The Scavengers by Gen Griffin Page A

who was supposed to be on watch was too busy staring at Drake without his shirt on and didn't notice the dang zombie coming until it was right on us.”
    “It’s never worth it,” Seth replied. He pursed his lips for a moment and then shrugged his shoulders. “You know my rules. You want to play by 'em, you're in.”
    “I haven't decided for sure yet. I still got family in the Cube, ya know?”
    “You know where to go when you make up your mind,” Seth told him.
    Kennedy nodded. “Thanks man, I appreciate that.”
    “Nothing to it,” Seth replied. “You've earned it.”
    Kennedy turned to face me. “We need to get headed back to the bus.”
    “Okay.” I had to force myself to move. My new boots felt like they were glued to the floor. I didn't know what to make of anything that had happened in this house today. None of it made any sense, especially not when it was combined with what Drake had confided in me last night. I wondered if Drake had been lying to me after all.
    I wondered if Seth was lying to me now.
    I didn't have the chance to ask him as Kennedy gestured for me to follow him out the door of the room and into the hall, but as Seth began to walk past me he leaned in so close that his jaw was nearly resting in my shoulder.
    “Don't ever let Drake know you have that gun,” he said. “It's worth more than your life.”

CHAPTER 8
     
    Kennedy and I slogged down the wet clay road in awkward silence for a good 10 minutes before he broke the silence.
    “You're smarter than Drake and Shayla are giving you credit for,” Kennedy informed me with a hint of bitter admiration in his voice.
    I frowned, unsure how to take his compliment and downright confused about why he was giving it to me. “Is that so?” I asked, hoping to sound merely curious. I was afraid the hurt, anger and confusion in my heart would leak into my words.
    Kennedy choked back a short, hard laugh. “It took you two days to figure out that being a Scavenger isn't the good deal everyone in the Cube makes it out to be. It's taken me damn near three years and a best friend.”
    “I'm sorry,” I told him. His boyish face was a mask of frustration and anger.
    “Conner wasn't my blood but he was my big brother,” Kennedy said, staring down at his boots as he continued to put one foot in front of the other on the roadway. “We shared an apartment. Dated the same girls. Went to the same parties. Played the same freaking games. I was trying to go to sleep last night and I wound up laying on my back counting the rivets in the ceiling and wondering who I was going to play chess with now that Conner was gone?”
    I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't say anything at all. It didn't seem to matter if I replied or not. Kennedy was lost in his own world of memories and I was simply a sounding board for his emotions.
    “Conner always talked about getting out of the Scavengers. He said all the secrets made him feel dirty. He wanted to jump ship and switch allegiances to the Church of Chaos pretty much from the first time we found out there was a world outside the Cube. He kept saying how the Powers That Be had a really short-sighted view of what survivors needed to do long-term compared to the way the Church operated.” Kennedy's voice cracked slightly.
    The Church of Chaos wants too much .
    Drake's words from yesterday rang in my ears.
    “When Jeremiah died and Seth took over as the head priest of the Church, I had to beg Conner to stay. He respected the hell out of Seth. Thought he was brilliant. He thought we'd have a real future if we left the Scavengers for the Church.”
    “Seth is the leader of the Church of Chaos?” I couldn't stop myself from asking. I needed to clarify his position in my own head.
    Kennedy nodded. “Conner and I had made a pact to stick together when we were kids. Now Conner is dead and it’s all my fault. He only agreed to stay with the Scavengers because I didn't want to just abandon my sisters, you know?”