Four - Kyle

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Here's chapter 4!

Chapter 4 - Kyle

"You did good," Miles told Ella after we'd been on the road for about an hour and were waiting for Joel to catch up after ditching the zoms and the bike. Miles was mostly just being encouraging. In reality, she looked ready to collapse already. She moved slower than we were used to, spent most of the time so far in a state of panic, and looked like she might still dart back for the base any moment. But she did about as well as anyone in her position would. Ella shot a look at Miles. It was obvious she didn't believe him, so he tried to reassure her. "You know the first time Kyle saw one, he pissed himself."

Shaking my head, I rolled my eyes. I hadn't actually pissed myself, but I may have screamed like a little girl.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, man. They're some scary fuckers," Miles pretended to console me but couldn't stop from laughing as he patted my shoulder.

Ella, who was trying to hide a tired smile, looked at me questioningly, no doubt wondering if Miles was bullshitting her. I could have denied it and told her the truth, but it was the first time she relaxed since we'd left. I liked the smile touching her lips, so I would let her believe Miles if she wanted to. Pulling a face, I shook my head to let her know I wasn't going to confirm nor deny and watched her smile grow. With the tension broke and a decided lack of dead people attacking us, she seemed to relax a little. It didn't take long for Joel to find us. We'd done this enough that we had it well paced.

"We good to go?" I asked.

Everyone nodded their agreement and Ella grabbed on the straps of her pack, repositioning the bag, or maybe using her hands to help with the weight. The bags weren't light. We always packed for an extra week because nothing ever went as planned out here and though we had a water filter, we packed enough water since we couldn't guarantee finding an alternate source. Going out less than completely prepared wasn't something we did, but that meant carrying forty or fifty pounds of gear of our backs. Someone who wasn't used to that was going to have trouble with it, especially if that someone was as small as Ella. She was average in the height department for a girl, maybe even a little taller than, but with her lean, willowy figure, I doubted she spent much time lifting weights. Or any time at all. I'd put money on the fact that she hadn't even seen the inside of a gym.

Despite not wanting to shoulder the extra weight, I knew she wasn't prepared to carry as much as us. It was why I'd spread out some of her gear between the rest of us to lighten up Ella's pack, but we'd only been walking for an hour or so and it was clear she was bothered by the weight already. I wasn't going to go easy on her, though; if she was going to be out here with us, she was going to be one of us. She to be if she wanted to survive. I could, however, help her out a little.

"Joel, you're in front. I'll bring up the back."

He took off without a second thought. He knew we'd be close behind. Miles dithered when he noticed Ella's slumped form and slow steps, but I nodded for him to go ahead. I appreciated him looking out for her, but taking on this special request was my idea and that made the girl my responsibility.

"Let me give you a hand," I said and grabbed on to the straps of her bag doing what I should have before we left Hudson. I lifted and adjusted until it was positioned on her body where it should be and then tightened the shoulder straps so that it would stay put. I tightened the waist strap so that it would support some of the weight instead of being entirely on her shoulders and then I buckled the chest strap she'd left hanging loose to the sides so that she wouldn't need to keep adjusting the shoulder pads. "Better?"

Meeting my eyes, she nodded her head. "Thanks," her voice came out a little choked, so she cleared it and then tried again. "Guess it's pretty obvious I wasn't the outdoorsy type in my last life," she said in a lighter voice that had me reluctantly smiling. Ella started walking, not keeping up with the pace we normally kept, but she was trying and she wasn't complaining. I was impressed.

That didn't stop us all from being a little frustrated though. Joel kept looping around, heaving sighs of frustration while he waited for us to catch up. And he made more than one comment loud enough for her to hear. Miles was less obvious, but he kept looking at his watch anxiously. He'd hoped, like we all had, that we'd get further today than we were going to. It wasn't that Ella was strolling along like she had all the time in the world. We were just used to moving a lot faster. It didn't help that we stuck to the roads, thinking the flat, solid ground would be easier for Ella, instead of taking shortcuts through the forest and old farmland.

"You think we could stop real quick?" She breathed out a couple hours and maybe five miles later. Sweat dripped down her face and she was perpetually trying to catch her breath now, but it's the first time she asked to stop. Had to give it to the girl, she was determined. I called ahead for a break and she flashed a grateful smile before unceremoniously dropping her bag to the ground. Her body followed. Miles and Joel circled back to us, each dropping their packs, and, resigned to the break, I did too.

Ella sat unmoving while the rest of us pulled out water and power bars. Slowly she pulled her arm up to her forehead and wiped away the sweat with the back of her hand. I passed her a bottle of water that she gratefully grabbed and took a few sips of before trying to pass it back.

"No, finish it."

She glanced around for reassurance that it was okay before drinking the whole thing down. After a few moments when everyone had finished, I stood up. We'd rested long enough, if we had any hope of making it to the church before night, we needed to start moving again. Ella stood up and shifted around a few times when she noticed my attention, she crooked a finger at me. I leaned closer to hear what she had to say.

"What do I do about a restroom?" She whispered, sounding embarrassed. I pulled back and looked at her trying not to laugh. Cute. She was damn cute. And I hadn't really taken it into account that she couldn't just turn around and take care of the problem quickly. Glancing around, I pointed behind her to a decent sized tree. She turned to look and the moment she realized what I was suggesting, her head whipped back to me, face blanched. "Out here?" Her expression broke my resolve an I laughed aloud. "It's not funny," she whispered angrily. I think she wanted to smack to me or shove me, but she was all embarrassed and she had that fire in her eyes and I was about two seconds from kissing her. Thankfully, Miles spoke up.

