“Barry, go get the truck,” said the woman quietly.
“Why?” asked one of the men.
“Because if they’ve got friends, I don’t want them stopping by and finding their bodies on our land. I’ll do it myself, a good way from here. The rest of you, break up their gear and divide it between everyone. Sally, help me secure them.”
“No, please,” cried Elijah, struggling against the people holding him.
“We don’t have a choice. You’ve already proved we can’t trust you. Robbing from us, lying to us— I can’t take the risk that you’ve got a raiding party behind you. I’m sorry,” said the woman.
Neil didn’t fight as someone tied his hands tightly behind his back. He hoped the woman wasn’t about to betray them. He wished he could tell Elijah something, anything, so that he wouldn’t be so frightened. An old pickup rattled up to the parking lot. Neil was lifted into the bed, and then Elijah.
“You sure you want to do this alone?” asked Barry, handing the woman the keys. “What if they jump out?”
“Then they’ll die with a face full of gravel scrapes for their effort,” said the woman. “Go on all of you, back to the farm. Joe needs those potatoes dug today. I’ll be back shortly.”
The door to the truck slammed and the people in the parking lot began wandering away. The truck rolled forward and pulled onto the empty street.
“It’s going to be okay,” Neil said softly. “She’s going to let us go.”
“Why?” asked Elijah.
“Because she doesn’t want to have to kill anyone, mostly I think. Partly because she believes us. But she didn’t want her people to. She was afraid it would send them into chaos and couldn’t see that it’d do any good.”
“I don’t know. If that were true, why didn’t she just let us go right there?”
“I knew she was going to take us away from the settlement, she didn’t want to risk us reporting back to anyone or anything if she could help it. But doing it alone— I’m not sure why she did this.”
“You sure about this?”
“No,” Neil admitted, “but it was the best I could do. I had nothing to persuade her with except her own goodwill.”
“I wish you’d just kept going, Neil.”
“I don’t. We’re in this together.”
“Even if she lets us go, without the bikes it’ll take us twice as long. And we’re still going to have to find food and supplies.”
“I know. We’ll stick to houses though. We’ll find more bikes. We’ll go through pantries and find food. It’ll be okay.”
The truck turned off the main drag and down a residential street. Shit. I’m not going to know where the hell we are when we stop, thought Neil. Guess that’s kind of the point though.
“Are you hurt?” he asked Elijah, forgetting that he’d asked already.
“Just a few nicks from the glass in the store.”
“There’s a lot of blood.”
“I don’t think it’s going to matter much in a few minutes, brother.”
“We’re going to be okay,” Neil insisted. “Just wish I could help you is all.”
They fell into silence as the truck bounced down another potholed road. It was another fifteen minutes before the truck slowed to a stop and the rumbling engine shut off. The woman came around and dropped the tailgate.
“That’s as much fuel as I can spare,” she said. “Come on, scoot off.”
Neil wriggled forward, sliding down the truck bed until his legs hung off.
“Far enough,” she told him. Elijah made it down to him. “I’m going to untie you now. Don’t do anything stupid, better with a knife than I look like I should be.”
Neil felt the ties around his hands loosen.
“Don’t come back. And if I’ve fucked up— if you’re part of some gang— you remember that I let you go. That I believed you. That’s not weakness. It’s kindness. There’s a difference. You come back or your gang tries to hurt us, we’ll defend ourselves. We’ve survived this long for a reason.”
“It’s just us, ma’am,” said Elijah. “We won’t trouble you again. Thank you.”
She seemed uncomfortable. She pointed down the road. “Convenience store up there. There’s not much left, we had to come here for some things a few months ago. But it’s empty as long as no one broke the lock yet and there’s water and a few other things left.” She put the tailgate up behind them. “I hope you find your daughter.” Neil pulled Elijah out of the road and she got into the truck, turned it around, and rumbled back down the road.
“Can’t believe they let us go,” said Elijah.
“There are still people trying to be decent out here, even after everything.”
