Life After the Undead (Completed)

PART 8: Road Trip .4

Connor's P.O.V.

Brandon was forcing us to move at a break neck speed. I couldn't understand why either, we didn't know the area, it was dangerous for us to be out in the open for this long. I mean I get that car was destroyed and he had to get us to the meet place before Evelyn left but this was ridiculous.

"I refuse to believe that she won't wait for us," I told Brandon. He was in a horrible mood but I couldn't help but push his buttons. He was my brother it was what I was supposed to do.

He rounded on me quickly. "Let me make this clear Connor," he growled. "Evelyn will only wait twenty-four hours. That's if we're lucky. If we're not there by sun up tomorrow we can kiss our lives good-bye cause we won't survive another night without her!"

"We're doing fine on our own now," I reminded him. Brandon growled but continued to basically speed walk forward, fairly leaving us behind. Even Steven was fussing, and he wasn't even walking, he was just in Lena's arms.

"Shut him up," Brandon barked and behind him Lena made a face at him.

"There's no need to talk to us like that. We're trying to keep up!" I snapped back sticking up for my sister. Brandon was nearly seething with rage. I had honestly never seen him like that before.

"I'm trying to save us," Brandon repeated for the millionth time. He whirled around and continued walking apparently not caring if he left us behind.

"There has to be a way to call Evelyn," I called after him, refusing to move. Brandon stopped at that point. He turned to look at me and I saw something on his face I had never seen before.

He came at me faster than I ever expected. He didn't stop when Lena screamed in horror and he had me pinned against an abandoned car before I could even try to defend myself.

"You wanna know what it's like in a radio building? A free one? One that doesn't belong to a drifter?" he snarls.

"They sit in there and think of traps and then call out on the empty frequencies for anyone to hear. They say they need help, that they're hurt, and can someone come save them. Then they take the people who come to help them and they torture them and kill them," he snarled into face and to be honest I hadn't known any of this at the time. "Do you know what Collectors are?"

I shook my head and he continued.

"These people look for a type, it could be a zombie or a person and they take them and they capture them. Some make you fight one another, or zombies, some sell you to others for bits and pieces or as a piece of meat, some keep you as trophies. Others make you fuck or get fucked by whatever they can find that's entertaining."

I was shaking, I knew the world was bad but I never really got out into it. I was always safe in our apartment building.

"The world has a lot worse in it than the Drifters and the undead. I've sheltered you from most of it, but if you don't keep up, you're going to learn the hard way what happens to good people who care about others out here in the real world."

He let me go and everything around me got a little fuzzy. I tried to keep the lump in my throat from choking me as I forced myself to keep up with him, but Lena refused to move anymore and I found myself torn between keeping up with the person who could save us and the sister who needed my protection.

"Brandon! Come on! Wait!" I called after him.

He turned around, took in the sight of our angry faces and I knew immediately when his eyes began to scan the area that he was going to leave us behind.

"Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I need to get to Evelyn and you guys are slowing me down," he told us as he was approaching us.

That lump in my throat tightened considerably worried that we would end up like our friends on the bus. Brandon must have seen this in my eyes because he softened and put an arm around both of us and pulled us in close.

"I'm going to find you guys somewhere safe to stay until I find Evelyn and then I'll come back, I promise."

Lena seemed to take his words as truth almost immediately but I had my doubts. "You promise?" I ask sounding just like a child needing reassurance.

Brandon smiled in a soft and wistful way before repeating: "I promise," a little more firmly.

He led us off towards the buildings to set us up with a safe place, a temporary place to keep us until he came back with Evelyn. The problem was, once we had our place, we realized we didn't know how long it was going to take Brandon and when I figured he had been gone for too long, I convinced Lena to go in search of him. And really, that's how everything went horribly wrong.