Shocked (2 page)

“No, but we can find out. We can start by heading west, that’s for sure.” Lucas leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers.

I grab our plates and stand. “When can we leave?” I’m careful to keep the urgency from my voice.

“Well, we could go soon…but I think it may be better to wait until the weather clears some.”

The weather?
I move towards the filthy window and peer through. I don’t believe it and run to the door of the cabin to throw it open. Snow. It’s flipping snowing—hard too. We have to be further north than I thought.

I gape like an idiot and remain there until Lucas gently pries the door from my fingers to close it. “You’re letting all the heat out.” He says quietly.

I snap out of it when the door clicks shut and look at him hopefully. My guard is completely down for a moment. “Do you know where we are? I haven’t had a clue in a while now.”

Maybe it’s because I look so pathetic or he’s just a nice guy. He places a hand on my arm and leads me over to a chair. “We’re maybe a hundred miles west of Columbus.”

Oh, that makes sense. Of course she brings me back out here.
“I guess we have quite a journey in store.”

“You could say that.” Lucas sits on the floor a few feet away and runs a hand down his face. “Listen, you were gone for a while…well things changed—and not really for the better.”

Figures. No reason things should get easier or anything
. “How bad?” I ask and wring my hands.

“Bad. General Carch went crazy once she weaponiz
ed the infection. General Brown’s so busy fighting off the infection Carch’s spreading that there’s been less focus on the actual infection.”

“How’d you end up here?”

“Like I said: I was in the last group. We didn’t make it far before we were attacked. No one else made it.” His face darkens. “I tried to move north and ended up here. I was planning on moving west soon, but then the infection came and sort of locked me in. It’s a good thing I found you or I’d be screwed.”

“Do you…” I pause and deliberate whether or not to ask the question. I might as well—it has to be better than wondering.
“Do you know how long it’s been since that day I left the camp?”

Lucas fills his mouth with air. His cheeks inflate like a balloon before he expels it quickly. “Geez, at least six months.”

This takes a minute to sink in.
Sure I’d known it’s a while, but six freaking months!
No wonder so much has changed. I snap out of it and look at Lucas. “We’ll move as soon as the snow stops.”

It takes until the next morning for the snow to cease. Once we’re certain it’s over we grab our bags (the ones we had ample time to pack, unpack and repack) and set off. It doesn’t take long before my feet feel like bricks of ice in these too small sneakers. Regardless, I still feel better than I have in a while. Finally there’s a sense of purpose: a sense of direction, and dare I feel it? A sense of hope.

Lucas is confident that we’ll find a vehicle of some kind eventually. It’s a nice thought,
but who knows how far we’ll travel before we find something to drive. At this point from what Lucas has told me, who knows what we’ll find period.

It turns out that Lucas is an easy travel companion. It’s his army training (I assume) that keeps his pace to my own. Mine is brisk: not out of training but necessity. It’s move quickly or risk getting caught. It’s been like this for so long so long that now it’s my norm.

When we stop to eat, drink and rest. Lucas estimates that we cover around seven miles so far. When he pulls out the map, we notice that in the next couple of hours there should be a town. Part of me just wants to avoid it. Although shelter for the night may be nice because the temperature’s sure to drop below freezing again. We pack it up and set course for Bradford, Ohio.

By the time we cross the last field and small creek outside our destination the sun hangs low in the sky. Dusk gives the darkness a far more dominant presence. We’ve yet to see any signs of life and my anxiety is through the roof. Lucas is on edge too. However much he tries to hide it, it’s given away by the firearm in his hand: ready at a moment’s notice.

Once again
our anxiety is for naught. Somehow the lack of people is more disconcerting. There are plenty of houses to choose from so we pick one to crash in for the night. As we approach the front door Lucas gets all macho and tries to kick it down. It’s a big old wooden door though (not one of those cheap breakable kinds you typically see today) and he bounces off of it right onto his ass. With a chuckle and an eye roll I move around him and turn the handle. I give him a large grin when it opens.

Lucas doesn’t say anything and looks quite sheepish. I offer him my hand and help him to his feet. We step into the hallway. I flick the first switch I see and do a little happy dance when the lights flick on (and almost fall over
.) This leads to my own sheepish expression when I notice Lucas’ expression of amusement. Right. He doesn’t know about my severe lack of coordination. I’m sure he will…sooner rather than later.

Lucas secures the door and moves towards the back of the house. After he’s certain that ever
ything is secure he plops down on the couch and looks at me.

