The Survivors (Book 2): Autumn (20 page)

“Would you like one of the pretty things to take with you?” I asked, lifting a hand to rest on her shoulder
.  It seemed like a good time to teach her a few valuable lessons, and to make her happy at the same time.  “She’s gone now, so you can take something if you’d like.  Just remember, you never take things from living people without asking.  And if you want to take something from here, you have to carry everything that you pick yourself.  Okay?”

“Okies
.  I want pretty thing.  I carry,” Priyanka agreed readily.  She scampered away from me and went over to the girl’s bureau, where she began poking around amongst the various bits of girly nonsense.  I decided that she was going to be busy for a while, so I left her to it.  I headed back to the bathroom to gather up all the anti-nit treatments that were left, and added them to my pack.  Priya would probably need another treatment in a few weeks, and my fastidious nature left me intensely aware of the fact that both Michael and I had been in physical contact with her several times.  It was getting later by the minute so there was no time to treat our hair now, but I planned to make sure we both got a dunking as soon as possible, just to be safe.

Once the bottles were safely stowed away, I went off to check on Michael
.  I found him sitting on the kitchen floor with his arm draped over his new canine companion; the dog had its muzzle buried in a bowl of dog food.  Michael looked up when I entered the room and gave me a shy smile.

“I found some dog food in the kitchen,” he told me
.  “There’s some stuff for us as well.  I figured, you know, that you wouldn’t mind if we brought the dog along, so long as we’re not feeding him out of our own supplies.” To my surprise, Michael actually looked a little embarrassed, like he thought I would actually say no to the idea of bringing the dog with us.

“Of course, I don’t mind if we take him along.”
I knelt on the floor beside him, and leaned over to kiss his cheek.  “Did you honestly think I’d mind? My only concern is that he might be sick, or might not be able to keep up with us.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure,” he admitted, putting his free arm around my waist to draw me up against his side, then his lips captured mine for a quick, tender kiss
.  In the heat of the moment, any resentment I might have felt was brushed aside by the overwhelming adoration I felt for that kind, strong man.  I couldn’t possibly be angry with him for making that assumption, and I didn’t want to be.

When our lips parted, I chose the moment to tease him, just as mercilessly as he routinely poked fun at me
.  “Well, okay, you can keep him – but you do have to give him a bath.”

Michael’s eyes widened as he struggled to figure out how serious I was
.  As if to punctuate my statement, a fat flea leapt off the old dog’s fur and landed the floor tiles beside us.  I was quick enough to crush it with my fingernail, then I gave him a pointed look.

“I bathed Priyanka, you have to bathe the dog
.  There’s flea soap under the sink in the bathroom.”

“But… but, I…” he stammered, staring down at the dog with uncertainty
.  “I don’t know how to bathe a dog.”

“Doggie needs a
ba-ath,” Priya called from the far end of the house, catching us both by surprise.  A second later, we melted into laughter.

“
Okay, okay.  Doggie needs a bath,” Michael agreed, once the levity had subsided.  “There must be instructions on the bottle, I’m sure.” The elderly canine had just finished up his last mouthful of food, so Michael stood and called him until the animal padded out of the room after him.

With everyone else busy, I turned my attention to the important task of breakfast
.  It was an hour past sunrise, and we weren’t on the road yet; if we didn’t reach our destination soon then my sister was bound to start worrying.  Although I had warned her I wasn’t sure how far the Hilux would take us, on foot it should only have taken three days at most.  In theory, we should have been there before sunset – but that estimate hadn’t included being distracted by lost children and stray dogs.

I was sitting in the lounge stirring a pot of canned spaghetti on our little camp stove when Priyanka came looking for me
.  She was so stealthy in her bare feet that I didn’t even notice her arrival until she knelt down beside me.

“What is this?” she demanded, thrusting a small, sparkling trinket into my hand as soon as I turned to look at her
.  I took it without thinking – she didn’t really give me a choice – and examined it thoroughly before I answered.

“This is a bracelet, a charm bracelet
.  I used to have one just like this when I was your age.  It goes like this.” I reached out and took her hand, then showed her how to put the bracelet on.  It was made of silver and semi-precious stones, but it had aged well.  There was only a little bit of tarnish, since it had been kept in a dry, relatively clean environment over the years.

