Chapter Four

 

We took the “quietest” car to within five miles of Allentown, where we stashed it away, out of sight. It was junky enough and rusted enough that anyone that happened upon it would assume it was one of the thousands of cars left abandoned over the last twelve years.

Or at least that was the hope.

Luke’s team included Trish and a man called Crash. Where Luke was muscled and militaristic, Crash was long gangly arms and wild afro. On the ride over, I tried to ask him if that was his real name, but his answer only confused me. Apparently Crash preferred to be ambiguous.

Ambiguous but fast.

Crash led the way to the walled city with a fast clip and expert knowledge of the area. Fortunately for us, Allentown was surrounded by overgrown fields. The overgrowth reached above our heads, successfully hiding us from plain sight. But I would have gotten lost on my own.

The branches from wild bushes and tall grass tangled together and created a maze of twisted confusion. Luke and his people or someone from the city had cut a path through the wild overgrowth, but you had to know what you were looking for to find it. And I could never find out what exactly I was looking for.

Eventually the brush gave way to housing, which eventually gave way to buildings. We moved through the abandoned parts of the city unnoticed. Occasionally we would catch sight of a patrol, but we were able to duck into an alley or jump into a darkened shell of a building to stay out of sight.

Luke had explained that the majority of the guards would be stationed on the wall to protect the city and keep an eye on the people. But Allentown itself was only a small portion of what had once been a much larger metropolis.

Trees, bushes and grasses had moved into the sections of city that people could no longer inhabit. We moved past grocery stores and shops, restaurants and a trailer park all choked by the aggressive forestry.

The city had become completely uninhabitable. Most of what we could see had been ransacked and ravaged. The glass had all been broken out of windows and doors and the shelves of any kind of grocer or gas station had been looted completely.

Occasionally we would see a house that sat untouched, as if in their haste to destroy everything, the apocalypse survivors ran right by it without noticing.

We had just dodged another patrol when I saw the wall.

Luke had taken us to the fourth floor of an office building of some sort. As we stood in the middle of an expansive floor, I finally got a panoramic view of the city.

With windows bashed out in every direction, I stood on the only remaining upright desk to see what lay ahead.

The wall was manmade after the infection. Whoever built it had used all kinds of mismatching city debris to piece it together. I could see spots where they’d used the siding of a house and in others, they actually built pieces made from brick or stone. There were billboards next to restaurant signs and places where people actually knew what they were doing and crafted with care and precision.

On the top of the wall, I could see from their chest up men walking around with weapons in hand. A platform or walkway attached to the wall protected the men against enemy fire and Feeders.

Guard towers were positioned systematically around the wall, connecting the hodgepodge pieces and making them credible. For as interesting as the wall looked, it was just as intimidating.

“How are you going to get through the wall?” I asked Luke.

He and his friends stood back and looked at me. They stopped their quiet chatter and digested my question. “We have a contact,” Luke said. Again. “I told you that already.”

“That doesn’t explain how we’re going to get in.”

Luke ignored me. “Come on. We need to keep moving.”

Once we hit the ground again things got enormously more complicated. Keeping the patrols from seeing us and moving forward, towards the wall, took time and effort.

I could sense the tension rising as we struggled to make ground. Luke looked especially impatient and agitated.

Knowing this was a high risk mission, I understood why his concerns were skyrocketing. But there seemed to be something else too.

There was some other reason that he wasn’t sharing.

We moved sideways around the wall for a long time until the wall brushed up against more overgrowth. Luke led us to an abandoned house on a street dotted with a hundred other houses just like it. But Luke seemed to pick this one specifically.

When he pointed at the wall with two fingers and then held up his entire palm, flashing five fingers, I realized this house had been chosen for the garage. The garage faced the wall perfectly. We squeezed our bodies between a spider-web covered wall and a beat up old truck that was covered in about two inches of dust and dirt.

We could see the guards walking around the wall perimeter, but they hadn’t spotted us yet. Luke looked at his watch more than once and at the setting sun. He whispered something growly at Trish and she agreed in that same tone.

