The Seventh Day (20 page)

I want to go home.

All of this hurts more than seeing my mother’s
dying body twitching in the kitchen. It hurts more than running over the dead
people. It hurts more than hugging Mr. Milson after Mrs. Milson killed herself
and left him here alone with us.

Lee’s soft cries join mine. I know she is on the same
emotional journey as I am. Her father was meant to be here too. Kyle wraps
himself around us, huddling us and possibly muffling the sound of our
desperation. I swear, somewhere in the wind I feel his lips press against my
head as he pauses there, breathing warmth onto my forehead. It’s the same kiss
my dad always gave me so I can’t be sure if it’s real or not.

I close my eyes and listen to the whistle of the
wind that suddenly feels colder than the breath upon me. The wind is the
loneliest sound I have ever heard. I think I’m wrong about the wind. I don't
think she’s mocking us.

Maybe the solitary whistle of the breeze brushing
across the barren
world,
is because it’s searching for
people to liven its song up. But the people don't
move,
no matter how hard the wind blows. They don't budge. They die of exposure, and
yet, still they don't fall over. They don't close their eyes. They don't leave
the world and find freedom in the clouds.

They stand frozen, soulless, and lost.

And the few of
us
who do
feel the wind, don't move either. We stand silent, afraid of the frozen ones.

My anguish is interrupted by the sound inside of
the metal building behind me. I lift my tear-stained face, seeing the confusion
on Kyle’s face too. He narrows his gaze, focusing on the metal wall. When he
stands back up he pulls us with him, holding us by our hands and dragging us
along the side of the building.

The doors in the front are huge bay doors but there
is one small door on the side. We creep to it, pressing our heads to the cold
and listening with bated breath.

Muffled voices and soft noises work hard at seeking
the outside world through the thick metal door. Kyle gives me a look and
shrugs, tapping against the metal.
Inside the noises stop.
“Hello?” Kyle says as loud as I think we dare. “Is someone alive in there?”

Breath upon metal is our response. Someone is next
to the door, breathing as though they’re trying not to make a sound but it
makes it worse. Controlling breath when you're panicking is like trying to
control the wind.

“Please, let us in. We aren’t infected. We came to
find help but the base is overrun. Can you just tell us what happened here?”
Lee sticks her face into the crease of the door and wall and shouts a little too
loud.

The door cracks open with a grunt and a gray eye
greets us in the small space. “Who are you?”

Lee steps back, her face lowered on the gun in the
cracked door. The barrel is pointed right at her chest. Kyle pulls her back carefully,
lifting a hand. “Whoa, we came to find the military. The girl’s dad is
military, a scientist. We were hoping he was here, that's all.”

“We aren’t taking survivors here.” The eye darts to
me, narrowing and processing for a moment. “We’re full up.”

Frustration and fear wreak havoc on my mind. I can
see he’s about to refuse us so I lunge forward, letting his barrel press
against my stomach. “Please, sir. Please. We came a long way and we don't
intend to stay. I just need to know if he’s alive. Please. My mom has died and
my sister is really little. Just let me see if he’s here somewhere. He came
from Russia on a military plane. That's the last I heard from him. We won’t
stay, I swear. I have no bites. We have no bites. Please.”

Finally, the door swings open, revealing several
dozen people standing behind the soldier who was at the door. He stands and
nods. “Come in. We got one scientist in the corner who came from Russia. You
can look and be on your way. We aren’t taking any more survivors in this
building.” His Southern accent is out of place here. “We gotta check you for
bites though. Some people take longer to react. That's how we ended up in
here.” Hands pat our bodies down, dragging our shirts to the sides and pawing
at us. It's indecent and rude but I don't feel anything. I’m numb.

When they’re done they shove us on our way. Lee and
Kyle walk ahead of me, scanning the crowd. Lee is searching desperately but I’m
scared to find out it isn’t him.

My feet drag and the scuff sounds echo in my head
as the voices of the dozens of people fade into nothing. My heartbeat and my
ragged breath are all I can hear. I round the corner where a hand is pointed
for me to go. People are staring at me from the crowd, I imagine desperate to
see if I belong to them in anyway.
Or if they belong to me.
That's all we really want in a moment like this one, family or friends or
familiarity.

But I don't know them, and when I reach the man in
the far corner, I drop to my knees on the cold cement. The man with the beady
eyes and mustache is not my father. The hands point to him and someone grabs my
arm, shaking me a little. But I just stare, completely lost in the disappointment
of the Wizard at the end of the yellow brick road.

