H10N1 (31 page)

No one felt safe driving through Tucson, so Devin stuck to the back roads. They stopped twice in small towns along the way, hoping to find a community hospital or urgent care facility that might have a supply of glucose or saline solution. The buildings didn’t look looted as much as depleted, as though the staff had used up everything they had before shutting down for good.

Outside Palm Springs, Devin pulled over and walked back to the truck bed.

“Judith and I have been discussing the situation,” he said. “We’re not going near L.A. That’s just asking for trouble. We’re going to cut around San Bernardino and head up to Bakersfield. But we still don’t know what to expect. If things get crazy, I want to be back here to protect Rick.”

Devin slung his gun over one shoulder. “Judith will drive. She can think quickly and maneuver around any trouble spots. Besides, I don’t think she can handle a weapon too well with that gimp arm. You’ll ride shotgun, Taeya.”

Holding up a hand, he helped her step out of the truck, then followed her to the cab and held the door for her. He poked his head in for one last pep talk with John and Kat, who were sitting in the back seat.

“You both have handguns,” he said. “At the first sign of trouble, shoot out the windows and don’t stop firing. Circle your gun around as you fire. You’ll have a better chance of hitting someone. Got that?”

They both nodded.

Even with the windows open, Taeya could not draw more than a shallow breath. She leaned out, letting the wind blow in her face, trying desperately to stay awake. When was the last time she slept? Two days ago? She couldn’t remember what day it was, or what day they’d been attacked.

The lonely highway stretched out ahead of her as a black void. She wondered how Judith was holding up? When was the last time she’d slept?

Earlier, Taeya had voiced her fear that they might not find what they needed to keep Rick hydrated and nourished. Judith had suggested they run a tube down Rick’s throat and dump water directly into his stomach. And John had agreed! Neither of them understood how the body shuts down in a coma. Rick’s stomach was useless right now. The fluid had to be taken into his bloodstream.

Once they got to Laurel Valley, Taeya hoped the clinic Eric told her about might have some IV solutions. But that was a slim hope. Even if she found a supply, how long would it last? Deep in her heart, she knew it would be better for everyone if Rick succumbed quickly, instead of lingering for weeks or months in this vegetative state.

She took some comfort in imagining a burial site somewhere in this new town, where she could visit him from time to time. At least feel the thread of a connection to Rick.

Devin banged on the back window, startling Judith so much she swerved in the road.

“Pull over!” he yelled.

Were they under attack? Taeya glanced quickly out her rearview mirror, but all she saw was the pitch-black night.

Turning around, Taeya scanned out the back window for raiders. But Devin wasn’t on guard. He was hunched over Rick.

Oh, no. Was he hemorrhaging? Taeya had instructed Devin to check Rick’s pulse periodically. Had he gone into seizure? She never should have agreed to move him. What could she do out here in the middle of nowhere?

A plan zipped through her head as Judith slowed. If Devin and John could get Rick and the mattress out of the truck, they could lay him in the roadway in front of the headlights. But if it was Rick’s heart, she would not open him up again. Not out here.

As soon as the truck came to a stop, Taeya ran to the back. “What is it?”

“See for yourself.” Devin shined his flashlight on Rick’s face.

His eyes were open.

The screams and laughter burst in the air like firecrackers. Rick squinted at the flashlights shining in his face. Kat broke into tears again.

“We’re going to be all right now,” Taeya cooed as she brushed a hand over Kat’s limp hair. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

Judith eased Kat gently away from Taeya, but kept an arm tight around the girl’s trembling shoulders.

Then with four lights trained on Rick’s belly, Taeya examined his incision and checked his pulse. Everything
was
fine. Blinking away the sting of tears, she asked how he felt.

“Water,” he croaked, and again the group bellowed out cheers.

Racing to the truck cab, John came back with a bottle of water. Taeya raised Rick’s head so he could drink. And when he let out a contented sigh, everyone ahhhh-ed.

“Jesus Christ.” His scratchy voice was barely above a whisper. “What’s with you people?”

Taeya rained kisses on his cheeks, and forehead, and temples.

“What’s going on?” he asked. His eyes rolled past hers, and for the first time he seemed to notice he was outside. “Where are we?”

