“They haven’t attacked us,” Lucy whispered. “Maybe Alex was right and they only attack zombies.”
“I didn’t exactly say that.” I wasn’t going to take the blame if we became a target. “When that drone bombed the beach, there weren’t any zombies there, just us.”
Tanya turned in her seat to look at me. “Should we risk getting closer or not?”
When did I become the expert on drones? I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“What other option do we have?” Lucy asked. “If we can’t get back to the boats, what are we going to do?”
Tanya looked down at the map resting on her lap. “If we can’t get to the coast because it’s being patrolled, we only have one option: we’ll have to drive to Camp Prometheus and get them to tell whoever is in charge of the drones that we need to get to our boats because we have the vaccine on board.”
“Drive?” I said, shocked that she would even consider such a thing. “Hart said it’s a hundred and seventy miles from here.”
Tanya looked at me angrily, and I knew then that she was just as pissed off about us not being able to get back to the boats as I was. “What other choice do we have?”
I had to admit that I didn’t have a better idea. But the thought of driving all that way, even in the Mastiff, filled me with dread.
“We’ll check out the village before we go down that route,” I said, silently praying that we would find some sort of craft that would take us out to our boats..
Tanya nodded. “Yes, we’ll check it out. I don’t want to drive to Prometheus any more than you do but it might be our only chance to eventually get back to the boats.”
I hated the word eventually. I wanted to be back on board the Easy before dawn.
We set off at a crawl toward the ruins. All eyes were on the dark shape in the night sky, watching for any change in its flight pattern.
When we were within a quarter mile of the village, the drone banked steeply and headed our way.
“It’s coming,” I said, trying to stay calm.
Sam slammed the Mastiff into reverse and backed down the road, taking us farther inland.
The drone turned slightly and resumed its patrol pattern, ignoring us.
“We’re not going to get close to the village,” Tanya said. “They’re not just hunting zombies; they’re targeting anyone who goes near the coast, living or undead.”
“I guess we know why,” I said. “They’re making sure nobody leaves. After the message you broadcasted on Survivor Radio, they probably think people might try to sail away.”
“Alex, you’re like a broken record.” Sam was busy turning the Mastiff around on the road so that we faced inland but he wasn’t so busy that he couldn’t get mad at me.
“Well, excuse me for being pissed off,” I said. “But it looks like your message to the people has ruined our chance of getting back to the boats. If you’d considered the results of your actions before taking over the radio station and getting on air, we might…”
“Hey, man, I seem to remember you being there at the time. You couldn’t wait to get on the radio yourself.”
“I was trying to find Lucy,” I said. “I wasn’t trying to start an uprising.”
“I don’t regret telling the people the truth, man.”
“No, of course you don’t. Only now, the army is patrolling the coast thanks to you telling the truth and we have to drive nearly two hundred miles across a zombie-infested wasteland.”
“Stop arguing, boys,” Tanya said. “Save your anger for the zombies. We’re going to find somewhere safe to stop for the night. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us in the morning.”
16
Twenty minutes later, we left the road and drove across a field to the edge of the woods. Sam turned off the engine and said, “We need to check the area for zombies but this should be as good a place as any.”
Lucy opened the rear hatch and climbed out. I followed her. The night was cool and dry with a slight breeze rustling through the trees. I stretched my muscles, trying to ignore the soreness I felt in my hips and shoulders. The fall from the Mastiff had left me with a few bruises, but I knew it could have been much worse.
Tanya came around the back of the vehicle with a handful of MRE packets. “I found these in the storage compartment earlier. You two check the area while Sam and I get a fire going.”
“Sure thing,” I said. Lucy and I checked our weapons before venturing into the moonlit woods. We listened for sounds that would give away the presence of zombies like footsteps in the undergrowth or a low moan but the night was quiet.
“It looks like the steaks are going to have to wait,” I said as we walked deeper into the woods.
“They’ll keep,” she replied. Then she added, “Maybe you should go easy on Sam. He did what he thought was right at the time. He couldn’t have known it was going to lead to this. Anyway, if they hadn’t taken you to the radio station, we wouldn’t have found each other again.”
“I know,” I said, “and I’m grateful to them for that. I’m not really mad at Sam. It’s just this situation. We’re setting off on a long journey tomorrow and that terrifies me.”
“It terrifies me too,” she admitted. “But it isn’t Sam’s fault. You said he hadn’t considered the consequences of his actions but what about your actions toward him? He’s not made of stone, you know. You’re hurting his feelings when you blame him for everything that goes wrong.”
“Not made of stone? Are we talking about the same person? Sam is so laid back he makes the Dalai Lama look tense.”
“Sure, if you look at the face that Sam presents to the world. He’s cool and calm and he calls everyone “man”. But how well do you know the real Sam, the man underneath all that bravado?”
“Well, I don’t,” I admitted. “I always thought he was exactly the person he seemed to be.”
“Alex, nobody is that shallow.”
“I’m not saying he’s shallow. He’s just… Sam.”
She stopped and looked around at the dark, quiet woods. “Come on, let’s go back. There aren’t any zombies out here.”
As we walked back to the Mastiff, I said, “I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings.” She had made me feel bad. I hadn’t known Sam long but I considered us to be friends. I’d taken my anger at the situation out on him and that made me feel pretty shitty.
When we arrived back at the Mastiff, Sam and Tanya had built a fire on a patch of bare ground near the trees. At the moment, only sticks and small branches were crackling and hissing in the flames. Larger logs were stacked nearby.
Sam was putting MRE food pouches into plastic packets and adding water from a canteen before folding over the tops of the packets and putting them into the MRE cardboard boxes. When he had done that four times, he set all four boxes against a fallen log, leaning them at a forty-five degree angle.
“Chicken noodles okay for everyone?” he asked when he saw us.
“What’s with the water?” I asked, sitting down next to him. I hoped we could talk on a friendly level and repair any damage that may have been done to our friendship. Also, I really didn’t know what he was doing with the water and the pouches.
“Those are smokeless MRE heaters,” he said. “You put the food pouch in with a heater pad. When water hits the pad, it makes it heat up. Some sort of chemical reaction. You close the whole thing up and put it into the MRE box until it heats up the food.”
“Cool,” I said.
“Hopefully not,” he said. “I prefer my food warm.”
“How much food do we have?” Lucy asked.
“Four more chicken noodles and eight meatballs in marinara sauce,” Tanya said. “That’s all there was in the Mastiff’s storage compartment.”