by Lukens, Mark
They had played Zombie Takeover yesterday, with Josh keeping an eye on them. Rose had definitely played the game before, and she was definitely his best challenge so far.
His stomach growled a little. It was nice to think that there was plenty of food downstairs and that he could eat anytime he wanted to. The thought of it only made him hungrier.
Being as quiet as he could, Mike slipped out of bed. He pulled on his pants that he had crumpled up on top of the dresser, and then he grabbed his sneakers and his hoodie. It was cold in the cabin; he would need his hoodie.
He thought his dad was going to wake up as he crept to the door—he was lying on his side and Mike watched his eyes. He thought he was going to hear his dad speak even with his eyes still closed, asking where he was going. And if that happened, he would just tell him he was going downstairs, that he couldn’t lie in bed any longer. He’d tell him he was going down to eat some breakfast and to hit the “books.”
The books in this instance were some of the books his dad had selected from the bunker, books about survival skills, hunting and fishing, building shelters, identifying edible plants, stuff like that. Those books were going to be his new schoolwork, his new curriculum. Mike had never been a huge fan of reading, but these weren’t books about plant cells or American history, these were books that would teach him things, skills that he could practice, skills that could save his life and other lives one day, so he was interested in them.
And he promised himself that he would indeed hit those books, but maybe he’d get a quick game in before he did.
His dad didn’t wake up as Mike slipped out the door, closing it quietly. He was kind of glad his dad hadn’t woken up—he needed his sleep. Before they’d gotten to this cabin, his dad had barely slept for several nights.
Emma’s bedroom door was still closed. Maybe she was still sleeping. He snuck down the stairs with his sneakers in one hand.
Josh was on the couch in the living room, on watch, but nearly asleep. He opened his eyes a little wider. “Hey, buddy. You’re up early.”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
The living room was lighter now as the sun rose. No one else seemed to be up yet. The door to Rose’s bedroom was still closed. Luke wasn’t on the other couch.
“Where’s Luke?” he asked.
“On his morning patrol of the woods,” Josh said.
Mike should have figured that.
“You hungry?” Josh asked. “I could whip up some oatmeal. Put some maple syrup in it.”
“I’ll just eat some cereal,” Mike told Josh as he went into the kitchen. He wished they had milk to go with the cereal, but all they had was some powdered stuff that did not taste like milk after it was mixed with water.
Mike tried to be quiet as he got the box of cereal from the pantry and poured some into a bowl. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. He sat down at the table, already munching on the cereal.
A moment later Rose’s door opened and she came into the kitchen. Her hair was pulled back into some kind of braid. She was dressed in the clothes she’d come here in, the ones Josh had washed for her. She looked like she’d been awake for a while.
“You want some cereal?” Mike asked her, keeping his voice low. “There are a few boxes in the pantry.”
“Thanks.”
Rose got a bowl for herself.
“We don’t have any milk, though,” Mike said. “Except for the powdered stuff. Believe me, don’t try it.”
She smiled at him.
He felt a tingling inside when she smiled at him. He looked away even though he really wanted to keep staring at her.
She had her bowl of cereal and came back to the table, sitting down next to him.
They ate in silence. When they were nearly done, she looked at him. “You want to go downstairs and play some more Zombie Takeover?”
“Yeah,” Mike said. “Sure.” This was his kind of girl.
CHAPTER 24
Josh
Josh got to his feet when he saw Mike and Rose heading for the basement door. He hurried over to them.
“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked Mike.
“Just going down to play a little Zombie Takeover.”
Josh nodded. “Uh, yeah. Cool. I’ll go down there with you.”
“You want to play?” Mike asked, smirking.
“I don’t know. Maybe. I need the practice.”
Mike snorted out a that’s-for-sure laugh. But then he stared at him like he was trying to say: You don’t have to go down there with us.
But Josh was pretty sure he should go down there with them.
He followed Mike and Rose down to the basement and then into the bunker. Mike turned the video game system and the TV on, getting it ready to play. He and Rose sat down on pillows on the floor in front of the TV.
Josh pulled up a metal folding chair near them.
Mike started playing, going first.
Josh sat there for a few minutes. He wondered if he should be down here or upstairs. Maybe he should be at the windows, watching the woods. It was light enough to see everything out there now. He began to get an itchy feeling that he was screwing up again, that he was doing the wrong thing, making the wrong decision like he usually did.
“Look,” he told Mike and Rose. “I’m going to go back upstairs for a few minutes.”
“Okay,” Mike answered without looking at him, concentrating on his avatar in the video game.
“You kids be good. Don’t go messing around down here. Okay? I’ll be back down in a few minutes.”
“We’ll be fine,” Mike groaned.
Josh had a suspicion that Mike wanted to be alone with Rose. She was a pretty girl and he was sure Mike was attracted to her.
“Okay,” Josh said as he left the bunker.
He went back upstairs and grabbed the binoculars. He would be furious at himself if something had happened while he’d been babysitting Mike and Rose in the bunker.
