Quaranteen: The Loners

by Lex Thomas

  wasn’t there when she woke up in the morning, and she’d been freaked out over it ever since. It made her uneasy whenever David wasn’t around. She wanted to run to him and pull him away, but the group stood in her way. They all needed him so much, she barely got to be alone with David anymore. She was afraid that David might be doing it on purpose.

  David didn’t speak until he was sure everyone was ready to listen. Fluorescent light gleamed off his white eye patch.

  “I know you have a lot of questions about what our next move is now that there’s no more food coming in. I wish I had answers for you today. But this is about something else.” The crowd rumbled with conversation. David raised his hand to get everyone’s attention again.

  “I got a nosebleed last night.”

  The crowd erupted in frantic whispers. Lucy felt short of breath.

  “The virus is leaving my body. My graduation would have been this morning. You all know what that means.” The crowd quieted. The reality sank in. Lucy reached for the railing for support. Her equilibrium seesawed.

  “Sometime tomorrow maybe”—David searched the crowd until he found Lucy’s eyes—“I’ll die.”

  Concerned Loners swarmed to David. Everything blurred.

  Lucy’s head felt like a spinning plate on a stick. She turned away from David and started pushing people out of her way.

  She had to get out of there. Belinda called out for her, but she

  didn’t stop. The trek upstairs felt endless. People were staring at her, pitying her. Lucy ran into David’s room, sobbing, and flung herself onto his bed.

  David didn’t enter the room until almost a half hour later.

  She could hear him answering desperate questions as he made his way up the final flight stairs. Finally, they let him through.

  She heard him enter the room, but she didn’t look up.

  David didn’t say a word. She felt guilty. She should have been consoling him, not waiting for him to tell her that everything would be all right.

  Lucy opened her eyes and sat up. She looked at him, but she didn’t know what to say. She was afraid that if she opened her mouth she might just scream. David’s face puckered with tension. Was he about to cry?

  “I was never a big fan of lungs anyway,” David said.

  She jumped up and ran to him. He wrapped her in his arms and held her tight. She didn’t want to cry anymore. She breathed in the smell of him. The heavy scent of his perspira-tion lurked under the scent of the citrus detergent he used to wash his clothes.

  “It was all a joke, wasn’t it?” Lucy said.

  He stroked her hair in consolation. It wasn’t a yes.

  “You were joking,” she said.

  “No, Lucy.”

  “I don’t understand.” She let go of him and backed away.

  “How can you be so calm?”

  “I walked around for hours, wishing it wasn’t true. I thought I could figure it out, come up with some solution. But then I realized I was just wasting time,” he said. “I’ve only got a day left. My brain will start freaking out on me soon. I don’t want to throw away what time I have left.”

  She guessed she understood, but she started to cry again, more out of frustration than sorrow. David wiped away her tears.

  “Don’t be sad. I can’t take any more sad,” he said.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry either,” he said. “Please. I just want to be with my girlfriend.”

  “Girlfriend?” she said with a little smile.

  David grinned. “Well, it seemed like a good time to make it official.”

  She laughed and felt a tear slip down her cheek.

  David ran his fingers down her hair. He kissed her. She kissed back. All her tension unraveled. He picked her up and moved her back to his bed. She clawed at his shirt. He guided her down.

  David was kissing her chest. The diamond pendant slipped down the gold chain around her neck and fell to the side. She pulled David back to her face and kissed him more. She wondered how long she’d actually have him—a day, an hour, only minutes?

  Just kiss, she needed to keep her mind on kissing.

  It was no use, the floodgates were open. What would happen after David died? The Loners might not be strong enough to stay together. She could be on her own. The last time she’d been on her own . . . did not go well.

  She moaned. David’s hands were gliding under her dress and up her thighs. She unbuttoned his shirt. He kissed her neck, pressing against her. His body was warm and heavy.

  An image flashed in her mind of David coughing out globs of bloody meat onto her. She shuddered.

  She sat up.

  “What’s going on?” he said.

  She wanted to tell him she loved him.

  “Will,” he said, before she got a chance.

  “What?”

  David was looking past her. She followed his gaze. Will stood just inside the curtain. She didn’t know how long he’d been there. Will’s clothes were caked with black muck. Lucy scrambled to straighten her dress. David buttoned his shirt in a hurry. They both stood, keeping a slight distance from each other, guilty but not sure why, as if a teacher had just walked in on them. Will stared back at them, still as a tree.

  “Where have you been?” David said first.

  Will didn’t answer. He watched them calmly.

  “We’ve been so worried,” Lucy volunteered.

  “You looked it,” Will said.

  “Look, man,” David started to say, but his conviction faded

  as he struggled for the right words.

  “David’s going to die tomorrow,” Lucy blurted out. She knew David didn’t want to dwell on it, but how could she not?

  “Yeah,” Will said. “I heard.”

  David was breathing fast. He got up and walked over to Will with urgency.

  “I’m so glad you’re here, Will. I was afraid I—” Will socked David in the chin, knocking him down.

  “No!” Lucy said. She ran to David and helped him up. David gestured for her to stay back. He looked up at Will, holding his jaw where he’d been hit.

