by Jeyn Roberts
“We’ve got to go,” Daniel said.
Jordan looked up from his shoes. “Go? Why? If they’re heading to the mall, they’ll be there for a while. Maybe even a day or two. That’s what they normally do. They spent a week at the mall in one of the other places. Kamloops. Weird name for a city. Couldn’t forget that if I tried. But they will stay there until they’re done. If there’s food, they’re gonna have a party.”
“They’re heading for Vancouver,” Daniel said. “There are a lot of innocent people there. Some of them are trapped. They’ll be sitting ducks. They deserve a heads up.”
Aries. She was in West Vancouver. She’d be safe if she stayed there. Daniel knew better. Aries wasn’t the type to sit still. Once she found out downtown was under attack, she’d try to help. There were too many humans trapped at the Plaza of Nations. People of worth: doctors, electricians, engineers—people the Baggers considered valuable in their new world order. And of course Mason was there. Aries would never abandon him.
Of all the possible outcomes that had gone through Daniel’s mind the past few months, he’d never thought something like this would happen. It never dawned on him that they might have to take on something far more deadly than an average Bagger. But ferals were a thousand times worse.
So if Jordan was right, and the ferals were going to camp out at the mall, that would give them extra time to prepare.
First things first. Daniel had to get Mason. They may have their differences, but Daniel liked the guy. Mason had been there for him when Daniel needed him and he wasn’t going to let that stubborn idiot die before returning the favor. And Mason was a good fighter. Damn good when it came to killing Baggers.
“Come on,” Daniel said. “We’ve got a prison break to plan.”
Aries
“We’ve got a problem.”
Of course they did. Aries sighed. She’d been awake for less than five minutes and Joy had already tracked her down. At least she’d had the decency to wait until Aries finished in the bathroom stall, coming into the community washroom just as Aries cleaned her hands in the basin by the sink. The other morning, a young couple had crawled into her tent to try and discuss some ridiculous issue they thought was important enough to wake her at five am for.
She looked into the mirror, slightly surprised to see her face staring back at her. Although she’d been through so much in the past nine months, Aries really hadn’t changed. Okay, her hair was longer and desperately in need of a good washing, but her face remained the same. But inside, Aries felt more and more like an old woman instead of a seventeen-year-old girl.
They’d all aged that way.
Joy crossed the room in a few strides. She was pregnant and although she wore an oversized plaid shirt, Aries knew the bump was growing. Thankfully there was still three more months to go. Hopefully by then they might have a doctor on their side, or at least someone willing to help with the delivery. Larissa, their former nursing student, could only do so much. Aside from raiding the UBC bookstore for medical textbooks, she had zero experience. The only thing they’d been able to do so far was to load Joy up on prenatal vitamins and hope for the best.
“What’s wrong?” Aries splashed some water on her face, trying to erase the last signs of sleep. If only she could have one night where she had more than four hours. She’d gotten so used to being exhausted that she barely even noticed it anymore. And when she did, she swallowed more coffee and ignored it.
Her bed. Fluffy pillows and a comfortable duvet. What she wouldn’t give for a single day in which she could sneak off into one of those West Vancouver mansions and curl up in one of those massive king sized beds with a good book. A hot bubble bath afterwards, followed by wrapping herself in a fluffy blanket while eating popcorn on the couch.
She dreamed about it every day. Escape. Push aside all those duties and responsibilities and just run away. She could do it too. It’s not like anyone would physically stop her. She could say she was going on a small supply run or going to gather some vegetables from one of the many gardens the group kept. Sneaking away was her specialty. Aries was a bit of an expert when she wanted to be. She’d done it all those times before when she used to visit with Daniel. No one had been the wiser; expect Mason, only because he actually paid attention. Now that he was gone, there was no one who might notice. All she had to do was slip outside the park grounds and never look back.
But she wouldn’t. No matter how much she wanted, Aries would never do such a thing. Daydreaming about it, well, that would have to be enough.
