by Lee Argus
I didn’t see anything more outside during the night. My hands fiercely ached, but I forgot to ask for another pill from Rachel. It wouldn’t be right to wake her up because of my mistake. She let me sleep for half the night, so I should do the same for her. Besides, the pain helped keep me awake.
I felt relieved when the sun started to rise. When I could fully see Steph and Rachel I thought about waking them up. They looked peaceful and could use whatever sleep they could get.
Stephanie woke up before Rachel. She sat up and asked for something to eat. I didn’t know what she’d have liked, so I brought over a few cans and a bag of the snack food we had. She poured through her meal. She cleared phlegm out of her throat which woke up Rachel.
“Looks like you’re back with us.” Rachel said after yawning. “How do you feel?”
“Hungry and cold.” she replied.
It was at least eighty degrees in the house. If she were cold it must have been due to the fever.
Rachel gave her a water bottle that she emptied quicker than I thought possible. She followed it up with more rasping coughs. She cleared her throat, which sounded wet and clogged.
“Sorry.” she said sheepishly. “I really do feel better today. If you two want to leave-”
“No.” Rachel said. “Until you’re better, we’re staying here.”
They argued back and forth, but it quickly became obvious that Rachel wasn’t going to give in. Stephanie said that it would only be a few days. When they finished I decided to bring up our supply situation.
“We still need to get some more food, water and clean linens. This house is new and doesn’t have anything.” Rachel seemed about to argue, but I cut her off.
“Don’t you think Stephanie would rest and recuperate better if she wasn’t sleeping on a pile of clothes?”
“I don’t want to leave her here alone.” she said.
“I’ll be fine. I’m just a little weak and tired. You two should both go. Neither of you should go by yourself.”
Rachel was glaring at me, but when I met her eyes she blushed furiously. She must have remembered our accidental encounter last night. She looked away towards the wall. Stephanie gave her sister a strange look, but didn’t say anything.
“We should go while the sun is low to the horizon.” I said.
“We don’t know this town, and might need to look around for someplace safe enough to check.”
Rachel brought more food and water for Stephanie before we left. She left her pepper foam with her too. I’m not sure why, but it made her feel better.
When we got into the car and started to drive away Rachel kept looking into the rear view mirror towards the house. It felt like she was leaving her child at school for the first time. I knew she would be safer than us, but I don’t think Rachel did.
We sat in awkward silence. She drove back to a main street before heading towards the small downtown area. The wind was blowing dust up in a thickening layer that made driving even slower.
“Should we turn back?”
“Dust storms don’t usually last long.” Rachel said. “Hopefully it’ll blow out by the time we get there. Are your hands okay?”
“They’re a little stiff.”
“That’s normal. Keep an eye out for any honey.”
“What for?”
“It’s good to put on any open blisters you might have. There’s not much I can do other than help it to heal and not get infected. You really need to be careful not to damage the burned skin. Steph’s antibiotics might help an infection, unless it was aggressive or antibiotic resistant.”
“Sounds like fun.”
I wanted to say something about what happened the night before. Every time I was about to address the subject my mouth ran dry and it didn’t seem like such a good idea.
Our speed went down with our visibility. The sky began to darken until we were moving at a crawl. The flurries of dust pelted the car, clanging and scrapping along it.
I was about to suggest turning back when the air started to clear. It took a few more minutes before we could see more than a dozen feet in front of the car. After we cleared the storm, I looked back to see an impenetrable brown wall.
“Looks like we’re past it now,” I said. “I hope it blows out before we get back.”
“As long as we’re slow it won’t be an issue.”
When we got to the Wal-Mart the sun was even farther up in the sky. She pulled us into the large empty parking lot. The large building looked dark and foreboding. She stopped directly in front of the large entrance. We sat outside, looking into the dark interior of the store.
“It looks dark in there.” I said. I doubted the light reached much farther than the main entrance. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go inside.”
She stared into the building with a resigned look on her face. I’m sure she was also thinking about her sister and that we needed to get inside. She was probably weighing the danger against the needs for her sister. Her head shook almost imperceptibly, and I knew she decided against it. She started looking at the surrounding buildings. I followed her gaze to the corner of the block, where a lone building’s sign said CVS Pharmacy. It looked fairly sunlit; the front doors were facing east.
“How about we try there?” she asked.
The building was too far away to see much, but it was a lot smaller than the Wal-Mart. Less places for Kurus to hide, less shadows. I nodded to her.
“We should try it.”
The car lazily pulled into the parking lot. It was empty except for scattered trash. The breeze tossed plastic bags back and forth as though playing with them. She pulled it up onto the sidewalk and parked the car facing directly into the front doors. After she shut the engine off, she turned on the headlights. Smart. Once the doors were open the headlights might reach farther into the store than the sunlight. She opened her door and got out of the car. It took a second to open my door, since my bandaged hand couldn’t hold the door handle well.