  “I’m sorry it had to happen this way,” David said.

  “Fine. I don’t ever want to talk about it again,” Will said.

  Will extended his hand to David. David took it. Will pulled him up to standing. Lucy knew that she had caused all this strife between them. She wanted to say something to make it better.

  “Will,” Lucy said. Will looked at Lucy, his eyes so cold when they used to light up at the sight of her. It made her wince.

  “Yeah?”

  “I don’t know,” she eventually said.

  Will turned to David.

  “None of us are going to die,” Will said.

  David gave Will a puzzled look.

  “Why?” David asked.

  “I found a dog.”

  31

  Escape.

  It was David’s only option. Faced with starvation, the Loners wanted out as well, even if it meant putting people on the outside in danger. At this point, it was leave or die.

  But it was a long way from the Stairs to where Will found this dog, a lot of different gang territories to cross. All they had was the hope that however that dog got in, they could go the same way to get out. David’s chances were slim. He’d probably die before they found this theoretical exit. The idea of spending his last few hours trudging around the ruins and looking for holes in the walls sounded awful. He wanted to spend his last hours in bed with Lucy. She wouldn’t allow it. As soon as Lucy heard Will’s news, it lit a fire of hope in her that she spread to everyone else. Nearly the entire gang was behind Will’s plan.

  They wanted out of this place once and for all.

  “I think if we head through the commons, that’ll be the fast-est,” Will said.

  Will was pointing at a school map laid out on the floor of the armory. David’s headache was getting worse, and he was having trouble concentrating. Besides Will, Leona
rd passed weapons out to Loners in a steady flow. David took a baseball bat. He didn’t trust himself with one eye and his machete yet.

  Will continued, tapping the map: “That means either going through Freaks’ territory or Varsity’s. I think it’s a pretty easy choice.”

  “We’ll go Freaks,” David said, massaging his jaw. It still hurt.

  It was weird. David felt closer to Will now, after the punch, than he ever had before.

  “We ready?” David said.

  Will nodded. David signaled the twins to draw back the barricade and open the door. David stared at the lit hallway. He took a breath and stepped out of the safety of the Stairs. He’d never step foot in the Stairs again. Will walked in stride with David, and an army of ninety Loners followed. They stuck close to one another, timid but excited at the prospect of reaching their promised land. The hallway was quiet.

  They approached the first intersection, and Will placed his hand out across David’s chest, signaling him to stop.

  He did, and all the Loners shuffled to a stop behind them.

  David looked down at Will’s hand on him. It felt good to have

  his brother looking out for him. He wondered if the conflict between them was really squashed, or just put on ice.

  “I’ll scout the next hall,” Will said.

  Will bounded off to the next turn, twenty feet or so ahead.

  David marveled at how fast his brother was and how quiet.

  Will pressed his back to the wall, then peered around it for a good thirty seconds. Finally, he waved the rest of the gang forward. David began the short march.

  The school’s PA system crackled to life. David stopped. Will looked up at nearest speaker.

  “Wake up, McKinley. This is Sam.”

  A wave of anxiety washed over David at the sound of Sam’s voice. The PA was set to its loudest volume. Every click of his teeth, every burst of breath could be heard. Sam’s voice flooded the hall.

  “I have an announcement to make. Varsity is offering a one month supply of food from our surplus to any gang that brings us David Thorpe. It’s dinnertime, McKinley. Come and get it.” Sam was a bastard to the bitter end. He couldn’t even let David die in peace. David knew every Loner was staring at him, maybe even considering how they could profit from Sam’s offer. David exhaled in one long, slow breath.

  He started walking. He could sense Lucy close behind, but he didn’t know how many Loners would follow. He walked a good ten feet before he heard anything. Then, footsteps. He couldn’t tell how many. If they all ditched, he couldn’t blame

  them. Every gang in school had empty stomachs, and Sam had just left a steaming pie on the windowsill.

  David reached Will, then turned to face the gang. Most had followed him. Fifteen kids hung back. They stood frozen, ashamed of their choice. They stared at the floor, shifting their weight back toward the Stairs. He was flattered by all the familiar faces still standing in front of him: Mort, Belinda, Nelson, the twins, Sasha, Ritchie, Leonard and his new boyfriend, Josh. They’d been through a lot of shit, and they were about to do it again.

  David cleared his throat and spoke with an even-keeled cadence.

  “If we get separated, stick to the plan. We’ll meet up in the ruins at room 1206. Keep your weapons close and your eyes sharp.”

  “This way,” Will said, and they all hurried forward.

  It was still slow going. They had to be cautious. Will scouted ahead. The twins and Ritchie checked that they weren’t being followed after they rounded each corner. And in between, there were dropped rations, arguments, untied shoes, and piss breaks. At seventy or so heads, they were no stealth operation.

  David would occasionally look to Lucy to check on her.

  “I’m all right,” she kept saying. He didn’t believe her.

  Will stayed on David’s right side, covering his blind spot.

  Having his brother so close again was the only relief David felt.