“I know. Just don’t count on running into them. Next time, follow the rules. That could have gone very differently.”
Neil wrapped an arm around Elijah’s shoulder. “Yeah. But there was no way it was going to end with me riding away free while you were trapped, okay? I already did that. I never want to repeat it. Let’s see if we can find that water and something to make sure there’s no glass left in your cheek.”
29
Elijah had watched him closely all morning. “My leg’s fine,” Neil told him when they took a break in the shadow of a rusting water tower. “Not even achy in the morning anymore.”
“I know,” said Elijah.
“You want to stop for supplies in there?” Neil pointed to the small convenience store across the street. “I think I’ve only got a few band-aids left.”
Elijah smoothed the trio of band-aids on his cheek. “It’s closed up. Just didn’t want to get any dirt on it. I know you’re in a hurry. Only a few miles left, right? We can come back.”
“Sure. But if you need something— I know you’re worried about food stores. Probably not much in there except jerky and stale chips but we can try if you want.”
“Like I said, we can come back. We’ve got enough for a few days still. And we’ve passed a few apple trees. Probably more ahead.” Elijah adjusted his ragged backpack so he could sit against it fully.
“Then what is it? You’ve been chewing on something all morning. I just can’t tell what it is.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uneasy. Have you— we have a little time, you know. Losing the bikes slowed us down, but there are still a few weeks before we have to worry about the weather getting too cold and hunkering down. If you want to… if you want to figure out the lay of the land first. With your family, I mean.”
“Oh.”
“You haven’t thought much about it yet, have you? What you’re going to say? How they’re going to be?”
“I have. A little,” said Neil. “Maybe not as much as I should. I mean, I didn’t rehearse a speech or anything. It seems— wrong somehow to do that. I just want to make sure they’re safe, that’s all. What comes after is up to them. I know that. It’ll be okay. I know you don’t believe that. I know you think I’m just going to crumble if Joan tosses me out. It’ll hurt, I won’t lie. Hurt the last time she did, too. But I survived then and I’ll survive now. If I can just show Randi I kept my promise. If I can just see her safe and tell her that I love her, that I didn’t forget her in that library— the rest will be okay. Truly.”
Elijah picked at a frayed spot on his jeans with a fingernail.
“Is it that you think I’ll ditch you?” asked Neil. “Because I won’t. We’re in this together, whatever happens. Joan’s not going to toss you out if she decides I can stay. Half an hour and she’ll be your best friend. You two are going to be great—”
“It’s not that.” He sighed. “It’s a long way from the City. There were a lot of places to turn off. A lot of places where they could have decided to stick around. Have you— have you thought about what happens if they aren’t at your cabin?”
Neil thought about the bus crash. The way the fireweed glowed in the sunlight through the broken windows. The tiny fingerbones lying between the seats. “It’s crossed my
mind. I don’t have a plan if that’s what you’re asking. But I don’t need one. She wouldn’t have gone anywhere else. Joan was comfortable here, she was at her happiest when we came here. She and Randi are there. I can feel it in my gut. We’re going to walk down that dirt drive and Randi’s going to bang the screen door running out. Joan’s going to yell at her but when she sees it’s us—” Neil broke off with a distant smile. “I know these reunions don’t always go well. I know it might not go well for me either, Elijah. I’m not that naive. But for a few minutes— before they know, before I have to tell them, there’s going to be a minute. There’s going to be a minute that’s ours.”
Something sad flashed over Elijah’s expression. Longing? Dread? Sorrow? It was gone too quickly for Neil to be certain. “You’re right. There’s a lot the love of a kid can heal. I’ve seen it for myself. Maybe Randi can win over your wife, even if she can’t understand what happened for herself.” He stood up and put his water bottle back into his pack before lifting it. “Guess we should get back on the road. It’d be good to be there before sundown. Don’t want to scare them.” He flashed Neil a grin but there was no joy in it. Neil decided it must be his own family Elijah was thinking of and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
“You’re part of my family now, Elijah, whatever that ends up meaning. Do you understand? I know I can’t replace what you had, and I don’t want to, but my wife, my daughter, they are genuinely good people. They’re going to love you. You’re never going to be less to them. Or to me.”
