Riley wrapped her fingers around the knobs on the faucet and slowly turned them. At first, there was only a slight drip. She was about to turn away when a steady stream of lukewarm water poured from the showerhead. Riley held her breath. This is a dream. The water was warm. This isn’t real, but the water was raining down on her. Hungry licks of steam rose on the glass, creating a fog on the oversized mirror behind her.
“Impossible.” She cupped her hands, letting the water fill her palms. Her nightshirt clung to her.
“Utah, Megan.”
She pulled off the wet t-shirt and stood under the hot waterfall letting the clear water ease her aches. Riley stood a long time before reaching for the shampoo and conditioner. The cocoa scented soaps smelled good enough to eat. She moved from the large overhead spray to the thin stream falling from the waterfall fountain. She didn’t want to get out, but the butterfly stitches on her face had lifted.
When a small knock sounded at the door she wrapped a towel around her but didn’t shut off the water. Two small faces peered through.
“Hurry. Before it goes away.”
Utah unquestioningly, guided Megan into the steamy bathroom. She helped her little sister escape the nightshirt getting long strands of curly hair twisted into the material. Riley knelt beside her and untangled the hair gently.
“I’ll be right outside the door.” Riley said.
The girls were prunes by the time they finished and after several bouts of giggling, they were hungry. They sat near the fire Riley rebuilt, Utah braiding Megan’s hair back. Unruly curls sprang free and fell onto her forehead.
“That was weird.” Riley said.
“What was weird?” Utah thumbed through her trail mix. She was looking for an orange M&M. It was something Riley learned about her some miles back.
“The shower.” Finding an orange M&M in her bag, Riley handed it to her. She popped it into her mouth. Riley watched her. Utah was a beautiful girl. Just in the few days they’d been with Riley, their color was brightening and they were showing signs of weight gain. However, Utah’s eyes were most alluring, cream-colored hazel with swirls of gold.
“We should get on the road.” Riley said.
Max bounded in stopping next to Utah. He purred rubbing against her legs.
Gathering up their things, Riley paused in front of the shower. The steam had cleared, but moisture clung to the glass. She reached in, turning the knob. Not even a drop came out. She stepped back closing the shower door. For a minute, she tried to make some sense out of it, but there were no rational answers.
NINETEEN
Life had become lawless turning the highways into death traps. Traffic moved at a steady pace with the exception of an occasional tapping of brakes, but it was no longer that unified flow of traffic. Speeds fluctuated and tempers were shorter than they’d been in the past. Unable to identify who was infected convinced Riley to keep as far as she could from the other drivers. This meant driving not only aggressive but smart. Riley eased the truck and trailer over when a hauler filled with wrecked cars passed them doing well over eighty. Twisted chunks of material, heaped on the flatbed, fastened down by thick chains loosened causing debris to fly. Riley eased out of the throttle changing lanes and kept a steady pace well behind the wreckage. Her pistol lay on her lap as they crested the Siskiyou summit. Riley began to think that it wasn’t just humans effected by the Shift, but Mother Nature as well because it began to snow. The Cummins diesel purred up the hills pulling the trailer with ease. In four-wheel drive, Riley watched others move to the side.
Just as dusk closed in, they dropped down into the valley. Riley found a side road just outside of Yreka, prepped the trailer and got the girls settled in for the night.
“Can we make snow angels?” Megan cried out. “I’ve never made a snow angel. Mama used to tell us about the ones she made when she was little.”
“Tomorrow.” Riley said often forgetting they were just children and snow should be exciting. “I promise. Megan pressed her cheek to the glass and watched the snowfall from inside.
Riley gave Max canned cat food she’d snatched from Wal-Mart, but he wasn’t interested. “Tomorrow, rabbit.” She said.
He stared at her and then blinked an eye. He didn’t move from his empty dish, but looked down at the food and then back to her. His tail moved making his body sway from side to side. With one swat of his paw, he dumped over his bowl.
