They Walk (35 page)

“
What happened?” I say so softly, that my own voice doesn’t even sound like mine.

“
You passed out and had us all worried too.” He says, as he lets a slight smile slip through his clenched lips.

Some of the others around us come in closer, and it makes me feel kind of smothered. But I ignore them as I try to stay focused on what Gabe said. I passed out, that’s it? Then why do I feel like I got hit by an eighteen wheeler going full throttle? Something tickles at the back of my mind, and I have the feeling I’m missing something big but I just can’t remember what it is. I realize then, that not only is Matt not with us, but neither is my brother Daniel.

Not knowing what is going on starts to make me nervous as to what happened.

“
Gabe, where are the others and what is going on?” I ask, and I’m afraid of what I’ll hear.

He looks confused for a moment, and shares a look with the Matt look-a-like guy, who shrugs his shoulders.

“
What do you mean? Everyone is outside waiting for us at the car.” He tells me in a tone, like I should already know what he’s talking about.

“
Dan and Matt are at the car? Why are we in here and where is here?” My voice rises and I have to clear my throat as it does.

Gabe’s eyes go wide and he looks up at the others in alarm, while his arms that are holding me begin to shake. Claire comes closer then, and kneels beside me. She looks scared and very worried, and I can’t help to think about why. The others merge closer together and are heatedly whispering so quietly that I can’t hear what they are talking about.

“
Maggie, what do you remember about what happened?”

Claire asks me so patiently, and I have the very blunt feeling I’ve missed a lot.

Claire isn’t the type to be calm, but rather dramatic about things. My head pounds behind my temples as I try to remember the last time I was awake. And all that comes to mind is the party at Austin’s we all went too. I know I’m missing something, but the harder I think about it, the father it goes in my mind.

“
What did happen? We were just at Austin’s house right?”

Her eyes go wide and she shares an intense look with Gabe, who is shaking far worse than I am now. Having enough of getting no answers and feeling like a fool for not knowing about what is going on, I pull free of Gabe and try to sit up on my own. Shaky at first and feeling like I might fall over, I manage to sit on my own and I try to ignore the way Gabe looks hurt from my leaving his arms.

“
That’s not what just happened. And you’re missing almost two weeks of things.” Claire tells me, and I can see the way she tenses, that she is afraid of my reaction, as well she should be.

I’m about to yell at her that she has to be lying, and it’s not nice to play this kind of trick on me. When the others of the group face us again, and I can’t help but to notice the way they look slightly irritated now and less worried about me.

Well, screw them too.

“
Gabe, we don’t have time for this. We need to get out of here as fast as we can.” The blonde guy says as he steps further away from the pregnant girl.

“
Don’t you think I know that Noah? What do you want me to do, huh?” Gabe says intently as he stands up and glares at the other guy.

“
I don’t know and I’m sorry. But we have the advantage of the soldiers shooting at the dead as cover, and we should take it.”

Gabe sighs as he hunches over slight and rubs the back of his neck with his hands. His shoulders are tense, and the other guy looks just as frustrated. And did he just say the dead? Distantly an image of a car wrapped around a tree comes to mind and so does the blood covered body that comes out of it.

“…
The dead?” I say softly as I get to my feet on shaky legs.

All eyes turn to me, and the blonde guy actually has the decently to look guilty before he looks away from me. Gabe and Claire both take a synchronized step towards me, and I follow them as I back up and keep distance between us.

“
You don’t have to be afraid.” Gabe says.

“
Yeah, it’s not really as bad as you think.” Claire says, but the way she cringes I know she is lying.

I scoff at them, and I continue my trek of backing up and putting as much distance between us as I can.

From the way that guys said ‘the dead’ I have the feeling I’ve stepped into a George Romero movie.

But that’s not possible is it?

Gabe tenses suddenly, and I get the impression that he is going to make a grab for me. Instead of letting him take hold of me, I turn away from them before he can. Behind me is a wide set of double doors, and I quickly rush at them before I change my mind. Whatever is out there has to be better than in here. As I’m reaching the doors and pushing them open, I can hear Gabe rushing at me.

I step out and away before he can get to me, and once outside I realize I’ve been planted in my worst nightmare. There is chaos everywhere, and as I watch a man I think is a soldier, shoot into another man missing half his body and still moving, things start to come back to me.

And none too subtlety either.

Chapter Sixty

All the things that happened to me over the last few weeks came crashing into me in a mass of jumbled images, and it leaves me breathless and hunched over on myself. I relieve the first accident at Austin’s house that started it all, and I remember being saved by Gabe as I lay on the ground with a dead girl over me. I see Matt all over again turning and coming after me right after he bit into a dog’s throat, and I remember having to kill him. I see Gabe and Dan being surrounded by the dead, and I remember waking up with Gabe over me and how it felt when he turned away from me.

I remember the second accident, the way we got surrounded by a mass of the dead.

And the way Gabe watched me as I blacked out.

I see myself with Gabe, Claire, Sam and Noah as we leave the apartments and run headfirst into a parking lot full of the dead. I remember seeing Sam getting bit as he saved me from getting attacked, and I remember the pain I felt when he shot himself before he could turn. I remember finally making it to the Collisee and finally being somewhat safe, and meeting the weird Hunter.

I remember feeling desolate when others found family and I did not, and I remember the way I felt when Gabe helped me to go in search at Bates. I remember fighting the dead over and over, and the cold sticky way their blood coated my skin. I see Gabe getting jumped and the way Hunter stood over him with a bloodied bat.

