Sundered (8 page)

Jessica stared at him, her eyes not moving away for even a split second, it wasn’t a look of fear that washed over her face—but desire. Shit.

She walked past us, heading straight towards the gate. “He won’t eat the babies. I’ll come back after I get Tom out. I don’t have to go with the pack yet,” she said certainty strong in her voice as she climbed the fence and dropped lightly on the other side. The pack made room for her, touching her lightly, stroking her hair. She walked straight up to the big male, brushing her fingertips against his. He stared down at her and she shook her head, and then pointed at Tom.

Sebastian shifted on his feet. “Is she negotiating with him?”

“
I guess,” I said, not sure this was a good idea at all. The big male shook his head, then roared.

The pack scattered, leaving the truck clear.

“
Tom! Hurry your ass up, man!” Sebastian yelled when Tom hesitated. Another breath and he jumped down from the truck and started to run towards our gate. “Shit, I forgot my stash,” he yelped and turned back towards the truck. He grabbed the handle and I grabbed Sebastian’s hand.

“
Forget your weed, man! Move it!” Sebastian yelled.

“
He’s not going to make it,” I whispered.

“
He’ll make it,” Sebastian said.

One of the pack members crept forward, sniffing the air. It was too much for the creature’s desires. It lunged at Tom and I stifled a scream. Tom screamed for us both. Like unleashing a tidal wave, the pack rushed back in and Tom disappeared under a flurry of bodies and mouths.

Jessica screamed and tried to run towards Tom, but the big male held her tight against his chest until she stopped squirming, her eyes glazing over with resignation.

“
Don’t hurt him!” she yelled, but the pack didn’t listen to her anymore than they listened to Tom’s pleas for mercy.

I buried my head into Sebastian’s shoulder.

“
Look,” Sebastian said.

I turned to see the pack retreating with their prize; none of it even recognizable as human, and Jessica and the Alpha male were walking to the gate.

As if in a dream we met them there, just out of reach.

“
Thank you. I wish I could have stayed with you longer,” she whispered, silver tears pooling in her quickly shifting eyes. She reached through and though Sebastian grunted at me, I took her hands and held them with my own, rubbing my fingers over her knuckles. If she were my daughter, my child, I would want her to have this last moment of humanity, touching one of her own kind before she forgot everything she was and could have been.

“
I wish we could’ve done more.” Sebastian stepped closer and the Alpha male growled, his grip tightening on Jessica. Sebastian held up his hands then slowly lowered them to my shoulders, squeezing me almost painfully tight. I ignored the pissing contest and stared at Jessica. “Be safe, sweetheart,” I whispered and lifted her hands to my lips, kissing the back of them.

The skin underneath my lips was spinning into a dusky yellow with faint lines that looked like veins, but weren’t. They were images of yellow teardrops like a poorly drawn tattoo of a broom flower. The plant was taking hold of the humans it inhabited like it did all the areas it was introduced to.

The Alpha male pulled her away, but not before giving Sebastian one more glare, one filled with hatred so intense that I was surprised he didn’t try to come over the gate.

“
I don’t think he likes me.”

“
What does it matter? He’d kill either of us,” I said. I turned away from the gate, heart heavy at losing Jessica though I’d known it would happen. I just didn’t think it would be so soon. I reached up, took Sebastian’s hand off my shoulder and wrapped it around me, taking some comfort in the warmth. If only I could so easily ward off the chill in my heart.

9

The next week was spent digging the garden in, watering it daily, checking fences, and drinking lots of water to keep our hunger at bay. Nero romped at our feet oblivious to the danger all around us, though he quickly learned to stay far away from the fence line. Only once did he stray close to the front gate; the growling and fury, along with a set of hands reaching for him, sent him running back to safety.

We phoned family and friends, trying to find out who had taken the shot, and who hadn’t. Of them all, only Sebastian’s Gran was still answering her phone, and she was in London.

“
You two take care of each other. I’ll be fine here, I have a flight to . . .” She was cut off, but at least we knew she was still alive and well. It was a small ray of sunshine.

We argued about whether or not to go to Dan’s, but I won out.

“
Fine, Mara. Fine. We won’t go to Dan,” Sebastian said, his body slumped on the couch.

“
We can’t trust him, Sebastian. He came here to raid us, not help us, he said so himself. We’re safe here; the Nevermores can’t seem to get in. If it comes down to desperation, then yes, maybe then we could go to Dan, but he’s a last resort,” I said and went back to attempting to hand-stitch a patch on a shirt.

The pack left us alone for the most part, sending out what seemed to be a scout once or twice a day. He was smaller than the rest, and slightly hunched over with angry red slashes on his upper body and face, with one that went right across his forehead. The scout, who we simply started to call Scout, would attempt to rattle the massive gate, give us a growl, and then wander off.

The long hours, hard work, and emotional stress taxed us, making us both edgy and out of sorts, not even leaving us enough energy to make love, unusual for us. The day before the power went out, we checked the TV as we did each morning and each night. For the first time in over a week there was an announcement of sorts.

