“Say goodbye?” I echoed, confused.
He nodded. “We’re headed up to Michigan to check on my dad’s sister before making our way back down to Colorado, and your dad will be wanting to move on to Nebraska.”
I nodded, surprised at my odd attachment to Liam and at my disappointment in his departure. “Well, I wish you guys luck.” I held my hand out to him.
He ignored my hand, leaning forward to place a quick peck on my cheek, causing butterflies to rip through my stomach. Ash coughed loudly, but I ignored him. Liam pulled back, smiling that crooked smile. “You too, Zoey. I hope to see you at Sanctuary one day.”
A corner of my mouth twitched up in a smile. “Maybe.”
He walked away, heading toward his parents. They all exchanged words with my dad before shouldering their packs and heading back into the forest. I watched them with some trepidation. For a moment there, I had felt so alone. It had been nice to know we weren’t the only three left fighting for survival.
“What a charmer,” Ash scoffed as soon as they were gone. He leaned down to the ground, reaching for his gun. His face was pulled taught with pain, but he made no noise. I would have to remember to give him pain medicine later.
“You would know,” I said drily. I glanced over my shoulder at the pile of charred bodies, just a pile of body parts and ash. I shuddered; it made me sick. These were humans, people who had lived lives before the virus, before they had died. I didn’t know why they had awakened. I didn’t know if there was a purpose to them. But that didn’t matter. I felt a wave of remorse for them. They were beyond peace, beyond resting, and now were simply consumed by hunger and violence.
“Come on, Z, seriously? The guy is hitting on you in the middle of the zombie apocalypse! After his fiancée just died!” Ash said. “And he’s such a Southern gentleman, kissing you on the cheek.”
“Okay, one, it’s not the apocalypse. Two, so what if he kissed me?” I said, starting toward the car. “And three, I’m pretty sure I detect a bit of jealousy back there.”
Ash broke out in a grin, looking so much like his old self that I felt a pang go through me. “I don’t like anyone looking at my girl that way. You know I’m the only one for you.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “You’re irritating,” I said half-heartedly. “Let’s get out of here.”
After we had cleaned ourselves up and erased all signs that we had been there, we climbed back into the car and drove for a few hours. As the sun began to crawl higher, peeking through the heavy clouds, my dad pulled over and set up another practice. He set me up with bottles to work on my shooting while he sparred with Ash. He pointed out Ash’s weaknesses, especially after the fight we had just encountered.
I focused on the bottles, occasionally shooting them off the fence but more often missing them. Every time I missed, I cursed loudly. I was so involved in what I was doing that I didn’t hear my dad coming up to me until he was right next to me.
“You lack confidence,” he said, his hands planted firmly on his hips. He looked exhausted, but still determined. Though he had washed most of the blood off from the fight, he was still dirty, and there was a definite scruff growing on his chin. I glanced at Ash and noticed the same thing, surprisingly. It made them both look older.
“I think it’s more like a lack of aim,” I grumbled, raising my gun and shooting again. It sailed too much to the left, and I resisted the urge to throw my gun and just roundhouse kick the bottle off the stupid fence. That was something I knew I could do.
“Look, Zoey, you’re doing everything right, and yet you’re still not hitting what you aim for,” he pointed out. “You’re not confident in what you’re doing. You don’t trust your own abilities.”
“Right, okay,” I said. “I don’t trust myself.” When he didn’t move away, I spoke again, feeling exasperated. “Can you maybe not stand there and watch me? I can’t concentrate.”
He studied me for a moment before calling out to Ash. “Ash, why don’t you work on your shooting for a sec? I want to have a word with Zoey.”
Fantastic. I sighed, stepping out of the way.
Ash nodded, brushing against me as he took my place. A charge of electricity went zipping through me at the contact. Our eyes met for a second, and I temporarily lost my breath. He was worn, beaten from the past couple days on the road. His hair was a ruffled mess, there were dark purple bags under his blue eyes, and he had a shadow along his jawline, but he had never looked so tempting. I tore my gaze away from him and looked up to my dad.
“What? What is it?” I asked.
“Don’t ‘what’ me with that attitude,” he said. He led me away, enough from Ash that he could not eavesdrop. “I just wanted to talk to you. I wanted to see how you were doing.”