Don't Whistle Past the Graveyard

Ch. Ninety

It took us nearly an hour to get near their encampment. We drove for about thirty minutes, then walked the rest of the way. The slower pace was agony, but we were worried that the sound of the engine would give us away if we got too close in the truck. Again, Shane left the keys in the ignition.

Lisa led us through the last few houses toward what appeared to be a high school. I stared at the fences covered in black tarp. Barbed wire had been looped over the tops of the fences and along the bottom. I couldn't see or hear anyone from where we were, but that certainly didn't mean anything.

"Stop here," Lisa whispered, halting us at the edge of a house that was four blocks away from the fences encircling the school. "Any closer and we risk their sentries."

Both Kyle and Shane looked around, scanning for any signs of these look-outs. Eventually, they seemed satisfied that we weren't under any immediate observation. I fervently hoped that was because Lisa really had kept us out of their range, and not because they were too busy doing God-knew-what to Aaron. Kyle took up a position at the corner of the house, half turned so he could keep an eye on the school while also listening to Shane.

Both Lisa and I followed suit as Shane crouched down. He grimaced and quickly shifted to where he was kneeling, his bad leg held as straight as possible, then pulled his knife out of its sheath. We watched as he carved a rectangle onto the ground, followed by a line of smaller squares and ending with an 'X'.

"This is us," he said, tapping the 'X' with the blade. He scowled at the dry look I sent him but just moved the blade to the rectangle. "The school."

"And the houses," Lisa said, running her finger along the line of squares. She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "What else do you need to know about?"

Shane let out a sigh through his nose, glaring down at his rudimentary map. Then he pointed at the side of the rectangle closest to Lisa and myself. "What's here? Along the back?"

"Mm." She looked over her shoulder for a moment, then turned back to us. A thoughtful wrinkle had formed between her brows. "Nothing really. I think some of the sports fields are back there. Football, baseball, stuff like that."

Both Shane and I grimaced. Big empty fields didn't really lend themselves to a discreet approach. I looked up at Kyle, who was still leaning against the side of the house keeping one eye on the school and another on Shane's map. As Shane drew first a rough diamond-shape, then an oval, Kyle glanced over at me, frowning. Neither of us said anything though, knowing Shane would have understood the problem this presented already.

"And behind those?" Shane asked, gesturing to the empty ground around the map's new additions.

Lisa pursed her lips, fingers running nervously up and down the shoulder-strap of her rifle. "I think nothing. I don't think there are even really any houses back that way."

"You think?" I asked.

She scowled at my tone. "Yeah, I think. We don't exactly get out here all that much."

Now it was my turn to scowl, even as my stomach clenched itself into a tighter and tighter knot. I dreaded every whisper of wind through the branches of the trees lining the street, sure I was about to hear a scream or a gunshot at any moment. Sure that I was going to have to put another person I loved in the ground later that night.

"So we need to go see what's back there," Kyle said. He pushed off from the house and leaned over me to look at the map more clearly. He squeezed my shoulder. "Come on."

I glanced at him in surprise, then got to my feet. Shane looked up at us from where he was still kneeling next to the lines carved into the ground. The blade of his knife caught the sun and the reflected light danced over the dark lines as his hand shook slightly.