by Kate Morris
“Oh, no,” she said. “Does he have anyone else at home with him?”
He shook his head. “No, that’s it. That’s his whole family. He moved here from Alabama a few years ago to play for our school. His folks thought it was a good move so he could get a scholarship.”
“That’s so horrible, Elijah,” she commented. She wanted to give him a hug or something, anything to make him feel better, but Wren just wasn’t good at that sort of interaction. Would a pat on the back be weird? Instead, she followed him back into the den.
“I’m going to Jeremy’s,” he told his brother, who immediately stood up.
“Why?”
“He just lost his dad and little sister, both last night. Now his mom’s got it and is in the hospital, too.”
“E, that’s not a good idea, man,” Alex said. “His whole family’s gettin’ wiped out by this shit? That means he’s been exposed, too.”
“I know,” Elijah said. “But he doesn’t have anyone else, Alex.”
“I know, little brother,” he said with genuine sympathy. “But he could infect us all.”
“Probably not you,” Elijah told him. “They said if you’ve had RF1, you won’t get RF2.”
“Yeah, like I believe these morons,” his brother said, showing a very cynical side of himself. “I have to say no, Elijah. You can’t go. If you get exposed, you could bring it back here and infect everyone else.”
“He’s right,” Lila agreed. “I’ve got to think about Hope.”
“If he goes a week or so without getting sick, he could come here. Move in or whatever,” Alex offered.
“But…”
“I know how you feel, man,” Alex said. “I like Jeremy, too. He’s a good kid, but we can’t take that chance.”
“This is bullshit,” Elijah said, storming out of the den and up the stairs. Wren followed.
He went into his room and almost shut the door in her face before catching sight of her at the last second.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you were coming with me,” he apologized. “I need to call him back and tell him.”
“Do you want some privacy?”
He looked like he was considering it. Then Elijah shook his head, “No, will you stay?”
Wren nodded and followed him into his room. He shut the door, and she locked it after he moved away. It was a painful conversation to listen to, him telling his best friend that he essentially couldn’t be there for him in his darkest hour. Jeremy seemed to understand, though, and didn’t sound like he blamed Alex or Elijah for keeping their distance. Elijah told him to scrub down his house with bleach water and try and get some rest. The call ended well, but Wren couldn’t help but feel sorry for Jeremy. She knew exactly how he felt tonight.
She approached his bed and sat gingerly. Even with everything going on in the world, Elijah had made his bed this morning. It made her grin slightly.
He was leaning back against his desk with his arms crossed as if he were trying to weigh out something important.
“It’s probably not a good idea, Elijah,” she emphasized to discourage him from visiting Jeremy.
He shoved away from the desk and went to the window to glance through the wooden slats. They made sure to leave cracks when they’d boarded them up so that they could see out. Wren joined him near the window.
“I’m sorry about your friend,” she said and laid a hand on his bicep, which jumped under her touch. Elijah looked down at her, not really seeing her because his mind was on his friend. Then he snapped out of it and turned toward her.
He exhaled and nodded. “Thanks. I’m just worried about him.”
“I know.” She gave his arm a squeeze.
“Hey,” he said softly and slid his hands up near her shoulders and left them on the outsides of her arms. “You wanted to talk to me later. I’m sorry. I forgot about that.”
Wren wrinkled her nose and looked away, “No, that’s okay.”
“What did you want to talk about?”
She pulled out of his grasp and meandered away, looking at his many, many trophies on shelves, “Doesn’t matter. Another time. It’s not that important.”
“If it was important enough to bring up in the first place, then it is. Tell me. What is it?”
She really didn’t want to discuss it now. It was not a good time to broach such a serious topic. She tried not to jump so obviously when he turned on music behind her at his desk.
“You know what today is?” he asked and tapped her shoulder.
“Um, the eighteenth?”
“I think it’s actually the nineteenth,” he corrected and turned her around to face him by applying pressure to her shoulders. “And it’s Saturday.”