“Bracelet?”
Priyanka drew her hand back and shook her wrist, watching the light dance off the sparkling stones.  “I remember… Mama wore bracelet.  Many lots of bracelet.  Went ‘rustle rustle’ when she cuddled me when I was little.”

The thought didn’t seem to upset her, but it did appear to interest her
.  In my mind’s eye, I saw her as a chubby little toddler being picked up by a woman wearing stacks of bangles.  I found myself wondering, and curiosity got the better of me, as it often did.

“What did your mama look like, Priyanka?” I asked
carefully, cautious of dredging up painful memories.

“Pretty.” Priya’s eyes lost their focus as she thought back, seeking an answer to my question
.  “Mama was very pretty.  She hands same colour as my hands.” She held her hands out towards me, as though I might have forgotten what she looked like.  “Hair like my hair.  Long, long.  No bugs, though.” The girl pulled a face.  I laughed.

“Your hair will grow long again, and this time we’ll keep it clean so no bugs get in,” I told her with a smile
.  “Promise.”

“Good.”
She nodded vigorous approval, and then resumed her tale.  “Mama like to wore the pretty colours, always pretty colours.  Pretty like this.” She pointed to a patch of colour on her newly-salvaged clothing.  “I no know the name for this.”

“Pink,” I supplied helpfully.

“Pink?” she repeated, looking up at me with those huge, soulful eyes of hers; I nodded and she smiled.  “Pink.  Mama wore this colour often.  And the colour like the sky, and sometimes the colour like the grass.  She wore long, pretty dresses with patterns on them.  Not like the dresses in we look at here, other kind of dress.  Had a… a thing.”

She mimed something, indicating a flap of cloth worn over the shoulder; it took a minute for me to interpret what she meant and dredge the word out of my memory.

“A sari?” I supplied, a little uncertain if I was giving her the right answer, but she nodded vigorously.

“Sari, yes,” she echoed, looking happy with that definition
.  “Very pretty sari.  She wore pretty sari that was pink with shiny on it, and very many bracelets.  I remember Mama giving me many hugs, and letting me play with her bracelets.  She read to me many, many books, all the time.  Teach me many things.  Mama love me, and me love Mama.”

“I think that you are much like your mama, Priyanka,” I told her
.  “You are also very pretty, and you’re a good girl.”

She visibly swelled with pride at my praise, too young to have developed any sense of modesty yet
.  I liked that about kids.  No false pretences.  No pretending one thing when they thought another.  They were honest.

“I go look at more pretty-pretties,” she announced, springing up to her feet with a pleased look on her face.

“Breakfast will be ready soon,” I called after her, but she’d already vanished down the corridor.  Shaking my head in amusement, I returned my attention to cooking.

A few minutes later, the sound of splashing and unhappy noises, both human and canine, caught my attention
.  Priyanka came dashing back into the room, laughing her head off.

“What are they doing?” I asked, trying to push aside my instinctive panic-response
.  How much damage could an old sheepdog possibly do? Priyanka’s gleeful response answered my question in quick order.

“Doggie give Michael bath!”
She chortled merrily, and mimed shaking water off herself like a dog would.  Then, she suddenly seemed to remember she had come looking for me for a reason, and plunked down on the ground beside me.  She pointed at my feet, then held up a pair of sneakers that appeared at a glance to only be a tiny bit too large for her.  “Look-look! I found like what Sandy has.”

“Hey, that’s great
.  They’re called ‘shoes’,” I explained, reaching over to take the object from her.  They were dirty and well-worn, of course, but that didn’t matter to us at all.  To a survivor, anything that was new to you was as good as being brand new.  “Good for walking in so the stones don’t cut your feet.  See these nice, thick soles? These are good, they’ll protect you very well.  Now, we just need to find you some socks.”

“Socks?
Sssssocks.  That word is funny.” She giggled gleefully, repeating it a few more times for good measure.  “What is socks?”

“Underwear for your feet,” I explained simply, rolling up the leg of my fatigues to show her mine
.  “They stop your shoes from getting stinky.”

Priyanka stared dubiously at the shoes in her hands
.  “Shoes already stinky.”

“Then they’ll stop your feet from getting stinky,” I answered with a laugh
.  “You want some breakfast, Priya?”

