“Shit,” Sadie whispered, closing the distance. The water was just as calm as could be; there was no shark. “It was just your imagination, sweetie. She has such a vivid imagination that she even freaks herself out. Ha-ha. Would you like to ride with me for a while?”
Reflexively, Jillybean pulled her feet even higher out of the water, but then her face clouded over and the fear dissipated. “There really wasn’t a shark?” Sadie shook her head. Jillybean’s shoulder’s slumped and her chin dropped. “That’s not good at all. No, not at all.”
Todd had been watching the two sisters. “Hey, trust me, a real shark would have been a hundred times worse. Don’t worry about it. And you can stay up there for as long as you want. You don’t weigh all that much. Not to me at least.” Jillybean thanked him and then patted him on the head. He smirked, looked as though he wanted to ask something, then thought better of it. With a squint at Bainbridge, which was still a mile off, he went back to paddling.
Sadie stayed close as the night wore on. At some point, the tide shifted and a light wind blew into their faces, testing the limit of Sadie’s endurance. Very slowly, they ate away at the distance between them and the island. Eventually, Jillybean slumped forward onto Todd’s back and fell asleep.
When she did, he gave Sadie a long look. Sadie saw the hundreds of questions behind his eyes. “Like I said, she just has an active imagination,” she said, hoping he would go back to paddling.
“You called her Jillybean,” Todd said in reply. “Is this really her? The girl everyone talks about? Man, I should have known. I mean right off the bat she knew things…”
Sadie interrupted, begging, “Please don’t tell anyone. She could get hurt. There are a lot of people after her and I don’t even know why. She’s very…” Tears were suddenly brewing up hot in her eyes. “She’s actually very sweet.”
A grunt from Todd was followed by, “You don’t have to worry about me telling anyone. It’s you guys who got to learn to keep your mouths shut. Not to mention you have to learn your fake names better. And how did you come up with May and Sally? Kids don’t have names like those anymore. Or I guess I should say they didn’t before back when there were kids.”
They were quiet for a few minutes, paddling lazily, as always waiting for Jason and Spot to catch up. Todd kept opening his mouth to say something. Finally, Sadie said, “Yes, she did all that stuff, but only because she had to.”
“I wasn’t going to ask that. I was going to ask if you’re seeing anyone. You said you were scouting for a group. Anyone special in the group?”
The question was so unexpected that Sadie could only blink for a few seconds while her mouth open and closed in a fine imitation of a goldfish. “I-I guess not, not really.” She wasn’t used to a man’s attention and Todd was certainly a man. There was nothing boyish about his gruff, unshaven exterior. As usual, she couldn’t help making a joke when confronted with an uncomfortable position. “Why? What did you have in mind? Do you know somewhere here in the sound where they serve a nice fresh kelp?”
He grinned, becoming for the moment, handsome. She had to wonder what he saw in her. She was sure she looked little better than the bedraggled and feral looking cat sleeping on his back.
“I don’t know what I had in mind,” he answered honestly. “I don’t know what we’ll find on the island or what sort of reception we’ll get. I just know that you interest me. You’re smart and resourceful. You’re brave. You clearly put your family first and…and you’re very pretty.”
“Wow, I sound out of your league.” The honest look quickly disappeared and he became guarded again. “Sorry, I was joking. I make jokes when I’m,” she paused in midsentence. She didn’t want to use the word uncomfortable because that wouldn’t be nice, and nor did she want to use the word nervous because it wasn’t exactly true. “I just make jokes,” she said, lamely. “I just don’t see myself as all that, so I think maybe you’re just joking or you’re lying to get, y-you know.”
“Yeah, I get it. Especially these days. Back before I could usually tell when people were lying. They would want something or were trying to hide something, but it was all pretty simple stuff. Now, lives are on the line. People will say anything. Back with Hatchet-Joe, the only person I could trust was my brother.”
They both glanced back at the young couple. Jason was doggedly kicking while Amy had her head down on her folded arms and if she was kicking, it wasn’t obvious. “What about her?” Sadie asked, quietly. “Do you trust her?”