“I know, brother. Don’t you worry for me. I’m happy to be with you. Feels a little like going to my grandparents’ as a kid. Don’t you worry for me.”
Neil didn’t like the way he repeated it but shrugged it off. They were close to home and he’d been waiting for so long to see Randi, everything else was a distant second.
He could feel his heart rate speed up as their shoes ate up the last few miles. His legs didn’t feel as tired as they should. He didn’t notice much about the tiny nearby town, only that the library’s flagpole had tipped into the street and they had to skirt around and that the small store’s gravel lot was sprouting grass along the edges. Elijah didn’t say much, mostly just letting Neil sink into the comfort of a familiar route. The sun was still hovering over the tops of the trees when they reached the last winding road. It faded from tar to dirt and wound around three large curves before rambling down a long hill toward Joan’s cabin. Rounding the second of these curves was an old derelict graveyard. The road was so familiar to Neil, that he would have passed by it entirely without a second glance, had Elijah not stopped suddenly. He stared into the little graveyard. Neil looked to see what had stopped him. There was a woman leaning on a shovel in the back of the tiny graveyard. Her back was to them. How she hadn’t heard them coming, Neil wasn’t certain, until he heard a small whine come from her. It’s Joan, he told himself. It’s Joan and she’s burying Randi. He knew it was irrational even as he called out, “Joan?” and sprinted toward the graveyard gate. She was the wrong shape, had the wrong color hair, but his mind made his deepest fear true for an instant.
The woman spun around, kicking the shovel away and picking up the rifle beside her in one movement. Too fast for Neil or Elijah to do anything but stare. “Can’t you monsters give me one day to grieve?” she shrieked. The gun erupted and one of the thin slate gravestones shattered. Neil ducked instinctively.
“We’re not sick!” cried Elijah. “We’re not sick, ma’am!”
The woman’s face lost most of its fury, but the gun stayed clenched in her hands and she adjusted her aim. “What do you want then? Got nothing for you. If you try and rob me—”
“No, no, we don’t want anything,” said Neil quickly. He raised his hands to show her he wasn’t holding anything. “I’m looking for my wife. My daughter. I just want to find them. I’ve been looking for a long time, Miss. We got—” he glanced back at Elijah, but found no hints there. “We got separated.”
The woman squinted at him but her grip relaxed slightly.
“Have you seen them?” he asked. “They’d be just around the corner, number sixteen. Little girl, ni— eleven. Brown hair, probably climbs a lot of trees— at least, she used to. Her name’s Randi, maybe you talked to her?”
The woman shook her head.
“My wife then? Joan’s always been a little protective. She’s about your height. My age— er, late thirties. Worries a lot, probably about ticks up here—”
“There’s no one on this road,” said the woman. “Except the biters. Probably no one in thirty miles. Not that I’ve seen in months. I’m sorry.”
Elijah’s hand was heavy and warm on Neil’s shoulder. “Maybe you saw them before. Last year or so. They were headed this way, with a bus,” said Elijah.
The woman thought for a moment. “There are the travelers. They’ve come through the last two springs.”
“Travelers?”
The woman shrugged. “That’s what I call ‘em. I think they were mostly city people before. Poor souls couldn’t grow a carrot in a manure pile to save themselves. They scavenge instead. Come for the early crops in the abandoned farms. They’ve come to trade with me a few times. I think there was a little girl with them. They’ve likely gone south now, following the food. Don’t expect I’ll see them again until June-ish.”
“No, no, they must be at the cabin. You haven’t been by sixteen have you?” protested Neil with a growing sense of panic.
“Miguel and I keep to ourselves mostly—” something in the woman cracked and she stopped, letting the gun sag as she wiped a burst of tears angrily from her eyes. “Keep to myself,” she amended.
