"Well hell, why didn't you say that before?" Wesley asked.
"I...I didn't want to..." Alex licked his lips, once again nervously looking from left to right. "I just wanted her to be safe, okay? I just..."
Wesley nodded. "I understand. You were just being cautious."
"Yeah." Alex sighed. The slumping of his shoulders, the relaxing of his posture, was an indicator to me that Wesley had reached the truth. There was no other party like us. It was just Alex and his wife, and he was worried we might be a threat to her. That's why he wouldn't mention her.
Wesley patted Alex on the shoulder. "Completely understandable. Is she okay? Is she safe?"
Alex looked up at Wesley quickly, then back down. "Yeah, she's safe. She's back at the house."
Once again, I had the impression Alex was trying to hide something again. If Wesley caught the same vibe he didn't let on. He drew Alex forward and, arm around the younger man's shoulders, escorted him toward the garage door. "Well, let's get some food in you. You must be starved."
I followed Alex and Wesley out of the garage and Wesley's eyes locked with mine briefly on the way to the porch. I read the message behind them loud and clear: Alex still isn't telling us everything.
Fifteen
As we made our way out to the porch, Martin joined us. Tracy and Lori were waiting for us at the table. Alex's sandwich and drink were on a plate and Alex sat down and began to dig in. Wesley nodded at Alex. "Eat all you want. I'm gonna grab myself something to eat, too." Wesley stepped inside and I followed him while Tracy, Lori, and Martin stayed on the porch.
Emily was on the floor clutching her doll as Wesley and I entered the house. "I'll be in the kitchen," Wesley said.
I nodded and bent down to talk to Emily, who was playing on the dining room floor. "You okay, honey?"
Emily nodded. "Mommy told me to stay here with Mindy." Mindy was the doll's name.
"She's absolutely right," I told her. I tickled her tummy and that solemn face turned into a giggly one. "You stay here, okay? We just need to see if this guy your mommy and Lori caught is a good guy or a bad guy."
"He's a good guy," Emily said.
"He is?"
Emily nodded.
"How do you know?"
"I can tell," Emily said. Her little face was all business. "He's scared, but he's good."
Had Emily picked up a vibe from Alex? Was it instinct? I don't know. I ruffled Emily's hair, told her to be a good girl and stay in the living room while the grownups talked outside, stood up, and joined Wesley in the kitchen.
Wesley was making a sandwich. As I approached him he got right to the point. "I believe Alex is referring to his wife when he slipped up under questioning. I don't believe he's with other people. I think it's just the two of them on their own. But I get the feeling he's hiding something about her."
"Why would he do that?" I asked. "To protect her?" It made sense to me. In a post apocalyptic world, I was now very fearful that a marauding band of savages—normal men who'd turned bad—might happen upon us to rape and pillage like the Mongols or Vikings of old.
"Maybe," Wesley said. He slathered mayonnaise on his bread, laid on some thinly sliced ham and turkey breast. "I think it's something else, though. I think there's something wrong with her by the way he responded to my questions. He kept shifting his gaze to the left when he answered. That's a sign people give when they're lying."
"You think she's sick?"
"Maybe." Wesley finished making his sandwich. "It could be the reason why he's so far from his house. If I remember correctly, Manning is too small a town to have a decent pharmacy or medical center, but the town closest to us would have more options. I wonder if he was heading there for medicine or something."
I nodded. "Makes sense to me. How are we going to bring this up to him?"
"Leave it to me," Wesley said. He picked up his sandwich and headed outside. I followed.
When we got back outside I saw that Alex had polished off his sandwich. He was reclining in his chair, talking to Martin, Lori, and Tracy. They all looked up as Wesley and I joined them. "Enjoy your meal?" Wesley asked. He gave Alex a smile.
"Yeah, that was great," Alex said, grinning back. "Thanks."
"Alex was just telling us that he and his wife are only five miles or so from here," Tracy said.
