Tomorrow Land (18 page)

She lifted it up, peered in, then jumped back, her heart literally stopping from the shock of what she saw inside.

“Oh my God!” she cried, dropping the door. It slammed shut with a crashing bang. She turned to Chris, gesturing wildly with her arms. “Run! Chris, run!”

Chapter Eighteen

“Another marshmallow, m’lady?” Chase asked, pulling his stick from their makeshift fire and offering it to Peyton. Of course, he didn’t really have a toasted marshmallow on the other end. And even if he had, it would have been four years old—completely stale and hard as a rock. Peyton giggled at the gallant gesture all the same.

“Why, thank you, good sir,” she said, miming acceptance. She popped the fake sweet into her mouth and rubbed her stomach. “Mmm. Delicious.”

“What’s a marshmallow?” asked Darla, the only child still awake. The others were mostly sacked out a few feet away, exhausted by their trek.

“Only the best food on Earth,” Chase declared, reaching over to tickle her. “Soft and squishy, just like you.” The girl squealed in delight and jumped onto him, knocking him backward. They tussled for a bit before Chase finally let her pin him to the ground in victory.

They’d ridden further than they’d intended that day, wanting to put as much space between themselves and that nest of zombies as possible. Finally, after the kids were practically asleep on their horses, they’d set up camp for the night in a small motel courtyard just off the highway. Chase had scouted out a vacant room for them all to sleep in and collected blankets from the other rooms. Those blankets were all now spread across the floor inside, making a cozy little space to sleep and an easy position to retreat to. But first he’d said they should cook dinner. They did so right in front of the room to give them a good view of their surroundings. After all, they didn’t want someone to sneak up on them and gain advantage. And by cooking outside they were saving their precious supply of gas in their portable stove for rainy nights.

He’d made one hell of a fire, a roaring blaze circled by big stones he’d collected nearby, then cooked their feast: something he teasingly called Stone Soup in front of the children. It was watered down chicken broth with some vegetables from the Walmart garden thrown in. He’d added a little whiskey and some other spices, too. Not the most filling or delicious meal in the world, but Peyton applauded his efforts all the same. Alone, she probably would have only managed to crack open a can of string beans.

“What was that old movie that had the giant marshmallow man? Remember?” Chase asked Peyton, eyes shining, as he lay back on his sleeping bag, pillowing his head with his hands. Darla had finally fallen asleep. “Something about ghosts?”

“
Ghostbusters
,” Peyton replied, thinking back to the silly movie from the 1980s. “My dad loved it.” She smiled at the memory. “He and my mom liked to watch old movies on our ancient DVD player, and that was one of his favorites. I used to sneak out of bed as a kid and slip downstairs to watch in secret.” She paused, then quipped, “‘I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost.’”

“That’s it!” Chase exclaimed, sitting up and pointing at her. Then he sighed. “Ah, movies. I would give my right arm to watch a movie—on an ancient DVD player or anything.”

“Well, maybe someday there will be movies and TV again. You never know, right? When we find my dad…”

“Yeah, I’m sure that will be his first priority when rebuilding our world,” Chase snorted. He fell silent, then turned to her. “Do you ever think about that—where we can go from here?”

She turned, surprised by the question. “All the time.”

“Yeah, I guess you would. Not me, though. Until we started on this little adventure, I’d pretty much given up on things,” he said, poking the fire with his stick. “Figured we were destined to live out the rest of our lives in the Walmart. I never in a million years would have predicted being out traveling again.”

“Life doesn’t always turn out the way we plan,” Peyton said. Then, blushing, she added, “Well, I guess that’s obvious.”

“What did you want to be when you grew up?” Chase asked suddenly. “You know, before, back when you
could
be something? I wanted to be a videogame designer, myself. Talk about a useless career nowadays.”

She laughed. “I wanted to be an actress. Also useless, I guess.”

“Well, like you said, maybe there will be TV again someday. Or at least plays.”

“Maybe so, but I won’t be acting in them,” she said ruefully, gesturing to her eyes. “Unless the new Hollywood is all about casting freaks.”

“Don’t say that.” Chase frowned.

