There were no more entries; apparently the president had gone to the bunkers without his journal. In fact, he might still be alive somewhere downstairs. The only question now was whether an exploration of the “bunker” the president had referred to would expose any survivors to the virus. He made a mental note to search the Pentagon. That would be no easy task. They would also need to find the place in the Rocky Mountains that the president had referred to.
Inside the drawer were books on leadership and influence. Daniel flipped through them but found nothing of interest. Beneath the books were some pictures, candid portraits of the first lady obviously taken by the president and printed from a computer. There was the standard memorabilia: ticket stubs, private notes from the first lady, over the counter medicines, and coins. It occurred to Daniel while he snooped that the president was a real man after all. He had always imagined life in the White House to be so regimented that there was no time for life, only the job. For instance, why would the president have change in his pocket to drop into this night stand drawer? Surely he never had to pay for anything. It wasn't like he could stop at the gas station and buy a candy bar. If he wanted a candy bar, it was much easier to send someone else. And no one would make the president pay for anything, meals would be complimentary, anything he wanted would be provided by his aides and support staff. Yet here was change. Daniel wondered if it was perhaps what he had in his pockets the day he arrived at the White House.
He moved on from the night stand and explored the desk drawers. The small, antique desk had been the domain of the first lady. There was letterhead and handwritten notes, obviously the president's wife had been a list maker. Daniel looked at all of it, but found nothing of interest. Next came a small bookcase, there were books of all kinds: novels, history books, self-help, and even spiritual books. Daniel was surprised to find this last genre; the president had come across as anti-religion, but perhaps that was just the right-wing radio spin he was used to listening to. He found a small cabinet with files inside. The files were all labeled, some were bills to be paid for their home back in Iowa. Others were private letters to campaign supporters. Then, near the back, was a file marked X. Daniel pulled it out and found several documents, mostly funding requests for things that made no sense, from departments or entities that he had never heard of. On each page was a Post-It note with handwritten questions, some in a woman's handwriting, and others in the president's. It seemed to Daniel that the nation's secrets were kept at all levels, and he couldn't determine whether the president was trying to collect information against his political rivals or if he was searching for answers to questions. The sum total of everything in the file was that someone, or some group of people, was spending a lot of money. And it was clear that the president was as baffled as to whom that someone was as Daniel.
He moved on, going into the dressing room. He found Lana going through the first lady's clothes. There were several jogging suits, which was fortunate since she and Lana were not an exact match in size.
“I'm not crazy about wearing sweat suits everyday for the rest of my life. I think I'd like to get out soon and pick up some things that fit.”
“Out?” Daniel asked, a little surprised. “Out where? There's nowhere to go to buy clothes. We can't just go to the mall on Saturday for an afternoon shopping trip.” He was trying not to be sarcastic, but he couldn't help it.
“Why not? There's no one around to stop us. Anyway, I don't plan to hide in here for the rest of my life.”
“I don't either,” Daniel said, a little stung by the implied rebuke. “But I don't plan on running around out where I might get shot and killed, either.”
Lana suddenly whirled on Daniel, “Is that what you think happened to me? You think I was out looting the shopping mall when I was kidnapped? You think I'm not very aware of the danger posed because everyone, everywhere, seems to have died?” Her voice was beginning to crack, and tears were flooding her eyes.
Daniel thought briefly that the dam that he had built by befriending Lana was about to burst. He tried desperately to think of a good reason why he felt so worried about leaving, but there wasn't one. He was afraid that people might attack them like the insane gunmen had, but he was also desperate to find more people alive. There had to be more of them, more survivors like himself. He could find them just as easily by going out as by utilizing the communications equipment in the White House. He wanted to explore the lower level beyond the security station, but he was out of clean clothes and it wouldn't hurt to get a few supplies, if the looters had left anything of value.
“Okay, I'm sorry. We'll go get some stuff.”
