Forsaken World:Coming of Age (23 page)

Clipping his quiver to his belt, Lance pushed his AR under his arm and pulled out an arrow. Nocking it, Lance headed into the woods. He heard the stinker before he saw it and stopped. Lance cocked his head, watching the stinker fifty yards away almost walking like it was trying to sneak up on something. “Never did that before,” Lance mumbled then realized the stinker wasn’t making that much noise—well, for a stinker.

In front of the stinker, a doe stood up and bounced down the slope, and the stinker came to a stop. When it didn’t give chase, Lance’s jaw fell open, and he almost dropped the bow. “Not good,” he said, snapping his mouth closed.

The stinker just stayed in the same spot like a robot that someone had turned off. From the clothes, Lance knew the stinker used to work at Taco Bell, and from the looks of it, she liked to eat the food from there. Bringing the bow up, Lance moved closer until he was within range.

Pulling his bow back, Lance took his time as the stinker stayed frozen in place. When he released the arrow, she slowly turned. The arrow hit her in the temple, dropping her on the spot. Looking around, Lance didn’t notice any more and eased forward to get his arrow.

He was a few feet from the body when he stopped, only now smelling the stinker. “Hey, you take a bath?” he asked, kicking the body. The stinker looked up at the sky with an arrow sticking out of her head. Putting his foot on her face, Lance pulled out the arrow and looked at the area, nixing the idea of torching her. With so many low branches around, the spot could be seen from far off if the trees caught on fire.

Walking back, Lance tried to reason out what was going on. When he walked toward the buggy, Jennifer saw the look of deep thought. “What the hell has you thinking that hard?”

“I just saw a stinker try to sneak up on a doe,” he told her, putting his bow and quiver in the buggy. “When the doe ran off, the stinker didn’t follow it. It was like she knew she couldn’t catch it.”

“So?”

“Jennifer, they always chase. Well, not chase but head in the direction after food,” Lance said, grabbing the thermals and looking over at the ridge. “Another thing, she smelled like rotten eggs but not until I was right up on her, like feet away.”

Putting her trash in a bag, Jennifer threw Dino the rest of her food. “You know I was going to mention last week that I didn’t smell them until I got really close,” she said, looking around.

Lance thought about it and had to agree, but he never paid it much attention. “They’re still changing,” he said, scanning the ridge.

“They need to fall over dead and stop learning new fucking tricks,” Jennifer huffed, pulling her AR across her chest.

Lowering the binoculars, Lance nodded. “You got my vote on that.”

They waited for an hour with Lance sitting on the ground beside the buggy and Jennifer standing beside it, scanning around. “Our friend seems to have made it,” Lance suddenly said.

Spinning around, Jennifer lifted her rifle, looking at the ridge across from them almost a mile away. “You saw her?”

“Yeah, I can see her through the trees, jogging with two dogs along the ridge,” Lance said as the woman stopped where they drove up. He could tell she was looking at the ground, and the dogs were sniffing around. The woman looked up and continued down the ridge.

“Where is she?” Jennifer asked, lowering her rifle and moving to the buggy, grabbing the regular binoculars.

“You know where we drove up?”

“Yeah, past that small clearing where a finger runs up to the ridge crest.”

Hearing her use what Ian and he had taught her, Lance grinned. “Yeah, she just passed it, following our trail.”

Zooming in, Jennifer searched the ridgeline and saw something moving between the trees. When it stopped in a break between the trees, Jennifer grunted. “I think she stopped where we came down.”

“No, she found where we came down,” Lance said. “Bitch is good.”

“She got caught by a gang. She can’t be that good.”

“Think about that, Jennifer,” Lance said as the woman and dogs started down the slope. “She kept looking around for the better part of an hour and didn’t see anything. She walked past the RV. She had no reason to suspect people would jump out when she walked back. How many cars have we seen just abandoned on the road?”

“Okay,” Jennifer huffed. “Why did the gang just let her walk by?”

“I’m just guessing, but they saw her carrying that jug and knew she would have to sling her rifle to carry it back to where she came from.”

