— Beca —
We were being watched. I could sense it as I started awake in the early hours of the morning, a cold sweat creeping across my skin. Chloe was lying pressed against me on the backseat, a familiar arrangement by now. Jesse, keeping watch from the front, turned to check on me.
"Hey." he whispered. I let out a breath.
"Something isn't right, Jesse." A flash of fear crossed his face, and then he relaxed.
"You were probably just having a nightmare, Becs. I've been watching since you got back there, nothing's happening out there." He turned away again, peering out of the windscreen into the darkness surrounding us. I strained my ears and heard nothing but the wind. Maybe he was right. But I couldn't shake the prickling feeling on the back of my neck, even as I buried my face into Chloe's chest, feeling the warmth take over me as she hummed and pulled me closer. I fell back into an uneasy sleep, and woke again at dawn feeling unrested and on edge. Once everyone was up, I took out the map and poured over it, hoping to see that we were close to a viable trail. It didn't seem like it, but with any luck it wouldn't take us more than a day of driving before we were into the forest. I hurried us along with our morning routine, and soon we were packed back into the vehicles and moving along the highway again. We could only have been driving for a few minutes when I saw something glinting through the trees alongside us out of the corner of my eye. Chloe was driving, Jesse dozing next to me in the back, and I quickly pressed my face up to the window, staring out. What the hell was that?
"You okay back there?" Chloe spoke without turning her head, ever the careful driver. I peeled my forehead off the window, wiping at the smudges of my breath.
"Sorry, yeah I thought I saw something." Then, something caught my eye again, this time a flash of light reflecting off of something just inside the trees. It was like something was moving alongside us. I tried to quell my rising panic and keep my voice steady.
"Hang on… I think there's something there…" I said, touching my forehead to the glass once more. It was so hard to make out anything properly through the layer of dust and grime coating the window. I pulled back, and started to wind it down. The influx of cool air woke Jesse, and he stared at me groggily.
"Whatcha doing that for?" He mumbled, sitting upright. I didn't answer, instead leaning my head slightly out to gaze across and into the trees. Maybe I was just going insane. It wouldn't surprise me, not after everything. If anything, it was surprising I hadn't cracked sooner. I stayed like that for a while, ignoring Jesse poking my back at regular intervals, trying to get me to pull my head back in. I was about to give up when I saw it. The unmistakable gleam of sunlight on metal. There was something following us. My stomach dropped to my feet, and I practically fell back inside in my haste, winding the window up frantically.
"What was that all about?" Jesse asked, worried now that he could see my expression.
"Something's following us. In the trees there, I kept seeing it. It's a car or something." He paled, and looked nervously over my shoulder and out of the window, as if he expected something to leap out an attack us any second. Chloe caught my eye in the rear-view mirror, similarly alarmed.
"Are you sure?" I nodded grimly, not daring to look again. I was certain of what I'd seen, and I knew it was bad. If this was the people from the Franklin Walmart, as I assumed it had to be, then we were in real trouble. The truck rumbled along behind us, and I wondered what to do next. I couldn't fathom why they were following us along the highway. Why not just attack us full-force back in Franklin? Or do so now? Maybe there were only one or two of them now, or maybe these people were somehow unrelated to what we'd seen in the store. There were a thousand possibilities, but none of them were putting me at ease. It just didn't make sense. I knew how to work with a predictable situation, even if it was sprung upon me. Like a fight. They happened fast, but I always knew exactly what to do, because people are predictable. Even now, the infected could be relied upon to follow the same habits as we had come to learn they would. But this… this was outside the norm, and I couldn't figure out what to do next. Chloe could see me thinking hard in the mirror, and spoke up.
"We should stop." I felt my eyebrows shoot up, incredulous. She sighed. "I'm serious Beca, if we're being followed, it's better we deal with it now, rather than lead whoever it is further towards where we're headed." It made sense. The logic of the situation jumped out at me, and i felt a wave of mild relief as I rose up to meet it.
"You're right, of course. Let me just dig out some spare ammo from the bag and we can pull up." I replied, beginning to rifle through the big rucksack for the inner pocket housing my stash of ammunition. Jesse watched me nervously, pulling the shotgun into his lap.
