by Sarra Cannon
He pulled out a small USB flash-drive and handed it to her.
Parrish raised an eyebrow. “What’s this?”
“Music,” he said.
She held back a smile. “Duh. What kind of music? I don’t want to pop this in and find Justin Bieber blaring through the speakers.”
Crash rolled his eyes. “Just play it.”
Parrish stuck the thumb drive into the USB slot in the stereo and waited. She was hoping for anything but Classical or teen pop. What played was neither. To her surprise, Crash had loaded the drive with everything from The Beatles to Eminem. She was pleased.
An old Metallica song came on, and she turned the music up as she and Crash sang along at the top of their lungs.
And for just a little while, she forgot about Noah, the fires in Baltimore and D.C., her sister dying alone in New York, and the end of the world as they’d known it.
The sun was getting way too low in the sky. They needed to find a place to stay for the night or they were going to be in trouble.
He’d been studying the towns and out-of-the-way places they’d passed on the road, but nothing had seemed right. Too many rotters in the towns. Too many trees surrounding houses out in the middle of nowhere.
At this point, though, anything was better than spending the night in the truck.
He turned the radio down and got Parrish’s attention.
“What’s up?” she asked, straightening.
“What do you think about this farmhouse coming up?” he asked, pointing to an old blue house in the middle of a field. “It’s starting to get dark.”
She stared out the window and nodded. “It could be good,” she said. “There might be people living there, though. We can always knock and see, but just keep in mind that people might be pretty fierce about protecting their property right now.”
“I know,” he said. “There’s a car in the driveway.”
He slowed the Humvee and turned into the gravel drive. Slowly, he brought them up to the house and shifted into park. “I’m going to check it out. I’ll leave the truck running, though. Do you think you can drive it if we have to get away fast?”
“Probably,” she said.
“Why don’t you move to the driver’s seat and turn us around? If anything goes south, I’ll jump in the passenger side and we can roll.”
He grabbed the pistol from the cup holder and stuffed it into the back of his jeans. If there was anyone inside, he didn’t want to scare them by walking up with a machine gun strapped to his back. Still, he needed to be ready for anything.
“Be careful,” Parrish said.
“What’s going on?” Noah asked, leaning forward.
“I’m going in,” he said. “Watch my back.”
Crash got out of the vehicle and walked toward the front porch. Behind him, he heard the door shut and the tires crunch against gravel as Parrish turned the Humvee around.
He swallowed a huge lump of nerves in his throat and forced his feet to move. As he passed the windows on the first floor, he tried to see inside, looking for any sign of movement. The curtains were drawn, making it too hard to really see anything.
He made his way up the steps of the porch and took a deep breath before he knocked on the door.
His feet tapped on the creaky old wood as he waited. Something banged inside, and he reached back, putting his hand on his gun.
He knocked again and listened.
Another crash inside, like glass hitting the floor. He leaned in, putting his ear to the door. Footsteps shuffled against the floor and he knew. No one was alive in this place.
He glanced back at the others and motioned for them to come up to the house.
Noah climbed out of the back, his bat strapped against his back and his shotgun in hand.
“There’s at least one rotter inside,” he said. “And it knows I’m out here.”
“Maybe we should make more noise. If there are a few of those things in there, we can draw them toward the door, so when we open it, we can just blast them all,” Noah said, joining him on the porch.
“Good idea,” Crash said. “I hope.”
He took the pistol from the back of his jeans and banged the butt of the gun against the door as hard as he could. “Come and get it, assholes,” he shouted.
Within seconds, they could hear the scratching of fingernails against the door. He couldn’t make a guess at how many were inside, but at least this way, there was only one direction they would have to shoot.
“You ready for this?” Crash asked.
Noah nodded, stepping back to the edge of the porch, his shotgun pointed toward the door.
Parrish and the other girls had climbed out of the Humvee, weapons ready.
“You guys need some help?” she asked.
“Just stay back,” Crash yelled. “And be ready to run.”
He really hoped this worked. The sun was going down fast, and they needed to get inside. The house was in the middle of a field, but the stretch of dark woods in either direction had him concerned. There was no way to know how many rotters might be hiding in the shadows, waiting for the cool night air to go looking for food.
“Let’s get it over with,” he mumbled.
He turned the knob on the door—surprised to find it unlocked—and with a quick nod from Noah, he pushed it open.
A rotter stumbled forward and Noah blasted him with his shotgun. The rotter’s head exploded and he fell to the ground.
Crash stepped back to Noah’s side and aimed at the next target—a woman with grey hair and wild milky blue eyes. One of her arms had been half-eaten. Crash ignored the turning of his stomach and aimed for the spot between her eyes.
One by one, they took out the entire group of five rotters. From the looks of it, they had been a family once. Grandma, grandpa, a middle-aged couple, and a teenaged boy.
Crash leaned over the side of the porch railing and emptied his stomach. This was now the average American family? It was sick and twisted.
