PODs

by Michelle Pickett

  I looked at David and smiled. A look of relief washed over his face, and I knew he’d mistaken my smile as a sign I would return to the compound.

  “He’s not a top-side survivor. He was in the PODs. He’s not infected.” My eyes never left David’s face.

  “He’s in the infected zone. No one comes through that gate without proper authorization. He doesn’t have the required paperwork, he doesn’t get in.”

  “Fine.”

  I turned toward the gate, hesitating for just an instant. Was I ready to give up what I’d built in the compound? My little house, my friends, my job?

  Yes. For David—yes.

  I walked slowly at first, and then I ran. I ran between two guards, hitting one in the shoulder. I stumbled fo

  Chapter 23:

  The Camp

  Something woke me. I couldn’t see anything, so I held my breath, listening. I grabbed the flashlight next to me, but I didn’t turn it on. I sat in the pitch-black tent—a simple tarp strung between two trees that sheltered a single bedroll—and listened.

  I heard it again. The crack of twigs, the rustling of leaves. It wasn’t from inside the survivors’ camp; it came from the woods.

  The tarp made a crinkling sound as it moved. I jumped and inhaled sharply.

  “Shh,” David warned.

  “What is it?” I whispered when he moved closer.

  “I don’t know.” I had to strain to hear him, but I could hear the lie in his voice. “Just stay still and don’t turn the flashlight on.”

  A twig snapped close to the tent. It sounded like it was right next to the plastic tarp.

  Then it happened. All hell broke loose.

  Screams, along with the drumbeat of running feet, came fD; I said, out

  Chapter 24:

  Infected

  “What don’t I know?”

  “A lot,” he answered.

  “I gathered as much when the giant crazy-man was standing over us with a baseball bat. What’s going on, David?”

  He wrapped the hem of my t-shirt around his finger, bent down, and leaned his forehead against my shoulder. I reached up and ran my hands through his dark hair.

  “I didn’t want you out here, Eva. I didn’t want this for you. The virus didn’t die like scientists hoped it would.”

  I gently pushed him from me, looking in his eyes. “Are you saying those were topsiders?”

  “Yeah, those were topsiders infected with a mutated strain of the original virus. But not all topsiders are infected. Everyone in this camp is clean, as far as we know.”

  The sun peeked over the horizon, turning the sky a brilliant shade of blue, streaked in pinks and oranges. Shadows from the trees fell across the ground in front of us.

  David sat silently next to me, lost in his thoughts, the skin between his eyebrows furrowed. He threw stones at the trees, the small thuds barely audible over the light breeze blowing the autumn leaves from their branches.

  “What are they, David? I mean, it’s obvious they’re human. But they’re something else, too. The virus has changed them somehow, hasn’t it?”

  “Yeah. Devlin thinks the virus has affected their brains, rewiring them. He’s the closest thing we have to a doctor. He was in medical school before the virus hit. He says it’s sort of like rabies—the infected have lost all reasoning. They’ve reverted back to an animal state, living purely on instinct—hunting by smell, mostly. They can’t even speak—just grunts and screams. And they avoid coming out in daylight—we think their eyes might be over-sensitized, or maybe it’s their skin.”

  “They’re odd-looking,” I said, remembering bits and pieces of the attack. The people had been huge, towering over David, who was easily six feet tall. Their skin was pale and crisscrossed with prominent blue veins. “What’s with the blood?”

  “Huh?”

  “You told me not to touch the blood. What is it about their blood?”

  “It stings when you touch it. Like a bee sting, only more painful. We aren’t sure if that’s one way the virus is transmitted; so far, we don’t think anyone has been infected just by contact with their blood.”

  “Their bite, right? That’s the way you know it’s transmitted. You and Devlin warned me not to get bitten last night.”

