"What kind of a name is Mike?" Ryan asks me as he tentatively steps closer. I can tell he wants to run up and hug me, but Mike has him keeping his distance and its probably for the best because I honestly have no idea how Mike will react.
Mike growls and Ryan holds his hands up in surrender. "I'm teasing" He tells the dog and Mike sniffs his outstretched fingers and doesn't bite them off. I nervously let go of Mikes collar and close the gap between Ryan and I, throwing my arms around him. Mike sticks close and huffs impatiently, but he allows it.
Ryan wraps his arms around me and squeezes me so tight that I can't breathe for a second and I have to break the contact in order to take a breath. I can't even believe this. After the days Silas and I spent walking up and down the river bank, to just stumble across Ryan and the others like this...
I glance behind Ryan and frown. I just naturally assumed they were all together because Silas and I ended up together, but my Dad hasn't come running out from behind a pillar to welcome me. "Where's my Dad?" I ask sharply, suddenly feeling very scared. My legs start to wobble, and if Ryan didn't already have his arms wrapped around me in a hug, I think I probably would have collapsed onto the ground.
Hope. It's a bitter thing to have abandon you, and I had stupidly seen Ryan and thought everything in my life had magically just clicked back together. "He isn't here." Ryan says, and I let out a ragged sob. "-but I know where he is." He quickly amends and I begin to feel a small bloom of hope come back.
"Is he okay?" I ask, and Ryan hesitates.
"He's alive- him and Jack both." He tells me when it looks like I'm going to start crying again.
"What does that mean?" I ask, wishing that Ryan would quit hesitating and just spit it out.
"They are both safe." He says and I let out an impatient sound from the back of my throat, that prompts him to continue. "Your Dad has a broken leg though.... I set it as best I could." Horror washes over me at the thought. A broken leg was no big deal before, but a broken leg in the zombie apocalypse, not being able to run or even walk. Its amazing he's still alive. "Jack isn't doing very well." Ryan continues and I suddenly feel a little selfish that I didn't ask about him.
"What happened?" I ask, just as Mike starts the zombie growl.
"Someone is going to hear that dog." Ryan warns, and I shush him. I was talking to Ryan, but Mike quits growling as well. I reach down and grab my axe where I've let it fall to the ground when I hugged Ryan.
"There's a zombie..." I tell Ryan, and in the moonlight, I can see the doubt on his face. "I'm serious." I tell him as I point to Mike. The dog is staring down by the river, past the column that Ryan was hiding behind and when Mike takes off and I hear the familiar growl and thump combo, I take off at a jog towards the noise with Ryan right on my heels.
Mike has a zombie down on the ground, his jaws around the rotten creature's throat, and I drive my axe into the it's forehead, then make sure it's dead with a thump of my boot. "Holy shit." I hear Ryan mutter under his breath, and I reach out and pet Mike, so he knows I appreciate his efforts.
"Are you sure my Dad is somewhere safe?" I ask Ryan, and he doesn't even hesitate as he nods.
"I'm positive Jane, I wouldn't have left him otherwise, but he wouldn't let me stay. He wanted someone out here looking for you, and if it wasn't me, it would have been him, crawling on his belly." I smile a little bit at the image, not that I would ever want my Dad to do such a thing, but just the power of his love is heart warming.
"What about Jack?" I ask when Ryan doesn't say anything else and Ryan shakes his head.
"He's alive, but those people messed him up." I feel an acute stab of guilt. Us coming here was completely on me.
