Pierce smiled and nodded, “Understood. I was just wondering if you could perhaps give us a lift?”
“A lift?”
“Yes, we’ve been walking for ages and could really use the help and wheels,” Cindy said. Jessica shushed her.
“A lift where?” I asked.
“To the Air Force base,” Pierce stated.
“To Luke? You want a ride to Luke?”
Pierce nodded, “If you could please. We’ve been walking a long time. We can share our supplies with you if you want.”
Jessica made a noise in the back of her throat and then said, “Not to mention we just saved your lives.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “And we are grateful but one more smart ass comment like that out of you, even if we agree to take them, you will be walking. Got it?”
She didn’t like that. It was very obvious no one told her to tone down her attitude very often. Pierce looked back at her and made a gesture. She rolled her eyes and looked away.
“We…” Began Pierce, I could tell he was going to try and smooth what Jessica had just said over.
I interrupted him, “Can I speak with you privately?”
He nodded. Natalie looked uneasy as I began to walk with Pierce to the edge of the parking lot.
“I’ll be right back,” I said.
She closed her eyes and nodded.
Pierce and I walked together.
“Look,” I began. “It’s not that we don’t want to help you. It’s just,”
He cut me off, “You don’t know if you can trust us.”
I smiled, “You can understand then. And how are you sure you can trust us?”
“Not many untrustworthy people travel with a teenager and a dog.”
“Well, that could be how I throw people off my trail.”
He smiled, “I’ll take my chances.”
“I’m not saying no yet but please understand we need a moment to think it over,” I said.
“I understand completely.”
We began to walk back to the group.
“Also,” I said before we were in earshot, “I wouldn’t make Jessica walk, I just really wanted her to shut up and I can’t promise I won’t hit her.”
Pierce laughed, “I understand completely.”
“So?” Jessica asked as we approached.
“No decisions have been made yet,” Pierce answered.
She scowled and rolled her eyes. I didn’t like this girl. Don’t bite the hand you want to feed you; you won’t like how it turns out.
“Natalie, can I speak with you?” I asked.
She nodded and followed me to the grassy area where I had just spoken with Pierce.
“What do you think?” I asked.
Natalie looked at me confused and shook her head, “It’s up to you.”
“No, it’s not. It’s you and me kid, I told you that. And if we’re in this together these decisions should be made together. It’s only right.”
“I don’t know,” She said. “They seem nice. Well, three out of four seem nice.”
I laughed at her comment as I knew she was referring to Jessica.
“It might not be a bad idea to go to the Air Force base,” She said.
I had my doubts about the base but didn’t voice my opinion about it. Instead I asked the other question on my mind.
“What about Prescott?” I asked.
She screwed up her face a little as she thought a few minutes. “We can go there if the base doesn’t work out.”
“So, we’re doing this? We’re going to trust these strangers?”
She nodded, “Yes, but we should keep them at arm’s length.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
We headed back over to the group.
“We were talking,” I began. “And we’ll take you. We should get going. We probably don’t have enough daylight to make it there today but we should get out of here after that attack.”
Pierce smiled and nodded, “Agreed and thank you. You have no idea what this means to us.”
Everyone piled into the van. I took Milo for a quick walk around the parking lot, which was difficult as he was excited to greet the new people.
After he had done his business, I got in the driver’s seat and started the van. We really didn’t have much light left in the day so we didn’t go very far. The area looked clear that we stopped at.
We all sat around the van and ate dinner. As Pierce said, they did deliver and shared their food. I explained we had plenty of food but he insisted that we let him share.
They had beef Jerky and canned green beans. I was very excited about the beef jerky as I hadn’t had any since before the plague of the dead had started. It wasn’t something that one found very easily as it was something that people stocked up on early. It made sense since it would last forever and it cost so much before, people were sure to be excited to get it for free.
I offered to take the first watch and Pierce insisted on taking it with me. It was too crowded in the van now to stay inside so we got the folding chairs and sat outside as everyone drifted off.
“Thank you again,” He said as we sat down.
“Don’t mention it,” I said.
“No, it means everything to us. We’ve been traveling on foot for a while and kept running into all these mishaps. There was a lot more of us when we started.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
He shrugged, “Thank you but it’s the way of the world right now I’m afraid. And I wanted to apologize about Jessica, she just lost her sister.”
I made a sound that I hoped was sympathetic as I didn’t want to stay on the subject of someone losing their sister.
Pierce took out something from his pocket. Instinctively I grabbed my knife, worried he might be about to pull out a
