by Nord, K. C.
We're going to need fuel and a place to stop for the night before long," Norah said, interrupting my thoughts.
"There's a good place to stop in the next town; it's about 10 miles from here," Ethan said. "It's a friendly little town, and they have a hotel and cafe, so we'll be able to get a good night's sleep and something to eat."
"That sounds good to me," I said and stretched out my legs. " I am so ready to get out of this jeep for a while."
The tiny town looked interesting, to say the least. As you drove down the main street, there was a rickety broken sign that said welcome to-, but as the bottom half was missing, I had no idea of the name.
While Norah was getting us some rooms for the night, I took Moose for a much-needed walk and decided to check out the town, which consisted of a general store, a cafe, a bar, and a hotel. Everything looked pretty rundown, which was pretty typical for most towns but even more so for this part of the country because of the harsh desert elements.
The street was pretty empty at this time of day, and I assumed that most people were probably safe at home for the night. Unlike the living, zombies seemed to be unaffected by the time of day or night. But, for obvious reasons, most people tended to not venture out much at night.
I shivered a little and watched a tumbleweed roll past me as a cool breeze sprung up out of nowhere. Moose took off after the tumbleweed with a happy little yip when it rolled past us before lodging against the side of the hotel. Growling fiercely, he sized it in his mouth and tried to subdue the dried scraggly bush by roughly shaking it.
"Silly dog, " I laughed and clipped his lead onto his collar before he had a chance to take off again. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Let's go see if we can find some food." I remarked and pulled the tumbleweed, which he reluctantly dropped from his mouth before we went inside to join Norah.
"I was able to get us two rooms for the night, you and I can share the larger one, and Ethan can have the single," Norah said. "Also, the cafe will only be open for another hour, so we should probably go get something to eat."
"That sounds great," I answered. "Moose and I are starving."
"When is he ever not starving," Norah said with a smile as we walked across the street to the cafe.
"What about, Ethan?" I asked as we seated ourselves at a table close to the front window overlooking the street.
Norah shrugged, "I have no idea when he'll be back; he said something about looking up a friend. Besides, he's a big boy. I'm sure that he'll be fine.
"You're probably right," I said and waved to the waitress who came over with a couple of waters to take our order.
"The special today is chili and cornbread, or if you'd rather have something else, the cook can do a hot ham and cheese with fries or a hamburger," the waitress who identified herself as Bonnie said.
"Chili sounds good to me, but could I also get three big burgers and a bowl of water for Moose?" I asked.
"You sure can, sweetie," Bonnie replied. "Now, what can I get for you, honey?" She asked Norah.
"I'll take the chili as well."
"Ok, the chili is all ready to go, but I'll bring everything out when the burgers are ready for this big boy," she said with a smile.
I was just about to take a bite of the steaming hot chili when a flash of movement out on the street caught my attention. Ethan was standing outside the bar, talking to another man around the same age as him.
"I wonder who that is?" I said to Norah, who gave an absent shrug as she concentrated on her chili.
I leaned forward to try and get a better look, but they stood with their backs to the bar, and with the lights from inside framing their silhouettes, it was impossible to get a good look at their faces. My brow furrowed in concentration, I couldn't quite place him, but something about the other man seemed oddly familiar.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It was the silence that first woke me, that and the warm trickle of blood running down my face from the hairline cut on my scalp from where my head hit the dashboard. I clapped one hand to my head and opened my eyes to look around.
Frowning, I narrowed my eyes in concentration and tried to ignore the pounding of my head. What happened? The last thing that I remembered was driving the jeep? It was my turn at the wheel, and Ethan was in the front seat beside me. Norah was in the back with Moose, who was sleeping when it happened.
One minute everything was fine, and the next, it all spun out of control when the back tire popped with a loud boom, and the jeep jerked violently to the left. Startled, I hit the brakes as everything spun crazily around us and the jeep fishtailed before crashing into the deep ditch beside the road.
I gasped and turned around so quickly in my seat that everything tilted and swayed for a moment as the contents of my stomach threatened to come back up. Hoping and praying that everyone was ok, I gave a sigh of relief when Moose, who looked completely fine, gave me a look of concern from his spot on the floor of the jeep where he'd landed along with Norah when we hit the ditch. Looking a little dazed, she pulled herself up from the floor but otherwise seemed to be unharmed. Beside me, Ethan uttered a groan and rubbed his head.
"What the hell happened?" I asked, still in shock.
"Blowout, I'm glad we weren't going any faster," he muttered. "These old tires probably aren't the best anymore."
"We should check on that tire," I said and opened my door with some difficulty as the jeep was tilted to one side, making my door twice as heavy to open.
"My door is wedged shut," Norah complained in frustration before moving to the driver's side of the jeep to exit.
"Mine too," Ethan replied as he exited behind me.
"This doesn't look so good," I murmured as I turned to survey the damage to the jeep.
Ethan shrugged, "It could have been a lot worse; besides a blown tire and a couple of dents, everything looks to be fine."