“Breakfast?
Food?” She leaned over to examine my concoction, and her eyes widened.  “What is? Is funny colour.”

“It’s called spaghetti
.  Yes, it’s food.” I gave her a smile and picked up a bowl, filling it with the fragrant orange sauce.  “You’ll probably like it.  Kids always seem to love spaghetti.  Now, this is hot so don’t try to eat it with your fingers, okay? Do you know how to use a fork?”

Priyanka took the bowl from my hands and stared down at it dubiously, apparently unsure what to make of the substance I was trying to tell her was food
.  I couldn’t blame her; the stuff was so full of food colourings it sure didn’t look all that edible, but the smell of hot canned spaghetti could still make my mouth water even after all these years.

She looked up at me and shook her head, bewildered
.  I gave her a smile and a pat on the head in return, then leapt right on into teaching her how to use a fork and spoon.  It was a messy business and took some doing, but by the time Michael finally joined us, our little foundling was well on her way to being competent with utensils.

I made a point of not looking when Michael plopped down beside me, because I was really struggling to hide my amusement
.  I could tell from the scent and the sound of his movements that he was soaked to the bone.  Without a word, I dished up his breakfast and handed it to him, and we sat in a ring around the stove, eating our food.

Or at least, we did
– right up until the dog padded out into the living room, and shook himself off, spraying water droplets in all directions.

A few hours later, we were back on the road, and I found myself pondering the strange turn of events that had doubled the size of our little party in less than a day.  Michael and I walked together in the rear, while Priyanka skipped along in front with the dog prancing around her legs.  The two of them had become firm friends, and spent most of the morning playing together.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Michael asked
.  I felt a strong hand slip around mine.  When I looked over, I found him watching me.  He smiled, and I felt a flush of heat in my belly.  I looked away, absently tucking a strand of hair behind my ear with my free hand.

“Oh, you know.”
I stole a glance back and found his smile was a little wider than before.  “I was just thinking that it’s kind of amazing the dog can keep up so easily.  I noticed that his eyesight isn’t great, so I was a little concerned that he’d slow us down.  He really isn’t, though.”

“It is pretty impressive.”
Michael’s gaze shifted to follow the old sheepdog bounding ahead of us.  “Kind of makes you feel like we humans got the bum end of the stick when it comes to sensory input, doesn’t it?”

“You’re not kidding,” I agreed
.  “I remember when that bastard, Lee, was telling me that he was going to put my eyes out.  The only thing I could think of was just how helpless I’d be if he blinded me.  I don’t think I could bear it.”

“You’d still have me,” he quickly reassured me, giving my hand a gentle squeeze
.  “If anything like that happened, I’d protect you and take care of you.”

“I know you would, but what if something happened to you and there was no one else around?”
I gestured towards the happy dog, who was leaping around Priyanka without a care in the world.  “He can find food and avoid danger with just his nose and his ears.  I can barely tell when my socks need changing.”

“Well, I can tell when your socks need changing,” he teased playfully
.  I responded by giving him a smack on the shoulder, to which he reciprocated with his best impression of a dying walrus.  The peculiar sound startled both the girl and the dog.  They both froze and stared at us in perfect unison, and the looks on their faces were so priceless that Michael and I burst out laughing.

“Grown-ups are silly,” Priyanka told her canine companion solemnly
.  The dog barked his agreement, then bounded off again with his tail wagging frantically.  The girl squealed in glee and chased after him, apparently forgetting all about us again.

***

It was around midday when we reached the township of Pukeatua, a blip on the map that was even smaller than our little Ohaupo.  The place was so tiny that it barely even warranted a name.

At first, I didn’t even realise that we’d arrived
.  All I noticed was that the trees thinned out a bit, and then suddenly a clearing opened up in front of us.  A handful of road signs sprang from the overgrown verge like a crop of ugly mushrooms as we climbed a low rise, then we crested the hill and saw the ruins of the town sprawled out below us.

Of course, using the word ‘town’ to describe a place like Pukeatua was taking some liberal usage of the noun; there were maybe a half-dozen houses within sight, in various states of disrepair
.  There was something off about the place, though.  Something that instinctively put my nerves on edge.  I cradled my shotgun close against me as we moved further down the road.  As if sensing my disquiet, my companions fell silent behind me.