“Oh, okay,” she said, not understanding why the date meant so much to him. She was about to ask when he explained it to her anyway.
“It’s homecoming,” he said. “We’re supposed to be at the homecoming dance together.”
“Oh, that,” she replied with a frown.
“Not big into school dances, huh?” he asked.
Wren shrugged, “I don’t know. I’ve never been to one.”
“Really? You’ve been to a ton of different schools. You never went to a school dance?”
She furrowed her brow at him. “Seriously? I’m not even allowed to have friends, Elijah. Let alone go to a school dance where pictures are taken and all that. I don’t exactly…”
Wren didn’t want to finish. It was all too embarrassing.
“What?” he prodded, of course.
She shook her head.
“You don’t exactly what?”
She took a deep breath and exhaled it shakily, “I’m not exactly a popular girl in any of the schools I’ve attended. I don’t make friends. I don’t have boyfriends. I don’t go to parties, not that anyone would invite me. Everything I did at school was intentional, practiced to keep people away.”
“Yeah, but that’s because you weren’t allowed to have friends,” he conceded with a nonchalant shrug. “That’s okay. I get it. But it doesn’t have to be like that now. For now, it’s just you and me. No schools. No rules from Jamie. Just us. And this, m’lady, is our homecoming dance.”
She smiled unsurely, “What?”
He held out his hand, which she took. “Can I have this dance, Miss Foster?”
Wren immediately tried to pull back, but Elijah’s hand trapped her. “No. I don’t…I don’t dance. You know. At all. I don’t know how or anything.”
This was even more embarrassing than admitting the obvious, what he already knew or deduced, that she had no friends. This was humiliating.
“I-I should go to my room probably,” she mumbled uncomfortably.
“Not a chance,” he stated and tugged her gently until his other arm was coiled around her waist while he kept hold of her hand.
“Elijah,” she said quietly as if it would make it easier to say, “I don’t know how to dance.”
“It’s a slow song,” he commented about the music in the background. “Not a whole lot of actual dancing required, Foster. Just sway. Stand close. Listen to the music. Pretty simple. Make out.”
She sent him a glare.
“Right, not the making out part. Just…two friends sharing a dance.” He led and moved them slowly back and forth. “Also, relax,” he said with a grin that made her blush like a loser. She could feel her cheeks burning. “That helps. And, Wren?”
She looked up at him when he didn’t finish.
“Breathe,” he demanded with a twinkle in his light brown eyes. “I don’t want to have to give you mouth to mouth out here on the dance floor in front of the whole school. Geeze.”
She smiled widely, even laughed once, and did breathe. He had a way about him that made her feel…happy. It was a strange but not totally foreign feeling. She just hadn’t visited that spot in her heart for a long time. Elijah was her first friend in four years.
“You’re forgetting I’m only at this dance by means of coercion to get
you out my window,” she reminded him, to which he laughed. Wren stared at him. He was so confident. Quarterback of a football team, Mr. All Star scholarship winner, blonde, American superstar athlete. And she was Wren. A girl with a fake name, no family, no home, no friends, nothing. Suddenly, she felt ashamed of herself and tried to glance away. Elijah didn’t allow it.
A tear threatened to escape, and when she blinked, it did. Elijah whisked it away.
“How’d you ever walk into my life?” he asked so poignantly. “How did- by dumb luck or fate or whatever you call it- did you end up in my school, in my classes, in my life, Wren Foster?”
She offered up a tiny, helpless shrug, feeling so small and insignificant in his giant shadow. He just grinned down at her but without the teasing and the dimples this time
After another moment, his thick brows tightened together as he observed, “You’re not-you’re not like other girls.”
“I know. Sorry.”
He grinned. “Never apologize for that. Ever. That’s why I like you.”
She swallowed hard and tried to look away. Elijah turned her head back to face him.
