The walk back through the tunnels was the easy part. The heat barrels down onto us like a rainstorm when we exit the compound. My sallow skin feels like it's cooking in the sun's rays. I had to remove my jacket and throw it over my shoulder to cool down as I helped Dally walk through the slippery sand. Sweat drips down my forehead and onto my dull, tattered, white shirt, mixing with the blood stains from my gunshot wounds.
The group hasn't said anything since we left Mr. Smith in the Hub. There's just been this thickness in the air around Paige. I'm sure everyone can feel it since the rest of the group has kept their distance from us. I don't know what to do about it. Talk to her or leave it be?
Jacobs is leading us through the desert, carrying his gun practically at a shooting position. I'd say he's paranoid about the crickets. But, we hadn't seen one—an alive one since we passed Gate 4 when we returned to get supplies in the compound. We haven't seen a single animal. No birds flying in the sky, no rodents skipping through the sand. Nothing. And that makes me worried. Where are all the animals? And are all of them as big as the crickets?
I hear Red curse as he hits his shin against a rock. Wellings asks him if he's alright, and I hear Red grunt to confirm he is. The King family is walking in front of us now. Liam is playfully jumping off rocks and digging his hands into the sand. Jaime constantly asks him to return to her side since he keeps getting distracted. I forgot that he's never been outside the compound. He's never seen the sky or an animal other than those crickets. He must be in amazement even more than I was last night.
Dally's heavy to carry, and I can sense he's still trying to keep himself out of unconsciousness as we walk north through the scorching landscape. His head has fallen onto my shoulder twice now, and his legs almost fall from under him. We probably should have eaten something before we left the compound, but we'll have to stop in some shade soon, or my skin will boil off.
I watch Paige as we walk through the barren terrain. She's stepping over the dried bushes, careful not to catch her skin on their sharp thorns or blunt sticks, and cautious of the cacti we pass. Her hair is pulled into a messy bun, but I can see the sweat-drenched strands sticking to the back of her neck. She should have changed out of her sweatpants before we left or at least taken them off. I feel my heart beat faster thinking of Paige walking around in her underwear, but I shake the thought off. I have no idea how I'm supposed to feel about her or how she feels about me.
I pull Dally closer as I quicken my pace to catch up with Paige. We both round a pile of orange clay rocks before I get the nerve to speak. "Can we talk?" I say to her, and I can feel my gut squeeze.
"Should I not be here for this conversation?" Dally chuckles nervously, arm still draped over my shoulder.
I shake my head. "It's fine. I want to ask her why she's okay with talking to me now."
Paige stops looking at the ground to look up at me, her eyes locking onto mine. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I cut off your Dad's hand." I pause. "You should be furious with me."
Paige takes a second to think, and I see her eyes flash from the ground to me again as we step over a prickly shrub. "It needed to be done."
"How could you say that?" Dally huffs.
"There was no way we would escape the compound if we didn't go to those measures."
"I doubt that," I say, guilt bubbling up inside me. "There could have been other ways we could have tried. We could have sat down with your father and asked him about the air toxicity levels and room 32..." I trail off. I shield my eyes from the sun with my hand.
"He would have never listened or told us the truth," Paige says. "He was too set in his ways."
"He was trying to keep us safe," I say. I don't know why I appreciate Mr. Smith right now. Maybe it's because we left him to die, and I feel bad about it. And I would have kept the air toxicity level from everyone, too.
"I thought you hated him?" Dally says. The wind blows against us, causing the sand to be picked up from the ground and blow through the air. I have to squint my eyes so it doesn't go into them.
"I do—I think. But that doesn't mean everything he did was evil."
"He killed you," Paige says bluntly. "That's evil."
"I was sick and could have spread the disease to everyone."
"But wasn't the sickness the reason you can heal yourself?" Dally says.
A hard breath goes through my nose. "Yes, sort of," I say finally.
"Regardless of the sickness, he would have killed you anyway," Paige says.
"Is that why you didn't let him come with us?" I ask.
"Jacobs' was right. He was dying, and he would have just slowed us down." Her voice is harsh and full of defensiveness.
"That's not the only reason, though." I push. I feel bad for prying the answer out of her, but it doesn't make sense. Why would you leave your own family after you've survived the apocalypse with them?
Paige turns to me harshly, her arms going to her hips and her feet stopping in the hot sand. "No, it's not. However, I'd like to keep it to myself."
I stare at her, at her trying eyes and her stern face. I can see the anger piling up in her, and I decide not to push anymore. "Okay," I say, and keep walking.
...
