“That’s not a small town,” Michael said.
Chris acknowledged both of them and then settled in for the night. “Let’s try to make it until tomorrow.”
The group separated without much debate. The exhaustion was obvious on everyone’s face. Jenn headed for the front and settled in the seat closest to the door. Chris was following her when she spoke, but she didn’t look back.
“I’ll take first watch.”
There were no complaints. Chris tried to settle on a seat for the night but found himself standing beside Jenn. She looked up at him and then scooted over. He sat down and the two peered out the front windshield for a long time without saying a word. Chris struggled as he ran through everything he’d said to her over the past few days. Lucky for him, Jenn spoke first.
“How could you just leave us?”
Chris started to defend himself but shook his head instead. He was tired. He looked at her and found a gut-retching sadness on her face. A rush of disappointment consumed him.
“I’m not good with people,” he admitted. “Never have been.” He wiped his hands over his face trying to get the burn out of his eyes. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
“I don’t care,” she cut in. “I don’t care about what you were. I only care about what you are, who you are now.” He nodded, but didn’t say anything. “We’re all we have right now.”
Chris didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want anyone depending on him. More important, he didn’t want to care about anyone else. He knew the guilt he had came from his growing affection for her and the kids. He kept telling himself he didn’t want any of that.
“I thought you were coming along because you cared what happened to us?”
There was a long uncomfortable silence. It took Chris a few minutes to realize she was waiting for an answer. “What do you want me to say?”
“How about we start with the truth?”
“Fine,” he said louder than he needed to. He caught himself and whispered. “I’m a junkie. I can’t remember the last time I cared about anyone else but me.” He thought about what he said, and it stunned him. He couldn’t remember a time he’d ever said it out loud.
Jenn nodded and smiled a sad acknowledgment. She took his hand and held it. “Nope, you were a junkie.” She slipped her fingers in between his. “Now you’re one of us.”
They sat quietly holding hands and looking out at their dark surroundings, neither feeling the need to say anymore.
♦
Jafar and Michael stepped off the bus as soon as the sun broke the tops of the trees across the highway. The plan was simple: get to Grand Junction and scout for supplies. If there was any sign of trouble, they would leave without risking a fight. Jafar had his pistol and Michael had the rifle Chris had taken off the gunman in the school parking lot.
The firearm distribution left the group in the bus with a single rifle and a few bladed weapons, but the need for food and water far outweighed anything else. Chris was hungry, although he wouldn’t admit it. Jake and Alicen were already complaining. If Jafar and Michael didn’t return with something, no one was sure what they were going to do.
The duo headed west along the side of the highway with an expectation of being back before sundown. Sarah was convinced Grand Junction wasn’t more than a few miles from where they were parked. An agreement from Michael assured Jafar they could reach the town and get back in time. The remaining group settled in for a long wait.
♦
Jenn stood out in the center of the highway checking her watch. Chris stepped off the bus and started toward her. Jafar and Michael had been gone for nearly ten hours. No one wanted to say it, but they were all starting to worry.
“Anything?” Chris asked.
Jenn shook her head. “Not a sign of them. What do you want to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“We can’t leave them out there.” She focused on him. “They could be in trouble.”
“So you want to drive all of us into the middle of it if they are?”
Jenn headed back to the bus. She rushed by him without as much as a glance.
“Wait a minute.” By the time he reached the steps, she was behind the wheel buckling her seatbelt. “Aren’t we going to discuss this?”
“Discuss what?” Jake asked from a few seats away.
“We’re going,” Jenn said and started the bus.
Chris looked from her to Jake and shrugged. “I guess we’re going.” They were already moving before his butt hit the seat behind the driver. “Let’s keep it slow and steady. Make sure we don’t pull into anything we can’t get ourselves out of.”
It took only a few minutes to cover the distance to Grand Junction. The green and white welcome sign was marred with bullet holes, and the highway was littered with burnt out vehicles. Chris let down his window and leaned out. He got his gun ready and then called back to the others.
“Take a window, two on each side, and call out if you see anything move.”
Alicen appeared in a window several seats back on Chris’s side of the bus. The little girl smiled at him and then focused on the landscape. One side of the highway was comprised of a vast grassy meadow, and buildings and storefronts blanketed the other side. Chris ran his eyes along the edge of the road and discovered Grand Junction was far bigger than the small town he’d imagined.
The buildings went back in the distance farther than he could see. Each street stacked on top of one another as the landscape rose the farther north they went. The uneasiness that started in Chris’s stomach was now a full-blown sickness. Jafar and Michael should not have gone alone.
Jenn kept the bus at a snail’s pace. The roaring engine made it difficult to hear anything out of the ordinary. They passed several side streets before they reached the first major intersection. The highway continued to the west while a wide four-lane turn ran off to the north through the heart of what appeared to be a business district. The bus came to a stop in the center of the roadway-spilt, and Jenn looked back at Chris.
His eyes met hers, and then he turned to Sarah. “I don’t suppose you have any idea which way Michael would have suggested?”
