A baby began to cry. Micah turned to it at once. Austin was coming to the pier, holding a flashlight and Mars. They went to him, Micah taking the baby and crooning into his ear. His cries went down a few decibel levels, although they didn’t cease. “What set him off?” Zaley asked Austin.
“I have no idea. He’s fed. He’s clean. He’s dry. So that leaves teething, tired, or it’s just baby witching hour,” Austin said. He looked over Zaley’s head to the boat and the water. “Where’s San Francisco? Micah, what did you do to it?”
“They’ve lost electricity,” Zaley said. His face fell at her seriousness. People cried out at the boat starting to sink.
At their campsite, Micah carried the baby into the tent. Corbin took in the news quietly but grimly. The laundry was drying at the fire, and he had the bucket of dirty water ready to douse it. The kayak was locked up for the night and the rods freed of their attachments to it and concealed. Zaley packed up their cooking supplies and stuck them into the foot of her tent while Austin stamped on the dirt over the emergency cans of food buried there. They didn’t leave anything to chance. Nor did they stay up late, attracting attention with their voices.
As Corbin overturned the bucket, distant shouts rang out that the boat had gone down. Smoke billowed up from the fire and then it was silent, except for Micah’s voice in a lullaby. Zaley went into her tent and undressed. Although they weren’t in much danger from ferals, and she didn’t feel too threatened from the campers around here, she usually slept in a state of partial dress in case they had to get up hastily. But she was sick of it. Pulling off everything except her socks and a loose T-shirt, she climbed under the blanket and shivered until it warmed up. The boys finished the last chores outside and said good night to each other.
The flap opened. In the pitch black, Corbin moved around carefully to not step on her. “I can’t believe they lost electricity,” he said.
“I was staring right at San Francisco when the lights went out.”
Clothing rustled. “When we studied wars in school, it never looked to me like they took too long. A few shitty years and it ended. Did you notice that?”
“Yeah.”
“But that’s not how it is. You can’t know that from reading it in a textbook. When you’re inside it, for a year or two years or five, however long, it lasts forever. We don’t know the end date. We can only be in this moment, so it goes on for eternity.” He climbed in beside her and pulled up the covers. She pressed to his side, putting her head on his chest and touching her hand to his stamp. He kissed her head. One of his arms came around her back and he pulled her closer. “You are not wearing pants.”
“Uh-uh,” Zaley said. “I’m tired of wearing them.”
His hand traveled further down her back. “You are not wearing underwear either.”
“I’m tired of those, too.”
“I’m tired of mine,” Corbin said. She undid the button and zipper of his jeans, and then they decided they were tired of everything. When they returned to their previous position, only their socks had survived the disrobing. The heat of his bare skin felt so good on her own that she couldn’t press closely enough. He rubbed her arm from wrist to shoulder.
Feeling a heavy breath leave him, Zaley whispered, “What’s wrong?”
“I’m doing something I shouldn’t be doing, for the millionth time.”
“What’s that?”
“Thinking of where I should be, rather than where I am. I should have graduated and gotten that job. Started to save for a car, a house. We would have the cutest kid someday.” When Zaley didn’t answer, he asked, “Do you want one?”
“I don’t know. I would . . . I would try. But I think I’d need a lot of help. It’s not as easy for me with Mars as it is for you guys.” Zaley was ashamed to say that, but his hand didn’t stop rubbing her arm. She could imagine a little Corbin running around and that was darling.
“I’d help,” Corbin said. “It’d be my kid, too. My parents would be so excited. My mom has some problem inside, she never told me exactly what, and her doctor long ago said she wouldn’t be able to have any kids. Everyone was shocked when she got pregnant with me. She always said: Daddy cried and cried, Corbin. Right there in the car when we found out about you, he pulled over to the curb and cried.” Corbin chuckled. “They’d love to help as much as we’d let them. It isn’t all on you.”
“I wish I wasn’t like this. I like older kids better.”
“Well, our kid would get older. They all do that. You’re still very nice to Mars, even if you don’t like him so much.”
“I’m not going to be mean to a baby. It isn’t his fault.”
