In Another Life

by Liesel Browning

  Sadie shook her head. “Sounds like Glenn would’ve liked this place.”

  “You’d like it, too,” Manny insisted. Sadie shook her head again. “You really would. I’m telling you, I finally feel like I have a real life there.”

  “You remember all those books you used to show me?” Sadie asked. “I mean, it’s because of those books that I…that I know who I am. I can’t go to a place like this.”

  “Listen, in SC there’s…there’s certain places you can go to…to meet people. I’ve been growing my social network a little bit there,” she added with another grin.

  “I’m with Amelia,” Sadie reminded her quietly.

  “And no one’s gonna try to keep you apart,” Manny said. “When I first got there, I was weirded out by the whole thing, you know? But think about it. We’re the ones who’ve gotten through this. We kind of owe it to mankind to, like, rebuild things. This is how we can do our part.” Before Sadie could even think of how to counter this, Manny went on. “It’s a trade-off, Sade. It’s a choice.”

  “And I choose to stay here,” Sadie said, standing up from the table. “What can I get for my trade?”

  “Johnny and Remy already got everything we’ll need,” Manny said. “Just take whatever you want on the shelves.”

  Sadie headed down the hall without another word. “Sade!” Manny called after her. Sadie didn’t respond as she stormed downstairs. She grabbed an armload of stuff, not even bothering to look at what she was taking. Manny didn’t catch up to her until she was outside, tossing it into the back of her truck.

  “Sadie,” Manny said, grabbing her arm before Sadie could head back into the store for more. “Hold on. You realize this means we’re leaving, right? The store’s gonna be closed?”

  “You said that,” Sadie snapped. “That’s why I’m gonna take everything I can.”

  “Then what?” Manny asked.

  Sadie shrugged. “You guys aren’t the only ones trading around here,” she pointed out. “Or I could go to the Peg myself, why do you care?”

  “Come on,” Manny said. Manny took Sadie’s face in her hands, forcing Sadie to look into her lovely, bronze eyes. “I’ve missed you. We’ve always looked out for each other, Sade.”

  Sadie looked away. “We’ll be okay,” she said. “You guys have a nice life.”

  Sadie said nothing, but heard Manny as she continued loading the truck. “We’re sticking around for a few more days,” Manny told her. “We’re trying to get more people to come out with us. Hank’s taking the car to search around for survivors, but you can come out with us. If you change your mind.”

  After Sadie all but cleared the Charles family store’s shelves, she hugged Manny goodbye. “Take care,” she said, not wanting to engage in any more discussion about that place.

  “Think about what’s best for your family,” Manny advised as Sadie got into her truck. As Sadie headed up the cracked street, away from La Ronge, she looked at her former lover, now the married resident of some religious cult’s fortress, in the rearview mirror.

  Chapter Nine

  Glenn planned to cross the border in North Dakota. They expected to find a lineup of cars there, hours of waiting and possible rejection, but they zipped on through. The Canadian border wasn’t even being maintained.

  It was the following morning, when Daisy was driving, that they heard the woman on the radio. She was sending out a warning. “If one of your loved ones is bit by one of them things…there’s nothin’ you can do. Shoot ‘em. That’s the humane thing.” She broke down sobbing. Glenn reached over and switched off the radio.

  “That’s awful,” Daisy declared. She glanced back at her daughter, who was curled up in the small backseat. “Doing okay, sweetie?”

  “I’m fine,” Sadie said. She hadn’t spoken much in the past couple of days, since they’d hit the zombie on their way out of Iowa City.

  They were moving much more quickly now. The tense silence in the car was punctured every so often by Glenn’s triumphant bragging. “You’d think people would be flocking this way,” he said at one point. “Take to the high country, the north country. That’s what we were told, right?” Daisy had stopped responding to these rhetorical questions. Sadie could feel the tension building between her parents, just like in the months leading up to their split.

  Sadie was dozing when she felt the truck stop. She wondered if they’d stopped at a gas station, if she could get a snack. It took her a moment to remember that there were no places to buy snacks anymore.