“Oh,” said Elijah softly. “I’m so sorry, ma’am.” He took a hesitant step toward her. “Is that— is that him?” he asked pointing to the bundle of floral bedspread that lay beside her feet.
“You stay away,” she said suddenly, raising the gun again. “Don’t know anything about you. Coming here with your sad stories about wives and daughters missing. And all your scars. For all I know, you killed them. That how you got your scars?”
Elijah hesitated.
“No, Miss— Mrs., that’s not how we got our scars,” Neil answered for him, afraid Elijah’s guilt would make him tell her the truth about how exactly he’d gotten the wriggling, puffed ridges on his cheeks.
“I— just thought I’d offer to help,” said Elijah slowly. “It’s going to be hard to get him in there without bumping his head if you do it on your own. I could take his feet if— if it would help. Or Neil and I— we can put him in, you can keep the gun on us. Give you a break. You seem like you could use a chance to breathe, hmm?”
She glanced down at the bundle and started to cry in earnest. “I wasn’t ready yet,” she managed at last.
“We can wait until you are, right Neil?”
All Neil wanted was to sprint the remaining half-mile and check the cabin. See for himself that Randi was sitting there on the porch, playing with her stuffed animals and Joan swearing at the weeds in the garden. “Of course,” was what he said instead. It’s been two years. They’ll still be there in half an hour, he told himself.
“I didn’t mean I wasn’t ready to bury him. I meant I wasn’t ready. Those damn biters.”
“The Infected killed him?” Elijah asked. Neil felt another surge of panic. If there were still Infected in the area, how was Joan keeping Randi safe?
“I kept him away for so long. We were never social people. Not really. And then when the news started trickling in about the plague— I kept him safe for so long.” She sat down beside the bundle with a sudden thump and laid the gun across her legs so she could stroke the blanketed face. “We hunkered down. The farm’s got almost everything we need. Would have been fine for years. But those fucking tourists. Told Miguel they’d be trouble when they started buying up the land around the farm. Thought those stupid bunkers would save them. Maybe they would. Maybe they did, for some of them. There’s always got to be
the stupid ones. The ones who think this is some kind of vacation. Little tour to their summer home, the bunker in the woods. They’d come out. I’d see ‘em on their four-wheelers going down to the store like the whole world wasn’t sick. Like they were just going to run down to the corner store for some chips and hotdog buns. Six months. Six months we were okay. And then Miguel caught em coming across the fence. Already insane. Already trying to eat him. Heard him hollering for me all the way across the farm and come running. We took care of it. Mourned them, even, though we didn’t know them. Buried them over there.” She pointed to the opposite corner of the graveyard where two mounds erupted from the grass much higher than the centuries-old graves around them. “But it was too late. Miguel caught the damn disease. Hanging in the air or from touching their bodies, I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. He caught it just barely a month later. And I— love him. So I took care of him, best I could. But he kept biting. Me, the dogs if they wandered too close, himself.” She rubbed her eyes again. “I kept hoping that he’d shake it off. He was always so healthy before. Just thought he’d wake up one morning and be himself again. But a few weeks ago he got loose. Wound himself up in the barbed wire fence before I found him. I don’t know if he ate something or— or the scratches got infected or this disease just finally ate him up. All I know is he got sicker and sicker and seemed to be in so much pain. Haven’t seen a doctor in years. And even if I could get to a pharmacy, I don’t know what to give him or what to do. He was in so much pain. We’ve both been in so much pain. I— started wishing I could just get sick, too. But it never happened. Couldn’t go crazy with that disease so I guess I’m doing it the old-fashioned way.” She laughed and it dissolved into tears. She patted the bundle. “So I… This morning was a good morning. Sunny and breezy and it smelled like warm grass. Haven’t seen a biter today— well, until I thought you were. I think it might be our anniversary. Lost track of the days a little while ago, but it feels about right. So I did it today.”
Before The Cure (Book 2): The Infected Page 30
