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Salvaged

Page 5

by Maya Riley


  The last time we were face to face with them, they got the upper hand on us. Sure, we got out and Lincoln set them on fire, but we’d barely escaped with our lives. Apparently, they somehow managed to get out as well.

  One thing I was pleased with, however, was how well Puppy did. I took some moments to admire how Jonah held on to her, making sure she was cradled in a way that she wouldn’t fall off. I was pretty impressed with how she didn’t seem to squirm. These guys were really doing a number on my heart, but in a good way.

  Maura held on tight to Adam, with her face buried in his back. Her eyes were scrunched shut so tightly, I should be worried she may not be able to open them again. This was her first time on a motorcycle, and it made for a hell of a first experience. Mateo had the lead, looking every bit at home on top of his bike, weaving around rotters and even taking some of them out with a knife in his outstretched hand. The new knives were so sharp, they cut through cleanly, and I was amazed they didn’t seem to be dulled for being sold in a grocery store.

  We picked up our speed and the wind bit harder into my face. It clawed across my skin, penetrating me with its chill. I scrunched my eyes enough to keep out most of the sting, but still wide enough to see where I was going. My eyes were focused on Jonah in front of me, and how his shirt billowed all around him. As long as I could focus on following one moving object, it wasn’t as bad.

  After a few minutes, we turned onto a highway that was completely filled with wrecked and abandoned cars. Bumpers and shards of glass were everywhere, leaving no car untouched. None of these would be able to move ever again.

  Mateo slowed down and looked back at me, but I motioned for him to keep going. Hot wiring a car right here would be pointless, and I didn’t want to have to coax Lincoln back onto a motorcycle so soon. Guilt took a chomp out of me at that thought.

  If we could get to a clearer area, we could switch to a car and have a more comfortable ride. It’d be impossible to fit a car through here for at least another mile or so.

  Once the car jam cleared some, we came to a stop. I placed my feet on the ground and flipped the brake into place. My hands found their way over to Lincoln’s, which were still gripping tightly to my stomach. He flinched at my touch, and then relaxed slightly.

  “Hey, Linc. You okay?” I turned my head to the side to whisper.

  I felt him nod, his face moving up and down from where it was still buried in my back.

  “Are you good to get up? We could possibly switch to a car now.”

  I sat there, giving him all the time he needed to come back to us. He loosened his grip and unwrapped himself from around me. I instantly missed the feeling of warmth that his embrace brought.

  Mateo was the first to reach us, his attention fully focused on Lincoln. “You okay, man?”

  Lincoln nodded and rose to his feet, ready to put as much distance between him and the motorcycles as possible. I swung a leg over the seat and stood there, eyeing the cars to see which one to try first.

  There was a van, an SUV, and a compact car. The compact car wouldn’t fit all of us, while the van may not move as fast and easily as I’d like. I walked toward the SUV, wanting to start that one first. “Check the other two cars, see if there’s anything inside we can use,” I called over my shoulder as I cracked my knuckles, excited to use my skill again so soon.

  Luckily, the driver’s side door was unlocked, so I wouldn’t need to break a window. While it would be a convenient way to get in, driving with glass in your ass wouldn’t be comfortable, and having all the windows intact would make for a nice layer of protection.

  As I neared the vehicle, I saw some movement inside, and pulled a single knife from my pocket. It was a rotter, and from the looks of it, there was only one.

  I opened the door, waited for the rotter to scramble over to the seat, and then backed up, making space for it to climb outside. While I could’ve easily taken care of it from inside the car, I preferred not to have rotter guts all over the interior seats.

  In one smooth motion, I shoved the knife into its eye socket, scrambling the brain. I watched as it twitched, and then fell to the ground, motionless.

  Without a second thought, I leaned over the corpse, bracing my hands on the console, and began to search. If this was the driver, then the key should be in here. It wasn’t in the ignition, so I pushed my up off the console and roamed my hands over the corpse. I searched every pocket that I could find, but all I found was his wallet in his back pocket, and some chewing gum in another.

  Tossing those over my shoulder because money was of no use for anything, I stepped over the rotter, climbed into the car, and began to search around. I checked the glove compartment, the side pockets in the doors, under the seats, and anywhere else my hands could reach, but they came up empty. What was this guy doing in this car if he wasn’t driving it? Although, this could be the exact reason why the car was sitting here, and not put into motion however long ago this happened.

  I swiveled myself around in the passenger seat and looked around. Faded bloody handprints streaked around the glass in the back.

  This guy was trying to get away from rotters, and this car was the first shelter he could get to. This probably wasn’t even his car.

  Sighing, I moved back over to the driver seat, knelt down, and began to mess with the wires. Several moments later, the engine was running and I stood back up, feeling accomplished.

  This whole hot-wiring thing was actually quite fun. I could hot-wire vehicle after vehicle for us, and drive all over the country like that. Our endless exhausted walking days were behind us. Our feet would soon thank us. Why I’d never done this sooner, I had no idea. Up until now, I was always complacent, choosing to remain in one spot while the world moved on around me.

