by Holly Hook
I had to slow down to twenty to weave through the thickening cars and trucks. I barely made it between a closed-up minivan and a semi somewhere in the middle of the city. We crept closer to the fire as the expressway curved, then away again. The other two trucks ahead slowed to let us keep pace. We clipped an open door and rolled over something that I didn’t want to name to myself.
And at last, after weaving for what felt like an hour, we left the city and the fire behind.
* * * * *
Ahead, Tony and the others pulled off on a ramp to some town that started with either a T or a D. We had crossed the New Mexico border a few hours ago and Alana had passed out from exhaustion and was snoring, her head leaning against the window. I had rolled the window down again to stave away the headache that was starting between my temples.
The smell wasn’t too bad here. There was still that faint, vile stench in the air, but it was even more diluted now and mixed with wood smoke and cold night air. There had been a fire here, too, one that seemed to have burned out already. That was good for us--maybe. I just hoped there was some shelter left.
We drove past a wasteland of burned houses and other small businesses. I spotted a sign for a pizza place, leaning against a street sign. A fire had ravaged the place. It must have been the go-to for this whole town when it came to pizza and now it was gone, along with everything else in this area.
"Huh?" Alana asked, waking and lifting her head.
We drove past more burned buildings. "It isn't too bad here," I said. "I think I like the burned towns better than the other ones, to tell you the truth. They don't smell as bad."
"Good point," Alana said.
We were talking about the most disgusting stuff here like it was everyday things. Well, it was now. We kept driving in silence until we got to a part of town that was thin and spread out. There was another high school that wasn't burned, but I knew better than to take shelter in that. I spotted a small building not far from it that might be an administrative building, and there was an old car parked in front of it--a really old car, like from the thirties.
I slammed on my brakes.
Ahead of us, Tony and Christina did the same thing.
"Do you see that?" I asked.
Alana turned her head. It took her a minute to comprehend. "That might be another survivor," she said.
"Exactly," I said. I wasn't sure how to feel. Other survivors could be friend or foe. Foe was probably the most likely. But even as we sat there, engine idling, the door to the administration building opened and a single figure stood there in the dim light, hand up to his face.
Someone was alive out here. There was something dimly familiar about the man, like we’d seen him before.
“Should we go out there?” Alana asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “We don’t know what kind of person he is.”
“He seems to be alone,” Alana said.
“Your optimism is coming back,” I told her.
“Well, there’s no one else with him and there’s only one car.”
Ahead, Tony leaned out of his truck and made a motion with his arm like he was shrugging at me. What do we do? He was asking me. I gulped.
This decision could cost us our lives, but the thought of leaving someone alone out here was more than I could bear. The first of the day’s light was already creeping over the horizon. This man must be another person fleeing from the dead zone, which was what I was calling the western side of the country. This man could be alone, or there could be others hiding nearby and this was a trap. Our lives could depend on this decision.
I thought. Words spun in my mind, horrible words and fates we could suffer. This guy could be looking to take one of these trucks the way we had stolen these from the men who didn’t deserve them. They were still back there, too, trying to catch up unless they had changed their minds and decided to head to California and plunder the riches there.
But I knew what it was like to be trapped. This man wouldn’t be waving to us unless something was off—very off.
“Let’s check it out,” I said. I rolled down my window and leaned out. “Let’s drive to him,” I said. “Keep the doors locked until we know who he is and how much of a danger he is. We’ll make him do what we want.” He was alone. He looked unarmed. I was driving a two thousand pound killing machine truck.
Tony nodded.
And, being closest to the entrance to the high school parking lot, I turned in and led the way.
This high school was full of cars, some of which had the doors thrown open. It looked like this school had tried to dismiss people after the radiation hit and everyone started getting sick, unlike the Colton High School which made everyone stay until the end. I looked straight ahead at the small building and our headlights fully fell on the man standing there. He was wearing a white lab jacket. He had dark hair and his face did look familiar. I had seen this guy before.
“Is that the other scientist who was working down in the collider?” I asked.
Alana blinked. “You’re right. That’s him!” she said. “What was his name? He’s the guy who waved to us when Dr. Shetlin started the tour. He was in a radiation suit at the time. He must have been underground when the radiation hit.”
I had forgotten about him. I stopped and the man dropped his arm.
It was him, all right. The round face. The short little beard, trimmed partway down to his chin.
I rolled the window down again. At least we knew who this guy was—maybe. I had never been so glad to see an adult in my life. Maybe I could take a break from being the leader now.
“Hey,” I said. “Remember us?”
The scientist approached with caution. “Remember you?” he asked. He had a high, nerdy voice that definitely didn’t sound dangerous.
“The tour,” I said as the other two trucks rolled up behind me and stopped.
The guy blinked and then his mouth fell open. “You’re the kids,” he said. “I remember now. I waved to you. I’m Dr. Marson. I was working down in the collider when the power went out. I couldn’t call the elevator, so I had to leave through an escape hatch. I had no idea anything happened until then. When I climbed out, I saw it all. I had to go back down for my radiation suit because my skin was burning. It took everything I had to walk to town and find this car.” He patted the old Model T looking thing. “Found it in a mechanic in Marlon. There was a nice old truck in there too, but this was more practical for driving. Thing is, it just ran out of gas and I’m stranded here. All the stations in town have burned down. Can I get a ride from one of you?”
