15. William

15

We get the campsite torn down and packed up in record time. Max mentioned an old grocery store somewhere back in the direction we came from after leaving the city, with a pharmacy that might have what Emily’s looking for, so she wasted no time tearing things apart so we could get back on the road again. She had doubts at first since the last few grocery stores and pharmacies she searched through had already been scavenged to their limit, but Max promised the last time he saw this one, it was mostly untouched, since most people only cared about the food there. Seeing Emily’s eyes light up with hope was brighter than the rising sun.

This means soon we’ll be taking Emily back to where we found her, and then waiting around to see if she ever comes back. It’s weird, finding myself not wanting to part with someone who isn’t one of my two best friends. But having her with us during this short time has made the days seem brighter. Even the nights have brightened up.

Part of me hopes this will be another dead end, but a bigger part of me hopes it isn’t, because I can’t be selfish enough to wish that failure on her friend, a stranger I may never get to meet.

Pieces of partial wood carvings fall out of the trunk and Griffin grumbles to himself when picking them up. That’s interesting. I haven’t seen him touch these in months.

I load the last tent into the car where Griffin is rearranging the mess that Max threw in there until Griffin chased him away and he ran off in the direction I saw Emily headed. “Have you noticed anything different about Max?”

Griffin remains focused on his task at hand, trying to shove every little thing into a spot regardless of whether it fits. “Maybe, but I’m not sure.”

I stare at the side of his head. He’s holding something back, alright. Now I’m wondering if something is different about Griffin, too. What’s happening to us?

“What the, where did this come from?” Griffin holds up the unopened bag of flour I’d swiped from the dreg’s hideout.

“Found it when we were stealing the medical supplies. I was in the kitchen next to that room Emily went into alone. I only grabbed this before I heard the commotion and realize she didn’t follow.”

“Why?”

“Because checking on her was more important than raiding a kitchen.”

“No, I mean why this flour?” Griffin asks, placing it into a perfectly tight spot in the trunk.

“She likes waffles. Maybe someday I can collect enough ingredients to make them.” I shrug. I should have grabbed the waffle iron too, but nothing else was important when I realized she was in trouble.

Looking back out at the empty campground, I see Emily standing near the dying flames of the firepit, adding various weapons onto her body. Buddy is at her side. He’s barely left her side since saving him. He’ll probably follow her back to wherever she’s going. At least she’ll be safer with him if we can’t be there.

“Safer with who?” Griffin’s voice catches me by surprise. I didn’t realize I was thinking out loud.

“The dog. She’ll probably take the dog with her since she won’t take us.”

“He’ll be with her for sure, but so will we.”

“She said we can’t follow.”

“I don’t care. She’s under my protection now.”

“You promised her.”

“Actually, I didn’t.” He finishes arranging things in the trunk and then moves to work on the mess that Max left in the backseat. I look over in time to see Emily taking off her hoodie. Max whistles loudly from somewhere at the edge of the clearing.

I make a mad dash. “Hold up, Emily. Don’t move.”

She freezes with her arms above her head along with the hoodie she’s pulling up. Her voice is muffled behind the heavy fabric. “Why?”

Without answering, I grab hold of the tank top that’s attached itself to the hoodie and pull it back down over her body. The compass falls down beneath the shirt, tucked between her breasts. My knuckles brush across the smooth, bare skin of her waist.

“My shirt was stuck to the hoodie, wasn’t it?”

I chuckle. “Yes, but don’t worry.”

“Everyone saw?”

“Nah, I don’t think anyone did.”

“Max whistled.”

“He probably found another knife, or cut off his finger or something else exciting like that,” I joke.

She sighs. I help her pull the hoodie all the way off. Her hair sticks up in varying directions from the static, and I can’t help but grin. Her hair is always a mess.

Dropping Griffin’s hoodie onto the ground at our feet, I tug her hair free of the hair tie and wrap it on my wrist. She looks up at me while I run my fingers through her hair to untangle it.

“Thanks for being my hero this morning. I know I’m a mess today.” She smiles up at me through the curtain of hair that’s fallen over her eyes again.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got you.” After doing the best I can with her hair, I turn her around and pull her hair back and into a loose braid before adding the hair tie. “That should do it. Ready to get going?”

“Almost. Just have to finish adding my weapons first because I won’t have a repeat of this morning.” She hooks the final two knives onto the inside of her boots—I have a feeling that Max upgraded her weapons in the brief span of this morning and gave her back the ones that taken from her—and then walks away. I follow her to the car and can’t help but think I wouldn’t mind being her hero more often.