“I just…I’m nobody, Elijah. I have nothing. No family, not even my name anymore. Definitely no friends.”
“You’re not a nobody, Wren, not to me,” he told her softly. “You’re this annoying new girl. You’re mean and nasty and off-putting.
“Gee, thanks,” she said, rearing back with a sneer on her face.
“But then I realized you aren’t all that. Those were all just walls you built around yourself to keep yourself safe.”
Wren allowed her eyes to dart away to keep from having to look at Elijah. She’d been so careful not to let anyone in, but apparently, it hadn’t worked on him.
“You aren’t just the mean new girl,” he said. “You sure as hell aren’t a loser. You’re a survivor.”
This brought her eyes back up to meet his. She wanted so badly to ask him something but couldn’t muster the courage to do it.
Outside, nearby from the sounds of it, a siren went off, interrupting her anyway. It sounded like a fire department’s signal.
“What is…” she asked and was cut off by the sounds of helicopters flying low over his house.
“I don’t know,” he said. “C’mon, let’s go downstairs.”
He broke away from her but held Wren’s hand, leading her out of his room and down to the first floor again. She pulled her hand free on the last step down because they were met in the foyer by Alex and Lila. Thankfully, Hope was still asleep.
“The local news came on,” Lila told them. “They said on the Cleveland news after you guys left that curfews would be put in place starting tonight. Do you think that siren was for a curfew?”
She was asking Alex, who Wren knew she trusted. Wren trusted Elijah, but she wasn’t sure about his brother yet.
“Maybe. Not sure,” he said to her.
A low rumble under their feet caused Wren to feel a building dread that even the sirens that were still cycling couldn’t.
“What the hell was that?” Lila asked what she was thinking.
“Bombs,” Alex answered. “Grenades maybe. Not sure.”
“If it vibrated our house, it had to be close,” Elijah commented, getting a nod from his brother.
“I’m gonna check it out,” he said.
“What? No way, Alex. You’re still weak,” Elijah interjected and placed a hand against his brother’s chest as he moved toward the doorway leading to the dining and kitchen areas. “I’ll go.”
“No, Elijah,” Alex rejected. “You can’t go out there alone.”
“I’ll go with him,” Wren volunteered, drawing Alex’s speculative stare. “I can handle myself. I’ve been going with him and Jamie on trips for supplies and…other stuff. I can do it. I want to.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Elijah input.
She shot him a look that let him know his place, which didn’t seem to affect him the way she’d hoped.
“I can go with you,” she argued. “It’s better than going alone.”
“Go on foot,” Alex instructed as if he had come to a quick conclusion. “You don’t want to get blocked in or stopped from coming back by the military. They said no cars on the roads after dark. Take Wren. She’s right. You shouldn’t go alone. Stay close together. Remember when we used to go to Uncle Jasper’s and play airsoft in his barns?”
She had no idea what he was talking about, but Elijah nodded.
“Remember the tactical maneuvers we worked on from studying military stuff on the internet? It’s just like that, E. Be careful. Stay on guard. Pay attention. Move like you’re sneaking around. Try to stay low. Make yourself a small target if it comes to that.”
Elijah nodded.
“I could go,” Alex said again, this time with less confidence. He looked exhausted.
“You just came out of a coma, A,” Elijah reminded him. “We’re good. We got this.”
“Take the shotgun, but only use it if you have to. It makes too much of a bang. Try not to draw attention to yourselves. The sun has set. It’s nighttime. It’s their time.”
“Right,” Elijah nodded with a grim expression on his face. His dimples were showing but not because he was smiling.
Nobody smiled. ‘Their time’ meant the night crawlers. They were more active at night. Wren felt a chill flow through her as she holstered her pistol on her hip this time and pulled on a jacket to go out into their territory during their time.
