Page 43 of Zocopalypse (Death Fields 1)

two of us and the shelter wasn’t far from where we lived. We figured we would check it out.”

“You may not have noticed yet, but Cole is a bit of a rule follower,” Chloe says rolling her eyes. “I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Sleeping on a cot in a high school for an indeterminate about of time did not appeal to me at all, but they made that big plea for all people trained in medicine to come in so we went.”

“Because Cole’s an EMT,” Wyatt asks eyeing them both. Guess he wasn’t sure that was true.

“Plus he’s in med school.” Cole makes no move at this revelation so she continues, “We got off the shuttle and they put us in two lines. Male and female. I watched as they went through the people’s belongings, taking out this and that. Looking at their medications and personal things. After that they took each person’s temperature and a syringe of blood that was it. I was gone.”

I look between the siblings. “You just left?”

“Yeah, I made a break for it. Cole saw me and followed.”

“Did they notice?”

“Hell yes they noticed,” Cole says. “They tracked us for a couple of blocks and even sent out a search team. Apparently, once you make the decision to enter the shelter there is no getting out—”

“Alive, at least,” she adds bitterly.

“We hid out for a couple of days and then looped back home to get the weapons and additional supplies. We hit the road after that with the vague notion of traveling to South Georgia to find our dad.”

“Did you know all this?” I ask Wyatt, waving a mosquito out of my eyes. “About what it was like at the shelter?”

“I had my suspicions.”

“What about you, Alex? How come you’re out here and not in a shelter?” Chloe asks.

For some reason the truth pops out. “My dad told my mom and me not to go there.”

Cole lifts an eyebrow. “Any particular reason? That’s a big request for a kid and her mom.”

The pouch burns into my chest, almost as much as my cheeks. He called me a kid. Is that how they all see me? “He wanted my mom and me to find my sister. It was all he asked.”

Cole nods as though he understands but there is no way he can. He doesn’t carry the weight of it all on his shoulders. What it’s like to be the last one alive with important information to get to an important person in my life. But no one told me what the information is or how to get there. The weight of the unknown is almost unbearable.

I stare at the fire while Wyatt inhales his can of chili. The twins clean up their trash and Cole says, “I’ll take first watch—”

“Same,” I agree before Wyatt can jump in. I have no interest in lying in that Eater death trap of a tent and thinking about my dad and Jane. I really don’t want to think about my mom. Wyatt gives me a hard look so I add, “I’m not tired, anyway.”

We clean up and repack, making sure everything is ready in a minute’s notice. Wyatt opens the flap on the tent and Chloe enters, crawling in on her knees. I pretend I don’t see him watching her closely. Why wouldn’t he? She’s a knockout. His age.

Not a kid like me.

I settle onto the step of an abandoned camper, hatchet across my lap. The aluminum sided RV’s glint from the firelight and Cole pours some sand across the flame. Good idea. He’s smart and between him and Wyatt they may have the skills to help me get me to Jane faster.

Cole positions himself across from me on the tailgate of a broken down truck. He lifts the collar of his shirt to cover his mouth and nose to keep the bugs at bay. His blue eyes flick in my direction and a sense of familiar ease rolls down my back. Cole isn’t a bad guy. I feel it in my bones. I lean forward and say quietly, “I don’t know what my dad knew about the camps but he warned us off. After we got out of the city we saw things, my mom and I. Bad stuff. I don’t know what the military is doing but I definitely feel safer outside.”

He lowers his shirt to speak. “That’s a bold statement. What did you see?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t trust them. That stuff you said about taking blood samples and going through peoples things. It rubs me the wrong way.”

“I guess,” he says, those eyes piercing in the dark. “Our instincts are all we have anymore.”

“What do your instincts tell you about everything now?” I ask. “Being with us?”

I can’t see his face but I can hear the resignation in his voice when Cole replies, “That no matter how bad it seems, this isn’t the end. Not by a long shot.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

~Before~

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