In the Lone and Level Sands (71 page)

“I was hoping just pulling up to the house
would help, but I just don’t feel anything more than when we left
Bangor,” Ben said. Charlotte sighed. She was beginning to lose hope
that anything would make him remember. “Some people don’t really
regain everything. I’m just doing this all over again with you.
It’s like this time we’ve spent since the crash is all for the
first time. You know what I mean?”

“I think so. I just wonder…”

“What’s up?”

“Cellar Door. Does that mean anything to
you?” Charlotte eyed Ben hopefully.

“Cellar Door?” Ben pondered for a moment.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what that is.” Charlotte looked hurt. “I’m
sorry.”

“Maybe after a little while, we can go to
Last Station, the little town where Cellar Door is. It’s a bed and
breakfast, a cute place. It’s where you proposed. It’s when I knew
we’d grow old together.”

Ben’s eyes began to water and some of the
color left his face. He felt guilty. Ben wanted more than anything
to return to what once was, but he also felt like he could just as
easily start over again.

“Charlotte,” Ben said finally.

“Yes?”

“I want to do whatever we can to bring us
back together. If this place could do that, we’ll try it. I don’t
care what we have to face, and if the others won’t go, we’ll go
alone—”

Angus’s deep bark startled Ben and
Charlotte. The couple bolted downstairs to see what had disturbed
the shepherd.

“Angus!” Sara said. “Shhhh! Get away from
the window!” Angus’s coat shone in a ray of sunlight that poured in
between two pieces of wood over the window. Ben rushed over and
ducked down. At first, peering through the slats of wood, he saw
nothing, but he jumped back when a face met his. He covered his
mouth to stifle any noise that might’ve come without warning.

Some of the skin on the zombie’s face was a
yellowish brown, and black in several spots. The zombie’s left eye
also looked burnt.

Ben had gotten back up to a crouch a few
feet away from the window, and then he stood up. He turned around
and looked at the others.

“That’s one gross fucker,” he said. “The
face’s burnt all to hell!”

“Draw the shade,” Sara said. “We don’t want
more to know we’re here.” Ben grabbed the pull string and yanked,
and the shade dropped in front of the barricade.

Charlotte sat on the couch near a shelving
unit that housed dozens of DVDs. Ben joined her. He looked over at
the movies, sifting through them with his eyes. He smiled at the
selection, and then sized up the other survivors in his living
room. Sara, Al, and Carah sat on a smaller couch nearby. Angus,
hyper as he was, moved from person to person, demanding attention
from the entire group. A pink, sloppy tongue hung out of his open
mouth. He eventually settled down near Sara’s feet.

“While we’re waiting for them to get back,”
Charlotte said, “how about we watch a movie? As long as we keep the
sound down, we shouldn’t attract any more of them.”

“That sounds nice, what movies do you have?”
Sara asked. Charlotte stood up, picked quickly through the plastic
cases, and withdrew one:
The Notebook
. Her favorite movie,
and she was hoping the others would want to watch it, too.

“We’ve got a lot of comedies, but this, if
you haven’t seen it, you really should. What do you say?”

Carah nodded and smiled.

“I haven’t seen that one,” Sara said.

“Well, it’s one of those movies you have to
see before you die.” Charlotte took the disc out and set it on the
tray, pressed the “close” button, and then turned the TV on. She
waited through the previews (as the disc wouldn’t allow her to skip
them) and then configured the subtitles for Carah. Finally, she
rejoined Ben on the couch.

The movie began playing. Charlotte, watching
Ben from time to time, was already tearing up. Ben placed an arm
around her shoulders, and she leaned against his chest. He was
enjoying the movie, as much as he didn’t want to admit it. He
noticed everyone seemed entranced by it, especially Al, who was
trying to hide his wet eyes. Charlotte didn’t even notice when her
father went into the kitchen after a while, but Ben did. He had a
thought that
The Notebook
had been one of Ruth’s favorite
movies, but he couldn’t tell if it was a hunch or a memory, and
suddenly he felt as sad as Al looked.

****

Throughout the movie, Sara and Carah each
had one eye on the door. Fred, Richard, and Randy hadn’t returned
from their run, and “worried” wasn’t a strong enough word for what
the two women felt.