“Eve’s dead.”
“What? How?”
Tears exploded into Joy’s eyes. She must have been holding back. “Pills. She snuck into the medicine locker last night and took a bottle of aspirin. She swallowed the entire thing.”
Aries pulled Joy into her arms and hugged her hard. Eve had been with them since the beginning. They’d run into Eve and her brother Nathan right after the earthquakes destroyed Vancouver. Together they’d survived countless Bagger attacks. But Nathan died at Christmas, killed in front of Aries. She still blamed herself. Her own stubborn fault. If she hadn’t been so stupid, they never would have gone into that house. And Nathan would still be alive.
Eve hadn’t taken the death well. Although normally quiet, she’d withdrawn even further, refusing to talk to anyone unless they pushed. She’d done her work, never complained when Aries gave her things to do, but at the end of the day, she’d retreated to her tent, not bothering to join the others. Just the other day Aries had thought she should talk to Eve and make sure everything was okay. But she’d been so busy with Michael and Clementine, she’d forgotten all about it. Now it was too late. She’d screwed up again.
“Who knows?”
“Larissa. She’s waiting at the tent. Jack and I thought we should come see you first. He’s outside.”
Aries turned and pushed through the heavy wooden doors. Outside, a blast of bright sunlight hit her face. Spring had hit hard and they’d had very little rain. After a long winter, it was a nice change, especially now that they’d moved their base into the woods. Okay, not quite the woods, but a provincial park in the middle of West Vancouver. It had been a good decision. The group had grown over the past few months, from just a few survivors to several dozen. There simply wasn’t a place big enough for them anymore. It had been Michael’s idea to take it outside. To form a community where everyone worked together. They’d originally thought about Stanley Park in the downtown core, but everyone agreed it was too close to where the Baggers settled. They wanted to be far enough away to go undetected, but close enough to keep an eye on their enemies. And regardless of how much Aries wanted to get away from Vancouver and head north, she’d never leave Mason or Daniel behind.
Lighthouse Park was a good choice. It was right on the ocean, which meant they could escape into the boats if need be. The area was heavily forested, giving them enough cover to live in the open, and it left them plenty of hiding spots to keep guard. Because it was walking distance to many of the West Vancouver mansions, they were able to plant vegetables in the local yards and retrieve them without difficulty.
Living in a tent was hard, but compared to everything else they’d been through, Aries wasn’t complaining.
Outside, Jack waited, leaning against the wall. He had his head tilted upwards, squinting at the bright morning sun.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” he said somberly.
Several months ago Jack had been injured during a Bagger attack. He’d been blinded and spent the past months lying in bed with horrible migraines. But a few weeks ago, his vision started to come back in one eye. He still couldn’t see properly and the headaches hadn’t gone away, but none of that mattered.
Jack had his vision again.
“What’s it like?” Aries asked him in the beginning.
“Like I have a blindfold over one eye,” he said. “And there’s all these white stripes, as if I’m trying to look through a skinny fence.”
&nb
sp; It had been something to celebrate. One of the rare times Aries could actually remember being in a sincerely good mood. Joy was beside herself, more determined than ever to watch Jack like a hawk. She wanted to make sure he’d be there to see the birth of the child growing in her belly.
Looking at Jack now, she wanted to throw her arms around him again, and giggle like a happy schoolgirl. But his new eyesight wasn’t something to keep celebrating, not when Eve was dead. They’d have to remove the body and bury her. She deserved that.
“So…um…where is she?”
Aries realized she didn’t even know where Eve kept her tent. How was that even possible? She should know. Now that she thought about it, when was the last time she talked to Eve? She couldn’t remember. But she’d been so busy lately, working hard with Michael and Clementine. She’d been up late last night, going over final plans with them. They’d left last night with Raj, leaving Aries behind, worried about the million or so things that could go wrong.