  “I’ll be just a minute,” Daisy snapped as she climbed out of the truck. She left it running, and Glenn started to fiddle around with the radio. He didn’t turn around to check on his daughter, didn’t know she was awake. Sadie just lay there in the dark backseat, wondering where they were, exactly. Wondering if Grandpa and Grandma would be at the farm when they got there, fearing what they’d find.

  Sadie didn’t sit up until she heard her mother screaming. Sadie saw her running out of the woods, clutching her arm as she ran around to the truck. “What happened?” Glenn demanded as Daisy climbed in.

  “One of those things…” Daisy pointed out of her ex-husband’s window with her free hand, still clutching her arm. Sadie watched with wide eyes as a woman staggered out of the woods. Like the man they’d plowed down on the streets of Iowa City, she had blood on her mouth as she lurched towards the truck.

  “It…it got you?” Glenn asked. Daisy looked into his eyes and nodded.

  What happened next would be burned into Sadie’s mind for the rest of her life. She watched in horror as her father shoved his way into the driver’s seat, forcing Daisy out of the truck. “Hey!” Daisy screamed. “You motherfucker!” she screamed as Glenn drove away, slamming his foot into the accelerator as they sped down the narrow road.

  Sadie gaped out the rear window, watching as her mother was overtaken by the woman…the creature…then another. Three, four zombies tore into her mother before the truck rounded a bend. That was the last Sadie saw of her.

  She screamed and hit her father’s shoulder. “Go back!” she cried. “You killed her!”

  “Stop!” Glenn cried. He steered with one hand while he reached back and grabbed Sadie’s arms. “She was already dead. As soon as that thing bit her…”

  “You left her to…”

  “She would have died, and then she would have become one of them,” Glenn snapped. “She would have eaten us, or…”

  Sadie threw her blanket over her head and sobbed. Her father offered no words of comfort. They didn’t speak to each other again until they got to the farm, several miles north of La Ronge, the following afternoon.

  *

  When Sadie got home, she told Amelia about the closing of the Charles family’s store. Amelia was distraught. “What are we gonna do?” she asked.

  Sadie gave her lover the same reassurances she’d been telling herself on the drive back to the farm. “We’ll be okay,” she said. “Hey.” She touched her lover’s smooth cheek, kissed her softly. “We’re gonna be fine. There’s other means. I’m gonna take care of us.”

  “Where are they going?” Amelia asked.

  “I don’t know,” Sadie said. “They wouldn’t tell me. They’re my friends. If it were somewhere worth going, they would’ve said.”

  “Restless,” Amelia said, shaking her head. “Just like that friend of yours, I guess.”

  “Yeah,” Sadie said. She thought of Manny again. Manny and her husband. Manny might be safe in her new home, but living under the rules of a bunch of religious nuts…Sadie felt bad for her friend. She couldn’t think that Manny was better off.

  As Amelia put away the food Sadie took from the store (enough to get them through the rest of the summer…but then what?), Sadie noticed that Christian wasn’t around. She hadn’t seen him on her drive in, either. “Where’s the kid?” she asked.

  “Off wandering around or something,” Amelia called from the pantry. “It doesn’t matter what I say to him, he
just doesn’t stick around for two seconds.”

  “Yeah,” Sadie said. She sat down at the table while her lover put on the kettle. They were down to their last few teabags, though they used each bag as many times as they could. Sadie didn’t know how they’d manage after that.

  They were both quiet, worried, as they sipped tea together. Sadie felt antsy, so she sprang up from the table and said, “I’m gonna pull the truck in.”

  “Oh…okay.” Amelia looked puzzled as Sadie pulled on her sneakers and hurried back outside. It was still bright out, a pretty late spring afternoon, but Sadie couldn’t enjoy the weather, not with everything she’d heard that day.

  When she pulled into the garage, she saw Christian cowering in the corner just in time to keep from bumping into him. She stopped short and climbed out. “Chris?” she said. “What’s the matter?”

  Christian blinked up at his sister, his eyes red. He was clutching his right ankle. “I…I know I shouldn’t have done it.”

