The Last Legacy (Season 1): Episodes 1-10 (43 page)

We’d only been on the highway for a few hours. The sun was at its highest point in the sky. It beat down against us with unrelenting force, abnormally heating the day. We needed a break. I convinced the men to keep going on track because I knew Scarlet really needed this. Something positive had to happen for her or I feared she’d be in the same mental state as Michael.
 

“Hey,” I said to Gabe. “Where’s Michael?”

“Said he had to go to the bathroom. Walked off into the woods not too long ago. Is that bad?” he asked as he handed me a can of string beans.

“I’m not sure yet.” I glanced into the shadowed woods, an unsettling nauseous feeling in the hollow of my stomach. I wrapped my arm around Marcus and handed him the beans after I took a sip of the water they sat in. Marcus smiled up at me, completely oblivious to the tight rope his father walked.
 

“Can I eat them all?” Marcus asked as he dipped his dirt encrusted fingers in the can.
 

“No. Scarlet didn’t eat yet. Two more only.”
 

“Fine,” he groaned as he fished out two more of the long ones. He handed me back the can, and I passed it across the circle to Scarlet. She leaned to the right, most of her weight on her hip. Her eye only appeared to be getting worse, her lip completely cracked and dry.
 

Jim’s entire shirt was drenched with sweat, the normally gray fabric nearly black. He had a long knife in his hand. He wiped his forehead with the back of his arm and tugged on his warm jacket.

“We ready to move again? We might be able to make it early tomorrow if we move faster.” Jim looked around the circle then noticed what I had just moments before. “Where’s Mike?”
 

I nodded towards the woods. Jim walked off in the direction we thought Michael went, his footsteps echoing. I glimpsed down at Marcus and faked a smile.
 

“Want to check out some more cars?” I wanted to distract Marcus, divert his attention away from his father and the crumbling world. He shot up and ran to the first one he could find. “Wait for me,” I scolded.
 

The first car was empty. Marcus climbed into the back seat and rummaged through an old gym bag. He said it smelled like stinky eggs. I helped him out as we left the door open, not wanting to set off any alarms.
 

An eater stumbled towards us from the woods. Instead of killing it, we ran past it to the next car. The man wore jeans and a loose tee, covered from head to toe in dark brown dirt. He shuffled, slow enough we could avoid having to interact.
 

The old white station wagon didn’t have anyone inside it. I cracked the window with my gun and brushed off the edges of the glass so I could crack it open. I popped open the door, but the alarm blared. My heart jumped.

I tore open the door and climbed into the front seat. I started bashing all the buttons of the door, hitting the windows and the locks trying to get the alarm to shut up. It continued to scream, a signal to anyone who was near our location, showing them exactly where we were.
 

I reached under the steering wheel and started to yank at the cords. I remembered in a movie once they broke the wires to stop alarms. I didn’t know how true it was. Finally after ripping all the cords, the alarm shut down. Marcus stood hanging onto the door, his fingers in his ears. I leaned back in the seat and shut my eyes, panting with worry.
 

“What the fuck, Lana?” Gabe ran towards me with anger painted across his face. He grabbed my arm and tugged me out of the car past Marcus. “Do you not think at all? You might as well have lit the bat signal.”

“Leave her alone, Gabriel,” Scarlet said from behind him. She limped over to the car and nodded to me. Marcus ran to my side and clutched my leg. “It was an accident.”

“We can’t afford accidents!” Gabe yelled.
 

“What the fuck happened?” Jim said as he ran to us from the woods. I glanced past him and saw Mike emerge.

“I set off the alarm by accident,” I fessed up, my cheeks hot as coals. Marcus let go of me and ran to his dad, leaving me completely alone. Everyone was against me, or at least it felt like it. “I’m sorry.”
 

“We have to get out of here,” Jim said.
 

“Shit,” Gabe said, and I peeked behind me, following his line of sight. A dozen or so eaters walked towards us, hands up. Their clothes seemed to drip off their skinny bodies, their hair wispy strands.

“Start moving,” Jim commanded as he ran back to the circle and gathered what was left. He tossed the empty can of beans to Gavin, who shoved it into a pocket on the side of his backpack. My heart thudded against my chest. I ran to Gavin and handed him the walking stick, helping him move faster than his normal speed with an arm around his shoulder.