I remember the way Hunter attacked me and choked me until I thought I’d pass out and never wake up. I see Gabe knocking Hunter from me, and watching them fight out of a window. I remember standing in front of the window, and feeling an instinct so strong that I couldn’t lose Gabe as the dead started at them. I see myself fighting out into the raining night and keeping the dead from Gabe and Hunter, and I remember turning just as Hunter got bit by a stray dead man. I see Gabe shoot the dead man and hesitate over Hunter with the gun still raised. I see myself taking the gun and shooting Hunter without a care, and I remember seeing my parent’s right after from a distance.

I relive the way I felt seeing my parents again, and how I was more relieved than any time before in my life. I remember fighting towards Noah’s car with my mother close behind and worrying if Gabe and my father were alright while we were separated. I remember driving to the Collisee with a second car behind me, and finding the parking lot filled with the dead and the living as everyone fled. I see again, running into the Collisee with Noah and Gabe, and finding the others safe inside still. I remember the most, the news they gave us and what sent me over the edge.

That the Country is going to be bombed in less than 48 hours.

Gasping, I stand up straight and hold my head in my hands, as the throbbing pain intensifies.

I refuse to black out again.

Gritting my teeth, I realize the scene outside hasn’t changed much since I was out of it, and still everyone is running around trying to leave. Across the way between a broken down ambulance and an army jeep, is Noah’s car with my parents inside it. They are in the front, and still there are the two girls and guy from Bates sitting in the back. Lowering my hands, I stare at my mother and know I have to be stronger than this. Too much has happened and is going to happen for my body and mind to just cave like this, even if I don’t really have control.

My mother looks worried and she is sharing a look with my father, and I smile at her trying to pretend everything is fine.

Even as the dead are still running around towards everyone, and the soldiers are doing the best they can to keep them back with shooting at them. With the sound of gun fire loud in my ears, I turn away from it all and intend to go back inside to figure out what to do with the others. Except, I’m not outside alone and when I turn to walk inside, I run into Gabe instead.

He must have been standing right behind me, because when I run into him, he wraps me up in his arms and pulls me close. And gratefully, I sink into the warmth of him and ignore everything else. I don’t even know I’m crying until he is consoling me softly, and I can feel myself shaking again. Never before, have I felt so lost and confused, and what’s worse, is that I forgot all about Gabe. I never want to feel that way again, I just can’t lose him.

I know without a doubt, that this is what love really is.

The certainty, of never wanting to leave the one your with, because it will be a hole inside me and I’d rather be one of those mindless dead, then be without him. And so, I hang onto him like its life or death, and really, it kind of is.

Gabe loosens his hold on me and pulls back slightly so that he can look at me.

The expression on his face makes me even more grateful to have him back, because he looks just as relived as I am. I start to say something, but I don’t really know where to start. Everything feels like a fresh wound, and I have the need to want to catch up and heal. But I also know that isn’t even the smallest option.

“
We should get back to the others, before they plan world domination without us.” Gabe says, as he steers us towards the doors.

“
World domination would be funnier, if it wasn’t true.” I tell him softly as I wipe tears from my eyes.

He shakes his head and pulls open the doors for us, but before we can even take a step inside there is movement from behind us. I turn back to look, but move to fast and wind up being dizzy and unfocused, but Gabe isn’t. He spins us around so that he is in front of me, as a young dead girl with twin braids of red hair runs at us. Right before she is within touching distance, Gabe pulls a wicked looking knife from a hidden sheath on his ankle. He thrusts up his arm holding the knife and jams it to the hilt into her jaw as she is almost on him. She struggles for a moment, still trying to grab for him, but she jerks the knife deeper and she goes still.

He pulls the knife free, and her now dead body falls to a heap on the ground. I’m staring at him wide eyed, still in the same spot as he turns back to me and puts the knife away.

“
Damn cowboy, any other tricks I don’t know about?” I say in a whisper.

Smirking, he makes a grab for my hand and tugs me back towards the doors. As soon as they are open again and we are inside, the others are waiting close by and all of them hold the same curious expressions.

And their all directed at me.

“
Yes, I’m fine. I remember everything, and I know we have to leave now, right?” I say in a rush before Noah can beat me to it.

He is practically animated with urgency, and honestly, I don’t blame him. Beside me, Gabe gives me a gentle squeeze of my hand, as he too is watching Noah. Who is nodding vigorously now, by the way.

“
Good, I’m glad. We need to head out, and I’m going to drive with Logan and Hanna. So you guys can have my car.” He says, as he nods to Logan now who is agreeing with him.

That will definitely be helpful, since we seem to have made more of our group recently.

“
Where are we heading exactly?” Gabe asks Noah, as we both watch the others gathering their supplies already.

“
The Canadian border is my best guess, a lot of the other cars seem to be heading that way. That was the word right Claire?”

Noah is helping Claire lift a pack up into her arms, as he says this. I suddenly have a very bad feeling, because surly we are going back to the apartments first right? We couldn’t leave behind Dan and the rest, Noah knows this, doesn’t he? That would be a no, as he doesn’t mention a pit stop, but rather urges Hanna and Logan both to the doors already.

They are passing by us, when I stop him by touching his arm, making him pause.

“
We have to stop back to the apartments. We have time right?” I say in a whisper.

“
Are you out of your mind? No way in hell, am I letting you take my brother off again on some rescue mission!” Hanna says from the arms of Logan’s they hover near the half open doors.

Noah turns to her with haunted eyes, before turning back to me with regretful ones. Gabe tenses beside me and he and Noah share a look I can’t read. I kind of understand how Hanna must feel, I mean look at me, I just want to get my brother back too. She’s lucky to have hers already, and I know it’s not fair to take him away. Claire and her mother come up from behind me, and she places a hand on my back.