  “What do you mean?” Sadie snapped. “What’d you do?”

  Christian winced, clutching his ankle tighter. Sadie crouched down, and in the dim light from the open garage door, she saw that the leg of his jeans was wet. Or maybe…

  “Roll it up,” Sadie said, a bit more gently this time. Christian winced again, but obeyed his sister. Sadie leaned to the side, letting the light from behind her hit his exposed ankle. She gasped.

  “I have Dad’s key,” Christian said. “I was walking just outside the grounds…”

  “You…you left the property?” Sadie asked.

  “Dad and I used to…” Christian winced again, whimpering. “I didn’t see it, and then it was on me. It got hold of my leg and…but I kicked it in the face and ran. I…”

  “Oh, my God.” Sadie rocked back on her heels. “You were bit by a zombie.”

  “Am I gonna die?” Christian asked tearfully. Sadie looked her brother full in the face. He was just a kid. Fucking Glenn, giving him the idea to go outside of the walls.

  “I don’t know,” Sadie said.

  *

  Amelia didn’t become hysterical until she tucked her son into his bed and shut the door. In the living room, Amelia paced and panicked. “He’s gonna die,” she whimpered.

  Sadie sat on the couch, thinking of her conversation with Manny earlier that day. At this Sanctuary Coast, this place run by religious nuts, they had scientists. They had doctors. They were working on a cure.

  “Not necessarily,” Sadie said.

  Amelia sniffled and looked down at her lover. “Every time we’ve heard of someone getting bitten…”

  “The place the Charles family is going to? They’re working on a cure.”

  Amelia crossed her arms. “You said you didn’t know where they were going.”

  Sadie put her head in her hands for a moment before she explained the whole thing about Sanctuary Coast. Amelia shook her head. “You’ve got hang-ups about religion, so you weren’t gonna tell me about this place?”

  “I’m telling you about it now,” Sadie said. “So it’s up to you.”

  “If they can help Christian, then yes,” Amelia said firmly. “Yes, we have to go.”

  “We have to move quickly,” Sadie said. “We have to pack, right now, and leave tonight.”

  “Do you know how to get there?”

  Sadie shook her head. “The Charles family will have to guide us. They were gonna wait to head out, but…”

  Amelia didn’t wait to hear anything else. She headed back to their bedroom. “Pull the truck back around,” she called. “Let’s load up.”

  Within the hour, they were leaving the farm, seemingly for good. Amelia had Christian bundled up in the small backseat, as Sadie once was, years ago, when she first arrived at the farm. “How’re you feeling?” Amelia asked her son as Sadie coasted down the driveway.

  “My ankle really hurts,” Christian said. “But I’m okay.”

  “Everything’s gonna be fine,” Amelia said. “We heard about a place that can help you.”

  At the end of the driveway, Sadie removed the chain one last time. She didn’t bother to put it back into place after she pulled the truck through the gate. Maybe someone would come upon this farm, up here in the middle of nowhere, and find something useful for themselves.

  They were silent on the drive to La Ronge. Sadie had a lot on her mind, but she knew that her lover was only thinking of one thing. She was thinking of getting help for her son. She was thinking of grasping a chance for his survival. Because Amelia was right. They’d never heard of a case of anyone surviving a zombie bite.

  Sadie made it to La Ronge in record time. She pulled up and left Amelia and Christian in the truck as she pounded on the door, worried that the Charles family closed up and left early, after all.

  But Remy was the one who answered this time. “Sade,” he said. “I thought you were here this morning.”

  “My brother got bit,” Sadie said, and she didn’t have to say by what. Remy’s eyes widened. “We have to go to this Sanctuary Coast place right away. Right now.”

  “He’s in the truck…?”

  “Manny said they’re working on a cure there,” Sadie said quickly. “If there’s any chance they can help my brother…” The only alternative would be dragging Christian out and shooting him. It’s what anyone would have recommended, and exactly what Sadie would have done if she hadn’t spoken to Manny that morning.

