It was sunset. The orange gold in the sky stretched far and wide, the colour of fire hearths and tangerines. I was taking a stroll in the estate, trudging along the footpath in front of houses at a sedate pace.
After Clareta had covered both of our shifts at the livestock pen, we both went back home so she could shower before she followed Hae In to get our supper from the kitchen. Daniel and Zeke were on guard duty but I didn't know where Ezra had gone to.
A couple of people were also on the street, taking a stroll, while children were riding bicycles in the street with dogs following them. Alison, Jack and her new friends were also there, riding in circles around a fountain.
Cassandra and the scouting team hadn't come back yet but Laleh had cleared all worries. She told us that sometimes the scouting team were gone for three or four days because the food and other essentials we needed from the nearby towns were dwindling so they had to go to farther towns.
Sick like the infected.
I let out a scoff and came to a stop as I remembered what Zeke told me when he was drunk. I didn't know if he had been telling the truth at this point and I was extremely confused.
He and Ezra were keeping things from me and they were pretending not to. They were also avoiding me which made me more interested in what they didn't want to tell me. I had decided that if they didn't tell me what it was before Caldwell got back then I'd ask mum about it.
But how was I going to ask?
Hey mum, Zeke said we were sick like the infected nine years ago and Ezra didn't actually go to boarding school. Is that true?
"Well hello there," a voice said, bringing me out of my thoughts and I looked to my left to see Wesley standing next to me with a smile on his face.
"A penny for your thoughts?" he asked and I snorted.
"What am I going to use a penny for?"
"Ah... a bullet for your thoughts?"
We both let out a laugh before Alison called out a 'Hi guys' as she drove a bicycle past us with Jack in tow. Jack ran towards me when he saw me and began to dance around me. I reached down and scratched the top of his head which made his tail wag excitedly while his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth. Wesley did the same before he left us and ran after Alison when she was two houses down the street.
We continued walking in silence for a couple of minutes till we almost got to the estate's gates. There were armed guards in the elevated guard posts and on the ground.
"Wesley about last night –"
"Ah, don't worry about it. We already talked, Daniel and I." He waved me off after he said that and I muttered an 'oh'.
I was going to apologize to him for the things Daniel said to him last night but I guess they already talked it out.
"What did he –" I was cut off by the sound of an engine approaching.
"Open the gate," one of the guards called out from the elevated guard post before two men pulled the gate open, revealing a yellow school bus.
The engine growled as the bus drove into the estate, stopping a couple of metres from the gate after the man wearing fatigues at the guard post on the floor waved them down.
A man with red hair quickly got down from the bus after the man in fatigues told him a couple of words through the windows. A couple of armed guards went to stand by the bus and began to talk to the man that came down. Wesley headed toward them as more people got down from the bus and but I stayed back.
The children riding bicycles in the street and the people on a stroll had already stopped and were staring at the new people. It seemed like they were all quite shocked that there were still people alive out there.
Most of the people that got down from the bus were women and children and they all huddled together. The soldiers seemed to relax after seeing the children and stepped back, letting the man in fatigues and Wesley talk to them instead.
I couldn't hear them from where I was so I was a bit startled when Wesley waved me over. I waited for a couple of seconds before I walked over to him.
The first thing I noticed was that most of them were wearing dirty and tattered clothes. They were emaciated and they looked really weak.
The man in fatigues was writing their names down into a log book as the red haired man listed them. He looked up as I approached and gave me a nod.
"Cole, this is Enny. She's one of the residents here too. She and Wesley will take you guys to the medical centre to get a check up. Feel free to ask them any questions on the way there."
Two of the soldiers went into the bus and looked around before coming back down and I wondered why they didn't do this to us when we showed up a couple of weeks ago.
"Okay, you can drive your bus to the medical centre. Wesley, Laleh knows the houses that are empty so you guys should take them there after their check up."
The red haired man muttered words of appreciation before he and his people piled back into the bus. Wesley and I were about to enter as he started the vehicle.
The engine growled for a couple of seconds before it abruptly spluttered and died. He repeated the process of turning the key in the ignition but the engine didn't even respond this time.
"I guess we're walking," Wesley stated and they all got down from the bus.