Alone Among the Living Dead

Part Three

“It’s in Japan—there’s no way we can get there!” Trevor exclaimed, looking at the atlas he’d found in one of the abandoned offices inside the Empire States Building.

He closed the book and sat there at the large conference table, his arms folded akimbo and his body drawn into itself, sulking.

“Trevor, geez… There’s no reason to get so upset over something that really can’t be helped. We don’t even know if what Lynn heard has any merit.” Liberty glanced over at Lynn as she spoke, trying to gauge her response to the truth of the statement and her brother’s childish behaviour.

“You’re right, I have no idea if the news is true or if the camp in Setagaya even exists, but what else do we have to go on at this point?” She stared out the window down at the street below, her eyes seeming to search the faces of the living dead she could see below. “But if there’s hope, I’d rather go searching for it than ignore it completely.”

Liberty knew what she was searching for—a familiar face—and understood her need for hope. Once upon a time, she’d felt it too. Had actively searched for a silver lining at the end of each day, more often than not counting a day survived as the only triumph in a long line of devastating defeats. Her heart was tired of fighting the despair, but she knew the moment she let it take hold of her, she’d stop trying.

And the only thing that kept her trying each and every day was a little smidgen of hope. With the news there may be a cure, and the arrival of another living person, her stores of hope had bolstered and expanded a fraction.

“Trevor, whether or not Setagaya exists, or we ever find a way to get there, we still need to get out of Manhattan.”

Lynn’s eyes snapped to Liberty’s face, “You’re going to leave? Have you got a route planned?”

Trevor piped up quickly, his voice still twinged with sullenness, “We’re going to take the I-78 and go over the Hudson. There’s no way we’re going underground again.”

Liberty and Trevor shared a shudder as Lynn got lost in her own reverie for a moment.

“That sounds like a decent plan, mind if Stanley and I come with?” Her eyes searched their faces for any negative sign that might pass between then; when she saw none, she started to calm a little. It had been hard on her own for the past few days and to find another group around her own age that didn’t seem like they’d harm her at the first possible moment was more luck than she’d normally have counted on.

Not that she trusted them quite yet, but it looked like things were off to a better start now than this morning. She still couldn’t quite shake the feeling Martin was still alive out there, her eyes back to searching the slack faces for the confirmation her belief was wrong. If Martin was alive, where was he and why had he left her alone for so long?

Liberty spoke before Trevor could answer, “If you can keep up, you can come. But understand one thing—if you do anything to slow us down, we will leave you.”

The words of warning were harsh, but Lynn understood them completely. There was no room for dead weight on this team.

Copyright © 2016 Julianne Snow