A Matter of Days (16 page)

“For your dad’s player. Might as well see if it works, right?” Zack flashed a smile.

“Thanks.” I blinked tears.
Sweet
.

I’m doing the right thing. I’m doing the right thing
. Watching Zackville disappear in the rearview mirror was more than unsettling. My eyes throbbed and itched.
The stress is getting to me
.

Music filled the car with Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me).”

“I’ll never forget you, Daddy,” I whispered as I drove.

We made three hundred miles before stopping for a lunch of canned soup and trail mix. Stretches of fields empty of cattle or horses or crops were interrupted by pockets of cars and the lonely remains of BluStar casualties.

“Where do you want to stop for the night?” Zack asked around a mouthful of raisins and cashews.

“There’s a dinosaur park in Ogallala,” Rabbit answered him hopefully.

“Dinosaurs?” Zack and I turned to him with our mouths open in shock.

“Why not? Don’t think anyone is going to be guarding a bunch of statues, are they? Plus who doesn’t like dinosaurs?”
He shrugged, and for a moment I remembered he was still a little boy in so many ways. “I read the maps, remember?”

“How far down the road is it, Eagle Eye?” Zack poked Rabbit’s ribs.

Al nibbled on a raisin and Twawki finished a can of Spam.
We should get him dog food. Soon
.

Rabbit reached into his bag and unfolded the map. “About two hundred and twenty miles due east of here.”

“It’s okay with me.” I shrugged and took another long draught of sports drink, trying to drink away the spot in my throat that burned.

“Well, it is my birthday tomorrow,” Rabbit confessed while shredding his paper-towel napkin.

“It is?” My stomach dropped. How could I have missed it? Forgotten it?

“Yep, the thirteenth.”

“It’s already June thirteenth? God, Rabbit, I’m sorry.” My stomach twisted with regret. “We camp at the dinosaurs tonight, then you pick something to do tomorrow.”

“And what we eat,” Zack added.

“I already do that.” Rabbit guffawed. “It’s okay. I mean, we don’t have to do anything special.”

I shook my head so hard I felt my brain bounce around. “No, it’s not okay. I suck for forgetting.”

Zack interrupted me. “I want to see these dinosaurs, let’s get moving.”

After filling up the tanks with our reserved gas cans, we got back on the road, traveling well above the speed limit.

Twawki let another long, wet fart go and I knew exactly why Zack thought it was a brilliant idea for the dog to ride
with me. “Twawki, I’d rather not die of oxygen deprivation at this point.”

He ducked his head as if he too was sorry about the stench.

“I’ll take that as an apology.”

Rabbit knew where we were heading, so when Zack passed me and Rabbit held up the map I waved and tried to keep up with the race-car driver behind the wheel.
I sure hope there aren’t cops
.

A humongous dino head poked above the tops of the trees, like a giant sentry watching for our arrival. I used to know all the dinosaurs’ names and habits. I wanted to be an archaeologist or a fossil hunter, someone who worked outside.
When did that change?

We drove around the curbs and along sidewalks, heading deeper into the throng of tails and feet. Tree forts for cavemen, or children, were tucked around to be climbed on.

Rabbit flew out of the car and Twawki all but jumped out the window to run with him. “I pick this one!” He scampered up a rope ladder and across the bridge, toward the little arms of a massive
Tyrannosaurus rex
.

I let Twawki out and he stood underneath Rabbit and barked until he found a wheelchair ramp and sprinted up its curves to join Rab. I slipped the MP3 player into my back pocket and shook my head as Al joined in with squawking and bobbing.

Concession stands selling lemonade and ice cream bars were locked tight and looked dirty, like they’d barely survived the winter and no one bothered to clean them for the summer season.

I stretched my back. Too much sitting made me achy.

Zack started unloading supplies for the night without saying a word. Doing it all with the bird balanced on his shoulder like a pirate.

“You sleeping up in the tree fort too?” I asked him as he pulled out a small charcoal grill.

“Nah, I like my feet on the ground.”

We worked in silence as dusk began to fall. I half expected the dinosaurs to turn and watch us, but they didn’t come to life.
No zombies and no velociraptors
.

“You okay?” Zack watched me chug a bottle of water. “It’s not your fault, you know.”

“My mom would yell at me for forgetting his birthday.”

“Nadia, it’s not like dates matter anymore. Besides, what would she do: blow up balloons and bake a cake?”

Not since Dad died. Holidays had grayed and hollowed. Mom had tried, but we all knew the few hours she tried to be happy were as fake as the reheated meals she picked up instead of cooking. Usually, she’d jump at a fill-in shift and escape the house, and us, as quickly as possible.

“No, she’d tell me to.” I frowned.

“Look at him. He’s okay right now. He’s having fun with his new friends.” Zack watched as Al swooped and flew up to sit on the railing near Rabbit.

R
abbit was dressed and waiting for us when I cracked my eyes open. I knew that look. He had a plan. “What do you want to do?”

“Let’s go to the mall.” He’d spread the map out and circled the location

“The mall?”

“Yeah, it’s the biggest one in the state and only ten miles that way and you promised.”

“I did?”

“Yep, remember? That first day. Besides it’s my birthday, right?”

Zack appeared with a Cup Noodles for each of us. “We can try.…” Zack trailed off as Rabbit slurped his breakfast.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, there might be people who live there now.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.” My stomach clenched and my appetite fled.

“But we can try.”

“If people are there we don’t have to stay.” I knew Rabbit watched my face for signs of fear or trepidation.

Zack glanced around, studying our camp. “Let’s take one car and empty it before we go, okay?”

As Rabbit started clearing out the supplies in the compact car I pulled Zack aside. “You think it’s that risky?”