I lean forward when Griffin slows the car down. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”

“Must’ve happened after we last passed through,” Griffin mumbles. Ahead of us is nothing but broken concrete and rubble from where the overpass collapsed, blocking the way through.

Max pumps a fist into the air, slamming his fist into the roof of the car.

“Hey, don’t destroy the car unless you want to unload everything into another one yourself,” Griffin berates him.

“Guess this means you’re stuck with us, pet.”

“No, I can’t be.” Emily reaches for the door handle, not seeing her compass sliding off her lap and onto the floor at her feet when she shifts. “I’ll walk.”

The locks click and her door won’t budge when she pushes against it. She glares at Griffin, who only glares back. “You’re not going anywhere without us.”

“I will be once we get that insulin and then get back to the city.” She pushes against the door again, trying and failing to break the lock.

“Like hell you are.”

Her head snaps around to face him, shock written all over her face. “You promised.”

“I didn’t promise. I only said it was an idea. An idea that I won’t entertain.”

The color drains from her face. I understand she needs to do some things on her own, but why is she this adamant about leaving us behind? Something isn’t right. I feel like something else might be at play.

Griffin turns the car around and drives back to the last exit we passed. “We’ll take a detour.”

“You can’t do this.”

“It’s the only way around the bridge, princess.”

“No, I mean this. Do you really expect to keep me with you forever?”

He turns his gaze onto her, and I see something really interesting there. “Absolutely.”

“I’ll run.”

“Handcuffs make nice bracelets.”

“I’ll get out of them again.”

“They also work well as anklets.”

“Griffin,” I say.

“I’ll fight back.”

“Please do.”

We’re approaching countless abandoned cars. They’re not all blocking the road. There still looks to be a path winding between them, but he doesn’t see what I see.

“Griffin,” I say again, louder this time.

“You’re not leaving me unless I’m physically unable to follow.”

“I can make that work.” Emily pulls out one of her knives, and he grins at her before wrapping his hand around her wrist. He’s not watching the road at all. I unbuckle my seat belt and throw myself in between them, applying pressure on his wrist to make him let go of her.

“Watch the fucking road, man,” I growl.

“What are y—” His words cut off when the tire blows. “Shit.” The car rolls to a stop and then he gets out, slamming the door shut behind him. “Stay.”

I sit back in my seat and run my hand through my hair, forgetting that I’d put it up into a bun so I wind up making a mess of it.

“William.” Her voice is so gentle and soft that I almost think I imagined it, but still I look at her, anyway. She’s looking right at me. Well, at my arm. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

Confused, I raise my arm and see the gash along my forearm. Blood trickles out, but it’s not life-threatening. An accidental cut, no big deal.

Max howls.

“Did you sharpen all of these?” Emily asks.

“Of course. I wanted to make sure you could properly defend yourself, though I didn’t expect it to be against Willie-boy here.”

I thump the back of my hand against his chest. “It’s William.”

“Potato grapefruit.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I argue, but it’s pointless.

“I’ll get the first aid kit.” Emily reaches over the center console to hit the button for the trunk and then unlocks the doors. I push open my door.

Bleeding or not, she won’t go out there on her own. Griffin is busy with the busted tire, and we’ve become stranded at the edge of a highway graveyard. I step out and stand by her side, pressing my arm against my side because it’s bleeding more quickly now. It’s still fine.

“Tire’s busted and we don’t have a spare.” Griffin stands up and kicks the flat tire. He shoves his hands into his hair and walks in a frustrated circle. “We used to have a spare, but then we needed to use it, and then when we found another good tire, we didn’t have time to take the spare with us before rotters were upon us. It’s a repeat of that, except this time we don’t have the damn spare.”

“And there are no rotters,” Max points out.

“Clearly.”

“So exactly like that situation. Well, only the part about having a flat tire. So it’s like any other situation,” Max adds, and I notice the growing frustration in Griffin.

I motion with my good arm at all the cars in front of ours. “There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of cars right here. Take one of those.”

“You did this on purpose, so I can’t leave, didn’t you?” Emily asks, her voice muffled from where she’s buried halfway in the trunk, rummaging through the supplies. Griffin packed them in tight so she struggles. Max uses his hands to hold up the top of the wall of supplies so it doesn’t topple and crush her.

