Runner Series (Book 1): Runner 3 (9 page)

“That has a ring to it ‘Junior Task Force Member Three’. I’ll bring it up at the next meeting,” Audrey joked. “We do need everyone especially since we’re the ones who are going to be the ‘Elimination Squad’ for the community and surrounding areas too,” Audrey leaned her back against Sadie’s wall and bounced her head against it.

“That sounds like
so
much fun,” Sadie said sarcastically. “I mean, it’s great what you guys are doing, but it sounds super sucky.”

“The stupid part of the whole thing is Dean said he knows we need a new guy. He just argued with his dad to argue,” she angrily took another bite of the candy bar. “I don’t know why he acts like that.”

“He’s a dude. They like fighting because of all that testosterone and the raging hormones,” Sadie rolled her eyes. “So what are you guys doing about the Runner problem?”

Audrey finished off the first of the two bars in the package and carefully folded the wrapper around the other half to save for later, “We’re going to try to recruit people from Artesia first, but we’re going to take anyone who makes the cut. You interested?”

“Hardly!” Sadie exclaimed with a derisive laugh. “I like eating junk food as much as I can and that crazy training schedule you guys have doesn’t fit into my lifestyle.”

“What does that consist of?” Audrey smirked.

“Oh, I’m very busy. My days always consist of sitting around, reading new books, hanging out at the library or movie theater, and eating candy I have stashed,” Sadie laughed and shoved the rest of her candy bar into her mouth.

“Sounds like a great time,” Audrey smiled at the other girl.

“Sarcasm?” Sadie asked and grabbed a bottle of water out of her night stand.

“Heck no. I feel like I need a vacation most days,” Audrey scooted to the edge of the bed. “Plus there’s everything going on with Dean. Lincoln just moved here with the people from Artesia too.”

“Who’s Lincoln?” Sadie asked, grabbing a pillow off her bed to lean on. “Give me all the juicy details.”

“He’s just a guy I met in Artesia on my last run down to Carlsbad,” she smiled at the thought of how kind Lincoln had been. “He helped me keep my travel papers intact.”

“How did he do that?” Sadie said, silently offering Audrey a bottle of water.

“He didn’t make me get scanned before letting me into Artesia, but you can’t tell anyone,” Audrey insisted and took the water bottle.

“Wait, do you have the virus?” Sadie asked, backing away from Audrey on the bed.

“No, I get checked out after training every day. I know I’m good,” Audrey hurried to reassure her friend. “I wouldn’t purposely put anyone in danger.”

“So, how does Lincoln complicate things?” Sadie raised her eyebrows.

“I don’t know,” Audrey imagined Lincoln’s face and smiled. “He’s just so nice and funny. He’s easy to get along with—”

“Okay, so I think the real question I should have asked is: ‘Is he hot?’ I’ve seen Dean and I would be hard pressed to find someone that would make me pass him up,” Sadie winked at Audrey, making her laugh.

“He’s definitely attractive. He’s got the tall, dark, and handsome thing going for him,” Audrey could picture his dark hair and warm brown eyes and it made her shudder.

“Dean wants to date you though, right?” Sadie asked.

“Yeah, I just don’t know what to do about it. I like being with Dean. He’s a good friend, but he doesn’t give me the same butterflies in my stomach Lincoln does,” Audrey rolled the water bottle Sadie had given her in her hands.

“Sounds like you have a lot to think about,” Sadie said. “I have no idea how to help though because I only ever had trouble balancing the relationships I had with my guinea pigs in Nebraska. Neither one of them wanted my attention though.”

Audrey stood up and stretched, “Yeah, it’s been a lot to take in. Guinea pigs sound more appealing to me right now.”

“That’s what you say, but wait until you’re actually in that position,” Sadie laughed. “Well, not that I think you’re going to ever be in that position.”

Audrey laughed and opened the door to the bedroom, “I know what you meant. I need to go get some sleep because we’re going to be going out tomorrow for the first day of actively being the Elimination Squad during the day.”

“Alright. Sleep tight and don’t let the zombies bite,” Sadie joked.

Thwump
.

The sky darkened and dusk neared as Audrey’s newly sharpened machete cut clean through the neck of the dreg she had been following through a baseball diamond close to the old hospital.

She let out an irritated growled when a small group of dregs appeared around the corner of the large building.

It was well past the usual training block for the Runners, but Dean had been pressured by the Council to start taking the Runners out later to start cutting down on the population of dregs surrounding Roswell. New packs of them had started coming closer to the walls during the day for longer periods and the residents were starting to grow restless.

Aside from the orchards the baseball diamond, which was close to the Lovelace Hospital, was the best place to find dregs both day and night. It was where most of the people had been when they turned.

The new doctor from Artesia, Leland Searle, had been pushing the Council to annex the hospital since he first got to Roswell. He told them it was the only way he could properly take care of patients in the community and had gotten a lot of support from Pat Ruthers.

