“It hurts,” Kim whispered, her gaze locked on Alec as though the image of his little face was all the relief she needed from the trauma her body had gone through. From childbirth to a car crash which had thankfully not damaged their only mode of transportation beyond the ability to drive it two weeks later, and then running for her and her baby’s life, Kim had reached a limit she didn’t know she had.
“Of course it does, sweetheart,” David offered consolingly as he gently maneuvered around her so that he could sit behind her. He eased her back until she rested against his strong chest. He rubbed her shoulders gently but with enough force to work some of the tired muscles. The support was greatly needed, and she smiled her appreciation at him as he kissed her light brown hair. Kim’s green eyes shone with love for her husband and then for her son as she noticed him starting to drift off.
“He was shit through my pregnancy, do you know that?” Kim said to Armani teasingly. “Man, he was a bastard. Out more times in those nine months than he had been the whole seven years we’d been together combined. Out with friends, out drinking, out playing cards. He was snappy, uninvolved. You know he didn’t even want to go to the ultrasounds at first? Oh, man, was I pissed…”
“I was scared out of my fucking mind,” David added, and his voice wasn’t surly, but amused and slightly apologetic.
“Yeah, and you drove me out of mine the whole time I carried Alec.”
“Then the day came, and though we’d planned for a c-section, they couldn’t get her lower body numb,” David recalled. “Holy shit, you have no idea how hard it was to wait outside that room when they had to put her fully under to take the baby. No one was allowed in. I didn’t get to see him until they took him out of the room to get him cleaned off.”
“It was the most miraculous change,” Kim put in with another glowing smile. “I woke up hours later, confused as all hell, hurting more than I knew it was possible to hurt and he was there with the baby. He was a different man, I knew that the minute he handed Alec to me. Not only was it love at first sight, but it completely changed him.”
“You think love is supposed to be gentle,” David declared as he tenderly touched the head of his now-sleeping infant. “But there was nothing gentle about it. Seeing Alec utterly destroyed who I was. It decimated every piece of me and remade me into a man I didn’t recognize, could never have become without him.” He kissed Kim’s temple and smirked. “And I’ve apologized for being an asshole every day since we had him and she’s yet to forgive me.”
Kim shrugged again, and her smile was bright. “I figure he gave me nine months of hell, he’s at least got that much groveling ahead of him.”
Armani laughed with them and stroked the back of one finger against Alec’s chin. Out of all of them, Alec was his main concern. They’d find a way to take care of the boy, no matter what.
“We’re going to go supply hunting tomorrow,” Armani told them. “I wanted to let you know because Alec is my main focus. We have to go somewhere that would have the things he needs. You can’t go in, Kim, and I wouldn’t ask you to leave her, Dave, so I want you guys to make me a list, okay?”
“Now, I need to contribute,” David protested, and Armani gave him a stern look.
“You contribute by taking care of your wife and boy. We’re going to be staying on the move, so we need to get as much stuff as we can that can move with us, be made, and consumed on the road. You get me that list before tomorrow, all right?”
“I’ll write it out,” Kim agreed as she patted Dave’s hand. “Dave can stand sentry with the vehicles whenever it’s needed while you’re gathering things up.”
“There, you see?” Armani said to David with a wink. “Your lovely lady here has it all figured out.”
Alec shifted in sleep, suckling at empty air and all three adults smiled at him. Armani touched the boy’s cheek once more, then stood to see to the rest of the group. “Do you want some juice or a granola bar?” he asked them at the doorway.
“I’ll come out and grab a couple of things,” Dave said as he stood. Kim smiled at him as he walked out.
Armani talked quietly with Gwen and Molly for a few moments, asking them to let Brooke and Ivy sleep near them for the night. The girls were the latest addition to the caravan and so far, with the exception of Armani, Gwen and Molly were the only people with whom the twins would speak without a hint of suspicion or distrust.