I picked my way carefully past the debris that was strewn across the road, trying to put my finger on what was bothering me
.  There had to be a reason.  My instincts were a little over-aggressive at times, but they were well-honed.  I’d spent years living in the bush, always alone.  I knew the sights, sounds, and smells of New Zealand like a wild animal.

And then it struck me
.  It was quiet.  Too quiet.  Although the bush thinned out around the town, there were still plenty of trees – but no birds were singing.  I held up my hand to halt the others, scanning the road and buildings ahead of us for anything out of the ordinary.  I spotted a few dark, ominous shadows dotting the asphalt, like puddles of dried blood.  In the distance, I could see spray paint on the side of a building.  It was too far away to tell if it was a gang sign, but that was warning enough for me.

“There’s something very wrong here,” I whispered
.  “We should leave, now.”

Then the dog began to growl, low and deep in his throat.

I had the safety off my shotgun in a second, and dropped into a defensive crouch.  Michael flanked me as I took a couple of cautious steps backwards, his expression one of focused intensity that mirrored my own.  However, his instincts were honed for urban combat, while I possessed a completely different set of skills.

The footfall sounded like an elephant’s tread against the quiet world around us
.  I spun around, but it was too late; the stranger had one massive hand around little Priya’s throat, and in the other he held a very large, very sharp machete.  Priya cried out in surprise as she was swept up against the huge man’s body like a human shield.  She struggled, but he was three times her size – at least four inches over six feet tall, all rippling muscle, and outfitted in full army battledress.

“Let her go,” Michael said, trying to negotiate even though we both had our weapons trained on the massive soldier
.  “We’re just passing through, we mean no harm.”

“No harm?
Heh…” The man’s voice was a deep-throated rumble, but it was totally different to the familiar purr of my lover’s voice.  His voice was pure threat, and it sent the alarm bells in my head ringing like crazy.  “You should have listened to your woman, chink, and left while you still had the chance.”

I saw Michael bristle at the use of the racial slur, but I cut him off before he could respond.

“There are two of us, and one of you,” I pointed out coldly, calmly; I felt the surge of adrenaline pumping through my veins.  Usually it brought fear, but not this time.  I had learned something over the last few months, and improved myself.  This time, the adrenaline brought with it a detached kind of clarity.  “We’re well-armed and well-trained.  If you hurt her, we’ll kill you before you can draw your sidearm.”

“Well, aren’t you a feisty one?”
The stranger showed teeth, but it wasn’t a smile.  “I have no problem with you.  You can leave if you prefer.  These two, though...  a fucking chink and a curry-muncher? Their kind brought this plague on us.  I’ll kill them all!”

My eyes did not leave the stranger, but at the edge of my vision, I could see Priya’s terrified eyes staring at me, enormous and confused
.  She didn’t understand what was going on, and she was too afraid to fight anymore.  I sensed more than saw Michael’s readiness, but we were trapped, with that innocent little girl caught between us.

“You’re an idiot if you believe that,” I told the man coolly
.  Reasoning with a madman was impossible, and yet I had no choice.  “The plague came from monkeys, not people.  Any five-year-old knows that.”

“Fucking lies, spread by that nigger president in America!” the man roared, his face turning red with fury
.  For half a second he was distracted, and I saw his grip on Priya loosen.

That half a second was all I had, so I used it
.  I sprang forward and lashed out, using the butt of my shotgun as a club.  The blow struck home with the resounding crunch of bone fracturing; his roar of rage turned to one of pain.

He lashed out blindly with the machete, but I twisted away and caught Priyanka by a fold of her clothing to yank her from the madman’s grasp
.  The hot flash of pain exploded across my ribs, but I barely felt it – my only concern was for Priya.  I would worry about my own health once she was safe.

I shoved her away, and felt her fall somewhere behind me, but I didn’t have time to find out where; I’d pissed the racist soldier off right royally, and it was right at that moment that I realised he wasn’t alone
.  Although they were hidden out of sight, the intensity of life-or-death fighting put my senses on edge.  I could faintly hear the sound of human breathing in the clumps of trees on either side of the road.  We only had moments before they would enter the fray, and then we’d be outnumbered.

