“Don’t worry about it,” I said trying to sound comforting. “But you scared the hell out of me.”
“Oh, sorry. Good thing for me that you haven’t found the guns yet then, huh?” Dillon said with a nervous laugh.
He didn’t know how accurate his statement was. Or then again, maybe he did.
“Nothing has changed about this place,” Dillon said walking much too close to me as we continued down the hall. “The door at the back leads to the indoor shooting range. I had pretty good accuracy for a kid. Never touched a gun again after my dad’s death, though.”
Blake walked past a door on his left and Dillon pushed his way past me. He muttered a quick ‘excuse me’ before grabbing the doorknob.
“Hold on,” Blake said grabbing his arm and pulling it away. “I’ll go first since I’m armed.”
Dillon nodded. “Guess that’s better than nothing.” He hesitated briefly. “This is where they kept the guns.”
Blake opened the door as if he were expecting to walk into his own surprise party. He stood there, his head shifting jerkily in every direction.
“I think it’s safe, buddy,” Jay said stepping around him.
The walls were lined with tall blue lockers, all of which were closed. Jay pulled his flashlight out of his pocket and clicked it on before opening the first set on the right.
Jay stared for a long moment before twisting to look at Dillon. “Are these supposed to be empty?”
“No,” Dillon said walking over to the next set. He opened the doors to another empty locker. “Well, shit.”
One by one, we opened them, finding them all empty except for the dust bunnies gathering at the bottom.
“I guess maybe the owners took everything?” Dillon said.
“Or maybe someone else came here and took everything,” Maddie said rolling her eyes as she shook her head.
“Yeah… maybe,” Dillon said. “There’s one more thing we can check.”
Blake cocked his head to the side. “What’s that?”
“The office,” Dillon said gesturing toward the hallway.
Blake drew in a breath and crossed the hall with all of us following him like baby ducklings following their mother across the street. He entered the room much more calmly than the last time.
The office smelled of cigar smoke and donuts. It seemed strange there was a smell of donuts after all this time but it made sense when I saw the large candle on the side of the messy desk. It was burned almost to the bottom and the picture of the donut on the label made my stomach grumble.
Dillon walked around the desk and opened one of the drawers. He clapped his hands together sharply.
“Ah-ha!” Dillon said pulling out two metal cases one after the other. “I remember when they got these for their anniversary.”
“Who were these people?” Maddie asked.
Dillon looked at her and then smiled. “Huh,” he said turning the smile into a frown. “They’re locked.”
Jay flashed the light on the metal cases. Each was engraved with three initials.
“How romantic,” Jay said.
Dillon slammed down a box of ammo on the desk. He placed his hands on his hips and stared at the boxes.
“Maybe the keys are in one of the drawers,” Blake suggested.
“Well, that wouldn’t be a very smart place to put them,” Dillon said. He pointed at Maddie. “But you were probably right about the people who cleaned out this place. They weren’t the owners. There is no way they would have left these behind.”
Jay started looking around the office. “We need to figure out how to get these open.”
“They look really sturdy,” I said. “You sure the keys aren’t in the desk?”
“Positive,” Dillon said.
“Would you mind looking, though?” I said.
Dillon scratched the side of his neck. “Sure. Could I get some light?”
Jay flashed the light at each desk drawer as Dillon sifted through the items inside. He held up both hands to show he hadn’t found anything.
“Maybe a hammer and a screwdriver,” Jay said looking around. “We could try to pry them open.”
“There’s a tool chest in the trunk of the car,” Blake said.
“Awesome,” Dillon said. “I’d love to get back inside the car.”
At first, I thought he was being sarcastic but when he took the first step toward the door, I realized he was actually anxious to get back outside and into the small beat-up car.
When we got to the car, Jay and Blake went to the trunk while the rest of us waited inside. We didn’t talk. We sat there in silence listening as they pounded at the locked cases.
At one point, it sounded as if they started to throw them at the ground. I was tempted to get out of the car and try to convince them to give up but when I turned, Blake and Jay were standing outside my window both wearing huge grins.
“Great,” Dillon mumbled. “Now we can get back on the road.”
His lack of excitement coated his words. He must have sensed that I was glaring at him.
“Sorry,” he said. “But I won’t be happy until I’m driving in the opposite direction so….”
“Right,” I muttered. I waved at Blake and Jay to get back inside. “Let’s go!”
“Can you believe this?” Jay asked looking at the gun in his hand. “We actually got them out of there. It wasn’t easy, though.”
Dillon groaned. “Ugh, put those things away. I hate those things. Can’t even stand to see them.”
“You’ll be glad we have them when a pack of sick sneak up behind us,” Blake said. I didn’t bother to mention that the gun didn’t really help all that much when we’d been nearly surrounded by a pack of sick.
“Maybe. But in my life, they’ve done no good. They took my dad away from me and then held me hostage at the base. I just don’t like them. They make me nervous.”
Maybe he didn’t realize it yet and maybe he never would but in this new world, guns were practically a necessity. They were almost as needed for survival as food and water.
Blake drove back down the road going faster than he had before. It seemed as though he was driving with more confidence.