Jennifer looked over at Lance, following the woman down the slope in the thermal binoculars. “Your reasoning sometimes scares the shit out of me.”

“Now you know why I act paranoid sometimes,” Lance grinned. “She’s following our exact path. I know Ian and I have crossed that slope, never taking the same way twice, and she and those dogs are on our trail.”

“What are we going to do?” Jennifer said as fear gripped her heart. With her adrenaline gone, she didn’t want to hurt the woman. She knew the woman only wanted someplace safe.

Slowly, Lance put down his binoculars and thought for a minute. “She’ll find the cabin. I doubt she’ll make it to it with all the traps, but I really don’t want to hurt her,” he said, bringing the binoculars back up. “Let’s talk to her and see what she has to say.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, she’s not a threat,” Lance said.

“She has an AR.”

“That she has kept slung on her shoulder,” Lance said. “She knows we might be watching and doesn’t want to present a threat. With stinkers running around and after almost being raped, I would have my rifle in my hands, ready to use. Hospitality be damned.”

Jennifer watched the woman and two dogs she could now tell were German Shepherds run down the hill. “Lance, if she doesn’t stop following us and the gang catches her again, they can make her talk.”

“I know,” he said in a low voice.

When the woman reached the small valley floor, she stopped in the trees, looked around, then sprinted across and back into the trees, coming up the slope toward them. “How do you want to handle this?” Jennifer asked.

“Let’s see what she says then decide if we take her to the cabin.”

A shiver ran up Jennifer’s spine at the thought of letting anyone else near the cabin but realized it was bound to happen sooner or later. “At least it’s a girl,” Jennifer said. “I don’t like the idea of bringing men to the cabin.”

Fighting a wave of nausea, Lance didn’t have the heart to tell Jennifer there were women at the scene he and Ian had watched cheering men on and even participating. He understood her reason though; men posed more of a physical danger. Getting up, Lance put the binoculars in the buggy and pulled his AR across his chest. “Stay on that side of the buggy, and keep your rifle in the low ready position.” Taking a deep breath, Jennifer patted her leg, and Dino moseyed over and sat down beside her.

It took a half hour for the woman to reach the clearing. When she saw them on the other side, she raised her hands. “I swear, I’m not a threat, but please let me talk,” she called out in a low voice.

“You can put your hands down. I know you’re tired,” Lance said, and the woman gave a sigh of relief and moved over to them. “Just don’t make sudden moves, and just to let you know, Dino can kill both your dogs before they attack. He’s been trained.”

“Judy, George, heel,” the woman said, and the dogs moved over to her and sat on either side of her, panting. “I’m not stupid enough to challenge a full-grown Mastiff even with two German Shepherds.”

Tilting his head, Lance smiled. “Just wanted to get it out in the open, you wanted to talk to us?”

“Yes, my name is Lilly. Can I please come with you? I can work and know how to shoot. I was two months shy of being a veterinarian before the infection hit. I can help your group,” she said with an almost pleading look. “Can I talk to your parents to see if I can join?”

“Why do you want to join us? You don’t know anything about us,” Lance said, watching her face.

Lilly’s eyes grew misty. “You saved me and didn’t ask for anything. You’re teenagers, and you did that. I know if the adults in your group taught you that, I don’t have to worry about my safety.”

Feeling very sorry for Lilly, Lance swallowed the lump in his throat and dropped his hands off his rifle. “Do me a favor, and lay your rifle on the ground at your feet, and if you have a pistol, place it there too,” he said, walking around the buggy to Jennifer. “I need to talk to my partner, and it would make us feel better knowing we didn’t have to watch you.” Lilly nodded and put her rifle on the ground then pulled out two pistols, placing them beside her AR.

When Lance was beside her, Jennifer whispered but didn’t look away from the woman. “Lance, we can’t bring someone back without talking it over with everyone. That’s the rules.”

Looking at Jennifer, Lance smiled, seeing she was staring at the woman. “I know, but it’s not like we can leave her here, drive back, talk to them, then come back and get her. Stinkers are around and will be coming to that one I just killed.”

