Something Wild

Part I: Chapter Four

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!!

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Chapter Four:

"We just need to head up 128 North and we'll be in Forestdale in about a week," I say to Valerie as I approach her spot in the corner. She'd fallen asleep slumped against the wall after finishing her snack and I was too afraid to wake her to get her to move to the bed in my place. Eventually she woke up with a groan and a pout settled itself on her lips as she massaged the back of her neck. I took the moment to go over to her hoping maybe things have cooled down during her nap.

"Huh?" she looks up at me, eyebrows knitted together, eyes bleary with sleep. I sit down next to her and show her the map of the area.

"We came from this street in Jamestown," I point to it on the map. "And we ran through this bike path. We're somewhere in the woods outside of Southbury, so we just need to get to the highway, and head north for a bit, and  then we'll be in Forestdale."

"Oh, okay, awesome," she says following my finger mapping out the route we need to take. We sit next to each other silently, the tension between us building like it had before. I know that she hasn't forgotten our little tiff, if I can even call it that. It was more of her being upset with me for not letting her care about me? Honestly, it all seems so convoluted. I can't stop her from caring about me. Sure, I can resist her help and push her away, that was my plan anyway. But there's something about the way she keeps coming back to me, keeps fighting to help me. There haven't been many people in my life that have done nearly as much for me in twenty-years than she has in the past few days. Maybe it's just nice to know I have someone in my corner, at least for a little while longer.

"My dad was in business with a lot of bad people," I say quietly, and Valerie stills beside me. "There was an ever-revolving door of scumbags and gangbangers at our house. Most nights I would lock myself in my room just to avoid encountering any of them. He would disappear with them from time to time and the news would soon talk about the deaths of another politicians, gang leader, drug lord. It didn't take long for me to piece together the fact that my dad was the one responsible for those deaths."

"Your—your dad's a gang member?" Valerie asks when I take a pause.

I nod, "like I said, he was in business with bad people. My mom still loved him though, despite all of the bullshit he put us through. Police interrogations. Searching our house. Digging through our lives. We'd be taken hostage on more than one occasion." Val gasps beside me. "It's fine. It's nothing compared to the shit we're going through now. Anyway, he disappeared with a guy, Samuel or something, before the outbreak happened. My mom was a mess. She wanted to go find him immediately, but we had no idea where he was." I can feel my body shaking at the memories. At the gang leaders taking me from the street and tying me up in a warehouse waiting for my dad to come save me. Little did they know he had no actual care for our lives; the only reason he showed up was because he needed the money and they were keeping it from him. I fold my hands together to diminish the shaking.

"You don't have to tell me this," she says. I shake my head and continue.

"I told you how my mom and I ended up in a quarantined zone, right?" Val nods. "Well, there was a man there, Michael, he was a leader of a group within the Q-zone. They were the self-appointed guards of our zone. My mom and I joined when we came into the zone, and Michael taught us everything; from the types of undead there are out there, the best ways to kill them, what to pack in your bag, and how to pack it. Michael taught me how to walk silently, listen for Rotters, keep my boots loose and easy to tie by my bed. A year or so into the outbreak, my mom disappeared in the middle of the night. She only left me a note saying she went to find my dad."