Running Red

by Jack Bates

  “These cars weren’t here when I came through,” Aubrey says. We’re sitting on the floor looking out the back.

  “When was that?” Clark Danielson asks.

  “I don’t even remember,” Aubrey says. He lays his head on his knee. I rub his back.

  “When are we stopping?” Leslie asks.

  “Other side of the bridge,” Danielson says. “We’re going to hole up in the city just past it. Plenty of hotel space. We’ll set up a guard around the perimeter of a waterfront motel. The Sand Key Inn.”

  “What if the locals don’t welcome us?” Matt asks.

  “Recon has established the city as a safe spot. Most of the locals have bugged out or are laying low now that we’ve established it as a base.”

  “Shouldn’t we try to reach out to them?” Dirks asks. I don’t think I’ve heard him speak since he yelled at me to drop the gun in the Velodrome.

  “They don’t want to be reached out to,” Danielson says. It is left at that.

  The bridge is five miles long. It takes us nearly an hour to push and snake our way across it. At the high point, the stretch between the two towers used to hold the suspension cables taut. The wind hits us and we’re rocked. Leslie and some of the other survivors in our truck scream. I have to admit, it kind of rattles me too. Yuki whimpers. Matt reaches down and musses up the fur on top of Yuki’s head. Aubrey has put his arm around me. I don’t know why, but it’s somewhat awkward having him hold me.

  “I’m alright,” I tell him. I look around. Matt is too busy making baby talk to Yuki to notice me. Oddly enough, the one who does seem to notice is Clark Danielson. He snaps on his flashlight and points it at a map when I look at him.

  There was never any doubt in Clark Danielson’s mind about the direction we would take. Once we cross the bridge, we take the first exit. The road has been cut through stone and it gives the impression we are entering mountains. I know there are some in this part of the state, but we’re really just climbing a low bluff. The hotel we are headed to is on the shoreline.

  A dark circus tent has been set up in the parking lot of the Sand Key Inn. Spotlights have been set up around the tent on the ends of retractable poles. On one side of the tent, several gasoline-powered generators are running. They power the lights illuminating the interior of the tent.

  Two of the towering portable spotlights are directing their beams on the lot next door. A single helicopter rests in the parking lot of the neighboring motel. There are two additional tanks, another four trucks. A dozen or so soldiers guard it all. We are a small army.

  We are asked to move into the circus tent. A few propane pole heaters are lit. Strings of bare bulbs are stretched across the width of the tent. Bulbs hang below the canvas but above our heads. I see rows and rows of cots. On the far end there is a lectern on a rectangular platform. Wooden folding chairs facing the platform have been arranged several rows deep, with an aisle cutting down the middle. It reminds me of a movie I once saw about a huckster preacher who delivered sermons in a tent kind of like this one.

  “Welcome home,” Matt says. He’s standing on one side of me. Aubrey is on the other. Leslie and Dirks are behind us.

  Clark Daniels strolls past. He looks at us and extends his arm towards the chairs. “Let’s all take a seat.”

  I don’t immediately move. The others start filing pass us. Dirks puts an arm around Leslie’s shoulders and starts to lead her to the chairs. She looks over her shoulder at me. I smile and nod. She looks back at Dirks and they take seats near the front.

  “Come on,” Aubrey says. “We should get some seats.”

  “Save us a couple,” I say to him. I look at Matt. This troubles Aubrey, and it shows on his face. I give him a tired smile. Aubrey walks away. What I should do is tell him it’s not that I don’t like him, or that I like Matt more. What I should tell him is that in this new world we’re finding ourselves. I’m not sure I know what it is I want, but I think I know what I need.

  Matt looks up from where he’s kneeling next to Yuki. “What is it?”

  “Tell me about your hands.”

  “These?” Matt holds them up. He flexes his real six fingers, but the forefinger and thumb close and open considerably slower. “They attached them to me when we arrived at Camp G. Good as new. Yuki likes them, don’t you girl?” She licks his palm and tries to chew on his thumb. I pull her away. “It was all Auntie Alice’s idea.”

  “Did they say why they did it?”

  “It was Auntie Alice, Robbie,” Matt says.

  “Who was she?” I ask. I’m not expecting Matt to answer me. Clark Danielson’s voice interrupts us and asks that everyone please find a seat. Matt and I go down the aisle and find the seats Aubrey has saved for us. We aren’t the last to sit down. Once the stragglers find chairs, Clark Danielson welcomes us. There are close to two hundred and fifty people filling the tent. I’m sure there are others still on patrol.

  Danielson begins a detailed explanation of what happened tonight. According to him, Camp G had become toxic, a euphemism he is fond of using. Instead of being about creating a refuge for humanity’s survivors, there was more concern about establishing power. The rift the Superiors spoke of my first night is very real. Mankind’s re-introduction into the world is going to be costly.

  He uses a slide show created on a computer to show us maps detailing the route we will follow. There are checkpoints highlighted along the way. It won’t be an easy journey. There are enemies that will have to be dealt with, he tells us. He wants us to think of this sojourn like the journeys taken hundreds of years ago. He says this is our manifest destiny.

  He doesn’t speak for too long. It’s good that he doesn’t. I am reminded not only of the movie about the con artist preacher, but of the speechmaking Denny liked to do, or LC Allison and her conference with the Superiors. I’ve listened to all of them, and I realize no one is actually concerned about anything except sounding important.