“Why not?” she snapped back, feeling annoyed. He was trying to be nice, but she knew how she looked and didn’t need to be patronized. “I’ve got mirrored implants fused to my eyeballs.”

“The better to see in the dark.”

“And four centimeter razors underneath my fingernails.” She released the blades, and they glinted in the firelight. She’d been tinkering with them all night, trying to figure out why they were malfunctioning.

“The better to fight with.”

She rolled her eyes beneath her implants and retracted her blades. “Okay, Mr. Big Bad Wolf. Whatever you say.”

But Chase caught her hand in his, running a thumb along the inside of her palm. She shivered involuntarily at his unexpected touch. “I’m serious,” he said, his voice dropping to a husky whisper. “You may feel like a freak, but to me your enhancements are beautiful. Your razors saved us from Spud. He was about to eat Darla, but you stepped in and smacked him down. And today you took on two zombies, all by yourself, saving Drummer’s life.”

She sighed, staring down at her hand. “I know the razors are useful,” she admitted, not wanting to enjoy his touch as much as she did. “But I can’t help looking at them and seeing… seeing how things might have been if my father didn’t have his way.”

“Well, not that it matters what I think, of course,” Chris said, “but to me you’re still as gorgeous as you were in high school,” he murmured. “A goddess.”

Her heart fluttered, and she was plagued by a score of memories. Chris Parker had always been sweet. In some ways he’d changed, like she had, but in other ways…

Inspired, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the gift he’d given her so long before, holding it out in her palm. “Do you remember this?” she asked. The tiny bit of broken glass caught the firelight and sparkled.

He stared at it for a moment, then recognition lit up his face. “The diamond?” he asked in a breathless voice.

She nodded. “You told me I needed to look beyond the surface. To see the beauty deep inside.”

“I sure was wise for a kid. Pretty darned romantic, too.” He looked at her and grinned.

“Well, you managed to win me over anyway.”

“You know, I meant everything I said that day,” he told her, his earnest eyes searching her face. “And you’re still a diamond, at least in my eyes.”

He was close. She could feel his warm breath on her face, once again doing crazy things to her insides. She knew she should resist, get up and walk away while she still could. After all, there was no use in restarting a relationship. It would only distract her, and she had a mission. Maybe when and if everything was over and fixed, when she’d done what she needed to…

But she found, try as she might, she couldn’t look away, trapped once again by his kryptonite-colored eyes. They were so brilliant in the firelight they glowed, and she found her traitorous body moving forward instead of away. Her traitorous heart pounded in her chest, and her traitorous lungs struggled to take in air that had grown almost too thick to breathe.

Chase drew her hand to his lips and kissed her palm with an unbearable softness. She squirmed as sensations coursed through her, too hard and fast to catalog. She’d gone four years without being touched. And now it was almost too much to bear.

He smelled of the earth: rich, dark, delicious. She suddenly wanted nothing more than the opportunity to see what he tasted like as well.

“Kiss me,” she whispered.

He needed no second invitation. Taking her head in his hands, he pulled her forward, pressing his lips against hers. Softly, almost reverently. Then harder. At first she was convinced she was going to pass out from excitement, but she managed to stay conscious somehow and kiss him back.

His tongue invaded her mouth. It was awkward at first—neither of them had had very much practice at the whole kissing thing—but good all the same. He explored with soft, cautious strokes, and she soon met his tongue with her own.

 “Oh, God, you feel so good,” he groaned against her mouth. He trailed kisses down her jaw and neck. She reached up to his face, scraping her fingers across the light stubble on his cheeks. “I’ve missed you so much.”

She breathed him in, wrapping her hands around his neck. His scent, leather mixed with something muskier, invaded her senses and clouded her thoughts. At that moment there was no apocalypse. No zombies. No mad dash to Disney World. There was just a boy and a girl—a 21st century Adam and Eve—in a brave new world.

His hand wandered from her neck down to her shoulder, then lowered to the curve of her waist. It was only a slight touch, but enough to spiral her back to reality. What was she doing? She’d promised herself she wouldn’t get involved. And yet here she was: first night on their journey, ready to go all the way.

