by Kate Morris
“But it seems like it’s a little better here.”
He twisted his torso to look at her. “The electricity has been turning off a lot in the last week. Jamie said he’s not sure if the utilities will hold much longer. The gas shut off once the other day. Remember? The house got cold.”
Wren nodded. She’d had to bundle and stay in the den where Elijah built a fire in the fireplace.
“If that keeps going, the people are gonna freak out even worse than they already are,” he said, running a hand through his blonde hair. He looked tired and stressed. “Jamie and I are seeing a lot more violence and desperation in people. Those who aren’t infected are starting to realize this isn’t just gonna go on for a few weeks. Hell, this just started less than three months ago. Remember? It was around the first or second week of school.”
“Yeah, I remember. The pharmacy.”
He tucked her hair behind her ear. “Yeah. Honestly, I think we should start packing. Winter’s gonna set in soon. It’s going to get really cold if the gas shuts off. My uncle’s place, the farm, never had a furnace, not like ours. He has a wood-burning stove in the basement that got loaded in the morning and again later in the evening. It heated the whole house. I thought it was weird, but I think he was onto something.”
“Sounds like he was a smart man.”
He smiled, remembering his uncle with fondness. “Yeah, he was. They had neighbors. I remember them. We played with their kids sometimes. They were kinda’ strange, though.”
“Why? What do you mean by ‘strange’?”
“They were a big family, like I don’t know, ten kids or something. And they were all homeschooled.”
“Homeschooled, huh?”
“Yeah, they were cool but just different. They didn’t play sports in school or go to school at all. When I was a kid, I thought that was odd. At first, I was jealous. I didn’t understand how they made friends and stuff if they didn’t go to school.”
“I don’t know. Maybe through other means.”
“Yeah, maybe,” he agreed. “And that wasn’t all. Their parents were kind of odd, too.”
“What do you mean?”
“I remember my aunt making a comment one time when we were having dinner during one of our summer visits. I told her we were hanging out with the neighbor’s kids, and she made a funny face. Uncle Jasper didn’t like it. He got upset with her for it. But she said they were ‘raising heathens over there’.” He used air quotes to accentuate the point. “I asked Uncle Jasper the next day about it, but he said that she was just being snobbish. He said he actually commended the family for homeschooling their children and teaching them the old ways.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Well, their kids all played in the woods and explored and helped their mom do gardening and stuff like that. I remember even the girls walked around with airsoft rifles or a bow and arrow. They were fun.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. My aunt also said they were hillbillies. I didn’t know what that meant, and when I asked Uncle Jasper, he just laughed. He said he didn’t agree. I thought they were fun, different but fun. And their parents always seemed nice. I don’t know. I guess my aunt was just a snob. They always ran around barefoot and carried guns and knives, even the little ones. But they were interesting to me. It seemed like Uncle Jasper really liked them a lot, so I tried to, too. I wanted to be like him. He was cool, not judgmental. I didn’t want to judge people by the way they looked or talked or dressed. I thought that was a good way to be, so I continued to hang out with those kids until we lost him in the accident and never went back again after that. I guess I was around twelve or thirteen when that happened.”
“I’m sorry,” she said for his loss, to which he nodded, offered a pained grin, and squeezed her hand. “Wonder if they’re still living there?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. Their property butted up against Uncle Jasper’s pasture land.”
“What did their parents do for a living?”
He thought for a moment. “Actually, their dad was some sort of scientist. He was super smart. The mom used to do something like that, too. I think she was a doctor or something. My uncle told me that much. Their kids were super smart, too. I remember that about them. They were like a bunch of little nerds that would rattle off strange facts about animals or insects or sciency crap when we were playing in the woods or down by the stream.”
“Sounds like we needed them for our Chem paper,” she joked.
Elijah actually laughed and rubbed the top of her head affectionately. She snuggled back against the leather sofa, letting its plushness envelop her. Then she rested her head on Elijah’s wide shoulder. He leaned his head down on top of hers. They didn’t always sit this close or touch for the most part, but just a little human contact felt good tonight. She wondered if he was as depressed as she was. Probably. Even Jamie seemed down. The death of Hope had changed them all.
