Highway To Hell

Chapter 17

I walk down the road with Rick. It's the following morning and he wanted to speak to me before we left. My fingers tap a nervous rhythm out onto my thigh.

   Is he going to kick me out of the group? Did I mess up telling everyone the truth? Should I have told them earlier? Or should I have never told them anything at all?

   Thoughts and worries spin, flit, and bounce around my head as I follow Rick away from the others' earshot. I don't know what I'd do if he made me leave. Surely, he wouldn't just abandon me on this road, right? Rick isn't like that. He saved and brought back a stranger that tried to shoot him. He wouldn't just leave me here with nowhere to go.

   I'm brought out of my thoughts when he stops walking and just stands there with his back to me. He doesn't say anything, so I don't either. I don't know what he's thinking or feeling right now and don't want to tip him in a bad direction by saying the wrong thing. He stays silent for a few more seconds, but it feels more like an eternity. When he finally speaks, I'm both relieved and terrified to hear his words.

   "I've heard about you . . . and your brothers," he says, voice gruff. I swallow.

   "Many cops have," I whisper. I don't know how else to respond.

   "You've done some horrible things." He turns to face me, but I can't look him in the eye.

   "I have, but most of what they said we did isn't true. My brothers and I . . . we did the best we could, Rick. Yes, sometimes we had to break the law, but we were trying to keep people alive. You don't know half of what we've seen those monsters do, Rick. You don't. We aren't like what the F.B.I. made us out to be. We aren't a trio of murderers running around the country. Please understand, Rick. We needed to do those things to ensure people didn't die. Don't make me leave, Rick. Please don't abandon me out here. I'm begging you." To my absolute horror, tears start building up in my eyes, and frantically try to blink them away.

   "I'm not going to abandon, Ivy. If you intended anyone here any harm, you would have done it by now. You've had plenty of chances to either run and save yourself or kill someone by your own hand if you had intended to do so. You saved Carl's life and for that, you have my trust. I know you're not a bad person. You have a good heart. I just wanted to talk with you away from everyone after last night." Rick's voice is low and soothing, and I let out a sigh of relief. He doesn't intend and making me leave. Hearing Rick say I have his trust lifts a weight from my shoulders.

   "Okay. What do you want to talk about?" I ask.

   "You said there are . . . monsters out there. More like what we saw last night."

   "Yes. Just about every folklore, myth, and Halloween movie monster you've ever heard of is real."

   "Everything?"

   "Everything."

   "How did no one know before?"

   "People did know. Just not the population at large. Obviously, there were victims. It wasn't uncommon for the families of those victims to start hunting. It was best that people not know."

   "You've really fought these things? Everything you said last night was true?"

   "Every word."

   "And these those things . . . they're still out there?"

   "Of course. And many are hungrier than ever I'd imagine. Before food was abundant with how many humans populated the planet. Now that there are so few of us, I wouldn't want to be the poor soul that stumbled across some of them."