Save Me (26 page)

I must have started to doze off because I had no idea what was going on when Will pushed me off him and sprung to his feet.

"Wh..what's going on?"

The sun was high enough to tell it must be late morning. I listened to the tell tale sounds of undead, but heard nothing.

"Shh," he whispered, reaching for my hand to pull me to my feet.

This time I heard it, the sound of the fence rattling and branches cracking. It sounded like someone was jumping the fence behind the factory. Flesh eaters didn't jump fences. Will held his bow up, ready to take out anything coming toward us. Up ahead, we saw two figures coming toward us. They were holding on to each other like one was injured and the other was helping them walk.

Once they got a little closer, we realized it was Janet and Rose. Will dropped the bow and ran to help them. Rose was limping, holding on to Janet. Janet's shirt was torn and wrapped around Rose's thigh. Her leg was bloody and you could tell by her expression, she was in a lot of pain. Will scooped Rose into his arms and carried her back to where I stood waiting, and gently laid her on the grass.

Will peeked under the make shift bandage. His eyes shot up to Janet in alarm and I knew right away what had happened.

"She's been bit?" Even though I knew the answer, I had to actually hear the words being said.

"I thought they were finished off. I swear. He came out of nowhere through an air vent on the side of the building," Janet explained, looking guilty.

Rose whimpered, holding tight onto Will's sleeve. What the hell were we supposed to do with her now? I knew the process. I had seen it a few times before. Times, I would rather forget. She had about three days total, maybe less. During that time, she would alternate between excruciating pain, high fevers, unconsciousness, and delirium. It was by no means, an easy process. Eventually, she would turn and become one of them. Before the process was halfway through, most people begged to be put out of their misery. It was the only humane thing to do. It wasn't like we could give her a handful of aspirin and wait for it to pass. This wasn't going to pass.

I thought about what I would do if it were Will who had been bitten. Would I have the strength to end his suffering? I didn't think I would. Rose though, none of us were that invested in her. I didn't want to see her dead, but honestly, I barely knew her and she was already half way there.

"Janet..." Will trailed off.

Janet and I both knew what he couldn't bring himself to say. She was going to die. If we tried to drag her along with us, we all risked meeting the same fate.

"Look Will," Janet pointed out over the trees to a water tower. "You see that? That's the military base. We aren't that far, twenty miles, maybe less."

"Okay, and?"

"If we can just get her there, maybe they can help her? I wasn't honest when I told you I heard talks of a possible cure. Will, I saw the lab. They were close when I left, really close. We need to at least try."

Will was thinking about what she said. I thought she was crazy. Even if there was a cure, how the hell were we gonna get Rose there? She could hardly walk. We couldn't carry her twenty miles. Why did Janet care anyhow? What had gotten into her?

"Please?" Rose looked up at Will, still gripping his shirt, pleading with her big brown eyes.

I could see he was actually considering this crazy plan.

"Will, you can't think this is a good idea?" I asked him, taking his free hand to get him to pay attention to me, hoping it would snap him back to logical thinking.

"Will..." Janet begged.

"Look, she's right. This isn't smart Janet. I can't believe you, of all people, are suggesting this."

"Andi," she turned to me now. "Please, we can't just leave her here to die. Maybe they could save her. What if it was Will who got bit?"

Okay now she was playing dirty. Janet begging me for help was a new one. If it wasn't for Rose's whimpering, I might have actually enjoyed it.

"I'm taking her, with or without, your help. You know my chances without you."

Will took a deep breath, pried Rose's fingers from his sleeve, and pulled me away to talk alone.

"Andi, you know she means that. She will do it on her own if she has to."

"Will, I know she's your friend, but you wanna risk our lives for a dead woman?"

"No. I don't. But babe, when it was you out there needing help, Janet didn't think twice. She battled a horde for you."

Okay he really wasn't playing fair. How could I say no now?

"I get that Will and I'll always be grateful for what all of you did, but her judgment is way off. What even happened with her in the car? She just froze there. There's just not time for behavior like that Will. That's how people get killed."

Now it was me telling him that
she
was going to get him killed. My, how the tables have turned.

"Andi, that's what happened to her family. They were driving when they ran into a horde. Her husband insisted they stay in the vehicle and drive through it and she wanted to get out and run. She took her son and ran, while her husband refused to get out and drove on. The car was overtaken and her husband was killed. Her son was ripped out of her arms while she tried taking off on foot. Both choices were wrong."

Wow.

"This is what you want?" I took a deep breath, trying to push images of our impending death out of my mind.

"I can't leave her, Andi."

"So twenty miles?" I asked, walking back over to Janet.

She nodded before pulling me in for a hug. I was pretty sure she must have been abducted by aliens and this was now a clone who only looked like the real Janet.

We had about eight or nine hours of daylight to go and twenty miles with an injured girl was gonna be a rough trip.

~Chapter Twenty-Three~

Will carried Rose on his back for the first mile or so, as she moaned, semi-conscious, her arms loosely draped around his neck. We had been keeping an eye out for something we could use to help with Rose. I was starting to think it was hopeless until we found a stray Volkswagen hood, which Janet tied some rope to that she always carried in her pack and made a contraption that we could pull Rose along on. It wasn't light, but it was easier than trying to carry her or help her hobble along. Rose moaned nearly nonstop. I would have loved for the unconscious stage to take over a little early just to shut her up. After we could pull Rose along, we moved much quicker. If we kept up a decent pace, we were likely to make it before dark. That was, if we didn't run into any problems.

