“It looks real,” the woman said about the stamp. The man was much younger than she, and a nervous girl peeking around another tree was Corbin’s age. They didn’t look related, Caucasian and Hispanic and Asian. Each one had a stamp, the man at 5% and the girl at 1%. All of them were thin, the man to the point of gauntness.
The girl spoke in rapid Mandarin to Corbin, who responded only with ni hao. Kelly said, “She doesn’t know much English. Where are you from?”
The rifle was still making Corbin nervous. “I grew up not far from here. Where are you from?”
“We were students at Dooley Junior College. Are you going to Arquin?”
“I don’t know what that is-”
The man hissed for silence. A couple was walking along the shore. The woman’s hand closed over Corbin’s arm and he was dragged into the cover of the grove. He managed to swipe the bucket handle on the way. Most of the bait was long gone.
A campsite was hidden in the trees, a green tarp attached to trunks and sleeping bags beneath it. The air smelled heavily of vomit. A crude fire pit and spit made of sticks had been constructed, burnt bits of wood and chunks of paper below. The papers were the ripped out pages of a text. A plastic Mr. Foods bag held bottles of water, and another bag had clothes. Tucked up in the trees were backpacks. The Asian girl pulled on a turtleneck and wrapped a pink scarf around it while the other two just put on scarves. Corbin took his cosmetics out of his pocket and swiftly redid his neck.
“They’re not coming this way,” the man said after a peek through the trees.
“How long have you been here?” Corbin asked.
“Four . . . months,” said the girl.
“No, he means here, Jingwei,” said Kelly, motioning to the campsite. “Not long.”
“Four months is how long you’ve been on the run,” Corbin said.
“Three-and-a-half, somewhere thereabouts. Shepherds came to our junior college in March to round up the Sombra Cs. Hector and I had the same evening Spanish class. Someone ran in, middle of our midterm, and tipped off our teacher that Shepherds were entering the building.”
“What happened?” Corbin said.
“Our teacher blocked the door and told us to climb out the window. We couldn’t get to our cars, the parking lot was being guarded, so we hid in the bushes and that was where we found Jingwei.” She was speaking quickly, Corbin getting the impression that it had been a long time since she’d spoken to someone that she wasn’t traveling with. He understood what that felt like, always standing apart because he was worried someone was going to look too hard at his neck. When Zaley came back with stories of the Shints or gossip from the pier and relief line, Corbin found them the most fascinating stories on earth.
“English class,” Jingwei said. “We are taken from class to vans. A boy grabbed a gun from a Shepherd and screams run. So we run.”
“They came for me after school one day,” Corbin said. “But they didn’t catch me.” Not then, at any rate. “What’s Arquin?”
“No,” Hector said sharply when Kelly began to answer. “First: you got food? Pills or something? More of those cosmetics?”
Corbin didn’t resent this game. “I might, if you have information worth it.”
“We’re moving on tonight and we need pills. We took our last ones six days ago and we gotta get to Arquin for more. Don’t think you can find it on a map.”
“There are pills in this Arquin place?”
“Everyone with Sombra C is going there. It’s military. The Sonoma harbor’s under siege,” Kelly said. She and Hector exchanged a look. “What do you have?”
Zyllevir. Oh God, there might be an unofficial harbor out there. Zaley had taken extra foundation from the Shints’ home. It was too white even for Micah. Corbin said, “I have just a few pills, and a can of soup I save for emergencies. I have one container of foundation that doesn’t match my skin tone, but it would probably match yours.” He nodded to Kelly. “That good enough to get directions to this place?”
“How many pills?” Hector said.
“Four,” Corbin lied.
Jingwei was almost in tears. Even if she couldn’t speak English that well, she understood what they were saying. “You have pills. Please-”
“One for each of us,” Kelly said to Hector. “And one left for him. It shouldn’t take more than a week to walk there.”
“These had better be really good directions.” Corbin had plenty more pills than that, but he had to protect them. “Tell me more and I’ll decide if my pills are worth it.” As Hector and Kelly consulted in whispers, Corbin filed away a mental note that it was within a week’s walk of where they were right now. Jingwei sank wearily against a tree and he said, “You okay?”
