by Max Lockwood
She would have to ditch Alec before that happened, though. The second she revealed her identity, she would be handcuffed immediately. If the police didn’t already think she was crazy, they definitely would if they saw her injecting strangers with strange liquids.
Elaina would have to wait a little longer. She would do whatever she could to continue progress on her project in secret, but she would also reap the benefits of having travel companions. Not only were they highly motivated to search for necessary supplies, but when Elaina was deep into research, it often helped to have people around her to remind her that she still needed to eat and drink.
Elaina was broken from her trance by the sight of Natalia lagging even further behind than she already was. She even turned her head a few times to look at Elaina, which concerned her.
“What’s going on?” Elaina whispered once Natalia was in earshot.
“Not much. I’m bored. How much further do you think we have to walk?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask Alec?”
“You should ask Alec,” Natalia said, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Why?” Elaina asked.
“I think he likes you, Lainey,” she said in a singsong voice.
Elaina rolled her eyes. She was glad she was never really boy crazy in her teenage years. She found the whispering and giggling so intolerable.
“Whatever,” Natalia groaned, annoyed that Elaina wasn’t playing her game correctly. “You do have to admit, he’s pretty cute.”
Elaina felt her face heat up again. She looked forward and watched him walk for a while. He stood up straight and walked with authority. Wide shoulders tapered down into narrow hips. He had the physique of an athlete. Elaina wondered if he had the jock persona to go along with it. But, he was nice to her, and it seemed unusual for a meathead to be so friendly to a nerd.
“I don’t have to admit anything,” Elaina replied simply, turning up her nose as if she had nothing to say on the subject.
“Look at his butt,” Natalia continued. “He has a really nice butt.”
Elaina let her eyes wander for a fraction of a second to confirm Natalia’s observation before turning to her.
“I have more important things on my mind than his butt.”
“Like?”
Elaina bit her lip. If the time was ever right, she would tell Natalia about what she needed to do. However, standing fifteen feet behind a police officer was not the right place to do that.
“Like staying alive,” she replied, covering the basis of her concerns.
“The world’s basically over,” Natalia said, throwing up her hands for dramatic effect. “Shouldn’t you just enjoy yourself? Alec is cute, and I think he likes you. If you wanted to hit that, you totally could.”
“The world is not ‘basically over’,” Elaina said. “If I truly thought that, then why would we be doing what we’re doing? Wouldn’t we just lie down in the street and wait for the infected to come ravage our bodies?”
“I don’t know,” Natalia said, rubbing her empty stomach.
“I’ll figure something out,” she said, more for her own benefit than for Natalia’s. “I just need a little more time. If we ever get to the point where I think it’s a hopeless cause, I’ll let you know.”
“You can let me know by hooking up with Alec,” she said with a wink. “But don’t let the destruction of the human race stop you.”
Elaina reached over to playfully shove Natalia, but Alec turned around first. She didn’t want to give him the idea that they were talking in secret.
“It’s not much further from here,” he called, waving them closer with his hand. “Maybe ten more minutes.”
“Oh, thank God,” Natalia said, picking up her pace. “Do you think he knows he lives in a sketchy area?”
“He’s a cop.” Elaina laughed. “I think he knows. Besides, do you know any safe areas in this town at the moment? Because if you do, I’d like to go there now.”
“Stay close,” Alec said, slowing down so they could catch up. “If you see anything unusual, I want you to let me know.”
“How about how unusually handsome he is?” Natalia whispered to Elaina.
Elaina gave her a death glare in return. She didn’t want to give Alec any reason to try to get closer to her. First, she didn’t want the police to know of her whereabouts. Second, she didn’t want to get close to someone who might not make it out alive.
Finally, and perhaps the most frightening for her, was the fact that if something did happen between them, she would have to figure out what to do. She felt less prepared to take on a relationship than she did to take on a deadly epidemic. She had been studying her whole life to tackle the most complicated viruses. She had missed out on everything related to dealing with guys while doing so.
Chapter Fifteen
As they neared Alec’s small house, it was apparent to him how much the city had changed in just a few days since he left to go to work. When he left, his already shady neighborhood had been awash with break-ins and robberies. Just a few blocks from his house, an entire bar had been set on fire, not to mention all of the smaller car fires scattered throughout the streets. Everywhere Alec went on that first day of patrol had been consumed by absolute chaos.
Now, as Alec walked down the street, he saw nothing. It wasn’t just nothing out of the ordinary—but nothing at all. There were no gangs of street youths talking and laughing loudly as they walked to the park, there were no drug dealers driving slowly in their tinted cars, and there were no cop cars doing the rounds, just looking for someone to bust. In fact, if he overlooked the fact that most of the houses were in various states of disrepair, he would have guessed that he was walking down the middle of a suburb on a school day. There was not a single person to be seen.
This made his even more uneasy than the regular riffraff did. Something had gone terribly wrong in the last two days for things to change so much. He was afraid that the moment he walked in his front door, he would find out.