She was visibly shaky, and Daniel helped her sit down on the padded bench near the wardrobe Lana had been looking through.
“I guess a pantsuit isn't what you had in mind,” he joked.
She tried to smile, but suddenly the tears broke through and she doubled over. Daniel sat beside her and wrapped one arm around her shoulders. She sat up and looked at him for a moment through her tears then threw her arms around him. She buried her head in his chest and sobbed. Daniel was so surprised he wasn't sure what to do. Without thinking, he stroked her hair and quietly whispered, “It's okay, everything's going to be alright.”
Even as he said the words, he wondered at them. Would things ever be okay again? The world had suddenly come to a screeching halt. The news that mankind was not alone in the universe had been heralded by a deadly gas that killed almost everyone. Not to mention that some women never recover from being abducted. Still, he said the words, and he realized that he was saying them for himself as much as for her.
“They didn't rape me,” she sobbed. “They treated me like an animal, like I was some sort of cow. They were more interested in guns and drinking than anything else. I was at home, at my mother's house. I didn't know where else to go when everything got so crazy. I had an apartment, but I went to be with my mom when she got sick, which was almost immediately in her weakened condition. After she died, I tried to go home but the roads were so blocked I couldn't drive, so I just stayed there. I didn't really have anything to go back home for, and my mother had food and water, so I thought I would just stay there to die.
“But I didn't get sick, and the day they found me I was out in the yard screaming my head off because I thought everyone was dead but me. When I saw their black Hummer driving through the lawns, I started shouting and waving my arms. When they got out they seemed nice enough, only they wouldn't talk to me, only about me. I started to get scared and tried to get back inside, but they caught me. They tied me up and put me in the back of the Hummer, then drove on into the city. They stopped wherever they felt like it and got more guns and liquor. They kept me gagged unless they were feeding me, always freeze-dried foods, some sort of survival supplies, but they talked about me always. Ray, the younger one, wanted to have sex with me, but Billy wouldn't allow him to. He kept saying they needed me, but he would never even look at me. He treated me like a filthy animal, forcing me to eat his nasty food and sleep in the dirt. I had been with them for two days before we got to the White House. Daniel, we never saw another person, not even one.”
She cried on and on, until Daniel's back ached from holding her. He got the impression she wasn't telling him everything, but, then again, he wasn't sure he wanted to know. Why the apparent leader of the two-man gang, Billy, hadn't raped her was one mystery. What exactly she meant by being treated like a filthy animal was another, but he didn't need to know. In fact, he had a hard time keeping his breathing normal and his emotions under control. He had rarely held a woman this close, and as much as his heart longed to do more than hold her, how could he even think such thoughts as she poured out her heart over the savage treatment she had received by the two gunmen?
“Let's get out of here for a while,” Daniel suggested when the crying seemed to have slowed. She nodded without ever really letting go of him.
They walked slowly back to the stairs and descended the two floor
s to ground level. They went outside and climbed inside the Hummer.
“Are you sure you're okay with us taking the Hummer?” he asked her.
“Yeah, I'll be fine. Besides, the roads are pretty jammed and you'll need something you can get around in.”
They drove up the circular drive of the White House and out onto Pennsylvania Ave. There were cars still on the road but not enough to block their progress. They passed several specialty shops until they finally came to a department store. The front glass was broken, but they decided to try it anyway. Inside, most of the racks of clothes near the windows were knocked over, but the clothes seemed to still be attached, mostly. Apparently people just wanted to cause destruction, not necessarily steal the clothes. Further in, the store seemed its normal self, with large, colored signs and trendy fashion accessories laid out on small tables along the wide aisles. Lana picked up a large canvas bag and began filling it with clothes. Daniel wandered into the men's section and found his own bag. He put in several pairs of blue jeans and several athletic golfing shirts. He grabbed several packages of socks and underwear, too, and even got three pairs of shoes. When he came back to find Lana, he found that she had filled two large bags of clothes.
