To Be A Leader

Chapter 55: Your Cheatin' Heart

"Are we in the right place?" Jody asks softly. She casts a glance at Tom, but his eyes are ahead, focused, almost terrifyingly so.

He hums, giving her the smallest of nods. "Visible, but not too visible. Plausible we'd be here on our way to the transmitter. Exmoore Militia allowed us safe passage through their checkpoints, so we've been seen. Let's start running now. We need to look as if we're trying to get to that transmitter."

Jody nods as we start off. I take point. When I look back, she's still wearing that slightly worried look, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

"And if Sigrid doesn't spot us?"

"Then we'll think of something," Janine replies curtly through the headset. "Runners, keep moving with your steady pace. The Exmoore Militia are beginning their communication with the Minister."

"Uh, yeah," Sam mumbles. "Just a sec. I'll patch you in."

Static crackles in my ears. Hearing it almost sounds like second nature.

"Exmoore?" Sigrid's voice makes me snarl. "Are you receiving me?"

"Loud and clear, Minister," Jules answers, her voice clipped and professional. "What's this you want to talk to us about?"

"First, may I say how much I respect what you've done? With a small force of well-trained operatives, you've cleared an enormous area of zombie threat. You are an inspiration to the country."

"Yes, alright," She responds slowly, clearly not swayed by the flattery. "Now what do you want?"

"Our enmity as pained me for a long time. But I've learned that renegades at Abel Township set us against each other. They used your uniforms to launch attacks on Ministry outposts-a deliberate false flag."

My jaw clenches. Sigrid's not wrong. We have done that, but only because we had to. Her truth isn't what bothers me. It's the self-righteous tone she uses as she says it that makes my blood boil, as if she hasn't done far worse, as if she isn't doing far worse.

'Abel Township is so evil. They pitted us against each other. Blah, blah, blah.' Says the woman who literally wiped out most of the earth's population and is experimenting on babies. Plus, she pitted us against Netrophil when they ended up being the good guys!

"That sounds unlikely," Jules replies.

"I have evidence. I will send it to you via encrypted transmission."

"How do I know it's not fake?"

"Runners, the Exmoore Militia are playing their parts perfectly," Janine says as Sam cuts the transmission for now. Her voice is professional, but I can hear the slight smile in it. "Now it's our turn. Get out of the shadow of the hill and take the path toward transmitter. Go. Run."

We obey without a word, silently running through the hills, letting ourselves be seen by whoever may be watching from this area. I'm sure Sigrid has Ministry soldiers patrolling the area, and we know there are Exmoore scouts about. I'm sure they've probably already reported that we're here.

We keep our gazes ahead, making it seem like we're on a straight path towards the transmitter. It's actually nice, running like this, not really having to run from anything that would most definitely kill us if it happened to catch up. I look around, seeing nothin but grass and trees and bits of metal bound together to make transmission towers and watch posts.

This empty space is quite pretty, actually. The Exmoore's villages are a few miles away, but here there is just... peace. A part of me expects that, if the apocalypse hadn't have happened, this would be a parking lot for a new store or a new highway.