Killing someone, wait, no. Killing an infected, felt strange. I hadn't expected to feel like that. I thought it'd be fine. That I'd be fine.
But no, I felt guilty. For what? I had no idea. Like Seth had said, they're not alive.
I stayed rooted to the spot I was stood in, staring at the gap in the fence, which was soon filled with another infected.
"Don't worry," Seth murmured, taking the crowbar from me, "This, the killing? It'll get easier."
I nodded, stepping back before turning to return to the house but then thought against it, "Hey Seth? What's that building by your house?"
"It's the souvenir shop."
"Is it unlocked?"
"I think so," he nodded, "Why?"
"I don't know," I called over my shoulder, "I might go check it out. Grab a postcard or two."
The outside of the shop looked as if it had been painted. I saw that there was a notice board with fliers tacked to it and on one of them, a birdwatching group, there was a familiar drawing on the white paper.
The heart Matt drew for Alicia.
I began tracing it with my fingertip and being so focused on tracing it perfectly, I didn't even register anyone coming up behind me until someone crashed into my back, their arms wrapping around my waist.
"Hi, Beautiful."
"Dammit," I breathed, placing my hand over my heart and looked over my shoulder at a grinning Nick, "Don't do that."
"I'm sorry," he chuckled, "But hey, gets you back for that day in the pool."
I rolled my eyes. I guess he was right.
He had a grin on his face, "What are you doing out here?"
I shrugged, "'m going exploring."
He hummed and took my hand, "In here?"
I nodded, following him into the small shop, nose wrinkling at both the cheesy shit on the walls and the stale smell that was lingering in the air.
"Hey," Nick got my attention again while I was flicking through postcards, "Look at this. You think it's a good look for me?"
Looking over my shoulder, I started laughing at the sight of the large tourist sunglasses he had on, along with a ridiculous hat.
I started fanning myself with the cards in my hands and fell dramatically against the table behind me, "My, my. I do not know how I'm going to keep myself from ripping those off you."
He let out a playful growl and rushed forward, lifting me onto the table, his hands resting on either side of my thighs and I watched his face become a little more serious.
"What?" I murmured as he stared at me intently, reaching my hand up so I could gently stroke the creases on his forehead, "What's the matter?"
"Are you okay?" he asked, "I feel as if I, sorry we, haven't talked about it."
"About what?"
"Tay,"
I sighed and hopped off the table; focusing my attention on the sea in the distance. "I don't know," I admitted, crossing my arms over my chest, "I'm sad. Of course I am. Then sometimes I'm not and then I feel guilty because I feel as if I'm not upset as I should be..."
"Hey," he said softly, touching my arm, "Everyone deals with this sort of stuff differently, yeah?"
"I guess," I murmured, "But Nick, I miss her so much. I know I don't show it but..."
"Don't," he said firmly, coming to stand beside me, "Don't, babe."
I quickly wiped my eyes when the door to the shop opened, little Harry coming in followed by Willa.
"Nick!" they cheered, "Where have you been? You said you were coming right back with Taylor so we could play hide and seek!"
Nick glanced at me and I gave him a smile, then gave the kids a bigger one, "Who's counting first?"
**
We spent a good couple of hours playing with the two of them; hide and seek, playing with their toys and then Nick went off, leaving me alone with them and Willa went off to look for him.
"Are you and Nick boyfriend and girlfriend?" the little boy beside me asked, playing with one of his action figures.
"Yeah," I nodded, "I mean, I guess we are."
"You guess?"
I laughed to myself. Boy he had a lot of questions and instead of answering him, I reached out and ruffled his hair, making him groan.
"Taylor?" Nick asked, giving me a weak smile, "Can you come into the living room with me for a minute?"
Hearing the strain in his voice, I nodded and pushed myself up from the floor and followed him into the other room, where Maddie and Travis were too, "What's going on?"
"I found pills in George's office," Nick explained, "And I think they're poison."
"You...you're sure?" I asked, "They're not just painkillers?"
He looked down at me, "No, I know my narcotics and I know it's poison. I think he's planning on jonestown-ing his whole family."
"Oh my god," I whispered, "So what do we do?"
Maddie stepped forward, looking nervously at Travis, "Melissa, she told me to take Harry and Willa. She wants us to take the kids with us when we leave."
"Really?" Travis asked, "Can we do that? Will George let us?"
Before anyone could reply, Melissa came rushing in holding two backpacks and she handed them to me before starting to explain stuff about the two kids.
Nick and I glanced at each other before my eyes moved up to look in the doorway, seeing George standing there.
"What's going on?"
I watched warily as he came further into the room, snatching one of the bags from me as he stood in front of his wife.
"Melissa, what is going on?" he repeated and she quickly started to cry.
"We're taking the kids with us," Maddie said for the poor woman, "We'll take them somewhere safe."
"They're safe here," he protested, "Melissa, we had a plan."
"To kill your own family?" Nick spat, "Your kids?"
"It's the right thing."
"No it's not!" his wife sobbed, "George, please. Let them take the kids, Seth too and I'll stay with you We'll go through with the plan but please, not our children."
"No," George said firmly, "No. They're staying here. We-"
"Mom?"
Harry was stood at the bottom of the stairs and almost instantly, my eyes were drawn to the terrified expression on his face.
"Harry?" Melissa said softly, crouching down in front of him, "Baby, what's wrong?"
"Something's wrong with Willa." he said shakily.
The two Geary's ran off upstairs without a word and Nick took her place.
"Hey buddy. Can you tell me what happened?" Nick asked kindly.
"She took her pill."
My heart dropped as Nick turned to me, silently communicating with me and I nodded, holding my hand out for Harry to take, "How about you come show me the game you and Nick were playing last night?"
"Okay," he said hesitantly, "But I don't know if you'll be able to play it. It's pretty hard."
"Well," Nick smiled, weakly, "At least she has you to teach her, hm? Go on, I'll be right behind you."
Taking my hand, Harry led me towards the sofa, picking up the console up as we passed by the table.
I didn't listen as he explained, just nodded every now and then while keeping my eyes on the bottom of the stairs and it was a good few minutes before anyone came to view.
Maddie looked stressed as hell when she finally did come down, still carrying one of the backpacks Melissa had given us.
Glancing at the young boy, I saw that he was engrossed in his game and I got up, "What's going on?"
"We're leaving," she said quickly, "Now. Harry's going to come with us, just like Melissa wanted."
"Well what about-"
"Taylor," she finally looked at me, "They're gone. We need to leave. Now."
"Okay," I whispered, trying to ignore the burn of tears, "Okay."
Nick came down seconds later and made way to the small child, "Hey buddy."
"Where's my mom and Willa?"
I chewed on my bottom lip as I watched Nick crouch down in front of him.
"They're upstairs," he said simply, "But hey, remember how I told you that we came here on a big boat?"
"Yeah."
"Well your mommy said that you get to come for a ride with us. Isn't that cool?"
Eyes lighting up, Harry nodded, "Yeah!"
"Alright, let's go!"
The little boy was practically bouncing with excitement as we made our way down to the boat and let me just tell you now that Strand was less than happy when he saw that we had one more passenger but after being yelled at by Maddie, we had Harry safely on board with us, sandwiched on the sofa between Nick and I.
Just as Strand started up the boat, we could hear yelling coming from on the dock and looking over my shoulder, I saw it was Seth.