About an hour into the movie, a car alarm
went off down Drayton Avenue. It was close, possibly a few houses
down. The moans of the zombies (which were louder than anyone had
realized) and the alarm drowned out the movie.

Charlotte pressed the “pause” button. Al
headed to the front window and lifted the shade. More zombies had
joined the burnt one. Maybe the movie had been louder than they’d
realized.

“We’ve got company,” Al said, turning back
to the others. “Those three better get back, and soon!”

“How many are out there?” Charlotte asked.
She stood up.

“A dozen at least, and more are coming.”

“They should have been back by now,” Sara
said. She sat forward, her hands shaking. She tried to keep still,
but it was no use.

He can’t die out there, not like this. He
just can’t.
But if he’s been gone this long, what could be
holding them up? Please, hurry up, Fred.

Thoughts raced back and forth in her mind,
but they slowed when she felt the comforting touch of Carah’s hand
on her arm. Sara looked at her. Carah smiled, worried, but hopeful.
She mouthed something.

They’ll be back soon.

“Thank you,” Sara said. She gave Carah a
hug.

Their hug ended when Sara heard a loud slam;
the zombies had begun to pound the windows they could reach. It
wasn’t long until one shattered, then another, and then the zombies
were hitting the wooden barricades. Angus was sitting in the middle
of the floor, growling loudly. A bark escaped every now and
again.

“Someone shut that dog up!” Al said. “It’ll
only get more of them interested. Ben, help me move some shit in
front of these windows! Those planks won’t hold for long. I’m not
dying in this house!” Ben nodded, and they moved the couch that
Sara and Carah had been sitting on in front of one window.

“Let’s get the kitchen table and put it
behind the couch,” Ben said. “It’ll block almost the whole window.
Those fuckers won’t be able to knock it down!”

“Good thinking!”

Sara crouched near Angus and scratched his
head, which calmed him a little. Carah stood behind her and Angus.
Charlotte tapped Carah’s shoulder. She turned around.

“Let’s help them block these windows.”

Carah nodded, and they went off to move
furniture in front of the windows. Ben and Al were moving the
table; they slid it behind the couch and then pushed the couch into
it, holding it in place. The table blocked the entire window, and
the couch extended about halfway into the next. Al heard a new
noise among the alarm and the moans: A car. He looked through the
space in the slats.

Zombies were growling and pounding
relentlessly on the barricades. Beyond them, Fred’s van pulled into
the driveway. Several zombies shambled toward Fred, Randy, and
Richard as they got out. Shots fired from the three weapons as
their owners grabbed their groceries. Several zombies fell. The
trio tried to make their way to the front door. More zombies were
coming out of the woodwork.

“Hey! Hey, they’re back!” Al said. He
startled everyone, especially Sara, who jumped up, relieved. She
motioned to Carah.

“They’re here! They’re back!”

Al shouted through the planks over the
window. “Come on!”

“We’re doing the best we can!” Fred said. He
shot a zombie. Its head splattered, and the spread shredded another
zombie’s chest. The car alarm went dead after that, but more
zombies headed their way.

“They’re coming to the shots!” Richard said.
“Let’s get inside!” Fred reloaded, and shot two more zombies. Randy
took one out. One broke into the house, knocking bits of the wooden
boards inside. It almost grabbed Al. He punched it off of him, then
backed away. Richard shot the zombie from outside, and then the
three men reached the door. Ben unlocked it and let them in.

It was nowhere near time to relax. They had
stronger barricades to finish building. Ben locked the dead bolt
again and then went to help fortify the front windows, while the
zombies outside worked to do the opposite.

Ben and Randy placed a small cupboard on top
of the couch to cover a window. Ben went to get more furniture, and
Randy wedged the cupboard in place. It leaned away from the window,
and some zombies were trying to push their arms around it.

“Kid, is this what you call boarding a
window?” Al said. He pushed against the cupboard, jamming it flat
against the wooden boards and keeping anything from reaching in.
“These things made entry in no time flat. We could’ve—”

Fred silenced him. “Give the boy a break.
Shouting doesn’t do a bit of good.”

