Eighteen - Kyle

Hunter watched the girls walk away and then stood up. "I'll follow them," he offered and no one argued because we were all thinking the same thing. The buddy system had been enacted since we'd run into signs of other people, and technically Zero and Ella were adhering to it. But not one of us felt comfortable letting them go off without backup. Zero might be able to handle herself, but Ella couldn't. She'd improved and that was awesome, but she wouldn't hold her own against a zombie and none of us had forgotten the threat of other people. The girls didn't need to be alone. Honestly, they didn't need to be scoping out the area at all, we had only stopped for a quick break before we were going to get moving again. I figured one of them had to use the bathroom or something.

When ten minutes had passed without their return, we were all shifting as our worry grew.

"I don't like this," Miles finally stated what we were all feeling.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Let's go." Standing I grabbed the backpack that Ella had been carrying and slung it over one shoulder, fitting it awkwardly against the bag already on my back. Miles did the same with the pack that Zero had been carrying and we took off, not quite at a jog, but we weren't strolling along either as we made our way through the woods on the same path they'd taken.

"Hang on a sec," Joel said and we all stopped our progress. Without the added noise of our feet crunching against leaves and sticks on the ground, Miles and I heard what Joel had already heard. Screaming. It was faint enough that we might have missed it. But it was there. My heart stopped as someone screamed again. And I recognized my name. The three of us took off toward the shouts, moving as quickly as we could. Joel, the quickest of us, broke forward pushing himself to get to the source of the screams.

Zero broke through the trees into sight and almost ran into Joel. "I tried," she said and tears were filling her eyes. "She slipped out of my hands."

"What happened?" I asked. "Is she alive?"

Zero nodded and then with wide terrified eyes looked to each of us and then her brow furrowed as she caught her breath. "Where's Hunter?"

Joel or Miles answered her while I ran forward retracing the footsteps Zero had created.

"Ella!" I shouted her name and for a second I thought I heard my own name in return. But it had gone quiet. I kept forward, in the direction I'd heard the yelling, calling her name. But there was nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

A rotting corpse was the only sign anyone had even been out this far.

I stepped around it, hoping for... well, I wasn't really sure. A glare hit my eyes and I looked down to see the metal glinting in the sunlight. I picked up the knife, wiping it off on the leg of my pants and pocketed it.

A hand landed on my shoulder. "She's gone, man. She ain't here."

I shrugged off Joel's hand and paced forward, running my hands through my hair. I was supposed to keep her safe. One goddamned job to do. Keep Ella safe. She was so scared last night and I'd promised she would be okay. I would keep her safe. God... where was she?

"Fuck," I yelled, damn near collapsing to the ground.

It was Zero who approached me next, hesitantly, as if it were the last thing she wanted to do, she reached out and touched my arm.

"What the hell were doing so far out?" I couldn't keep the accusation from my voice as I yanked away from her. Zero's eyes were already filled with guilt. She felt bad enough and I knew I didn't need to add to it. But that didn't stop me. It was irresponsible to wander that far off. Downright stupid.

"You went damn near a mile away," I yelled and didn't stop when she flinched back. "You put her in danger. You did that."

"I-" She cut herself off. "I'm sorry, Kyle."

"Don't fucking apologize. That girl is the key to stopping this shit." I pointed off in a direction, but I had no idea where she might have gone. "What was so damn important you had to walk so far away?"

"Kyle," Miles said. "She's still alive. If they were just looking to kill us, they wouldn't have taken her."

I took a breath.

"Hunter's gone," she said, pain seeping into her voice. "He'll put her life before his. He'll keep her safe."

Hunter was gone. Anger toward the girl melted away. Shit. I was an asshole.

"What happened?" I asked Zero.

She shook her head. "We shouldn't have gone so far. I wasn't thinking... I thought I might be able to help Ella with..." she scrunched up her face, uncomfortable with revealing whatever it is that was on the tip of her tongue "something but I knew Hunter was against it so I wanted to make sure he wouldn't hear. I got nervous to bring it up, so I kept walking... I didn't... I didn't realize how far we'd gone. I saw someone, but they were hanging back, just watching us. I figured Hunter was close... but they—" She choked on her words and for a moment I thought she was going to break, but she took a breath and blinked away the wetness from her eyes. When she spoke again, she had distanced herself from the words. "He was alone, they must have caught him off guard. I lost Ella. We were running and she tripped to avoid a creep." Her eyes met mine. "She was caught between the creep and the man and he was really close. When she told me to go I did, but only because I didn't know they had Hunter. He could've tracked her... I was sure I'd find him and we'd find her."

