Shocked (Electric Series)

by Harvell, Casey

  “Sounds good to me,” I take another swig of my water and screw the cap back on, putting it back in the netted pouch on the side of my own backpack before adjusting the straps. “Let’s go.”

  Shelter

  The rain that begins to fall hinders our progress. It’s cold: close to the cusp of freezing, I’m sure. This cold rain permeates through all of my clothes, chilling me right to the bone. Any hope of making more progress today washes away. If we don’t find some type of shelter soon we may not survive to get anywhere. Add the wind whipping and our tent becomes basically useless.

  It starts to come down so hard that we can barely see in front of us and the rain now has a bite of ice to it. My teeth are chattering so hard that it feels like they’re going to break. Lucas grabs hold of me and begins to pull me up a rocky face of the mountain. I follow blindly.

  The relief is immediate when he drags me into the mouth of the cave. We collapse on the ground, just lying there for a moment, catching our breath. In a few minutes I’ll worry about what else can possibly reside in here. Currently I’m enjoying not being pelted with ice too much.

  Lucas moves first. With a groan he drops his backpack to the ground and stands up, stretching. I follow his example and look warily outside where the ice seems to be taking over the rain and the wind still roars ferociously. It’s very dark already, the storm shadowing out the last hours of daylight. With a huff I accept that this is where we’ll have to spend the night.

  “We need a fire.” Lucas says. He takes a flashlight out of his bag and flicks the switch. It doesn’t turn on and he smacks it a few times. Still nothing. Then the oddest thing happens. Lucas flips out—something I’ve never seen him do before. The flashlight flies into the wall of the cave and smashes, making me jump. “What the hell!” He screams. “Can’t just one stupid thing go right? Every time I think we’ve caught a break, some crap like this happens! I don’t know if I can take it anymore. I just want to freaking see where I’m going!”

  Part of me gets the tiniest bit scared by his outburst. He’s supposed to be the calm one between the two of us, but I get it. Having my own meltdowns now and again, I understand that the flashlight just set him off. It’s not the cause of his stress; just the manifestation of it. Then I have an idea.

  I hold my hands in front of me and create a very low charged sphere in my hands. It can’t really hurt anything (maybe give it a good zap) that’s all. It’s not as bright as the beam of the flashlight may have been, but emits a soft glow. This provides enough light for us to see further into the cave.

  Lucas freezes mid-fit to gape at me. I forget that he’s only seen me do this a few times and always when he did he’s distracted. His expression changes from shock to awe and he moves closer—ice, wind and flashlight forgotten.

  “That’s so cool.” He says.

  “Will this work until we get a fire going?” I ask and feel kind of proud because controlling this sphere barely requires my attention anymore.

  “Uh-huh,” he mumbles now. “We need to find some dry wood. Can you follow me back here a bit?”

  “Yeah, let’s go.” I’m just glad he’s done with his breakdown.

  It takes some searching, but we eventually find enough wood to make and sustain a semi-decent fire for the night. For a second, I think Lucas might have another meltdown when he finds his lighter waterlogged from the rain. I nip that in the bud by placing the energy sphere into the tower of sticks and leaves. It ignites and I’m grateful that whatever creature inhabited the cave before us has moved on.

  The fire helps. Lucas spreads out first the tent and then the sleeping bag on the floor of the cave. It’s only a little damp and dries off fairly quickly next to the fire. I rummage through my own pack and try to find drier clothes than the ones I have on. Lucas follows suit and after finding his own, pulls some cord out of his bag. He strings it from the craggy top of one rock formation to the next and we have a clothesline.

  “Um, I’ll see how it looks out there if you want to get changed.” He doesn’t look at me, just wanders towards the mouth of the cave.

  I walk a few feet back in the cave out of the light of the fire. Lucas is not within view now, so I quickly undress and put on the drier clothes that I have, feeling instantly better. Wandering back to the fire, I call, “Done,” and hang my clothes to dry.

