Deathly Contagious (40 page)

“You would have made a good detective,” Brock told me. “You see things other people don’t.”

“Thanks. I wanted to be an actress, though. It’s a selfish thing to want to be, I realize now.” Even if all the zombies were killed tomorrow and the world went back to being how it was, I would never desire to be an actress again. There was no way I could sit idly by while horrible things happened. I never thought I could make a difference in this world until now.

Maybe I wasn’t. Maybe taking out a dozen zombies here and there wouldn’t even put a notch in the numbers. Our food supply was bound to run low, our livestock was a calling card for zombies, and our safe space was so limited it was pointless to even try and repopulate the earth. Maybe searching and saving people was a total moot point since we were all damned to die in the end.

But maybe it wasn’t.

Hayden put the truck in park, cut the engine and reached behind him to retrieve his gun from the back seat. Rider pulled himself up through the sunroof in the Range Rover and stood on its roof, looking around for zombies.

“Clear, from what I can see,” he told us and hopped off the SUV. Armed, the six of us walked around the Impala. Wade opened the driver’s door.

“No keys,” he informed us after he searched. “But look.” He pointed to the back. “Water bottles, a bag of peanuts and some cans of food. I’d guess someone was coming back.”

“Wait?” Ivan suggested.

Hayden shook his head. “That could take too long. We should try and find them.”

“How?” Rider asked, looking around. “They could be anywhere.”

There was about twenty yards of overgrown grass and weeds off the road that melted into a forest. My eyes scanned the grass. Once I saw what I was looking for I said, “I can track them.”

“Really?” Wade asked incredulously.

“Yea. It’s not any different than tracking animals. Sometimes it’s easier; people are so obvious.”

“Sweet.” He tipped his head slightly. “How do you know how to do that?”

“I’ve been hunting with my grandpa since I was seven. I picked up a few things,” I explained.

“Can you teach me?” he asked almost shyly.

“I can try,” I promised. I went back to the truck and pulled out a backpack to load up with supplies.

“Wait,” Brock said. “Our cars. And the food.” He motioned to the bed of the truck. “What if they come back and we’re not here?”

“We can’t leave it,” Hayden stated. For a split second I thought he might order us to go straight home. “Three stay here and guard it and three go.” Already deciding he was coming with me, Hayden took the keys to his truck from his pocket and held them up. “Who else is going?”

“I’ll go,” Wade said quickly.

Hayden tossed his keys to Brock. “Leave if need be but double back and meet us half a mile down the road. I’ll keep in contact,” he said and patted the walkie talkie.

Ivan nodded. “Be careful.”

“We’ll be fine,” Wade said and patted his machine gun. “If all else fails we’ll climb a tree,” he said and winked at me.

Ivan half smiled. “Remember the range isn’t very far.”

Hayden nodded. “I’ll check to make sure we don’t get past the point without letting you know. We’re wasting time though, let’s go.”

Leading the way, I walked followed the trail of bent grass and weeds.

“What range are you talking about?” I asked as I slapped a mosquito off the back of my neck.

“The walkie talkies,” Hayden clarified. “After three miles the signal is lost.”

“Really?” I was surprised. “I thought you guys had high tech military walkie talkies.”

“We do,” Wade huffed. “But they don’t work.”

“Really?” I asked again.

“Yea. They used satellite signals,” Rider continued explaining. “The ones we have now use radio waves.”

“Why don’t the satellite signals work?” I asked.

“Wouldn’t I like to know,” Wade said with a sigh.

“Eventually they’d stop working,” I thought out loud. “Since there’s no one left to fix them. But that shouldn’t have happened already.” I shook my head. “Like a week after the virus hit we found out that the GPS in the Range Rover didn’t work. It just doesn’t make sense.” I turned around just in time to see Hayden’s muscles stiffen. He cast his eyes down from mine.

I turned back around and focused on the weeds. With some of them still dead and dry from the winter, it was easy to see where these people had gone.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Wade agreed. “But if you think about the panic the initial outbreak caused it’s easy to imagine someone freaking out and hitting the power button, so to speak.”

“Right,” I spoke but wasn’t sold on the idea. Thinking about it made a knot form in my stomach. I couldn’t put the puzzle together without all the pieces. I shook my head again, telling myself it wasn’t worth it to worry about…yet.

