“I guess you weren’t ready to hear that,” Adam said.
“Not even kind of. I practically ran her out of the house.” Ella sighed. “I regretted it later, but the damage was done. She didn’t come back and try again, and after that blowup the two of us didn’t speak for years.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah,” Ella said. “We started reconnecting again a couple of years back. Julie called me and told me she’d been in therapy, and that she’d been dealing with the trauma of our childhood. She admitted that she ran away all those years ago because she wanted something to distract her from the pain of what had happened to our family, and Sebastian was a good distraction. She apologized for leaving me and admitted responsibility.”
“That’s great,” Adam said.
“It was a start,” Ella said. “I did want to have her in my life again. She’d put herself through college and come out of it with a good job. And she’d settled down with someone, a new guy, and they had a kid together, and I wanted to know my nephew. So I decided to make an effort.”
“That’s…” Adam shook his head. “That’s a hell of a story, Ella. I wasn’t expecting that.”
“What were you expecting?” She looked up at him, smiling slightly.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “When you said you didn’t speak to your sister, I guess I thought—”
“That I was ridiculous? That I was selfish and immature?”
“No!” he protested. “If anything, I thought the opposite. I know we haven’t known each other very long, Ella, but I know what you’re like. You’re one of the most levelheaded people I’ve ever met, and I thought that if you weren’t speaking to someone, there would have to be a good reason behind it.”
“Are you saying you don’t think my reason is good?”
“No, that isn’t what I’m saying,” he said. “It was really complicated for you. For both of you. I can see that. I guess I expected the thing that came between you to be something more like what happened between me and my mother. I expected you to tell me that your sister had done something awful. Something unforgivable. But it wasn’t that simple, was it?”
“No,” Ella said quietly. “It wasn’t. Sometimes I wish it had been. Sometimes I wish I could just hate her and know that I was right. But I can’t overlook the fact that Julie was going through trauma of her own. She lost her parents, just like I did. She grew up in and out of foster care, just like I did. And she had the additional horror of being on trial for manslaughter. Even though she was acquitted, that must have been a nightmare.”
“I’m sure it was,” Adam agreed.
“And through it all, she never gave up on me,” Ella said. “I gave up on her. She didn’t give up on me.”
“You can’t beat yourself up for that,” Adam said. “You were so young. You did the best you could.”
“I know,” Ella said. “I don’t blame myself, and I don’t blame Julie either. It was just a bad situation all the way around.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Adam said. Absently, he picked up a stick and traced a design in the dirt by the side of the road. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
She nodded and sat silently. Adam didn’t try to speak again. He knew it must have been hard to open up about everything that had happened to her. He had had to do something similar as part of his addiction recovery. At his NA meeting, everyone had been required to take a turn sharing about the lowest points in their addiction. Adam had loathed it.
But hearing Ella’s story, he had to concede that what she had been through was much worse than anything he had suffered. He had embarrassed himself on the set of his TV show and in front of the paparazzi, and he had dealt with unflattering articles about his fall from grace. But what Ella had been through… It’s a wonder she’s as sane and stable as she is.
Maybe, he thought, it was because of what she had been through that she was so levelheaded. Going through trauma like that could break a person. But if it didn’t break you, maybe you came out stronger on the other side.
He thought about Cody and the charmed life his best friend had lived. Addiction had touched Cody’s life, and Cody had never been able to escape. When his drugs had run out and he had been faced with the prospect of a future in the world as it was after the nanovirus, he had snapped. He had lost his mind, and it had resulted in his death and the deaths of two other people.
And the same thing had happened with Chase McTerrell. Chase had been a son of privilege. He’d probably never faced a real challenge in his life before the nanovirus had hit. And he too had fallen victim to his addiction, unable to accept Adam’s help, unable to turn away from the opportunity to steal more pills. He, too, had been led to his death by his own weakness.
Adam realized he had prided himself on being stronger than Cody and Chase. And he was stronger than they were, he thought. He had been able to beat his addiction. He had been able to face the prospect of living in the new world.
But maybe he had just been lucky. Where did his strength come from, really? He couldn’t say for sure. But he could say that when he thought back over his life, he didn’t see any real instances of trauma. Nothing that bad has ever happened to me, he realized. Not until these last few weeks. Nothing in my life has forced me to become stronger.
But Ella was different. Ella had been a survivor since she was twelve years old. Since before that, even. She had faced the kinds of things most people would never have to face. She had seen her father killed before her eyes. She had lost her mother to suicide. She had felt abandoned by her older sister, the only family she’d had left. And she had grown up in the care of people who may have valued her health and safety, but who never truly loved her.
Maybe it’s all for the best, he thought. Maybe going through all that made her into the ideal person to survive an apocalypse. She’s stronger than Cody was. She’s stronger than any of the Birkins or the McTerrells were.
I think she’s stronger than I am.