Nobody shared any pertinent information with me. If I’d had to guess, I would have suspected they were trying to pretend I didn’t exist. Which was beyond annoying.

My brothers didn’t do it often, but every once in a while they would get into this brotherly groove that made me feel like the obnoxious little sister tagging along.

That’s how I felt right now. I knew they didn’t want me here.

I knew they didn’t think I was capable of holding my own or not getting us killed.

I knew they wanted nothing else than to leave me here so they could get on with their business and go about pretending I didn’t exist again.

But that was not going to happen.

I was here, damn it. And I was bound and determined to pull my own weight.

My feet were set and my body was ready, so that when Luke finally gave the signal to run for the wall, I jumped into action.

We took off in the quickly dimming sky, racing for the tiniest section of wall that we could squeeze through. We ran as hard as we could. I pushed myself to my limits while eyeing the ground so I could navigate the unfamiliar territory and jump over anything in my path.

Crash, unsurprisingly beat us all. His legs moved like they were set to super speed and his arms pumped alongside him naturally.

Luke was a close second. He also ran with incredible speed. Both of them could probably outrun Feeders.

Or at least keep up with them.

I knew it wasn’t a competition. Luke had never said out loud that running to the wall was a race. …But, I grew up with five brothers. I had never not had something be a competition.

So this run to the wall was everything I needed to prove myself. I might not have beaten Luke or Crash, but I sure as hell beat Trish.

Smoked her.

We didn’t have time to catch our breath before Luke lifted a thin metal slab and slipped through to the other side.

I followed quickly as Luke kept a good pace around the city. Again, he seemed to know exactly where he was going.

I looked around wildly, trying to absorb every little detail. I knew it probably wouldn’t help in the end, but I had to try. I had to take something back for my family.

We stopped near a tall building with people leaning out over their balconies above. Luke led us around back and through a sketchy looking doorway. We climbed six flights of stairs before we came to another door that had been bashed in and splintered beyond repair.

“Shit,” Trish hissed. “They found out.”

“What is this place?” My voice was a whisper, but the question screamed through the charged atmosphere.

Luke turned away from me and stared out the narrow window. A baby cried overhead. A woman opened their door, saw us, and slammed the thing just as quickly.

“We gotta go,” Crash whispered.

Luke nodded and we ran back down the stairs, out into the open air again. We pushed against the shadow of the building and worked our way around.

Just at the edge of this building, Luke stopped and faced me. I had finally gotten into their routine and how they jumped from shadow to shadow so easily. But his sudden stop startled me into paying more attention to him.

“We’re going to the square,” he panted. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, our contact was taken. We’re going to see what’s going to happen to him and if there’s a rescue attempt possible. If we can save him, we will. But as the seconds tick by, his chances of survival dwindle.”

“I understand,” I said simply.

His eyebrow quirked. “I thought you were talky.”

I shrugged and stared across the street, “This isn’t my first time.”

He leaned in so his voice wouldn’t carry. “You keep saying that. Maybe it’s time I start believing you.”

I wanted to smile but that would have ruined everything I’d worked so hard to achieve- which was obviously looking cool.

The Zombie Apocalypse happened, but that hadn’t changed how teenagers wanted to be perceived. Sure, I hated how Zombies wanted to eat my brains and skin me alive. I just didn’t want anybody else to know how much I hated it.

It was all about perception.

I finally settled on, “Did you want me to say something else? Or should we just wait until they catch us first.”

His lips twitched with the barest hint of a smile, but then he was off. He plunged ahead and crisscrossed through the walled part of this mostly neglected city until he found a public square surrounded by armed men.

“There he is!” Luke whispered.

Crash and Trish halted in their steps. I was the last to join because this part of the city was slapped together out of necessity and overpopulation, making it difficult to judge and navigate.

We’d taken cover in an open alley and could see the center of the square clearly. Posts had been pushed into cracked cement. People gathered at the edges of the crowd and guards patrolled the posts and overhead.