“Nope. The apocalypse changed people. It’s every man and woman for themselves. Or it mostly is. When you shoved me back on the bus and made me apologize, I was truly shocked. I was thinking: who would do that? Who would stand up for a little girl? The answer was shocking. Only someone nice would.”
Sadie had to wonder if he could see her blush because all of a sudden her face felt hot. “Oh, I’m not all nice. I got a mean streak a mile wide.”
“And you don’t know how to take a compliment,” he said. “And that’s fine with me. I’d rather have that than a girl who’s always fishing for compliments. My wife used to ask me every other day how she looked in her jeans. Had she gained any weight or anything? No, she just wanted to make me say that she had a fine ass. I told her plenty anyway but I guess she felt she needed more.”
“You had a wife? A part of me hopes you guys got divorced or something before, you know, all this happened.”
He was quiet for a while, splashing gently along, moving forward foot by foot. “No, we were still together. She disappeared somewhere along I-15. We were from Vegas and were doing pretty good out in the middle of the desert, at least compared to the rest of the country, but then we got the first wave of refugees from Los Angeles. Man, things went to shit in a hurry. Gun battles and mobs in the streets fighting each other over any scrap of food.”
Sadie had seen the same thing from her mom’s house in Jersey. She had spent days on end terrified to step one foot out her front door.
Todd blew out of puffed cheeks. “I thought I knew what bad was, but I was wrong. When the fucking zombies showed up I got a glimpse of what hell is going to be like. People went crazy like they hadn’t before. Me and Jason and Liz piled everything we had into my Bronco. We had enough gas to get us to Provo, but only if we took a straight shot and you know that didn’t happen. We got trapped in an endless traffic jam.
“For two days, we were stuck in traffic, usually just sitting there for hours at a time. When we could move, we would spurt ahead for half a mile and fight with the people around us for a few extra precious feet. It was stupid. Of course the zombies caught up and we were stuck with a decision, run out into the desert or try to fight them.
“Half of the men ran and the other half went to the rear to stave off the inevitable. Jason and I went and fought. We lost. We fought for a few days and were among the lucky ones who lived. Most men died raving at the sky, either dying of thirst or the zombie fever. It didn’t really matter which. Eventually, the last of us gave up and ran away. We walked back to where we had left the Bronco. It was still there, but Liz was gone. I never saw her again.”
Sadie could think of nothing to say except: “Oh, I’m sorry. That sucks.”
“Yeah. It does but you know what doesn’t?” He pointed ahead at Bainbridge Island. It seemed so much closer now. A few hundred yards was all that was left.
A laugh escaped her. Todd gave her a questioning smile. “It’s been a long trip,” she explained. “I hope to God this is it. I have the strength to get back and that’s it.”
“Get back? Where are you getting back to?”
“Colorado. My people need a new home. That’s what we’re doing out here. We need a safe place and a good place with good people. It’s a shame. We had that in Estes. We had a place where people could be free and now we have to leave it behind.” They were close in to shore now and a light from one of the towers was turned on them. Sadie waved and yelled: “Hi there!”
“W
hat are you doing?” came the confused reply from the tower.
“Just out for a swim,” Sadie answered. “What are you doing?” She thought this was funnier than it really was and she let the laughter come bubbling up.
Jillybean sat up. Her hair was going everywhere and her eyes were only half-cracked. “Are we there?” she asked in a sleep-clouded voice.
“I think so, honey,” Todd said. “I hope they don’t mind us crawling up there because my back has got a tweak. I think it was from running that bus into the water.” Jillybean started to apologize but Todd stopped her. “No. You were right and I was wrong. No one has ever escaped by the sound before and I didn’t…Oh, it’s sand.”
Sadie reached down and hit a sandy bottom that ran uphill to the island. She slid off the cushion and went to help Jillybean off Todd’s back. He let out a groan and then tried to stand but couldn’t and ended up collapsing twenty feet from where the water lapped at the edge of a triple bank of concertina wire.
