Eight - Kyle

We walked as a close bunch, Ella securely in the middle. I don't think she was aware that she was muttering to herself that she could do this aloud, but her words echoed my own thoughts. Joel was being optimistic when her told her that we might be able to sneak past them. That wasn't going to happen. But he'd known that. We made it past a few milling around as we entered the grit of the town and Ella started to relax, like maybe she thought we could. I wanted to tell her not to, being one edge... it was kind of a good thing. As long as she wasn't panicking or anything. Instead of outright telling her to get ready for shit to go south, I tried for a different approach.

"You still got that knife?"

"Mhmm," I heard her hum behind me.

I glanced back at Ella. She was looking all around as if she thought zombies were sneaky like the boogey-man and were going to pop out of the blue and attack. She noticed me and tried for a confident smile. "Get it out."

Her face blanched but she reached down and grabbed the knife I'd given her.

"I don't really know how to use it."

"Aim for the head and stab," Joel said earning a quick glare.

"You probably won't have to."

I turned back around before she could see any hint of the lie in my eyes. I hoped she wouldn't have to. As we followed the curve of the I stayed close to Ella, standing in front of her to block her sight as we approached Winchester. The first highway running just outside the town was coming up and though it wasn't giant, it was lined with cars. Probably people trying to get out of their city, evacuate further from the capitol, because, at only an hour and a half drive away, Winchester was too close to a few million zombies. Some may have even been coming this way from D.C. trying to get further west where it was less populated. It would be worse the closer we got and it would become more difficult to avoid highways for back roads.

"Oh my God," Ella said. She had stopped moving forward and was standing in front of a minivan, staring through the window. I didn't have to look to know the occupants were still in the car. Most of the cars on the road were abandoned, but not all of them. Someone infected was inside, or the people were too scared or unable to safely get out of the car so they sat in it until they died. She lifted her hand to the glass window and did her best to blink away tears. "There are kids inside." Her eyes darted around, looking at each of us though I don't think she saw much of anything. Her haunted eyes met mine and she said it again. "There are kids."

"We have to keep moving."

She blinked a few times and looked back at the car.

"They don't deserve that. They should be buried or... or something."

Joel cursed under his breath. From behind me, I heard the slow shuffling footsteps that could only mean one thing. Joel nodded when I met his eyes and walked forward to take care of it before it could get any closer, but we needed to move. Staying in any one spot was a bad idea when the cars made it impossible to know all possible dangers. Ella wasn't getting it though, she was stuck on the family in the car. I could almost feel her heartbreak as she looked on. Her eyes were out of focus and filled with tears. I wanted to comfort her. Know what was going through her head. But we didn't have time for all that. Miles tried talking to her, but I wasn't even sure she could hear him.

I stepped closer and grabbed her face in my hands, gently forcing her to look at me. Her brown eyes finally focused on my face.

"We have to keep moving," I said slowly.

Her cheeks rubbed against my palms as she nodded in my hands. "Just focus on getting through, nothing else but getting through this town, okay?" She nodded again. "Can you do it? Are you good?" She nodded. "You have to say it, Ella. I need to hear you say it."

She swallowed and took a couple breaths before she spoke. "I'm good."

She didn't sound confident, but her voice was steady and her eyes were focused so I released her face and gestured that we keep going. Ella stayed quiet, but she didn't seem to be panicking so we left her alone. I knew what she'd seen weighed on her mind - we should have thought to warn her not to look in the cars - but it wasn't the time or place to talk it out and make her feel better.

"You're really patient with her," Joel muttered, watching me for a reaction as we started moving again.

I wasn't a particularly patient person, but he was right. I gave Ella a lot of leeway. I hadn't been rushing her or losing my temper when stuff like that happened. I lifted a shoulder - was it really a big deal, or a surprise? - and when I glanced back, he was smirking. I sure as hell wasn't going to admit to liking the girl. She was an all around pain in the ass. She didn't know what the hell to do outside of protection. And I was pretty sure she liked yelling at me. But it was endearing. Stupidly endearing. And I wanted to protect her as much as I wanted to kiss her until she couldn't remember her name.

I was an idiot.

The estimate Joel gave was off.

By a lot.

The closer we got to the center of the small town, the more the zombies piled on. Not a dozen, not even two. Multiple dozens.