“Food. Bad fish.” She gestured to the other two and herself.
They had had food poisoning, which explained the vomit smell. Corbin had been nervous about that when they started cooking what they caught from the sea. He erred on the side of overcooking as a result, and worried instead about the amount of mercury they were ingesting. Also, some of the cans of food they got from the relief truck were past their expiration date. Over the line by months and he didn’t think anything of it, but years and he did. Then he ate it anyway.
“But don’t say where,” Hector said to Kelly.
Kelly turned to Corbin. “It’s a temporary military base. We’ve heard they have pills. We don’t know if that’s true-” She held up her hand at Hector to cut him off, the man unhappy that she’d expressed doubt. “But we’re going. We don’t have a choice. It’s not a harbor. We heard from someone heading there that the base gets a supply of Zyllevir and gives it out to any Sombra C who comes calling to the gate. So we’re leaving for it. As soon as the sun goes down today, even if the storm kicks up. There isn’t a Zyllevir pill left in all of Sausalito and we’ve looked.”
Corbin jumped at a shout and they quieted. Slipping through the trees, Hector peered out and called back, “It’s okay. Just a kid running by.”
“Not a harbor,” Corbin said with disappointment. But if the base gave out his medication, he had time. His future rested on Zyllevir just as much as it did food and water.
“But pills,” Kelly rushed to say. “That’s what the guy told us. He was trying to get there with his infected kid.”
“And he told you how to get there,” Corbin finished.
Hector returned to their campsite. “And we’ll tell you for a share of your Zyllevir. We’ll tell you everything he told us.”
“College?” Jingwei asked Corbin. “Were you . . . in college?” It wasn’t the virus making her hesitate but English being unfamiliar ground. Her eyes were completely present and there was nothing reminiscent of Sombra C in her movements. A shaft of light was falling on her head and she wasn’t disturbed.
“High school,” Corbin said. “We were seniors in high school.”
“We?” Hector repeated.
Shit. Corbin had spoken without thinking. “My girlfriend and I.”
“She got Zyllevir, too?”
“No, she’s not infected. We’re here with our baby son. I’m the only one with Sombra C.” It was shitty of him to play the baby card, but people treated Zaley more nicely because of Mars. You used what you had to stay afloat.
Was a rumor worth three of their Zyllevir pills? When he left the grove, he was torn on whether or not to return. That was a week of their lives he was trading away, and quite possibly for nothing. He kicked over rocks in haste and scooped up bait. The air was gravid. Rain in June was unusual. This storm wasn’t likely to be very big.
Time was short as it was, and one of the bullets they had left was for him. It was hard to fall asleep night after night with the knowledge of how close he was to the means of his death. He wasn’t going to wait until he was as far gone as Elania, dancing on the very edge of that feral line. Corbin was going to die before he got to the snarling stage. But he wasn’t keen on death happening any sooner than it had to.
“Wow, you got nothing,”
Austin said about the contents of the bucket when Corbin got to the campsite. The baby had woken up and was sitting on a towel, stuffed animals and toys all around him. Austin always did that, surrounded the kid with everything he had until you could barely see him at all. For the moment, Mars was engaged in eating his book and didn’t need the boys for anything. The words came to Corbin’s throat and he choked on them there. By the time the four of them discussed and argued and came to a decision, those people would be gone.
The pills had been separated so everyone carried some. If one backpack got stolen, they weren’t totally screwed. Corbin could take his personal stash of pills to that grove and cut himself short by three weeks instead of all of them by one. Then, if this turned out to be nothing, he didn’t have to take on the guilt of Austin and Micah losing time.
“I know you need a break,” Corbin said. “There’s something really important I have to do, something that could have the potential to help us. I need to be gone for a few hours. Can you just say okay without asking me a hundred questions?”
“Can you give me a hint?” Austin asked.
“I ran into three Sombra C people when I was looking for bait. They agreed to exchange some of our food and cosmetics for what they know of a military base that gives out Zyllevir.” He held back about the pills.