She shook her head. “I told him not to go in unless it looked safe.”
Chris stared out at the street running north. “Looks fine to me, but that doesn’t mean much. There could be anything hiding in—”
“There’s something moving.”
Jake’s announcement pulled everyone to the side of the bus facing buildings. A lone figure moved across the field of view between two stores. It was moving slow, too slow.
“I don’t think that’s our guys,” Chris said.
Jake nodded. “I think you’re right.”
The moment the words left his lips, another figure crossed the same path followed by a large group. Jenn’s head popped over Chris’s shoulder as she took a closer look.
“I think you might want to get back behind the wheel,” Chris said.
She echoed Jake’s earlier agreement. “I think you’re right.”
She sat down and strapped in as Chris returned to his side of the bus.
“We can’t just leave,” Sarah said.
“We’re not,” Chris assured her. “But we can’t stay out here like sitting ducks. We have to keep moving.”
Jenn looked up at the long rearview mirror. “Well?”
Chris motioned to the right. “Head north and be ready to stomp on the gas.”
She pulled on the steering wheel with both hands, and the bus started to move. They pulled off the highway, and she kept it in the center of the four lanes. A few randomly parked vehicles littered the way, but there wasn’t much to keep them from turning around if they had to. They continued creeping forward, now fully aware that Grand Junction was far from abandoned.
The road narrowed after a time, and it was down to two lanes when Jenn voiced her first complaint. Chris urged her to continue another few blocks before he reached his limit.
They spotted several groups of zombies moving between distant buildings east of the road. The way was consumed by cookie cutter housing blocks and the intensity of movement signaled the worst was yet to come.
“Enough already,” Jenn said, and then she began to turn the bus before anyone could object. “We’re going to get trapped in here.”
Sarah started for the front, but Chris stopped her. He stepped out in the center aisle and waved her back as he headed for the driver’s seat. Jenn’s eyes were on him in the mirror, but she continued her turn. They were facing south when Chris reached her.
“They have to be around here,” he said.
“All right,” she said with emphasis. “Are you saying you want to take our only gun and go after them?”
Chris quickly realized her statement of devotion only extended to him and the kids.
“Are we going to leave them?” he asked.
She thought about it longer than he would have liked.
“They’re going to go back to where we were,” she said loud enough for everyone to hear. “If they can.” She focused on the road. “We should head back and wait at the edge of town. We can talk about timetables when we get settled.”
Chris was happy enough with the plan. It bought time. If Michael and Jafar weren’t back by nightfall, he knew Jenn was going to push the issue, so he would give himself until then to make a decision. One way or another, someone in the group wasn’t going to be happy.
They were midway between the turnaround spot and the highway when Jenn slowed down and then stopped. She was focused down a road heading west. Chris walked down the aisle toward her. The road of interest ran between the first of the housing tracts and the last of the businesses.
“What’s up?”
“About five blocks in,” Jenn said, pointing. “Do you see that red sign?”
He gazed long enough to realize his vision was far worse than he wanted to admit.
“I don’t—”
“I think it’s a gas station.”
Chris heard the words but still couldn’t see the sign. Gas was quickly becoming as much a necessity as water. A look at the gauges told him they would be lucky to make it another hundred miles. If he’d learned anything, he knew most gas stations had been stripped once it was obvious the government wasn’t coming to help anyone. Even so, he wasn’t sure they could risk not checking it out.
The pressure built in the back of his mind, and it reminded him why he never enjoyed having to be concerned with the welfare of others. He checked the rounds in his gun for the tenth time. He could sense Jenn’s stare on the back of his head, and he finally forced himself to give the answer she was waiting on. “Everyone stays here,” he said and then cut her off as she tried to object. “Keep the engine running. If something goes wrong, you’ll hear me fire. If it looks promising,” he rubbed the stubbly growth on his chin, “I’ll come back for you.”
He readied himself at the stairs waiting for her to open the door. When she didn’t push the bar, he spun around expecting a fight. He was surprised to find her standing directly behind him. He started to tell her there was no way she was going with him, but he was brought to a shocking halt when she grabbed him and pulled him toward her. They were kissing before he knew what was happening, and by the time his brain caught up with the moment, it was over.
“Come back safe,” she said, and then she opened the door and nearly pushed him out.
Chris found himself standing in the middle of the road facing the bus without a clue as to what he was doing. Jenn closed the door before he could respond. He started off toward the gas station as Alicen’s voice sprang out one of the windows.
“Chris and Jenn sitting in a tree k i s s i n g…”
♦
Jenn sat in the driver’s seat anxiously waiting. She was convinced that any moment a gunshot would ring out and she would have to step on the gas and go. She wasn’t entirely sure if she could actually leave Chris behind. Her feelings for him were complicated and growing more complex by the minute. She told herself it was some kind of situational thing. He wasn’t even her type. She’d told herself at least a hundred times and so far it wasn’t helping.
“I have to go help him.”
Jake had tried this approach once already.
“Relax, superman,” Jenn said. “It’s only been twenty minutes.” She checked her watch again and then gave it a shake to make sure it was still running. “He’s just being cautious.”
