Chapter 31
“Oh my god.” I can’t think of anything else to say.
I’m shocked. Relief swells in my chest, and I want to run to Keisha, wrap my arms around her, and squeeze her as hard as I can, but she doesn’t look up at me.
Instead, she wipes her mouth, steps over the sick at her feet, and then walks toward the river and heaves again.
My senses come back to me. I force myself not to ignore it this time—force myself to trust what I saw.
As much as I want to believe she was going to kill Grady all along, I know the truth.
I follow her without a word. I study her face as she stares into the water. While I stand dumbly searching for the right thing to say, she breaks the silence.
“We need to move. Suzanne’s screams probably have a dozen carriers headed our way now,” she says, emotionless.
“Right. Okay.” I don’t know what to do or say, but there’s no time for talking. I give her an easy assignment. “Start moving all our stuff from our canoe into their rowboat, and I’ll go through their supplies.”
Mechanically, she follows my instructions, but I can’t help but look over my shoulder as I tear through their campsite, searching for anything valuable.
What should be a moment of excitement just feels sour.
We just took down four people. Four! We get to keep everything they have, including their rowboat.
And the best part is, we did it together.
This is how the situation with the farmer should have gone.
I should feel satisfied. Powerful. Limitless. But I just feel paranoid.
Wait. The farmer. Thinking of him gives me a flash of realization. If they met him four days ago, he must have survived the bridge and made it back to the farm. That old man is like a cockroach. I shake my head in frustration. He almost got us killed yet again.
Behind me, Keisha dumps an armload of our gear into the rowboat while I collect their backpacks and toss them inside.
I ransack their tent and roll up their sleeping bags tightly, then set to work trying to disassemble the tent.
Its complicated rods and straps are immediately frustrating.
The glow of the fire gives us enough light to see our surroundings, but not enough to actually see what I’m doing.
I’ve just taken down the first panel of the tent when I hear a flock of birds take flight from the nearby trees. Their wings beating the air in the night sky gives me chills, and I know our good luck has run out.
“Leave it. Let’s go,” Keisha whispers to me.
The first shriek fills the air, and several more follow. The sound seems to bounce around as if coming from multiple directions. I toss the sleeping bags into the rowboat and run back to the bodies.
“What are you doing? We have to go!”
“Push the boat in the water. We need their knives,” I whisper back.
I reach Grady’s body first. I pull Keisha’s knife from the back of his skull, then roll his body over, finding his knife just under his hips. I run for Steven’s body next but hear a twig snap a few feet away. They’re here.
I hate leaving Steven’s knife behind, but I don’t have a choice.
What’s left of the fire shows the campsite filling with carriers.
Fast. I take a few steps backward on instinct.
The smell is overwhelming, and I have to force myself to breathe through my mouth, though I swear I can taste the rotting bodies when I do.
I turn on my heel and run toward the river, splashing through the shallow water to meet Keisha in the boat. I climb over the edge and practically fall onto the disorganized pile of stuff.
“Let’s go! They’re right behind us,” I say, out of breath, waiting for the boat to move.
“How do these paddles work?” Keisha asks with a note of panic in her voice. “They’re fixed to the sides. They’re barely moving us!”
Behind us, the sound of water splashing lets me know we’re out of time.
“Switch places with me. And take this,” I say, handing Grady’s knife to Keisha, keeping my eye on her in case she does anything stupid with it.
I grab both paddles and try to mimic what I’ve seen on TV. The first stroke of the paddles takes us backward. Fuck.
We run right into the first carrier. Keisha expertly stabs it through the eye socket, and it splashes lifelessly into the water.
“Figure it out, Quinn! There are too many!”
I flip myself around in the boat, my back facing our intended direction, and row again. This time, we move forward. I pull the oars again. Then again, finding a rhythm and dipping deeper into the water each time.
“Holy shit,” Keisha says under her breath as she looks behind us.
The river and campsite fill with body after body.
A few of the carriers stumble through the remains of the fire, lighting up the darkness with their burning clothes.
They follow the sound of my oars splashing ineptly into the water and throw themselves into the river, trying to reach our boat.
Lucky for us, the current is slow and the river is deep.
They sink below the waterline before they have the chance to reach us.
I shiver and pull the oars harder until my muscles burn.
“That was too close,” Keisha whispers.
I pull the oars again, a wide smile spreads across my face, and I let out a little laugh.
“What on earth could be funny right now, Quinn?” Keisha says sternly.
“Look how fast this thing is. Look how much stuff is in this boat right now. We could both lie down and sleep in this thing and still have room to roll over. We just hit the jackpot, and there’s nobody coming after us!”
