“All I kept thinking about was that it could have been you too. We could have been wrapping two bodies in a tarp. Two bodies in that shallow grave. Two people we had to tell goodbye. And I knew then that I couldn’t leave you. Not until I got you to your mom safely.”
If my heart could dance it would be doing the jitter-bug.
“But you told your dad that you weren’t doing this for only me.”
“I was lying to him and to myself.” He looks up at me with longing and wanting in his eyes.
The familiar flicker begins in my chest. I have the overwhelming urge to kiss him, to feel his lips on mine. “I…we,” I stutter, trying to find the words that elude me.
“I tried to keep how I felt a secret. I tried not to think about it. This isn’t the time or the place. You are like a sister to me. I know I shouldn’t be feeling this way.”
“Why not? I have feelings for you too.” I want to scream it for everyone to hear—even the aliens.
He whistles low. “This…what we’re feeling. We can't act on it. I can't act on it.”
I bite on my trembling lower lip.
He brushes his thumb against my lip. “Sin, the feelings I have for you are so deep. Sometimes it hurts to think about them. But I can't act on them. You're vulnerable and I don’t want to take advantage of you or of this situation that we’re both in.”
I will not cry. I will not cry.
My heart. My poor heart will never recover.
“I won’t hurt you.”
You already have.
Chapter Twenty
Toledo, Ohio
May 1st, 2012: Day 40
Jason stops abruptly and turns in a tight circle. His eyes scan the outline of trees and then he glances up to the sky. “Let’s make our camp here.”
“But we’re so close to Michigan,” I say. “We can keep pushing through.”
“I’m exhausted,” Mia says. She lets her bag slip from her back and fall with a thud to the ground.
Wade fishes for his map from his back pocket. “US 23 is just up ahead. We can use that as our guide to get to Ann Arbor.”
I adjust my bag on my back. “Great. Let’s get going.”
“I’m with Mia,” Ms. Burgess says. She drops her back pack and sits on it. “It’s almost ten p.m. and I’m beat.”
“But we’re so close,” I blurt out, trying to convince them to get up so we can keep moving.
“We’re still about forty miles from Ann Arbor.” Jason folds up the map he has. “We wouldn’t make it to your house tonight anyway. Let’s get some rest and start bright and early. It should take us eleven or twelve hours, tops.”
“But—”
“Jason’s right,” Wade says, cutting me off. “Following US 23 is going to be dangerous. We’ll need to be alert and, the way we’re looking right now, I don’t trust any of us.” He raises his brows, as his eyes settle on me. “Including you.”
MJ puts his bag down by Mia. “Come on, man,” he says to Ian. “Let’s do a perimeter check.”
I watch as Ian follows MJ through the trees. It’s not that I don’t think this area is safe. It’s well hidden and thick with trees that are lush with leaves. The ships won’t be able to detect us easily. There’s enough room to scatter our sleeping spots within the bushes and underbrush so that, if foot patrols are out, we won’t be seen. It’s that I’m so close to home that I can taste it.
Forty miles between me and my mom. Forty miles more miles and I’ll be able to put this all behind me, all this walking and my fiasco with Jason and awkwardness between Wade and me.
Urgh.
This doesn’t need to drag on any longer. I’m embarrassed and crushed and feeling guilty because I’ve somehow led Wade on and I’ve hurt him. If he’s feeling half the hurt that Jason has caused me then I know he’s dying just a little bit inside.
Hurting him does not sit well with me.
I’m not a heartbreaker.
Jason comes up behind me and tugs my pack off. “Get some rest.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep a wink. I’m too anxious.” I end my sentence with a yawn.
“Do you want me to help you find a rest spot?”
I shake my head. “I’ll let Winston do it. He has a knack for picking out sleeping holes for us.”
Jason leans down and gives Winston a pat on the head. “That’s because he’s such a good dog.”
Winston answers with a “hrumph”.
“Come on buddy, it looks like they’re forcing us to sleep.”