“If it’s a girl, her middle name should be Elania. You didn’t see her in the confinement point, how strong she was, how everyone looked up to her. She was magnificent. You only saw her afterwards when she was falling apart. Our daughter should have a good name like hers.”
“I like that,” Zaley said. Their daughter could have Elania’s strength, not her own family’s weaknesses. “Can we travel, too? Is that part of what you think?”
“Yeah, we’ll travel. Before the kid and after when he or she is old enough to get something out of it. What do you want to see?”
“I want to see the whole world. And I don’t want any dark wood furniture in our home. I want to live near a river or the bay.”
“Done and done. And done. We could live near the Napa River, or close enough to travel there on the weekends. We’ll have lots of fishing trips.”
“Booooooooo.” The baby was still awake and doing his ghostly impressions. Micah sang the lullaby again and Corbin lowered his voice. “I told Austin that there might be adults in the harbor who’d be willing to adopt Mars. He’s young, he’s healthy, he’s cute, he’s white, and a lot of people would want him. Austin says Micah won’t give him up.”
That was crazy to Zaley. “She’s not even eighteen. She can’t adopt him herself.”
“She won’t have to. She can just pretend that Mars is her son and she’s seventeen, technically old enough to have a baby of seven months or so. There were a few girls at Cloudy Valley High who were already mothers. No one is going to call her on it.”
No one would. There had been a girl in one of Zaley’s junior year classes who was sixteen and had a baby daughter. Another girl in the school had twins a month after her fifteenth birthday. “He doesn’t look a thing like her.”
“You don’t look a thing like your parents.”
That was the loveliest thing she had ever heard. When Zaley closed her eyes, the burning boat was still there, as was the dark splotch where San Francisco should have been glowing. She changed the flames to sunlight streaming through a window to light the pages of the book their child was reading. If he or she had dyslexia as bad as Corbin’s, then it would be an audiobook playing in the background. Zaley could share her books, just in a different way. “We could be in that place one day,” Zaley said. “When this ends.”
“I’ll be careful. I’ll be so careful. I don’t want our kid to catch my Sombra C.”
Zaley lifted from his chest to kiss him on the lips. Cold swept in where the blanket parted from the bedding, but the heat of him was so great that Zaley welcomed the line of chill going down her skin. When he turned his head away, she slid onto his torso and caught his wrists, saying, “Stop.”
“Zaley-”
“No! I don’t want to hear it!” She lowered her lips to his and pressed her tongue inside. After one sweet kiss that way, he turned Zaley over roughly and settled on top of her. Something about the darkness, having her sense of sight removed, was thrilling. His hands and lips were everywhere, and she trapped him to her body with her legs.
“I love you,” he whispered. “I’ve loved you since ninth grade. Seeing you with another guy will kill me.”
“I don’t want another guy. I want you.” If Micah came back with condoms from some raided house or drugstore, Zaley was going to hide them in the tent. Sex had gone
from frightening to something that made her nervous, but wanted to try regardless. There was such a huge difference from when she’d been barely sixteen to now when she was four months from turning eighteen.
They didn’t end up having sex, Corbin far more controlled than she was, but they did anything and everything that could be safely done and she woke up in the morning with her body still humming from it. She consulted her mind for regrets and didn’t find any, only an urge to do that again sometime. Then she flushed and hoped they hadn’t made any sounds for the others to overhear.
Dressing quietly, she went outside and peed. Austin was coming out of his tent when she returned. He looked worried, not amused to see her, and Zaley said, “What’s wrong?” Mars was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and smelly over his shoulder.
“Micah’s not feeling very good,” Austin said. “She tried to get up and couldn’t. I think she has a fever.”
“Is it her puncture wound from the fish hook?”
