Race to Refuge

by Craig, Liz

  Her grandmother turned that blank, confused look on Ginny at the mention of Ty. She mumbled, “I want to stay.”

  Right then there was a tap at the door and we turned to see a thin nurse standing there. Her lips were pressed together in disapproval and her face was lined with stress. “It’s you,” she said brusquely. “I guess you made your way in.”

  This was the woman who’d opened the gate for us then. I looked at her coolly.

  The nurse glanced at Mrs. Brown. “We need to move you now,” she said. “Really, we should have moved you weeks ago, but we were trying to give your family time to help you.”

  Clarice Brown gazed uncomprehendingly at her.

  I said, “Where are you moving Mrs. Brown? Surely business isn’t carrying on as usual right now.”

  The nurse pursed her lips again. “It certainly isn’t. But I want to make it easier on myself since I’m really the only staff left. I’m moving all the remaining residents to the memory care unit. It’s secured and can be locked from the inside as well as the outside.” She studied Mrs. Brown. “And, of course, Mrs. Brown should have been placed in the unit weeks ago.”

  Ginny frowned. “So she won’t be in her room? Won’t that be confusing for her?”

  “She’s already confused,” snapped the nurse.

  I’d had just about enough from this woman but I was trying to keep from flying off the handle since I felt that was the last thing Ginny needed right now. “I’ll put some things together and carry them over to the memory unit. It might help her get more adjusted there.”

  “And you are?” the nurse tried to look down her nose at me, but since she was shorter than I was, it didn’t work well.

  “I’m a friend of Ginny’s. And Ginny is Clarice Brown’s granddaughter. Mrs. Brown has decided to stay put and not travel with us,” I said.

  Ginny’s voice was amazingly steady when she spoke to the nurse. “If my brother Ty comes looking for me, can you tell him that I’m safe? And that I have a new friend, Mallory, who is looking after me?”

  The nurse gazed noncommittally at her. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “And that we’re going to the Virginia border to a safe house? Crepe Myrtle Lane.” Ginny’s whole body was tense from her urgency.

  The nurse nodded. Then she glanced over at me. “Whatever you need to get out of here, do it fast. I’m bolting those doors at the memory care unit and then I’m not opening them again. Not for anybody.”

  She left as swiftly as she’d arrived. Ginny’s eyes were troubled. I pulled the comforter off the bed and started loading some of Mrs. Brown’s things in it to lug it away. To Ginny I said, “You know, I trust that nurse about as far as I can throw her. Why don’t you leave a note for Ty? Tell him what’s going on. Leave it with your Nana’s things. If he comes to Crofton, he’ll be looking for your grandmother and will be sure to see the note.”

  “Do you think so?” Ginny looked hopeful. It was the first time in a while that she’d looked that way.

  I smiled at her. “I know so.”

  While Ginny quickly wrote out a note, I grabbed photos, kids’ drawings, and other mementos that might help Mrs. Brown settle in better. When I finished, Ginny was also done. I lightly touched Mrs. Brown’s sleeve. “Why don’t you follow us?”

  “I don’t want to leave,” the old lady repeated. But she looked bereft as if she knew things were changing and couldn’t figure out why.

  “I know you don’t. But you won’t be going far. Just down the hall. I’ll set everything up for you,” I said softly.

  Mrs. Brown put out an arthritic hand and touched my cheek. “Thank you.”

  As we got Ginny’s grandmother moved into the memory care unit, I couldn’t help but guiltily realize my relief at keeping Ginny with me. The little girl now almost felt like a daughter to me. At this point, I couldn’t even imagine facing the uncertain journey ahead of me without her.

  After leaving Crofton (watching our backs the whole time since the contagion seemed to be getting worse by the minute), I drove straight up to the North Carolina/Virginia border. No stopping. We got there in the late afternoon and I felt a huge feeling of relief as I saw the house. It was there and it hadn’t changed.

  It was a log cabin with solar panels on the roof, an extensive garden at the side of the house, and rain barrels for water collection. I hadn’t remembered how the house was positioned and if it was easily defensible or not. And it was really weird to even be thinking about houses in those terms, anyway.