A man had been placed on one of the end posts, tied with his hands behind his back and one of his legs strapped to the post so he couldn’t sit on the ground. His face was tipped toward the sun and he was wailing while two guards took turns beating him with their fists and short, stubby batons. One would punch him in the face and the other would whack him with one of those rounded sticks in the gut. They were relentless.

They were brutal.

And he was breaking in front of my eyes.

I had to look away for a long moment to deal with the gore. The man’s entire torso was painted with black and blue bruises and thick lacerations across his abdomen and arms. Every time one of the guards hit him, I thought the man would finally die.

But the man didn’t die.

And the guards didn’t stop beating him.

“That’s our contact,” Luke whispered right in my ear.

Which one?” I asked in sheer hope that it wasn’t the man being beaten to death.

Luke leaned closer, “The one getting the shit kicked out of him.”

“How are we going to save him?” My question was instinctual. Immediate. I didn’t even have to think about it. I just needed to answer it.

I felt Luke’s stare as I watched the horrific scene play out in front of me. The guards looked deranged… almost giddy. My stomach churned at the sick look on their faces and the way they relish their jobs.

The crowded plaza did nothing to save him or stop the madness. Most watched on in terrified silence. A few children cried, but no adult spoke up. Except for those enjoying the spectacle.

Luke’s voice cut through my nauseous haze. “We can’t save him, Page. They would kill us too. Before we even reached him.”

That might be true, but there had to be a way. “What do they use for light here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like for light. How do people see at nighttime?”

Luke’s eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. “Electricity.”

“You have electricity here? Are you serious?” Well, this was an unexpected luxury.

“For limited amounts of time,” he clarified. “It’s not always reliable. But it works most of the time.”

I crossed my arms and tapped my toes. I had wanted him to say fire and candles and things that could burn. “I need a fire,” I murmured out loud.

“What?!”

I turned to face Luke, needing him to get this right now. “I need a fire. A big one. I need to start something on fire that pulls all of the attention off this man and towards their burning town. My guess is that most of the people are here. In this square. And that if we set one of these buildings on fire, everyone would go rushing to put it out and we could untie your man and take him back with us.”

“No,” Luke answered immediately. “That’s crazy.”

“And watching an innocent man die isn’t?”

He shook his head in disbelief. “This won’t work. They’re going to catch us.”

“Then be fast.”

“You want me to start the fire?” he laughed, but it wasn’t because he thought I was hilarious. He really couldn’t believe the words I was saying.

“Take Trish,” I told him. “Crash and I will wait here while you set up the diversion. We’ll meet you back at the car.”

“I can’t do this, Page. If something happens to you, your brothers will kill me. Besides, what will be the point? You came all this way to die on the first day?”

I couldn’t help myself. I shoved his shoulder and met hard resistance. There was nothing but muscle and steel hidden beneath his shirt. I ignored that and said, “I’m not going to die. I’m going to keep him from dying. Trust me.”

He shook his head again. “That’s the thing though. I don’t trust you.”

I admired his honesty even if his words stung. “Then learn. Fast.”

The corner of his lips kicked up in half a smile. “You’re going to do this with or without me, aren’t you?”

“You’re damn right.”

“And your brothers?”

I rolled my eyes. “They know I’m like this. You’re not going to have to explain anything to them.”

The second half of his mouth joined the first. “You owe me for this.”

He turned around, jerking his head for Trish to follow him. I whisper-shouted after him. “If this works, it’s going to be you that owes me!”

“Where are they going?” Crash demanded.

“We’re saving that man,” I told him. “They’re going to cause a little redirection.” I turned to hold his gaze. “Be ready.”

“Be ready?” His head jerked back and his hand shot up. “You’re kidding?”

“I’m not. So be ready or get out. If you’re not going to help me you can go wait at the car.”

“You wouldn’t even know how to get back to the car!” he argued. “There is no getting out. I’m in this whether I want to be or not.”