“Hungry?” I ask.

“Yeah. Let’s go see if they have anything here.”

I follow him to the kitchen where we find quite a bit of food. Some of the perishables in the fridge can’t be saved, but the cabinets provide a plethora of options. We make some mac’n’cheese and pack a few more things into our bags while we wait. I can’t help but think again that whoever lived here left very quickly.
The question is: where did they go?

There’re some thing
s you just can’t get in a cabin. A shower—for example. Blessed hot running water is a luxury I haven’t had in a while and a welcomed amenity in our digs for the night. After we eat and tidy up (it’s only right) I wander upstairs and eye the bathroom greedily. Lucas insists I go first. I happily agree. I hunt for new clothes to wear once I’m clean before I start.

I open the first door off of the hallway and step into a child’s room. It’s obviously a little boy’s room from the toys and action figures strewn about. I close the door with a shudder and my mind qu
ickly thinks of little Nate. I hope he and Becky are okay!

The next room holds nothing personal besides an empty closet and dresser drawers. I can only assume that it’s a gue
st or spare room of sorts. I move on and find myself in what must be the master bedroom. In the dresser I find clean undergarments—not exactly the right size but certainly close enough. In the closet I even find some jeans, a long sleeve shirt, a hoodie and some shoes—in my own size! I grab a sturdy looking pair of boots, kicking the too-small hated running shoes off my feet. Immediately I feel the relief. I lay the clothes on the pretty blue bedspread and step into the bathroom.

Even the end of the world doesn’t keep me from appreciating this bathroom. I give the tub a longing stare and move instead to the large stand-up shower. The water starts and begins dripping from the large overhead spigot like rain. Sure we picked a nice house, but this is way more posh than anything I’m used to. It takes some fumbling, but eventually I get the water to the right temperature.

It’s so worth it. Even if I ignore the fact that I feel gross (from not having taken a proper shower in months) it’s heavenly to stand under the stream of hot water—and oddly normal all things considered. It’s funny how we take something as little as a hot shower for granted. In this new world it’s now a luxury. Just one more thing that’s changed…

When I’m as clean as I can possibly be, I towel off and get dressed into the clean clothes. I feel slightly more human and much more like myself. I go in search
of Lucas so he can have his go and find him in the living room. He sits in front of the fire he must’ve built in the fireplace.

“Feel better?” He asks.

“Much, thanks. Nice fire.” I point to the fireplace.

“The heats working
but I figured we could do with the extra warmth.” He looks at me oddly. “You’re surprisingly non-whiney for a girl, you know that?”

“Um, thanks, I guess?” I can’t tell whether or not this is a compliment.

Lucas hops up from the couch and heads towards the stairs. “I won’t be long.” He says before he disappears.

I look
around and this place is fully technologically tricked out. With nothing better to do (and no real idea what’s going on out there) I start with the television. I’m surprised when a channel comes to life. Score two for satellite TV—just like at Jack’s…
only then I have the knowledge that the people I care most about are safe.

Before I can fall too deeply into that abyss I raise the volume and quickly become absorbed in the news program. Yeah, things are bad.
A lot worse actually.

O
ver three quarters of the country is now under some form of the infection. The southwest seems to be the safest area and that’s where we’re headed. Something tells me that even with me on our side it won’t be easy. Images flash through my mind—of scurvy men holding my friends at gun-point, then laying in a charred mass on the ground. An entire battalion of soldiers at a research facility are not even a challenge…and the shards of my soul I lose each time.

The hand that appears on my shoulder scares me enough to snap me out of my reverie. “Sorry,” Lucas says. “Didn’t mean
to scare you. Cool about the TV. I wonder if the internet works too?”

“Wait, say that again?”

He peers at me with a questioning look on his face. “Sorry?”

“No, the other thing.” I shake my head.

“Um, I wonder if the internet works.”

Smacking my hand to my head, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it soo
ner. Duh! If the internet works maybe I can reach Dr. Ford!
Oh, please, please, please!
I jump up and race to the computer tucked in the corner of the room and turn it on. My fingers drum impatiently on the small table where it sits. The computer fires up, but that’s no reason to get excited.

I hold my breath and click open the browser. When the home screen loads I exhale loudly. Wi
th a slightly hysterical giggle I quickly get to my email and log in. There are no important new messages (though oddly enough the nanobots didn’t seem to impede the delivery of weight-loss and dating site emails.) I delete them as I go and find the one I’ve been looking for: the last correspondence between me and Dr. Ford. Once that email’s sent I open another search engine in hopes to locate an email address for Captain Jennings or even at this point General West.

