ZOMB-POCALYPSE BOOK 2

Chapter Fourteen

"You shouldn't cry for him," Silas snaps ten minutes into my latest crying jag, and I look up and narrow my eyes at him through the tears that won't stop falling down my cheeks.

"I'm not crying for him, you idiot. I'm crying for myself," I say stuffily, having no other way to describe the emotions plaguing me right now.

Silas glances into the backseat at Sunny, who has curled up into Ryan's arms and fallen asleep. "You did the right thing," he tells me after making sure the girl is asleep.

I nod my head. "I know. It was him or us... I didn't even think about it, I just pulled the trigger." I take a deep breath and scrub angrily at the tears that run down my cheeks. "I just didn't know I was the type of person who would be able to pull the trigger," I say honestly, and Ryan reaches up and touches my shoulder from the backseat.

"That guy was bad news, they all were," Silas says, a dark look coming over his face.

"How do you deal with killing people?" I ask him honestly, knowing he must have killed at least a couple people today, and who knows who else before I met him. Silas frowns as he thinks about the question.

"Easy," he says softly after a minute of thinking.

I look over at him incredulously. Nothing about this experience is exactly what I would describe as "easy."

"I only kill the people that need killing." He replies.

I open my mouth to say something—I'm honestly not even sure what—but he cuts me off.

"It's a completely different world now, Blondie, and believe it or not, we are actually the lucky ones." I let out an unladylike snort, causing Silas to shoot me a sharp, disapproving look. "We got to survive when millions of others didn't. That's all the matters, it's up to us, now, to figure out the rest. It's like the cavemen when the Ice Age hit, or the meteor that destroyed the dinosaurs—adapt or lay down and die."

I fall silent, not willing to argue with Silas's twisted logic because it actually makes crude sense, so I close my eyes for a minute and just focus on the feel of Ryan's hand rubbing rhythmically against my shoulder. My eyes feel gritty and sore from all the crying. Poor Sunny has been traumatized, even more than usual, and Silas is a bloody mess and smells like gasoline, which is giving me a headache...

"I want to stop for the night," I say, glancing at the clock on the dash. "It's nearly five anyway."

"I think that's the best idea you've had all day," Silas allows, surprising me with his willingness to stop and set up camp for the night... but, I guess the guy is covered in another man's blood.

We drive in silence until we come across a place. It's a small farmyard with a fair-sized travel trailer parked in the driveway. The yard looks abandoned enough, but the first thing I do is scan for a doghouse. I have a feeling 'no dogs' will be a crucial part of our checklist from now on.

"This place looks alright," Silas says as we pull in. He surprises me by pulling alongside the large, white camper, rather than the house.

"What are you doing?" I ask, not sure what his intentions are, but having an inkling, and it makes me extremely nervous.

"This trailer looks like the perfect place to spend the night," Silas says, "We'll have to check and make sure it's empty, and the house, but it's a lot smaller and will be easier to secure."

I stare at the travel trailer with mixed feelings. It will be easier to check for the bogeymen, and there for sure aren't any pet doors, but if the zombies come, we will essentially be trapped in a tin can with only one way out. My stomach ties in knots at the thought.