  Remy glanced over at the truck again. Amelia didn’t want to leave Christian, and Sadie didn’t want Christian to leave the truck. If Manny said there was no way that the doctors and scientists at SC could help him, then…

  “Come on,” Remy said, leading Sadie into the store. The only light in the front room came from a kerosene lamp on the counter. The empty shelves cast shadows on the far walls. “They’re upstairs,” Remy said. He led her to the Charles family’s living quarters.

  In the kitchen, there were boxes stacked on the table…the Charles brothers’ things, no doubt. Manny and Hank were going through the kitchen cabinets. “Sadie,” Manny said, closing the cupboard above her head. “What’re you doing here?”

  Sadie explained in a rush what had happened. “Can they help him?” Sadie asked. “Because if they can, I…I’m going with you. But we need to…”

  “I don’t know if they can cure him,” Manny admitted. “But they can definitely help. I heard about this infected guy who came to SC like a year ago, and he’s still alive in the hospital there.”

  Sadie nodded. She latched on to this. It was all she needed to hear. “I know you weren’t trying to rush,” she said. “But we gotta get him there.”

  “Take a seat,” Remy said. “Relax for a minute. He’s not gonna turn into a zombie overnight. It takes, like, a few days or something.”

  “But we don’t…”

  “We’ll go in the morning,” Remy said. “I’m ready to get on out of here myself.”

  “Can…can I bring him in here for the night?” Sadie asked. She wondered where she and her family would stay. The apartment above the store used to hold the whole Charles family, all seven of them, but they were pretty cramped quarters.

  “Yeah, bring them on up,” Remy said. “I’ll make up Mom and Dad’s bed for you.”

  “That’s…that’s really nice of you,” Sadie said. She went downstairs, back out of the store, and to the truck, where Amelia was anxiously waiting.

  “Well? What did they say?” Amelia asked.

  “There’s a chance,” Sadie said. “They want us to stay the night, and we’ll head out in the morning.”

  Amelia, her face completely white, nodded. She turned to her son in the backseat. “Come on,” she said. She got out of the truck and helped Christian down. He winced when he stood up, hissing between his teeth. His jeans, still soaked in blood, were covering the wound, but his ankle was clearly swollen. Amelia bundled up the wound as best she could (thank God for the first aid kit), but there was only so much they could do.


  Sadie picked her brother up. He put his arms around her neck as she carried him into the store, Amelia following. Amelia, who’d never been in the Charles family store before (who hadn’t left the farm since she arrived years ago), glanced over at the empty shelves. “This place got cleaned out,” she observed.

  “That was me earlier,” Sadie admitted.

  Upstairs, Remy led Sadie back to his parents’ bedroom. Amelia followed, sitting on the bed after Sadie lowered her brother to the mattress. “We still got a couple of painkillers, from before Dad went,” Remy admitted. “Can I break one up and give it to him? It’ll help him sleep.”

  Amelia looked up at Remy with tearful eyes and nodded. He left the room to get half a pill for Christian. Amelia took her son’s hand and kissed it. “They said there’s doctors who can help you,” Amelia whispered to him. “Everything’s gonna be okay.”

  Sadie and Remy left Amelia alone with her son. She wouldn’t leave his side until he drifted to sleep. Sadie and Remy went downstairs to help the others unload Sadie’s truck, not wanting to leave the only supplies they had in the world out for anyone who might want to take them.

  “You’re not gonna need all this food,” Manny observed. “There’s this big collective farm there. All the food you need, and you can get chicken or turkey just about every day.”

  “You don’t need to try to convince me anymore,” Sadie pointed out. “I’m already going.”

  Manny took Sadie’s arm, keeping her back down in the store while the men went upstairs. “Hey,” she said. “I know you’re freaked out, for a few different reasons. But everything’s gonna be okay. I think this whole thing with your brother…it’s fate. That it would happen now, when you have the chance to come to SC and…”

  Sadie shook her head. “You know, I’ve never had any control over where I’ve been or what’s happened to me. I’ve always done what I’ve had to do.”

  “Any of us can say that,” Manny pointed out.