Chapter Thirty-seven
The day before Christmas, they packed their new truck- commandeered from the neighbor behind the Crane’s who’d also died. They also packed Jamie’s SUV and Alex’s truck full of every last bit of their supplies. It was time to leave. Last week, their house had been surrounded. Wren had been scared out of her mind as those things tried for hours to get in. She sat in the bedroom with her hands over her ears and Dixie at her side. Jamie and Alex sniped about a dozen of them, and Elijah kept the ones in the long front yard at bay by shooting at them. He’d hit four. Then he had to help haul away their dead corpses the next morning to be burned down the street. As they’d dragged and wheeled them down the street to be burned, he’d noticed how many of their neighbors’ homes seemed abandoned. People were either fleeing or dead. Killing the violent night crawlers had not bothered him. The longer this thing dragged on and the more frequency with which he encountered them, Elijah had stopped thinking of the night crawlers as people. Getting rid of fourteen was not even going to put a dent in their numbers, though. There were dozens that still escaped unscathed. Mostly they only saw one or two at a time. Alex speculated that they were hunting in packs like wild dogs now. Jamie wasn’t sure about that theory, but he also couldn’t come up with a good reason for them to have been clustered together, either.
The four of them would be leaving in the morning. The city was unlivable now. The infected were taking it over, and he and Jamie noticed the decreasing number of military and police patrols. Alex said he thought they were either being pulled away for a reason, or there were too few to make a strong presence because their own troops were dying off, too. Either way, they couldn’t afford to stay another month, not even another week. If groups of night crawlers continued to attack their home trying to get in, then they’d run out of ammo, or eventually, they would find a way in.
“Okay, just to make sure we’re all on the same page,” Jamie said, pointing at the hand-drawn map Alex had made for each person in their caravan. “This here is route 43, right?”
Alex nodded, “Yeah, that’s right. First, this is route 30. We have to get there before we get off here.” He pointed with his thick forefinger to the small red circle he’d drawn on each of the maps. “You’ll go through some small towns. Stay on 43. If you get off course, you’re gonna be seriously lost. It’s hill country out there, man. GPS, cell phones, not much works out there.”
“Got it,” Jamie stated. “If we get separated for some reason, just get to the family farm. If anyone doesn’t make it, we’ll give them until the next morning to get there. Then we’ll have to come looking for you. Try to use the markers we made. Tracking a flagged spot is a whole hell of a lot easier than tracking a car. Use the markers.”
The markers were white towels they’d gone back and taken from the rec center. It was decidedly less occupied that time. They were to get out of their vehicle and tie one to a stop sign or a tree alongside the road in plain sight every mile or so to let the group find their path. Elijah just didn’t want anyone to get separate
d.
“Got it,” Wren answered, although she was already going to be riding with him in the new truck while Jamie drove his SUV and Alex brought up the rear in his new truck, the one they took from their FBI contacts at the feed mill that day. Jamie was loaded with the guns and ammunition, other than the ones each person would have in their vehicles with them.
“Wren, you keep a good watch for Elijah,” Jamie instructed. “Anyone comes up on you guys from the side, shoot at them. I don’t care who it is. Keep an eye on Alex, too, since he’s bringing up the rear.”
Two days ago, he and Alex had taken a trip to Canton to search for more food and supplies to make their trip and had been attacked not by the night crawlers but by a group of armed citizens. They’d made it out, barely. Alex had shot three and didn’t seem to care. His brother was changing, becoming even harder and colder than he was before, which was already a lot different from the brother he knew before he joined the military. Stuff happened in the short time he was enlisted, but Alex never talked about it. He trusted his brother, though. Alex was smart about things that Elijah didn’t even understand yet. Maybe he was always this way, and Elijah had been too young to see it, but the Army had seen it.
“Yes, I will. I promise,” she swore and let her eyes travel to her left to stare vacantly at the wallpaper in the dining room.
