Dakota's Suite

Baez's Abode

Baez and Wayne eventually guided us down a clearer path within the woods. Baez had his shovel before him, ready to take out any more of those "biters" he had been talking about. Hannah snuck occasional glances my way, her eyebrows knitted together as the 9mm was stuffed at the side of her waistband. Her gaze shifted over back to Daphne, who had her arms folded, her head bowing down as a cool breeze sifted through her frizzy, disheveled hair.

A part of me was still trying to process all of the events that happened so far. Another part of me longed for another one of my cancer sticks, as much as I resented myself for being addicted to the damned things.

I won't lie. It was nice not having to plan and figure things out three steps ahead. I had no reason not to trust Baez and Wayne. They could've just left us alone and tended to their business, but they went out of their way to help us.

"Shouldn't be long now," Baez chirped. "I use this path all the time to get to my house when out hunting."

I found myself catching up with Baez and Wayne, walking past my sister with a reassuring nod. "How long have you all been out here?" I asked.

Wayne chuckled. "Baez almost blew my head off when I crashed into one of the trees behind his house about three weeks ago."

I raised my eyebrows. "What happened?"

"One of the camps I had stayed at had been overrun, so I had no other choice but to grab my family and hit the road. Another family had joined us, and old Baez here wasn't happy with our company at first." Wayne explained while nudging Baez.

Baez glanced over his shoulder at me. "I thought he was one of them, and I wasn't too pleased with the noise he was making." He clarified. "I mean, it was at the ass-crack of dawn."

The failed evacuation camp had caught my attention, I figured it wouldn't be appropriate to ask right now, so I decided to revisit that conversation when we were all better settled.

"Dakota, was it?" Wayne tried my name once more. I decided to walk a little faster so that I was in between the two.

"Yes?"

"So, you're the man of the house then." Wayne continued. I fought back a laugh. They really didn't consider Bryant a man at all, not that they'd be wrong, of course. Though, if Allen was still alive, he'd probably hold a better conversation than I could.

I shrugged. "I guess you can say that. My mother's husband died several hours ago."

"Jesus..." Baez mumbled, his voice laced with a tad bit of sympathy. "My condolences."

"I'm sorry." Wayne breathlessly apologized. "I shouldn't have asked that question right away."

"It's fine. We've all fallen on hard times." I said, sounding a hell lot like Hannah. I could feel her faintly smiling behind me. Though, deep down, I knew that Hannah was just trying to keep it together by being polite and cracking jokes.

Hell, I can't even go an hour without visualizing Isaac shoveling his blood-stained fingers into Allen's ripped open abdomen.

I cleared my throat. "What's your take on these crazy people?"

Wayne bowed his head, in which I had noticed his whole demeanor change by that question. He's an officer, so I could only imagine the kind of fucked up shit he's seen before being taken under Baez's wing. Baez, however, turns to face me with a much more serious, deadpanned facial expression.

"You wanna know my take?" Baez started. "They ain't people at all, hell, I don't even think they have a soul."

I raised my eyebrows, and Baez noticed this.

"I've been in town right when the plague was startin'." He begun. "I was caught in traffic when I saw a woman lyin' there on the road with her son next to her bawlin' his eyes out. It was a sad sight to see. His mama was bleeding out the mouth, pale as a cotton sheet, police had blocked off that whole section and only allowed the cars to drive around. There was a group of 'em too, those poor officers."

Wayne awkwardly scratched his neck. "Wasn't the road blocked off?"

Baez shook his head. "There were too many of us and less of them. They had an officer standing outside of the huddle to properly direct cars since it was a two-way lane. It took forever. Anyway, within five minutes, the woman had risen up like she hadn't been lyin' on the road like roadkill and tore the throat out of her little boy with her teeth."

"Goddamn." I sighed. Though I've never really wanted to be around children, I didn't like hearing about any harm coming to them. Especially from their own parents.

Baez grunted. "I didn't mean to dim your spirits, but my point is, I don't think no woman in her right mind would just go feral and not only bite through her son's flesh and take down another officer that tried to detain her...at least to me. She had a dead look in her eyes. That ain't a human, and no one can tell me any different." He continued before sliding a hand in his pocket.

It made sense. For Isaac to rip into Allen and eat him like a feral animal...that was far beyond a rational mind. I literally shot a woman through her fucking stomach and she still kept coming at Bryant with a vengeance. Any normal person would've been taken down, obviously. Lastly, Margaret getting her dress caught in the fence and being unable to realize that was why she couldn't move any further.

"You called them biters before." I mentioned as we passed by lesser trees and appeared before an old, wooden gate.

Baez nodded. "Can't call 'em people, especially when they can't tell friend from foe."

Baez had picked up his pace in walking once we got closer to the gate before us. He took a key from within his pocket and opened it before letting it sway open. He turned around, allowing us to see a large, two-story house surrounded by rose bushes.

"Welcome home." Baez announced proudly.