Chapter 19
"Psst. Wake up." My body shakes violently and my eyes snap open. I look around the dark van, only to see Layke's beautiful eyes peering down at me.
"We're leaving soon." He says as the corners of his mouth curl up.
What happened? Why did I have such a horrible dream?
I sit up still shaking from the things that haunted my nightmare. I try to crack my neck. It feels really tight from sleeping in that position. It feels like my heart is beating out of my chest. So much, it's making my head hurt.
I quickly scan the van to look for Wilbur's cage. It's still in the place I put it and Wilbur is inside grooming himself.
"Are you okay? You were breathing pretty heavily." Layke asks.
I can feel my face get hot and my pulse begins to speed up even faster than it was before. "Yeah, I just had a bad dream."
"You want to talk about it?"
I really don't want him knowing about my dream. I feel like it would freak him out. I mean, it sure as hell freaked me out. I shake my head quickly and he nods his head to show me he's acknowledged my answer.
To break the silence he clears his throat awkwardly. After about a couple more seconds of agonizing silence, he moves over so I'm not right in front of him. He stretches his legs and lets out a sigh of relief. "Thank God, my legs are sore."
"What have you been doing?" I ask, my voice is shaky. I try and blow my dream off and act like it didn't happen.
"Well, after watching you sleep for hours," He smirks. "I just laid against the wall and slept myself."
I roll my eyes as Layke scoots back over to me. He gets so close to me that I can feel his breath on my neck. Honestly, It's kind of creeping me out a little. "Uh, what are you doing?"
He ignores my question and makes a silly face. I raise my eyebrow and give him a weird look. He laughs and leans his forehead against mine as he did in the barn. I blush a little. I can tell that he's just trying to make me feel better.
His hand then rubs up my arm causing me to get goosebumps. He quickly slides his hand in-between my underarm and begins to tickle me.
I burst out laughing and thrust my body back. I lay down and try to roll around but Layke doesn't stop. I laugh so hard I begin to snort. He straddles me and continues to poke at my stomach. I gasp for air and he stops when he realizes I can't breathe. I inhale heavily to catch my breath. He puts one hand on each side of my head and leans over me. He smiles as I calm down a little.
"I really like you Summer."
I can feel my cheeks get red and the only thing I can do is smile but it fades quickly. Why is he doing his? Is he just trying to make Cameron jealous? Or worse, get in my pants?
His ambitious look diminishes and he breaks eye contact with me. "What's wrong? Is it Cameron?"
Is it Cameron? We're just friends, but I still feel something for him. Even if it's a little. I just get this gut awful feeling when I think of being with Layke. I can't hurt Cameron. He's my best friend.
"I just don't want to hurt him. I know he likes me and I like you. I just can't do that to him." I sigh.
He seems to be annoyed. "Why are you letting him ruin your fun? If you like me then just let things happen. We don't have to be together, we can just have fun."
"I don't know Layke."
"Look, we're here alone. Cameron knows we're in here alone and he's letting it happen. He doesn't care Summer." He tries to persuade me.
My mind begins to fall for it. I guess he's right. If Cameron really wanted us to be together then he wouldn't leave us alone.
I sigh and look into Layke's blue eyes. "You're right."
His face lights up. He uses one of the hands that was holding him up to push my hair behind my ear. After he does that, he leans his hand against my cheek. He pulls in closer to me and his lips touch mine. My whole body relaxes but my stomach jumps up into my throat. His lips are soft and warm. The thought of it makes me smile. He slowly pulls away and studies my face.
"Ha— uh," I say awkwardly trying to hold back my blush.
Layke laughs and gets off the top of me. I sit up still hardly breathing.
"Was it that bad?" He chuckles.
I clear my head and take a deep breath. "No, it was just my first kiss."
"Really?"
I nod, embarrassed.
"Well, good thing it was with me!" He winks.
"Let's go find the others." I say awkwardly and avoid eye contact. I rush over to open the door of the van.
A big gust of cold air surrounds my body as I step onto the grass. The moon lights up everything. I can see pretty far into the woods. The stars are extremely bright. Since all the street lamps aren't on anymore, I can see thousands of them. They look like freckles on a face. They're all different sizes and scatter throughout the black emptiness. A faint smell of pine lingers in the air. It reminds me so much of Christmas time. The woods are pretty much silent. Apart from Robbie and Scooter talking by the front of the van.
Layke and I walk up to them. They're all sitting around a very small campfire. The light brights up everyone's face. I can tell that Brianna and Phoebe's kidnaping is getting to them. Everyone looks extremely depressed. Linda is laying her head on Robbie's shoulder while watching the fire. Scooter's drawing in the dirt with a stick. The atmosphere is heavy. I couldn't tell until now.
"Well, I didn't know you guys were leprechauns. Why such a small fire?" Layke asks to try to cheer everyone up a little.
Scooter doesn't look up from his doodling, "There are no lights out here at all. They could probably see a fire from that fence. We don't want them to see us coming." His face is expressionless and his voice is deep like he hasn't spoken in a while.
