"You're certainly not invisible, but why are you here? Were you a student?"
She shrugged, the gesture emphasizing her smallness within the oversized black robe. "I didn't have anywhere to go. No family. No home. I was living in the residence hall but things got pretty sketchy there. It wasn't safe for girls. Eventually, it wasn't safe for anyone."
"This building has remained safe?"
Her wide, dark eyes fixed on him. "It has. I had a student job here so I had a key to one of the doors. Like I said, the place must be invisible. It's never been broken into. Everything that's happened here on the campus, I've watched from the roof and no one even sees me. You're the first person to set foot in this building since I moved in. Sometimes I wondered if I was dead and that was why no one saw me. Being alone for so long messes with you. Your head goes weird places."
Ricardo was uncertain of how to respond to that stream of thoughts. While he was sympathetic, her problems were not his. "I was looking for a place to stay for the night but I'll move on."
Her hand shot out, latching onto his shoulder. The movement startled him to the point that he almost turned the rifle back onto her. Seeing his reaction, she loosened her clutching fingers but didn't let go.
"No!" she whispered, urgency in her voice. Desperation. "Please stay."
"I'm headed somewhere. I needed a place for the night. I was searching the building when I found you. You sure you're the only one here?"
"I promise." Even her promise came out as a desperate plea.
"I can't take your word for that. Let me make a pass through the building, then I'll figure out what I'm doing."
She extended a hand, like she was offering to lead a child. "I'll show you around. I know this building."
He ignored the outstretched hand and tossed his head toward the rear doors of the theatre. "You lead, I follow."
She frowned and retracted her hand, then flounced by him in her billowy robe, blue dreads bouncing. "What evs."
Although Ricardo had no idea what that expression meant he fell in behind her. "Do you not have a light?"
"Oh, I have one," she said. "There were batteries stored here. I know the auditorium though. It's like a puzzle. I walk around in the dark, trying to find the aisles without bumping into the seats. I've pretty much got the place memorized."
"I was wondering how you got around in there so quickly. At first, I thought you were fake, like a mannequin or something. A prop that was part of the set."
"Those were all pieces of leftover sets from old performances. I moved them onto the stage for my own entertainment. Without anyone to talk to, it got a little boring. I had to get creative to stay sane."
He wondered if she had actually managed to stay sane. It sounded as if she was on the cusp of losing that battle. They exited the auditorium and emerged into a hallway. Set along the front of the building, one wall was made of glass. Though the sun had set, there was still ambient light that made the hall slightly more navigable than the pitch-black auditorium.
"You might want to kill your light," she suggested. "It could draw attention. There are always people moving around out there."
"What about the invisibility?" Ricardo teased.
"Just because I'm invisible doesn't mean you are."
Despite his concerns about moving around in the low visibility with this stranger, he conceded the point and killed the weapon light. "What have you been doing for food?"
Her voice grew suspicious. "Please tell me you're not here to steal my food. If you are, I probably can't stop you but I have no clue how I'll survive without it. I don't know where to get more."
"I assure you I'm not here to steal your food. I'm trying to get somewhere and I already have food for my journey."
"Are you telling me the truth?"
"If I was lying, do you think I'd admit to lying? You can't always expect everyone you meet in life to tell you the truth just because you ask them something."
She considered that for a moment. "I may not be very old but I've seen a lot in my life. I think I'm a pretty good judge of when someone is lying to me or not. I suspect you'd tell me the truth."
"You're right. I'm not lying. My only interest is a safe place to lay my head for the night."
She seemed happier when they had that bit of unpleasantness out of the way. "I've been through the entire building. I found a lot of food in staff offices and some of the communal break rooms. There was also a concession area that opened up during some of the events they had here. It took me a while but I eventually got through that door and found a ton of stuff in there. Mostly snacks but some protein bars too. A lot of microwave stuff. I don't have a microwave but I have a few ways of heating stuff up."
"That's what you've been living off of? Snacks and microwave food?"
"Not entirely. There was also a cafe in one corner of the building. Kind of a student coffee shop, sandwich shop kind of thing. I found some soups there and some crackers. Some olives. Pepperoni. Some canned fruits. I've had to ration but I'm not starving."
"What about water?"
"I drank a lot of soft drinks, energy drinks, and canned coffee from the concession stand until things got really cold. A lot of it froze and busted. There were a lot of drinks in plastic bottles though and most of that survived. There's some water in the pipes and the hot water heaters. Also the roof drains. I've been using that for flushing toilets."
"That's resourceful."
The girl led them into a pitch-black stairwell. Ricardo triggered his weapon light and they climbed to the second floor.
"Did you have any heat source at all? How do you stay warm?"
She turned in his direction, expression serious in the harsh light, and shook her head. "No heat source. There were things I could have burned but I was afraid the smoke would attract attention." She waved the flowing arm of the robe before him. "I layered costumes over my clothes. When it was really cold I spent a lot of time laying in my bed, reading. It was all I could do." There was no self-pity in her voice, just a blunt statement of fact. She did what she had to do to stay alive.