“Okay! I give.” Riley said. “Rabbit for you, jerky and cranberries for us.”
After pouring three cups of instant hot chocolate in hot water, they settled in for a movie. Diversity and preferences separated their ideas of which movie to watch so Riley took three straws, shortened one of them and enclosed them in her hand. Megan, who was easily entertained and had her own distinct squeal of excitement, pranced about. In the end, Utah won.
“Goonies,” Utah said.
“Goonies” I repeated, looking at the box. “That’s not scary is it, because I don’t think…?”
“It’s not scary,” cried Megan. She pointed at the box. “See, it’s about a pirate ship and treasure.” Squeal.
“You’ve never seen Goonies?” Utah asked.
“Nope! Never saw it.”
Megan giggled. “Everyone’s seen Goonies.”
“Apparently not everyone,” Riley grinned taking out the movie. “Now prepare for bed or walk the plank.”
Megan giggled, her fingers curling into a ball. Without having to ask twice, she pulled off her shoes, ran to the sink, and started brushing her teeth. Mental note filed.
“Come on Riley, you promised.” Megan said the next morning pressing her fingers into the new pair of pink gloves. Her beanie was on, but it covered one eye. Kneeling down, Riley straightened it releasing long curls that leapt and bounced around her rosy cheeks. Excitement sparkled in her eyes.
“Okay Megan, let’s go make some snow angels.” Riley said reaching for her hand.
It was Christmas card perfect with sparkles shimmering off the snow and cobalt blue skies outlining the mountaintops. The quietness caused them to stop short of the third step. Max meowed impatiently behind them pushing through their legs, dropped off the steps only to disappear into the white powder. Megan was the second to push past racing after Max who was bounding through the snow like a deer. Half of Megan disappeared too. She twirled excitedly with palms outward catching falling flakes. Utah joined her sister. It was as if nothing in the world was wrong.
“Snow angels!” Megan fell to the ground.
She disappeared under the layer. Riley watched as her arms and legs flailed back and forth. Snow shot into the air in tiny puffs of powdered ice. Riley and Utah giggled and fell to the ground. Riley played with the girls forgetting, if not for a little while, the hundreds of miles still left in front of them. They had a snow fight and lastly built a snowman.
“Here.” Utah said handing Riley a disposable camera.
“What is it?” Megan asked standing on her tippy toes to get a better look pulling Utah’s hand down toward her.
“A camera. I didn’t know they even still made disposables.” Riley said. “Back then, I mean.”
“What’s dis…poo…sable?” Megan asked.
“You think it still works?” Utah asked.
“Worth a try,” Riley said, taking the camera. The button lit up. “Go stand with Megan next to Frosty.”
The girls grabbed the snowman’s hands and posed. Riley clicked the button setting off the flash. They left the snow angels and Frosty behind as they headed for the five once again. They could be in Redding by early afternoon, but as the highway turned steep and windy, Riley doubted that was doable. The snow disappeared as ascended into the mountains and open highway.
TWENTY
At first glance, everything looked desolate. Parking lots were empty except for the sea of wrecked cars shoved to the sides and on side streets. Having taken a beating, the city survived through hard times, but when she looked a little harder, every oth
er building was broken, marked, and or vandalized. It looked like some attempt had been made to do a cleanup, but with great adversity. There were no people walking on sidewalks. The number of drivers on the actual city streets numbered less than a handful mirroring a feel of desolation. It was just after noon and the northern California skies of Redding were turning a turbulent grey in color. For Riley, who had been in isolation for so long, the future for the world looked bleak? Every inch of space encapsulated a sense of madness.
When the black truck started to ride the trailer’s bumper, Riley wasn’t surprised. The truck was new and the trailer more than valuable possibly this had rubbed the driver the wrong way. After her experience at Wal-Mart, she knew some people were still infected. He rode behind her for several miles. Tapping the brakes to keep from hitting another car in front of her, she silently cursed the chaos. The driver of the black truck, saddled up close to the truck. The nose of his bumper made connection with the trailer. Riley, enclosed in her lane, had nowhere to go. She watched in the mirrors as the truck appeared and then disappeared from her view. Pulling over to the shoulder wasn’t an option because the shoulder was lined with debris.
