AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Putting my anger at the assumption out of my mind, I rub my hands down his body and pause when my fingers run over a bandage on his front leg.
“I looked him over for wounds as best as I could. He has a sore on his leg and a bruise on his side that’s probably from being kicked, otherwise he’s healthy as can be.” William crouches to the ground beside us and gently pats Buddy’s side. “I also cleaned him up for her. It’s how we found out about his eyes.”
“You poor thing.” Rubbing Buddy’s ears, I kiss the top of his head and then his nose, then laugh when he licks my nose in response. I look down at the bowls of beans and water that are still untouched. “You’re not hungry? Did they feed you before we took you?”
“Doubt it. He’s likely too stressed to eat right now. A new environment, new people, and he has no idea what’s going on,” William says.
I grab a bean from the bowl and pop it in my mouth, making sounds of enjoyment while I chew and swallow it. “Delicious.”
Buddy lowers his head to sniff at the food and then takes a bite himself. And then another. Then he chows down faster than a horde of rotters demolishing a human.
“Maybe he just wanted some dinner company. It’s more fun eating with other people, isn’t it, Buddy?” When he’s done, I rub his ears and kiss his head while he licks every last taste from his mouth. His tail wags in agreement. “Five star dining for you.”
“We’ll need to make another food run soon,” William says. Then he shakes his head. “I’m not complaining about the dog eating. We’d need more food anyway, and we can always hunt, but with any luck, we’ll come across some real dog food.”
“Have you found any before?” I ask.
“Once. Max tried some and said it was delicious. We also hadn’t eaten in four days. Griffin and I ate the cans of stew we’d found instead.”
“That Max is a strange one,” I say.
“He’s been through a lot. We all have, but his experience broke him a little more than ours did.”
“He wasn’t always like this?”
William shakes his head. “We were best friends before this all happened. He was always outgoing, but not quite like this. When the virus swept the earth and the dead rose, it took a couple of weeks before we all found each other. By the time we had, we were pretty broken and only had one another to rely on. His story isn’t mine to tell, but we give him a break. Even if we act like we want to kill each other.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“He’s a good one to have around. If you’re lucky enough for him to consider you worth protecting, then you’re stuck with him for life. He’s one of the two most loyal men I’ve ever met.”
“Griffin is the second,” I guess.
“Yup. They’ll do anything to protect each other. Max just has more fun.”
Leaves crunch under footsteps and I look behind me to see Max walking toward us, twirling the dagger between his fingers in one hand and holding his bloodied morning star over his shoulder with the other. His face is splashed with streaks of blood, but it’s the grin that has me excited. The pride and confidence he exudes has me giving him my full attention.
“Good news, pet. I’ve got the location.”
Shooting to my feet, I gather my belongings. Then I realize I don’t have any belongings other than the dirty clothes on my back and the weapons attached to me—which aren’t even mine to begin with—so I run my hand over Buddy’s head and look around. “Griffin has the car keys. We can leave right now. Don’t need to worry about camp. We can be there and back in no time.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow your roll. We’re not going anywhere yet.” Max hooks the morning star to his back. There’s even blood on his clothes, which only stands out on his all-black attire due to how wet and slick it still is.
“The more stand around doing nothing, the more time that gets wasted.”
“You’re worried about wasting time? I can think of a few ways to make sure that doesn’t happen.” He waggles his eyebrows at me and I roll my eyes. This isn’t the time for fun and games.
Griffin returns to the campsite, freshly clean from the stream, with water dripping from the ends of his short, dark brown hair. His six-foot two-inch muscular build nearly blocks out the sun when he walks up, eyes zeroing in on Max with a sigh. “You killed him.”
Max grins with pride. “Got what I needed, so I had a little extra fun.”
“Thought you said you had to take over so I wouldn’t kill him.”
“Because you were going to kill him by accident before getting anything useful. This way, I got everything we’d need, and there was no reason to keep him around. He would’ve been a nuisance, eating our food and bleeding out everywhere. He even had the gall to pee on my shoe. Dregs have no manners, I swear.”
“Great. Now tell me where the hideout is and I’ll get going.”
Griffin raises an eyebrow. “You’re not going anywhere on your own.”
