I started to turn away, but the feeling I could trust this stranger was strong and I paused.
“You should come to Manchester. I mean, not now. But you should talk to your people. We plan to make Manchester a home and it would be more comfortable for you. All of you.”
“Maybe,” he shrugged and then whistled again and ran into the trees. Within a few seconds, there was no sign any of them had been there.
“Well, that was weird,” said Luke. “What did he say?”
“Let’s get moving. I’ll tell you on the way.”
29
The next four hours passed slowly. Tedious is the word I would use, and I welcomed the interruption when Luke tapped me on the shoulder.
“We need to stop and rest, dude. We still have a good fifteen miles to go. These guys are out on their feet.”
I was loathe to stop, but knew it was necessary. “Okay. We’ll make it a good rest, give them half an hour, and let them eat what’s left of the supplies.”
I ate an apple as we passed food around and randomly wondered if I would ever taste a banana, my favorite fruit from the Before days, again. When we finished distributing the supplies, I took in our surroundings.
The road we were on wound its way through a green, shallow valley and the clouds which had covered the sky for most of the day had disappeared. I was weary and decided it would be a good idea to rest up while I could.
“I’m going to take a nap,” I told Luke, noticing others were already doing that, laying in groups in the long, gently swaying grass lapping the road.
“Good idea,” said Luke, as he made a beeline for a small boulder about twenty feet away.
I lay down on my back, watching the blue sky, and enjoying the feeling of not being on my feet.
“Actually,” I said to Luke in a drowsy voice. “Make it a half hour from now.”
“Roger that,” he said.
It only seemed like a minute later when Luke was shaking me awake. I groaned and rolled away.
“Come on, Boss. We need to go.”
“Don’t call me boss,” I said, still sleep fuddled.
“Okay, Boss.”
I slowly climbed to my feet as Luke roused the rest of the group.
Less than five minutes later, we were on the move again. One hour later, Joe returned. I felt a rush of excitement when we heard the motorcycle in the distance and prayed for good news. When Joe skidded to a stop in front of us, we swamped him. His smile was muted, but at least it was a smile.
“Did they make it okay?” Luke asked when Joe had dismounted and taken off his helmet.
“Yeah, they made it with no problems.”
“Great, so fill us in. How did you find them?”
“They left a small group at the north end on 3. One of those guys took me into the city to meet up with everyone else.”
“Where are they setting up base?”
“The Radisson Hotel in the center of town.”
“Oh yeah,” said Luke. “Good call! Beds for everyone. All we need to do is work on room service. Was Brooke okay?”
“Yep, everyone was great,” Joe said, once again smiling, although it didn’t quite reach his eyes. I imagined it would be quite a while before he got over the pain of losing Brock.
“Well done,” I said, and handed him a bottle of water. We only had a handful of bottles left, but he looked like he could use it. “What do you want to do now? Head back or walk with us for a while?”
“I’ll walk with you if we can take turns pushing this beast,” he said, pointing at his bike.
“Done!”
Within two hours, we were walking in the dark. Luckily, it was a three-quarter moon and the clouds from earlier in the day hadn’t made a reappearance. As long as we stuck to the road, we wouldn’t have any mishaps.
It seemed to take forever and I began to contemplate whether we would have to stop for the night. I was footsore and had a kind of deep ache in my legs. I knew everyone else was feeling the physical exhaustion just as much as me.
It was only a few minutes later we topped a rise and saw a sign announcing ‘Manchester - 5 Miles.’
The sign added a bit of energy to our step. We knew it would only be another two hours at the most.
It wasn’t quite that long. We reached the group at the north end of Manchester an hour-and-a-half later. They had fresh water for us, along with fruit. All three were members of Luke’s security force from the Valley and he had a quick chat with them before Joe led us into Manchester. We left the bike with them. They were to send a rider at any sign of trouble.
Apparently, Ben had considered placing another guard on the freeway bridge to the west of the city, but in the end decided if the Marauders were coming, they would also be coming in via 3.
30
Abandoned Manchester by moonlight was desolate. It wasn’t a metropolis. The first buildings we passed were houses. It was more like a big town on its outskirts with the occasional high-rise building. When we had discussed it as our potential new home, I had imagined a sparkling, modern city. The reality was jarring. If I had been imagining a post-apocalyptic American ‘every’ town in the Before days, this was definitely pretty close to how I would have imagined it.
Mother nature had begun to reclaim the streets. Unhealthy looking grass sprouted from the road’s surface like hair from an old man’s ear. The smashed windows of the buildings and houses we passed were like jagged, blind eyes, their empty gaze sinister.
I don’t think I was the only one who was spooked as we weaved our way through those empty streets. Of course, it could have been exhaustion, but our group was the quietest I had heard it since our encounter with Jonah and his people.
We turned onto Elm Street, which cut through the city, parallel to the river. There were a few houses at the beginning of Elm Street, but the further we walked, the bigger the buildings became. I pointed out an impressive office tower to Luke. It was on our right as we walked into the heart of the city and was at least ten stories high. As best I could tell in the dark, it was newer than the other buildings we had passed. The signs said it had been known as the Brady-Sullivan Tower. I made a mental note to come explore it.