The grass gave way to the leaf covered forest floor. The trees were sparse at first but quickly became dense, no doubt blocking us from the others’ view.

“I get the bent grass, but now what are you looking for?” Wade asked me.

“Foot traffic. Footprints are obvious but not always there so you have to look for other things, like this,” I said and knelt down, pointing to the disturbance in the dead leaves. “See how they’re all moved around?  We’re lucky; whoever walked through here made zero attempts to be discreet.”

“I never would have noticed that,” Wade admitted.

“You don’t notice stuff like this,” I informed him. “Unless you are looking. The ground is soft here and probably even softer deeper in the woods. You can see the boot print over there.”

Hayden and Wade nodded. “And there,” Hayden pointed out.

“Yea,” I said. “It looks like there were three people walking through here, and one of them was big.”

“How can you tell?”

I took a few steps forward until I found a clearer print. “This imprint is deeper than the others. The more you weigh, the more you sink into the mud.”

“It makes so much sense I feel dumb for not picking up on it,” Hayden laughed.

“Really,” I said again. “It’s easy not to notice stuff like this unless you are looking. And who walks with their eyes on the ground?”

“Speaking of,” Hayden said and paused. “Riss, you track. Wade and I should keep an eye and ear out for zombies.”

“Good idea,” I agreed.

 We walked a few yards before I stopped. “Seriously?” I sighed and stared at the patch of pricker bushes in front of me.

“What?” Hayden and Wade asked in unison.

“Dumbasses walked straight through those,” I told them, motioning to the thorny vines. “Stay here while I go around. I’ll use you as a visual to pick up the trail again.”

I picked my way over a rotting log, wondering why the hell those people would choose to walk through the prickers. Even in jeans, they poked into your skin, causing little red scratches that burned and itched.

“Oh,” I said aloud as soon as I got in front of the bushes. “There’s a path,” I called over my shoulder. If I had bothered to look up and out every now and then I would have noticed it. Once the boys joined me I asked, “Ok, without looking at the ground, can you tell which way they went?”

“That way,” Hayden said, pointing to our right.

“Why?” I quizzed.

“It seems right.”

I smiled. “You’re actually right. Look.” I took a few paces in that direction and touched an overhanging branch. “People have the tendency to snap off anything that is in their way.” I put my fingers around the broken twig. “You can tell it’s freshly broken by looking at where the branch is broken. See how it’s fresh?”

Hayden’s fingers graced mine as he felt the inside of the break. “Better than bread crumbs, right?” he asked.

“Right,” I answered with a smile. We continued hiking the path following the obvious trail. At one point whoever we were tracking stopped for a snack; peanut shells littered the ground. Certain that the people stuck to the already made trail, I occasionally glanced down to make sure we were still hot on their tracks. Distracted by the distant babbling of a stream, I looked around the woods for it.

Out of the corner of my eye, it caught my attention. I stopped so suddenly that Hayden walked into me.  His hand flew around my arm to keep me from falling.

“What is it?” he asked his voice almost shaky. He let go of me and raised his gun.

At a temporary loss for words, I pointed to the trampled ground and pulled an arrow from my quiver, expecting the worst.

Chapter 17

“Holy shit,” Wade swore.

I only nodded in agreement as my eyes darted around the woods.  Why did the birds have to be so fucking loud? My eyes darted back to the tracks that had been left by zombies. If the scuffled leaves weren’t obvious enough of the staggering dead, then the bits of flesh scraped off on tree bark were a big giveaway.

“They went that way,” I whispered, pointing more or less toward the highway.

“Recently?” Hayden asked, his hand already grabbing the walkie talkie.

There was a puddle inside one of the trenches left by a dragged foot. “I don’t think so.” I hurried over to a tree and poked at a chunk of flesh with my fingernail. It was crusty. “At least a day or two ago.” I shook my head. “That doesn’t mean they’re not near.” I let out a breath of relief and stuck the arrow back in the quiver, hoping it wasn’t a premature move.

“And our civilians?” Wade asked.

“They walked right over the tracks. I doubt they even noticed.”

Wade shook his head in disbelief. “And they say ignorance is bliss.”

