21. William

21

Spending the morning digging through piles of clutter has finally proven to not be a waste of time when my fingers close around a bottle of vegetable oil. I set it inside of my bag along with the sugar, baking powder, and salt I’d acquired. Now all I need is to find a waffle iron and figure out how to get fresh eggs, and I’ll be able to make Emily her waffles.

I can’t believe it took me this long to even think about searching the town for these things. Max had checked the drugstore and brought out the canned goods that we’ve been eating the past few days, but I didn’t even think about what else might be in here until now. Things he didn’t think to grab.

We need to keep an eye out for chickens. I know we won’t be in this town for much longer, with Griffin getting better every day and Emily still having a mission we’re all going to help her complete, but maybe, just maybe, we could do something with this town. If we could find chickens and keep them here, then we could have fresh eggs to make waffles every single morning.

As long as Emily comes back to us.

I think about yesterday when she climbed up onto the roof to sit next to me while I played. It was the first time since the dead rose that I put my lips to the harmonica and made music. The most surprising of all is how much Emily liked it. She even wants me to teach her how to play it someday, and now I haven’t been able to stop thinking about which song I’m going to teach her first. And if I can find another harmonica, we could play together. The thought makes my stomach flip.

Maybe someday I’ll be able to teach her how to play a guitar, too, if we ever find one. A world of music could be ours again.

I close up my bag with my findings and try to think about where to hide them. Probably in the bar next to the general store. No one has gone in there since the incident.

On my way back toward the front of the town that we’ve made into our home base, I stop in at the bakery. The most foul stench reaches my nose when I open the door and I almost double over.

All the food inside has gone bad. This building will take some extra care if we ever wanted to clean it out and use it for something. There’s a diner farther down the road that might have a waffle iron, but that place will have the same issue with spoiled food.

Well, someone has to do it.

Setting down my bag of finds outside the door, I take a deep breath of fresh air before venturing inside. I move as quickly as I can, gathering all the spoiled food together that I can fit into the first trash can I find and then rush out the door again, gasping for air.

Most of this can be dumped into the fires for fuel, so I set off toward the fires back behind the general store first. I stop and listen when I hear Emily’s laugh. She’s playing with Buddy. Finding that dog has been good for her. I wonder if there’s a pet shop in this town. We’ll have to explore it before we leave.

I unload the food into the fires as quickly as I can before the stench can reach anyone else, and notice that the fires back here as low on wood, so I add some more and then head into the trees to refill the piles. With how many fires we have going around here, we go through wood pretty quick.

When my arms are full of as many sticks as I can carry, I turn around to head back when my foot steps on a soft piece of ground and I go down.

The landing hurts, except for part of it that was cushioned by a soft body. I scramble to my feet and look around. The sun barely reaches down here, but I can make out the stirring forms of a few rotters that I seem to have woken up. They reach their hands out and gnash their teeth at me. Flesh falls from their bones when they move. I raise my hand to stab the one closest one to me when I realize I must’ve dropped my knife. I glance up and see how high it is. It’ll be quite the climb. I shut my eyes for a moment to gather my senses and then pull out the gun on my hip and end the three rotters with one bullet each, thankful I still carry the one we took from the dregs in the pub.

My breaths quicken, but I force my mind not to venture back to the day when the dead rose. Instead, I look up again and study the dirt walls surrounding me. The hole I’ve fallen into is maybe five feet wide and several feet deep. Really deep. Way deeper than my height. The top looks so far away from down here and the longer I stare at it, the farther away it seems to get.

Dizziness. I press a hand against the dirt wall to steady myself. The rotting stench invades my nose. I can’t stay here.

Taking a deep breath, I grab onto anything and everything I can and climb. My hands and feet slip. I try again.

The dirt crumbles beneath my touch.

The top of the hole seems to get farther and farther away, even when I should be getting closer.

My breathing intensifies.

I swallow hard, wishing I had brought some water. When did it get so hot?

My breaths come out ragged as I hyperventilate.

Images flash across my mind. The underground bunker with the broken ladder. The radio warnings while losing signal. My friends. Their screams and cries as they became infected, and then their gurgles when I ended them before they could infect me. The stench of their rotting bodies. The thought that it might be the end for me, too. The overwhelming darkness that I couldn’t climb out of for over two-hundred days.

Something falls to the dirt in front of me, but I can’t see anything other than the still forms of my friends begging me to help them.

Warm, soft hands press against my cheeks, a voice that sounds muffled and far away.

The vague scent of strawberries cutting through the stench of rot.

The darkness fades. Not completely, but enough to see the comforting amber eyes staring up at me, and the beautiful pink lips forming words I can’t make out. I think she’s saying my name. She looks worried. She shouldn’t look this worried. I can fix it if I can figure out what’s bothering her.

The passing days.

My dead friends.

Alone. Alone. Alone.

Her lips press against mine and the world stops.

Her fingers curl in, lightly scratching my cheeks, and the empty forms of my friends disappear.

Her body presses against mine and the darkness fades.

My hands cup her face, one sliding back to grip her hair. We break our kiss and the sounds come back. The birds in the trees above. Footsteps pounding the earth, getting closer. Our breaths coming out in pants and mingling in the air between us.

“William,” she whispers. I can hear her now. Not clearly, but she’s coming through. “Come back to me, William.”

“How did you get here?” I tip my head down until our foreheads are touching, her gentle hands still on the sides of my face.

“The gunshots. I heard them and came running. You were the only one I didn’t see. Then I saw this hole caved in. I screamed your name, but you couldn’t hear me, so I jumped down.”

