ZOMB-POCALYPSE BOOK 2

Chapter Three

"You aren't going to God damned believe it," I hear Silas say angrily as he comes slamming through the security gate, pushing it aside with a grating rattle that makes me jump. My heart sinks, and I have a very bad feeling that I can believe it—we're screwed.

"They took the truck," Ryan guesses, and Silas nods grimly.

I rub a bit of sleep from my eyes, my mind reeling as I try to catch up with this latest development.

"Tell me what happened?" I say, looking from Silas to Ryan before finally settling my gaze on Ryan. Ryan runs an agitated hand through his hair and starts pacing.

"Those people seemed so nice, but they tricked us," he spits out, and I nod impatiently. That has already been established, but I bite my tongue. Ryan is mad enough. "I went to see them this morning to grab our clothes and see what they were up to, and the furniture store people were gone. I looked all over for them—nothing."

"How did they get out of the mall?" I ask, as it's unlikely that the huge group of zombies just decided to leave their post.

Ryan shrugs, and it's Silas who answers. "The zeds are all hanging out at the back of the mall still, where we disappeared, they probably walked right out the front door."

I feel like someone punched me in the guts. Just when we start to get a little bit ahead in this shitty world, we get our legs kicked out from under us. We need that truck to find Abby and Megan!

"I came and got Silas and we searched through the mall again, but they were gone," Ryan continues.

"They left our clothes, dried and folded neatly though," Silas interrupts with a snort, and I stare at him wide eyed.

"Seriously?" I ask, and Ryan nods.

"Yep."

"At least they didn't leave the front doors wide open," Silas says darkly, and the thought that we could have woken up to a mall filled with zombies, on top of our truck being stolen, makes things seem only slightly better.

"We would have been safe in here behind the gate," Silas reminds us, but Ryan shakes his head.

"We would've been trapped," he argues, and Silas gives a curt nod.

"Never said we wouldn't." I stare between the two of them, ready to grab them each by the back of the neck and knock their heads together.

"So now what are we going to do?" I ask, hating to be the girl who turns to them for everything, but they really do have better ideas than me.

"We look around, gather supplies, and make a plan," Silas says, not giving Ryan a chance to answer.

I look over at Ryan, and he nods in agreement.

"Why don't you come with me, Blondie, and we'll go find something to eat?" Silas says, being uncharacteristically nice as he reaches out and starts to propel me along by my arm.

I dig my heels in and look over at Ryan. "What are you doing to do?" I ask, making him pause for a moment to think about it.

"Try and figure something out," he says before giving me a half-assed attempt at a smile.

"It wasn't your fault you know," I tell him, but he just shakes his head like he doesn't believe it.

"They took the keys out of the pocket of my jeans when I gave them to Molly to dry," he admits.

"Still..." I say, hoping that conveys how much I don't blame him for this.

I take a deep breath and release a sigh as I walk away with Silas. I know that Ryan feels guilty for the keys getting taken on his watch, but really, it could have happened to any one of us, maybe not Silas...but definitely to me.