They went through the car and repacked all the bags, making sure the correct things were in the correct bags according to the list. Cender used a stubby pencil to correct the list with the items that were used since they had headed out. They spent a good deal of time trying to remember how many shots had been fired at the pigs.
Tobias could barely remember the battle; it was all a blur. It seemed like there had been hundreds of the demonic pigs, but in all likelihood, it was the same four or five pigs rushing at them over and over again. The side of the Escape still bore several marks where the swine had slammed into it. Cender had trapped himself inside the vehicle, shooting out through a window he opened, while Tobias had climbed on top. The pigs couldn’t get to either of them, but they made sure to take out their frustration on the doors and bumpers.
Abby seemed to remember the whole event in perfect detail. She could count the number of shots she had heard, and that was how they decided on the final number of bullets fired. They also had to mark off the lost guns. Tobias’s gun had gone missing during his tussle with Jessi; presumably, it had been kicked into the river. Abby had lost hers during the fight with the pigs, and no one knew what happened to Cillian’s rifle. They still had Cender’s though, and the pistols from the extra bags. They were all still able to carry a firearm, for what it was worth.
Tobias looked down at the angry red wounds on his fingers. Jessi had done more damage to the group with the knife than any one of them could’ve done with a gun. Not only did they lose two members, but now there was unrest between them. Tobias was sure that Abby didn’t trust him anymore and that could hurt them in the long run. He was sad for her, having lost her friend, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t lost one too. Then he remembered again that Abby was a lesbian. Was it possible she had a thing for Jessi? Was that why she was taking it so hard?
* * *
Once the bags were packed, they shifted them around so they could fold up one of the back seats again. They didn’t bother to bring the whole thing back up, just the single seat on the passenger side. Everything was piled next to it and in the back.
Tobias got into the driver’s seat, and Cender climbed back into the passenger seat. Abby sat in the back.
“Everybody look for a gas station.” Tobias said as he turned the key, fearing the engine wouldn’t start. Either the car was built awesomely, or there was more gas left in the tank last night than he realized, because it came to life. They drove slowly back to the road they had been following, never getting much higher than 30 km/h. Tobias didn’t want to risk the car trying to kick into the gas mode more often than it needed to. He was hoping to save what little was left in the tank.
“All right,” Cender finally spoke up after several minutes of silent driving. “I’m bringing up the elephant in the car.”
“What?” Tobias frowned.
“Clearly you two are having some issues that need to be worked out,” Cender said. “I’m hobbled and rely on both of you immensely. If you’re at odds with each other, it’s not very good for me.”
Tobias just kept frowning, although he knew exactly what Cender was talking about.
“Toby, you go first.” Cender had picked up the nickname, probably trying to bait him.
Tobias sighed but didn’t correct him.
“Come on,” Cender pushed. “Air your grievances.
“I don’t have any grievances,” Tobias told him. “Why don’t you ask Abby to air hers?”
“What?” Abby frowned at him from the back seat. “I don’t have any grievances.”
“Seriously?” Cender frowned at them both. “So neither of you have a problem with each other?”
“No,” They both spoke at the same time.
“What?” Tobias was confused. “So you’re saying you have no problem with the fact that I killed Jessi?”
“What? No,” Abby shook her head. “She was trying to kill me. You were just defending me. I know that.”
“Then why are you acting all weird?” Tobias looked at her in the rear-view.
“Because you’re acting weird,” she told him. “I thought you had a problem with me because it’s my fault Cillian is dead.”
“What?” There were a lot of ‘what’s’, going on in the car. “That had nothing to do with you. Jessi’s the one who stabbed him.”
“Yeah, because he defended me. And because she thought I was flirting with him.” Abby looked down at her hands, tears threatening her eyes again. She really believed what she was saying.
“That’s not your fault,” Tobias shook his head. “You had nothing to do with it. Jessi just snapped is all. We’ve all been under a lot of pressure, and apparently she couldn’t handle it.”