He was, he realized, very glad that Ella was on his side.
She got to her feet. “Come on,” she said. “We should keep moving.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “And we don’t want to stay here by the side of the road, right? It would be best if we found some shelter before sunset.”
Impressed, Adam stood. “You’re right,” he agreed, hooking the duffel bag over his shoulder. “Let’s keep moving.”
Chapter 7
The scene on the highway was bleak, with hundreds of abandoned cars seemingly stretching all the way to the horizon. When they came to the first car, Adam held up a hand for Ella to wait and peered inside, looking for any supplies that might have been left behind.
Of course there were none. Whoever had left this car had taken everything useful with them. Adam supposed the car had been abandoned after the EMP had gone off. It would have been no good to its owner after that.
He wondered where the owner had gone.
They checked car after car, but found nothing that might be of use to them on their journey.
After several miles, Ella pointed. “Do you see that?”
“See what?” He squinted.
“It looks like a road sign. Maybe we’re getting close to Napa Bay.”
“We can’t be,” Adam said. “We’ve only come a few miles.”
She frowned. “Could we have judged the distance wrong?”
Adam handed her the duffel bag and set off at a jog. As he approached the sign, it came into clearer focus. She had been right—it was a road sign indicating their approach to a town. But the town in question wasn’t Napa Bay.
“Ever heard of Salt Cove?” he asked as Ella came up behind him.
“No,” she said. “Only half a mile from here. Should we check it out?”
“Might as well.”
They continued down the highway and turned off at the next exit. An old-fashioned wooden sign greeted them at the edge of
town.
“‘Salt Cove, Population 150,’” Adam read. “God. That’s tiny.”
“No wonder we’ve never heard of it,” Ella agreed. “Do you think the people are still here?”
“Maybe…” Adam stared down the road that led into town. “It’s awfully quiet.”
“It was probably quiet even before the nanovirus,” Ella said. “One hundred fifty people.”
“True.”
“There’s a convenience store,” she said, pointing. “Maybe they’ve got something to eat. And water, maybe. We should check it out.”
“Do you think it’s safe?” he asked. “What if there are still people here?”
“Honestly? I’m willing to risk it for some food,” she said. “We have to eat. And we definitely need water, especially if we’re going to keep walking.”
“Right.” He squared his shoulders. “Let’s do this, then.”
Entering the town felt like trespassing, like they were somewhere they shouldn’t be. Adam kept expecting people to come bursting out of the tiny houses or the stalled cars, weapons in hand, screaming at the intruders. Attacking. But no one came.
“I don’t think there’s anyone here,” Ella said quietly.
“What do you think happened to them?” Adam asked. “Do you think everyone left town?”
“I don’t know why they would,” she said. “A town like this seems like a pretty safe place to hole up in a crisis. No, I think…” she swallowed so hard he could hear it. “I think they’re probably dead.”
“All of them?”
“In such a small community…the virus would have traveled pretty fast, I think.”
“You’re probably right—” Adam turned a corner and came to an abrupt halt. “Oh. Oh, God.”
“What?”
“No, don’t—”
He tried to step in front of her, to stop her from looking, but it was too late. She had seen.
Ella paled, and the duffel bag slipped down her arm and landed on the road in front of them.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, raising a hand to her mouth.
Adam’s stomach turned.
It was a grave.
It was a pyre.
Just as the people of San Francisco had done, the people of Salt Cove had dragged their dead to a common location to be burned. But now, instead of looking at a massive fire from a distance, Adam was seeing the aftereffects of the fire. And he was seeing them up close.
Charred skeletons. Blackened bones piled in a heap in the middle of the road.
He couldn’t be sure how many people it had been, but it looked like dozens. Most of the population of Salt Cove. He might have even thought it was everyone who had lived here, if not for the fact that somebody must have been alive to light the fire.
He didn’t envy that person. All the horrible things he’d seen and done so far felt like nothing next to the idea of dragging the bodies of everyone he’d known to the center of town and lighting them on fire.
And the fires had happened before the EMP, he thought. That meant that the bots had still been active when this had happened. God. How had anyone brought themselves to handle all these bodies, knowing that they might be contagious? Knowing that the plague might be passed on?
Maybe it was passed on. Maybe whoever set this fire got sick and died somewhere else.
Adam couldn’t stand to look at it. He picked up the duffel bag, took Ella by the hand, and led her back the way they had come.
When they were several blocks away, Adam stopped and sat on the curb. He pulled out the water bottle. “I think we’ve earned this,” he said quietly.
“Can you keep it down?” she asked him.
“Yes.”
“Don’t drink if you can’t. We can’t waste the water.”
He nodded and took a cautious sip, testing himself. As disturbed as he was by what he had seen, it hadn’t muted his thirst or his hunger. The water went down easily. He passed the bottle to Ella and dug out a couple of granola bars.
“How many more of these do we have?” she asked, ripping into hers.
