“You’re okay now, young lady,” the man said, helping me up. I realized then that he was just a slip of a thing with thin white hair. His kind face was lined deeply, and he wore a pair of small glasses.
“Thank you,” I told him as Vella pulled my arm across her shoulder and grabbed my waist to steady me.
“Any more of them down the alley? Is it clear the rest of the way down?” I asked the old man, breathing hard from the climb. My heart was slamming in my chest.
“They’ve been stuck back there all day trying to break into the back door. We’ve got it barricaded with a dumpster. You two flushed them out. They’re all up here now,” he said, pointing over the side of the roof.
We couldn’t see the horde that had come of out of the alley, but we could hear their groans.
“The door. . .I left my dog out there. Maybe we can open it just a crack to let him in?”
“It’s all barred up right now. We’ll wait until morning. If they’ve cleared out, we can try.”
I stared into the woods. Where was Puck? “Until morning?”
“There are people inside. We have to keep them safe. We can’t risk the people inside for a dog,” the old man said.
“He’ll be okay. I promise you. He’ll be okay,” Vella said reassuringly. Vella looked up at the star twinkling at the top. “It’s okay, Cricket. We’re going to be fine now.”
I wished I felt as sure.
Chapter 5
“Come on, let’s go inside. Got some folks downstairs. My wife and granddaughter. Some girls from our church. Couple people from off the road. Nice folks. Come on. You’re all right now. I’m Elias,” the tiny old man said.
I stared into the dark forest. My hands were shaking. Puck.
“Can you walk?” Vella whispered.
I nodded, turned, and limped alongside her to a door that led to the stairs below.
“Thank you so much. She’s Cricket. I’m Vella.”
“You girls on foot?” Elias asked as he opened to door to the stairs.
“Our car broke down,” I lied.
“You’re lucky then. How’d you come by us?” Elias asked as we entered the stairwell. Vella went ahead of me. Of course I would lose my boot. And of course the sock I had on had a massive hole in the bottom. The metal grooves on the stairs jabbed my bare heel.
“We saw the Star,” Vella said. Her voice echoed as we moved through the darkness down the stairs. There was a lantern waiting at the bottom of the steps. Elias picked it up.
“My wife’s idea. She figured folks would know to follow a star, just like the wise men. We boarded the shop up twenty years ago. Never sold the building. I was hoping Walmart would come along and buy me out. No luck. Just a big space full of boxes of junk no one ever wanted. Now I’m sure as hell glad I have it. Got flushed out of our house,” he explained, his voice faltering at the end. He coughed, clearing his throat, but I heard the sadness in his voice. “Lost my daughter and her husband, but we made it here.”
“I’m sorry,” Vella told the old man, setting her hand on his shoulder.
“Me too,” I added.
“Whatever this thing is, it’s killing people fast. The whole country is sick,” Elias said. We emerged into the storage room. It was dark and cavernous. On the far end of the building, it looked like someone had made a fortress out of boxes. Thin light shone out.
“Honey, that you? You okay? I thought I heard gun shots,” an old woman’s voice called. I saw her silhouette in the dim light. She was a frail little thing, her hair tightly permed just like any other old lady.
“Got two girls here,” Elias called back.
“How?” someone else asked. A man came out of the shadows and stood behind the old woman.
“Damnedest thing, climbed the trees and dropped onto the roof!” Elias answered with a laugh as we crossed the cold cement floor toward them.
“Those bad people can’t do that, can they grandma?” a little voice asked from the darkness.
“No, honey, I don’t think so.”
We rounded the corner to see that inside the little cardboard fort there were eight other people: Elias’ wife, a little girl about five years old, the middle aged man who had spoken, two young men, and three teenage girls who were sitting on the floor. They had dragged a moth-eaten, pea-green couch into the small space.
“Come in, girls. I’m Gemma,” Elias’ wife introduced herself. “This is my granddaughter Katy.”
“Hi!” Katy squeaked out.
“John,” the big man said.
The two young men, both about my age, traded a glance then looked at us. “Chase,” the one with the long dreadlocks said.
