Chasing Colorado: (The Zombie Zovels #2) (21 page)

“Shayleigh, come here.” he called the wolf and it trotted past me without a second thought and went over to his feet, and sat down beside the black wolf.

The man had a long spear in one hand, a large container in the other, and a bag slung over his shoulder.

I slowly climbed to my feet and I watched as his eyes traveled the length of my body.

“You're hurt.” He pointed at my arms with his spear.

“Um, no, I mean, yes I was, but I'm okay now.” Okay? I was so not okay, I was infected but I wasn't about to tell him that, he might feed me to his pet wolves. I was just glad I hadn't removed my bite mark dressing.

“Are these your
wolves
?” I said.

“Yes, they're my wolves.” he answered.

Wolves? It was a clever idea. Tame a few wolves and use them as guard dogs.

I didn't know what to do. Where was Drew? I had no idea who this guy was or what he was capable of, I couldn't even run away from him if I needed to as his wolves would catch me in seconds.

“You are not alone,” he said, it wasn't a question.

“Um..”

“Your friend is just over that ridge.” He pointed with his spear again.

“Oh,” I said, not sure what else to say.

“My name is Anton, and these are my wolves, Shayleigh,” he gestured to the wolf that had been stalking me. “Diego,” he looked down at the black wolf. “And Krisalo.” he said, looking to his other side at the pure white wolf.

“I'm Alex.”

“Where are you traveling to, Alex?” he asked.

“Colorado.”

He nodded and looked in the direction of Colorado.

“What are you doing in the desert?” I asked.

He looked back at me and answered, “I live here, I find it is safer in the desert. The heat kills
them
off.”

I nodded. Good to know. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Drew just coming over the ridge. He spotted us and quickly dropped the firewood in his hands and re-positioned his crossbow in front of him.

Anton watched with cautious eyes as I tiptoed out of the water and waited for Drew to reach us. Drew looked back and forth between Anton and I as he crept closer.

“Alex, you okay?” he asked.

“I'm fine. This is Anton, and his pet wolves.”
Pet wolves
? What else was I supposed to say?

Once Drew had raked his eyes over me to make sure I was okay he looked back at Anton.

“Hello.” Anton greeted him.

“Hey,” Drew said in a gruff voice, it was one I recognized when he didn't want to talk his voice would drop a few notches lower.

“Uh, this is Drew.” I said making the introductions, seeing as Drew didn't want to tell Anton his name.

I realized my T-shirt was sticking to my skin and my large, padded dressing underneath was visible so I faced Anton and put my hand sort of on my hip to block the view.

Anton nodded, and I could feel Drew's eyes on me again. I looked sideways at him and saw him eyeing my arms without the bandages on. But my arms just looked like I had been in an accident, the old cuts weren't in the shape of teeth marks or fingernail scratches, he was probably worried what Anton would make of my arms, though. But they didn't look that bad, my hands looked worse.

“Where are your things?” Anton asked.

Drew and I looked at each other, it was like we'd both forgotten that we didn't own anything else.

I shrugged and answered, “We got swamped one night and lost all our stuff.”

“Night is approaching.” Anton said, filling the large container with water that he had been carrying. “Come, come,” he said, turning his back on us.

He whistled and the three wolves followed him like well-trained dogs.

“Um...?” I turned to Drew.

“Where did he come from?” Drew asked in a hushed tone.

“I don't know, he just appeared with his wolves. Should we go with him?”

I waited for Drew to decide, watching the back of Anton walking away. He finally turned to me and said, “Yes, go get your stuff.”

I dashed across the stream, grabbed my things and ran back across the stream again. I quickly shoved my feet into my boots and tucked my socks into my hoodie pocket, and tied my hoodie around my waist to cover my bite at the back, and held onto my knife.

“Are we safe with him?” I said.

“I don't see why not, what else would he want from us? We have nothing on us, not unless he wants my bow and your knife.”

We picked up speed and followed Anton, still keeping a good distance between us.

“What if he wants to feed us to his wolves?” I whispered afraid Anton would hear me.

Drew looked at me and frowned, I don't think that idea had crossed his mind.

“What's he doing out here anyway?” Drew said, looking over at me.

“He said he lives out here, the heat kills the deadbies or something like that.”

“That would explain why we haven't seen any in days.”

I watched the wolves up ahead, they chased each other playfully and raced around Anton in a circle, like excited puppies. Anton climbed the rocky ridges using his spear as a walking stick, every so often he would look back at us.

“You don't think this is some kind of trap, do you?”

“You're not filling me with confidence here, Alex.”

“Sorry, but you know as well as I do we shouldn't trust anyone.”

“Yes normally, but what would he gain from killing us? We have nothing!”

“A pair of boots.” I said, looking down at Drew's boots. “He looks the same size as you.”

“I doubt he wants my disgusting, deadbie bloodstained boots.”

I shrugged. “Maybe he really is a good person then.”

“Hmm... we'll see. Keep your eyes peeled, there could be others hiding in the rocks.”

We trailed behind Anton for a good thirty minutes, he was quick on his feet even for Drew to keep up. In front, there was a rock wall that went both ways as far as the eyes could see. At the bottom Anton had set up a camp, there was a little tent tucked up against the rock, no bigger than a two person tent. There was also a waterproof tarpaulin sheet attached to the rock wall and held up by tall sticks, underneath it there was a crate full of books and magazines, and a fold out green chair, and a box which had been turned into a table, on top there was a stack of Dominoes and a book left open face down. Outside the tent area, there was a fire pit with a hanging pot above it and a double seat which looked like it had come from a minivan was set up in front of it. Anton had obviously been here for some time to collect all these things and bring them back here.

