Shawn let Amy drive, in part because she already knew the route, and in part because his gun was holstered to his belt, just in case things went south with these strangers.
"Do you think they're gonna be on our side?" Amy mused. "Maybe we should rob them before they get the chance to rob us!"
Shawn shook his head. "I wouldn't do that."
"Even if it was the only way to survive?"
"Okay, I would do that. Good thing we have an entire bunker of supplies and it won't come to that." Robbing a rival faction of humans was out of the question for now. Unless it turned out they were mercenaries or undercover government cops or something.
Hopefully they aren't. Shawn tried to swallow his fear and the lump in his throat.
Amy accelerated down the road, and Shawn kept his eyes peeled for the strangers that they'd seen on the security camera. His eye twitched. The video feed had showed them heading south, but that only gave them so much information on the humans' whereabouts.
"Look at that treehouse." Amy pointed as she drove by. "Isn't it cute?"
"Cool?" Shawn didn't really care about the treehouse. Honestly, he was surprised Amy did. Maybe she'll try moving up there because she values aesthetics over safety.
He reminded himself to calm down and focus on the mission.
Amy turned down a street and almost immediately slammed on the brakes. Before he could snap at her, Shawn realized why: their quarry was standing in the road in front of them.
He didn't exit the van immediately. From the passenger seat, he surveyed the three people in front of him. There was only one guy, a dude in fatigues who looked like he'd stepped out of a war movie. His companions were girls, and though both were blonde, the taller one kept hers sensibly short while the other hadn't even bothered to tie her long locks back in a ponytail, Also, her arm was in a sling. Typical.
"Can we trust them?" Amy muttered. Her hands hadn't left the steering wheel.
"I don't see a reason not to." Discounting the girl with the broken arm, at worst it'd be a two-on-two fight. "Stay here, just in case."
Shawn brought his crowbar with him as he stepped out of the car. "How've you guys been faring?"
"If you're not blind, you can see my sister has a broken arm," snapped the taller girl. Her glare was as mean as Amy's. What was it about the zombie apocalypse that allowed bitchy blondes to survive?
The muscle guy touched her wrist gently and answered Shawn directly. "We're faring as best we can, sir. I have remedial first aid training, but we have limited access to supplies."
"My arm hurts," complained the third member of their party. "So any help would be much appreciated."
"Hmm." Shawn glanced between the three of them. Before he and Amy had left, they'd loaded medical supplies and food into the back of the van. Helping would be no problem at all. "Yeah, okay. Have you seen any other survivors?"
"Why don't we tell you over a meal?" suggested the first girl.
Something in her tone was a challenge, and Shawn half-smiled. She was a clever one. "Yeah, okay."
Amy hadn't been on a picnic since sophomore year when her friend group had organized one in celebration of midterms. It had been majorly lame back then, but now Amy was more than happy to spend extra time outdoors.
Shawn had directed her to an open field some miles from the city, and here they were breaking for lunch. Shawn was distributing tupperware filled with rice and beans while Amy looked through the medical textbook for the chapter on broken bones.
"You guys got names?" Shawn asked.
Amy looked up from the book and said, "I'm Amy." These people needed to know who they were dealing with.
"Private Brick McArthur," said the guy. His unibrow was in desperate need of tweezers.
"I'm Jo," said the girl in the hoodie, "and this dunce is Ronnie."
"Shut up, Jo," snapped Ronnie, who looked miserable. She was the only one of the three who actually had style, and Amy's heart went out to her.
"I like your outfit," Amy said, because Ronnie's white blouse and cute jean shorts reminded her of the clothes she'd had to change out of earlier.
"Thanks. No offense, but you look worse than these dweebs." Ronnie jerked her head in Jo and Brick's direction.
Amy huffed. She touched the soil that she'd rubbed across her cheeks. "Shawn says wearing dirt is important for masking our human scent. I am not trying to be zombie food."
Ronnie snickered. "Brick does that. I don't."
"Why not?" Amy asked. Was she better at following orders than this random stranger was? Hell yeah, another win for her.
"Because that's their thing. This survival, outdoorsy stuff. I'd rather go shopping or hang out with friends." She eyed Amy, and Amy was suddenly super conscious of the blush and lip gloss on her face.
"I'm lucky to be alive," Ronnie continued. "I almost thought, at the beginning of this, that Jo might let me die."
