7.

“Are you coming?” Boden shouted down over the bridge, and I hurriedly pulled on my jeans.

“Yeah! I’ll be right up.”

Everyone was at the top waiting for me when I finally made it up there. When Teddy asked me if I was okay, I couldn’t meet his eyes when I mumbled that I was fine.

I was deliberately leading them into harm’s way, and I knew it. It was one thing to suggest going to the compound when I thought it really might benefit them. It was an entirely different thing to lead them there when I suspected that things had probably gone to hell.

If Blue had turned in the last month or so, it fit with the timeline Tatum had told me earlier. The zombies had begun to really organize and target large populations about a month ago about that time. Or at least that’s when they really started hitting the quarantine.

But Max was all I had in the world. I had no other family or friends or home or possessions. Lazlo and Harlow might be dead for all I know and, in fact, probably were. The only thing I had – the only reason to even live – was my brother Max. Protecting him and taking care of him was the only thing that kept me going, kept me fighting.

And I would do anything to protect him. Even put other people in danger. If it meant I could save Max, then I would do it.

I had to have hope that he was still alive. Like me, he was immune to the zombie virus, so his odds were better than most. That’s not to say that he couldn’t have been ripped apart by a zombie, especially since he was only an eight-year-old boy. But … he still might be alive.

Besides, Boden and Nolita were soldiers. Not only could they handle themselves, but it was their job to protect people. Bishop had a gun, and she was bad ass. Daniels had almost killed both me and Max, so in a way, he kinda owed me.

The only one I really had to feel guilty about was Teddy, but I tried not to think about that. The world was overrun with zombies. There were no guarantees of safety for anyone.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Teddy asked me after we’d walked for a while. He normally kept his conversations with Bishop, but I was walking faster now, almost next to Boden.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said tightly, still refusing to look at him. He’d picked up his pace, moving away from Bishop and walking next to me.

“You just seem a little shaken up after the thing with the zombie,” Teddy went on. “Have you killed a zombie before?”

“Yeah, I’ve killed plenty of zombies. You don’t survive this long without getting a lot of green blood on your hands.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Teddy looked down at the ground and scratched the stubble on his chin. “It’s been awhile, though, since I’ve had to fight them. I’m sure that’s true for you, too. Is that why you’re upset?”

“I’m not upset,” I insisted.

“Well, if you were, I wouldn’t blame you,” Teddy said. “Nobody would. It never gets easier dealing with all this crap. You’d think it would, but I guess you can never really get used to monsters.”

I didn’t say anything to that, so Teddy continued, “And getting to hide away from it for a while actually probably it made it worse. Especially for you, since you weren’t even interacting with people. Dealing with zombies now must be a real shock.”

“I’m not shocked. I’m fine,” I said through gritted teeth.

“It has to – ”

“Teddy!” Boden snapped, cutting him off. “She said she was fine. Can you drop it now?”

“Oh, right.” Teddy looked embarrassed and fumbled with the straps of his backpack, then fell back in step with Bishop behind us. “Sorry.”

When we reached the large wooden sign outside of town, it was still light enough to read the familiar slogan written there: “The Best Little Town in the West.” The sign was riddled with bullet holes and splattered with zombie blood.

Already, the death groans were audible. Boden and Nolita drew their guns, and we all moved in close together. We couldn’t see the zombies, but there were plenty of trees and houses to hide them.

“We have to be careful,” I told Boden in a hushed tone. “Last time I was here, there were marauders who shot at us.”

He swore under his breath, then muttered, “Delightful.”

“Marauders?” Nolita asked. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean be as quiet as possible so we can make it to the compound undetected, and we won’t have any problems,” I said.

Nobody shot at us as we made our way into the town, so that was something. I didn’t see any signs of marauders, but that didn’t mean anything. All the houses had been damaged, lawns were torn up, and the streets were littered with smashed cars and broken furniture, as well as body parts and corpses.

A low rumble came from a tree next to us, and Boden turned toward it, aiming his gun at the monster in the branches. I looked with him and saw that it wasn’t a zombie, but something that made me much happier to see.

“No!” I shouted and pushed Boden before he could shoot her, and his gun went off, shooting emptily in the air.

“What the hell, Remy!” Boden yelled, but I ignored him.

“It’s my cat,” I said, stepping away from the others to see her.

Ripley leaped out of the tree and raced toward me, her ears poised happily. She almost knocked me down when she reached me and threw her paws around me in an awkward bear hug. Then she walked around me, rubbing her head against me, reminding me very much of the housecat she wasn’t.

The lioness was much bigger than when I’d seen her last. She was growing fat on a zombie diet. I ran my fingers through her course fur, and I actually couldn’t recall a time in recent memory that I was happier. Ripley rarely let me pet her, but she seemed just as happy to see me as I was to see her.

“I remember the lion,” Nolita said. “She was at the quarantine for a while before she escaped. I didn’t think she was friendly.”

“She’s not usually this friendly,” I admitted, scratching her behind the ears. “But she’s pretty tame.”

Nolita reached out and tentatively petted her back. Ripley let her and nuzzled her head into my stomach. It hurt, but I didn’t complain.

“I don’t mean to cut your reunion short, but we really ought to find shelter before dark,” Boden said. “Where is the compound?”

