by Holly Hook
I did.
“You think this is a good idea?” Jerome asked. “We're surrendering our food.”
“If we run, they'll know who we are,” I said. “There's got to be a lot of Westman's Grocery trucks out here.” I'd seen several on the way over. “If we just be good and leave, they might let us go.” Might. That was the word.
I got out, keeping my coat over my face and my hoodie over to stay out of the sun. Jerome did the same. The soldier stood there and waved us out of the parking lot. “You are free to go,” he said. “Go on. Beware of the looters. If you're looking for someone you know, good luck.”
I could hear the sympathy in his voice. This soldier, like Hudson, had gotten caught up into something bad. He was just following orders, probably scared for his own life. He might even have a family back on a base that he needed to feed. Jerome waved to him and we circled around the back of the truck.
“Some people hopped into the back when we were running from the shooting,” Jerome said. “We need to get them out. I think there might be ten or eleven back there.”
He was doing a good job playing stupid. Either the military hadn't spread word about us through all of their ranks or this soldier knew who we were and he was letting us go. Either way it was cool. The soldier lifted up the back door.
“Hi!” Gina said. She leaned against a plastic-wrapped palate of cereal.
“Hi,” the soldier said. “Sorry to be rude, but you have to get out. Are all of you covered from the sun?”
The others were huddled in the back. Tony and Mina were still splattered with blood. That made our story real, I guessed. The soldier even lowered the ramp so Gina could limp down and he gave her a hand to keep her from tripping. At least some people still had some decency. This soldier wasn't a guy who would walk into a store and start firing on people. At least, not without huge remorse afterwards.
“Yes,” Tony said, zipping his coat up over his face. “I guess there's one good reason for it. We have to wear coats.”
Chrstina and Mina still had hoodies on and so did Gina. They tightened the hoods around their faces, leaving only tiny holes to look through. They reminded me of monstrous slugs. I hoped it would be enough to sheild them. So far, I wasn't burning. The ozone might not be as depleted here in New York as it had been in Arizona, but it was still too thin judging from the way the military was dressed. Tony had thrown on a hunter's coat in the store, all camo and thick, and had pulled a thick hat down over his head. Mina, probably trying to match him, had done the same. Alana had her own hoodie pulled tightly over her and she had even grabbed gloves. I had my hands tucked inside my sleeves.
Once everyone was down and shivering in the cold, the soldier stood aside and let us go. “Thank you,” he said. Then he stepped closer and lowered his voice, which was muffled through the scarf and the goggles that were protecting his face. “You kids go and find somewhere isolated like a cabin. Don't worry about the cold. Worry about food.”
“Thanks,” I said, turning away. This soldier knew what the survival chances were out here.
I walked away from the carpool lot as another food truck, driven by a swaddled old man, pulled through the gate. The soldier ran to direct him. It was a truck for soda. The army was taking that, too. They were leaving nothing untouched.
And ahead of us was the expressway, with abandoned cars parked on the sides and frozen, stiff grass. Barriers rose on either side of the freeway and I caught a glimpse of someone walking away from us, someone just as bundled up as we were. Others were being told to walk, too. And right ahead was the city, larger than life.
I looked at Gina. She held up her bottle of antibiotics. “Still have what I need,” she managed through her closed hoodie. “I still need to walk between people so I don't slow us down.”
“It's still a while to the city,” I said, peeking through the hole I'd left in my own hoodie. New York City rose above us now, but it was still somewhat distant. Another squall was rolling off the bay, the one with the really puffy, low dark clouds. I wondered if some kind of big storm was ready to roll up the coast.
But we had no other choice, so with just our coats and other protection on, we walked.
I offered to help Gina right along with Alana. Jerome had to walk beside us and the others came up behind. Gina kept her injured foot up and hobbled with the other. “It still hurts,” she said, “just not as bad as long as I don't put any weight on it. I think it's healing. I checked it yesterday, and the wound's closed at least.”
“I can help,” Jerome offered.
“We're good,” I said. I knew I was starting to push him away again. I'd been doing better, getting closer to him and letting myself have hope.
Something about watching the couple get torn apart by the shooters had derailed me and I was now back to square one. It was life's reminder that death could claim you at any second.
I could sense Jerome facing me. I'd have to keep my distance until we got out of the city and found a safe place to go. As we walked, the squall loomed larger. It was going to reach us eventually and we'd be walking through flakes. These coats were serving two purposes, even though my legs shivered with cold. I had only my jeans to protect me there. And my feet weren't doing too great either. I was beginning to hate those little holes that they put on top of tennis shoes. We needed boots, preferably ones with warm fuzzy insides.
“Switch,” Tony said, walking up beside us. “Let me and Jerome be her crutches for a while.”
I could let go now. Jerome and Tony took her place. I think Jerome smiled at me and I forced one back. He was such a cool guy. So deep. So smart. And my shoulder was starting to cramp from having Gina's arm around us.
