After Days (The After Days Trilogy) (13 page)

They were
youths, both Asian, wearing black leather jackets emblazoned with red tigers in the act of springing. Gangbangers. The guy on the right held a baseball bat with several long nails through it; it had been transformed into a nasty spiked club in his hands, while the other one was holding a knife. Seeing our weapons, the Asian man with the knife dropped it and reached inside his jacket.

             
“You kids better get lost!” snapped the guy with the bat, he appeared to be older. “This is Red Tiger turf.”

             
The one reaching into his jacket started to pull his hand out and both Luke and I saw that he had the handle of a pistol in his grip. Before he could clear the front of his jacket and finish his draw down, Luke squeezed the trigger of his crossbow and the arrow buried itself in the sternum of its target. The pistol clattered to the frozen pavement as the man fell to his knees, his face shocked, and pitched forwards.

             
“Holy shit!” The stunned man with the bat said, taking a step back as Luke calmly loaded another bolt into the flight groove of his crossbow and cocked it. The gangbanger held up his hands in surrender. “You shot him! Jack! He shot Sammo!”

“Drop the bat,” said Luke calmly.

We heard a swearword and a loud smack and the sound of struggling behind the dumpster came to an abrupt halt. A short wiry guy stepped partially into view. Like the others, he was Asian too. Chinese American, for sure given that he looked to be in his twenties and was not dead of the flu.

He held his hands up, but I could tell by the look on his face tha
t he wasn’t surrendering, simply sizing us up. He had a small machine gun on a strap over his shoulder, the kind that you see commandos use in old war movies. He looked like he'd seen plenty of hard life before the Infection and a ragged scar ran up the right side of his face. He was intimidating to say the least. After glancing down at the man on the ground he looked up at us, anger in his eyes.

“Which one of you fuckers shot Sammo?”

Apparently he had sized us up and found us lacking threat. His right hand curled around the handle of his weapon.

“I asked a question,” he yelled.

“It was him Jack,” said the other man, his hands still up, at least until he saw which way things were going to go. I tensed as ‘Jack’ raised his gun towards Luke.

             
I had never actually shot a person deliberately before, and I was not intending to start right then, but things sort of got away from me. I meant to put a three round burst into the pavement by his feet, to scare him off, but, well, the selector was set to 2. You see, Sonny had been wrong about the settings – 3 was actually the setting that gave a three round burst, while 2 was full machine gun rock and roll.

Many people don’t realize that a weapon firing on full automatic is not
nearly like it is in the movies. In reality it is very hard to control a weapon on full auto. Specifically the combined recoil of all of the shots going off tends to cause the barrel to rise. That is exactly what happened to me.

The first few rounds hit the pavement between his legs, j
ust as I had planned. But as the shots kept coming, the barrel kept rising and I just sort of walked the remaining rounds of my magazine up his right leg. They struck him from just below the knee up to his right hip and into his abdomen before I was able to release the trigger. He hit the ground hard, dropping his weapon as he went.  I was stunned and stood with my mouth open in shock. Jack’s right leg and side were a bloody, smoking mess.

My ears were still ringing from the roar of the rapid fire barrage as the man with the bat dropped it and turned, running away like a mad man. He jumped the high fence behind him
as if his life depended on it.

             
“Holy fuck, Dude!” Luke shouted. “Overkill much?”

             
I was standing looking at the rifle in my hands in horror, this was by no means what I had wanted, and I was beginning to feel sick to my stomach. The man called Jack was now screaming in agony, holding his leg to try and stem the bleeding. The shock, and looking again at the two young Chinese-American men lying dead and wounded in the alley, was too much for me and I turned and started throwing up the beans and franks I had eaten for dinner.

Luke ducked around the dumpster, kicking Jack’s gun away and stepping over him to kneel and check on the girl in the yellow slicker who I assumed was behind there. I took a few moments to compose myself and then I joined him.

She was slumped against the side of the dumpster, unconscious, her slicker was open and the dirty sweatshirt underneath had been pulled up, exposing her belly and bra. As I arrived on the scene, Luke was just pulling her shirt back down.

             
“You can see what that bastard was going to do,” Luke said, obviously seeing how distraught I was at the damage I had inflicted on the gangbanger, such a wound was almost certainly a death sentence. “You did the world a favor by blowing his ass away.”

             
“I know,” I said, nodding my head and looking back at the gravely wounded gang member. He had stopped screaming and had passed out…or on. I wasn’t going to check. “I still don't have to like it though.”

             
Luke didn’t seem fazed by the fact that he had just killed a man, and I admired his sense of purpose. He un-cocked his crossbow and slung it over his shoulder before leaning over the girl. “I'll carry her, you grab the groceries we already have bagged up,” he said, pulling her over his shoulder and standing up. “Let's get the hell out of here before Bat-boy comes back with reinforcements.”

