by Sweet, W. G.
Pearl smiled widely, sat up straight and tried to peer into Scott's box. “So what have you brought us then?” She asked. Her eyes were red, but no more so than Scott's own eyes from the rain and wet.
“Wow, she turned on that English accent hardcore. I think she wants what you have in that box, Scott,” Joel laughed.
Haley took a deep breath to clear her own head. Joel leaned close. “Okay?” He asked. His eyes were still smiling but had a hint of worry in them. Haley was pretty sure he had realized how he felt about her and was having a hard time dealing with the emotions that had come with it. She would have liked nothing more than to lean forward and kiss him hello. See how that smoothed out the worry lines embedded in his forehead. But, they weren't at that place yet. She offered him a huge smile instead. “I'm fine, I really am okay, just bored. How's that leg? Don't over do it,” She cautioned.
He smiled widely. “Oh, it's nothing. It's good.”
“Good? You nearly got that leg shot off. I'll take a look at it later on. Now, what gives? What's in the boxes?”
“Yes, what is in the boxes?” Pearl added.
Scott tipped his box forward and Joel followed suit. Jugs of sports drinks, candy bars, and several cans of canned meat.
“Get out,” Haley said as she grabbed a candy bar and a can of the meat. “I love this stuff!”
“The candy?” Pearl asked? She had pulled out a candy bar for herself.
“The meat,” she laughed. “I know we all say we hate it, but fry this stuff up and it's golden.” She looked at the candy bar. “This too, although it will give me about seven hundred pimples probably.” They both laughed.
“Why is it so unfair?” Pearl asked. “A few ounces of sweetness and days of paying for it?”
“Proof that God was a man. A woman would have taken care of that!” They both laughed again and Haley saw a real smile surface and settle onto Pearl's mouth.
“Hey,” Scott said. He held up a box of pancake mix and a jar of peanut butter.
Beside him Joel lifted another box of pancake mix and a jar of grape jelly. “We got both,” He said reverently.
“Oh my God,” Haley said. Her eyes rolled comically. “Okay, Pearl, we best get the frying pan and get dinner going. The mighty hunters have returned with provisions.” She looked down at the cows that were watching them. Mistrustful of the sudden outburst and the laughter. “Hmm, do you think one of you could get us some milk? That one cow is nursing and if she is nursing that means she can give us a little.”
“I tried to get close the other day and she was none too interested,” Joel said. He looked over at the cow and she shifted her weight and stared him down as though she had understood what Haley had asked him.
“See that?” Scott asked. “She knows. That is no dumb cow, right there. No dumb cow at all. She'll kick your ass right back to Watertown.”
“That's what I'm worried about,” Joel agreed. “Well, you get a rope and I'll get a pail and let's see if we can convince her.”
“Well... Be careful, of course,” Pearl said.
“Yeah... It was a suggestion, but don't end up getting hurt,” Haley added as they walked away. She turned to Pearl.
“I am sorry... I hope you can be okay.”
“I will be,” Pearl said. She turned back to Scott and Joel. “Those two will surely get themselves kicked about.”
“Think so?” Haley asked. “I hope that they would be smart enough to call it off if it looks dangerous.” She broke off as Joel and Scott walked over to a sack of grain that had probably been in the barn for a while, Haley judged, by all the dust that rose when they picked it up. The two of them carried it over to the cows who still watched them carefully and stopped about twenty feet away.
“Here cow,” Scott called. He ripped open the top and spilled some grain onto a reasonably clean space of concrete.
Haley sniggered and Pearl raised one hand to her mouth to stifle her own giggles. “God,” Haley said.
Scott looked over and made a face.
“Come on cows... Come on girls,” Joel encouraged. He picked up a handful of the grain and walked slowly to the cows with it. One cow lifted her head and then wagged it up and down. Joel stopped. “What's that mean?” He asked.
“Um, I think it means, hey, bring that shit a little closer, Man,” Scott said.
