Sudden Independents (36 page)

The silent crowd watched the litter approach with solemn expressions on their faces. They parted without any type of malice. All but one.

Chase waited at the back of the pack, a crooked smile underneath his feverish dark eyes. He stood in the center of the bay door with the Escalade idling behind him.

“We’re leaving,” Jimmy told him.

“That’s fine.” Chase shrugged. “I’m just here to say goodbye. I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay.” He stepped to the side, allowing them to pass. The crowd shifted away from him.

Jimmy and Scout carried Hunter outside. “Billy, open up the back,” Jimmy said.

Billy staggered off and swung open the Escalade’s back hatch. Scout placed his end inside and Jimmy guided the table as far as he could, while Scout ran around and folded the backseats down.

“Hunter!” Molly cried from the driver’s seat and rushed out. She leaned over Hunter’s face, her tears falling on him. She raised her head, but Jimmy couldn’t meet her eyes without losing what little control he had left. He heard her hiss. “Bastard!”

Scout grabbed her from running at Chase as Jimmy pushed Hunter’s table the rest of the way inside.

“Molly, let’s go!” Jimmy’s voice was hard, snatching her attention. Scout helped her into the back with Hunter. “Get in, Billy.” The little boy followed Molly.

“I’ll drive,” Scout said, leaving for the driver’s side and climbing in behind the wheel.

Jimmy closed the hatch and found Chase standing next to him. Chase didn’t scare him now with Patrick dead. Jimmy turned for the passenger side of the Escalade so they could leave the creepy kid and his rotten city far behind.

“Happy Birthday, by the way,” Chase said. He patted Jimmy’s bare arm with burning fingers.

Jimmy flung off Chase’s touch and noticed a tingling in his arm, like a million ants were suddenly crawling underneath his skin.

Chase grinned. “I wanted to give you my present a little early. Make sure to tell Catherine I said goodbye. She’ll appreciate all the extra work I’ve sent her way.”

Jimmy gawked at Chase, trying to get a handle on what he was saying even as his vision blurred and his stomach pitched. His arm hung numb and useless at his side.

Chase stepped closer and gazed up at Jimmy. “See? Even though I lose, I win.”

The inside of Jimmy’s body burned as though boiling water replaced his blood and now bubbled through his veins. The world started spinning. Chase walked away, laughing. Jimmy’s legs trembled from the struggle of keeping him upright. He crashed to the dusty ground in a tangled heap of limbs that no longer responded and realized that Chase just made his biggest fear a reality.

He was going to die. Soon.

J
immy drooped in his seat with his head hanging out the window. Long shadows from the trees lining the street flickered sunlight across his face as the late afternoon prepared to move on. Convulsions rocked through him as he puked again and again. There was nothing left inside and still he wretched violently out the window of the Escalade.

Scout gripped the steering wheel, feeling the small-perforated holes in the leather wrapping. He met Molly’s eyes in the rearview mirror. She openly wept for her boyfriend and probably out of fear for what was happening to Jimmy.

Scout knew the symptoms. He’d seen them enough six years ago. Jimmy contracted the plague that wiped the planet clean. It was alive and well, eating its next victim.

The Escalade sped up, Scout pounding the horn at kids walking in his path. They scurried with shouts and waved fists, but still they scurried, most likely because they’d never seen a vehicle hauling-butt down their crumbling avenues. Scout managed to miss kids and potholes as he drove faster and faster with his foot stomped on the gas.

When he recognized the street their hideout was on, relief washed over him like rain after a long, hot day. He drove over the curb pulling into the back alley, reversed the Escalade into the driveway, and shot out the driver’s side, scrambling up the deck to the backdoor of the house.

He burst inside and yelled, “Catherine!” At the kitchen table, all three girls jumped in their chairs. “We need you,” he told the youngest one.

Scout turned and flew through the garage, detaching the opener and lifting the heavy door with metallic groans. Tear stricken, Molly climbed down from the back of the Escalade. Billy crawled out and stood to the side, looking lost and confused.

“Raven, help Molly with the other end of the table after I slide my end out,” Scout said.

“Where’s Jimmy?” Ginger asked. Fear rose in her voice. She stopped and covered her mouth when she saw Hunter bloodied and bruised like a piece of meat right after the slaughter.

“He’s in the front seat,” Scout said. He called upon yet another boost of energy to carry Hunter into the garage. Leading Molly and Raven, they laid the table down carefully.

Catherine knelt next to Hunter. Sadness filling her face, she touched his hand. “So much pain,” she said softly.

Hunter opened his one bloody eye. “You should see the other guy.” His body shook at his joke until the lines on his face drew into a tight grimace of suffering. A line of blood split his lips and trickled over his chin as he choked and gasped.

“Somebody help me!” Ginger cried.

