2 | We Are Survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse | ✅

Chapter 15 - Another Gone

Turns out, there are actually two other people we can trust. Well, three, if you count the dog.

Mara, Rogan, and Pirate listen to Doyle in silence as he explains our situation to them, and what we're asking them to do.

Izzy wasn't too happy about us going to Rogan, of all people, for help, but considering we're trying to save Seth and there's really no other option, she settled for it.

"So you want us to spy on this Matt guy for you?" Mara asks when Doyle is finished, "Because you think he's the one who took Seth?"

"Yes," Doyle confirms, "And I know it's a lot to ask, and that it's dangerous, because if he's willing to abduct somebody, there's no telling what else he'll do, but...y'all are really our only hope."

"Well, um....." Mara looks at Rogan questioningly.

He scratches his chin through his short beard before saying, "We'll do it. On one condition." He looks at Izzy, his gray eyes piercing, "She stops hitting me."

There is a heavy silence in which the two of them stare each other down before finally, with a sigh of defeat, Izzy mumbles, "Fine. But after we find him, things are back to normal."

"Deal."

+++++

It's my turn to follow him first. I wait outside of his house just before dawn, crouching in some prickly bushes that I've been concealed in since our late-night meeting ended.

The lights are all of in the house at the moment, but the lamp in the living has been turned on at least three times during the time I've been here.

I walked around the house at one point, and discovered an old outdoor cellar entrance. But it was locked with a chain and impossible to open without making a ton of noise.

If Matt's holding Seth anywhere in this house, it would be in that basement. Damn, I wish I could get in there.

A few minutes after sunrise, Matt leaves the house and heads down the street.

I follow him.

I tail him to the med center, where he speaks briefly (and too quietly for me to hear) with a female nurse with a sour face.

After their short conversation, they part ways, and she starts in the direction of his house, while he heads toward Ellie's "headquarters".

Who should I follow?! Damn it! I decide to keep following him. I'll discuss the nurse with Doyle later.

+++++

A week has passed since Seth was taken. I've barely seen Natalia since it happened. She's probably avoiding us since she got her ass kicked by Izzy at Food City the day Doyle was attacked.

Georgie hangs out with us at Food City. We don't tell her about Seth's disappearance, because, as terrible as it is, we can't trust anyone outside of our little spy group. Not even Georgie. Izzy was raving mad when we told her that Georgie couldn't be let in on things. Apparently she really has warmed up to the girl.

We've been following Matt and the nurse woman, whose name is Hattie, we've discovered, but we can't seem to catch them in the act of doing anything suspicious.

They're being really careful, if they're even doing anything at all. Which I'm pretty sure they are. Izzy insisted that we keep an eye on Natalia as well, but we won't allow her to do that, considering she wants to kill her. Mara is the one in charge of Natalia most of the time.

Right now, we're gathered in Rogan and Mara's room, talking in hushed voices about what our suspects have been up to today. Which is nothing much, unfortunately.

Mara is the only person absent, and Pirate is with her, following Natalia around dutifully.

Rogan doesn't seem to enjoy being separated from the two of them for hours on end, but he's strangely compliant. But he has been in a better mood since Mara showed up. And also since he got his weapons back. Fortunately for him, when Ellie came to take them back into custody, they had some nice long, civilized talk and she decided to let him keep them.

I watched her tell Matt this, and he didn't seem too happy about it. But if I was trying to get away with doing something terrible like abducting someone, the last person I'd want on my tail, armed to the teeth, would be Rogan.

"Well Izzy, you get back out there and watch the nurse," Doyle says, and she nods, leaving us.

"I'll watch Matt, and Wynne, you try to get some rest," he continues, looking at me. He turns to Rogan, "Feel free to do whatever you want."

We split up, and I retreat to my bedroom (which is now Doyle-less) and try to take a nap. I was watching Matt's house all last night. Hattie was there, she went in, but never came out.

Of course, there are many logical explanations for this: they board together, like all of us, or they're hooking up, or there's a side door that she went out of and didn't walk into my sight on the road. But what I think? That Seth's in there, and they're doing something that has something to do with him, together.

I drift in and out of sleep for a while. I'm in the middle of a terrifying dream where we find Seth in the basement of Matt's house, and he's been turned into a zombie.

Just as he lunges at me, there's a shout from downstairs that jars me from the nightmare.

I rush out of the room and scramble down the stairs, into the living room, where I'm met with a dreadful scene.

Pirate stands on the tiled kitchen floor, blood dribbling down one of his back legs. His whimpers fill the room as Rogan kneels beside him, dabbing at the wound with a towel.

"What happened?" I gasp, rushing to the dog and petting his head in what I hope is a reassuring way.

"Somebody shot him." Rogan mutters, picking up a pair of scissors and beginning to cut the fur around the wound. "And Mara was with him."

"Is she here? Is she okay?"

He doesn't answer, but his silence is enough to tell me that she's not here. And more than likely not okay.

"I'll get Doyle," I say, reaching for my boots and pulling them on, "We'll find her. She'll be okay."

I'm getting my coat as Rogan finishes examining Pirate. He turns to me as I open the door. "Don't worry about getting Doyle. We won't need him for what we're going to do."

"We're taking Pirate to the doctor?" Stupid question, Wynne.

"It's just a graze, he'll be fine. I cleaned him up," Rogan replies, hefting his AK-47 over his shoulder. I look at Pirate, who is now lying down, chewing on a large.....deer leg, wherever that came from, his wound seemingly forgotten.

"What we're going to do has nothing to do with Pirate," Rogan says ominously, stepping out onto the porch.

Cautiously, I follow him. What does he have in mind? The look in his icy eyes - one of pure rage - sends shivers down my spine. Whatever it is he's going to do, it's not going to end well for the one on the receiving end of that rage