We walked a good ten blocks before we reached our final destination.
“It’s just down there, at that set of lights,” said Joe, pointing a hundred yards down the road.
The Radisson was set back well from the road, a plain building with a large, overgrown lawn in front of it. There was a faint glow of candlelight in the windows of the entrance. The thought of seeing Indigo and Max warmed me, but it would have to wait. I wanted everybody safely inside first.
I turned around and looked back at our people. They were stretched out at least a block behind us.
“Joe, Paul, you go on in and help the people already in there get these guys settled. Luke, do you want to hang back with me until they’re all inside?”
“Sure thing.”
Luke and I patted backs and offered encouragement to the weary travelers as they passed us. Five minutes later, we followed the last stragglers up to the portico of the hotel. There was a bottleneck again to enter the lobby and Luke and I waited as patiently as we could at the back of the line.
We craned our necks trying to catch a glimpse of our girls in the lobby, but it was near impossible in the candlelight until we got closer. Finally, I spotted Indigo. She was handing out blankets and pillows to the newcomers. My heart leapt in my chest when she turned my way and gave me a smile. Brooke was nowhere to be seen.
“Brooke must be resting,” I said.
“Yeah. That’s good. She’s so close now,” he said, seriously.
I punched him lightly in the shoulder.
“Yep, won’t be long now, dude, and your sleepless nights begin.”
“I can’t wait. What’s it like?” he asked, looking me right in the eye.
“It’s the best thing ever,” I said. “You’ll be a great dad, Luke.”
“Thanks,”
he said, the blush of pleasure coloring his cheeks barely discernible in the poor light.
Finally, we made it inside. I waited as Indigo handed out her last welcome bundle and then embraced her in an enthusiastic hug.
“How is Maxie?”
“He’s good. He’s in a room with Ava and Peace for tonight. They were all exhausted.” She broke away from me and hugged Luke. “Brooke is in room 214 if you want to join her. No elevators, of course, but it’s just one flight. The stairs are over there. Here is a flashlight. Just knock.”
“Thanks! You’d make an awesome concierge,” he said and was gone in a flash.
We had a brief chat with the rest of our leadership group, Paul, Ben, Jamal, Beau, Joe, and Allie, before everyone headed up to bed. Jamal had already napped and would take first watch on the doors with Danny. They were both armed with guns and would fire three shots at the first sign of trouble.
We were staying in room 213, opposite Luke and Brooke. When we stopped in front of the door, Indigo handed me the flashlight she was carrying and reached into her pocket, pulling out a keycard which she swiped to open the door.
“How ... there is no power?”
“Battery powered.”
“But, it’s been years.”
“There are a bunch of batteries in the storeroom. We changed all the batteries for the rooms we’ll be using. It’s where we got the flashlights from, too.”
“Okay, great stuff,” I said, taking her into my arms. “You’re as clever as I thought you were.”
“Possibly cleverer,” she said cheekily and pushing the door open with her foot. “Max won’t be back until the morning.”
31
Sunlight streaming through the tinted window woke me. I rolled over to look at Indigo. She wasn’t there, but a note was on her pillow: Downstairs in the dining room when you wake up - XX
Feeling warm and rested, I stared up at the ceiling for a moment, reluctant to get up. It was literally the most comfortable bed I had slept on in about six years.
When I did finally sit up and put my legs over the side of the bed, I winced. Every muscle in my body ached. When I stood, I immediately forgot all about those aches. They were insignificant compared to the scream of pain in my feet. While I didn’t have blisters, my feet were red and chafed from being in boots too long and there was a deep ache in my heel.
I went to the bathroom and relieved myself. I didn’t flush. I knew it wouldn’t work. That didn’t stop me from trying the faucets in the shower on the way out, though. I would have given my left eye for a hot shower right then. Nothing. Not even a dribble.
Indigo had been thoughtful enough to put a fresh change of clothes on the bed. It was my ‘uniform’: patched, faded jeans; a threadbare t-shirt; and a pair of boxers which had once been red but were now a washed out shade of pink. I got a surprise when I picked up the t-shirt. Underneath was a pair of socks. Brand new athletic socks. I squeezed them in my hand, admiring the soft texture and couldn’t resist putting them to my cheek. Not a very manly thing to do, I know, but if only you knew what a luxury they were after so long without.
Another note fell out of the socks as I separated them.
I found these in a drawer, thought you might appreciate them! Indy XX
I felt a new wave of warmth roll through me, which had nothing to do with the sun. More a sense of well-being. I was comfortable and safe with my family and friends, for the moment at least, and life was great.
I changed quickly and went to find the dining room. I was hungry, but not just for food. It felt like ages since I had held my little boy.
The dining room was a hive of activity. It was packed with our people, but I could tell probably only three-quarters of us were there. All of our original group, except for Ava who was looking after Peace and Max at a table nearby, were at the counter serving plates of hot, simple fare to the ones lined up for food. Indigo caught my eye and smiled after she blew a strand of hair from her face.