I walked away, needed to work out the energy and keep myself from losing my shit. I took a breath and counted to ten but that did shit to calm me down. Zero hadn't been thinking terribly. Hunter could track better than any of us, but we weren't hopeless without him. We all had the same training. Hunter just had a leg up on the rest of us in that section, mostly because being a Ranger was in his blood. His dad had groomed him for it since he was young.

"I know this is on me," Zero said, squaring her shoulders and meeting my gaze. Her jaw was set and her eyes filled with determination. "We're going to find them."

Miles pulled out our map and spread it out on the dirt after kicking aside leaves to clear a spot. He studied it for a minute before he reached back and grabbed a pen from his pack. He drew a small "x" in red ink on the paper.

"This is where the truck is." He pointed at his mark and dragged his finger up the road slightly. "Here's where those bodies were." He glanced up at Zero. "Joel said you took them out?"

"Yeah." The word was filled with heaviness. "They'll tie them up like that, won't they?"

Her words hung in the air. A question no one wanted to answer.

"We're probably close to six hours from where we are now," Joel said, shaking his head. "No way they'd be able to drag someone like Hunter that far. Even Ella would get heavy for a walk that long."

"It's impractical," Miles agreed. "But the road is maybe a mile out. We can't rule out that they have a vehicle."

"Shit," I muttered, dragging my hand over my face.

"So we go back?" Zero asked.

I shook my head. "They're trying to make a statement. If tying them up is their plan it'll probably be somewhere close enough that we'll find them."

"Far enough that it'll be too late when we do." Joel said quietly.

"We have probably five hours before the sun sets. I say we get to the road and walk up and down."

"What about here?" Zero pointed to the map. There was another road, not a big, popular highway, but it was parallel to the one we were on. "What if they're on that road."

"We could split up," Joel said. "Two us head north for the road and two of us go south to the highway. But..." he shook his head. "That's a shit idea."

"Why?"

Joel rolled his eyes, not appreciating being questioned. "God only knows what kind of shape they're in. You're strong, Zero, but you aren't going to be much help in getting them down. And if they can't walk..."

She looked away reluctantly accepting the truth. "Then what? Flip a coin?"

"Calculated guess," I said. "The highway is big, more people would come in on it... not to mention they knew we were there."

"Yeah," she nodded. "Highway it is."

"Kyle." Miles had to jog to keep up with me. "Come on, you have to stop."

It was well after dark and we'd made it back to first set of bodies we'd seen. The ones that put fear in Ella's eyes like I didn't know was possible. The ones that kept her up all night because she'd seen them every time she closed her eyes. The ones that I'd promised her I keep her safe from.

"Kyle," he barked as one large hand came down on my shoulder, pulling me to a stop.

"Let go of me," I said trying to push him off.

"No, man, I'm not gonna let you kill yourself." He pushed right back. I moved, lifting my fist, ready to hit him but before I could, Joel was there. He held his hands between us.

"Step back, Kyle," he said. "You're losing perspective here." He shook his head. "I don't know what's going on with you and Ella, man. But I get that you care about her. We all do."

"It's not even about that," I said. Maybe it was about that a little. She was way under my skin. "You didn't see how scared she was. It was like she wasn't even hearing me - wasn't even functioning. And I promised I'd keep her safe. I swore I wouldn't let anything happen to her."

"I know you want to find them, we all do," Miles said.

I knew that.

"It's not your fault."

I wasn't so sure about that one. I knew it was a bad idea to allow them to wander off. I knew Ella wasn't prepared for anything that might come her way. I had promised that I wouldn't let exactly what was more than likely happening to her now, happen. I had sworn to her. And I had failed.

"One hour," I said, giving in. I didn't want to rest, not knowing that they could be in pain. But we were exhausted. Every muscle in my body burned. Zero ran out energy about the same time we made it back to the bodies closest to the truck and saw that Hunter and Ella weren't there.

"Two," Miles countered.

I didn't want to sit anywhere and do nothing for two hours, but a glance at all their faces let me know I was outnumbered. It struck me as odd because Zero was possibly the most headstrong person I'd met. All day long she'd been determined, leading the way even. We passed more crucified zombies and each time she took them out. None of us had cared if it was a good idea or not. These people took our own, we didn't give two shits is Zero wanted to go out of her way to piss them off.

She burned herself out, I guessed.

I didn't intend to fall asleep, I didn't even think it was possible until I jolted awake sometimes later.

I wasn't rested but two hours wasn't anything in terms of helping exhaustion and too much time had passed anyway. I opened up a water and downed the bottle along with a power bar. I woke up everyone else, who were each as cranky as I felt.

We moved quietly, working our way through the woods to the road we hadn't taken. It was our only option... it was the only thing we had. We weren't moving as fast as we had in the daylight on a straight, even road. But we were keeping up decent speed.

