In the Lone and Level Sands (49 page)

Kirk hovered over her, grinning. “It’s time
you learned some fucking respect, you stupid little slut.”

“Show her real good, Kirk,” Goon Number Two
said. He put his hand on Keely’s thigh, and she tried to break her
leg free.

“Make her sorry for what she just did to
Billie,” Number Three said.

“Fuck off!” Keely yelled.

“Oh, she’ll be sorry for a long time,” Kirk
said. He unbuttoned his jeans and pulled them down, but then cried
out in pain, grabbing the back of his head. The young man from the
other cot stood behind him, a thick wooden drawing board in his
hands. He struck Kirk with it again. Keely could swear she heard
some of Kirk’s fingers break. He screamed and tried to turn around,
but tripped on his pants around his ankles. He landed on the
ground, chin first.

“You stupid fuck!” Number Two said. That was
all Keely needed; he’d let his grip loosen just enough. She yanked
herself away from him as the young man struck Number Three in the
face with the drawing board. Before Number Two could size up the
situation, Keely got to her feet and gave him a solid kick to his
side. He fell down, holding it, and rolled on the ground.

By then, Number One had gotten up. He tried
to say something, but his mouth filled with blood. He gave up and
went back to clutching his face.

“What the fuck did I ever do to you?” Kirk
said. He got to his feet, yanking his pants up with one hand. Keely
could see two of his fingers were contorted and beginning to turn
blue.

“People like you don’t deserve to be in here
with people like us,” the young man said.

Kirk laughed. “You think we’re different
people? That’s the damnedest thing I ever heard! Look around you,
asshole. We’re all the fucking same. We’re all here just looking
for something better than out there
.
” He pointed to the
stadium wall. “Shit, son, I’ll bet the only reason you helped her
is because you want to get some hero fuck out of her.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Keely said.

“We got more in common than you think,
pretty boy,” Kirk said. “Every single one of us in here is gonna be
dead in a matter of days. Every one! You wait and see, you just
fucking wait and see.”

Kirk and his goons scrambled away and got
lost in the crowd of people down the row.

“Are you okay?” the young man asked. He
offered his hand to help Keely up. She took it, and he lifted her
with ease.

“Yeah, for the most part. Assholes.” She
picked up her glasses and put them back on, then looked into the
distance to see if she could find a police officer, but she
couldn’t. She couldn’t find the goons, either. She sat down on her
cot, trying not to cry.

“I’m Brandon.” He offered his hand again.
Keely shook it.

“Keely.”

“Hey, do you need anything? Maybe a glass of
water, or I could find a cop for you?”

“I’m all right, thanks.” Keely looked away,
at the elderly couple.

“Is Johnny here?” the woman asked.

The man sighed. “Johnny’s not here, Midge.”
He began crying, but he faced away from his wife.

“When’s he going to get here? I miss
Johnny.”

“He’ll be here soon, Midge. Johnny… He’ll be
here soon.” The man buried his face in his hands.

“How long do you think we’ll be in here?”
Brandon said. Keely was almost surprised; she didn’t know he was
still standing by her cot. She looked around as more and more
people entered the stadium.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s been too
long already.”

“I know what you mean.”

“No, you don’t.” Brandon looked blindsided.
Keely sighed. “Look, thanks for helping me. I appreciate it, I
really do. But I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to make
friends, okay? I just want to be left alone for however long I have
to be in here, all right?”

Even as it came out, Keely thought she was
being unnecessarily cruel. She didn’t want to care, but she
couldn’t help feeling bad.

“All right,” Brandon said. “Okay, sorry to
bother you.” He went back to his cot and lay down, one leg
extended. He wiped the blood off of his drawing board and propped
it on his knee, took a sheet of paper from his messenger bag, and
started doodling. Keely looked back at the elderly couple. They
were quiet again. The rest of the stadium was growing louder.

Katie, where are you? I need you.

Time dragged on. Keely felt like she had
been in the stadium for days, but it had barely been a couple of
hours. It was too early to try to sleep away her boredom, not that
she felt a desire to ever sleep again, let alone in the
stadium.