She’d been busy trying to keep everyone alive. And because of this, Eve slipped through the cracks. Aries should have known.
“This isn’t your fault,” Jack said, reading her mind. He’d always been like that, able to know exactly what she was thinking. Jack hadn’t left her side since the night they met up at the school auditorium. He’d been invaluable to her, helping her with the tough decisions.
“She’s been depressed for a long time,” Joy said. “We’ve all known about it. If anything, we’re all to blame.”
“No,” Jack said.
“She lost her brother.”
“I lost three brothers,” Jack said. “And you had a bigger family than me. We’ve all lost people. Every single one of us.”
“But Nathan was a survivor,” Joy said, rubbing her stomach absently. “The earthquakes. The Baggers. We went through it all together. It’s different.”
“No,” Jack said. “Death is death.”
They stood silently in the morning sun. An older woman came up the steps, nodding at them before disappearing into the bathroom. Someone walked past carrying a large jug of water. The camp was starting to wake up.
“Come on,” Jack said. “I’ll take you there.”
The walked down the path leading towards the ocean. There were less tents out this way, most of the group had set up their homes in a circle closer to the washrooms. Even with the security, people still felt safer in numbers.
They passed the Lighthouse Keeper’s house, a large two-story building that served as a hospital. Larissa spent most of her days there, helping anyone who showed up on the front porch. They’d been lucky so far; the majority of illnesses were simple things like colds or scrapes. Someone broke an arm last week climbing on the rocks. A few days ago, three people ended up with food poisoning after eating some bad cheese found in an abandoned house.
Larissa managed to patch up everyone who showed up at her door. They’d raided the hospital shortly after they first settled and brought back as many bandages, medicine and syringes they could carry. Larissa had locked up everything in a back room, keeping the key with her at all times. She kept detailed notes of the items that went through her hands. She knew who came to her for which ailments and could recite everything back to Aries at a moments notice.
But apparently Eve had still been able to get in.
Aries followed Jack and Joy up the rocks towards the shoreline. They’d had a rule about pitching tents this close to the water. No one was supposed to do it. But one lone tent stood off to the side, hidden beneath a massive pine tree. Not overly visible, but still more in the open than Aries was comfortable with.
How had Eve done this and no one told Aries?
“She moved it here a few days ago,” Jack said. “Most of us didn’t know about it. I tried talking to her yesterday, but she told me she just wanted to be alone for a bit. We checked it out from the water and it was well hidden. I figured it was okay. I mean, Eve’s been hurting. She took Nathan’s death really hard. And I think all of us want a bit of alone time now and then. I meant to tell you, but I guess it slipped my mind with everything else happening.”
Yeah, everything else. They’d all been preoccupied. And look what it cost them.
Aries walked around to the front of the tent to find Larissa waiting. The twenty-something girl looked up at Aries as they approached.
“How long has she been dead?” Aries asked.
“Not sure,” Larissa said. “My guess is it happened during the night.”
Larissa stepped aside and Aries paused at the slightly opened entrance. She didn’t want to go in there. She still had nights when she woke up in cold sweats, the memory of Nathan, and the way he looked right at her as the Bagger snapped his neck. Sometimes when she closed her eyes, she saw all of them, the people she’d lost. Looking at death was never easy.
Even worse, were the nightmares where she found herself seeing the bodies of her friends that were still alive. Mason beaten to death. Clementine stabbed and bleeding out. Michael lying on his back, gazing at the sky with dull, unseeing eyes. Was it really a dream? Or was she having premonitions of what was coming?
Aries took a deep breath and entered the tent.
Eve lay on her side, her sleeping bag in disarray and pushed down over her thighs. One hand still clutched the empty bottle of aspirin. Although her hair had fallen across her face, Aries could see the open eyes, staring at the grey tent walls. The smell of vomit was heavy in the air. Overpowering, Aries swallowed the bile that rose into her own throat before rushing back into the open air.