Zero found the hope that it seemed like she had lost before we stopped for the night.

The sun had just come up when Joel pulled her by the arm as we walked down the road.

"Maybe you should hang back some," he told her.

Her eyes rolled so hard there was a chance they'd get stuck. "You don't need to protect me." I didn't think Hunter would say the same. In fact, I was pretty certain he wouldn't want her to see him in whatever state he was in. She stomped her foot when Joel didn't step aside. It was sort of endearing to see her so frustrated that she was stomping like a child. "Seriously. I'm prepared."

She wasn't. None of us were.

"That's them," she said as the third set of crosses we saw long the road came into view. It was too far still to make anything out for sure, but a handful of zombies were beginning to show interest in the area. There was only one reason living dead would be interested. They were still alive.

It hit all of us at once. Adrenaline and urgency of the moment forced us each to have a burst of energy that no one thought possible. Everyone took off in a sprint. We were close, but the dead were closer. I didn't know how long they could hold them off, I didn't know if they could hold them off at all. We were moments away when a hand wrapped around Ella's ankle. She gave a weak kick, but didn't even yell.

"Shit."

Forgetting my knife, I reached for the gun that I almost never used. Stopping and taking a second to aim I squeezed the trigger but didn't bother to watch the zombie that had been on Ella fall to the ground before I moved on to the next. Six bullets later The zombies were no longer a problem and I lowered my weapon, holstering it back at my waist I lifted my eyes up and allowed myself for the first time to look up at Ella.

My feet stumbled back as my legs threatened to give out.

Rope wasn't holding her arms tightly to the wood. Chains weren't there. Barbed wire. Barbed fucking wire was holding her to plank of wood. Her skin... what wasn't covered in blood was so pale. Her eyes found mine, but I wasn't sure she even recognized me before they fluttered closed. Her head hung slumped forward and her entire body relaxed.

"Stay awake, okay?" I heard Zero's voice but didn't listen. "We're going to get you down."

"Sweetheart," Hunter's voice caught my attention. It was tired, strained... weaker than I'd heard. But he was speaking. "I'm okay."

"Hang on, Bro. We're gonna get you down in just a sec," Miles said, his voice sounding too casual and upbeat for the situation. Hunter made some sort of sound of approval and then Miles was next to me. "Tell me you have wire cutters in there."

I nodded, walking closer to where Ella hung limp. If it weren't for the soft breath sounds and rise of her chest, I would have been a lot more panicked because at that moment, she didn't look very alive. The wood had been stuck into the ground at least a foot. It was secured with a couple cinder blocks to keep it from swaying, though even without the blocks, the thing wasn't going anywhere. It was tall. Tall enough that we couldn't reach the horizontal plank to lift it out, we'd have to grab around the base. It limited leverage and space for us to move, but it was the only option.

Working together Miles and I grabbed at the base after moving the blocks aside and pulled up. The cross budged but not enough to pull it completely free. Muttering a curse, we tried again.

"Wait a sec." I grabbed the cinder blocks we'd tossed aside. Without them, my arms extended could reach to her belly button which left a good foot between my fingertips and the wood that held Ella's outstretched arms. I stacked the cinder blocks, but it wasn't enough. I could reach her arms, but not enough to lift the whole thing out of the ground. I needed more height. I stepped off and walked over to my bag.

"We have to cut them down."

I pulled out the wire cutters and climbed back onto the cinder blocks. I reached up but Joel stopped me.

"Maybe do her waist first," he suggested. "Then Miles can hold her at her thighs to keep her weight off her arms while you do them."

Miles nodded and grabbed onto Ella's hips, holding loosely at first. I cut through the first layer. And then the second. And the third... Eight times. Eight. Times. They wrapped the wire around her stomach. As I undid each one, Miles supported more and more of her weight. As quickly as I could I moved to her right arm where I stood and began to cut them. Several barbs were deeply embedded in her skin. I didn't want to pull them free, so I cut around them, leaving them inserted until we had her down and got a better idea of how badly she was injured.

With her right arm free and hanging limp at her side, the rest of Ella's body joined suit, tilting, pulled by gravity as the only thing keeping her up was wrapped around her other arm. I dragged the cinder blocks to the other side and quickly got to work. Ella didn't regain consciousness as I unhooked her, which was probably a blessing.

Finally free, her body slumped over Miles shoulder. He sat her down and I started to move to her but Zero stopped me. "I'll sit with her while you get him down."

Hunter was as difficult to down. Worse, maybe, because he was heavier. He was weak and exhausted from the injuries and lack of sleep, but he was able to control his body a little so that he wouldn't knock Miles off balance. When we got him down, he insisted on standing, but it was clear that wasn't going to happen and Miles and I managed to catch him before his legs gave out completely. He was down, but sitting up, resting his back against the cross wooden plank he was just attached to.

