The Scavengers (9 page)

The sound of Kennedy jumping off the roof of the bus woke me. I looked out the window just in time to see him slipping into the trees on the side of the road, leaving us entirely unguarded. I took a quick look around the bus to make sure that no one else was awake. When I confirmed everyone was still snoring, I carefully made my way to the nearest exit and slipped outside to follow him.

The woods around me were thick with darkness. I could hear small animals scurrying through the darkness and bugs kept flying into my face. I stepped on a branch and it cracked loudly under my boot.

“You really need to work on your stealth,” Kennedy said to me. “You're making too much noise.”

I blinked and spun around, trying to figure out where he was hiding. I couldn't see him. He dropped down from a low hanging tree branch above me. I stifled a scream.

“You scared me.”

“I had to be sure you weren't Drake or Shayla,” he replied. He brushed his short red hair back away from his face. He was shouldering a huge backpack I hadn't noticed him carrying when I'd watched him walk into the woods only minutes before.

“You're leaving?” I asked.

He nodded.

“You're going to join Seth?”

He nodded again. “Going into Mylon is suicide and Drake knows it.”

“He told me it was your idea,” I said.

Kennedy snorted with disgust. “Drake lies. Have you ever seen Mylon?”

“I'd never been outside the Cube before yesterday,” I reminded him.

“Right.” Kennedy shook his head and leaned against a tree. “When the zombie virus first became an epidemic, the citizens of Mylon thought they could keep zombies out by building an impenetrable 8 foot tall concrete block wall all the way around the town.”

“Kind of like the outer wall of the Cube?”

“Exactly like the outer wall of the Cube. Except zombies got into Mylon and no one could escape because the military locked down the town and permanently sealed the gates. They shot anyone who attempted to climb over. Now there are literally thousands of zombies inside the city. They've been trapped inside that fence for almost 30 years.”

“Oh god.”

“Very few people have ever managed to get into Mylon and get back out without being bitten.”

“If Mylon is so dangerous, why would Drake order us to go in to it?” I asked.

“There's a junkyard on the far edge of the town next to the river. It has its own fence within the fence so it’s not quite as heavily populated with zombies as the rest of the town is. We've gotten parts from there before when we've had no other options,” Kennedy explained. “He's going to send everyone he wants dead into Mylon tomorrow and hope that someone makes it out with a radiator before they finish turning zombie. It's the perfect way for him to clean up all his problems.”

“You mean like Cya?” I asked.

“Cya's pretty high on that list,” Kennedy said. “But I don't figure anyone is really safe. Drake knows I won't stay a Scavenger with Conner dead. And you, well....”

“What about me?” I asked.

“You should come with me,” Kennedy said after a slight hesitation. “Don't worry about your bags or your weapons. Just come with me. Walk away and don't look back.”

“I can't,” I said. “I can't just abandon my parents.”

“Your parents are gone,” Kennedy said. “Isn't that why you threw that screaming hissy fit in front of the Powers that Be last week?”

I nodded and took a deep breath. “They wouldn't have left me alone, Kennedy. My Dad didn't just get up out of the bed he'd occupied for the last 20-odd years and decide to go on an adventure. He might have left the Cube if he'd known there was a city nearby, but he wouldn't have left voluntarily without me.”

“Pilar-.”

“They wouldn't have left me. I know they wouldn't have left me.” I sounded desperate but I didn't care. “Someone or something in the Cube took my parents. I'll never find them if I don't go back.”

“Pilar, they're gone.” Kennedy grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me none-too-gently. “People who disappear from inside the Cube don't ever come back.”

“What do you mean, people who disappear from the Cube? Has it happened before?”

“It happens all the time,” Kennedy said brokenly. “You're not going to find them. You're not going to see them again. Give up and focus on saving yourself.”

“Who took them?” I asked. “Why have I never heard about other disappearances?”

“You've never heard about the disappearances because most survivors have the sense not to go screaming at the Powers that Be in front of 7,000 people,” Kennedy said. “You're the smartest stupid girl I've ever met, Pilar.”

“Kennedy, please.” I grabbed the sleeve of his shirt.

“I can't. I'm sorry. We've already stood here too long. I can't risk Drake finding me right now. I'm leaving now, Pilar. If you have any sense, you'll come with me. If not, I wish you the best of luck in Mylon tomorrow. I hope you don't die. You're a sweet kid.”

“Kennedy-.”

“No.” He pried my fingers off of his shirt. “I'm sorry. I want to live, Pilar. If you change your mind about being a Scavenger then you should go to the church.”

“I don't know where the church is,” I stammered.

“Follow the river.”

“What river?”

“You'll find it,” Kennedy said dismissively. “Goodbye. For what it's worth, I'm sorry.”

“Kennedy please. I have so many questions. Do you know what happened to my parents?” I pleaded with him.

