Once the road came into sight again she picked up her pace, the contents of the box sloshing around with a metallic noise as her feet made contact with the ground. Marena and Katrina had already loaded the boxes they'd carried into the back of the new truck. As the rest of the group jogged up to join them the girl's faces looked hollow and empty, as if they were in some other world- especially Katrina.
"You're a lucky bitch, you know that?" Shay said, gazing into the light brown eyes of her friend. She knew Marena was capable of the things she did, but never in a million years would she have expected them from Katrina. It wasn't like her. Someone who was so immature and crude wasn't a likely candidate to step up and defend their friends, especially in the violent way the situation called for, yet she had done it. She could read the unspeakable horrors in her friend's eyes- Katrina didn't need to say a word. She knew exactly the inner turmoil she was going through.
"Of course I know." Katrina responded, trying to brush it off with a weak laugh. Her efforts were notably transparent.
"Maybe you and Marena should make the decisions around here," she said with a laugh, trying to pass it as a joke. Marena raised an eyebrow in response as if to say don't push your burden onto me. Shay could completely understand why she wouldn't want it.
"You did the exact same things we did, Shay." Katrina quickly shot back, all humor and childlessness devoid from her voice. It felt odd seeing her without a drop of immaturity in her being. Did I seem this aloof after I killed the agents at the motel? She wondered.
She didn't respond. Katrina was right and there wasn't anything worth arguing over. She didn't want to continue to dwell on it for the sake of both of them. She knew Marena dealt with things in a similar way, arguing with herself until she could make sense of what she'd done, but Katrina… she didn't exactly have the best coping methods. It was reflected clearly by the shell of her usually loud personality.
They made no drag out of loading the boxes into the back, Marena cracking open the lids and spreading the blankets over the floor to make the ride more comfortable. As soon as everyone had settled in Shay pulled it shut. After making her way back to the front she was alone for a few moments. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly as the passenger door opened beside her. Opening one eye a sliver she expected to see Carson, but instead found Katrina buckling herself in. She'd wiped away the blood and dirt from her body but the absent look was still there in her eyes. She didn't utter a word.
They drove in silence for ages. They'd long since left the back roads behind, switching over to the highway as soon as possible. She didn't feel comfortable going anything less than five above the speed limit until they were at least two hours away from the bar. She wasn't worried about troopers or tickets- she'd seen five cars in the past hour.
"Are you alright?" She asked quietly, not really expecting an answer. Katrina's face was distant, eyes transfixed on the outside world as it blurred past.
"Totally fine. I shot like three people, watched Marena, one of the strongest people I know surrender, and saw pieces of brain out the back of someone's skull. Yup, definitely fine." Katrina spat back quickly, her voice low and cold. Something flickered in her light brown eyes, something a little like a warning. She didn't want to discuss it, but from personal experience, Shay knew words could help.
"Marena surrendered?" She asked, stunned. She never would have expected her to give in so easily.
"Yeah. I took them out for her." Katrina replied, hissing out the final three words as if she was bitter towards his decision to do so. Maybe it was just the fact she had to pull the trigger on a living being to save someone so strong. She wouldn't know. She and Katrina weren't much alike- she wouldn't be able to know how the girl was dealing with it.
Silence reclaimed the cabin after the little spat. Maybe it was for the best to just let Katrina sit in silence and come to terms with what she'd done. Shay feared she might say the wrong thing and come across as insensitive, as she often did. She kept her eyes forward on the road, fingers numbly grasping the wheel.
A sign flashed by as they drove past-KANSAS CITY 156 MILES. A pang of homesickness coursed through her. She wanted to go home. She missed her family, friends, and the sense of normalcy she'd grown up around- only, was any of it still there? The Blue Plague was spreading like wildfire back home. The fates of her friends and family were up in the air, yet it was something she didn't like to dwell upon, for the pessimist in her caused her to imagine the worst- they were dead. All of them. Dead.
"I want to go home," croaked a weary Katrina. Shay flickered her eyes over to her friend sitting in the passenger seat, her forehead pressed up against the window.
