Save Me (5 page)

"I guess you got the hang of it." Will laughed and went to retrieve the arrows for later use.

I was a good shot with the gun as well but I didn't think it would be quite so easy to pick up. I don't know why I had been so hesitant to use the bow. Quiet weapons were essential in not attracting more undead. Every time you fired a gun you risked getting the attention of any flesh eater within earshot. Sometimes that meant attracting a horde, something you never wanted to do. The hordes tended to include fresher bodies that moved faster and were much more enthusiastic about their hunger. The older, slower, ones tended to go solo, probably because they couldn't keep up.

"You're a natural." Will tousled my hair and smiled. "Now let's go find some dinner."

He gathered his bag and started off down the road toward the reserve. We still had quite a distance to cover after our long break but it somehow felt different now, lighter maybe. Sharing the stories of his sister and brothers had broken through a bit of the distance between us, a distance that I had wanted. At least I thought I wanted it. Now I wasn't so sure. I didn't really know what to think at this point. Getting close to people had been an epic failure since I had left on my own. Experience had taught me friends weren't worth having. They either screwed you over or got themselves killed. Either way, you were the one who ended up hurt. I only knew Will for a day and a half, but I really couldn't believe he was out to screw me over. I'd been wrong before, but he just didn't seem like the type. Which left getting himself killed as a viable outcome. I did have to admit though, since I had met Will, I was the one who seemed more likely to meet that fate.

After a while of walking, we made it to the animal reserve. We talked along the way about friends, music and life in general before the outbreak and even some after. Will was easy to be around. He wasn't like anyone I'd ever met before. By the time we walked into the reserve, I found myself wondering why I ever gave him such a hard time. It didn't take us long to find something to bring back for dinner. I kept the bow in my pack, leaving the killing up to Will. There were some things I still wasn't ready to tackle. He tried to convince me to give it a shot but thankfully didn't push too hard. By the time we headed back the sun was low in the sky. We had to keep it moving to make it back before dark. It would probably be a good idea to find some bikes if we were going to make this trip again.

Will slipped his hand into mine as we walked, not saying a word. My first instinct was to pull away, but it felt natural being there, as if my hand was meant to be in his. We walked together, hand in hand, the way any young couple might walk. There was something different, changing, between us. I still wasn't sure this was the best idea, but here in this moment, I just wanted to be a girl, walking with a boy, holding hands.

"So since I got us dinner, you gotta do the cooking." Will held the bag with the dead animals toward me amused.

"Uh, no. I'm not touching that until it no longer resembles anything I've seen in a Disney movie."

"Fair is fair." Will teased.

"Yes well, life ain't fair." I poked my tongue out at him.

That was something my mother always said and even though I used it to tease Will, it was the honest truth. Life was not fair.

Will was about to comment when we both heard a branch crack in the nearby brush. Will instinctively pushed me behind him and grabbed his bow to scan the area. I pulled out my bow as well. I may have let him take down innocent woodland creatures for my dinner but I was going to help defend us against any flesh eaters that came our way. That I could handle.

"I don't see anything." I whispered thinking maybe we had just imagined the noise.

Will took my free hand in his and stood with his back to mine so that we could keep both sides of the road in view. "That worries me more." Will's voice was quiet but serious now. "The dead don't hide."

Okay that was true. If someone was out there, it was likely one of the living. For all we knew it could be a kid or someone just looking to hide from us because they thought we might hurt them. Normally I would have perceived it as danger right off the bat but here in this area, so close to my home, I wasn't expecting it. I let my guard down here because it felt too much like home. Not the best way to go.

Will refused to let his guard down but when it seemed like there was nothing to worry about he agreed to continue on. He seemed nervous about the area we had to pass up ahead though. There were a lot of abandoned cars where the road led up to the interstate entrance. People who couldn't get through in the early days had just gotten out and left their vehicles to get away on foot. Now it was like a car graveyard. This was the quickest route back though. If we were to avoid the place it would be nearly twice the distance. I convinced him it was better to go this way and get back quicker, mostly because I really didn't want to walk an extra few miles.

"It might be worth it Andi." Will tried to convince me to take the same route back that we had come from, but I was unfazed. I had walked down this road many times before and wasn't afraid now. Zach, Amy and I had gone through the cars on this road to see if there were any supplies we could use ages ago.

"It's fine Will. This way is much faster. Don't be a baby."

"Yeah Will, don't be a baby."

I didn't even realize the voice was foreign until he had his dirty arm around my neck with a gun to my head. My bow hit the ground when he grabbed me. I tried to struggle free but decided against it when he cocked the gun, letting me know he was serious.

"Now Will, I think you better drop the bow unless you want your little girlfriend to have her brains splattered all over your face."

"He wasn't kidding." A second voice came from behind Will.

Will's face drained of color as he lowered the bow. The jerk behind him took the bow as well as the bag with the guns, ammo and knives we had brought for hunting. He was a lot bigger than the one with the gun on me. Not someone Will or I could take down without weapons. Hopefully they would take what they wanted and get lost quick. It wasn't the first time I had been robbed since the world went to shit. I had heard stories of the things that could happen to a person out here but luckily the worst thing I had ever lived though was having my stuff stolen and being knocked unconscious.

"I'm Lucas. "The one holding me spoke. "The big guy over there is my cousin Bo." His breath was hot against my neck and smelled of cigarettes and filth. "You two staying around here?"

"Look Lucas, we don't want any trouble." Will tried to reason with them. He kept his eyes on me as the big one walked around him to get closer to me. Bo reached his filthy hand out to touch my hair, running his fingers along the length. I tried to struggle but Lucas pulled me tighter against him. "Just take what you want and leave." Will tried to sound confident but I could see he was scared shitless. The color was gone from his face. He just stood there watching, not doing a damn thing to help me.

