He flopped onto the boards, letting the strain drain from his burning muscles. He breathed heavily, unable to move for a while.
The fort was a plywood floor and one half-wall. It was simple, but it would do.
Eventually, he found enough energy to drag himself to the edge of the boards to look down. He was now glad for all those steps.
A few of the diseased people had followed him through the woods, but they couldn’t pinpoint where he was. One was naked, covered in burns and blood from a huge gash in his head, like he’d been hit with something hard and sharp. Another seemed almost completely unhurt other than a cut on her arm. The rest fell somewhere in between. They wandered the area looking for him, but not looking up. They only want things in front of them.
He silently rolled back over, avoiding any creaks or thuds. He did not want to get their attention. He needed to think of a—
“Ah-choo!”
The sneeze had snuck up on him, frightening him. Below he heard a shuffling in the fallen leaves as they headed for the tree.
They knew where he was.
Alex closed his eyes tightly, wrapping his arms around himself. He felt cold and soaked, and very, very afraid. Tears formed in his eyes for what he was sure was the last time. I have nowhere else to go. I can’t go higher. I’m done.
He opened his eyes several minutes later and tried to quiet his breathing to get some idea of what was happening below. He could still hear shuffling in the leaves as well as their moans and sloppy growls, but that was it.
Very slowly, he rolled over and peeked at them. Three of them surrounded the tree, looking up, their claw-like arms grasping at the air above them. They would walk at the tree, bang into it, stagger back a step, and then try again.
They can’t climb! Alex thought triumphantly.
“You can’t get up here!” he called down, with a trace of a laugh. “You stupid morons! You’re stuck down there!” He spit down on them, the icing on the cake.
He had won!
No food.
No water.
No dry clothes.
No heat.
No one to talk to.
Nothing to do.
Alex made this mental list after a few hours in his tree fort.
The diseased people all left soon after he had gone out of view. They forgot about him or they found something easier to hunt. He didn’t care. They were gone.
“Maybe I can go get stuff from the store,” he muttered. “I can see from up here when they’re not around, so I can make a break for it.” He paused, doubting himself. “But what if they’re here when I get back? I won’t be able to see them then. Then I’m in it deep.” He spent the next few hours trying to come up with a plan that he couldn’t find any problems with.
Finally, he settled on one: “Hope help finds me before I die up here.”
KAITLYN
Though the blinds in Hannah’s bedroom were drawn, and both girls were ordered to not open them no matter what, Kaitlyn knew what was happening outside. The memory of what she had seen the day before haunted her, but curiosity got the better of her when a noise woke her up.
The sound of metal dragging on pavement.
Someone was outside.
They would be saved!
She pulled up the blind and pushed her face to the window. In the moonlight, she saw a person, a woman, walking down the middle of the street with a rope dragging behind her. Either she held it, or it was tied to her arm. At the other end of the rope was a mailbox.
That makes no sense. Why is she tied to—?
Kaitlyn thought of the people from the school. The ones that attacked others. Killed them. She looked more closely at the woman in the street. She was wet. She was covered in something thick and black and red.
She was one of them. And no one was stopping her. They had tried; they tied her to a pole to keep her away, but it didn’t work. Now no one was out there to stop her, or any of them.
They wouldn’t be saved.
She let go of the blind and saw Hannah, wide awake, looking up at her.
“What was it?” Hannah asked.
After a pause, Kaitlyn decided that “Nothing,” was a safe answer. She lay back down. She would try to settle back in—at least pretend to sleep, for Hannah’s sake.
“Oh,” Hannah replied as she settled. “I was worried that the woman with the mailbox was back.”
How many times had Hannah seen her?
Kaitlyn listened for the metal dragging to stop for a long while after that. Each time it seemed to fade, it grew louder again. She wondered how long the woman would stay out there.
A realization began to dawn on her: this was bigger than babysitting, or a new TV, or proving herself. Bigger than all of it combined. It was no longer about acting responsibly in the hopes of being rewarded; it was about being responsible or someone might get hurt.
She glanced over at Hannah. Her eyes were staring right back at her.
She might get hurt.
ALEX
Shuffling sounds from below woke him. Alex knew it was them. He could hear their sickly, gasping breathing; their growls at one another, though Alex had no idea why. Maybe they just hated everything as much as Alex was starting to.
It was dark, but the moon and stars gave him enough