Zero was next to him in an instant, running her hands through his hair. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she finally let herself feel something.

"I'm so sorry," she said resting her forehead against his. She repeated the words over and over again, ignoring his attempts to calm her. Giving them a little privacy, I walked to where Ella laid. Joel was with her, looking over her legs closely.

"No bites," he said as I knelt down beside him. "We're damn lucky they didn't take off her shoes."

I nodded and reached forward, combing her hair out of her face and then looked to her arms. We needed something to clean their wounds with and I didn't think the antiseptic wipes and cream we carried in our med-kit was going to cut it. It was going to have to work for now though. Joel grabbed the supplies from his bag and brought the small box over. I opened it up and pulled out the antiseptic that we had, gauze, and a roll of elastic bandage. I got to work on her right arm first, rubbing the antiseptic first on the wounds that didn't still have barbs in them.

"You pull it out, one at a time, and I'll clean it and stop the bleeding." I didn't know how deep the wounds were or how much damage they had done, so I wanted to go slow. Joel nodded and pulled the first barb, closest to her palm, out. Blood seeped out of the injury quickly, so I squeezed some of the cream onto a gauze pad and held it down over the spot. Seeing that I was running out of hands, Joel grabbed some extra gauze to treat the lesser wounds around it and began to wrap the bandage tightly around her wrist. He stopped when he came to the next barb. We worked like this, slowly, taking each one out and dressing it until she was wrapped up to her elbow in the elastic bandage. And then we repeated the process on the other arm.

Ella didn't wake up the entire time, but she stirred several times, her face grimacing.

"Get her a new shirt," I said to Joel as I looked at the one she was wearing, ripped and bloodied.

"They took her bag. Hunter was carrying it."

"So get her one of mine, she can't wear this."

Joel got up and walked to where we had dropped our things. While he looked for a shirt, I inched up the hem of the one she was currently wearing, careful not to let the fabric slide along any sensitive wounds at her waist. I wanted to get up, stand up and leave. I wanted to find the people who did this and I wanted to give them the slow, painful death they deserved. I stayed instead. Her waist looked every bit as awful as her arms. The barbs had dug in deep as it took the brunt of her body weight, holding her up. They'd scratched everywhere they touched, as if she had been moving around, trying to get free.

Her arms - the soft skin on her waist that I trailed my lips over only a handful of days before... They would be permanently scarred for the rest of her life. A marred reminder of the worst days of her life. As if her brain might ever let her forget, her skin wouldn't.

I had never enjoyed killing. It had been part of a job, us or them, survival... it had been something that I had to do, but never something I enjoyed. But if I found the people who did this to her I would enjoy it. Every second of it.

I wiped away what I could of the blood on her stomach and then pulled her shirt off and tossed it to the side. Joel lifted her up as I wrapped the bandage around her waist twice and secured it with a pin I the back. He handed me the shirt that was at least three times to big for her and we slipped it over her head and pulled her arms through.

"You think she's okay?" he asked, concerned that we'd been moving her around without her waking at all.

"I don't know," I told him honestly as I scooped my arms under her body, cradling her as we walked to where Miles and Zero were finishing patching up Hunter.

"Maybe we should try to wake her up."

"No, let her sleep," Hunter said. "She needs it."

"So do you," Zero said.

"I'll be okay," he said. "We need to move somewhere safer."

Zero opened her mouth but Hunter cut her off with a slow grin. "I'll let you play nurse as soon as you're safe," he said, winking and despite the heaviness of the moment, Zero looked away, her cheeks pink.

"I can't believe you're hitting on me right now," she muttered. Shaking her head she reached and forced a bottle of water into his hand. "Drink the whole thing. And then you'll eat. And then we can talk about moving."

"Sweetheart—"

"Don't you "sweetheart" me. Drink. Eat."

Tired, he didn't argue anymore. Hunter quickly downed the drink and inhaled the power bar. Zero tried to put another in his hand, but he refused and this time, she let it slide. Miles helped him to his feet and kept an arm around him to support some of his weight as we walked.

"We're less than six miles from Fountain labs," Joel said. "I don't know if you're up for it—"

"I'm good."

"Hunter."

"I'm good," he insisted. "It's going to be the safest place, right?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "It has backup generators. Ella said it's equipped to keep minimal power - necessities only - up for a long time so that samples won't be ruined, so there's a chance we still have power and security."

"Then I can make it six miles."

AN - Hope you enjoyed!! ALMOST TO THE LABS! Yay. :]] Look for another update Friday!