The rabble disbanded and Reid exhaled a sigh. Even with Tish following them back to the fire he watched, waited, even suspected one of them would turn to fight.
“We have got to be more careful. ” He ran a hand through his hair and the slight tingle of sweat smeared his palm. “The warrant is for her to be taken alive. We caught a break that she’s not already dead but if those people decide to smash her head in this’ll all be for nothing.”
Laurence’s lip flinched.
“You have got to manage this shit.” Reid flicked a finger against the flask. “I’m not-”
“Shut up and pay attention to her, Lavelle.” Laurence pushed off the car with his shotgun hanging lazily under his arm. “I’m not your job.”
With a steady breath, Reid swallowed the argument. Fighting with Laurence was bound to happen, but the man had a mean temper when drunk. The sobering pain killers wouldn’t last all day and things were tense enough as it was. Reid’s fingers tightened into his fist, nails threatening to pierce the skin of his palm. Don’t goad him. Just get her back. Do the job.
In the trunk, Ashley stirred. With the small crowd gone, Reid opened the hatch and peered inside. Her colour looked good, less pale than the night before. How the hell did she get up though? When she turned, her eyes fluttered open and she lifted her arm to block the diffused daylight he’d let in.
Reid frowned. “If you’re well enough to run you can get up.”
She looked away and turned her back to him.
Reid tore the blanket from her shoulders. With a groan, she reached to grab it back, far slower than he’d seen her move by the river’s edge days before.
“I said get up. I need to check your shoulder.” His hand clasped around her upper arm and tugged her closer to the open hatch.
She mumbled something, stuttered words fluttering past her lips and he couldn’t make out what she said. All the same, he tugged hard. The cuffs jingled on her wrists before she rolled, a little too quickly.
Her fist connected with his chin.
The shock stumbled him back before the pain skipped across his jaw. Then, with her arm still firm in his grip, he inadvertently dragged her out of the hatchback. The two tumbled to the ground and she spilled on top of him with a guttural groan.
“Reid what the-” Shannon started but he quickly stopped.
Cazalla squirmed on Reid, her face scrunched in a grimace. He tried to lift her but she made it difficult. Dark waves laden with sweat draped around his face and invaded his mouth when he opened it to call out. The cuffs bundled her hands against his chest and her palms pressed flat against him. Weakly, though far stronger than she should have been, Cazalla pushed herself up until he could see her eyes.
“I said… fuck you.” An exhausted frustration lit her face until her arms trembled and she fell into him again. The blood-soaked bandage on her shoulder nearly pressed into his cheek. Infection lingering so near stole his focus as he tried to push her to the side.
“She’s infected!” The alarm blurted from Shannon and, from his limited view, Reid watched Shannon reach to his hip and draw his gun.
“No, she’s not!” Reid called out. “Just get her off of-”
The shot cut him short. His heart pounded with the ringing pounded in his ears. He rolled himself and the girl to the side, her form like a rag doll in his arms.
“She just hit me,” Reid exhaled in a panic. “She’s not a fucking wendigo!” He rolled her onto her front and searched for the bullet wound. Wasn’t a through and through. I’d be hit if it passed through. I can stop the bleeding. Find the wound. Stop the bleeding.
She groaned beneath his hunting hands.
“Calm down, Lavelle. He didn’t hit her.” Laurence sounded more annoyed than worried. No blood wet Reid’s fingers and her sweater wasn’t any more stained that it was from the bite.
“Why the fuck did you stop me?” Shannon spat. Laurence’s hand still gripped the underside of Shannon’s arm holding it up and to the side.
Reid sat back on the ground and tried to calm his pulse. “Fucking hell, Shannon.”
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“The bitch was trying to bite you! You should be thanking me.”
“She didn’t bite me. She hit me.”
The frown on Shannon’s lips stretched into a delighted smirk. “Punched you?” He looked between the girl and Reid. Beside him, Laurence chuckled. “Half dead and still fighting? I think I’m starting to like her.”
“Fuck you, it’s not funny. She just caught me off guard,” Reid said, but Laurence’s shoulders shook.
Shannon laughed again. “Yeah, okay. Sure she did, man.”
“What the hell is going on?” Tish exhaled a heavy breath after finally reaching the commotion.
“Reid here was wrastlin’ with Cazalla.” Shannon slapped his knee before holstering his gun.
Tish frowned. “What the hell is he talking about?”
Laurence shook his head and motioned at the tourists. “Never mind that, just get back to getting them ready.”
Reid cursed and turned Cazalla over. A shit-eating grin, though lazy and slight, creased into her cheeks.