             
“What about him?” I asked, nodding at the gravely wounded Jack.

“There is nothing we can do about him now. In fact I think he’s dead man.”

I looked more closely, and saw that the gangbanger’s chest was still. He had clearly stopped breathing. I nodded and we started walking.

“
You got her okay?” I asked, as we reached the end the alley where we had come in.

             
“Yeah, she's actually not that heavy,” He said, flashing me a smile. “Just awkward.”

             
The trip back to the academy was done with as much haste as we could muster, with constant glances over our shoulder to make sure that we were not being followed. We kept to the shadowed side of the street, and tried to stay out of the moonlight as much as possible. We stopped so that Luke could rest several times. Each time he refused my offers to carry her. I think he knew I was in a state of shock and I certainly didn’t feel a hundred percent. We saw no signs of pursuit on our trip back.

             
“I think we need to consider moving our departure time forward,” Luke said, as we stood by the back door of the academy, waiting for somebody inside to answer our knock.

             
“Yeah,” I said. “Tomorrow night or the night after at the latest. I'll let Sonny know.”

             
“Let Sonny know what?” Brooke said, opening the door for us. “Here now, who is that?”

             
“A damsel in distress,” Luke said with a grin. “Now move out of my way, so I can set her down.”

             
“We are going to be leaving soon, make sure that you and Ben are ready,” I said in answer to Brooke's first question.

             
After handing off the bag and half of the canned goods to John in the kitchen, I stopped by the bathroom and washed my face. I didn’t look any different, but I felt like a killer. I went to the main practice floor where Luke had the girl laid out on a mat. Sonny was kneeling over her checking her eyes, while Ben, Brooke and Allie looked on. Luke was standing to the side, massaging his neck.

             
“I guess she was heavier than I thought,” Luke said sheepishly, as I walked up.

             
“Is she going to be okay?” I asked.

             
“Sonny thinks she probably has a concussion,” Luke said. “We'll know more when she wakes up.”

             
I walked forward and knelt down next to Sonny and the girl. “How bad is it?” I asked the only living adult that I knew.

             
“Can't tell yet,” Sonny replied. “Her eyes are dilated, but not too much, I don't think the concussion is too bad, but once she wakes up we better keep her awake for a while. Isaac... Luke told me what happened with the Tigers, if you ever want to talk about it...”

             
“Thanks.”

             
“Okay,” he said, as he stood up. “We’ll need to talk about the Tigers later. But for now I'm going to go get an extra blanket and pillow for our guest. Keep an eye on her and if she wakes up don't let her fall back asleep.”

             
“Can do,” I said, staying on my knees and looking at her face. I guess that saying that she was beautiful would be a stretch; she had an ugly purple welt on the side of her face, and was covered with dirt and grime.

Beneath the rain slicker, which looked fairly new, her clothing was ragged and threadbare, and I wondered how she could have been surviving on nights such as this. The cold alone should have killed her. Her hair was chestnut brown and shoulder length; it had been crudely hacked off by somebody with little sense of style, or rather care.

I checked her pockets, but found no sort of wallet or identification, just a key to what looked like a gym locker and a half eaten bag of gummy worms. I put them back where I had found them. About five minutes later she moaned slightly and turned her head.

             
“Is she coming to?” Luke asked.

             
“Are you alright?” I asked, looking down at the girl. “Are you awake?”

             
She opened her eyes and I found myself looking into the most beautiful green eyes I had ever seen. Then she smiled. And that is how I met Indigo.

12

Indigo, what can I say about her? I could tell from the moment that her eyes looked back into mine that she was something special. I guess I felt the beginnings of something right then, not love at first sight or anything, but something about her called to me.

Of course at first, she was scared, and who could blame her. Knocked unconscious during an assault, she woke to find a group of strangers standing over her, with my face looming in front of her own. When she was fully aware, her eyes widened in fright and her body tensed as she began to panic. I drew back slightly, so as not to alarm her more, and Brooke put a calming hand on her shoulder and made a soothing hushing sound.

“It’s okay,” I said, “you’re safe, my name is Isaac. We’re not going to hurt you.”

Slowly, she appeared to relax. I didn’t fail to notice her taking in her surroundings as she looked around the room though; I saw her eyes pause briefly on the door and windows, scanning for ways out. She doesn’t quite trust us, I thought to myself.

“What happened?” she asked, when her eyes finally settled back on me. “Where am I?”

“You’re at the martial arts a
cademy, on Main Street,” I said. “My friend Luke and I were out searching for food when we saw you. We rescued you from those guys that were… bothering you, and brought you here.” Her eyes widened at the memory, the fright was back.

