Mortality

Chapter 11: Savannah

I swallowed hard, unsure of what to say. I had pictured Zack lying dead in the street right where I’d left him so many times, but I didn’t know how to process this new development.

What could they have possibly wanted with him? Zombie bait? A new recruit? The possibilities were endless, and not one idea that passed through my mind was something I could live with.

“I wanted to go after him, I swear. There was just no way I could take them all on. I followed them down the road for awhile, but I knew I should go find help.”

“That was a good call,” Cole said, and Alex finally looked up at him, confusion and then recognition playing across his face. “Those are not guys you want to mess with. They wouldn’t think twice about putting a bullet between your eyes. Hell, they’d probably enjoy it.”

“Did you see him at all after they took him? Did he wake up?” I asked, cutting off any questions Alex might have about how Cole had managed to show up at our super secret safe house. Zack was who we needed to focus on.

“I don’t know, Savannah.” He began pacing the living room floor. “They dumped him in the back of some truck. I tried to watch for him, but I didn’t see anything.”

“So he could be dead?” Pierce asked, demonstrating zero tact.

“No, I don’t think so. He was semi-conscious when they lifted him off the road. I’d bet money he has a concussion, but I think he’s alive.”

“Alive, but not safe,” I finished for him. Alex shrugged and finally let his bag drop to the floor.

“So now what do we do?” Pierce asked. “Go after Zack, or try to find everyone from New Ravencrest?”

I turned to Belle, who was curled up on a kitchen chair. “Do we even know where they were headed or where we might find them?”

I had a feeling Cole knew more about these people than he was letting on, but he didn’t volunteer any information and I wasn’t sure enough to risk calling him out on it. Alex was clearly on edge and looking for someone to blame for what had happened to Zack. He usually kept the rest of us calm and stable, but now he looked ready to snap. His temper had been flaring up more often than usual, and I worried that this would push him over the edge. To be fair, I’m sure none of us made it through that day unscathed.

No one offered up any suggestions, but Alex eventually stopped pacing and pulled a picture out of his pocket. I didn’t have to see it to know which one it was. It had been taken on a beach in Florida and showed Alex’s sister Nina with her arm around Marybeth. The two of them had been best friends before everything happened. Back then Alex hadn’t thought of Marybeth as anything besides his sister’s annoying friend.

Alex looked at the picture longingly for a minute while the rest of us glanced back and forth at each other, unsure of what to do. We weren’t used to seeing Alex like this.

“Are you hungry?” I asked. “We’ve eaten already, but obviously there is a lot here. You should eat.” He finally looked up from the picture, his eyes sharp and focused again.

“I’m not hungry,” he said, dismissing me. “Belle. How did you get here? Where is everyone else?” Alex’s tall, lean frame towered over Belle as he took a step toward her. I thought he was going to take his temper out on her, so I stepped toward him, ready to pull him back. Instead, he sat down on the couch beside her and put his hand on top of hers. “Why are you here? Tell me what happened.”

I’d forgotten that Alex knew Belle better than I did, despite my having known her for years. We had been neighbors but never friends.

Alex’s sister died in the second wave and he had been going above and beyond to look out for Belle since he’d arrived with his mom and Marybeth at New Ravencrest. Belle and Nina looked nothing alike, but I’d never met Alex’s sister, so maybe it was something else that connected the two in his mind.