After the Cure, Deirdre Gould [the beach read TXT] 📗

>“Nella, I don’t think I can. No matter how bad it is out there.”

“I know you think that, but until you see you aren’t going to know what you’re capable of.”

She handed him the dart gun. “This has a long lasting sedative in it along with the Cure. But it won’t be instantaneous. If an Infected person is chasing you- us, we will have to outrun it long enough for it to take effect. That’s a long time Frank. The best thing to do is dart them from a hiding place.” Nella passed him the box of darts. “You need to know that this isn’t an easy out,” she met his eyes and held them, “This is a slow release sedative. It takes the average person a few days to recover. When we did this before, we hooked people up to IVs to keep them hydrated and fed while the Cure worked. You and I don’t have that. Administering the Cure on people that are malnourished or dehydrated may kill them before they wake up again. In addition, the sedative is dosed for a normal adult. Smaller people and children may die from the sedative if we dart them. Larger people may not be sedated enough and it will still take three days for their brain activity to return to normal as the antibiotic works. Not that I expect anyone is overweight anymore,” Nella sighed, “That’s not even mentioning the psychological danger of darting someone and leaving them behind without explanation if they do wake up. But time is a luxury we don’t have. The best we can do is hope that we’ll return the same way and get back to them before they wake up.” She ran a hand through her hair and looked up at him. “Do you understand?”

Frank’s hand closed over the box of darts. “I understand,” he said, “and if it were me in their position again, I’d want to take the chance of dying from the Cure than spend another day as a monster.”

Nella nodded. She began loading the pistol with bullets. “Why do we need that one?” Frank asked. She didn’t look up.

“The Infected aren’t the monsters out there Frank. The Immunes are.” She strapped an empty holster around her waist and handed Frank a larger one for the dart gun. Shoving the pistol into its holder and closing her pack, she stood up.

“I’m not trying to scare you Frank,” she said, her voice softening, “We’ll probably not see a soul for miles. The military has done a good job of clearing out both the Infected and the Looters for a long way. If scavenger teams have already been to the lab, it must be safe pretty much for the whole way. I just want to be ready, in case.” And I don’t want to be raped and killed in a Looter’s camp while you watch or are shot for the fun of it, she thought, but held her tongue. He looked nervous, the lines around his mouth drawing closer. She wanted to kiss them away, but she touched his hand instead. “It’s going to be all right you know,” she said and he smiled.

“Yeah, of course,” he said. She wasn’t so sure he wasn’t thinking the same thing she had been. He opened the metal door again and they ducked inside the dimly lit tunnel. There was no one inside, though an electric bulb sat in the middle of the ten foot space. Each side of the tunnel had been made into storage for contraband inside the hollow Barrier wall. Frank was surprised that they had left it unguarded. But then, who was crazy enough to steal from scavengers or to come all the way out here? Nella pushed open the far door slowly, peeking out to make sure no one was around. A small shack nearby bustled with people and its lights were beginning to burn brightly in the dusk. The scavengers were having a party and everyone seemed too drunk to pay much attention to the tunnel. Nella waited a few seconds until a small knot of people on the porch headed into the warm building and then she and Frank slipped out and down the dirt road.

It was as if they had stepped into another world. Trees clustered close to the Barrier, cleared only far enough away that no one would be able to climb over. There were trees in the City, of course, even parks that had been allowed to turn wild, but those trees were smaller, still marked by their years growing under human rules. These were already large when the Plague hit and eight years had seen them grow still larger. Their dead had fallen and were half buried in bracken and dead leaves, undisturbed, erasing the road, rotting or burning as they would, unchecked. It had been a long time, even for Nella, since she had been outside the Barrier and she nervously wondered what had happened to the packs of feral dogs and cats that had wandered behind the Infected, scavenging. Nothing bunched here, not like in the City. What humans were crazy enough to live out here stayed separate and spread out for the most part, not cooperating or even meeting very often. The birds didn’t congregate like they did near Nella’s apartment because there were no easy pickings here. Even sound seemed spread out, thin and fragile. She suddenly felt small and alone. She looked back for Frank. He crept up next to her, soundless and quick as if he’d been doing this for years. He slipped his hand around her shoulder and squeezed it gently without saying anything. She felt better and they kept walking.