The cow tossed her head and then trotted the few feet to Joel. She looked at him warily, extended her neck far longer than Joel had thought was possible, and then lipped the grain from his hand. Two other cows, too curious to stay still, trotted over, and a second later they were licking Joel's hands with their rough tongues. A second after that they hurried past him as though he didn't exist and began to eat from the pile on the floor. Joel looked up at Scott amazed. “Get the pail and the rope, Man,” Joel told him.
Scott came over with the pail and the rope. “Well, which one you want to do?” Joel asked him.
“Um, I'll hold the rope... Yeah, I'll hold the rope,” Scott decided.
Haley watched as Scott slipped the rope over the cow's head and Joel carefully reached under her and grasped her udder. The cow did nothing: Intent on eating the grain. Joel's head popped back up a second later. “Uh, how do you get the milk to come out?”
Pearl laughed, jumped to her feet and dusted off her jeans. “Let's go show them,” she told Haley.
Haley laughed. “How about you show them, because I don't have a clue... Doesn't it just come right out?”
Pearl laughed. “Nearly.” She reached Joel, slipped by him and fastened one hand around a teet and pulled down as she squeezed lightly. “Not hard. Slow and easy.” The milk made a load noise as it squirted into the plastic bucket. A few seconds later Haley and Pearl had retreated to start dinner while Joel and Scott took turns milking the cow.
Joel, Haley, Pearl and Scott
Joel sat across the fire and listened as Dale Johnson talked. They had met up with his party earlier in the day. Six total, they had been heavily armed, and the meeting had been tense, a standoff in the shattered doorway of a grocery store on the outskirts of Syracuse. Pearl had broken the tension by lowering her rifle and offering her hand. Sink or swim, she had said later, and they had all managed a laugh about it. She had a way with words, or at least a humor in her words.
Dale, Bonny, Sammy, Ariel, Liv and max. Max and Liv looked like characters straight out of an end of the world sci-fi novel. Leather pants, ribbed sleeveless t-shirts, crossed holsters slung low, hair cut short on the sides, spiked on top, and they had a way of looking through the person they were talking to, as if they really didn't matter at all. Max rolled a never ending supply of wooden toothpicks from one corner of his mouth to the other. They were both restless, watching the sky, the roads in and out of the parking lot they had camped out in.
The others were more laid back. Followers, but they followed Dale rather than the other two, and that made Joel wonder at the strangeness of that. Two type A personalities that no one was following, and Dale, a take it as it comes sort of guy, that everyone including the type A's were following.
“This place is over in Kentucky, maybe Tennessee. We overheard others talking about the place a few times now, guiding others in. It's small now, but it'll grow. It will have to grow, I mean, they have got a set up there they say... Plans, you know.”
Scott cleared his throat. “But you haven't talked to them at all, right?”
“Well, no. But we have talked to people that have talked to them,” Bonny said. Dale nodded.
“They have a place that has existed for as long as this country has existed. They just had someone who knew how to get to it.” Max this time.
Joel nodded. “But it's still a maybe... I can't go on a maybe... We're headed to the city... A large group there we've talked to. Probably south from there.”
“How do you know that is real? I mean, couldn't that be as much of a pipe dream as what we're following?” Dale asked.
Haley nodded. “Well, you're welcom
e to stay here tonight, but in the morning we're heading down along the thruway and following that into Manhattan... You're welcome to come with us... Strength in numbers, “ she smiled.
“Can't do it,” Dale said. He turned to Pearl. “You're welcome... Plenty of room.”
Pearl had been quiet, listening to the conversation go back and forth. She was not interested in New York. Her personal belief was that Manhattan would be nothing but death and destruction on a larger scale. The people that Joel and Scott had talked to had pretty much confirmed that. And there was sickness there, something strange, something new. She got the idea they were heading there because there was a group of survivors there, nothing more. And she didn't feel they would stay there long, Joel had talked about heading south as soon as they got they chance, Manhattan was not going to be his final destination. She sighed.” I don't know.” She looked at Haley. They had become close over the last few days, but she would go wherever Joel went. Joel might not realize that yet, but he would. As far as herself, she just wanted to be out of the fight. She wanted somewhere to start over. Someplace safe.