Amy swallowed a lump in her throat and decided not to answer that. She pretended that she was very interested in the splint materials in front of her. As she worked, she tuned into Shawn's small talk with the other two travelers.
"It's almost a good thing this whole outbreak occurred over the summer," Brick was saying. "Another two months and I would've been fighting zombies on the front lines." He chuckled, and Amy rolled her eyes.
"And you've been on the move for the whole month?" Shawn asked.
"We were camping when it happened," Jo answered. She was leaning back on her elbows, staring at the sky. "Lost signal for a few days, but it didn't really matter. You know how I found out? We were driving back into society and suddenly our phones got flooded with messages from friends and family back home."
"Can't imagine," Shawn said.
"Sucks," Amy added. Jo rolled her eyes. What? Amy's goal was to be the best at survival, not to be the best at comforting people. She turned away from Jo and Brick and lined the splint up with Ronnie's injured arm. The other girl winced, and Amy fought the urge to yell at her to shut up.
"What happened to your car?" Shawn added.
"Hit a deer," Brick said. "I thought it was a zombie at first, and I had every intention of running it over. No such luck."
"But did you really want zombie guts all over your car?" Amy said tersely. She tied the splint on.
"One more of those suckers dead is one more win in my book," Jo answered. "Didn't work out. We've been walking for three weeks."
Amy was an athlete, but even she was fatigued at the very thought of walking for so long. She'd definitely get unsightly blisters on her heels. Yuck.
"Where's home?" Shawn asked. He is such a pragmatist, Amy thought. It served him well.
"We have family back in Manitoba," Brick admitted. "But since we've been AWOL, we have no idea if they're alive or not. My parents are military, so they have the skills, but you also need luck out here."
Jo jumped in. "I think we should go south."
"True," Brick agreed, rubbing her knee. Amy's eyebrow rose. "Jo brought up a good point about winter."
"Interesting," Shawn murmured.
Amy's head snapped up. Shawn wasn't considering giving away the van, was he? She refused to even consider the thought. Even more alarming, what if Shawn invited these people to live with them? Gross. There was only room for two people in the cozy little bunker.
"You're hurting me," Ronnie hissed, and Amy realized she'd been tying up the splint with too much ferocity.
"Oh, well, I'm all done." Amy sat back and allowed Ronnie to admire her handiwork. The splint was juvenile, but considering it was her first attempt, it wasn't that bad.
"Thanks, kid," Jo said, nodding in Amy's direction. "How's it feel, Ronnie?"
Ronnie gingerly twisted her arm. "Better than before, I guess."
Maybe these people could build a bunker at the house across from them. Then they'd all be neighbors. As long as they weren't invading her personal space, Amy didn't quite hate the idea of having sometime else to talk to. Shawn was great, but hello, this guy didn't know anything about fashion.
"Amy, come eat." Shawn tapped a fork against a tupperware.
So Amy scooted over to accept the food, bumping her knee against his in the process.
The July sun beat down on them. Amy pretended she wasn't sweating as the conversation turned to other topics, like zombie encounters and food shortages. Shawn brought up Amy's honey-on-rice story, and she rolled her eyes. He didn't mean anything by it, she knew that now, and in the grand scheme of things, the honey incident was funnier than stuff like discussing how many survivors were left in the world.
From time to time she chimed in during the conversations. Otherwise, Amy sat back and listened when Brick or Jo gave survival tips. Those two were sitting way too close together. Their knees overlapped, and Brick looked directly at Jo every time they talked. Amy would bet anything that they were dating.
Ronnie was the odd one out. Third-wheeling your own sister sounded like hell on Earth. Ugh. Amy's lips folded, and she pushed her tupperware away. Just the word 'sister' sent her stomach tumbling into a cheer routine of its own.
She had to think of something else. She looked to Ronnie. "What did you do before this?"
"I literally just graduated from college."
"Ohemgee, same," Amy said.
"Babies," Jo muttered, elbowing Brick.
Although Amy's rule with Shawn was to not ask about life before, she had no such rule with Ronnie. She pummelled her new acquaintance with questions about hobbies, classes, and boys. Any question tossed in Amy's direction was expertly redirected.
As usual, Amy thought, I am in control.
Eventually, the conversation came to an end, lunch was over, and Shawn stood up. "If you're going to continue traveling, I say we strike a deal."
Again, Amy's brow rose.