"We can't. You know that." She despised the answer, but she knew it was true. They couldn't go home- bad things would follow if they did. Death would only be one.
Katrina never responded, for she had fallen back into the pit of silence that had consumed her moments before. She could sense any hope for conversation had died seemingly along with her friend's vulgar spirit. She'd never seen Katrina mature, more so quiet, in her life.
She took the next exit, needing to stretch her legs and get something to eat. Even if it was just a bag of chips it would sustain her for at least a few more hours until they could find somewhere to crash for the night. She hadn't obtained any sustenance, solid or liquid, since late last night, probably twelve hours or so before. She couldn't put her hunger off anymore, and she was sure the others felt the same.
The parking lot of a nearby gas station was totally empty. Deciding an empty place would be their best bet for a peaceful encounter with other people she made a sharp turn, parking the truck as quickly as she could.
"You hungry?" She asked Katrina, turning to the reddish-brown haired girl. Katrina limply nodded to reply. The two girls exited the truck, stopping immediately to stretch once their feet were on the asphalt. She cocked her head to the side and discovered something that made her heart sink- eight posters lined the windows, filled with eight familiar faces.
She took several steps closer to the posters, just a small distance away from an image of her face in black and white. It was the same picture she'd seen on the news two days ago, only this time enlarged to fit a black square in the center of the poster. The word WANTED was written above her head in bold font, as it was with all other seven posters. Beneath her picture the word REWARD sent her stomach into knots. Two days ago there'd been a seventy-five thousand dollar bounty. Now the bounty to her name had been raised to one-hundred and ten thousand. She'd only killed four people, and the fourth had been three hours ago. The posters looked new, but not that new.
"Those bastards! I'm worth way more than seventy-five thousand!" Katrina shouted, taking hold of her poster and ripping it off the glass. "I'm destroying this for inaccuracy." She decreed, and proceeded to rip the poster down the middle.
"Glad to see we have the old Katrina back," Shay muttered, grinning at her friend. Katrina's face lightened the ghost of a smile on her lips.
"Being depressed is boring, especially when somebody pisses me off."
Looking over the other posters, she discovered with horror her bounty had been the only one that had been raised- the others remained at seventy-five thousand. Checking to read hers again, it only said she was wanted for murder or a government agent and being a Carrier. It didn't even list how many. These were obviously made before the shootout at the bar earlier that day- once news of that came in, how high would Marena and Katrina's be raised? How high would hers? She swallowed a lump in her throat at the thought.
"Let's just get the food and get out here," she instructed shakily, hoping whoever was inside didn't intend to claim the bounties. Katrina nodded and shouldered her way past Shay and into the gas station, the bell chiming as she did. Shay followed, letting the glass door slam shut behind her.
To her surprise there was nobody inside. The television behind the service desk was blaring, yet besides the two girls there were no signs of life.
"Quick, grab a bunch of shit and go. We don't have any money."
Katrina nodded, quickly grabbing up bags of chips and candy. Shay strode to the back and flung open one of the doors to the drink refrigerator, taking six bottles of water. Oh well they can share she thought as she dropped the sixth bottle onto the chipping tile floor, cursing as the lid popped off and soaked her shoe.
"Screw this," she growled and kicked the spewing water bottle away, sending water flying in every direction as she did. Making her way back to the food she snatched up a few bags of this and that, praying she didn't drop anything else.
"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?" A voice shouted from behind them. She twisted her head around to see a man, wet paper towel still in his hand as he stood in the doorway to the restroom. So that's where they'd been.
Without thinking she bolted for the door, merchandise slipping out of her arms as she did. She plowed shoulder-first into the glass door, swinging it open with the force from her sprint. She fled the gas station with Katrina hot on her heels, never looking back to see if the man was chasing them.
Chapter 17
They'd successfully escaped the gas station without any event. They drove fast for a while, trying to put as much distance they possibly could between them and that place in the case the guy called the cops or decided to chase them himself. Katrina had returned to her old self and the two were having a good time, snacking and laughing at dirty jokes. The mood was light until Katrina saw the billboard.