“Are we finished shopping?” he said.
She smiled, “I always thought I would enjoy having free reign in a department store, but it wasn't as much fun as I thought.”
“No,” he said. “Everything seems hollow, doesn't it?”
“I can't help but wonder if we're the only ones left.”
“I don't think so,” Daniel said, maybe just a little too loudly, exposing his fear. “If we survived then there are others. I read in the president's journal that-”
“You read the president's journal?” She was shocked and it made Daniel feel guilty.
“Yeah,” he said defensively, “it's not like I was invading his privacy. I don't even know if he's still alive, and I was trying to find out what those sphere things were. I've looked in the Oval Office, and there was nothing in there but presidential ink pens and stationary.”
“I'm sorry; I didn't mean to imply that you were out of line. I mean, I've searched the first lady's dressing room, that's the same thing as reading his journal. And we're taking clothes from an abandoned store on Pennsylvania Ave., in Washington, D.C. I didn't mean anything by it.”
For a second Daniel saw compassion in her eyes. It was a look of longing and he wasn't sure if it was longing for him as a man, or a silent cry not to leave her alone in an empty world.
“Well, it said something about the possibility that the virus might not have been as potent in the mountains, where the air is thinner.”
“Do you think that's possible?” she asked.
“I don't know, but I was thinking there is probably some pretty sophisticated communications equipment in the White House. I was planning on looking for it and seeing if-”
Daniel froze mid-sentence. Something or someone was close and had made a noise. It was the sound of broken glass being ground underfoot. They whirled around, trying to see what had made the noise, but could see no one. Daniel moved closer to Lana. She set her bags down and took hold of his upper arm with both her hands. She was trembling all over, but Daniel didn't notice. The hair on the back of his neck and along his bare arms was standing straight out. He suddenly wondered why he hadn't thought to bring a gun with them.
They heard movement; whatever had made the noise was in the forest of clothing racks directly ahead of them.
Chapter 7
Daniel's first instinct was to move back, away from where the sound had come from. But he couldn't move, his legs would not respond and he suddenly needed to empty his bladder. After a moment that was so heavy with tension you could smell it, they saw dark hair and two large brown eyes rise above the level of the clothes. Lana cut loose a short scream that sounded oddly like a bark; it reminded Daniel of animals he had seen in the zoo, some kind of monkey, he thought.
The head bobbed back down into the clothes and Daniel felt immense relief. The eyes had been distinctly feminine. His only concern now was whether the person in the clothes was alone. He didn't want to be distracted by one seemingly harmless person, only to be jumped from behind by another.
“Huh, hello,” he said, his voice a little shaky and his throat suddenly very dry. “Hello there, are you okay?”
He couldn't think of anything else to say, with Lana squeezing his arm so tightly her nails seemed to be cutting into his skin.
“What are you doing?” Lana said, her voice was a harsh rasp.
“It was a girl,” he said, as if that was explanation enough.
“So?”
“So, it's another human being. I want to know if she's hurt or if she needs help of some kind.”
“She might kill us both,” Lana said. The look in her eyes portrayed her fear much more clearly than her words.
“I don't think so.”
“What if she's not alone?”
“That's a chance we've got to take.” He raised his voice again, “It's okay, we won't hurt you. Are you alone?”
There was a shuffle of movement and then the girl stepped out in front of them. She was a teenager, probably in high school, maybe her first year of college. She seemed strangely comical in her trendy clothes, which were a little too tight on her. She had long red hair and her light skin was sprinkled with freckles. She wore a tight fitting t-shirt that revealed a pudgy, white strip of skin just below where it stopped an inch or so above her hip-hugging blue jeans. She was clean, but obviously scared. Daniel wondered how he and Lana looked, standing so close and obviously afraid, holding a bag of clothes and shoes as if they were weapons.
“My name is Daniel and this is Lana. Are you alone?”
The girl nodded her head.
“Are you staying around here somewhere?” he asked.