She was sinking further and further into depression. He and Jamie had both noticed it and discussed the state of her mental health while on a quick run for supplies from the military drop-off spot. Most of the time, she stayed inside and kept that dog next to her. Dixie was becoming a security blanket, and Wren was becoming withdrawn and depressed. Elijah didn’t know what to do for her. It was hard enough keeping his own head above water. Burying Hope’s charred remains had done something to him, as well. Little kids shouldn’t have their lives cut short at the age of four.
They concluded their meeting, and each went through the house looking for any other items they could take with them, which ended up being some pillows, a throw blanket, and Dixie’s dog food. That got stacked in the bed of the pickup truck on top of some boxes. Wren stowed her doggie dishes in the cab. When they were done, Elijah looked around at the bare cupboards and empty cabinets. Everything that would keep them alive another day was in the trucks or the SUV. The furniture was still going to be left behind, but the sparseness from everything being packed made the house seem like a model home on display. It also made Elijah feel a burning mixture of anger and weariness knowing he was abandoning his parents’ dreams in this house. Eventually, it would probably be looted like so many other houses in their neighborhood. He was leaving his car in the garage but hoped to come back to get it soon. They’d also taken all the remaining food from the Crane residence next door. There was a lot of medicine and pills in their bathroom cabinet, and Jamie said they should take it because even if they didn’t need it, someone else might, and they could trade it.
They sat down to dinner, baked fish, canned green beans, baked potatoes, and the last of the rolls they’d looted from the Italian restaurant. After dinner, he and Wren washed the dishes and put them away in the cupboards. It felt a little silly doing it, but Elijah didn’t want to further disrespect the memory of his parents and all their hard work they put into the old house, including the antique dishes his mother found at estate sales.
Everyone went to bed, but Elijah was pretty sure that nobody was actually going to sleep very heavily. At five a.m., Jamie and Alex came and woke him to go. He went down the hall and woke Wren, who was sleeping on her side with Dixie tucked into her back.
“Wren, it’s time to go,” he whispered and stroked her dark hair. She blinked once, twice, and sat up. “Get ready. Jamie said it’s time to go.”
She nodded, didn’t turn on a light, which was how they moved around now. Jamie figured that lights at night drew the night crawlers just as much as sound. So now they went without light and had learned to adjust.
“It’ll be dawn soon. We need to go,” he reiterated, getting a sleepy nod. She didn’t look like she’d slept much, either, but Wren was still gorgeous.
They took their backpacks downstairs with them where Jamie and Alex were doing final checks and inspections.
“Wren, make sure you’re locked and loaded,” Jamie instructed. “You, too, Elijah.”
“Yes, sir,” he answered. He didn’t particularly harbor a lot of kinship toward Jamie, but he did at least respect the man and definitely respected his abilities to keep them alive. He’d proven that time and again. And he was staunchly devoted to Wren.
“Change of plans,” Alex announced. “Jamie’s bringing up the rear since I know where we’re going. I can lead better, so I’ll be driving the lead car.”
Jamie nodded, “And I’ll pull up the rear.”
“I’m more worried about you getting separated from us and lost.”
“I’ve got this route memorized. I’ll be fine even if we get separated.”
Wren jumped in to say, “Just don’t let that happen.”
Jamie rubbed the top of her head affectionately.
“Let’s get ready to move. Everyone, get some breakfast. I’m gonna do a quick perimeter search.”
He left without waiting for a reply, which was how Jamie always left. They ate pre-packaged donuts that were slightly stale and drank the rest of the powdered orange juice from their military shipment. Elijah bundled the trash into zippered plastic bags and put it out on the front stoop. They were just empty containers, but he still wanted to leave the house as void of trash as possible. When he came back, Wren wasn’t there, to which Alex explained she had gone upstairs to check one last time and use the bathroom.
A moment later, the back door was wrenched open, and Jamie ran in.
“Let’s go!” he yelled out. “We need to move. Now!”
“What’s going on?” Elijah asked with concern, seeing Jamie’s panicked expression. He was usually cool under pressure.