“Of course,” Mr. Davies agreed with them to the Runners’ dismay. “We’ll get the Runners to start clearing out that area so we can annex it and make it safe to use.”

“I’m glad you’re willing to listen to reason for once,” Pat Ruthers had commented snidely.

Dr. Searle was pleased with the quick response from the Council and the Runners started putting their training they received from Albuquerque to use the next day.

“Good one!” Marcella called from across the baseball diamond. Her voice was muffled behind the medical face mask the Runners were required to wear to prevent being infected when they were out killing the dregs.

“Thanks,” Audrey tried not to gag while looking at the head and body lying on the ground in front of her. “Just doing my job.”

“When are we getting a new guy?” Marcella headed towards her with her ax slung over her shoulder.

That was a question that had gone unanswered for almost two weeks.

Marcella and Greg had sat in the Commons for a week while Audrey passed word around Roswell that there would be tryouts, but nothing had come of it so far. The Council wanted more people to sign up and asked her to extend the time frame. She did, but the Runners were all becoming increasingly worn out with all the extra duties they had in order to pick up the slack created by Peter’s death.

Audrey did her best in orchestrating the sign ups and trying to get interest. She tried her best to make sure Dean wouldn’t assume she was trying to replace him as the Director, but he refused to participate in replacing Peter.

“I just can’t do it,” he had told Audrey during training the day after they started asking people to sign up for tryouts. “I can’t replace him.”

“I’ll do it alone then. Your dad said I was going to get to decide because you refused to help anyway,” she raised her voice.

Dean had been blocking her efforts to get a new Runner and it was starting to irritate her. She knew everyone grieved differently, but his constant moping was distracting everyone and was rubbing her the wrong way.

“We’ll see,” Dean told her and that was the last she knew she would heard of it from him.

She looked sympathetically at Marcella, who was sweaty, tired, and overworked.

Marcella was Runner Four. She and Audrey had been splitting the extra work load Peter’s death had created, but there was no way to keep up with the runs, dreg elimination, and helping with tasks around Roswell. It didn’t help that the Council decided to institute a pairing system among the Runners to prevent infections and further deaths.

“I’m going to the Council today,” Audrey answered the Marcella’s question. “It’ll help with our buddy system if there’s an even amount of us.”

Marcella chuckled, “Buddy System. Reminds me of elementary school.”

“Did you hear Albuquerque is going to reopen some of their schools?” Audrey asked.

“Yeah. I heard some of the bigger cities that still have a lot of kids are starting to do that. It’s good to have them learning for when things get back to normal.”

Normal.

Audrey was starting to think there would never be a normal again. She was not one of the people who pined over the thought of life returning to the way it used to be. It helped some people live day to day, but it just made her depressed.

“When do you think life will be normal again?” Audrey asked nonchalantly.

Marcella shrugged, “I don’t know. We’re only six months into fixing things and we’re struggling to keep the population up in most areas. I bet it would take at least another year.”

“That soon?”

A year seemed like a long time, but when towns and cities were closing down daily because of low human population and high dreg counts it didn’t seem long enough to rebuild civilization.

“Well, it’s not like people are stupid, Audrey. We have all the same information as before, we just have to train people,” Marcella reasoned.

There definitely would need to be training, but doctors could not be magically produced with a year of studying books. Audrey could tell that even with all the things Marcella saw as a Runner, she was still idealizing the world.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens,” Audrey adjusted the straps on her mask so it fit more snugly over her nose and mouth.

