A few awkward goodbyes later they were standing on a sandy little beach next to an overgrown service road that looped around the lake. They watched as the pontoon boat motored away from them. The two teens in the boat staring dejectedly back after them. Candace and Jim resolutely refusing to look back. Drew got why they’d been ditched so quickly. Candace and Jim were good people. If they hadn’t dropped them off right away, they’d have probably tried to figure out how to let them stay. If LeBron, Yue and Drew all stayed that would’ve been three more mouths to feed. There was a finite supply of food available to pilfer from the lake houses. The parents were just doing survivor math and looking out for their two kids. Drew respected that.
Yue and LeBron respected the boat dwelling family’s decision as well. They definitely all appreciated that rather than taking their weapons and supplies from them Candace kept her promise and sent them away with everything they’d brought on board. She actually hooked them up with some extra clothes and food. The three of them had been careful to ask multiple questions as to how to get to the interstate once dropped off. Even though they had no intention of heading towards the interstate once dropped off.
They trooped into the woods as a group stopping once they were out of sight of the lake. Now they could either keep walking through the woods until they wound up on the interstate or they could go back to the house where all of their supplies were. The house where the body of their father was in need of burying. The house with the bad ass looking Hummer. It was true that the house was more than likely still covered in the infected but where wasn’t?
“Back to the house dad’s body’s at?” Drew asked quietly. LeBron and Yue both nodded with zero hesitation. They really didn’t have a choice. Hitting the road low on supplies with no vehicle once it got dark was basically suicide. None of them liked the idea of walking away without getting the chance to say goodbye to their dad either. This exit had done a number on them, but they weren’t ready to cut bait and make a run for it quite yet.
Chapter 30: Saying Goodbye
They tromped along through chest high weeds hidden from the lake by a thin line of trees covered in Spanish moss. They hadn’t spoken since agreeing to go back to the house they’d left their dad in. Jim had mentioned he sometimes saw the infected pop up at random spots around the lake. Even on the uninhabited side where there was no real reason for them to be at, he’d seen them appear in their endless search for prey. LeBron thought the main reason there were infected all around the lake hinged on the fact that there was a family in the middle of the lake who didn’t have a firm grasp on whispering.
Regardless of why the infected had surrounded the lake they needed to be extra careful to avoid them now that they found themselves backtracking around it. In the tall weeds a surger could be coming for them and they’d never even see it until it was right on top of them. Especially if it were one of the younger infected. None of them wanted to duke it out with a psychotic ten-year-old tweaker who’s adrenaline was pumping so hard it could lift a car. Just the thought of infected kids and the tall weeds had each of them flashing back to the Children of the Corn movies their mom had made them watch. That classic had easily out creeped the other movie they’d rented where a clown kept killing kids through a sewage drain.
Sweating and surrounded by small clouds of mosquitoes they stoically marched along the sorry excuse for a road. They couldn’t even slap at the mosquitoes for fear of the noise carrying too far. LeBron kept his theory on the spread of the infection by bug bite to himself. It wasn’t like any of them could do anything to stop the bugs at this point. Without the constant chemicals sprayed by the mosquito control officers the bug problems were just going to keep getting worse anyway. LeBron made a mental note to stock up on insect repellant the next chance he got. Until then he’d just cuss quietly to himself while trying to Mr. Miyagi the flying pests out of the air with his fingers.
Drew suddenly stopped walking and pointed up in the air. Expecting the worse Yue and LeBron craned their necks backwards to see what new threat was coming for them. It wouldn’t have surprised them at this point to see the infected had managed to learn how to levitate and were now hunting them from the sky. What they saw flying by instead was a plane. Not a big deal in the good old days but a novelty post apocalypse. They watched for a few seconds before Drew began moving forward again. Turning their eyes away from the heavens they kept up
