Duality (The Hitchhiker Strain) (8 page)

“
You’re going to need to eat something.”

Slowly, I reach out for the tray and he w
atches my every movement. I pull the tray toward me long enough to give it the momentum needed to send it flying back under the bars of the cage and toward the smug-looking boy. To my surprise, he breaks out into a grin. That hadn’t exactly been my goal.

“
I knew it!” he proclaims, jumping up again from his spot against the wall. I mimic his movement and stand up as well, unwilling to lose the high ground in any way. “You can understand me. You’re listening, reacting. This is amazing!”

I should probably be angry at myself for giving them something, b
ut I’m not even sure that I did. I’m more lost than ever. What do these people want from me?

“
I have to go for now, but I’ll be back soon.” He turns to leave but glances over his shoulder at me. “I’m Zack, by the way.”

Chapter 12 – Savannah

“
We’ll be careful with her,” I swear to Dooley for what has to be the tenth time.

We
’re switching vehicles—temporarily, of course—so he and Eduardo can start back to Veritas with our supplies while Liam and I make our way into suburbia. Eduardo has already left to go find somewhere that the two of them can easily get through so that they can go straight from here to home, taking the most efficient route. There’s no point in following the barrier anymore since we now know exactly what its purpose is.

"You better be,"
he says, finally handing over his keys. The three of us stand around and make small talk about our plans for another minute or so before Dooley takes off. As he pulls away in the van, he casts one last glance back at us through the rearview mirror and something in his expression says that he's genuinely worried about us.

We'll be fine
, I tell myself again and again. It’s risky and we don't have any time to waste though. We need to go. The tail end of the herd is almost out of sight, meaning the zombies leading the group are probably an hour or two away from the roadblock that will steer them right into Tilton. Which—best-case scenario—gives us an hour to double back, figure out exactly where my friends are living now, and convince them to get the hell out of Dodge. It's no small order.

Paulson gave me a written address before we parted ways, outlining where they were headed and how to get there. It never even crossed my mind to bring it with me on this trip. Now I have to rely solely on my shoddy memory to g
et us to where we need to go. All I remember is that they were going to a townhouse complex near the biggest shopping mall in town. How many of those could there possibly be?

"Shall we?" Liam says, pulling open the passenger
’s side door for me with a sweeping bow. I offer him a tight smile, and the way that everything about him—from jaw to fists to posture—is clenched tells me he's feeling the pressure of this situation, too.

One upside to the zombie apocalypse has been the ability to drive a whole lot fast
er with a lot less risk. Dooley has clearly done some work on his car, which is pretty unassuming to look at but will have no problem getting us to where we need to go in record time. “We need to head for the mall,” I say completely unhelpfully.

“
And that would be where, exactly?”

I went there dozens of times growing up, but it
’s been a long time since my last visit, and I’m not sure of anything anymore. I quickly unfold the map, but it’s hard to orient myself, and I have to make an educated guess until I can get a better sense of where it is we’re going.

“
Stay on this road. We should see a clock tower in the distance in a couple of minutes, and then we want to head toward that.”

We find the tower easily enough, but the route we take to get there is far f
rom direct as we slowly weave toward our destination, wasting precious minutes with every wrong turn. We pass a few of the wandering dead as we go, avoiding them easily. This entire town seems mostly deserted, quiet even. If only we can keep it that way for a few hours longer.

The direction we approach the mall from is lined with semi-detached homes and small corner stores. It
’s quaint, but not what we’re looking for.

“
Right or left?” Liam asks when we reach the main road that borders the mid-sized shopping complex.

“
Left.” It’s my best guess. I just don’t want to waste any time debating the options. Since we won’t have to contend with traffic lights, we could make it around the entire block pretty quickly. Better to keep moving until we see something that looks promising.

Liam makes the left turn just as one of the infected lurches toward our car from behind a fence. We leave him in our dust long before he can make it within arm
’s reach.