“Oh, shit, man, go!” Austin said. His face was lighting up and it shouldn’t. He was hearing a yes when he had to focus on the maybe. Not even the maybe but just the chance, like the lottery. You dreamed rather than expected. Corbin went into his tent while Austin dug up a can of soup. It was easy to keep a bunch of those in savings when they ate so much from the sea.
Three Zyllevir pills. Those were hard to put into his pocket. He stared at the place where Zaley slept at night and apologized to her. If this turned out to be lies or unfounded rumors, then he had just abandoned her earlier than necessary. She would understand why he took the risk, but he wouldn’t forgive himself for being so gullible. Micah would think he had been taken for a fool. She’d criticize and Corbin would just say they were his pills, not hers, so he could do what he wanted with them and she should shut the hell up.
If he was already bracing himself for failure and criticism, his gut could be trying to tell him something. Corbin jammed the pills into the very bottom of his pocket and got the foundation they couldn’t use. The baby yelled, “Ahhhhh-BOOOO!” as Austin scraped through the dirt on the other side of the tent.
“Boo!” Austin called to Mars. “I bet anything you were born on Halloween. It’s in your blood, kid.”
Corbin debated on taking the rifle, but he wanted to do this on good faith. He’d take his bow and arrows, no match to a gun but he’d been stupid to go off with nothing. Austin handed over a can of pea soup and Corbin wedged it into the quiver after removing most of the arrows. Then he shouldered it, picked up the bucket, kissed the baby, and went back out. He thought he spotted Micah far off in the water. It wasn’t right that he was already snapping at her in his mind when he disliked the kayak and she was bringing in his dinner.
Instead of late August or early September, it was going to be early to mid-August now. He’d have to seriously start planning out these notes he wanted to write. He’d seen Elania writing in the motel after the confinement point. That might have been a goodbye letter. But they’d never found a letter in their belongings. She’d likely just thrown it away after seeing how there wasn’t anything to say, or the virus was keeping her from it.
Wary of looking suspicious, he walked along the water and kicked over occasional rocks for bait. Now that he wanted to get a move on, perfect bait was naturally everywhere. He chucked it in, his eyes always to the grove far away.
The body was still floating in the water, though farther from the shore. The bird had taken off. Were Alcatraz a viable solution, Corbin would steal a boat and move Zaley and Mars there. Fresh water and a garden, fishing and lodging already set up . . . but there wouldn’t be formula, and others must have had the thought to go there, too. Corbin cringed internally. He hated how vulnerable Zaley was. Not helpless, but vulnerable. He knew what happened to the vulnerable. He had to leave her and Mars in a safer situation than the one they were in now, even one as weak as living with the Shints in exchange for Zaley bringing in food. A house would provide some cover, and so would the presence of a man.
When he got to the grove, he saw Hector watching him through the leaves. The tarp had been taken down and the backpacks pulled from the branches. They were ready to go. Corbin kept the bow slack at his side. The first offering he made was of the foundation. Kelly pressed it against her skin to judge the color. “Not bad. We should have been looking for this all along, Hector. That was really dumb of us. It just never crossed my mind.”
“You got the pills?” Hector asked.
“Yeah,” Corbin said. “And a can of soup. But I want a little information before I just hand everything to you.”
“We’re not trying to screw you over,” Kelly said sincerely.
“Let’s see them at least,” Hector said. Corbin displayed the can in his quiver and the plastic bag of pills, which he returned to his pocket. Jingwei pressed her hands to her mouth at the bag. What she was thinking, even in another language, was as plain as if she had given it voice. One more week. In that bag was hope.
“Are you familiar with the North Bay region?” Kelly asked.
“Not really well,” Corbin said. His father traveled around it often from working in the wine industry, but Corbin wouldn’t call himself well versed in the names of the cities or their exact locations.
“Heard of a city called Petaluma?”
“That’s a little west of Sonoma, isn’t it?” Corbin asked.
“It is. Give us the can,” Hector said. Corbin gave it over into Kelly’s outstretched hand. Jingwei’s eyes were fixed to his pocket. He wanted to reassure her that he’d give over the pills, but this had to be played the slow way.
