The Risks

May: Chapter 6

The evening went by quickly. We ate supper and sat in the living room as I tried to ignore Parker and Oakley joking together. I was dying for a hot shower, but I didn't say anything. No need of complaining about something we just simply could not have.

I wanted to go straight to bed. I didn't want to talk to Parker about what had happened today. It wasn't that big of a deal. I killed a Feral. It had to be done. Part of me was regretful, though. What if Ferals were just sick people? If the government could make a vaccine for this virus then they should surely be able to make a cure. The other part of me reminded me that as of right now, there was no cure so I had to do what I had to do to survive. Killing Ferals included.

Parker stretched his long legs onto the coffee table. "So what's your plan?" He asked in a hushed voice.

Oakley was asleep in the recliner chair in the corner of the room.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I sat down on the opposite end of the couch; as far away from him as possible.

"You spent three months hiding out. If you were safe there, then why'd you leave?"

I gnawed my lip, contemplating on whether or not I should tell him about the safe zone. It probably wouldn't hurt. In fact, I realized that I owed him. Taking him to a populated community would be good payment. If it was really there...

I went to my bag and grabbed the map, then walked back to the couch and handed it to him.

"What's this?" He pointed to the circled area.

"A safe zone," I answered, sitting back down.

He suddenly looked more interested. "A safe zone?"

"Yeah, we were only a few hours away when we ran out of gas."

"How do you know about this place?"

"George works for the government -or worked for the government, like I said. Anyway, he told me where it was, gave me directions along with those two vaccines and a note telling me to wait a while before leaving our house. Then we were to make our way to this safe zone. We're supposed to meet him there." I rubbed my eye. "I don't know if it's real though. It may have been before, but who's to say it even worked out during all the chaos?"

"It's worth a shot, though, isn't it?" He asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"Don't you want to see your father, to be somewhere where you know you and Oakley can be safe?"

"He's not my father," I snapped.

"Sorry," he muttered, looking down at the map instead of at me.

I gave a small, strained sigh and tried a lighter tone. "I don't know that it really will be safe. Out of the few people I've seen so far, things don't look so promising. The people there could be just as dangerous as the people out here. If there's even people there at all. And with all the Ferals, it could have gotten overrun. It probably doesn't exist. Just false hope."

"False hope is better than none," Parker whispered. "It could really be there. George could be there. It could be somewhere to be safe, protected. It's only a few hours away, Claire. Don't you at least want to know?"

"Sure. Okay. At some point. But I want to load up on supplies here in case there is no safe zone. I don't want to have both crushed hopes and no food."

"That sounds like a good compromise to me."

I rested my head against the back of the couch. The only reason I wanted to see George was to ask him some questions, but another part of me thought that he should at least know that Oakley was alive. But seeing him meant taking Oakley to him and taking Oakley to him meant that I had to stay because he wouldn't let her go again. I wasn't looking forward to being around him again.