There was silence again for a moment.
“See?” Cender finally broke it again. “Isn’t that better? You’ve both been acting weird because you thought the other had a problem with you, and it turns out you were both wrong. You’re both idiots.”
Tobias couldn’t help but chuckle somewhat at that last random line. They were both being idiots.
“So, Abby.” Cender turned in his seat to look at her, “you’re a lesbian, huh?”
Tobias whacked Cender in the ribs with his arm.
“Ow, what?” Cender frowned at him.
Abby had turned bright red. “Well, yeah.”
“Cool. You got a girlfriend somewhere?” Cender turned back to Abby, missing the dark look Tobias gave him.
“Last time I saw her was yesterday morning, in the city. We had coffee in a café we like but I had a doctor’s appointment later, so she went to attend a make-up conference.” Abby looked out the window, clearly worried.
“Sorry.” Cender realized he should have known where that question might head. “Is she hot?”
“Cender, really?” Tobias interjected again. “You’re one of those guys who only care about what a girl looks like, aren’t you?”
“I’ll admit that, yes, the way a girl looks plays a massive part,” Cender laughed at himself. “Personality does count though, especially in lasting relationships.”
“I can’t see you having a lasting relationship,” Tobias told him honestly.
“Ouch,” Cender frowned. “For all you know, I’m in one right now.”
“True, but with your line of questioning, it seems unlikely to me,” Tobias pointed out.
“You’re right, I’m not. But I could be, and that’s the point. We don’t actually know all that much about each other. We’ve been too busy running for our lives for that.” Cender sighed. “Like, did you know I’m worried about my parents and little sister in Toronto?”
“I’m worried about my family in Vancouver.” Tobias hadn’t spent a great deal of time thinking about them, but they had crossed his mind from time to time. There was no way for him to know if these things could reach that far. They also seemed like they were a million miles away on another planet, in another life.
“My family is in Alberta. They’re on a farm in the middle of nowhere.” Abby didn’t actually sound all that concerned. “I’m mostly worried about my girlfriend. She’s likely still back in the city somewhere. She never liked the radio.”
“Well I don’t have a girlfriend but I know what you mean,” Cender agreed. “I have a lot of friends back there. I also know quite a few who got bitten before we knew what this thing was.”
“Right, you must have seen several infected before anyone knew what the infected were,” Tobias realized. “What did you guys think it was?”
“Some new street drug,” Cender shrugged. “Some chemical driving them mad.”
“Cender, can I ask you a personal question?” Abby asked.
“Sure,” Cender nodded. “In fact, I encourage it. The better we know each other, the more likely we are to survive, I think. Besides, I just asked you a lot of personal questions, so it’s only fair.”
“This woman we’re going to meet, you really like her, don’t you?” Abby asked seemingly out of the blue.
&n
bsp; Cender chuckled slightly, but it had an almost nervous tone to it. Tobias couldn’t believe it, but Abby was actually right.
“Yeah,” Cender finally admitted, his face becoming a slightly redder tint. “I respect her a lot actually. She’s my boss though, or teacher, kind of both really.”
“Did you ever tell her?” Abby wondered.
“No. That kind of relationship is greatly frowned upon and she’s never shown any interest,” Cender sighed.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about the teacher-student thing now,” Tobias pointed out.
“And she did save your life out of everybody’s,” Abby also pointed out.
“Only because I happened to find her when she was about to steal an ambulance,” Cender laughed, but it sounded different than usual. It was clearly meant to hide how he really felt about that.
“Are you going to tell her when we meet up with her?” Tobias found this ‘no holds barred’ kind of questioning kind of interesting.
“If we meet up with her,” Cender reminded them all that nothing was certain. “And maybe. I don’t know. I’ll have to judge her mood which can be difficult.”
Cender picked up Tobias’s camera, which had been sitting on some cup-holders. He turned it on and pointed it at Tobias.
“So Toby, do you have a special girl?” Cender grinned behind the lens.
