Static Screams

A small bedroom in the back of the house was a perfect place for Lila and the babies. Logan helped me craft makeshift cribs out of dresser drawers and cushions from chairs on the back porch, and the two babies fell asleep quickly.

I left Darren and Peter to sort through everything left in the van, after Darren smartly decided to hide it in the barn. After making sure the babies were sleeping, and that Lila’s leg was elevated so her ankle wouldn’t swell, Logan gave a small nod and left the room.

I sat on the mattress, eyeing Lila again. The late afternoon sun shone through the window, falling across her face. She was incredibly pale, like I’d noticed earlier, but she’d always been pale. She had a few bumps and bruises, I imagine from the fall Darren told me about, but seemed relatively unharmed. She was dressed sloppily in an oversized t-shirt and basketball shorts, which I imagined to be either Darren’s or Peter’s. I brushed the stray hair off her forehead, before turning my attention to her ankle. It was bruised, an ugly purple spreading across, but it hadn’t swollen too much.

I grabbed a discarded t-shirt from the floor and tore it into strips, before gently wrapping it around her ankle and foot. I couldn’t do much more than that, but I felt a little better anyway, like I had contributed something.

Sitting down on the mattress again, I grabbed her hand and just held it for a moment. I felt so guilty that I wasn’t there for her when she needed me, that although Peter and Logan and Darren were with her when she gave birth, she was alone because I wasn’t there. I was thankful for the others for taking care of her, but I was beating myself up because I wasn’t there. I rode off into the sunset with all my heroism, leaving her and Scarlett and the others to fend for themselves. “Idiot,” I muttered to myself, rubbing my free hand over my face. “You fucking idiot.”

“Don’t do that, Holland,” Lila’s raspy voice spoke. She squeezed my hand back. “You found us.”

I looked at her, and dammit if I wasn’t crying again. I all but fell across her, hugging her as gently as I could. “I shouldn’t have left you.”

She pushed me off of her, and I helped her sit up. Her eyes were still cloudy, still in dreamland. I propped a few pillows behind her. “You did what you had to do,” she smiled. “I’m going to assume the change of scenery is because of you, as well?”

I wiped my eyes, and nodded. “Well, it was sort of a team decision.”

Lila smiled sleepily. “I knew you’d find us. You kept me alive this long.” She closed her eyes again, taking a deep breath. “Gonna assume you’ve met your godchildren as well?”

“Godchildren?” I raised my brow.

She nodded, eyes still closed. “You’re the closest thing to a father they’ll ever have, anyway. But Ryan and I talked about it once; if we ever had kids, you were going to be their godfather. That’s how he wanted it.”

“What about how you wanted it?” I asked, looking to my lap.

She stifled a yawn, and opened her eyes enough to meet mine. “All I ever wanted was to know that, if anything happened to me or Ryan, our children would be safe.” She gave a small smile. “I know that if anything happens to me, you’ll do anything for them. You’ve already done everything for me.”

Her eyes slipped shut again, and I sighed. I moved to stand, but before I could, she took hold of my hand again. “Holland?”

“Yeah?”

“Please find Scarlett,” she mumbled. “If anyone can, it’s you.”

I frowned to myself. “Lila, I can’t leave you again.”

“Last time I saw her, I slapped her,” Lila said. “I can’t let that be my last memory of her, okay?”

I felt conflicted, my thoughts racing through at a million miles an hour. After a moment, I replied. “Okay, but I’m going to get you cleaned up first,” I shook my head. “You smell like ass.”

“You look like ass,” she muttered back, before she fell asleep again.

A few hours and a battle between a sleeping Lila versus a sponge bath later, Logan was feeding Hollyn with formula she had scrounged up while Darren and I talked through a game plan.

“I really don’t want to wait,” Darren said. “I feel like too much time has passed already, I need to help Scarlett.”

“I get that,” I nodded, “but going out there in the middle of the night isn’t going to be the smartest move. Just because the Zoms have stayed out of sight doesn’t mean they’re not there.” I took a sip of water before I continued. “Besides, you guys have already said multiple times these people are psycho; even if you do find them, I don’t see it going well if you fly solo.”

Peter spoke from the other side of the den, where he had been quietly contemplating our discussion. “What about the tunnels?”

“What tunnels?” I asked.

“There’s a series of tunnels that run under downtown, straight to the sewer system,” Darren explained. “That’s where Lila fell.”

“I’m just thinking,” Peter continued, “they know we exist. They know they’ve been shortchanged a blonde and a pregnant redhead. We know they came back once right after the attack looking to finish Darren off. The only reason they didn’t find him is because we were in the tunnel.” He paused for a moment. “If we can lead them into the tunnel, someone under the store front and someone where it ends, we can take them out.”

“The only problem with that,” Darren said, “is that there’s more than just the ones that attacked us.”

“That’s true,” Peter nodded. “But if we can take down even a few of them, that’s a few less for everyone to worry about.”

Candlelight flickered across everyone’s face, casting shadows across the walls. “I think that may be the best option,” Darren finally said. “I guess since we know they’re already looking for us, that would be our best plan.”

“Someone would have to stay here, though,” Peter said. “We can’t let anything happen to Lila or the babies.”

“I’ll stay,” Logan spoke from her end of the couch. At some point during the exchange, she’d swapped Hollyn for Ryanna, who took the bottle happily. “Lila and I make a pretty good team.”

I didn’t doubt that, not for a second. I didn’t like the idea of leaving her, but I told her I would find Scarlett. This would be the best I could do for the moment. “Okay, so, how are we going to do this?”

Late into the night, we discussed our plan.

By sunrise, we were ready.