Marcus and Michael ran faster than the rest of us, leading the way down the deserted highway ahead. Scarlet awkwardly limped along, clutching her lower abdomen. She fumbled with the strap of her backpack as she moved it around. I figured she tried to hold it in a way that didn’t bother her bruises. Gabriel and Jim hung behind around the camp, gathering our pot and utensils.
 

“It’s not your fault, Lana. I know what you were tryin’ to do with the boy. You mean well. You keep the group together even if you don’t know it.” Gavin’s words almost brought me to tears, but my crying session from earlier this morning held my emotions at bay.

“Thank you,” I said, smiling up at his warm eyes. Something cracked from behind us. I didn’t want to panic or startle the others, but I turned to see what it was. The eaters gained on us, shuffling between the cars. Or maybe more had begun to follow. I wasn’t sure.

Jim and Gabriel ran along the outside of the highway, right at the edge of the tree line. Their arms were full with the pot and cooking things that were left out near the little circle we sat for break. I tried to help Gavin move faster, but as the eaters licked at our heels, less than ten feet behind, I knew we’d have to attack. The weaker couldn’t walk, let along jog.

“Do you have a knife?” I asked Gavin, glancing over my shoulder every other second. He nodded and pointed to his hip, where a knife holstered in his jean loop.
 

“Give it to me. Don’t stop walking.” Gavin handed me his huge knife. From my Sports Authority lesson, I knew the knife was too big for me, but it would have to work. I let go of Gavin, forcing him to walk alone. I turned, walking backwards, as I faced the first grouping of eaters.

“Lana!” Scarlet yelled when she saw I had broken off from the group. I knew that one-on-one I could take an eater. Learning their techniques came easy since all they wanted was to kill us. They had no other motive. But taking on a group of them wouldn’t work since they could easily crowd and circle me. I searched for something I could use to my advantage.
 

Two cars down in the far right lane was a high-off-the-ground pick-up truck. I sprinted in a diagonal to it and jumped in the back.
 

“Hey! Over here!” I yelled, trying to get the eater’s attention. A couple of their gray heads turned towards me and changed routes. I yelled again, waving my arms and jumping in the car to make a banging sound. I stomped against the metal truck bed, using whatever I had to make noise.

It only took a moment for the eaters to reach me. The first eater, a woman, lunged towards the back end of the truck. She clawed at the side, reaching and biting at it. She lifted her leg like she was trying to get into the back, but she couldn’t figure out how to maneuver herself. I lifted the knife, noticing that her head peeked above the siding, perfectly in line with my knees. I stepped forward and slashed the knife down the center of her skull.
 

She moaned and then silenced, her eyes shutting. I yanked the knife from the top of her head, and her body fell lifelessly to the pavement. Something banged to my right, punching the truck’s side. Another eater. I spun around, jabbed him in the ear, quickly pulling the knife back out.
 

Another one on the other side of the truck got closer to climbing in. The taller man had ripped clothing, browned from misuse. He used his longer limbs to reach into the truck. His hand got ahold of my leg. I jerked back to free myself, kicking and swinging my leg to release his loose hold. I stumbled backwards, my back hitting the cab.
 

Another eater clawed at me from the opposite side. He reached for my shoulders and head. I ducked past him and found the taller man. He posed more of an immediate threat to me. I grabbed the back of his head as my heart thrummed, the only thing I could hear. I stuck my knife right into his eye socket, making it pop.

Blood squirted as I withdrew the knife. The blood projected towards my arm, coating it in thick, warm, redness. He fell down, creating a barrier that eaters would have to walk over. I jabbed and sliced and penetrated so many eaters that I lost count. But the supply never seemed to end.
 

A bang from the front of the truck caught my attention. I spun around with my knife raised up, but lowered it as I saw Gabriel and Jim standing on the hood.
 

“What the fuck are you thinking, girl?” Gabe asked as he covered my back, using his own knife to fend off a few of them. The moans had become static, a constant. I tuned them out while I focused all my energy on killing.