“Come here,” he said to the girls, waving them closer once again. They picked up the pace and he held a finger to his lips.
“Why do we need to be quiet?” Natalia whispered, her eyes wide.
“It’s just a precaution,” he replied, trying to ease her nerves. “That’s my house right there. That brown one with the silver truck in front, you see? A lot of these houses have considerable damage done to them. I want to make sure everything is fine with mine before I take you in there. There’s no need to be afraid, but it’s best if we stay alert.”
As they got closer, they noticed that one of the front windows had been broken. By the look on Alec’s face, the girls knew that it wasn’t a preexisting defect. Even the police officer had fallen victim to the mass hysteria.
“I don’t think you should go inside,” he said to Elaina and Natalia. “I don’t like the look of this place. How about we ditch our original plan and take my truck somewhere else?”
“That’s fine with me,” Elaina said.
“But what about the supplies you said you had?” Natalia asked.
Alec tried to swallow, but his throat was too dry. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could go on without having something to drink first. The girl was right—he couldn’t leave his house without at least checking to see if there was food and water in there first.
“You’re right,” he responded, “but I think I should go in there alone.”
Natalia tensed up. Even Elaina looked nervous.
He drew his weapon from his belt. “Can you two just wait for me right here, behind that car?” he asked, pointing to the edge of the street. “If anyone runs out, I don’t want them to see you before I have a chance to take care of them, okay? When I’ve checked the whole place and it’s clear, you can come in and take whatever you want. Then we’ll go find another spot. How does that sound?”
“Just hurry,” Elaina said, looking around. “There’s something about this that’s giving me the creeps.”
“I will
,” he said. “Give me five to ten minutes to do a thorough sweep, then you can come in.”
“What if something happens out here?” Natalia asked.
“Get my attention. Scream, yell, and make a lot of noise. But nothing should happen. I’ll be right here.”
With a reassuring nod, he unlocked his house with the key in his pocket and opened the door, gun drawn. He walked with heavy footsteps, as to not catch any intruder off-guard. Then, he stood in the entrance for a moment, waiting.
Alec had searched a fair number of homes in his short stint as a police officer. He had burst into houses as drugs were being manufactured and had even been bitten on the leg by a guard dog. He had chased criminals through a series of never ending hallways and alleys without batting an eye.
Yet, the task of searching his own home for a danger he didn’t know was scarier than any of those other things.
It was personal, now. Someone had destroyed his property by smashing a window. This wasn’t the type of crime he could leave at work.
“Seattle Police Department,” he called, announcing his presence. This was usually enough to get whoever was inside the busted house to fight or flee. He stood up straight with his gun drawn, ready to take on an attacker.
But no attacker came. That meant that it was time to start the search. Fortunately for Alec, his home was small, and it wouldn’t take long to check the handful of rooms he could afford to buy.
He worked cautiously, entering each room without exposing himself to any angle. He turned frequently, like well-rehearsed choreography, checking each corner for criminals. Closet doors were flung open with a flourish and hanging clothes were swept from side to side.
When one room was safe, he moved to the next, repeating the same procedure. He stayed focused, not letting his mind wander to the crackers in the cupboard or the beer he forgot about in the vegetable crisper. It was like meditating for him, his mind completely consumed with everything his senses could tell him about the particular place.
Much to his surprise, he found nothing. Not even one infected person.
Once his sweep was over, he started walking toward the door to invite the girls in. Then he remembered something that made him pause and turn back to his living room.
He was suddenly embarrassed by the state that his home was in and didn’t want Elaina to see that he had been living in squalor. Before he was called in to work, he had hardly left his couch because he was in such a funk. Fast food and takeout boxes littered the floor, and empty beer cans sat on all surfaces. He hadn’t washed clothes in weeks, and his trash can was definitely molding. The few actual dishes he’d used since the shooting incident had sat untouched in the sink, covered in slime. It was disgusting.
The smell alone embarrassed him. It smelled like a fraternity house after a big party—body odor, stale beer, and other mysterious smells permeated the air. There was no way he would feel comfortable letting anyone see that, let alone the cute girl he was trying to keep safe.
With haste, he piled trash into plastic bags, and when that failed, he just kicked things into the corner and into closets. He tried to run the water before realizing that the water had been turned off. He even found an old can of spray deodorant and fruitlessly tried to freshen the air in the living room, but it was worthless. When he stepped back and looked at his home, he knew that it looked like the house of a crazy person who was not to be trusted. That was the opposite of what he was going for.
The girls could wait a little bit longer. He had yet to hear any screams, which meant that they hadn’t been attacked. A few more minutes wouldn’t hurt. He knew that if he let them inside, he would have to explain why his place was in such disrepair. That was a conversation he didn’t want to have—not when he was trying to display his worth to the girls.