Thanks to his well-tuned peripheral vision, Shawn could tell Brick and Jo were examining the bunker while he copied down maps for them. Every so often he glanced up, not at them but at Amy, who was entertaining Ronnie. The two girls were sitting on Amy's couch, and Amy talked surprisingly quietly about whatever it was they had in common.
He was fully distracted from his maps when Amy dashed into the kitchenette, rummaged through the pots and pans, and emerged with a bundle of makeup thingies.
That's where she was keeping them? Shawn thought incredulously as Amy returned to the couch.
"Here," she said to Ronnie, passing over the products Shawn couldn't even attempt to name. "This is a loan, got it? I expect it all back when we meet up again next month."
"I feel better already." Ronnie was smiling, the first time all day Shawn had seen her happy. His brow furrowed. It was obvious that Ronnie wasn't the most skilled survivor of the group. Wouldn't Amy's loan further distract her from her most important goals?
Or maybe it gives her something to look forward to. Something to keep her spirits up.
Jo, who had been looking at the security system, was now groaning loudly. "Makeup? Really? It's the end of the world and you still have to pretend you're prom queen?"
"Shut up, Jo," Amy and Ronnie said in unison. The annoyance on Amy's face was so Amy that Shawn nearly laughed. Then he realized what he was supposed to be doing.
Focus, Shawn, focus. With a rough shake of his head, Shawn returned to map charting.
When he was done, he presented the papers to Jo and Brick. Amy handed over a bunch of rations—now that Shawn had concrete plans to abandon the bunker, he could afford to be liberal with extra supplies. It's not like he'd ever be able to eat it.
"Thirty days," Shawn reminded them. "We'll leave then and meet you there. Remember: be careful about artificial scents." He side-eyed Ronnie, who didn't seem to care. Shawn got the feeling she wouldn't be rubbing dirt on her clothes any time soon.
"Thank you for the supplies, soldier." Brick saluted. "Godspeed."
"Don't get yourself killed in the meantime, Possum Man," Jo added.
Where did 'Possum Man' even come from? Whatever. Even if the sisters were kinda prickly, at least he'd enjoyed himself with Brick. Shawn saw them out the door.
Then he was back in the bunker, alone with Amy, business as usual. She was sitting at the table, frowning. She was confused and annoyed, Shawn guessed, because he recognized that particular frown. It was the same one she'd worn when he'd explained what little he knew of the virus.
"'Kay, explain to me why we have to leave? I kinda like it here."
"I stocked this place with enough essentials for the next twenty years, sure, but sooner or later I planned to move out. Possible reasons include"—Shawn ticked them off on his fingers—"rebuilding civilization, natural disaster, finding other survivors, home invasion. It just came sooner than I was anticipating. Like, way sooner."
Amy still looked miffed, but she only said, "Okay, whatever. Where's that magazine I was reading?"
The words were out before he could think about them. "Gonna browse which makeup you're gonna steal next?"
"I knew you'd be mad about that, ugh! You're such a boy!"
"I'm not mad!" As long as Amy didn't stumble in bloody, bruised, or bitten, Shawn would get over his grievances. "I just don't get why you'd risk your life for something so petty and then give it away."
"I want to look nice," Amy complained, leaning back in her chair. "Ronnie gets that, plus with that broken arm, I figured she'd need it more than me. I literally just gave her a reason to live. But it's still a loan."
What good did looking nice do during the end of the world? Why bother putting on lipstick when your next move was smearing dirt all over an old t-shirt?
"Isn't there anything you'd risk your life for?" Amy added.
"Nope, because if I considered it important enough, I stashed it away," Shawn said matter-of-factly. Hence the crosswords. Shawn decided that was his next course of action. Now that they had a new alliance, he was gonna give himself the rest of the day to relax.
Amy hopped onto the couch, her designated spot. As if to prove he wasn't actually angry, Shawn sat down at the other end. As they busied themselves with their activities—her with her magazine, him with her crosswords—Shawn sensed both himself and Amy calming down.
"'Kay, but Jo and Brick are definitely a thing, right?"
"Got that right." Shawn snorted, glad the tension had blown over the way it usually did. "He told me he was planning on proposing after the camping trip, before all this happened."
Amy snorted. "Weirdos. I'd say it sucks that now they're never gonna have a wedding, but Jo didn't look like the type of girl to care about dresses and floral arrangements."
"Probably not," Shawn agreed.