Apocalypse Atlanta (80 page)

Candice waited.  Jessica shook herself mentally and smiled.  “Now, one final rule.”  She hated herself for having to even bring this up, but she had to do it now.  While there was time.  If something happened, she couldn’t depend on it being like the movies.  There might not be time for a heart felt speech just before the end came.  But she hated it.

Bracing herself, she spoke slowly, and calmly, with all the love she could muster in her tone.  “Sweetie, if something happens to me . . .”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you!” Candice said immediately, her voice rising toward panic again.

“Candy Bear–”

“No!” Candice said loudly, and she actually stomped her foot, like this was a discussion about whether or not she had to go to bed.  “You’re going to be fine.”

“I–”

“You have to be.”

“Candice!” Jessica said sharply.  “Listen to me.”

The girl looked up at Jessica, fresh tears spilling out of her eyes.  “You’re going to be fine.  Everything’s going to work out.”

It took almost everything Jessica had to keep from breaking down at that point.  Her voice was much huskier, throatier, with unspoken sobs when she continued.  “I’m not planning on going anywhere.  But I wasn’t planning on zombies or bad people either.  I love you more than anything in the whole world.  You have no idea how much I love you.”

Now her voice did break, just a little, and Jessica drew a deep breath.  “Because I love you so much, I have to try to keep you safe in case I’m not able to be there to do it.”

“Mommy, I don’t want you to go away.”

“I don’t want to.  But I can’t know, not nosy kisses sure, something might not happen to me.  I mean, look at my knee.  So, listen to me.  If something happens to me, you remember the rules, okay?”

“Okay.” Candice whispered, her voice barely audible.

Jessica reached into her pocket and took out the paper she’d prepared.  “I wrote down Doctor Morris’ address here, and drew a map as best I could.  See?”  She unfolded it, holding it down where Candice could see it in the scattering of moonlight that came in through the windows.

“Here’s us right now.” Jessica tapped one side of the little map.  “And here’s where Doctor Morris lives.”  Her finger moved to the other side.  “His house is in a big neighborhood of other big houses.  This is his address here, and here are his phone numbers, and his full name.  Doctor Dennis Morris.  See?”

“Yes.” Candice said quietly.

“You take this and put it in your pocket.  If anything happens, I want you to try and get to Doctor Morris’ house.  If he’s there, he’ll help you.”

“He’s a good guy?”

“Yes.” Jessica said, praying everything she’d just explained about how bad people were more likely to not hide didn’t apply to Dennis.  Despite what she’d told Candice, she wasn’t one hundred percent sure.  She was ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent sure.  She’d worked for Dennis for quite a while now, and he’d always been a good and kind man, one of the best bosses she’d ever had.

But . . . anyone could have a dark side waiting to get out.  When it came to Candice, she couldn’t honestly say she was totally, completely, sure about anyone.  But there wasn’t anywhere else to go, wasn’t something better and safer she could think of to tell Candice to do as a backup plan.  And she was more sure about Dennis than she was about anyone else in the world.  With mom and dad, Brett, Joey and Sandra all gone . . . Dennis was her last hope.

“Here.” Jessica said, refolding the paper and holding it out to Candice.  “Don’t lose it.”

Candice still hesitated.  Jessica waited.  There was time to be patient, for her to let Candice work through whatever was going on in her head.  Finally the girl took the paper, handling it like it was dangerous.  She held it for several seconds, then slowly tucked it away in her pocket.

“Having that doesn’t mean something bad’s going to happen to me.” Jessica said quietly.

“It’s just in case.”

Jessica nodded.  “Right.  It’s just in case.”

“Let’s not talk about it anymore, okay?” Candice said, still whispering.

Jessica blinked in surprise, then reached out and brushed her fingers through Candice’s hair.  “Okay.  So, any questions before we go?”

Candice started to shake her head, paused, then screwed up her face in thought.  After several seconds, she shook her head twice.

“You’re sure?  Now’s the best time to ask.

“Well . . . what if the zombies are still at the door downstairs?” Candice asked after a moment.

Jessica shrugged, keeping her voice light.  “Then I’ll either use Daddy’s gun, or we can maybe try to climb out one of the windows.  But we won’t know until we go check.”

“I know.  I’m ready.”

“Alright.”  Jessica gave Candice one last squeeze, trying to put an eternity of warmth and love into that single gesture, then gave her a gentle push toward the doorway.  “Let’s go then.”

Limping after her, Jessica was pleased to see Candice didn’t open the door to the hallway.  She stood clear, waiting, as Jessica went to it and laid her ear against it.  Jessica knocked twice on the door, then stood patiently and listened.  After nearly a minute of hearing nothing from the other side, Jessica eased it open just enough to look out into the hallway.

The red of the emergency light still glowed from the side corridor, the only illumination in the space.  Jessica felt her heart hammering in her chest, but focused on paying attention.  She decided the way was clear and stepped out into the hall, then spoke quietly.  “Okay Candy Bear, stay right behind me.”

“Okay.”

Jessica limped down the hallway slowly.  When she reached the corner she stopped and listened for another few seconds, then looked around it without going past.  Empty and silent.  She went to the bathroom door and repeated her knocking and listening routine, then again after pushing the door open enough to see through.

It seemed empty.  Jessica went through the doorway and slowed her already painfully hindered pace even further; not trusting the metal end of the bat on the tiled floor.  She remembered, clearly, how much falling had hurt.  That was only one reason she needed to be as careful as she could to avoid a repeat of that incident.

The bathroom was as dark and foreboding as she’d feared.  After moving around the wall at the entry, she couldn’t see a thing.  Jessica frowned, then, still standing next to the entry, tried one final test.

“Hello?” she called in a voice slightly louder than a normal speaking tone.  “Anyone in here?”

