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Chapter 12
It seemed as if his eyes had only just closed and then Kent was kicking Ridec against his leg and telling him it was time to wake up and move out.
“Already?”
“We have to try to utilize every second of daylight, these creatures are stronger, faster and hungrier at night,” Kent explained.
“You mean it’s safer? We don’t have to worry about zombies?” Ridec was hopeful.
“On land you always have to worry about zombies,” Jessell said.
“On land?” Kent sounded puzzled. “There’s nowhere else you can be.”
“You could be on a boat,” Pete piped out. “My daddy was trying to get us to the water to see if we could find a boat or something. He said that they were boats that had been abandoned, if we could fix one we would be able to live on the sea peacefully.”
“Come on, let’s clear out of here and forget all that wishful thinking,” Kate said.
“People can’t live on the sea, they run out of food, water and eventually they have to come back to shore to repair the boat, normally when they try to come back to shore they find that there are hundreds of zombies waiting on the shoreline to greet them,” Linda said as she shuffled around the small area collecting her things.
“Yeah and that’s provided that none of the people on the boat change and contaminate the whole plan,” Mark put in.
“ Everyone ready?” Kent asked seeming to dismiss the conversation. Ridec couldn’t help but feel the sense of hopelessness these humans felt, all they were doing were running until they were caught and killed. It just didn’t seem right.
“Ridec,” Jessell whispered firmly, he hadn’t realized that his thoughts had been so opened. “This is not our problem.”
Ridec just nodded his acknowledgement but he couldn’t help the way he felt.
“I think we’ve got everything,” Linda muttered just as Mark slung the small bag he carried over his shoulder.
“Me too,” Kate put in.
“What about you Jessell?” Kent asked turning to her and leaning one muscled arm against the wall next to Jessell’s head.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” she murmured nonchalantly.
Ridec grunted with annoyance, Kent was quickly becoming as much of a threat as the zombies.
**
They must have walked almost three hours before Pete said what everyone was thinking.
“We’re lost aren’t we? What if we never get out of this cave?” There was no response; perhaps because no one really knew how to answer the questions, instead they just continued walking twisting and turning as the cave stretched on and on.
“Where do you think we’ll come out?” Kate asked.
“No idea. I’ve never even dreamed of coming this far into this cave,” Mark responded.
There was silence again as the group moved forward slowly.
“Does anyone have water?” Linda queried.
There was silence again, another question no one cared to answer. Ridec could sense Jessell’s mind, she had water but very little and there was no way she was going to offer to share it with the others; water meant everything to merpeople, the truth was Ridec wasn’t sure how long the two of them would survive in this dry and barren place.
“Maybe we can rest here,” Kate suggested as she slumped to the ground with fatigue.
“We have to press on,” Kent was adamant.
“I’ll help you,” Mark offered slipping an arm around Kate’s waist and allowing her to lean on him.
Ridec was feeling pretty tired too but he didn’t want to be the first one to say. Not being strong in Merland might be no big thing but he could see that in this world men seemed to pride themselves on being able to protect their loved ones. Would Jessell compare him with these earth men and find him lacking?
“You okay Ridec?” Jessell was asking. “How’s your ankle?”
At the back of that question Ridec could almost see Jessell’s thoughts indicating that as soon as an opportunity presented itself she was hoping to separate from their human companions and head back to the water, clearly she expected their retreat to be swift and she also expected the humans to follow them perhaps in an effort to capture him again.
“I’m fine, it’s fine,” Ridec responded hurriedly. The fact that his ankle was healed wasn’t really unusual, even though the injury was not the normal sort of injury you would expect to find in Merland it was pretty normal for merfolk to heal quickly and the water had done miracles in speedy the healing along.
“That’s great,” Jessell whispered.
“We can’t keep going without stopping Kent,” Linda pointed out. “We’ve had no water, no food and eventually we’ll pass out.”
“The sooner we get out of here the sooner we’ll find food and water,” Kent explained.
“I guess…” Whatever Linda was going to say was cut off by a scream and then the sound of bullets being fired.
