Page 56 of Obliterated
I fumble the radio from his black cargo pants, and hold it up. He mutters into it, something clipped about a Walker spotted less than a click from here. Static hisses back.
And sure enough, the watcher at the gate stirs, unlatches the lock, and hurries past us, disappears into the city. Before I can blink, we’re slipping through and the forest swallows us whole.
We move in silence for a couple of minutes, then Max breaks left, heads off the path and through the bushes, up where the ground climbs. “I need you to be my eyes and ears for a bit. Can you do that?” he asks without turning. “Few people wander here; there can be Walkers that wash up outside the walls. There’s a reason we patrol so much. The north is closest to the mainland, and Walkers show up in these woods all the time. And since my hands are a bit full…”
I nod, determined, not that he can see it. “I got this,” I say, because saying it makes me feel a bit bolder.
“I know you do. And you need to do something else. Can you grab the radio again?” His voice is as calm as I’ve ever heard it, like he’s soothing a frightened animal.
I murmur a high, cracked yes.
“Good. Grab it and switch to channel nineteen.”
It takes me a beat in the dark, but I manage. “Now what?”
“That’s the line Tass and I use. And now Sami as well. Tell her I’m fine but we’re going off-grid for a couple days. She knows what that means.”
Off-grid.There it is again. My chest tightens, but I nod, thumb hovering over the radio. “Should I… say hi?”
“Go for it,” Max says, and I do exactly that.
The radio coughs to life. “Hey dickweed. This better be good—aren’t you at Kieran’s?”
I swallow. “Hey, Tass. It’s me. We’re fine, but… we’re going off-grid for a bit.”
Tass laughs; it’s a happy cackle. “Ohhh. He’s showing it to you already? I told you he would! Have fun, Kieran!”
Heat flashes through me, but I force the words out fast. “We’ll be back in a couple of days; can you say I’m sick at the bar? Thank you.”
I click the radio off before she can say anything else. The silence after feels heavy, too heavy.
“What does that mean? Why does she say ‘have fun’?” I mutter.
His lips twitch. “She thinks I’m taking you away to fuck your brains out in my little hidey-hole. Which I’m more than happy to do. But not right now; not like this.”
I trip over a root, nearly stumble, and try not to focus on thefuck your brains outpart. “Hidey-hole?” I ask instead.
“Yes. Hidey-hole. You’ll see. Now you need to do another thing for me.”
“What’s that?”
“Grab that dagger of yours. And when you see something move in the shadows, throw it.”
I cock my head, tugging it free from my hip. “You assume I can throw it? We haven’t started that part of training yet.”
He chuckles, dark and certain. “Oh, I don’t assume anything. I know it.”
When I don’t answer, he goes on. “When you had your little fit in the bar with that guy—well,thisguy.” He taps the corpse on his shoulder with one finger. “I saw the dagger in your hand. You were perfectly poised to throw it at his head.”
“Heart, actually,” I say, heat crawling up my neck.
“Knew it. My golden boy, full of surprises.”
I fucking blush. He’s carrying a dead body on his shoulder, we’re hauling it through the woods to dump it somewhere, and he can still make me blush. Of course he can.
We break out of the trees and hit old pavement. It’s cracked and eaten at the edges, weeds pushing up through the seams, but it’s a road, a real one. The full moon is a blessing; there are no other lights for miles, just that pale smear painting everything silver.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