“That's not my dad,” my lips part and the words
tumble out.

The man’s eyes narrow as he watches my lips. “I
know you,” he says softly. His eyes dart to the soldier next to me. “I know
her.”

The soldier waves a hand at him dismissively. “You
don't know shit. Since Stoddard shocked your ass back to life, you’ve been a
hot mess.”

The man with the mustache points.
“Stoddard’s desk. She’s from Stoddard’s desk.”

The sentence rings in my head as Kyle jumps into
action. “Stoddard, that's her dad. Where is he? Lou, that's your dad. Dr.
Stoddard. The scientist.”

I turn to see the soldier giving me a look that
screams of the bad news he has for me. “You just missed him. He left here the
day before yesterday to go home. Said he had to get to his girls.”

My eyes dart to Kyle. He winces but he nods. “He’s
probably already back in Laurel.”

I swallow the words and the news and the feelings,
and stand on my shaking legs. “How did he leave?”

“Boat. Said he would find a car on the mainland,
but he was going by boat to the north a little. Said there was a highway up
there that might be safer. Took a couple guys with him. They were from around
Montana and Idaho. Good soldiers. I bet he’s still alive.”

My jaw drops. “He’s still alive?”

He nods.

“THIS IS ALL OUR FAULT!” The scientist who isn’t my
father jumps up, grabbing my arm and spinning me around, screaming, “THIS IS
OUR FAULT! WE KNEW! WE KNEW! STODDARD KNEW! THEY WOULD TAKE IT AND USE IT!”

Kyle tears him off of me, putting me behind him
instantly. “Touch her again and I’ll kill you myself.”

The soldier grabs the scientist, shaking him.
“Chill your shit, Doctor. No disrespect meant but you need to calm down.”
His eyes lower in disappointment.
“He’s been having a real
hard time readjusting after Doctor Stodd—your dad electrocuted him.”

I scowl. “What?”

“It’s a long-ass story, kid, and I imagine you want
to be on your way.”

I shake my head. “What story?”

The soldier nods his head at the man’s shoulder
where I suddenly notice a bite mark. I jump back, dragging Kyle with me.

The soldier shakes his head. “He isn’t infected. It
isn’t what you think it is.” His eyes dart around the room at the various types
of military personnel. I start to see bite marks on several of them, all on the
shoulder. It dawns on me then the wound is always the shoulder.

When I scan back to the soldier, he’s helping the
scientist back down to where he was sitting. The man’s eyes are still full of
terror and his jaw doesn't stop moving. The soldier turns and walks with us,
away from the rambling man. “It was a weapon. It started with a prototype for
an offensive means of gaining control over a group of people. Obviously, the intended
targets were terrorists. Get one infected or, as they liked to say,
controlled
person inside and they take
out the entire organization and they gain control over everyone. It was a way
to peacefully enter an organization and take them down without the bombing and
invading. The team was looking at how to do things with the least amount of
casualties.”

Kyle stops walking and lifts a hand. I can see he’s
confused. “So you guys made a way to control people and it became that hot mess
out there? I think you missed the mark a little.”

The man sighs in a way I have only ever heard our
chemistry teacher do. It’s heavy and annoyed but sounds like the person doing
it is too tired and defeated to fight about it. “Right, kid. We made a way to
control people, but then some asshole scientist went rogue and attacked the
world with it.”

My guts drop but the man shakes his head. “Not your
dad. It was another member of the team. They were testing in Russia when they
found out the entire project had been compromised. Dr. Arsenault from
France,
was working with them on the research. He apparently
found God in the last few months and had been working to sabotage the entire
project.” He rolls his eyes. “What we actually found out was that he had
syphilis but didn't know. The red rain in India and the dying of the bees
across the world spurned him on. Suddenly there were signs everywhere. He knew
the end of days was coming. In fact, he was sure it was. He modified the
material they were working with and gave it to a select group of people from
the radical church he had founded. Jesus freaks
who
wanted the end of days—they wanted the end of the world. They believed
they were the hand of God or some bullshit like that.” He talks and walks us
back to the main door. When we get there he pauses with his hand on the massive
lock. “Now we all gotta wait for the end of the seventh day. Your dad and that
guy back there, Jacquard, and a few others managed to reprogram the materials
so they’ll at least have an expiry date. It was the only thing they could do.
We
gotta
try to survive in here until the seventh day
and then we can take it all back. If anyone is still alive.”

