As the group neared the farm, they began to see what it looked like. She heard Sloane mutter behind her, "Oh, my God."
"Its hillbilly central!" Dalton agreed.
Diamond shot glares at the both of them, and shut them up. She thought the farm was nice. The house was big and white, and a red barn sat behind it. Fences were set up across the yards of land, And she saw the silhouettes of animals grazing. They approached the tall fence that encircled the front yard, and Ellis stopped in his tracks, making Diamond almost run into him. "What's wrong?"
"The gate," he said slowly. "Someone left it open."
Diamond looked at it, pushed all the way to the side. "Do you think...?" At that moment, she heard a terrified scream from inside. Before she could react, Ellis was sprinting inside. Dalton went after him, and with a glance at Sloane, they followed, snapping the gate closed behind them.
Diamond wanted to scream at the sight before her, but she didn't have the strength. There were walkers everywhere, digging in to people - well, more like bodies. The lady who had screamed was now gurgling on her own blood. Ellis had out his gun, and was shooting every zombie he could see. Diamond lifted her crowbar protectively, but they were all going down one by one. Ellis was good.
Diamond grabbed Sloane, and they sunk to the side as Ellis and Dalton dealt with the walkers. When Ellis collapsed nest to a man's body, Diamond rushed over, sinking to her knees next to him. "Are - are you okay?" she regretted it as soon as she asked it. What a stupid question.
"Everyone," he whispered. "I thought they were safe. I thought..." he broke down. Even Dalton looked sympathetic. "This is my uncle. Uncle Ed."
Diamond looked down at the man tearfully, seeing his kind face and wispy white hair. "Your parents?"
He shook his head. "They died when I was eight. Ed raised me. He was all I had left."
Diamond bit her lip, not knowing what to say to him. "I -"
He interrupted her, not unkindly. "If you don't mind, could I have a second?"
"Of course." She got up, taking one regretful glance at him before rejoining Sloane.
"Poor guy," Sloane said, sounding truly genuine.
Diamond was about to nod, when a whimper came from the tool shed they stood next to. Sloane jumped, and grabbed the crowbar from Diamond's hand. "Open it," she said. "I'll get the bastard."
"No!" Diamond disagreed, holding up her hand. "I don't think its a walker."
"What?"
Diamond reached her hand out to the door handle. She was sure the whimpers didn't sound like the groaning of the zombies - they sounded like crying. She opened the door wide, to reveal a small girl. She looked up, with a soft cry. Her big brown eyes looked around, but they were odd. She seemed not to be looking at Diamond. It didn't seem like she was looking at anything. She feared for a moment that Sloane was right. But finally, Diamond understood.
The girl was blind.
"Its okay," she said gently. "We won't hurt you. We aren't the creatures."
The girl relaxed some, but still seemed afraid. "Who - who are you?" her voice was high and light, and had a twang that made it even more adorable.
"My name is Diamond, and my friend is Sloane. We're here with -"
She was cut off. "Willie Mae?"
The girl moved her head around. "Ellis?"
Ellis came running over, picking the girl up and swinging her over his head. "You're alright," he breathed. He wrapped her in a big bear hug. "How did you survive?"
Willie Mae's lip trembled. "Daddy. He put me in the closet. I didn't know what was going on, Ellis - but I heard terrible things."
Ellis hugged her. "Its alright. You're fine now."
She let out a loud sob. "But its my fault! I heard Daddy say someone left the gate open. I think it was me, Ellis!"
Ellis froze for a moment, before comforting her again. "Its fine, Mae. Its not your fault." He looked up at Diamond. "Would you mind taking my cousin up to the house?" Oh. So...Uncle Ed must be her father. Its getting late. You and Sloane can get ready for bed. Dalton and I can deal with the walkers...and my family and friends."
"Like bury them?"
Ellis grimaced...and looked down. "Yeah. And we...we have to shoot 'em. Make sure they don't come back."
Diamond gulped. She held her hand out. "Uh, Willie Mae? You want to come with me and Sloane? We can tuck you in."