“Do you want to be?”

He turned back to face the man on the brink of death. “Of course I want to be. Micah is a good guy.”

“That’s his name?” Crash nodded. “I hope so. Because we’re probably going to have to carry him out of here. Which means we’ll be moving slowly. Which means we’ll probably get shot.”

“Girl, you are full of positive energy. Just stop already.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Just want you to be prepared.”

He looked at me and rolled his eyes. “I’m prepared. Trust me. I’m prepared.”

Ten minutes later gunshot peppered the air. I leaned forward, careful to stay in our hiding spot, but anxious to see what Luke had come up with.

More gunfire rent the air, pulling the attention off the helpless victim in the square. A low murmur rumbled through the crowd. At first they hadn’t thought much of it, but now their curiosity was peaked.

The first guard stopped pummeling Micah and slowly the second one stood up as well. A scream pierced the air. “Fire!” Shouted someone else.

More gunshots.

I couldn’t see the fire, but the way the crowd reacted encouraged me that something big was happening.

Soon I could smell the smoke and see it billowing overhead. Several of the guards leapt into action, racing for the building inferno.

The air felt dry and the ground had been nothing but dirt and dust the entire way over. I crossed my fingers that the conditions were just right for a challenging distraction.

I gripped the blades in my hands more firmly. I was ready to rescue Micah as soon as I could get to him.

The guards had stepped away from him as they watched all their other guard buddies race for the fire. Micah sagged against the post that held him captive. His shoulders hunched over his bloodied torso and if it weren’t for that bound leg, he would have collapsed on the ground.

“Another one!” Someone shouted.

A Colony soldier yelled, “Stay where you are! Don’t move!”

The crowd huddled together. They weren’t silent anymore. They were terrified. The fire caught quickly and soon even I could see the flames as they licked at the two story building. Across the square, on the other side, another building was just beginning to burn. The guards on the wall started rushing to help and soon everyone but the two hovering over Micah were working to put out the fire.

I heard one of the guards shout, “Get the people to help or this whole place is going to burn!”

Guards filed back into the plaza and grabbed at men and women, forcing them to pitch in and help extinguish the burning buildings.

The guards that had beaten Micah senseless soon had to give up their fun job of torture to help out with the spreading fire. Water stores were wheeled in on wagons and buckets were passed quickly around. Wet blankets were thrown around the perimeters and angry shouts boomed above the roar of the fire.

I turned to Crash. “Ready?”

He jerked his chin. “Let’s go.”

We sprinted into the open, heading straight to Micah. He didn’t even notice us which gave me hope. But unfortunately he was the only person that was oblivious to us.

By the time we’d reached him and his post, several of the bystanders had turned around to watch us. I heard a spike in volume and knew they were talking about us, but my mind was completely absorbed with cutting Micah free and getting the hell out of here.

Crash immediately started working on the leather straps that bound Micah’s leg and I went for his hands. Micah jerked away. His eyes were nearly swollen shut, so he struggled to tilt his head back to see us.

“We’re friends,” I mumbled quietly. “We’re here to get you out.”

His voice was weak and his mouth was so swollen it sounded like he had stuffed his cheeks with marbles. “This is because of you?”

“Yes.” I reached for his hands again and this time he let me. The leather binds constricted his wrists to raw, angry bleeding. I slashed them straight down the middle where his hands separated. The leather straps fell to the ground and Micah wobbled from relief.

“This whole town is going to burn to the ground,” he struggled to say.

I hunched over so I was sure he could see my face. “But you’re not going to die. At least not today.”

He wheezed. He had to lean over to suck breath through broken ribs and all manner of pain. “Okay,” he panted. “Okay.”

I bent over to help Crash with Micah’s leg. We worked our sharp blades through the thick leather ties. We remained as quiet as possible, but people had started to notice us.

It would only be a matter of seconds before the Colony guards lifted their heads from their tasks and saw us.

The pressure built in my chest and adrenaline spiked in my blood. We needed to go.