"Shay, look." She said blankly, pointing to something out the windshield. She slowed the truck down to get a better view. There was a billboard poised maybe twenty feet off the shoulder of the highway, the pictures on its surface making her stomach do backflips- on that billboard were their pictures.
Their faces didn't look right to her. They seemed stretched, contorted and bloated to fit the proper sizing of the billboard. It was the exact same pictures she'd seen the news channels use over and over again- all eight of their faces lined in a row, "HAVE YOU SEEN THESE INDIVIDUALS" written in yellow above their heads. Newscasts, newspapers and god knows what else were being used to embed their faces into the minds of every American, yet she never figured they'd use a billboard. Apparently, she was wrong.
"Oh my god, my nose looks huge!" Katrina wailed as her hands flew to cover her nose. "Is it really that big?" She asked distraughtly as she rubbed her hands along the bridge of her nose.
"No, it's fine. It's always been fine." She grumbled, turning her head away from Katrina. They needed to do something about the billboard. If only someone had spray paint, Shay thought deviously. That would be perfect.
She placed her hand on the handle of the door, contemplating on whether or not she should get out. If someone, somehow, had spray paint, would it be a risk worth taking? Although the highway was empty and it had been several hours since the gunfight at the bar she knew it would be best to keep moving, but her rebellious spirit won her over.
Ignoring her better logic she opened the door and hopped down onto the road, walking to the other side where Katrina was beginning to head around to the back. Shay whistled to get her attention and she stopped, turning around to face her.
"Knowing you, you wouldn't happen to be aware of the whereabouts of a can of spray paint, would you?" She asked casually, struggling to keep a straight face as she did.
Katrina raised an eyebrow at her and glared at her as if she'd just proposed the most idiotic thing in the world. She proceeded to scrunch up her face and cross her eyes, making a duh sound as she did. Shay rolled her eyes. The reddish-brown haired girl looked completely stupid. If only Owen would see half the faces his girlfriend made.
"Yeah, I always make sure to have my can of spray paint at my side." Katrina muttered. "Never know when I'll need to draw a mustache on a giant version of my profile picture."
"Who said we'd be drawing mustaches?"
"Nobody here is the next Picasso, so I promise you most of them will do childish stuff like that."
"You included?" Shay shot back, crossing her arms. Katrina grinned widely.
"Duh!"
A metallic noise echoed from the asphalt somewhere near her feet. Fear rushed through her as she looked down, expecting to find a grenade. In the place of an explosive that would have most likely killed all of them was a small silver can. She recognized what it was almost immediately.
"Where did that come from?" She asked, glancing to Katrina as if expecting her to supply an answer. Instead she shrugged her shoulders.
"Found it in one of the boxes." A male voice said. Standing behind Katrina were Carson and Marena, Marena holding another silver can in her hand. "You should really talk quieter sometimes, because I know how much you hate eavesdropping." He continued, winking at her as he did.
The grass kissed the skin just below her knees as she made her way through the brush towards the billboard. She was walking on her tiptoes, driven by the fear that if she didn't a spider or tick would spring at her exposed legs from the grass. She hated all bugs, spiders especially.
A few more steps and she was under the late afternoon shadow cast by the billboard, being totally dwarfed in size. It had been a while since she'd felt so small next to buildings- the last time had been the final time she'd been in the city she'd grown up in since she was four, the skyscrapers rising up all around. Scenes from that day came flashing back into her mind- Cassie dying, the explosion, infecting the man, everyone's wounds- it all returned in one unpleasant wave she'd been trying to suppress. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping it would stuff the memories back into oblivion, but to no avail.
"Shay. Shay!" Someone yelling her name sent her snapping back into reality, opening her eyes almost as quickly as she'd shut them. Carson's voice instantly eradicated the violent memories from her mind- something she was thankful for. She found Carson, Marena, Katrina, Kyleigh and Owen waiting by the pole that supported the billboard, Marena's hands already on one of the rungs of the ladder. "You coming?"
