16

Rhys considered this. At last he said, "You better get in the truck. And we'd better take your new friend. I'd hate to leave her out here. Zs will devour road kill faster than the ants and vultures, and for Christ's sake, we've got have some natural order around here. She's gonna be like a dinner bell to any Z in the area and bring hem right to us. We need this road clear."

The way Dean carried Casey's body reminded Hope that Dean was gentler than she gave him credit for. Then again, Dean was Taddy all over again.

"I'll take you back to school," Rhys said. He put the truck into gear and after a few jolts it chugged smoothly along the road.

"Word just came over the radio," Rhys said. "They've found one of their nests. I reckon they'll find soldiers in there as well as bloody kids."

"I don't wanna be a soldier," Hope said. "This sucks."

His gaze swept her up and down. "Can't say the uniform don't suit you, 'cos it does. Your Dad will want you there but I know your Tad can handle it all. You would rather protect the school? The one you left unguarded with NO Wolfling there anymore?"

She felt her cheeks redden, a miracle in this environment that anything could affect her. He was right. She had messed up good.

The gears of the truck changed noisily as Rhys punched and pulled the levers. After one almighty thwack, he gave Hope a meaningful smile.

"Don't worry about my truck. She'll get us out of the danger zone." His smile faltered. "We need to stick to the plan, work tougher. Remember? Zs are the larger race now and we should treat them as such or we'll go the way of the Neanderthal man. Look, I'm not happy about giving up my place on this world, but maybe Mother Nature is telling us our time is up. It had to happen sometime."

He was right. The end of humanity's reign on the planet had to end sometime. Just not today. Not until after Hope had been buried in the ground a long time. Then the human race could do whatever the hell it liked to the planet.

But she knew Tad and Dad would always have Holdfast under cover.

The rest of the world could burn.

Maybe it would be best if it did … this was just sad to see.

.

.

.

The truck pulled up in front of the nondescript high school with red brick walls and oak trees on the grass. It had a ten feet high chain-link fence complete with barbed wire on top. The train station was nearby, the train sitting waiting for them to finish their pillaging. Rhys dropped them off a few hundred feet from the entrance and they were stopped by a guard at the checkpoint.

"Hope? Dean?" Liam hissed "What the fuck!"

"Wanted some air" Hope said calmly as her cousin gaped at her. As she had hoped, they hadn't been missed.

"Word is … there are Zs approaching in a large snarl as the flames drive them this way and we are all going to retreat to the train and hunker down. But right now it is safe to move about if you two did your job, first light … we will roll out soon" Liam was hissing quietly as he led them inside "I think there are more humans out there, Uncle Ianto seemed agitated, could smell something. Could be survivalists. If so … I don't know why they didn't signal us or something. Two different groups fighting with each other … do they not see we are different?"

"There is only them and everyone else. They see only enemies now. They are feral" Hope cringed. There would be bloodshed. Lots and lots of bloodshed. She flicked her gaze at Dean and was surprised to find him considering as well. Like her, he was working out that the survivalists were not friendlies. Not friendly at all and did not want to say 'hi there', they wanted to say 'fuck off' instead.

Hope cast a nervous gaze around the room. Nobody

Seemed alarmed or nervous so she wondered if they even knew there were humans out there stalking them amongst the Zs.

Dean looked at her, silently asking the same thing.

"They're survivors," Hope whispered. "True survivors out here in this hell. We can learn from them maybe."

From the group a voice asked, "Is it true they found a nest?"

The mention of a nest snapped Hope's back straight. Finding a nest meant death to these beings.

"Our intel tells us the nest holds over two hundred of them. We'll go in and eradicate them as we've done in our simulations." Billy said calmly as he held up a drone.

Hope was on her feet without realizing it. "We've got to tread carefully, there are humans out there as well! We are not asked for, going in might compromise my parentals. Besides … we might be walking into a trap. There is already fire … I think they are setting fires as they come back to us. We need to wait for their orders!"

Nobody said a word. Inwardly, Hope was seething. She curled her hands into fists and looked out over the team.

There would be bloodshed tonight and she hoped her parentals would hurry up, sending them thoughts of what was happening in their absence.

Blood would be spilt.

She didn't want to fail in her promise to keep them all safe but they were all acting like fucktards. Too eager for first blood, too keen to take on Zs, they were not listening to the real danger.

Other humans.

She knew she had been as eager and now saw the flaw.

Eager and stupid can be the same thing out here.