“What are you doing? I spent all morning organizing that.” Griffin rounds the car to see that Emily has made a mess of the trunk. What was once a carefully organized tetris of luggage and supplies is now chaos, courtesy of Emily and her sidekick Max.

“Looking for the first aid kit. I don’t know why you didn’t put it in a place that’s easier to grab, like in front.”

Griffin silently reaches around her and pulls out the kit that’s tucked in the corner right in front. “You mean like this?”

“Oh.” Emily looks over at me and I think it’s to see how I’m doing, but then her eyes widen and all she says is “Oh” again.

“What are you doing?” Griffin growls.

“Stopped the bleeding. I didn’t want to see how long I had to wait for your bickering to end before passing out from blood loss.” I wave my arm that’s covered in a makeshift bandage made from my shirt. While it wasn’t my intention, I enjoy the way Emily’s eyes move up and down my body.

She’s so distracted that she doesn’t notice the pile of partially carved wooden pieces that she knocks out of the trunk.

“Watch what you’re doing. You’re knocking everything out.”

“Shit, sorry. Wait—Griffin, what are these?” Emily holds up two pieces I recognize as some of the failed attempts from the early days of the dead rising. I look at Griffin, waiting to see what kind of response he gives her, and whether he’ll tell her the truth.

Griffin snatches them out of her hands and tosses them haphazardly into the trunk with a grunt. “It’s nothing. An old hobby that I don’t do anymore.”

“Why not?” Emily asks, looking genuinely curious.

“Because wood carving isn’t fun anymore. All it does is bring me stress rather than relieve it. Because hobbies died along with the rest of the world, and because I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

“That last one isn’t an actual reason, but I get the sentiment,” Emily says.

“I’m not sure we’ll be able to get through, but there are enough cars here that I’ll be shocked if we can’t find a decent tire. Worst case, we hot wire a car,” Max calls back to us.

“Do you know how to hot wire a car?” Emily asks, pulling the first aid kit from Griffin’s hand.

“Not at all, but what better time to learn than this?” Max bends down and starts inspecting the tires.

“Why not take a car with a key in it? Few people took their keys when they abandoned them. Or died,” Emily points out. “Find a car with a rotter in the driver’s seat, and we’re good to go.”

Griffin lets out a sigh. “If we switch cars, I’ll have to reorganize all of this all over again.”

“That shouldn’t be an issue, considering Emily already messed up your beautiful work,” Max says.

Ignoring them, I move to a nearby van and climb on top of it. They’ll find a tire in no time, but it’ll be a waste to try moving forward if the path is too blocked off to get through.

“What are you doing? I haven’t patched you up yet,” Emily says, holding up the first aid kit.

“In a minute. Something isn’t right.” I squint my eyes and hold my hand against my forehead to block out the sun. The highway graveyard is larger than I realized. We might squeeze through or get around, but it wouldn’t be easy.

“Found one. Hand me that jack,” Max exclaims from below.

“Will you get down here and let me fix you up?”

I tune everyone out and focus on the small movement I thought I saw up ahead. Maybe it was a bird that’s long gone. Maybe it wasn’t anything. Still, I wait.

Then I see it. The sullen, rotting face. It creeps through the wreckage. It wouldn’t be a big deal if it weren’t for the one following. And then the one after that. Shit. “Everyone needs to get somewhere safe. Now.”

“What do you see?” Griffin stops halfway through working to get the flat tire off and he stands up and looks ahead, but he can’t see what I see.

Max stands with a grin and pulls his morning star from his back. “Dregs or rotters? Let it be rotters, they’re more fun. Although I could use the challenge with a good strong dreg. Is it both?”

Emily turns around in circles, clutching the kit to her chest while trying to find the threat, but it’ll be too late by the time she can see it. We’re all spread out too much, and the rotters are getting closer with each passing second. And there are a lot of them. Holy shit.

“You guys get down, or up, whatever. Emily, climb up here.” I indicate the ladder on the side of the van that I climbed up.

She turns to the van, looks up at me, and I can see the fear in her eyes. She tosses up the first aid kit and I could lecture her for wasting precious moments that she could have been climbing instead of still worrying about me, but I catch it and then drop it by my feet before focusing on her again.

Griffin and Max have hidden beneath the cars they were beside, but Emily is the only one still vulnerable. I motion for her to get inside of the van, but she looks up at me and then climbs. When she reaches the top, the ladder breaks apart from the van and before I can grab her, she falls to the ground, landing on her back. I let out a curse and look toward the herd of rotters. Some of them hear the noise and turn their attention our way.