  “It’s getting bad out there. Ice and snow are coming down now.” He says and walks back to me. “Just—uh, look that way I guess.” He motions to where he just came from.

  “Okay.” I stare into the darkness and begin to think aloud. “We should eat something.”

  “Yeah, probably. You can look now.” I do and for a moment my thoughts are gone. Lucas’ clothes don’t seem to fare as well in his backpack as mine do. His extra shirt hangs to dry next to his other one and his pants hang low on his hips. I give myself a mental head shake and draw my gaze away from his well-defined chest and stomach. “Kat?”

  “Yeah, sorry. Food.” I move towards my pack and pull out the sandwiches that Kim packed us.

  It would be nice to cook something over the fire…we don’t always have the luxury of one, but the sandwiches won’t keep and the other food will. I toss Lucas his sandwich and take a big bite of my own. Kim makes a mean sandwich too. My desire for cooking quickly diminishes.

  When we finish I check the clothes on the line. They’re still wet; some more than others. Lucas feeds some more wood into the fire. I really wish he’d put a shirt on.

  It makes me wonder what kind of person I am. I love Mason. I miss him terribly. Yet I can’t stop staring at shirtless Lucas. Sure, he’s got a nice body—any red-blooded woman can see that. But it doesn’t change the guilt I feel for betraying Mason.

  Plus it’s really awkward. Ever since yesterday morning things are weird. Neither of us brings it up and I know he feels it too. Our camaraderie is almost non-existent, and the weirdness level is through the roof.

  “I’m pretty tired. Maybe we should just call it a night.” It doesn’t surprise me to see the relief in his eyes when I say this.

  “Yeah, that’s probably best. I’ll make sure the fire keeps going, you get some rest.”

  Lying on the corner of the sleeping bag, I don’t answer. I just try to keep as much space between my spot and his as possible. I’m not lying when I say I’m tired. Despite the thoughts weighing in my head I quickly fall asleep.

  We spend three days in the stupid cave due to the weather. The snow and ice continue until the storm breaks sometime during the third night. We explore the cave further and luckily find more wood for the fire. In the back of the cave we find an underground spring. In all fairness, the cave is pretty awesome. It’s just being stuck here that sucks.

  This morning the sun shines brilliantly into the mouth of the cave. We pack up our stuff and extinguish the fire, sweeping the remnants of it into the corner. Lucas says it’s better to look like we haven’ been here: it’s safer that way. He’s probably right.

  We just about get our packs on when we hear a noise outside. Eyes wide I look to Lucas for instructions. He grabs my hand and pulls me back in the cave, into the darkness. We feel our way against the wall and hide behind a large rock formation. Voices begin to drift in.

  “How far could they have gotten on foot? In this weather, no less? There’re no footprints here but our own. We’re wasting our time.” It’s a rough, dry voice.

  “General Carch said no stone unturned. So we’ll overturn everything until we find her.” This voice sounds snobby. Gruff like the other guy, but snobby nonetheless.

  “None of the locals have even seen them!” The dry voice exclaims.

  “I don’t care. The infection doesn’t just stop and move. We can spread it, but only she can stop it like this. She’s here somewhere.”

  “Well, she’s not in this cave. We should keep moving.”

  Their footsteps fade away and I’m still too scared to move. My hands are clenched and my body hums. The electricity that runs
through me is tied to my emotions. They got so close. Thanks to Lucas’ smart thinking they don’t discover our presence.

  Lucas releases my hand quickly with a tiny yelp. “Sorry,” I whisper sheepishly. Guess I still have some work to do with control. “That was a little too close.”

  “S’okay, I get it.” He peeks around the rock quickly. “Stay here for a minute.”

  My body shakes too hard to disagree. I try to collect myself while I wait. It’s not that I can’t stop them all if I have to…just that I don’t really want to. Every life I take eats a little more of my soul away. What freaks me out the most is that with them this close, I don’t know if I have any other options. I can’t lead them to the others.

  Before I’m able to get myself all worked up again, Lucas returns. “They’re clearing out. If we’re going to move we should do it now. Just stay behind me and keep quiet.”