“You have to do what you have to do for you,” Haley said. “Who knows, maybe we'll all end up in the same place. I mean, if it turns out to really be a large gathering place, we probably will all be there eventually.”
Dale rose from the fire. “Actually we can make a few miles before full dark,” He frowned. “I don't want you to think we're refusing your hospitality, but I want to get there. It sounds good, not too good to be true, but really good. They'll need people to run it... Set things up. I guess I'd want to see that, have a hand in it,” he sighed. “It would be so nice to put this behind us. Turn a corner, start over,” he shrugged.
“I get you,” Joel said. He rose from the fire and took the hand Dale offered. Scott and Haley both offered hands. Pearl said nothing at first, but then turned to Haley and hugged her fiercely. She offered her hand to Joel and Scott, both of whom hugged her instead.
A few minutes later Dale and his small group, plus one, pulled out of the parking lot back onto the feeder road. Joel and the others sat quietly by the fire for a few moments until the sound of the motors died away.
“I wouldn't have thought that,” Scott said at last.
“Surprised me,” Haley agreed. “But, she went through something back there in Watertown. She didn't talk about it, but whatever it was haunted her.”
“We're going to stop hooking up with people. We can't afford it. We'll be down to nothing at all soon,” Joel joked.
Haley and Scott both laughed, but it was a short lived laugh, silence settled back in.
“Hope it is real,” Haley said at last.”
Scott nodded.
“Who knows,” Joel said after a brief pause. “Maybe we will all end up there: If it's there: If it's all they say it is... Maybe.”
The silence held for a short while. Haley cleared her throat.
“Talked to Billy today. About forty people there now,” she said.
“Yeah?” Scott asked.
“Yeah. They have a nice little place there, but they're thinking about heading south soon.”
“South is the place, I think,” Joel agreed.
The conversation went back and forth as they talked about the camp outside of Manhattan and leaving the outskirts of Syracuse in the morning to start for the east coast.
The Camp: Billy and Beth
Mid June
Billy sat sipping coffee by the fire talking with Joel Morrison, when a truck dropped down off the road and into the far end of the field. Conversation died away as the two of them watched the truck coast to a stop. A few more trucks left the field, passing the truck where it sat. Billy rose to his feet with Joel, poured the dregs of his coffee into the fire and looked down toward the truck.
“I'm on my way,” Joel told him. Behind him Beth and Haley were talking in low tones. A few feet away Scott was talking to Mac and Iris. Joel offered his hand and Billy took it.
“Wish you were staying,” Billy told him. Joel, Haley and Scott had made up their minds to head south to whatever might be left of Alabama. There were three others going with them.
“Wish us luck instead,” Haley said with a laugh as she walked up.
“I think there is land out there,” Beth said. “Who knows how far though.”
“We will,” Scott said. He laughed and Billy walked with them to their truck. The truck behind them held more gear and the other three that had decided to go with them, some newcomers from the city that Billy had not gotten to know well. He waved once at the truck in back and then leaned in the window as Joel closed the door.
“Just stay in touch,” Billy said. “As long as you can.”
“Will do,” Joel said.
Billy and Beth watched them drive away before Billy turned his attention back to the truck at the end of the field.
Joel and Haley
West of Manhattan
September 3rd
“Nobody,” Scott remarked as he clicked off the CB and stepped down from the truck.
“It may be the weather,” Alice said as she took his hand.
“May be,” Scott agreed with a smile. He bent forward and kissed her softly.
“You do that so well,” Alice told him. She had that secret little smile on her face, the one that turned up the corner of her lips. The one that had made him say yes when she had asked to join them.
They had met her and the small party she had been traveling with the day after they had left Billy's camp and started on their way. Scott thought back on it now. That had been more than two months before. They had spent those two months just trying to get out of the city, past all the stalled traffic that went on forever, and into a place where they could actually have trucks, drive, make time. That day they had still been driving, or trying to. They had come around a curve on a barely held together state route that paralleled the thruway and there they had been: A truck parked in the middle of the road. Joel had locked the brakes up, the curve had not given much warning. Alice had been standing at the front of the truck and she had never even flinched.
