F.E.A.R.: Face Everything And Rise - A Zombie novel

Chapter ten

I took Louisa by the arm and yanked her away from the rest.

"Have you completely lost your mind?" I whispered viciously. "Do you know how easily you could have gotten killed by hauling a pregnant woman with you?"

She huffed. "You're protecting a seven-year-old! You're risking just as much as I am."

I wasn't having it. "You know it's a damn near miracle you're still alive, right?"

A silent nod.

"And you know we beat all odds by finding each other?"

Another nod.

"Then let us come with you. You can trust Tyler and Jack."

She dragged a smudged hand through her greasy dark hair. Some of it was still in a ponytail, the rest was hanging loosely around her face. "How do you know that? I mean, how long have you known them? A month? Two? Three?"

I mumbled something and repeated my words louder when she didn't understand me. "More or less two weeks."

She puffed her cheeks and let her breath escape between two puckered lips. "Charlene – "

I nearly winced at my birth name, but swallowed my childishness. "Please, Louisa. Those guys – they're the good kind. The kind you want at your side during the apocalypse. They would walk through a fire to save that girl. They have. They've lost so much in order to protect her. To protect themselves. They were nearly killed by a herd of zombies when I met them. I thought them some tips and tricks, and Tyler's a decent shot. Don't doom them to a certain death."

"We're short on food," she objected, "we don't need even more mouths to feed."

I gripped her shoulders and turned her back to my companions. I wouldn't go so far as calling them my friends, but – companions or allies were safe terms to use. "We have food, clothes, weapons and the skill to use them."

She still didn't seem convinced.

"Look, Louisa," I tried again. "Zombies are able to smell their prey. They can hunt them for as long as the prey succeeds in avoiding or killing them. We know things about them you don't. Things that could save your group."

She cocked an eyebrow, obviously thinking I was bluffing. "Like what?"

"Zombies can get startled by a sudden, loud sound near their ears. They can smell and hear their prey. Information like that can save you in an encounter."

"Do you know anything more?" she asked.

I exhaled, my shoulders slumping a bit forward. "Not yet. But we could learn. Like I said, we're good fighters. Right now, we're the hunted. I think it's time we become the hunters."

She was still hesitating. "I don't know, Charlie –"

"Zombies can get attracted by one living person. You're roaming around Georgia with what – six people, unprotected and traveling slowly with a pregnant woman. If they can smell one person and immediately crave their flesh, who do you think they would eat first when there was a woman in a group who smelled like two lives? They're ruthless killers and they go for whatever smells more innocent and pure."

Louisa took a step back, realizing that. She hadn't thought about it like that.

"Let us join your group and protect everyone," I pleaded for the last time. "We can learn what we know to the rest."

She sighed and rubbed her eyes with her index finger and thumb. It was quiet for a long time and while Louisa was slightly bent over, thinking about my offer, I looked over her shoulder and looked at the people I was bargaining for. Jack was talking quietly to Tessa, his back to Louisa and me, trying to comfort her. Tyler was standing with his loaded bow in his hands, ready to help me if necessary.

Our gazes met and I was nearly knocked off my feet by the sorrow and spite in those dark ebony eyes.

They seemed to say, she's not letting us join, is she?

I looked back at him, trying to let my eyes form the words my lips couldn't right now. I'm doing what I can. I think I convinced her.

Would you leave us if you didn't and you had to choose?

I admitted something to myself then that even surprised me. No. Never. You're the ones I belong with now.

Louisa might have been my best friend before all this, but I had felt responsible for Tyler's group ever since I saved them in that forest. They were my group. I would share them with Louisa's group, but never leave them. No matter who asked me to.

"Fine," Louisa sighed through her lips after an incredibly long time. "But the second one of them betrays my benefit of the doubt, they're out. No matter what you think about it."

I nodded so frantically I was afraid my head would roll off my neck and thud against the floor with a sickening sound. "Anything else?"

"You're joining my group," she snapped. I blinked at her tone. "I'm responsible for them. I'm their leader. I don't care who is yours, but if you want them – " she shot a glare at Tyler, Jack and Tessa, " – to stay, you listen to me."

I gave her a sharp, understanding nod. This wasn't anything personal. She trusted me when we went to school together, but she didn't know this Charlie yet.

I wasn't even entirely sure if I did.

t