He stared at Zaley in bafflement. Micah hadn’t told him. “What puncture wound? She has a puncture wound? Goddammit. Will you change and feed him?” Mars was passed over and Austin returned to the tent. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me you hooked yourself? Where?” He dropped the diaper bag outside the flap for Zaley, who picked it up and pinched hard with her right hand to not lose it. She took everything into her tent and put the baby down on the bedding to get out the towel and fresh diaper. Corbin opened his eyes and made an exaggerated expression of surprise to find the baby there. Mars wriggled around and babbled at him. Considering some of the highly fussy little kids in the relief line, they had gotten off lucky. Mars was an easy-going baby, as far as babies went. Just as long as he wasn’t facing-in. The child of Zaley and Corbin, if ever there were one, would have much darker hair and eyes. That was good. Zaley preferred it to not look like her. She thought she did look a little like her mother. Elania Li was a sweet name.
“Fuck, Micah, why am I the last to know?” Austin burst.
“Micah has an infected puncture wound on her palm from a fishing hook,” Zaley said when Corbin gave a startled glance to the side of the tent.
“Oh, shit. We have to find her some medicine,” Corbin said.
While being transferred to the towel, Mars yelled happily, “AAAHHHHHHH!”
“The lord commands you to prepare his bottle as he is changed,” Zaley said. She skipped the English accent, unable to do it as well as Austin did.
Corbin groaned and pulled up the covers higher. “Ugh, I’m warm.”
“BOOOOOOOO!”
“And the lady reminds you of your promise last night to help with a child.”
“The lady speaketh and I obey. Let me go to the bathroom first and I’ll get on that.” He dressed and went outside, Austin calling him over. Zaley unpinned the cloth diaper and had the clean one at the ready to block any surprise sprays. They had learned that the hard way more than once. Little fingers stretched out and banged on the bedding, Mars’ gaze on the badge that had fallen out of the bag. Zaley put it in his hand. Chewing on it kept him from wriggling so much when she was doing the diaper pins. Once Austin had accidentally pricked Mars and drawn a drop of blood. It had been hard to tell which of the two cried harder over it.
Corbin returned. The boiled water from the night before had cooled under a cover. He poured it into an empty bottle and scooped in the powdered mix, measuring very carefully as he said, “Her hand is swollen and red around the puncture, about the size of a half-dollar or a little bigger than that. She definitely has a fever, although it’s not too high. Yet.” A moan came from the other tent. “They’re trying to get the pus out. The skin has healed over it.”
Before the breakdown, they could have called an advice nurse and asked what to do. That wasn’t an option after the breakdown. Zaley didn’t have the Internet to look up the address of the nearest doctor’s office or a hospital, so those weren’t options either. “What should we do?”
Corbin shook the bottle to mix the water and powder. “It has to be cut open to drain the pus, and rinsed with sterile water. I said I’d do it when Austin looked like he was going to yak. Then the wound has to be covered to keep other germs from getting in. She says that she had a tetanus shot a few years ago, so that should still be effective. Other than that, some antibiotic cream . . . I don’t know what else she needs, except for antibiotics that we don’t have.” Handing over the bottle, he started work on the second for later in the day. Zaley propped the baby against a pillow and popped the nipple in his mouth. He put his hand over hers on the bottle and drank. When she pulled away, he held it up on his own.
“No joy,” Austin called.
“Okay,” Corbin answered. “We should sterilize a knife and nick it open.”
Looking woozy, Austin came in to stay with the baby. Zaley and Corbin went out to sterilize one of their dinner knives. Flicking the lighter, she protected the flame from the breeze as Corbin held the tip of the blade over it. His eyes were intense with concentration. Zaley said, “Doctor Corbin Li.”
“Oh God, I’m not. I just remember after my mom’s surgery, she got an abscess. That’s all I know, Zaley. That’s it. Micah needs to see an actual doctor.”
All they had left of first aid was a bandage. After this was done, Corbin and Zaley would have to go in search of supplies. If they didn’t find anything in the morning, she would return to crab for their dinner while he kept hunting through abandoned homes, cars, and businesses.
Corbin washed his hands in some of the boiled water. Then they went into the second tent. Micah was a miserable lump in tangled blankets. Sitting beside her, Zaley laid her hand flat on Micah’s forehead. It was hot. Corbin sat on Micah’s other side and picked up the wounded hand. “Zaley, will you shine the flashlight here?”