“Laugh it up,” he grumbled over her. “Just remember I hold the drugs. Piss me off and-” Her grin disappeared and her eyes opened. The way she stared at him made him stop. Despite the weakness, she must be suffering her brown eyes were alert and it was like she stared right through him. He remembered that night in the forest, the campfire, the whispers from shadows. “Make a sound and you bleed.”
The words he had faltered. Reid looked away.
As gently as he could he slipped his hands beneath her back and legs. She was light from the sickness but wasn’t a big girl to start with. Whatever fight she’d had seemed lessened after the one blow, but it did the trick. It landed and harder than he expected. Even if he’d seen it coming his jaw wouldn’t feel any less tender.
He lay her down on the makeshift sled they’d built from debris. They needed speed going forward and carrying her wasn’t going to do it. A drag though, one man could manage her weight on a sturdy sled. With some reclaimed straps, a blanket or two, they could tuck her in real good. Would probably be damn cozy too.
After a cough, blood stained her lips. Reid leaned over and wiped the red with the collar of her sweater. It couldn’t be internal bleeding so he chalked it up to the last of what was in her belly.
“You should drink,” he said softly. “You’ll dehydrate if you don’t.” Her eyes opened and she let him help her sit up just a bit. He pulled out a bottle from his pack and brought it to her lips. Small sips, not without a bit of spill, and each one seemed to waken her a little more. But there was no time to linger. Around them, the others were already packed and ready so he tucked the bottle in his pack and checked the belts.
This will all be over soon, he hoped.
Laurence called for them all to gather, tourists included.
“Okay people, we're heading south on the DVP.”
Reid let the sled come to a slow stop and he wiped the sweat from his brow.
The Don Valley Parkway loomed below. High soil retaining walls stretched along one side of the four-lane highway and the thick green of the overgrown Don River Valley lined the other. Between them, the asphalt was littered with cars but not like the highway where you could weave your way through easily. It was dense, tall masses of metal towering in unintended shapes. Through a trick of the clouds the shade made it look like a dark alley or strange tunnel.
The pileup was the sort of thing that nightmares were made of or at least the ones that plagued them all before infection. One car started a chain reaction until an entire roadway was a mess of vehicles and fire. He remembered when he'd heard about it, stories of the chaos, people dying, and countless more infected. Those that left safe walls and dared to take the DVP never came back. It was a dangerous route, they all knew it. But it was the fastest.
Behind Laurence, Shannon mumbled something about dumb ideas that earned him a stern look, but it was all the pause Laurence seemed ready to take.
“If you don't know what that means, it's simple. Keep up.” A few of the adults looked down and listened, but the children's eyes fixed on Laurence. “We will not be stopping until we're in the city. We have about six hours before it gets dark, and it's a four-hour walk. It's not easy but it's doable just don't slow down. If you don’t keep up, you become a problem and I don’t like problems.”
A few of the children frowned but Reid stopped paying attention to the speech. Like he hasn’t intimidated them enough as it is.
He bent one knee to his patient. She was watching Laurence with those surprisingly alert eyes.
“Look at me.” He took her chin in his hand and turned her face. Her pupils were normal and her cheek’s colour returning, or it was some damn trick of light that made it look that way. Part of him was relieved but he retained his skepticism. No one comes back from a bite.
Turning her head to the side Reid looked at the gauze on her wound, pulling up the corners. Underneath the skin was grey, the bite site black and round. The grey skin had swelled but otherwise looked healthy, discounting the colour. If he didn’t know better, he’d have guessed the open wound was at least a week old. It’s only been days…
With a frown, his fingers pressed the skin. A soft groan left her lips as she tried to suppress a grimace of pain.
“Sorry.” His frown deepened. Why am I apologizing?
His fingers went to work replacing the gauze. There was no telling when they would stop again and he wanted her as healthy as possible.
“... don't drop behind,” Laurence said to the group. “If something goes wrong, don't be a hero. And above all else, the girl has to live. At all costs.”
Reid felt all eyes turn and burn a hole in his back. Not at him, but through him to Cazalla on the sled. He watched her turn her head away as a slight sigh dropped her shoulders.
Does she regret it? He wanted to ask, wanted to know if any part of her felt bad for what she’d done. Maybe she was everything they said she was. A terrorist. A monster. It never bothered him much before and, even as they hunted her, he never once thought about why she did it. But her eyes turned away from questioning stares dared to wonder.
It doesn't matter now. He tore his eyes from her and stretched his shoulders. Do the job. Take her back. Make the trade.
Laurence went on. “If she dies none of us are getting out of here. Clear?”
Nods would follow, Reid was sure.
“We leave in 10 minutes. Brisk pace.”