Jake moved one seat closer to the door and then sat down. They were all anxious. The anticipation was growing with every passing minute. Jenn unhooked her seatbelt and stood up. Jake’s head snapped around.
“I’m stretching my back,” she assured him.
Sarah had been quiet since Chris stepped off the bus. Jenn was sure her thoughts were on her son, but she wasn’t sure what the woman was capable of. If Chris found gas, it wouldn’t change the fact that a decision was coming. If they had to leave Michael and Jafar behind it was probably going to get ugly very fast. Jenn stretched in as many ways as she could think and when she was done, there was still no sign of Chris. She was quickly running out of ways to occupy herself. Alicen finally asked the question Jenn didn’t want to consider.
“What if we never hear anything?”
Jenn sat down and looked back at the little girl. Jake and Sarah’s eyes were on her. Jenn struggled with an answer.
“We…uh, probably need to—”
“Who’s that?”
Alicen’s follow-up question pulled everyone’s attention back out the windows. It took a second, but they located a lone figure heading in their direction. Jenn pushed open the door and stepped down onto the street. She focused in and found Chris’s smile. He was nodding and waving her toward him.
She jumped back up on the bus and slid in the driver’s seat. She didn’t bother closing the door before sliding the bus into drive and starting the turn. “Hold on.” They were heading west a moment later, barreling down a narrow road. She hit the brakes, and the bus came to a stop a few feet from Chris. He hopped up on the first stair and grabbed hold.
“It’s full,” he said, unable to contain his excitement. “I don’t know how and I don’t care.”
They were moving before the words left his mouth. Jenn focused on the station’s sign and gunned the gas. She slowed when they were a few bus lengths away, and the tranquility of the station was eerie.
“How?” she managed. “There’s no way—”
“I know,” Chris said as he jumped out.
His tone told her that he felt something was out of place.
“Pull up next to the first pump,” he said, pointing the way.
Jake rushed past her and jumped out next to Chris before Jenn could stop him. Chris was barking orders as if he’d attended Marine Corps boot camp sometime between leaving the bus and returning.
“Jake, take a knee at that entrance and keep your eyes on the houses across the street.” Chris ran in front of the bus, and Jenn nearly hit him as she tried to pull up to the pump. He headed for the attendant’s station. “I have to turn this on.”
Jenn stopped and got out with Sarah right behind her. They were around the bus and working on the gas cap when the first of many questions came to Jenn.
“How in the hell are we going to get the pumps to work?”
Sarah was about to provide a follow-up question when the distinct sound of a pull motor echoed from behind the station. The motor caught and a sluggish but loud roar of a generator followed. Chris stepped out in the open, and a new series of questions popped into Jenn’s mind, none of which could lead to good answers.
“Why is there a generator hooked up to the station?” she asked.
“Just pump,” Chris said, and the worry showed through on his face. “And hurry.”
There were a hundred new questions running through Jenn’s mind as she pried off the gas cap. She slammed the fuel dispenser into the opening and pressed the handle before ever bothering
to look up. Sarah was near the front of the bus watching Chris run out to the opposite entrance to the station. He had his rifle at the ready.
Jenn knew fuel was a valuable commodity and whoever bothered to hook the station up to the generator probably wasn’t willing to share. She tried to keep her hands from shaking as she pressed the handle as hard as she could. The fuel wouldn’t come out any faster. Her eyes went back and forth between Chris and the rolling numbers on the pump’s face. She didn’t need him to tell her someone was coming when she saw him take aim at something heading down the street in their direction.
“Get on the bus.” Chris yelled as he got to his feet and started walking backwards.
Sarah ran for the open door, but Jenn didn’t move. Her eyes were focused on the pump. She was determined to get every drop of gas she could fit into the tank.
“Oh my God!”
Alicen’s exclamation was far more frightening than Chris’s demand. Jenn squeezed harder, knowing it wouldn’t make a difference. She didn’t let go until the fuel started to spill over the side. She dropped the pump on the ground and ran. She reached the front of the bus at the same time as Chris.
Jenn started to ask one of several questions when she peered over his shoulder at a mass of people running up the road toward the gas station. There were several groups of them, most with bats and clubs. It was the first gunshot that drew her attention to two figures out in front of the pack pulling a heap of supplies in a child’s little red wagon. Jafar was in the lead tugging on the handle, and Michael was pushing it from behind. The wagon was moving so fast it appeared as if the wheels might pop off at any moment.
The trailing horde wasn’t what Jenn expected. They weren’t among the dead, but they were far from the people they once were. They were dressed in a patchwork of clothing, each carrying a variety of bizarre packs and bags. Some were covered in animal skins while others wore the dried hides of something Jenn didn’t want to guess at. The sound of engines rose in the distance, drawing closer by the second.
“Get on the bus,” Chris yelled again and then spun around at the door, aiming his gun back in the direction of the new arrivals.
The Decaying World Saga Box Set [Prequel #1-#2 & Books #1-#2] Page 34