“We’ll have to dig a grave,” she said. “Quickly. Jack? Can you get a few of the others to help?”
“I’m on it.”
“We need to get someone to watch the tent. I’m okay with people coming to pay their respects, but I don’t want a bunch of others gawking at her.”
“I can do it,” Joy said. “I can get someone else to deal with the breakfast crowd this morning. In all honesty, I don’t really want to be around food anyway.”
“Where should I dig it?” Jack asked.
Aries paused. If only they could put Eve next to her brother. But Nathan was buried in a back yard across the harbor, several miles away. They’d have to go straight through the downtown core to try and make their way over to Shaunessey. And that would place them right in Bagger territory. No, they couldn’t take that kind of risk.
Lighthouse Park might be scenic and beautiful, but it was mostly rocks and hiking trails. It would be difficult to try and dig a hole big enough to place a body. They would have to go further out, find a nice yard where they could lay Eve to rest.
“She liked the blue house,” Joy said, referring to one of the mansions about half a mile away. “You know, the one with all the pictures of the celebrities on the walls. She went there a few times to think. She told me. It has a huge yard facing the ocean. I’ll bet she’d like it there.”
“Done,” Aries said, thankful that she didn’t have to make the decision.
“What about a funeral?”
Aries paused. She knew that Clementine and Michael would be upset if they didn’t get to pay their respects. Mason too. But who knew when they’d all get back? They couldn’t leave Eve in the tent forever.
“We’ll bury her tonight. Let anyone know if they want to come.”
“I’ll spread the word,” Joy said.
Aries took one last look at the tent. She could see Eve’s legs sticking out through the flap. They’d become tangled in her sleeping bag as she died. What last thoughts went through her mind as she’d taken the pills? Aries simply couldn’t understand it. Through this whole ordeal, even when things were at their worst, she’d never once thought about killing herself. All the pain and death only made her more determined to fight. To make the Baggers pay for everything they’d done. Obviously Eve hadn’t felt the same. Maybe through all her pain and suffering, ending things made sense. Either way, hopefully she was reunited with her brother again, along with the rest
of her family.
“I have to go,” Aries said. “I have to deal with something else.”
She avoided looking her friends in the eyes as she turned, hoping they wouldn’t think she was taking the coward’s way out by leaving. She should be doing more, offering to help Jack dig the grave or taking over Joy’s kitchen duties while she told the others, but Aries knew if she didn’t sneak out now, she might not be able to get away. Once the news spread, everyone would be coming to her with questions she couldn’t answer. And today was going to be busy. Eve couldn’t have picked a worse day to die.
“It’s okay,” Jack said. He knew what Aries had planned. Thankfully he wasn’t going to try and talk her out of it again. They’d run that particular conversation into the ground ages ago.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She turned and walked away. Just like that. Leaving the others to clean up the mess. Selfish. Aries tried to swallow the guilt that welled up inside her chest. What Eve had done wasn’t a mess. It’s not like she’d planned on making things more difficult. No, she’d been a messed up girl, younger than all of them, and Aries was to blame. She should have paid more attention. She should have been there.
She should have prevented this.
“Aries?”
Martin came scampering behind her, struggling to keep a large pile of wood in his arms. An older man and former prisoner from the Plaza of Nations, he was a good guy, but not someone Aries wanted to talk to at that particular moment.
“Don’t forget the meeting tomorrow,” Martin said, his face red and sticky. Martin had been a computer programmer before the earthquakes. He survived with his wife, Betsy, a childcare worker. Aries often wondered how on earth they’d managed to survive. Martin was a good fifty pounds overweight and couldn’t make it up a small hill without breaking into a strong sweat. Betsy was the type to pick spiders up, take them outside and find them a nice tree to inhabit. They were good people, but not fighters.
“What time?” Aries tried to keep her voice cheerful. She didn’t want to be the one to tell Martin. It would finalize things too much and Aries didn’t trust herself to not start bawling any second. Jack would fill him in later.