Chapter Twenty-seven
They jogged through his neighborhood, the noise of their feet slapping against the paved roads camouflaged by the constant cycle of the firehouse signal blaring two blocks away. It usually didn’t repeat so many times. And then, just as suddenly as it had started, it abruptly stopped. The unexpected silence felt more nerve-wracking than the wailing of the siren. He even paused. Wren stopped right beside him.
Then another explosion got their attention.
“This way,” he said and jogged in the direction where the pavement-jarring ruckus had come from.
Elijah noticed that the sounds of the neighborhood dogs and non-nocturnal animals were not so prevalent on this night. Maybe the military was doing a good job rounding up those RF2 infected people, and their numbers were dwindling. He hoped that were true.
As they came to an intersection, the main drag through town, Elijah slowed and led Wren over to hide behind some tall bushes in a person’s yard. The lights in the house were out. So were a lot of the windows, which led him to believe it had already been looted.
“I don’t see anything,” he said to her, to which she shook her head to imply she didn’t, either. Elijah didn’t rise and move forward again, though. He wanted to observe a few moments to make sure it was safe.
He could see a coffee shop across the street, a popular hang-out for the teens in his school. The windows were now boarded up, too. The businesses flanking either side of the coffee shop matched it with window coverings now consisting of plywood spray-painted with warnings to stay out.
“Elijah, look,” she said, pointing into the distance.
He could see it, too. An orangish glow lighting the dark sky coming from about a half-mile or so away, or so it seemed.
They both ducked as two military helicopters flew over, going north toward the bigger cities. Elijah nodded to Wren, and they dashed across the street toward the direction of the glow in the sky. He had to see for himself what was going on.
Beside him, Wren jumped when the sounds of gunfire erupted probably a block away from them. He picked up the pace, not wanting to stick around and find out what that was all about. Many ideas floated through his mind. Everything from people shooting to steal from each other, people defending their homes, night crawlers being shot by civilians or the military. All of those scenarios kept him moving away from and not toward it.
“This way,” he said, leading her down an alleyway. “The rec center’s close by.”
/> “What’s that?”
He paused to explain and made sure to watch either end of the alley as he did so. “It used to be closer to the other end of town. As the city grew, about twenty years ago, they donated that building to a boys and girls club and opened a new recreation center. It’s a big complex. Haven’t you driven by it?”
She shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe.”
“You wouldn’t have missed it. The place is huge. Indoor water park, running tracks, rock climbing walls…”
He paused, to which she prompted, “What’s wrong?”
“I was just thinking that might be a good place to loot if nobody has yet.”
“Why? Need some chlorine for your pool?”
He chuckled. “I was thinking of food. They have a couple snack bars in there.”
“Slushie machine?”
He grinned, finding her ornery streak humorous. “Yeah, maybe. What flavor?”
“Cherry, of course. Duh.”
“Cherry it is, then,” he agreed with a nod. “They’d also have a lot of stuff like towels.”
“We could check it out tonight if you want to,” she suggested.
He grinned, this time at her funny accent. ‘Want’ sounded more like ‘waren’t.’ She was so damn cute, his buddy. “Yeah, sure. We’ll take a look. Let’s see what that fire is first.”
“’Kay. Lead the way, captain.”
He smiled, couldn’t help himself, and leaned down and pinched her cheek lightly. It earned him a surprised look. Elijah didn’t miss the smile edging onto her lips. He returned it, and they moved out.
As they crept closer and closer to the orange glow, Elijah felt a foreboding haze wash over him that diminished his curiosity. It grew into a feeling of dread as they approached the grade school, supposedly a medical site where people were supposed to drop off their sick relatives or friends or neighbors. He stopped her from moving forward and took refuge behind some trees in a small cluster of wooded land behind a neighborhood that butted up to the start of the school property.
“Bloody ‘ell,” she swore quietly.
“Yeah,” he concurred as they watched the school he’d attended as a little tyke burn a brilliant orange-red. The flames actually hurt his eyes, they were so bright.