The behemoth sprang at me, but I was waiting for him
.  I leapt back out of the range of his machete, and unleashed a brutal kick to the groin while he was off balance.  Although he was huge and presumably strong, his size was a disadvantage against someone as comparatively small and nimble as me – particularly since I fought dirty.

The man crumpled to his knees, all the breath gone from him
.  As he tumbled forward, I jerked my own knee up and caught him in the forehead.  He went down hard, like Goliath to my David.  I didn’t take any time to celebrate my victory, though; we were in intense, immediate danger, and I knew instinctively that that Michael hadn’t realised it yet.

“Follow me,” I ordered breathlessly as I raced past him
.  I grabbed Priyanka’s hand, and sprinted into the nearest patch of bush without a second of hesitation.  A man was waiting there with a weapon drawn, but I took him by surprise.  I shoulder-charged him before he could fire, bowling him to the ground, then I leapt over him and kept on running.

I heard heavy footfalls behind me, and a quick glance back confirmed that Michael and the dog were right on my tail
.  The canine may not have understood the exact nature of the threat, but it had decided to follow us anyway.  Michael, on the other hand, just knew me well enough to trust my instincts without question at a time like this.  Reassured that he was still safe, I turned my attention back to guiding our flight, deeper into the bush.

My ears were tuned for danger, and I heard all the sounds that happened around me: the heavy breathing of my companions, the crash of my own feet as I cleared a path through the heavy brush, even the alarm sounds of the birds in the trees all around us
.  Over that, I could hear the furious shouting of our pursuers as they chased us.  The behemoth’s deep voice rang out above the others like a herald of doom, ordering them to find us and kill us without mercy.  Then, suddenly, I heard another sound.  It was much closer at hand, and ominously familiar.

In the bushes to our right, I could hear low, deep squeals, punctuated by the thud of flesh striking flesh
.  Those squeals were the kind of sound that would forever haunt my nightmares, but this time they brought a flash of inspiration.  I skidded to a halt and thrust Priya’s tiny hand out to Michael, who took it without thinking.  He started to say something but I interrupted him.  There was no time for questions, no time for thinking – it was time to act.

“I have an idea,” I told him, then I pointed him in the direction we had been going
.  “Stick to the forest.  Keep heading east until you reach the river, then follow it south to the bridge.  I’ll meet you there.”

“But—”

“Just go, now!”

He tried to protest but I waved him away
.  Although I could see the tension in his handsome face, he nodded grimly.  A quick kiss and then he was off, vanishing into the undergrowth.  I was left alone, between a pair of vicious enemy factions.

The hellish squealing drew me back to the ferns
.  I peeked through, and saw what I expected to see: two infected pigs were fighting one another, locked in a bloody battle for supremacy.  They didn’t notice me at first, but that was going to change.  I cocked my shotgun, then aimed it from the hip and peppered both their hideous bodies with hot shrapnel.

The shotgun’s retort rang in my ears, and sent birds scattering from the trees overhead
.  I’d given away my position, but that was part of the plan.  The two horrid monsters instantly lost interest in one another and turned on me, but the underbrush was too thick for them to charge properly.  When I turned and ran, they barrelled after me at top speed, but I was light on my feet and much more nimble than they were amongst the trees.

The creatures were single-minded in their intensity, but they couldn’t quite catch me
.  Although my heart hammered in my chest from the knowledge that a single misstep would spell my doom, I somehow kept myself calm.  The adrenaline fuelled me, and again I felt that strange kind of clarity of purpose, the drive to succeed at all costs.  It was powerful, and it was addictive.  Feeling cool and collected in spite of the danger, I drew ahead of the pigs a little bit, just enough to give me an advantage, but not quite enough to lose them.  For my plan to work, the pigs had to stay close.  Very, very close.

Suddenly, I saw a human figure amongst the trees
.  Although he was shadowed by the forest, his size gave him away as the madman who wanted us dead for no better reason than our ethnicities.  I sprinted straight at him, my feet crushing the ferns that flourished in the lightless land beneath the canopy.

The sound of my footfalls alerted him before I reached to him
.  I tried to dodge past him, but he was quicker than I estimated despite his size.  He made a grab for me and managed to get hold of a handful of my clothing, preventing my escape.  I felt a momentary flash of panic, but the act of grabbing me spun him around, so he couldn’t see his death incoming.