“I’ll see if I can get help,” Sadie said. Jillybean clung to her hand, clearly uneasy about the water. “It’s okay there are no sharks here, but maybe there are some nice people and we don’t want to scare them. If you see something weird or strange, try to ignore it, okay? We want to fit in.” Jillybean said that she would try, but she looked worried. Two men were coming down from the closest tower. Sadie put her back to them and went down on one knee to face Jillybean. “We’ll get you some more pills, okay? We won’t tell anyone. It’ll be our little secret that you’re taking them.”
This cheered her up and she smiled more like her old self. “It feels like I got salt or something in my panties,” she said, wriggling her bottom. There was no time to address this new problem as the men shone flashlights at them and ordered them to put their hands in the air.
“If you have any weapons, throw them through the wire,” one of them said. Sadie unloaded her .38 of its final six rounds and tossed it through. Jillybean gave up her pocket knife. The lights were then beamed over to Todd who came up with his face cringed and his hands just in front of his chest. He declared himself weaponless.
While they waited for Jason, Amy and Spot, the two men stayed on their side of the wire. One attempted small talk, “So where you guys from?”
“Just out east,” Sadie said, nudging Jillybean. “We heard there were good people here. Is that true?”
“Yeah, I guess,” the guard answered with a shrug. He was only a shadowy figure behind a sharp light, though he sounded young to Sadie. “We don’t put up with slavers or raiders if that’s what you mean? Hey, we saw a bunch of commotion across the way. What happened? Hatchet-Joe’s men almost get you?”
Sadie glanced across the sound and was a little surprised that the sky was going from black to deep purple. She couldn’t make out much of Seattle. That it was a city was only evident in that some of the shadows were unnaturally angular. The guards had to have seen the headlights running down from the hills.
“Very nearly,” she said. “Thankfully our friend Todd, here knows how to drive like nobody’s business. He, uh, saved us from those bad guys. Right, May?” She nudged Jillybean again. The little girl had been looking up at her with a puzzled expression and was certainly about to dispute the events of the previous evening.
Luckily, she caught the look of warning Sadie was giving her. “Uh, yes Sally. Mister Todd did a real good job.” Her answer was stilted to the point of being robotic.
One of the guards took a step closer and appraised Jillybean, setting his light on her and giving her a long look. “Well, look at you. I haven’t seen a kid this young in two years. How old are you? Six?”
“I just had a birthday and that’s what means I’m eight years old,” Jillybean said, partially hiding behind Sadie. “I’m a May flower and this is May. How old are you? Forty?”
If Sadie had asked the question, it would have been a put-down. Jillybean had been serious and so when the two men laughed, full-throated belly laughs she gave Sadie a nervous look. “I’m twenty-six!” the one said, still chuckling. “Do I look forty for real? Old people are forty. But I guess with little…” He paused as Spot finally staggered out of the water—barking and looking as insane as he really was. “What the hell?”
“He thinks he’s a dog,” Sadie explained, twirling a finger next to her right ear in the near-universal sign for crazy. “But he’s actually really nice and well behaved. Kind of like a real dog. Spot! Sit. Good boy.” Spot plopped down onto his knees and tilted his head into Sadie’s thigh, demanding to be petted.
The guards were still staring at Spot when Amy and Jason came ashore, holding each other. Flashlights were trained on them and, like the others, they were asked to hand over any weapons. When they said that they didn’t have any, the lights immediately swung back to point at Spot who growled in response and then whined as Sadie patted his head.
“Is there something wrong?” she asked. The two men had been kind enough to calm any fear she’d had about Bainbridge Island, however something in the way they were staring at Spot had her suddenly nervous again.
After a quick look passed between the two, the twenty-six year-old guard said, “I don’t think he’s gonna be able to stay. It’s sort of a rule. We don’t let anyone with the crazies stay, sorry. They may seem nice at first, but they always turn violent.”
Next to her, Sadie felt Jillybean go stiff and when she glanced down there were tears in her blue eyes. The tears weren’t for Spot.
Chapter 27
Jillybean
“We’ll get your pills, don’t worry,” Sadie whispered into her ear as they waited their turn to crawl under the rolls of wire.