“Not in Arizona.” She squeezed his hand.

Rick motioned for more water, and she gave him a longer drink this time.

“I had this really weird dream,” he said. “You were trying to make me listen to the angels. You know, in your shell. But I didn’t want to. I called your name but you couldn’t hear me.”

“Yeah, I’ve been calling your name, too. What made you decide to wake up?”

His fingers absent-mindedly scratched his thighs, as though he was massaging the feeling back. “Somebody just said ‘wake up’.” He yawned and smacked his lips.

Sitting on the side of the truck, Devin was just finishing his story about the renegades in the basement when a voice called out from the darkness, “Nobody move. I want to see everyone’s hands in the air.”

Judith wheeled around, aiming her rifle at where the voice had come from. Rolling into the bed of the truck, Devin flattened himself between Rick’s mattress and the side. His hands gripped his rifle across his chest.

“Uh, uh, uh,” called another man from opposite side of the road. “You best ease your finger off that trigger, honey, and lay the gun down.”

Taeya squinted into the dark, but she couldn’t see anyone.

“Now!” the man said when Judith didn’t immediately comply. “Or the Mexican chick gets it.”

It took a supreme effort for Judith to lay that rifle on the pavement.

“Hey, Flava-Flave,” another man called to Devin. “You, lying in the truck. I want to see two black hands reaching for the stars.”

After handing his gun to Rick, Devin raised both hands.

“Sit up nice and easy,” the man said.

Once he did, the man spoke to all of them. “Everybody, up to the front of the truck. I want you standing in the headlight where I can keep an eye on you.”

Holding her hands up, Taeya slowly turned toward the voice. “Look, we have a very sick man here. He’s already been shot once. All we want to do is get to some place safe–”

At least three different men, scattered in the darkness, laughed.

“Safe?” one man said. “They ain’t no place safe around here anymore. Now git outta that truck and join your friends. And pick up Tupac’s gun while you’re at it. He musta forgot it.”

John and Kat were already standing in the beam of light, their hands held high. Judith was taking her time. Devin took one last look at Rick before he hurtled over the side of the truck.

When Taeya reached for the gun, Rick shook his head no, but she took it from him anyway.

Holding it sideways in her hands, she stood. “We don’t have any supplies. There’s nothing of value but our clothes. We’ve just been driven from our last—”

“Can it, Carmelita. And get outta that truck.”

Taeya tried one last time. “Please don’t take our—”

“
Get out of the goddamn truck!
” the man screamed.

She looked down at Rick. “I love you.”

He nodded. “I love you, too.”

As she stepped to the back of the truck, she thought about raising that gun and shooting. But it all seemed so futile. She had no idea how many men were lurking out there, all with guns trained on her and the others. Her best bet was not to create any animosity. Hopefully, they would not jostle Rick too much when they dragged him out of the truck. Maybe they would even leave some water behind.

Once she was out of the truck, one of the men instructed her to lay the gun down and join the others.

Then the man called out, “Jason, check it out.”

A man trotted out of the dark. He was not carrying a gun. First he checked the truck bed, and reported.

“The guy definitely looks bad. I reckon she’s tellin’ the truth about him gettin’ shot.”

Next, he climbed into the truck bed and patted Rick down, just to make sure he didn’t have a gun. Then he rummaged through duffle bags.

Raising his head, Jason called out, “Right again. Nothing here but clothes.”

Taeya heard a groan from out in the dark.

“Check the cab.”

Jason hopped down and crawled into the back seat. He let out a war-cry and jumped back out with Devin’s canvas bag full of marijuana. “Hot damn!! Wait’ll you see this.”

He sprinted into the dark.

There was some excited chatter before one of the men said, “Okay, okay, settle down. I need to find out what to do with that fella in the back.”

Taeya heard the hiss of a two-way radio. “Hey, boss. We got a situation here.”

A voice came through the radio. “What’s up, Lonny?”

“We was followin’ a truck up Highway Five—nice duelly, quad-cab—anyways, they got some dude in the back, all shot up. We don’t know if we should take the truck.”

“Shot up, huh?” the voice said.

