ANYONE ELSE?: (ANYONE Series Book 2) A post-apocalypic survival novel

by Angela Scott

  I quietly laid the Nerf gun down, leaned over the playpen, and shoved his pacifier into his mouth. He sucked away on it, happy and peaceful, completely oblivious.

  He was a perfect little person. As I watched him sleep in that moment, I had a greater resolve to protect him.

  I could kill someone for you. I nodded my head. For you, I really could.

  In my crouched position again, I gripped the Nerf gun in one hand, finger on the trigger, and the knitting needles in my other.

  Bring it on.

  The trespasser pointed the beam of light down the aisle as he whistled. He stood, aiming the flashlight, swinging the flashlight from one side to the other. The light always landed way above my head. Had I been standing, he might have seen me, but so far, he hadn’t.

  The clacking of hooves on the smooth linoleum echoed down the aisle. The stranger stopped whistling. My heart ceased beating. I forgot how to breathe.

  My deer picked the wrong time to show herself.

  “What in the—“

  I didn’t wait for him to finish his sentence. I couldn’t.

  My deer stood directly in the intruder’s beam of light. My deer!

  I leapt over the coffee table, tore through the girl’s section, and fired round after round of Nerf bullets in the intruder’s direction. His dodging and ducking and waving the flashlight let me know I was doing a pretty damn good job of hitting my target.

  He cursed. I cursed. Deer hooves took off running in the opposite direction.

  I used one of the shelf displays in the girls’ section, one that held folded shirts and pants, as a ladder to launch myself at the trespasser while firing Nerf dart after Nerf dart.

  I soared through the air and slammed full-body into him, knocking us both to the ground. His flashlight rolled away and spun in a circle like a disco light.

  Adrenaline pumped through my veins. My heart raced. As I straddled his chest like a feral woman, I pinned him in place with the knitting needles poised at his Adam’s apple. Suddenly, I stopped.

  How? What? Where did…

  Slowly, I lowered my arm to my side. The knitting needles fell to the floor, clanging against the linoleum.

  He didn’t move. He didn’t push me off him. He just smiled.

  “Holy shit, Tess. That was incredible!”

  Chapter 28

  The flashlight bathed both of us in its measly beam of light. I couldn’t move. I only stared at his familiar face, not daring to even breathe for fear of him vanishing into a puff of disillusionment.

  If he disappeared and this was only some trick of my imagination, it would destroy me. There would be no bouncing back from this, and I knew it. I straddled him without breathing, without blinking, without moving.

  He cocked his head to the side. “I don’t know if you realize this or not, but the way you’re staring at me is sort of creepy.”

  His words broke my trance. I threw my arms around his neck, trying not to crush him with my enthusiasm. The growth of whiskers on his face rubbed against my cheek. He smelled of sweat and dirt, a little pungent, but welcoming. His chest rose and fell against mine with each breath he took.

  “You’re real,” I whispered. “You’re really real.”

  He’s here. He’s here. Oh, my god, he’s here!

  “I get the feeling you missed me a little.”

  I pulled away, my arms still around his neck, and looked at him. “Cole, you have no idea.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  I nodded, releasing my death grip to touch his face, his prickly beard, his shaggy hair. I ran my thumbs over his eyelids to be certain. I even tugged on both his ears. I wasn’t exactly sure why I did that last bit, but it seemed right. “This is insane. This is so crazy, but it’s you. It’s really you.”

  He’d physically changed. He looked more rugged and far more outdoorsy than the last time I’d seen him, with a giant splash of vagrancy to top off the look. Had we met a week before, my own appearance would’ve surpassed his.

  I didn’t care what he looked like or what he smelled like. He found me!

  Cole gently tugged on both of my ears, too, and smiled. “Agreed, this is crazy.”

  “I don’t understand.” I glanced around us and then back at him. “What are you doing here?”

  He placed his hands on my waist, carefully lifted me from his lap, and sat me on the floor next to him. “I could ask the same thing of you, but I’m here for fuzzy socks, a bag of coffee beans, and to taste the rainbow before calling it a night. Walmart just happens to be the place where those kinds of dreams can come true.”

