“Who the fuck are you?” Micah said, tilting the gun away.
“The News knows us as Uncle Brad and Aunt Jeanie,” the older man said. “That’s how it’s going to stay with you. Please don’t use your cell phones while you’re with us. Turn them off.”
Suspiciously, Micah said, “And what’s the deal for you? What do you get out of this? Nobody does anything for free and we can’t pay.”
A silent message passed between the men. Then the younger one said gently, “If you’re thinking that we’re going to demand sex for payment, we’re not. We’re gay, and not into teens. We don’t want money either. You can ask the news for confirmation of the death of one Daisy Cho. That was a good friend of ours who had Sombra C and was murdered by Shepherds last month.”
Everyone else came around the side cautiously. The older man nodded to them and said, “Our problem is that you have a non-Sombra C traveling with you.” That surprised Corbin, who had anticipated at the mention of a problem that it was Bleu Cheese.
“She’s on our side,” Micah said.
“But she can change her mind,” the man said. He considered Zaley. “Any time, for any reason. A fight with you, things get too hot and the other side is safer, I don’t know, but her neck is clear and she has that option. If she tells someone the location of the catch, we’re dead. That’s happened to others plenty of times. We aren’t willing to take the risk.”
“We’re not leaving her here,” Corbin said heatedly.
“Then you have a choice. She can come with us,” he said, indicating the brown sack, “with her head covered. We’ll lock her in the basement, and don’t be so stupid as to drop the address in her hearing lightly. Or else you have to leave her behind.”
“Then we’ll stay,” Corbin said. “We’ll figure out a way on our own.”
“No,” Zaley said softly. She walked forward and offered her wrists to be cuffed. “I understand. Please get us out of here.”
“Put your arms behind you,” the man said.
“It has to be in the front,” Corbin insisted. “A culler shot her through the arm in December and she’s injured.” A third face was staring out at them from the passenger side of the vehicle, one belonging to a buff-colored cocker spaniel.
The man said, “Show me.” Zaley hiked up her sleeve to display the scars and the dimpling in her flesh.
He cuffed her from the front and put the sack over her head. Austin got Zaley’s good arm to guide her to the van, and Corbin followed closely on her other side. Micah climbed into the van first after peering in the windows.
There were three lines of seats behind the front. The younger man said, “Lay her down across the one in back.”
Taking the front row, Micah removed her backpack but kept the gun on her lap. Elania sat beside her and the boys got Zaley to the last row. They sat down in the middle one with the dog. Excited to see a four-legged friend, Bleu Cheese wriggled around. Corbin hissed to calm her down.
“Is she friendly?” the younger man asked.
“Yes,” Corbin said. “But really dumb. This is Bleu Cheese. Does your dog have a name? A code name?”
The man got into the van and settled the cocker spaniel on his lap. She was an old dog, happy to look over these new people and Bleu Cheese, but placid. “This is Bonnie. She’s no shining star herself.”
In a friendly tone, Micah said, “I just want you to know, if you’re planning on driving us to a confinement point or some place with Shepherds, I have a perfect line to the back of your heads. They’ll still get me, but I’ll get you first.”
“Understood,” the older man said with a grunt as he got inside. “Ready, Aunt Jeanie?”
“Let’s go, Uncle Brad,” said the second man. The van rumbled to a start.
They pulled into the road. Zaley was stretched out and quiet on the seat, her hand drawn up to hold the sack off her nose so she could breathe. Corbin didn’t like to see her that way, a criminal going to the gallows. She hadn’t done anything wrong.
He had been a dick to her. He just wasn’t used to being angry, and he didn’t know how to handle it. His parents almost never fought. When they did, they took it into their bedroom. It always blew over by the next day. The Lis didn’t have a house filled with yelling and grudges and slamming doors. Corbin used to get mad about his dyslexia, but they got through it. His father understood since he had the same struggles. So Corbin did his best on his work and his parents were proud of the grades he carried home.
That would have made him furious if they had expected straight A’s he couldn’t earn. Then he might be more familiar with these awful feelings in his chest and brain. He’d never been bullied in school, not really, save that teacher who mocked him for needing adjusted tests. Sally had made him furious and he’d stuffed it down most of the time.