  They arrived at the wide entrance to the commons. It was a large two-story student lounge area. Faint mustard-yellow light poured down in intermittent pools from hanging ceiling lamps, and the block columns that held up the second-floor balcony cast long shadows. The outfacing wall had been one big window that looked out on the school’s front lawn. Now it was all metal plating, and the glass lay shattered on the ground, forming a jagged creek that ran the wall’s length.

  “Let me take a look,” Will said, eyeing the columns suspiciously.

  Will ran into the room, looking behind every column. He got to the other end of the expansive room, gave David a thumbs-up, and waved him through.

  “Stay close to each other,” David said.

  He led them out at a brisk pace. When he reached the column that marked the halfway point, all the lights shut off.

  They were in darkness. David wondered if the school generator had finally given out.

  “Will! Are you all right?”

  “I’m okay!”

  David heard a coarse rumbling in the distance, first from the hall in front of him, then from the hall behind. He stuck his arm out to locate Lucy and grabbed at something squishy.

  Belinda gasped. There was no time to apologize. The growling rumble was coming faster now.

  “Lucy?”

  “I’m here,” she said.

  He saw a ball of fire in the distance. The fireball moved fast, circling the room. More flying fireballs popped up around the room. One was coming right at him. It was a Skater on his board, holding a torch.

  “Skaters!” David shouted. The Skater swung his torch at him, and David narrowly avoided the blow. The flame revealed a flash of Lucy’s terrified face beside him.

  More torches descended from the balcony. Skaters were charging down the stairs, joining the flaming parade that poured in from the hallways. They circled the edges of the giant room, their flames too far away to illuminate the area around David. He still couldn’t see two feet in front of him.

  “If you got phones, use ’em!” David shouted.

  David pulled out his phone and clicked on the screen. He held it out in front of him trying to penetrate the darkness.

  Other Loners did the same, and they bunched together back to back and side to side. The room was a dangerous swirl of fire with a center of dancing white rectangles of light.

  David could make out a shadow charging him. He tightened his grip on his baseball bat and swung at the murky shape.

  He hit something. He heard a body hit the floor. He raised his phone to get a look at his victim and caught sight of a pair of Vans scampering back into the darkness.

  Someone jabbed the end of a skateboard into his kidney.

  The blow knocked the bat out of his hand. David crumpled

  down to his knees. Other Loners groaned around him as invisible brutes rained down pain on them. The Skater swung their skateboards wherever they saw a phone.

  David fumbled to find his bat, but he heard the squeak of a sneaker to his left. He punched at the darkness. The punch whiffed through the air. He lost his balance and tumbled away from the Loner phalanx. Another skateboard cracked him soundly on the back of the head. He fell flat on the ground. All around him was chaos. He struggled to right himself, peering through the darkness with his one eye. A pair of arms bear-hugged David from behind and lifted him off the ground. He was still delirious, but he kicked at the shadows and tried to pry the hands off of him. Other unseen hands joined in, grabbing David’s right ankle, then his left shin.

  They carried him away.

  “Help! They’ve got me!”

  His shout added to the chorus of grunts and screams from the others. No one would hear it. He felt himself be thrown into the air. For a second, he was weightless, then he slammed down on a cloth surface. It wasn’t the floor. He flung his arms out to the sides. He felt poles, duct tape, and string making walls on either side of him. He stood and knocked his head against the same woven barrier above him. He was in the cage that the Skaters used at the
food drops.

  He tried to find the door. He couldn’t. The sounds of battle thrashed all around him. He could feel the cage move.

  “It’s David! They’ve got me in the cage!” But the battle noises and the glow of the torches faded as the cage was pulled out of the commons. The cage jostled him around. He dug his fingers through the irregular gaps in the cage walls and yanked, but nothing gave.

  There was the sound of doors being kicked open behind David. He spun around just as the cage was dragged into a lit room. He charged the other end of the cage to face his cap-tors and instead saw Nelson.

  Nelson dropped the steering handle of the cage and looked up at David with a goofy smile. He strained to catch his breath. David stared at him, totally confused.

  “Did you see that? I took the cage right out of their hands! I gotta go back and help,” he said.

  Nelson ran back toward the commons. David shook the cage.

  “Nelson! No! Don’t leave me here! Nelson!” Nelson didn’t hear him. He disappeared back through the double doors to the commons.

  “Are you kidding me?” David yelled to no one.

  He was in another foyer, another open space that used to be a second entrance to the school. The Skaters must have pulled a fuse in the commons because the lights were still on in this foyer, and David was in plain sight. Anyone could happen across him. There was a price on his head, and he was alone, locked in a cage on wheels. This wasn’t good.

  David slumped to the cloth floor of the cage.

  He pulled his hair in frustration. He stared out into the foyer. Three quarters of the far wall was plastered over with sheets of painted butcher paper that together formed an enormous mural.

  “What the hell?” he said.

  It was a heroic portrait of David with a sea of white-haired Loners behind him, and a wide-open cobalt-blue sky overhead. The mural wasn’t finished. Butcher paper sheets that had yet to be glued to the wall were scattered on the floor below. Dorothy lay dead upon them.