  His very presence swirled my thoughts like a mini-cyclone. I couldn’t decide if I simply couldn’t understand him because of my enhanced adrenaline and excitement or if he truly made no sense. “Huh? I don’t … what?”

  “You know, the little coverings you put on your feet when they get cold? Most people call them socks, though I’m sure in other countries they call them something else — hosiery, toe mittens, I don’t know. It’s the same universal concept. I needed something to keep my feet from being chilly.” He wiggled his feet.

  I stared at him, still not grasping the words coming out of his mouth. “Socks? You’re here for socks?”

  He pointed at the discarded, unopened bag of candy on the floor near the flashlight that landed in our tussle and the scattered coffee beans strewn across the aisle. “And Skittles. Don’t forget the Skittles. That’s the most important part. Well, except for the coffee. Coffee is pretty important, too.”

  Skittles, coffee, and socks. Of course. Totally sounded like Cole.

  “But you knew I was here, right?” I watched him for affirmation. “How else could you know to come to this particular Walmart?”

  He shook his head and shrugged. “Had no clue. Whole town looked pretty abandoned to me. And as for Walmart, the better question would be, why not Walmart? It’s the cornucopia of survival. It’s the only place I know where you can buy new tires, underwear, and toothpaste…” He swung his arms wide.”…all under one roof! It’s the best.”

  I had felt that same way about Walmart.

  I sat back on my bum, thinking. I looked at him again. “You didn’t know I was here? You weren’t looking for me? Following me?”

  He grabbed the bag of Skittles, opened it, and held it out in my direction. When I didn’t take any, he plopped a few in his mouth. “Nope, this is just as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.”

  Yeah, no.

  I was fawning all over him, excited to see him, excited to know he was real and that he was here, yet Cole was casually eating Skittles as if meeting for the second time in the middle of an apocalypse was perfectly normal. A typical day in the neighborhood.

  “You want me to believe this is all coincidence?” I shook my head. “Because I can’t. Things like this don’t just happen.”

  He had always tried to push events like this off as chance meetings or random experiences. That couldn’t possibly be true this time.

  He shrugged again and ate a few more pieces of candy. “Not sure what else you’d call it.” He glanced around. “And what’s with the deer? Did you see that? That wasn’t my imagination, was it? Scared the crap out of me.”

  “No, no, no.” I shook my head. “No changing the subject. I’m not done with this.” I motioned to the two of us. “No, really, why are you here?”

  He gave me an odd look. “I just explained why. Socks, coffee, and Skittles, remember?”

  I ignored his question, scooted closer to him, and touched his face again. Yep, real. This wasn’t some weird dream or figment of my imagination. His skin felt warm beneath my fingertips. Maybe I didn’t need to know why he was here, only that he was. “I never thought I’d see you again.” That was the truth.

  “Tess, don’t take this the wrong way, but I had really hoped we never would.”

  I withdrew my hand from his face. “What?”

  “Not that I’m not happy to see you, because I am, but this sh
ouldn’t be happening.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying, Cole. Of all the places for me to go and for you to show up, we’re here together again. How do you explain that?”

  Even as I asked the question, I knew he’d never really answer me. He’d never admit to following me. He could deny it, but I remembered the snapping twigs in the forest. He was like my guardian angel. One or two coincidences in the brief time we’d known each other could maybe be passed off as chance encounters, but several? No way. I wasn’t buying it.

  “You know” he said, “some things just can’t be explained. I’ve stopped trying. I simply roll with what life throws at me. You should give it a try. It sure makes things easier.” He pointed at me. “Makes a person less angsty.”

  The typical dissing and run-around from Cole.

  “The last I saw you,” he went on, “you were happily reunited with your dad and brother in that weirdo’s military bunker, waiting this whole thing out. I did my job and took you to them.” His face took on a more somber appearance as he lowered the bag of candy. Realization seemed to settle over him. “Wait. Your dad and brother aren’t here, are they?”

