be an adult and make the hard decisions.”

I was about to protest again when Hadley fell onto her side and started shaking and repeating 'the only way to go is home' over and over. I stood frozen, watching her, as if it were happening in slow motion.

"What the hell?" Janet jumped up and took Hadley's head into her lap so she didn't hurt herself.

"She's having a seizure. Andi, do you know if she has any medical problems?" Derek checked her wrists and neck for a med alert.

I responded in my head, but the words didn’t come. The sight of her there seemed to turn off my brain’s ability to make sense of the world. She was just right there next to me. She was fine.

Derek grabbed my arm and snapped me back to reality. “Andi …”

"I have no idea. She's not quite right in the head, but I have no idea if there's anything physically wrong with her." I stood there helpless, watching her shake and twitch. Injuries made sense. Zombie attacks, strangely enough, made sense. Watching one of my only friends laying on the ground spouting nonsense and shaking uncontrollably was beyond my comprehension.

After a few minutes, the shaking slowed, and her voice grew quieter until she stopped repeating the sentence altogether.
 

"What the hell was she saying that for? I've never seen anyone talk during a seizure." Janet pushed Hadley's hair off her face and moved her head over to rest on her backpack.

Derek squatted down and took Hadley's pulse. Her eyes were closed and she looked like she was sleeping. He was a paramedic before the outbreak, so he had some medical knowledge, which was better than the rest of us.

"Can't say I've ever seen anything quite like that before, but I will tell ya, she could be out a while." Derek stood up and took a look around to make sure we were still clear.

Janet got up and walked over to Derek. "What do you mean
a while
?"

"Hard to say. Could be an hour, could be twelve."

Janet's mouth dropped open. "Twelve? We can't just sit here for twelve hours and wait for her to wake up."

"I'm sorry, Janet, but there's not much we can do about it. She may not be in any shape to go anywhere when she does wake up."

I looked around at our surroundings. We were safe enough in the middle of the day, but at night, it wasn't going to be enough. "We can't stay here in the dark. What are we supposed to do?" I looked at Derek, hoping he had some kind of idea.

He looked at Janet and sighed. "There's probably only one real option. I have a walkie I can use to call back to Holden. He can get someone to come out and pick her up. Problem is, we're out too far for it to work. I'll have to walk back probably five miles."

"Okay, so we'll wait here with her, and you go see if you can get her a ride."

"Janet, I'm gonna have to bring her with me. I can't just send her back alone. She should have someone with some medical background with her, and you two can't stay here any longer. There's only so many hours of daylight left, and you have to get moving and find someplace better to spend the night." Derek took her hand, and I thought for a moment I saw worry in her eyes.

"How are you going to take her with you if we can't wake her?" I looked down at Hadley still in the same position Janet left her in.
 

"I'll carry her. She probably weighs ninety pounds soaking wet. I can manage one little girl." He opened his pack and pulled a few things out to shove into Janet's bag, then zipped it back up.
 

"Derek …” Janet took his hands and looked up at him.

He smiled down at her and kissed her forehead. "I'll come find you. I promise."
 

"So are you like, in love, with him?" I asked Janet as we watched Derek, with Hadley slung over his back, walk around a bend in the road and out of our sight.
 

"Mind your own business." She picked up her pack and turned to walk. "Which way?"

I was hoping after the whole seizure drama, Janet would have forgotten about making me choose. "Janet, I have no—"

"I'm not in the mood, Andi.” I could tell she was upset about Derek leaving and I couldn’t blame her for that. It wasn’t exactly my fault, but Hadley did follow us out here for me. So, by proxy, it sort of was my fault that he left and we were stuck out there alone.

I looked at our options. They all looked the same to me. I pointed to the left and shrugged. I had no clue which way Will would have gone, or if he even would have had a choice, so it was as good a direction as any. I tried not to think about the one in three chance that it was right. And that was assuming that Will stayed on a road and didn’t take off through the woods.

We walked down the road in silence. I was still tired, but Derek was right. We needed to find a place to settle in for the night, and with just the two of us, that was going to be harder, so it had to be somewhere decent. I could tell Janet wasn't happy about leaving without Derek and I didn't want to piss her off, but the boredom was killing me.