“You know those guys were Tigers, right?” She said. “If you messed with them they’ll be looking for you. They’re killers.”

“Don’t worry about it; I don’t think they know where we are.”

“Y
ou better hope so, they killed my cousin Chloe.”

I saw tears well in her eyes and I felt my icy heart begin to soften. I wanted to question her more about what happened to her cousin, but it could wait; first we had to gain her trust and let her get over the shock of the attack. I changed the subject.

“Are you hungry? We have some food here,” I said. I could see that the calm way I spoke to her had begun to settle her fears, and I hoped my offer of food would allay them even more.

“Yes thanks… I’m starving,” she said. I stood up and stepped back as Brooke helped her to her feet.

“Brooke, I’ll go and get some food, if you want to stay with…”

“Indigo…Indigo Buchanan.”

“Indigo. Cool. This is Brooke. I’ll go and get you something to eat.” The others began to disperse as Brooke led Indigo to a sofa. As I left the room I motioned for Luke to come with me, and he fell into step beside me as we walked out into the hall.

“So what do you think, man?” Luke said, as we walked toward the kitchen.

“She’s alone, and scared,” I replied. “And really, who can blame her. She doesn’t know us from Adam, hell, for all she knows we could be as bad as these ‘Tigers’.”

“Do you really think they killed her cousin?” Luke looked troubled.

“Yes. I believe her, you saw for yourself what they were like,” I replied. “Those guys were animals, hopefully they never track us down or it’ll be a fight to the death.”

“No kidding, chief,” Luke said. “If they kill a girl for asking for food, what are they going to try to do to us for killing a couple of their people?”

“I don’t ever want to find out,” I said, shaking my head.

When we got to the kitchen, Luke and I looked through the supplies of canned goods until we found a can of Spaghetti Os. I put the Spaghetti Os in a bowl and grabbed a clean spoon, and we headed back to the main practice floor where we had left Indigo.

Luke and I were silent on the walk back, our footsteps echoing on the tiled floors of the Academy’s quiet halls. I found myself wondering where Sonny and his students were. When we got back to the main practice floor, Brooke was still sitting with Indigo on the sofa. They were quietly talking to each other.

As cold and unappetizing as they were, Indigo was very pleased with the Spaghetti Os. She explained that it was her first meal in over twenty-four hours. She was almost finished eating, when Sonny entered the room with Karen and Arthur behind.
I introduced Indigo to them.

“We have turned the supply closet across from the bathroom into a room for our guest,” Sonny said. “We put in a sleeping mat and some warm blankets, and she can stay there as long as she wants.”

“Thank you,” Indigo said.

“Aren’t you worried that people will get jealous? Giving Indigo a private room when no one else has one?” Luke said.

“No,” Sonny replied. “We all realize that this young woman has been through a horrible ordeal, and may need some time to adjust. Karen here can show you to your room, when you’re done eating.”

Later that night I was having trouble sleeping, so I wandered down to the Academy's kitchen. Following my late-night snack I was on my way back to my sleeping mat, when I heard voices coming through Sonny's office door. One of the voices was Sonny's, and the other voice I didn't recognize. It was a woman's voice with a Chinese accent. Intrigued and I have to admit a little alarmed, I stopped to listen. Now understand, eavesdropping is not really my thing, but once in a while curiosity and self-preservation will get the better of me. This was one of those times, and do you know what? I make no apologies.

             
"Why did you come here?" I could hear Sonny saying. "How could you just show up here after what your government did?"

             
"Not all of our people wanted this… I didn’t…" the woman replied. "Many of us are just as appalled by what’s happened as the rest of the world. Some in the upper echelons of government even tried to stop it, but they were brutally suppressed."

             
"How can I trust a word you say, you're Chinese. Why shouldn’t I just kill you now?" Sonny said.

His thoughts echoed my own
, and I briefly thought of running to grab my rifle. I didn’t, I knew Sonny could handle himself and something in the woman’s tone stopped me.

             
"Please trust me, by coming here I have placed myself in great danger," the woman said, a hint of desperation detectable in her voice. "If you ever felt anything for me at all, please just listen to me."

             
"All right, Huian, I'll give you five minutes," Sonny replied. "You had better make the most of them."

             
"Thank you," the woman, Huian, said. "You and your students need to get out of here; the People's Army is tired of losing trucks. They are planning on routing an entire division here to Worcester. In three days, if you are not gone by then, you will be rounded up and sent to a camp. That is, if you are not simply executed."

             
"So that's what you came here to do? To threaten me? How did you know to come to me? Who else knows?"

             
"No, Sonny, that is not why I came here at all," she said. "I came here to warn you, and to help you if I can. No-one else knows. I am on the New England intelligence team, we track resistance and movement over the six states, and there is a big red flag over this city. I saw the location and came here on a hunch. I…I am so glad I found you alive."