It takes another few minutes and two more turns
, but we reach our goal faster than I hoped. A narrow driveway leads into a complex of maybe sixty houses, and I’m hopeful that we’ve come to the right place.

Immediately, I see that we have. There are a few houses scattered throughout that have been comp
letely ransacked, and one has been burned down to a shell, but for the most part, these houses look homey. Lived in. Loved, even. The only thing that’s missing is people. Why hasn’t anyone come out to greet us yet? Any unexpected guests should be cause for concern. If they’re smart, they’re hiding out in case we aren’t friendly visitors, and I won’t leave until I’m sure no one is living here.

Liam pulls the hatchback into one of the guest parking spaces.

“It’s too quiet,” I say, not bothering to keep my voice down. If anyone is here, they’ve already seen us.

“
Maybe they aren’t here. It’s possible that they saw the herd and took off hours ago.”

“
Maybe. I’m still going to poke around and make sure though. We’re already here.”

Liam nods and turns off the car.

“
How long do you think we have?” I ask as he takes his keys out of the ignition.

“
An hour, possibly two. It’s hard to say.”

“
We’ll call it one then. We’re not taking any chances.”

It
’s not easy to stop myself from pointing out that he’s not exactly in charge of what I do or don’t do, but when it comes to Veritas, I’m not actually sure if that’s true. I have no idea where I stand. All I know is that I won’t be letting Liam, Eduardo, or anyone else stop me from making sure the people I love are okay.

As soo
n as I step out of the car, one of my questions is answered.

“
Place any weapons on the ground slowly and then raise your hands above your head!” a voice shouts from somewhere above me.

I know my first instinct should be to do as I
’m told, but instead I look up, trying to find the source of the voice. I find a shotgun pointed right at me from the second story of the house closest to us. Someone is standing guard, prepared to take me out if I make one wrong move. Down the row of houses, others are doing the same. I count at least seven guns sticking out of open windows—and those are just the ones I can see. Paulson isn’t taking any chances with security.

That
’s when I notice what I should have seen right away. From the top story of almost every house, we’re being watched. Children hide their faces behind frayed curtains while others stare at us openly, waiting to see if Liam and I are about to get our heads blown off.

“
It’s me, Savannah. Savannah Cooper!” I shout, slowly raising my hands above my head.

“
I don’t know a Savannah,” the voice barks back. “Do you have any weapons on you?”

Yes. Of course we do, but I
’m not sure admitting to them.

I glance over to see Liam laying his gun on the ground. Rolling my eyes, I do the same.

“Look,” I say slowly, carefully, “I don’t know who you are, but I’m from New Ravencrest. Where’s Paulson?”

“
Savannah!” a girl’s voice shrieks from somewhere nearby and I whip my head around.

“
Don’t move!” the man barks, but he’s already lost.

The front door to one of
the townhouses swings open and Belle comes barreling toward me. She looks exactly the same as when I last saw her, her blond hair sleek and perfect despite the less than hospitable conditions. She’s a few years younger than I am, but we spent a lot of time together when her dad, New Ravencrest’s leader, was first organizing the local survivors into something that resembled a community.

She flings her arms around me in a crushing hug, and I risk getting shot in the head to lower my arms and reciprocate.

“Patrick,” a voice I’d know anywhere bellows. “Put down the gun. She’s a friend.” Paulson has finally decided to step in and prevent my murder. I know he didn’t approve of my leaving to go with Cole in the first place, but it’s nice to know I haven’t been added to a list of people who should be shot on sight.

The man who I assume must be Patrick slowly lowers his weapon but keeps his eyes trained on me. When did we start taking in strays? Gradually, the rest of the neighborhood watch committee does the same. Th
e only person who still seems tense is Liam.

“
What are you doing here?” Belle asks, her voice still hitting a higher decibel than usual in her excitement.

