“I did not know that,” I said, but I wasn’t sure why it mattered either.
“Listen for when he says ‘about.’ It’s a hoot,” Lazlo grinned. His abrupt shift in emotions bugged me, so I turned back to the kitchen. “Where are you going?”
“The kitchen. I was gonna throw this away and get some water.” I held up my empty can.
“No, I meant, where are you headed in life?” There was something sad in his eyes when he looked at me. His happiness might be more of an act than he let on.
“North,” I said, wishing I had a better answer. “My brother is in a government quarantine, and I have to find him.”
“We’re looking for a quarantine.” Lazlo brightened. “Maybe we should go with you.” I didn’t answer right away, so he added, “There’s safety in numbers.”
“Yeah,” I nodded, and I wasn’t sure if I’d live to regret my decision. “We’re gonna rest here for the night and go in the morning.”
“That sounds good,” Lazlo said and went back to staring outside.
Ripley climbed out of the pool and shook the water off, her chain crashing loudly against the stone patio. I went into the kitchen to get water, and then went upstairs to the master bedroom. Blue had cleaned Harlow’s feet and wrapped them up. With new socks, hopefully they would hold up better tomorrow.
I stole silk pajamas from the dresser drawers, knowing that I would have to leave them here to conserve space in my messenger bag. Grabbing a candle, I went into the bathroom to get ready for bed.
Once I took off my clothes, I inspected my entire body for scratches, and I only found a bruise. When I turned on the faucet, dirty water sputtered out, but it was better than no water at all. Using a washcloth, I did the best I could to clean myself up.
When I came out, Blue had gone, and Harlow had changed and crawled into bed, but she wasn’t asleep yet. I called Ripley, and once she finally came in, I locked the door behind her. Ripley lay on the bedroom floor, licking herself clean from her swim, and Harlow was asleep within minutes.
Sleep didn’t come that easy for me, though. After tossing and turning for a while, I gave up, snuck into the bathroom, and shut the door. I sat on the floor, burying my face in my arms, and sobbed harder than I had in months. My whole body shook.
I cried for Beck, who I had cared for way more than I should have. He deserved so much more than this, and I had just turned and ran away, leaving him to die. Leaving them all to die.
I hadn’t wanted to leave Sommer alone and terrified like that, but I didn’t know what choice I had. Letting her follow me had been a mistake, but it wasn’t worse than staying in the quarantine. Everyone had died. All the soldiers who stayed behind to try to save them, and all the people trapped in small rooms as the monsters broke in.
And I cried for Max. I didn’t know where he was or if he was all right. It was my job to protect him, and I hadn’t been there. Maybe he’d made it to a new quarantine. Or maybe he had never even made it out at all.
But I couldn’t think that. I had to believe that Max was still out there and that I would find him. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to him.
But right now, in the bathroom, it was all I could do to keep from screaming.
When I had myself under control, I went back out and climbed into the huge bed, lying on the far side from Harlow. I was too exhausted to lay awake any longer.
I woke up because I couldn’t breathe. I was suffocating, and Ripley growled. I opened my eyes to see her face right in front of mine.
– 5 –
Over two-hundred pounds of jungle cat sat on my chest, crushing me. Someone knocked at the bedroom door, and Ripley growled again. Using all my strength, I pushed her off me and gasped for breath. She leapt onto the floor and did another low growl/roar at the door.
“Hey, are you guys awake?” Blue asked when he stopped knocking.
“Yeah!” Harlow shouted and came out of the bathroom. She glanced over at me, still catching my breath. “What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing,” I shook my head, refusing to tell her that Ripley almost killed me in attempt to wake me up.
“So, are we all going together then?” Blue asked through the closed bedroom door. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, and my feet groaned when I stood on them.
“Going where?” Harlow looked at me.
“North,” I replied vaguely and hobbled to the bathroom.
“What? Why? Why can’t we just stay here?” Harlow asked.
“I have to find my brother,” I told her.
“Okay, well, I’m making breakfast,” Blue said, when neither of us really answered him. “So you guys should come downstairs, and we can all talk about this.”
When I went into the bathroom, I slammed the door behind me. I’d been plagued by horrible nightmares all night long, and then the lion nearly suffocated me. I did not want to fight with Harlow.
“I don’t want to find your brother!” Harlow shouted from the other side of the door.
“Okay! Stay here!” I groaned. I couldn’t even pee in peace.
“We slept in a real bed last night, not just a stupid cot!” Harlow continued. “And I wore real pajamas! The closets are full of clean clothes!”
When I finished going to the bathroom, I washed my hands with water and lots of soap. I opened the door to Harlow standing right outside, her arms crossed firmly over her chest. Ripley, for her part, was sprawled out on the bed, fast asleep.
“The food and water are gonna run out in a few days.” I brushed past Harlow on my way to get clothes to change into. “The zombies will come here, and we’ll run out of bullets.”
“How is that any different from anywhere else?” Harlow asked. “We’re gonna run out of food and ammunition, since there aren’t any more factories, and zombies are always gonna find us. At least here we have a place to sleep.”
I hated that she had a point, but things weren’t like that in the quarantine. I’m not entirely sure where they got food, except Beck once said something about a major government stockpile of dehydrated meals. Plus they had a garden, a water purifying system, electricity, and fences.
“Well, you can stay here as long as you want.” I grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt. “But Blue and Lazlo are going with me. So…” I shrugged and went into the closet to change.
Harlow didn’t say anything after that, and for the first time since I’d met Lazlo, I was glad that we’d run into him. He could at least be useful for getting Harlow to do stuff.
I changed and got ready, but Harlow took her sweet time. She searched through all of the former inhabitant’s makeup, and spent way too long getting gussied up for a vacuous rock star who was way too old for her. He had to be at least twenty.
