You're Hoping For A Taste

Every nerve in my body is alive, every wire, every synapse. This is the 'fight or flight' reflex, I know it is, and currently I'm doing neither. My legs are itching to run, my hands are wanting to lash out. Kellin is crouched next to me, his eyes bright in the darkness.

They're circling our little clearing, edging outwards, and with each step they're closer to discovering us. We're sitting ducks, and I know we need to do something, but I can't think. My mind is whirring round and round in a haze of confusion, a tornado dotted with debris. Somewhere amidst all that chaos is the way out, but I can't get to it.

“We know you're here!” that first voice calls out. Male, slight Southern accent, even I can discern that. “Why don't you just come on out?”

Kellin meets my eyes. He's biting on his bottom lip, deep in thought. He's trying to work out how to save us, but he's already done that twice. I feel useless, helpless; I can't let him sacrifice himself for me. I'm going to have to do something.

Kellin must see it in my eyes, because suddenly his widen. He grips my arms as though he's pinning me here with him, as though he's afraid the wind will pick me up and take me away, but he's not going to stop me. He doesn't know what I'm about to do, he can't know, yet he's still shaking his head at me.

“Trust me,” I whisper, my voice breathy and barely audible. “Please.”

“No!” he whispers back, and as quiet as it is there's so much force behind it that a rush of doubt overtakes me for a second.

A twig cracks, a beam of light sweeps by; they're almost upon us. “We're not going to hurt you,” the man drawls.

It's now or never.

Kellin is leaning all his weight on me, trying to keep me in place, but I manage to wriggle free, scrambling to my feet. “If you don't want to hurt me then what do you want?” I don't know how I find my voice, and the words still shake, but I get them out.

Three men stand in the clearing, three guns trained on me, three torches illuminating the darkness. They're tall, broad-shouldered. They could kill me quite easily.

One man's face suddenly splits into a grin. “Ah, finally,” he says. Even those two words are sickly sweet, dripping with mock friendliness.

“What do you want?” I repeat. I'm shivering from a mixture of fear and cold, and no matter how hard I try I can't stop.

The man completely ignores my question. “Is that your car out on the road?”

“Yes,” I answer. “It broke down.”

“Well isn't that a shame,” he says; he doesn't sound sympathetic in the slightest. “We were wondering if we might have it for parts.”

“Do you know where I could find another car? I need one.” I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm just stalling, buying time for something. But it's worth a shot asking.

He smiles at me. He's badly in need of a shave and his cheeks are gaunt, out-of-proportion with his large frame. It makes his head look too small for his body. “Information like that comes at a price.”

“You can have the parts of my car if you tell me where I can get a new one. Even if it's just a car you've seen on your way here that looked alright, that's all I need.” I sound desperate, and I don't know why I'm thinking this bargain will work.

He glances at his two friends and they share smiles, but they're not smiles I like. They're trying so hard to be friendly but there's nothing friendly about them. They're false, and I know this is going to end badly.

My heart is pumping so loud, blood roaring in my ears, that I barely hear what he says next. “I don't think car parts will be enough. We might require something extra.”

Out of the corner of my eye I see Kellin snap to attention. His eyes are unfocussed because every part of him is listening.

“You can have some of my food,” I offer, but even to my ears my voice sounds half-hearted.

The man's smile stretches. “Oh it's not food that we want.”

I don't quite understand why Kellin looks like such a rabbit caught in the headlights next to me until the man starts taking a few steps forwards and I see that leer on his face, that hunger in his eyes, and I think how could I have been so stupid?

“A pretty little thing like you,” he goes on, edging closer as though I'm a deer about to bolt, “all by herself. It gets lonely, doesn't it?”

And that's when I realise yes it does, because Kellin is gone.

I don't know when he left. I didn't see him go. But all I know is that the space he once occupied is empty. I was too wrapped up in that man to see Kellin creep away, abandoning me. Why save me twice if you're just going to run away the third time?

A twig cracks off to the left, followed by a distant, keening moan. A Walker. We all look in the direction of the sound, trying to make out any movement but I see nothing. As if my heart isn't already thumping hard enough, it starts trying to beat its way out of me. I feel an angry blush surface in my face, and I hope that Kellin gets ripped to shreds out there, cowering in the dark.

The man's smile falters. “Find it and kill it,” he says to the other two. They go trudging off into the darkness, and they may try and act all strong and tough but you can see the fear in their eyes. It rolls off them in waves, a tangible feeling. We're all just as scared as each other.

The man waits there, his smile entirely gone now. He doesn't even look at me, just stares off in the direction his friends went. I could make a run for it now, but he'd catch me, and the thought of stumbling into a Walker in the dark, weapon-less, makes me freeze up even more.

A scream cuts through the night, shrill and coarse. It makes my ears ring. Another voice starts calling, “Karl? Karl!”

“Shit,” the man says angrily. His fingers are twitching against the trigger of his gun.

Movement behind the man catches my eye, and suddenly his back is arching and he's toppling to the ground and he's screaming louder than that other man. Kellin stands in his place, knife in hand.

“I thought you'd left me!” I blurt out, and now my heart is hammering not just with fear but with relief. He didn't leave me.

He frowns at me in confusion. “What? No, of course not.”

The man cries out, writhing in pain. He's trying to get to his feet, his face screwed up tight, reaching for his gun that skittered away from him. Kellin grabs at the man's jacket pockets and calls to me, “Get our stuff!”

I hurry to the tent, thankful that we thought to pack all our belongings in case we needed to run. I throw Kellin his bag and he catches it with one hand, the other one clutching some car keys.

“Come on,” he says, and I start running after him, but then something grabs hold of my ankle. I hit the ground and look back. The man, blood bubbling between his teeth, is clutching onto me. In his other hand he has his gun again.

“You're dead, you bitch,” he growls at me. I start lashing out but his grip his like a vice; he's not letting go.

Then Kellin's there again, kicking the gun from the man's hand, and then he's helping me to my feet and taking my hand, pulling me after him. We run in the direction of the road, our breathing ragged. We burst from the trees to find a Land Rover parked next to my car. If I could wish for any car to have right now it would be a four-by-four like that, and I almost want to cry at the sight of it.

Kellin unlocks the car and takes my bag from me, throwing our stuff in the back. Behind us I can hear the shrieks of the men in the woods, and right now I would like to go temporarily deaf. Their cries are jarring, the sound of them grating at my mind. Once we're inside the car the screaming is quieter.

Kellin pulls away from the side of the road and the sound disappears altogether. I sit back in my seat but I can't relax. My limbs feel stiff with energy. We're silent for a few minutes before Kellin speaks up.

“Why did you think I'd left you?” he asks. His voice sounds so quiet after everything.

I shrug, a little embarrassed. “You'd already basically saved me twice. I just... I guess you don't expect people to really help you out any more, especially if they barely know you.”

Kellin chuckles lightly, a smile touching his lips, and I make an effort to keep the surprise from my face even though he's watching the road. “We're a team now,” he says matter-of-factly, and that's his only answer.

I smile back. “Yeah, we are.”