  Bat-house crazy.

  Matt must be reading my mind. He looks at me and nods his head. I drop my head in an attempt to hide my laughter.

  The tent fills then with the most amazing aroma. I’m not the only one who senses it. Necks crane as people look about for the source. Marching into the tent in two long lines are soldiers, and they carry something right out of our past.

  Pizzas.

  The soldiers march down to the front row. My mouth waters. There is a soldier at the start of each row of seats on either side of the aisle. The soldier hands the box to the person on the end seat. We are told to take a slice and pass the box to the next person. It’s only cheese, but I don’t care. It’s hot and it’s melty and it tastes like home. I cry as I eat it.

  “There’s more,” Danielson says. “And cold sodas and some raw vegetables. It’s all set up buffet style outside.”

  “You rob a pizza parlor?” someone shouts. We laugh.

  “We had the supplies. A local business supplied the ovens. All we had to do was use them.”

  “What’s this going to cost us?” someone else asks. There aren’t as many laughs.

  “Put it on my credit card,” a woman yells. This gets more laughs.

  Danielson holds up his hands. “It’s not costing you anything. Life has been as hard as a cherry pit for us these last few years. It’s time we started to live again.”

  This gets a round of applause. When they die down, Leslie raises her hand. Danielson looks surprised by this.

  “Yes, miss?”

  Leslie stands. I’m four rows behind her, but I can barely hear what she says. I’m sure anyone behind me cannot. Danielson shakes his head.

  “You are most definitely not prisoners. Any of you can leave anytime you want,” he says. When I look up, he seems to be looking directly at me. “I would like to offer you this, however. You’ve seen what we took from Camp G. All of that equipment outside and next-door. The world is going to be a very violent place for a while. I suggest it would be in your best interest to stay with
us, at least for a while, until we can get the world back on its feet.”

  There is more applause. Danielson holds up a hand for order.

  “But listen. We’ve had a very long night. I know you’re hungry. I know you’re tired. Please, help yourselves to the food outside. Get to know one another. In the morning, we will have breakfast ready for you.”

  The applause lessens, but the “thank you’s” that are voiced are loud. People begin filing out. Aubrey stands. He looks at me, and then at Matt.

  “You coming?” he asks. I’m not sure if he’s talking to me or Matt.

  Outside, we’re in line. Yuki stands and pants next to me. A soldier comes over with a couple of cans of dog food. He tells me the cans are from Danielson. I take the cans and wonder how I’m going to get my own food, when Matt reminds me I still have my handmade rucksack tied around my waist. I put the cans inside it. Darts and stones and thick rubber bands get squashed beneath them. I miss Baby.

  Matt, Aubrey, and I sit on some parking chocks. Before I eat, I empty one of the cans onto a plastic plate for Yuki.

  “I never knew there were so many stars,” I say.

  “I hear the sky is full of them,” Matt says.

  “But you can see more down by the lake,” Aubrey says. “Away from the spotlights, I mean. You want to go look at them?”

  “I do,” I say. I look at Matt. “Will you sit here with Yuki for a minute?”

  Matt smiles. He musses up Yuki’s fur on her head. She licks his hand again. “Me and Yukes? Absolutely.”

  I stand up. Aubrey looks up at me. I smile and hold out my hand to him. We walk around the far end of the Sand Key Inn and the air gets instantly cooler. Lake effect, I think it’s called. Air temperature is cooler around the water. I shiver. Aubrey puts his arms around me. We face each other. I lay my head against his chest.

  “It’s really pretty here,” I say.

  “Yeah, it is.”

  Aubrey’s voice is soft. His arms are warm. When I look at him, his eyes reflect the myriad of stars twinkling over our heads. I slip my arms around his waist and finally let him kiss me. I finally let myself kiss him. It goes on like that for several minutes, until I slowly start to disengage from him.

  “What is it with you?” he asks.

  “You’re really awesome, Nick.”

  “But?”

  I stare into his eyes.

  “You like Matt more?” he asks.

  “I love you both,” I tell him. It’s true. “You guys saved me that day in the Get Gas.”

  “Saved you from what?”

  “Myself. I thought I would never see people again, and then you two came in.”

  “Matt wanted to kill you,” he says. “At least I wanted to, you know…”

  “Take me prisoner,” I say. We both laugh a little and kiss a little more.

  “You’re not staying, are you?” he asks.

  I shake my head. “I can’t. Staying with the Danielson tribe doesn’t guarantee I’ll ever find my sister and niece. At some point, he’s going to have to lead these people into a battle. My fight is getting to Jessica and Charlotte. Can you understand that?”

  He looks into my eyes. After a moment, he nods. “I get it.”

  “I have to go alone.”

  “I know.”

  Yuki barks and comes running around the corner. Aubrey and I pull apart. Matt chases after her.

  “I think Matt will miss Yuki more than he will me,” I say. Aubrey kind of snorts out a laugh.

  “She just took off after you,” Matt says when he reaches us. “Bad girl,” he says. He kneels down and Yuki rolls around on the flat, gray stones, wagging her tail and barking. I laugh and drop down with them. Aubrey watches us and laughs.

  This is my last night with these boys, these young men of the new world.

  By morning, Yuki and I will be on our own.

  End