Walking Amongst Them (Among Us, Book 2)

limits of trust

Apparently prisoners don't help when zombies attack. I even offered to help, but Jerald shoved me aside and told me to shut up. I hit the ground hard, and by the time I stood up, they were all three already offering an assault on the small ground of diseased corpses. Cody lead with kills but he stayed off to the side.

Gary wasn't bad, but he spent a lot of time slashing off limbs and pinning them to trees before actually killing the monsters. Like it was a show. Jerald had only actually taken down a single opponent, but looked just as winded as Cody. I turned away from them before they could recover, looking out across the other side of the hill we stood at the top of. There was a town at the foot of it, and beyond that, it looked like we were leaving the trees behind for a while.

At least I hadn't gotten any dirt or yuck on my clothes. Maybe being prisoner wasn't all that bad, I thought to myself as an attempt to placate my still bubbling anger. It was on a simmer, but every time Cody allowed them to say something snide about my, about our  friends, well. It was worse than when they spoke on me.

We spent the better part of the afternoon and night making it up over a hill, through the small town that had a lot of hiding places, apparently. Gary called camp at the top, and we woke with the sunrise, eating a quick meal that I was reminded once again to be grateful to be a part of.

We were currently walking down the hill in a heavy silence. The sun was dipping out of sight. I wondered when the snow would stop, and realized I'd lost count of days. The snow that was on the ground here was thinner. It would be gone by tomorrow night if it didn't snow again.

Even though I wasn't fighting too much, I smelled like a garbage, and I was sure my appearance wasn't much better. I hadn't seen a brush in days, not to mention the blood on my face. I'd been too tired and out of it to realize it was still in  my hair, on my face and neck, to clean it then. It had chipped off a bit, but I knew I could pass for one of the zombies to someone not paying attention.

But asking for them to stop so I could clean up wasn't an option. I only went to the bathroom when they stopped, and even then, Cody's rope was becoming his new best friend. I wished I'd accepted Trish's offer to learn hand on hand combat her way when I'd had the chance.

I'm sure she would have known what todo with that rope.

Thinking of Trish had me standing taller though, and I looked over to Gary, forcing my head to tilt and eyes to widen.

"So where exactly are we going?"

He looked surprised I'd even spoken to him, and then he spit on the ground. He did that a lot, making me wonder if he had the kind of stuff my Dad used to have in his mouth all the time. I hadn't seen him with a can, but you never knew. I forced my words to stay on track, despite my wondering thoughts.

"I don't see why it matters. We probably won't be keeping you."

"You're releasing me, then?"

Jerald managed to fart while he laughed, "release you? No, we'll give you to Boss. If he don't want to keep you for himself, he'll probably put you with the oth-"

Gary smacked the back of Jerald's head hard with the gun he'd picked up a mile back off of a dead corpse in another small town. We were supposedly only two miles from our destination, but no town signs indicated a town for at least ten. I kept quiet as I watched their exchange.

Cody looked like he also wanted to hit Jerald, but in his case, I don't think he'd stop with the one hit. But Gary did and he stopped walking to get into Jerald's face, spitting as he yelled at the guy. I wanted to feel bad, but he took it with scrunched shoulders and a hurt expression, like he knew he deserved it.