“Okay, we blindfold her at the very least,” Jennifer said, finally looking away from Lilly and up at Lance’s face.

A grin split Lance’s face. “She followed us this far; she wouldn’t have trouble finding the cabin.”

“You’re right, but she won’t know how to get through the field of traps,” Jennifer snapped quietly.

“Good girl,” Lance said, patting her arm. “You’re thinking out past the moment.”

“Hell, I have the best two teachers for that,” she said as she looked over at Lilly, who had her hands clasped together at her waist, staring at them with hope on her face.

“Come on,” Lance said, turning around and walking toward Lilly. “Lilly, I’m Lance, and my partner here is Jennifer. We’ve talked it over and will take you to our group but with conditions.”

“Oh thank you,” she said, dropping to her knees with tears running down her face. For the first time, Lance really looked at her. Lilly was filthy as hell. And then he smelled her and thought she could give a stinker a run for their money on BO. She had black hair past her shoulders, and what wasn’t soaked in sweat was sticking out with leaves and dirt caught in it.

“You can keep your weapons, but you ride up front with me and will wear a blindfold. Our area is surrounded by deterrents, and we don’t want you to know how we get in. You will have to be voted in for a trial period, and if not, you will have to leave. Now, if that happens and any scouts see you, they will shoot first. If accepted for a trial period, you have to prove your worth, and if not, you’ll be asked to leave, and the same thing goes: If you’re seen, you’ll be shot.”

“Lance,” Lilly said, still kneeling. “I grew up on a ranch. I’ll work; I promise you. I’ll do whatever your group needs me to do. What you saw today wasn’t the first time someone’s tried to rape me, but I know without your help that this time, they would’ve succeeded.”

Looking at the two dogs beside her, Lance looked at Lilly’s face. “Just why in the hell did you go out without your dogs? They would’ve smelled that gang.”

Reaching up with both arms, Lilly put them over the dogs. “When an infected gets too close, they attack no matter what I tell them. They’re young, and I’m working on that.”

“Well, I hate to tell you, that’s a good thing,” Lance said, holding out a hand to help Lilly up.

“Not when you’re hiding, it’s not,” Lilly said, grabbing his gloved hand, and Lance pulled her up. “I’m sure you know if you stay out of sight and don’t move, the infected will pass you by. Judy and George haven’t grasped that concept yet. When I make a short run, I leave them at camp so if I see infected, I can hide. When I’m moving, we just run away, or if it’s only one or two, we kill them.”

Lance looked at the buggy with the netting over it. “Yeah, we learned that, but it seems the stinkers are getting smarter.”

Lilly forced a chuckle. “You think?” she said, throwing up her hands. “I had one open a car door on me two days ago. How he knew I was in there under that blanket, I’ll never know.”

“Opened a car door?” Jennifer gasped.

“Yeah, scared the holy hell out of me,” Lilly said, petting one of the dogs. “George knocked him down so Judy and I could get out, then we killed it and a few others.” She looked up at them. “Stinkers?”

“Infected,” Lance said.

“I trust you’ve noticed they aren’t putting out as much hydrogen sulfide now,” Lilly said, and Lance’s eyes grew wide. “I started noticing it a few weeks ago. When you kill them, they still put out a bunch but not when they are moving around—alive if you want to call them that.”

“You seem to know something about it,” Lance said, watching her face intently.

“Hell, I should. I was at school when it was turned into a research center when all this started. We even got samples from the meteorite. I wasn’t in on that, but after the shit hit the proverbial fan, I was brought in since I know my way around a lab.”

“Get your weapons, and sit up front with me,” Lance said, turning around. “We need to talk to the group.”

With tears of joy streaming out of her eyes just for the chance to stay with a group, Lilly grabbed her weapons and put them in the back of the buggy. When she sat down in the front seat, Jennifer leaned over. “I’m just blindfolding you,” she said, taking out her shemagh, and wrapped it around Lilly’s eyes, tying it behind her head.