“Nobody?” she repeats, clearly still annoyed, swinging her arm behind us toward the herd of carriers that nearly killed us.
“Nobody alive.” I shrug. “Why are you so upset? We won,” I say, challenging her, wondering if she’ll finally own up to the game she’s been playing.
“I killed that guy. Grady. After he was so nice to us,” Keisha says, looking like she’s holding back tears. “I wish we could have just taken everything while they slept.”
Jesus, she’s lying so smoothly, covering her tracks, making me doubt the look I know I saw. I let her lie and play along.
“They would have come after us. Leaving the farmer alive has come back to haunt us twice now.”
“How the hell did they know about the farmer anyway? How could they have been ahead of us on the river today but two days behind us when we left the farm? How is that possible?”
“This rowboat is twice as fast as our canoe. Imagine how fast it would be with two men rowing it. They must have passed us while we were sleeping.”
In the moonlight, Keisha’s face is still scrunched up. She must still be thinking about killing Grady. I row a few strokes in silence. Keisha sighs, then speaks. “You’re right. I just don’t like doing it.”
“I know you don’t. But today, you knew when it was time to get your hands dirty.
We can keep doing it that way. I’ll do all the heavy lifting if you can just watch my back and tie up the loose ends.
I can protect you,” I say, hoping it reassures her that nothing has changed.
I’m not ready for her to know that I know her game.
Besides, maybe tonight will make her realize we’re the same.
We belong together. I scold myself as soon as the thought crosses my mind. Jesus, she’s got me in a chokehold.
“You make it sound so simple. Like they aren’t people,” Keisha says, averting her eyes.
“It is simple. If they’re not us, they don’t matter. If leaving them alive might come back to haunt us, they don’t matter. If their lives don’t make ours easier? They. Don’t. Matter.”
Keisha sighs again, then expertly changes the subject. “I learned a few things while you were getting cooking lessons.” She raises one eyebrow, and I instantly know it’s something good.
“Spill.”
“St. Louis,” she says, as if it’s supposed to mean something to me. I roll my eyes. I know this trick. She’s trying to get me curious so I’ll get excited and go along with whatever she’s about to propose.
“What about St. Louis?” I say, willing to take the bait.
“That’s where they were headed. It’s only about sixty miles from where we are now.”
“Why were they going to a big city? That’s the last place anybody should be headed these days.”
“Exactly! That’s what I said when they told me their plans, but they knew something we didn’t.” She pauses dramatically.
“What did they know?” I say with a sigh, wishing she’d just get on with it instead of making me ask.
“I’m so glad you asked,” she says with a smirk, knowing she’s driving me nuts.
“There was a ham radio at that shelter Suzanne and Grady were staying at, and they were in contact with some people, even after the power went out. I guess they had it hooked up to a car battery. Anyway, they were talking to a group in St. Louis. Sounds like they rallied what was left of the city to build an enormous wall around over a dozen city blocks and walled in part of the river. They have protection, fresh water, and all the fish you can eat. Sounds pretty tempting, right?”
She’s building herself another escape route. This time I see it clearly. I ignore the sinking disappointment and continue my argument.
“Okay, but St. Louis is a pretty decent-sized city. It’s got to be full of carriers. And if they have a nice setup like that, it would make St. Louis a target for gangs and assholes. There’s nothing there for us.”
“That’s what I thought. Until they told me about their rover squads.”
“What the hell is a rover squad?”
“You’re going to love this. The way Suzanne described it, it’s a group of mercenaries wearing riot gear who just roam the surrounding area looking for carriers and people to take out. It sounded like the squads were pretty big. Suzanne said they’ve got the carrier population under control.”
I see exactly where she’s going with this.
I have to admit, if there were a place for me in society in the apocalypse, that would be it.
On a rover squad. They probably have beds and decent meals too.
Now that I think of it, St. Louis weather wouldn’t be too bad either.
Nothing too extreme in either winter or summer.
I guess if I had to pick a place to be long-term, St. Louis wouldn’t be too bad. She’s so persuasive.
“Keisha, a lot can happen in a few weeks. The entire city could fall by the time we get there.”
“It could,” she says with a nod. “But what if it hasn’t?”
“If that’s how you feel, I guess it doesn’t hurt to go check it out. All right. Let’s go to St. Louis. But the second things get weird, we’re leaving. Together. Okay?”
“Together.”
Keisha holds out her hand, palm up. I place my hand over hers and intertwine our fingers, but the electricity is gone, and the promise she just made rings hollow.
She’s plotting again. Escaping with Ramsey failed.
Joining up with Grady and Steven fell flat.
Now she wants me to get her to St. Louis. It’s fine. Two can play this game.