Save Me (14 page)

Something about the way he looked at me made me suddenly shy. It didn't help that he took my hand into his and instead of shaking it like he did with Will, he lifted it to his mouth and kissed it softly. I could feel heat spread across my cheeks, into what I'm sure was a deep obvious blush. Janet, who had been taking another swig off her canteen, nearly choked on her water, ending up in a coughing fit. That of course, brought a smile to my face, childish or not. She deserved it.

"Lovely to meet you, Andi," he said with a slight Irish accent.

I stood there looking at him dumbly, words escaping me. Will walked over, pulled my hand from Dan's, and glared at him possessively. What the hell? Dan smiled, looking from Will to me, and backed away, sitting down next to Janet who was still recovering from her coughing fit.

"Great to see you Janet. What's it been, three, four, months?" Dan draped his arm around Janet, planting a kiss on the side of her face.

What was it with this chick? Will glared at Dan, probably out of jealousy from the attention he was giving Janet.

"At least." Janet rested her head against Dan comfortably, ignoring Will's glare.

So much for staying alert in unsecure areas. I guess that only counted when it was me.

"Hey, wait a second," Dan looked up at Will like a light bulb went off. "This is the guy you were telling me about, right?"

Will's eyes narrowed. If I didn't know it was because of jealousy over his damn girlfriend, it would have been amusing.

"Yep, this is the one."

Will looked at Janet, confused.

"When I met Dan, I told him about our group. He was helping me look for you and Danielle," Janet explained.

"So you guys were together?" Will asked, no jealousy in his voice, strangely.

He almost sounded relieved.

"Yep, Janet and I had each other's back through more than a few hairy situations."

Dan put his arm around Janet and pulled her against his side.

"She's like the little sister I never had," Dan said smiling down at Janet.

Oh!

Sister. So, they weren't
together
, together. Okay. I looked over at Will, figuring that sister comment would make him more at ease but he was still giving Dan a narrow eyed glare.

"Well nice meeting you Dan. We better be on our way now. We have to hunt and it's getting late. Ready Janet?" Will picked up Janet's pack and handed it to her.

Janet just sat there staring at Will curiously, then looked over at me and back to Will, seeming to understand something I certainly wasn't privy to.

Still looking at Will, Janet asked smiling, "Why don't you join us, Dan?"

Now Will gave Janet the death glare. I looked over at Dan to see if he had any clue what was going on here. Dan just looked at me and shrugged.

"Uh, sure," Dan said, unsure what he was getting himself into.

"Great! We need to do some hunting then we can head back to the place we're staying for dinner." Janet hopped up and finally took her pack from Will.

"No need, I got a fox earlier. Should be enough for all of us," Dan said, walking over to me and extending a hand to help me to my feet. "Guess I'm coming to dinner."

Dan winked at me, catching Will's attention and resulting in another death glare. Dan laughed, then leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"I think your boyfriends jealous"

"He's not my..."

I looked over at Will, eyes narrowed, lips tight together, fists at his sides. He was jealous of Dan. I looked back at Dan who was now smiling. He could tell I was finally starting to piece it together. Will wasn't jealous over Dan and Janet. He was jealous over Dan's attention to me!

~Chapter Twelve~

Dan walked at a slow, leisurely pace, so I didn't have to jog to keep up. Janet and Will oddly enough slowed down as well, keeping pace with Dan and I. Will tried to insert himself between Dan and me as we walked, but Dan managed to block him each time. Janet was also not happy about the new arrangement, but I couldn't quite figure out why. She was the one who invited Dan back with us. Of course, no one felt the need to ask me if I minded. I mean it was only my house! Not that I would have said no. Dan seemed like a nice enough guy and Janet knew and trusted him. Janet certainly had her flaws, but I don't think she would hang around with a guy for a couple of months who would hurt her friends. Not that I was one of her friends, but I could tell she wanted Will to be safe. Dan had compared his relationship with Janet to being sisterly, so unless I was missing something, they weren't involved. Janet's issue with Dan being nice to me was a mystery. I thought about asking her what her problem was but I knew she would find a way to make me look immature or petty, regardless of what I said.

"So, Andi, How did you meet up with these two?" Dan purposely bumped my arm, getting my attention.

Clearly Dan didn't care about Janet's no 'chit chat' rule. Funny how she didn't make any sarcastic remarks about Dan talking. I explained how Will saved me from the group of flesh eaters back at the old animal clinic, not one of my finer moments, and how we met up with Janet.

"So then this is your home we are going to?"

Janet shot Will a funny look, like he had never mentioned that little piece of information.

"Yea, where I grew up."

Dan had a way of looking right at me as we spoke, like what I had to say was the most interesting thing he ever heard, making me feel a little self conscious. Janet sped up a few paces, tired of the chatting. Will followed along like her personal puppy dog.

"How old are you sweetheart?" he asked, an almost purring sound with an Irish accent that sent a shiver down my spine.

I was about to answer but thought about it for a moment. It was hard to keep track of the days. Back at the house, I had Dad's watch with the date on it, but normally I had no idea what the date was at any given time.

"You're not sure?"Dan chuckled.

"No, actually. Do you know the date?"

"I do. It's June first," he said, pulling up his sleeve and tapping a watch.

"Well, then I'm eighteen. I'll be nineteen in two days."

I knew my birthday was close but I didn't realize it was even June already. The weather was still cool, especially at night, so I figured it was still a few weeks away.

"Well then, happy birthday in advance."

"What about you?" It was impossible to make an accurate guess with that scruffy beard of his.

"Me? Oh, I'm way too old. I've recently turned the ripe old age of twenty-two."

Dan laughed, getting the attention of Will and Janet. Will had been turning around every few yards to check on us since Janet decided they should walk up ahead again. I would have guessed that he was older than Will, but again, I would have been wrong.

