“You’re free to return to your people.” Dinah finally uncrossed her arms. “Explain to them what we have talked about. We will stay in here for the night while you stay over there. We will meet in the street at sun-up.”
James agreed and rose to his feet. The guards who had been standing around him were a lot more relaxed now.
“You really survived against the comet horde?” one asked in a whisper as James made his way to the door, doing his very best not to limp as badly as he wanted to.
“I’m not yet sure we have survived,” he responded, and then stepped outside.
When James returned to the post office, he found that everyone was awake. Katrina was pointing her rifle at him from behind the counter.
“Just me,” James said, raising his hands.
“Where the hell have you been?” Katrina hissed, clearly pissed off. “Lindsay noticed you got up, and figured you had to take a piss. When you didn’t come back, she woke the rest of us. We were just deciding if we needed to send out a fucking search party for you.”
“I’m glad you’re concerned, but I’m all right. Let me tell you what happened.” James sat on the counter as he explained his abduction and the ensuing conversation. People were relieved to hear that they would be taken to the Theatre tomorrow. Caution remained, however, and a guard rotation was assigned for the rest of the night. James managed to get out of that one, because they didn’t need everyone to take a shift, and they thought he deserved the rest after his negotiating. And James felt he needed that rest. He was finally tired, and when he lay down on his bedding, he was asleep almost instantly.
***
There wasn’t much of a sunrise; the sky was heavy with clouds. A storm was coming, one that had already hit the container yard if James was right. He and his group nervously gathered up their things. Dinah and her friends were still inside the garage, but the door was open, and someone was clearly watching the post office. The horses were eased out, and Aaron was once more strapped to Spark’s back. Aaron made almost no noise of complaint, which struck a cord of concern within James. The man was barely conscious.
James hauled himself up onto Soot’s back as the people who claimed to be from the Theatre left the garage. He had considered the fact that Dinah could have been lying when she said that they were from the Theatre. She could have decided to use James’ desire to go there to lure him and the others into a trap. But they had to risk it. For Aaron’s sake, if not for those back home.
After brief introductions were made all around, they headed out. A clear division formed between the two groups, with Dinah and her people leading, and James with his following behind.
“You didn’t tell us she was gorgeous.”
“Huh?” James looked down at Katrina, who had spoken quietly beside him.
“Dinah,” she gestured forward with her chin. “You said nothing about how fucking beautiful she is. You sure you were thinking with your head last night?”
“I honestly hadn’t noticed.” It made James sad that he was telling the truth. Ever since the Day, it was as if his brain had been completely rewired. The way he thought about things now, he no longer took into account how people looked. Maybe he should, because certain people thought differently based on the way they believed others saw them. He had accepted years ago that he would die without any sort of life partner. One night stands were fine, but he just couldn’t commit himself to one person like so many others had. He spent too much time thinking about everyone, about what he needed to do for them. Some little thought, buried within his brain, believed that he would be considered selfish if he held one person above the others.
James was happy to see that they took the road he would have taken to get to the Theatre. But he was unhappy every time he looked up. The clouds were dark enough that he was surprised they weren’t yet getting hit by rain. The wind was picking up as well, pushing against their backs. He hoped the Theatre was close, but worried it wasn’t close enough. He was proven right, when the clouds finally broke, and a wall of water dropped on their heads.
Hunched over Soot’s neck, James was soaked through in an instant, despite the tarp he had draped over himself. Everyone huddled and hunched their shoulders against the driving rain. It lashed at their backs, and people lifted their packs higher in order to protect their heads. Aaron seemed to be revived momentarily by the water, but his weakened body wouldn’t be able to withstand much more without catching pneumonia.
Lightning cracked the sky overhead. For safety’s sake, they could no longer stay in the open.
“Dinah!” James had to shout to be heard above the wind and rain, even though she wasn’t that far ahead.
She dropped back in order to hear what he wanted.
“How much further?” Even at a close distance, he had to speak loudly. “We can’t stay out here much longer!”
“Not close enough!” Dinah shouted back, half hidden beneath the hood of her thin, plastic poncho.
Shit.
They walked a little farther, reaching the fringes of a town. They came across an old Costco store and hurried into the shelter of its thick walls. The place was stripped bare. The Theatre must have sent out many people to gather it all.
They didn’t go far into the store, merely passing the second layer of doors. There was plenty of space for the horses, but they stayed close to the humans and their light sources. It was disturbing that the light of their lanterns couldn’t reach the ceiling. One of Dinah’s people must have thought the same, as he set his flashlight down pointing straight up in order to make it visible. Two others walked off to penetrate the rest of the store’s shadows and make sure it was as empty as it looked.
Ponchos, tarps, and rain slickers were all shucked off and laid out to dry. Aaron was pulled down from Spark’s back, and then his sodden clothes were peeled off him. He was quickly patted down with a ragged towel Marissa had produced, and then bundled up in a sleeping bag. People didn’t care much about decency as they stripped down to their underwear, laying their wet articles of clothing flat on the cement before searching for anything that might somehow still be dry in their packs. Items that were wet, were laid out with the clothes.
“Why do we keep getting soaked?” Skip mumbled.