The doors were both shut. I could see into the store for several feet, and it looked surprisingly undisturbed. Rachel and I both put our faces up to the doors and tried to see farther into the store. It looked as though someone had closed up shop the night before, and hadn’t bothered to come in the next day. We stood quietly for a few minutes and waited to see what else would happen.
“What do you think?” she asked. “It looks safe to me. We should just get in, grab what we need, and get out again.”
I nodded, but kept looking into the window. The glare from the cars headlights made it difficult to see certain angles in the building. The doors had been automatic, and with power off they wouldn’t open any time soon. Rachel tried to push at the doors and pry them open with no success. She looked at me, but all I had to do was show my bandaged hands to remind her of how little I could help. I looked around until I saw a slender cigarette disposal can. It looked like a bright yellow candlestick.
“Pick that up.” I said, gesturing to it. “Hit the top of the window, but stand to the side. You don’t want to shower in shattered glass.”
She leaned the shotgun against a concrete pillar before she hefted the can up and flipped it over so that she could swing the larger end. A few loose cigarette butts spilled onto the ground. I took a step back before she hit the top of the glass door. It cracked and splintered without breaking. She grimaced and swung harder. This time it worked, cascading glass into the pharmacy. She used the can to clear off the remaining glass from the door.
Before she went inside I gestured for her to wait. My boots crunched on a few stray shards of glass as I walked up to the door. The sun lit up the majority of the store, and the car’s high beams helped shine into the other parts. I stuck my head through the door and listened. I couldn’t hear anything, but that didn’t mean that something wasn’t lurking inside.
“Hey!” I yelled into the pharmacy.
We listened, but there still wasn’t anything to hear.
“It sounds lik
e there isn’t anyone there.” she said. “Let’s go.”
Before I could say anything she picked up the shotgun and stepped through the doorway. I followed her inside and looked around. The shelves were mostly empty. It looked like the place had been hit pretty hard before everything fell apart. I stayed behind Rachel to stay out of her line of fire.
We walked across the well-lit front of the store to see down all the aisles. They were thankfully empty. She started down the first row, picking up a few personal hygiene items. She grabbed a pack of disposable razors. I didn’t say anything, but it seemed kind of ridiculous to shave your legs in this sort of situation.
We went deeper into the store and found a clothing section. She grabbed some sweaters and sweatpants that would fit the three of us. She packed my backpack full before loading her arms up with a stack of fleece blankets. We had to go back to the car to unload and search more. She grabbed a few bottles of medicine that were left. Cold and flu remedies mostly. There were fresh bandages, burn creams we picked up too.
We didn’t find an inflatable mattress, but we filled my backpack with enough flashlights and batteries to scare a mob of Kurus. The trunk was starting to fill up fast. The cleaning aisle had a few dozen gallons of bleach and cleaners. We filled the back seat with those. There wasn’t anything left in the canned food section, but we found a few blankets with built in sleeves at the as seen on TV section. The last thing we did was pick up the chocolate and candy at the register. When I asked Rachel she reminded me about Stephanie’s high caloric needs.
The car was mostly full, but we hadn’t found any food (candy doesn’t count). Our supplies will last a few more days, but we would have to go out after that. Rachel was getting worried about leaving Stephanie alone for so long.
The dust storm had blown out on the drive back. We made good time and were back much sooner than I had expected. When we got back we started a pattern. She would load up my backpack, and carry in what she could before we started all over again. Stephanie was sleeping when we checked on her. Her fever seemed up, she was lightly spattered in sweat.
We hastened to finish unloading the car and cleaning up behind us. I couldn’t help with that, but she scattered bleach over the car and our footsteps. I wondered what the bleach would do to the cars paint over time.
Rachel laid a half dozen blankets down for Stephanie. She wet a washcloth before wiping down Stephanie’s face. She woke up and coughed several times. Rachel had a bottle of water ready for her, but she only sipped it.
“We made you a more comfortable place to rest.” she said.
“Let’s move you over and I’ll cook something for our lunch.”
Stephanie struggled weakly to get up until Rachel helped her. The few feet to her new bed seemed almost too much for her. I wondered how long she would be so infirm. I unwrapped another blanket and laid it over her once Rachel had her settled down. She shivered, and her eyes didn’t seem to focus clearly on anything in the room. Her breath sounded more ragged, rattling sharply in each breath she took.
“Is she ok?” I asked.
It felt like a stupid thing to say, but I didn’t know what else I could ask. I thought she looked sickly before, but now it was like she was on death’s door. Rachel laid the back of her hand on Stephanie’s forehead before listening to her chest.