But it didn’t last long. The car clunked and sputtered before coming to a slow stop.
Blake sat there with his hands on the wheel for a long moment without moving. It was a solid four minutes before he slammed his palms on the dash repeatedly.
Blake roared as he continued to beat the car. “Fuck!”
Chapter Seven
Dillon leaned to the side. “Are you out of gas?”
“No, the gauge says full,” Blake said hitting the steering wheel again.
He drew in several quick breaths and turned the key. The car grumbled back at him repeatedly but it didn’t start.
“Maybe the gauge is broken?” Dillon suggested.
My eyes slowly scanned the area. We’d gone far from the town and there wasn’t anything around us except for abandoned fields.
There was probably a farmhouse not too far down the road. But without the car, it definitely made things more complicated.
It delayed us in getting to the base and I worried that without the car, Dillon was going to back out of our deal.
“I’m sorry, guys,” Blake said with his head down. “Guess we’re walking.”
We took our things and started walking down the side of the road. We could have walked down the middle because there wasn’t traffic and it was unlikely there would be any anytime soon.
Blake led the way and Dillon was only a couple feet behind him. He hadn’t said anything but he continued to stay with us.
I touched Maddie on the shoulder before I quickened my pace to catch up with Blake. I was probably the last person he wanted to talk to but I had to try. It was my fault that Blake didn’t have anyone left.
“Hey,” I said stepping up at his side. He didn’t look at me. “I was just wondering if we have a plan of any kind.”
I
t felt like a long time before he spoke. “I don’t know. Why ask me?”
“I guess I just wondered if you had any ideas,” I said swallowing hard.
“Do you have any ideas?” Blake asked.
He was so cold it felt like I was walking next to an ice sculpture. I didn’t know what to say.
“We could look for a new car,” I suggested.
“Great idea,” Blake huffed. “No way to siphon gas and more than ninety percent of the cars we find don’t have the keys but out here in the middle of nowhere, we’ll just find a car.”
I sighed.
Blake ran his fingers through his hair in one brisk movement. “Sorry. I’m just frustrated.”
“Yeah,” I said feeling the inside of my mouth dry out. After several long moments, I cleared my throat. “I’m so sorry about what happened with Whitney. I never meant for any of this to happen. And Dax. It’s all my fault that your brother and girlfriend are gone. It’s completely my fault and I’m so sorry. You have every reason to blame me or hate me or whatever.”
“Girlfriend,” Blake snorted. He looked at me out of the corners of his eyes. “First of all, she never was my girlfriend, and secondly, it’s not your fault what happened to them.”
I shook my head as I dared a look in his eyes. “I saw the two of you kissing.”
Blake’s eyes moved down but then back up at the road. He exhaled a long breath.
“Yeah, we kissed but I ended it shortly after it started,” Blake said. “She caught me a bit off guard because I’d just heard some news that shook me.”
“Oh,” I said. Was he referring to when I blurted out what had happened between Dax and me? Somehow, I knew that he was.
“I shouldn’t have led her on the way I did but I hadn’t been thinking clearly,” Blake said.
I crossed my arms. “Well, Whitney saw it differently. She thought it was the beginning of her dream come true.”
“Well, I guess I’m glad she thought that considering,” Blake said. “I’ve always known how she felt but I just didn’t feel that way about her. She was like a sister to me.”
“Glad you didn’t tell her that,” I said.
Blake chuckled. “I did but that was back when we were teens.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah,” Blake said. “I wasn’t the wordsmith I am now.”
I bit my lip so the laughed didn’t bubble out. I was nearly positive he was trying to be funny but he didn’t crack even the smallest of smiles.
“When I feel something for someone, there is just something there that I can’t fight. It’s just too powerful. Even if I try to pretend it’s not there, it just creeps back up and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it,” Blake said with a tinge of frustration to his words. “I’ve really only experienced the feeling a couple times in my life but it never was there with Whitney.”
“If it’s not there, it’s not there,” I said but the words weren’t insightful or comforting. I just hadn’t known what else to say. “Freddie used to tell me that I was trash. Unlovable. A big, lazy screw-up. Oh and let’s not forget a disappointment to my family.”
“Freddie was an asshole,” Blake said. “You aren’t any of those things.”
I sighed and swallowed back a tear. “He did his best to convince me of those things. For a long time, I believed him. Sometimes I still wonder if he was right. I mean, all I’ve done is screw up this whole adventure. An adventure we shouldn’t even be on.”
“Nothing that happened is your fault,” Blake said catching my eye.
There was a warmth in there that tugged at my heart. I didn’t understand what I was feeling.
“Well, I think it was,” I muttered.
“You need to stop blaming yourself,” Blake said. “I’m sorry for everything your idiotic husband put you through but you need to see yourself how others see you. How Maddie sees you.” He swallowed and his jaw tensed. “How I see you.”
My heart rate increased. Didn’t he hate me? I slept with his brother for Pete’s sake. He should hate me.
Blake took a step to the side. It felt like a cold breeze had pushed us apart.
