Chapter 6 – Sonya
Sonya listened to Audrey skeptically. The woman spoke well. Sonya wasn’t sure she believed the story, but she found herself drawn in. Even if she didn’t believe all of it, there were parts that sounded so real, so much like life in the post-plague world that they had to be real.
Audrey told them about her first couple of weeks post-plague and the group she had found herself with. Audrey and the others in the apartment hadn’t gotten along very well. They all wanted something different. The woman who lived there wanted to stay until the authorities rescued them. The two brothers wanted to fight the undead, wanted to go south to an island to escape them. Audrey herself wanted to go north, toward Chicago, or at least try to get out of Florida. They hadn’t known anything about what was going on in the rest of the country, and Audrey said she thought they might be okay when they got out of Florida or at least out of the South. And the child they had rescued together, the little boy, hadn’t said anything. He mostly huddled with the woman whose apartment they were in.
They hadn’t found each other until the second week after the plague had hit. Audrey lived in the apartment building across from the woman, and they had seen each other out during the day. Then the dead had started moving about in daylight hours. They had been watching from the woman’s fourth story balcony when the two brothers had come down the street pursued by a horde of the dead. Audrey had run down and called them inside. The boy they had found the next day when they had tried to make it to a supermarket. He had been sleeping on top of an abandoned fire truck when he heard their voices and looked over the side. They had seen him and coaxed him down, convinced him they were not going to hurt him, but shortly after that the dead had found them and they had to retreat to the woman’s apartment again.
The different opinions concerning what they should do caused them not to do anything. Every morning started with an argument: go south, go north, stay put. They raided neighboring apartments for food, but that was getting scarce. And in many apartments they had to put down at least one of the dead to even get to the food. A few days of this, and the brothers decided they were going to leave, they were going to get out.
Audrey followed them downstairs and out into the street. She had been close to the door as they had stood in the street arguing with her. Then they heard the sound of a motor. The brothers and Audrey had frozen, motionless. A Humvee had come around the corner. There had been an open turret on top, and a man in with a rifle stood in it. “He was all dressed up in one of those suits you see them wear when they clean up meth labs,” Audrey said. The brothers had run toward the vehicle, waving their arms, happy. The man had pointed his rifle at each in turn and shot them. Audrey, at first unable to move, found herself in enough control to step back into the recessed entryway to the apartment building, back into the shadows.
She had been close enough to see the brothers lying in the street, and she had realized they hadn’t been killed. They were still moving a little. Then she saw the darts. Bright splashes of color against their dark skin. A second Humvee had approached and stopped near where they lay on the ground. Two men in gas masks and full protective gear had gotten out, pulled the darts from the brothers. They had then loaded the brothers on stretchers and put them in the back of the Humvee as Audrey watched, horror-struck. She had realized if the men in the truck looked her way, she’d be taken as well. But they didn’t look at her, and soon they had left.
She had gone upstairs and told the woman and the boy what had happened. The woman didn’t believe her. Audrey speculated that maybe she hadn’t wanted to. The woman had been holding out for the authorities to come rescue them, and this had been the first possible sign. If the authorities were the bad guys, the woman had no hope. Audrey had tried and tried to convince the woman, raising her voice, letting herself get angry. As she told Sonya, Chase, and Marilyn about it, Sonya wondered if Audrey’s adrenaline hadn’t been up. Finally Audrey said she had given up. That was when the boy had spoken for the first time. He said one word. Collectors.
Audrey and the woman had tried to get more from him, but that had been it. So then Audrey had a name for the masked men in the black Humvee, but no more. Everything else was speculation. But speculation had been enough. She knew she had to get out. Get away from Tampa. She had tried to convince the woman, but the woman wouldn’t go. And the boy wouldn’t leave the woman. Audrey had no guarantees that they would be any safer with her than in the apartment, so she hadn’t tried too hard to convince them to join her. She had waited until there were no dead to be seen on the street, and she had left. It took her almost a week to get out of Tampa. She only moved when there were no dead to be seen. And the dead had come and gone in waves. When saw them, she took shelter and stayed there until they left again.
