The Fall: Victim Zero (17 page)

His arms and legs were tied with spectacularly complex knots.

“Goddammit,” he said. “I have
got
to stop waking up like this.”

A fire roared nearby, and across it a woman with stunning red hair, wavy and thick against pale skin, looked up from her work. There was no fear in her eyes, only caution and curiosity. Beside her another woman labored at some task he couldn't see behind the fire. Her eyes were downcast, but there was a tremble in her shoulders.

“Please don't cry,” Kell said. “I wasn't going to hurt you.”

The other woman, a thin brunette whose hair had been hacked short, shuddered at the sound of his voice.

“Talking to her is only going to upset her more,” the redhead said as she set her work aside and rose, walking around the fire to him. She knelt close enough to hear him if he whispered. “Kate is traumatized. They...” her voice trailed off, thunderclouds on her face. “They visited her more than me. A lot more.”

Kell shook his head, trying to fight back sudden tears. The usual thing would be to tell them how sorry he was for them, how awful it must have been; but they knew it far better than he did. All speaking would do was upset Kate even more.

The redhead relaxed back somewhat. “Tell me what happened here,” she said.

His eyes flicked over to the still-weeping woman, who despite her obvious fear was still working on what he presumed was a meal. In a low voice, Kell explained the previous day in rapid detail. He told her everything. At the end of it she nodded.

“Sorry I knocked you out,” she said. “I couldn't be sure you were telling the truth when you let me out. My name is Laura. Laura Franklin.”

She waited, and it took him a few seconds to remember that people exchanged names.

“I'm K—uh, just K. I don't like my first name.”

Laura's eyes narrowed, but she shrugged. “Suit yourself, I guess. I can't help but notice you have a splint on your leg. Did you sprain your ankle?”

Kell looked down at his right leg and briefly wondered what kind of shape it was in after the day he'd had. “Broke my leg, actually. In fact, I have some pain medicine in my pouch if you wouldn't mind giving me a couple. The leg is killing me. My face could use a break from hurting, too.”

Laura stared at him. “You killed all these guys with a broken leg?”

“When you say it like that, you make it sound so much more badass than it actually was. Mostly I picked them off with my bow and let the zombies do the rest.”

Laura began to untie him. “We heard you out there. We heard what you told them. You're crazy, man. Really.”

Kell held his hands up, palms out. “Do you think it's a good idea to untie me?” he asked in low voice. “It might upset her more if I can move around.”

Laura stared at him, disbelieving. “You're suggesting I leave you like this so Kate doesn't break down into tears? Remember that thing I said about crazy?”

He shrugged. “As long as there aren't any threats, I'm okay with it. To be honest with you, I'm so tired I could probably go right back to sleep. I'm definitely not in any shape to defend myself anyway.”

Laura shook her head. “No, you're getting untied. Look, you saved us. That's a fact. I was already working on those ropes after the last one left my trailer, but I don't have any illusions. I'd have given them a hell of a fight before they killed me, but it would have happened.”

Her hands flicked across the complex loops and weaves of his bonds. “Kate had it worse than I did, and the sound of a man's voice sets her off,” she said, and caught his eye. “But don't mistake that for weakness. It's a reaction. She's hurt. But if she feels threatened, she'll fight like mad.”

The ropes loosened enough for Kell to free his wrists. He rubbed them together as Laura worked on his feet.

“We're not your property,” she said. “You think you're being nice, offering to stay tied up. You aren't. It's insulting. Kate can handle herself, and she doesn't need you to patronize her. If more of those things show up, or god help should the rest of this group decide to drive back here, your gallant little offer might get all of us killed.”

The last rope fell away, and Laura offered a hand. “Don't get me wrong. I know it came from the right place. It's just the wrong idea.” She hauled Kell to his feet, nearly pitching herself over him with the effort.

They stood face to face, and Kell realized she was a fairly tall woman. The top of her head nearly reached his chin. Her eyes were a startling blue, the pale color of ice.

“
We're thankful, mister mysterious K. But what Kate needs, and honestly what I need, isn't for you to tiptoe around us. If we're going to get back home, she and I will have to deal with things as they are.”

“
I understand. For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I've been away from people--”

His brain, usually so quick, finally finished processing her words.

“Did you say
home
?”

Laura smiled. It was small and hesitant and there was iron behind it, but it was there.

Chapter Thirteen

Kate left to bring Kell's SUV back to the camp. Grateful for the help, he wished there was some way he could thank the woman without upsetting her more. While she was away he searched the remaining vehicles for clothes. Neither she nor Laura had much to wear, a thought that filled Kell with aftershocks of intense rage.

The marauders left them blankets in their trailers, as well as old, soiled dresses. Or maybe they were shifts. The garments were so tattered and dirty it was impossible to tell by sight alone.

Lacking other options, the women wore clothes pulled from the packs of the dead men around them. They didn't fit and neither relished the thought, but it was the only choice.

Kell began to pile supplies in the back of the pickup truck the women had chosen as their vehicle. They had agreed to strip everything of use from the place. There was a good chance the fuel would run out before the three of them were able to make it home.

“
I still can't believe you've been out here on your own all this time,” Laura said as she brought a load of canned food over. “No one does that.”

Kell raised an eyebrow. “No one?”

She waved a hand. “Well, some people do. But not many. I can't imagine not having people at your back out here.”

His eyes fell on the trailers, now pushed to the edge of the camp. “I think you can.”

A flash of anger crossed her face. “Yeah. I guess you're right. But what I mean is some people live alone or just with their families, way away from everything. You say your place was within easy walking distance of a city.”

Kell laughed. “I wouldn't call the walk easy, but I get what you mean.”