"So we've heard," I said, sitting down beside her.
Wesley bit into his sandwich. "You any good at siphoning gas from vehicles?" He asked Alex.
"Not really, no."
"We'll teach you," Martin said. "It's how we were able to get out here in the vehicles we came up in."
"Does your house have a fireplace or a woodstove?" Wesley asked. Normally, Wesley didn't chew his food and talk at the same time. What was causing him to break this habit, I haven't a clue. To put Alex more at ease, perhaps?
"I got a fireplace," Alex said. He took a sip of water. "And I know I've gotta start getting wood for winter. I just...don't know where to store it."
"How big is your place?" Lori asked.
"Not very big at all. It's just a two bedroom, with a...whaddaya call it...a mudroom off the back, a kitchen, dining room, living room, and a bathroom."
"And you're pretty far out of town?" I asked.
He nodded. I could tell he was trying hard not to be nervous. "Yeah, I live off a dirt road."
"And your wife..." Wesley took another chomp off his sandwich, chewed, and swallowed. "What's her name?"
"Naomi," Alex said.
"Well, with every good man lies a good woman, and I'm willing to bet Naomi had as much a hand in your survival as you." Wesley took another bite of his sandwich.
"Yeah, she did," Alex said. His demeanor changed slightly. Where before his enthusiasm seemed genuine, his ease of manner seemed natural, now it seemed that he was trying to pretend everything was okay. "Like I said, she and I were on the Emergency Committee, so we gathered all the weapons and supplies we could. She also knew where all the emergency stash of food was kept at the fire station. All the canned goods and stuff. For some reason, the power was out in that part of town, but she was also able to get the generator on at the fire station and get on the CB radio, too."
"Oh yeah?" Martin raised his eyebrows. I glanced at him quickly. Don't tip that hand yet. Martin got the message and said nothing.
"Yeah, but I don't know anything about running it. I've been trying, but..." Alex let that trail off. He took a sip of water, looking uncomfortable, or maybe embarrassed.
"Does Naomi know how to run it?" Lori asked.
"No," Alex said. A little too quickly again? It was hard to tell.
"Is Naomi okay?" Wesley asked. He'd polished off his sandwich almost as fast as Alex had finished his. "She isn't sick or anything, is she?"
"No, no, she's fine," Alex said. He turned to Tracy. "Can I get another sandwich?"
"Sure." Tracy got up and headed back into the house.
"Well, we'd like to meet her," Wesley said. He was leaning back in his chair, casual, cool, collected. "How about after lunch we head back to your place?"
"I don't think that'll be a good idea," Alex said. His voice had a slight stammer to it. "Naomi...well, she's not sick, but she hasn't really been feeling well and—"
"So she's not well?" Wesley asked.
For a minute that almost broke him. Alex sighed, closed his eyes, and appeared to muster his emotional reserve. I thought he looked close to tears. "I'm sorry, but no...she's not well. She's not sick, but..."
"But what?" Wesley asked. Now we were all learning forward expectantly. Lori's features were soft, sympathetic. We were flying by the seat of our pants now.
"What's wrong with Naomi, baby?" Lori asked.
And then Alex started to cry.
He buried his face in his hands and the tears fell. His sobs were heart wrenching, from the gut. As he cried he tried to speak, but his emotional outpouring was making his voice break down even more. "I...I...don't know...don't know what happened...I...p
lease...please don't hurt her!"
Wesley's posture and voice were soft, sympathetic, caring. He leaned forward, rested his hand on Alex's shoulder. The supportive fatherly figure comforting the younger son. "We want to help, Alex. Believe me, we aren't about to hurt you or Naomi. But you've got to level with us. We can't help her if we don't know what's wrong—"
"She became one of them!" Alex suddenly screamed amid his sobs. He looked at us, his face red and damp with tears. "She's become one of those things! She's become one of them and I don't know how it happened!" And then, as if a great weight had been taken off his shoulders, he collapsed over the table, burying his face in his hands, and sobbed.