During this time, she saw the Collectors several more times. One time she had been close enough to hear a radio in one of their vehicles. They had stopped to clear a traffic jam in the street. There were two vehicles. One had a box on the back and looked like an ambulance. The other looked just like the one out in the shed. They used that one to pull the wrecks to the side. Audrey had been hiding in a delivery van caught up in the jam but not part of it. Over the radio she had heard the chatter of several different groups. One of the speakers spoke about the number of Subjects out that day. The man in the ambulance had replied that there weren’t many Subjects in their area, although he thought that when they cleared the wreck and got closer to where some Immune activity had been detected they would probably start seeing more Subjects.
“When he finished talking, he said, ‘Collector Unit Three, over.’ After that, I stopped being quite so cautious. I was more scared of the Collectors than the Subjects. I could outrun the Subjects. If I got surrounded, I’d find a place to hide until they forgot about me. I ended up having to fight only one time. One Subject stood between me and a long open area. I clubbed it in the head and it didn’t get back up,” she said. “After that, I was out in the country. I stayed off the roads, tried to get back out into the country. I started following power-lines north. I don’t really even know where I am.”
“You’re just south of Williston. East of Ocala,” Chase said.
Audrey looked stunned. “That’s only about a hundred miles. I’ve been travelling for two weeks.” She looked like she might cry.
“Why didn’t you drive?” Sonya asked. She wanted to feel sorry for the woman, but she couldn’t. She had left the woman and child behind. She had watched the brothers get taken and had done nothing.
“I tried for a while, but there were too many Subjects on the road. Then I tried farm roads and going through fields and I broke the axle of the car I was driving. So I just walked,” Audrey said. “I was able to get into some houses for food. I thought about taking another car, but…I don’t know. Maybe I just wasn’t thinking straight.”
Chase comforted her. Sonya knew that was just him, but she felt a little twinge of something. “You did fine. You’re still alive, and that’s saying something.”
She sat a little straighter. “You’re right. I am still alive. But so are you.” She looked at Sonya. “You travelled all the way from Omaha?” Sonya nodded. “That’s over a thousand miles. Well over. Too bad you’re just going to turn around.”
Sonya spoke. “We’re not turning around. At least not until we’ve had a look for my father.”
“That’s crazy. The Collectors will get you, and if they don’t the Subjects will. If you all just turn around I’ll come with you, we’ll go back up to that camp you left. It sounds nice. It may not quite be a happily- ever-after, but it’s better than what is likely to happen to you down here.”
Sonya, suddenly angry, started to speak, but was interrupted by Marilyn. “We knew what we were getting into coming down. We didn’t know about the Collectors, but we knew things would be bad. We can’t turn around. We have to see this through.”
Audrey was nonplussed. “But what about me? I’m not going back. And I nee
d help to get out.”
Chase spoke. “We’ll get you a vehicle. We’ll get you a map, try to show you how we came down and how you can get back to the camp. We’ll even get you a good supply of gas. We’ve still got some. We can spare some food, too. When you get there, just tell them we sent you and they’ll take care of you. But that’s the best we can do if you don’t want to come with us. And I understand why you don’t.”
Sonya was still angry. “Chase, can I talk to you and Marilyn downstairs?”
They looked at her oddly, but they followed her when she started down the stairs. They went to one of the downstairs rooms and closed the door.
“What right do you have to invite her to the camp?” Sonya whispered. “How do you think she will fit in? Why do you think we should give her our food, our gas?” Sonya spoke quickly, firing questions at Chase.
“Because she’s a person, and she’s alive. I don’t know how she’ll fit into the camp. But I don’t think it’s a private club, invitation only. There’s strength in numbers. And she’s not a bad person. I don’t think she is, anyway.” He looked at Marilyn.
