ThirtyTwo - Kyle

It was well into the next day when I woke up to whispers nearby. I had fallen asleep sometime after the sun had come up and based on the dim, orange lighting breaking through the closed blinds, it was safe to say I'd slept the day away. It was unlike me to sleep so heavily and it was unlike everyone else to let me. At first I didn't care enough to make out the whispers but the more aware I became the more attention I paid to the conversation. Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I peeked through to see Ella sitting on the couch next to Hunter. Miles and Joel weren't in the room, either they were sleeping or making sure that Zero wasn't joining the army of the undead. I knew they hadn't gone out - we were good enough on supplies and there was no chance in hell they'd let me sleep while they left.

The truth was, I needed the sleep. We all did and though I needed it less than some in the house, I was grateful all the same because for the first time in several days I woke up feeling good instead of exhausted.

"I just thought you should know," Ella whispered. "I didn't want this blindsiding you."

His head hung low, his elbows resting on his thighs while Ella sat next to him, hesitant to reach out. Finally, she rested a hand on his shoulder.

"If that's it, that's it," he said quietly. "Doesn't change anything."

"It doesn't?"

"Not a thing."

She sat back, looking at him, studying him as if looking at his profile would reveal the truth of his statement.

"You should go sit with her. I'm sure she'll wake up soon."

"How sure?" He sat up, renewed with hope.

"Her temp leveled out a couple hours ago. I'm reasonably sure she's going to wake up any time. You should be there when she does... I just wanted you to be prepared that she may not know you."

Surprised, I shifted and Ella glanced over at the movement. Her lips curved into a smile that wasn't altogether happy, but not completely sad either. Hunter looked at me over his shoulder and nodded, turning back to Ella, he said something to her that I couldn't make out and then left to sit with Zero. I sat up straighter in the chair, stretching my neck. Mid-yawn I asked, "What was that about?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "Zero's going to be okay."

There was a lot of information I knew she was leaving out, but none of it was important to getting us the hell out of here. The skipping over whatever it was that Ella and Hunter had been whispering about didn't bother me.

"You don't sound happy," I focused on what was bothering me.

"Just tired."

I wasn't buying it. Something was a little off about her though I didn't know what. Standing from the chair, I moved to sit next Ella on the sofa. Whatever it was that was bothering her, I wanted to know. She leaned back a little and looked up at me.

"You aren't thinking about running off again right?" I asked.

Laughing, she shook her head. "No." Ella sighed and met my eyes. "But you ever just...It's nothing. I'm just jumping at my the sight of my own shadow."

Couldn't exactly blame her for that. It was amazing sometimes, what people could overcome. In order to survive. In order to finish a job. Ella hadn't been a person anyone would have pegged to keep it together but, for the most part she had. Being a little jumpy wasn't rocking in a corner somewhere, so I figured we were doing alright.

"Have you slept at all?"

Again, she shook her head, letting her hair fall in her face.

Standing, I offered Ella a hand to help her up off the couch. Her eyes widened in question.

"Come on, you need to get some sleep."

Reluctantly, she grabbed on to my hand and let me pull her off the couch. We walked up the stairs back to the room that used to be hers and Ella all but collapsed onto the bed.

"Don't let me sleep for too long," she insisted even as her mouth stretched in a yawn.

"Just sleep," I said and draped the blanket over her as she settled into the mattress. She laid back but her eyes remained wide, staring at the ceiling. "You know it's our job to protect you— Joel, Miles and I? We're here to protect you."

She blinked slowly. "The virus," she corrected. "And now Zero too." She turned, her dark eyes locking onto mine. "Right? You know they're both infinitely more important than me."

I squatted down until my elbows were resting on the edge of her mattress. Ella rolled over onto her side so that she was facing me completely.

"I'm getting paid to protect you."

She lips curved into a soft smile. "You aren't getting paid at all."

"Then it's because I want to. You're my priority."

Though her smile grew, she rolled her eyes. "Your priorities are seriously messed up."

"Joel and Miles will protect the virus. Hunter can take care of Zero." I shrugged. "I got you." I reached out to brush the hair that had fallen into her face away and threaded my fingers through the tendrils, letting my hand rest against her cheek once they were away from her eyes. "If you're right and Zero wakes up tonight we are hopefully getting out of here tomorrow night, so get some sleep."

Joel and Miles were both in with Hunter, all speaking in hushed voices as if they were concerned they'd wake her up; obviously not realizing that it'd be good if they were able to wake her.