"What's not funny?" Miles asked, everyone's attention drawn to Ella. She looked at each of us too embarrassed to admit the problem. Finally she stomped her foot against the ground and let out a frustrated breath. She turned and stomped off toward the tree. It was big enough to give her some privacy without being too far from us so that we could get to her if she needed help.

"Bathroom break," I explained.

Joel rolled his eyes. "What the hell did she expect? We can't exactly stop at the 7-11 every couple miles for a real bathroom."

"I don't think she really thought about it," I told him.

"You think?" He barked. "We're two hours behind where we usually are by now. At this rate, we're gonna have to double the length of this trip and it's probably all for nothing anyway. I give her three days before she's dead and this turns into a giant waste of time."

"Come on, Joel, give us more credit than that. She'll last until the city at least, but she ain't making it past the first big hordes we see. No way," Miles said shaking his head. I cut my eyes to him and he hesitated before he continued. "Sorry dude, but this fucking blows." Miles had been the one in support of this and I needed him to be on board. He held up his arms in surrender. "Look, I actually kind of like her. But she's totally out of her element. There's a reason you've never seen me fucking around in the lab."

"It's too late to turn back," I said. "And we aren't just ditching her," I added before Joel could offer up his helpful suggestion.

"No one's suggesting that, Ky," Miles said.

"Speak for yourself," Joel muttered and Miles smacked his head. "What? You said it yourself, that girl ain't making it back to base alive. You think she cute. You wanna fuck her, you better do it now. I'd bet my only roll of toilet paper that you're wrong. She won't make it to the city."

Miles opened his mouth but before he could get any words out, Ella was there picking up her bag. Instead he turned to her. "You good to go?"

She nodded, but didn't say anything as she lifted her bag back up on her shoulder and fastened all the straps. When she was ready, she looked up but didn't say anything. The corners of her lips were pulled down into a deep frown and her big brown eyes didn't have to meet mine to know that she was hurt. Shrugging Joel took off, leading the way and without waiting for any of us, Ella stomped off behind him. Miles' expression mirrored my own. It was the oh-shit look that people had when they realized they were caught. Unless going pee had given her a sudden second wind of energy, she heard what we said about her and she was pissed.

"At least she's moving faster," Miles mumbled, but his lips turned down into a frown. He may have just been about accept a bet on her life for a roll of toilet paper, but he hadn't wanted Ella to know that. They'd developed an easy sort of friendship over the day and I knew he hadn't meant to hurt her feelings. Stupid bets were his way of blowing off steam. He jogged ahead shouting, "Ella, wait up," leaving me to wander just how much of that she'd heard.

"I don't need friends, Miles. I need an escort. That's it. So stop pretending and just save your breath." It wasn't exactly a yell, but it was loud enough that I didn't have any trouble making out the words. I guess she'd heard more than enough.

She picked up the pace for the rest of the day. She wasn't joining in on the conversations though I didn't know if that was because she didn't want to speak to us or because she was too exhausted to even try. By the time we were close to the church, her breath was coming out in short pants and we all knew she needed a break even if her pride wouldn't let her ask. Miles approached her again, suggesting we stop for a minute. Ella didn't respond, her jaw ticked and she kept pushing forward. It had been like that all afternoon. I should have been relieved she wasn't asking for a ton of breaks and that she was really keeping up with us, but I couldn't be. She was overdoing it and if we weren't so close to stopping for the day, I would have forced her to sit down.

She didn't speak until the church came into view. A few people were out front, tending to gardens or other chores. Ella stopped dead in her tracks, and stared ahead.

"Are those living people?" She asked, amazed.

"There's a group here," I told her. "About fifty or so. We usually stop by to trade or see how we can help. They'll probably put us up for the night so you'll have a sort of bed. But no power or hot water."

"They just... they live out here?" She asked again, not seeming to grasp the idea.

"Yes," I said. "They aren't the only ones. There's a big ranch 'bout fifteen miles out, that group is almost a hundred now. There are others, too. Most within any reasonable proximity to the base are good people. Further away you get, shadier people become."

"If they're good, why don't they come to Hudson?"

I stopped, looking at her for a long moment. Did she really have no idea? "Hudson's been turning people away. The base is at capacity and Carlson signed an affidavit three months into all of this that ordered it a closed installation." Her brow creased and her lips twisted into a painful expression that made me regret dropping that little truth bomb on her. "Most these people are okay with it. Not everyone trusts the government to have their best interest."

She nods thoughtfully and then added, "They shouldn't."

"Lot's of them don't trust large groups. More people means higher chance of infection."

She seemed to be deep in thought for a long moment. "Do you know what the emergency procedure is for if infection spreads into Hudson?"

I shook my head, wondering where she was going with this. I knew what they told everyone, standard evacuation route of the base but there was more to it than that, I was sure. I just didn't know. Maybe she was just curious, but I was just a runner. That sort of information was above my paygrade, so to speak.

"They're right to stay out here, I think. I'm not sure Carlson is a good man."

Getting the feeling that she knew more about the emergency plans, I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn't. She walked toward the church where Joel and Miles were already greeting friends.

"Hey," I raced to catch up. "Maybe don't mention your whole thing to these people."

She smiled though it didn't reach her eyes. "Believe it or not, I don't usually lead with the whole being the reason the world no longer has cable television, cell phone service, endless supplies of hot water, and most of the people they love."