Page 4

“Three people are missing? You mean they’re lost in the woods?” I pressed.

“Or the zombies got them,” Calvin interjected.

I shook my head fiercely. “We don’t know that. We should be sending a search party, not abandoning them. I’m heading out to find them, and anybody else who isn’t injured is free to join me.”

I glanced over at the other survivors, hoping to add them to the search party numbers to increase our odds. But two of them were crying children, and as their uncle, Drew wouldn’t leave them behind. Calvin was still winded and recuperating from the fighting he’d done, and Bâo was injured, so her sister Vân would likely stay with her.

“We can’t stay here all night,” Calvin said. “If the zombies come back again, we’re completely screwed. We need to move out of here, not spend time playing in the woods.”

I was about to argue with him, but Riva stood up and asked, “Does anybody have a watch?”

Vân raised her hand. “I do.”

“Good.” Riva had a watch around her own wrist, and she glanced down at it as she spoke. “I’ll go with Lazlo, and we’ll search for Harlow, Kimber, and Kerrigan. If we can’t find them within an hour, we’ll come back, and we can all head out. In the meantime, you can rest up and gather your things for the long walk ahead.”

“And if you don’t come back in an hour?” Calvin asked, while Riva and Vân quickly synchronized their watches.

“Then move on without us.” She gave him a helpless shrug, then turned back to me. “Come on, Lazlo.”

Together, Riva and I scoured the nearby forest, looking for any sign of Harlow, Kimber, or Kerrigan. I obviously wasn’t as close to Kimber or Kerrigan, but they had both seemed nice enough, and I hoped that they weren’t hurt or dead.

As we went deeper into the woods without hearing from Harlow, my panic began to grow. Why wasn’t she responding to us? How far could she possibly go on that injured leg? She had to be somewhere close, and yet, she was nowhere nearby.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Riva checking her watch again, and I grimaced inwardly. I didn’t know for sure how long we’d been searching because it felt like an agonizing eternity, but we hadn’t found anyone yet, so I wasn’t ready to give up.

“It’s getting late,” Riva said, giving voice to my fears. “We should start heading back.”

“I’m not going anywhere without Harlow,” I insisted.

“So you want me to leave you alone in the woods, wandering around with a limited supply of food and water?” Riva asked pointedly. “Do you think that’s what Harlow would want?”

To that I could only reply with the cold truth, “Harlow would want me to find her.”

I knew we couldn’t go on much longer, so I hurried onward.

The moonlight filtering through the tree branches glinted on something and caught my eye. When I got closer, I realized it was a small cross hanging on a golden chain, and it was caught on the end of the log. I took it off, careful not to break it.

“What’s that?” Riva asked.

I swallowed back the lump in my throat so I could manage to answer, “It’s Harlow’s necklace. Her mom gave it to her, and she never took it off.”

I started yelling her name, and I ran frantically in the area surrounding it, scanning the darkened woods for any other sign of her. I shouted and shouted until my voice was hoarse and cracking. When I tripped on a stick and fell to my knees, I just stayed on the ground, kneeling in the mud and struggling to catch my breath.

“She isn’t here, and I have to get back,” Riva said, and her tone was growing more insistent.

I shook my head. “I can’t just leave her. We haven’t even found any bodies. Did Kimber, Kerrigan, and Harlow all vanish?”

“They’re likely dead and hidden under brush,” Riva said bluntly. “Or they’re dead, and the zombies carried them off to eat them later.

“If Harlow were here and she were alive, she would’ve answered by now, Lazlo,” she went on, speaking more slowly and emphatically. “The question is no longer will you find her – it’s do you want to live, or are you going to stay here and die?”

“What would you do if it were Calvin instead of Harlow?” I asked her finally.

“I would live, and I hope he would make the same choice.”

4

Lazlo