Smart as ever, and understanding what I meant, Winston trots off, sniffing bushes along the way.
“Night,” Mia says as I’m walking away.
I lift up my hand in response. They may need to rest, but I don’t. I wasn’t kidding when I told Jason I would be too anxious to sleep. When Winston finds a spot where he wants us to bed down for the night, he paws the ground to draw my attention to it. When I’m by his side, he crawls under the bush, expecting me to follow, and I do. It’s enough room for us to both fit under it comfortably. I wrap my arm around his furry body and peer out to watch as the others find spots where they will sleep for the night.
The outlines of their bodies becomes shadows, until finally all I see is darkness.
* * * * *
May 1st, 2012: Day 40
Early the next morning, we find US 23, or what used to be US 23 without a problem. Pavement from the four lane highway is uprooted from bomb blasts. Cars and trucks appear as if they had been thrown about by an angry child. And I immediately remember why we had stopped following main highways.
Yes, the threat of the aliens scouting them for people is great, but the death and carnage is also overwhelming. The people in these vehicles were the ones trying to evacuate. There had been families trying to flee to safety. I assume the passengers had escaped from the vehicles that are empty. It gives me hope that they are still out there, like us, trying to survive. Or maybe they are more fortunate than us—they have found their hideaways. The other vehicles—the ones with bodies hanging out of them or smells emanating from them—are the ones that send me into a depression. I pull my scarf up over my nose. It doesn’t seem to work, as the smell permeates through it.
Welcome to Michigan
Although the sign is tilted on its side and a piece of it is missing, I’m elated.
We made it.
My heart kicks up a notch, I’m so happy. But the feeling is short-lived. It’s hard to be happy when I’m forced to witness death for the next thirty miles. Nothing but destruction. More than once I want to leave the highway and take another route. But this is the easiest and the quickest way home.
Even though we aren’t on the highway itself, but keeping to the outlying land, we still come across cars that had been thrown by blasts or the person who, having survived the mayhem on the highway, had dragged their dying body into the fields hoping to escape, only to breathe their last breath and end up as food for the predators that have fed off of them. What’s left is horrifying. The flies circle the carcasses, the flesh seems to move, as maggots thrive within, and I clamp down on the vomit that wants to rise.
I can always tell when we’re about to encounter a dead body. Winston lets out a small whimper, the only sound he ever usually makes. And when we hear it, it sends a depressive ripple over all of us. The only thing we can do is brace ourselves for what we are about to stumble upon.
The air becomes thicker as we continue on, stepping over and around bodies, weaving through cars. We pass through Dundee and I feel my chest become tighter and tighter with the feeling of dread. The other cities and towns we passed through were in different states, not Michigan, so it was easy to not become attached to what I saw. But here we are in my backyard.
It’s not right. It’s not real.
The whiz of a space ship cutting through the air can be heard in the distance.
This is not what I expect to hear here. I know it’s stupid to think that way. To believe the ali
ens have invaded everywhere but Michigan, but I had. I don’t believe that I’m the only one who held onto false hopes. No one talks except when necessary. Jason and Jasmine, the two people who don’t have a sentimental view of my home state, thankfully are respecting the state of shock we are in.
Tears begin to stream down my eyes as we pass through Milan.
My hands begin to shake as we pass through Ypsilanti.
I can’t draw enough air into my lungs when we reach Ann Arbor.
There’s nobody around. I know that everyone has left the populated areas to hide, but I thought we would have encountered someone by now. We haven’t seen a soul all day long.
“Are you going to be okay?” Wade asks.
Since I basically turned him down, he’s been keeping his distance from me. Which makes me feel like the biggest ass of all. He’s been a good friend and I want us to go back to the way we were.
“I will be…when I get to my mother.”
He nods. “It’ll all work out.” He begins to speed up, to go ahead of us, but I pull on his sleeve, keeping him with me.
“I’m sorry about before.”
