Perhaps Jon sensed her distress, or maybe he understood what she was going through. After Claire had been lying there for what must have been an hour, thinking she was alone in her conscious state, he got up and moved his bedding beside hers. It was dark where they had decided to make camp. The only light came from the moon and stars, and they had to shine through dirty windowpanes that had security gates drawn across them. Still, Claire’s vision had adapted enough to make out the word Jon said to her in sign language.
Scared.
He didn’t add the additional modifier to make it a question. Claire didn’t know if that was because he wasn’t sure she’d see it, or because he didn’t need to ask and just knew. Either way, she nodded. Jon nodded back, and then opened up his arms, inviting her to snuggle into them. It had been a long time since Jon had comforted Claire that way, but she didn’t refuse the offer. Jon had been one of her greatest protectors since the Day, and so she always felt safest around him. Curled up in his arms, she thought she might be able to sleep. At least, she was able to close her eyes.
***
Claire was uncertain how long she had managed to sleep, only that she was awoken by a hand gently clamping down across her mouth. It was a frightening way to wake up, but she understood rather rapidly that she wasn’t being threatened. The hand belonged to Jon, and he was making sure she stayed silent. Why he was doing that wasn’t, at first, clearly evident to Claire.
On the nearest sleeping mat, Rose had watched as Claire came awake. Her eyes flicked up to Jon and she nodded slightly, letting him know. Jon’s hand then slipped away from Claire’s mouth.
Moving as little as possible, Claire used her hands and expression to ask Rose what was going on. They were fortunate to have had someone who could teach them sign language after reaching the Diana, as it had proven to be invaluable at times like this for many people.
Possessing only one hand, Rose couldn’t fully sign back. All that was needed, however, was a pointing finger.
Claire’s eyes slid down toward her feet. They had all slept with their heads against the far wall, across the room from the window. As Claire realized that there were silhouettes in the shape of humans beyond the dirty glass, her body froze solid. The yellow light beyond them told her that it was morning, but not whether the forms outside were living or not. The layer of grime coated more of the bottom of the windows than the top, but it was enough to obscure the figures.
The longer Claire lay there, the more she was certain that they were zombies outside. They weren’t moving, just standing there, perfectly still. People would have moved by now. If it was an intimidation trick, there was no reason to keep it going for so long.
But if they were zombies, then what the hell were they doing out there? There was no reason for them to be drawn to that window, and if there had been, then why weren’t they trying to break in?
Claire knew she was breathing more rapidly than she should. Closing her eyes tight, she forced herself to take a slow, deep inhalation. When she opened her eyes once more, Rose was looking at Jon and pointing toward a little hallway that led deeper into the building. Claire felt Jon shrug in response. When he had entered the building with the others the previous night, they had only checked that the one room was secure, not the whole structure. The building was situated close enough to the container yard that it would have been searched for useful things years ago, so they hadn’t planned to do a sweep of it. The place was just meant to be a stopover for one night.
They waited several more minutes, and still the figures outside remained motionless. Claire had no idea what they were going to do.
5: James
4 Days After the Bombing
It was hard not to worry about what had happened to the people whose route took them across the nearest bridge. James had wanted to go and help them, but was under instructions not to stop. The path chosen for him and his partner didn’t take them across the bridge. In fact, the two of them were to travel much farther than anyone else. Evans had told them about many camps that were likely to be friendly. They couldn’t get to all of them and so had to narrow them down. Out of those selected, James and his partner, Katrina, were to travel to the one that was the farthest.
For the moment, they joined a larger group headed for another colony along their route because there was safety in numbers. James sat on the back of an old horse named Soot, who was almost completely deaf. He felt bad riding when so many others were walking, but his left foot was still healing. He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened to it. It could have been a bullet, or it might be that the man with the hatchet whom he had fought managed to connect a blow. There was also the possibility that it came about from the upheaval of land when the bombs went off. James didn’t know, since he had been surging with adrenaline at the time and, honestly, barely remembered the events at the Black Box. He hadn’t realized that something had happened to his foot until after he had climbed over the fence and landed on the other side. With all the running and then hobbling he had done on the foot, not even the doctors who looked at it could say for certain what had happened. All James knew was that the end result was two missing toes, and a lot of time spent keeping weight off his foot, while wearing bandages instead of boots. Even now, as he rode on Soot’s back, his wounded foot was exposed.
Soot was an old horse, but James thought he was perfect for their present job. He was what they called a push-button horse. Even little kids who had no idea how to ride, found it easy to get Soot to go where they wanted. Just a slight tug on the reins would get him to turn, and even a fairly weak kick with one heel would cause him to either start walking, or pick up his speed. Perfect for James’ current condition.
