by Ike Hamill
She nodded at that.
“Call on that channel if you need anything. Your message will get relayed down to me,” Robby said. He paused to make certain that she was listening closely before he said, “I live in Connecticut. It will take me several hours to get up here. If Hasp’s health starts to go, or you need help with anything, please let me know. I’ll come as fast as I can, I promise.”
“We’ll be fine,” she said.
Robby nodded.
Hasp returned with a full basket, handed it to the young woman, and grabbed another. Even with his bad foot, he practically danced back toward the section of canned goods.
“If you want, I can try to talk him into going to Manchester where there’s a proper grocery store,” Robby said.
“No need,” she said. “Now that he knows it’s safe, I won’t have any problems.”
“What would he do if you left him alone?”
She stared at Robby until he began to feel uncomfortable under her gaze. Robby looked down at the floor and wondered if she would answer. She didn’t.
Robby left her and went back outside to the car. He intended to go lean on the hood and wait for the two to come out of the store so he could give them a ride back to the post office. Instead, he found himself opening the driver’s door and sitting down behind the wheel. He mused about how easy it would be to leave them there and go catch up with Brad, wherever he had gone. Hasp and May—if that was really her name—would find a way back to the post office. They might even be better off. Walking that far would prove to them that they could do it, and maybe shock Hasp out of his agoraphobia.
Robby’s hand was on the key, ready to start the engine.
“That’s the part I don’t get,” Jim said.
“How so?” their father asked.
“You liked Mom, right?”
Their father took a deep breath and looked up as he let it out. “I did. Honestly, it’s difficult for me to really isolate how I felt about her back then because I fell in love with her so soon after, but I can say that I really liked her from the moment I first met her.”
“So, why didn’t you want to spend time with her?” Jim asked. “She was in the store, waiting for Hasp to get the food, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And you went outside?”
“I sensed that she needed space. I had forced my way into her life, and she hadn’t been ready for it. Sometimes it’s difficult to recognize a good thing when you’re so used to encountering bad ones. I felt that I was a good thing for her and Hasp, but I knew that she might need time to allow herself to believe it.”
“Please finish the story,” Janelle said. “I hate this part too.”
Robby laughed at himself. He took his hand off the key and sighed.
He tilted the rearview mirror down so he could look at his father’s eyes in the reflection. Sometimes the trick worked, and sometimes it didn’t.
He got lucky and heard his father’s voice in his head.
“You have to take this slow and careful,” his father’s voice said.
“No, I don’t,” Robby said. When he shook his head, his father’s eyes mimicked the movement, but his father wasn’t agreeing with him.
“Yeah. This is important, Robby.”
“It’s not,” Robby argued, whispering to himself. “I just met her, and she doesn’t trust me—why would she? Based on what we’ve all been through, it wouldn’t be surprising if she never trusted a stranger again. Who knows who she has come in contact with. People like Luke and Lyle—this area has harbored some real monsters of the human variety.”
“She’ll trust you if you give her the time and space. Already she has taken a ride in your car and let you talk to Hasp. She wants to trust you, Robby.”
Robby realized that he wanted to trust her as well. He wanted it more than anything. That thought made his hand reach for the key again. He refused to look in the mirror, knowing that his father’s voice would talk him out of it. Instead, he started the car and cranked the wheel, bouncing over the curb and then slamming back down onto the road before he sped off.
Robby headed east. That’s the direction that Brad would have gone to set up the next repeater. They were going to setup up their network all the way into the southern part of Maine and then turn it south and west again to connect back down to their home in Connecticut. The future was that direction. Here, there was nothing.
Robby heard the young woman shout at him, but he kept driving and refused to look in the rearview mirror until he was making the turn to get back on the main road. While he coaxed the vehicle up to its top speed, Robby tried to calculate how long it would take him to join up with Brad. Something told him that Brad wouldn’t have been in too much of a hurry to leave him behind. Assuming that Robby could drive twice as fast, that meant that he could probably catch up to Brad in…
He stood on the brakes and cranked the wheel. Ahead, Brad scrambled to get out of the way. Almost sideways, the side of Robby’s car kissed the bumper of the truck and nudged it before it came to a stop on the sandy road.
“If you’re trying to kill me, there are easier ways,” Brad said as Robby put down his window.
“Sorry. Sorry. I wasn’t really concentrating and… Why are you stopped?”
Brad only raised his eyebrows and gestured.
Finally, Robby saw what was in front of his eyes. There was a chainsaw on the road next to the truck and a big tree across the road. With the hill on one side and the guardrail on the other, Brad didn’t have much of a choice. He had to cut through the tree or find another way around. He had apparently chosen to cut through.
Robby shut off his vehicle and got out.
“Did you forget something?” Brad asked.
