He took out his binoculars and scanned the horizon. It was impossible to tell where the swamp ended and the ground began.
“We’re not going that way.”
“Shame, would have gotten us away from that horde once and for all,” said the stranger.
“Damn shame. Hold on if we’re going to continue on like this, I need to know who the hell you are.”
“Just call me Shaun. I served in the Gulf, and I know you did too. Let me guess… Iraq?”
“That’s right. 101st Screaming Eagles.” The two men saluted each other.
“Alright armless, how about you?”
“Winston, and I’ll appreciate if you stop calling me armless.”
“Well do you mind me asking-“
“Yes.”
“Okay then.” Will looked around one more time. “So… east or west.”
“Well east obviously,” offered Boyd, becoming more relaxed, “We’ll be closer to the city.”
“No dumbass,” he was quickly shot down by Shaun, and brought back his nervous expression. “The reason we why we got attacked is because we were too damn close as it was. Our defenses weren’t up to standards which didn’t help.”
“You’re the one-“
“Shut up.” Shaun cut him off.
“Me and my friend over there, the one that’s on another planet at the moment, aren’t from around here. What can you tell us about what’s over that way?”
“It’s just trees for a couple of miles until you hit a river heading north and south…”
“Get down!” An explosion ripped a soldier’s arm off beside Kim. He looked down at the arm as if he didn’t realize it was his. As he looked at it, a bullet struck him in the neck, sending him backward.
“Do it NOW!”
“Kim, do you hear me? KIM!”
Someone was shaking her. She woke up and was in a forest near a swamp somewhere. Then she remembered what was going on.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“We’re leaving Kim, stop zoning out on us.”
Will let go of her and picked up the unconscious Ronnie. Everyone gave her a strange look and continued on, except Boyd and Anna.
Anna never took her eyes off the ground as she continued forward. Kim knew she was already dead inside, at such a young age.
Boyd stood next to her, and only started moving when she did. He kept glancing over at her as they navigated through the dense woods. He didn’t think anyone noticed, and for the most part no one did. But Kim could feel the eyes bearing down on her, drilling through her.
She stopped.
“What the hell’s your problem?”
He was taken off guard, and looked as nervous as ever.
“We-ell, ma’am, I was justa wonderin’ if you were okay… inna head. We can’t afford to drag around one of them handicapped in the head people.”
“Boyd shut the hell up.”
They continued on, in more ways than one. It finally got to the point where she couldn’t take it anymore. She did the worst thing she could do.
She stopped, and turned around.
“You want to know what’s wrong with me, don’t you?”
“Oh god, here we go,” she heard Will sigh from further ahead.
“Um, what’s wrong with you?”
“Yeah, why I was zoning out back there.”
Everyone else continued one. It was fine by her, she used to be a tracker in the Army before she switched over.
Why the hell not tell him, she thought. They always say it’s best to get this kinda thing off your chest.
“Oh my Jesus,” Boyd said as they continued through the woods. “How in the hell have you managed to live with yourself after that?”
“Thanks for that.” Kim said.
She told him the whole story, from the beginning. It didn’t take nearly as long as she thought it would, and she was able to do it without crying or zoning out, which was a miracle. But she didn’t feel any better about the act, or herself.
She tried to pass the blame off to Will, and felt she did a good job. But she knew that while he was a big part of it, she played her role as well. That’s something she’d be living with for months.
“Now I don’t want you going around telling everyone. Keep it between you and me, can you can do that right.” She grabbed his arm, in the way that only a woman could.
“Uh, yeah.” Boyd’s face turned red. It worked every time, especially on the younger ones. “But why you tell me if you ain’t wantin’ anyone to know?”
“I felt I had to tell someone. You wouldn’t leave me the hell alone anyway. Let’s just keep going.”
The rest of the short journey was made in total silence. They sped up and managed to catch the rest of the group, but there had been a few more complications.
Ronnie woke up, and just beyond the edge of the woods was a single cabin, sitting alone frozen in time.
Will was about to hit Ronnie again, but he backed away quickly enough.
“You son of a bitch. You son of a bitch.” Ronnie shook his head and fell to his knees, crying into his hands like a baby. Anna came over to him, and put her arm around him. She whispered something in his ear, but Kim couldn’t hear it.
“You son of a bitch,” he repeated.
“Now’s not the time to be angry. Look.”
Ronnie followed Will’s gaze to the cabin. Through one of the dirty, broken windows they could make out a figure. It was moving with all the grace of a drunk man on a pogo stick, the sound of glass bottles rocketing off counters and breaking on the floor.
Ronnie didn’t say anything.
“I’m tired. Maybe we should go in,” offered Winston.
“Yeah, with those damn zombies in there?”
“We can clear ‘em out, easy. Probably just one or two of ‘em.”
“That’s not the point.”