"But how are we going to get it out of that ditch?" Norah breathed.
"No idea, but I did see a farmhouse a little ways back down the road. Maybe they have a truck or something that we could use." Ethan replied.
I reached back into the jeep and grabbed my backpack, "the sun is setting fast, so we need to find some shelter for the night."
"I agree," Norah said, looking around uneasily at the rapidly darkening landscape.
"How far back was this place?" I asked as we set off back down the road.
"Not far, maybe a mile or so. But we should be safe as long as we stick to the road," Ethan replied.
Norah shook her head in disagreement, " Walking is easier on roads, but that goes for both humans and zombies. Plus, zombies are attracted to roads because of the noise of the vehicles."
"I wouldn't think that there would be that many zombies out here in the middle of -"my voice trailed off when I noticed a light off in the distance.
TEN MINUTES LATER, we were knocking on the door of one of the cutest farmhouses I'd ever seen. The two window boxes on the front porch were filled with brightly colored pansies that do surprisingly well in Texas during the winter. Despite the peeling paint, which was to be expected considering that we are post-apocalypse, the house was adorable and very well-kept. The yard, which was surprisingly green for the desert, also looked to have been recently trimmed, and I was surprised to note that the porch and windows on the house were completely clean. Because we are in the desert, they would need to be cleaned daily. With all of the sand and dust, this would be no easy task.
"Well, here goes," I said and knocked on the door. Seconds later, the door opened to reveal the smiling face of what had to be the sweetest looking grandmotherly woman in all of Texas. She had snow-white hair that fell to the top of her shoulders, round rosy cheeks, and bright blue eyes. All in all, she looked exactly like you would imagine Mrs. Claws (Santa Claws' wife) to look.
"Oh my goodness, you've been in an accident!" She exclaimed upon seeing the blood on my face and quickly ushered us inside. "Please come inside, and we'll get you taken care of.
"
Once inside, she led us through a comfortable and homey living room into the kitchen, where she bustled around, pouring everyone a glass of sweet tea and handing me a wet cloth to clean up my bloody face.
"Angela," she called. "Grab my first aid kit, we have visitors, and they are injured."
"Just a minute, Grandma," I heard someone answer from the other room before a woman in her early twenties who looked a lot like the older woman right down to her white-blonde hair and bright blue eyes hurried in with a first aid kit in her hands.
"Thanks, Dear," the older woman who introduced herself as Mabel Adams deftly set about putting disinfecting and bandaging the cut on my head. All the while, chattering almost nonstop as she worked. "it's a good thing that you found our house when you did because the desert can be pretty cold and dangerous at night."
Her granddaughter Angela nodded in agreement, "this is the only house around for the next fifty miles, so you got lucky tonight."
"If we had to have a blowout, then this was the right place to do it," Ethan remarked with a flirty grin and a wink at Angela, who blushed and looked down shyly.
I mouthed, "wow," at Norah, who rolled her eyes and made a gagging motion as Ethan kept flirting with Angela, who was now giggling in response.
"Is it just the two of you out here by yourself?" I asked Mabel, making an effort to tune out the conversation between Angela and Ethan.
The older woman nodded with a sad look, "I lost my husband and daughter (Angela's mom) during the first outbreak. We were in Tucson visiting friends, Angela, who was only two at the time, and I barely made it out of there with our lives. And ever since, it's just been the two of us, and for the most part, life is good, but we're always happy to get visitors."
"Oh yes," Angela chimed in with a smile at Ethan. "Things can get a little boring and lonely out here, so we're always happy when someone stops by."
Angela and Ethan flirted nonstop all through the delicious dinner of beef stew and homemade biscuits served with butter and honey. For some reason, it seemed to annoy Norah to no end, which was a little funny. But what I found more interesting was Mabel's reaction to Norah. It was so strange, and I don't think that anyone else even noticed. But she tried, if at all possible, to avoid talking to or even looking at Norah.
About halfway through dinner, Norah leaned over and whispered, "doesn't something about this place seem a little weird to you?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's hard to explain," she said with a frown. "Everything just seems so perfect."
I nodded my head," yeah, I know what you mean; something seems a little off."
As the dinner went on and as strange as it might seem, I got the idea that Mabel was afraid of Norah. This feeling grew even stronger when Norah accidentally touched her hand while handing her the butter dish. Mabel turned so white that I thought she might faint. But as Angela took that moment to knock over her glass of water, Mabel's strange reaction was mostly hidden in the resulting confusion over mopping up the spill.
UNABLE TO SLEEP, I tossed and turned for several hours, trying to get comfortable. But my thoughts just kept going round and round every time that I closed my eyes. Mabel's strange behavior at dinner was starting to creep me out, and I was having a hard time relaxing. I envied Norah and Moose, who were both sleeping soundly beside me as I just laid there wishing for sleep. Finally, not wanting to wake either of them, I quietly left the room and went downstairs for a while.
The light was on in the kitchen, and I saw that Mabel was up and in the process of making a kettle of tea on the old wood stove.