She waited, but nothing came from the inky blackness to try and eat her.  She told herself that surely meant the room was empty, was safe, but the darkness had her extremely nervous.  Jessica spoke again, more quietly this time, without turning.

“Candice, we’re going to move up until we find the stalls.  Stay with me but don’t knock me over.”

“Okay.”

Jessica went forward slowly, holding her right hand out in front of her.  She didn’t want to fall over, or smack her nose on a wall or anything.  Her hand contacted something that felt like a metal wall, and she traced along it to the left.  She found she’d guessed right a few moments later when she found a corner that had a moving section of metal wall.  It was a stall door.

She felt along it to the next stall, then stopped.  “Candice, feel that stall next to you there?  Right behind me?”

“Yes.”

“Good.  Go in there.  Use the toilet, and don’t dawdle.” Jessica said.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to use this one here, right next to you.” Jessica said.

“Okay.”

Jessica waited until she heard Candice go into the stall and close the door, then went into the next one.  “Candice, stay in there until I’m done and I come out first.”

“Okay.”

She heard clothing rustling as Candice took her jeans down, which prompted Jessica to do the same.  She hesitated over the pistol, but decided to leave it in the holster.  She didn’t want to chance losing it in the darkness, and while it might take her longer to get to it with her pants down around her ankles, at least she’d know where it was.

When she was done and had her clothing back in place, she opened the stall door and came out.  “Candice, are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Jessica moved past the stall, feeling with her fingers until she was right at the corner again.  After adjusting her position so she was next to, but not right in front of, the door, she spoke again.  “Okay, come on out.”

There was a creaking sound as the door opened, then a few moments later Jessica felt Candice’s fingers touch her back.  “Mom.”

“What?”

“Are we going to wash our hands?”

Jessica almost laughed, the question was so normal yet so entirely inane in these circumstances.  “We can at least rinse them off I guess, if we can find the sink and if the water’s running.”  It occurred to her the bathroom might have those new style faucets, the ones that worked off motion sensors.  If that was the case, the water wouldn’t come on.

But when she found the sinks and felt along them, water flowed after she turned a knob that felt fairly standard.  Jessica didn’t bother feeling around for soap, she just rinsed her hands off one at a time, then dried them by wiping the water off on her clothes.

“Okay, ready?”

“Yes.”

She did the knock and listen at the door again, then went out into the hallway and did it again on the door to the stairwell.  There was no such thing as too much caution as far as Jessica was concerned.  One mistake could be one too many.  She heard nothing on the other side of the stairwell door, even after she eased it open and knocked and listened again.

The stairwell had the same amount of light as before; lit by the exit signs at each of the doors.  It was just enough to see by.  Jessica paused at the edge of the railing, eying the stairs with distaste.  She already knew her knee wasn’t up to taking them with any sort of speed.  And it would put a lot of unnecessary effort on it, not to mention hurting much more, if she had to go down, then back up.

“Candice.”

“Yes mommy?”

Jessica was hating herself again.  She tried to reason it was the best solution, that it was the best way to keep Candice safe; but a voice in her head that sounded a lot like Sharon’s was telling her she was a horrible, terrible person for even thinking of it.  Much less to say it.

It wasn’t fair.  If there were zombies on the other side of the door, Jessica would have to kill them very quickly or she’d be dead.  She wouldn’t be able to flee up the stairs fast enough to avoid them.  Then she’d be dead, and Candice would be trapped in the building without anyone to help her.  Jessica told herself this was a risk, but it was a small one, a controllable one, and the best one.  The one that would lead to safety the quickest and surest over any other risk.

Not for herself.  But for Candice.  Even though Jessica hated herself to the core for even concluding it.

“Listen carefully.” Jessica said, putting her hand on the holstered pistol.  “Here’s what I want to do about any zombies that might be at the door downstairs.  I can’t go up and down the stairs very well with my knee hurt like this, but I don’t think the zombies can go up them very fast either.” 
‘You hope’
Jessica told herself silently.

“I want you to go down the stairs very slowly.  Listen carefully.  If you hear anything strange, or if you hear something that sounds like a person, come back up here immediately.  When you get to the bottom, I want you to stand there and count to sixty while you listen.

“If you still don’t hear anything, I want you to knock on the door very loudly.  Use your fists.  Hammer on it, okay?  Then put your ear up against it and listen while you count to sixty again.  If you still don’t hear anything, I want you to beat on it again, and listen again, and count to sixty again.  If it’s still quiet, then I want you to open it, but be ready to run back up here.  If you hear anything at anytime, run back up here.  Don’t stop to think, don’t stop to look again, just run back to me.”

“Okay.”

Jessica told the voice in her head to shut up, the voice that was berating her.  “Whatever you do, you DO NOT go through the door.  Any questions?”

“No.”

“Okay.  Be very careful.  Unless you’re running back up, go very slowly.  Do everything very slowly, very carefully.  Take your time.”

Candice nodded.  Jessica smiled, making herself do it, when what she wanted to do instead was cry at her own weakness.  “Alright, you’re up kiddo.  Take your time.”  She drew the pistol and used her thumb to flick the little lever from ‘safe’ to ‘fire’.

The girl nodded again, then started down the stairs.  She moved steadily, stepping down, then bringing her other foot down to the same stair so she could stand there and listen for a few seconds before taking the next step down.  Jessica watched her go, holding the gun in both hands as she prayed with all her might for nothing bad to happen.

It was terrifying to simply stand there and watch her youngest, her only, child descend through the demonically shadowed darkness.  Jessica gripped the pistol, carefully keeping it pointed away from Candice in case it went off, hardly blinking as she tried to be ready for anything that might materialize to threaten Candice.