"Any change?"

Joel shook his head but it was Hunter who spoke. "She's got some color back."

I walked toward where they stood and looked in the bed where Zero was lying. He was right.

"Holy shit."

More eloquent words weren't coming to mind. Zero didn't just have a little color back, she looked healthy. Her skin was no longer a deathly pale color it had been as she seized less than twenty-four hours ago; her veins weren't showing through her skin any longer. She looked less like someone who had been bitten by a zombie and more like a person just taking a nap. Hearing Ella tell us all that she thought Zero would wake up soon was something I'd chalked up to hopeful optimism right up until I was staring evidence in the face. I had tried to keep the faith, but reality and everything I'd known for the last year seemed to prove any theories of immunity wrong. But I didn't think there any denying it any longer. Zero was immune to the goddamned zombies. This was... it was fucking revolutionary.

My disbelief grew as I watched Zero's eyebrows furrow together like a person might if they were resisting morning. It was the most movement I'd seen her make - outside of the seizures - since she'd passed out. Based on the reactions around me; the way I was shoved from my place next at her bedside by Hunter, eager for her to wake, it was new to everyone. Catching my balance, a few steps off, I watched with the others for her to move and more. For her to wake up.

It was a long and tense silence as we all waited and nothing happened.

"Do you guys mind...could we be alone?"

I remembered what Ella had told him earlier. She may not know him when she woke up. For a moment, I considered staying, if she didn't know him, he might need someone here. But I stopped. He wanted to be alone with her, even knowing the risks. I patted Hunter's shoulder, turning away. "Sure, man. Call if you need anything."

Downstairs, the three of us waited, wondering if Zero was still out or it she'd woken up but not wanting to interrupt what we'd all assumed would be an emotional reunion to ask.

"We don't have the food to last us another two or three days here," Miles said after taking inventory to kill time. It wasn't a surprise, we'd brought enough to last well longer than we'd expected to need on this journey, but losing a bag hurt us as did the length of the trip. We'd begun rationing the water the moment we showed up at the house. It didn't help that Zero would need fluids. Or Hunter and Ella, for that matter, who were still running on fumes from their own injuries and should have been eating and drinking plenty to gain back strength. To put it simply, we were pretty bad off on supplies but we could manage for another day. Two if we really had to. "What are the odds Zero will be up and ready to go tomorrow?"

"It'd be nice to get the hell out of this city without stopping."

Joel nodded, "They got a good system here. I bet they've been stockpiling shit in a few locations. Or forcing people to do I for them. Doubt we'll have much luck hitting stores anywhere in their territory."

Miles nodded thoughtfully. "Bet we could figure out where they're storing all their stuff. Medicine, food, everything, I bet. Hudson could use it. Hell, I bet they'll green light a chopper if we know the haul is worth it."

"You want to do recon?" I asked.

It wasn't an awful idea. The opposite, I thought it was damn good even if it was a bit of a left turn from the supply run we had been talking about. The group running DC had control for probably the better part of the year. They'd had time to send people, their own or otherwise, to raid every convenient store, grocery store, pharmacy... gun shops. Hell, I bet they had quite the armory somewhere. It'd make sense too, to get everything in a couple locations that were easy to protect. We knew they had to have a home base. Finding it... well, hell, it could mean a lot of good things for the survivors at Hudson.

Too good to just ignore without second thought.

"Yeah," he nodded, eager as I saw a plan formulating in his eyes. "The three of us. We've done crazier shit than tail some assholes who want us dead."

"You thinking we grab what we need?" Joel asked, considering the idea. "Or get a location and get out?"

"Get a location, mark it on the map and get out," I said before Miles could answer. They both turned questioning expressions on me. If this were any other time, I would have been completely on board with getting what we needed and fucking up the sons of bitches, but this was different. We weren't on a run for the supplies, we had a very specific job and given the fact that we had what may very well be the most important human being alive in our care, it wasn't a good time for stupid risks. "We can't take unnecessary risks, not this time. We can't risk not getting the virus - or Zero - back to base."

"We leave in the next couple hours if we're gonna do this - cover of the night. Let's pull out a map, pinpoint the most obvious locations."

For the next hour, maybe two, all I knew was that the sun had set completely, we poured over area maps - searching the house for local maps, junk mail, anything that might give away locations that would make a good place to stockpile. There honestly weren't too many luxury items of the past that I really missed these days; I could do without hot showers on the regular and it didn't phase me much that there was no more TV. But as we looked over the map trying to find the best locations to check, I missed, really missed, the Internet. What took us so long to try to pinpoint on a near useless map using junk-mail and coupons sent that had thankfully never been thrown away, would have taken seconds with good old Google Maps.