“Darius,” his bald-headed friend added with a nod.
One girl with long, black hair who had been busy picking at the blue paint on her fingernails looked up at us. “Ariel,” she said with a distracted smile.
A girl with red, puffy eyes smiled weakly at me. “I’m Jess. This is my sister Missy,” she said, looking down at the girl who lay with her head in Jess’ lap.
“Cricket. Vella,” I introduced us.
“My mom and dad still out there?” Jess asked Elias as she stroked her sister’s hair.
Elias shook his head and looked away. “It was real dark.”
“I heard gun shots,” Missy said, sitting up. “Did you. . .did you shoot any of them? The people outside?” Her voice was a jumble of sadness, fear, and angry accusation.
I looked at Vella. Good lord, had I shot their parents? I frowned. “I. . .only when they tried to grab me.”
“What’d they look like?” Missy demanded.
“Missy, it’s real dark out there,” Elias cut in.
Jess was looking at Vella. “Is that blood on your clothes?”
“Girls, it was real dark outside, and these girls barely made it alive. You know your mom and dad aren’t. . .well, they aren’t right. It was dark. Besides, they may have wandered off by now.”
Missy moaned terribly and collapsed back into her sister’s lap again. Tears streamed down Jess’ cheeks but she didn’t ask any questions, and she didn’t look at us again. She just sat stroking her sister’s hair. Ariel gave us an understanding half-smile and went back to chipping the blue paint off her fingernails.
“You need to turn off that light,” Chase said then. His voice was firm. I could tell it wasn’t the first time he’d suggested it. “You’re just waving in trouble.”
“We’re no trouble,” I told him.
“Not you, Miss,” Chase told me with soft smile. “But people are running scared and running red. We saw things,” he said, glancing at Darius who nodded. “You need to turn off that light.”
Gemma shook her head. “The Lord will lead the meek to the star. Now, enough of this,” she said, ending the conversation. “Come in girls. Sit down.”
Vella and I took a spot on the floor. John sat beside us. He picked up a radio sitting on the boxes then switched it on. He scanned through the stations. There was no live radio, just recordings of quarantine in what sounded like every city in the United States.
“The beginning of the end,” Darius said then.
“Just doom and gloom,” John agreed and switched the radio off. We all sat in silence. Outside, we could hear the faint moans of the deranged. . .zombies. . .trying to find a way inside.
“Like the plagues of Egypt,” Gemma said. “Should we sing? ‘Let there be Peace on Earth?’ ‘Onward Christian Soldiers?’ What do you prefer?” Without waiting for an answer, she started singing: “Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me . . .” Gemma began, but when no one joined her, not even her husband, she went silent. She sat down on the floor and picked up her granddaughter, cradling the small girl against her chest.
Silence filled the space again. No one spoke a word.
Chapter 6
“All clear,” Elias said.
It was morning and Elias, Chase, Darius, Ariel, Vella, and I were standing at the front of the store looking through the wood sl
ats barricading the windows. Dim sunlight shone in through the dusty glass. We scanned the parking lot. There were none of the zombie-looking people in the front. The parking lot and highway outside were silent.
It had been a strange night. Against my better judgment, I’d fallen asleep. I dreamt of Puck. In my dream, I was chasing him through the woods. Again, he was running after the blue light. This time, however, we came to the gates of a massive old castle with high walls. The gate was flanked with two huge stone dogs that looked just like Puck. Behind me, I heard a noise. I looked back to see a huge horde of zombies lumbering toward me. Red, Mama Rosie, and Mr. Iago, except Mr. Iago looked exactly the same, were at the front of the zombie horde. Turning, I grabbed the bars of the gate and started screaming for someone to let me in. I realized then, however, that Puck was already sitting on the other side. I was all alone, the zombies advancing on me. I’d woken with a jolt.
“Clear out there. Let’s head up to the roof and have a look around,” Elias said, jostling me from my thoughts.