  Ginny, drowsy next to me in the front seat, perked up when I slowed the car down. “Are we here?” She sat up straight in her seat and looked out the window. “I love it!”

  It looked … safe. Despite its compactness and the fact that it was a small three bedroom cabin, it had a sturdiness and a no-nonsense look about it that made you feel like you were going to be okay.

  “It has a garden on the side of the house and probably still has power, since it’s got solar panels. It even has a generator that we can run. My friends really put a lot of time planning it,” I said.

  Ginny was still looking excitedly out at the house and so she didn’t catch my swift change of expression. I’d caught some movement out of the corner of my eye, near the woods. Ginny had been through plenty today and I had, too. I didn’t feel much like going on high alert right now. And, luckily, when I scanned the woods, I didn’t see anything. Maybe my imagination was starting to run away with me. Or exhaustion.

  “Are your friends there, do you think?” asked Ginny. “Annie and Jim?”

  It was a good question. I didn’t see either car right now. I said, “I’m not sure. Let’s go ahead and bring some of our things in and we’ll find out. You’ll like them … they’re terrific people. Annie makes this amazing zucchini pasta.” Ginny wrinkled her nose and I laughed. “You’ll love it, I promise.”

  Ginny opened the door and pulled out some bags from the backseat. “Can we get in if they’re not here? Do you have a key?”

  “I’ve got a code for the lock box on the front door.” In a moment of panic, I searched the back of my hand where I’d written it just days ago. It felt like months had gone by. I gave a relieved sigh when I spotted the faint 4474 on my skin.

  I unlocked the front door and Ginny and I walked in.

  “Whoa! This is so cute!” said Ginny.

  I smiled at her enthusiasm, but was still thinking about what I had or hadn’t seen in the woods. “Isn’t it great? I’ve only been here a couple of times, but I loved it. Annie and Jim live in DC and they think of this place as their getaway.” Annie, despite being a corporate attorney, was an earth mama at heart. The cabin was decorated with blankets, place mats, chair cushions, and potholders that she’d stitched by hand over the years, all in a cheerful checkered pattern.

  But where were Annie and Jim? It had been Annie’s plan to come here, and she’d sounded like she was either on her way out or close to it. I felt an uneasiness in the pit of my stomach which I disguised in light conversation with Ginny as we got everything out of the car and brought it in. I kept watching the woods, but didn’t see anything.

  After we’d unpacked, Ginny said, “Is it okay with you if I go take a long bath? I just kept thinking that would be the best thing in the world when I was out in the woods—if I could just have a nice, hot bath.”

  I smiled at her and nodded. “Of course you can. We’re celebrating getting here, aren’t we? While you’re in there, I’ll think about what we can eat.”

  But the first thing I did when Ginny disappeared happily into the bathroom was to peer into the garage. And I saw Annie’s Volkswagen Bug in there. I stared at it for a few moments, trying to digest what this meant.

  I knew that Annie didn’t leave a car down here while she was in D.C. So it must mean that she was here somewhere. But she wasn’t in the house. I shivered, thinking about the movement I’d thought I’d spotted in the woods.

  I firmly locked the doors. Then, just to make sure, I
pushed chairs in front of the doors. I closed the curtains. Then I did poke around in the kitchen to see what I could make for a quick dinner. I found unopened boxes of cereal and unopened fully cooked bacon strips. Breakfast for supper? Why not? That was always a comfort food for me and right now I needed some comfort.

  Ginny came back out, squeaky clean, and smiling. “I smell bacon!”

  We did indeed have power—I wasn’t sure if it came from a power plant or from the solar panels on the roof. For the next hour, though, I put all my worries about Annie and everything else out of my mind and focused on having a fun evening with Ginny. Finally, she gave a huge yawn and said, “I’m going to enjoy a real bed now. Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight,” I said to her with a lightness that I didn’t really feel as the light grew dimmer outside.