“You okay?” Noah clapped a hand on his shoulder.
Crash wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his tshirt. “Nah, man. There’s nothing okay about any of this,” he said. “But here we are. Let’s move these bodies out of the way and make sure the house is clear.”
He motioned to the sky.
“We’ve got about fifteen minutes left of daylight,” he said. “Parrish, can you and the girls grab what you can from the Humvee and pull it right up to the porch, as close as you can get it? Noah and I will check the rest of the house. Once we’re all inside, we can start moving stuff in front of the doors and windows, just in case it’s a rough night.”
They quickly dragged the bodies to the other side of the porch and dumped them over the side. It felt wrong, like they should be burying them. After all, they had been people at some point. They deserved better than this. But there was no time.
Crash settled for covering them with a blanket he found on a chair in the entryway of the house.
“How should we do this?” Crash asked once he and Noah were inside the house. It was a big place, at least four thousand square feet if he had to guess.
“As fast as possible,” Noah said with a laugh. “Just take it one room at a time. We’ll go together, just in case.”
Crash nodded and led the way. He started in the big family room to the right of the doorway, inching his way through, his pistol cocked and ready. It was getting dark inside, but he wasn’t sure if he should turn on the lights. It would make their job of clearing the place a lot easier, but it would also make them easier to spot if anyone was out looking for a meal.
He decided to open the dusty curtains instead, letting what was left of the sun’s light into the living room.
“Clear,” he said. “Kitchen?”
Noah nodded.
They made their way through the entire downstairs and didn’t see any signs of more rotters. Crash motioned the girls inside.
“We haven’t checked upstairs yet,” he sa
id. “Come on in and get set up here in the main room, try to push whatever you can in front of the windows, but leave the front door clear until we’ve checked upstairs.”
“It smells in here,” Karmen said, scrunching her nose as she walked into the living room.
“Get used to it, Barbie. The whole world is going to stink for a while,” he said.
She sighed, but he caught the hint of a smile as she pushed past him.
He started up the stairs, but by the time they reached the upper landing, it was just too dark to see anything.
“Should I turn on the power?” he asked.
Noah grimaced. “I don’t know,” he said. “We probably don’t want to light this house up like a Christmas tree.”
“That’s what I was thinking, but damn, it’s too dark to see anything.”
“We could just make sure all the doors are closed up here and call it good,” Noah said.
Crash was tempted to say yes. That would definitely make it easier and faster, but he didn’t want to take the risk of a rotter here in the house with them.
“Let’s just check the rooms real quick,” he said. “You got a flashlight?”
Noah shook his head. “No, but I can grab one.”
Crash stepped into the first room on the left while Noah ran down the stairs. He nudged the door open with his gun and peered inside. A shiny pink material had been draped across the windows, but enough light shone in to show him that this had been a nursery. A crib was pushed against the far wall, decorated with stuffed bears and pink blankets.
They hadn’t seen a little girl on the front porch, and when he looked closer, something under the blankets moved.
Crash closed his eyes, his stomach turning on him again. He stepped forward, not wanting to see this, but unable to stop himself. He needed to know.
He moved closer, lowering his gun.
Carefully, he leaned over the crib and moved the soft pink blanket to the side.
Tears stung his eyes and he turned away, dropping the blanket.
Footsteps on the stairs made him move quickly. He didn’t want anyone else to have to see this. The horror of it was too much. He quickly put an end to the child’s suffering and walked away, shutting the door behind him.
Parrish met him at top of the stairs. “Noah said you needed this,” she said. She peered past him. “What’s wrong? Find anything in there?”
He shook his head and cleared his throat. “No, nothing,” he said.
He took the flashlight and closed the door behind him, wishing he could shut the door on all the horrors of this new world.
Once the doors and windows were secured, Parrish grabbed a flashlight and looked through the cabinets for extra food and supplies.
They’d already stripped some of the blankets and sheets from the beds upstairs and set up a group sleeping area in the living room. Sleeping in a bed would be more comfortable, but in the end, they’d decided it was safer to be close to the front door and to stick together.
Crash didn’t want to turn on all the lights in the house, but they’d convinced him to turn on a couple lamps in the living room. They’d set them on the floor and made sure the windows were all closed up tight. Hopefully none of the light would show from the outside.
The others were all hanging out on the floor in the main room, but Parrish wanted some time to herself. She’d grown up with a lot of time to herself, mostly hanging out in her room with her music and her journals. She didn’t like always being surrounded by people. She was grateful not to be alone, but at the same time, she missed the privacy of her own bedroom.
She made her way through the cabinets, one by one, taking out any canned foods or things that would last a while. In the last cabinet, she found the family’s candy stash. A big bag of miniature candy bars, some Junior Mints, and a bag of suckers. Score.
She unwrapped a Blow-Pop and stuck it in her mouth. Cherry, her favorite. She hadn’t had a chance to brush her teeth since yesterday, so candy was probably a bad choice, but she didn’t care. It was delicious.