“What!” Kent yelled.
“Run!” Linda screamed. No one needed a second bidding, in seconds they were all racing along the narrow confines of the cave, running to no one knew where and running from no one knew what.
“Stop!” It was Jessell that shouted the admonition and gripped Ridec’s wrist to bring him to a halt.
“We can’t stop!” Linda yelled.
“Linda!” Kent gripped her by the shoulder and dragged her back towards him. “I think Jessell is right, we can’t just go running off, I can’t hear anything following us.”
Linda was breathing heavy and fast.
“It…it bit me,” she said.
“We can’t see anything in this light,” Pete said his voice quivering.
“Is it bleeding?” Kent asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” Linda whispered her voice appearing to be more controlled now.
“Was it a zombie?” Jessell asked.
“I…I don’t know,” Linda sounded embarrassed. “Something bit me…I guess I just panicked.”
“We’re hungry and dehydrated,” Mark pointed out. “We need to rest or we’ll all start hallucinating things.”
“Let’s just try to stay calm and see if we can make it out of this cave,” Kent suggested.
“Sorry,” Linda muttered.
“We don’t even know where we’re going,” Mark grumbled.
“Feel free to turn back,” Kent grunted and there was silence again.
**
It was almost four hours later when they saw the barest glimmer of light.
“We made it! We made it!” Pete was squealing with excitement. Ridec couldn’t help thinking that no matter what the state of the world was, children would always make things look better.
“Not too much noise; we don’t know what could be out there waiting for us,” Kate cautioned.
“We have little ammunition left; I’ve probably just got about two bullets left,” Linda admitted.
“Once we get outside we’ll try to find something to arm ourselves with, stones, sticks, whatever we can find,” Kent instructed.
“Stick close to me Ridec,” Jessell whispered.
“Don’t worry; I have no intention of letting you get out of my sight.”
“Good.”
“I’ll go first.” If Ridec couldn’t read minds he wasn’t sure if he would have heard the barely audible instruction but Jessell was gripping his hand firmly anyway and preventing him from going forward.
“Go,” Linda muttered. “I’ll cover you.”
Everyone watched as Kent lowered his head and approached the narrow exit to the cave.
“I guess I’m next,” Linda said hurrying after him.
“Well, there’s no shouting or growling, that’s always a good sign,” Mark muttered as he followed the other two outside.
“Come on.” Jessell was going forward with Ridec close behind, Pete and Kate bringing up the rear.
“Fresh air,” Ridec couldn’t help but exclaim as he exited the cave.
“Does anyone recognize this area?” Kent asked.
“No…nope,” Linda responded.
“Which way should we go?” Ridec questioned.
“We’ll go that way, it’ll put us towards higher ground and maybe we can get a chance to see what’s around us and plot a real path,” Kent advised already starting to walk forward.
Ridec hated the way the older man took such easy control over the group and couldn’t figure out why Princess Jessell was so willing to allow him to do so.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Jessell advised. Jessell inhaled a deep breath and released it slowly. Ridec didn’t need to ask he knew she was trying to pick up the scent of the ocean. “Maybe we’ll see the ocean from the top.”
“We’re too far aren’t we?” Ridec questioned and Jessell nodded. Mermaid’s sense of smell, hearing and even sight was more acute than that of their male counterparts and the reason for that was suddenly starting to make sense to Ridec, the women had descended from soldier women who had been keenly trained to protect the scientist, tradition and evolution had made them into what they were today.
“Doesn’t hurt to try,” Linda conceded with her full attention focused on Kent.
Ridec glanced about him; earth was so different from his underwater home. The area was filled with lots of trees, many of them so tall he couldn’t even see the tops. It was hard to imagine that just shy of two days ago he had come to this place for the first time and had been so captivated by the beauty, a beauty that had quickly faded in his eyes. He could no longer look at the trees, bushes and flowers with the admiration he once viewed them, it was beautiful, that much he had to admit, but in a strange way scary for he knew that should any of the zombies be in these woods they probably wouldn’t see them until it was too late.