  It wasn’t so much a question as an observation. He didn’t even attempt to look for them in the darkened store.

  I shook my head. I didn’t trust myself to speak.

  “If they were, I’m sure I’d have been pelted with more than just Nerf darts.” Again, not a question but an observation.

  I still didn’t say anything. He didn’t push for an answer. After a while, he held out the Skittles to me once more. This time I took a couple but didn’t eat them. We sat on the floor, the beam of light washing over us, neither saying anything.

  “I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I’m really sorry.”

  I nodded and changed the subject. “You’re a long way from home, especially for socks and a bag of candy.” I didn’t want to talk about my family. Not yet anyway.

  He held his hand up. “Not just any candy. Skittles. That’s an important clarification.”

  I nodded. “So?”

  He raised and lowered his shoulders. “So, what?”

  I gave him an incredulous look. “You didn’t answer my question. After leaving me with my family, you could’ve gone back to the hangar. Instead, you climbed down the opposite side of the mountain, crossed the dry mud flats, passed dozens and dozens of abandoned shoes, and scaled a fence all for socks, Skittles, and coffee?”

  His pimped-out hangar was on the other side of the mountain, in the west desert, miles in another direction. Generators, solar panels, a little garden, water, a huge TV and video gaming system… Why would he leave all that when he’d put so much effort into it?

  He shook his head. “There you go, trying to look for answers again.”

  “Then give me some. Did mother nature wipe it out? Destroy it like she’s destroying everything else? Is that why?”

  He shrugged. “Not sure. I decided it was time to move on, that’s all. Nothing more. And what do you mean mud flats, shoes, and fences?”

  Again, another incredulous look. “What do you mean by what do I mean? Between the mountain and this town, there’s nothing but creepy weirdness everywhere you look.”

  He tipped the bag of Skittles into his mouth and between the crunching mumbled, “That was not my experience at all.”

  I stared at him. Was he kidding me? He didn’t seem to be joking, but I couldn’t understand how he hadn’t seen anything. “The shoes? You didn’t see the pairs of shoes out on the mud flats?”

  “Nope. That sounds like something I would definitely remember. Are you sure you’re okay? Nothing going on up here that I should be concerned about?” He pointed to his head and swirled a finger. “Bang your head? Fall down? Have you been drinking plenty of water?”

  I ignored him. “You came off the same mountain I did, right?”

  He nodded as he chewed his candy, unable to speak with a dozen or more pieces of Skittles in his mouth.

  What in the world is going on?

  I was so tired of things not making sense, of questioning my own sanity.

  “Why didn’t you go home?” I took a different approach. The shoes and mud flats were getting me nowhere just like asking why he was here at this Walmart.

  He was full of shrugs and shrugged again. “I didn’t want to.”

  “O-kay?”

  “Tess, the world is my oyster. I’ve decided to go oyster hunting, explore a little.” He balled up the empty candy bag and held it in his hand. “That’s all. There’s nothing more to it, I swear. Now my turn to ask some questions.”

  That didn’t seem quite fair. I’d asked a lot of questions of him and got no answers, plus my hand was sticky from the melting candy.

  “First,” he asked, “what’s with the deer? And second, why all the shopping carts outside filled with nasty, rotting food? I’d have hauled them blocks away.”

  I didn’t want to admit to him that to move the carts any further would mean I’d have to step outside. I’d stood at the edge of the warehouse door and shoved cart after cart outside without once leaving the building. The carts didn’t want to roll very far because of all the dead crickets scattered everywhere. The dead bugs also sealed the deal on never going out again. Too much weird crap happened out there.

  “The deer followed me off the mountain.” I decided to answer his first question and ignore the second. “With no one to watch after her, and with her refusing to go back, I brought her here.”

  “To Walmart?”

  I nodded and smiled. “Yes, to Walmart. She seems to like it.”

  “And Callie? How’s that crazy cat of yours?”

  “She’s good. She’s around here somewhere, probably bugging the deer. They’re still trying to figure each other out.” I adjusted my robe and scooted a little closer to him. “Cole, there’s something else I need to tell you.”