  It was a couple of hours before I fell into a fitful sleep. In my dream, I was buried underground and scratching frantically with my fingernails to try and dig my way back out. I woke up gasping. Then I realized that I still heard a scratching sound.

  My heart pounded as I followed the noise to the back of the house. Moving slowly, I listened for the scratching sound until I ended up at the back door. Catching my breath, I spotted a dark form scratching at the wood and glass of the door.

  It was Annie. Or, it used to be Annie. Her usually clever, laughing eyes were hollow orbs and her mouth hung slackly. When she saw me, she moaned and her empty eyes grew larger and she pounded her hands on the door.

  I jerked away and ran to pull a sofa in front of the door. I covered up the window portion of the door by duct taping a blanket over it. I was perspiring like crazy at this point, shaking with revulsion and sadness and fear.

  I headed for the front of the house again, figuring if I left that the creature that had been Annie would leave, too. But I knew one thing. I wanted to arm myself. It hadn’t seemed that important at the start of this whole thing, but now I had Ginny with me. I wanted to keep Ginny safe. And Annie, in her normal state, would want the same thing.

  Jim had been too much of an animal lover to be a hunter, but I remembered him saying that he did keep a gun here as a “just in case.” Mostly because the area was so remote that he felt he needed something for protection since it would take the sheriff an hour or more to get out here. And now, of course, who even knew if the sheriff would, or even could, come at all.

  I gave up on sleeping for the time being and went right to the master bedroom. I searched the bedside tables and under the bed and finally the neatly organized closet. That’s where I found the gun safe. Typical Jim—he’d carefully locked it up. But where was the key?

  After some more searching, I located the key in a pair of shoes at the top of the closet. I opened the gun safe and found a loaded .22.

  It had been a while since I’d been shooting. I’d been raised by my father—my mother had died in a car accident before I could really even form memories of her. But my father, now dead himself from cancer, made sure that I would have the ability to defend myself if I needed to. I was the only twelve year old girl at the shooting range. He taught me gun safety and the preciousness of human life and the responsibility of gun ownership.

  Now I stared at the gun and tried to remember everything he’d taught me. One thing I knew—when it came right down to it—I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot if I was defending Ginny.

  I was awake the rest of the night. How could I sleep? Once the sun started coming up, I pulled the curtain back on a front window just enough to be able to look out. For hours, I saw nothing but birds and squirrels and even an occasional deer. They went about their normal activities as if there was nothing to worry about, nothing different about their world.

  And then I heard the sound of motors and I tensed again. Someone was on their way into the driveway.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Ty

  I felt better about life for the first time in days. After we left Crofton, even though I hated leaving Nana behind, I knew where we were heading. I knew Ginny was, most likely all right. And I felt good about where we were traveling. Ginny was usually a good judge of character, and she liked this Mallory lady. For the first time in a while, I felt pretty optimistic.

  We drove overnight, although we did have to stop for gas. Then we stopped again at another small town that looked deserted, but had a local grocery store. The ground was flat and there weren’t many buildings, so we felt safe going in and getting more supplies. At this point, we had so much stuff in the truck that we even put some things in the front seat next to Mojo.

  Charlie motioned to me that he wanted to pull over. It was dawn by this point. When I pulled over, I saw he was tinkering with his phone. I rolled my window down. “Do we still have a connection?” I asked.

  He shrugged, looking down at the device. “It comes and goes. I’m just trying to get GPS to come up for long enough to get a lock on my location and that address your sister gave you. Just so I can jot it down real quick.”

  We waited another couple of minutes while Charlie fussed at the phone and gave long sighs. Then he lit up. “Finally!” He swiped at his phone a few times to get the turn by turn instructions while writing them down. “Okay, it doesn’t look far. And there aren’t enough roads for us to really get lost.”

  I gave him a thumbs-up and he grinned at me and started the bike back up. Mojo, who always got restless when we were stopped, relaxed again and even took a nap on the last part of our trip.