“At least three. Probably more.” He took a bite and chewed vigorously. He should eat slowly, he knew, make the food last, but he was too hungry to hold back. “Do you think we should look around a little? We could hit up that convenience store.”
Ella nodded and got to her feet.
The two of them approached the convenience store, but Adam could tell well before they reached it that they wouldn’t find anything to help them here. The front window facing the street had been smashed, and he could see in to the many racks of merchandise. Most of them were bare, as were the built-in coolers along the wall. Only the magazines at the very front of the store remained untouched.
Ella shivered. “This place is creepy,” she said. “Maybe we shouldn’t have come here. Let’s go, Adam. We have a long way to walk, and—and I really don’t like it here.”
He couldn’t argue with that. “At least we know,” he said.
“God, I hope it’s not like this in Napa Bay.”
It was good to know that she was aware of the possibility, that she hadn’t pinned all her hopes on Napa Bay being their salvation. But he hated to see her worry.
“There’s no reason to think it will be,” he said. “One trashed town doesn’t mean every town will be trashed.”
“I’m sure there are looters everywhere,” she said. “And…and bodies.”
Burned bodies, she meant.
“Napa Bay is a bigger town than Salt Cove,” he said. “Maybe that means there are more likely to be survivors.”
“Maybe.”
They walked on.
The next road sign they passed indicated that Napa Bay was thirty miles away. Adam felt delirious. Had they really only covered five miles? It felt like they’d been traveling for hours.
“Gas station.” Ella pointed it out.
“Do you want to go?” Adam asked. “It might be like the convenience store. Raided. Empty.”
“Might be,” she agreed. “But at least there won’t be…you know.”
“A pile of the dead?”
“Yeah.” She shivered again. “How’s the water holding up?”
“We don’t have as much as I’d like.”
Ella nodded. “We should go to the gas station then,” she said. “Even if we don’t find water, we might find something useful. More food, or some kind of tool. Some gas stations sell pocketknives, don’t they?”
“Right,” Adam said. He veered off the road toward the gas station. “Plus, if we got the right materials, we could build traps for small game.”
“What would you use to do that?” Ella asked.
“Oh, I have no idea,” he said. “I’ll know it when I see it, maybe.”
“You’re awfully optimistic,” she said.
“I try.” He gave her a little grin, and she returned it.
If he could keep her smiling, he thought, and she could keep up the strength and determination she’d exhibited so far, they just might make it. They might be able to function together as a team and support each other. They might be able to figure out a way to survive.
Of course, it would help if there was something worthwhile in this gas station, too.
Adam approached the building slowly and pulled the door open. His heart sank. Although nothing was broken, it was clear that this place had been ransacked, just like the warehouse where they’d spent the night, just like the convenience store in Salt Cove. There were the same bare shelves and the same empty coolers.
“There’s nothing here,” Ella said heavily. “We should have known.”
Adam wracked his brain for something encouraging to say, something uplifting that would make her feel better about their situation, but he came up empty.
“We might as well at least look around the place,” he said. “Double-check before we leave. Maybe there’s…I don’t know. Maybe there’s something left that we’re just not seeing.”
“No
one would have left anything behind,” Ella said. “This place was cleaned out. It’s over, Adam. We’ve got to move on.”
“Humor me,” he said. “Let’s just look, okay?”
She eyed him skeptically. He didn’t blame her. She was almost certainly right. But it was so hard to accept another disappointment so soon after the last one. It was so hard to walk away from this place.
There must be something, he thought desperately. A dropped candy bar that the looters missed in their hurry. A bottle of soda that got stuck at the back of the cooler. Something. Anything.
But there was nothing. Adam moved from one cooler to the next, opening the doors and reaching all the way to the back, feeling around for the shape of a bottle in the darkness. Nothing.
He heard Ella moving around on the other side of the store and felt a pang of guilt. I should have just left when she wanted to go. I shouldn’t have made her do this. It’s just making it harder.
“Adam?” she called.
“Yeah.” He stood up. “There’s nothing over here either. I’m sorry. I just wanted to believe we’d get lucky. You were right. Let’s go.”
“No, it isn’t that,” she said. “I think—I think I’ve found something.”
“What? What kind of thing?” Images flashed through his head. A jug of water. A case of soda. Trail mix. Anything.
“There are doors back here,” she said.
“Doors?” He crossed the room to her side. Sure enough, a large set of double doors bearing a padlock stood at the front corner of the station.
“I wonder where these go,” she said. “And why they’re locked.”
Adam didn’t answer. He opened the duffel bag, fumbled around inside for a minute, and pulled out the can opener.
“What are you going to do with that?” Ella asked.
“I’m going to try to open the doors.”
“With a can opener?”
He raised his arm and brought the head of the can opener down hard on the lock. It shook, but held.
Escape The Dark (Book 3): Into The Ruins Page 6