Joel had stopped a good fifteen feet away. When he and Scott had stepped from the truck she had hit Scott with the smile. He had fallen right then. No arguments.
“Could'a killed us,” Toby Black had said. He was the leader of the six party group. “Shouldn't ought to drive so goddamn fast.”
Joel was speechless, it was Scott that had fired back.
“That may be,” Scott had allowed,” But maybe you should give a little thought to parking in the middle of the road too.”
“On a goddamn curve,” Haley added, barely cracking a smile.
“Yeah, well,” Toby said. He seemed to consider a few moments, tugged at his graying beard, and must have decided to say nothing. He had just nodded, dusted one hand against his jeans and extended it to Scott. “Toby,” He had glanced from Scott to Joel to Haley, nodding as he did. “This is Andy,” he had nodded at a skinny man who stood a few feet away. “Galloway over there, Flint at the back of the truck, Lucy siting inside there, and Alice right here.” He had tried to slip one arm over Alice's shoulders, but she had smiled and shrugged it off.
“And who are you,” she had asked Scott. Behind him Haley had chuckled.
“Scott,” he had said.
She had taken his hand and held on, her eyes on his own.
“Listen, you can stay to dinner with us if you like. Fresh venison, killed a deer a few hours back.” Toby had pointed at a fire where what looked like both haunches of a small deer had been spitted: Fat dripping and sizzling.
“Yeah,” Haley had agreed. “We'd be glad to.”
“Yeah,” Joel had added. His stomach had been growling so loudly he had been sure that everyone could hear it. He had reached in, shut down the truck, and then shifted his rifle to his opposite shoulder as he shook hands with the others including Alice who had finally let go of Scott's hand.
A little work had secured so
me late corn from an overgrown nearby field, that and the venison had made an excellent dinner.
“So where you folks going to,” Toby had asked.
“Alabama,” Joel had answered around a mouthful of corn. “Dammit this is good.”
Toby had laughed.
“There are, I think, more deer than there are people. Could have had a cow, in fact, but it would have been a waste of meat,” Alice had said.
They had traded small talk as they ate, sharing road information. Toby was bound for Manhattan, even after he had talked to them. Joel had shaken his head. The man was stubborn, there was no changing his mind. Joel had offered them to join with them and continue on to Alabama.
“Maybe,” Toby had agreed. “I might come back and look you up, but I got to know for myself.” They had been getting ready to leave a few minutes later, having refused politely the offer of spending the night, when Alice had asked if they would accept only her since the others didn't want to go.
“Yeah,” Scott had said, nearly immediately. Toby had not seemed surprised although more than a little let down. He had, had a hard time hiding his frown. Scott smiled now thinking about it.
“What,” Alice asked.
“Thinking about how I like the way your mouth turns up at the corner the way it does,” Scott said. He reached forward and pulled her to him, at the same time walking back to the fire and Haley and Joel. Alice laughed.
“Dead,” Scott repeated to Joel and Haley.
“Kind of weird,” Haley said. “I mean, it's been chatter, chatter, chatter the last few days and now it's dead. Doesn't make sense.”
“Is strange,” Alice agreed. “But we're also further away from the city. Maybe all that chatter was the city... Or most of it.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Joel agreed. “We need to find a map and see what is near. Maybe the largest cities close by were destroyed.”
“I imagine they were: When we came this way it was the same. The few times we got close to a city it was bad. Destruction, the smell was horrible, and the sick ones too,” Alice said.
“Sick?” Joel asked.
“You haven't seen them yet?” Alice asked.
“I don't think we saw as much of the really bad stuff I have heard on the radio...” Haley paused for a second. “Back there, Manhattan, when we were with Billy, we heard some bad stuff out of the city. I mean like horror movie stuff. People looking dead but still walking around... Going without food for days, but not dying; attacking other people,” She shrugged. “Had to kill them, the ones that told us said so: Had to kill them because they were just gone. Come right at you and try to kill you if you didn't... Some kind of bad sickness,” Haley finished.