Page 17 of Hollow Valley

I nodded and sharpened my resolve.“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“Boden secured the rope, so it’ll be a minute longer,” Ryder yelled down.

Sunlight glinted through the tree branches above him, and only a few slivers made it down into the hole.They landed on the zombie nearest to me, and it was little more than a pile of bones and rags.Greenish flesh clung to it in a few rotting patches here and there, but most of it returned to the dirt.Even with a spike protruding through the shattered ribcage, nature was reclaiming it.

Then Boden’s head reappeared with a rope slithering down the wall.“Tie this around you one at a time,” he directed us.“We will pull you up.”

“Stella should go up first,” Leandro said, and I didn’t argue with him.I glanced back at the bony zombie remains before securing the rope around my waist, and then I got out of that hole as quickly as I could.

12

Stella

“We haven’t seen very many zombies,” Bianka remarked to no one in particular as we walked along one day.The broken asphalt road was wide enough that we travelled in a lax clump, loosely sandwiched between the forest to the west and the Staulo River to the east.

“At least not any living ones,” Leandro corrected her with a laugh.

It had been a week since he and I had fallen in the pit with the zombie corpses.Since then, we had stumbled across a few more lifeless bodies along the way, including one that had been decapitated just outside Priest’s Mill, but there had been zero confrontations with moving, biting zombies.

“This time of year, they’re usually searching for something to eat like a grizzly bear waking up after hibernation,” Murphy agreed.

“We’ve been lucky, I guess,” I said, deflecting the truth.

The entire time we’d been travelling together, I’d been doing my best to use my pheromonal communications to keep the zombies away from us.But Murphy and the others didn’t know that.Outside of my family, no one else knew about my connection to the zombies.It seemed safer, especially because I couldn’t fully explain it myself.

Since Leandro and I had escaped the spike pit, the journey had been relatively uneventful.The hunting hadn’t exactly been plentiful, but we’d managed to catch a couple good-sized chinook salmon once we reached the river, so that helped.

Cole’s condition continued to worsen, with his gums bleeding throughout the day, and he’d lost even more weight.Somehow, he was able to keep going, with the aid of a walking stick and Bianka’s help.

Then, finally, on the afternoon as we walked along the dilapidated road, Boden announced, “We should reach the S.S.Barbarabelle by nightfall.”

I almost cried out in delight, and I had to fight the urge to run the rest of the way.The area around us looked vaguely familiar to me, so I’d known we were close, but I relied on Boden’s more extensive knowledge.

“So, what should we expect when we reach this boat anyway?”Bianka asked.“I know Stella’s already told us so much about it but I – ”

Murphy snorted in derision.“You mean Stella’s nightly bedtime stories about the magical steamboat utopia didn’t satiate enough of your curiosity?”

Everyone laughed at that, even Cole, whose laughter sounded more like a wet cough these days.My cheeks burned in embarrassment, and I readjusted the straps of my pack as I stared down at the ground.

Most nights, after we set up camp, I had been telling them about life on the Barbarabelle.My main motivation had truthfully been because I was homesick, but I had also thought they’d want to know about it.And it wasn’t like there was much to do besides watch the stars and the embers in the fire pit once the sun went down.

“Oh, come on!”Leandro chastised them with a smile.“Like you all didn’t want to know as much as you could about where we’re going?”

“I do,” Murphy admitted as her laughter subsided.“I just don’t know that I completely believe the fairytale that Stella is spinning with satin blankets and warm water showers and big dinners in the dining hall.”

“To be fair, the showers are more tepid than warm,” Boden conceded.“But everything else Stella’s said has been the truth.Our chef Oakley Cruz does make the tastiest meals around, and our medic Joseph Worrall works hard keeping everyone alive.And I liked Stella’s the nightly stories.”He smiled back over his shoulder at me.

“Anyway, what I really meant is what happens when we get to the boat?”Bianka asked.“Is there a quarantine or an inspection?Do others have to vote if we can stay or not?”

“When you get on the boat, you’ll be given a room and time to acclimate,” I explained.“After a few weeks, you can decide if you want to stay, and the boat will decide if they want to have you.But most people who want to stay are allowed to, assuming they aren’t rude or violent.”

“And that’s it?”Murphy asked, sounding surprised.

“And that’s it,” I replied.

“What more were you expecting?”Boden asked.

Murphy shrugged.“I don’t know exactly.It’s just usually not that easy.”