"Up ahead." Janet stopped us, motioning to a single flesh eater walking crookedly down the road ahead of us.

I could tell it was a teenage boy, a jock type with short brown hair. Most of the flesh was still intact on his face but missing from one arm, which hung lifeless at its side. There was something familiar about this one. Despite Janet's order to stay put, I walked up ahead to get a better look. Will tried to hold me back but Dan stopped him, following along with me. As we approached, it began growling deep in its throat, limping faster to get to us. The clothes were dirty and torn but still recognizable. His blue t-shirt, emblazoned with 'Titans' was clearly the one all the athletes in my high school walked around in. That wasn't just any Titans shirt though. It was one I knew well. It was one I saw many times, ripped along the collar in just the right place, just above the embroidered name.

"Zach," I whispered as the realization hit me, lifting my hand to my mouth. I could feel my legs tremble, threatening to give out beneath me. Dan wrapped his arm around me, holding me upright, and pulled my face into his chest, blocking out what I knew was about to happen. Zach was close, too close actually, but it was the last thing on my mind. I felt the arrow whiz by me just before Zach dropped to the ground. Dan held me a moment longer, then released me to fall at Zach's completely dead corpse.

I hadn't seen Zach since that day his sister attacked him. I don't know why it never occurred to me that he would turn and be out there somewhere. I guess I didn't want it to be real. I pushed it from my mind completely. I was grateful that Will had shot Zach rather than allowing Janet to go psycho with her knife on him. Maybe she just didn't want Dan to see how crazy she was. I wondered what I would have done if I had been alone when I came across Zach. Would I have stood there while he attacked me, like he had when he saw his sister? Or, would I have had it in me to kill him myself. I had to do a lot of difficult things since the outbreak but one thing I had been spared, was killing a friend or family member. I know that was why Dad had taken his own life, to spare me the trauma of being the one to finish him off. I didn't realize what a gift that was, until today. I felt my whole body begin to shake, as memories of my dead loved ones flooded my head.

Janet tried to protest about lingering at Zach's body. She wanted to move on, bitching about how unsafe it was to sit there in the open, crying over a dead zombie. I wanted to tell the cold-hearted bitch to shut the hell up, but Will told her flat out to shut her mouth and give me a few minutes. I stared down at Zach, trying to remember him as he was a year ago, or even before the outbreak. Back then, I was convinced that I was in love with him. I just knew that we would end up together, living happily ever after. After living with Zach in the basement, I realized how naive that was. The real Zach was nothing like the fantasy I had created about him, but he was a decent guy. Before the end, I was pretty sure that he and June had a thing going on. I wasn't heartbroken like I would have been if none of this had ever happened. None of it seemed to matter anymore. I hardly even thought about boys like that since the early days, until I met Will.

"Sweetheart," Dan said softly, squatting down, taking my trembling hands into his steady, larger ones. "What can I do?"

I don't know why, but the way he looked at me made me break down, losing control over the tears I had been fighting back. Dan pulled me close, cradling me against him as I sobbed into his massive chest. He held me, gently stroking my hair as I cried.

After I calmed down a bit, Will walked over and bent down to talk to me.

"Andi, we can take him back with us if you want and bury him."

His voice brought me back to the present. Looking into his eyes took away some of the pain. For a moment, I wished it were his arms wrapped around me instead of Dan's.

"Are you kidding me?" Janet blurted out incredulously from where she stood.

I really wanted to smack that woman, not that she wasn't right. We couldn't bury him here without anything to dig with, and dragging Zach all the way back home didn't really make sense. Truth was, my tears weren't only for Zach. I grieved for him a long time ago. Seeing him again brought up not only losing him, but everything I had lost since. Everything I once wanted for my life, everything I once believed in, was gone. I could never go back to that girl who once believed in fairy tales and happy endings. Now, what mattered most was surviving. Deep down, I held on to hope for a normal life one day, like my mother's letter said. It stayed hidden under the surface until I met Will. Being with him brought out those feelings I thought were buried so far down. I actually started to believe in possibilities. That was until I saw Zach lying dead in front of me.

I gave Zach another look, wiped my tear soaked eyes, and pushed myself off the ground. Janet was right. It wasn't smart to be sitting out here in the open. Will eyed me unsurely.

"No, but thank you."

I wrapped my arms up around Will's neck and kissed him on the cheek for his effort. I walked over to Janet, who tried her best to give me a quick look of compassion, to signal I was ready to go on. Dan picked Zach's body up and moved him into the grass on the side of the road, and grabbed his pack, ready to continue on. Will and Janet moved ahead a few paces, bows up, scanning for danger.

"This was in his pocket," Dan said, handing me a small, silver pendant, with my name in delicate script etched across it. I had never seen it before. My name wasn't exactly common, especially in the feminine form with this spelling. I had no idea where Zach would have gotten that. I was amazed that he had managed to still have it after all this time.

"Thank you."

My eyes met Dan's, stopping us both for a moment. He really was sweet. Will and Janet both turned to look at us confused.

"Everything okay?" Will called back to us, readying himself to walk over to us to check.

"Fine," Dan called back, draping his arm over my shoulder as we started walking again.

Will shot Dan the death glare again before turning back to continue on, causing Dan to chuckle. His jealousy really was kind of adorable. But then, so was Dan.

~Chapter Thirteen~

Dan cleaned and started cooking the dead fox he carried back with us for dinner. I tried to ignore the thing slung over his back, not wanting to think about the death of another poor creature. Death was inescapable these days. I still couldn't help but think of Tod and Copper from the Fox and the Hound movie. I missed the days Mom would bring home packages of meat for dinner that did not include a face. Janet kept an eye on things after it was started while Dan went off to shower and clean himself up. He was thrilled when I showed him the razors.