  But before I could, the kid started crying. His baby sobs started out small but quickly increased. He was hungry and needed changing. His cries carried in the large, open space.

  Cole’s eyes widened. “Please tell me that’s a very realistic-sounding toy doll.”

  I shook my head.

  “I assume that’s the something you needed to tell me.”

  I took a deep breath, released it, and nodded.

  “Tess, what did you do?”

  Chapter 29

  “Okay, Snow White, tell me how you ended up with one of the seven dwarves?”

  I raised my brows. “What?”

  He tipped his head to the side as if to say, seriously? He gave a sweeping motion with his hand, using a bit of overdramatization to make his point.

  I sat at one corner of the futon, the baby in the crook of my arm as I fed him his bottle. My cat stretched out on the back of the couch near my head, and the deer curled at my feet.

  Of course. Disney.

  He stood at the edge of my little Walmart paradise, taking in my setup and shaking his head. “I’m…” He paused, pinching the bridge of his nose before starting again. “I’m at a loss here.”

  “You and me both.” I dabbed at the milk running down the baby’s chin with his Cookie Monster bib cloth. “Taking care of a baby is hard work. I mean, look at him? He’s cute, and you want to squish him, but then he’ll poop up the back of his diaper or decide he wants to party all night. No one tells you about that stuff. And then to top all that off, I have a deer. There’s deer poop pretty much all over the place. It is probably my fault, since what do you feed a deer? I try to make sure she gets a good diet — dried cranberries, nuts, dog food, seeds, and canned vegetables, but what do I know? This has become my life, Cole. Baby and deer poop, and lots of it.” I pointed a thumb at my cat. “Who would’ve thought she’d be the easy one?”

  He stood in the aisle, as if stepping closer would suck him into my weird world. He motioned to the kid. “Where did the baby come from?”

  I lifted the baby to my shoulder. The little guy laid
his head down as I rubbed his back. “Well, let me see if I can explain. You see, when a mommy loves a daddy, they have this special hug…”

  “Tess, seriously.” He placed his hands on his hips. At seeing the baby, Cole seemed a little less easy-going and far more serious.

  I nodded. “Sorry, I was trying to lighten the mood, because this can be a lot to take in.”

  He dropped his hands to his side. “You think?”

  I rubbed the baby’s back but kept my eyes on Cole. “Now, imagine being only seventeen.”

  My words must have affected him, because he finally took a step onto the shaggy, purple area rug. He made his way to one of the beanbags and sunk into it. “Age doesn’t matter. I’m a lot older than you, and I know nothing when it comes to babies.”

  I edged forward on the couch. “I know I talked a lot about poop, but there really are some good things to having a baby and a pet deer.” I turned the sleepy baby toward Cole, so he could see the kid’s chubby cheeks and adorableness. “His smile is the best smile I’ve ever seen. He’s got the greatest laugh, and he pretty much eats whatever you give him. He’s not picky at all. He’s super quiet, too, for the most part. And the deer, she lets you pet her head like this.” I demonstrated by rubbing the deer’s head between her ears. “Most deer don’t let you do that, but this one does. It’s almost like having a dog.”

  Cole nodded toward me, seemingly unamused, and pointed. “That baby looks drunk.”

  I turned the baby around to face me again. The kid barely had one eye cracked open. His chin rested on his chest. He looked as though he’d gained twenty pounds. “He’s just tired.” I stood to carefully place the baby in his playpen. I covered him with a blanket and placed his pacifier in his mouth before turning back to Cole. “He’ll be more smiley tomorrow,” I whispered. “You’ll see what I mean in the morning.”

  Cole leaned back on the beanbag. “Morning?”

  I stood, staring at him. “Yeah, in the morning. You’re staying, right?”

  “It just seems as though you have things handled here, so I’d assume…” He hemmed and hawed. “

  “Cole,” I stopped him. “I’m seventeen. I have no idea what I’m doing. You can’t possibly think of leaving me. We just found each other again. That means something.”