Resistance

Twenty-Five

            Twenty-Five

          The second I lunge backwards, towards the door into the school, Jagger grabs my shoulder and yanks me back. I bump into his chest and he wraps his arms around me, more like caging me in than a backwards hug.

            “We have to go, Sloane,” he whispers.

            I can’t believe what he’s saying. We’re not even going to look for the child? We’re just going to leave him here to die from starvation or be eaten by zombies? Are we just going to continue on and forget about him, acting as if he never existed?

            “He must have walked away from me in the cafeteria,” Jack says quietly, more to himself than the others. “I didn’t notice. How didn’t I notice?”

            “None of us noticed,” Cole says, resting a hand on Jack’s shoulder. Jack brushes him off and shakes his head in disbelief.

            “We need to go,” Jagger continues, his tone harsh this time. “We can’t go back, Sloane. It’s too dangerous. All of them are in the school now.”

            I try to wrench out of his grasp and twist and turn until I’m facing him. He grips my wrist tightly as I try to pry his fingers one by one off of me, but he won’t let go.

            “Let me go get him,” I snap, trying not to yell as much as I’d like to. “You all can go on without me, I don’t care! Just let me go!”

            Jagger grabs my other wrist and yanks me roughly forward, almost into his chest. He looks down at me, his eyes glaring at me as his hands cut of circulation in my arms,

            “It’s a suicide mission,” he hisses. “I’m not letting you kill yourself.”

            “We need to go,” Cole says, plunking a hand down on Jagger’s shoulder. “Now.”

            Jagger nods and turns towards the gate in the fence, the one we need to open to get through. Cole stands in front of it, waiting while Jack follows behind me. I move not by will, but as Jagger pulls me along. I dig my heels into the ground, do whatever I can to get back to the school, but it’s no use. Jagger has a death grip on me, literally – he believes that if he lets me go, I’ll die.

            I have no choice but to leave the child.

            Tears run down my cheeks as Cole starts to fiddle with the lock on the gate, trying to get it open. It takes longer than we thought, and eventually groans are coming from within the school. The zombies still don’t know we’re out here, but it won’t be long before they do.

            “Can you pick it?” Jagger asks.

            “Does it look like I have something to pick locks on me?” Cole snaps. He’s aggravated, which to me is a sign that we should panic. We can’t climb the fence; Bullet can’t get over and I’m not leaving him too.

            “I can shoot it off,” Cole continues, “but that will alert them. We won’t have much of a head start.”

            Jagger looks back towards the school and shifts his grip on my arm. “I don’t think we have another choice.”

            “Get ready,” Cole says, aiming his gun. I move closer to Bullet, making sure he’s going to be okay to run with us, even though he always is. Jagger’s fingers twitch on my arm and he meets my eyes.