Everyone paired off, gravitating to whoever they felt the most comfortable with. Once that was done, I grouped the pairs and assigned buildings, instructing them on how to proceed.
"Since no one can spot every little thing, and we each have a tendency to overlook certain things, we're going to do this in two waves with crossing paths." I was surprised that no one argued with me. Matthew didn't look happy, but he kept quiet. "Go through each building, bottom to top, every corner. Each of you search where your partner has searched. Walk where they walk. Look where they look. Don't leave anything unturned, no door unopened. Be thorough."
"None of us came here with anything," my mom said, loud enough for all to hear. "But I know there have been things that we've found already. Those things need to be included. If it's not something we can use to hunt with, you'll get it back."
She glanced at me and I nodded, grateful that she'd thought of that. I was sure of what we needed to do and I had a pretty good idea of how to go about it, but there were still things I didn't know. It was nice that I could count on my mom and my friends to have my back. Those who followed me before would follow me again. The ones I had to keep an eye on were the four older adults who I'd only just met. Christine didn't seem like she was coherent enough to cause any trouble, but Matthew seemed pretty sharp. I hadn't been able to get much of a read on Roger or Amelia, but since they'd been the first ones here, I felt like the disease was probably pretty far advanced in their systems. For most Zombies who'd been deprived of proper nutrition for that long, that meant limited brain capacity. But there was always a slim chance that the Plague had made them more aggressive. It didn't happen often, but it wasn't unheard of, especially when hunger came into play. Fortunately, since all of us were infected, we weren't an available food source.
"Jack." Lilly nudged my arm.
"Sorry," I said, turning back to the group. "I lost focus there for a sec. That's a good example of why we're quadruple-checking everything. The infection makes it difficult for us to pay close attention for long periods of time, and we can't afford to miss anything."
I saw a couple heads nod in agreement, but I didn't take the lack of acknowledgement from the others to be negative. It was probably just too much effort to form a response. I totally understood the feeling. The whole speech thing had already drained me, and the day was far from over. But when I looked down at Lilly and Les, I was reminded of why I would never give up.
"Let's go," I said.
Everyone headed off to their assigned buildings. Kieran and Mom joined Lilly, Les, and I as we walked over to the building across from where we stayed last night.
"Kieran and I will go first," Mom said. "We'll see what we can find."
Lilly and I stood outside in silence as the first set of pairs went into the houses—if you could call them that. I looked around, really seeing the entire camp for the first time. It had been dark last night, and this morning I'd been focused on other things. Now, I took the opportunity to get a better idea of where I was.
The camp was even more decrepit than I'd realized. The buildings were dilapidated and gray; the area in the center of the camp consisted of mostly mud and dried leaves. But around the perimeter, grass began to appear, running into the forest to mix with old moss and decay. Here and there I spotted trunks of fallen pines that looked like they'd been rotting for decades.
The sight made my heart sink. I'd really hoped that the others had been wrong about the logging road. But looking at the tree trunks and realizing how long it had been since this camp had been used, I knew that hope was a false one. Whatever side roads led to this logging camp would have long since grown over. There weren't paved highways every few miles in this part of the country, especially to the west of Osborne, which is where we probably were. Unless, of course, our kidnapper had taken us further than we imagined. It was a possibility, but I considered it a vague one. I tended to agree with the conclusion some of the others had reached, that we were still in the Osborne vicinity, but maybe twenty miles or so from the town. My gut feeling told me they were right.