Hayden put his hand on the small of my back. “Keep tracking,” he told me. “We’ll keep an eye out. I want to find these people as fast as we can and get out of here.”

I flicked another mosquito off my arm. “I wish we had bug spray,” I complained and picked up the trail again. The mosquitoes got worse the closer we got to the water, which turned out to be a shallow creek. The muddy water and low walls made me think it was a run off creek filled with rain water.

We kept walking, Hayden periodically checked in with Ivan to see how far we’d wandered. With no more signs of zombies, I was able to relax—only just a little—and nearly enjoy the walk through the woods.

That is until I saw something that made me stop dead in my tracks again. Hayden and Wade sprang into position. I waved my hand at them.

“No zombies,” I said breathlessly, my eyes scanning a huge tree off the trail.

“Then what is it?” Hayden asked, sounding annoyed.

“I’ve been here before,” I said hoarsely. I forced my eyes off of the Eastern Cottonwood tree.

“Huh?” Hayden questioned.

I shook my head. I didn’t know why it shocked me so much. “I’ve been here before,” I repeated.

“Like in a dream?” Wade asked seriously. He pushed his eyebrows together and stared at me.

“No,” I spat. “Like on vacation. This is a park. Alum State Park.”

“Ok,” Wade said not believing me at all.

“No, really!” With both hands, I motioned to the tree. “This tree isn’t something you forget. I’m telling you, I’ve been here before.” I spun around to look at Hayden. “I used to live in Ohio, remember?”

He pulled his shoulders back and looked at the tree. “I remember.” His eyes scanned the tree before locking with mine. “You sure you’ve been here?”

“Yes,” I promised. “If we keep going north, we’ll come to a campground.”

“Let’s go to it,” he said with a smile. He tried to relay the message to Ivan but we were too far. Ordering Wade and me to say put, he set down his backpack full of supplies and jogged back down the trail until he was close enough to reach Ivan. I hated every minute of him being out of my sight.

“He’ll be fine,” Wade said, playfully punching my arm.

“I’m not worried,” I lied.

“Bullshit. You
look
worried.”

I sighed. “Ok, I am. I don’t like not knowing. Anything could happen. Zombies or even falling and twisting an ankle. And I’d never know.”

“So you think you can keep bad things from happening?”

“Of course not. I wish I could, but I know I can’t. If I’m with him—or anyone else for that matter—at least I know what’s going on.”

Wade gave me a teasing smile. “You two are good together.”

I tried to force myself not to blush; I failed. “Thanks.” I hit another mosquito. Even as hot was it was, I unrolled the sleeves to the blue plaid button up shirt I had on over a pink tank top. Suddenly feeling light headed, I removed my backpack and sat on the damp ground. I took a water bottle from my bag and drank half of it thinking I’d feel better after I rehydrated.

I concentrated on what was around me; the huge tree, the leaves, forest floor greenery, birds, and the bright sunlight that filtered through the trees and checkered the path. Finally we heard Hayden’s footfalls.

“All good,” he told us and let out a deep breath. “It’s fucking hot,” he panted. “As much as we bitched about the cold, I’d rather run in it than run in the heat.”

I unzipped Hayden’s bag and tossed him a water bottle. While he drank it I stood up, my vision clouding with black fuzzy spots. The next thing I knew Wade put his arms around me.

“Riss?” he asked, steadying me. Hayden recapped his water and rushed over.

I shook my head. “Stood up too fast, I suppose.” I took a deep breath and smiled. “Let’s go.”

“We can stay a while,” Wade suggested, still concerned.

“I’m fine,” I protested. “Don’t tell me you’ve never had that happen.”

“Only when I’m sick,” he said quietly. His eyes left mine and found Hayden’s, thinking Hayden would give me the order to stop and rest. I brushed mud off my ass and picked up my bag.

“Let’s go,” I said with too much pep.

“Orissa,” Hayden said gently. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“If I wasn’t I’d tell you. I’m fine now.”

Wade laughed. “I told you that you were stressing,” he said to me.

“Shut up,” I shot back. It was apparent Hayden felt left out of the conversation.

“She wants to put a leash on you,” Wade said to Hayden.

“Yes,” I agreed. “A leather leash and handcuffs so I can make you my bitch,” I joked. “Seriously, guys, I’m fine now.”