“Chase is right. She’s a person. We’re obligated to help her. Even if she was a bad person, I’d probably say give her food, give her fuel. She can change. If going through this doesn’t change her, I don’t know what will.” She put her hand on Sonya’s shoulder. “It changed you, didn’t it?”
Sonya looked sideways at Chase and back at Marilyn. “I guess so.” She sighed. “Sorry. I kind of lost it there. We’ll help her. But let’s see if there’s anything else she knows before we send her on her way.”
Chapter 7 – Chase
Chase understood Sonya’s reaction, and he considered how she had grown as a person. Despite what she felt, when she saw the right thing to do she had put aside her personal feelings. He couldn’t help noticing that maybe he had lost something, though, some level of cautiousness. He had been completely caught up in Audrey’s story and realized he had listened uncritically, not questioning anything she had to say. Was she telling the truth? They didn’t really know what kind of person she was and they were going to send her to the camp without thinking. On the way back up the stairs, he tried to remember parts of the story, parts that didn’t make sense. And he wanted to ask her some things about the Collectors.
Their footsteps were loud on the narrow, age-loosened treads. When he arrived at the top, Audrey wasn’t where she had been. Chase walked into the adjoining rooms and found her back in a room with a door, although the door stood ajar. She was arranging a sleeping bag next to a battered orange backpack. He looked back over his shoulder. Sonya and Marilyn watched him from the doorway. He indicated with a short jerk of his head they should back off. Marilyn immediately ducked back into the room at the head of the stairs, but Sonya stood a moment longer, a frown on her face. He stared her down, and she reluctantly withdrew as well.
Chase leaned against the doorpost. Audrey looked up at him. “So which one is your girlfriend?”
The question took him off guard. “Er, uh. Neither, really.”
She smiled sardonically. “I would have guessed the little one.” A muted thump came from the next room, something like the sound a small foot would make when brought down on a wooden floor in anger. Chase knew the others could hear them. “I don’t think she likes me much,” Audrey continued.
“Well, we’ve had some bad experiences. And Sonya doesn’t really like many people anyway.” He squatted down, brought himself down to her eye level. “So. That story you told.”
“Yes?” she asked, after he paused.
“So how do you know the Collectors are bad? Maybe they are helping people.” He studied her as she went back to straightening her sleeping bag, pulling a little camp pillow from the backpack.
“Let’s just say I’m suspicious of anyone who tranquilizes another person before ‘helping’ them.” She lay down on her side on top of the sleeping bag, her head propped on a fist she held against her cheek. “Did you really mean that about helping me get up north? Finding me a vehicle? One like yours?”
He shook his head. “Probably not like ours. I mean, yeah, if we find one. But I don’t know that we have a good chance of finding one like it around here. I was thinking we’d just find something nearby, something that would work. A big truck, maybe, like a half-ton or one-ton truck. With one of those brush-guard things on it.”
“And gas, too. And food.” She reached into her back-pack, pulled out a granola bar and offered it to him. He declined. She tore open the wrapper with her teeth and took a bite. “I’m about sick of these things, but when you’re hungry, you eat what there is.” She chewed, swallowed. “And why would you help me? Are you just good people?”
He thought about it before answering. “You know, I think we are. We’re not perfect. We’re sure not out to impress anybody. There’s a good chance we’ll never see you again. But somehow a while back we decided we’d help people that needed helping. And we have. So if that makes us good people, then yeah. We’re good people.”
Audrey lay back on her sleeping bag and looked up at the ceiling. “I always heard there were good people out there. I never met any of them.” She stretched, yawned. “So what happens if you do find the little one’s father? You go back up to Alabama? What if he’s dead or you don’t find anything? How long do you look?”
“I don’t know. I think no matter what, if we live through it, we probably end up back up at the camp. We’ll give you directions. You can go there, too. There’s more good people there, and they could use your help.”
