“Rose, you know that’s not true. You’ll always be welcome here.”
“But this place will never be my home. Even when I was alone in the woods making my way up north, finding a place like this was just a fantasy in my head. I never planned on spending the rest my life here. The plan was always to go back some day. Going back is just something I need to do.”
There was a fire in Rose’s eyes she could feel and knew that Adeline could see as well. Rose had made up her mind. She knew that she could handle whatever challenges may lie ahead. She would not be the scared former-police officer scrambling north to save her life. Rose would be the survivor; hardened by her experiences and knowledgeable of her enemy. If there was anyone who could take this risk...no not risk, adventure, it was Rose.
Adeline’s shoulders slumped and she shuffled forward wrapping Rose in a tight embrace. Face pressed into Rose’s shoulder, she sobbed silent tears until Rose could feel the moisture bleed through her shirt to her skin. There was part of Rose that felt bad for leaving, guilty that she wouldn’t be protecting Adeline and Aaron forever, but these feelings were like leaves in a breeze, passing doubts in a whirlwind of oncoming excitement.
Rose stroked Adeline’s hair as she continued to sob, content to let her cry all she needed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning was not at all what Rose had expected in terms of weather. She’d been hoping that by late-spring, they’d have more bright and sunny days than cloudy and gray days, but the later was what they got. Aaron and Adeline’s moods seemed to match the sky as they met up with Rose and Jamie at their cabin. Rose had finished putting the last of their things into the car as they showed up.
“All packed up?” asked Aaron as they walked up to Rose.
“All packed,” replied Rose slamming shut the trunk of dark green Subaru Forester shut. The Subaru had been found by Jamie in a garage of a house in Sainte-Marguerite-Marie on one of their last scavenging trips before the winter came. Instead of trying to get it going only to have it sit outside in the snow all winter in the park, they’d left it and collected it in the spring once most of the snow had melted. According to the registration, it was a 2008, but it had been kept in great condition by its previous owner and didn’t have a spot of rust on it. Jamie claimed it was the nicest car she’d owned her entire life. Rose was just happy to see the USB jack in the aftermarket radio deck; Rose missed listening to music.
“You guys have enough food? Water?” asked Adeline. Despite the gloomy day, it was the warmest it had been since the end of the last summer and Adeline was wearing a t-shirt, a small bump on her belly already starting to become visible.
“Got the last of what we think we’ll need right here,” said Jamie exiting the cottage. She ran over to the front of the car, slid across the hood, and flew off the other side stumbling slightly before regaining her balance. Rose smirked.
“You have the 2-way radio right?” asked Aaron. “All charged up?”
“Yes, yes thank you,” said Rose, continuing to smirk. “We are adults, we can pack things without having to be looked after by…”
“Ah shit, forgot my toothbrush,” said Jamie doing another hood-slide and running back into the cottage.
“I apparently spoke too soon,” said Rose smiling at Adeline.
The smile was returned, but it was a weak one. “We’re going to miss you guys,” Adeline said. “Please come back and visit us as soon as you can and use the radio as much as you want. We don’t want to lose contact with you.” Tears were again welling in Adeline’s eyes and Aaron put an arm around her. His eyes were red as well though no tears were currently present.
“I’m going to miss you guys too,” said Rose, she could feel the sting of tears at the corners of her eyes as well. She moved forward and pulled Aaron and Adeline into a 3-way hug.
“Any room for me?” called Jamie as she opened the back door to the cottage. Without waiting, Jamie wrapped her arms around Rose and Aaron’s shoulders, joining the hug.
As the group hug broke apart, Adeline moved over to Jamie and pulled her into another, solo hug. “Hey now, save some of that strength for that little one you’re growing,” grunted Jamie, smiling.
“You keep Rose safe okay?” said Adeline to Jamie, half serious and half joking. “You two make a good team but try and be safe.”
“You got it Adeline,” said Jamie kissing her on the cheek. Jamie broke the hug and gave a quick but gripping hug to Aaron. “Rose and I are really going to miss you guys.”
