WILLA, стр. 33

23.

Two mornings later, we woke to silence. The stillness was almost as deafening as the moans and bangs that had filled our waking moments.

“They’re gone,” Chase said, sitting up in his sleeping bag.

He looked so relieved that I hoped it was true.

“We can get back on the road today,” Chase continued saying, looking at each of us in turn for agreement.

I hated the doubtful look I knew was on my face. The creatures were gone, but I didn’t think we should leave our shelter until we felt confident that there weren’t any stragglers nearby.

“Come on. Why aren’t you guys happy?” Chase asked, getting off the floor and heading to the front door.

“Don’t open that door,” Uncle Jamie barked out, freezing Chase mid-step.

“But...,” my cousin said.

“But nothing,” Uncle Jamie said. “We’ll wait a bit. We don’t know for certain that they’re gone. We hope they are, and if they’ve finally given up on us, then yes, we’ll go, but not right now. We’ll go about our morning business, have breakfast, then we’ll see about the horde. All right?”

Uncle Jamie turned to look at Sam and me, who were still in our bedrolls. We both nodded. Neither of us got up. I wanted to take advantage of the quiet and sleep a bit longer. Judging by the looks on my uncle’s and cousins’ faces, they did too.

“I can’t stay here any longer,” Chase said in a pleading tone.

“Yes, you can. And you will. We are not risking our lives because you feel cooped up or scared or whatever,” Sam said. “Now, lay back down and get some sleep. We haven’t had a proper rest in days.”

Chase looked as if he wanted to argue more, but he didn’t. He did as Sam suggested and crawled back into his bag. He was asleep before the rest of us.

Uncle Jamie rose a few hours later and began preparing our meager breakfast.

“Are they still gone?” I heard Sam ask through the fog of my half-asleep mind.

“As far as I can tell. I haven’t heard anything outside in a while,” Uncle Jamie said.

“Do you think they’ve moved on?” Sam asked.

“Most of them, yes. I’m sure some are lingering around, which is why we’ll stay here again tonight. We’ll rest and get an early start first thing in the morning,” Uncle Jamie said.

“Why can’t we leave now?” Chase asked, sounding like a petulant child.

“Because I said so,” Uncle Jamie said in his “dad voice” that silenced us all. “Because we’re all still too tired and because I want to make sure there aren’t any stragglers. You can wait a day.”

“What if more creatures come?” Chase asked.

“Then, we’ll wait. We can ration our food a bit longer. If it makes you feel better, I’ll go out this afternoon and have a look around,” Uncle Jamie said with a sigh.

Chase did have a point about more coming through the area. We couldn’t survive in the office for too much longer.

My younger cousin didn’t look happy, but he did appear mollified for the time being.

We had a small meal, trained for a bit, and then rested for a while around supper.

“I’m going to slip out the back door and wander around the park to see what I can find. I’ll do my best to come back to that door, but someone needs to be at the front waiting for me as well,” Uncle Jamie said, donning his empty pack.

“I’ll take the front door, and Sam will take the back,” I said. “Chase can be our go-between if either of us needs help with anything.”

“Good idea,” Uncle Jamie said. “Don’t open this door for anyone but me. I highly doubt there’s anyone else around, but you never know.”

The three of us nodded and braced ourselves for what we’d see when Uncle Jamie opened the door. Despite having not heard a sound in hours, we were shocked to see that nothing was on the other side of the door.

“I’ll be back in an hour,” Uncle Jamie said before pulling the door closed behind him.

Sam rushed to lock it.

“Did you see that?” Chase asked.

“What?” Sam and I asked at the same time, thinking we’d missed something.

“They’re gone,” he said. “All of them. We can leave in the morning, for sure.”

“We don’t know that. You need to calm down and stop pushing to leave. Remember, when we leave here, chances are we’ll be sleeping outside at night or somewhere not as secure as this place,” Sam reminded him as only a sibling could.

Chase looked at the two of us dumbfounded. The boy hadn’t thought through the repercussions of leaving our current shelter. Thankfully, Sam’s words shut him up, and Chase said nothing else on the subject.

True to his word, Uncle Jamie was back an hour later. He was alone, and his pack had very few items in it. What little he’d found would get us through the next few days if we found ourselves stuck in the office building any longer.

“So, what did you see?” I asked, once my uncle had unloaded his burden and sat down.

“No zombies,” he said. “Or well, none that could attack me. Debris pinned a few of them to the ground. I killed the ones I could. The creatures have leveled the trailer park. In some areas, they nearly flattened the homes. If there were any other people around, they’re gone or dead. We’ll try to search