Rage boiled up inside of me. “A ride?” I asked. “Where were you when all of us were trapped in the Visitor Center?”
“Good question,” Alana said, opening the door.
But Tony was already getting out and walking past me. “Laney has a good question,” he said. “Where were you?”
Dr. Marson swallowed and backed towards the building. “When the power went out, I checked for you kids,” he said. “I didn’t find you underground, so I assumed you had gone up to the surface. When I got to the top, I found Dr. Shetlin who was dying. She told me everyone on the surface was probably dead, so I assumed that had happened to you, too. Dr. Shetlin told me to leave her, to go and try to find her kids. That was the only thing on my mind. I promise.”
Tony backed off a bit.
“I’m sorry,” Dr. Marson said. He actually sounded it.
I remembered how desperate Dr. Shetlin had been. Her kids were her biggest worry—understandably.
“Dr. Shetlin was my friend,” Dr. Marson said. “I didn’t know anyone was left alive in the Center. I swear.”
“I believe you,” I said, hopping down from the truck. “Look. We have some food and water with us if you need some. We can give you a ride to wherever you’re going. Where are you going, exactly?”
“The military. They’ll need me.”
Tony’s mouth fell open. “As in, the government, too?”
You kids. I didn’t like the way he said that. Dr. Marson was having a David moment. He puffed up his chest a bit in self importance.
“Plans?” I asked. Something told me to be suspicious. Maybe the past days had toughened me into a new person, one that could no longer trust or ever let her guard down. I wasn’t just the Grim Reaper now. I was also the warrior I had drawn one time, a dark fairy guarding the gates to a magical kingdom while the storms and darkness of real life descended.
I sure missed that sketchbook.
“Just plans,” Dr. Marson said. “It was a meeting I had with some officials a couple of years ago.”
“Like how to stockpile food and water and make sure everyone’s fed?” Alana asked.
“Yes,” Dr. Marson said, lighting up. “Sorry. The stress has gotten to me. Let’s all get inside.” Then he faced Tony’s truck. “Someone’s hurt.”
“Hi!” Gina yelled, waving. “I’m not hurt that bad. The pain meds kicked in and I can have a few thoughts without wanting to scream now. I’m better off than most people right now, actually.” She still had her wrapped foot up on the edge of the truck bed.
“She got shot in the foot,” I said.
“Shot in the foot?” Dr. Marson asked. “Who would shoot at kids like that?”
“A lot of people,” I said. “Come on. Let’s get indoors.”
Chapter Twelve
It sucked inside the tiny administration building.
Thankfully, Dr. Marson had dragged out the one body that had been in here before we arrived, an older man who was probably the head honcho of whatever school district this was. Alana shined her flashlight on some coffee mugs that said Twinstown Tigers. A tiger flexing his bicep decorated each one. It reminded me of our mascot. Before the pulse, a football team had played under this mascot. Pep assemblies subjected kids to an hour of torture during homecoming week. People were getting ready to get past final exams and go on summer vacation, a vacation that would never come.
Not only were there reminders that a world with meaning had once existed. The place was cramped. Dr. Marson had laid a Pokemon blanket out on the floor for himself, leaving us the bare carpet. The administration building was made up of three little rooms and one bathroom that thankfully, no one had died in.
“At least it doesn’t smell too bad in here,” Alana said.
“Agreed,” I said. The smell was still there but Dr. Marson had opened a bunch of windows before we had even arrived.
“I was trying to reach the bus garage to find gas,” he explained as we all filed into the first room. “I stalled out and rolled towards the building I thought would have the fewest bodies. I hope that the wind doesn’t blow from the direction of the high school.”
No one spoke much as we found places on the floor to spend the day. I was already dreaming of big, fluffy pillows, or at least a new sketchbook where I could draw out all my rage. So instead, I focused on the holes in the ceiling tiles and counted them. My heart rate slowed a bit.
Gina joined Alana and I on the floor. It was three of us to this room while Mina and Tony took a small storage room for themselves. If they chose to do anything, I hoped that they could keep it quiet.
Thirty-seven…
Sixty-two…
I gave up counting at a hundred and forty nine and listened as Dr. Marson closed the windows to block out the sun of the coming day. He muttered something as people shuffled, finding spots on the floor. I took one in the second room with Gina and Alana.
“Do you think he’s safe?” Gina whispered.
“I don’t know,” I said. “He was being awfully vague when he was talking about the military.”
“It was the word ‘government’,” Gina whispered. “You know they have a plan for this. And it’s probably all to make things better for them. They’re still alive on the eastern side.”
I thought about it. The world leaders had probably all retreated to bunkers by now with supplies to last them for years, if not decades.
“We don’t have to keep him all the way there,” I said. “We’re going to Alana’s grandparents first.” I thought about Dad in New York. “Our families are first. If the doctor wants to walk to the government or get the army to take him there, he can go ahead.”
“We can at least give him a ride to the checkpoint,” Alana said.
