Path of the Dead - Working Title

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Eyes began to peel themselves open as they woke up from a sleep that felt like it had lasted for days. They looked around and saw that they were in an area that they did not recognize, but yet, it felt familiar to them, but they did not know why. As they sat up, then saw that they were in a bed, and that their hands had been bandaged and nursed to a tolerable pain level, and they could hear the sound of people talking in the next room. Suddenly, their door opened and a man they didn't recognize wearing a cowboy hat stepped into the room.

"Oh, you're awake. Wasn't expecting that for a couple more hours at least." Jacob approached the girl slowly, trying to scare her into thinking he was going to do anything to harm her.

The girl looked around again and noticed that everything was intact and the smell of death wasn't lingering within the air, "Where am I?"

"Somewhere safe. We're the ones that were living above you. After we heard that you were there, we decided to do everything within our power to bring you back to full strength as our way of saying that we're sorry for not hearing you when you needed help the most."

"Where's the one that brought me here?"

Jacob smiled, "Hold on, let me go get him for you. You stay here and rest." Jacob stepped out of the room and called from the hallway as he made his way into the living room, "Hey Zach. The girl's awake. She wants to see you real quick."

It only took a couple of seconds for the girl to adjust her pillows for her to sit up before Zach came into the room in almost in the way of concerned loved one. She smiled sweetly when she saw that he had a slight panicked look on his face, "It's nothing serious, I promise."

Zach slowly relaxed, as he began to realize that he had been on edge since he brought her here, "Oh ok." He took a deep, calmly breath before going to her side, and sitting in the chair that was beside the bed, "What is it? Do you need anything?"

She shook her head, "No, I just wanted to thank you for coming and saving me, even though you didn't know who I was or if I was one of those things or not. So..." her face began to glow red from her blushing from embarrassment and she leaned over and embraced him in a loving hug and kissed him on his cheek, "Thank you."

Zach was frozen in place. He understood why she was hugging him, but the fact that she was hugging him was blowing his mind. For the longest time, he and his brothers had been hated and avoided when they were at school, the only exception being when the other students tried to fight them. It was only towards the end of last year when they started to be acknowledged. And this entire time, he didn't think it bothered him as much as it was now: It had been an unseen entity eating at the back of his mind that he didn't even know existed. After a couple seconds, he wrapped his arms around her and embraced her in her own hug, "No...thank you."

Jacob was listening from the just around the doorway, and had a smile that he couldn't hide.

Wade would have enjoyed seeing you so happy Zach.

The thought of his brother no longer being with them still ate at his soul, but he was able to hide it better than he did at first. At least now he was able to talk to Zach again without feeling some sort of guilt or remorse whenever his name was brought up. He pushed himself off the wall and made his way back into the living room and made his way to the balcony and noticed something was going on outside, "Hey, when did they get here?"

Emma and Jessica joined him at the balcony and saw a rather large group of people making their way to the complex. Once when Jacob finished counting, he let out a low whistle, "Damn, whoever they are, they brought a small army with them. Speaking military numbers, they brought an entire Company with them. I wonder--." Before he finished, he looked the crowd over one more time and saw someone in the front that he never really wanted to see just yet.