“In an apartment up the street,” she said, her voice soft.
“We've been staying at the White House.” The girl’s eyes grew wide at this statement, but Daniel pushed on. “It's probably the first place people will look for survivors. We needed some clothes and we are fixing to head back there. Would you like to go?”
“What are you doing?” Lana whispered furiously.
“What's it look like I'm doing? Now quit squeezing my arm.”
“We don't even know her. She could be a serial killer for all we know.”
“That's true, but she is a living, breathing person, and I would prefer for us to all stick together at the moment.”
“I don't know,” the girl said. “I don't want to get into trouble.”
Daniel laughed at that, a hearty laugh that made both girls jump. He laughed until he felt tears in his eyes and after all the fear and anxiousness, the laughter felt good. He let it run its course, then said, “I don't think we'll be in any more trouble than the world is already in. If you would like to join us, you are more than welcome.”
Well, the girl was obviously unsure of what to do. She was afraid of Daniel and Lana, but was more afraid of being alone. She soon agreed. She went off to fill her own bag of clothes and while she did, Lana laid out her grievances.
“I don't think that we should be inviting strangers to live with us,” she said, her voice low but intense.
“We can't leave her alone; she's probably not even 18 years old. She's just a kid, half scared out of her mind.”
“I think we could have helped her without giving her a chance to cut our throats in the night.”
“I doubt that—”
“But you can't guarantee it, can you? We don't know that girl and until we do, I don't think we should give her the chance to prove you wrong.”
“What do you want to do, interview her? Check her credit score? Come on, this is ridiculous.”
“Is it? I've met three people besides this girl; two were insane, and the jury is still out on you, pal.”
“Give me a break,” he said, his anger rising. “Let's get this straight
right now. Thousands, probably millions or billions, of people are dead. Society is over as we know it. What happens to our world now is what we decide to do. I won't pretend there aren't cruel, wicked people still in the world, but I’m not going to assume everyone I meet is out to hurt me. And I won't leave people alone when they obviously need my help.”
“We can help her in other ways.”
“No, we will help her this way and that's final.”
“Oh, that's final, huh?” She was clearly angry now. “So I guess you're the benevolent dictator now, is that it? Gonna gather you a nice, little harem and set up shop in the White House, are you? Or no, let me guess, you've had a revelation and now you are Jesus reincarnated. Well, all right, let's break out the poison Kool Aid and have a party—then we'll all go to Heaven, is that it?”
“You are being unreasonable.”
“Am I? Well let me see. First strange balls come floating down and spray the city with gas. Then nearly everyone dies. Then I'm abducted by two very crazy men, rescued by one that seems like he's losing his mind. Now we're asking strangers to move in with us. What in all of that seems unreasonable to you?”
“We are going to have to trust each other.”
“No, I don't have to do anything. I might just take the Hummer and leave.”
“Fine, that's your choice. No one is going to make you stay.”
“That's what you want, isn't it? You want me to leave so you can be alone with her.”
Daniel suddenly felt his world begin to tip out of balance. He could handle, at least it seemed that he could, the death of billions, being shot at by madmen, but he could not handle crazy accusations from Lana.
“No,” he said as calmly and quietly as he could. “I don't want you to leave. I want you to stay...” He paused. What he wanted to say next could be taken the wrong way. It might not be what she wanted to hear, it was almost definitely too soon, but he wanted to say it and now seemed like as good a time as any. “I want you to stay with me.” He emphasized the word ‘with,’ looking deeply into her eyes. He waited, afraid she was going to explode, or just run away. He wasn't sure if he could handle her leaving, but he knew he couldn’t handle her being angry with him. Every fiber of his being was telling him that he was being rash, foolish even. But in his mind there was little chance of finding someone else he cared about so much. In the last 36 hours, he had developed deep feelings for her. And who knew what might happen tomorrow, he wouldn't take the chance of letting her go.
The New World Page 6