Kyle’s face is pale. Lee’s is blank and soaked in
tears. I’m sure mine is a mixture.

“A person did this? A human hurt the rest of us?”

He nods and I can see that even though he’s acting
cool about it, he’s as disturbed as we are. “Now, I know I said y’all couldn't
stay but if you want, you can. It’s only one more day.”

I swallow, almost wanting to say yes, but my
stomach twinges and I know we have to leave. “Our friends are waiting for us.”

He lowers his mask and cocks his gun. “Let me lead
you out to the fence. It’s not so bad in here. We’ve killed a lot of them.” He
swings open the door, clearing the area as if we’re in a movie. Soldiers hand
us back our guns. I hadn’t even noticed they took them.

We run across the grounds, following him and
running as silently as we can. When we get to the fence where we jumped over,
he stands guard as we climb over again. I go last but I’m not scared this time.

“Be careful, kid. Your dad was pretty sure y’all
would be holed up in that house of yours with all the doors and windows boarded
up. He’s going to be pissed when he gets there and no one is home.”

I hug him. I don't know why. I guess because it
makes more sense to hug him than to speak. How do I tell him the story of why I
left without it becoming some huge tale? He feels like hugging a mannequin,
with all his gear on, but he at least hugs back.

“You kids watch your six,” he shouts and waves,
walking back to the others.

I climb the fence and follow Kyle and Lee back into
the woods.

The Seventh Day

Gale gives us a hesitant look. “I’m going to ride
it out here and wait for tomorrow. Like I told you already, they were dropping
like flies by my place. I think that soldier was right—they all expire
today.” She hugs each
of us, smelling just like a mom should
and feeling
twice as soft. When it’s my turn I close my eyes and savor
the moment she offers me.

She pulls away, making me colder than I have ever
been, I swear. She waves and pulls the kid into the car. They wave profusely,
not like the lady who tried to wave us down from the building in Spokane, but
in a way that makes me think of an aunt or relative saying goodbye.

Kyle starts the boat as we climb in and continue
waving to Gale from inside of the cab.

She gets smaller in my eyes but not inside of me.
She’s a person I care about now. I will think about her always. I will wonder
if she made it to the end of the seventh day.

The boat ride is somber. Explaining what the
soldier told
us and the things
we saw is like trying
to explain sounds to a person who can’t hear. They don’t seem to understand and
the questions are things we don’t have the answers to.

The sway of the boat ride makes my stomach twist
and turn, but I don't give in to the sickness or the heavy feeling. I just
stare ahead, desperate to be on the road.
Desperate to get
home.
Wishing I had a phone or a way to reach him.

I can feel the whole world between us, and it’s
only now in this moment that I realize I miss and love him because he’s my dad,
and not just because I don't want to be alone.

Erin and Miles snuggle into each other, staring
blankly ahead like the honeymoon is already over and the crushing reality is
something they might not want to face.

Lee gives me a soft smile. “You feeling as green as
you look?”

I nod.

“Me too.” She tucks her curly blonde hair behind
her ear and sighs. “My hair is getting unruly. I need a shower and some shampoo,
and everything else that we just don't have anymore.”

Erin snickers but it’s only halfhearted. “I was
just remembering that time the bee flew into your hair, Leelee. You remember
how hard we laughed, watching that poor thing struggle to get out of your thick
locks.”

Lee blushes but it’s hard to see with all the
grayish green around her gills. “Yeah. Damn bee. I freaked out, trying to shake
it free without getting stung. My hair was buzzing and moving and then it just
stopped. The poor little guy strangled in the tangled mess.”

Miles laughs. “You killed a bee with your hair?”

“That's talent. Almost as impressive as Lou killing
that hamster by blowing on it,” Kyle laughs, steering us to the right. His face
turns crimson the same as mine does.

Lee gives me a look. I laugh and shake my head. “Oh
man, that was bad.”

Miles scowls. “I don't remember that. What
happened?”

I wince. “It was Sasha’s. It was sleeping in its
cage and I leaned in and was petting it. It didn't move so I thought maybe it had
died. So I blew on it. Poor thing jumped up, screamed, and died of a heart
attack.”

Miles grimaces. “Oh, that must have impressed her
dad.”