"Why are you traveling with one of them?"
I looked at Mabel in puzzlement, "what do you mean?"
The older woman looked surprised when she realized that I didn't understand her meaning. " I'm talking about your friend Norah."
"What about her?"
"She's a ghostwalker. Normally her kind tends to keep to their own, so I was surprised to see you on such friendly terms with one."
"I don't know what you're talking about, but Norah is like a sister to me; she's my best friend," I replied.
Mabel nodded her head, " Hmm, it's possible that she hasn't realized just what she is."
"I've never heard the term ghostwalker before," I commented.
Mabel set a cup of hot tea in front of me and poured one for herself before sitting down in a chair opposite me. "I'll tell you what I know, but it's not much as I've never encountered one of her kind before."
"I appreciate that," I said with interest.
She nodded," though they are low in numbers, ghostwalkers have been here on earth ever since the dawn of time. My grandmother said that they are people who were supposed to die. But for whatever reason, they were either brought back by something or had such a strong will to live that they were able to fight their way back to the world of the living. And as such, they can walk and dwell in both worlds; it has also been said that they are neither living nor dead but something in between"
I shook my head," it makes for a nice bedtime story, but I don't believe in old wives' tales."
Unoffended, Mable regarded me calmly, "haven't you noticed anything a little different or unusual about her?"
I frowned," everyone's a little different in one way or another, but that doesn't make them into some kind of a mythical creature. By the way, what makes you think that Norah is a ghostwalker?"
"My great grandmother was a gypsy seer, and though most of her powers died with her, I will occasionally have a flash of insight. So even though I've never met a ghostwalker before, her true nature was very obvious to me," Mabel replied.
"Oh, ok," I replied politely, trying to look as if I believed her explanation. She was obviously crazy as a bat, but other than that seemed to be a sweet, harmless little old lady. I yawned and set my cup of tea down on the table. "Thanks for the tea and -" I broke off my sentence when Mabel reached out and grabbed my hand.
"I know that you think that I'm a crazy old woman but mark my words. Your friend is no longer of this world, and nothing good ever came from consorting with such a creature. They are not natural and will bring chaos and death wherever they go."
I politely pulled my hand back, "thanks for the advice, but Norah is my friend, and she would never do anything to cause me harm."
Mabel shook her head, "I will do whatever I can to help you to be on your way in the morning. And I am sorry, but there is no way that I can have someone such as her under my roof for another night."
"Ok," I replied. "Hopefully, we can get the tire changed and be on our way at first light." The old woman was even crazier than I'd first thought, and it was probably a good idea for us to get out of this house as soon as possible.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
When I awoke the following day, I was surprised to find myself alone. Norah and Moose had both managed to leave the room without waking me, which was almost as surprising as the fact that Norah had gotten up before me. She was not a morning person, and you usually couldn't drag her out of bed before mid-morning. Oh well, I thought with a shrug, maybe she was in a hurry to get back on the road.
I dressed in my usual jeans, and because of the cooler weather, I added a long-sleeved flannel shirt and a heavy pair of socks and boots. After brushing my hair, I left it loose to flow over my shoulders. It had grown since I'd cut my braid off last year and now reached midway down my back. Since then, a lot had happened; I reflected as I repacked my backpack and made ready to get back on the road. It had been almost six months since Grandma had left me at Celeste's house, and Moose was now fourteen months old.
He was still a big baby a lot of the time, but he was also starting to have some grownup moments as well, I thought with a smile and closed the door behind me as I headed for the stairs. The house was pretty quiet, but as I reached the bottom of the stairs, the sound of voices coming from the kitchen reached me. I had my hand out, ready to push the door open, when I realized that it was Angela and Mabel arguin
g.
Angela's voice, which was considerably louder than Mabel's, rose until she was almost yelling, " Why is it always about what you want? Meanwhile, I'm just stuck out here with nothing! I want a life of my own, and I don't care about what you want anymore!"
I paused for a moment, unsure what to do when the door was suddenly flung open, and Angela stormed out of the room.
"Are you all right?" I asked as she quickly brushed away her angry tears.
Angela took a deep breath, "Yeah, I'm fine. Life really sucks sometimes."
"Have you ever thought about leaving?" I asked quietly.
"More times than you can imagine," she replied with a heavy sigh.
"Then why haven't you?"
Angela gave me a lost look, "where would I go?"
"There's a big world out there just waiting to be discovered. Sure it can be dangerous out there, but it's still a whole lot better than just sitting here wasting your life away," I advised.
Angela nodded, "You've given me something to think about." She paused for a moment, almost as if to gather up her courage. "Do you think that I could come -" she trailed off and looked miserably at the floor when Mabel walked out of the kitchen and gave her a stern look.
"Good morning," I said, drawing Mabel's attention away from her granddaughter. "I was just getting ready to ask Angela if she's seen Norah and Ethan this morning."
The frown on Mabel's forehead smoothed out, "good morning Dear." She said with a friendly smile, "your friends have already had breakfast and are outside checking on the jeep."