Of course the government directory is a hot mess of broken links and run-arounds. Heaven forbid a citizen can actually access someone’s contact information in the military. With a resounding sigh I push away from the desk. Lucas looks at me.

“No luck?” He asks.

I shrug. “Some luck. Maybe. I don’t know. I sent an email to Dr. Ford, but I have no way of knowing if it’ll even reach him. I was hoping to maybe find a way to reach Captain Jennings—hell, even General West, but no such luck.”

Lucas frowns. “If you want, I could try. I mean my access isn’t high or anything, but I have network credentials.”

Now it’s my turn to frown, and stare at him dumbly.

“I’m in the military. I have a contact list.”

“Oh! Yes, please.” Duh.

I relinquish the chair to Lucas and move back towards the TV. I don’t really pay attention to it and instead zone out with my thoughts. Dare I hope that they made it there safely? If they didn’t…I can’t even go there. My chest feels as though it’ll implode with the mere thought. No—it’s better to keep going. I glance out at the night sky and will time to move faster so we can keep moving.

“Kat, I think I got something.” Lucas calls from the corner.

The message Lucas sent was vague: smart on his part: to not give away too much information about who he’s with and where he is. It’s impossible to tell whether the emails are intercepted or make it to their intended destination. It frustrates me because all of this unknown—all this guessing impedes our progress. The return message is just as vague. It tells us no more than we already know. I’m about to tell him to shut it down when I notice the little camera button. I scroll the mouse over it and a ‘start video chat’ option pops up. I glance at Lucas for his approval and get a shrug for a response so I click the button and carefully remove myself from the frame of our computer’s camera.

A screen clicks on. It’s
dark for a moment then springs to life. A uniformed soldier sits in the box waiting for Lucas to say something. When he does it leaves me standing with my mouth agape, wondering where the authority in his voice came from. “This is Private Lieutenant Lucas Meyers of the 13th Brigade requesting an audience with Captain Jennings.”

The soldier on the screen
takes a moment to answer. “What is the nature of this audience Lieutenant?”

Lucas doesn’t miss a beat. “Due to the classified nature of the information I’m unable to disclose it to anyone other than the Captain.”

Another lapse before the soldier’s response. “Lieutenant, the Captain is very busy. I’ll need something to pass along before they’ll give me permission to patch you through.”

Lucas looks thoughtful for a moment. “Tell the Captain…Tell him I said ‘The hills are shockingly green here.’”

My lips smile as I understand his code. I know that the Captain will, too. The soldier on the other end doesn’t get it, but tells Lucas to wait while he tries to get clearance. It doesn’t take long before the screen clicks and Captain Jennings appears on the screen. He looks tired—haggard since I last saw him (although it could just be the crappy videography.)

“Lieutenant Meyers, you have some information for me?” The Captain’s voice sure hasn’t changed a
bit. Now that we know it’s him I go to move the camera to include me in the shot too. As I raise my hand Lucas grabs it and gives his head a small shake no.

“Yes sir. Thank you for your time, sir.” Lucas looks at me then back to the screen. “I have an important…delivery. Can you tell me if this network is secure?”

The Captain chuckles. “Son, nothing is secure these days. They tell me you’re from the 13th?”

“Yes
sir.” Lucas nods.

“When you did your training
you finished and went to a place before you met your brigade. Do you remember where?”

“Yes
sir.”

“How long do you think it
would take you to arrive there with the—er—package?”

Lucas considers this. “Honestly sir, I have no idea. There are too many variables out here to give a realistic timeframe.”

“Understood, Lieutenant…let’s say that beginning a week from today there’ll be a team at dawn and dusk. You just get there as fast as you can.”

“Yes sir. Thank you, Captain.”

“And Lieutenant? Trust no one on your way. Things are…not good on the inside at the moment.”

“Understood sir.” T
he screen goes black.

“Whoa.” I look at Lucas. “That was intense.”

“Things must be worse than we thought.” He says quietly. “We should get some rest. We have a lot of ground to cover.”

I half-mumble a response, more of my focus on the lack of information that the video chat left me with. Maybe it’s selfish of me
. I’m no idiot—I’m aware of the dangers out there. But is it too much to hope that just maybe I can know my friends are okay? The Captain’s words replay over and over in my head. I try to decipher some hidden, cryptic message until finally my mind gives out and I fall fast asleep.