The girl remained silent. Cooper sat silently too for a long while. He was thinking that she might not speak English. He was worried the men would be out looking for him and the girl. Finally he stood.
“We have to get going.”
There was no response from the girl. He put his hand out. “Come on, we have to go.”
She shook her head and didn’t look up.
He knelt down. “I can't leave you here. Come on.”
No reply. Cooper was at a loss. Then she put her hand up, and he took it. He pulled her to her feet and they walked on.
They walked between rows of spinach. The soil was rich and loamy. It stuck to their feet and made walking difficult. Before this, Cooper hadn’t even been sure exactly where he was going. Now that he had the girl in tow, he was at a loss. He took them across the rows, fighting between the spinach and climbing soft crumbling mounds of soil until they reached a dirt road that led north.
He took them back to the 101, but farther north by a mile. He took a look through his scope. The dead were milling around the strip mall, trying to get past the barriers. Streams of them came from the surrounding areas and headed toward the parking lot where the men had been partying. He could see four of the men on the roof of the grocery store, but he couldn’t tell if the would-be rapist was among them. He dropped the scope. This was one time he didn’t feel bad leaving someone behind. He hoped they died a slow, miserable death.
The highway was clear and stretched on for a few miles before disappearing around a hill. A few errant scraps of paper rolled on a stiff breeze; the trees stirred slightly. A sense of desolation fouled an otherwise beautiful scene.
They were on a one-lane road that basically paralleled the highway, but it was narrow and curvy so Cooper couldn’t see down it nearly as far as he could the highway. He would have liked to cut through the trees and back to the fields while he still could, but the girl struggled to keep up even on the smooth road.
He stopped more often than he normally would have to listen and observe to let the girl catch up. She had to be falling behind because she was in shock or, understandably, despondent, because she looked to be in great shape. He was worried that she might get them both killed because she didn’t seem alert or concerned about her surroundings. He was stressed over what might happen if they had to move quickly. He might have to pick her up and carry her. But so far he’d seen no living, no dead, and few corpses.
They strolled along for over an hour, not getting very far. He kept a constant watch on the highway, which was clear so far, but he also kept a sharp eye on the trees to the left. Ahead he saw the tail end of what appeared to be a vehicle pileup. The pace felt slower as they drew closer. Suddenly the girl spoke.
“Can we stop?” she asked in flawless English as she walked over to a green patch of grass on the side of the road. She sat down and pulled her shoes off.
“Sure.” Cooper stood and watched her rub her feet. She stretched her legs out straight and wiggled her toes. Cooper dropped to the grass a few feet from her in the shade, debating whether he should kick his boots off.
“I can't walk anymore.” She sounded frustrated.
“That’s OK, but we do need to go a little farther today to find a safe place for the night.” He wondered if he was going to have to piggyback her for the rest of the day.
“No, it’s not OK. I’m on the track team—was on the track team, cross-country. This is nothing to me. It’s my shoes. They’re new and rubbing blisters.”
She looked away, back down the road, and it dawned on Cooper that she might have been moving so slowly because she wasn’t ready to leave the area. He wondered if she were crying.
“Me too, well, not for too long. I got bored, tried a few sports.” He remembered his first-aid kit, or pockets full of Band-Aids, and pulled a few out. “Here.” He handed her a handful of assorted sizes. Her eyes lit up as she smiled, and Cooper was a little taken aback. She was beautiful. For a brief moment, when she smiled, he wasn’t thinking of her as a burden but a cute girl he’d just met.
“Oh my God, thank you.” She opened several and covered the spots where her feet were rubbed raw. Cooper noticed that she kept all the waste and stuffed it in her pocket. He liked that. She jumped up and jogged in place.
“That is so much better.” She kept jogging in place. She was one of those rare people who actually liked running.
“OK, now that we know you can talk, what’s the plan?”
She stopped running and looked at her feet. “I’ve been thinking about that. I was also waiting to see what you would do, how you would act. I guess I’m going with you if that’s what you’re offering.”