Tobias hated being on the filmed side of the camera. “There was this one girl… something between us might have been going somewhere. I guess I won’t know now.”
“What was her name?” Abby wondered.
“Katie. Cender, will you put down my camera please? This doesn’t need to be recorded.” Tobias swiped a hand out to try to get him to lower it, but Cender dodged his half-assed attempt.
“Why not? You recorded the pigs, right?” Cender must have seen him with his camera through the moon roof. “You record all the gross and actiony stuff. Why not the quiet times in the car?”
“Because I’m not the one filming it,” Tobias actually laughed at his own expense. “Seriously dude, I hate being filmed. Could you put that down?”
“I will in a bit. I just want to capture some more of this lovely sunrise.” Cender actually filmed some of the scenery outside of the car. “But at least now we’ve got one shot of you for posterity.”
Tobias didn’t tell him that Cillian had already recorded him attacking an old lady with an axe. Not one of his finer moments, to say the least.
“Why have you been filming all the things that have been happening?” Abby asked.
“I don’t completely know,” Tobias shrugged. “I feel safer looking through the lens. It doesn’t feel like I’m actually there, you know? Like it’s already happened. And maybe because it represents some kind of hope to me.”
“What do you mean?” Abby frowned.
“If I record it, that means there’s going to be somebody left who will watch it. It’s weird and really bad logic, I know,” Tobias laughed to himself again. “There’s no guarantee anyone will be left after all of this, but it’s just the way filming makes me feel. Something is filmed to be watched, therefore there must be someone to watch it.”
“Aw, how touching.” Cender had turned the camera to him again. “When the new world Oscars get established, you’re going to win every award, including acting.”
Tobias gave him the finger.
“And now you blew your chances. Way to go,” Cender laughed. He finally put down the camera and turned it off.
The car, which was still cruising in electric mode, quietly died. They coasted down the road as far as they could until it came to a stop.
* * *
“I guess that’s that,” Tobias sighed. “Looks like we’re hiking it from here.”
“Great,” Cender grumbled.
Everybody opened their doors and got out, Tobias grabbing his camera and slinging it over his neck as he went. Abby dragged packs one through three out with her.
“You sure you can handle this?” she asked Cender as she helped him get his pack on.
“Do I really have a choice?” Cender retorted. “We all have to carry our own weight, and in this case, that’s pretty literal.”
“Yeah, but we don’t have to do it with a broken leg,” Abby pointed out as she hiked her own bag up onto her shoulders.
“True, but I also don’t have to spend the trip listening to someone complain about having to carry a heavy bag with a broken leg. I think our irritation levels will be even,” Cender joked.
Tobias picked up his bag. The thing was immensely heavy, but he could handle it. It was like carrying that camera bag that Lucas Jonas had made him carry. That had felt like forever ago, but really, it had been less than twenty-four hours. He adjusted the shoulder straps and did up the buckles in front. At least the bag had been designed with long hikes and heavy equipment in mind, so it distributed the weight nicely. He took one last look at the car and the other bags. Then he turned and began walking.
They had separated from the caravan of cars sometime last night. Although a few other vehicles had picked the same roads as they had, they were all gone for the moment. Tobias walked down the centre line, Abby on his left and Cender, using his crutches, to the right.
He picked up his camera and started to film some of the scenery. Cender did have a good idea about that, but Tobias saw it in a different light. It was the emptiness, the stillness of the scenery that made him want to film it.
“Let’s play a question game,” Cender finally spoke up again. He just couldn’t keep his mouth shut for more than five minutes, could he? “We each get to ask a question, and everybody has to answer it truthfully. Sound good?”
“Fine,” Tobias answered without emotion, still filming.
“Sure,” Abby agreed.
“All right,” Cender said happily. “Who wants to go first?”
Tobias assumed that he had had a question in mind, but apparently he didn’t. “I got one. Cender, I don’t even know your name. Is Cender your first or last name?”