“Huge group of ‘em coming this direction. And we’ve got an armed group of people moving in our neighborhood, too. Scavengers. We gotta go before they find our vehicles with all our supplies in them. Wren!”
“She’s upstairs,” Elijah told him. “I’ll get her.”
He sprinted up the winding staircase, probably for the last time in the foreseeable future. Maybe for the last time ever. He took them two and three at a time and called her name as he went. She was just coming out of the bathroom when he entered his parents’ bedroom. She was talking to the dog, who was right behind her.
“It’s okay, girl. It’s okay,” she cooed and startled at the sight of Elijah.
“We need to go. Now. Right now. Jamie said we’re about to be overrun by crawlers and people, a mob with guns and weapons,” he blurted as she tugged her jacket back down. “Do you have everything from up here?”
“Yes. Yes, I’m ready.”
He snatched her hand and took off with Dixie on their heels doing that creepy as hell whining sound she made. He wished they’d muzzled her.
When they got to the kitchen, Jamie said, “I don’t think we’re getting out of here all together. We gotta split up.”
“What? No way, Jamie,” Wren argued immediately as something slammed into the front door. Dixie whined again and pranced in place. Wren actually yelped a high-pitched squeak.
“Too late,” Jamie said. He paused a moment, looked at the ground and then at them. “Take her. Go. I’ll hold them off.”
“What? No!” she yelled and rushed him.
“Wren, go with Elijah,” he stated firmly. “I’ll be right behind you. I’m going to take my car and head right toward the crawlers, lead them away. I figure if they make enough noise, it’ll draw the mob of people, too. My vehicle is the only one that’s bulletproof.”
“We should stick together, Jamie,” Elijah countered.
“There’s no time to argue, dammit!” Jamie yelled. “They’re almost on us.”
“He’s right,” Alex butted in.
“Let’s go, E. Now.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Wren argued as his brother went to the back door again. “Stop. Wait. Let’s just stay here another day, leave tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow, we’ll be dead, honey,” Jamie said in a calmer voice.
“Don’t do this,” she teared up in a panic. “Please, Jamie.”
He yanked her to him and hugged Wren tightly. “I’ll be right behind you. Go with Elijah.”
Over her head, he lifted his chin to Elijah, who understood what he wanted. Behind him, Alex opened the door and stepped out cautiously as Elijah pried her away. Alex snatched Wren’s hand, who tried to pull away.
“C’mon, dammit, Wren,” his brother said and tugged her after him. “We don’t have time for this shit.”
Elijah took a step toward them as the front door was pounded again. Jamie reached out and clasped Elijah’s shoulder.
“Take care of her,” he told Elijah, his eyes narrowing in on him.
“But…”
“I’m counting on you, Elijah,” Jamie said. “Now, go.”
He shoved at Elijah’s shoulder, and they both exited right behind Alex, who was still pulling on Wren. She was being quiet now, though. And Elijah understood why that was. He could hear them, too. It sounded like the whole neighborhood was occupied. Voices, some human and some not so much anymore. Then he heard shots fired probably one street over. A woman’s scream.
“Move it!” Jamie whispered behind him.
Elijah locked his parents’ house and sprinted toward the vehicles right as one of the night crawlers came around the corner of the garage. His brother shot and killed it before climbing into his own truck. Elijah ran past him and climbed into the truck beside Wren, who was staring frantically out the back window toward Jamie. He was in and backing out of the driveway already.
“Jamie,” she whispered and stroked the dog’s head rhythmically as if it gave her comfort.
“He’ll catch up, Wren,” he said, lied. “Don’t worry. Put on your seatbelt.”
He slammed the truck into gear as another crawler came at them from the side yard. Jamie sped ahead of them and turned to the right, honking his horn and drawing a lot of attention in that big black SUV. Alex turned left, taking up the wrong side of the road at the same time. Elijah looked in the rearview mirror as about a dozen night crawlers ran after the SUV. Jamie paused in the middle of the street and hit the button for his bright lights about three times, causing the red taillights to blink at them. Elijah understood. He hit his own lights a few times signaling back. Then Jamie drove away.