“We’re going to have to do it later anyway.”
“Where’re the coats?”
By the time they finished bringing everything into the house, Jamie had awakened. Dressed in sweatpants and little else, he shivered as Dakota packed the last box into the house and pushed the door shut behind him.
“It’s freezing,” Jamie said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I noticed,” Dakota chuckled. He carried the box in the kitchen and set it down next to the others, smiling as Jamie came up behind him and took in the sight. “You sleep all right?”
“Yup. Why?”
“You look a bit…disgruntled.” Desmond chuckled in the background. Jamie smirked and reached up to scratch the stubble sprinkling his cheeks and upper lip.
“I always look like this in the morning. I’m fine though. I might put Desmond in a headlock for being a little shit, but everything’s good.”
“Hey!” Desmond cried, laughing as he jumped over a box to disappear into the side hall. “I’m an innocent bystander here!”
“Like hell you are,” Jamie chuckled, sprinting after the boy.
Laughing, Dakota slipped his coat off his shoulders and set it onto the rack, leaning into the kitchen to see if he could catch a glimpse of Jamie in his mad pursuit. A secondary hall he hadn’t seen before opened just outside of the south threshold and led into what appeared to be dead end. Dakota burst out laughing when he heard a squeal emit from the other room.
“Got ‘im,” Jamie said, carrying the boy out upside-down with his arm pressed against Desmond’s abdomen.
“Just don’t drop me,” Desmond laughed.
“You should’ve known you can’t outrun me in my own house.”
“I figured as much.”
After giving Desmond a slight shake, Jamie tossed the boy onto the couch and settled down next to him, taking a moment to compose himself before looking up at Dakota. His smile widened the moment their eyes met. “Want me to catch you next?”
“You’ll do that eventually, believe me.”
“I sure will,” Jamie purred.
“Eww,” Desmond groaned, laughing shortly thereafter.
“Don’t subject him to your lewd ways,” Dakota chuckled, smacking Jamie back into the couch before crawling on top of him.
“He’s probably heard worse,” Jamie smirked.
“Don’t you know it,” the boy laughed. He peeked his head up over the couch and tilted his head to the side. “Is that…?”
“What?”
“That SUV.”
Dakota looked out the window.
He saw Steve in the front seat and bolted.
“Fucking hell!” Steve laughed, stumbling back as Dakota threw himself into his arms. “You guys are here!”
“Thank God,” Dakota cried, grabbing his friend’s face and planting a kiss on his lips. “Thank God you’re all right.”
“Your mouth tastes like shit, Koda.”
“Fuck you!” Dakota laughed, pushing Steve back a few steps. He walked around the car only to be immediately enveloped in Ian’s arms.
“Great to see you, kid.”
“You too,” Dakota said, looking into the car and at the makeshift curtains that separated the front and the back seats. “Where’s Erik?”
“In the back. He’s had a migraine for the past day,” Steve replied, looking up as Jamie and Desmond stepped out of the house. He waved a hand in greeting. “Hey, guys!”
“Where’s Erik?” Jamie cried out, quickening his pace across the lawn.
“In the back. He’s got a headache.”
The relief in Jamie’s face was more than obvious.
“I’m good,” Erik said, climbing out from the backseat. “My head’s just killing me.”
“It’s great to see you again,” Dakota said, setting an arm across the man’s back.
“You too,” Erik lifted his head to look at Jamie as he approached. “Hey.”
“Hey buddy,” Jamie said, wrapping his friend into a hug. “Everything go ok?”
“Some weird shit happened back in Wyoming,” Ian said.
“Like what?”
“He’ll tell you inside,” Erik said. “It’s freezing out here.”
“It wasn’t a zombie?” Jamie frowned.
“No,” Steve said. “It wasn’t.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“What makes sense anymore?” Dakota asked, looking up at Steve. “You said it talked to you?”
“It said ‘go’ and ‘run.’ Then it pointed toward a group of zombies that had just walked out of a store.”
“So it’s not a zombie,” Jamie said, “but it isn’t human either.”
“It smelled like fruit,” Ian said. “That wasn’t just me, was it?”
“No,” Steve said. “I smelled it.”
“I did too,” Erik said, bowing his face into his hand. “I thought I was smelling things because my head was hurting so bad.”
“You should go lay down,” Jamie said.
“I don’t need to lay down.”
“No, seriously—go. Even if you don’t want to go to sleep, just get on the couch. I don’t want you stressing yourself out just because you think you need to be awake.”
“I’ll go close the curtains,” Desmond said, making his way into the living room.
“I’ll go,” Erik sighed.
“Feel better,” Steve said.
Erik gave them a nod before disappearing into the living room.
“Have you told them the plan?” Dakota asked.
“We plan on putting a wall around the three houses,” Jamie said, offering a small smile when he received two uneasy looks. “It’s the safest course of action if we want to stay here.”
“Why the three?” Steve asked.
“The house next door is Erik’s. I’m surprised he didn’t mention it.”
“I’m not sure he cares about much of anything right now,” Ian said. “Poor guy. We couldn’t do much to help him, but we fixed up the back of the SUV the best we could.”
“He’ll get over it,” Jamie sighed. He looked up at Dakota. “What do you say, babe?”
“Huh?”
“Tomorrow morning, me, you and Steve.”
“To get the U-Haul, you mean.”
“Wait, what?” Steve asked.
“It’s gonna take a lot of shit to get this done,” Jamie said. “I want it done right.”
Jamie strapped his machine gun across his back and eased a clip of ammo into his holster. “You guys know the plan, right?”
“Yeah,” Dakota said, sliding into the truck’s back seat. “Get to the U-Haul, get the truck, then get over to the home department store.”
“Then get the fuck out of there after we have everything we need,” Steve said, closing the passenger door.
“Exactly.” Jamie crawled into the truck. “Ready, guys?”
Both of them nodded.
Jamie pushed the key into the ignition and started the vehicle.
It took them less than thirty minutes to get from the house to the U-Haul place. Once there, they broke the glass to the front entrance, then spent the next fifteen minutes combing through keys to try and find the biggest truck possible. By the time they found it, they’d been gone for an hour and the sky showed no signs of brightening.
“Hopefully it doesn’t snow,” Jamie said, adjusting his place in the truck. He grimaced as they rounded a corner, the muscles in his arms bulging as he tightening his grip on the steering wheel. “Shit.”
“What?” Steve asked.
“Just not used to driving something so big.”
“Just watch out for the bridges,” Dakota said.
“That’d be our luck—we’d go under a bridge and get our heads chopped off by falling debris.”
“Just make sure it doesn’t happen,” Steve laughed.
Nodding, Jamie narrowed his eyes and pushed his foot onto the brake as they crested a rise in the road. Once at the top, the vehicle lurched forward, stopped, then began to roll forward, but Jamie applied more pressure and pointed toward something to their right. “See that?” he asked.