When All is Lost

Chapter 21

But they all have a lot of opinions.

"Really," Prisha added for what must have been the fiftieth time. "There has to be some kind of camping store or something that hasn't been picked over."

Ray scoffed, causing Prisha to give him a scathing look. Ray held up his hands. "Sorry," he said, trying to appease her. "I am serious though. Everything around here has been heavily picked over. People have been at it for months – there's nothing left."

"Are you sure?" Paula seemed more worried than actually doubtful of the validity of Ray's words. "There could be more houses like Carlos's and mine."

Ian stood with his arms crossed but a smile painted on, making it impossible for me to read how he was really feeling. "There probably are," he said. "But it would be like finding a needle in a haystack and the longer we stay here, the more likely we're going to run into more people."

I covered a cough but nodded in agreement. We needed to move on to a less populated area to hunt for supplies.

Or...

I hadn't voiced my thoughts to the group, but I hadn't forgotten that Ray had mentioned that he might have known a place where we could acquire food. However, I knew it would likely require stealing and I wasn't quite comfortable with that.

Carlos and Paula had been a saving grace in terms of supplies, but they had packed for two. And there were six of us.

I eyed Prisha in her polar fleece and had to fight down the rising resentment that we would have to find a complete set of gear for her as well.

She hadn't even had a weapon.

Evidently, she'd made it out of Colorado in a car and had managed to get all the way to Chicago before everything – including the group she was with – fell apart. She'd spent the last week hiding in buildings around the area until, as she was moving on to another house, she ran into Ian and Ray. It seemed neither one of them had had the stomach to turn her away when she asked for help.

I couldn't truly blame them for it – especially because she'd seen something the rest of us hadn't.

Zombies.

Carlos, unexpectedly, even seemed to believe zombies may have been a part of some kind of conspiracy or big cover-up by the government. He explained that he was a seventh-grade math teacher and was far more comfortable in dealing with provable facts, probabilities, and seeing things with his own eyes rather than believing in the rumors of zombies. That was met with another nudge from Paula. However, as Prisha had told us stories of what the zombies were like, I could see the fear in Carlos's eyes. It was clear what was really holding him back from his acceptance of the truth.

After all, we had all seen the last bits of news footage before the feeds had cut out.

Prisha said that the zombies were every bit as terrifying as what we'd seen on the news. She'd told us that once a person was bitten, there was no hope. A person would die within hours and reanimate with voracious hunger. They couldn't run very fast, but they were relentless in their pursuit.

The thought of them had me spooked, but not any more so than I had been before. After all, we still had bigger problems to deal with.

I needed to focus on getting east and not be scared of what was on the other end. I thought of my sister. We looked similar but were always so different. I missed the way she'd sometimes snark at my silliness. Being somewhat close in age, as we'd grown up, there were times when people had thought she was the older sister due to her maturity – though that might have also been because she'd grown to be taller. Even still, I did all the nurturing when our single mom was working.