A group of men on bicycles had shown up a minute before. Each carried a push broom and used them to lift the wire high enough for a grown man to crawl through. Todd had gone first, groaning and grimacing about the pain in his back. He had been searched and told to stand off to the side. The others went until it was just Sadie, Jillybean and Spot.
“Don’t worry, they’ll never know,” Sadie said, giving her a little push. “It’s your turn. Don’t freak. It’s just some wire.”
But what if it isn’t? Jillybean thought. She was afraid that her mind would turn it into something alien and evil and that she would scream and freak out. They wouldn’t let her stay if that happened. And what would they do if Eve came back? What then? Would they just kill her? What about Ipes? What would they do if he came back and they caught her talking to a stuffed animal? He was pretty harmless, sure, but would he count as making her insane?
Sadie gave her another shove. She had stalled out an inch from the wire and now everyone was watching. The man who claimed to be twenty-six squatted down on the other side of the wire tunnel. “It’s okay. We won’t hurt you.”
No, you’ll just kick me out and make me live in the wilderness with a strange man who thinks he’s a dog. Spot was nice and she certainly didn’t want him to get kicked out, but she didn’t want to be alone again and living with a crazy man was basically the same thing.
“Just close your eyes,” she said to herself and went down on her hands and knees. Almost at once she edged too close to the wire and her jacket got caught. Was it happening already? Was her mind already twisting reality? If she opened her eyes would she see that the coiled wires had formed themselves into a giant snake with teeth that ran deep down into its gullet?
“Come on, Jilly,” Sadie whispered. “It’s okay. I won’t let anything happen to you. I told you that I would always take care of you, remember? Just listen to my voice and don’t be afraid. These people seem really nice.”
“Yeah,” Jillybean said. She cracked her eyes and glanced up. The wire was still only wire. With a breath of relief, she crawled through and went to stand with Todd, however one of the guards frisked her first. He missed the wire and the detonator in her jacket pocket, and he missed the razor blade worked into the back of her belt and the two handcuff keys and all the rest. He smiled down at her while she stoo
d hunched in on herself feeling tiny.
Spot came next, slinking like the dog he thought he was. Sadie told him to “Sit,” and “Be a good boy,” when he got to the other side of the wire. He trembled while he was frisked. Finally, Sadie came through. “So, what now?”
“We don’t get a lot of people coming in under the wire,” one of them answered. “What do you think, Phil? Take them to the station?”
Phil, the twenty-six year old looked to be the oldest. For some reason he had mis-buttoned his camouflage shirt which was very perplexing. Hadn’t he noticed that he had more buttons than slots? It was perplexing and bothersome to Jillybean, which helped to take her mind off her pending breakdown.
The shark had been just a precursor. There would be more episodes. She knew it. She could feel it building. There had been a warning right on the bottle: Do not discontinue without a physician’s order. There was a reason for that warning and Jillybean was beginning to feel it.
“Sure we can take them to the station for now,” Phil said. “It’s close and it’s warm. We can get you guys some new clothes or whatever. I don’t think we have any kiddie clothes, though, but don’t worry, there’s a gazillion houses on the island we’ll fix you right up.” He smiled benignly down on Jillybean and she smiled back despite the improper buttoning.
“So, what happened with Hatchet-Joe,” another asked, giving Amy and her bikini top a sidelong glance. “You guys escape from him or something?”
Todd was momentarily flummoxed by what seemed like an easy question, so Sadie filled the unexpected silence. “May and I were just passing through from the east, hoping to find a nice place with nice people. Oh, did I tell you my name is Sally?” She stuck out her hand and the men shook it.
Introductions were made all around and Jillybean found her little hand being squeezed over and over again. Only Spot was left out. No one looked at him. After the handshakes, Sadie stared back the way they had come and instead of continuing with an explanation, she said, “Beautiful.” She was staring at the rising sun which had turned the sky a wonderful combination of pink and blue. Jillybean thought it looked like a baby’s nursery.
The Undead World (Book 10): The Apocalypse Sacrifice Page 28