Lee laughs. “Kyle’s right, you have me beat.” Kyle
shakes his head, muttering to himself as Lee scowls. “I thought you all just
met the other day. Did you guys know each other before?”

I pause, looking at Miles. If he doesn’t know the
hamster story, how does Kyle? When I turn and look at him, he points. “We are
here. Miles, you wanna get the bumpers and tie us off?”

Lee looks at me but I don't move. I stay there,
waiting for the answer to the question I don't think I need to ask.

Miles and Erin jump off, tying us off. Lee joins
them and when Kyle tries to leave the cab, I grab his arm. “How?”

He licks his lips nervously. “Alleda is your blood
elf priestess. You are a dungeon and raid healer for Times Square, the guild.”

My insides start to burn. “You really do play.”

His green eyes darken as he lowers his brow. “I’m
Gorgon.”

The cab of the boat spins as my face flushes. He doesn’t
just play—he’s one of my best friends and I didn't even know it. I sit
back down, almost out of breath. For whatever reason, I feel betrayed but in my
head I can’t seem to find an offense. Apart from the fact he knows every detail
about me.

EVERY DETAIL!

He kneels in front of me, lifting my chin. “It
doesn't change anything. So we know each other better than you thought. Isn’t
it better this way? I’m your friend in real life.”

I almost gag. “No. No, it’s not. You know
everything.” I laugh/cry. “I told you—” I pause and my eyes follow Miles
up the back lawn. “Oh God.” He knows all about Miles and my teenaged-girl crush
of doom. The very one I have just now decided is never going anywhere.

“Well, the same can be said for you. You know
everything about me. You know all my darkest shit. My fears. My likes. My
everything.”

My eyes don't leave Miles. “You know more.” That
was always our friendship. I talked way
more,
appreciating the fact we were never going to meet. We were always going to be Internet
friends. I slap my hand over my eyes, still unable to look at him. “Please,
don't tell him. If Miles ever knew, I would die.”

He lowers my hands but the look on his face nearly
kills me. His green eyes are almost glowing from the moisture in them. “I have
a secret so much bigger than yours, Lou. One I have never shared, even though I
always wanted to, because it was an Internet friendship. It wasn't real for you
but it was for me. I knew who you were. I saw what you looked like. I had a
face and a smile to go with the amazing person I met online.” He stops
talking,
I swear he’s losing it. His hands shake against
mine, gripping them funny. “And I fell for you over the course of the last
year. I planned on doing this, telling you how I felt for
you,
in a way more cool way than this. I was going to come home at Christmas with Miles
and tell you, and see if maybe you wanted to go on a real date in the real
world.” He laughs at himself or maybe me, or maybe both of us. “I know you love
him, or you think you do. I’ve known that for a long time. But it doesn't
change the way I feel. I just need you to know that you don't have to love me
back. Now that I’m here, I see the way you look at him. I see the way your
heart breaks and it kills me. But I just want you to know—no I need you
to know—that no one is ever going to love you the way I do. Definitely
not him.” He stands up, turning for the door to leave me there with that elephant
of a confession. He pauses and looks back at me. “So you go ahead and love him
because he was here first. But until I breathe my last breath, there will be
someone who loves you more. Always more.” He turns away and walks out and hops
off the boat.

I swallow my tear lump in my throat and take a
breath, my first in at least a full minute. My feet want to jump up and run
after him. I want to be mad that he never told me all that time he knew who I
was. I want to be pissed off that he let me carry on that way. I want to hate
him.

But I can’t.

The WOW and the
Die
Hard
and the rich-boy problems all should have been clues. The fact he knew
where Laurel was when we talked about it on WOW should have been a clue.

Lee slips back into the cab, giving me a look.
“That was intense.”

I nod once, not even sure what to say. A moment
like this deserves the drama and attention from a circle of girls my age. I
look up at Lee and sigh. “Stupid Internet. For the first six months we only
spoke on WOW. At the time I thought for sure he was a she, or at the very
least, a twelve-year-old boy. I never imagined he was a cute guy who I would
survive the apocalypse with. When we started talking for real on the phone or
over the headset, I realized he was a real guy but I never imagined this real.
Even my cheesy crush on him wasn't this real.”

She scoffs. “I imagine the moment shit hit the fan,
he came for you. I bet if you ask Miles, it was Kyle driving like a bat out of
hell looking for you.”

That sentence makes me cry. I don't even know why.
I guess
it’s
relief. Someone drove like mad to get to
me, to make sure I was safe. Someone cared that I was alive.