After Lindsay had taken her boots off, she started walking on the spread of clothing, squeezing out whatever moisture she could.
Dinah’s group had been carrying some wood, and so they were able to start a small fire. Aaron was placed closest to it, while the rest set up a rotation for who would get to sit beside the flames, usually with an article of clothing that needed drying the most. It wasn’t James’ turn, so he removed Soot’s gear and began to brush the water off of him.
“Do you ride when the others don’t because of your leg?” Dinah asked, coming up beside him. “I’ve noticed that you limp.”
“It’s my foot, actually. I got injured when those raiders I mentioned attacked.”
“Are the raiders why you are so cautious?”
“We’ve always been cautious. They sent a child to us first. A little boy, alone and nearly starved. We took him in not knowing he was a spy for them.”
Dinah frowned. “Some people have resorted to some terrible things.”
James nodded in agreement. “I just hope that you’re not one of them.”
“And I hope the same of you. For all I know, you are one of the defeated raiders, who merely witnessed the comet horde from a distance. But you told us things hoping that we would learn to trust you, and so now we would like to return the favour. Your community needs food, and so I’m guessing you don’t carry much with you. We do. We can provide lunch, and dinner if this storm continues until nightfall.”
“Thank you. We very much appreciate it.”
With the large, high ceiling they didn’t have to worry much about the smoke, but Dinah’s people were experts at maintaining the fire in such a way that it didn’t produce much to begin with. Lunch was a tense affair; James’ group d
idn’t completely trust the food they were given. Everything had to be cut into pieces, with Dinah’s group eating some of it to prove it wasn’t drugged or poisoned. But the food was good. They had fruit and vegetables, and even bread. The protein they provided was salted and cured fish, and they had some spices to go with it. The Theatre was truly well off if they had this sort of bounty to share. James hoped that they were so well off, they would be willing to trade food to the container yard for very little in return. He still wasn’t sure what he was going to offer them in exchange. He would have to see what was there, and what the container yard could possibly have to offer. Perhaps some of the medicine they had smuggled out of the Black Box.
The rain outside was relentless. It must have been a hurricane that had come in off the sea. It would have been worse for those back home. James was much farther inland, where the earth would have slowed and weakened the great storm. He hoped his trade delegation didn’t turn out to be for nothing. He hoped he had a home to go back to.
“What are you thinking about?” Katrina asked, sidling up next to him where he stood looking out through the doors at the rain-lashed streets.
“Home.”
Katrina nodded. “I’m sure they’re all right. This would have crept up on them yesterday, right? People would have seen it coming and prepared for it.”
James couldn’t tell if she was trying to convince him, or herself.
A bolt of lightning snapped down from the sky, turning everything into the harsh white of light, and then the deep black of shadow. The resulting thunder came instantly due to the proximity of the lightning. It slammed into James’ ears and shook the glass in the doors. Nature’s most frequently used explosive. Despite knowing he was perfectly safe, it sent a jolt of primal fear through him. For a few seconds, the bright after-image remained as a ghostly glow over the terrain.
“I hope the lightning stops soon,” Katrina said quietly after the rumble had passed. Was she speaking quietly, or had the thunder been so loud that it had left its own impression on James’ ears, just as the lightning had on his eyes?
“Hard to say.”
“Aaron needs more help than we can provide. If the lightning stops, we should press on, even if it’s still raining like this.”
James reluctantly agreed. He did not want to go out into that downpour again, but he would. The lightning wasn’t the only danger the storm produced, but it was the deadliest. While Aaron had the highest chances of catching pneumonia, any of them could. There was also the wind to worry about. A strong enough gust could knock someone over, and they could land badly. Or even more troublesome would be the debris. While the people from the Theatre had done a very good job of clearing out the streets, even removing most signs, the streetlights still stood, as did many trees and several power poles. And debris could be carried from far away. Once the wind picked something up, there was no telling how far it would carry that object. Even something as small as a can with a sharp edge, could be deadly. No, James truly did not want to go out there.
When it was finally James’ turn to sit by the fire, he brought Soot’s blanket, the one that went under his saddle, with him to dry instead of any of his sodden clothes. Katrina had her turn at the same time and sat down next to him holding her wet pants. Aaron appeared to be asleep, but his breathing was harsh and laborious.
“Smells like wet horse,” one of the Theatre men commented as he sat down to take a turn at the fire. His name was Lee, if James had caught it correctly.
“Focus on the scent of the fire,” Katrina told him.
“I saw you laying out your things earlier,” Lee turned to her. “Was that a lion pelt I saw?”
“It is,” Katrina nodded.
“Where in God’s name did you kill a lion?”
“On our way here.”
James was glad she gave no clue as to the distance or direction.
“Were there more? What were they doing?” Lee continued to ask.
“There were others, and when I shot that one, she was killing one of our friends while the rest stalked us.” Katrina’s voice had a hard bite to it.
Lee fell silent, a momentary embarrassment crossing his features. “I’m sorry you lost your friend.”
“We also lost another one to the pigs. Hopefully we won’t lose a third.” Katrina gestured to Aaron.