Anton gestured to the minivan seats and I slowly made my way over to them and plopped down, Drew stayed standing.

“Are you hungry?” Anton asked but before I could answer he disappeared inside the tent, and as he lifted the door to the tent I spotted clothes in piles, empty bottles, and boxes.

I don't think he used the tent for sleeping in, I think it was more of a storage area. 

Two of the wolves wandered around and the one that had been seconds away from pouncing on me, Shayleigh, settled down on a blanket under the tarpaulin. Anton reemerged with a tin of baked beans and a large bag of cheese and onion flavored chips. He couldn't be all that evil if he was offering us dinner. He walked over to me and handed me the chips, I could sense Drew watching his every move.

“Err... thank you.” I said, surprised at the nice gesture.

Anton didn't know us, he didn't have to share his food with us.

“It's all I can offer you I'm afraid. It's leftover, I don't like baked beans or cheese and onion flavor chips.”

“No, this is...this is great.”

Anton smiled and then he looked over at Drew.

“There's no need to worry, the wolves will protect us here.”

Drew didn't seem to hear Anton and kept his position on guard. I opened the bag of chips and grabbed a handful and filled my mouth, I must have looked like a right pig but I hadn't eaten anything with a barcode on for days.

“Is this okay?” Anton asked, holding up the tin of beans.

I nodded, still trying to chew down a mouthful.

“I normally live off the land, these will just go to waste.”

“Well, I love anything that doesn't have a tail.” I joked, looking sideways at Drew.

“No re
ptiles tonight.” I smiled at him.
Yay!

“You said they didn't taste that bad.” I heard Drew mumble with his back to us.

“Nope, still gross.” I said to myself.

Drew finally relaxed a fraction and sat down on a rock facing us, but not too close to us.

I followed Anton over to the fire and watched him as he got it going. He lifted out the green fold out chair for me to sit on and pulled a crate over for himself to sit on. Drew sat by himself on his loner rock.

“The wolves can sense them, we are perfectly safe.” Anton said, looking at Drew again, trying to reassure him.

Drew had angled himself so he could watch the desert, and watch the sun go down. He liked doing that, the last few nights he'd done the same, we would sit in silence watching the sunset. I don't think he felt Anton was a threat otherwise he wouldn't be sitting all the way over there on his own.

“Where are you from?” Anton asked.

“Washington.” I replied and glanced at Drew.

Drew was chewing on something which he spat on the ground.

Gross!

“He's from Louisiana.” I answered for Drew seeing as he didn't want to join in the conversation.

“And what takes you to Colorado?”

“Oh, um...” I said, pausing to think of something to say. “Family.” I finally came out with.

It wasn't exactly true but it wasn't a lie either. We were looking for Nick, who happened to be Lane's older brother, and I considered Lane my family at this point so that sort of made Nick my family... sort of...right?

“Family?” Anton queried.

“My brother, he's in Argon, or he was the last time we had contact.”

I looked back at Drew again, he was still holding his crossbow across his lap and watching the horizon.

“Ah, I see. But how did you two meet? Are you family?”

“Oh, no, Drew's my
friend
. We met on the road.”

Why did it feel so weird to call Drew my friend? Something didn't sit well when I said it, and I caught Drew's attention when I said his name because he was now staring at me.

“Where are you from?” I asked trying to keep the conversation going. Anton had food and supplies and if we played our cards right, I'm sure he would send us on our way with a few extra items as we had
nothing
.

“Montana.” Anton replied.

“And what's with the wolves?”

Anton smiled, poking the fire. “I raised them from pups.”

“You found them?”

“No, I used to work as a dog trainer a
long
time ago, but I started working on a ranch that raised and bred wolves and I helped to train them. These three were born on the ranch, and once the world went all apocalyptic and shit got crazy, I went back up there to check on the people that ran the ranch, but they were gone and a lot of the wolves had escaped, but these three had stayed behind, and they haven't wanted to leave me since. I stayed on the ranch with the wolves, but then after a month, more and more of
them
started to appear, the wolves never hesitated and I realized if I wanted to survive I would need them. We stayed at the ranch until the town was flooded with them and it was time to leave. I heard someone on one of the radio channels say those things can't swim, climb, and they can't survive extreme temperatures as they don't hydrate themselves, so next stop was the desert and I haven't wanted to leave since.”

“The heat agrees with you then?” I said, touching the top of my arm just below the T-shirt sleeve which was warm to the touch from sunburn.

“Where did you get all the stuff?” I asked, looking around at the small camp.

“I walk the roads for anything useful, vehicles and whatever I can find. I usually walk for two or three days and then return, no one ever find this place, I haven't seen anyone else out here before, not walking the desert that is.”

“Drew likes to stay off the roads for safety reasons.”

“Yes, that is wise, there are dangerous people on the roads. I was just getting back from a walk when I saw you, paddling.” He smiled.

“I was hot, I was trying to cool off. I didn't know anyone was watching me... Thank you, for this.”

“No, thank you, I have not had any human company for some time.”

“You are very trusting, Anton.”

“I must confess, I was watching you two for some time in the desert, I saw you had no bags or much else other than your weapons.” he said with a friendly smile.

“So you took pity on us?”

“I wanted to help, you looked like you could do with a helping hand.” he said, looking down at my poorly hands.