Rose caught sight of Jacob exiting the back door as Jamie finished talking. “Hey Jacob, thank you for your hospitality these last couple years, we wouldn’t have made it if it weren’t for you,” Rose called.
Jacob seemed a little taken aback by this but quickly recovered. Stopping and turning to them, he said “This is for the best,” before continuing on.
“Ah, well hey, thanks buddy!” Jamie called to Jacob before turning toward Rose and saying quietly, “What a fucking weirdo.”
Rose nodded and leaned in close to Adeline, “If you need anything, I don’t care how small or minor you might think it is, don’t hesitate to call me on the radio and we’ll come back. I mean it Adeline, anything.”
“Thank you Rose. We’re going to miss having you around,” smiled Adeline sadly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a quick trip to Sainte-Marguerite-Marie, the excitement of starting a new journey with Jamie sitting in the passenger seat was exciting and intoxicating, Jimi Hendrix’s Red House, pumping out of the car’s speakers. They’d made this journey so many times, Rose could probably make the drive in the dark with the lights off. Rose couldn’t leave this area behind without stopping in and saying a goodbye to Rene. He was so important to Rose’s survival up to this point, how could she not?
Sainte-Marguerite-Marie was very much how it’d always even after two years. People’s yards were more like meadows and there was a build up of random debris in the roads, nature was slowing taking back the town, but by and large, it was the same. Other than the two infected that killed Rene, Rose had never again seen any infected in town. Most, if not all of the people living there had either fled or moved to Paimpol when everyone decided to make a last stand there she supposed. Rose had considered visiting Paimpol as well, but the memories there, a place she’d thought to be her final safe haven, were still too fresh. Memories of the slaughtered innocents still too painful.
Loaded down with supplies and a few extra containers of gas, Rose and Jamie didn’t need to scavenge for supplies once they’d made it into town. Making a turn, Rose drove straight for the auto repair shop where Rene had been buried. They’d talked about digging up Rene and moving him to a park or even to the cottages up north, but as good as an idea as it sounded, no one could bring themselves to dig up Rene. As time went on, the idea became less and less appealing. By last fall, everyone had accepted that this is where Rene would stay and everyone had put a lot of effort into creating a memorial for him. The large rock originally moved to Rene’s gravesite was still there, but it was now joined by several other large stones they’d been able to gather. A large granite cross they’d found was there too, several large candles that’d long since been extinguished and a wide range of multicolored wildflowers that were now just starting to sprout above ground.
Jamie, not knowing Rene, stayed behind with her rifle slung over her shoulder while Rose went up to the memorial. Some old leaves had collected between the rocks and Rose cleared them away. She’d always felt strange talking to Rene’s gravesite. She knew she’d never get an answer, but she felt she had a duty to at least stop and not bypass it all together. Rose held no belief of a heaven or a hell, but there was this little hint, a fraction of a deep-set belief buried in her mind somewhere she needed to satisfy. All those years of church when she was young had hard-wired the thought that not paying some sort of respect to the dead was somehow worse than doing nothing at all.
Feeling as though Rene wou
ld be satisfied by the effort to stop by his final resting place, Rose, who had been kneeling next to the biggest of the rocks, stood and looked down at the ground that contained Rene’s bones. “Take care old friend,” she said softly before turning and walking back toward Jamie and the car. To her credit, if Jamie was bored, she didn’t seem it leaned against the passenger side front door. “Alright lets go,” she called to Jamie.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After leaving Sainte-Marguerite-Marie, the talk quickly turned to where they were going and how they were going to get there. Boston had always been the goal, but what if it was a barren wasteland? Rose and Jamie had both experienced infected first-hand and knew that small towns could be reduced to ruin, but how would a large city fare with all of those people living there? Rose knew they needed a backup should Boston not end up as their final destination.
“What about the Cape?” asked Jamie from a reclined passenger seat, legs stretched out and her bare feet against the windshield.