Walking beside him was a much different kind of horse. The young, highly spirited Spark took a lot more effort to control, although for the moment, he was plodding along at the same pace as everyone else. Katrina didn’t need to ride like James did, but since they were going so far, Crichton insisted they both take horses. For now, Katrina had Spark carrying her gear, as well as some belonging to the people with whom they were travelling. She held Spark’s lead as they wandered down the streets, her rifle slung over one shoulder. Katrina was one of the few people who had been given the last of their remaining bullets. She had proven herself to be a phenomenal sharpshooter, but more importantly, she never fired in a panic, or when it wasn’t necessary. James was glad to have her with him, as he knew there were many other groups that didn’t have a single bullet among them.
Up ahead, White raised his hand to call for the group behind him to stop. He had been walking about a block ahead, making sure the way was safe for the dozen people travelling together. James wanted to urge Soot forward, to see whatever it was White was seeing from his position on the hill ahead, but a horse’s hooves were loud and could put the others in danger. James silently cursed his injury, which would have become a mantra were he not always coming up with creative new terms.
The group stood together for a tense minute. Katrina slid her rifle off her shoulder and handed off Spark’s lead. Glancing down at her, James could see that she wanted to move out of the street, over to the partial shelter of the one building they were near.
When White signalled everyone forward, the relief could be felt as a wave washing through them. James remained fairly tense, though, for White wasn’t moving. Whatever he saw up on the hill, he wanted everyone else to see before proceeding.
Astride Soot, James had a higher vantage point than anyone else, and so saw what lay ahead seconds before the others.
“Are those…?” someone beside James started to say before her voice died out.
James found himself nodding. “Lions.”
Up ahead, basking in the sunlight, lounged a large pride of lions. James was glad that he and the others were downwind of the big cats. Still, the hefty male had spotted them, his golden eyes watching what they would do next. There was enough distance between the humans and the lions that the animals didn’t feel
threatened. At least not yet.
“What are we going to do?” White asked without turning his head, addressing everyone within hearing.
“We find a way around,” James answered.
“Is no one else wondering what the fuck African lions are doing in Texas?” someone behind them asked, with a voice steeped in incredulity.
“They escaped or were released from the zoo,” someone else put simply. “Without a lot of us humans around anymore, it looks like they’re thriving here.”
“Wonderful.” James could practically hear the eye roll that accompanied that sarcasm.
“I like lions,” Katrina thought aloud. “Never thought I’d get to see one again.”
“Good for you, sweetheart. You’ll get a real good look when they’re eating your face,” the sarcastic guy told her.
“Want to know how I got so good at shooting?” Katrina asked him, in a perfectly calm voice. “Because before the Day I went to a rifle range a lot. I was practising to shoot the nuts off a guy who wouldn’t stop calling me things like baby, and honey, and sweetheart. I wouldn’t waste a bullet on you though: a knife will do fine.”
“Okay,” James interjected before the conversation could descend any further. “So do we head around them to the north, or to the south?” he asked, trying to get the group back on track and thinking about what was important.
“The north is the direction we’re eventually heading,” White pointed out.
“Yeah, but we’ll eventually hit the river going that way, limiting our options if we need to make another course change,” Katrina mentioned.
“I doubt we’ll need to,” said the man who had been so sarcastic earlier. James finally turned on his horse to see that it was Skip, putting a name to the voice. “I mean, what do you think will happen? More lions?”
“The river’s not that much of a barrier,” said someone who James thought was named Aaron. “Even if we can’t find a bridge across exactly when we need one, we can all swim, can’t we?” He had been a member of Evans’ party, and was thinking about maybe staying at the colony his team was going to contact. He had never actually been there; he was making the decision based on what he had heard about the place. Katrina had earlier introduced herself to everyone in the group, which James now felt he should have done instead of double-checking the horses and their packs. He’d ask Katrina later if he had the name right.
“Whichever way we go, I recommend we first walk backward,” suggested Lindsay, pointing to the lions. “That big guy doesn’t look too happy about us all standing around up here.”
James returned his attention to the lions and saw that she was right. The adult male was now standing as he stared at them, and so were a few of the females.
“All right everyone, back down the hill,” James ordered, turning Soot in a wide circle as if to shepherd them. He twisted around on the horse’s back in order to keep an eye on the lions for as long as possible. He was pleased to see one of the females lie back down, although it would have been much more comforting if it had been the male who had done that.
At the bottom of the hill, a quick vote was taken, and they decided to go north. They were too far west to take the bridge that several other groups were taking, so James wouldn’t be able to find out what had happened with the zombie horde there. He wouldn’t be able to find out until he got back. Not knowing anything about what was happening to anyone until he returned from this mission caused more anxiety than he expected. He had been on plenty of missions outside the Black Box’s fences, but this one felt very different. Maybe it was because the last time he had left for a few days, he had returned to find his home occupied by an enemy. While there was no reason to think anything like that could happen again, there had also been no reason to think something like that could happen in the first place. Not as fast as it had occurred, anyway.