She closed her eyes, against her better
judgment. She didn’t even want to see the place anymore.

More time went by. Keely passed it by
thinking about Katie, but at the same time, she didn’t want to. She
couldn’t be sure Katie’s plane had even landed. It had taken all of
the strength she could muster to stay hidden in the attic, to not
go out to the airport. She knew she had made the right choice, that
if she had gone to the airport, she would’ve died. But it still
felt so wrong. She didn’t think Katie could be alive now, that if
she was, she would’ve been in this stadium, somewhere. Maybe she
already was; it was hard to say.

Keely’s stomach grumbled. She opened her
eyes, and Brandon was standing by her cot again. He was offering
her a plate of food.

“How long have you been there?” she
asked.

“Long enough to know you’re hungry,” he
replied. “Food’s been available for a while.”

She looked at the plate, then back at him,
and took it. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” He went back to his cot,
assumed the same position as before, and continued drawing.

Keely forced herself to eat. Every bite
brought her closer to vomiting, but she knew she’d need to keep her
strength, so she finished her meal. She set the plate aside, then
looked around the stadium. It was packed, and most of the officers
were inside, now. She thought about reporting the incident from
earlier, but without knowing where the goons were, this seemed like
a waste of the officers’ time. They were busy trying to keep things
in order. Some were still setting up cots, as a large group of
people was still waiting to get some.

Keely’s own cot was on the very last row, in
the end zone of the field. She was surprised for a moment that none
of the goons had made a joke about that, and then she broke her
close-to-throwing-up record.

She looked at the elderly couple. The woman
was asking about Johnny again. The man didn’t answer her. Keely
looked at Brandon, who was still drawing. She got up and stood by
his cot.

“What are you drawing?” she asked.

Brandon peeled his eyes from his paper. “A
meadow.” He went back to drawing.

“Just a meadow?” Keely said, after a
moment.

“Yeah. Got tired of seeing this place,
thought I’d draw myself a new one.”

“Is that how you escape?”

“I guess so. I could certainly use it.”

“I think we all could.” Keely stood there
for a few minutes. Brandon focused on drawing. “Hey, well, listen.
I’m sorry I snapped earlier. That wasn’t fair. You helped me a lot,
you know.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Brandon
said.

Keely looked around. The awkward silence was
made worse by the fact that everyone else in the stadium was
talking, and Keely hated how bad she was at communicating with
people. It was a miracle she had ever gotten close to Katie.

“Well, I’m gonna go now,” she said.

“Okay,” Brandon replied. “Let me know if you
need anything?”

“Sure.” Feeling embarrassed, Keely went back
to her cot and sat down.

More time passed. The stadium lights and
sounds made it hard to keep track.

“Is Johnny here?”

“Johnny’s dead, Midge,” the old man said. He
sounded wearier than Keely had ever heard anyone sound.

“Ed, what are you talking about? He was just
here this afternoon.”

“Midge… Damn it, Midge. Just get some rest,
will you?”

“But what about Johnny?”

The man stopped for a while. Then he said,
“He’ll be here soon.”

“Who will, dear?”

“No one,” the man said.

After a while, a voice came through a
megaphone somewhere in the stadium.

“Attention everyone, the lights will be shut
off in ten minutes. We are now enacting a curfew. Please try to
remain at your cot until morning to keep things in an orderly
fashion. If you need to use the restroom or have some other
emergency in the night, please locate the nearest law enforcement
official or stadium hand. They will be wearing reflective clothing
and wielding flashlights. That is all.”

There was a crackle as it ended. The chatter
in the stadium got louder.

“Are you all right?” Brandon asked. Keely
turned to him. He was lying down, but he wasn’t drawing. He was
tucked into his cot, ready for sleep.

“Yeah,” Keely said. “I’ll be fine. Sounds
like they’ll have this place locked down.”

“Yeah. Hey, don’t be afraid to wake me up if
you need something, okay?”

“Totally. Thanks.” Keely turned away, then
turned back to him. “Goodnight, Brandon.”

Brandon looked back at her. He looked
surprised. “Good night, Keely.”