The city got bigger and we passed a sign that told us we'd be entering the Bronx in about five miles. That was one of the five parts of the city, right? I struggled to remember them all from the map I had studied and left back in the truck. It was north of Manhattan where Dad was staying.
And there was also some smoke rising from it in a few places. It curled into the sky, thick closer to the ground and thinning rapidly as it blew away from the oncoming squall. A few cars rolled past us, going in opposite directions. People were both coming and going. Some fleeing, some seeking the people that might be fleeing.
Despite all the buildings getting thicker and thicker around us, the place was quieter than I expected. Even in Colton there was always background noise. The mechanic working. People playing music. Dogs barking. There was one of those every once in a while, but not as many as there should have been.
I could smell smoke on the wind. It was a great sign.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the next squall hit.
Flakes blasted at us from the south, coming off the ocean, diving right for our faces. The visibility dropped to almost zero and the few cars still on the highway slowed down.
“I'm freezing!” Christina shouted.
I wrapped my arms around myself. The cold was cutting right through me and there was nowhere to hide. The barrier was higher than ever. The military had thrown us out to our deaths and there was no sign that the squall was going to end anytime soon.
“Huddle!” Tony shouted.
He was the one in charge now. I didn't care. Jerome wrapped his arm around me and blocked the cold from one side of my body. The wind snapped. It was almost as bad as the wind in the dust storms we'd left back in Arizona. Alana did the same and we all got into two different huddles as we walked. It didn't do much to protect my hands, but it was better than nothing. We had to maintain body heat out here.
We walked under streetlight after streetlight now. The squall got thicker, then thinner again, and then filled with really big, puffy flakes that would have been pretty under other circumstances. My nose went numb. So did the rest of my face. I had to screw up my features to make sure I could still move them. Was this what winter felt like for everybody who lived in these areas?
But at last, after my feet had begun to burn with the cold, the
squall quieted and the flakes got thinner and farther apart. We were walking on a bumpy white ground, with a cold blanket covering the uneven grass. Weeds stuck out in places like zombies trying to rise from the ground.
“That was cold,” Jerome breathed. “I didn't realize it was so...”
“Painful?” I asked. He still had his arm around me. “I can't feel my face.”
“At least we kept each other warm,” Jerome said. And he smiled. His face was exposed a little. Either his coat had slipped down over his head or he had done that himself to look at me.
“Thanks,” I said. “I wish someone had offered us a ride.” Cars still crept past but no one stopped. The world was too dangerous now.
The sun came out a bit. The shadows were back. They were forcing the two of us together just to rip us apart, the same way they'd forced Mom and I to get so close, to go on so many adventures together. I'd seen this before. Death wasn't ready to strike yet, not until my feelings for Jerome intensified. And right now, with his arm around me and his body heat meshing with my own, they were doing just that.
Chapter Seven
We entered the Bronx about an hour later.
The sign emerged for the New York City limits first, hanging over the expressway with the mayor's name under it, in white on green. I didn't read it. The mayor might be safe with the military if they were important enough while everyone else had to fend for themselves.
“Well, here we are,” Jerome said, stopping and marveling at the huge city in front of us.
The squalls had cleared, at least for right now, and the sun came out just a tiny bit. The sky was still brownish-red and dingy, but not as bad as it had been in Arizona where the pulse had originally hit. Well, the edge of it. It looked like the smog had spread from there and it hadn't spread over the whole planet equally yet.
“It's hard to tell if it's getting better,” Alana said as we talked about it.
Tony walked up to us. He had his arms inside his hunter's coat. “Man,” he said. “It's freezing.”
“You're supposed to be the tough guy,” Jerome said.
“Muscles don't do much against the cold,” Tony said, grinning (I think) and flexing them, which made Mina laugh. Then he got serious. “Anyway, I think this is the part where we have to decide where to go. It's time to split up.”
I never let myself like Tony, even though he wasn't a bad guy and not just because he had once allied with David. He had almost died in the dust storms back in Colton. But now I was sad that he was going to go away and we'd probably never see him again. This was for the best. Fewer people meant fewer mouths to feed. It was less of a chance of some of us dying—maybe. I remembered the one to two of us that was going to make it if things played out the way they said. It would be just Alana and Jerome and me from now on.
“I agree,” Christina said. She faced me. “Well, it's been great not really hating each other anymore. Because we used to hate each other. You know what? I don't even know why.”
“Me, neither,” I said. Christina had been snooty towards me since elementary school and I never got that. She was just that girl who had never gotten along with me and who always wanted to leave me out of everything. “It was nice not hating you, too.”
“Look, I'm sorry I sided with David for a little while. I didn't know what a monster he was.”
“It's fine. We're all alive. Well, mostly.” Eric hadn't made it out of Colton. “I guess you're headed south, right?”
“Right.” Christina and I were having the most awkward conversation ever and it wasn't just because the wind had died down and we were standing on the side of the expressway. An exit curved off the road just ahead, snaking into the city. We were getting there. “We'll find a car that works and we'll head that way. It's going to be me, Jasmine and Gina.”