When Micah’s leg was free from the tight bonds, he neared collapse, but Crash had enough foresight to stand up quickly and catch him under the arm. Both men grunted from the effort to stay standing.

“I can’t move my leg,” Micah winced. It was the leg that had been tied up. His pant leg as well as his whole body were drenched in blood as well.

I clutched his other side until I could slide under his arm, supporting him. Obviously he was a grown man, but it was hard to tell how old he was when his face looked like… well, like that… but his body was as tall and thick as any of my brothers.

I sagged under his weight and tried to stay on my feet.

“We have to go,” I hissed at Crash.

We stumbled the first couple steps while Micah’s leg dragged behind us. I made the mistake of glancing back at the crowd and cringed when I found eyes on us. The guards were still busy… but it would only be a matter of-

“Hey!”

“Hey there!”

“Shit! We gotta move!” Crash picked up his pace, shoving Micah and consequently me into the closest alley. The echoing sound of gunshots followed after us.

A voice screamed in the distance and I wasn’t sure if it was because of us or the fires, but I pushed on. I didn’t have time to do anything but run and focus on running.

The alley was barely wide enough to accommodate all three of us. I bounced off the brick wall next to me, jostling Micah who would wince and groan every time.

At the end of an alley, we rushed into another. Crash took a sharp turn and then another sharp turn, always keeping to the shadows.

Twilight turned to dusk, which was quickly turning to night. The sun wasn’t visible anymore, so the shadows from the building broadened over the ground and hid us in them.

Footsteps pounded nearby and Crash had us press into an alcove of a building for several minutes. Angry guards ran in every direction. I closed my eyes and tried not to panic.

Crash and I continued to support Micah in an upright position. He faded in and out of consciousness and every time he blacked out his body would weigh us down.

A shout from the square forced the footsteps to run in the opposite direction from us. I let out a breath of relief and wiped at the sweat dotting my forehead.

“We’re not going to make it,” Crash whispered.

“Don’t think like that,” I ordered. “We don’t have a choice. We have to make it. If we don’t make it we end up like this guy. Do whatever it takes. But we freaking make it.”

Crash huffed out a breath. “Okay, yeah. Alright, let’s go then.”

We started off again, navigating the maze of buildings and streets as best we could. Sometimes Micah was awake and could struggle along with us. Sometimes we had to drag him. A few more times we ducked into hiding and waited out the search party.

Our saving grace was that most of the guards were fighting the fire. And by the sounds of things they’d be dealing with those fires for a while yet.

I could hear the roar of the inferno from where we were. Smoke saturated the air and the smell trailed us everywhere.

“That way,” Crash grunted. “We’re almost there.”

I took the lead on a corner and stupidly didn’t check if the way was clear. A guard stood there as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

Thinking as quickly as I could, I dropped Micah’s arm and shoved him back into the alley. Crash never made it around the corner.

The guard raised a gun and looked me over. “You did this?”

“Yes.”

He stared at me with an unbelieving, wild look in his eyes. It was too dark to make out his distinct features, but I got the gist. Man, tall, middle-age… gun. “You’re a girl.”

“A girl that will burn every single Colony settlement to the ground if I have to.”

His gun didn’t waver, but his resolve seemed to. “Why? For power? For revenge?”

“For peace.”

“You’re not going to-”

A gun shot rang through the air and the victim made a horrific gasping sound and fell to his knees. His gun jumped from his hands and landed a foot from me.

I lunged for it, picking it up quickly and trying not to be traumatized by the man bleeding out at my feet.

Luke stepped from the shadows, “Let’s go!”

Crash appeared around the corner hobbling with Micah. Luke sprinted over to take Micah’s free side and dragged him toward the wall.

“Page!” Luke hissed as they passed me. “What are you doing?”

I realized I had been frozen in place, staring at the guy I didn’t believe would shoot me. Blood spread out over his back, soaking his shirt in deep crimson.