"Are you sure about this? We don't know what we're getting into here, who we're facing or how many there are." He said. I refused to look up, knowing that I wasn't yet determined enough to meet his gaze.
"I'm sure. Chloe's right, if we don't face them now we'll only have to do it later, when we're closer to where we're trying to go to hide from people just like this. There's no way for us to lose them right now." He bowed his head, knowing I was right but similarly sharing my apprehension at facing the unknown. It wasn't an easy call. Thankfully Chloe seemed resolute now, her unwavering gaze fixed on the road ahead, no trace of worry on her face. I risked a glance out of my window - nothing, but my feeling of dread remained, and I knew it was merely wishful thinking to imagine we were suddenly alone again.
This might be the one time in my life I'd rather be crazy.
Slowly, Chloe began to break, and the truck behind us followed suit until we had both reached a stop. I quickly motioned for Aubrey to stay in the cab and leave the engine running as Jesse and I clambered out of the car, clutching our guns. Better to be ready for another quick getaway. The heat outside the car was striking, the tarmac already burning at the soles of my shoes. I wiped a hand across my forehead, blinking profusely as I tried once again to peer through the thick layers of undergrowth and trees running alongside the highway. The only sound was the slow rumble of the two engines, and crickets chirping in the distance. The silence pressed down on me as hard as the sun, making my head spin. Jesse was shuffling his feet nervously as he too scanned our surroundings. I could now hear hushed voices from the back of the truck, wondering what was happening. I forced myself to focus. And then, the silence was snapped in two by a loud 'CRACK' coming from the woodland adjacent to us. I wasted no time in raising my gun and aiming directly at the source of the sound as I began to move forward. Suddenly, a shot rang out from behind me, glancing off of the pavement next to me milliseconds later. I spun around. Another shot, this time ahead of us and to the right, buried itself in the side of the car. Chloe shrank down into her seat, and I scrambled to decide how to use cover. It felt like we were surrounded. By now, the others in the back of the truck had clearly had enough of waiting to find out what the commotion was, and they began to pile out led by Amy. She squinted out into the dazzling sunlight, barely flinching as a bullet immediately flew past her head.
"Blimey!" She jumped down, and hefted her wrench into the air. "COME AND GET IT THEN!" she roared, waving her arms madly. I stared at her in disbelief. Only Amy could stand up like that in the face of near-certain death. You couldn't deny it was effective though. There was a pause in the shots, and with that the rest of the group was out and stood with us, Chloe at my back with a fierce look in her eye. There was something so powerful about this group of people, and I couldn't help but smile as I caught Amy's eye and she let out another great bellow. I found myself, along with everyone else, joining in. It felt kind of good to just let go after everything. Figures began to materialise at the edge of the trees. I could count maybe seven or eight of them, a few of them weighed down with enormous machine guns. It reminded me of something, but I wasn't in the right frame of mind to think on that now. I noticed that one of them had a rifle, and was aiming for another shot, right at me. I started to duck when I noticed that the barrel of the gun was shaking wildly, despite the person's attempts to keep it under control. When they finally fired, the shot went wide over our heads, and we cheered uproariously. The sheer madness of it all coupled with the intense release of pressure was making me giddy. I fired a shot in return now I had targets, and only barely missed, causing the figure to drop the rifle and back away swiftly. Who were these people? It seemed odd to me that the same people who had somehow ruthlessly executed a large group of people in a Walmart near Franklin and then gone on to butcher their corpses were now having such a hard time hitting the extremely large target our group was currently providing them with. It just didn't add up. And then one of the figures stepped forwards again, and it hit me. We were still within reach of the hospital, that much was clear, for standing in front of me now was another teenager, confused and scared and clutching a gun they clearly had no idea how to use, nor the desire to do so. I suddenly didn't know what to do again. I couldn't shoot these kids, they clearly weren't doing this of their own volition, plus they really were just kids. This was insane. I looked around at my group, all similarly stunned. Even Amy had stopped her war cries. I knew there was more to it though. I scanned the figures, searching for their leader. Somewhere here was an adult who really was going to face some kind of reckoning for this. I heard another shot ring out from the left of me, and turned, expecting to see the bullet bounce off of the pavement nearby. Slowly, a hot pain began to burn its way through my left leg, and I fell involuntarily to my knees. What was happening? I looked down, only to see a pool of blood steadily growing around me. Oh great. This again. I looked up again just in time to see a man emerge from the bushes, and without hesitation I raised my gun and fired 3 shots in quick succession. In no time at all, he too hit the ground. I didn't need to keep looking to know I'd hit my marks - head, heart, lower abdomen. The kid soldiers suddenly scattered, and I heard car doors slam and an engine rev and race off into the distance. I was gratified to note that they didn't even bother trying to check on their commander, and it looked like they'd all dropped their guns too. I hoped they would be able to find their own freedom now. Everyone was stood around me in shock, even Chloe, still trying to catch up with what had just happened. Benji was the first to move, pulling me to my feet and throwing me over his shoulder with surprising ease.