Brooke tugged on Armani’s shirt, acting like a much younger girl than her nine years. She was at once shy and eager to interact, and Armani had warmed to her as soon as he’d taken them in. Though he’d had all boys, Armani was good with all children and Brooke liked him immensely.
He bent down to hear what she was saying, as she spoke just below the level of a whisper. “Mani, there’s something outside.”
“Oh yeah, baby girl?” he asked, using the same furtive tone she was using. “What’s out there?”
“Bad things,” she said with a furrow of contemplation marring the smooth lines of her brow. Armani thought about the sneaking suspicion he’d had about the tree, and did not discount the girl’s words.
Kneeling beside her, Armani saw that Brooke’s statements had capture Gwen and Molly’s attention, as well. He gave them a calming expression, and then focused again on Brooke.
“I know there are things out there, Brooke,” he said in his best soothing voice. “That’s why we’re staying in here for the night.” He gestured to the barricades, drawing her attention to them. Eric stood at one door with a heavy metal pike he’d commandeered from the garage. Kirby was at the other, holding a handgun. Of all of them, Armani had been most surprised to find that Kirby had a permit to carry.
“We’ve made it as safe as we could,” he continued. “We’ve blocked it all up, and Eric and Kirby are watching and listening, so they’ll be able to let us know if the bad things come nearby. Meanwhile, we have to be very, very quiet…” His voice got quieter and quieter as he spoke, until he simply mouthed the last word.
Brooke nodded solemnly. Then, she said, “It shouldn’t be him at the door,” as she pointed to Eric. She continued, saying, “They want him like they want you, and that’s more than the rest of us.”
A pulse-speeding disquiet settled into Armani at her words. The vague and uncomfortable chill felt reminiscent to the psychic stirrings he’d been feeling ever since the Onset began. He knew what Brooke said was important, knew it in a way he knew there was a difference in Eric and himself from the others. Except for the other man, everyone, including the newborn boy Alec, was touched by the blight that had come with the Onset.
Armani didn’t know how to handle the child’s distinctly unsettling premonition. Until he looked at Gwen, he didn’t know what he was going to say. But as soon as their eyes met, he spoke, and knew the words were exactly what were needed.
“Can you take Eric’s watch?”
Standing, Gwen nodded and moved toward Eric. She had become incredibly disturbed by Brooke’s prophetic-sounding statements, and she sensed Armani’s distress concerning the girl’s words, as well. She was spooked enough not to argue about the change in guard duty at all.
“You take a nap,” she told Eric as she approached with a friendly smile. She felt the difference in him, different from everyone in the group except Armani. He wasn’t tainted as she was tainted, even as the children were tainted. It was off-putting to her. She wondered what preserved them even as she steeled her resolve to protect them.
“Why?” Eric responded, and he was truly baffled by the prospect of a one hundred and thirty pound woman taking sentry duty away from a muscle-heavy man who had almost seventy pounds on her.
Gwen kept her voice light as she gently pushed him away from the door toward the spread blankets that made up the resting area. “Chances are nothing will happen, anyway, and I don’t feel like driving tomorrow.”
Before he could further protest, Armani said, “Eric, I want you rested for tomorrow. Gwen isn’t going to be our hea
vy lifter when it comes to supplies. Get some sleep.”
Though he still wanted to argue, the look Armani gave Eric stilled his tongue. The man probably only had a decade on him at the most, but his air made protestation seem a silly thing; at times even a dangerous one.
“Can I sleep with you?” Eric said jokingly to Molly as he relinquished his spot for guard duty.
“Only if you want an ass-kicking,” Gwen commented from her place near the door.
Eric chuckled. He once again found the size difference between them to be amusing, especially with her sweet-sounding threat.
Molly blew Gwen a kiss before she tucked herself down into a thin blanket, snuggling against the thick comforter and sleeping bag she had underneath her as a makeshift bed. The pillow, she had brought from home; it smelled like the shampoo she and Gwen used. Gwen told her she was childlike in her ability to sleep anywhere, no matter what was going on. The current situation was no exception. Even with the lights on and people murmuring around her, Molly was asleep within moments.