Willie Mae smiled tentatively. "Okay." She held her hand out searchingly, and Diamond grabbed on. She'd always wanted a little sister.
"Good night," Diamond said softly, pushing the covers over Willie Mae's little body after she got her in her nightgown.
"Night," Willie Mae yawned.
Diamond and Sloane showered, changed, and climbed into twin beds in a guest room Ellis showed them. As Sloane clicked off the lamp, Diamond spoke softly, "Do you think we'll be able to stay here?"
Sloane sighed. "I know its nice here, Di...but don't get too used to it."
Diamond brushed out her hair, and did her best to put on her makeup. She had on a light pink flare tulle skirt pulled over a white short sleeved cashmere jumper. She slipped on white heeled sandals, and looked at Sloane, looking like Sleeping Beauty. She snorted. "Wake up!" Sloane jolted awake, and shot her a glare.
Laughing, Diamond made her way downstairs, into the kitchen. She stopped in surprise when she saw Willie Mae, sitting at the table. "Oh, good morning."
"Diamond?"
She blinked. The little girl remembered the sound of her voice. "Yeah. How'd you get down here?"
"Ellis. He's outside."
"Do you...uh, need anything?"
Willie Mae shook her head. "Nope. I think that boy was looking for you. Outside, with Ellis."
"Thanks." She walked out the front door, and saw that all the bodies were gone. But there was something even more shocking. At the fence, a line of creatures were banging and moaning. The fence was pushing forward, bending precariously.
"Shit!"
"Come on y'all, we gotta get out now."
Sloane gawked in horror at the slow, moaning walkers ramming into the bulging wire fence. The posts were beginning to bend down precariously.
"I'll get Willie Mae!" Di cried. Sloane had never seen the girl act like a good mother-figure her whole life. She was always too busy staring at her rings.
Sloane ran up the stairs of the farm house after Di and managed to throw all of her belonging in one of her purses before meeting the boys outside. She went to stand by Dalton and watched as Ellis led two horses out of a run down barn.
"Diamond!" Ellis called to the girl who was just emerging from the porch with her bags on one arm and Willie Mae on the other. "You and Mae ride Bessie! We can put our things on Dannie!"
Once Diamond was holding onto Mae securely on Bessie's back and their bags were tied down to Dannie's, the five-some took off through a back fence into the woods. Sloane noticed Ellis glance over his back a few times to look longingly at his home, but nothing was said.
"So we are never going back?" Sloane questioned cautiously.
Ellis shook his head. "Nah, they know that living beings live there and they won't let up. We wouldn't have been able to repair that fence."
Sloane wanted to ask where they were heading, but she refrained.
"Is there a town around here?" Dalton asked.
"Nope, we live at least 30 miles out from the nearest town and it's nothing much."
Sloane looked up at Dalton who rolled his eyes. She still held his hand tightly, she was terrified, but lately she could feel herself growing apart from him. One night at a wild party had grown their relationship out of what had been pure hatred. Sloane figured she never saw it working out.
"I reckon we will set up camp nightly and keep moving. Eventually we'll run across another human or two," Ellis trudged along, pulling two leather straps attached to his horses.
"Ellis, where's everyone? All the neighbors?" Mae stared blindly into the distance with her little eyebrows knotted together.
"Mae, you know that it's a long way to all of their houses, and I'm sure they are all... sick." Ellis stared at the ground.
"Don't worry, we will find someone and work things out," Di encouraged.
Sloane irritatedly waved at the bugs swarming her face. The sun was beginning to beat on their backs directly overhead and Sloane regretted her clothing choices. She had packed for a glamorous vacation in LA, not a damn jungle trek. Her black peplum top was hot, tight, and left her shoulders bare to burn. Her black and white striped shorts weren't too bad, but her black strappy sandals were already beginning to kill her feet.
"Ellis, I wanna go home," Mae whimpered.
"Sh, sh," Di soothed.
In the new silence, Sloane's hair stood on end. She heard a distant groaning that distinctly belonged to a walker.
"Come on, lets knock him out." Ellis looked to Dalton.