  The engine hummed beneath me as I looked over the dash to check the fuel gauge. It was between the three-quarter line and the full line. We’d be able to go a pretty good distance before having to either find an area and supplies to siphon more gas, or switch vehicles.

  I turned around and found Lincoln still standing in the same spot I’d left him in, starring at the ground. Without a second thought, I walked straight to him as though he were magnetized. I stepped in front of him and placed a hand on his upper arm.

  “Hey, Linc, I’m so sorry I made you get on a motorcycle.”

  His head lifted slightly and he glanced at me. “No need to apologize. I know it was the only way out of there, and we’d all been goners if it weren’t for the motorcycles. It’s just something I’ll have to work on getting over.”

  I frowned. “No, it’s not something you’ll have to work on getting over. You deal with it in your own time, in your own way. Other people forcing you to face your triggers is not an okay thing to do, and I won’t even try to normalize it. I’m guilty of it myself just now. There’s no reason you should feel the need to apologize for how things affect you. It’s up to us to be more aware. Tensions were high back there, and I’m the one who needs to apologize, not you.”

  A slight smile lifted one corner of his lips, and he closed the distance to place a small, quick kiss on my mouth. He pulled away just as swiftly as it had happened and looked around. “You found us a new car. A few options, from the looks of it.” His gaze landed on the compact car and he winced. “Please don’t tell me we’ll be cramming into the compact car.”

  I couldn’t suppress the small laugh that bubbled up. “No, we won’t be cramming into the compact car. I got the SUV up and running. We’ll be traveling in comfort for as long as the gas will let us.” I threw a thumb over my shoulder, indicating the vehicle in question, and he nodded with relief.

  “Ready, boys?” I called over my shoulder, then a split second later, added in, “And girls?” Shattering glass sounded nearby and I jumped, then turned to see Mateo with his fist through a side window of the van. He reached in, fumbled around, and then must have found the lock because next, the door was open.

  He disappeared inside for a moment befo
re climbing back out with some crackers boxes in his hands. We gaped at him as he stepped back and looked around at the group before his eye settled on me, with a look that said, ‘what the fuck are you waiting for?’

  “Guess we’re leaving now.” I moved back toward the SUV along with the others—Mateo carrying his newfound snacks—and clambered inside, with Adam behind the wheel. Maura was in front, and I snuggled in the middle seat next to Jonah. Puppy stole the spot on the other side of me, laying down with her paws in my lap, all stretched out, so Lincoln and Mateo ended up in the back seat.

  I laid my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes, letting the gentle rumble of the vehicle rock me into a doze, with the low static of the radio a steady melody.

  My arm stung as though a dozen large needles were stabbing me. I tried not to look and to keep my focus on something in the distance.

  Surely the skin would break, and I’d bleed all over the new, white t-shirt Mama G picked up from the secondhand store. She wouldn’t be happy to see little red dots staining the ragged fabric.

  The stings didn’t lessen like I expected. If anything, they kept going, digging deeper, trying to bring about the pain from inside me that I never let the outside world see.

  Confused, I turned my head slightly. All it took was one look into those beady eyes, sitting atop a crooked nose, and a mouth cracked in a sinister sneer, for my heart to drop into my stomach.

  I found myself short of breath, willing the air to go into my lungs, but the sneer in front of me prevented me from pulling in oxygen.

  Once I felt like I would pass out, the lips parted with strings of saliva still connecting them, and the voice of my nightmares spoke. “You don’t like that, do you, child? Does this make you want to do anything about it? Do you think you can take me on?”

  I remained frozen in fear, still trying to breathe, not even a squeak could escape.

  “You need to learn a lesson.”

  Air blasted my face and soared through my lungs.

  “Holy shit, you guys, the air conditioner works!”

  I startled awake. “What? What’s going on?” I asked, between groggy, panting breaths.

  “Fall asleep there, Skittle?” Adam teased, as he eyed at me in the rearview mirror.

  Jonah lifted his hand and placed the back of it to my forehead for a moment. You okay? You’re sweating, he signed, once he took his hand back.

  Yeah, it was just a nightmare, I responded.

  About what?

  I hesitated. I didn’t really want to divulge the truth about my past. Well, they already knew I wasn’t human to begin with, but somehow, the years with Mama G made me want to clam up. I wanted to bleach my brain and rid myself of the memories of her, but alas, that wouldn’t be possible. Definitely not safe to do on a living human.

  Memories that don’t matter now. I don’t really want to talk about it. I gave him a small reassuring smile before I laid my head on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around me and proceeded to play with my hair. It’d fallen out of its unkempt bun, and most of it was now trailing down my back. I’d need to remember to do something about it later, it was such a mess and so annoying to deal with. I was about to close my eyes, but they widened instead. “Wait… the air conditioner works,” I squealed.

  I lifted a hand and felt the cool breeze caress my skin. It was one of the most amazing things I’d felt since the outbreak. All those insanely hot and humid days, separated by overly cold nights. This was the first time we could control the temperature and make it somewhat comfortable.

  “I was tinkering with the buttons and knobs up here, mostly to see if I could get the radio going, and then voilà, nice, cool air,” Adam beamed from the driver’s seat, clearly proud of himself.