I shook my head but it wasn’t enough to break the shocked trance I’d slipped into.

“Page, damn it, let’s go!”

“You killed him,” I whispered.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled so hard it hurt. “I shot him in the shoulder. I didn’t kill him. I wounded him.”

When I looked again, I could see the man was still alive and still conscious, even if he was also in a lot of pain.

“They won’t be so nice though if they find you standing here like this. We have to go now.”

I listened this time. Just when we’d slipped through the wall, I heard someone shout, “Man down! Man down!”

I breathed a stupid sigh of relief for an enemy that would not have shot to injure. He would have killed me. Maybe in the next second.

Luke had saved my life and I was worried about a man that wanted all of us dead.

We plunged into the brush. On this side of the wall, there wasn’t a path to guide us or moonlight to illuminate the way.

We stumbled our way through tangled overgrowth and a dense pocket of old trees with snarled branches and exposed roots. I could hear gun shots in the distance and if I looked over my shoulder, the city seemed to be lit from within as the fires continued to blaze.

“Did we destroy that entire town?” I asked mid-run.

“Isn’t that what you wanted to do?” Luke questioned. “Wasn’t that your whole plan?”

I didn’t answer. It hadn’t been my plan. The only thing I’d wanted to do was rescue Micah… was to end this man’s suffering and take away another victim of the Colony’s disturbed law.

But instead, I’d likely burned an entire settlement to the ground.

Nerves blistered through me as I wondered how many people would have to pay for my actions. How many of those townsfolk would be punished because of me?

Not long after we’d put distance between the city and us, we could hear men rushing toward us. There was a search party headed our way. We pushed deeper into the forest and moved as fast as we could. Limping. Struggling. Pressing on despite our capabilities and dwindling energy and skill level. Mile after mile grew more difficult until we could barely make progress.

But still we pushed forward, refusing to give up.

Refusing to get caught.

We eventually came upon a refuge in a pre-apocalypse hunting shed. To gain entry to the locked door Crash took off his shirt, wrapped his fist in it and broke the window. Once the glass was cleared out, Luke and Crash helped Trish and I inside and then we caught Micah as they tossed him in after us.

Once everyone was safely tucked away, we moved to the far side of the little shed and sat low to the ground against the wall. Shadows engulfed us, but if the guards found us here, we would be easy pickings.

“Does anyone know where we are?” I whispered.

Luke sat to one side and Crash sat on my other. Crash supported Micah while Trish checked out some of his surface wounds.

“I know the area,” Luke answered in a low voice. If we can make it through the night, I can get us back to the car.

I looked over at Micah covered in blood. Now I was covered in blood. And Crash was as well. And if Trish kept messing with Micah, she would be covered soon too. Plus, we were well into the night by now.

If the Colony guards didn’t find us… Zombies would.

I looked at the broken window and tried not to panic. “Did I mess up?” My voice was so low that I wasn’t sure anyone could hear me. I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone to hear me.

Luke’s hand landed on my knee and I flinched from the contact. His hand stayed where it was though. He didn’t move it. He didn’t relinquish the pressure. “No,” he said firmly. “You saved a man’s life today.”

“At the cost of all of ours.”

I felt him more than I saw him shake his head. “All of those people will be driven from the walls. Feeders are attracted to the light at night. They won’t be able to resist that fire. I think we have a chance.”

“Yeah, but what happens to those people?”

Luke made a sound in the back of his throat and I could tell he was already impatient with me. “Fine, Page. You made a snap decision that might have terrible effects. But you made it. You went with it. And you saved one man’s life. I don’t know what’s going to happen to those other people and right now that I don’t care. I have this mission to focus on. These lives to worry about. If I started thinking about all the chain reactions from all the decisions I made over all the days that I have to make them… I’d go insane. I’d lose my mind to the infinite potentials for disaster and death. When you’re a leader you have to make tough choices. When people follow you, you have to make decisions that will get some people hurt. That will save some people. That will inevitably affect everyone’s lives. But you can’t let that stop you from deciding. You should understand the weight of it, the power of your decisions. But you still have to decide.”