Catherine gazed at Scout and he shook his head with despair. “Jimmy’s got the plague,” Scout said, rising to go help Ginger.

Jimmy’s bottom-half still sat in the Escalade, but his top-half draped heavily over Ginger. Scout grabbed Jimmy’s waist and ducked underneath his other arm. Together, he and Ginger carried Jimmy with his feet dragging across the pavement into the garage. They laid him next to his brother.

Scout stripped off his black sweatshirt and placed the padding underneath Jimmy’s head. “Raven, go find some blankets and pillows. Billy?” Scout found the boy all alone on the driveway like the new kid at school. “Go help her, okay?”

Billy nodded and hustled over toward Raven. He stopped, his eyes widening with recognition.

“Yes, it’s me, Billy. Let’s go.” Raven said. She held the door and pointed inside. Billy slipped past her quickly.

Dark circles ringed Jimmy’s eyes and every one of his limbs quivered. Sweat poured out of him like a squeezed sponge. He tossed his head, mumbling incoherently. In contrast, Hunter lay silent within the shell of his broken body.

Catherine shook her head. “He did this to me.”

“What?” Scout asked. “Who did what? Chase?”

“Whatever he wants to call himself,” Catherine said. She pointed at Jimmy. “He did this to me.”

“What’d he do, give Jimmy the plague?”

Catherine flipped an irritated hand. “That little toad is the plague.”

Scout ran that through his head and then processed what he could. “But you can save him right. You can save Jimmy.”

“Yes,” she said. “Healing Jimmy will be the catalyst to end this plague.”

“But how is that possible?”

“Because, that is what God sent me here to do.”

“Where is God?”

“He’s right where He’s always been, Scout. He is all around us, giving us hope and the freewill to choose between right and wrong.”

“What about Hunter?”

Catherine shook her head. “I can’t save both.”

“What?” Molly cried. Her face strained with anguish. “But you can’t let Hunter die. You can’t!” She leaned over Hunter and kissed his forehead.

Ginger quietly wept across from her, kneeling over Jimmy. He suddenly stirred, picking up his head and gazed heavily at Catherine.

“You save my brother. I’m not afraid to die anymore. Save him.”

Hunter’s bloody eye popped open. “No way,” he said, his voice gurgling in the back of his throat. He turned his head to face his older brother. “No way.” Hunter released one long breath and his chest deflated. His eye stared, fixed and unblinking.

Jimmy pushed himself up on his elbows. “Damn it, Catherine! You save him right now! Now! Hunter, don’t, Hunter, wait, don’t!” Jimmy glared at Catherine, but the little girl wasn’t budging to place her hands on Hunter. Her mind obviously made. Jimmy rolled over and kissed his brother’s bloody cheek. “I love you, Hunter. Don’t ever forget that.”

Scout looked around at everyone, as everything fell apart. Molly sobbed, wiping the blood from Hunter’s face with the end of a long sleeve shirt. Ginger pressed Jimmy’s hand to her lips and closed her eyes. Raven and Billy stood in the doorway, blankets and pillows piled in their arms, tears streaming down their cheeks.

Scout dropped to his knees and gripped Hunter’s boots. He heard Catherine say again, “He did this to me.”

Jimmy rolled over to his stomach. He dragged his legs up under him with his face flat on the concrete floor of the garage. “Then you can stop him. But not with me.”

Ginger scooted closer to Jimmy, “What are you doing?”

Slowly, and with unbelievable will, Jimmy’s infected body stood. His breathing was loud and harsh in the garage and the strain for him to stand there was incredible to witness. He stepped towards the light outside. “I love you, Ginger. I always did.”

Scout scrambled to his feet. “Jimmy, it’s too late.” The words almost choked him on the way out. “Hunter’s gone. Let Catherine heal you, man.”

Jimmy stumbled two more steps and leaned on Scout. His body was on fire and sweat smothered Scout like Jimmy just climbed out of a hot bath in hell. Jimmy’s hands fumbled over Scout. “Take care of them, Scout. Get them all home safe. You’re in charge now.”

“What are you talking about?”

Jimmy shoved Scout into Catherine. Scout twisted in midair with the little girl in his arms. He fell hard with Catherine on top of him and without plowing his head into the concrete. His breath rushed out from the landing. He lay on his back, trying to suck in air and watched Jimmy lope sideways, zigzagging and staggering to the Escalade. Scout moved Catherine off and patted his pocket.

Scout looked up at Ginger who was standing there staring as her departing boyfriend reached the Escalade. “He’s got the keys!”

She snapped her attention at Scout and then whipped it back to Jimmy, who slid around to the driver’s side door and was struggling to open it. For a second, it appeared he wouldn’t be able to do it. Then he was inside and the Escalade’s engine turned over with a deep rumble.