3. William

3

Emily sits on the log next to Griffin, who’s pretending like she doesn’t exist. I’m sure that if she had a choice, she would choose the log farthest away from him. But he had to go and give her a metal bracelet. He’s concerned that she’s a danger to herself, but I think it might all be a misunderstanding. She has far too much fight in her to give up like that, and she’s too smart for her mind to be gone.

I haven’t done much since the dead rose. I practically became a lawn ornament after Griffin found me and gave me a reason to fight. That’s all I needed, was a reason, even a small one. I wonder what her reason is.

She stares into the fire, deep in thought. She’s so lost in her head that she doesn’t notice me walking toward her, or the bowl of stew I hand out to her. It makes me curious to know what’s going on in her head. Even more than that. I need to know. It’s a strange feeling that I’m not used to, not with anyone outside of my two friends.

I sit down next to her on the log, which is becoming fairly crowded now, spurring her from her thoughts. She startles and looks at me like she forgot there was anyone else around, and when I hold out the bowl of stew to her, she looks down at it with guilt. “I didn’t expect to get anything tonight. I destroyed some of your food, after all, and that’s not easily replaceable.”

“Did you do it on purpose?” I ask. She shakes her head. I thrust the bowl into her hands, forcing her to take it. Then I hold out a plastic camping spoon. “You didn’t intentionally harm us, so we won’t intentionally harm you.”

She takes the spoon from me in surprise and whispers, “Thank you.” Then she gulps it down so fast that I hand her mine next. “I can’t eat yours. You need food, too.”

“I ate mine already, this is only what was left over.” It’s a lie, but she clearly needs it more than I do. Besides, it’s not like we don’t still have more food. We may not be rolling in an endless supply, but we always have something. I’ll find something else to eat later.

She finishes my bowl of stew and then sets it down on the ground with the first one. The motion causes a tug on the handcuffs, so Griffin looks over at her for the first time tonight, and I take the opportunity to help her out some.

“My name’s William. What’s yours?”

She looks at me quizzically. We exchanged names earlier, but when I nod toward the man beside her, she catches on and plays my game. “Emily.”

“Nice to meet you, Emily. The one over there inspecting his new toy,” I nod toward Max sitting on the ground against the log on the other side of the fire and playing with the morning star, “is Max. The guy you’re chained to is Griffin.”

She gives me a small smile. Griffin hasn’t made her feel welcome in the least, and that irks me. This is the first time since the dead rose that we’ve had a stranger stay with us. We should have been more welcoming, whether or not it’s against their will. Instead, all we’ve done is treat her in a way that makes her want to run, and I don’t like that. We shouldn’t have to lose all of our humanity in order to survive. It’s clear that she isn’t interested in hurting us. “Where are we?”

“Somewhere safe,” Griffin answers, and Emily rolls her eyes. Then he catches my glare over her head and clears his throat. “About a couple hundred miles from where we picked you up, give or take.”

The blood drains from her face so fast that it nearly turns translucent in the firelight. I scoot an inch closer to her. “Is there something, or someone, back there that we took you from?”

The look in her amber eyes tells me I’ve hit the nail on the head. “Who is it?” She leans forward with her elbows resting on her thighs, wringing her fingers together. I reach out a hand and cover hers. “A family member? A boyfriend?”

She takes a few more moments to answer, and when she does, her voice is low. “A friend. She’s sick.”

“How sick?” I ask, leaning in closer.

“She really needs this medicine.”

“So that’s a no on the boyfriend front, then?” Max plops down on the ground in front of her, a grin on his face. He moves the empty bowls to the side. I’m not the violent type when it comes to my friends, but I have the urge to punch him in this moment.

A strained laugh is her response. “The last guy who tried to be my boyfriend ended up only doing it to use me. Took all the supplies and left the gate open, letting the place flood with rotters. That was almost sixty-nine days ago.”

“That’s a fun number,” Max says darkly, but he’s void of all humor.

“No, wait…which day is it? The dead rose?—”

“Two hundred and sixty-five days ago,” Griffin says, his words sharp enough to cut stone.

“Sixty-seven days ago, then.”

Griffin’s body tenses on the other side of hers, and I can see the muscles in his forearm flex when he makes a fist. He glances at her with incredulity, as do I. Griffin is the only person I’ve known to keep track of the days like that. Her doing that too wars with the information that someone was so cruel to her, something that we understand more than I wish we did.