  He moves swiftly out the mouth of the cave. This time around his ninja moves don’t seem so funny. While I follow Lucas verbatim his cheesy moves actually keep us hidden far more than I’ll ever let him know.

  We keep at it for what seems like forever. After a while Lucas straightens up and begins to walk normally. It feels good to stand up straight again. A little later Lucas stops. “We should eat. You know, refuel.”

  Finding a spot of a fallen log that wasn’t covered by ice and snow, I sit down. My feet are cold and tired already, just like the rest of me. Once the adrenaline wears off the tiredness set in, but I have something strong to keep me going: a desperate drive to find my friends—my family really. The only people I have left in the world.

  We finish up in silence and Lucas looks at me. “You ready?” He asks.

  “Yeah…yeah, I am.”

  We hike until dark and spend the night next to a tree. We take turns sleeping and keeping watch. We have to cross a couple roads, but we don’t encounter anyone and stay in the seclusion of the trees otherwise. It certainly hasn’t been easy-going, though it’s far better to know that we’re making some progress and not sitting in a cave.

  We don’t speak much. It makes it easier to keep an ear out for others. Plus things are still kind of weird between us. We keep going like this much of the morning.

  Lucas stops for what I assume is lunchtime. Our rations are running kind of low so we split a bag of peanuts when a thought crosses my mind. “You know this is impossible. They can basically track me by the infection. You should just tell me where to go and find somewhere safe. I’m like a danger magnet right now. I understand if you don’t want to go any further.”

  He pauses with his mid peanut and looks at me. “Kat, really? First off, if I didn’t stumble across you back at the cottage the infection would have gotten me by now—hands down. So you kind of already saved my life and I owe you.” He pops another peanut in his mouth and chomps on it before he continues. “Second, I’ve been thinking about the whole tracking you thing. We’re obviously on the edge of the infected area now, or through it. Once that happens, they’re grasping at straws unless you set off some major surge. We just have to get a little bit farther West and then they’ll be flying blind.”

  I consider this and munch another peanut. I wash it down with a swig of water. “That makes sense.” I give him a wry look, but perk up to the idea of no longer being traceable. “A lot of sense, actually. How much longer do you think until we’re in the clear?”

  “Well, if we weren’t getting close I don’t think that they’d be trying quite so hard to find us.” He pulls out the map. “But if you want an estimate…by the last map we saw of the infection…I’d say one more day, just to be safe.”

  Huh. “Then we should get moving.”

  Go

  We end up walking all night (not very quickly but all night just the same). It’s an unofficial decision when we have our beef jerky dinner. The idea of getting the General off our tail is too alluring for either of us to pass up.

  When the sun is high above us once again we stop to eat the last of our food. It becomes obvious that sometime very soon we’re going to need to stop and get some more supplies.

  Finally a break in the trees brings us to a road. Both of our mouths hang open in astonishment when not one, not two, but three cars drive by in a row. We’ve done it! We’ve made it out of the infection zone!

  Exhaustion and relief make me little weak in the knees. Lucas grabs my elbow to steady me. It dawns on me that we have another problem on our hand. We look like vagabonds and will easily be spotted. “What do we do now?” My voice sounds scratchy.

  Maybe Lucas has finally lost it because he grins. “Now we just need to get to civilization.” He notices the expression on my face. “Hey, relax. It’s going to be much easier now.”

  I give him back a weak smile before I follow him down the side of the road. More cars pass by while we walk. Soon a sign comes into view. It has a dark blue background and gold writing. It says we’ve reached Eminence Missouri.

  It looks much like any other smallish American town. The main drag has multiple small businesses. People look at us a little strangely but nobody says anything. Lucas pulls me closer and says quietly, “If anyone asks we went hiking and got lost. Anything else just follow my lead or don’t say anything.”

  I nod in understanding and let him guide me into a small diner-style restaurant. The smell of food makes me ravenous and the laminated menu shows what seems like never ending choices. I half laugh in astonishment. It’s all so incredibly normal.

