Zero

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

"You remind me of this friend I had, you know," Zoe says a couple hours into our walk.

She has not stopped talking since we left.

She sounds bubbly and cheerful, but it's forced to mask the fear or something. Everything about her comes off as fake and insincere to me but I try to look past it because I think it's just the nerves won't let her shut up. Squirrel gets the same way sometimes. But Squirrel is a thirteen year old kid, Zoe is twenty. She'll be twenty-one next month though, I know this because she told us. Nervous energy affects different people in different ways, but I'm really close to getting this girl a muzzle.

"Really?" I ask dryly.

"Yep. Most people didn't like her," she says with a shrug.

Hunter doesn't bother to restrain his laughter. In front of me his shoulders are shaking and if we were on better terms right now, I'd make him regret laughing. But after what I said this afternoon, Hunter hasn't exactly been speaking to me.

"Oh," she says. "That sounded bad. I mean that she wasn't very outgoing, you know. In high school she wasn't in any clubs or sports. Were you like that?"

"I was a cheerleader."

Her eyes grow comically large as I'm sure she tries to picture me cheering on a football team. When she regains her composure, her smile is wide.

"Me too!" She beams that we've found something in common. I don't think she really believes we won't trade her, so she's trying her damnedest to make sure we like her too much to sell her back to those people. She doesn't realize I'd like her more if she would shut up. "I was on the team at LSU too."

We walk on for a solid minute in silence and I'm almost relieved that she's decided to stop forcing conversation until she starts up again.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Why stop now?"

"Did you all know each other? Like before?"

"No."

"How'd you manage to find each other?"

"Luck."

"Oh," she smiles sweetly. "Well, I guess I'm lucky then too."

"Why don't we stop here for the night?" Hunter says. It's obvious he was listening in to our conversation because that interruption was too perfectly timed to keep me from correcting Zoe about why she's with us and informing her that she won't be staying with us.

"Seems kind of early to be stopping," I point out.

The sun hasn't completely set yet. We have another hour of daylight and can cover a lot of distance if we move it. We got an earlier start than expected and I had hoped to get a good three hours of travel in tonight.

"You've been awake since before dawn," he reminds me without so much as a glance in my direction. "We should stop now. We'll move quick and make it tomorrow."

Without another word Hunter finds the first decent area he can and sets up the only tent we have. We're off the main road enough that we shouldn't be seen, that's not a mistake we're going to make more than once. Thankfully there are enough trees in this part of the country that we should have plenty of coverage no matter where we stop. He doesn't ask for help and he moves like a man working out aggression. It probably shouldn't, but it makes me glad to know he's having as much trouble being around me as I am around him.

"Is he always so... intense?" Zoe whispers to me.

"No. He's usually really friendly."

"Oh," she says pursing her lips together. "So, what happened?"