“Charlie,” Ruben said softly, barely a whisper.
Charlie looked at him slowly. The boy’s face was pinched and a little gray.
The food they had salvaged two days before had been bad. They were all a little shaky still.
“Wazzup?”
Ruben crouched down next to the nineteen year old. He had eight years on the boy, but he felt old and fatherly toward the younger man.
“Time to go,” he whispered.
Charlie looked slowly toward the Senator, then back at Ruben. “Gonna wake her?”
“No. ” The word was said softly, firmly and with conviction.
“Okay,” Charlie answered, slowly sliding off the windowsill. He stood on still shaky legs and took a deep breath. “Is it right? To leave her?” His voice was soft, but the emotion was thick.
“I listened in on her last conversation with Central,” Ruben said oh so quietly. “Everything she’s been saying is bullshit. They aren’t telling her to find a safe location for pickup. They’re telling her they ain’t gonna get us. ”
Charlie pressed his lips firmly together and in the moonlight his eyes glistened with tears. He was an East Texas bayou boy. All he wanted to do was get home to the swamps. Ruben was from south San Antonio. He wanted to go home, too, but he knew that there was nothing left. Central had given Charlie hope and Ruben had just killed it. He felt like a shit doing it, but they had made enough mistakes.
“We left those people in the mall…” Charlie whispered, his voice catching.
“We saw the smoke. But we kept going…”
“I know. We fucked up,” Ruben said softly.
Charlie lowered his eyes, then nodded. “Yeah. ”
“Look, kid, we stay with her, we die. You saw what she did to Raleigh.
She’ll do it to us. We’re her fucking bodyguards. She doesn’t give a shit about us,” Ruben said firmly.
Charlie sighed, then picked up his backpack very quietly. “I know. I just wanted to go home. ”
Ruben nodded and grabbed the boy firmly by the back of the neck and pressed his forehead to the boy’s. Behind them the Senator snored loudly.
“I’m gonna get you to a safe place. I promise. ”
“The fort?”
Ruben sighed. “No. We fucked up like the devil and we’re cast out of paradise. We gotta find another place. ”
The younger man looked fragile in the light. Like a ten year old. He reminded Ruben of his younger brother and it hurt like hell.
Without another word, they crept across the floor, careful not to make noise, then stealthily down the stairs. The zombie infestation was minimal in this town, but they carefully looked out the windows before unbolting the door. Stepping out into the cool spring air, they moved toward the truck.
A zombie lurched out from the shadows, uttering a low moan startling both of them. Its rotting hands reached for them as its yellowed teeth champed together. Ruben stepped forward it and firmly cold-cocked it with his rifle. It fell to the ground, still moaning. Ruben brought the rifle butt down again and silenced the fiend.
Charlie slipped into the driver’s seat of the truck and flung his bag in the back. It held a few possessions, but mostly ammo for the hunting rifle he had picked up a few towns back.
Ruben also slid into the truck and shut the passenger door.
“Where are we going?”
Ruben stared down the silent street. A few zombies staggered through the gloom, washed gray by the moonlight.
“West. ”