She sat up and leaned toward him, touching his knee. “Go with me,” she whispered. “Take me there. This isn’t your deal down here. You say she’s not your girlfriend. There is no benefit in your being down here. Take me to the camp. We’ll both help them there. We could help them together.” She slid her hand up his knee. He stood suddenly, so quickly he became light-headed. He caught a flash of anger on her features in the dim light of the room, and then it was quickly gone. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I haven’t seen anyone for a while. The thought of being alone again scares me. That was…improper. You can leave now.” She lay back down on her side, this time facing away from him. He wasn’t sure, but he thought she might be crying. He stood there confused, finally deciding anything he said or did would make things worse.
Marilyn and Sonya looked at him questioningly when he entered the room, but when he showed no inclination to talk about it, they respected that. They had spread out the sleeping bags on the floor in a triangle. Chase saw his and Sonya’s sleeping bags were head to head and Marilyn’s was down at their feet. He wondered if she was going to try to talk to him again.
When Marilyn had been in the house discovering Audrey, Sonya had been outside asking Chase what was wrong with him. He had told her nothing was wrong except most of the world was dead and still walking around. She had brushed off the flippant answer and told him she thought something else was bothering him. She had heard him thrashing around in his tent the night before, and she knew he wasn’t sleeping well. Even worse than usual. She asked what had happened with Josh. He had looked away and said that wasn’t it, but he had lied.
Every night he dreamed of what had happened in the church, in the fellowship hall. He had dreamed about Josh pointing the rifle at him, preparing to squeeze the trigger. He had remembered his dive for cover, the gunshot, and the searing pain in his arm. He remembered looking up and watching Josh’s face: the expression of shock he wore at what he had just tried to do, then the dawning realization that he had missed, and lastly the resolution returning as he began to raise the rifle again. Chase almost always woke up at that point in a cold sweat before he experienced again what had happened next. Sometimes he didn’t, though. Sometimes he relived it, and he woke up sobbing with tears on his face.
He hadn’t talked to Sonya about it outside, and he wouldn’t talk to her tonight about it. If she wanted to talk, that was fine. There were a lot of things he wan
ted to say to her, to hear from her. But none of them had anything to do with what had happened with Josh.
In the morning, Audrey was a different person. When they started stirring, Audrey was up and ready to interact. Chase tried to talk to her as though nothing had happened, but he was uncomfortable. Everything out of his mouth was either sarcastic or irreverent. Sonya made it clear she did not want to talk to Audrey at all, responding to Audrey’s attempts at conversation with grunts and nods. So Audrey talked to Marilyn. They decided to go out and have a full wash in the water from the hand-pump and Sonya joined them. They washed while Chase stayed in the house. From a second floor window in a room away from the pump he watched for creepers, but he couldn’t even see the road. A copse of trees blocked his view. He felt useless. At last the women came in carrying supplies from the trailer. Marilyn told him to go wash up while they prepared breakfast. Honey stayed outside with him. The water was cold and he washed quickly, using an old tin bucket that had been beside the pump to sluice water over himself. As he washed, he studied the pump.
There was no way this pump was still working from when the house had last been inhabited. Someone had maintained it more recently. Chase wondered about that. The old things, the things which would be useful now that electricity was gone and the modern conveniences were mostly useless: how many of them were still around? The pump itself was technology, but an almost independent technology, a technology that didn’t require support except occasional maintenance. If it did break, he thought it could be fixed fairly easily. At least more easily than a GPS system. He realized he had been standing out by the pump naked, just staring at it, for quite some time, and Honey was staring at him. He laughed at how uncomfortable that made him.
He quickly toweled himself off and dressed. As he entered the house, the sounds of conversation drifted downstairs. He walked up the stairs and listened, realized Marilyn was telling Audrey about the kids at the camp, about Danny, about Bob, about Sharon. Audrey oohed and aahed over the children. When he could see her, she appeared to be sincere. But he realized she was used to appearing sincere in her job, so that might not mean anything.
After Everything Else (Book 3): Creeper Revelation Page 5