To Be A Leader

Chapter 15: King Of Dreams

I blink as the crowd starts whispering in confusion, then snicker. "Wiring? I think Jaime's inner fireman is coming out."

Zoey rolls her eyes. "He's gone off script again. Phil, give him the signal. It's time to get out of here anyway."

Phil raises his hand to give the Jaime the signal, and he responds with the smallest of nods. "Um, yeah. Look, I've got to go. But give me a call at Abel, and I'll talk you through the repairs. You really don't want to leave all those wires hangin' out like that."

The crowd cheers, although their voice sound a bit confused as he puts down his mic and heads off the stage and back to us. He looks to Zoey with a raised brow.

"Alright, what now?"

"Ready to head off, Your Maj?" She asks.

He deadpans at her, and I have a feeling she should already know the answer. Jaime's never really cared for all this stuff. I'm sure he wants to just get all of this over with.

"Where to next?" I ask.

"The next settlement on the itinerary isn't too far from here, but they were very specific about what time they wanted us," Phil says, "and we're behind schedule, so let's go."

So we leave. Surprisingly very few people try to stop us to talk to the king. It helps us get out of this town faster, whatever the name of it. I can't keep up with the many towns we've been to these last two days. It's been kind of blur, what with me trying to get a bit of space since Nicole has been watching me like a hawk, and Moonchild fading in and out with no warning whatsoever. That message must've really weakened her. There's no way she would do this willingly. She likes messing with me, sure, but I also believe she likes listening to herself talk, and she likes having me listen to her talk, so she wouldn't just disappear on a whim.

My thoughts are cut off when I hear a loud moan of a zom, and both Nicole and I grab our weapons. I take a moment to glance at her, noticing how her left hand shakes a bit as she holds her gun, while her right hand remains limp. Even with the months of practice she's put in in making her left hand her dominant hand, she still sometimes tries to grab things with her right, only for it to slip out of her grasp and frustrate her.

She tries not to let her new disability get her down, but this does lessen her ability to work in the field. She was trained to be an operator, but that doesn't mean she liked it. She just did her job because it was her job. She says that's why she did what she did to me-why she gave me that vial. It was her assigned job. She had to do it whether she wanted to or not.

I only half believe her, not because she says she didn't want to, but because she said she didn't have a choice.

We all had a choice in the A.M.T.B. We just chose not to rebel out of fear.

The zombie moans again as we head past an old field, and my lips curl up into a sneer at the sight of a zombie lying down beside an old, rusted tractor. I can see bits of bone on the blade, along with dried, gray blood. Its legs are nowhere to be found.

"Looks like the tractor ran over it," Nicole hums, raising a arched brow at the snarling zom. "I wouldn't slow down. Could always drag itself using its arms, plus there blood and guts pulsing out of it, and depending on how long it's been gray, that stuff could be infectious by just touching it and-"

"Alright, alright, we get it," Phil says, clearly disgusted, and the younger girl raises a brow at him.

"How have you managed to stay alive this long?"

"The same way you have."

She snorts. "I sincerely doubt that."

"So who's the next lot then?" Jaime asks before Phil can reply. "All it said on Sam's list was the name of the place. Keratin Forest."