“I don't want to know what happened to your parents,” Kennedy said. “I don't want to know what's going to happen to my mother and my sisters when Drake realizes I've run.”

“Kennedy-.”

“Goodbye,” he said again as he turned his back to me. I tried to grab for him again but he knew I was coming and he dodged me. Within seconds I was alone in the dark woods.

The sound of something slamming forcefully into the sheet metal side of the bus startled me awake. I sat up in my makeshift bed, gasping and looking around.

“Son of a bitch!” Another crash. The bus shuddered.

“What's going on?” Jeb sat up from the seat behind me and rubbed his bleary eyes. “Are we being attacked?”

The bus shook again. Cya moaned from the very back seat. “Make it stop.”

“That sneaky little weasel!” A female voice joined the male one outside. Drake and Shayla, undoubtedly. “I always knew he was a coward.”

“What are they talking about?” Jeb asked.

“I don't know-,” I said and then stopped myself as I remembered my late night in the woods with Kennedy. Jeb looked at me curiously but I ignored him as I stood up. Outside, Drake and Shayla had progressed to screaming at one another.

“How could he have left us?”

“I don't know but he did.”

“He'll come back.”

“Like hell he will. He was gone the minute Conner died. Kennedy has always been a spineless coward.”

“What are we supposed to do now?”

“Nothing's changed.”

“Can you fix the bus?”

“Not without a radiator.”

“We won't get a radiator without Kennedy.” Shayla was snarling as I walked out of the bus and into the sunlight.

“We don't have a choice,” Drake told her. His face was florid with anger. His knuckles were bleeding from punching the metal armor that covered the bus. He focused his angry gaze on Jeb and I. “Get your weapons.”

“What's going on?” Jeb asked. He looked around. “Where is Kennedy? Did something happen?”

“Yeah. Something happened. The little coward ran off last night when he was supposed to be standing guard for us.”

“He wouldn't ditch us,” Jeb said. “Where would he even go? Are we sure someone didn't take him?”

“He took all our backup weapons,” Shayla announced as she dug through a cargo component that had been retrofitted into the side of the bus. “Little coward ran.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat but stayed silent. I had no doubt that Drake would be furious with me if he knew that I had watched Kennedy walk away.

“Why would he run?” Jeb asked. “That doesn't make sense. Kennedy has been a Scavenger for years. Why abandon us now?”

“Because he didn't want to-.”

“It doesn't matter,” Drake cut her off mid-sentence. “Kennedy doesn't matter. He won't survive long on his own and there aren't many places he can go for shelter. He can be dealt with later.”

“You know where he went?” I couldn't help asking.

“Of course I do. I already told you, I know everything about my Scavengers.” Drake focused his cold eyes on me and for a moment I wondered if he knew that I was aware of where Kennedy had gone. I steeled myself to keep my expression blank.

“Where did he go?” Jeb asked. “That city you were talking about? Ra-whatever?”

Drake shook his head. “It's not important. We'll deal with Kennedy after we get back up and running. Today, we need to focus on getting our bus fixed as quickly as possible. We need gas and we need a radiator. We still got a gas can, Shayla?”

“Yes.” She pulled the large plastic canister out of the storage area. “But we need tools too. Kennedy knows how to cripple us and he's done a damn fine job of it. We're lucky he didn't cut up our tires.”

“He knew I wouldn't sleep through that kind of destruction,” Drake snapped. He slammed his first into the bus again. The metal rippled under the pressure.

“I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't see our situation improving until our bus is fixed.” Shayla tucked the gas can underneath her arm and began striding away from us on the paved asphalt road. “I'm going to get us a radiator, if anyone else cares to tag along?”

We all hesitated for a minute and then Jeb shrugged and began jogging after her. I didn’t dare not follow. I ran back into the bus to get my machete, my jacket and my hidden gun and then followed after them.

“No. No. Nooo!” Cya flailed against Drake's back and shoulders. She had been sobbing and wailing for the last 30 minutes but he had yet to show any sign of emotion as he carried her towards what I was beginning to believe would be certain death.

Kennedy hadn't even begun to explain the horror that was Mylon when he'd been describing the town to me last night. I stood on the bank of the river and stared down at the walled-off city below. Almost every visible inch of ground inside the massive fence was covered with twitching, rotting flesh and decaying bones.

“We only have to go into the junkyard,” Shayla said. She pointed to the closed off area to our far right. It had been surrounded by a humongous chain link fence prior to the outbreak of the zombie virus. The gate that lead into the rest of the town was open, but it was pretty clear the zombies mostly didn't care for ambling through piles upon piles of rusting cars. I could only see maybe 10 or 15 zombies inside the junkyard. It sounded like a lot until you realized that there were easily 500 on the area immediately outside of that chain-link fence.

“I won't go,” Cya wailed. “You can't make me go!