He looked out the window to the right of the front door, parting the curtains just a little.
No activity out there. Just the usual morning forest activity: birds chirping and fluttering around, squirrels racing along the tree branches and the ground. He moved over to the other window to watch the woods from that angle, but he didn’t see anything suspicious.
Luke was somewhere in those woods right now, deep in the woods. He went on his morning patrols, but Josh knew this morning’s patrol was different; this time Luke would be looking for clues to corroborate Rose’s story—or dispute it.
He turned when he heard the sly sounds of Emma coming down the stairs in the living room.
“Alone?” she asked as she walked up to him.
“Yeah,” he whispered.
She gave him a quick kiss, and then a longer one. Her breath smelled and tasted like minty toothpaste.
“Sorry,” he told her when they finished kissing. “I know I’ve got coffee breath.”
“Mmm,” she said. “What a turn on.”
“Me or the coffee?”
“The coffee.”
“I’ll get you a cup.”
Emma sat down at the dining room table while he fixed her coffee—he knew exactly how she liked it now. He put just the right amount of the powdered cream and sugar in the cup of coffee and brought it to her.
“You want some oatmeal?” he asked her. “I’m really pushing the oatmeal this morning.”
“Maybe in a little bit.”
“The kids didn’t want any. They already had some dry cereal.”
“Rose is awake?” Emma asked.
For just a second Josh thought he’d caught a trace of alarm in Emma’s voice.
“Yeah,” he told her. “She’s downstairs with Mike. They’re playing video games again.”
Emma sipped her coffee. She wore her dark glasses this morning like she usually did. Josh knew she was a little self-conscious about showing her eyes. He’d told her that her eyes were beautiful, a light shade of blue. But she f
elt she looked weird when she wasn’t looking right at people when speaking to them. But even though she wore the dark glasses now, he could tell her brows were slightly furrowed as she frowned.
And Josh knew that expression. “What is it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”
But Josh knew this wasn’t “nothing.” He waited, hoping she could pick up on his impatience for her to continue her thoughts. She’d laid out the first part, now she needed to say the rest.
Emma took another sip of her coffee and then sighed. “You know that feeling I was telling you about before? That overwhelming sense of dread.”
He knew what she was talking about. Even though they’d finally found a refuge, a place where they felt safe, she couldn’t help feeling that they weren’t safe at this cabin, that they’d never be safe here—the refuge had been an illusion they’d fallen for, something that allowed them to drop their guard.
She hadn’t wanted to say anything about these feelings she’d been having because she didn’t want to seem like a downer, dashing any hopes after they’d gone through hell to find this place. But in the last few days her feelings of dread had become so strong she couldn’t ignore them anymore. She’d told him that last night.
“Remember last night when we talked about it?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“You asked if my feelings of dread had anything to do with Rose showing up.”
“I remember.”
Emma set her coffee cup down. She was trembling now. No, she was actually shaking.
“Emma,” he said, touching her shoulder. He took one of her hands in his, trying to calm her down. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“How could I not have felt it before now?” she said. She seemed to be talking more to herself than to him.
“Feel what? That tidal wave that’s coming?” Tidal wave—that was how she had described the feelings of dread to him yesterday.
“No, not coming,” she whispered. “Already here.”
“Oh God,” he said, pulling his hands away from hers. “Rose.”
CHAPTER 25
Mike
Mike watched as Rose took her turn at the video game. He snuck a few peeks at her. He couldn’t stop looking at her, and she’d caught him a few times. But instead of scowling at him or asking what the hell he was doing, she just smiled.
Now she let herself get killed by a zombie.
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
“I don’t know. I’m tired of playing.”
“Okay,” he said.
She got up and moved around, walking over to the gun case. She seemed bored but also restless—maybe nervous.
“You always lock your weapons up?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Mike said, lying. He didn’t want to tell her that they’d just started doing it since she’d shown up.
“You have a lot of weapons,” she said. “A lot of stuff. It’s crazy this guy built this place. Stocked it with all of this food and stuff.”
“Yeah. His name was Doug.” Mike wasn’t sure if Doug was dead, but he figured he must be or he’d turned into a ripper. Otherwise he would have gotten here by now. “My dad used to work with him.”
“I wonder why he built this place.”
“It’s like he knew all of this was coming,” Mike said.
She didn’t say anything—she just walked away.
Mike felt a little awkward around Rose. He was attracted to her, he could admit that. And he wanted her to be attracted to him, but he wasn’t sure if she was.
“How old are you?” she asked as she walked away. “Thirteen? Fourteen?”
“Twelve,” he said. Another little lie. He wouldn’t actually be twelve for another few days, but she didn’t need to know that.
“You’re tall for your age,” she said, turning around to look at him, staring at him like she was appraising his height, his build, really looking at him for the first time.
Mike couldn’t help smiling.
“You’re almost as tall as I am,” she said and smiled back at him. She walked over to one of the doors that led to a tunnel—this one leading to the garage. “What’s this door lead to?”