As they moved north down a different street, James couldn’t help but look over his shoulder several times. The thought that the lions might follow them was one he shared with several others in the group, because he wasn’t the only person obsessively monitoring their tail.
“You’re going to get whiplash,” Katrina commented beside him.
“Better whiplash than a lion’s jaws around my throat.”
“If the lions felt like attacking us, they would probably come at us from the sides, or hide and wait for us up ahead.”
“That sounds more like wolves.”
“You don’t think lions are capable of intelligent pack hunting?”
“I honestly don’t know that much about lions, which is why I’m worried.”
“The only thing you need to know is that you can’t outrun them.”
“Great,” James sighed sarcastically.
“No, it’s useful information. It means you have to stand your ground and fight them. There’s no sense in trying to run away; you’ll only end up tired before you die.”
“I’d feel better about the whole standing your ground thing if I had more than just a knife to fight them off with.”
“Yeah, human bodies are pretty terrible at self-defence, aren’t they?”
James found himself nodding. “We’re certainly ill-equipped without our tools. Which oddly enough reminds me…” James bent over to keep everyone else from overhearing. “Before I make a fool out of myself later, what’s the name of the guy who was beside Skip when you threatened to cut his nuts off? Is that Aaron?”
“Yeah, that’s Aaron,” Katrina confirmed. She then went on to tell James everyone’s names just in case there was someone else he was unsure of.
“Would you really cut off Skip’s nuts?” James wondered.
“If he keeps being an annoying pig, yeah, I would.”
“Have you ever done that to a guy before?”
“Almost, but no. I wasn’t lying when I said why I went to the rifle range. I was going to shoot the nuts off my abusive husband. The zombies came and got him first though. I never was able to decide whether that was more satisfying or not.”
“Why shoot his nuts off? That seems…”
“Excessive?”
“Sure, let’s go with that.”
“It felt like a suitable punishment, and I didn’t have to be near him, which meant there was a chance I could get away with it. Yeah, I could have been caught and gone to jail, but at that point, I would have been willing to. It seemed worth it.”
“I’ll make sure to stay on your good side then.”
“It’s not that hard to do: just don’t be a prick.”
James rode in silence for a minute before speaking to her again. “You don’t think you should apologize to Skip for threatening him?”
“Not in the slightest,” Katrina instantly answered.
“It’s not like he knew what kind of effect those words would have on you.”
“And now he does. If I apologize, then I’m telling him that his behaviour was okay, and that the problem was with me. I’m not going to do that. Maybe now he’ll think before he opens his mouth. I mean, he’s now an envoy for god’s sake; he needs to be diplomatic.”
James could see that there was no way he could change Katrina’s mind on the subject, and he wasn’t even sure he should. As long as she didn’t actually try to hurt anybody, he thought it would be okay.
They planned to walk until nightfall, at some point reaching the river and following it west. They could have crossed any of a handful of bridges, but they knew that the main line of the river eventually swung north, and their destination lay on the western side of that. They ended up travelling a couple of blocks south again, out of sight of the river, where there was a greater chance of finding overgrown home gardens.
It wasn’t until they started to look for a place to spend the night, that they had to deal with the lions again.
“We’re being followed,” said Belle, who had been bringing up the rear.
A few people were at first hopeful that she was just talking about some lone wanderer, but instant
ly grouped together once she clarified that it was lions. They knew when the big cats had drawn even closer by Spark’s agitation. Those near him had to be mindful of his nervously dancing hooves. Even Soot must have caught their scent, for he tossed his head uncharacteristically.
“We need to find somewhere to shelter from them,” White voiced what they all were thinking.
“Stay together,” James told everyone. “Keep your weapon in your hand. Don’t present an opening.”
They grouped around Spark, which actually calmed the horse somewhat. Forming a sort of ring around him, they could watch for the lions in all directions. Those facing backward linked arms to make sure they kept pace. Only James was outside the circle, as there wasn’t enough room for him and Soot within it. He stayed at the front, leading them as he stood in Soot’s stirrups for a higher vantage point. It caused his foot to hurt, but right now he had to ignore that.
“Why aren’t we just ducking into one of these houses?” Aaron wondered.
“We can’t be sure the lions haven’t learned to break through windows,” James told him.
“Well there aren’t any shops around here,” Belle pointed out. “I don’t think we’re going to find a place with bars over the glass anytime soon.”
Survival Instinct (Book 5): Social Instinct Page 7