A few minutes later, the lights went out.
The din of people talking gave way to the moans of the zombies
outside. Keely lay down on her stomach, pulled the blanket over
her, tucked her face into her pillow, and quietly cried herself to
sleep.

****

Keely woke to the sound of hundreds of
people talking over one another. She sat up. Most of the people in
the stadium were awake. Brandon wasn’t in his cot, but his
messenger bag was sitting on it, along with an unfinished sketch.
She looked to her other side, and the elderly couple was gone.
Their cots were empty, and had been moved apart from each other
again.

Keely stood up and felt sore. It was
beginning to stink in the stadium, and Keely realized she was
sweating. She had fallen asleep with her hoodie on, and her shirt
beneath it had twisted around her. It was uncomfortable, and worse
because of the heat.

She took her hoodie off and then sat down on
her cot. She wanted something to do, she was tired of sitting
around.

“Hey, good morning!” Brandon said as he sat
down on his cot. “They have breakfast up at those tables, if you’re
hungry.” Keely couldn’t decide if she was or not. The smile faded
from Brandon’s face. “Hey, you look kinda pale. You okay?”

“It’s fucking hot in here,” Keely barely
said. Her throat was dry.

“Yeah. Hey, I’ll go up to the tables with
you, if you want. You could probably use some water.”

“I think I could use an escape.”

Brandon lifted his sketch. “Working on it.”
Keely laughed, but caught herself. She hadn’t expected it. “That’s
more like it!” Brandon said. Keely hoped he wouldn’t see her blush.
“You should laugh more often, you have a really cute laugh.” All
hope was gone.

“Yeah… Well, I don’t really care for
meadows,” Keely said.

“My artistic skill isn’t limited to those.
Come on, want me to draw something for you?”

“No, it’s okay.”

“Come on, please? It’ll give me something to
do.”

Keely thought for a moment. “All right. Draw
me… flying. Above trees.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Brandon said. “After
I help you get some breakfast, anyway.”

Keely was reluctant, but she let him guide
her to the breakfast tables. She prepared a small plate of food and
a large glass of water, returned to her cot, and choked it all
down.

Throughout the day, people found ways to
entertain themselves. Keely mostly sat around, hoping Katie was
okay and that they’d find each other. Brandon spent his time
drawing.

Dinnertime came, and Keely and Brandon went
to the lines together. They got their food quickly, despite an
altercation farther up the line where a man was accused of taking
extra food. The two ate together, and they talked a lot more than
Keely would’ve thought possible just a day before.

Brandon worked on his drawing, but the two
continued talking. Keely was beginning to feel less afraid and a
hell of a lot less bored. At night, to drown out the increasing
volume of the moans outside, Keely focused on the sound of
Brandon’s pencil frantically scraping across his paper. It wasn’t
long before she fell asleep.

The next day was much like the one before
it. At lunchtime, the two lined up to get food. Ahead of her,
Brandon was talking about his sketch. Suddenly, Keely felt someone
behind her, someone too close. She felt arms reach around her, and
hands grabbed her breasts.

“Hey babe, miss me?” Kirk said. He licked
her cheek. Keely shouted and tore away from him, dropping her
plate. People stared.

“You motherfucker!” she said.

“Hey, what’s going on?” a man asked from
down the line.

Kirk laughed. “We’re just playing.”

“This man sexually assaulted me,” Keely
said.

“You sick fuck,” a woman said. “Taking
advantage of people at a time like this!”

“Hey, we’re all dead men walking anyway,”
Kirk replied. A little girl in the line started crying.

“Why don’t you take your shitty attitude
elsewhere?” someone said.

“Yeah, like outside,” someone else
added.

“Hey, lighten up, people,” Kirk said. “I’m
just having a bit of fun.”

“This is what you call fun?” Brandon
said.

A few officers showed up. “What’s going on
here?” one of them asked.

The people in line explained the situation,
and Kirk was taken to a cell the police had set up. By the end of
the day, Kirk’s goons were also incarcerated. While this brought
Keely some comfort, she still couldn’t wait to leave the stadium
behind. Preferably with Katie.

And, she found, with Brandon too.