“
Mara, come here, the TV’s on,” Sebastian called out. I ran downstairs, a towel wrapped around my hair.

There was no announcer, just a single picture like a page out of a book that scrolled up on a continual loop.

I read it out loud as it went. “All areas of North America are now considered dangerous territory, as is the North and West of South America, all of Australia, Europe, and much of Asia.”

There was a long stretch of blank screen and then a last warning.

I read it slowly, disbelief and a low thrum of resignation settled over me.

“
All remaining residents from these named continents are now considered independent of any government, agency, or military command. We consider . . .”

That’s where it ended. The screen blinked and slid into white fuzzy static, reminding me of the twilight zone. I grabbed the remote and turned the TV off.

“
What does that mean?” I asked, already suspecting the answer, but wanting Sebastian to say it out loud.

He reached up and took my hand. “We’re on our own, babe. That’s what it means. No one’s going to come help us or try to get us out of here. They’re going to let nature take its course, just like Dan said, and hope the Nevermores die off.”

I squeezed his hand and slid into his lap. He circled his arms around me and we held each other tight, the fear surrounding us. “We’ve still got each other,” I said.

Sebastian didn’t answer me, just laid his head against my breast, his breathing uneven as if he were holding back tears.

The next day, two weeks in, the power finally went and we had to break out the flashlights and candles, hoarding them, using them only when necessary. It was at that point that we realized we needed to dig a latrine of some sort. Shit—in the most literal sense of the word.

Worse than that realization, was the fact that we were through half our food stores—not that we had much to begin with—and our garden was a long way from producing.

“
We’re just going to have to cut back some more,” I said, staring at our already meagre meal of pasta and a half a can of tuna cooked over the barbecue. Come winter we could use the wood stove and the old wood-burning stove I’d thought to replace for heat and cooking. But there were so many things on the list of needed items: candles, seeds for the garden, and canning equipment, just to name a few.

Sebastian scrubbed his hands through his hair, his wedding band catching the last rays of the setting sun. I watched as it slid around, bumping up against his knuckle. The weight we were both losing was a testament to our hard work and lack of nutrition.

I started to laugh at the irony of the situation.

“
What’s so funny?”

I gulped the laughter down enough to answer him. “We’ve wanted to lose weight for so long and all it took was for the world to shut down.” Another peal of laughter ripped its way out of me, leaving me shaking and gasping for air, tears running down my cheeks. Hilarity rarely gripped me and now I seemed unable to shake its grasp.

He frowned at me, which only made me laugh harder; lack of food, poor sleep, and hard work making me giddy. I sat on the floor and the laughter rolled out of me, Nero dancing around my head woofing and making me howl all the louder. Sebastian got up, left his plate of food and went outside, the back door slamming behind him.

I lay on the cool tile of the kitchen floor till the laughter subsided and the tears threatened to start. I forced them back, refused to let them get a hold of me. I wouldn’t let the fear rise again. We weren’t going to die here, we were going to live and survive. Nero lay down beside me, ever attentive, the perfect puppy, and I was grateful he took to his sit-stay commands so well. I couldn’t have handled an unruly dog with all that had been happening. I let my hand rest on his quickly-growing body for a moment. What were we going to do about him? We could barely feed ourselves and the dog food was diminishing as fast as our own.

I stood slowly, wobbling a little, the distant thud of axe and wood telling me where Sebastian was. I ate half my meal and covered the rest with plastic wrap, something else we were nearly out of.

Crap. I knew I’d made a mess of it with Bastian. I headed outside, Nero at my heels and Sebastian’s plate in hand to find him chopping wood, sweat dripping down his rapidly slimming frame. He would always be a big guy, but it was scary to see how fast he, especially, was losing weight.

“
I’m sorry. I’ve pulled it together,” I said in between chops. Sebastian lowered the blade and half turned to me.

“
It’s okay. I suppose from time to time you’re going to have breakdowns. It’s to be expected. As long as you can always pull yourself up and out of it,” he said. I handed him his plate and he sat down on a log to eat.

“
Well, it’s not like I’m going to be here by myself, right? You’re not planning on doing a walk about in the middle of the night, go for some sort of marathon run to see if you can outdistance the pack, are you?” I smiled at him and he gave me a half-hearted smile back.

“
No, not planning on it.”

I blinked hard, wondering at the sudden fear that gripped me. Was he trying to say something without saying it?

“
What’s wrong, Bastian? I know this is a crap situation, I know it’s not how we planned our lives, but we are alive and we still have each other. That’s all that matters.” I sat down beside him. A rattle drew our attention to the gate, Scout making motions at us, more than usual. He grunted and pointed at the food on the plate.

Sebastian stood and walked to the gate without a word, Nero whining the closer he got to the Nevermore. Scout backed off, obviously intimidated by his size until Sebastian held the plate of food out to him.