Life After The Undead (Book 2): Death to the Undead (17 page)

I
didn’t sleep. I
was tired, but
I
had to know what
happened
to
Liet.
I
sat by
the
fire,
staring
into the
darkness,
waiting
for them to
come
back.
It
was
going
to
be
at
any
moment.
He
didn’t
get
far,
he
couldn’t.
The
sleeping
pills
slowed
him down.

The
group
didn’t
return
until day
break.
I
stood and
waited
for
Quinn to approach. His
face
was
gray,
his
eyes
pink
from
lack
of sleep. His mouth
turned
down in a
frown,
his
shoulders
slumped
forward. Pam
walked
behind
him. She
didn’t
look
much
better.
They
plopped
on the
ground
in
front
of
me.
Tanya
threw some
more
logs
onto the
fire.
I
moved in
front
of Quinn.
Kneeling
in
front
of him,
I
placed
my
hand
on his
knee.

“What
happened?
Did
you
get
him?”

He
clenched
his
jaw.
“No.
He’s
gone.”

I
swallowed
thickly.
It
felt like
someone punched
me
in the
stomach.
I
couldn’t
catch
my
breath.
I
fell
onto
my
butt
and
placed
a
hand
on
my
forehead.
How
could he
have
gotten
away?
We
took so many
precautions.
It
was
my
worst
nightmare.
The
only
thing
I
could
hope
for was
that the
zombies
would
take
care
of
him.
He
was
unarmed,
and
we
were a
long
way
from
civilization. I
knew
it
was
desperate,
I
knew
Liet
was
a
survivor
and
would probably
make
it
through,
but
I
had to
tell
myself
something.

“We’ve
posted
guards,”
Pam
explained.
“And
we’ll
fortify
the
camp
while
you’re
gone.
He
won’t be
able to
come
back
around
here without
someone knowing.”
She
leaned
forward
and
lowered
her
voice.
“Just so
you
know,
if he
does
come
back
around here,
I’m
not taking
him
alive.
And
I
doubt
anyone
else
is
going
to
either.”

I
nodded.
It
had to be
done.
No one
could
fault
them
for
thinking
like
that. Or blame
them if they
went
through
with it. We
kept
him
alive as
a prisoner so the
history
books would portray
us as being
fair
and
perfect
role
models for
democracy.
All bets
went
out the
window
after
his
escape.
He
was
dangerous,
and
no one
knew
what
he
was
going
to do. I
glanced
at
Quinn.
If
anyone
was
going
to have
any
issues, it
was
him. He
just looked
at
Pam, quickly
nodded
his
head,
then
went
back
to
staring
at
the
fire.

“Do
you
think
he’ll
come
back?”
Tanya
asked.

We
all
looked
at
her.

“It’s
hard
to say,”
Pam
answered. “If
Liet
thinks
he
can
benefit in some
way
by
coming
back, he
will.
It’s
also
possible
he’ll
try
to
make
it to
Florida. Inform
them
of
our
plans
and
get
back
up to wipe us
off
the
planet. He
knows
where
we
are.”

Tanya’s
face
paled. “But
that will take
him a
while,
right?
I
mean,
he
doesn’t
have
a
car. And
there are
zombies out
there.
He
could
get
killed.”

Quinn
sighed,
drawing
our
attention
to him.
“He
could
die
and
he
could
make
it to
Florida.”
He
folded
his
arms
over
his
chest.
“Liet’s
smart
enough
to
know how
to avoid danger. He’s
also
smart
enough
to
know he
needs
weapons,
so
he’ll
find the
closest
town he
can.
We
have
to
assume
the
worst.”

Tanya
pointed
toward the
woods.
“Then,
you
have
to
find him.
You
have
to hunt him down like a
dog
and
kill
him.”

“That’s
what
he’s counting
on,”
I
spoke
softly.

Tanya
stared
at
me,
wide
eyed. “What
do
you
mean?”

“He
wants us to
go
after
him.
That
gives
him time to
head
to
Florida,
and
it takes us away
from
planning
the
attack.
If
we’re
busy
looking
for
him, we
can’t
cause
any
more
damage.”

She
scrunched
up her nose, stood up,
and
paced.
“You
should have
killed
him
when
you
had
the
chance.
Then,
none
of this would
have happened.”

“Is
that
what
you
would
have
done?”
Quinn’s
voice
was
low,
almost
inaudible.

Tanya
stopped
moving
and
stared
at
him over
the
flames. “That
is exactly
what
I
would have
done.”
She
threw
her
arms
out to the
side,
gesturing
to the
camp.
“Look
how many
people
you
just put in
danger.”

“And
what
if we
needed
information
from
him? What if he
had
some
great
secret
that would help
us
take
The
Families
down?”

She
huffed. “Like he’d
give it to
you.”

Quinn
stared
at
her
for
a
moment.
A
hard
stare.
His
jaw
muscles
tightened.
“He
definitely
wouldn’t
be
able
to
tell us if he
were
dead.”

She
huffed
again.
“If
he
were
dead,
your
problem
would be
solved.
All of
these people
would be
safe.”

“What
problem is
that,
Tanya?
Would the
zombies
be
taken
care
of?
Would
we
have
freed
the people
in
Florida?
If
you
ask
me,
you’re
prone
to
snap
decisions.
You
don’t
think about the
consequences.
That’s
why
you
were
so
quick
to blame
us
for
the
zombies
in the
back
of
the
truck
and
to
let
Bill
and
Kyle
get
arrested.
You
couldn’t
think up a lie to
protect
the
brothers? Did
you
ever
think
maybe
they
had
some
answers?”