Ella stepped closer to me so that her arm brushed against mine, hoping I would keep her safe. I hoped I could too. I glanced down to see her worrying her lip as she nudged even closer to me. Before I could stop myself or over think what I was doing, I wrapped my hand around hers and squeezed once, hoping to offer some comfort. She kept it together as it became clear that there was no avoiding zombies through town. We had hoped that maybe we could cut off the main road and take smaller ones through town that avoided most of the zombies, but that didn't look possible. I didn't have time to count the numbers before the first one saw us and began limping toward us, it's groans and moans getting louder at the prospect of food. Its noise was a less sophisticated version of the raptor call in Jurassic Park; the meaning was the same. It was the dinner bell. Two, maybe three dozen zombies that we could have slid right past converged suddenly blocking our path. The others hadn't noticed us yet, but if we didn't move now, they would.

"You okay?" I kept my voice quiet not wanting to call any more attention to us as I checked on Ella. I needed to make sure she wasn't going to flip out and get us all killed.

"What do we do?" She asked instead of answering the question. "They're getting closer."

Miles whistled to get everyones attention and then nodded to a narrow alley between two buildings. Without another word, he took off toward it, leading the way. I stuck close to Ella and Joel followed. The alley was thin enough to be controlled, but we could also get trapped if we weren't careful. Miles swiftly put his knife through the eye of a zombie wandering in the alley and stepped over its body without hesitation. Ella cringed as she leapt over the body, not wanting to be anywhere near it.

Miles halted at the end of the alley. Peaking around his shoulder I could see the street, it wasn't Main Street, but since the zombies weren't there for the shopping and five star restaurants they didn't pay too much attention to the street they roamed up and down. There weren't as many here, but still enough to be a concern.

Miles turned to face me. "I'm thinkin' we fight our way through. We just need to get to the end of this street and then it looks residential, so it shouldn't be hard to get through. A bunch of small streets, lots of outs."

"Let's go."

Ella's hand squeezed around mine as if her goal were to crush bone; her nails practically pierced through my skin. I looked down at her.

"We're just running for it?" Her voice shook a little, but was steadier than I expected. Though the death grip on my arm gave away her fear; I expected to see small finger print sized bruises when this ended.

"Just stick close, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay."

"Keep your knife ready." I smiled. "Just try not to stab one of us."

A low chuckle spilled from her and she took a deep breath and held her knife up, ready to stab. I bit back a smile and started to move, but stopped short. "I know you're scared but I'm gonna need my arm."

She cracked a nervous smile and pried her fingers from my hand. I nodded at Miles and as one, we moved. Miles and Joel jumped right in attempting to clear us a path through the zombies. Ella stayed next to me, the knife I'd given her raised up but she didn't look ready to use it. A zombie got through the two of them and I quickly grabbed the chest of its shirt to hold it in place as I brought the knife down through its skull. As it dropped, Ella screamed. It was impossible to miss because it was the only real noise.

I whipped around in time to see the zombie reaching for Ella. I reached out, pushing Ella out of the way as I grabbed on to its arm. Ella got out of the way as I stepped toward it, ending its existence. I didn't have time to turn around and check on her before another one assaulted us.

"Keep moving forward," I yelled. Joel and Miles had stopped, taking the zombies one by one as they came to them. It wasn't odd for them to get caught up like that and forget that the goal wasn't killing as many as possible but getting past them. We pushed our way through, only killing the ones we had to so that we weren't wasting time or energy that we'd need later. Zombies were hitting the ground and we were doing our best to keep any in our direct path from getting to us.

"Ella" I called when we were almost there. "Run toward that house and wait, but don't go inside."

Joel shoved a really dead zombie away and turned to me. "Dude, where is she?"

My gut dropped. She was just behind me. I spun around hoping Joel had just... somehow missed her, but Ella was gone. Vanished into thin air. I scanned the road for her but all I saw were the bodies of the zombies we'd killed and the few still roaming around.

"Where the fuck is she?" I shouted.

"We can't just stand here." Miles killed another zombie closing in on me as I looked for Ella.

"I know that," I snapped at Miles but didn't move. Where the hell was she?

"I didn't think she was really stupid enough to bolt," Joel said, sounding strained as he pushed off another zombie.

She wasn't that stupid though. I knew she wasn't. I scanned the street and my brain. When had she become separated from us? It had to be something that forced her away. She'd been glued to my side. She'd been terrified, too much so to run off by herself. Unless she had a reason.

"Kyle!"

"Just—just give me a second."

"We don't have a second!"

She wasn't on the ground. She wasn't dead.

If I was scared and separated from my group, what would I do? I tried to think how she might and it hit me.

"Get to a house," I said to them, not wanting to have to worry about finding Ella and losing Miles and Joel.

"What?"

"She's in one of the buildings. She's gotta be. I'll find her and then find you."

I would find her. I had to. I glanced over long enough to be certain they were going to follow orders and then took off in the direction from which we came.