“Is this Arquin in Petaluma?” Corbin said.
“No,” Kelly said. “The man we had it from, he said that it’s west of Petaluma. A temporary military base is set up there. It’s not all the way at the coast, but somewhere-”
“The pills,” Hector interrupted. “Make sure they’re real.”
Corbin withdrew the bag and extended it to Kelly, who clutched it tightly after a quick check and count. The tension went out of all three of them and Hector’s entire demeanor changed. A friendly smile broke over his face and he knelt down to take the bag and look at it for himself. “Thanks, man! I’m really not an asshole. We don’t know much more than that. The guy said that it’s far enough inland that the ocean can’t be seen from the base. Going west from Petaluma and it’s close to Laguna Lake. He thought that one of the roads going near it was called Bodega. Petaluma is about forty miles northwest from here. The freeway blows right past it, but it isn’t safe for Sombra Cs to travel on. Marin is a big red mess of Shepherds and militias and fires. We saw that close up and doubled back for here. The hills aren’t safer either, crawling with ferals.”
“Makeup. Maps,” Kelly muttered. “We should search for both.”
“Who was this guy?” Corbin asked.
“A Shepherd until his little girl got infected,” Kelly said. “We never got their names. She was in a wheelchair, so he’s just been rolling her along, trying to get anywhere safe and fast because they didn’t have any Zyllevir. The harbor in Sonoma . . . he tried for it, but there wasn’t any place to break through the Shepherd lines. As of two weeks ago though, the Shepherds still hadn’t gotten around that Smart Shield. So that’s why they’re fighting to stop the relief, steal the zombies’ meds and take the food, but the people on those trucks are fighting back. The military goes over to break it up, help relief get through, but . . .”
“But they’re needed about fifteen other places at the exact same time,” Corbin said.
“It’s crazy there,” Hector said. “Shepherds are determined to rip down that harbor and t
hey’re giving it all they got. The guy with the daughter said there were bodies everywhere, Shepherds shot by military, military and harbor guards shot by Shepherds, relief people, T-BACS, Sombra Cs just trying to get into the harbor itself. It was hell on earth. So we can’t go there.”
“Shepherds never got such a tight hold on Petaluma itself,” Kelly said as Hector opened the bag and passed out one pill to each of them. “They’re actually pretty unpopular in Petaluma, Sebastopol, Healdsburg, and some parts of Santa Rosa. It’s more dangerous to walk around those streets in Petaluma as a Shepherd than it is to live there with Sombra C. Not that it’s any haven for them either. If the base isn’t letting people like us hide out there, just giving them pills and sending them on their way, he was going to find a place to squat in one of those cities with his kid. That’s all the information we have.”
Jingwei tucked her pill into an empty Zyllevir bottle and slipped it into a backpack. Motioning to their packed bags, Corbin said, “You’re leaving this instant, aren’t you?”
“We don’t have time to sit around, and we don’t know exactly where this base is,” Hector said. “So we’re off. Get as far as we can into the trees and hide from the ferals and raindrops until morning. Think it’s going to rain. You and your girlfriend want to come along?”
“We need to talk about it,” Corbin said. “Finding a car and trying back roads might be better since we have the baby.”
Kelly swiped the foundation on her neck, putting it on thickly. It was close enough to her skin tone to not be too noticeable, especially after she smoothed it up to her jaw line and cheeks. Jingwei approved when everything was covered and Kelly said, “I haven’t gone out like normal in months. I don’t know if I have the guts to do it.”
“I want some of that,” Hector said hungrily to her clear neck. “Let’s hit a few of those empty houses on the way out. No more scarves and shit.”
They parted with handshakes, Jingwei giving Corbin a hug and tremulous thank you for the pill. He recited the names on the walk to his campsite. Petaluma. Bodega. Laguna Lake. Arquin. The freeway would guide them to Petaluma, if only they could take it. He didn’t want to travel with those three, have them lay claim to more medication if they realized just how much he and his friends had.
The Zombies: Volumes One to Six Box Set Page 132
