Sorrow's Gift

Part III: The Betrayal/ Chapter Forty: Crash

The drive to Philly was quiet and mercifully uneventful. The roads in some places were clogged with traffic, but it was nothing the Humvee couldn't handle. He'd been driving the whole way, and even though he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, he was living on pure adrenaline at the thought of what might be waiting for them in Pennsylvania.

He'd convinced Karmen to ride up front with him and they'd talked about their favorite books the entire ride up. She was actually a pretty cool person when she wasn't trying to push everyone away.

They'd grown quiet as they got closer to the city, though.

The idea of a safe place to live was exciting, but there were so many unknowns. How would it change their group? Would they still be able to spend a lot of time together? Or would the bond they'd created slowly begin to unravel?

"Does anyone need a restroom break before we get any closer?" he asked, kind of hoping someone would need to stop. It was around three and it was hot. He prayed the armory had air conditioning or it was going to be a rough summer ahead.

"I could use a break," Lily said. She stared out the front window and placed a hand to her temple.

Crash's eyes widened. How had he never noticed her hand before now? It had been severely burned, the scars traveling up beyond the sleeve of her shirt.

Had she been wearing long sleeved shirts the whole time she'd been with them? It hadn't occurred to him before now, but he was pretty sure she had, which was strange considering the heat. Maybe she was embarrassed about the scars.

She caught him looking and pulled the sleeve up past her fingertips, her hand disappearing inside the fabric.

He decided not to ask her about it.

"Do you want some Tylenol?"

"Tylenol?" she asked.

"For your head," he said. "The way you were touching your forehead made me think maybe you had a headache."

"No," she said, looking away. "I'm fine."

Crash continued down the road another mile and turned in to the first place he could find—a pharmacy just on the outskirts of the suburb they were heading toward.

"My friend said most of the pharmacies had already been cleared out, but we may as well check inside to see if there's anything useful."

Everyone piled out of the Humvee and went through the process of clearing the place out. There were a handful of rotters inside, but it was becoming second nature to kill and move on.

Crash headed to the pharmacy section and jumped over the counter. His friend Tank had been right. Someone—actually, several someones by the looks of it—had already ransacked this place. There wasn't so much as a single pill left behind the counter.

"Find anything?" Noah asked.

"No. You?"

Noah shook his head. "The most useful thing I found was a pack of ballpoint pens and a few spiral notebooks," he said, holding them up. "Parrish and I have both been journaling. I thought I'd see if she wants a couple of them."

Crash smiled. How cool would it be to see Parrish and Noah's journals on the shelves in a bookstore someday, long after this plague had been eradicated and the world had gotten back on its feet? A chronicle of how they won the war against the rotters. It was a nice thought.

When everyone had finished in the bathroom, they climbed back into the Humvee and got back on the road. They were close now, and he couldn't shake the feeling that the whole dynamic of their small group was about to shift. Parrish held the map open to help him navigate through the suburb. Lily sat behind her, her burned hand on her forehead the entire time. Crash wondered if she was really okay.