Desolation ✔️

Chapter 6: One Destination

After helping Keilah and Robert gather supplies to take back to their group, I join them in the car parked behind the damaged store. For awhile, Robert argues that Keilah should blindfold me so I can't see the location (in case I lead my ghost army his way), but Keilah argues that he's overreacting and that a blindfold won't earn trust on my part. The argument wastes several precious minutes, and finally (reluctantly), Robert agrees to let me sit in the back seat without a blindfold. That doesn't stop him from peaking through the rearview mirror a gazillion times, though.

It takes us awhile to reach the camp. A lot of streets are blocked off just like Robert said. I wonder how many neighborhoods were on quarantine. Each one we pass appears to have been bombed like my own and terrorized by the dead. My earlier suggestion of being driven to Carter's neighborhood is out of the question. We're lucky to even reach Keilah and Robert's camp.

Which is a flower shop, by the way. Four of the infected mope around the front entrance.

"Great," Robert mutters under his breath. He cuts the engine and starts digging through the glove compartment. I scoot close to the window and stare out. One zombie wears a business suit and another is missing half of her torso. I grimace at the sight of guts spilling on the sidewalk.

Robert pulls a knife from the glove compartment and flicks it open, smiling. Considering I've never seen him smile, the sight of it is almost worse than seeing the spilled guts.

"Okay, now Keilah knows the drill. You on the other hand"—he points the silver knife tip at me— "don't. Have you ever had to kill one?"

Um, duh? I want to say. It would be the perfect time for that kind of answer. With Robert doubting me so much, I'd love a moment to prove him otherwise. But unfortunately, my luck must've gone to the leprechauns today. "In videogames, yeah."

Robert loses the smile and looks at Keilah with a see-I-told-you-so look.

"But it's not like I don't know what to do," I continue. "I've seen cops aim at the head. It only takes one shot to put them down. And I told you the Safe House is gone, but I don't mean gone as in bombed like everything else. I mean it's gone as in every single living soul in that Safe House is dead. They all turned. I didn't kill any there, but I got out. That obviously counts for something."

Robert turns the knife over in his hand and stares at his reflection in the blade. His jaw tightens. Then he looks back at me and holds the knife out, handle first. "Okay, but you forgot one thing: don't shoot if you don't have to."

I nod and take the knife carefully in my palm. The blade is no more than five inches, so I'll have to get up close and personal. Not a problem. At least, I need to act like it isn't. I have to show them I'm capable of holding my own.

"On the count of three," Robert whispers, leaning into his door. I move close to the window again and focus. There are four of them and three of us. The one with a gash on his cheek is closest to me, so I mentally call dibs on him. The next closest is another woman with a missing arm. That one should be easy; one less hand to worry about. I can take two, and that'll be how I show Robert—

"Three!" Robert shouts, and I look over just as he throws his door open and rolls out like some kind of uncoordinated ninja. What happened to one and two?

Keilah is already out of the car, too, so I follow suit. As soon as I throw open my door, Gashed-Cheek Zombie turns in my direction. Instantly, he reaches out for me and I duck under his arm, turn to face his back, and kick him—see, with boots I can now efficiently kick—into the car. He falls against it and smears blood across the window. I lunge forward, knife held above my head, and bring the knife down just as something yanks on my arm and causes me to fall back. The knife falls from my grasp and clatters on the pavement.