“Cape Cod? I’ve never been. Would that place work?” replied Rose.
“I’ve been there a few times, went there once with my family and once or twice with friends before the infection. Some parts are pretty populated so who knows what’s left, but worst case scenario, we could spend some time lounging on a beach before moving on,” said Jamie, a wide smile on her face.
“Alright that’s fine, we can try it but if that doesn’t work out, we need to have other places in mind. We have a lot of gas, but it won’t last forever. I would prefer not to walk across the country,” said Rose.
“We’ll have lots of options on the east coast. We probably don’t want to go any closer to New York City than Rhode Island or northern Connecticut though…”
“No fucking way Rhode Island!” Rose cut in with. “I think we can do a little better than that!”
“Ok, ok,” said Jamie chuckling, “No Rhode Island, but we always have the northshore of Boston and even up into New Hampshire, like Hampton Beach, if the Cape doesn’t work out.”
“Yeah, I suppose, I’d just like to have a plan,” said Rose.
“Plans are fine, you’re a good planner,” replied Jamie, a hint of sarcasm present.
“...As long as that plan doesn’t involve Rhode Island,” added Rose, smirking.
Jamie leaned over and gave Rose a kiss on the neck followed by a nip at her right ear. Taking her attention away from the road for a moment, Rose leaned over and gave Jamie a quick kiss before looking back to where they were going.
“You know, we’re not in any type of terrible rush to get anywhere, lets pull over and fool around a little bit,” said Jamie seductively popping open one of the buttons on near the top of her button-up flannel shirt.
“I’m not going to stop here,” said Rose, her tone suddenly serious.
“Why not?” said Jamie, turning her attention to their surroundings. “Where are we? Near the border?”
“Yes,” said Rose, her voice becoming curt as she too realized where they were. Rose had told Jamie about her escape north from Green Forks to Paimpol, but there were several details she omitted and some events she’d left out altogether. The border crossing was one of those left-out parts. Jamie had no idea what Rose had done in the structure they were quickly approaching.
The general shape of the base remained, but it no longer looked like a base, it was more like a twisted ruin. The base was still roughly circular in shape, but several sections in the circle were collapsed, some a direct result of infected, others appeared to have fallen due to poor construction or neglect during the last two years. All the walls were the same color brown; weathered and rusted. None of the catwalks that spanned the base remained, only sections of the ones that had lined the tops of the walls remained. The inner catwalks were now part of the collection of ruin in the center of the base.
As Rose and Jamie approached the wall in their car, Rose could see a large jagged hole on the northern side about the size of the humvee she’d used to smash through it. The hole was wide enough to provide a good view of the destruction inside. Nothing discernible as a building could be seen on the inside, just piles and piles of rusted metal highlighted with the bleached white of hundreds and hundreds of exposed bones. They were scattered as far as Rose could see in every direction, clearly the work of scavengers who’d no doubt fed themselves well for some time.
“That’s a lot of bones in there,” said Jamie. “This must have been some kind of hold-out that was over-run or something. Jeeze.”
Jamie was wide-eyed, focused on the aftermath of all the death that had occurred there. Rose was grateful for Jamie’s attention being focused somewhere other than on her. She couldn’t help but be taken back to the day she’d escaped from here, likely the only person that did. “And whose fault was that?” she screamed to herself. “That soldier, Lt Drisco? He could have survived too. But you shot him in the face! For what reason? Because he made you mad?” The screaming in Rose’s head took on the voice of Lt Drisco. “I could have helped you!” he yelled at her, his ghostly voice reverberating between her ears. “You could have saved me but no! You killed me. You did that. You!”
Angry, Rose punched the steering wheel of the car, tears welling in her eyes.
“Whoa Rose, it’s ok, we can just go around, it’s not a big deal!” said Jamie, startled by Rose’s reaction. “Seriously, we can just cut around it.”
Stopping herself and taking a deep breath, Rose smiled faintly at Jamie. “Sorry I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve seen death on this scale. Long day.”