This kind of information is something that’ll make us set the world on fire for a girl we don’t even know. It hits us harder than she may ever understand. I can feel the fire melting into lava deep inside of me with the need to find this person and rid the world of his presence. An anger I didn’t realize I have erupts inside of me, but I force it down. She doesn’t need anyone else blowing up at her right now. Griffin is more than enough. So I squeeze her hand, and she turns her amber eyes on me. “I’m sorry that someone did that to you, Emily. I don’t know you, but I can guarantee you didn’t deserve that.”

A soft smile crosses her face. It’s faint, but this time it’s genuine. “Thank you.”

“Is that why you tried to off yourself?” Max asks in his eloquent way.

Emily’s eyes widen. “I—what? No, I didn’t try to do that. Why would you think such a thing?”

“Then what the fuck were you doing drawing in a city full of rotters like that? In case you missed it two hundred and sixty days ago, when it was mentioned, they’re attracted to sound. Loud noises. Music.”

“I’m well aware of that, you stubborn asshole,” Emily fires back with her hands in the air, forcing Griffin on balance. “Which is exactly why I did that. I was drawing them all into that mall so I could have free rein to search the city without issue.”

Griffin’s jaw drops. It’s rare I see him speechless. It makes me want to shout at him I was right, but I’m not that kind of asshole. “Told you so.” Okay, so maybe I am.

Max scoots his ass across the dirt to get closer to her. He has the grin he gets when he’s up to no good. “I knew it. My girl’s a genius.”

“Your girl?” Emily snaps at him.

“Yes. I call dibs.”

“When?” I ask.

“Right now.” He grabs onto Emily’s calves, massaging the muscles and looking up at her.

I reach down to grab the bowls and then toss them at Max, forcing him to let go of her and catch them. “Clean up.”

Emily watches me with surprise. The order is out of character for me, but I know Max. He was hit far more deeply than Griffin and I were, and I know that look in his eyes more than I know myself. He wants blood, whether the blood is innocent, dead, or alive. It doesn’t matter; he wants to spill it. The story she gave us about someone betraying her like that isn’t something that any of us are going to forget, but it’s even worse for Max. Giving him something to do is the best thing for him right now, though I can guarantee he won’t rest until he hunts down this guy. Just another name to add to his revenge list.

“The food was good. Thank you for it,” Emily says.

“You’re very welcome. When was the last time you ate?”

Her eyes lift to the corner while she thinks. “Couple days, probably. I left with a bag full of food, but it wasn’t long before people who thought they deserved it more than me caught me.”

Her thumb pushes against the handcuff and I lift her hand so the metal cuff slides down her arm barely enough to expose the small burn mark on her wrist. “They did this to you?” She nods and I place a kiss on the wound. When I lift my head, I see Griffin glaring at me. The look he has makes me want to kiss her right on the mouth just to see how angry I can make him, but I won’t play with her like that. She deserves more than three broken men playing games with her. “We have a first aid kit that should still have something useful in it. I can grab it for you.”

“Don’t waste it on me. That would be pointless. It’s basically healed over already. It still itches a little is all and the cuff doesn’t help.” Her eyes narrow at the mention of the cuffs.

I chuckle. “While I can’t take that off of you without taking out Griffin in the process, I can apologize that it’s on there in the first place. I found it a few weeks ago when we scavenged an old prison. Thought it could come in use.”

“Well, it’s getting its use, alright. But seriously though, I can’t stay here for long. I need to find that medicine and get back to my friend.”

“Where is your friend?”

Her lips purse together, and she looks down at the dirt.

“Right. Well, since I can’t promise we’ll get you back to your friend, since I don’t know where she’s at, I can promise to try my best to help you find this medicine. The pharmacies in the city got wiped out early on, but we have a few other locations we plan to hit up. Maybe there’ll be something in one of those that could help.”

Her gaze shoots up to me, filled with hope. My chest swells. “You mean it?”

I hold up my hand in a scout’s honor, even though I was never a scout. “I promise to do my best.”

She wraps one arm around me in the tightest hug she can manage. She tries to wrap her other arm around me, but Griffin won’t budge. I return her hug, splaying my hands along her back. “Thank you,” she whispers into my ear. “That means more than you could know.”

I rub my palm in a circle on her back. “It’s the least we could do after kidnapping you, right?”

She slides out of my grip and I instantly miss her warmth, even though we’re sitting by the fire. She glances up at Griffin to see what he has to say about this, but he turns away, avoiding having to respond. He’s likely angry that I promised her something without consulting him first, but he put us all in this position. The least I can do is help her out as much as I can. So I stand up and go get the first aid kit.