“Yeah, but get this. They got a suitcase full of marijuana tops. I never seen so much pot in my life.”

“Pot? In a zipper bag?”

“Yeah, one of them athletic bags, I guess you’d call it.”

“No shit,” the voice said. “You see a big ole’ black dude? Could snap your neck like a toothpick?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“Hey, Sanchez!” the voice yelled through the radio. “Don’t tell me that worthless boyfriend of yours got himself shot!”

Taeya ran into the darkness, toward the sound of the radio. She startled the man so badly he dropped the radio. She snatched it off the ground and pressed the call button.

“Eric?”

For desperados, the men looked quite normal, more like farmers than thieves. There were five of them in a small Toyota pick-up. No wonder they were ogling the big Ram truck.

Eric gave his team of thieves specific instructions to escort the truck to Laurel Valley. “If there’s any trouble, they’ll be hell to pay when you get back here.”

* * *

The sun had been up almost an hour when Taeya’s view from the back of the truck suddenly changed from endless green fields to gorgeous homes. Judith tooted the truck’s horn and banged on the side of the door. Was this Laurel Valley?

How strange that they hadn’t come through the usual outskirts of a typical town: the old gas station converted to a used car lot, the crumbling mobile home park, the pawn shop with bars on the windows.

Like Eric said, it was a fancy planned community with big box houses, and what at one time must have been lush green lawns. They had turned brown.

Rick was sleeping, but when he felt the truck slow down, he woke up.

“What’s going on?”

Taeya gave him a big smile. “We’re here.”

As Devin drove block after block, Taeya caught herself examining the houses. Which one would she and Rick take? The stone-front traditional, or the stucco with Spanish arches. She guessed some of the houses had four bedrooms. Dear God, would Rick expect to fill them all with children?

The truck stopped, and Taeya leaned over the back of the truck to see where they were. Devin had been escorted into a parking lot at the town center. She saw all the stores and restaurants that the developers had centrally located for the townfolk, just like Eric said. Two men had been sitting in the shade of a café patio, but when the truck pulled to a stop, they ran into the restaurant.

She heard the familiar voice bellow from inside. “For the love of God, how can you call yourselves security?”

Eric burst out of the café with his rifle at the ready.

“Bang! Bang!” Devin called from the cab.

Lowering his rifle, Eric trotted over with a huge grin on his face. Devin and Judith hopped out of the truck for hugs and soul-brother handshakes. Taeya called the play-by-play action for Rick like a baseball announcer.

“Judith tugs at Eric’s beard. And there’s a heavy fondle as Eric paws over Judith’s injured arm. Uh-oh, will the umpire toss him for that infraction?”

Rick chuckled.

Taeya swung around to peer into the back window of the truck cab. “Hang on, folks. There’s some action in the dugout.” She paused. “Yes, it’s Kat the Vamp, climbing out of the cab. Eric sneaks a quick peek, then checks for a signal from Judith. And he gets the go ahead. He’s moving closer. Kat and Eric are checking out each others’ piercings. Oh, she’s seen the snake tattoo on his arm. And she rubs her finger along the design. There’s a wicked smile.” Taeya threw her hands into the air. “It’s lust at first sight!”

EPILOGUE

SIX MONTHS LATER

The last place Rick expected to find Kat was at the laundromat. As he rode his bicycle along Central Avenue, he passed sheets flapping in the wind. Pant legs danced, shirt sleeves waved. How many post holes had the guys dug, how many miles of rope had they strung before the womenfolk decided they had enough clothesline?

Once he got past the dryers, Rick spotted Kat squatting over a washtub, gently swirling and squeezing her clothes. Her hair was now brighter red than Eric’s, and still spiked. Where did she find the goop to keep a ‘do like that?

Rising to her feet, or in this case, platform sandals with laces that criss-crossed all the way up to her knees, Kat pulled out a shirt and dropped it into the squeegee.

That little contraption had been Rick’s idea. He remembered those bright yellow mop buckets school custodians used, with the squeegee mounted on the side to wring out their string mops. Kat pressed the handle forward and squeezed out the water, then dropped the shirt into her plastic laundry basket.