WILLA, стр. 30
I had to stifle a scream. I didn’t know Liz. However, I’d seen her face and known her name. That made her real to me in a way that many others we’d had to kill hadn’t been.
“Thanks for the help,” the unnamed man said, reaching up to shake my uncle’s hand.
Uncle Jamie took it for a brief second before saying, “You two should probably get going. More are bound to be on their way.”
“What are you guys going to do?” Dana asked.
“Head back into the country. All of the homes that belonged to my family are destroyed now,” Uncle Jamie said, looking at the kicked-in front door of Uncle Carson’s house. “I don’t know where we’re going just yet, but I want to get as far away from the city as possible.”
The two didn’t apologize for demolishing the house, but they did look ashamed of what they did.
“Well, take care. We have to get back to our people,” the man said.
“You should get them out of the city. Find an empty farmhouse and get ready for the winter, and next spring, start planting the fields. You’ll have plenty of food then,” Uncle Jamie said, motioning for Sam and me to go back into the house.
“Do you think that’ll be necessary?” Dana asked. “I mean, won’t the military have this under control by then?”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” my uncle said. “Either way, food delivery has ceased. What you eat from now on, you’ll have to scavenge for or grow. In a few years, ten or more, if enough of us have survived, then something like the old ways might come back. If there isn’t enough of us and we’re scattered all over the planet, you’ll have to learn to fend for yourself.”
“That’s bleak,” the man said.
“That’s life,” Uncle Jamie replied, following me into Uncle Carson’s home.
No one said anything else. Dana and the unnamed man turned and walked away.
“Shouldn’t we invite them to go with us?” I asked, watching the two leave.
“No. They’re too stuck in the old world. That life’s over. We need to find others who understand that,” Uncle Jamie said.
I didn’t think he was right, but I wasn’t about to argue.
Back in the basement, Sam pulled Chase from the closet. He didn’t chastise his younger brother, but I could tell that Sam and Uncle Jamie weren’t happy with the younger boy. I didn’t think he would have been any help in the fight, and they probably didn’t either, which was why they remained quiet.
“Pack your things,” Uncle Jamie said, gathering the remains of our first aid kit.
“We’re leaving?” Chase asked.
“We are. We can’t stay here anymore. It isn’t safe. Hurry and pack your bags,” our uncle replied, and we did as he ordered.
Five minutes later, we exited the house where four zombies met us.
Uncle Jamie, Sam, and I dispatched them. Chase didn’t even raise his spear. We were going to have to do something about the boy before he got himself or us killed.
21.
Three houses up from what used to be Chase and Sam’s home, Uncle Jamie told us to stop and wait at the road while he went around back to grab what he’d gotten from town. When he’d returned to the house and saw the missing front door, he’d stashed the supplies he’d gathered before coming to rescue us. I wanted to be pissed about that. At the same time, I understood why he did it.
When he got back to us, Uncle Jamie was carrying three extra packs. He handed one to me and one to Sam. He didn’t so much as look at Chase. My cousin didn’t seem to notice. He was too busy turning in circles like a frightened rabbit. I feared he would be the next of us to die.
“Let’s go,” Uncle Jamie said, once Sam and I had both of our packs settled.
Carrying two backpacks would be hard and make traveling slow, but I didn’t dare leave any of it behind.
“Where are we going?” I asked, looking at the road in front of us and the darkening sky.
The night was falling. We’d need to find shelter in the next hour or so.
“I honestly have no idea,” Uncle Jamie said in a dejected tone.
“We should have stayed at the house,” Chase said in a shaking voice.
I feared he might be right, though with the house in pieces and zombies flocking to the noise we’d made, I didn’t think we would have lasted much longer there. Out in the open and weighed down, we weren’t any safer.
No one said anything in response.
No one spoke for the next hour or so.
The four of us merely walked. We didn’t have a destination. The only time we turned in any direction was when the road ended or when we needed to avoid a zombie or another human.
Just after nightfall, we found shelter in an empty co-op. We’d been slowly making our way East and were in rural country. Unconsciously, Uncle Jamie must have had a vague idea of where he wanted to go.
As soon as we’d finished eating supper, Uncle Jamie told us we should get some sleep. None of us were mentally tired enough to do so.
“What was it like in town?” Sam asked, stretching in his sleeping bag.
“Bad, but let’s not talk about that,” Uncle Jamie said, glancing over at Chase, who was watching the land out the large window too intently to hear our conversation.
“It can’t be too bad if those people were willing to go back,” Sam said.
“I don’t think they wanted to go back. I think the two had responsibilities in the city,” I said. “The man said they were trying to lure the creatures into the country. I find it hard to believe they were doing so to take the city back.”
“Willa is probably right,” Uncle Jamie said. “The city is too overrun at the moment for them to reclaim it. But who knows. People