Hearing this was like being hit in the face with a sledgehammer.
It seemed that we all froze in shock. I looked at him, and while I could see that what he was telling us was the truth, what we heard was so horrible, so unimaginable in our collective psyches, that it was too much for us to bear. Tracy came back out on the porch and I turned to her. She had a look of absolute horror on her face; she'd heard every word he'd said.
I looked at my clan and read the emotion in their eyes—pure terror, panic, and fear. Only Wesley refused to make eye contact with us. He was looking at Alex, watching him. It was hard to get a read on him, but I couldn't help but notice the subtle emotion pass through his features and, just as quickly, go away as he regained control.
Alex sobbed. His shoulders shook. He was crouched over the table, face down, arms over his head as he cried. In between his sobs were pleas for help. "...don't know...how it...happened...don't know...how it...happened...oh... God..."
I felt somebody approach and looked at the sliding glass door to see Emily standing there. She was holding her doll, looking worried. She made no move to come outside. I think she knew we were hearing some very bad news.
"How long ago did Naomi turn?" Wesley asked softly.
"Auh...about...about a week ago," Alex said through his sobs. He wiped his eyes, tried to get control of himself. "It happened about a week ago...it just..." His face screwed up, threatening another outburst of sorrow. "I don't know how it happened...oh my God, I don't know how it happened, I thought...I thought..."
I thought it was over, I finished the thought for him. Tracy was at my side now, Emily clinging to her leg. I felt a chill run down my spine. I felt the collective vibe of our clan—Martin, Lori, Wesley, Tracy and Emily—react at what Alex had just said.
If what he was saying was right, the virus...or whatever it was that caused the flip, was still working its way through the human population.
"Jesus," Wesley breathed. For the first time since we met him, he looked afraid.
"Naomi came home the day everything happened," Alex said between sobs. As he told us his story he seemed to gain better control of his emotions. He wiped his eyes with his fingers. "She works at the bank as a teller. I was at home. I worked swing shift and was still in bed. I didn't even know anything was happening until she ran in the house. She looked...frantic. She told me people in the bank, tellers, customers, you name it, suddenly started...you know...turning into these wild primitive things except for one of them...some old farmer who'd come in to deposit a check. The ones that were closest to him turned on him and they all just...sort of piled on him. Fucking tore him to pieces. Naomi ducked beneath her station as they passed her by and just started tearing into this farmer. That's when she started hearing the shit outside, heard the police sirens. It was like the others forgot she was even there, and she...man, God must've been on her side or something, but she saw the window of opportunity and took it. She dashed out the back door, got into her car and got the hell out of there."
Alex continued, speaking in a less shaky voice now. He took a sip of water. "She saw the shit go down in Manning. She like...got the hell out of there and got on Route 1, turned the radio on and heard what was going on. We don't have a cell phone so she couldn't call me. She got home, woke me up, and she was in hysterics. We turned the TV on and that's when..."
"It was like that for us, too," I murmured. I felt Tracy's hand on my shoulder. Alex's recount was bringing the memories of that first day back in awful clarity.
Alex took another sip of water. That seemed to be calming his nerves. He wasn't crying anymore, but his face was red and still wet with tears. "I'm sure it was that way for everybody. Anyway...Naomi flipped out. She...she...well, she was very religious. I mean, I believe in God too, but she took it to the extreme. She got down on her knees and started prayin' and...the TV was still on and the news was just getting worse. I turned the TV off and we sat on the sofa for a while in the dark. She told me more about what she saw and that's when she told me that...well, she was convinced it was Armageddon. That the end times had finally come."
"She thought it was the end of the world," Wesley said.
"Not just the end," Lori said. "But the beginning of Satan's reign on earth." She was looking at Alex with what seemed to be understanding. "And I bet as the days went on, she began to question why it hadn't happened the way she'd been taught to believe. Why she hadn't simply been sucked right into the sky by the Lord and taken to heaven."