We crossed the white tile floor of the department store. The place was almost completely empty except for yellowed white plastic hangers hanging off clothes racks, dusty mirrors, a broken sign pointing to the layaway area, and a row of rusty shopping carts. Dust was piled up in the corners. At one end of the store was a stack of boxes full of donations intended for Elias’ and Gemma’s church. That morning, Gemma found me a pair of old work boots from inside. They were men’s boots, but they fit well. I was still hoping to find my other cowboy boot outside. I loved those boots.
“Where are you headed now, honey?” Gemma asked when we came back.
“Roof,” Elias replied. “Need to see if they moved out.”
“My dog is still outside somewhere,” I blurted out, feeling stupid the moment I said it. Those poor girls’ parents were out there, infected, and I was worrying about my dog. But I loved Puck. He was my best friend. I couldn’t expect nice people like Elias and his wife, who were probably used to big Sunday night dinners and family picnics, to understand that. Now that my daddy was gone, all I had was Puck and the tilt. And now the tilt was gone. I couldn’t lose Puck too.
Gemma smiled sympathetically at me, tilting her head to one side, but she didn’t say anything.
“We’ll find him,” Vella whispered. “Don’t worry.”
“I want to come,” Jess said then, standing up. Her sister was still asleep on the couch. She had cried herself to sleep. It was heart-breaking.
Elias shook his head. “Best we have a look first.”
“But my Mom and Dad. . .I want to see . . .”
“Best let us have a look first,” Elias said again, but this time with authority, motioning for his wife to come between us and the girl.
“But Ariel—”
“Ariel is four years older than you, Jess. We’ll let you know what we see.”
We headed back to the stairs leading to the roof.
“You took down her daddy last night,” Elias told me when we were out of earshot. “Don’t want the girls to see. It wasn’t your fault. I saw what happened. We understand, but she won’t. Don’t say anything to her, Ariel.”
“No, sir,” the girl said.
I looked back at her. She was following Vella up the stairs. Her gaze met mine. She shrugged sympathetically.
I turned back. My stomach rolled. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
“If you don’t get them, they’ll get you,” Chase said from behind me.
“Poor girls,” Elias said then. “Their mom went bad first. It was all we could do to get Margie thrust out the back door without those little girls following after her. Their dad wouldn’t listen. He pushed us aside and followed his wife out. The second he reached her, she bit a chunk right out of his neck. Horrible. Girls didn’t see. They don’t know. Don’t understand.”
“Does anyone understand?” I asked.
“Not me,” Elias replied.
“What about the government? Are there any shelters? We didn’t hear anything on the radio. Is the National Guard or Army out?” I asked.
Chase laughed. “Army? Darius and me took up with the Army day before last. We got pinned down with four other guys in a soup kitchen. Things went south. The Army guys locked us in a room with the zombies. . .fed us to them. . .so they could escape. Me and Darius got out. We were lucky. You can’t trust anyone, which is why you need to turn off that light.”
Elias nodded. “I’ll talk to Gemma again.”
We exited out onto the rooftop. The bright daylight made my eyes squint. Outside, it was quiet except the whistle of a cardinal perched in the trees overhead. He ruffled his red feathers as he settled in on the branch, blending in with the leaves that were turning the same color red as him. Fall had come. Carnival season would be over soon, except down south, not that it mattered anymore. I’d been looking forward to the jump to Cocoa Beach this winter.
“Stay back a minute,” Elias said then made his way to the edge of the roof. The old man moved quietly, peering over the side. “Just Margie down there,” he said. “Girls’ mom.”
Why would the girls’ mom be there but the rest wander off?
We joined Elias at the edge of the roof. The woman he’d called Margie was standing in the middle of the alley, not moving.
“We’ll check around the corner,” Chase said, and then he and Darius set off toward the end of the building. Chase’s handgun stuck out of the back of his jeans. I smirked; it was a nice view. Not now, Cricket! I scolded myself. I took a deep breath, refocused, and then looked into the woods. There was no sign of Puck anywhere.
“I need to go look for my dog,” I told Elias. “It’s quiet. I can sneak out the back and into the woods.”