"That's exactly what we intend to do." Bo smiled at me. His teeth were stained and he was missing one top front tooth. He pulled a zip tie from his pocket and fastened my hands together while Will watched helplessly. Bo pulled a knife from his boot and pulled me by the hair to him. Lucas released me to his cousin.

"Be seeing you Will. Thanks for the stuff." Lucas took the weapon bag from Bo and pointed the gun at Will. "I wouldn't recommend following us, unless you want Bo here to slit your girlfriend's pretty little throat."

This couldn't be happening. My brain tried to wrap itself around what was going on. My feet moved following them, despite my brain screaming for them to stop. Will stood there frozen watching them pull me down the road backwards. I thought for a moment, he would have a plan. He would find a way to stop them, something. I don't know what I expected him to do. They were both bigger than him and they had our weapons as well as their own. I guess part of me just took for granted that this boy I hardly knew, who had saved my life twice before, would somehow find a way to make it a third. As I was dragged down the road and behind the mass of cars, watching him stand in place, doing nothing, my faith in him left. I could feel my heart breaking in two, not only from whatever terrible fate awaited me with these animals, but for what I was being pulled away from. The thought of never seeing Will again somehow seemed so much worse than whatever they could do to me. None of that mattered anymore though. It was clear; Will was not going to save me. He was going to stay where he was, to protect himself. I don't know why I thought it would be any other way. Of course he wasn't going to do anything. Saving me from flesh eaters who moved slower than him and had no weapons besides their teeth and nails was one thing. Going up against two grown men with knives and guns was a completely different thing. Why would he put his own life in danger to save a girl he just met? I don't know why I thought Will was different. Maybe I just wanted to believe that he was but he wasn't. He was just like everyone else.

~Chapter Four~

We walked about a half mile across the other side of the interstate to a truck pulled up on the grass. Bo opened the passenger side door and shoved me in smacking my head on the dash, then got in beside me. Lucas walked around to the other side and started up the truck. It took three tries for the engine to turn over. Black puffs of smoke came up from the tail pipe as we drove over the grass around the abandoned vehicles and down the road to who knows where. Their stink filled the truck making me gag a little. I didn't know what they had in store for me, but I knew it couldn't be good. Unfortunately, we had nearly a full tank of gas so they could be headed anywhere.

"Where are we going?" I figured getting them talking might be a good idea. I was wrong.

"Oh don't you worry sweetheart, we have a cozy little place you're gonna like just fine," Lucas answered, rubbing his dirty hand up my thigh. Bo flipped on a cassette of some awful country music on the truck's ancient stereo and sang along. I tried to see if I could wiggle my hands a bit but the zip tie was too tight.

"Could we maybe take this off?" I motioned to my bound hands in Bo's direction. He couldn't possibly see me as a threat so I figured maybe I had a chance. He pulled out a hunting knife which I thought he would use to cut the zip tie but that wasn't what he had in mind.

"Do you take me for some dumb redneck, little girl?" Bo ran the blade back and forth across my cheek. The cool metal slid across my skin as a warning of what he could do to me. I had been in some bad situations since the outbreak but nothing quite like this. The realization of what these two were capable of started to set in. The truck bumped up and down as we pulled onto a dirt road. The knife, still held against my face, sliced into me just enough to sting. Blood ran down my cheek and onto my lips, leaving a coppery taste in my mouth. Bo wiped some blood from my lips with his gorilla hand and licked it off his fingers. Good thing I was up to date on my shots before the outbreak. Who knows what this filthy bastard was carrying.

It was dark when we pulled in to what looked like a small cabin with boarded up windows. There was another truck parked outside and a campsite on the side surrounded by chain link fence. I guessed that was to make it more difficult for any undead to sneak up on them while they sat around the fire. It didn't look like the most sturdy set up but then the IQ of these two combined was probably somewhere around room temperature. Bo pulled me out of the truck and dragged me along the path to the cabin. Inside there was nothing more than an old ratty sofa, wooden coffee table, a sink and mirror in the corner and two full size beds. The smell inside the cabin was slightly worse than being trapped inside the truck cab with the sewer cousins. Bo pushed me inside and onto one of the beds. He sat on the sofa and propped his ape feet onto the coffee table.

"I'm gonna get the fire started and get these rabbits cooked. You watch the girl." Lucas peeked his head in the cabin and then disappeared again. They had taken the dinner Will had caught for us along with the weapon bag which they left in the truck.

"No problem," Bo answered, leering at me in a way that I can best describe as the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. My mind raced with all the horrible things that could possibly happen to me. I thought about Will and how he just stood there watching these two animals drag me down the road. He didn't even try to stop them. Obviously, he couldn't fight them, but he didn't even try to convince them not to take me. He just stood there and watched, not saying a word. If the situation were reversed, I would have tried to do
something
. He didn't even say, "Please don't take her." He just watched. I don't know why I expected more. I mean, we did just meet each other. He didn't owe me anything. It was Will that wanted us to stick together and watch each other's backs though. Being out there to begin with was all his idea. I should have known better than to trust him. I should have trusted my own instincts to begin with. That's the only thing I can trust now. You just can't count on anyone else.

Bo sat looking at me from the sofa as if I was something to eat. I was pretty sure I could imagine what he had in store for me but what I didn't get was what he was waiting for. Not that I was in any hurry for it all to begin but just having him sitting there looking at me like he was taking his time planning out what he was going to do with me was worse. Every so often, he would lick his lips and widen his smile as he looked over me. I tried hard not to even look at him but I could still feel his gaze burning into me.