On the next floor, the hallway ran to the interior of the building instead of along an outside wall. Ricardo turned off the weapon light and removed a small flashlight from his pocket. It threw just enough light to help them navigate, but not so much that he needed to be concerned about it reaching an outside window.
"Where do you stay?"
"It's on this floor," she said. "It was some kind of faculty lounge. There was a couch in there so it was the most comfortable spot I could find. I hauled all my bedding and clothes from the residence hall but I had to do it slowly. I didn't want anyone to know what I was up to and follow me."
Over the next thirty minutes they combed every room in the building. Ricardo knew it was always possible that he'd missed someone. There could have been people hiding or moving from room to room behind his back, but his intuition told him it wasn't the case. He really did think this girl had been staying here alone. Her entire being practically reverberated with a desperate need for company, a longing for human conversation and companionship.
Ricardo let down his guard a bit and let the weapon hang loose on the sling.
"What's your name?"
"Valeria. What's yours?"
"Ricardo."
"Where are you from, Ricardo? You have an accent."
Ricardo shrugged and let his hand waver in the air. "Eh, a little Spain, a little France. Maybe a couple of other spices thrown into the mix." His stomach released a long growl. " I was going to sit down and have a bite to eat. Maybe rehydrate a little bit. I don't want to impose so you just tell me where I can go that I won't be a bother to you."
For a moment, panic rose in her eyes. Again it was that desperate longing for the company of a person. Any person. "No, please, we can go to my room. I have candles and a table."
"I don't want to impose."
"You won't be. Consider it a favor to me. I haven't talked to anyone but myself
in months."
Her urgency swayed him and he conceded. Ricardo ushered her ahead of him with a sweep of his arm. "Then please lead the way."
She clapped giddily, unable to hide her excitement as she led him down the hall, the darkness only broken by Ricardo's tiny LED light. She used a key to unlock the door and held it open for Ricardo to enter. "I found a set of keys in the janitor's closet. They'll get me in nearly every room in the building. Best of all, it lets me lock my bedroom door behind me since none of these locks have those little buttons on the inside."
Ricardo played the light around the room. Over the months Valeria had stayed there she'd converted the room from stark faculty lounge to cluttered college dorm room. There were blankets and pillows mounded on the couch, heaps of discarded clothes and costumes, and books and magazines stacked around the room. There was a large commercial trash can on wheels piled high with discarded food wrappers and empty drink bottles.
"If I want to read in here at night I use candles. Once people started leaving campus there were plenty of them available. I stole them from the catering department, from the dining hall, and from some of the stores on campus once people started breaking into them."
"That's smart," Ricardo said. "Save your batteries."
"I also got some of those little Sterno cans from the dining hall they use to keep food warm at banquets. I figured if they were safe to burn inside, I could use them in here to generate a little heat. It wasn't exactly toasty but it kept my fingers from freezing. I also got alcohol burners from the science labs for cooking."
"You're very resourceful." Ricardo took his pack off and removed a flat, round disc hanging from the outside of his pack. He blew it up to about the size of a small coffee can, then pushed a button and warm light filled the room. Noticing Valeria's look of amazement, he explained, "It's a Luci light. It recharges while I walk around during the day."
She studied it intently. "I'd love to have one of those. Where do you find them?"
"Outdoor stores, big box stores, all kinds of places."
"Don't know if I'll be venturing out to any of those places.” Valeria scowled. “This area of the city is pretty sketchy at the moment."
"Everything is sketchy at the moment. The bottom line is if you're safe and don't need to venture out, just stay put. Things will normalize eventually."
She looked doubtful. "Hopefully I don't die before that happens."
Ricardo's face clouded, recalling all of the deaths he'd experienced over the last few days. "Hopefully neither of us do. There's been enough death." Even as he said it he knew there hadn't nearly been enough death yet. There were more people who needed to die before the world felt right again, particularly the people who'd been responsible for taking out his staff.
"Can I offer you some chips or a candy bar?" Valeria asked.
"Have you ever had an MRE before?"
"I don't think so. What is it?"
Ricardo threw open the flap on the top of his pack. "It's a pre-packaged meal like soldiers eat in the field. A chemical pack warms it up so you get a hot meal. I've not had one yet that was what you might call delicious, but they are filling." He fished out two and held them up for her. "Take your pick."
"What's the difference?"
"There is none." He smiled. "They're both macaroni and chili. Rumor has it that this particular meal is highly-prized by folks in the military."
Valeria smiled back and took one. "Then macaroni and chili it is."
They sat down on the floor and Ricardo showed her how to heat the meal. While they waited for them to warm up, Ricardo broached the topic he'd been wondering about since she mentioned it. "If you don't mind me asking, how is it that you don't have any place to go?"
She let out a long sigh.
Ricardo held up a hand in a halting gesture. "Hey, if it's too much we don't have to talk about it. I was just curious."
"No, it's okay," she replied. "It's just kind of a long, crazy story."