--------------------------------
Eric ached with the familiar trappings of exhaustion. His body burned like after a good workout, and because he hadn’t had his pre-pop (as he called it) since hitting the gym three days ago, he felt it in every cell. He needed water. They’d spent the whole day after the uneventful night in the office of the construction company hitting one small store after another, focusing on groceries and baby supplies. The stress of breaking into the darkened, deserted buildings had been draining in and of itself. They’d never known if there would be corrupted inside that would attack, or if they were compromising the security of people using the stores for their own fallbacks.
But there had been nothing and no one. Eric had felt more and more unsettled with every break-in. By the end of it, he was desperate for someone else to be in one of the stores, even a corrupted. He wanted to feel like they weren’t wholly alone in the universe, but every empty store, stock still full and corridors free of human traffic brought the feeling up in sharp spikes.
The sun gifting its last blooms of light across the sky caught Eric’s attention. He thought Armani had lost track of time and it made him nervous. As the sun began to set, Eric was almost fully convinced that his group of ten was comprised of the last remaining people in the world.
“Pull in here,” Armani said quietly, and Eric heard the nervousness in his voice. It wasn’t obvious. The words were delivered in the same calm, silky tone that delivered all of his thoughts, questions, and orders. Eric had already learned to read Armani since joining his group, so he could hear the indefinable indicator that gave away his tension.
“We can ditch the van,” Eric suggested even as he obeyed and steered the vehicle in question into a gas station and pulled up to a pump.
Eric felt guilty for them being at the gas station. He’d been driving the van all day and hadn’t noticed the gas gauge slipping toward E until after the last stop. Getting back to the office building that they’d established as their temporary homestead would be impossible unless it was filled.
“We can load the haul in the bus,” he continued as he shifted into park. Armani stared out at the quickly-darkening parking lot and shook his head.
“We need the van,” Armani responded quietly. “Let’s just do it fast. Tell the others to top off their tanks. I’ll go start up the pumps.”
Because Armani’s words sounded final, Eric unclasped his seatbelt, opened his door, and stepped out. Better to get it done quickly than arguing over the prudence of the fill up with Armani.
David, driving the little black car with his wife in the front seat and baby Alec safely secured in back, pulled up to the pump beside the one Eric was parked at. He glanced around at the parking lot, seeing the shadows as they burst into being from every unlighted crook and cranny. Nighttime was coming fast, but he knew the importance of keeping all of the vehicles as well as Armani did.
“We all need to stay topped off, anyway,” David said as he stepped out. He shivered in the cool air. “Just wish like hell we’d stopped earlier.”
With the sun leaving for the day, the cold became heavier on the air. The bus took the pump on the far outside and Molly hopped out of the driver’s seat immediately after throwing it into park. She hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt. Kirby, Gwen, Brooke, and Ivy stayed on the bus to wait.
“This thing has terrible gas mileage,” Molly complained as she gestured at the large grey vehicle.
“Good thing we stopped then, I guess,” Eric responded as he anxiously watched Armani approach the store.
“It’ll be full dark soon.” Molly rubbed her hands together to warm them and looked at the sky. The pinks and yellows were becoming bruised by the darkness seeping out from the far horizon. Although she appeared peppy and cool as she hopped lightly up and down with her hands now shoved into her pockets, her distress at the thought was obvious for the others to pick up on.
“We’ll fill up, then be gone,” David assured her. “No problems.”
“Right,” Eric scoffed as he saw Armani reach the doors to the store. He said no more, and David didn’t attempt to reiterate his statement.
Armani pulled the enter door toward him and heard the friendly jingling of the bells. The happy tinkling sounded like the roar of an avalanche in the mostly-quiet twilight. He grabbed the wind chime from where it hung on the handlebar of the inner door and tore it off more violently than was needed.