“Sure, I just have to move at a faster pace. I’m on my way to check on my sister up north.”
“How far north?” She sounded a little alarmed. “I want to stay away from people, the sick ones too.”
“San Jose.” He assumed she was talking about the dead people. “My name’s Cooper. What’s yours?”
“Ana. You want to jog to make up time?”
“No,” he chuckled. “Let’s just walk a little quicker. He felt much better that she could go faster and spoke English. But he was still worried about her, as she had just seen her parents murdered. She was also going to get hungry, and what if she got scared and screamed? What if he had to lift her and run? This was how so many people died. He had to plan his moves more carefully. She looked up at him and probably could see the pity in his face.
“Those weren’t my parents,” she said but broke down crying. She sobbed and couldn’t talk for a minute. Cooper wanted to comfort her, but he didn’t know her well enough. She sniffed and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “I was a foster kid. They were nice.”
“OK.” Cooper thought that had to be better, but she had still witnessed a brutal murder. He looked at her with concern and wondered if she was OK.
“I’ll be OK, I think. I’ve been moved around so many times. You learn not to get attached.” She sighed and changed the subject. “So what now?”
“That’s a good question. I’m not sure. We have to find you a safe place to stay with a nice group of people.”
She looked annoyed when she responded, “Of course. I’m used to it.”
“Used to what?” Cooper was genuinely clueless.
“Being sent away to a better place.” She said “better place” with bitter sarcasm.
It hadn’t occurred to him that he could make her feel unwanted, as she probably had felt with every move. He felt like an asshole, another person in her life to reject her.
“I am not dumping you anywhere. You can stay with me until you find a place you like. I won’t make you go anywhere you don’t want to.”
She shrugged. She had probably heard lies and excuses all her life.
“I want to go home with Gil and Marie. I liked them.” She was crying again, not racking sobs, just a short burst of emotion that twisted on her face.
He assumed she was referring to her foster parents. “I understand. I wish I could…go back.”
“Let’s keep moving,” she said and started walking north, knowing as Cooper did that moving forward was the only option now.
They made better time, walking at a faster pace in silence. She jogged to keep up with Cooper’s longer stride. When the land surrounding the 101 started to flatten out, the walking was all downhill. The hills around them were dotted with scrubby trees and the occasional building. The highway was empty, save a clump of thirty or so vehicles that looked to have been involved in a pileup. Cooper almost missed the hand waving from the sunroof. He pulled out the scope and his heart sank—another needy person he couldn’t walk away from. And this one would be far worse than the girl.
16.
It was dark and quiet. A breeze moved the air. Sal could feel it, but it did little else. He decided he’d waited long enough and started the engine. The roar made him grit his teeth; he felt as if he’d just sent a flare up announcing their location. He rolled forward, nervous the bikers had somehow found transportation and were following them.
When he’d driven away from the bikers, he saw one of them standing up, apparently unhurt. It was then that the remote chance of pursuit became a terrifying possibility. He insisted they take a long route back to the parking structure, stopping every so often to watch and listen. It took a lot of additional time, and they had to deal with a few pockets of the dead. In addition, he knew everyone back at the structure was probably worried about how long they were taking, especially Ron’s wife, Donna, but Sal felt it had to be done.
After they drove off, Ron explained what he’d done to the motorcycles. They both chuckled, but the surviving biker and the threat of being hunted to death took the fun out of the moment.
“Seriously, I wish I’d known what you were going to do. I might’ve stopped you. Probably not though.” Sal was scared and wished he could go back in time and stop Ron.
“Sorry, man, it seemed like a great idea at the time, you know, really funny.” Ron was looking out the window. “God knows they deserved it, but yeah, now I feel like a real asshole. Those shitbags are going to hunt us down and kill us because of me.”
Sal was pissed at Ron at first, but being honest with himself, he wouldn’t have stopped him so he had to let it go. “I’m just worried that we hit a hornet’s nest. They are going to want us dead.”