She looked at the small group of dregs that had were slowly making their way across the field towards her and Marcella, “Let’s take those three down and then we can go home. I’m tired.”

~~~

Audrey talked with the Council told them their efforts to get more people interested was unsuccessful they gave her the green light to proceed. Two days later she on the track of Runner’s Field walking back and forth in front of a small group of five people from Artesia who were all that showed up for the testing to become a Runner.

It disappointed Audrey that there was only a handful of people there, but it made sense that the people of Roswell wouldn’t volunteer since they had already seen two Runners die in a short period of time.

The small group was made up of a short, round young man who wore black rimmed glasses and had fuzzy orange hair; two girls with blonde hair, matching yellow shirts, and matching faces who were probably twins; a tall, lanky middle aged man with a crooked nose over a thick, dark mustache and a depressed sort of look; and, surprisingly, Lincoln.

Audrey’s gaze lingered on Lincoln and she smiled when he noticed her looking at him. Over the previous couple weeks Lincoln had gone around Roswell looking for her so he could help her with the daily tasks she was assigned to do around the community.

“So, are you going to try for the open Runner spot?” she asked him a few days earlier while they were carrying groceries to Mrs. Bates’ house.

“I don’t think so,” he shook his head. “I like hanging out with you, but I don’t think doing this every day is for me.”

Judging by his energetic demeanor he had changed his mind and decided it was something he actually was interested in doing.

Audrey stopped pacing after she finished looking them over and checked her watch.

“Thanks for coming everyone. You all know this is the tryouts to become a Runner. We’re going to start with a basic warm up,” Audrey told the group. “Just jumping jacks, push-ups, sit ups, and stretching. So, just form a line with plenty of space between you so you don’t hit each other.”

Audrey was surprised the short round young man, who was named Gene, was able to keep up with her prompts. After a while he did wheeze a little and he had to readjust his glasses a couple times, but he never stopped or slowed down, which was more than she could say about the twins.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Lincoln asked her when they finished the warm up.

“Ha ha, no,” she said a bit snarkier than she meant to. She noticed he hadn’t even broken a sweat yet. “That wasn’t really even much of a warm up, but these are just the tests. They’re going to be easier than the conditioning. That comes later after the new Runner is chosen.”

“What are we doing now?” One of the girls, who was called Olivia, asked.

Audrey walked back onto the track, “Each of you get into one of the lanes. We’re going to do sixteen laps around the track. You have an hour and a half.”

Olivia and her sister, Elaine, didn’t look pleased but they chose the inside lanes and whispered to each other while rolling their eyes and waving their hands in small, but exaggerated movements.

“I thought being a Runner was just about being fast?” Elaine asked after everyone lined up.

“Yeah,” Olivia agreed. “It’s supposed to be about dodging the roamers, right?”

Audrey sighed and looked at her feet, counting to ten because she knew she was upset for no real reason.

“No. It’s not just dodging the
dregs
,” she emphasized the term the citizens of Roswell used. “We’re not just noting where they are anymore either. There are more of them than us and we’re now responsible for killing as many of them as we can.”

“What’s the point of that when you have the walls around the community?” Elaine asked.

“We want to give the citizens of Roswell some kind of normalcy until we can open the walls permanently,” Audrey explained. “It’s our job to go on longer runs so we can document and help keep information available to the surrounding areas, too. We want to start killing off all the dregs out there so people can travel safely.”

The girls gave her identical looks of irritation, “That’s what cars are for.”

“The world is running on limited resources right now,” Audrey explained through gritted teeth. “Until something more sustainable comes along we need to conserve what we have.”

“That’s one reason why Artesia fell,” Lincoln interrupted her. “We took advantage of everything we had and used it all up too quickly. Other places, like Roswell, don’t use cars or eat extra food unless it’s needed and they’ve lasted a lot longer because of it.”

Audrey smiled appreciatively at Lincoln and resisted the urge to mess with her hair, “He’s right. We only use our cars for trips to get extra supplies we might need from Albuquerque. That’s about it.”

“And for picking up stray Runners from Artesia,” Olivia muttered under her breath sourly. “We’ve all heard about how you were picked up by the Director when you were gone for too long.”

“Who told you that?” Audrey asked.

“It’s just a rumor around here,” Elaine answered. “But I guess when you’re doing the nasty with him you get special treatment.”

“That’s enough!” Audrey snapped. “If you don’t want to do the distance running part of the test you’re welcome to leave and you won’t be considered.”

Audrey’s face felt hot and she clenched her fists at her sides. She tamped down an overwhelming urge to slap both of them for accusing her of sleeping with Dean, but she didn’t feel like she needed to justify herself to a couple girls who didn’t know what they were talking about.

The possibility that one of them may be the new Runner crossed her mind and she didn’t want to antagonize them to the point that they would cause problems for her in the future.

“Whatever,” Elaine folded her arms over her chest.

Audrey pointed to the starting line she had drawn with sidewalk chalk because the lines that were once on the track were severely faded from months of daily practice, “Start here. I’ll be timing you.”

The potential Runners took their marks while Audrey walked off to the side of the track and shouted, “Three! Two! One! GO!”

Each person started off at a different pace. Olivia and Elaine ran as fast as they could and quickly ran around the track once. Lincoln and Gene maintained a steady pace near the middle. Robert, the middle aged man with a bushy mustache, caught Audrey’s attention by walking at a regular walking pace on the farthest outside lane of the track. He was still on his first lap when everyone else had reached their third lap.

Audrey fell in step with him as he moseyed along quietly.

“Hey Robert,” she said kindly. “Are you doing okay? You’re not hurt or anything, are you?”

“No, I’m fine,” he said flatly and kept his eyes focused on the track. “Just doing the laps you said we had to do.”

Audrey studied the man’s stoic features for a minute and decided he looked like someone who would usually put his heart and soul into something if he wanted it bad enough.

“You know the laps are timed, right?” she asked.

“Yeah, I know,” he sighed and scratched the back of his head. “To be honest, I don’t even want to be here. Martha—my wife—she insisted that I try to become a Runner.”

“Why would you come if you don’t want to be one?”

“Our son turned not too long ago,” Robert’s nose turned red and tears gathered in his eyes before he quickly blinked them back. “She wants me to be a Runner so I can go out and try to find him. She thinks there will be a way to turn him back to normal in the future and wants to know where he is.”

Audrey looked away from the sad man next to her. Her tongue felt thick in her mouth and she cleared her throat a couple times before she talked to him again, “Do you think that will happen?”