The interior of the store was dark, and it worried him that the door was open. Having the lights off had indicated to him that the clerk had closed down and locked up before abandoning their post as the Onset occurred. With the door being unlocked and the lights being off, a much more sinister feeling had overtaken the entire building.
Armani listened hard, hoping to identify potential trouble before he saw it simply by the sounds of the place, but he heard nothing out of the ordinary. The humming of the cooler and the whirring of the soft drink machine were the only things he could hear, and they were commonplace. He heard no clandestine shuffling, no ominous creaks or thuds. For all appearances, the store was utterly deserted.
Taking a deep breath, Armani passed the threshold. They didn’t need any other supplies, so he didn’t divert his course to the snacks, drinks, or general merchandise. He went to the cash register. He was familiar with the area and he knew that without cashier approval or the running of a credit card, the pumps wouldn’t activate.
Belatedly thinking to himself that he could’ve just swiped his card through all three machines, Armani nonetheless approached the register and approved all of the flashing lights with the pressing of three buttons. He’d worked at a station like this as a second job last year when bills had gotten tight, before he’d landed the new job that had nullified most of their financial worries, even with three boys and a daughter on the way.
The memories hit him like a bullet to the chest, and he did whatever he could to derail the train of thought before it went any further and rendered him incapacitated. He took a bag from the dispenser and began stuffing packs and packs of cigarettes into it, then took another and repeated the process until both were crammed with Marlboros, Basics, and Camels; reds, menthols, lights, and ultra lights. Currency, he thought to himself. Cigarettes would be useful for trade if money never made a comeback as currency in the Americas. After whatever was happening desisted, if it ever did, maybe things would never go back to the way they were.
Even without using them as a bartering tool, cigarettes suppressed the appetite, Armani reasoned. On that same topic, he grabbed packs of pills: energy supplements, appetite suppressants, and stay awake helpers. He put the whole stock into another bag, keeping tabs on the group members as he did.
Each of them pumped gas, with Gwen and Kirby standing watch. He needed to get back out there, and he started that way. Coming from behind the counter, he kicked something that sounded like plastic and it skittered across the floor. Following it, Armani knelt down and
scooped it up, feeling a familiar weight and shape. It was a video camera. He took it and left the store.
“Almost full up,” Eric reported as Armani approached. He gave the bags and the video camera a questioning look, but didn’t ask about what Armani had taken from the store.
“Get it done so we can get going,” Armani ordered in his perpetually quiet voice. He put the recently commandeered bags into the back of the van.
Eric heard a sound as he topped off the van and shook the excess gas off the nozzle. He didn’t want to get anxious over nothing. Well, more anxious, he supposed, because every nerve ending vibrated with worried energy.
“Did you hear that?” Armani asked, confirming Eric’s fears.
Eric didn’t need to say anything; Armani saw it in the other man’s face. “Get inside the vehicles, now!” Armani commanded loudly, so that everyone from David to Kirby, who stood at the far end of the parking lot, could hear.
Responding to Armani’s order at once, Kirby jogged back to the bus. Molly was already back in the driver’s seat. She locked the doors after Kirby made it safely inside and started it up.
David twisted the cap back on the black car’s gas tank, slammed the tiny door, and ran around to the driver’s side. Kim, in the passenger seat, opened her door and called out to Eric, “What’s happening?”
Before Eric could tell her to close the door, two things happened: the first of a horde of fully corrupted sprinted into the parking lot and baby Alec started screaming, high-pitched and terribly loud.
The fully corrupted veered its pace toward the screaming baby and got into Kim’s door before she was able to get it closed. When she tried to kick the corrupted man out, he grabbed her leg and savaged it with his teeth even through her thick pants. Blood soaked the fabric and she shrieked in pain.
Out of the Dark: An apocalyptic thriller Page 19