“We can,” I agreed. It would be good to have an adult hitch a ride with us, someone who could take the burden of these hard decisions for a while. It was difficult being the leader, or one of them. I supposed Tony was the other even if he wasn’t my favorite person. “We’ll get there tomorrow. Or tomorrow night.”
Pink light formed a line on the wall right above Alana’s head. I watched as it crept down the wall. We were staying out of its sights, at least, but Alana scooted away from it as much as she could, banging into a cabinet.
“It’s weird, calling day night,” Gina said. “I feel even more like a vampire than usual. Night. Or day, I should say.”
* * * * *
My nightmares were full of soldiers in gas masks and hazmat suits, and one of them was David. Skinny closed in on me from the other side, club raised. They circled me so fast that I didn’t know which way to look, and as the sun rose on the desert horizon, they each split into two, making clones of themselves. The Davids and the Skinnys kept splitting until they filled the desert around me, a plague of evil that wouldn’t stop. I spun around, searching for an escape, and—
“Laney. You’re trying to sleep in,” Alana said.
I opened my eyes to the inside of the administration building. “I hate sleeping,” I said. “Well, now I do.”
“So do I,” Alana said. “Gina’s already up. Her foot was bothering her. The sun’s setting and we’re going to leave soon. Do you remember where you put the meds?”
“They’re in one of the trucks,” I said, cursing myself for forgetting to bring them in. Gina was leaning against the cabinet, grimacing in pain. “Sorry,” I said to her.
“I was almost ready to brave the sun,” she said.
“I’ll go out and get the meds,” I offered. Everyone else was up. I scrambled through the building until I found Dr. Marson’s Pokemon blanket thrown over the back of a chair. Dr. Marson stood by the bathroom and motioned for me to take it. Throwing it over myself, I ran out into the bloody glow of the evening.
The air was redder than ever. I felt like I was running through some demonic version of Mars, just with air. It was colder than ever and dust was getting kicked up, but it wasn’t anywhere near as thick as it was back in Colton. I hoped that we’d be able to outrun any coming storms. I stopped for a second and leaned against Tony’s truck, where he had stashed the meds behind his seat. The wind was coming from the west, where the red, diffuse glow of the sun was the strongest. We were headed east.
I squinted. It almost looked like there was a cloudy wall hugging the distant horizon, riding towards us on the wind...
And every second, it seemed to loom a bit bigger.
We had to go.
Tony had left the truck unlocked. I grabbed the stuff out of it and took the bottled water and pills back to Gina, who was still inside leaning against the cabinet. She swallowed a few of them and managed a pained smile at me. “Thanks,” she said. “My foot feels like something’s ripping it apart from the inside. It’s an awesome feeling.”
“Tony!” I yelled. “Jerome! Everybody. We need to go.”
Dr. Marson emerged from the bathroom and closed the door behind him. “The toilet doesn’t flush,” he said. “Close the door when you’re done.”
“There's another storm on the way,” I said. “We have to move fast unless we want to be here for another few days, or even forever.” I wondered if the Colton storm was expanding like some disease across the land, trapping anyo
ne who could still be alive. It had changed direction like it had detected us out here.
Either way, panic was rising inside of me.
Dr. Marson must not have experienced a mega dust storm before, because he was shuffling around, going through cabinets. Tony and Mina emerged from the closet, Tony zipping up his pants. He and Mina had taken it to the next level after all. I thought it was a reckless thing to do right now.
“NOW!” I shouted at Dr. Marson.
He jumped. “I’m the adult here.”
“I’ve seen more crap than you,” I said as Alana and Gina brushed past me. “We’re going, with or without you. See everyone heading outside? If we get caught in one of these new dust storms, we might not move for weeks.”
Dr. Marson wasn’t the bravest man in the world. He turned away, grabbed his Pokemon blanket that I had thrown onto the floor, and followed me as we left the building empty. “Okay,” he said. He sounded very sheepish.
Alana and Gina had crammed into my silver truck. Alana had pulled the middle seat up and Gina sat there. I got in and started it. The engine roared to life. We had a quarter tank of gas. Next to me, Christina, Jasmine and Jerome had crammed into the front of the next truck, leaving the back empty. The air was getting thicker with blowing dust. Yes. A storm was coming. The wall on the horizon had risen like an earthen tsunami ready to bear down. It must only be a few miles away.
There was just enough room to allow Dr. Marson to cram in with Tony and Mina. I flashed my lights, reversed, and gunned it through the parking lot.
My skin burned a bit from the remaining sun, but the light was fading and I knew it would get better. We couldn’t afford to wait any longer in the building. A cloud of dust blew in front of me, blocking the school exit from view for a bit, but then it cleared.
“The dust is catching up with us,” I said. “The storm’s just growing.”
“The sun’s burning us,” Gina said, rubbing her bare arms.
“We’ll have to deal with that for a few minutes,” I said. “We can survive that. The sun’s going down.” I hoped it was far down enough to escape the worst of what it could dish out. “Tuck yourselves in your shirts as much as you can.” I pulled my right arm into mine and drove with just my left. It was awkward, it but worked.