She struggled to put space between them, pushing out a hand to back him up. He resisted at first, probably too confused and dazed to realize what she wanted. So she pushed again, this time reaching for his face. She had to stop the kiss before it paralyzed her and convinced her to do something she was very likely to regret.

Unfortunately, in her dazed state, her malfunctioning cybernetics took the opportunity to activate. Her razors slipped out. She felt them sink into flesh.

Chase gasped and backed off, clutching his cheek. Blood streamed through his fingers. “Oh my God, Peyton. You cut me!”

Chapter Nineteen

“Can you stop for a second and tell me what we’re running from?” Chris asked breathlessly, grabbing her arm. They’d fled the hospital and run off into the woods, Peyton looking like she’d seen something a lot worse than a ghost. He leaned over, hands on his knees, and tried to catch his breath.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” Peyton sobbed, collapsing onto the forest floor.

He joined her, concerned. He put a hand on her back and peered into her eyes. She looked terrified. “What did you see?” he asked. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. After all, what could be worse than the pile of corpses in a dumpster?

“It was like a monster!” she blurted out. “I mean, it was sort of like a person, too. But… different. And it wasn’t dead. It really wasn’t dead.” She burst out into a fresh set of tears, her whole body shaking.

He rubbed her back, trying to calm her. He needed her calmer so she would start making sense. “A monster. Are you sure?” he asked.

She looked up sharply. “I know what I saw.”

“Okay, okay.” He held his hands up. “I believe you. I’m just trying to get all the information. What do you think happened?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like… a zombie or something.”

Chris remembered his earlier jokes with Stephen. They’d seemed a lot funnier at the time. But it was also ludicrous. A killer plague was one thing. Real-life zombies were quite another. “Er, maybe I should go back and take a look.”

She grabbed onto him, her knuckles white and her eyes wide. “No!” she cried. “Please don’t! I don’t want to be alone!”

Instinctively he pulled her into a tight embrace. She responded, her body pressing against his, so close it seemed as if she was trying to crawl inside of him. His body tightened, but he willed himself not to get turned on. He didn’t want her to think he was taking advantage of her vulnerability. Still, how could he just ignore the feel of her breasts smashed up against his chest and her hot shaky breaths pounding at his earlobe? She smelled so sweet; like honeysuckle and mint gum. It was all he could do not to kiss her.

But no, she wouldn’t like that. She didn’t think of him that way. She was only clinging now out of fear, not desire. He would end up, once again, in the role of a friend. And he’d have set himself up for disappointment.

He could enjoy the physical contact now, though. And he’d protect his goddess from whatever came after them. At the very least, maybe she’d be grateful.

“Shhh,” he whispered, stroking her head. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” He liked saying that. It made him sound manly and brave. He wondered if she’d buy it.

“Thanks,” she sniffed. She pulled her head away from his shoulder and looked him in the eye. “I really appreciate that.”

“Of course,” he said. He gave her a little wink. “You know I’d do anything for a diamond.”

She chuckled a little and sank further down on the forest floor, leaving his arms. He felt lonely, rejected. But he fought it.

“All those dead bodies,” she mused. “And that one… What does it all mean?”

Chris shook his head, forcing his thoughts back to the hospital. “I have no idea,” he said. “But it seems to me that the Super Flu rumor is very real. And obviously the government isn’t telling people the truth. I mean, you’d never know from watching the regular news that this is going on. And it’s happening right under our very noses.”

Peyton picked up a stick and broke it in two. She looked at Chris. “I’m scared,” she admitted. “I’m really scared.”

Chris sat down next to her and took her hand in his. He squeezed it. “I’m scared, too,” he said. “But we’re in this together, okay? If things get bad, we’ll figure something out.”

“Like what?”

He wasn’t sure. Thinking for a moment, he suggested, “We could leave town. Go someplace safe up in the mountains.”

“Away from the Super Flu?”

“Yes. Where we go… well, up there the air will be cleaner. There won’t be any people. We’ll be safe.” He imagined him keeping her safe. Hunting for food, cooking her meals, making sure she had everything she needed. It sounded like a little bit of Heaven.