Alec grabbed a duffel bag, emptied it of its dirty gym clothes, and tossed in a fresh change of clothes. He wasn’t sure how long he’d be away, and he didn’t want to repel the healthy people with his smell. Then, he went to the cupboard and took everything he had. It wasn’t much, but he packed his bag with protein bars, crackers, chips, and a few cans of soup. Finally, he filled a jug with water from the pitcher and threw in a few cans of soda. Then, he dug to his hidden spot in the fridge, past the wilted lettuce, and popped six beers in. He hoped he’d soon find a safe enough spot to enjoy them.
Wildly searching around, he tossed in anything that he thought could be of use to him—spare batteries, a pocketknife, and a couple of surgical masks, among other things. When he was finished, he tossed the bag toward the door.
Before leaving his home for an undetermined amount of time, he did one last sweep of the place. Not only did he check for things he might have missed, but for things that had gone missing. While most of the destruction had resulted from his own messiness, someone had definitely been in his house at one time or another. His bedroom television was gone and his expensive stereo system had been ripped from the cabinet. Besides that, everything else was mostly intact.
Finally, he went into his bedroom and lifted the mattress. Reaching underneath, he felt around until his fingers made contact with the tattered spiral notebook. Knowing that his innermost thoughts were safe, he lowered the mattress and sat down for a moment.
After the incident, he had been urged to see a therapist, but talking wasn’t his thing. Instead, he bought a twenty-cent notebook and started pouring his heart into the blue-lined pages every night. He couldn’t reveal how he felt about killing a young girl to his closest friends and family, but he could get it out on ink.
Once he started writing in there, he couldn’t stop. It was a cathartic practice, and it made him feel like he could deal with life, at least well enough to sit on the couch and drink without wanting to kill himself. He wrote down his hopes for the future, his goals, and his deepest fears. Every secret he had was in that notebook, and he didn’t want to lose it for anything. Even if a thief took it and immediately disposed of it, the thought of it being read and taken from its spot sent a shiver down his spine.
With everything in its place—for the most part—he could leave. He’d tell the girls that he decided it would be quicker if he gathered the supplies himself since he knew where everything was. He wouldn’t mention the fact that he was too embarrassed to let anyone see how he was living. If they really wanted to come inside for whatever reason, he figured he’d just tell them that he was robbed and someone was staying in his place in the time he was gone. After all, it did look like something criminal had happened there.
He went back outside and locked the door out of habit, knowing too well that anyone could come and go as they pleased. Then, he tossed the bag and the big jug of water into the back of his old pickup truck.
Those girls are good at hiding, he thought to himself as he squinted to see them behind the broken-down car. He waved his hand in their direction, hoping to catch their attention without having to call for them out loud.
“Come on, girls,” he grumbled, walking toward the car to fetch them himself. Something strange was going on, and he didn’t want to wait around long enough to find out what it was.
“Lainey, Natalia,” he hissed, trying to get their attention, but no heads popped up over the car.
Then, he saw a couple of figures out of the corner of his eye. He squinted to see what was going on. He told the girls to stay behind the car. What were they doing so far down that end of the street?
Alec called out to them, this time waving more frantically. He wanted to get the hell out of there. He’d had pretty good luck, and he didn’t want to challenge that by lingering around too long and getting into an altercation with anyone.
As the two people came closer, he realized that they looked absolutely nothing like Elaina and Natalia. The two were fighting in the middle of the street, absolutely tearing into each other. They beat each other with such ferocity, but neither showed any signs of slowing down.
Alec felt a terrible chill come over him and his stomach rose
to his throat. He ran to the girls’ hiding place, hoping they were just frozen in fear, but no one was there. He ran back toward his house, spinning in circles, hoping they’d appear and they could hop in the truck and get out of there. That didn’t happen either.
He remembered that he was a police officer and that his job required him to see why the two people were beating the crap out of each other, but he suspected he knew why. He touched his holster, ready to aim and fire at a moment’s notice.
Anger and worry filled his veins. If the girls had listened to him, they would have been on their way out of there. If he had lived like a normal person and not a disgusting slob, they could have just come inside after his search was done. So many things could have gone differently.
Alec was just about to yell the girls’ names again when figures came from the fog. More infected had descended upon his home, and he was alone.
“Where are you two?” Alec whimpered, feeling completely dejected. He had given himself two priorities—to stay alive and to keep the two girls alive. He wasn’t entirely sure if he’d manage to do either of those things.
Chapter Sixteen
Elaina had some reservations about waiting behind the old Cadillac down the street for Alec to return from checking the house, but she was too mentally exhausted to voice them. He seemed to know what he was doing, and Elaina knew that arguing would only delay progress.
Perhaps she would have been more at ease if she were ordered to wait alone. Ever since their brief discussion on the walk toward Alec’s house, Natalia had been giving her sneaky glances and grins that were nothing but trouble. It appeared that Natalia found one of Elaina’s greatest insecurities and latched onto it like a leech to its host. She knew that Elaina had secrets, and she wanted in on the excitement.
“When are you going to tell me what’s really going on?” Natalia asked the second Alec was out of earshot.
“I don’t have a clue what you’re referring to,” Elaina deflected.