After making sure Linda's head is off his shoulders, Robbie stands up and walks over to the fire. He stomps on it hard, leaving it a pile of ashes. "Finally you guys are awake. Let's get going."
I look over to Cameron. He's sitting on an overturned log that's next to the fire. I can see his face through the soft glow of the embers. It looks like he's watching them fade and disappear. It seems like he's thinking hard about something.
Is it me?
For some reason, he looks miserable. I don't know why he's upset or who at. I hope to God it's not me. It would break his heart if he saw Layke kiss me. I have no clue how he would have but there's a small chance he did. Those small windows on the back of the van aren't tinted. He could have looked right through and seen. I don't know how I would feel if he found out. I already feel like he hates me for liking Layke as a friend, let alone something more. If he found out we kissed, he would never look at me the same.
He slowly stands up and lets his eyes meet mine. I toss him a small smile but he ignores me and joins the rest of the group. I follow behind him, trying not to make him uncomfortable.
We pack the backpack with a couple of cans of food, a blanket, and three kitchen knives we found in one of the apartments. Cameron puts the backpack on his back and he picks up his rifle off the hood of the car. He hands me a pistol. I cock it back and take off the safety.
As soon as everyone finishes getting their stuff together, I let Wilbur out of his cage to roam around the van. Robbie makes sure to lock the doors and we hide the front of the car with branches from a nearby tree. Then, we finally start making our way toward the compound. We decide to walk in pairs of twos instead of a single file line like last time. Robbie is with Linda, I'm with Cameron, and Layke is with Scooter.
It's pretty awkward being partnered up with Cameron. We haven't talked or made eye contact. I honestly feel shunned and I have no clue why. I follow him at a distance to make sure I give him space.
We jog down the road and off of the hill we parked the van on. We enter the woods that surround the compound. The woods aren't very thick so it's easy to walk through. The trees are spread rather far apart and there are small groups of bushes and shrubs that cover the ground in random spots.
We try to jog as fast as we can but without a lot of food, it's hard to keep pushing. The moon shines bright through the trees. It lights everything up so much that we don't need to use our flashlights. Robbie makes sure to tell us all to be looking out for infected. Just because we're in the middle of nowhere, doesn't mean there's no infected. We learned that the hard way.
It takes us about twenty-five minutes to get to the perimeter of the compound. It would have been quicker if Scooter didn't go find a place to take a piss and then get attacked by an infected. We heard him yell as the thing jumped out of the bush he was peeing on but he stabbed its head with his pocket knife until its brain was leaking out of the skull.
We hide behind the thin pine trees on the edge of the clearing. On the top of the second fence, the soldiers are walking back and forth, taking watch. We decide to keep with our plan and enter from the back of the compound. We move through the woods unseen. The soldiers in the back aren't paying attention as much. They're either sleeping or talking to the other soldiers. A torch sits on the fence about fifty feet away. The fire doesn't light up much. Just the small area that surrounds it.
Robbie decides that we're going to enter where the two corners of the fence meet. The light doesn't stretch far enough to illuminate that area so we'll be in the dark. A soldier is in a chair sleeping near the place we're going to climb up. Robbie plans to go up first, and knock him out.
Robbie jogs out to the wired fence and crawls under the bottom wire. He then runs and hides in the bushes by the wall. We watch as he climbs the wood planks like a ladder, stopping at the top.
He slowly inches his head above the edge of the fence. He looks both ways and almost silently, plops himself on the wooden walkway. He quickly covers the mouth of the soldier and clobbers his head with the back of his gun.
The soldier's body becomes limp in his chair. It still looks like he's sleeping though. That's what we wanted.
Robbie quickly signals for the next person to come. He grabs the soldier's machine gun and climbs down the ladder on the other side of the fence. Scooter goes next. Then Layke. Then Cameron. Linda and I decide to go together.
Once Cameron disappears down the ladder, I take Linda's hand and we sprint towards the wired fence. I let Linda go under the fence first. She makes it through and runs to the safety of the bushes.
I drop to my stomach and shimmy my way through the dirt while trying not to touch the electric wires. After I clear that, I crawl the rest of the way to the bushes.
The leaves scratch my arms as I make my way through them. A branch pokes my stitches and makes it ache, but I try not to let it get to me. I meet up with Linda who's waiting for me at the base of the second fence.
Before we start climbing, I look to see if any of the other soldiers are looking our way. "Start climbing," I say once it's clear.
We climb fast but make sure not to make any sounds. I hurtle myself over the edge and help Linda up. I push her toward the ladder and she quickly climbs down.
I look back at the woods. A small smile spreads on my face.
We did it.
Once Linda's gone, I make my way down the ladder and jump to the ground. The wide area isn't lit up very well. There are small trees planted in flowerbeds and bushes lining the sidewalk towards the front of the garage. The long side of the garage is about fifty feet away from me. It's huge. You could fit a full-size airplane inside. There's a small door that enters the garage with a light above it. It's not that bright. It only lights up directly under it.
I see Cameron motion me to come to the backside of the garage where they are hiding. But before I run, the small door opens and two soldiers step outside. They're talking loudly and holding their guns to the side of them.
I freeze, and try to figure out where to hide.