“You missed the point. We all have to answer the question and that was directed only at me. How about we all state our full names then?” Cender decided. “I’m Joshua Juliann Cender.”
“Joshua Juliann?” Abby laughed.
“Yup. My parents are lovely folks,” Cender laughed as well. “They like to call me JJ.”
“Well, I’m Abigail Margaret Walker,” Abby told them. “Although, if you call me Abigail I’ll punch you in the nose.”
“That’s how I feel about being called Toby, but nobody seems to listen,” Tobias sighed. “My full name is Tobias Mackenzie. I don’t have a middle name.”
“Really? I didn’t know people could not have middle names. Huh.” Abby was genuinely surprised.
“Of course he has one, it’s Toby,” Cender ribbed him.
Tobias just groaned. Having Cillian call him that was bad enough. And at least Cillian hadn’t talked nearly half as much as Cender seemed to.
“I’ve got a question, but it’s a little morbid,” Abby frowned to herself.
“Fire away, it’s just between us and the pavement,” Cender encouraged.
“I was just wondering, who was the first dead person you saw yesterday?” Abby asked quietly, sounding somewhat ashamed of her question.
“Lucas Jonas,” Tobias said without hesitation. Odd that he had just been thinking of him.
“No way!” Cender said excitedly. “You saw Lucas Jonas?”
“I told you I was filming at the concert, right?” Tobias couldn’t remember exactly what he had told Cender when they met.
“Yeah,” Both Cender and Abby nodded.
“Well, it was him I was filming.” Tobias tried to shrug, but the weight of his bag didn’t let his shoulders go far. “He ran off into the crowd, and I had to follow him. When I got to him, he was in the middle of this circle of chaos with an umbrella sticking out of his chest.”
“The umbrella wasn’t open, was it?” Cender asked.
“What?” Tobias frowned, pulling his eye away from the eyepiece to look at him. “No. You’d think that being a doctor you’d realize that the human body is tougher than an umbrella spring.”
“Okay, just wondering.” Cender briefly let go of his crutches to put up his hands in a defensive posture. “It could have been a really tough umbrella, like, a razor umbrella. Or maybe it went so far through him it opened on the other end. Being a doctor, I’ve seen a lot of crazy shit that I didn’t think was possible. Oh, and as for your question Abby, I’m not sure who the first dead person I saw yesterday was. If I remember right, we had some old guy come in who had an MI.”
“That’s a myocardial infarction, right?” Abby asked. “A heart attack?”
“Look at you! Watch a lot of medical shows?” Cender grinned.
“No, I just like to study things. And I remember things really well, better than anyone I’ve ever met, actually.”
“Do you have an eidetic memory?” Cender sounded extremely interested.
“I never really looked into it, but I might,” Abby admitted.
“For the unintelligent here, what does an eidetic memory mean?” Tobias had no idea what they were talking about.
“Most people refer to it as a photographic memory,” Cender told him, but clearly had no interest in talking to him at the moment. He quickly turned his attention back to Abby. “So, you can remember things in crazy amounts of detail?”
“That depends on what you mean by crazy amounts of detail,” Abby said. “Like, I wouldn’t be able to tell you how many stalks of corn we’ve driven past.”
Tobias slowly faded out of the conversation, not actually all that interested. Although it did sound somewhat fascinating, he didn’t understand half the words Cender and Abby were using. Apparently, she was a bookworm. Abby even walked around to the other side of Tobias so that she and Cender weren’t talking through him.
Tobias didn’t mind. He was happy just to keep filming. That was his perfect memory, whatever he caught on film. As they walked, the landscape changed from fields to forest. Tobias actually spotted and captured a deer on film as it wove its way through the trees. It saw them, or rather heard Cender and Abby’s mumbo jumbo talk, and directed its path further into the woods. As Tobias kept filming the trees, trying to pick out more wildlife, he saw a little house up ahead. It had a large white truck parked in front of it that seemed vaguely familiar.
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