             
"How do you propose to help us?" Sonny asked, his voice softening just a little.

             
"I can provide you a truck and I can promise that it will not be reported missing for 72 hours."

             
"Why would you do this for me?"

             
"What the People's Republic of China has done is inexcusable. There are those of us trying to fight it, even now, or at least make sure that it never happens again."

             
"That still doesn't explain why you would help
me
," Sonny said. The woman responded with a whisper that I couldn’t hear. "What was that?" Sonny asked.

             
“I said because I love you,” she replied more loudly. “I have always loved you Sonny, since the first day I met you.”

             
“Then why did you go back, Huian?” Sonny said. “Why did you leave me?”

             
“I had my duty, and back then I put my duty ahead of everything, even love.”

             
“And now? Isn’t your duty to turn us in?”

             
“Now I hold my duty to be towards a higher cause,” she said. “It sickens me to think that I ever put the needs of the People’s Republic above my own, especially given the way they abused that trust.”

             
“Well, thanks for the heads up at least,” Sonny replied. “I hope you are not too offended that I don’t welcome you back into my life with open arms. Too much water has passed under that bridge, and besides, you burned it down on your way out the door.”

             
“I know… someday I hope to show you just how much you still mean to me,” she said. “Until then I just hope that you accept what aid I can provide you, and that you keep yourself safe.”

             
“If I decide to accept your help, where will you be leaving this truck for us?”

             
“The same parking garage where you burned the last truck, but two levels above where you left the last one,” she answered him. “We’ve had the garage under surveillance, since we tracked the GPS locator on the truck you dumped there. I will order the surveillance withdrawn at noon tomorrow. You can pick up the truck any time after that.”

             
“What about the GPS locator on the new truck?”

             
“Take this envelope; it has the keys of the truck, and a note about how to disable the GPS unit. I had already thought of that for you. When you’re through with the truck, park it out of sight and without an active GPS unit. It should be a long time, hopefully, before the People’s Army can find it.”

             
“I don’t suppose the truck will be preloaded with supplies?” Sonny asked, and I could almost see the smile on his face in my mind.

             
“The gas tank will be full, but that’s about the extent of what I can do safely. Once you get out of Worcester, stick to the more rural areas, the People’s Army is focusing on cities at the moment. They’re trying to get them ready for the first wave of repopulation; the government wants civilians to begin occupying North America within one calendar year.”

             
“Damn them, damn them to hell.”

             
“I must be going; the longer I stay the more danger there is of me being missed. I hope you and your students find a way to remain free. And if in the future I can help you again, I will,” she said.

             
I moved away from the door and got down behind a display case, it was dark in the hall, but the moon was bright outside and pools of light were cast through the frosted windows.

I saw the owner of the voice, a
compact Chinese woman in a black uniform, come out of Sonny’s office. She glanced up and down the hall. If she saw me, her eyes betrayed no hint and then she hurried off toward the academy’s lobby. A few moments later Sonny, himself, came walking out of the office. He walked toward the kitchen, passing me by without taking any notice. When he was gone I hurried back to the room in which Luke, Ben, Brooke, and I had our sleeping mats.

             
I was unsure what to think about what I had just seen and heard. On one hand I was excited about the prospect of having a clean truck to escape in and yet I was worried that it might be a trap. I found a small argument going on within my own head. Why would the Chinese woman, Huian, create such an elaborate trap if she already knew where we were? Who can say? Perhaps these Chinese just have a different way of thinking…

I tried to think of everything that I knew about China and Chinese history, and in the end I decided that the concept of logic was not foreign to them. Maybe, there was an extra GPS transmitter on the truck, and Huian was hoping that we would lead her to other groups of survivors. Maybe she even knew about the safe haven, and was hoping to use us to find it. Or perhaps I was just overly paranoid, and she really was doing this out of some sense of love for Sonny. I decided that I would ask him about her the next morning.

             
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, if uneasily, and I awoke just as the first light of dawn was coming through the high windows that overlooked our room. Brooke and Ben were already up and gone. Luke was awake but still lying snug in the comfort of his sleeping bag. I could see him looking at me when I rose from bed. I wondered if I should tell him about what I had heard the night before, but figured it could wait until after I talked to Sonny and got the whole scoop.

             
“I’m surprised that you didn’t go check on Indigo already, man,” Luke said, grinning, as I struggled to extract myself from my sleeping bag. “I saw the eyes you were making at her when she woke up.”

             
I felt myself redden, but didn’t bite. “She’s probably just going to sleep now,” I replied. “Sonny told Allie and Karen to stay with her last night, to make sure she stayed awake until morning. It was a precaution against a possible concussion.”