Free Territory of the Dead (Book 2): Phase Two: Evaluate by Rose Wynters Page B

ready to head back.
     
    All three of us were quiet as we raced across the yard. The mud felt horrible. I was completely caked in it. If it worked, though, and we survived the swarm of zombies that were about to descend on us, it would be worth it. Or so I kept telling myself.
     
    Closing the door behind us, Kellan immediately got to work. He locked the doorknob before pushing the broken down couch in front of it. I checked the other windows, pulling the tattered drapes together as I went. Lucky for us, the windows were well off the ground. It would be nearly impossible for the zombies to even see through one of them, much less use them to get in.
     
    Jayden brought Kellan a heavy blanket to hang over the glass in the door. It would have been better to board it up, too, but I could understand why they hadn't. Should something go wrong, we might need it to escape from.
     
    There were no windows in the wall that faced the porch. The shack would have been useless, had they been there. Boarded up or not, it would have made it too easy for the zombies to come in. As it stood, they only had two possible entry points. The back door, if they could break through it, or the front door. It would have to do.
     
    Kellan pushed away from the door, turning back around to stare at us. “What do we do now?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.
     
    He shrugged as he replied, “We wait.”
     
    And that's what we did.
     

Chapter 6
     
    The three of us made strange bedfellows as we sat next to each other and waited. The zombies had been there for awhile. They'd descended upon the small yard and shack, shuffling across the small porch as they moaned and wailed in hunger. Sometimes they banged into the walls or doors. Whether it was intentional or not, I didn't know, but it was scary, all the same.
     
    My heart felt like it stopped each time they did it. Were they aware of the three humans within, or were they just loafing about? I wondered how long we would be trapped here, and whether we'd make it out alive. A million different thoughts raced through my mind.
     
    My muscles were cramped from sitting in one precise position for so long, but I was afraid to move. The fear alone was enough to drive me insane. To distract myself, I forced my thoughts away from the sounds they made. It was hard to do. Eventually, I thought of my parents. Were they worried, yet? After all, they thought we were only making a run into Pleasant.
     
    Jayden's face looked wary in the muted light from the windows. I couldn't imagine what he felt like, being all alone without anyone to care about him. On my other side, Kellan looked as if he didn't have a care in the world. Was he really not that worried, or was it just a mask? The man was an expert when it came to hiding his true feelings.
     
    In the real world, Kellan wouldn't have been caught dead with people like us. Even if we would have met, he would have remained remote and distant. We would have never spent any great length of time together, and we certainly wouldn't have been close enough to ever visit his home. There was no common ground between us and him.
     
    The apocalypse had brought those invisible lines down, though. In this world, we had no choice but to rely on each other. And although Kellan didn't necessarily have to have us, somewhere in his mind, we served a purpose. Jayden, because he was additional manpower, but I hadn't figured mine out, yet.
     
    My body trembled as my muscles visibly showed the strain they were under. “Relax,” Kellan muttered, his voice barely a whisper. “They might suspect we are here, but they aren't certain. Otherwise, they'd be hammering at the doors and walls, instead of just walking around.”
     
    I nodded, slightly shifting my body around on the hard floor. After this, I doubted I would want to sit again for a long, long time.
     
    The minutes, and then hours, passed by slowly. Physically, it was definitely on my top five of worst moments. The