They finished re-barricading the windows,
but with at least a dozen zombies still bumping, clawing, and
hitting the barricades, no one knew how long they would hold. The
survivors couldn’t stay at the Hopper home on Drayton Avenue for
very long, that much was clear.

It took a while for everyone to begin to
relax. When the adrenaline had worn off, the group got together in
the kitchen and put together a late lunch.

****

The smell of hotdogs and canned chili
permeated the house as everyone sat in the living room with plates
on their laps. They ate quietly and nervously, listening to the
moans and scratching and pounding of hands.

“Hey, everyone,” Ben said. “Charlotte and I
have been trying to get things between us back to normal, and it’s
been hard, but there’s one thing that Charlotte came up with that
we want to try. I wouldn’t blame any of you for wanting to stay
behind—”

“Ben, I think I speak for all of us when I
say I don’t want to see you two go on your own,” Fred said. He lit
his pipe. “We’re coming with.”

“That’s right,” Sara said.

“It’s only fair,” Richard said. “Carah and I
owe you our lives, so we’re coming. Besides, what chance do we
stand here, anyway?”

“Thanks,” Charlotte said. “So, we’ll leave
for Last Station as soon as possible. It’s a little over an hour
away.”

“It’s getting late,” Fred said. “So first
light would be best.”

“That’s fine.”

“About the creatures outside. It seems it
might be a good idea for one or two of us to stay up for a few
hours to watch the windows, in case of problems. We can take
shifts.”

“I’ll take the first one,” Ben said.

Charlotte looked at him. “I’ll take it
too.”

“All right, good,” Fred said. “At two or so,
wake Al and I up, and we’ll go until seven. We’ll leave before
eight.”

“I’ve got a great distraction for us if we
need it,” Randy said. He pulled a small lighter from his shorts
pocket and ignited it.

“Fire?” Sara said.

“Yeah. They’re drawn to it like bugs to a
zapper! There was a car on fire back in the lot of the store. Those
things were flocking to it!”

“It would be a last resort,” Fred said.
“But, if we need it, we have it.”

****

“Sounds like an army out there,” Charlotte
whispered. She and Ben sat in chairs a couple feet apart in the
living room. “They sound angry.”

“They’re hungry, Char.”

Charlotte sighed. “They used to be people.
They had names, jobs. They had families. You can’t help but feel
bad, just a little bit.”

“That could be us,” Ben said. “Just another
moan to join the group.”

“Not us, Ben. We’ll make it, don’t think
like that. We’ll go to Cellar Door tomorrow morning, we’ll get all
of you back…” Ben was frowning. “What’s wrong?”

“All this time, it’s like you don’t even
know.”

“Know what?”

“That I’ve cared for you all the way from
Blackwater Falls. I know it’s gotta be hard for you, knowing I
remembered almost everything, except for you. Even the damn bag
boy. But isn’t falling back in love with you good enough?”

Charlotte looked at Ben, but couldn’t stand
to meet his eyes. She felt incredibly selfish. “You just don’t seem
you. I don’t feel the same connection. It’s like the car crash
erased that. I must sound selfish, but can’t I be happy? What we
had was what I wanted to have forever, and I think we can get that
back. I think Last Station has it.”

“Look, I’m not trying to change your mind,”
Ben said. “If it’s what you really want, we’ll go. If you’re right,
then great, but if you’re wrong, can we just make this work? A
world without you is not one I want any part of. I just can’t do
it. I’d rather die a thousand slow, painful deaths before I spend
one day on this planet without you.”

“This’ll work. I know it will.”

“You don’t sound so sure.”

“I am. I have to be.”

****

Fred and Al took post at two in the morning
as promised. Both held their shotguns. Fred was sitting in the
chair Ben had the shift before. Al didn’t want to sit. He paced in
front of the window on the right side of the living room as the
zombies outside pummeled the barricades.

“Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in a
chair?” Fred said.

“No, not really. I wanna keep moving.”

“Fair enough.”

A chair blocking the window moved slightly,
sliding into an even more precarious position than before. The
sound startled Al. He jumped and turned.

“The chair just slipped a bit out of place,
Al. It’s okay. But I’ll tell you what, even if we didn’t have a
destination your daughter wanted to get to, I wouldn’t be staying
here another day. These barricades won’t hold for much longer.”