She accepted my answer, but I was pretty sure this was one of those moments where ignorance was bliss for her.
Johnny asked us about what we had seen and we all let Vaughan, Hendrix and Nelson do most of the talking. Johnny and Trish told us how they were coming over from New Mexico and had heard about a town where there weren’t any Zombies. They rounded up as many survivors that were still left in their desert town and decided to find out for themselves. They actually seemed nice enough and didn’t appear to have any motivation to kidnap us or force us to join their crew.
The day wore on as Vaughan and Johnny swapped stories. I got the impression Vaughan was being polite and didn’t want to piss the guy off. And Johnny was obviously in no hurry to leave. Although the group as a whole had so many weapons, plus those reliable vehicles, that they probably didn’t need to be if they were only traveling a few more hours to Arkansas.
None of us said anything about having already been there or what it was like. We needed to stay completely off the radar and not give Kane or his dad Matthias a lead to follow, just in case they happened to run into each other. I still highly doubted either of them were that interested in finding us, but better safe than sorry. And we were harboring Miller and Tyler.
Finally, it was time to split up and Johnny laid out a very generous offer, “We stayed in a place last night. It’s about ten minutes from here. It was like a shoe store or something, but the building’s made out of concrete and we cleaned any Feeders out last night. We could drive you over there if y’all want. I know you have a late start on your day and you don’t have a vehicle or nothing.”
Vaughan gave Hendrix a look across the fire and gauged his reaction. “That would be awesome. Thanks, man.”
“Not a problem,” Johnny smiled wide, his gold teeth flashing in the afternoon light. “It’s the least I can do. And honestly, I wish I could do more. You got so many little ones with you, it don’t seem right to leave you stranded without transport or ammo. Are you sure you don’t want to ride with us into Arkansas. It could be a great opportunity for you and your people.”
“We appreciate the offer, but we’re headed to find some family.” When Johnny laughed loud and long at that, Vaughan continued, “We know it’s a long shot, but we have to try. You understand that, right?”
Johnny sobered some and bopped his head up and down, “Now that I can understand.”
We said goodbye to Johnny and Trish and were all surprised when Johnny handed over two hand guns and some more ammo to Vaughan. It wasn’t much but it would at least get us through the night. Unless we were attacked like before again, but then only one of their machine guns or an act of God could save us from that.
They cleared out one of their Suburbans so we could file in and held onto the gifted guns until we were dropped off in front of an old Payless. There wouldn’t be any food in here- so no bad smells or insects and animals. And on the plus side, we could go shoe shopping. A Payless was a fantastic place to spend the night.
The driver of the Suburban waved to us and headed back to his friends. I tried, really tried to process that act of kindness and almost couldn’t. Was I so jaded after the last militia camp and Kane’s Twilight Zone Colony that I couldn’t even trust a generous act after it was done? I hung my head and searched around inside my soul for anything left of goodness, innocence or purity.
And then I realized that there wasn’t any.
I was as diseased as the rest of humanity.
I looked up, ready to make camp inside the Payless when I caught Hendrix’s eyes from across our group. He was looking at me with deep concern etched into his face and I tried to smile at him but it fell flat. My chin quivered and I pressed my lips together in an effort not to cry, but I was overwhelmed from the last twenty-four hours and it was only a matter of seconds before everything caught up with me.
“Reagan and I are taking a walk,” Hendrix declared to the crowd.
Everyone stared at us like we were crazy, except for Vaughan. He tossed his brother a gun and demanded that we be careful. And then he led the rest of his family, Haley, Tyler and Miller inside the boarded up swinging door.
Hendrix walked over to me slowly, pocketing the gun and holding his hand out to me. I took it, reveling in the warmth of his fingers as they wrapped around mind, in the sensitive touch of his palm as he pressed it into mine, in just the feel of him and how he seemed to make everything better by just being him.
We walked around to the back of the building where we were rewarded with stretching fields that rolled over shallow hills. The sun was low on the western horizon and warm on our faces. The spring breeze tickled our noses and along the back of the building was a garden of early blooming roses.