Behind the Wall Part I

10 Part 2 - The Aftermath

That was the one question no one had an answer to. No one had expected that we wouldn't get the jet. That everything would blow up before we could escape. Even though we had made an emergency plan, our idea of today had been perfect. No deviations, no problems, no surprises. We had been naive to believe that everything would fall into place, had thought it would be easy to escape. By now, we should have known that nothing on this side was easy.

"We have to get behind the wall," said Isla, who was sitting on the floor with her right leg bent. She looked up at Marques, at my father and me. "We could take several cars and drive there."

"Straight through the chaos on the streets or what?" said Tyler, raising an eyebrow. He leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, his short black hair slicked back.

Isla frowned at him. "Then a bus or a truck. That way you notice the rough ground less."

Tyler stared at her in disbelief. "Have you ever heard of desecrating corpses?"

She rolled her eyes. "The people are dead, they don't feel pain anymore."

"Isla," said Grace, her voice sharp, reproachful. She had Samantha beside her again, who continued to stare quietly ahead. "It's not nice to talk about the dead like that. Tyler's right, we can't just carelessly run these people over."

Isla threw her hands up in despair. "What other option do we have then?"

As silence fell again, I remembered the last page of Mamma's file, what she had written to me in it. Back at the emergency camp I had told myself that I would tell Papà and Max about it as soon as it became important. At the time, I had thought it would happen beyond the wall, once we were already safe and near them. Maybe we wouldn't even have had to contact them, maybe they would have come on their own to take us in. Maybe we still meant something to them ...

My heartbeat quickened at the thought of seeing them all again. My hands grew damp and I had to focus on keeping my breathing steady. If I was honest with myself, that was the real reason I hadn't told Papà and Max. They didn't know what had happened between us, and I wasn't ready to talk about it. I didn't want their probing looks on me, didn't want to hear their questions. After more than half a year, the pain still felt fresh, because that day wouldn't let me go.

But when I looked into the faces of the others, I realized that my feelings didn't matter here. I had to swallow them down if we wanted to make it out alive. The circumstances had changed, there were now more important things than grades and distances and unspoken words. My mother's message wasn't just a hint, it was our lifeline, the silver lining on the horizon. She had known I would understand it that way, that I could swallow my pride when it mattered. They were our only chance, and I wouldn't deny us that.

"We walk," I finally said. All eyes turned to me.

"Walk to the wall?" asked Ethan, sounding like he couldn't believe what he had just heard. I only nodded.

Marques frowned. "And how exactly is that supposed to work? The Infected could be anywhere and attack us."

"Do you think it would be any different with a bus? The engine would immediately give away where we are. Not to mention the impassable streets." I glanced briefly at Tyler at that, who was already watching me with interest. "Driving isn't an option, the jets have either taken off or exploded, and I doubt any of you can operate a train. Walking is the only thing left."

"Maybe the military will come," said Kaitlyn, looking around hopefully. "The real one, from the other side."

I turned to her. "Are you really that stupid?"

"Astrid," my father admonished me.

I looked at him. "Che? Do you believe that too?"

He furrowed his brow, clasped his hands on Max's back. "There's no reason to insult Kaitlyn, because she's not entirely wrong. You know the protocols as well as I do, Astrid. The soldiers have to search the entire area for survivors, there's no way around it. The jets will increase the pressure."