"Looks like we got a Costco four or five miles either way down US-1. There's another wholesale store, BJ's, straight up to 395. The crap they sent lists a location in Falls Church, but that's a couple miles further. Who knows though," Miles shook his head. "I remember seeing signs for one way the hell back there. Just a few miles from where we left the car."

Joel leaned forward, tapping his finger onto the map by where we'd stopped and left the old truck. "That's it. Bet my life on it."

"It makes sense," I agreed. "It's a further out, so easier to protect from the zoms. Stringing up all those bodies scares people away or, at a minimum distracts from the store."

"Yeah, crosses every mile or so," Miles said. "After we go further in, they stopped. I figured they just thought people wouldn't venture past that much warning, but maybe it's not the city they're protecting."

"Maybe not," I countered all our thoughts as I recalled the bodies Zero and Ella had left behind. "If that's what they're protecting, why station people on 495 down here?"

"Watching for us. If they got a good enough look to assume we're what's left of the military, that's reason enough to want to take us out."

We didn't have a good answer. Any of the choice could be justified as their stockpile, and just as easily, each had a downfall that seemed to make the choice a questionable one. In the end we had five locations. Four were close enough, within five or six miles from where we were. It wouldn't be easy, but we could check them in one night if we moved quickly. If none of those were anything worth while, we'd check the last on our way out since we needed to leave the same way we'd come.

"We can each take one. Regroup and hit that last option only if we need to. It's the only way we're getting this done tonight."

After a moment, uncomfortable with the idea, Joel and I both nodded. In every direction it was a straight shot there and back. This was a choice. We knew it. This wasn't a part of this mission and I guessed, it would probably be okay to wait and come back after Ella and her virus were back in the relative safety of the base. But I sure as hell didn't want to come back here, neither did they. But this haul, it was too good to pass up.

"I'll backtrack," Joel offered suggesting that he would take the location a couple miles past the labs we'd come from. "I'm the quickest and the smallest, better chance I'll get across the highway without being seen."

"Plan for an encounter," Miles said. "I'll head north to the BJ's."

I nodded. "Then I'll take the one further toward the center."

"Take what?"

Surprised to hear Hunter, we all turned as he walked into the room.

"Everything okay up there?"

His lips stretched into a wide smile that was the answer we needed. "She's up. Exhausted but up. I came to get some water - she finished off the bottle upstairs."

I grabbed a mostly full bottle from the coffee table and tossed it to Hunter.

"That's great," I said and then hesitated. "Her memory?"

"Foggy. She didn't know where we were or remember much after leaving the lab. Everything else seems intact though."

Miles grinned. "She hasn't tried to bite you or anything? No zombie tendancies?"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "You gonna answer my question?" We quickly filled him in on what we were preparing to do. "I'll grab my stuff."

"Why don't you hang back?"

"My head's right," he said, misunderstanding why we'd rather he stay behind.

"Ain't your head we're worried about," Joel said ready to list off the injuries that should keep Hunter here. He stopped himself short of doing that and took a different approach. "Your girl just woke up. She's weak. Ella's passed out. Someone's gotta stay with them."

It didn't take much more to convince Hunter to stay behind and then we were all getting ready. I strapped on my weapons but left behind the bulky bag that would only slow me down on what I hoped would be a short trip. For a second, I debated waking Ella up, letting her know what was going on, but stopped short. Mostly, I hoped I'd be back before she woke up anyway. No need to have her worry over nothing. A little part of me may have still been a little upset with her for disappearing on me. So instead of waking her from much needed sleep, I asked Hunter to fill her in if and when she woke up and we weren't back.

"Nothing stupid, right," I reminded Joel and Miles. "We'll make it low on supplies. Just confirm the location and get your asses back here."

I clapped hands with the three men who'd been like brothers to me for the better part of a decade, pulling toward one another for a brief hug. Just in case this was it for us. Nodding once more to Hunter, we slipped out the front door careful to remain in the shadows. Then, with a deep breath, we all went our separate ways, hoping we'd see one another again. Confident we would. It was not the time to question ourselves or worry about anyone else. That would only cause misstep. We had this shit.

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Hope you enjoyed the chapter!! For anyone curious... I am hoping for Guilt to come to a close toward the end of the month! :]]