Though the wind had died down rather than battle its way through the thick trees, it was still too cold for them to risk sleeping outside and the dark was quickly swelling around them, welling up from the shadows of the trees, choking the light out of the dirt path. She kept hold of his hand. She told herself it was so they wouldn’t lose each other, but she knew it was her fear of the dark. For a while she was in agony, both longing to light the lantern so that nothing could creep up on them and terrified to finally see what may be hiding in the dark. If they could just find the main road before night swallowed up her sight completely.

Frank stumbled over something beside her. “I can’t see anything. Do you know where we’re going?” he asked, rubbing his ankle, a slim ghost of gray and black beside her.

“I’m trying to get back to the road. But if we use the lantern something- someone, I mean, might see us.”

“At least we could see them coming if someone was trying to hurt us,” he said, echoing her own thoughts, “I don’t think we have a choice. If we get lost out here we’ll die of exposure. We have to find some sort of shelter and I don’t think we’ll find it in these woods.”

Nella pulled the lantern out of her bag, silently relieved that he had insisted on it. She stood up to light it, but an overhanging branch snagged the end of her hair. She jumped, dropping the lantern in her surprise. Frank caught it before it could smash onto the road. He turned it on and the pale light shot up, leaping over his face. It highlighted his thin, shell-like skin and the sharp edges of his eyesockets and nose. For an instant Nella saw only a spindly, hungering creature that was all claw and tooth, something wholly inhuman.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, quickly standing. He was himself again, solid and kind and with her, even in the dark at the end of the world.

She laughed at herself. “Nothing, just nervous I think.” She picked up her pack and felt its weight dragging at her. “I just want this day to be over,” she said and struggled not to burst into tears.

“I know what you mean,” said Frank. He held up the lantern and said, “Look, I think that’s the road.”

The moon was starting to rise by the time they reached the street, a still gray vein stretched tight across the silent world. Nella looked back toward the Barrier that was now miles behind them. A soft glow, like a lone coal buried in ash, rose from behind it, where all that was left of civilization waited to be saved. She turned back toward her destination. “No lights,” she said softly, “No fires or headlights, street lamps or porch lights to call us home.” She felt a hot tear slip past her and down her chilled skin.

Frank turned off the lantern and set it and his pack onto the cold tar. He turned her toward him and drew her into him. She closed her eyes and smelled the crisp fresh linen smell of him, let the heat of him sink through her stiff clothes and seep into her skin.

“Look,” he whispered and stretched a long hand up toward the sky. She tilted her face up. “Look at all those lights. They’ll never turn off or run down. They’ll never stop calling us home.”

She wiped her face, but felt great tears building behind her eyes again. She was exhausted. Frank let her go, sliding hesitantly away from her. He lifted his pack and turned on the lantern.

“Come on,” he said with a small smile, “it’s too cold to hang around here.”

 

 

The Tire Pit

They passed by several dark houses without stopping, not wanting to be surprised by intruders while they slept in a strange place. Finally they settled on an empty gas station that fronted the road. Nella cautiously opened the glass door with a hand on her pistol. It was silent and nothing moved in the dull moonlight. She walked a few paces in and Frank followed, holding up the lantern. The store had been picked clean, even the empty shelves were all pushed against one wall. At least it wouldn’t be a target for Looters.

“We’re too exposed in front of this window. Anyone walking by would be able to see us and our equipment.”

“There must be a stockroom,” said Frank and moved toward the far wall. Nella turned back to the glass door. She flipped the small metal lock. It wouldn’t really stop anyone, but at least they’d have to break a window to get in and Nella would have some warning.

The light disappeared for a moment and Nella turned around.

“Found it,” Frank called.

She made her way over to him. The stock room was small, but empty. More important, it was windowless and relatively warm. She closed the door, shutting out the motionless, moonlit world. She dropped her pack with a sigh of relief. Frank grinned. He knelt on the floor and unrolled his sleeping bag and then hers. She sat down beside him and pried her boots off. The floor was hard but she didn’t care. Frank lay back and stretched his long frame. Nella laughed as his fingers touched one