A little embarrassed she dipped her head down and briskly walked over to the rest of them. Up close she hadn't gotten a good idea of how high the billboard was before now- at least thirty feet or so. She wasn't scared of heights, but with no railing up there to keep them from falling she couldn't help but feel slightly neurotic.
As she arrived at the cluster of Carriers Marena took it as a signal to start climbing. The tall girl moved swiftly, almost as if she didn't have any fears to suppress whatsoever. When the pair was still young Marena had always been the one to climb as high as possible in trees while Shay struggled to go past the lowest branches. That was just how they worked, so different yet so alike. It created an unbreakable bond.
"Don't fall," she reminded them as Carson decided to start climbing after Marena. If something went wrong and both of them fell to their deaths she wasn't sure just what she'd do- losing the last two important people in her life in the same moment would shatter what was left of her sanity.
"Please, I've climbed trees higher than this." Marena rebutted, more than half way up. Carson didn't look as confident.
Katrina and Owen followed shortly after, leaving only Shay behind. She closed her eyes shut and exhaled slowly. She wasn't about to be embarrassed by being the only one not climbing to the top. She nervously placed her hands on the ladder, old paint chipping away as her palms gripped the rungs.
Her hands touched mud, the wet earth running between her fingers. She squealed with disgust and removed her hand to wipe it away on her denim shorts. She made the mistake of looking down.
Eyes suddenly bulging she grabbed on to the ladder for dear life. She'd been blissfully unaware to how high she'd climbed until she made the mistake of looking down. The ground seemed so distant now, nothing but hard earth to fall against if she slipped. Guns couldn't save her from this death. She rushed her other hand back to the ladder, gripping it so tightly her palms began to throb.
"It's alright, I got you."
She open
ed her eyes to see a face peeking down at her from a square in the mesh platform. She cleared the last few rungs without thinking twice. Carson extended his hand to her and she took it, using her feet to scramble up the last few inches to safety. Once she was off the ladder and something solid was beneath her the panic subsided.
She stood, the rusty platform feeling sturdy beneath her feet. Up here the wind was stronger, buffeting strands of blonde hair against her face, rendering her view. Surrounding them were miles of wilderness, rolling hills coated with thick forests, the green tops of trees all that was visible. Besides the wind there was almost no noise- either the highway was still adjacent of travelers or the noise didn't reach them here, drowned out by the wind. Whichever it was, she didn't care. Gray clouds hid blue sky, promising a thunderstorm later, most likely when night came. It didn't, however, stop it from being breathtakingly beautiful.
"Some view," Carson muttered, wrapping his arm around Shay's waist and pulling her closer. The warmth from his body kept her from shivering as a strong gust of wind buffeted her.
"It's worth embarrassing myself for."
"Nah, you needing me to save you is priceless. It's typically the other way around."
"You didn't save me, dipshit."
Carson shrugged and suppressed a laugh. She laughed too, wishing this wouldn't have to end. No more death, no more violence, just this. She'd never have to constantly worry about losing him if they could remain like this forever.
"I'd love to see Carson get called a dipshit a few more times, but we have a billboard to paint." Marena butted in, worming her way between the two with a grin. Shay groaned, silently cursing her best friend for ruining the moment.
"We can't paint it until we've read it," she responded, tone blank. Marena nodded.
The three turned around, having to tilt their necks up to be able to read the lines in large font above their heads. "HAVE YOU SEEN THESE INDIVIDUALS" was bolded and in larger front than the rest of the words beneath it, easily readable even from the highway. That wasn't even what bothered her- the sentences beneath it did. "These eight individuals are infected and knowingly spreading a highly-contagious virus. They are also capable of using firearms to kill and do so without remorse. If seen, call this number" Although she doubted all of that could be read from a driver's point of view, it still infuriated her. Whoever was creating the propaganda designed to spark a hate against them was taking pieces of the truth and weaving them together to form a lie. They were knowingly spreading a virus, but had only infected people on accident. There had never been an intended infection. They didn't kill without remorse; they did it only to stay alive. This was chalking them up to be child terrorists, not scared kids who were only doing what it took to stay alive. She tried to ignore the bounties places beneath their pictures.
Carriers Page 14