24. Emily

24

My nerves are electric. I’m afraid to get my hopes up in case I get let down again, but Gregory said he’s certain there’s insulin here, so I want to trust that he’s telling the truth and not leading us into a trap.

We have no clue what kind of people these are. We don’t know if they’re dangerous dregs, or normal survivors forming a colony. I’ve kept my head down in case they’re the former, but curiosity keeps me wanting to look up.

We stop moving, and I glance up enough to see Gregory turning white when we reach another group of people. My fingers close around the small knife in my pocket. William moves closer to me, his arm brushing against mine.

“Gregory? Didn’t think we’d see you again. You brought visitors?” There’s hesitation in the woman’s voice, but she looks kind. I breathe out a small sigh of relief. This is a sign that they’re not like any dregs we’ve encountered before. That type never has kindness.

“Claire, yes, I came across this group of people. We might have something that they desperately need,” Gregory says.

“Like what?”

“A friend of theirs has diabetes and needs insulin. I remembered someone recently coming in with some, enough to share.”

I tilt my head back and allow the hood to fall down enough to reveal my face with my pleading eyes. “Please,” I say. “Zoey doesn’t have much time left. We’ve done everything to prolong her needing more, but it’s only a temporary patch. We’ve been traveling around, searching everywhere.”

She holds my eye contact for a minute before she gives a small smile and nods. “We have some in the nurse’s station. We can spare a few vials, enough to get through another two weeks. If your friend is still in need later on and you haven’t found any more, bring her here.”

Relief floods through me with such force that I nearly drown in it. William wraps an arm around my waist to keep me from crumpling to the floor in tears. Finally, my search is ending. Zoey will be able alright. A few vials won’t be much, but it’s more than zero. It’ll buy her time, and I will find more. I’ll never stop searching.

“However,” Claire continues, “I’ll need to trade it for something of value.”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘something of value’?” Griffin asks.

“It’s subjective, so whatever is important to you, I’ll accept. Whatever you deem worthy of the trade.”

“Here.” Max unloads weapons that were hidden on him. “Take any of these.”

“We have enough weapons already. I’ll actually give you some of our knives for free. We have so many.”

“But these are important to me,” Max says, his face twisted with confusion.

“Medical supplies, we have gauze and ointment,” Griffin offers next.

“We’re bursting at the seams with those, but I’m not uninterested. Do you have something, anything, that isn’t the typical survival items?” Claire tilts her head and looks at my neck. “What kind of necklace do you have?”

Max snorts. “Figures, you’d be more interested in jewelry than in knives.”

My compass grows hot against my skin. I reach through the top of the hoodie and pull it out, revealing it to her. My heart sinks when her eyes light up.

“Is that a compass? That could be very useful. I don’t believe anyone here has one of these.”

She reaches out to touch it, but William shoves his hand in between us. His fingers open to reveal the small object in his palm. “This. I know it doesn’t look like much, but this can save your asses. When you play it, it can draw rotters away from one spot, to a new spot. Once they move, you stop playing and get out of the way before they get to you.”

“When you mention drawing them away from one spot to another…”

“If you’re ever on a scavenging mission and there are too many of them huddled around a building you want to get into, go to another area, play this, and it’ll draw them there.”

“Why can’t I simply make noise doing literally anything else?”

William gets a serious look in his eyes, his beautiful blues turning hard. “Because you said you need something of value, and this is the most valuable thing I have. I used it just recently to redirect a group of rotters that were going after Griffin while he was sleeping.”

Griffin’s head snaps over to look at him, his brows raised. Oh, that’s right, we never told him about that.

Claire’s lips turn up in a smile, and she takes the harmonica. I see the moment that William’s eyes dim. When she turns around to walk, I grab William’s arm. “How could you? That’s far too important to you.”

He smiles sadly down at me. “Not nearly as important as you.”

My heart chooses that moment to master gymnastics, and I reach up onto my toes and kiss him, hard. His arms wrap around my waist while mine loop around the back of his neck and his mouth opens for me. There’s simply not enough time right now for me to convey my appreciation.

Time is such a funny thing. I wish we had more of it.

I pull away so we can get moving, but he holds onto me for a moment longer. “When we get in there, I’ll distract them while you sneak more than that,” William whispers in my ear. I nod to show I heard him, and we follow Claire to the nurse’s station.

Max hangs back to whisper to us next. “Or we could kill everyone and take the lot.”

“We’re not doing that,” I say, poking him in the side. He grins, but keeps walking.

“Well, here you go.” Claire turns around to face us before opening both of the refrigerator doors.

My hands press against my cheeks as I take in the shelves full of vials. There is enough here to last way over two weeks. This amount can be life-changing for her.

William keeps his word and gets busy asking questions about the people there. I somewhat listen while I began stuffing vials into my pockets, and Griffin and Max each take some as well. There are so many vials that I don’t know how they can tell how many we take unless they heavily count them. I make sure there are enough left in the front of give the illusion that there aren’t so many missing from the back.