Glancing around, I can see that there are still at least a hundred pairs of eyes on us. I can
’t just spill what I’ve come here to say now, not without risking a full-fledged panic that could get people killed. “I need to talk to your dad. And the guys,” I tack on quickly. “They’re still…”

It occurs to me that, in the month that
’s passed, people—my people, or my former people—may have been lost. There are no guarantees that everyone is still safe and sound.

“
Alex and Pierce are fine,” Belle starts before her face falls, “but we haven’t found Zack yet…and we’ve actually looked.”

Now it
’s my turn to offer a reassuring smile. “I found him. He’s fine.” Well, mostly fine, but I won’t get into that now.

“
Savannah! That’s amazing! Best news ever!” She bounces up and down on her heels, exuding energy. “Why don’t you go get Alex and Pierce? It would be such an awesome surprise. Then you can tell them the good news yourself.”

For half a second, I let myself forget that not all the news I
’ve brought with me is good and grin ear to ear.

Promising to meet back at the house where she lives with her dad in ten minutes, I t
ake off at a jog toward the opposite end of the row, where Belle told me I can find Alex and his mom. I’m not sure if our reunion will be awkward, so I leave Liam in Belle’s capable hands, certain she’ll talk his ear off and keep him from wondering where I’ve wandered off to.

Patrick must not be the only new face that Paulson has adopted into his community, because their group now has enough people to take up nearly half of the complex of townhouses. Belle told me where to find Alex and Pierce, and for now,
that’s all I need to know. Once we get every single person out of here, there will be plenty of time to catch up with everyone else.

Unit number fifty-two. I see it as soon as I turn the corner. There
’s no one watching for me from this window, but my skin is practically buzzing from knowing that my friends, my family, are this close. One by one, I take the steps up to the front door.

This is it. Taking one final shuddering breath, I rap my knuckles against the door. It
’s an agonizing thirty seconds before I hear someone clomp down the stairs inside, coming to find out who’s at their door.

Anxious to see who it is that
’ll open the door, I bite my lip. Mrs. Park, Alex… Marybeth? Maybe even Pierce. I imagine he spends most of his time here, but who knows what his life is like now? The possibilities roll through my mind right up until the second that the door swings open.

Alex. It
’s Alex. I swallow hard and then force a grin onto my face as shock registers onto his. “Miss me?”

“
Savannah.” He blinks. I blink. “Holy shit. It’s really you.”

“
In the flesh. The intact, completely alive flesh. Are you going to invite me in or what?”

Alex turns his head and hollers up the stairs, “
Beth! Pierce! Get your asses down here,” still blocking my entrance to his new house with his body. It’s less than a minute before they fly down the stairs, weapons in hand. As soon as Pierce sees me, the hammer he was holding clatters to the ground.

“
Savvy!” Pierce hops off the last step and shoulders past Alex to wrap me up in a tight hug, forcing a smile onto my face. Marybeth stays back, hovering on the stairs, but even she looks happy to see me.

“
I’m thrilled to see you too, dude,” I say, laughing as he pulls away.

“
What are you doing here?” he asks in his ever-formal British accent. His dark eyes are shining with excitement, and just like that, my own smile falters. I didn’t come here for a reunion, and we can’t afford to stand around and hug it out.

“
It’s a long story, but there’s something headed your way.” I step into the small foyer and let the door swing shut behind me. “I should probably wait until we’re all in one place. I’m supposed to meet with Paulson in a few minutes, but I wanted you guys to be there.”

“
That doesn’t sound good,” Alex says, worry already furrowing his forehead.

“
It’s not. Where’s your mom? She should probably be there too.”

“
Down the street, I think,” Marybeth offers. “Tilly Mason was bitten two days ago. She’s starting to run a fever, but Grace is keeping her comfortable for as long as she can so her family has time to say goodbye.”

When I first met Marybeth and Alex, a statement like this one would have had her in tears
—an eight-year-old girl fated to die slowly before coming back as something even worse—but now she delivers the news with no hint of emotion besides resignation.