We head in the opposite direction that the other group went, but Madix doesn’t lose the tension in his body or the way his eyes constantly scan the surroundings. The confrontation spooked all of us. Even hours later, Remi still hasn’t lost the frown on her face, and she’s been uncharacteristically quiet. None of us say a word as we continue to hike down the mountain, and it’s not until late afternoon that Madix finally lets us stop for a break.
The reality of what’s happening in the rest of the country—and probably the world at this point—just stood up and bitch-slapped all of us, and there is a renewed sense of urgency now to make it back to Endstone and to safety. We eat, drink, and get a move on, all without a word, and it isn’t until about hour six on our feet that I just can’t take it anymore.
I’ve been watching Remi and the others, wondering what’s going on in their heads, but then deciding it’s none of my business. I know they’ll talk when they want to, but I hate the tense silence. I’m not an expert when it comes to Remi and her personality, but I doubt she’s ever been this quiet in her life.
“I hate to be that guy who asks how much longer, but seriously, how much longer until we get to Endstone?” I ask.
I already know the answer, because we crashed when we were about a hundred and fifty miles from town, which means it’ll probably take us about four or five days to get back. But I can’t figure out what else to say to get anyone to talk. I figure the,are we there yet,tactic is better than the alternative conversation starter of,so the world around us is dying, how does everyone feel about that?
“We should get there before dinner tomorrow,” Remi announces, and I want to high-five myself for getting her to talk.
“You doing okay?” I ask when she seems like she’s about to fall back into the silence we’ve been wading through all day.
“I’m as good as can be expected,” she deadpans, and for some reason, Madix gives an unamused huff.
“Something you want to get off your chest, Mady?” Remi challenges.
Here we go again.
“We’ve been telling you for days what was going on outside of your little hideaway home. Are you really that shocked by what happened this morning?” Madix grumbles. Remi doesn’t answer right away, and that just seems to make him even more irritated. “Looks like you have no choice but to pull your head out of the sand,” he adds, because he always has to poke the bear. Or in this case, the bear-whisperer.
“My head is about as far from the sand as it can be. So if you don’t want the toe of my boot up your ass, you should shut the fuck up now,” she says, sarcastically chipper.
Madix murmurs a retort. I can’t make out what is, but Remi sure as fuck does, and she whirls on him.
“You don’t know shit about me, where I come from, or what life has taught me. I’m not refusing to accept reality. I’m questioning your claims with good reason, like anynormalperson would. You can think I’m crazy all you want, but what wouldreallybe crazy is to blindly follow three strangers who show up out of nowhere and tell you the world is ending.That’sfucking crazy!”
“So you can fuck us, but not trust us?” Madix retorts.
“News flash, Mady, sex and trust aren’t synonymous.”
Madix just shakes his head, but wisely doesn’t say anything else, opting to brood instead.
Remi yanks out her hair tie, letting her blonde locks trail down her back as she runs her hands through the tangles a few times. “You’re telling me that you’re such a robot, that if you found out about some plague from a stranger, you’d just go with it, and it’d be back to business as usual?”
“No, we don’t work that way either, but it was different for us,” I explain before Madix can let any more of his asshole leak out. “We weren’t in a city seeing things go down firsthand. The news reports were detailing what was happening, but we were safe in Endstone, and the risk of exposure was slim. You never think something like this is going to happen,” I admit, shaking my head. “I mean, how many pandemic scares have we had in the last ten years? They all turn out to be nothing. Then this happens. I still can’t believe it sometimes, but look what happened earlier. We’re obviously not the only ones opting to go out to the wilderness, away from people. That was a really close call this morning. People are sick and dying, Remi.” I hoist my backpack up, my eyes watching Puddles as she swerves between trees up ahead. Remi is quiet, and I honestly don’t blame her for not believing us. Had I been in her shoes, I probably wouldn’t either, but this is too dangerous of a situation to let her continue to live in denial. “When you hear about dystopian events like this, it’s always some big bad war that tears civilization apart.”
“Or a zombie apocalypse,” Theo pipes in. “Although, if we’re going to be dealing with that, I’ll take the slow-walking ones as opposed to theWorld War Zkind. Those fuckers were fast and freaky,” he adds. “We’d all be goners.”
“Speak for yourself. I could Brad Pitt the shit out of fast zombies,” Madix preens, and the guy actually puffs up his chest and does that gorilla walk that men do when their muscles are too big or they’re acting like douches. I’m gonna plead the fifth as to which one of those is Madix right now.
I open my mouth to reply, but suddenly, I see a flash of blonde hair, and then Remi goes full on flying squirrel mode and tackles Madix to the ground. He lets out a painedoomphas she lands on top of him.
Madix stares up at her in shock. “What the fuck?” he asks between gritted teeth. He reaches for his balls, where it seems Remi’s knee landed on during the fall.
Remi snorts from where she’s straddling him. “Some Brad Pitt you are,” she announces, sounding vastly unimpressed.
She leans in close, and then bites his neck while making a weird fucking keening slash growling sound to mimic a zombie. Madix jerks away from her teeth, and she laughs and leans up. “You just got zombiefied,” she says with triumph.
“You cheated,” he scowls.
She shrugs unapologetically. “Zombies don’t play by the rules, Mady.”
He’s still clutching his sore balls, and Remi reaches down and slaps his cupped hand before springing up and away from him. Mady groans in pain. “Fuck, woman.” I reach for my own balls in solidarity at Remi’s parting shot, and I look over at Theo, who’s also wincing in sympathy.
She turns and starts walking again, but I catch the smirk on her face right before she passes me. I fall into step beside her. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you enjoyed arguing with him,” I tell her.
She darts her eyes over to me. “Madix is hot-blooded,” she says, quiet enough that only I can hear. “He likes to be riled up. He thrives on it, actually. He needs someone who can deal with him being an asshole, but also someone who will call him on his shit sometimes.”