She leaned against the counter and took a deep breath. Was this what the rest of her life was going to be like? Scouring cabinets in abandoned houses for food? Having to constantly watch her back? Never knowing exactly where they were going to stay when darkness fell?
Where were they headed, anyway?
Crash had said he might know a safe place they could go, but he hadn’t given them any details. Other than that, they were just wanderers.
Seeing those survivors on the side of the road had at least given her hope that there were others out there, still fighting against the rotters. They weren’t alone in this world, even though it sometimes felt like it.
They just needed to find more people. Start some kind of new town where they could fortify themselves and create a safe place. It had to be possible.
A shadow appeared in the doorway, and Parrish reached for her sword, her heart jumping into her throat.
“It’s just me,” Noah said.
She relaxed and let out a breath. “You scared me.”
“What are you doing in here in the dark?” he asked.
“Eating candy,” she said with a laugh.
“Seriously?” he asked, walked toward her. “Care to share?”
“You’re welcome to it,” she said. “But the cherry Blow-Pops are mine.”
He laughed and flipped on his flashlight. He dug into the bag of candy bars and pulled out a Butterfinger.
When he turned and leaned against the counter, his arm brushed hers and she moved away. She could feel him tense at her side.
“Hey, Parrish, look—”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” she said. Her heart tightened in her chest.
“I do, though,” he said. “I went looking for her and she was crying in that store. I was just trying to comfort her.”
It sounded like the kind of line guys used when they’d been cheating on their girlfriends. But she wasn’t his girlfriend. He didn’t owe her anything.
“It’s fine,” she said. This conversation was ruining her cherry-sucker-happiness.
“It doesn’t feel fine,” he said. “It feels like you’re upset with me.”
He was right. She was definitely upset with him. She was upset with herself for believing there could be something good in all this craziness. But she also knew there was no use going through this back and forth all the time. They didn’t have the luxury of playing cat and mouse.
“Here’s the thing,” she said, her throat nearly closing up. They had been dancing around this attraction to each other for what seemed like forever. Her entire high school experience had been defined by the silent looks they’d shared when no one was looking. She’d never had the nerve to tell him how she felt about him, but if there’d ever been a time, this was it.
“What?” he pressed, moving toward her again in the darkness of the farmhouse kitchen. His skin touched hers and this time she didn’t move away.
“I have liked you for as long as I can remember,” she said. “Probably since the first day I saw you moving into the house across the street when we were eight years old. I didn’t fit into your group of friends—or anyone’s group of friends, really—so I never told you how I felt about you. I didn’t think it meant anything to you, but there were times when I thought there was something between us.”
Noah tensed, but in the dark, she couldn’t see his face to know what he was feeling or thinking. She was just going into this thing blind.
“And ever since the world fell apart, the connection between us has only grown. It’s the worst possible time to try to tell you that I like you, but there it is. I more than like you, and even though the world is a mess, I can’t help myself. I’m glad you’re still in my life, and I want you to be there for a long time,” she said. “Forever, really.”
Noah turned toward her. “Parrish—”
“I’m not done,” she said, cutting him off. She just needed to say what
she needed to say. “If Crash is right about the five of us being connected in some special way, and about our powers being important to the future of the world, then maybe that’s all this is, you know? Maybe that’s all it’s ever been.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m just saying that before we break each other’s hearts, maybe we need to step back and think about the group,” she said. She felt the sting of tears in her eyes, but did her best to keep it out of her voice. “Karmen obviously has a crush on you. And now this other girl? There was something happening in that shop earlier, whether you want to admit it or not.”
Noah backed away, making a strange sound in his throat. “So you think there’s nothing special between us?”
“I think maybe there’s something special between all of us,” she said. “And maybe it’s easy to interpret that connection as something more than it really is.”
Noah cleared his throat and even in the dark, she could see him run a hand through his hair and turn away from her.
“This is how you feel?”
She didn’t know what else to say to him. It wasn’t what she wanted to believe, but she had no other explanation. Maybe their attraction all these years had been nothing more than a sense of connection on a deeper level. It was something the entire group shared. It wasn’t something special to the two of them, and if she didn’t accept the truth, she was just going to get hurt.
“All I’m saying is that it’s a tough time to try to decide what any of us are feeling,” she said, a lump forming in her throat. “I’m grateful we’re all together, but for now, that’s all I can be sure of anymore.”
Before Noah had a chance to respond to her, the new girl joined them in the kitchen, shining a light right in Parrish’s eyes.
“Oops, sorry,” she said. “I was coming to make sure you guys were okay. Crash wanted to talk about our plan for tomorrow.”
“We’ll be there in a second,” Noah said.
The new girl turned to go, and suddenly Parrish didn’t feel like being alone with him. She didn’t want to hear him say he was relieved that she’d finally started to understand what he’d figured out on his own.
