Mortality

Chapter 28: Savannah

"What the hell, man?" Cole yelled, throwing his hands into the air. Judging by the tone in his voice, I was a little surprised he hadn't taken a swing at the guy. Alex would have. I wanted to. "We can't just leave them here!" 

I was standing in the next room, pretending I didn't care that these people were all set to leave me and everyone else behind. I pulled my head through the top of a sweater Cole had brought with him. 

My outburst had led to my being dismissed from the discussion, but Cole was still fighting for me. He knew these people; he had a better chance of convincing them than I ever would. 

I could see Cole and Dorian talking in the room to my right. At the same time I was watching Cole's inept friends try to pry information from the militia personnel they'd somehow managed to capture. 

I wouldn't have guessed that calmly asking for help would be that productive, but it looked like one of the soldiers was willing to talk while the others looked him over in disgust. The guy didn't look much older than me, so I doubted he had anything useful to add, but every little bit would help. 

"We can't risk it. I'm sorry." Dorian's voice snapped me back to Cole's conversation. He sounded steadfast but sympathetic. I could almost believe he was actually sorry. 

"I'm not leaving Savannah. We can trust her. She wanted to help us," Cole pleaded. He was obviously angry but never raised his voice. I would have liked to believe that he was taking the right approach, that cooler heads would prevail. But that's not the world we live in anymore. 

"Well, I can't leave you behind. You'll be lucky if your dad ever lets you leave again. He'll kill me." 

"My dad will forget all about this in a day, and you know it. He's got a lot more to worry about than one wayward son. Hell, he's got two of those again now. Who knows where Ethan is? I won't lose Savannah. I won't lose her, too." 

"The answer is no." Dorian shook his head, but his voice had softened just enough for me to sense a crack in his defense. 

Cole tilted his head, staring unblinkingly into Dorian's eyes. He heard it too. "Please, Dorian. She's all I have." 

"Fine," Dorian said, shaking his head. I exhaled. "But that's it. There's no way we'll be able to get all of these people back with us, and they have a better chance of fending for themselves than the Zs out back. We can't help everyone. They're going to have to help themselves." 

My chest clenched all over again. No way in hell was I leaving Zack behind. Even if they had somewhere to go, they were in no shape to travel on their own. 

Logic be damned, I left my spot where I was hovering in the doorframe and stormed towards Cole and Dorian. 

"I'm not leaving without Zack," I bellowed before I even reached them. Cole turned and looked at me, smirking. He wasn't remotely surprised by my outburst. "No way. He's hurt. All of these people are hurt. If we leave them here, they're as good as dead." 

"There are plenty of cars here for everyone, and we probably have at least half a day still before anyone shows up to find out what happened here. They'll be fine," Dorian said, trying to lull me into cooperating. 

Good luck with that. 

"Sure, until they're recaptured," I retorted. "You're all idiots. You're willing to risk a bunch of living, breathing people on the off chance that you can save a group of murdering zombies." 

"It's not-" Cole interrupted. 

"What?" I snapped. Cole looked like he'd been slapped. "Sorry-what was that now?" I asked with a mockingly sweet smile. Instantly, my faced warmed. I was being awful. It wasn't his fault, and I knew that he was just as frustrated as I was. But instead of lashing back at me, Cole gently rubbed my back.