Reaching back, he touched Zaley’s hand. She startled and then wrapped her fingers around his, even though she didn’t know who it was. The van moved on with his hand crooked over the back of the seat to hold hers. Aunt Jeanie was saying, “Some of these braces are done by rotation. You’ll sleep tonight in the catch. The brace at Ramel is up today, and we’ll get you across it tomorrow when it comes down.”
“What happens to us after that?” Elania asked.
“We’ll drop you off at the next catch. There are several ways to Sable Heights from that location, most with permanent braces and one with a rotational.”
“So we wait for the next rotation?”
“No, you’re going on through a permanent. There are people on our side pretending to be Shepherds. They’ll search the vehicle but let you pass. I’m not privy to the throws and catches past that. Sable Heights is going to take a few days, however. This is a game in which you have to make very careful moves.”
Corbin relaxed at how the man said that. This was difficult but manageable. The cocker spaniel looked out the window in enjoyment as they passed from one road to another in a residential area. Charbot was a middle-class community with a lot of foreclosure signs on the lawns. They turned onto a main thoroughfare and merged onto the freeway, only going the length from the entrance to the next exit a half-mile away. Uncle Brad pulled off and went through more residential areas in the northern side of Charbot. Corbin felt ridiculous, thinking of these two men by those names. He hoped that he wasn’t making a huge mistake by trusting them.
The houses were a little nicer here, and on bigger lots. Pedestrians looked at the van going by, not the occupants so much as the artwork on the sides and the cocker spaniel in the window. There were fewer and fewer people the farther they penetrated into this community, and finally Uncle Brad turned into a driveway. They rode up it to a brown house kept private from the road and neighbors by thick bushes and trees.
“Your place is very nice,” Elania said.
“It’s a catch. We don’t live here,” Uncle Brad said gruffly. “There are two bedrooms that you guys can share. One has twin beds and the other has bunk beds. There’s also a bathroom with a shower, no tub. It’ll be tight. You’ll have to make do.”
“They’ll be fine,” Aunt Jeanie replied in a quieter tone. After sleeping for God knew how many nights outside, in cold weather, wet weather, in sopping clothes, on hard ground and grass, Corbin thought a twin bed sounded just fine. So did a real shower and toilet.
Uncle Brad pulled up behind the house. “I’ll get the girl situated; you show them the rooms.”
Corbin got Zaley to the doorway of the van and brought her down. She landed with a stagger against Austin, who wrapped his hand around her left arm to walk with her after Uncle Brad. He guided those two to a staircase going below the house. The dogs sniffed one another, Bleu Cheese doing her stiff-legged stamp that said she wanted to play. Bonnie was too old for that, and ambled to the glass doors of the house after Aunt Jeanie.
The living room was furnished in leather sofas and a large television. Beyond a partition was a dining table, and past a wall with an open window was a kitchen. They looked
around nervously and followed Aunt Jeanie down a hallway. Doors were open to the bedrooms, both bright under the light streaming through the windows. The beds were made up.
Aunt Jeanie opened a linen closet and counted out blue towels, which he passed to Corbin. Washcloths were stacked atop those. Outside, the van rumbled. Seeing how Corbin startled, Aunt Jeanie said, “He is picking up food for dinner. Go on in and wash up.”
As the man went further down the hallway to a third bedroom, Corbin looked at Micah and Elania. All three of them hesitated. Then Micah put the gun down the back of her jeans and said, “You guys shower first. I want to keep watch and make sure no Shepherd friends of these people come back with dinner.”
“Please, would you mind if I went first?” Elania asked Corbin. “My skin feels so disgusting.”
“Go ahead,” Corbin said. A scraping echoed in the hallway. It was Aunt Jeanie coming back with a box in his arms and another being dragged along behind him by the open flap. He brought them into the room with the twin beds.
“These are clothes, if you need any, and if any fit you. Help yourself,” Aunt Jeanie said. Austin came down the hallway and nodded to Corbin. Zaley was okay.
