Chapter Five

Felix practically fell onto the small patch of grass that the hillside offered when Olga finally gave the order to stop and rest.  Walking wasn’t easy for him under the best of circumstances. The ache of having been the recipient of Rupert’s angry fists the night before and having a good amount of their belongings strapped to his back only hindered him more.  Even so, he had no intention of complaining.  He knew that his aunt and Kendra were toting the bulk of their belongings on their back as they took turns pulling the overloaded wagon. He was also well aware that Kendra had an injured foot.  Not to mention the fact that he knew that she’d experienced a fitful night with minimal sleep; which was understandable after Rupert’s almost rape.

“Where will this lead us?” he asked as he wiped the sweat from his brow and the back of his neck.

“It’s awfully close to zombie land,” Kendra said.

“I didn’t know that,” Olga confessed as she eased her body down next to Felix. “Geography was never my strong point.”

“Are we safe?” Felix worriedly asked.

“We’re not in zombie land.  Just near it,” Kendra assured him.

Olga’s tone was a mixture of teasing, fear, and sarcasm. “Do the zombies obey the boundary lines?” 

“Let’s hope so,” Kendra grunted as she struggled to pull the wagon to the top of the slight incline.  “I’m more worried about getting as far away from that cave as I can than I am the zombies. I don’t trust Rupert not to turn us in.”

“They’d seize him too, wouldn’t they?” Felix asked. “He’s related.  Didn’t you say they were after all of the relatives.”

“If they can get the daughter or the sister… or both, they won’t bother with nephews,” Olga sighed. “I imagine he’s figured that out. Rupert is a disappointment, but he’s not stupid.”  She got up and helped Kendra pull the cart out of a small rut. “As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with you.  We need to get as far away from here as possible.”

“Maybe we should venture into zombie land,” Kendra mused. “They won’t expect us to be there.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Felix asked, incredulously.

“If we stay close to the edge, we shouldn’t encounter too many,” Kendra said. “I’ve been hunting around here quite a bit and have yet to encounter one.”

“You’ve been lucky,” Felix sniffed.

“Do you really think that they stay within the invisible boundaries?” Kendra asked. “We could have just as easily had one wander into our cave in the middle of the night. We weren’t that far from the border, after all.”

“I had no idea,” Olga said with amazement.  “Had I known, I would have never settled us there.”

“It was still an easy ninety minute walk from our cave to the border of zombie land,” Kendra mused. “Dragging a heavy carcass with an injured foot made it even longer. I’m just saying that, in such an isolated area, there is no one to stop them from migrating if there were any around to do so. I don’t think that they’re near the border.  I think they’re deeper in toward the heart of the zombie area.”

“This is where you killed the cats?” Felix said with surprise.

“Not far from here,” Kendra said as she dropped down next to her cousin.  “I just need a few minutes to catch my breath and then I’m good again.”

“Felix and I won’t be good for an easy twenty minutes,” Olga assured her. “His club foot and my old age keep us from being as fit as you.”

Kendra nodded and laid back. A short nap was just the thing to rejuvenate her.  Her body ached from the exertion of dragging the wagon, but she knew that, of the three of them, even with her injured foot, she was the most fit without her aunt pointing it out to her. She didn’t want to admit to them that the stress of the almost rape, sleepless night, and demands on her body that the wagon caused were overly taxing. She was thankful that she didn’t have to and could take advantage of the fact that they needed the break.

Olga’s conversation with Felix about where to settle quickly faded as her body went into sleep mode. It felt as if she’d just closed her eyes when Felix’s hand gently shook her shoulder to awaken her.  She was both surprised and alarmed to note that the sun’s position had shifted considerably.

“What time is it?” she gasped.

“We let you sleep,” Olga smiled.

Felix chuckled. “You were snoring.”

Kendra sat up and began to secure her oversized and fully loaded backpack onto her back. “We need to get moving.  It will be dark soon.”

“I thought that we could just make camp here for the night,” Olga said as she pointed to the make-shift lean-to and the fire pit she and Felix had fashioned at its opening.

“Are you kidding?” Kendra gasped as Ari’s image floated into her mind.  “We’re not in a safe area.”       

Deep lines formed in the flesh of Felix’s sun kissed face as he scowled with confusion.  “We’re not even in zombie land.  Why is this not safe when you suggested that we make a home in zombie land?”

“It’s not the zombies that I’m worried about,” Kendra admitted.  “This is close to where I killed the cats.  The owners might be about and looking for them.”

Olga groaned. “You could have mentioned that when we stopped.”

“I thought that we were only going to rest a few minutes, not a few hours,” Kendra grumbled.

“Three hours, actually,” Felix interjected.

“It’s too late to move on now,” Olga said.  “It isn’t worth the trouble of packing up.  We’d have to stop to make camp soon.”  She heaved a sigh.  “We’ll have to hope for the best.”

She was unhappy with the turn of events, but Kendra knew that her aunt spoke the truth.  It was less than an hour from sunset.  It made no sense to continue on.

She went to the wagon and pulled out the container that she’d packed their meat into. “Let’s hang this meat next to the fire. It wasn’t completely ready to pack away and I don’t want to lose it to spoilage.”

Felix was quick to assist her while Olga started a fire in their recently fashioned fire pit.  Her eyes nervously scanned their perimeter while she worked the fire starter.