Chasing Colorado: (The Zombie Zovels #2) (9 page)

Day 3

Sore throat, like a raging cold is on the horizon.

“Hey, what were you doing in Drew's sleeping bag? He said you got cold.” Lane said, walking over to me.

“Huh...no, I had to... um, use the bathroom in the night and then I got chatting to Drew while he was on watch.”

“You should have kicked me out of my bag.” Lane said with a hint of jealousy in his tone.

“Lane!” Luke called.

Luke had the hood up, and grease all over his hands and arms.

“Yeah, comin'.” Lane called back, and begrudgingly left my side and jogged back to the van.

I followed him back to the van where the rest of the group was spread out.

“Hello,” Drew greeted me when I reached the van.

“Hey.” I replied.

Dan didn't say anything to me and turned to Drew and carried on their conversation as if I was invisible.

I joined Lena and Stacey sitting on the road, I was surprised Josh had even let Stacey out of the van.

“What did you have to do to get them to let you out?” I asked, sitting down next to Lena.

“I have to stay in sight.” Stacey mumbled.

“And if she wants to use the potty she has to ask nicely and one of us will take her.” Josh said, walking over to us.

“So what's going on with the van?” I asked.

“They're just trying to see if they can get it to start.”

“How's it lookin'?” Evan asked, walking out from a bush on the other side of the road.

“Not great, Luke thinks it's dead.” Josh said, but his face changed and his eyes bolted to me, panicking he had said the wrong word...
dead
.

“We should start organizing everything we need to carry.” I said.

Josh nodded. “We've got an extra donkey now.” Josh said, looking at Stacey.

“You can carry the water bottles.” he added.

“Okay, give it a go.” Luke said, tilting his head to the side to look at Josh.

“Moment of truth.” Josh said, climbing into the van.

Us girls stood up and wandered over to the driver's side. Josh turned the key, the van grumbled but died almost instantly.

“Shit!” Luke said, rubbing the back of his neck, smearing grease everywhere.

“Once more.” Lane said, looking up from the hood.

Josh turned the key again but the van wouldn't even turn over. He gave up after three more turns of the key.

“That's a no then.” Lena said.

Then she opened the back door and starting handing items to Stacey.

“We should head out soon, we need to cover as much distance as possible while Alex is still mobile.” Lena said.

Luke slammed the hood and muttered a few curse words. Lane came over to me and we started organizing our bags, adding extra blankets and toilet rolls.

“All set?” Josh asked everyone as Lane slid the van door closed.

We all nodded in unison and started moving along the road. Luke and Josh both had a jerrycan in their hands.

We followed the road and walked for two hours straight. The weather was warm and I was starting to melt. I had my messenger bag over my shoulder and a carrier bag full of toilet rolls. Everyone sort of walked in their own little groups. Lena and Dan were at the front of the group about thirty steps ahead of us. Drew and Evan were in front of them, further away, little dots in the distance on the road. Josh and Luke walked side by side, Stacey walked so close behind Luke that every time he slowed down or stopped to look at the map she walked into the back of him. Lane and I stayed behind the group at our own pace. My legs were short and I wasn't in the mood to speed walk.

Up ahead, Drew and Evan had stopped at an abandoned car that was parked at the side of the road in the overgrown grass. As we got closer I could see it was one of those classic muscle cars.

“Sweet!” Luke said, running his fingers along the side of the car.

“'69 Chevy Chevelle.” Evan said, admiring the vehicle from the side of the road.

“You know your cars.” Luke said impressed, then the pair of them got into a full-on conversation about paint jobs, alloys, and other vehicle-related things.

I noticed Drew had made himself scarce. I couldn't even see him along the road anywhere.

I searched around in the back seat for anything, and Stacey found a packet of bubblegum under the front seat... and didn't even offer any to anyone. But aside from the bubblegum, the car was spotless. Luke had the hood up with Evan, but the car was long gone. It had sat for so long that the weeds had started to grow up under the car and into the engine.

“Come on, enough playing with the big toy, we need to go.” Josh said.

It took a few more persuasive words before Josh could pry Luke away from the car.

We started walking again and a tall figure walked out from the trees to the left. We all froze, but soon relaxed when we realized it was only Drew, he had fresh mud smears across his cheek and his hair was all ruffled. He looked like a little kid that had just come back from exploring the jungle.

“There's a house about a quarter mile up the road, it's well hidden away from the road.”

“Did you check it out?” Evan asked.

“Not yet, I only saw the outside through the trees, I don't even know if it's occupied.”

“Lead the way.” Josh said.

We followed Drew into the trees, but not too far in as I could still see the road from where we were walking.

“It smells funky around here.” Stacey said.

Drew looked back over his shoulder. “Smells like trees.” he said, and everyone chuckled and Stacey looked slightly embarrassed.

Two seconds later, she was at it again, “Why are trees so boring?” she asked, and we all looked at her.

What the...?

Was she actually expecting a response to that random comment?

“Someone just kill me now.” I muttered, and Lane laughed under his breath.

“They are just so
brown
. Why aren't the tree trunks pink or purple? Brown is so boring!”

“Why are you still talking?!” Evan said, glaring at her.

She quickly clamped her mouth shut from whatever ridiculous thing she was about to say next. Then she tried to be subtle about positioning herself as far away from Evan as she could while still staying close to Josh and Luke.

A nearby tree rustled and I turned around and looked up at the branches.

Just a bird.