“Sorry?” Robby asked in response. He had been looking back down the road, the way he had come. A couple miles back, May—if that was her name—was probably still waiting for his return. She would wait in the store for a bit before giving up on him and deciding that Hasp would have to walk back to the post office, bad foot and all. Or, maybe she would find a vehicle and figure a way to get the battery going. It was still possible to locate a car with a manual transmission and get it rolling. Maybe in a few years after the gas turned to sludge, she would have been doomed to walk, but that was a problem they would all face, eventually.
Robby’s mind was wandering, watching May—if that was her name—through the years. After losing Hasp, maybe she would come looking for others, but maybe she would stay solitary.
The crunch of metal snapped him back to reality.
Brad was looking at him with a curious smile as Robby turned around and saw what had happened. When he had gotten out, he must have left his car in neutral or something. It had rolled away from Brad’s truck and slowly crashed itself into the guardrail.
“So, what happened back there?” Brad asked. “Did you get a concussion?”
The word made Robby think of his grandmother. He blushed as he shook his head.
“No. Air filter?”
It was Brad’s turn to look confused.
Robby pointed at the chainsaw. “Air filter?”
“Oh. Yes. I think so. The old one was soggy. How did you know?”
“Just a hunch.”
“I thought I had another one in the truck, but I wasn’t having any luck finding it. I was just about to pack it in and look for another way around.”
Robby stood there, blinking at him.
“Robby?”
“Yeah?”
“What happened back there?”
“Nothing. I mean, not much. I went and talked to them and it turned out that the old man was afraid of the store, like I thought. I gave them a ride and I left them while they were collecting food.”
“You left them.”
“Yeah.”
“Because?”
“I thought it would be better. Hasp is afraid of everything and I thought he might be forced to get over it if they have to walk back, you know?”
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“So you helped them out by stranding them miles from their home, and one of them is afraid of being out in the world?”
Robby frowned, blushed, and nodded.
Brad didn’t say a word. He only pointed at the car that Robby had accidentally crashed twice in the span of two minutes.
Robby understood.
They were gone from the store, of course. Robby drove slowly up the road that led roughly in the direction of the post office, even though he was pretty sure that they wouldn’t be on it. It would be faster to go right through the woods. Besides, Hasp probably would have been more comfortable in the woods. Robby drove up to the post office, verified that they weren’t there, and set off on foot to find them. He figured out his heading with his map and used his compass to stay roughly on course as he crashed through the woods.
It wasn’t easy going. He was walking downhill and the underbrush was thick. Finally stumbling onto a path, Robby took it gladly even though it veered away from the direction he wanted to go. It wasn’t until the trail took a sharp turn to the right that Robby stopped and pulled out his map again. He sat down on a rock to try to figure out where he was. One finger traced contour lines while his other hand waved away the flies that had gathered to harass him.
There was a pond to his west—that’s where the trail headed. Based on nothing more than intuition, Robby decided to keep following the trail. He stopped every few minutes to listen. Finally, when he figured he must be pretty close to the pond, he heard her laugh.
Robby picked up his pace, climbing the short hill and then shielding his eyes against he reflection of the sun on the surface of the water.
Hasp was sitting on a rock, dangling his foot in the shallows. The old man pointed at him.
“There you are. I told her that you government types were flighty.”
Robby picked his way along the shore toward the old man. His foot slipped on a muddy rock and Robby just caught himself as he splashed into the pond. Hasp laughed at him and held out a hand to help him up onto the rock.
Robby shook his head and didn’t take it—he didn’t want to risk pulling him in.
The foot that Hasp was soaking in the water was a horrible sight. Skin, bones, and muscle had been removed from a long chunk, leaving a stump that had healed poorly, from the looks. What was left was not a structure that could easily support weight. Robby was surprised that Hasp was able to walk at all.
“She just about shit when you bolted,” Hasp said. “I told her not to worry. You’d be back, if only to fill out the paperwork.”
“Yes,” Robby said. “Sorry. I had to run a quick errand and by the time I returned, you had gone.”
Hasp laughed at him. Robby didn’t know if the old man didn’t believe him, or was maybe just in a good mood because of the can next to him. It appeared that he had eaten an entire can of peaches while sitting there, soaking what was left of his foot.
Robby heard her approach behind him.
He hadn’t turned around completely when she said, “Hey.”
“Hey,” Robby said in reply.
The fish hit him squarely in the face.
“Yay, the fish,” Janelle said.
Her father nodded.
“Finish it,” Jim said.
“We should get moving,” their father said. “We can get something to eat and then see how…”
“Finish it. Please?” Jim asked.
“Please?” Janelle added.
Their father looked between the two of them. They were asking for the rest of the story even though he had pretty much just admitted that their punishment was over. Janelle was hungry, sure, but at the moment it felt like her parents were in a strange state. They were barely acquainted and maybe moments away from deciding that they didn’t really like each other. Janelle didn’t want to leave the story like that.
“Okay,” their father said. He settled back down into the pillows that were propping him up.
Chapter 100: Robby
Robby apologized and the same excuse rose to his lips. The fish at the end of her line—the one she had slapped him with—was still dancing in the air. He was about to tell her that he had been called away to run an errand. Looking into her eyes, he didn’t want to lie.