  I smiled and slowly inhaled the salty scent that always surrounded Jonah. It was soothing and exactly what I needed. “How long have we been driving?”

  “At least a couple hours or so, I’d reckon,” Adam responded. “We still have a little under half a tank left, so no need to worry yet.”

  Jonah’s thumb rubbed soothing circles into my scalp, and I felt myself fully relaxing into him.

  It was crazy to think after all we’d been through, we were now in a vehicle driving across the country on a single radio message that may or may not even be accurate. We were driven by the excitement of something new, the curiosity of the unknown.

  Blyss

  I awoke again without another nightmare. I’d like to think it was because of Jonah and Puppy keeping guard over me. Maybe it actually was. The guys wouldn’t tell me how long we’d been driving, saying the length of time was irrelevant, but I suspected they’d lost track themselves.

  “Bathroom break,” I croaked out with my sleep-ridden voice, not wanting to lift my head quite yet from its comfortable position.

  “What?” Mateo asked.

  “What do you mean, what?” I shot back.

  He must have leaned forward, because now I could feel his warm breath heating the strands of hair surrounding my neck. I didn’t bother to turn around, I was too comfortable.

  “You’re really calling a bathroom break? In the middle of infected lands? Where are you even going to find a safe place to do your business?”

  “Well, unless you want me to go in your lap, I’d happily settle for relieving myself anywhere that wasn’t a moving vehicle.” Snickers filled the car, and Maura turned around to attempt to fill Jonah in on the joke. Soon enough, his shoulders were vibrating from his chuckle and threatening to knock my head off. Finally, I lifted my head and sat up straight in my seat. “So, where are we on that bathroom break?”

  “Don’t worry, Skittle,” Adam began with a chuckle. “I’ll get you your bathroom break. Looks like there’s a town up ahead, we can check it out. See what’s left. Scavenge what we can. Maybe stay the night if it’s been deserted.”

  I stretched. “I, for one, would love to find some soap and water, shave off all my hair, and change into some clean clothes.” I brought my arms back down and noticed Adam and Maura looking at me from the front, and the eyes of Lincoln and Mateo staring at me from behind through the rearview mirror. “What?” I questioned, pretty sure I hadn’t said anything weird, then it clicked. “Oh, my hair? Yeah, it’s a huge mess. It doesn’t do me any good anyway, so I figure, what the hell? When I find a razor blade, I’ll shave it right off.” I paused, but it was only filled with awkward silence, so I kept going. “It’ll be so much less maintenance that way.”

  Nobody said anything, they only kept staring at me with mixed looks of confusion, unsure how to proceed.

  “Okay, you guys, chill. Don’t blow a gasket with your reactions or anything. I was only joking. I thought it was something people still did nowadays. Apparently, I must have been mistaken.” I busied myself playing with Puppy’s fur. She was laying half in my lap, twisted in a way I was sure wasn’t comfortable for her, but she remained in the same position until Adam steered us off an exit and toward a new town.

  This area was the same level of desolate as all the others. Some buildings remained, standing in disarray, no longer shining with their former glory.

  The car rolled to a stop outside a little white house with a white picket fence. The paint on the fence peeled in so many places, I wasn’t sure if it still counted as a white fence, or if it was considered a plain wooden fence now. The small front gate was the same height as the fence, and came up to about hip level. It hung loosely off its hinges, and I was sure it wouldn’t take anything more than a light breeze to do it in for good.

  Car doors opened, and we all began piling out and stretching our legs as soon as our feet hit solid ground.

  “We have about a quarter tank of gas left,” Adam noted. “There are a few cars here. If we can find something to siphon gas, then we’ll be good to go. Either that, or swap cars. We have no idea how much farther we’ll have to go until we find another usable car, or even gas.”

  One of the other things that quickly disappeared wh
en the Void Virus spread was gas. Not only did people fight over food, but they also fought over fuel. When the news was still reporting, I would flip through channels on the TV at the diner, watching videos of people carrying refillable containers and raiding the gas pumps. Some of the videos showed people becoming physically violent once the pumps began to run out. Using an actual gas station would be a good idea, if they weren’t all squeezed dry.

  “The sun will be going down soon. I don’t like driving out in the open and through unknown places at night. Let’s see if we can secure this house here and pick up again tomorrow.” Mateo’s voice was still strong, even as he walked away from us, up the little porch steps, and through the door with the busted doorknob.

  I stopped stretching and jogged after him, eager to see what’s inside. Aside from worrying about whether or not we’d find enough supplies to survive, I still felt a weird thrill at the thought of going through other people’s things. It was like their lives were frozen in time. They may be gone, rotters, or dead, but the items they left behind held a million stories. Who they were was forever immortalized in the typical, everyday objects.

  Sure, back at the cabin I’d stayed at for a few months, I’d hit up the old Hennessy house and my secret stash there, but that was a family I actually knew. Going through their things was a little more personal and close to my heart.

  Other times, however, like this one, with this quaint house and picket fence, I had no idea what awaited us inside. I never knew the people who lived here, and I’d be going through what was left of their things. By the lack of reinforcements on this house and the busted entryways, if they were still here, they weren’t likely to be alive.

 

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