“It’s no problem,” he says, brushing me off.
“Yes, it is. You’ve done nothing but be a good friend and I can’t even—”
“Stop. We’re still friends. I can't force you to like me. You don’t feel the same way, that’s fine. I don’t hold that against you. I’m not a dick.”
I slip my arm around his. “Friends again?”
“Of course.”
Great, because I needed him as my friend again.
I glance around us and shake my head. “I really wasn’t expecting this.”
“I don’t think anyone was.”
He’s right. Everyone has that glazed-over look in their eyes.
“We’ll be fine,” I say with confidence.
“We’re strong. We’ll be able to handle anything that comes our way.”
I lean on him. “We will.”
We continue on, making small talk. But when we reach a sheltered area off of the highway, he stops us. “We need to come up with a game plan. Since Mia lives off of Geddes Road, I think we should stay on US 23 until we get there.” He pulls out his map and flips it open. “Now hear me out before anyone says anything. It’s getting dark, and as much as I would like to go to each and everyone’s house to check on family, we can’t all do it together.”
I’m the first one to try to interrupt, but he silences me with a hand. “Let me finish, Sinta. We can’t possibly get to everyone’s house, inspect it and meet up with family tonight. And, let’s be honest, I for one want to be able to see what’s going on with my house when I get there.”
“I don’t like the idea of us splitting up. We’ve come this far together I think we should stay together,” Ms. Burgess says.
“I think Wade’s been thinking on this a while,” Jason says. “I think it’s only fair that we hear what he’s come up with.”
Wade nods at Jason. “Like I was saying, we’ll get to Mia’s house first. We can all check it out. Hopefully reunite her with her parents.”
I look at Mia just in time to see her face fall. “It’s going to be okay,” I say, slipping away from Wade’s side to Mia.
From her other side, Ian wraps his arm around her neck. “They’ll be fine.”
She sniffles and nods. “All of our parents are. Everyone else in the city might have left but not our parents. They’ll be waiting for us to get back.”
“And so will the parents of the students that didn’t make it.” We all turn to MJ. He’s got tears running fast down his face. “They’ll be waiting too.”
“I’m sorry, man,” Ian says, letting go of Mia. He’s on MJ, wrapping him in a bear hug.
“We’ll take Mia home first,” Wade continues. “Then we’ll split up from there. Since MJ, Ms. Burgess and I live in the same direction, we’ll go together.” He has his finger on a place on the map. “We’ll get to MJ’s place on Green Road first, so he won’t have to be alone when he meets up with Shayla’s mom. Then go to Ms. Burgess’ house and then to my house. While we’re doing that, Ian and Sinta, since you two live in the same area, you can go together.” He looks up at Jason and Jasmine. “I was thinking that you two could go with them.”
“You got it,” Jason replies.
“But how will we know if everyone has reunited with their family? With the exception of Mia, we won’t. I can’t agree on that plan,” Ms. Burgess says, with a shake of her head.
“I have that covered,” Wade says confidently. “We’ll meet up at my house later. I have a farm, it’s on Warrant Road, north of everyone else’s house. We have a lot of land there. Bring whatever you can carry. I’m sure my parents won’t mind the extra company, considering everything we’ve all been through.”
“Sounds good to me,” I say.
While everyone is an agreement, Jason hands Wade his map. Wade marks the spot where we’ll find his house.
“Come on,” Mia says. “I’m ready to see my parents.”
* * * * *
“This can’t be right. My house…my house…it’s gone.”
Mia is standing on her once perfectly manicured front yard. I remember her dad spending all of his free time taking care of it. On Saturday mornings, he would jump on his riding mower and, when that was done, he would water the grass. He would trim the bushes and replace the mulch around them at the start of every summer. The flowers had been vibrant and plentiful, with the flower beds meticulously weeded.
Now there’s a large, dark hole where her new house had once stood, with singed grass surrounding it. Dirt and other debris covered what was left of the once-trimmed bushes. Household articles, such as pieces of furniture and clothing, were charred and lying about.
