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But I have to tell you, even though I d seen the same things he d seen, been through the same shit he d
been through& I still held on to the slender reed of hope he d managed to kill in himself.
I mean, it was possible They (whoever They were) had built a wall to separate the West from the East,
a way to protect half the population from the outbreak, and if They had made the virus, or whatever it was
that had started this nightmare, that They could fix it someday.
Right?
 Or maybe the ones who told you about  different zombies were the same ones who go on and on
about cures and scientists? Dave continued with a humorless laugh.
 I heard there really are some scientists working on the cure, the medium build of the three guys said,
though he sounded less certain than he had when they all sat down.  Maybe even in protected labs right
here in the West.
Dave let his fork hit his plate with a clatter.  Pipe dreams, boys. You should know better by now. What
we can trust are the things we can see. Weapons, the camps, a vehicle that still has half a tank of fuel.
That shit is real. Everything else&  He waved his hand in the air.  Illusion. Like Santa and the Tooth
Fairy.
The men shifted uncomfortably and Dave returned his attention to my plate.
 Done? he asked.
I ate the last few bites and nodded.  Yeah.
 I m beat. Let s find a tent and call it good. He grabbed my plate and my hand, gave the now silent and
sullen men a quick nod, and we took off toward the exit.
As he set our dishes into an overflowing tray, I gave him a side look.  You know, there may still be
some good in the world. I wish you wouldn t give up on that idea entirely.
He didn t answer as we entered the tent city area of the camp. A few hundred tents, scavenged and
traded by survivors, were set up in long rows that repeated and repeated out in front of us. There were
everything from small child-sized ones with Dora the Explorer s tattered, stained face on the outside, to
orange ones a family probably once took out into the mountains for a weekend, to military-grade outfits
that slept ten or twelve people.
Dave paused as he scanned a sign-up sheet by the sleeping area for a tent that had two cots
available. Once he had found one and had marked it as taken, he began steering me in that direction.
I figured he wasn t going to respond to what I d said, but as we ducked into the tent he d signed us up
for (a four-man sleeper), he turned toward me.
 Look, it s not that I have no hope. I believe there s plenty of  good right here. And we re doing okay,
right? The infected are a lot less active toward us now, and we ve got a pretty fucking good system for
killing them. We re together and that s what matters to me.
He hesitated and here came the but.
 But I have no illusions that all that bullshit about a future without these monsters is going to happen.
They wiped out the entire West in about two weeks, Sarah. There s no way they could be stopped. Not by
a wall or a scientist toiling in some borderline cartoon lab. I just can t waste too much energy praying and
looking for it.
I stared at him, uncertain how to respond when he laid out a future for us that held nothing but faint
reassurance that we d survive, but never get back to any kind of normal life.
Luckily, I didn t have to answer, because at that moment another couple entered the tent to claim the
other two cots in the room. I forced a smile because we knew the two of them a little and liked them even
more.
Josh and Drea, who had found each other a few weeks after the outbreak (though they were so
perfect together that you d never know they hadn t been together for ten years). They were about our age
and shared a similar and rather snarky sense of humor with us. We had exchanged some zombie-killing
stories that had left us sobbing with laughter.
 Hi guys, Josh said with a broad smile you hardly ever saw on a survivor. But his good humor was
somehow still intact even after the hell of infection and death.  We saw your names on the sheet and
figured we d share a tent tonight.
Dave forced a quick smile, but I thought I saw a little relief in his eyes. Like he didn t really want to talk
to me about the unknown future anymore.
 So you guys hear anything new? Dave asked as he took off the backpack he d grabbed from our van
and started laying out our blankets and inflatable pillows for the night.
Drea shrugged as she smoothed pieces of her pixie-cut blond hair out of her pretty face.  Naw. Just
the usual. Death, maiming, destruction, killing the walking dead. You know. Same old, same old.
 Well, TGIF, right? I laughed.
 Is it Friday? Josh asked.
I shrugged.  I don t know. I lost track months ago.
We all grinned, even Dave, and then Drea asked,  Did you see you have a message on the board?
I looked at Dave. Normally we checked the big tack board in the center of the camp as soon as we got
in, but tonight we d both been distracted.
 A call for an exterminator? Dave asked as he flopped down on his cot with an exhausted sigh.
Drea shrugged.  I don t know. It didn t say specifically.
I tilted my head in surpise. Normally messages for us were pretty fucking clear. Like,  get the fuck over
here, there are zombies kind of clear.
 Do you want to go look? I asked Dave. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]