Race to Refuge by Liz Craig Page A

explained what was going on and didn’t sound crazy while I was doing it. Wouldn’t he think my sister and I were running away? I decided it was my best bet, though. That was in a quiet enough place that if there were zombies there, there wouldn’t be too many of them running around. I’d been there enough, too, that I knew where it was. Sort of.
    After that, though, where was I headed? I took responsibility for Ginny, but it would be great if I could hand that over to an adult family member instead. Then I thought about Nana. She lived in senior living even farther out of town. I remembered it was a secure place, too—they didn’t want their memory care residents to be able to get out so the place was really locked down. And locked down from the inside was a good thing in a zombie outbreak. I’m sure I could knock on the door and persuade somebody to let Ginny and me in—especially with Ginny being so small. They’d probably take pity on us and let us in.
    They’d have probably more food on the site than the school would have and a lot less appetite for eating it. And beds to sleep in—maybe an extra room or two. It would be good to sleep hard and then make a better decision about our next move.
    Ginny was looking at me with that anxious frown making a line between her eyebrows. I gave her a reassuring smile and she pulled out an earbud to listen to me. “I know what we’re going to do,” I said.
    She relaxed a little, relieved. She didn’t even look like she wanted to hear the plan, she just wanted to know that I had one.
    I started the car up again and sped down the road until we got to the country store. It looked just the same as always. There was one gas pump outside and the stone building had one of those decorative flags outside that said open . There was only one vehicle there, a pickup truck that probably belonged to the owner. I couldn’t remember the guy’s name and hoped that he would remember me better than I could remember him. If he could just let us have some of his store stock, we’d be in a much better situation. I could even tell him that the next time Dad came through, he’d be sure to reimburse him. Then his name came to me … Bo. It made me feel more at ease to know his name … like we really did have a connection with each other.
    I pulled the car right up to the door and hesitated, thinking things through. Maybe I should leave the car running. But was the danger really that close here? How quickly was it spreading? Would leaving the car running make me look like I’m some sort of thief?
    Ginny reached for the door handle and I put out a quick hand to stop her. “Hey, Ginny, just let me look around first and make sure the area is clear, okay? Then, if I make a signal, you can come in and help me get supplies.”
    “You mean leave me in the car alone?” Ginny’s face was uneasy.
    “Just until I make sure it’s safe for you to go inside,” I said calmly. But inside, my heart was beating so hard that I was worried she could hear it sitting next to me.
    “Don’t you need to take a weapon or something in?” she asked, pointing to the bat. I guess she figured that the bat was there to defend us and that I wasn’t planning on any recreational apocalyptic playing.
    I was surprised. Maybe Ginny was going to adapt better than I thought. “I would, but I’m worried it’s going to make me look like a thug. If I look like a thug, I don’t think Bo is going to be real motivated to give us free stock.” In the distance, I heard gunfire and hesitated again. We were out in the country. Was this just good old boys going hunting for deer? Or was it people defending themselves? “Ginny, listen to me. If I come out now and I’ve been attacked in some way—scratched, bitten, something like that—and I’m trying to get back into the car, you don’t let me in, okay?”
    Ginny’s eyes were huge and her breath caught. “Ty, I don’t want to be by myself. What would I