Half way through the day, Rose was looking pretty bad. The fever kicked in and she was moaning even louder from the pain. Wet, garbled groans came up from her throat, making her sound like her lungs were filled with a thick liquid that couldn't quite make its way up. We were all exhausted and on edge. My feet ached almost as bad as my hand from pulling on this rope for the last hour. I had blisters on both palms that broke open and were now bleeding, turning the rope a reddish brown from dirt and blood. Both Will and Janet had pulled Rose a lot further than I had, plus Will had carried her for awhile, I couldn't even imagine how they felt, so I wasn't about to complain.

"You need me to take that babe?" Will asked, probably sensing my discomfort.

"Nah I'm fine," I lied.

Will took the rope from my hands, lifting them to see the bloody mess they had become and cringed. I could tell it hurt him more to see me like that than it actually felt to me.

"I got it," he insisted, not about to let me take the rope again.

I wasn't going to argue with him about it.

"Janet, can you take care of this please," Will called over to Janet, tossing her the first aid kit from his pack.

Will kept walking, pulling Rose along as Janet quickly bandaged up my hands.

"I've seen people die from infections on smaller wounds than this, Andi. You should have said something."

Yeah, right. So she could make a comment about me being a princess or something. No thanks.

"Look Andi, I know we haven't exactly been friends or anything. I just want you to know it's nothing personal. I just care about Will and I don't wanna see anything happen to him. I know that he wouldn't have helped me do this if you asked him not to. So thank you for that." She looked genuinely grateful and continued bandaging, more gently than I would have expected from her.

"Why do you care anyway, Janet? I mean, you didn't want Will with me because you thought I would put him in danger, but isn't that what you've done here today? Why does helping Rose mean so much to you? You don't even know they can do a damn thing for her?"

Janet took a deep breath and looked me straight in the eyes.

"You're right. Rose doesn't mean shit to me and doing this... I know it's stupid. Last night... I..I just... I don't know. I just couldn't leave her there. I just couldn't let there be nothing I could do for her."

I could see the pain in her eyes. I knew it had nothing to do with Rose. This was about her husband and son. All the helplessness she felt losing them, came back to her seeing Rose like this. Janet being brought back to such a raw place certainly didn't make her a smarter or safer person, but it made her more human, nicer even. I couldn't help but feel bad for her.

I just nodded, letting her know I got it. She finished up with my hands, stuck everything back in the kit, and patted me on the arm empathetically. It was one small moment that gave me the smallest insight into what Will and Dan saw in Janet that made them care so much about her. We jogged ahead to catch up with Will and Rose. Janet said it was only about another five miles, but she was only guessing. She couldn't possibly know how far we traveled. I hope she wasn't underestimating though. I was about ready to hop on with Rose for a ride just to get off my aching feet.

Up ahead a bit we could hear the low buzz of a vehicle coming in our direction. We pulled Rose off to the side of the road, readied our weapons, and prepared for the worst. It was a Hummer, clearly military, with three guys holding assault rifles. I heard one yell to the driver spotting us, pointing in our direction. Considering the fact that we were definitely out gunned, Janet motioned for us to lower our weapons.

The Hummer pulled up and stopped about twenty feet from us. Two of the guys hopped out and began approaching us, weapons drawn. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I thought it break through my ribs. I instinctively reached for Will's hand for comfort. He took my hand, taking a step in front of me protectively, the warmth of his skin against mine instantly brought my anxiety down a notch.

"Holy shit!" one of the soldiers yelled.

"Bear!" Janet dropped her pack on the ground and ran to the guy, jumping onto his arms and planting a kiss right on his mouth.

"My God girl! I thought we lost ya for good!"

"Nah. I'm not that easy to get rid of. Bear, this is Will, the one I was telling you about," she waved her hand over toward Will, not letting go of the guy's neck. "And, his girlfriend, Andi"

Girlfriend. Yeah, I could get used to that.

The guy walked over to us, shaking both our hands, still holding on to Janet, like a toddler wrapped around its mother. He looked down at Rose, sweaty, and shivering uncontrollably, and raised an eyebrow at Janet.

"And this?" he questioned, placing Janet back on her feet, frowning at her.

"That's Rose. She was bit. We were hoping medical could do something for her."

Bear eyed Janet disappointed, then looked back toward his friends who were now both out of the truck and headed in our direction.

"This here is Jeremy, my cousin, and our driver is Jackson."

Both men shook our hands, eyeing my bandages suspiciously. The taller one, Jackson, looked down at Rose suspiciously. Bear shot him a look that told him to keep quiet, so he didn't say anything, but it was clear, he wasn't comfortable with the situation.

"So can you give us a lift back?" Janet asked, hooking her arm through Bear's and leaning her head against his massive arm.

I tried to will him to say yes, my eyes pleading with him. I was about ready to fall onto the ground from exhaustion and pain. My silent begging did not go unnoticed. He gave me a quick wink, then looked down at Janet, who was being uncharacteristically sweet.

"Of course we can darlin. Hop in." Bear slung his rifle back over his shoulder and headed toward the truck.

The guys helped lift Rose up into the back of the Hummer. She was mumbling something about staying away from the zebras with the green stripes. Poor Rose. We all hopped in the truck and headed toward the base. Will looked uneasy, still holding on to my hand, his teeth clenched tight. He didn't even let go when we got in the Hummer, which made climbing in a bit difficult. He was gripping tightly right on to the spot where my flesh was ripped open from the rope and it hurt like hell, but I wasn't about to pull away from him. He looked almost panicked. I wanted to do something to comfort him, make him feel better, the way he did for me so many times, but I had no idea what would work. For me, just feeling his hand in mine, or laying my head against his chest, or even the sound of his heartbeat, was enough to calm me down.