“How far away do you think we are from the base?” Blake asked glancing over his shoulder at Dillon.
Dillon’s eyes shifted back and forth from Blake to me and then back again. I was pretty sure he’d heard every word we’d spoken.
“Less than a hundred miles,” Dillon said. “But that’s just a guess. It could be less. Could be more. I was bussed out to the base in the middle of nowhere to a place I didn’t even know existed. I wish I had a better answer but things had been hectic and I hadn’t been paying attention.”
“Don’t blame you,” Blake said. “Was just curious.”
“I’ll know when we get close. I’ll never forget the trees.” Dillon shivered. “They were so… so thick, like they’d been purposefully planted to hide the place. So, yeah, I’ll know when we’re almost there. No doubt about it.”
Blake scratched the back of his neck. “Good but we’re not going to be able to walk a hundred miles. At least not very quickly.”
“A hundred miles?” Jay asked from behind. At least he hadn’t heard the entire conversation like Dillon had. “We’ll be lucky if we make it five miles.”
“Maybe ten a day?” I said narrowing my eyes. And that was a best-case scenario.
“That’s not fast enough if she’s in danger,” Maddie chimed in.
“Oh, she’s definitely in danger,” Dillon added for good measure. Because why not add to the stress we were all already experiencing.
If we had to walk the entire way, it would take us at least a week to get there. We didn’t have a choice. We had to find another vehicle as soon as we possibly could.
We continued down the road, mostly in silence. Everyone was deep in thought.
Maddie was likely concerned about Polly and I was concerned about Maddie. Blake was probably mourning the loss of Dax and Whitney. Dillon was nervous about going closer to the base and Jay was probably thinking about all the food he’d left back at his brother’s home.
We had a few supplies but we would need more. The food and water we had wouldn’t last more than a couple days. I had more than enough medicine, although that wasn’t helpful in any significant way.
The sun was bright when the soft, fluffy clouds didn’t block it out but the air was chilly. It was good that the walking helped to keep us warm, well, except for Dillon. His teeth chattered but he mostly tried to hide it.
Even though we were armed, it didn’t help me to feel any less exposed. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself.
“Oh, you have to be kidding me,” Jay said.
“What is it?” Blake said without turning.
“I think I just saw a flurry,” Jay said holding up his arm to look at it. “Yeah, it melted but it was definitely a snowflake.”
I knew it had gotten cold but I don’t think I realized how cold until I saw the tiny white fluff float down in front of my eyes.
Snow. It wasn’t a lot but still, it wasn’t good.
Chapter Eight
“Mom?” Maddie called from behind me. Her voice crackled, sounding quiet and frail.
I turned and only at that moment had I noticed how bad things had gotten. Probably for all of us. But Maddie was skin and bones, nearly in as bad of shape as Dillon.
Her eyelids were purple and sagged down over her eyes. She was dragging her feet like one of the sick.
Even though we’d just been in a hotel room, it wasn’t enough to help in any significant way. The life we’d been living wasn’t something you could just sleep away in a short time and get right back to it.
Maddie needed more.
There were too many worries. No deep, restorative sleep. The food wasn’t good enough to keep us healthy… it was only sufficient in keeping us alive.
It didn’t matter if we were walking or riding in a car, this life was taking a toll on Maddie. It was slowly pecking away at all
of us. There would come a point when sheer determination wouldn’t be enough to keep us moving forward.
We needed new clothing.
We needed showers.
We needed a fire to warm our bones before they turned to dust and refused to hold us together.
“Did you need something?” I asked as I slowed my pace to walk next to her.
“Can we stop soon?” Maddie asked. “I think there is something wrong with my foot.”
Maddie wasn’t usually the one asking for a break. She was the one wanting to press forward.
“I think I see something ahead,” Blake shouted over his shoulder.
I wasn’t sure if he’d heard her or if he’d just happened to notice the place. Maybe he needed a break too. We all probably did.
“Think you can make it?” I asked.
“Yeah, of course,” Maddie said making sure she sounded tough.
She didn’t want me to see the weakness but what she didn’t know was that she couldn’t hide things from me, at least not for long. I was her mother and I knew her better than I knew myself.
One of the benefits of traveling country roads was that we didn’t see many of the sick and if there were people around, we didn’t see them either. But one of the negatives was that the houses were stretched miles apart.
Blake spotted a pickup truck as we approached the small house. Behind it was a small barn with mold coated walls and a roof that had collapsed.
There was a thin cow grazing in the overgrown field not far from the house. It didn’t seem as though it had belonged to this particular farm, given the state of the barn.
“Think that cow belongs to someone?” I asked.
“Probably not anymore,” Jay said. He cupped his hands over his mouth. “Be free, cow!”
Its jaw kept moving in a circular motion as it continued to ignore us… and Jay’s comment.
“Not even animals think I’m funny,” Jay said smiling at himself.
“It probably has something to do with the fact that you’re not funny,” Maddie said sucking in her lip so she didn’t smile.
“I’ll get you to laugh one of these days,” Jay said. “Just you wait.”
What Remains Series (Book 4): Evasion Page 4
