It was the smell that finally got me awake. My dreams were troubled, and I was happy to be away from them, but the reality of my situation was worse. I was in the company of death. There was the scent of the two-legger that was Mia and the odor of decay—faint for now, but it would be overpowering soon. My head hurt so badly. I could feel sticky, dried life-fluid on my ear, but that was nothing compared to the crushing pain in my head. I whined softly through my nose, wishing I could go back to sleep. It hurt every time the wheeler hit any kind of bump on the hard-packed path. I closed my eyes tightly and gritted my teeth wishing the pain would go away.
And even that, as bad as it was, was still nothing compared to the sense of loss I felt for Jess, Zach, Ben-Ben and maybe even the cat as well. I could only hope that my plan to lure the zombies away had given them the opportunity to get away. Patches seemed more than capable of leading them to safety. As long as she didn’t revert back to her normal state of Cat First and everything else third, they should have made it away from Icely and the zombies.
I let loose a small growl just thinking about him—the vibrations rattled up my skull and caused no small amount of discomfort. All I remember was running away from the zombies and through the legs of one of the two-leggers; I’d turned slightly to see if they were in pursuit. When I turned back, it was too late. Icely was in front of me…and then I’d felt him strike me.
Now I was trapped in a wheeler with Mia’s body. I could hear voices in the front of the wheeler—it was two males and a female—I believed them to be the same ones from the yard, but it was impossible to concentrate. The wheeler mercifully stopped and the two-leggers began to talk.
“Check on the dog,” I heard Icely say off to my side. I wanted to growl but I had enough wits about me to realize the pain it would induce.
“You’re kidding, right?” I heard one of the males ask from the front of the wheeler I was in.
“Yeah, I’m fucking kidding. Now check on the dog or you’ll be back there riding with her,” Icely said. I could hear the anger in his voice.
The wheeler moved up and down as all of the two-leggers got out.
“Cover me,” one of the males said as I heard something metallic scrape the trunk next to me. The light that poured in forced my eyes shut; it was like I was being struck all over again. I whined, angry I had shown weakness in front of them even if it was involuntary.
“Is it alive?” one of the men asked.
“She just whined, idiot,” the female said.
“Give it some water,” Icely ordered.
Someone poured water over my muzzle; it felt so good, the cool liquid wetting my fur. I moved my tongue, trying to lap up as much as I could before it spilled to the floor of the trunk.
I felt a hand stroke my side. “She’s a beautiful dog,” the woman said.
“This ain’t fucking PETA, Diana,” Icely said. “That dog has killed more people than you. You’d better keep that in mind. Alright, I want to go a little further and then we’ll stop for the night.”
The trunk shut, thankfully blocking out the blinding light. The movement of the car lulled me back to sleep.