Zack’s expression was troubled at best. “I stopped at one in California and it was a mess. It was an evacuation center, so there was military. I don’t want to scare you.”

“Thanks, but you are anyway.”

“Sorry. If we take one empty car, we can get back here quickly, or walk back if we have to. It’ll give us more flexibility. Hey, Moose, you’re gonna need to leave Al here in his cage.”

Rabbit nodded and put Al in the tallest tree fort. I listened to him reassure the bird that we were coming back.

America’s Freedom Mall got serious play on the highway. Before we’d even passed one sign, we saw another. More cars littered the roads and medians, as if people got only so far and hiked the rest of the way on foot. Or died—there were plenty of pieces, of what used to be people, scattered in the ditches, and in the cars themselves.

The closer we got, the more of a military presence we found. Camouflage trucks and Humvees began lining the exits. Zack paused, taking his foot off the accelerator. Even Twawki tensed and sniffed the air as if trying to anticipate danger. We saw no signs of movement, but we knew that didn’t mean much.

“Still want to go?” Zack asked each of us.

“Yeah, we should see, right?” Rabbit answered. I nodded.

“Odds are this show kept people away. Might work in our favor.” Zack tried to smile.

We crawled between cars parked alongside the roads and entrances. People had haphazardly driven into trees, other vehicles, even fire hydrants.

A few rows of luxury buses were lined up along the far side of the mall. The heads leaning against the windowpanes told a grizzly story. “They got on the buses and the buses never went anywhere?” I asked under my breath.

“Probably.” Zack kept driving until we found a smaller, more obscure set of doors on the backside of the building. Here there were few cars because of the barricade made by sand-colored armored vehicles, piles of debris, and fencing half fallen over, as if it too didn’t have the strength to stand tall after a certain point. Rolls of barbed wire were stacked on flatbed trucks as if they had been delivered but no one was alive to unroll them.

“Were they trying to keep people out, or in?”

“I don’t know.”

Zack pulled as close as he could and shut off the engine. We waited with our ears straining to pick up sounds of human activity. The only thing that whistled was the wind and the honking of geese flying in a
V
above us.

Uniformed piles of used-to-be people told me few had followed orders to the end. At some point, they must have abandoned their posts.

“They were trying to keep people out of the mall.” Rabbit’s fist was wrapped tightly around Twawki’s rope leash.

“No one’s been here.” The glass doors weren’t shattered; chains and locks still strangled the handles.

“This is only one door. I can’t imagine looters were too sick. Besides, we can’t be the first survivors to come here,” Zack cautioned me.

“Why isn’t it a town then?” Rabbit asked.

“It might be, we don’t know.”

“But what about water?” I asked, taking another sip from my water bottle.

“They could truck it in from the lake.” Zack pointed in the direction of Lake Ogallala. I nodded, remembering the days when I turned on the faucet and expected a gush of drinkable water.

“Carry the shotgun,” Zack instructed, taking a handgun.

“What am I taking?” Rabbit asked.

“You better keep ahold of Twawki’s leash—we don’t want him getting hurt or thinking we’re leaving him.”

“Good idea.” Rab patted Twawki’s head and the dog licked his face.

To me Zack said, “He won’t know we’re coming back if we just leave him in the car.” He pulled a bag with wire cutters from the trunk and cleared a pathway to the door. We followed silently. There was an eerie lack of energy. Malls had been bustling, crazy places where we could never find a parking place—not chained up and locked out like prisons.

Zack sawed the chain off and then picked the lock on the doors.
How did he end up staying out of prison?
With a click of the lock and a hand held up for silence, Zack cracked the doors.

Twawki whined as stale air rolled over us as if the great mall god had been holding his breath and finally exhaled. Under the rotting garbage smell was the scent of new leather and that
starchy aroma of unworn clothes. We turned on our headlamps and tentatively stepped inside.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. “It’s not too picked over. Why not?”

“I heard the National Guard was called out to protect a few capitalist places from rioting, but I didn’t think that included malls.” Zack’s voice echoed off the walls.

“This is supposed to be the largest one in the state.” Rabbit’s eyes were wide and barely contained his excitement.

“Lots of expensive shops.” I scanned the list of retailers, recognizing most of them and knowing we’d never been able to afford shopping at any. I wondered if Mom had known what was coming, if she’d have let us spend a little of Dad’s death benefits instead of putting it all in the bank for college.
Nah, probably not
.

We stepped out from the side wing into an atrium. The mall soared up to a glass ceiling three stories above. Most of the stores had gates halfway or almost fully down, like the screens started to fall and then stopped working. Away from the center, the shops and hallways were so dark they seemed like empty mouths waiting to swallow us. Any farther from the center skylight and we’d be blind.

We walked around studying our surroundings and a shiver danced up my spine. The mall was frozen in time. Like it was closed for a holiday. There’d been a little looting by the looks of things, minor messes, but for the most part it looked as though it simply hadn’t opened for business yet that day.

I walked on my tiptoes. As if the sound of my footsteps would invite or unleash unknown drama.

“Where should we go first? Any ideas, Goldfish?” Zack tapped Rabbit’s shoulder.

I nodded my agreement. “This is your birthday party. You decide.”

“Game store?” he asked gleefully.

I laughed. “Why?”

“They might have solar batteries or something.”

“Sure, Rab.” As if Nintendo was busy retooling their gaming consoles to work in a post-BluStar world. He oohed and aahed over what little stock was left in the store.

“You think employees cleaned this place out?” Zack asked, holding up another empty box.

“Probably. Who knows, maybe they’re even playing somewhere and don’t know what’s happened.”

“Best thing that ever happened to them?” Zack smiled.

As Rabbit wandered back toward the entrance I asked, “Where next?”

“Shoes. I need brand-spankin’ kicks.”

I laughed. “Okay.”