  “Yeah, their bite injects the virus. It can either kill or infect. We aren’t sure how it works.” He picked up a handful of pebbles and threw it at the trees. The rocks made little pops when they hit the tree trunks, and the breeze blew loose dirt back in our faces. I rubbed my eyes with the palm of my hands to rid them of the grit.

  “And what’s their prey?”

  He looked at me, his gray eyes boring into mine. “Last night, we were.”

  “Cannibals?”

  “No,” he reached out and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. He dropped his hand with a sigh. “Opportunists. They eat whatever is easiest. Us, livestock, dogs, cats, whatever. They don’t care, as long as it’s alive. Now they know we’re here. We’ll have to move camp today. We’d have to anyway, because of all the blood.”

  I stood and walked to the trees, leaning my back against a large tree trunk. I stared at the ground between my feet. It was littered with brittle pine needles and fallen leaves, smelling of rotting leaves below.

  “I’m sorry, Eva. You shouldn’t have to live like this. You should’ve stayed—”

  “Stop it! No one should have to live like this. Stop treating me like I’m some kind of porcelain doll that’s gonna break under the least amount of pressure. Geez, David.”

  His mouth twisted as he tried to hide a grin. He failed and chuckled. “I should have known. Eva the Great—strong, feisty, and too damn stubborn for your own good.”

  “I just don’t want to be babied.”

  “I know.”

  “I can’t believe what you risked each night.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When you came to see me at the fence. You walked alone every night. You were so vulnerable to them. I can’t believe you did that!” I smacked his arm.

  “Ow,” he laughed. I didn’t laugh in return. I was just realizing how much danger he’d been in. How hard life had been for him over the past months.

  He threaded his fingers through my hair. “I would have done anything to see you, Eva. The infected didn’t scare me. Not seeing you again did.”

  I cupped his face with my hand.

  “So beautiful,” he murmured, lowering his lips to mine. He kissed me long and slow, his tongue sliding over my lips and gliding with mine. His hands roamed across my body, under the hem of my shirt and up my bare back. Fingers closed over the clasp of my bra. My breath stuck in my throat. He broke the kiss and took a step back, smiling ruefully at me.

  “David,” I said quietly.

  “Hmm?”

  “When we get supplies today, promise me we’ll get a toothbrush and toothpaste.”

  He laughed loudly in the morning’s quiet. Birds squawked, and small animals scurried away from the sound, leaves rustling quietly as they made their way through the underbrush.

  It was the laugh I remembered—a carefree laugh—one I’d missed for so many weeks. The one I’d left the safety of the compound to hear again.

  “1">

  We packed up what was salvageable in the camp. The tents were ripped and unusable and most of the water was gone, running like mini-rivers across the ground.

  “What now?”

  “We walk to the next town and see if there’s a Wal-Mart or sporting goods store that hasn’t been looted, so we can get some supplies,” David said.

  I stood in the small clearing and looked around. Everyone was packing up their supplies in hiker backpacks. Tin pots and cups clanged as people tied them to their packs. Fabric rustled as it slid into the canvas bags.

  “Why do we walk?” I asked no one in particular.

  “Huh?” A small girl shrugged on a pack twice the size she was. It was weird being around people so much younger than me—most pe
ople in the compound had been around my age, with the exception of some of the military and medical people.

  “Why are we walking to the next town?”

  She looked at me like I’d lost my mind, and then rolled her eyes. “Because we can’t fly.”

  “I meant, why don’t you use cars? There must be plenty around.”

  “No gas,” Devlin answered. “The pumps need electricity to work. When we find a car, we use it until the gas runs out. Then we ditch it.” He grinned. “That’s when the walking comes in.”

  “Funny.”

  “We’ll be able to pick up a car when we get to town,” David said.

  “And then someone hotwires it. Who’s that mastermind?” David and Devlin both grinned. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

  When the camp was packed up, we began the long, arduous trek to the next town. Many members of the camp stumbled and tripped on the broken asphalt, their heavy packs making them unstable.