“It’s pretty bad. I haven’t seen her like this since she was little. She spent a few weeks in the hospital before she got better, and I don’t have the supplies and equipment that they did.”
Stephanie’s eyes closed and her breathes came out in shallower gasps than before. I felt helpless, and it wasn’t a feeling that I liked. I needed to do something, help somehow. What could I do?
“Can we go to a hospital and get anything else?” I asked. “There must be something more we can do.”
“I can’t leave her alone anymore, she might get worse. You’re not in any shape to go out alone either. You need to take some antibiotics for your burns and keep them covered. Let me see if I can get some food and medicine into her, then I’ll change out your bandages.”
My hands had been steadily throbbing with greater pain, and the bandages looked wet. I didn’t care. I could deal with it; Stephanie was the one who really needed the help. While Rachel was giving her some broth and a few pill to swallow I told her so. She just shook her head.
“There’s nothing else we can do, just keep her comfortable and hope her body does the rest. She’s stronger than you think, she’s a fighter. Always has been. We’ve been through too much for her to give up now. She’ll be fine.”
I didn’t say anything else as she cleaned my hands and re-wrapped them. She gave me a large handful of assorted pills that I almost choked on. I tried to stay awake, leaning against the wall while she lightly mopped Stephanie’s brow. Minutes seemed to crawl by and my vision grew dimmer as my stomach digested the pills. Then everything went dark.
9 AT A LOSS
I woke up in the dark. I felt around and noticed a soft blanket had been placed on me. I didn’t move, but there was a soft noise in the darkness. I thought it was Stephanie’s gasping breath, but it sounded wrong. It didn’t have that constricted rasp I had heard earlier. Now it was deeper and gentler, with an occasional sniffle.
“Is everything ok?” I whispered.
The sound stopped for a few seconds, as if pondering my question. I fought to stay awake, straining my ears. I almost jumped when Rachel’s voice replied.
“Go back to sleep. I’ll keep watch tonight. I can’t sleep anyway.”
There was something in her voice that sounded alone and lost. I wouldn’t be much good to her as drugged as I felt, so I closed my eyes and eased back to sleep.
When I finally woke up again the sun had started to rise. I couldn’t see much as first, but as the minutes went by my eyes could see more details of the room. The window was first, a faint blue that turned to a soft pink. The light started to spill into the far side of the room, right on Stephanie and Rachel. Stephanie was sleeping, and Rachel clung to her, quietly sobbing. I pulled the blanket off of me and rose to go over to them. Rachel turned her head slightly without looking at me.
“She’s dead.”
At first I thought I must have misheard her. She couldn’t be dead. I looked at Stephanie’s chest, waiting for it to rise. A minute went by and nothing happened. I went to Rachel and laid my hand on her shoulder. It seemed to steady her breathing, her sobs faded until they stopped.
We stayed there a long time, she held onto her sister and I comforted her. Stephanie looked peaceful, almost like she had only fallen asleep. I waited until Rachel decided to say something. It took a while before she worked up the effort to speak.
“It happened a few hours before dawn. She didn’t wake up, her breathing just got shallower until it just stopped.”
I squeezed her shoulder to let her know that I was there for her.
“She wanted to be buried someplace close to trees. She always liked trees. I promised her she would be near trees.”
“That sounds nice. We can go look for someplace she’d like.”
The sun had come up and it would be safe to go outside. I opened the curtains to let in the sunlight. The sky was clear and the day looked beautiful. I wish Stephanie could have seen it.
Using the blanket she was laying on, it wasn’t difficult for us to lift Stephanie’s body up. She must have weighed less than a hundred pounds. We carried her out to the car and laid her in the backseat. Rachel sat in the passenger seat, blankly staring out the window. Rachel had wrapped my hands lighter yesterday, allowing me to move my fingers and thumbs enough to help. I could even carry the shotgun I had to go back inside for.
I knew we would need some shovels to bury her, so I drove us back towards the Wal-Mart. I remembered seeing a hardware store somewhere yesterday. Rachel and I sat in silence, only the steady thrum of engine filling the quiet between us.
We pulled in front of the store. I told Rachel to wait inside, and sh
e nodded vaguely back to me. I didn’t blame her; it had been a rough night.
I climbed out of the car, taking the shotgun with me. The gravel parking lot held a few abandoned cars and trucks. I hoped the owners weren’t infected and waiting inside. The door was slightly open, which was never a good sign.
The sun was rising behind the store, leaving the front poorly lit. It was still bright enough with ambient light to see around the door. I was painfully aware of the gravel that crunched under my boots with each step. I turned the flashlight attached to my shotgun on, and shined the light into the store. The front area was empty, with a lot of tools scattered on the floor. The back of the store was dark, and had an air of menace to it.