The Town of Last Haven: A Zombie Novel

Part 26

Natalie was up early--even before the sun could be seen over the wall--and dressed in camouflage colors so she wouldn't necessarily be noticed by any wanderers lurking about.

Natalie moved in socked feet down the hall and down the stairs to the ground floor, then grabbed her satchel along with a bottle of water and trail mix to act as a breakfast before heading out of town.

She left the house quietly, then cut through the center of town to get to the gate--she simply had to get there before the hunting and scavenging parties left. She would do it for Julia--she would do anything for her sister. Pulling a cap over her blonde hair to shield her face, she went unrecognized by the rest of the townies heading out.

Natalie got in the back of a pick-up truck with a few other people who looked around her age and a little older, and one of them was passing around cigarettes. How someone could smoke was confusing to Natalie--her grandma died from it--and how someone could waste perfectly good, much-needed matches was also perplexing to her.

"You want a smoke?" a nameless someone asked Natalie, but she shook her head no.

"Whatever," said the man. "It's your funeral."

Natalie wanted to tell the man it was his funeral, not hers, but she kept silent all the same. The line of cars drove through the gates and into the wild. It didn't seem like much at first glance, but Natalie's heart was in her throat.

She hadn't been outside the town gates since the apocalypse began. It made her agitated, frightened her, but she reminded herself that she would do anything to help and protect Julia--that helped get her over the fear. Still there, though, and her fright spiked when the cars drove passed and over a few of the wanderers, Natalie's knuckles dead white and clinging to the metal of the car when their moans became audible.

'Do this for Julia, do this for Julia, do this for Julia,' kept repeating in her mind. "Just get the test, come back, and everything's fine." She whispered that to herself twice before the boy sitting next to her looked her over. He couldn't be much older than Julia; his hair was a chestnut brown color, his eyes were green, and his skin was muscled and pale.

"Are you okay? You don't look too good." He reached out a hand to touch Natalie's shoulder, steadying her where she sat. "If you need to throw up, just lean over the side of the car. I'll hold your hair back if you need it." He offered her a smile, and this was the first time in--ever, really--that she thought someone highly attractive.

"Thanks," Natalie said quietly, changing her voice so not to be noticed. "I may just take you up on that offer," she said as the truck drove over a wanderer that had been severed in half. It was groaning like all zombies did in horror movies, and Natalie's face turned a pale green hue. She immediately hurled up what little was left in her stomach, the boy holding back her hair.

"That's it, that's it," he said to her. "You're okay. You'll get through this."

Natalie stopped hurling, sitting back in place. She wiped the spit from the corners of her mouth and her face returned to its normal color. "Thanks," she whispered.

"No problem." The boy smiled as if he understood her discomfort on the subject of leaving the town to enter the wild, so to speak. "My name's Jake Hayden. What's yours?" he asked, that friendly smile still on his face. Natalie looked to him with unease again, but not because she needed to throw up again. "Or should I not ask that, Miss Brown?" he whispered, and no one else on the truck seemed to be paying attention to the two of them.

"Don't say that name." Natalie whispered, going pale, but not entirely green.

"Alright." Jake nodded once.

"Looks like we may be in the clear after this," said the driver peering through the back window of the truck, which had been shattered by bullets or the wanderers--Natalie didn't know which.

Natalie and Jake looked ahead of them. The line of cars turned in different directions where the dirt road met a poorly-paved highway. And on that road were a small horde of the wanderers--maybe twenty to thirty of them. Natalie grabbed her small pistol--the one that belonged to her dad--but Jake put a hand on her own.

"Save your bullets. These men are mine." Jake was quoting the vampire lady from the old action-classic movie A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Jake leaned over the top of the car, Natalie watching as he fired. He was as good a gunman as Julia was, perhaps better. He shot four of them, then the rest of the gunmen on the other cars took them out.

"Nice shooting, Tex," said Natalie as Jake sat down next to her.

"Thanks." He smiled, beads of sweat lining his face and forehead. "If your business is taking care of the littles back in town, what're you doing way out here?" he asked curiously--he knew that Natalie took it upon herself to protect Austin and Trent and Clarise.

"I need something for... for my sister." Natalie was whispering.

"Should I be asking you so many questions, or should I shut my trap?" Jake was nosier than Nancy Drew from the novels, but Natalie didn't seem to mind--just as long as he didn't find out about Julia's pregnancy scare, all would be well... right?

"Silence is golden, but I don't think you're one who keeps quiet." Natalie smiled, really meaning it now.

"Nope, I'm not," he said with a proud smile. "And I'm not one to let others go off on their own without protection, so as long as you're outside the walls doing the thing you need to do, I'll protect you." Jake made Natalie's heart flutter, skip a beat, but she kept a cool aura about her--she just met this Jake Hayden, after all!

"Should I say thank you?" Natalie quirked an eyebrow, and Jake shot another wanderer coming from out the woods.

"Say thanks after I save your life." Jake smirked.