  I shielded my eyes from the grit and grime our feet kicked up. As the hours passed, everyone’s faces became streaked with dirt. Our hair filled with dust and pieces of leaves.

  The evening sun was starting to dim when we saw buildings in the distance. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. We found a small motel and settled into the rooms, excited at the possibility of warm beds—a huge step up, even without working electricity or heat, from our makeshift tents.

  “We’ll stay the night here, grab our supplies in the morning, and move on,” David told me.

  “David, why don’t we just stay here? There are stores, the motel—”

  He shook his head. “Staying here would be like a neon sign pointed right to us. We need to get our supplies and get out. The towns are the first place the infected hunt. We found that out the hard way.”

  I nodded, deciding I didn’t want to know what’d happened. Judging from the night before, I had a pretty good idea.

  “You and Jessica will stay in this room. Devlin and I will be in the adjoining room.”

  “Wait! You’re not staying here with me?”

  “I’ll be right next door,” he said.

  “I just thought—”

  “I’ll be right elephant sitting in the middle of I It was">“1 next door.”

  “Oh. Okay.” I watched him walk through the adjoining room’s door. “Don’t close it all the way.”

  He smiled, leaving the door slightly ajar.

  I woke sometime during the night. It was impossible to know the time. The room was too black to make out the numbers on my watch. The moon was only a sliver, not giving the room any light.

  I climbed out of bed, shivering when the cold air hit me, and walked toward the bathroom. My arm outstretched, feeling for a wall to use as a guide. My toe found the corner of the wall before my hand did, and I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out. I followed the wall around the corner and to the bathroom.

  Walking back to bed, I stopped short. I heard something outside. Memories of the night before crashed through my mind. I didn’t want to be in the room alone. Jessica was nice, but she was young and small—no match for the strength of a giant.

  I held my breath, listening. I heard the noise again—a quiet thud.

  “Jessica?” I whispered. Her even breathing and soft snores told me she was asleep.

  I walked along the walls, using them as guides until I found the door to the adjoining room. I pushed it open, cringing when the hinges squeaked loudly in the stillness. I froze, listening again. The only thing I heard was crickets and then the distant rumble of thunder.

  Maybe it’ll rain tonight, take the edge off the dry, dusty air.

  I stepped forward, waving my outstretched hand back and forth as I felt for the beds. I knew Devlin was sleeping in the bed closest to the door, David in the one by the bathroom. When I found David’s bed I crawled under the sheets. He moaned and mumbled something before rolling over, giving me room to lie next to him. I snuggled against his back, listening for the noise. I didn’t hear it again and I slowly drifted to sleep, curled up next to David’s warmth.

  The morning sunlight shone between the hotel room’s drapes. I groaned and rolled over. I wasn’t ready to wake up. The bed was warm and I hadn’t gotten enough sleep during the night, spending most of it listening for sounds that weren’t there.

  “Eva,” David murmured close to my ear. He smelled of soap, and the hair tickling my ear was damp.

  I jumped and sat up in bed. “David!” I’d planned to wake up and get back to my room before he woke. That way, he would never have known I was scared and had crawled into bed with him.

  “Good morning,” he said with a grin. “What are you doing in my bed? Should I start calling you Goldilocks?”

  “I’m sorry, I thought I heard something last night and… well, I didn’t want to be alone.” I shrugged.

  “You probably heard one of the guys keeping watch.”

  “Oh.” I hadn’t thought of that. “How long have I been asleep?”

  “About two hours or so, I’d guess. There was enough water in the pipes to fill the sink, so you can sponge off. I got it ready for you.”

  “Thanks.”

  I started to get out of bed whe My eyes never left David’s face.opshirt andoun David reached out and grabbed my arm. He gently pulled me to him. He looked at my face, his eyes roaming until they found my mouth. He ran his thumb across my lower lip; my tongue darted out to moisten it. I watched his eyes darken, never looking away from my lips. He bent his head forward and kissed me.