"I'm kind of tired," Dalton started.
Sloane sighed and snatched the crowbar from his hand. "I'll fucking do it."
"Sloane-" She cut her boyfriend off with a middle finger and jogged to follow Ellis.
"I'll distract him and you knock him out."
Sloane nodded and gripped the cold metal tightly. Her palms were sweaty and her stomach was tying and untying in knots. Even though she had killed a few walkers, she was still extremely nervous.
Ellis stopped her behind a large tree. They both peeked out from behind the rough bark. A man in a flannel shirt was dragging a severely broken leg across the ground. He was moaning lowly and a wound on his neck was gory and festering.
Ellis held up a hand and counted down with his fingers. Three, two, one. Ellis ran out and started screaming, immediately grabbing the walker's attention. Sloane jumped out and swung the crowbar like a tennis racquet, spraying brains across a large tree covered in vines.
"Great job!" Ellis commended. "You're a natural."
Sloane smiled and turned to catch up with the group. She nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand reached out of the leaf litter and grabbed her ankle. In a second, she had the crowbar raised, ready to smash the walker's head.
Her eyebrows raised when the skin that should have been rotting and gray seemed to be smooth and simply covered in mud. She let out a soft shriek when a face raised up out of the leaves.
"What happened?" Ellis gasped, bursting out of the trees.
"Look!"
The person emerging from the layer of leaves rubbed their eyes. "Sorry to scare you."
Sloane squatted down. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," the voice was deep and belonged to a male. "You just saved me, that thing definitely smelled me."
"Let me help you up." Sloane and Ellis brushed away the thick layer of leaves to reveal a mud covered boy, who appeared to be around their age.
"Thank you," he said. As Sloane reached her arms under his back to pull him up he grimaced in pain.
"What's going on over here?" Dalton's voice called. He emerged with the horses and the girls. "Who's this?"
"Henry Lancaster," the boy introduced himself. "I'm not from around here so I have no idea what the fuck is going on."
"Same with us. I'm Sloane Buchanan." Sloane took in the mud-caked boy. "I'll help you get cleaned up."
"I saw a stream down yonder, we should probably set up camp for the night," Ellis said.
"Dalton, give me some of your clothes," Sloane requested.
Her boyfriend frowned. "But-"
Di snatched a blue checked button up and khaki shorts from her brother's bag and tossed them to Sloane. Dalton scowled but didn't say anything.
Sloane helped the boy limp down to the stream Ellis had talked about. "So where are you from?" Sloane asked.
"I'm from Chicago, I live there with my parents. I was out here skiing at one of the lodges up in the mountains with my aunt and uncle when all the power shut off and the emergency sirens went off. We had no idea what was going on so we just got in the car and started driving, fast. Eventually my uncle lost control of the car and we crashed. I woke up on the side of the road and the things were..." he trailed off. "They were eating them. I managed to get away but I think the glass cut my stomach pretty badly. I just rolled in mud and covered myself in leaves cause I couldn't walk anymore. Then you came." He smiled, revealing white teeth.
"I'm sorry about your family." She pulled his shirt over his head while he held his hand over his stomach. "Why don't you go rinse off and I'll try to find something for your cut."
Henry staggered a few steps, and Sloane realized she was going to have to help him. "Come here." She pulled off his tattered shorts and decided to leave on his boxers, her tan cheeks flushing. Sloane could only wonder what Dalton would think.
She walked into the water knee deep and bent down to wash the mud off of Henry, which was basically ever inch except for his eyes and mouth. She slowly began to reveal tan skin, toned muscles, a gorgeous face, and dark brown hair. His good looks only increased the awkwardness.
"Um, okay, let's see." She examined the cut on his stomach. It wasn't deep, but looked infected. "I think I have some Neosporin in my makeup bag. I think you'll live."
She flashed a nervous smile and avoided looking down at his soaking underwear. "You can get dressed and I'll wait behind this tree."
Henry smiled. "Thanks a lot, Sloane. You're amazing."
She didn't know if it was the rush of saving him or something else, but Sloane's stomach was filled with butterflies.