"So we should have an easier time following their tracks now. I think we should go back to where Ruben says it started and try and pick up some actual tracks from there. All this walking in circles hasn't done us any good."
"That old man. Why the fuck are we hauling a senior citizen out here with us anyway?"
"Stop. Not just as your friend, but as your commanding office. It was not Ruben's fault. Max had his gun out the window, he got pulled out. Ruben and Javier did the best they could."
"I don't blame them. An old guy and a kid? No, I blame you. You know how Max is, he hesitates. That isn't good in a fight. You are the one who put the three of them in that truck together."
"I'll take that blame." Bill said.
"You don't sound remorseful enough for me." Stewart said tightly.
"I'm not."
She turn on him angrily, "What do you mean by that? I thought you were friends? Best of buds, the way Max made it sound."
"He isn't dead."
"How do you figure that?"
Bill gestured around them, "The suns up, the fog is burning off. Notice anything else?"
"There's no fucking zombies."
"Exactly. They took him and they want something from us. Otherwise they would have kept attacking." The two of them marched back to the center of the campground. Bill spoke into his radio, "Ruben, Javier, meet us back at the trucks."
"Affirmative." Came Ruben's voice.
"And, Stewart, don't you go treating Ruben bad. Honestly he has been more helpful than you might know. He's from my town and I'm going to have to live with him after all this is over. So are you. If you and Max hook up."
"Optimist."
They trudged the rest of the way to the trucks in silence and waited a few minutes for Javier and Ruben to appear.
"Nothing." Javier said, before Ruben could speak. "No zombies, not even by the gate where you guys were fighting them. Other than Max being gone and that one there," he pointed at the body Ruben had found along with Max's rifle, "you wouldn't know this place had been crawling in zombies a few hours ago."
"So, sir, what do we do now?" asked Ruben, not quite meeting Bill's eyes.
"Knock it off Ruben, we don't blame you. As Stewart has already told me, it was my fault. What do we do? I'm open to ideas."
"There's a first." Stewart chided softly.
"They promoted me, someone had to be in charge. You think I take that lightly?"
"Well, you didn't have to use your authority out here where no one else is around. I think we should have more collaboration, instead of orders."
"Point taken. Now collaborate. What does everyone think we should do?"
"Find Max. One way or the other." said Ruben.
"Find Max." Javier agreed, "I wouldn't want to be left out here, even if I was…one of them."
"Stewart?"
"We don't really have any choice but to find him. Without him what can we do? Unless one of you figured out how to see zombies and track their overlord?"
Bill shook his head, "No. But I am glad just turning tail and running didn't make the list of things we could do. Because that is an option." The other three just shook their heads.
Bill cleared his throat and continued, "Good. I wouldn't want to be left out there either. Okay with the sun coming up, let's see if we can find any tracks."
"Wait Bill, you might as well explain your theory to these two, see if that changes anything." said Stewart.
"What theory?" asked Ruben.
"That they took Max." Bill said, "It only makes sense. They came in, surrounded us and immediately stopped attacking when they had snatched one of us. They even carried off their…dead again. Why would they do that?"
"In wars they do it to deny the enemy a sense of accomplishment and to hide their number of casualties." Ruben said.
"But why now? It's not like we are reporting our progress to anyone. But why the grab and dash? I think they have him and they want something from us. I think if we wait here, they will come back to us with an offer."
"So you want us to wait?" asked Javier
"No. I want us to try and track them down first. Find Max if we can ourselves. I could be wrong. But if we can't I vote for staying here the rest of the day."
"We should leave someone with the trucks, in case they come back." Ruben said.
"No. No splitting up." Bill shook his head as he said it.
"I disagree, I can stay here, I'll sit in the diesel, keep watch and radio you if anything changes. You can high tail it back here and bail me out. Plus you can move faster without a senior citizen along." This last was said with a meaningful glance at Stewart, who blushed.
"Fuck, I didn't mean that. And you were a quarter mile away, no way you heard me from that far."
"I heard what I heard. What deary? You think that you are the only one to get something from killing the dead?"
"What zombies have you killed?" Stewart shot back.
"I cleaned up your mess with that woman in Chicago."
"She wasn't dead!"
"She moved like it!" Ruben said.
"Whoa! Stop for a minute! Ruben, are you saying you heard me and Stewart talking this morning when we couldn't even see you?" Bill asked.
Ruben nodded, still glaring at Stewart.
"That's…awesome! How far can you hear things?"
Ruben sighed, "I know where you are going with this, but it doesn't work like that. It's not controllable like Stewart's 'Speedy Gonzales' ability or Max seeing the dead everywhere with some 'third eye'. It's more like I kind of wonder about something, then I can hear it. This morning me and Javier were walking the edge of the woods and I wondered where you were, then, I could hear you, and knew which direction you were from where I was. But as soon as I realized I wasn't day dreaming it went away."
Stewart snorted, "Sounds like you got some sort of zombie powered hearing aid. That's fitting old man."
Ruben blinked and looked away, "Could be. But maybe it will be useful. I'll take what I can get."
"Well…okay. You can stay at the trucks, the three of us will find the tracks and follow them if we can. But Ruben if you so much as even think there is something coming, you let us know right away. Trust your gut."
"I will. They already got three hours on you." Ruben said.
"Alright, we're going. Everyone make sure you have water and something to eat. Let's go." Bill said.
"Yessir!" was Stewart's smart comeback, which earned her a reproachful glance from Bill.
Stewart turned back to Ruben and asked, "So, can't you just 'wonder' where Max is and point us in the right direction?"
The old man shook his head, "No."
"Fuck all good that does us then."
"Sorry lady, but my ability didn't come with a set of instructions like yours apparently did. I'm learning it as I go."
"Ruben…just get in the truck. We'll go find him. Honk if anything comes up." Bill said.
Ruben nodded and climbed into the truck, where he locked the doors and settled back to wait.
The other three walked over to the corpse sitting a few feet away from the truck and started circling it, looking for an indication of which way their friend had been carried away. Ruben eased himself into the truck and hit the door lock button on the remote. He hated lying to Bill like that; the man was a decent enough fellow, but some secrets needed to stay that way.
"Stewart, you see anything?" Bill asked a few moments after they had circled the body again.
"No. The day light helps, Bill, but we walked all over this place. If I had to guess though, and I do, I would say they dragged him a few feet, then boosted him up and carried him." Stewart pointed to some scuff marks in the mix of dirt and pea gravel, "See? This mess ends about here. Then we just have a couple of clear foot prints heading off that way."
"Not much of a guess then." Javier said.
"They could have circled around. We'll just make for the trees straight that way and see if we find anything." Responded Stewart.