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“He may be a good scout for us. He’ll sense when people are near. He can bark.”
“Wouldn’t it also give us away?”
“No, kind of like a person burgling your house and the dog barks, it gives you the signal to get you ready. I think it’ll be good and look at her. Lucy is already in love with him and with everything going on, I don’t want to upset her more by telling her no.”
“You’re right. I can’t remember a time she laughed like that.” Sasha nodded. “We’ll keep him.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. I want to keep him.” She bent down and smiled up at him. “Malachi has something to say to you.”
“Please, Malachi, please,” Lucy said.
“You can keep the dog.”
“Yes.” Lucy got to her feet, rushed toward him, and threw her arms around him. “Thank you. You’re the best. We need to name him. What should we name him?” she asked.
“We’ll leave that up to you,” Malachi said. “Let’s go and get that map.”
He still held his gun but for the past ten minutes he’d been distracted.
“Come on, Buster. Is your name Buster? I don’t know. We’ll try several to see if they stick.” Lucy giggled.
Stepping into the gas station, it had already been looted. There was no food on the shelves and the fridge was also empty. He hoped the grocery store had more supplies.
Tree Man walked behind the counter and found one of the maps, opening it up and spreading it out.
“Okay, so this is the last town for what looks like three hundred miles,” Tree Man said.
Malachi looked at the map and saw nothing but a mass of trees. There was also a lake and it looked like there was a bridge close to it. He hoped the bridge was still up and they didn’t have to pass through the fucking lake.
“We’re going to need a car,” he said. “Where about is this safe place you’ve talked about?”
“It’s not on any map. But the safe haven is, well, safe.” Tree Man started laughing. “Away from the worldwide spread. The infection.”
“Wait, holdup, worldwide?”
“Yes. It was everywhere. There was no place safe once it started. It traveled from town to town. Through the cities like wildfire, and it touched every single person.”
“How do you know all this?” Malachi asked.
“Ramblings of a mad man always makes sense. There is always the body that knows. It makes sense. It knows how to fight the disease and to be strong. It has anti-bodies spreading within one self and it has no known bounds. This disease is not over yet, Malachi. It’s so strong and when it finally finishes, the world as we know it will be nothing.” Tree Man shook his head. “I’ve heard of people who have traveled north. They will take people who are not infected and have never been infected. Healthy people.”
Malachi didn’t know what to make of Tree Man’s sudden change in talk. He started off all shaken as if he’d seen something no one else had, but then pushed it aside and was normal again.
“I speak nothing but the truth.”
“I need you to act normal otherwise Sasha is not going north,” Malachi growled out.
“No! She has to go north. It’s the only way Lucy and you and her can survive. It’s going to get bad, Malachi. Really bad. We have to save them. For all of you. It’s the only way. I can be sane. I can be normal. I can stop the voices that want to get out. I can. I can.”
“Enough,” Malachi said, grabbing his arms. “I said for you to be fucking normal, not to make this a whole lot fucking worse.”
He looked behind him but Sasha was outside, keeping watch as Lucy played with the dog.
“Be cool and be normal. We’re going up north but only if you keep your motherfucking rambling in check. You got it?”
“Yes, yes, I got it. Shut up, Tree Man. I get it. I will be silent.”
Fuck, was this even the right thing to do, trust this man that there was a safe place, that they could finally settle down and not be on the move constantly?
“Just make Lucy happy. That’s all I ask. She deserves it.”
“That girl is a sweet soul. We have to protect it with our lives, Malachi.”
“I will. I promise.” He’d never stuck around to see shit like this through but he was more than willing to do this for Sasha, and for a chance to find the happiness he’d been seeking.
“We have to get supplies,” Tree Man said.
“Then let’s go and get them.
Chapter Forty
Sometimes you just have to finally say fuck it
They’d found themselves holed up for the night in a dentist’s office, with Lucy going to each room and commenting on all the “dentist gadgets” that she found.
Sasha set her backpack on the floor of the waiting room, plopped her ass on one of the plush chairs, and exhaled slowly. The vinyl made a soft swishing sound underneath her as she shifted slightly, and she stared across the room at a picture on the wall.