  His lips felt soft but firm as they moved over mine. His tongue tasted minty when it dipped between my lips. It was sensual and sexy, and I sighed with pleasure. He groaned at the sound and put his hand on the small of my back, pulling me closer to him.

  I threaded my fingers through his damp hair, kissing him deeper. I slid my hands down his back and pulled his t-shirt up, running my fingernails softly up and down his back. Our kisses moved from mouths to other parts of the body—I pulled his t-shirt over his head, letting it flutter from my fingers and land on the floor next to the bed. I was running my hands up his chest and kissing his neck when he grabbed my arms and pushed me away.

  I looked up at him with wide eyes. “What’s wrong?”

  “Eva…don’t… I…we aren’t alone.”

  “Oh.” I wasn’t thinking about anything other than David and the way his touch made my insides warm. I definitely wasn’t thinking about anyone else.

  “I need a shower. A cold one. A very, very cold one,” he muttered.

  I laughed. “Well, I guess you’ll have to suffer, Romeo. There’s no running water.”

  He looked at me seriously. “I want to.”

  “Um, it’s okay, David. I understand,” I said with a smile. His need to stop before things became too intense—that was one of his ways of caring for me. It made me feel as good as hearing his groans of pleasure. I wasn’t sure which made me feel better.

  “I just want you to know—”

  “I know. Me, too,” I told him. “Now quit seducing me and let me go wash up.”

  He grinned. “Always joking.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve learned not to take life too seriously. We don’t know how long we have. We may as well make it fun while we can.”

  “I’ll meet you outside.”

  “You’re not waiting for me? I don’t want to be alone.”

  “Hell’s bells, Evangelina. Are you trying to torture me?”

  I grinned. “Maybe a little.”

  David and I met the others outside for breakfast. I looked around and frowned. It was like there were two camps. The women scurried about on one side while the men stood around talking and laughing on the other side. The women fussed over the breakfast, stirring the grits in a pot hanging from a stand over the fire, and then hurrying to the other side of the camp carrying bowls of grits and cups of coffee to the guys and bringing back their empty cups and bowls to wash. Only when every man and boy had a full bowl and cup did t
he women dish out some of the nasty grits for themselves, finding a place to sit and gulp down their breakfast before the men decided it was time to start breaking down the camp.

  I watched was like the clock had rolled back a century and the women’s only job was to take care of the men. He chuckledad huddledou

  “Eva! Are you okay?” Jessica skipped over to me.

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “You weren’t around when I woke up. I thought maybe you weren’t feeling well and went out for some fresh air. You shouldn’t do that, you know. We need to stay with the group—safety in numbers.”

  “I didn’t wander off. I was with David.” She studied me and I squirmed under her gaze.

  “So you’re the one.”

  “One what?”

  “The reason David isn’t interested in any of the other girls,” she said with a smile. “They’ve all given it a try. He’s nice and funny and gorgeous. But he wasn’t interested.”

  “Oh,” I didn’t know what to say. On the inside I was jumping up and down for joy. On the outside I tried to look calm. I didn’t want to seem like I was gloating, but secretly that’s exactly what I was doing.

  “I can see why he likes you,” she said.

  “What? Why?”

  “You’re nice and really pretty. I like your hair. It shimmers like gold when you stand in the sunlight. You make a good pair.”

  “Um, thank you.” I could feel the heat of the blush covering my face.

  I stayed on the women’s side of the camp eating a bowl of bland grits. Jessica introduced me to the other “womenfolk.” Many were my age, some a little older, with a few who might’ve been in their thirties—the topsiders hadn’t been age-selected like those of us from the PODs. Although everyone in our group of survivors was healthy enough to keep up on daylong hikes, the oldest survivors were in their early to mid-fifties. While I talked with the women, I couldn’t help stealing glances at David. He stood with his hands on his hips, his jeans riding low, talking to the other guys. Now and then he’d look over his shoulder at me and grin.