“I can and I will,” Drake said as he abruptly dropped her onto the ground at his feet. Cya let out an earsplitting scream as she hit the dirt broken leg first. The zombies below us looked up in a single, disturbing gesture. Several of them began slowly ambling towards the edge of the wall closest to us.

“Stupid girl,” Shayla snapped. She kicked Cya hard with the toe of one of her pointed boots. Cya wailed.

I swallowed a lump in my throat and considered simply making a break for it. Kennedy had said the Church of Chaos was up the river. I'd clearly found the river. Thirty feet of bubbling water and frothing rapids at the narrowest point.

“How do we get across?” Jeb asked.

“Swim.” Shayla pointed down at the churning rapids below us.

“I don't know how to swim.” The words were out of my mouth before I realized I'd spoken.

“Well, doesn't it suck to be you?” Shayla sneered at me. “Should have grown up in Block A. We had a pool.”

“Must have been nice,” I muttered under my breath. “The only water I've ever been in was in the showers.”

“We can walk across the railroad tracks.” Drake pointed to a high, rotting railroad bridge that was swaying slightly in the breeze over the river. The cloudless blue sky above us gave no indication to the pit of hell waiting within the fence below.

“The railroad tracks will put us 20 feet above the junkyard,” Jeb pointed out. “I guess we can use them to get across the river and then climb down the support beams once we get to the other side.”

“I'm not- I can't-. I won't go.” Cya had curled into a ball on the ground. Her broken leg was three times the size of the normal one. I no longer had any doubts that the limb was badly infected. If Cya didn't get real medical treatment soon, she would die.

“You'll do what I order you to do,” Drake told her.

“We can't take her,” I said. “She'll slow us down. Please, Drake. I don't want to watch her get ripped to pieces.”

“She's right, Drake. We can get in and out faster without her.” Jeb pulled his knife out of a holster on his belt.

Drake tensed and for a minute I thought he was going to argue but then he stepped back. His eyes went from me to Jeb and then back to me. “We can't leave her behind. She'd be defenseless against any zombies that are nearby in these woods. You guys don't want her to die, do you?”

Cya moaned again.

I took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. “Leave her here, she might die. Take her with us, we can try to protect her but she'll probably die. There is no right choice here, is there?”

“How about I carry her?” Jeb offered.

“You would do that?” I didn't even try to hide my surprise.

“I'm not going to leave her to die.” Jeb knelt down beside Cya and gently reached for her. “Hey. It's okay. We're going to get through this.”

“Bad idea, Jeb.” Shayla shook her head as she and Drake exchanged identical looks of disapproval.

“We can't leave her.”

“You don't have enough experience dealing with zombies to keep her safe and yourself alive. Your brother was very clear when he told me he wanted you brought back to the Cube alive, Jeb. You know he has big plans for you. The Scavengers are just a pit stop for you.”

“Yeah. I know. He expects me to take Uncle Eddrick's place in the Powers That Be,” Jeb said as he shrugged his narrow shoulders. “He doesn't think Uncle Eddrick is going to be alive too much longer. The old man's heart keeps giving him fits.”

“You're going to be initiated into the Powers that Be?” I gaped at Jeb.

“Assuming I survive long enough,” Jeb nodded and smirked. He stared up at Drake and then looked pointedly down at Cya's quivering form. “If I'm going to be one of the Powers That Be then I have to start worrying about other people, right?”

“Maybe,” Drake acknowledged. “But today isn't your day. It's mine. I'll carry the girl.”

“Drake-.”

“No. I'm the leader here. You are all my responsibilities. I can't let you put yourself at risk for her. I'll do it.”

“But then you're putting yourself at risk.”

“That's part of being in charge.” Drake's smile should have been comforting but I hadn't forgotten the look he'd had in his eyes when we'd talked about Cya's accusations against him last night. Drake didn't plan on allowing Cya to survive this hunt. Why would he tell Jeb that he would take care of her?

“No,” Cya said. “Please no. I don't want to die. Drake will let me die.”

“Drake won't let you die,” Jeb said confidently. He reached out and took Cya's hand in his own. “Drake's a good man. He's a good leader. He'll get you through this.”

“He won't,” she whimpered. “Oh God. I'm going to die. I don't want to die.”

“You're not going to die,” Jeb promised her with a squeeze of his fingers. “Drake, tell her she's going to be fine.”

Drake knelt down next to Jeb and smiled brilliantly at Cya. His golden eyes flashed with a strange light as he reached for Cya. He picked her up by the waist even as she squirmed and struggled to get away from him. He leaned close her to her ear and whispered something too low for any of the rest of us to hear. Cya tried to pull away once more and then went limp. Tears were running down her filthy cheeks as Drake picked her back up, cradling her in his arms like a small child. “It's time to go,” Drake said.