The girls would have the room with the bunk beds, so that left the guys with this room. One bed was covered in a blue blanket and the other in green. Austin flopped onto the green one. “Oh, shit, I’m too filthy for that.” He rolled over and dropped to the carpeted floor as Corbin opened one of the boxes. Austin said, “That one says kids, man.”
Corbin hadn’t seen the writing on the side of the box. It was packed to the brim with freezer bags holding folded clothes. The top layer was for infants, onesies and tiny shirts, and visible beneath was a layer of jeans and T-shirts for toddlers. He closed the lid. ADULTS was written on the side of the second box. The swim through the reservoir had cleaned some of the dirt off his clothes and his jeans were holding up okay, but his shirt stank terribly. His underwear and socks were dying grisly deaths. The pair he had from the house Austin robbed had a hole on one heel.
“Is it all right to give your dog a bone?” Aunt Jeanie called from the kitchen.
“Sure,” Corbin said.
“All right, sit! Good girls. One for Bonnie, one for Bleu Cheese. Go! Take your bones and out of the kitchen.”
“Come, Cheesie!” Corbin said. She ran down the hall with the cocker spaniel, both with big bones in their jaws. They flopped down on the carpet and gnawed companionably. Pipes rattled in the bathroom as Elania turned on the shower.
The box for adults was equally packed, women’s clothes on the left side and men’s on the right. On the top were freezer bags full of underwear and socks. Corbin opened the bag of socks and spilled them out on the carpet. They were new, or worn so little by previous owners that they still looked new. He plucked out a pair of thick white athletic socks gratefully. Austin crawled on his belly over to the socks to take a pair for himself. They stuffed the rest back into the freezer bag and Corbin retrieved the bag of underwear. He set it on the carpet and Austin said, “That’s one big bag o’ man panties!”
“Mine are destroyed,” Corbin said. Wearing the same pair for over a week did that, through rain and sweat and a reservoir swim. There were tons of pairs of white and gray briefs in different sizes. He pulled out two for himself and passed the bag to Austin, saying, “How is the basement?”
“It’s little, but it’s got a big sofa and a blanket. There’s water and soda, and some chips and granola bars on the counter. And there’s a tiny bathroom with a toilet and sink.”
That didn’t sound so bad. “She’s uncuffed and everything?”
“Yeah. I think the dude feels bad for that. He took them off and the sack right away and made sure the bathroom had toilet paper.”
The second layer in the box was freezer bags of plain T-shirts, and beneath that were sweatshirts. The boys sorted through everything to find their sizes, Austin settling on a dark blue sweatshirt to go over a white T-shirt, and Corbin picking out the same kind of T-shirt and a gray sweatshirt that was a little big but thick. He wanted to trade out his smelly clothes right now and put them on, but on second thought, he decided to shower first. That would be soon, as the running water had just shut off in the bathroom.
Austin pulled out the bags of women’s socks, bras, and underwear. Tapping on the bathroom door, he opened it a crack and thrust the bags inside. “You know I’m not looking. Here, Aunt Jeanie says you can help yourself if you need something.”
“Wow, do I need this!” Elania said. “Thank you.”
Corbin should get a set of clothes for Zaley. She’d come along on this trip with a little more, having had a chance to pack a bag, but it still wasn’t much. First he searched through more of the box, which had jeans and khakis neatly folded. There were even shoes along the bottom, used but clean, and still in good condition. He didn’t need those, his sneakers grungy but holding together fine.
Once Corbin had a full outfit for himself laid out on the bed, Elania poked her head out and said with hope, “Am I hearing you guys right that there are shirts and stuff? I don’t have to put my dirty things back on?”
“Stuff and things from a writer? Shame on you,” Austin teased. She came out in a white hotel bathrobe with all of her belongings to look through the women’s clothes. Corbin went into the bathroom for his turn. Past a double sink was a shower stall with a glass door. There were hooks for towels and packed shelves of shampoos, conditioners, body washes, soaps, razors, shaving creams, sticks of deodorant, lotions, combs, and more. A lot of the bottles were little travel sizes. Anything he could possibly need was up there. One shelf had diapers for newborns up to toddlers, pads and tampons, aftershave, and a basket of over-the-counter headache pills and nasal sprays. Within a clear bottle was an emergency dose of Zyllevir.