But no bodies.
“They’re safe,” I say, wanting to believe it’s true for her. “They got away as soon as the aliens came. They’re alive somewhere, trying to figure out how to get to you.”
She turns to me. Her skin color has a gray cast, her pupils appear dilated and her eyes are wide. She’s in shock. “They…they left me?” Her voice is soft and childlike.
No matter how scared I am, I can’t let her see it. I have to stay strong for her. “They had to get to safety, Mia. They couldn’t stay here.”
She turns back to the ruins. “They left me all alone.” Her voice shakes and cracks.
“No they didn’t. They left you with me, Ian, Wade, MJ and Ms. Burgess. You are not alone.”
“Honey, do you want us to help you find anything?” Ms. Burgess asks.
We all look at what’s in front of us. I’m sure that if she really wanted to, she could find some of hers or her parents’ things, but I don’t know where we would even begin.
Mia shakes her head. “No. I just want my mom and dad.”
I spot the landscaping rocks off to the side. I break away from the group to go to them. Grabbing a handful, I begin to position them strategically in the ground.
“What are you doing?” Ian asks.
“Leaving her parents a note. ‘I’m alive. Gone to Sinta’s house’.”
Everyone pitches in to finish the note, with Mia writing, “I love you Mommy and Daddy, Mia” at the end.
Mia leaves with a piece of wood from her house. It’s a small sliver that can fit easily in her pocket. No one asks her why she has it or what she plans to do with it. We all know that it’s a part of her home and the only thing she has left of her mother and father.
We make our way down Geddes and to Huron River Drive. The short walk from there to our school, Ann Arbor Huron High School, isn’t exactly on our route, but it’s one that we need to take. For some reason we need to see the school, even though we can already assume what we’ll find in its place.
The school is a pile of mess.
The buildings are crumbled, part of it appears to have been bombed. The famous Arch is now caved in. Bricks dot the landscape, individually and in piles. We walk
around, over and, when we can, inside our old school. It doesn’t appear that anyone is here. Parents and students are not camping out waiting for us to return from our trip.
A sad chord strikes within me. After everything I’ve been through, common sense tells me that waiting here would be a death trap, but my heart wanted to believe that they had.
We spend less than an hour sweeping the school, making sure that we’ve gone to all the buildings that could have housed survivors. Winston had his nose to the ground, leading the way.
And that’s when he leads us to the unbelievable.
One of the kids from band.
Chapter Twenty-One
Masana Saan.
Ian is the first to spot her. She is huddled in one of the corners that used to house the gym area. Her once glossy black hair is matted and filled with knots. Her brown-toned skin is dusty and sprinkled with open sores. Her clothes are in worse shape than ours because she’s wearing the same outfit from when I saw her last, seventeen days ago.
She has her legs pulled up to her chest and doesn’t say a word. She just watches us with a feral glare.
“Masana?”
She doesn’t answer Ms. Burgess. Her eyes dart wildly from Ms. Burgess to the rest of us. She’s gripping a knife in her shaking hand.
“Masana, honey, it’s Ms. Burgess. Are you alone?”
We all watch her in disbelief. She can’t possibly be alone. The last time I saw the ninth grader was when Wade and I had left for our last scouting trip. She had always been so quiet, so reserved. She kept to herself, seeming to not have many friends since moving to Ann Arbor from her native India.
Ms. Burgess takes a cautious step toward her. Masana lets out a feral growl.
“Whoa.” Ms. Burgess takes a step back. “You’re safe. You’re safe with us. Who are you here with?”
Winston put his head down and lets out a whimper. Masana lets her eyes focus on him, a hint of sanity registering behind them. When he began to creep slowly toward her, I grabbed a hold of his collar. “Stay.” The last thing I want is for Masana to kill my dog.
Against The Darkness (Cimmerian Moon) Page 21