“When it’s safe, we’ll get your friend the treatment he needs,” Lee told her in a promissory tone.
“Provided we trade for it,” Katrina grumbled rather bitterly.
“I’m sure your lion pelt would be enough. No one at the Theatre has even seen one before; its rarity will make it fairly valuable.”
A sharp hiss came from one of the other Theatre men who had overheard. The meaning was obvious: shut up.
Katrina nodded silently to Lee, thankful he had revealed the lion pelt’s value so that she wouldn’t let anyone rip her off. The way Lee nodded back, his words were not a slip of the tongue, but intentional. He didn’t want her getting ripped off either.
Everyone had had a turn by the small fire, so James was able to sit there for longer, drying the horse blanket as best he could. Katrina slipped off, likely to go check on her lion pelt, to make sure no one was thinking of stealing it. Dinah ended up taking her spot next to the low flames.
“You care for your horse’s comfort more than your own?” she wondered as she looked at James.
“He’s an old horse, and he’s been through a lot, most recently with me on his back. I figure he’ll appreciate a dry blanket when we get going.”
“It’ll only get wet again. The rain isn’t likely to stop soon.”
“And so will my clothes.”
“Would you be willing to tell me about the pigs that attacked you? How you defeated them?”
“Under normal circumstances, I would,” James admitted. “But I need to hold onto everything that might have value right now, including stories like that one.”
“I understand,” Dinah nodded. “Could you at least tell me if you killed all the pigs? We’ve had an incident before where one hunted some people all the way home.”
Wee, wee, wee, all the way home, James absurdly thought. “Yes, we killed all the pigs.”
“Good. And the lions?”
“They’re too far for you to worry about.”
“I’d rather decide that for myself.”
“And yet, you’ll have to trust me on this one.”
All afternoon, people drifted about in the Costco, occasionally sitting beside the fire. With a flashlight to guide his way, James took a walk through the large, empty building. Only the support posts remained, coming out of the darkness at him like tall and slender men. When he reached the far wall, he turned off his flashlight and looked back. The fire, the lamps, and the flashlights that moved about the group seemed so small and insignificant. They were a tiny island of light in an all consuming darkness. The darkness felt oppressive, and as James stood in it, with the rain hammering the roof far overhead and the thunder crashing, he began to shake. He allowed himself to become overwhelmed, to feel the grief of losing White and Jack, and all the others that had gone before them. He curled up into a ball on the floor, feeling that his body was going to rip itself apart if he didn’t hold it all together. His tears were silent.
The moment didn’t last long. James couldn’t let it. With a few gasping breaths, he regained control and sat up. As he wiped at his face, he flicked his flashlight back on and shone it in a quick pattern around himself. Although the building had already been searched for threats, it was hard not to imagine something sneaking up on him. James got to his feet, then relieved himself against the far wall—which others had done based on the smell and the stains—and then limped back to the fire.
“Are you all right?” Katrina asked him, a frown touching her brows.
“Right as rain,” James told her.
“Not this rain, I hope. We’re thinking it’s time for dinner.”
“Sounds good.”
>
Throughout the day, there were moments when it sounded like the lightning was moving off, but it had always come back before anyone could suggest they leave the Costco. While they were eating dinner, it moved off again, and a fair amount of time passed without a crash overhead.
“We should move,” Katrina finally suggested.
“No,” Dinah responded.
“Why not? The lightning’s gone.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“We’ve dealt with worse than rain and wind.”
“No. We’re staying here for the night.”
“The night?” This time it was Belle sounding outraged. “Aaron might not have that long!”
“And if we try to get to the Theatre now, perhaps none of us will make it,” Dinah snapped. “It’s far too dangerous in the dark. The weather will have stirred up any dead in the area, and we won’t be able to see any of them. Our lights can only penetrate so far through the rain, and they would make us a target. Anything walking around out there, will come straight to us.”
James saw the wisdom in her words, but he also saw Aaron’s ghostly pale skin. “Give us directions. A tiny group of us will carry Aaron there, and the rest can follow when it’s safe.”
“No.” Dinah remained firm.
“Why not?” Skip demanded. He wanted a doctor to look at his hand.
“No one returns to the Theatre at night. The gates will not be opened. If you try to enter, you will be killed. No, we have to stay here for the night.”
There were further arguments, but they went nowhere. Dinah and the others stood firm, refusing to leave and refusing to say where the Theatre was. They would have to wait out the night.
Bedding was spread out. Earlier they had cautiously mingled during their stay in the empty building, but now the division between the two groups formed sharply once more. There was anger on both sides. One hated the stubbornness of the other, and the other hated the lack of understanding. The fire was allowed to die out.
***
James’ sleep was fitful, for he partially woke every time someone had to take a piss in the night. His missing toes also itched on occasion. Whenever he cracked open his eyes, he was greeted by either total darkness, or the light of a carried flashlight making its way to the back wall. Eventually, a very soft, almost unseen, grey light drifted in through the front doors. It was still raining as morning came, but it was no longer torrential, and the thunder hadn’t been heard for hours, not even in the distance.
Survival Instinct (Book 5): Social Instinct Page 33