  It was daytime by the time Charlie pointed down a driveway, letting me know we’d gotten to Crepe Myrtle Lane. But I was so pumped that I wasn’t even tired. The gravel driveway curved through the woods and up to a log cabin with solar panels on the roof, and a full garden. I started to smile. Plus, the thought of actually being back in a bed again sounded pretty good.

  Charlie was already off his bike and I was opening the car door when the sound of a gun going off made us jump. Charlie muttered, “What’s going on? I know I put the right address in.”

  “Maybe the lady taking care of Ginny doesn’t recognize you and she’s worried. Maybe it was just a warning shot,” I said, although my heart sank. We’d come too far to run into trouble now. Now we weren’t expecting it and that made it tougher.

  Instead of sitting back down in the truck, I stepped away from it with my hands high.

  “Are you crazy?” asked Charlie. “I’m thinking we need to get out of here, pronto.”

  I called out, being careful to be loud enough to be heard, but not loud enough to draw attention from any zombies that might be in the area. “Is Mallory here? It’s Ty. Ginny’s brother. I’m with a friend of mine.”

  The front door burst open and Ginny sped toward me, tears running down her cheeks.

  We didn’t say anything, couldn’t really say anything. We just held each other in a tight, tight hug.

  Charlie reached out a hand to Ginny when we’d finally stopped hugging. “Ginny, I presume?” he asked with a grin, giving a low bow that made her giggle. “I’m Charlie.”

  “Nice to meet you. And that’s Mallory, up there,” said Ginny, motioning to the house.

  Mallory was standing stiffly on the porch, still holding a .22 that was very similar to Charlie’s. She said in a gruff voice, “Maybe we should make our introductions and have our reunions inside.” She quickly walked in, seeming uncomfortable with the scene.

  Charlie murmured, “Whatever you say, as long as you’re not shooting at me.” He ambled toward the house, giving a short whistle to Mojo, who jumped out the passenger window to follow him. “Hey, I’m bringing a German shepherd in. Is that okay?” he called.

  Ginny was already reaching out for Mojo, burying her face in his fur.

  “I see he’s already made a friend,” said Charlie.

  Mojo bounded beside Ginny up to the cabin. I saw that Mallory was looking watchfully out the door, but not at us—at the woods. I shivered a little and glanced behind me. I didn’t see anything. I don’t think Mallory did either, bu
t she was still scanning. That made me wonder.

  Charlie didn’t seem to notice that Mallory looked worried. That’s because he was stealing these sort of sideways glances at her. But he probably could have just outright stared at her because she wasn’t paying him the slightest bit of attention.

  Still, as soon as I came into the cabin, she gave me a smile that made her eyes crinkle. “Ty, I’ve heard a lot about you. You don’t know how happy we are to see you.”

  I did, though. Ginny was doing a happy dance inside the cabin, not able to really settle down. And I could tell that Mallory was glad too, even though she was tense. Too tense to really register Charlie. Charlie probably wasn’t too used to that. He wasn’t like a movie star or a male model or anything, but he was a real guy and a good looking one with his tan and his dark hair. Tall, dark, and handsome, wasn’t that what they said? He was all of those things.

  Mallory was definitely distracted. And there had been that thing with the gun, too. Something had made her nervous and wary.

  She seemed to suddenly remember that she hadn’t really given us a warm welcome when we’d arrived. “Ah, sorry about the gun thing.” She watched as Ginny chased after Mojo into the back of the cabin. Mallory added in a low, quick voice, “Ginny had had a run-in with some guys that had hijacked Ty’s van and thought about kidnapping her, too. So I guess I’m just jumpy.”

  My eyes opened wide. I wasn’t sure what I thought might have happened to Ginny, but getting the van stolen from her and being threatened wasn’t something that I’d considered. “Was she—was she okay when you found her?”

  Mallory nodded quickly and gave me a reassuring smile. “You’ve got a tough sister, Ty. She was shaken up, but she was fine. And we hit it off really well.”

  I nodded. “It looks like it. Did you—well—was she okay when she saw our grandmother?”

  “It was tough for her. She obviously didn’t know that your grandmother was experiencing any memory loss.” Mallory paused. “Did you know?”