I ran a hand over my mouth and tried to stay the sick feeling bubbling inside me. “I’m not a leader though. I’m just here to help you. I have one mission. One. That’s it. I just… I-”

Luke turned to face me more completely and his hand slid to my thigh. “You’d better stop thinking like that right this second. I watched you cut Micah free. I watched as all the people in that town watched you cut that man free. Don’t tell me you’re not a leader now. Not when a hundred people can identify and describe you.”

“What do you mean?”

His voice held a smile I couldn’t make out in the dark. “You’re the official face of the Resistance, Page. We’ve managed to stay hidden for a decade and on your first day you walked right out in the middle of the day and gave a big middle finger to the Colony.”

I was speechless. I was actually speechless. My mouth opened and closed, but I couldn’t force words out. I couldn’t even make sounds.

Luke’s voice was a low chuckle when he said, “And here I thought you were nothing but a spoiled princess. You have defied all of my expectations.”

Warmth crept through me, settling some of my nerves, but inciting entirely different ones. “You’re not really what I expected either.”

His voice and tone softened when he leaned in to say, “I could tell.”

“I would just like to remind you that I told you I could take care of myself. You had absolutely nothing to worry about.”

Luke snorted. “I have absolutely everything to worry about. Don’t even get me started. The least of which is you showing up with two of Matthias Allen’s children.”

Fear turned to ice in my veins. “They’re good guys,” I quickly defended. “I swear to you on everything I am, that they hate him as much, if not more, as we do. They want him dead. I promise.”

He didn’t say anything for a long time. His back settled against the wall again and he stretched out his legs so he could cross them at the ankles. His voice dropped even lower when he asked, “So you’re a couple with, uh, what’s his name again?”

“Miller,” I whispered, doubting that Luke had actually forgotten his name.

“Yeah, Miller. You’re with him?”

I shrugged, but then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Uh, yeah, I guess.”

He laughed again and I realized that I kind of loved making him laugh. After spending forty-eight hours with him, I had observed that it didn’t happen very often. I liked being the one that could make him relax a little.

“That doesn’t sound very convincing,” he prodded. “You guess you’re a couple?”

“We are,” I said more firmly. “At least I think we are. It’s complicated. We’re going slowly.”

“Sure, that makes sense. I mean, it’s the end of the world. Y’all have plenty of time to figure out your feelings for each other.”

“We don’t want to mess it up,” I retorted hotly. “I’m pretty sure my brothers would pick him over me if things went bad between us.”

“Ha!” Luke laughed loudly. “I can guarantee they’re not going to pick the man who broke your heart. You can’t be serious.”

“Well, I was exaggerating a little bit, but still… My family will never give up Miller. No matter what happens between him and me. So I’m just trying to make this as smooth as possible.”

“She risks everything to save a complete stranger, but she wants love to be easy.” He turned to me again. “You’re a puzzle, Page Parker. A puzzle I didn’t expect.”

A sharp fluttering flashed through my belly. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

He turned to face me again. “Well, rotted teeth would certainly have helped.”

“Helped what?” My voice was barely a whisper. I didn’t know what Luke was talking about or if I should even be engaging this conversation. Instinct told me to run.

And intuition told me to wait.

“Get some sleep,” he said instead. “I’ll keep watch for now.”

“I won’t be able-”

“Try,” he insisted. “I’ll wake you the second the wind blows the wrong way.”

“Do that,” I ordered. “I’ll be ready.”

His soft murmur of, “I know that you will be,” followed me as I closed my eyes and gave into the oppressive exhaustion now that my adrenaline had fizzled out.

I didn’t know if we would make it to morning. And if we did, I didn’t know if we’d make it back to the car.

But those felt like small problems compared to the bigger battle if we did make it home.

Those felt like the least of my problems with the Colony.

And the Zombie infestation.

And this boy Luke that I knew nothing about. And at the same time… everything.