I gave up on waiting for her and went downstairs. Blue made a fire in the sink and held a skillet over it, cooking meat-type patties. It was the first almost cooked food I’d had in ages, so I ate happily.
Harlow came downstairs wearing another skirt and strappy tank top, pairing it with her usual combat boots. Her hair was pulled back nicely, accented with some diamond clips she’d found in the jewelry box.
“I have fantastic news,” Blue grinned. “I poked around the house this morning, and I found an SUV in the garage. The keys were on the key rack, it’s gassed up, and ready to go.”
“You mean we don’t have to walk?” Harlow’s eyes sparkled. “And we can actually take stuff with us?”
“Honest?” I asked, fighting to contain my happiness. I thought I was going to spend the next month walking to Wyoming. “Did you test drive it and everything?”
“Well, I started it to make sure it ran,” Blue said.
“It purred like a kitten,” Lazlo added.
“It’s in the garage?” I asked, already backing away.
Before Blue could say anything more, I rushed out to the garage. It was dark, but I could still see the bulky shape of a massive gas-guzzling SUV.
I hit my hand against the garage door opener, which naturally didn’t work since there wasn’t any power. But I didn’t care. I was too excited. I had to pry the garage door open myself, but my happiness empowered me.
With the sunlight shining in, I got my first good look at it. It was black and damn near brand new. Cupping my hands, I peered in and admired how spacious the interior was. There was even plenty of room in the back for Ripley.
“It is pretty exciting,” Lazlo smiled, coming out to the garage to inspect it with me.
“No, it’s more than exciting. This is life changing. This…” I was on the verge of tears I was so happy. In the months before Max and I had gone to quarantine, we had found exactly two running vehicles with keys, and they both sustained traumatic injury. “When are we leaving?”
“As soon as we’re ready, I guess,” Lazlo shrugged.
“If I had known about this, I wouldn’t have slept last night.”
“Wow.” He looked at me with awe. “I don’t think you’re kidding.”
“I’m really not,” I admitted.
I ran back into the house, hurrying to gather up all my stuff so we could get out of here. I even packed Harlow’s stuff to speed the process along. Our messenger bags were filled with essentials. If we had to leave things behind, we’d still have everything in a carry-on size.
We loaded up the SUV, and I felt almost optimistic. Sure, I still didn’t know where my little brother was, or even if he was alive, and man-eating zombies still roamed the hollow shell of the earth, but god dammit, we had a car!
It took some cajoling to get Ripley into the back, but I did not want to leave her behind. She’d be an invaluable resource against the infected, but more than that, I kind of liked her.
Thanks to a can of tuna, she eventually got in, and once she settled in amongst the bags and realized she was free to sleep, she seemed okay with it.
I called shotgun, and Lazlo scowled. Blue got to drive because he found it, but he promised me that I’d drive the next leg.
When he started the SUV, and I heard the rumble of the engine, my heart soared. We backed out of the driveway, turned on the road, and drove away from the abandoned house.
“How about some driving tunes?” Lazlo suggested.
“There aren’t radio stations anymore,” Blue said, but he fiddled with the radio.
Static blared out. The GPS kicked in and told us it couldn’t locate the satellite, but Blue hit another button and shut it off. He hit something else and smiled.
“Eureka! A CD player!”
Bon Jovi wafted out of the speakers, and we all exchanged a look.
“I don’t know. That’s kind of really unexpected,” I said.
“Not bad, but really unexpected,” Blue agreed.
“I think it’s kind of bad,” Lazlo said. “But it could be worse.”
“Yeah, it could be your CD,” I said, and Blue laughed.
“Ha ha.” Lazlo rolled his eyes and sunk lower in the seat.
“Who is this?” Harlow asked.
“Somebody who’s probably dead,” I said and looked out the window.
The burgeoning development started giving way to more established homes, and the houses got older and less nice. It wasn’t until we’d been driving for a while, and houses turned into buildings looking sad in the desert sun that it dawned on me where we were.
We turned on the strip, which should’ve been glittering with garish bright lights but instead looked like a dusty ghost town.
A reproduction of the Eiffel Tower had fallen on its side. Cars were crashed or simply left deserted up and down the road. A massive fountain was filled with stagnant water and floating bodies. Trees on the boulevard were wilted and dead. Several rotting corpses lined the sidewalks, and carrion birds circled in the sky.
“Oh my gosh.” I leaned forward, looking at the broken marquees that hung in front of towering hotels. “This is Las Vegas.”
“Yeah. Where did you think we were?” Lazlo asked.
“I didn’t know. I just knew desert.” I had spent so much time isolated in the quarantine that it never occurred to me how near we were to a city. “We should stop.”
“What for? You in the mood to gamble?” Lazlo asked.
“These are really nice hotels. I’m sure the suites and kitchens are loaded with non-perishable food,” I said.
Blue slowed down. He rolled up over the curb, driving around the deteriorating decorative features to pull right in front of the doors.
“We won’t be able to get up to the suites because they’re on the top floors and the elevators are broken, but there has to be stuff on the main floor,” Blue said and turned off the SUV.
“So we just started on this road trip, and we’re stopping?” Harlow raised an eyebrow at us.
“We should stock up while we can,” I opened the door and hopped out. “We don’t know when we’ll be able to again.”
I went around the back and opened the door so Ripley could get out, and I grabbed the handgun from Harlow’s bag and shoved it in my waistband. The sun was blinding and hot, making me even more thankful for the vehicle and its air conditioning.
Blue and I walked into the casino first, with Lazlo and Harlow following. I didn’t like the idea of them being together, because Harlow froze and Lazlo was an idiot. I wanted to get in and out of here as quickly as possible.