“Ok, sure,” said Jamie smiling back, her voice skeptical. Jamie was always observing and analyzing things and she was doing just that to Rose now. “Want me to drive for a while?”
“Sure,” said Rose immediately, taking the excuse to remove herself from Jamie’s analytical eye for a moment. Rose opened the door and walked around to the passenger side door. Jamie slid across the seats and flopped down into the driver’s seat. As Rose reached down to open the passenger side door, she noticed a human skull nearby, several teeth missing in the front middle and a large hole in the back. Shuddering, Rose quickly opened the door and slammed it shut.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only way south from the base would, inevitably, bring them to Green Forks. It was well past midday and while the sun was lasting longer and longer now that they were into the spring, the days were still much shorter than they’d be mid-summer. The winding road south from the base was still relatively clear of debris even after two years, no large trees blocking the road or any abandoned cars. Just the wall of woods on either side, woods Rose had hiked through in her trek north, now just a distant memory.
Rounding a corner, Rose spied a white object off the side of the road, the white object she’d been hoping for. “Jamie, pull over,” said Rose jumping out of the car as it stopped.
“What’s this? Why are we stopping?” asked Jamie, also stepping from the car.
“This was what I drove when I escaped Green Forks,” said Rose moving toward the SUV. Grimy and covered in leaves after sitting next to the woodline for all this time, it appeared to be otherwise undisturbed.
Hoisting her rifle up over her shoulder, Rose drove the butt through the driver’s side window. Cracked from her escape attempt years ago, the window broke easily showering the interior with glass fragments. Reaching in, Rose pressed the unlock button but nothing happened. Dead, obviously. Opening the door from the inside, Rose reached in and groaped the back door until her hand found the lock and pulled it open. Moving inside, she unlocked the remaining doors. The air in the SUV was stale but everything appeared the same as she’d left it.
“Did you leave something in there?” asked Jamie moving up to the car and looking inside. She must have noticed the radio cluster between the front seats. “Where did you say you got this car from again?”
Ignoring her, Rose moved around to the back driver’s side door and pulled it open. Inside, untouched was a duffle bag full guns
but more importantly, the photos and albums Rose had taken in her hasty exit from her home. Smiling, Rose quickly gathered up the albums and began moving them to the car.
Grabbing the bag of guns and heaving it up onto her shoulder, Jamie followed. “Quite the haul...where are these from?”
“Do you really want the answers to these questions?” Rose tossed over her shoulder. Dropping the bag of guns in the Subaru, Jamie’s reply went unheard. The world seemed to fade away as Rose got a good look at the albums now safe in the trunk of the car, mindlessly flipping through the pages. Memories flooded back, fast and hard, slamming her with fear, guilt, remorse...Old wounds ripped open.
“She was beautiful Rose,” said Jamie appearing at Rose’s shoulder, her arm wrapping around Rose’s shoulders. Looking down her wedding photo, Kate in angelic white, Rose almost shrugged away from Jamie’s touch. Almost. The past two years had hard forged a strong bond, stronger than the fading memories of her and Kate, but clearly the instinct had survived. Instead of pulling away though, Rose leaned into her after a short pause.
Forgoing the tour of Green Forks in favor of reaching Rose’s house before night was the best course of action it was decided. Not that there was much left to give a tour of. Even driving on the outskirts of town, Rose could see that nature had been quite eager to reclaim Green Forks. The fires had likely helped. The small fires, concentrated to mainly the downtown area that were burning when she’d left seemed to have spread to most of the city. Many of the remaining buildings were blackened hulks with no windows and whose interiors had been exposed to the elements for so long they were indistinguishable from the exteriors. Rose hoped her home had been spared at least some of the city’s destruction.
As they pulled onto Rose’s cul-de-sac, it was dusk and getting darker but Rose could see her home was still standing. She could also see her truck in the driveway and the white Centers for Disease Control vehicle parked behind it. Jamie would again be privy to the choices of her past.
Jordan Rose Duology (Book 2): Homecoming Page 4