  I look at the menu and it causes me to look at my hands—which are disgusting. “I’m going to the restroom, I’ll be right back.”

  I begin to stand when Lucas asks, “What do you want to eat and drink if they come while you’re gone?”

  “Something breakfast-y…as long as it includes bacon, I’m good.”

  “Okay.”

  The place isn’t big so the bathroom’s easy to locate. I lock myself in before attending to things. I try to scrub the last few days of dirt out from under my fingernails. Once they somewhat meet my satisfaction I go back out to Lucas.

  On the table sits two steaming cups of coffee and a saucer with some of those small half and half plastic capsule things. I sit back down and inhale the aroma. It smells wonderful so I hurry to add some sugar and creamer. The first sip burns my tongue, but I don’t really care. I have coffee!

  Before I can complete reveling in the magnificence of my coffee, our server returns with two plates: piled high with pancakes and bacon. Quickly I push my coffee to the side—its splendor diminishing in the presence of bacon.

  To say that we tuck into our food is a gross understatement. It’s more like we demolish it. With a complete disregard for manners we must be quite a sight. When it’s all over I don’t regret a thing, despite the snobby looks we keep receiving from one older woman across the room.

  I push my empty plate forward and look at Lucas. “Now what are we going to do?” I ask.

  “I don’t know about you, but I think someplace to clean up and get some rest is in order.”

  “How?” I counter. “How can we even afford breakfast?”

  He leans in over the table and whispers conspirator-like, “Believe it or not, finding cash was the easiest thing to do when scavenging through an apocalypse.”

  I can’t hold back the snort of laughter that escapes. “Okay. Then I’ll follow your lead, I guess.”

  Lucas pays the bill and we venture back out to the main street. We wander down until we spot a motel offering cabins. Lucas goes into the office and returns with a key. He’s smiling from ear to ear. “My lady, your cabin awaits.”

  The cabins are all very rustic and neat looking. Some look much larger than others, but the number on the cabin that matches our keychain is smaller. I’m glad because it seems silly to waste all of that space on just the two of us. Also the last place we spent time in was a cave. This is a definite improvement.

  Inside the cabin is clean and very country. The two beds are a relief and will
certainly save us any awkward moments later. I walk over to the bed furthest from the door and drop my bag down before I sit.

  Lucas drops his bag and checks the bathroom. Always cautious, it’s a sobering smack of reality just when I start to relax.

  “I’m going to grab some things. If we have to run again I’d rather it’s with more supplies. Will you be okay for a while?” He asks.

  Gee, let me think. A chance to shower, change and lie down? “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

  “Alright…” for a second it looks like he has something more to say, then changes his mind, “Be back soon.”

  Alone now I dump out the contents of my pack for assessment. My other outfit is stiff and not really clean from air drying in the cave. I set the clothes aside. I have a clean pair of sweats left over from our short stay with Kim and Scott so I grab them.

  After my shower I dress in the sweats. I leave the bathroom vigorously drying my hair off with the towel. On the bed next to my bag and my disheveled pile of belongings, sit a new large paper shopping bag, with a note propped up against it:

  Figured you could use them, hope they fit. Be back soon.

  Huh. That’s incredibly considerate of him. Once my hair goes from wet to damp, I tie it back and stare at the mess. All I really want to do is sleep, but Lucas is right. If we have to get out of here quickly then we’ll need to have everything ready to go. I move back towards the bed and notice a duffle bag behind the shopping bag that I didn’t see before. How the hell am I supposed to lug this thing around?

  I set the shopping and duffel bags aside and decide to tackle the pile of crap dumped on the bed first. It takes a little bit to separate things that are still useful from the things that can be thrown away. There’s more than I’d thought that fits into the latter category.

  I bag the trash and sort the keep pile before I repack my backpack. Before I open the shopping bag, I take my dirty clothes into the bathroom and wash them. I hang them over the shower curtain rod to dry after wringing them until my hands hurt.