“Over that way. I think.” I pointed to the left. “It’s on this side of town. I know that much for sure.”

“Great.” He stepped to the side and gestured for me to go. “You lead the way.”

It had been so long since I’d been here, and it’d only been once. We’d left in a hurry in a car, so my directions weren’t the best. We wandered through the town, with Ripley staying close by. She actually walked at my side most of the time, stopping when she heard a noise and raising her ears.

We could hear the zombies, but we avoided them. A small pack of four zombies went by us down the street, and we hid in the living room of a rather decimated house. Ripley watched them from the front steps while we hid, and eventually the zombies passed by without noticing us.

But I’d seen them as I peered through the broken glass of the windows. One of them was wearing a marauder uniform – the black camo with a helmet. The zombies had gotten much worse since the last time I’d been here.

After the zombies passed us, we left the house, and we only had to round one more block before we found the compound. As soon as I caught sight of it, my heart froze in my chest.

The three white pillars in front were unmistakable. They were also the only things that were standing. The rest of the building had burned to the ground, collapsed in a pile of black rubble.

But that wasn’t where they really hid out anyway. It was underneath the house, in a tunnel through a cellar door.

“No, no, no,” I whispered and shook my head.

“This is it?” Nolita asked, staring at the same mess I was.

“No.” I shook my head and raced around to the back of it.

The doors were still in place, although they were charred black. The bush that had been hiding them was completely gone, burned down to a tiny stump. I threw open the doors, praying they were still down there, but the house had collapsed onto the stairs.

“No.” I repeated, as if that would somehow make it true.

I started digging at the rubble, the bricks and broken boards that blocked the path into the basement. Ripley had climbed onto a part of the wall nearby, and she watched me curiously as I tried to clear out the steps.

“Remy,” Boden said, and when I didn’t answer him, he grabbed my arm. “This is it, isn’t it?”

“No.” I let out a shaky breath. “I mean, it was. But …”

“If there were any survivors, they moved,” Bishop said. “This isn’t a safe place anymore.”

“It’s just like I said.” Nolita glared at me and Boden. “I said this place would be crawling with zombies, and we wouldn’t find anything here.”

“We have like eight bullets left, Nolita,” Boden pointed out. “And almost no food. It was worth a shot.”

She shook her head and pursed her lips but said nothing more on the subject.

“It’s getting dark, and we’re exposed,” Bishop said. “We need to find a place to stay for the night.”

“But …” I looked back at the rubble, swallowing a lump in my throat.

“We’re finding camp,” Boden said firmly and turned to walk away.

Daniels lingered behind with me, staring at the rubble, while the others began the search for a safe-ish place to hide.

“If your brother survived, he isn’t down there,” Daniels said softly. “And if your brother’s anything like you, he’s a survivor.”

“I know,” I said.

“Come on.” Daniels took a step back from me. “We’ll rest for the night, and in the daylight, we can start looking for where he moved to.”

The death groans were getting louder and more frequent, and I knew I’d better hurry and follow him. Boden simply chose the nearest house, and after clearing it, we all went upstairs. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture, so he turned a box spring on its side and used that to block the steps.

“We’re not eating tonight,” Boden told us. “No light. No food. No sound. We will take turns keeping watch all night. The rest of you, just get some sleep.  I’ll take the first watch.”

For safety, we all slept in one room. There was no bed, just a wooden floor covered in garbage. Bishop and Teddy cleared away as much of the garbage as they could, pushing it all to one side of the room, and we all lay down in the middle.

I didn’t lie down for long, though. I couldn’t sleep. Not after what I’d seen. The compound was destroyed. Blue was a zombie. I had no idea where Max could be.

I gave up on sleep pretty quickly and went out to take over Boden’s post for him. He’d climbed out a broken window and was sitting on the roof in front of it. The moon was full above us, and he had a clear view of the street and area around us.

“You want to come and sleep?” I whispered, leaning out the window.

“No. You sleep.” He sat cross-legged with the gun lying across his lap and didn’t look back at me.

“I can’t sleep.” I climbed out through the window and slid down the roof so I was sitting next to him. “There’s no reason in us both missing sleep.”

“I’m not tired yet, either.”

Ripley had spotted me on the roof, and she stood on the sidewalk below us, swishing her tail and looking confused.

“Where’d you get that cat anyway?” Boden asked.

“Found her.” I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “I think she used to be in a Vegas show or somebody’s pet or something.”

She paced the sidewalk in front of us, trying to figure out how to get up to where I was. She grunted a few times and kept swishing her tail.

“I’m sorry about your brother,” Boden said.

I chewed the inside of my cheek, refusing to let myself cry over this. I could still find him. I couldn’t give up hope and get upset so soon.

“I’m sorry about leading you here for nothing,” I said finally.

“What I told Nolita was true. It was worth the risk.” He paused. “We won’t last that long unless we find more supplies.”

Neither of us said anything after that. There wasn’t anything to talk about, except how imminent our demise might be, and that didn’t sound like fun.

Ripley eventually gave up trying to get up on the roof and just lay down on the sidewalk. I didn’t see anyone around, and other than the death groans, I didn’t hear anything.

That was until I heard someone calling the lion.