“Go around me asshole.” She blurted out and then glanced over at the girls. “A-hole.” She corrected.
The gap was being pinched even tighter, a car to the front of her and now one to the left of her, black truck bringing up the rear. Riley already knew his next play because the car next to her was speeding up wanting no part of what was building. He was going to come on her left and force her off the road.
Riley laughed aloud feeling the rise of anger. “Right! Like I’m going to pull over. Here’s my truck, keys and everything else I’ve almost died for.” The weight of the trailer whipped from side to side. Riley glanced down at her gun. Trouble had found them again and she readied for impact.
“Buckle up and plug your ears.” She told the girls and rolled down the window. “Okay, you son of a bitch. You want to play, let’s play!”
The left lane cleared. She moved over and then over again. When the tailgater moved over, Riley went back to her original lane, but decreased her speed by twenty. The monster behind the wheel of the black truck moved to the opposite lane and then throttled it. He was driving directly next to them. All she could see was tinted window. As the other cars peeled away, the monster gained ground.
“What does he want?” Utah craned her head to get a look.
“Everything we have.” Riley said. “Stay down.”
“What’re you going to do?” she asked. Riley looked back to see Megan holding onto Max.
“He can’t have it, or us.” Riley lifted off the throttle.
Utah sat back into her seat. The truck was gone. Riley turned to the opposite mirror. The truck was moving fast to her right coming up on Utah’s side. The black truck dipped over slamming into the trailer, which swayed violently. The unfinished pit maneuver was a warning. Getting the truck and trailer back under control, Riley grabbed the shotgun.
“Climb in the back seat.” Riley said.
Utah looked at her and started to crawl over.
“I was really starting to like this truck and trailer,” Riley said rolling down the passenger window.
Riley switched the safety off the shotgun and pressed it forward. Utah pressed her hands to her ears tightly tucked under on the floorboard. When the monster throttled his truck forward, Riley took aim at the tinted window. The 20-gauge Browning semi-auto expelled a shotgun shell full of pellets shattering his window causing him to scream. The center of the driver’s window exploded into tiny fragments.
The driver jerked the wheel sending his truck into theirs. Tapping the brakes, Riley swerved to the left. The trailer swayed to the right. The tires chirped, causing the truck to bounce to the side. She fought the wheel until the truck leveled out and then she looked back to see if she’d hit him. Under long disheveled hair, blood and fury covered the driver’s pock filled face. The woman sitting next to him was just as sickly. She passed him a pistol. Riley sped up just enough to align the trailer to the black truck and then she made the trailer swerve into his front fender sending out a spray of sparks and metal. He jerked the wheel pulling away ramming the trailer with his demolished front fender. The trailer hitch broke free from the ball of the truck. There was a quick hard jerk as the chains caught the trailer. Behind them, the trailer swayed out of control. Other cars just catching up to them, swerved to keep from colliding.
There was no stopping and regardless the outcome, they were going to lose their rolling motel. The driver was out for blood. Riley looked in the rear view mirror. The tailgater was coming at a high rate of speed. Sliding in on her left side, Riley stared into the passenger’s face. Pockmarks and open sores covered her skin. The nasty habit of drugs had boiled her skin. The green brittle hair was a horrible combination. She gave Riley a smile, revealing a row of teeth that resembled the Rocky Mountains and just as dark. Riley’s stomach rolled.
“They say keep your friends close and keep your enemies even closer.” Riley said aloud.
The contents in the trailer emulated a rolling bomb. Gallons of diesel, kerosene, and several propane tanks strapped down next to the Arctic Cat in the back swayed and broke free.