"I got nothing but time, Valeria—at least until morning. I've heard a lot of crazy stories in my day too, so I doubt you can shock me."
"The basics are that my dad was an abusive asshole. He never did anything to hurt me directly, at least physically, but he killed my mom. I was the one who found her. He went to prison for it and got killed while he was in there for running his mouth to the wrong guy. He learned that not everyone would take his shit the way my mom did. I miss her but I'm glad he's dead. Even though he went to prison, it never felt like justice was served until I got the news that he'd been killed."
"How old were you when that happened?"
"Seventeen. I was able to get emancipated and live on my own. Fortunately, my mom had good life insurance that paid out at double the rate for a homicide. The money was enough to go to college but not enough to keep two places. So when I got here, the residence hall became my actual home. I didn't have any other place to go when the lights went out."
"No other family?"
Valeria shook her head. "My dad kept us isolated so I never knew any of my extended family. I assume I have relatives out there, but I don't know who they are or where they live. Without the internet and cell service there's no way to even start looking. I'm basically alone in the world and I've come to accept it. At least, most days I can accept it. The last few months have been too much alone."
"That's a lot to deal with," Ricardo said.
She flashed a quick smile. "I think I like that better than the response I get most of the time."
"Which is?"
"Pity. People feel sorry for me and don't know what to say, so they eventually quit saying anything. Some people can't handle it and they end up avoiding me. People are kind of clueless when it comes to dealing with people who've gone through some shit in their life."
Ricardo shrugged. "I guess most people live pretty sheltered lives. Besides, I'm not like most people. I've had a lot of unusual life experiences and I grew up to channel those experiences into a very interesting career. You might be able to do the same one day."
"What do you do?"
With a chuckle, Ricardo responded, "It's one of those careers where if I told you, I'd have to kill you."
Valeria suddenly looked alarmed. "I hope you're joking."
"I am. It's an old joke, and a bad one, I guess. Let me rephrase that. I can't tell you what I do because it's confidential."
"Are you like a spy or something?"
"Definitely not a spy. More in the 'or something' category. Anyway, my point was that a tough childhood isn't the kiss of death. It certainly doesn't doom you to a miserable and hopeless life. I've seen a lot of people rise above absolutely deplorable circumstances to be successful. My advice to you would be to take advantage of the grit and determination that hardship has given you. Use that toughness. That hardness. Embrace being a badass."
Valeria looked away, excitement glowing in her eyes. "I like the sound of that. How does one embrace being a badass?"
"Umm, it's a process that begins with accepting that you've gone through hell and come out tougher. What can the world throw at you that your father hasn't already done? You see what I'm saying? There's nothing out there for you to be afraid of. There's no fear or pain that you've not tasted already. Now this doesn't mean that you should make dumb decisions and get yourself killed. It just means that you need to change your relationship with fear because you're tougher than you think. You have the scars to prove it."
"I'll remember that," she said.
Ricardo checked his watch and decided they'd given their meals long enough to heat. He showed Valeria how to open hers, then tore into his. "So what are you doing here? What's your major?"
Her mouth was full and she couldn't immediately answer. She held the fork up as she assessed the data coming in from her taste buds. "Hey, that's not bad. I'm taking International Studies. I'm interested in the Middle East in particular."
Ricardo dug into his meal with a little less gusto than Valeria. "What do you hop
e to turn that degree into? Do you have a particular career you're interested in?"
She tapped her lip with her fork and looked away in thought. "I guess something in Foreign Service. I'm interested in understanding the complexities of dealing with Middle Eastern nations since they're all so different and have such diverse interests."
"Is that part of your ancestry?"
Valeria nodded. "On my mother's side."
They talked for a long time that evening. While it may have seemed incongruous with his chosen profession, Ricardo had always been interested in helping young people find their way through the world, particularly those who had some strikes against them. He assumed it was because of his indecision early in life. He'd had a hard time finding his place and getting on the right path.
He felt like that was because of the way families and communities were different now than they had been in previous generations. A lot of young people weren't influenced by their grandparents and older relatives in the way they used to be. Those elders weren't a daily presence in their lives, offering advice and helping them to find their way. The result was generations of young people who were often rudderless and lacking the ability to choose a path.
Despite his plans to find an isolated room and lock himself in for the night, he ended up spending the night on the floor of Valeria's room.
"Please promise you won't leave in the morning without saying goodbye," she said. "If you do, I'll probably worry that this was just a hallucination or something."
"I promise."
9
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia
Ricardo woke at around 5 AM. He'd been getting up at the same time for so long that his body woke him automatically. Though he was reluctant to wake Valeria, he needed to get on the road and he'd promised not to disappear without a goodbye. He clicked on his headlamp and readied his gear.
The sound of his stirring and the flicker of his light brought Valeria around. She propped herself up on the couch but remained buried under the layers of blankets and thick stage curtains. "So where are you headed? You never said."
Ultraviolent: Book Six in The Mad Mick Series Page 9