It had been a while since I had been outside in the open like this. Every little sound... a tree creaking in the distance, birds chirping, bushes rustling, had me jumping in my own skin.

A pair of birds swooped down in front of Lane and me and I ducked out of instinct.

“Shit me!” I muttered, pressing my hand to my heart.

“You okay?” Lane laughed, ducking down next to me.

“No... This was such a bad idea.”

Josh had slowed down and was already walking back to us.

“Alex?” Josh said.

“I'm fine.”

“The birds scared her.” Lane informed him.

“The birds?” Josh tried not to laugh.

“Yes, the birds. It was only a few days ago I watched Jasper being killed by them
things
, so sorry if I'm a little jumpy. I may be infected but that doesn't mean I want to get killed by one of them and end up getting my insides torn out.”

Ah, crap, did I really just say 'getting my insides torn out'? Out loud?

Josh lost his grin instantly and Lane helped me up off the ground.

“I'm sorry. I'm just used to the prison for safety.”

“Didn't know we'd domesticated you that much.” Josh grinned and nodded for us to follow him.

We came to an overgrown mass of weeds, ivy, and rose bushes, all tangled together and wound around the trees, creating a wall. I could just about see the top of the house on the other side.

“It's a wall of roses and ivy... a bit weird.” Luke said, dragging his knife down the middle of the ivy in front of him.

“It's the same all the way around,” Drew said. “But this is nature's doing, not humans, so there probably isn't anyone in there.” he added, lifting his knife out of its holder which he kept on his belt, and cutting down a tall rose bush. I didn't have any weapon on hand, neither did Stacey, so we both stepped back and let everyone else chop and hack their way through, I wasn't about to add injury to my already injured hands. Dan stood next to Lena, pretending to look busy, holding an ivy vine aside for her while she chopped her way through.

I picked at the bandage that Dion had wound around my hands and arms, they were itching so badly, I just wanted to rip it off and itch to my satisfaction.

“Stop scratching.” Stacey said, looking at me sideways while blowing a bubble with her gum that popped loudly.

“No. I can scratch what I want!” I snapped, before moving three steps away from her.

Obviously, my scratching was bothering her.

“Are you nearly done yet?” Stacey whined.

“Nearly.” Josh answered.

“If you're that impatient why don't you help?” I said.

“Why don't you?” she snapped back.

I scowled at her, when did she become so hateful. I was dying, I wasn't her enemy. Then I had to tell myself she was younger... and lived in the clouds with the fairies.

She huffed and crossed her arms. What was she doing here? I wanted to scream at her, yell at her, slap her. She annoyed the shit outta me, why did she have to follow us? If I was going to die I didn't want to die listening to her whine about everything from, the smell of the forest, to the color of bark.

“I'm through,” Drew said from somewhere inside the green jungle.

“Me too.” Josh said.

I was closer to Drew, so I picked my way through the hole he had made. I got my foot tangled in a vine and reached out to balance myself before I went down, and ended up grabbing Drew's arm.

“I got you.” he said, helping me stand up.

Then he let go and crouched down near my ankle and untangled my foot for me.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” he mumbled quietly, before joining his friends.

I stepped out of the ivy and met Lane, he was trying to break free from the vines. I grabbed his arm and untangled the vines for him.

“It's like the forest of thorns.” Lena said.

“The what?” Drew said.

“Forest of thorns, from Sleeping Beauty.” Lena replied.

“Sleepin' what?” Drew grunted.

“Sleeping Beauty, when Prince Philip races to rescue Aurora...”

Drew and Evan exchanged a look.

“I wouldn't know, I never watched no Sleepin' Beauty.” Drew smirked.

“Let me guess, you were more into The Karate Kid and Ninja Turtles?”

“Yep, princesses, and princes are for girls, and I ain't no girl.”

Evan started laughing, soon followed by Dan.

Lena put her hand on her hip. “Dan watched
The Notebook
with me.” she blurted, and I tried to suppress a giggle.

“You made me!” Dan squeaked, going red in the face around his friends. “She bribed me with...with...”

“Popcorn, toffee is his favorite flavor.” she said, patting him on the back.

“Did she give you a facial and a pedicure at the same time?” Evan asked, trying not to laugh.

“He let me paint his toenails.” Lena grinned.

“What! You said you'd never tell anyone.” Dan said horrified, then he stormed off toward the house in a grump.

“He's such a pussy.” Drew said, looking at Dan, waiting for him to hear.

“I heard that... you hillbilly.”

“Wow, what a comeback, Dan,” Drew said, jogging to catch up to him. “Wait up, let me go first, you might chip a nail.” Drew said.

“See, now look what you've started.” Dan said to Lena.

She giggled and stuck her tongue out at him as she skipped past.

The rest of us followed them toward the house, which was actually an old cottage with stone walls, a rickety chimney, and a thatched roof. It looked like something from a Disney movie. I was half expecting a witch to pop her head out of the window.

“This looks, um...” I started to say.

“Creepy.” Lena finished for me.

Drew was the first one to reach the front door, soon followed by Evan. They both stood either side of the door, inspecting it, like it was some foreign creature. Evan had to tear a load of cobwebs away from the door handle before he could touch it. Evan turned the large door handle and to everyone's surprise, the thing turned. Evan pushed the large door open, it creaked loudly and I cringed from the noise, then he quickly ducked inside. Drew was right behind him with his crossbow at the ready. We all waited quietly, looking around at the weird, vine wall and overgrown garden of weeds and roses.