Instead, he said, “I’m sorry that I ran. I’ve met plenty of people—maybe most of the people who are still left—but I was afraid of you.”
She frowned.
“You should be, but you keep showing up,” she said. “If you’re so afraid, why do you keep showing up?”
“I don’t mean afraid that you’ll try to physically hurt me,” Robby said. He looked down and tried to figure out what he meant to say. It was too early to say what he really thought. He was accustomed to piecing together clues and imagining every possible way that circumstances would play out. This was different. With May—if that was her name—he could only see things going one way. And if she didn’t feel the same way, then he couldn’t imagine his future at all.
“I had this friend before,” Robby said. “From the first moment that I met her, I knew that we were going to be great friends. I also knew that our friendship wouldn’t last forever. I don’t know precisely how to describe it. That knowledge came up from…”
She put up the hand that was holding the fish and Robby thought she might slap him again. She didn’t.
Instead, she said, “You talk too much. Try experiencing things for once.”
Robby didn’t know what to say. A million arguments rose up inside him. She couldn’t have any idea how much he had experienced in his short life. All the things that he had gone through would be remarkable for someone a hundred years old, and he was still a teenager.
When he opened his mouth, all that came out was, “Yeah. Okay.”
“You ready to finish hiking home, Hasp?” she asked, leaning around Robby.
The old man sighed and pulled his dripping, ruined foot from the lake.
“Suppose so,” he said.
“One good thing,” the young woman said to Robby. “Hasp hasn’t come all the way down here in a month. If I can get him to come back, maybe I can get him to clean up a little. He’s starting to smell a little ripe.”
“Oh. Good.”
“I wasn’t thanking you for ditching us.”
“I know,” Robby said. “You want me to go get the car?”
She looked at him like he was crazy and shook her head. “The road doesn’t come close to here.”
“Oh. Of course,” he said. Having looked at the map, he should have realized that, and he would have if he hadn’t been so flustered.
“Take this?” she asked.
Robby realized that she had been holding out the fish. He took that and then saw where she had stashed the bags that Hasp had filled with groceries. Robby lifted as much as he could and waited for her to get Hasp back on his feet—or foot and a half, rather.
Waiting for them to pass, Robby fell in behind, struggling under the weight of their food.
Back at the post office, Robby listened close whenever she talked to him. He was paying attention for any sign that she wanted him to go. Evening began to creep in from the edges of the woods and she still hadn’t kicked him out. Robby helped to unload the gathered food into their little kitchen area. When she didn’t object, he even moved out some of the old boxes and cans that had accumulated. He took those out behind the building, making a burn pile for everything that would burn and burying the metal in a shallow pit.
“You’re not worried?” she asked.
Robby was stirring the ashes of the boxes with a long-handled shovel.
“About what?”
She didn’t answer. Her eyes were scanning the edge of the woods. Robby formed a picture of how she and the old man lived. They must have formed deep superstitions as they survived the disappearance of all their neighbors. Hasp was still holding tight to superstition, as evidenced by his reluctance to go to Hilliard’s. She, on the other hand, appeared to be willing to set aside her fea
r. After all, she hadn’t run out to tell him not to start a fire. She had merely waited and then joined him when it was clear that he was going to be okay.
“How many people did you say you have?” she asked.
“Scores,” he said, still not giving her a firm answer. This time, it wasn’t because he was being cautious. Robby was flaming the spark of curiosity that he sensed in her. Giving her a complete answer might quench that.
“Everyone scavenges?”
“No,” Robby said. “There’s more of an eye toward the future, when scavenging won’t be feasible anymore. A lot of people are farming and hunting.”
She nodded. Her eyes flitted toward the east. Robby had already been over to that side of the building and saw the ruins of the garden. It looked like whatever the bugs hadn’t gotten, rabbits and deer had taken.
“Where are you from, anyway?”
“Originally? An island off the coast of Maine,” Robby said. “You?”
Instead of answering, she turned and went back inside.
Not wanting to use the water from their rain barrel, Robby hiked back down to the pond with a couple of big jugs. He used a little water to make sure that his fire was quenched and then turned the ashes into the soil. When she came back out, he was just finishing pulling up the ruins of the garden.
“I’ll come back in the morning and help you set up a proper fence for this, if you want,” he said. “There’s still enough time to get some lettuce and beans. If you build a little greenhouse against the south side, you should be able to keep some crops through to…”
“You don’t have to leave,” she said. “I set up a bed in the sorting room for you.”
“Uh,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets. “Is Hasp still up?”
She nodded. “He barely sleeps.”
“I’ll come in for a bit. Maybe we can exchange a couple of stories before I go.”
“Okay.”
She didn’t need light to navigate through the dark corridors of the building. Robby was tripping over everything and feeling his way until he saw the glow of the lantern. Hasp was sitting next to it, digging his spoon into another can of peaches.