We stopped to rest after a couple of hours of treading the high dunes and sloping hills. The sun is high in the sky, beating down on us like a classroom bully. I run my fingers through my damp hair and wipe my sweat onto my shirt that I stripped off a while ago. It's sitting on the rock beside me, the same one Dally's leaning against. He's been able to walk for the last hour or so, giving my muscles a break from holding him up. I look down at my body and stare at it in amazement. I knew it filled out when I got the reanimating serum, but it looks like something I've never seen on myself. My brawny chest is full, the plump skin slick with sweat. My arm muscles are way more prominent than the scrawny excuse they were before. I can see the veins protruding from my skin as I flex my arm. I finally look like an adult that's grown into his body. Appreciation fills my heart. I didn't ask for this to happen to me, but I can't stay mad at the results.
We all sit atop gravel, passing a water bottle around in a circle. Liam plays in the sand to our right, next to a pile of rocks that are way taller than him. Red is sprawled out in the sand, leaning his head against a rock while his eyes are closed. Wellings gulps water into his mouth and passes the bottle to me. "If we keep going north, we should reach the States by tomorrow afternoon."
"Tomorrow afternoon?" Jamie scoffs. "We need to find a car or something. This heat is killing me." She puts her hand on her forehead, whipping away the moistness from her brow.
"There's not going to be a car in the middle of a desert," Kevin says. He's sitting next to Jaime, watching her closely. He moves his arm to rest behind her, and I don't know if it's to comfort or assert dominance. But whatever it's for, it fails, and Jaime stands up straight with annoyance. "There has to be something! A town or a highway somewhere!"
"We don't have a map," Jacobs says under his breath. I can tell he's irritated now, too, by the look on his face. He holds his military hat in his hands, showing off his sweaty, buzzed head. "We don't know where we're going."
"I know we're going North," Wellings speaks up. "The sun rises in the east and sets in the west." He points to the sky. "It's about midday since the sun is in the middle of the sky, and the sun came from that way." His finger follows the curve of the atmosphere.
"Who knows how big this dessert is." Jamie scoffs. "It could take us days to get to civilization!"
"It will." Jacobs barks. He's put his hat back on, and it shields his eyes from the sun. "Don't you think the Founder wanted his compound far away from society?"
Jaime sits back down. I can see her hand rubbing the back of the other nervously. "I suppose," She looks over to Liam and notices he's standing atop the pile of rocks. "Liam, get down." She says before she turns back to Jacobs. "I don't appreciate the attitude."
I hear Liam's shoes hit the sand with a thud, and my neck moves to witness him trying to balance himself from the fall. He sees my eyes and gives a shy smile.
His smile fades when the earth starts to rumble.
And when I say rumble, I mean shaking violently, with the sand around rocks skittering off and falling to the ground and shrubs next to me shuddering and scratching against my skin. Something catches my eye, and I follow it as it rises and stops the sunlight from touching my skin. It hisses, the enormous snake slithering out of the ball it was in and staring at me with its yellow eyes. Its tongue darts out of its mouth, tasting the smell of us in the air. Its scales are a mix of brown and tan, and I follow the intricate design to its tail, where a rattle the size of a small car vibrates vigorously. Its mouth parts, showing fangs that drip green venom.
My body freezes, and I must stop my jaw from dropping to the floor. I don't move an inch, thinking that if I do, the snake will instantly sink one of its fangs into my chest. I don't even blink, just stare at the thick column of muscles that rake up its tan belly. But then I see Liam standing about six feet from the snake hiding behind the tall rocks. Instinctively, I slowly stand up, my heart stammering against my ribcage. The snake looks away from Liam and at me, its widening eyes slithering up my body. Its rattle shakes harder, producing a buzzing so loud I can't even hear Liam's scream.
I jump. My feet push against the dirt as I hurdle myself toward Liam. My arms reach out for him, ready to tuck him into my chest and roll him out of the way. But the snake is too fast, and it snaps at Liam, catching him in his fangs and swallowing him whole.
Jaime's scream is so powerful it makes my soul cave in.
My breath hitches in my throat when the snake turns back to me. I see it coil up as it's about to snap at me, but I jump to my left while gunshots rain through the air.
I'm not fast enough.
The snake's right fang hooks into my abdomen, catching on my pelvis and throwing me to the side. I skitter on the ground and slump against a rock when I hear Jacobs and Wellings shouting. The ground shakes as the snake slinks toward them, its heavy body leaving a tunnel through the sand. The gunshots don't stop, and I can see through my foggy vision that the snake is cowering away from the bullets.
A hot, fiery blaze sets off through my body. My skin begins to sizzle. I look down at my side and see the growing green venom creeping up inside my skin. I scream a throaty roar as the pain spreads unbearably through my body.
I convulse. A bubbly foam fills my mouth, spilling over my lips and down my bare chest. I feel hands on me, but I can't stop moving. My brain feels like it's burning from the inside out. And when I can't take the pain anymore, I shut my eyes and wait to die.