Before falling asleep the night before, Indigo had related to me how hard they’d worked at scavenging enough food to keep the whole population going for a few days. More groups would be going out this morning and searching the surrounding buildings. After the previous afternoons, it appeared the city would be a gold mine for provisions. No other people had been spotted. The city appeared to be deserted and may have been that way since the invasion.
I made a beeline for Max. He was standing against a chair, his wobbly legs getting used to holding him up. I scooped him up, much to his delight, and planted a kiss on his cheek.
“Maxie, you’re getting so heavy!”
“Da da ...”
“Mom said he wants to learn how to walk, Uncle Isaac.”
“He sure does, Peace. You giving him lots of practice?”
I sat with them for about ten minutes until the lineup for food was only a few people deep, then took Max to get some breakfast.
While we ate with our group, we decided a few of us would head to the Brady-Sullivan Tower. I thought it would be an ideal place to use as a lookout or perhaps a first line of defense if we could get some sort of weaponry up to the top.
“We could even live there, couldn’t we?” asked Allie.
“Possibly,” I said. “But here we have everything we need: bedding, cooking facilities. If we could get something happening here with power and plumbing, it would be perfect.”
“Beau, Jamal, and I are working on that,” said Ben. “Stay tuned.”
“Awesome,” said Luke, sniffing his armpit. “I think we could all do with a shower.”
Brooked nodded emphatically and we all laughed.
Luke turned serious. “I agree we could definitely look at using the tower as a fortress of some kind, but it would have to be in the future. There’s no way we’d be able to get set up before the Marauders get here. I say we put up a barricade across Elm Street this morning and have it manned and armed before we go and scope out the tower.”
“Sounds good” I said. “And I want at least ten people at each of the roads in. At the first sign they’ve tracked us down, I want them back here ASAP.”
Many hands make light work and within two hours we had constructed a barricade of old cars and junk which spanned the entire road. As an afterthought, we decided to do the same on the side streets which would give the Marauders access if they decided to try and sneak around. To do that work, we broke the one hundred and fifty or so who had helped with the Elm Street barricade into three groups headed by Danny, Paul, and Jamal.
Luke, Indigo, Ben, and I left to look at the tower once those barricades were well underway.
32
The day was sunny and walking through the city with my friends was a lot more pleasant than it had been the night before when everything had still seemed so uncertain. Not that I didn’t feel uncertainty that day. As much as I tried to persuade myself the Marauders wouldn’t track us to Manchester, the seed of doubt in my mind continued to sprout tendrils of worry.
I wasn’t the only one pessimistic about our chances of avoiding a confrontation with Ash and his people. Luke sidled closer to me as Ben and Indigo chatted happily.
“Dude, I think we need to be ready for the Marauders. Hopefully, they gave up once we gave them the bloody nose back at the bridge, but Ash seems like a particularly persistent kind of asshole to me. With a bit of luck, he’ll think we’ve gone to Concord. At least that would give us more time.”
“I think you’re right ... about him coming here, I mean. I have a bad feeling. Let’s get this done as quickly as we can and get back to the Radisson.”
The Brady-Sullivan complex was even more impressive in the daylight. It was set on a large open parcel of land and dominated its surroundings. It was made up of a squat section in front, itself about six stories high, with a fourteen story tower behind.
We entered through the front doors, which were broken in, probably by looters at the beginning of the invasion, and looked around cautiously. There were no
signs of life, apart from a few pigeons roosting in the lobby.
“Shall we go straight to the tower?” Indigo asked.
“Yep, let’s do that.”
We made our way through the connecting hallways and finally arrived in the lobby of the tower.
“It’s going to be a long climb up the stairs. You sure you’re up to it?” I asked Indigo.
She raised an eyebrow. “I’ll race you.”
She beat me and the others to the fire door, but, after six flights of stairs, our race was more like a death march. Even Luke, the fittest of us, called for a break after we reached the halfway point.
When we finally burst out onto the roof of the tower, we collapsed, sucking huge lungful’s of air. Luke was the first to recover and walked to the edge of the building and whistled.
“Great view!”
We joined him, Ben hanging back a little.
“Wow,” said Indigo. “Come look, Ben.”
“No thanks,” he said. “I can see plenty from here. I suffer from vertigo.”
We didn’t give him any grief about his fear of heights. Stepping close to the rail even gave me a tingly feeling in my legs and I had never had a problem with heights.
I took Indigo by the hand and we walked to a raised platform on the narrow side of the roof. From here, the view was even better, if you counted being able to see the streets and rooftops below. We stood there for a long time, looking down at the empty city we hoped would become our home.
Twenty minutes later, we were back on the street, having decided the complex would definitely make a good place to set up some defenses and serve as an early warning lookout. We even began discussing pie in the sky stuff. How, as we grew, it would be an ideal place to house the council and any other administrative bodies we decided to set up. All of that was a long way off, but it was fun to discuss.
“I want an office on the fourteenth floor,” said Luke.
“Sure thing, buddy. You want to climb those stairs every day, you’re welcome to it,” said Ben.
The After Days Trilogy Page 63