I sniffle and let her wrap herself around me.
“Let’s go find your dad since I’m pretty sure mine is gone forever. On the way
you can complain about how wrong it is that a super-hot guy with sexy green
eyes is in love with you and drove all this way to be with you. I’m good to
listen for at least half an hour before I need a reality check. We can kill
someone who used to be a human being for perspective.”

I laugh bitterly at the scope she just put my
problems into. I don't try to compare the fact we just lost the hope her father
is alive to the fact a boy likes me, and I like him and I just never knew.

She wipes my eyes and nods. “If you don't like him
back, you really should let him down so I can help him get over you.”

I laugh harder. “Stop ruining my pout with all your
evil perspective.”

“Sucks being mocked by an orphan, doesn't it?
Harder to hit back.” She lifts her hands innocently. “I guess we could fight
for him, since he is probably the last guy our age who isn’t a weirdo.” She
scoffs. “I mean, beyond the
World of Warcraft
.
Who even plays that crap?”

I shove her lightly. “Whatever. I have many life
skills that were learned from WOW.”

“Yes, bow hunting, nunchucks, and drawing ligers. I
know these lines. You’re stealing them from that movie with the nerdy guys.”
She shoves me back. We walk up the grass of the huge house and both sigh when
we see it in all its glory. “It really is a nice house.” She shakes her head as
we round the corner and walk to the Hummer.

Miles nods at the car in the driveway. “We’re
taking this.” It’s a BMW hatchback. “It’s full and it’ll be awesome on gas.” He
climbs in the back with Erin. Lee gives me a winning grin. “And super roomy.”
She rolls her eyes as she climbs in the backseat with the gloomy lovebirds.

Seeing them all get in makes me wonder where Kyle
is. The front door is still open to the house. I walk to it with my stomach on
edge and ready to drop. When I get inside he’s there, right there, standing in
the hallway. He winces when he sees me, but I don't let him walk away from me.
I don't know why, but I step into him and lift my face, planting a soft kiss on
his cheek. I stay there for a second, just smelling him. He smells good, like
deodorant and sweat mixing in the right way. He wraps his arms around me and
lowers his face into my neck. “I’m sorry I lied to you. I should have told you
that Miles told me you played.”

I shake my head. “It doesn't matter now. The next
time we want to play, we’ll have to make costumes so we can cosplay like LARP
weirdos.”

He chuckles into my neck.

I pull back. “How did you know which guild and
which realm?”

“Jamie. I asked her to look, after I saw pictures
and how pretty you were, and Miles told me some funny stories. I saw videos of
you girls all the time. His mom always recorded the games, so I watched you
play lacrosse. Sometimes she would Facetime us and we’d watch live. And then
later, you and I would play and I’d be
dead-assed
exhausted because of the time difference, but I’d stay up so I could talk to
you. You’d tell me about the game and I could picture it all because I’d been
there, sort of.” His cheeks redden. “I didn't mean to be a creepy Internet perve.
It just happened.”

A slow smile creeps across my lips. “You don't
scare me.”

His face matches mine, grinning away. “You scare me
plenty enough for the both of us.” He kisses my forehead like my dad always
does and mutters, “Now let’s go find your dad.” He grabs my hand and walks outside,
closing the door behind him.

When he starts the car he gives us all a look. “We
can probably make it in about ten hours, so let’s do this.”

The drive is long but the roads are empty. The path
we cleared the last time is still there and there are fewer biters the entire
way.

We don't talk. I don't think there’s anything to
talk about. I think we’re all shocked and tired. What do you add to the week
we've all experienced? How do you laugh and joke about simple things when
something so unbelievable has occurred? You don't. You wait for the shock to
pass.

All of them are orphaned, all in one week.

We all lost loved ones.

There is nothing to say that will ever make that go
away.

It takes us ten hours to get from the West Coast to
Laurel
but the weight of the situation doesn't lift
from our shoulders. When we enter Laurel I don't recognize it. Bodies lie
about, scattered. A deer runs across the grass of a house that looks like it
burned days ago. Smoke rises from places it shouldn't and garbage scuttles with
the wind. The sun is setting and as we drive past Sasha’s street my insides
tighten. I’m on edge, even when I see Mrs. Carlson’s house with all her
Halloween decorations out. Her huge blow-up cat is deflated and caught in her tree.
It was Joey’s favorite decoration in town.