“Now you’re stuck, too.” Guilt gnaws at me. She’s trapped down here now and it’s all because of me. The only person who’s life I care about, other than my two best friends. Another life I’ve ruined.

“Stay with me, William.” Her hands press against my cheeks, applying pressure and grounding me. “We’re not stuck. Griffin and Max will get us out. And even if they don’t, you and I could work together to get out of here. We’re not trapped here, William, I promise you that. You’re not alone.”

Her words touch a part of me I didn’t know could still be reached. Somewhere deep inside of me. My eyes flutter closed and I breathe her in. The scent of the living overpowering the stench of the dead. She’s here with me. I’m not alone anymore.

Something hangs alongside the wall beside us. A rope. “Take it,” she says. “I’ll be right behind you.”

“I’m not leaving you down here.” My eyes pop open and meet hers. She looks as stubborn as I feel.

“Neither am I,” she whispers.

“We threw down the rope, someone can climb,” Griffin’s voice calls from above.

“Find a ladder,” Emily calls up to them without breaking eye contact.

“We didn’t see a ladder,” Max adds.

“Then make one,” she says. “We’re climbing out together.”

Minutes pass. Maybe hours. I don’t know, time means nothing. I’ve got Emily in my arms, fighting away my demons. All that matters is her. Her mere presence pushes back images she’ll never see. Images that have haunted me every day since the dead rose.

Eventually, two ladders appear beside us. One sturdy and metal, and the other handmade with ropes and pieces of wood. I make Emily take the more sturdy one and we climb out together. She refuses to take a step faster than me and I realize that this woman jumped into a dark hole of the unknown solely because I was in trouble. No one’s done that since Griffin did all those months ago.

Now, as I sit by the fire while she leans with her back against my chest, and my arms around her, I realize something monumental.

I’m no longer alone.

“How are you holding up?”

Griffin looks up from where he’s leaning over the counter, studying something. “My stitches are perfectly fine,” he growls, making me smile. Emily has been giving him shit for busting his stitches and his reaction has been worth it every time one of us asks.

“You’re lucky we had that first aid kit. I can’t imagine how she would’ve tried to fix you up otherwise.”

“Yeah, yeah. Did you come in here for something other than giving me shit? Are you and Max on a schedule now?”

I grin and shake my head. “No, but that’s a good idea. Let me go find Max.”

“William.”

The grin falls from my face and I turn serious. “I want to talk with you about finding the insulin for Emily’s friend, and what might happen after.”

Griffin straightens up and crosses his arms, an unreadable look on his face. “That’s a good question, and something I’ve had some thoughts on as well. What is it you have in mind, exactly?”

“Look, I know that we all care for her. That’s clear as day. Even your stubborn ass, so you can’t deny it.”

“Are you going somewhere with this or did you only come in here to insult me?”

One corner of my lips turns up. “Figured that wouldn’t surprise you. I’d like to propose a motion to let her stay, and not as a hostage.”

He scoffs. “She stopped being a hostage a long time ago. She just hasn’t realized it yet.”

“You’ll let her go?”

His face hardens. “If that’s what she wants, then I won’t stop her, no matter how hard that might be.” He lets out a small laugh. “I can’t, even if I try. But she’ll stay, and her friend, too.” He grins bigger than I’ve seen him grin in a long time. It’s an odd look on him. He almost looks scarier than Max. “We can finally start our own colony, William. We’re not the last of the decent-assholes left in the world, she’s proof of that. There might even be others, but we’d have to vet them first.”

“How do you propose doing that, handcuffing them to yourself during a probationary period?”

“Oh, you’re funny. I don’t know when you got your humor back, but keep it up.” His comment throws me by surprise, but he’s not wrong. “We can build a wall around the town to keep out rotters, and have someone patrolling to keep out the dregs. We can search the area for any other traps that might still be up and rework them to our advantage.”

“You’ve given this a lot of thought.”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think lately.”

What he says sounds good. Almost too good to be true. Then again, maybe I’m so used to everyone leaving that I expect it. But maybe this time someone will stay. Maybe she’ll stay.

“A good way to convince her to stay would be to help her find her friend’s insulin.” His ideas give me hope, but I can’t let him forget about the most important thing. The reason we’ve traveled all this way.

“About that.” Griffin uncrosses his arms and moves back to the counter, beckoning me over. There’s a large map spread out. It looks well used. “I found this shoved in the back of a drawer, figured it could come in handy. There are a few places on it that could have the potential to have what Emily’s looking for. I want us to head out soon to check it out, preferably tomorrow. If it’s successful, I want to let Emily go.”

“You what?” So soon? I was expecting to have more time with her, at least more than a day. Although I can’t imagine any amount of time that would be enough.

“Let her go. Give her the choice to stay so she doesn’t feel like a prisoner anymore. I’ll drive her as far as she’ll let me and then trust that she’ll be okay and that she’ll come back. I’ve made that mess and this is me trying to fix it. She’ll come back to us and stay.”

“How certain are you of that?”

“There’s no reason not to. Like you said, we’ve all formed a connection. None of us are blind to what she’s been forming with each of us. We know it’s not normal, but our lives aren’t normal. I don’t know what her life is like where she left her friend, but with us she’ll have food, shelter, and protection. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t have any of that where she came from.”

After talking over some of Griffin’s ideas to start our own colony with the four or five of us, and deciding on the first location to check for the insulin, we decide to get started first thing in the morning. I can’t wait to tell Emily.