“Those. . .things. . .might have gone into the woods,” Ariel told me. “And there is a big apartment complex on the other side. If you go too far, you might run into more.”
“He’ll come back, Cricket. We can wait for him,” Vella reassured me.
“I’ll take you,” Ariel said as Darius and Chase returned. “We can go fast, look around really quick. The two of us could go quiet.”
“Go where?” Chase asked.
“Her dog. He ran off into the woods last night.”
“Miss Ariel, I don’t think your parents would want me to let you run off on a fool’s errand,” Elias said.
Fool’s errand. My daddy’s words again.
“My parents are dead. At least I can try to help her. I know the woods here. We used to play in there,” Ariel replied. “Cricket and I can go and come back quickly.”
“I’ll go with them. We need a look around, see if we can find supplies,” Chase said. “You got anymore bullets?” he asked me.
“One.”
“One isn’t enough. Though, with that big ass knife, I suppose you’ll be all right,” Chase said with a grin.
“You for real? You’re going after a dog?” Darius asked Chase.
“Just giving the girls a hand,” Chase replied with a sly smile.
Darius rolled his eyes.
“Well,” Elias said, running his hand through his thinning white hair, “I suppose you could go quick and come back. Gemma isn’t gonna like it, but if you come back in one piece she won’t nag me too much,” he said with a chuckle.
I smiled at him and set my hand on his shoulder. “We’ll be back soon.”
We did one more scan from the roof. Besides the girls’ mother, who didn’t even seem to notice we were there, the rest of the deranged people were gone. We headed back to the stairs.
“I’ll wait on the roof,” Darius said, “and keep an eye out for you.”
“I’ll wait with you,” Vella told him then turned to me. “Be careful,” she said. “In the deck, the fool always has his dog at his side, but he is never careful enough. You’ll find him, but watch yourself.”
“I’m more interested in watching Chase’s butt.”
Beside me, Ariel snickered.
“Cricket!” Vel
la whispered back harshly. She reached out to take me by the shoulder, but when she did, her bag slid down her arm, and one of her tarot cards slid out.
I bent and picked it up. “The Moon,” I said, handing it back to her.
Vella took the card from me and looked at it. “The Moon,” she whispered, like she was talking to herself out loud. Vella stared me straight in the eyes, her dark eyes peering into mine. “If anything happens, trust your instincts.”
I nodded, but all the hair on the back of my neck stood up straight.
Elias, Chase, Ariel, and I headed back downstairs. I turned and looked one more time at Vella. She clutched the tarot card in her hand, pressing it against her chest. We entered the stairwell. Elias shut the door tightly behind us, cutting off my view.
“There is another door at the very end of the plaza,” Elias told us when we reached the store room. Taking out a massive key ring, he led us to a door at the back. He unlocked an old metal door. It opened with a creak. There was a long, dark hallway that led the length of the shopping plaza. “This way,” he said, leading us deeper into the alley. “There used to be a pizza joint at the end of this strip. They had a side door for their dumpster. It’s closest to the woods. We’ll go out there.”
Elias pulled a flashlight off his belt and flashed it down the hallway. It was cold and dark inside. The tiles overhead had fallen making mountains of wet, asbestos dust on the floor. Water dripped slowly from the ceiling. The concrete floor was wet.
“Anything left in the restaurant?” Chase asked.
That morning we’d eaten animal crackers and drank liquid diet shakes for breakfast. Damned things had been sitting around for years but were still good even though they tasted like chocolate and chalk dust mixed together. Elias and Gemma had fled in their church van which had been loaded with food intended for a homeless shelter. We had supplies, but they weren’t going to last more than a week or two.
“Well, if you count plastic flowers and sugar packets, then yes.”
We reached the door at the end of the building. It was chained up. Elias unlocked the padlock holding the door closed. He carefully unsnaked the chain from around the door. Elias and Chase pushed on the door. It was sticky, but after a moment, it popped open.
Midway: The Harvesting Series Book 2 Page 4