“I don’t know if I can tell you.”
“I’m not a spy,” she said, laughing like the idea of it was childish. Then she frowned, her smile disappearing. She gave him a serious look. “You think I’m a spy?”
“No,” he blurted out. And it was the truth—he didn’t believe she was a spy.
She seemed to be waiting for him to tell her what lay beyond the door, yet she also seemed nervous about something.
“Those doors lead to tunnels,” Mike said. “Like escape tunnels. This guy, Doug, he had them put in when he built this cabin.” He didn’t see the harm in telling her about the tunnels. She was probably going to find out about them soon enough.
“Wow,” she said. “You ever go in there?”
“No. Not yet. I know where they lead to. That one there leads to the garage. There’s this little door up there under one of the tables against the wall. But you’d never know a door was there.” He was babbling. He stopped.
“That’s crazy,” she said. “So, you guys are planning on living here for good? Making this place your home?”
“Just for the winter, I think.”
“Just the winter? Then what?”
“Then we leave.”
“Why would you leave? You’re not going to go through all of this stuff in one winter. There’s plenty here.”
Mike shrugged. “We’ve got somewhere else to go.”
“Somewhere better than this?”
“Safer.”
“Safer?”
“I think so. It’s a place that has the answers.”
“Answers to what?”
“To everything that’s happened. To the disease out there, the Ripper Plague. There’s this place called Avalon—” He stopped talking abruptly, not sure if he should be talking about Avalon.
“Avalon? What’s that?” She came closer to him, her voice lower, her eyes wide and on him the whole time.
“It’s . . . it’s a place we want to go to.”
“When you leave, what are you going to do with all of this stuff?”
“I don’t know. Take some of it with us, I guess.”
“You can’t take all of this with you. They’ll be so much left behind, so much going to waste.”
Mike hadn’t thought about that. He wondered if his dad had thought of that.
Rose moved behind Mike, still talking in that low, husky voice that gave him a tingling sensation. “Where’s Avalon?” she asked.
Just then Mike heard someone rumbling down the basement stairs. Someone was coming their way in a hurry. Josh? His dad? Luke?
He was about to turn around when he felt Rose grab him from behind. She was quicker and stronger than he had expected. He felt something hard and sharp against his throat.
“Don’t move an inch,” she growled into his ear. “I’ve got a knife up to your throat. I’ll cut you wide open.”
Josh rushed into the bunker and stopped cold. He had a pistol in his hand, his eyes wide, his jaw dropping. “Oh God,” he whispered.
CHAPTER 26
Luke
Luke had followed his tracks from yesterday through the woods. He also followed the notches he’d made in the trunks of trees, his “breadcrumbs.” He remembered a few of the clearings from yesterday, the stream he’d passed by, and a few other landmarks: a big rock covered with moss and mildew, a twisted tree that looked like it had been struck by lightning.
He’d gotten to the deadfall, the place where he’d stopped yesterday. He stopped there again now, resting for a minute, listening to the woods.
This was the way he’d thought Rose’s tracks had gone yesterday even though he’d lost them. Yet he felt this was the right path through the woods. And today he wasn’t in as big of a hurry to get back to the cabin, so he took his time to study his surrounding
s. He noticed a scuffing along the top of the fallen tree, areas where it looked like the mold and rotting bark had been disturbed, where someone had crawled over it.
Maybe Rose had come this way yesterday. It was a good sign to keep going this way. He took his pack off and got his canteen out, drinking a few swallows of water, resting for another few minutes.
He put the canteen back into his pack and slipped it on his back again, tightening the straps. He crawled over the deadfall and continued on, making his way slowly through the woods. The trees had gotten closer together, the brush a little thicker. The dead leaves carpeted the hilly terrain, but they were wet from the snow that had melted, so they didn’t crunch under his boots. It was cold, but his body had heated up from the movement and his tension. He still kept his hoodie on, and his knit cap and gloves.
After a few more minutes of walking, he stopped, noticing a few very faint tracks on the ground. He couldn’t tell if they were Rose’s tracks—they weren’t clear enough for that. But it was something to follow, and again he just felt like he was on the right path.
For the next thirty minutes Luke trekked through the woods, coming down into another small clearing where he felt exposed for a moment, but he was across the clearing in seconds and back in the cover of trees.
He went up the next hill, and the top of it leveled off a little. There were big rock formations all around, small gorges, then another clearing down below. He remembered Rose saying something about a cave she had stayed the night in, and he saw the evidence of that now.
But there was a lot of stuff down there in the clearing: trash, debris, a pit with rocks around it for a fire, a small stack of twigs and branches for the fire, and a dark blue backpack.
Rose had said something about taking a pillow case with her when she had abandoned the pickup truck and took to the woods. She hadn’t said anything about a backpack.
Something was wrong here. It looked like several people had camped here, and now it looked suddenly abandoned, like something had scared them off. Had to be. Who would leave a backpack like that behind? Even if it was empty, it could still be useful for carrying stuff.