"So, Derek is kinda hot, huh?" I thought for sure she was going to tell me to shut up or maybe punch me in the arm again, but instead, she smiled.

"Hell yeah, he is." She tried to hide her smile, but it was no use. She was grinning like a schoolgirl.

"So exactly how long have you two been together?" I was excited for Janet. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was definitely her.

"It’s not like he asked me to go steady or anything. We've been getting closer for the last few weeks."

"Well with all the idiots on the base, he seems like an excellent choice. The way he looks at you is adorable."

Janet lowered her weapon halfway and relaxed her shoulders a little. "Talk about looks, I'm pretty sure Holden has a crush on you."

"You're crazy." I bumped her with my shoulder. “He said he knew Will from before the outbreak.”

“Yeah, they were friends, Will said.”

“Will doesn’t really talk to me about his life before this whole mess. I mean, a little about his family, but that’s it.”

“Andi, you have to understand, Will never really dealt with all his losses. For him, it’s easier to look forward, than back.”

“You say that like you understand that well.”

“Yeah, I guess I do. I’ve probably talked about my life a little more than he does, but yeah, it’s hard. I was happy back then. It was the kind of happiness that can’t ever happen in this world. Remembering that … it just makes everything seem … I don’t know … hopeless.”

“I found a letter my mom wrote me. She said that someday things were going to get better, and I’d be happy again. I wanted to believe her, especially after meeting Will. I wanted to think, maybe not soon, but someday, things would be normal again.”

Janet stopped and grabbed my arm. "You have to know that finding Will is a long shot. You might want to start preparing yourself for the reality that if we haven't found him yet, the chances aren't so good."

I pulled my arm away from her and glared at her. I knew the chances were slim, but hearing her say it made me angry. "Why are you even here, then?"
 

"I came for you. So you wouldn't be alone out here. I care about you too, you know." Tears welled up in Janet's eyes. "Anyway, I promised Will I'd protect you. I know how hard this is for you. I care about him too." She took a step toward me but didn't try to touch me again.
 

"I'm not an idiot, Janet. No matter how much you might think I am. I know what the chances are of finding him. I’m just not willing to ignore even the remote possibility that he might be okay.”

“It’s not just finding him that I'm talking about. I have no doubt that if we look long enough, we will find him. It's a matter of whether or not he's alive when we do that you need to consider. You need to think about what we need to do if we do find him like that."

Will was always worried about protecting me, always thinking I couldn't take care of myself. I had given him plenty of reasons to think that way. Janet taught me how to defend myself. She trained me in hand to hand combat, and taught me to be proficient in any number of weapons. I was never going to be a super soldier, but I had come further than I ever would have imagined just a month earlier. She did all that for Will in the beginning, but after a while, I knew she was doing it for me too.

It wasn't me who needed saving anymore. It was Will, and I wasn't about to give up on him.

“Don’t you think I realize that?” I fought down the lump forming in my throat. “If he is … like that … I can’t just leave him like that. He wouldn’t want to be … one of them.”

Janet pulled me against her chest and squeezed me tight. She leaned her face against my hair and wet drops fell against my scalp. "We'll find him."

Light was fading fast, and we hadn't found anywhere to spend the night. I was starting to wish I'd picked another route. Maybe then we would have found a place to rest for a while. Every step was an effort. I wanted to drop to the ground and give my aching feet a rest, but Janet probably would have just dragged me along by my arm if I did.

"What if we don't find a place?" I dragged my feet along the ground. Even my knees didn't want to bend.

"We'll find some place. Don't worry about that." She turned and looked me over. "You gonna make it? I think the last three flesh eaters we passed had more life in them than you."

"Hey, cut me some slack. A month ago I would have fallen down dead hours ago."

“Well, that's true. Good thing I've been whipping your ass into shape." She pretended to crack a whip in the air.

"Slave driver. Hey, how is Derek supposed to find us. Shouldn't we have told him which direction we were going?"