“What happened?” I asked. “You said you travel at night for a reason. Why is that?”
He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he seemed a different person; the bleakness on his face transformed him into someone much, much older. “In the beginning,” he said, his eyes dark and far away, “I was the only orphan in the group. There were a lot more of us back then, and we were all so sure we would find Eden before winter set in. Jeb was certain it was along the west coast. When we started out, no one thought that we could be wandering for more than a year.” He shook his head, flinging bangs from his eyes. “At first, we traveled during the day, when the monsters were sleeping. At night, we waited a couple hours after the sun went down before making camp, to make sure there were no rabids in the area. We thought that the rabids came out right at sundown, and if we waited an hour or two, we would be safe.” His voice faltered, and he shook his head. “We were wrong. Rabids…rabids rise when they want to.”
Zeke paused, took a quiet breath. “One night,” he continued in a low voice, “we made camp as usual, about an hour after sunset. It was at the top of a grassy hill, no trees, no bushes, no places for the rabids to hide or sneak up on us. We posted sentries around the perimeter, per normal, and went to sleep.
“I woke up to screaming,” Zeke muttered, gazing at something in the distance, his voice dark and grim. “They came right out of the ground, from the earth under our tents. No warning, nothing. They were just suddenly there. We didn’t stand a chance.”
I shivered in sympathy. I could see the rabids coming out of the ground, right in the middle of the camp of helpless sleepers. “I’m sorry,” I offered, knowing how weak that sounded.
“More than half the group was lost,” Zeke went on, as if he hadn’t heard. “We would’ve all died if Jeb hadn’t been there. I froze—I couldn’t move, not even to help the others. Through all that chaos, he managed to get the rest of us together so we could escape. But we left so many behind. Dorothy’s husband, Caleb and Ruth’s parents.” He stopped, his face pinched and tight. “I swore I wouldn’t lose anyone else like that,” he muttered. “Ever again.”
“You were a kid.” We had drifted closer, somehow, our shoulders barely touching as we walked side by side. “Jeb couldn’t have expected you to face them all on your own.”
“Maybe.” He didn’t sound convinced and kept walking with his head down, watching his feet. “But that’s why we can’t stop. Even if there’s a vampire out there who wants us dead. Even…if there is no Eden.” He shuddered. “We have to keep going. Everyone is counting on us to lead them there, and I won’t take that away from them. All we have left is our faith.” His voice dropped even lower as he looked toward the horizon. “And sometimes, I wonder if that will be enough.”
“Zeke!”
Ruth came skipping up to us then, smiling brightly, a tin cup clutched in one hand. “Here,” she said, wedging herself between me and Zeke, holding the cup out to him. “I saved a little coffee for you. It’s not much, but at least it’s warm.”
“Thanks.” Zeke gave her a tired smile as he took the cup, and she beamed, ignoring me. I looked at her back, at the pale expanse of her neck, and fantasized about sinking my teeth into her smooth white skin.
“By the way,” she continued, turning to me with wide, innocent eyes, “why is there a big tear in the floor of your tent? It looks like you purposefully cut it with a knife. What are you doing in there, slaughtering animals?”
Zeke looked at me, raising a puzzled eyebrow. Alarm flickered, but I forced myself to be calm. “There…must’ve been a hole already,” I said, thinking quickly. “I have nightmares sometimes—it could’ve torn while I was thrashing around.”
Zeke nodded and sipped his coffee, but Ruth narrowed her gaze, lips pursed in suspicion. She didn’t believe me. A growl rose to my throat, and I swallowed it, before going on the offensive to distract her.
“Besides, why are you snooping around my stuff?” I returned, glaring at her. “Looking for something in particular? I don’t have anything you can steal.”
Ruth’s mouth dropped open, her delicate face contorting in outrage.
“Steal? How dare you! I don’t steal!”
“That’s good,” I went on, smirking at her. “Because, sometimes I kill things in my sleep. Particularly if they come poking around my tent unannounced in the middle of the day. Comes with living in a vampire city—stab first, ask questions later.”
She paled and shrank back against Zeke, who gave me a look of mild concern, unsure how to deal with two bickering females.