“Shit!” Zaley said when the light fell upon the injury. The palm was grotesquely red and raised. There were small indentations in it where Micah and Austin had been trying to open it with their fingernails.
“Micah?” Corbin said in warning. “I’m going to prick you now.”
“I never knew you felt that way about me,” Micah said. As he started to count to three, she added, “Just go for it.”
Zaley’s stomach turned over when the blade pierced the skin. It took everything she had to hold the light steady and not look away. Jerking from pain, Micah bit down on her lip to keep from crying out. Corbin removed the blade, a little pus coming out with it, and gave it to Zaley. He pressed on the raised skin and bile rose in Zaley’s throat as pus burst out of the hole. Micah’s other hand lashed out and grabbed onto Zaley’s knee, which she squeezed hard. Then she whispered, “I’m going to throw up.” Zaley yanked over a towel and Micah vomited into it.
Although he had brought in paper napkins to wipe off the pus, Corbin called, “Austin, bring me the leftover boiled water from the bottles and another towel.”
Austin came in, carrying those things and Mars. Micah tried to smile. “Hi, baby boy.” Picking up on the strain, Mars made an uncertain burble.
Corbin rinsed the pus away, letting it drip into the towel under her hand. More chunks of pus jettisoned out at a second press. Austin gagged and sat down. The fingers relaxed from Zaley’s knee as the pain faded, and Micah said, “That pus came from down deep. I felt it coming up.”
After that was rinsed away, a third press brought up a little more. Corbin did it one last time and only got a spot of clear fluid. He rinsed her palm, dried it around the wound, and picked up the bandage to peel off the protective paper. Mars fussed and Micah said, “Put him by me.”
After Austin set him down, Micah showed Mars the ring toy. He rolled over to grab it. Rolling a second time, he squawked on his back as the rings fell off the stand to his chest. Austin pulled him up to a sitting position so he could play.
“Okay, keep your hand still. Zaley, hold the light,” Corbin said. She trained the flashlight on Micah’s palm so the bandage could be put on. It was meant for a kid’s scraped knee,
not a hole in a hand.
“I feel like shit,” Micah whispered. “Wake me up in a few hours and I’ll check out those abandoned homes for first aid things.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Austin said. The baby looked up at his harshness and Austin modulated his voice. “You can’t touch anything with that hand, not until it’s really covered. Corbin and I will go.”
“Let me go to the pier first-” Zaley said.
“We need this more than crabs,” Austin interrupted.
“Austin. Let me finish. Dig up a couple of cans of our soup and let me see if I can trade them for some first aid. If Bob has anything, he might go for it.”
Zaley was soon off to the pier. She took the baby in his sunhat along, believing that having him there made their plight look even more pathetic. In her backpack were two cans of soup, one low-sodium chicken noodle and the second a jumbo-size spaghetti and stars. Mars looked around at everything while she sought that bent frame at the bars. Bob hadn’t arrived yet, but she knew which way he came and started down that path. He had mentioned that his house was right at the southern tip of Sausalito’s homes on Edwards Avenue.
The gun was down the back of her jeans in case of trouble. None found her on the walk, and she spotted Bob when she’d nearly made the city. He waved in the distance.
“Do you know how we used to do this?” Zaley asked Mars. If they were keeping him, it was important to her that he grasped what the world used to be like and what it had lost. Micah would give Mars the future; Zaley would give him the past. “You’d go to a store and pay money for things. You didn’t swap food for it. If we had tried to do that when I was little, the cashier would have looked at us like we were nuts.” Mars was quiet, listening to her voice even if he didn’t understand the words. This could be how he grew up, his normal. Zaley was always going to be doing second takes.
In this new world, Bob didn’t find it nuts. The cans delighted him, especially the spaghetti and stars, and spared him the walk to the pier on a day he wasn’t feeling well. The baby delighted him, too. He and his wife had tons of first aid supplies and old medications on two shelves in the upstairs linen closet. Welcoming Zaley to rummage through everything, he added for her to keep in mind that he couldn’t vouch for the expiration dates.
The Zombies: Volumes One to Six Box Set Page 130