“How many people are staying here? This is a pretty decent sized building.”

“About twenty-five to forty. Smaller groups travel out for days at a time looking for supplies, and we take in survivors who want to be here,” Claire explains.

Griffin grows intrigued at this and stuffs two more vials into his pockets before turning around to question her himself, taking William’s spot while William starts grabbing vials next. “You have a colony here?”

“Well, sort of. It’s not as organized as we’d like it to be yet, but we’re trying.”

“How do you choose who you can accept?”

“We don’t have much of a process in place yet to be honest, but as long as we can tell that you can be a helpful member of society, you’re in. Everyone has some sort of responsibility here.”

After filling my pockets, I walk over and see the most hope in Griffin’s eyes that I’ve seen since I first jumped out of the trunk. It hurts because I want him to join my colony even though I know he can’t, but I’m happy for him because of how badly he needs this. He’s been wanting this for so long, and when he looks over at me, I have to look away.

“Do you think your group could accept us?”

“What do you have to offer?”

“Strength and protection. We don’t have much in the way of supplies, but we can get some.”

Another guy I don’t recognize approaches Claire’s side and joins the conversation. He must have been eavesdropping. “The problem with that is one of your people needs insulin. That’s difficult to come across nowadays, so if we help her, then we would need to make sure we get enough out of it in return.”

“Does someone else here need it?” I ask. It didn’t occur to me that someone else could rely on it before I grabbed all that I could.

“No,” the man answers, and I frown at that.

“Then why do you deny it to someone who does?” I ask.

“We’re giving it to you,” he answers.

“Two weeks’ worth at a time,” Max interjects. “Sounds to me like you want to hold on to it all for bartering. Holding it over the heads of those who really need it.”

“That’s not true.”

“Did you, or did you not, take something from us in order to give us insulin?” Max raises an eyebrow while he waits for an answer.

“How many did you take?” the man asks, ignoring Max’s question.

“Two weeks, because we respect the survival needs of others and thought someone here must need it, but now I’m thinking we should take it all.”

“Max.” I lay a hand on his forearm that I know is going for a weapon. “It’s fine. We’ll get these to Zoey and then figure something out.”

I can’t risk losing these. Not when I’ve finally found her life-saving medication. It’s a rush that I didn’t expect to feel. We need to get out of here. They can come back while I’m gone, but I need to go before I risk losing these. Before I risk losing Zoey.

“You should listen to the lady,” the man says, and I feel Max’s arm flex beneath my hand.

A smile lights up Max’s face and I know it means trouble. “You’re right. We got what we need, so let’s just?—”

The movement is almost too fast to catch, but I’m the only one who sees the knife slicing through Max’s palm. He shoves the knife out of sight again before hollering in pain.

“What’s happened?” Claire asks, rushing over.

“Something cut me. All this medical supplies, and no one can even grab any without bleeding to death.” Max holds his hand in the air, blood dripping down his palm and onto the floor.

“Well, don’t just stand there, help him.” Claire pushes at the man, who’s staring at Max with disbelief, and they both spring into action. Max continues to howl in pain, but when I panic, he winks at me and kisses my cheek before continuing his charade. He whispers something to William, who immediately turns back to the insulin and grabs a few more vials.

It takes a while for them to bandage Max’s hand because he’s an insufferable patient who puts on a show. Griffin seems annoyed with the total fiasco, but he goes along with it. “You’re a dumbass. I can’t believe you cut yourself this badly in a medical supplies room. What would you have done if we’d been out on the streets?”

“Bled to death, I guess.” Max shrugs. “It’s kind of a rush. Did you feel this lightheaded when you nearly bled to death?”

Claire’s eyes widen, but Griffin shakes his head in disbelief. William chuckles, which turns into a cough, when the other man looks at him over his shoulder.

“There, that should do it.” Claire breathes out a heavy breath and steps back. Her arms cross over her chest when she looks at her handiwork.

“Ah, that’s better. It’s a little itchy, though.”

“Maybe you should try scratching it with a knife,” Griffin deadpans.

Claire and the other man look between them with confused looks on their faces.

“Perhaps later. Then my favorite pet can play nurse for me.” Max walks over and plants a kiss on me, placing one hand on my lower back so I don’t topple over with the force of it.

“Did you get what you need?” Claire asks, and I push away from Max and close the refrigerator door before they could see how much is missing. Hopefully, we’ll be long gone before that happens.

“We should get going,” I say, pleading with my eyes if any of them were to look at me, but they’re not. They’re all watching Claire and the newcomer as though someone’s waiting for something to happen.

“Let’s go,” Griffin finally says, breaking the tension. He places a hand against my lower back and guides me down the hall in the direction we came, leaving Gregory behind. Once the cool night air hits my skin, I know I’ve done it. I got it.

I’m coming home, Zoey.