"Jesse, come with me. You know what we have to do now." He spoke briskly, and through the white noise of the pain radiating out from my thigh, I realised fully what was happening with me. I'd just been shot. I hadn't even registered it at the time, instead reacting instinctively to take down the threat, then to assess the remaining situation. How crazy. In another life, one where I enjoyed being told what to do, I'd probably have made an amazing secret agent. Thoughts like this swirled and muddled in my head. The screaming of the cicadas seemed to be growing louder, the heat from the sun almost pushing me physically into the ground where I lay, with Jesse and Benji leaning over me. I decided I didn't need to be present for what was coming, and with that, everything finally faded out to black.
— Chloe —
I'd come a long way. In truth, watching Beca get shot was never going to match the utter terror I'd felt when we found her in the hospital, and I found myself now remaining surprisingly calm as Jesse and Benji whisked her away to remove the bullet. I began to take charge, and the others seemed glad of being told what to do next. I got them to gather up the discarded weapons and search for anything else beyond the trees that might have been left whilst I made my way over to the dead man stretched out on the tarmac. His eyes were glazed over, but his mouth remained fixed in a slimy smile, still laughing about what he'd managed to do to one of us. I wrestled his rifle from his stiffening grip, and did a quick search of his pockets, taking anything I thought could prove useful. In fact, he didn't have as much on him as I had hoped. I could hear Jesse and Benji speaking in low voices back by the truck, and I quickly got to my feet and started back over towards them. What was I doing, scavenging odd items from a corpse while my partner was shot and having a bullet pulled out of her leg? I broke into a jog, arriving back just as they triumphantly held up a fully intact bullet to the light.
"Once again, the odds went in our favour." Benji sighed, relieved. I put a hand to Beca's cheek, feeling the full force of my worry creep up on me all at once now I had evaded my self-governed distractions.
"Is it going to heal okay?" I asked, and he nodded, seeming calm.
"Again, she's lucky. Injuries to the thigh can hit major blood vessels, but the placement of the shot and the fact that the bullet didn't break up at all mean she should be fine. She might have some muscle damage, but the only way to remedy that would be actual surgery. We'll just have to force her to take it easy for the next couple weeks, that's the best we can do." Jesse and I shared a look of giddy disbelief. I glanced back at the steadily darkening puddle of blood back over between the two vehicles where it had happened.
"Did she… does she need blood or anything?" I asked, biting my lip nervously. Benji shook his head, threading a thin needle that he had produced from a sterile pack within the first aid kit.
"She should be fine, I'm going to stitch it now and after that we still have some fluids left over that we could give her if she needs, but she's got off lightly with this one so I'm not anticipating that." Whenever Benji was treating somebody or speaking about medicine, he gained this cool kind of composure which steadied his voice, gave him a confident glow. I was so glad we had him with us on this trip. Watching him now, carefully instructing Jesse on how to stitch up Beca's wound, I was suddenly overcome with a flood of emotion and turned away. Some days felt like too much, some like nothing at all. Right now, I looked on as my little found-family came together, collecting up supplies and talking, and I felt everything. Tears slid silently down my cheeks as Amy caught my eye and without saying anything, came over and wrapped me into a crushing hug. I had to believe that we could all make it through this together, and looking at us now, unified, I truly could start to see into that future.