“Good luck,” I said.
Tony stepped forward. “Maybe we should have a place to meet after all of this is over and we find our people. Where would no one think to look for us? Where would we be able to stockpile food?” He was looking at me. “We all know people are headed to the campsites and their private cabins in the boondocks right now. And out west. Places are going to be taken and we'll be late to them.”
It was a good question—a very good question. I'd thought about that myself. Where was a good place? I thought of Colorado where my parents and I had tried skiing for the first time. There were plenty of cabins and resorts. People would head out that way unless they weren't brave enough to face the avalanches. I thought of northern California where there were plenty of campsites, and maybe some isolated towns. People were going west. They'd hide out there, too.
“We need somewhere no one will think to look for us,” Alana said. She was thinking. Animated. More like her old self than she had been since before all this started. “We have to protect ourselves from the looters like those guys we came across.”
I wasn't sure if she meant the ones at the motel or the ones in K Mart. The world would be full of them now. Law was over. “Isolation,” I said. “We also need to be away from the sun. Wait. What about the Visitor Center?”
Tony's eyes popped open. “You mean where we were trapped?”
“It's out in the middle of nowhere,” I said. “There's only one body left in it. It's underground. Like a bunker. There's a ladder and we still have the keys to get down to the Collider.” I patted my pocket, where we had stashed those keys with my house keys and Alana's, too. “If we get enough food and water down there, we can last for a really long time so long as we don't mind going up and down ladders. No one will think to hunt for us down by the Collider.”
“But Mr. Ellis is still laying down there,” Alana said. “And the emergency lights won't be on forever. They've probaby already gone out.”
“We can figure out lighting,” I said. My mind was cranking here. “If we get another vehicle, we'll haul stuff there. Colton might still have food. So do the other towns. And the guy on the radio said that the weather is dying down there. We might be safe.”
“This is coming from the girl who hated being underground,” Alana said. “I'm not sure I like the thought of staying in there.”
“But the service door to get underground can be locked from the inside,” I said. “No one will be getting in there but us.” It wasn't the best place to stay, but it might offer the only real hope. Supplies could go down the service hatches. We could raid the surrounding towns now that we could find working vehicles.
“You know, Laney has a point,” Jerome said. “If we clean up the one body that's down there, we'll be good to go as long as we find a way to light the place.”
“Yeah, but the memories...” Gina started.
“The memories,” I said. They would be waiting there like the death shadows. David. The bathroom. All of it. All the bodies that were still lying outside. It would be a horrible place to revisit, but also one that people weren't likely to stop at.
I hoped.
“I think it's the best option,” Christina said. Then she faced me. “We're agreeing on something. That's progress.”
“I suppose it is,” I said. “Let's make this fair. If we find our people, we meet back at the Visitor Center. No one will be there waiting for us. If anyone stopped there, they wouldn't have stayed for long. Just long enough to raid what was left in the vending machine.”
I so, so hated this idea with every fiber of my being, but I knew in my heart there was no better choice. Cabins and islands were probably already jammed with people ready to ride out the the droughts and freezing weather and the hunger. Doomsday preppers were having their field day. Campsites would already be taken by those who had gotten a head start. Small towns would be populated with looters and the military was raiding those anyway.
“All in favor of the Visitor Center?” I asked.
I raised my hand. Alana and Jerome did the same, followed by Tony and Mina. At last, the others raised their hands as well.
We were all in agreement. I could feel better
about that.
“Well, that's decided,” Jerome said. “Everybody has to bring supplies when they go there. Don't forget supplies.”
I wasn't sure how we were going to do that. I'd think about it later. We'd have to raid other places and we had better do it early. Peoples' houses were still an option.
“Okay,” I said at last. I was starting to choke up. I was not going to let this happen to me. After we split up there was a good chance that none of us would see each other again.
Alana cleared her throat. “Let's get to Times Square, and then we'll say our goodbyes and go on our way.”
So to keep my strength up, I started walking.
Chapter Eight
The city was a mess, but not quite what I feared.
Only some of the buildings had shattered windows. Whatever looting had happened seemed to have stopped by now and it was mostly just tired-looking, gruff people walking around. There were even a few men with briefcases like they were heading to and from work. Most of the power was cut, with only the humming of a few generators here and there, many of them coming out of restaurants and other food places. One with a fancy Italian name was actually open and the lights were on inside. The generator noise was loudest here and every table inside was packed. The glass was unbroken and a huge man holding a pistol stood guard out front. The rich people of the Bronx were dining inside, enjoying fine dishes and salads and bread sticks served wrapped in paper. The smells coming out were intoxicating. I even spotted a waiter in a bow tie walking inside. A sign with chalk writing outside listed a few dishes and announced this was the only place open in eight blocks. The prices were outrageous.
“People can afford that?” Jerome asked, craning his neck to stare.