The woman screamed out some prolific profanity Riley couldn’t fully understand. Megan must’ve peeked out the window because she screamed, “Monster!” in my ear. The woman raised her shotgun, but Riley was quick to pull the trigger. The sound of gunfire exploded inside the cab. The bullet caught the woman in the chest. They weaved hard to the left hitting the center shoulder. Nearly losing control and road rage infected, the driver’s face was red hot. The woman was dead. A spray of red decorated the front windshield.
Ramming into Riley again, the impact shoved them forward. Riley grazed the steering wheel with her face reopening her wound. As the truck swayed, Utah and Megan were bracing for the next impact. Little soldiers. Riley thought. The trailer sagged behind. It was time to take him and the trailer out of the equation.
“Objects may appear closer than they are.” Riley shouted.
Switching from pistol to shotgun, Riley fought the truck all the while watching until the black truck’s front fender was visible. She fired a round into the hood. There was a crack of what sounded like thunder as the hood folded and then lifted taking flight like a bird, but not before crashing into the windshield. The glass shattered.
“Hold on!”
Riley shoved the truck to the left, hard. The trailer bucked sideways. She felt a pull. Tires chirped as clouds of dirt and rock detonated into the air. The back of the trailer swung around and slammed into the black truck. Momentum pushed it violently to the right side of the road. Losing control, front tires dug into the shoulder, sending the driver, his dead passenger, and truck into a rollover. Metal scraped cement and dirt puffed out into the air like powder. Utah climbed up to her seat and looked back just as the black truck came to a rest upside down.
“That doesn’t look so good.” Utah’s cheeks were cherry red. There was a deep ache in Riley’s heart and then in her stomach. She wasn’t so sure the man upstairs had chosen the right person to take care of these two little souls.
The truck sprang forward as the safety chains broke, separating them from the trailer. Behind them, the trailer swayed and then rolled, exterior and interior materials sprayed across the highway. The Wild Cat tore loose from inside the trailer and barrel rolled out coming to a stop, demolished. The second cloud of dirt was the trailer hitting the shoulder and smashing into the meridian. A giant ball of flame exploded into the air.
“There goes our diesel.”
The explosion shook the interior of the truck. Another ball of fire ascended into the air igniting propane and diesel. Several more blasts rocked behind them and a black cloud lifted upward, shrouding the evening sky. Several cars pulled off to the side. People scrambled to loot through the debris.
“I don’t like hurting people.” Maybe it wasn’
t the time to say what she’d said but it had just spilled out. Megan was clutching Max with both hands. Her face was pale.
“We know.” Utah said. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“The school was cold and dark at night. It smelled of monsters.” Megan said. “I like you Riley.”
“Thanks,” Riley said. “I like you too. Are you and Max all right?”
“I have to go potty.” Megan said.
“Okay.” Riley glanced down at the fuel gage. It read a quarter of a tank. They were in desperate need of fuel now.
As the plume of smoke disappeared behind them, Riley drove until she saw the casino off to the right side of the highway. Florescent lights spilled out from the inside of a convenient store nearby. The letters on the neon sign glowed “assino”. Someone had spray painted out the extra s.
Riley wasn’t surprised the casino had survived. She wasn’t a gambling girl, not literally anyway, but she was betting the casino market would have supplies to get them to the next stop.
The building, riddled with bullet holes, exposed charred plywood covering gaping holes and broken windows. Besides appearances, the store was a welcoming sight. Riley parked in the front where she could see the girls.
“You two okay out here?”
Utah looked at her.
“Right,” Riley said.
Reaching under the seat, Riley took out a handful of twenty-dollar bills and stuck them inside her bra. It was early evening and the lights buzzed with energy. Lights. A high-pitched beep sounded as she passed through the door. Everything, to her, seemed loud and bright including the woman behind the counter. She was happily plump with fuchsia lips and an AK-47 pointed in Riley’s direction. The store’s policies became obvious. She pointed at the sign. Riley looked. It read, “I reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”
Not Alone: The Beginning (The Fighter Series Book 1) Page 9