Ron looked worried. He put the back of his hand to his mouth and looked apprehensive. “I know. I’m so sorry.”
“Man, I thought you were going to let the air out of their tires or disconnect their batteries.” Then Sal laughed. “Fuck, we may die because of this so forgive me, but that was some funny shit. You crazy bastard.”
Ron cracked a smile, then laughed. Then they both laughed hard for a while.
After they settled down, Sal wanted to talk about all that had happened before they returned to the structure.
“I saw what they did. I mean, obviously I did, but I am sorry.”
“On behalf of all white people.” Ron tried to joke, but his heart wasn’t in it.
“No, no, I am just…well…OK, the world’s too fucked up for time-wasting tact. They were going to lynch you. That’s pretty shitty no matter who you are, and scary too. It made me physically sick to see you like that. I mean literally. Did you ever try to puke silently? I was scared enough already, but that image…it really upset me. A couple of assholes doing that kind of shit can ruin things that thousands of people have spent decades building.”
“Holy shit!”
Ron startled Sal, and he was worried he’d offended him or it was too soon to bring things up.
“You just spoke more in the last five seconds than the entire time I’ve known you.”
“Well, I am upset. A lot of shit happened tonight and I thought we should talk before we return. I mean what happened back there, that wasn’t just scary, it was…I don’t know. For you it had to have a deeper level of something. I don’t know, sorry, man.”
“No, it’s cool, and yes it was upsetting, enraging. But it was also depressing and very sad to me. I’m not ready to talk about it just yet.”
There were a few moments of silence, but Sal had more to say. “Look, just so you know, some of my best friends are, you know…” He looked over at Ron before finishing his sentence. “…dentists.”
Ron smiled. “Good one. I’ll laugh harder at it later.”
A half hour later, the van was halfway across the vast parking lot when Sal cut the engine to listen. It was the dead of night, and the garage structure was a dark silhouette against the night sky. It was eerily quiet.
Ron had a small LED flashlight out and aimed at the structure. He flashed it three times. From the fourth floor, right below the roofless fifth level, a small red light flashed four times, two times, a pause, then two times more.
“All’s safe,” Sal said as he drove forward, not wanting to finish his thought.
Unless the bikers are up there with a knife to Donna’s throat.
“Do we have a signal yet for
we are being hunted by bikers
?” Ron asked with no humor in his voice.
In the dark of the night, Sal drove with all lights off. The group had had discussions about the safety of their new home, and one of the main ideas for the place to remain safe was to remain uninteresting to anyone who saw it. That included hiding lights, activity, and valuables of all kinds. He and Ron had wanted to go in the van to a home improvement store and gather some supplies to implement some of the precautions right away.
As they approached the structure, they saw a massive group of the dead. There must have been hundreds of them. Ron and Sal were confused; the signal had said all was clear. Many of the infected were coming toward them.
“Looks like they were attracted here but haven’t yet walked up the ramp. Maybe no one upstairs even knows they’re here.” Ron was leaning forward in his seat.
They’d rolled all the windows up, but the smell hit them. The bodies started slamming against the van and the metal panels boomed on the inside. The noise was loud and upsetting, even if the dead had no way of getting in the vehicle. Sal fought the urge to panic and started backing the van away slowly, drawing the dead away from the structure. The dead rarely hit hard, but the slapping and weight of the bodies made the van rock. Some of the dead still wore jewelry, and the loud pop and clack of it made both men scared that the glass would shatter and the dead would have them. They both tried to lean away from the windows as best as they could.
In the darkness, the wide-open lot looked devoid of obstacles. There were a handful of cars near the entrance, several hundred being a handful in a lot designed to hold many thousands of cars, and those cars were far away from where the van was now. But not all obstacles protruded above ground.
The van was inching backward, drawing the dead away. Sal had no idea where he was going to take the dead and where he might leave them. The rear of the van suddenly dropped with a bone-shuddering boom and came to a complete stop. The rear wheels seemed to be suspended in the air, as they were spinning unhindered and the van moved not one iota.