“Do you think bites don’t actually infect people?” Anna asked hopefully.
“I don’t know, it’s too soon to make that call.”
Anna sighed, and sat down next to the old man. Kim saw her rubbing her eyes, trying and failing to hold back tears.
In her experience trying to comfort people only made things worse, as she witnessed again before Will left. Instead she chose to say nothing, sitting there in the corner with her head down, thinking of happier times.
Anna meanwhile was thinking about something more complicated. Digesting the feelings of a seventeen-year-old girl dealing with her mother’s death during a zombie apocalypse, and living with the person she held responsible.
Will was all she wanted to think about, and how he killed her mom. That’s all she allowed herself to think about. As they walked through the woods on their way to the cabin, a nagging feeling in the back of her head that said he might have been right. Maybe it was Elizabeth’s fault for staying there, as the walking dead bore down on her, and she refused to listen to even dad.
That was something she hated herself for, how could it possibly be mom’s fault that some idiot threw bombs, or Molotov cocktails, or whatever they hell they were at her, she thought to herself.
She looked to Kim.
“You said you were sorry about mom. Did you mean it, or were you just trying to shut us up?”
Kim looked up, startled. She hesitated for a moment before saying “both”.
Anna reeled back as if she got hit in the face. Was this woman serious? Regardless, if this is the world they’re going to have to live in, she’d have to be stronger.
“I appreciate your honesty,” she lied. “So, uh, you and Will came in together. There anything between you?”
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but this isn’t high school. It’s not as cut and dry as a man and a woman who are friends are automatically dating.”
“So he turned you down?”
Kim sighed. “No, we were never involved and I never wanted to be. We were best friends growing up and we served in Iraq together.”
“Are you best friends now?”
Kim looked up from the lovely oil stain on the floor for the first time. She saw a teenage girl staring at her with searching eyes, with a strong hint of hatred behind them. She wondered if that hate was reserved exclusively for Will or shared like the communion wafer.
“We work together to solve common problems.” What a lame answer she realized.
“I can take that two ways. That you worked together to kill my mother because she was in some way a problem, or that you’re just trying to dodge the question for some reason, which would prove to be ‘no’. I’ll chose the latter.”
For a stupid teenage girl, this one wasn’t so stupid after all. Maybe she wasn’t as naïve as she originally let one. Maybe she’s one of those women who are inherently good at being manipulative. This would be good, because as Kim reminded herself, bitches were easy to deal with.
“I know what you’re thinking, I don’t like you and you don’t like me. Whatever. But we need to be able to survive in this world. And that’s not going to happen if you parade around talking about how much you hate and distrust everyone.”
“People tend to hate those that kill their family members.”
“People also tend to hate those that falsely accuse others of murder.”
The girl didn’t respond. Instead she just looked down at Winston.
Kim noticed he looked good. It had been a few hours since he was bitten, but so far it was going well. He wasn’t showing any signs of turning at least, and that was more than anyone could have hoped for.
“He seems fine, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah. Assuming he doesn’t turn into one of those things or gets an infection he’ll be fine. Gonna have some trouble walking of course.”
Anna grabbed a washcloth they had used for Winston, and gently wiped his forehead.
“Will wants to kill him. Thinks he’s going to change and kill us all.”
Kim didn’t say anything.
“Well, what do you think of that? He wants to kill another innocent human being.”
“No one’s innocent.”
“Damn it, I don’t want to play any of these games. What do you think about Will wanting to kill this man? It isn’t right.”
“You want my opinion? Will is wrong here, he’s wrong about a lot. But… well there is no but. This man is perfectly fine. The… disease is not spread through bites and I’m convinced of it. Will doesn’t want to hear it or anything else anyone has to say.”
Anna hesitated for a moment, before saying “yes”, almost to herself. “He must pay, one way or another.”
Again Kim remained silent.
In the blink of an eye, she saw Anna take out a knife and stab Winston between the eyes. Kim didn’t even have time to process what she saw before Anna grabbed her hand and rushed her out the back door.
“What the fuck… what did you do?” she asked her.
“I… I…”
Anna looked up, past Kim, as if she saw a ghost. Kim turned around and saw Will walk in to the front door, covered in blood.
“Oh no. Anna, whatever you think about him… it wasn’t worth this.”
“It’s already done. He’ll get the blame, and when we tell the others he was fine when we left, they’ll want his head.” Anna then turned around and threw up.
“Damn it. What makes you think I’m going to go along with this? You just murdered somebody.”
“Will would have done it anyway, and that’s why you’ll go along with it,” Anna said, wiping her mouth with her sleeve. “He killed my mom, and I get the impression he’s capable of much worse.