“Scarlet and Gavin can barely walk alone. They wouldn’t have made it.” I stabbed an eater right through the jaw, quickly pulling out and looking for the next victim. My breathing came fast, both from the adrenaline rush and having to kill so many people.
 

“Looks like there’s only about a dozen more,” Jim said as he lunged forward and killed one. He pressed his hand to my back as he fought with his right hand. I smiled to myself despite the heaps of bodies surrounding us. I actually felt empowered.

As Gabe killed one last eater, the world around us quieted. The last body fell to the ground. I let out a sigh of relief. My entire body tired, completely drained of energy. I sat back against the cab of the truck and dropped the knife onto the bed, leaning back to calm down.
 

“You did good, Lana.” Jim crouched in front of me and pulled my head towards him. He planted a kiss on my forehead and caught my eyes. My breath evened out.
 

“Can we give her a medal of honor or something?” Gabe laughed as he sat on top of the truck, his feet dangling off the side near my head. Their words were definitely encouraging. Yet, I couldn’t quite process them. Killing was killing. While what I had done was only to keep my friends alive, it wasn’t right. I shut the negativity out, focusing on the task at hand alone.

“We should catch up with the others,” I said. I pushed off the bed of the truck, my legs wobbling beneath me. Jim hopped off the truck first. He landed into a pile of eater bodies, his feet sinking into pure decay. I scrunched my nose at the mutilated bodies. He reached his arms up and caught me around the waist, helping me onto the pavement.
 

The group was out of sight, far enough ahead that we couldn’t spot their dark clothing. We speed-walked. Jim suggested not running to conserve our energy—but at the same time, we had to make up time and catch up. Both men walked beside me. They spoke to each other about finding camp for the night and finishing the trek to Scarlet’s sister’s house tomorrow. I tuned most of their conversation out. Each step was a mini-victory, and I focused on putting one foot in front of the other.

“I think we’ll have to jog to catch up,” Jim said.
 

“If I knew they could move this fast I wouldn’t have gone after the eaters.” I laughed grimly, my emotions off. Jim and Gabe picked up the pace, jogging with their arms pumping at their sides. I pulled out my water bottle, took a swig, and then followed behind.
 

Luckily, the foursome was only a few minutes ahead of us. Scarlet saw us first as she walked backwards, knife in hand. She waved and had them stop and wait for us. Marcus clapped his hands until Mike scolded him. My mouth tightened in a line.

“You’re fucking crazy,” she said. She came to me first, enveloping me in a tight hug. I returned it a hundred percent, glad they were all okay. It made my sacrifice worth it.

“We’re going to veer off to find a shelter for the night. Any objections?” Jim asked as he chugged his water bottle. Nobody spoke up, so we walked a few hundred feet and got off at the next exit.
 

The sun faded away behind the overhang of trees. Rows and rows went on for miles it seemed. We took a left off the exit down a paved-two lane street. I kept expecting a break in the forest, but the road cut straight through, not a single house. I clung to Gavin, helping him walk despite the fact that he ‘didn’t need it’—his words. Jim and Gabriel led the way, the rest of us meandering in their wake.
 

We broke through the woods and found the main street. On each side of the road, buildings stood beside each other. Only one stoplight hung the entire way. My nerves prickled, silence greeting us.

“7-11 up ahead. We’ll stay there.” Jim pointed forward where I could just barely make out a large green sign peeking out behind growth. I wanted to full-out sprint to get there, but I knew it would do me no good. Plus, at any moment a group of eaters could emerge.

We stopped across the street from the convenience store. A gas station and pharmacy were on either side, a cafe nestled beside the 7-11. I listened for any sign of movement, or a herd of eaters stomping along. But it was deadly silent. The door of the store had shattered, but otherwise it appeared safe.

“Jim and I will check it out,” Gabe said as he stepped into the middle of the street.

“I’ll come, too,” Mike said, following right behind him. Jim nodded and joined the two men. I sat down on the curb, Gavin’s knife still in my hand. Marcus came over and sat between my legs, playing with some broken off gravel.
 

“Let’s play tic-tac-toe,” I said as I picked some grass from behind me. I handed three piles to Marcus and let him set up the game. We used the rocks as the O’s and the grass as the X’s.