Corbin rubbed his face. He should shave. Perusing the shelves and feeling like he was in a store, he selected what he wanted and loaded up the shelf in the shower. Then he peeled off his grimy, reeking clothes.
When the hot water hit his skin, he couldn’t hold back a moan. He turned the faucet up even hotter and let the streams beat into his skin. His mind blanked out in bliss at the sensation. Twice he washed his hair, just because it felt good. They would do this, get up to Sable Heights and hide with Elania’s aunt. After that, he’d find a way to get to Napa. The world couldn’t stay out of control forever, and he wanted to start that job at the winery. A man with a job sounded so much better to him than a boy in school. He’d get a paycheck and take Zaley out to dinner at one of those restaurants that allowed Sombra Cs inside . . .
He hadn’t meant to think of Zaley like that. She had dumped him, and even if she hadn’t, the virus would have ended their relationship. They could only ever be friends now, and at this point in time, he wasn’t sure that she even wanted friendship with him.
But he still wanted to take her out to dinner, and he shouldn’t have compared her to Micah in the parking lot. He wouldn’t want to date Micah anyway. They had never connected like that and she was a little too crazy for his taste. He didn’t want a brick through his windshield if they ever fought about something, and it was off-putting that he’d even have to consider his girlfriend could do that.
He wanted Zaley to be upstairs with the rest of them. As she couldn’t be, he’d pick out a nice clean outfit for her, except he didn’t know her sizes. So he’d ask Elania. Did girls know each other’s sizes? He and Austin didn’t sit around talking about that, although Corbin knew them now after picking out clothes together.
Without the stamp, he’d ask Zaley out. If she did that again, the whatever-you-want-Corbin habit that made him nuts even though she was doing it to make him happy, he’d make her say what she wanted. He wished they had carried the easy back-and-forth of their friendship over to a relationship. They had gotten off to a rough start in seventh grade with her asking for help in math since he was Chinese. He’d teased her about that meanly. But there was a big difference betwee
n genuine ignorance and maliciousness, and when she cried, he realized that it was the former. How could she know any better with a father like hers? She’d thought that she was paying him a compliment. After that, they were friends. When someone in ninth grade asked how the two had met, Zaley blurted, “I was an idiot and he was a jerk.” Corbin had been in love with her from that second on.
He wanted to run his fingers through her hair.
That was something he used to love to do, to look at how none of her hair was the exact same shade of blonde. Some of the strands were light, others were ash, and red strands were woven through it. That was beautiful, the mix-up of colors. Once when she fell asleep in his room, he spent twenty minutes picking up locks of her hair to inspect them. They were never the same, some darker, some lighter, some redder.
That was gone for good with his diagnosis. He got out of the shower wishing that he’d stayed at Sally’s party. Yet then he would undoubtedly still be with Sally, in misery and sticking it out in the hopes of winning access to her boobs. The thought of hearing one more oh-my-God, cry of Corbie, or one-sided discussion of a reality show made him flinch. He’d been stupid to put up with it. Sally was peacock-sexy, a girl that made guys sit up straight when she entered a room, but there was nothing in her head. Nothing but selfishness. That made her a lot less sexy once a guy got to know her. Zaley might not have understood everything in the science articles she read out loud when he was sick with Sombra B, yet she read them to be kind and paid attention to what they said. He could talk to her, not be talked at relentlessly by her.
“Doesn’t that feel miles better?” Elania asked when he came out clean and in fresh clothes. She was in new jeans and a T-shirt, packing up the boxes, and the dogs were gone.
“Yes, it does,” said Corbin. He didn’t know what to do with his dirty clothes.
As Austin leaped for the bathroom, Elania motioned to a stack of her own by the door. “Aunt Jeanie said that we can pile them into the washing machine for a load, anything that’s salvageable. Hey, Austin? I left a sulfate-free shampoo in the shower for you!”
The Zombies: Volumes One to Six Box Set Page 77