The World Without Flags

Pest tells me that when he and Norman returned to the Homestead, there was a big argument about whether or not I should be hunted down. Although Franky argued that we should get bring me back home where you belonged, and that the Homestead had a responsibility for Eric, to make sure that he wouldn’t infect anyone else, in the end, people voted just to leave me alone, especially when they learned how I had fought for Eric. “There was just no stomach for it,” Pest says. So people went back to planting. Pest, however, had other ideas. Pest went into our cabin and grabbed one of my dirty shirts then he packed some stuff and left with Queen. At the time, he thought I was going to Good Prince Billy, so he went west. About two days later, he saw the first burning house. While Pest and Queen stayed hidden, they watched as the bandits dragged out someone with the Worm and put them in their cart. Other people they just killed. Wanting to avoid the bandits, he figured we could do a long circle around them by going north. While he made this circle to north, he came across a horse, probably one that belonged to one of the houses that the bandits had burned. It still had a saddle on it and everything. The bridle was tangled up in some bushes and it just stood there, waiting, so he took the horse and went north, Queen padding behind them.

That’s when Pest saw another group of bandits. This time he recognized one of the horses. It was Bandit. He knew that I was one of the prisoners and one of the infected in the wagon was Eric.

At this point in the story, I have to ask. “Why didn’t you run away? You’re just one kid against armed bandits.”

“I owe Eric,” he tells me. “I owe him more than you think.” I want to ask more about that, but Pest continues his story.

Pest made the mistake of falling asleep in the saddle, and the bandits saw him. They sent a rider after him and Pest galloped away. The guy followed him, and didn’t seem like he was going to give up. Pest didn’t notice that they were headed into a bog until it was too late. When they hit it, the horse came up fast like they’d hit a wall and Pest went flying over the saddle and over the horse’s head, splashing down into the thick swamp. When he came up out of the water, the bandit was smiling at him with his gun level to his head, sitting on his horse. Queen came leaping out of the forest and bit him in the leg. His horse skittered and then reared up away from Queen, and the man couldn’t keep his seat. He kind of half fell off, with his ankle caught in the stirrup. The horse reared up again, and Pest heard the man’s leg snap like dry wood. Queen leapt forward again and the man’s horse, spooked, bolted away, the bandit screaming and yelping in pain as the horse dragged him away. The horse Pest found ran away too, leaving them on foot.

Pest didn’t think of returning to the Homestead. He kept following the bandits. By the time the rain started, he had followed them all the way to their compound, but he didn’t have any plan. There were too many people and too many guns. He thought it was impossible, but he couldn’t turn back. Pest just waited in the forest, watching the compound, thinking and hoping an opportunity to help would come.

When the gunshots went off, it was early in the morning. Pest woke up and saw a lot of people running around outside the warehouse. He saw them drag out two bodies. At first, he was sure it was me and Eric, that we tried to escape and they shot us, but when he took out his binoculars and got a better look, he could see it was a woman and a little girl. They dragged them out in the middle of town and set fire to them. There was a lot of arguing and I saw some people get on horses and ride down the road to the south. That’s when Pest knew someone had escaped, and they were looking for them.

So that night Pest went south past the warehouse and to the river, figuring that anyone who escaped would go into the forest. By the river, he knelt down and gave Queen my shirt. She found my trail by the river. Although it took them awhile to find us, Pest says it was lucky of me.

“You were almost dead,” he tells me.

“I would’ve been okay,” I lie to him. I can’t stand the thought that I owe my life to Pest. But I reach out to Queen who is watching us and give her a good scratching behind the ears. “Good girl,” I tell her. “Good girl.”

Pest looks at me sourly.

102

While Pest tells his story, I watch his face. I don’t think I’ve ever studied him so closely before. I’ve never heard him talk so much. I see something that I never saw before, someone who thought about other people, who cared, really cared. I’ve always thought that Pest was scheming for himself and the rest of the goon squad. He was just too intelligent and I never trusted that. Now I see as I watch him that maybe he’s right, maybe I don’t understand everything. There’s still a lot I have to learn.