Laura leaned against the truck. “You haven't asked about where we live other than to make sure there are people. You seemed so excited to find out we're from a community of survivors, but you don't want to know anything about it.”

Kell leaned against the truck himself, grateful for a moment to rest his leg. “It's not that I don't want to know. I just...” He struggled to put it into words. “I've been away from people for a long time. This is the third time I've talked to anyone since all this shit began. I can see Kate doesn't trust me, and you're cautious. You haven't told me where the place is. We're taking two different vehicles.”

Laura's face was even, giving away nothing.

“
If I were going to guess,” Kell said. “I'd bet that you two are letting me follow you and camp with you because you think I might be genuine. But you're being cautious; you want to be able to get away from me if that turns out not to be true. You haven't volunteered any details about where you're from because you don't want to put those people in danger. You're trying to keep me as in the dark as you can because this is a shitty world full of dangerous people.”

If Laura was surprised by his words, she didn't show it. Kell watched her impassively.

“You seem pretty sure of that,” Laura said.

Kell shrugged. “It's only logical. Both of you survived when most people died. That means you aren't stupid. You endured those trailers and were ready to kill when a chance presented itself. That means you're tough.”

She leaned over the bed of the truck, winter eyes drilling into him. “So what does it mean if we don't want to tell you anything about where we live?”

Kell smiled. “That you're good people. You're willing to risk yourselves, within reason, but you don't make that choice for the rest of your community. Not until you're sure about me.”

Those bright eyes were, Kell decided, brimming not only with intelligence but also insight. He gave her nothing in his expression, but he had been that way for half his life. Putting on a show was out of the question; he was certain she would see through false pretenses easily. Laura studied him, the gears turning.

“
I won't lie to you,” she finally said. “You aren't wrong. But I can't think of any way we can be sure you're trustworthy, not immediately. But caution doesn't mean we're going to kill you in your sleep or abandon you at the first chance. I think you deserve to know that much.”

“
Thanks,” Kell said. Then he had an idea. He unbuckled the harness that held his guns; the twin weapons and their spare magazines felt heavy for reasons that had nothing to do with weight.

Laura caught the belt when he tossed it to her. The surprise on her face was marvelous.

“Keep them. I'm bad with guns anyway. I'll keep my hand weapons and my spear, and you guys can hold onto my bow unless we're hunting or in a fight if that will help. I'm on your side. I know it'll take time. If this helps you feel a little safer then I'm happy to do it.”

The sound of the SUV bouncing over the hills echoed into the camp. Laura hefted the gun belt in her hand. “Let's start dinner,” she said. “If Kate agrees, I'll tell you how we got captured. It might not be what you want to hear, but I think it'll be...educational, anyway.”

“
I'm not sure when they caught us,” Laura began.

Dusk had fallen on the camp. The three of them sat around the fire, Kell and Kate eating what passed as a sumptuous feast, beans and pan bread with a side of actual chicken. There were cases of canned chicken in the supply crates. After eating nothing but jerky and cold canned pasta for days, it was a meal fit for a king as far as he was concerned. Laura had eaten first so she could speak while the others enjoyed their meal.

“It's been a few weeks, anyway,” she continued. “Our community—and no, I'm not telling you the name, just in case—is large and growing. We go out in teams to haul in whatever we can find. Sometimes that's food. Others, medical gear. Or even just raw materials.

“
Usually scouts travel in groups of four, and we weren't any different. It was me, Kate, her husband Joe and my husband, Joe's brother, Rick. We were in two vehicles but traveled together. At night we made camp in abandoned buildings if they were available. If not we slept in our trucks.”

Laura cleared her throat and sipped from a bottle of water. Kate seemed mesmerized by the story, but the tension around her mouth and eyes made Kell wonder if part of her wasn't reliving it.

“We were supposed to move west from our home along a predetermined route for three days. We were searching for critical supplies like antibiotics, food, even seeds. Our job was to haul what we could and mark locations for what we couldn't. That way the next team to go that way could easily find the stuff we left behind.

“
Our trucks were loaded with enough fuel to get us a good distance in that time, but the roads were bad enough that after the first day we were lucky to make forty miles.” She glanced at Kell. “You told us earlier that you were ambushed a few days ago? With a trap in the road?” He nodded.

“
That's how marauders operate. One of the ways. We haven't had a lot of trouble with them where we're from. That made us less cautious than we should have been. We weren't looking around us for threats from living people. We were just worried about the dead. So when we came across a school bus toppled across the road, we didn't think anything of it. Joe was the one who noticed something was off; he saw a chain attached to the frame, and that someone tried to conceal it.

“
We tried to turn around, but men popped up through the bus windows. There were enough of them that each of us had at least two rifles aimed at our faces from less than thirty feet away. Someone shouted for us to stop or we'd be shot. There wasn't much choice.”

Laura's eyes shined in the darkness, but her voice was steady. “They obviously had practice at it. Three cars full of men surrounded us in less than a minute. They hauled us from our vehicles. Joe and Rick tried to talk it out, thinking the men were just after our cargo. We were prepared to live in the rough and walk back home if we had to.

“There wasn't any warning. Two of the men surrounding us just shot our husbands right there in the road. As if they were animals. One second, a few ounces of pressure, and your world falls apart.”

Kate was crying softly, and Laura briefly touched her friend on the shoulder. “Kate and I were hit with something, I think it was a cattle prod or something like it, because I remember falling to the ground. I was shaking, my arms and legs wouldn't work right. We were stuffed into those trailers and tied up, but the nightmare didn't really begin for two more days. It all happened so fast that we didn't have time to fight back. Shooters at a distance, then men sneaking up behind us...we could have fought to start with, but that's the weird thing about being a survivor, you know? You don't take suicidal risks. We'd have been shot and left in the road even if we had the time to attack.