My mouth hung open as I stared at Shawn.
"Actually, yeah. We could always use the help," Brad told him. "Can you be ready to go in a half an hour? We won't stay out after dark, but it's always a good idea to be prepared. You can find just about anything you'd need in the store room."
"Ok, I'll be ready."
"Ok. Meet us at the front doors then. It'll be Marcus and us." Brad started to turn away.
"I'm coming too," I found my voice. My tone left no room for argument.
"Alright," the tall man nodded to me and walked away through the grass.
"Thank you, both of you, but you don't have to go out there. Leaving the safety of the fences is the most dangerous job we have here," Ned said somberly.
"It's the right thing to do," Shawn answered him, but was looking at me. "If there's any chance that those people are still out there, we need to help."
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from telling him that these people could go screw themselves if it meant him putting himself in danger.
Ned nodded again, respectfully, and then went back to the garden. I was silently fuming as I stomped my way back through the grass toward the building. These people seemed nice and all, but I had zero interest in one of my own people being hurt, or worse, looking for some of them. Let's be honest, their missing members were more than likely already dead. We knew all too well just how dangerous the world had become.
It seemed like a foolish errand to me, to keep risking lives for dead people. It made me wonder just how long they had been shut behind these fences. Did they really know what it was like out there?
I ruthlessly stamped down the whisper from my own mind that said I wouldn't give up either, if one of my people was out there. I didn't want to sympathize with their predicament at the moment.
Luna was still playing near the building. Rex was laying nearby, panting lightly in the sun. His big ears perked up when he saw me and he jumped up to jog to my side. I debated with myself as I kept up my march into the building, but decided that he might be helpful outside the fences. The dog had already proven capable of keeping zombies off of a person long enough to keep them alive, and he had learned a lot more self control lately. He no longer barked and ran off at the first sense of danger. I certainly trusted the dog much more than I trusted the two strangers that we were going out with.
Shawn gave me space as I shoved items into my backpack. He was good like that, knowing when I needed some time to decompress before speaking.
In a very short half an hour, I found myself sitting in the back seat of the beat up car, studying the tear in the strap of my backpack that a zombie's teeth had put there.
"We're going out in the direction that we met you all," Brad's eyes met mine in the rear view mirror. "That's the only road near here that we haven't really searched yet."
"There's not much out that way for miles," Shawn spoke up from beside me.
"Yeah, I know. Probably nothing will come of it, but we need to check for any clues anyhow. Unfortunately, no one knows which direction they were planning to go in the last time they went out."
The road was familiar as the trees flashed by. There were no intersections or turn offs, just a long stretch of narrow pavement that went on for miles. The small community had been left behind us quickly at the speed Brad was driving. He had already explained that they'd already searched all of the nearby buildings. They intended to start today's search further away.
We rode along in silence, Four adults and one large dog stuffed into a small car. If we did manage to find their lost people, I guessed they were going to have to ride home on the roof.
Maybe I was still just a tiny bit upset with them all.
I kept my snarky inner dialogue to myself. It felt like forever before a familiar sight showed up ahead of us. The abandoned carnival was just as creepy as I remembered it.
"Let's check here. I see tire tracks in the grass. Maybe it was them," Brad turned the wheel to pull over.
"Those are ours. We slept here two nights ago," I broke my silence to tell him.
"Yeah? Well, let's check anyhow while we are here. See if there's any sign of them. I wish we knew if we were even looking in the right direction," the last was muttered as he turned the car off and climbed out.
The two front doors slammed closed behind Brad and Marcus. I tried to look at Shawn around a face full of wagging dog tail. He was looking back at me.
"It's going to be alright. Just keep an eye out, I have your back," he flashed me a brief smile and opened his door.
It wasn't necessarily my back that I was most worried about, but I climbed from the car. At this rate, the inside of my cheek was going to be chewed raw by the end of the day with my biting it so much.
The tracks from our frenzied escape were still evident. The turning tires had chewed up the grass and spit chunks of dirt in our wake. I kicked at a clump and swung my pack over a shoulder. Rex began his customary security sniff around. All three of the guys were already walking into the carnival.
I hurried to catch up. We had already looked around this place before and not noticed any signs of other people being there recently. I had no idea how I was going to be much help here.
The pile of trash that Shawn had dumped out of the trash can was strewn around. An animal of some sort probably had been in it. Spotting the empty can of soup that we had shared on the roof, I gave it a light kick. The can bounced a few feet and rolled to a stop next to a crushed paper soda cup. I looked up to see that the guys had spread out.
Brad was over near the giant yellow slide. Marcus was looking over the counter of an ice cream stand. I didn't see Shawn right away, and my heart leapt in my chest for several beats until I found him. I inhaled a ragged breath to calm the frantic beat and began walking to where he stood.
He was over near where we had parked the suv, an odd, contemplative expression turning the corners of his mouth down. He appeared so deep in thought that I didn't think he knew I was approaching.
"We all could have died right there, never even knew what was coming until it was already over." I startled a little. He had known I was there after all. "We won't make it very long living like that," troubled grey eyes met mine. "It's important that we find a more secure place, Bri."
"I know," I sighed.
"I want to try to stay with these people. They have the means to make it through the winter," he indicated the air around us. "The hot weather can't last forever and I'm not sure there's still time to find a new place, secure it, and gather enough of the things that we'll need before it gets cold. I don't intend to watch you freeze or starve to death. I'll do what I need to to make them want to keep us around."
The last remnant of my stubborn anger melted away. Taking the last steps to his side, I pressed my cheek to his chest. "I get it. I'm sorry. I just hate it when you put yourself into danger. You do that too much."
He patted my back. "If spring comes and we can't stand to spend another second in that school, we'll get out of there then. Ok?"
I nodded with my face still pressed to his chest.
"Ok," his voice sounded lighter, much more like my Shawn. "I have no idea what we're supposed to be looking for, but I think we should pretend to try."
I giggled a little at him echoing my thought from minutes before. "I know, right?" Taking his hand, I felt a ton lighter myself as we turned to go back into the carnival.
We found Marcus by the fun house. "I'm not seeing anything. You?"
"No," Shawn told him. "But to be honest, I'm not sure what we're looking for, besides the obvious signs that some person was here recently."
"Yeah," Marcus shrugged. "We're hoping to recognize a personal item from one of them. Something to tell us that we're even looking in the right direction. Jane, she's the wife of one of the brothers. I really want to be able to tell her that we've found something."
We trailed behind Marcus as he kept looking. He did find the remains of a small fire on the other side of the fun house, but it looked like it was too old to have come from their friends. Nudging a charcoaled stick with a toe, my mind started to wander. I took a winding path between a row of food stands.
I had just stepped out from behind a red and white striped stand when Rex raced to my side. Ears alert, he stared hard off to the right and a rumbling growl rolled up from his chest.
I froze.
A hair raising scream sounded from within the carnival.