"Yeah." Alex said. He seemed to shiver. "At first I was like...I didn't want to hear it, you know? I just wanted to...find out what was going on and...do whatever I could to keep us safe. Naomi wasn't a...I mean, I don't want you to have the impression that she was a religious nut or anything. She wasn't like those crazy Pentecostal people that dance with snakes and stuff, but she had her beliefs and they were very strong. But she...had her...I call it her earthy side, too. She liked good rock and roll and she could drink me under the table when she had a mind to. She could shoot a mean game of pool—we used to go to Hess's Bar and Grill every other Friday and drink beer and shoot the shit with our friends from work and play pool. She could let loose, and she did. But she was a Christian woman and she read the Bible and went to church every Sunday. I tried to go most Sundays, but I just wasn't..." He shrugged. He looked at us, as if he wanted us to understand his position. "I mean, I learned all that stuff in Sunday School when I was a kid. I didn't feel the need to go every Sunday."
Tracy nodded. "I know what you mean."
"I don't know what it was that set Naomi off, but...she was really scared it was Armageddon." Alex took another sip of water. "I was watching CNN at one point and they were talking about some DNA thing...something about a Neanderthal strain and—"
"The Neanderthal strain in human DNA," Martin said. "We heard that, too."
"Yeah. And anyway, I was like, 'Naomi, come here, listen to this, they think they know what's causing this.' And I tried explaining to her what they thought it might be but she wouldn't listen. Said she didn't believe or trust the scientists, that we had to trust God to take us. So I sat on the couch and watched the TV until the station went off the air, and she sat in the kitchen and prayed."
As Alex told his story I could feel myself being drawn into it. It was easy to imagine myself as him; alone with his wife, cut off from the world. It sounded terrifying and claustrophobic.
"Things got kinda better after a few days," Alex continued. "We had food in the house and the electricity hadn't been cut off yet. There wasn't any news on the TV or the radio. After a week, we armed ourselves and tried going to town. I told Naomi, first sign of trouble we're getting the hell out. We still had gas in the truck, so we drove. That's when Naomi suggested raiding the fire station and hitting up the supplies from the Emergency Task Force. She like...really took to that...really took charge. That's when we saw the bodies...saw the things...the primitives...had left."
Suddenly, what the Primitives were drawing on walls and rocks came to mind. "Did you see any weird graffiti?" I asked. "Like a figure with wings that was drawn in chalk?"
Alex frowned and shook his head. "I don't remember. Why?"
"Just curious," I said.
"Tell us the rest," Wesley encouraged.
There wasn't much to tell. The trip to town
had been within a week of civilization falling. Naomi had suggested snagging the CB radio from the fire station, which they did. "Only thing was I forgot to bring the manual," Alex said sheepishly. "I tried messing with it on my own, but then the power at our place finally went off."
About three weeks after the fall of civilization, Naomi started retreating again. "Both of us went through hard times thinking about our parents and stuff," Alex said. "And then...she started...I don't know...started getting mad at God. She was having a tougher time facing what had happened than I was. It was like...she couldn't believe God would...I don't know...have Armageddon happen this way. Like, why didn't he just take us up to heaven instead of having these...well, she was starting to call the primitives demons because she started to believe all these people had become possessed by the devil. She said if I'd have seen them, I would have felt the same way."
"I can see what she means," Lori said, nodding. "It was like this happened all at once, like Satan just slipped his fingers into everybody's mind like putting on a glove and started messing with people. Controlling them."
"Yeah," Alex said. He nodded at Lori. "That's right. And she just didn't understand that. She believed that we weren't supposed to be hurt when this happened. That we were just supposed to be snatched right up into heaven, in our actual physical selves."
"So she was thinking the primitives were killing people to release their spirits into heaven?" Wesley asked.
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