The Survivors (Book 2): Autumn (18 page)

“I think I see the road,” Michael whispered; I understood that he felt the need for stealth, like I did
.  I looked where he pointed, and spotted the flash of grey through the trees.

I nodded and led the way forward
.  A dozen metres further on, I stepped around a particularly dense bush – and almost fell over the edge of a low cliff.  Michael grabbed me and pulled me back, then he held me reassuringly for a moment while I recovered my wits.  Two metres below us, the roadway resumed its course.

“Over there,” I gasped, my heart racing from my brief encounter with potential injury or even death
.  A little further to the east, the cliff between the forest’s edge and the road was lower and more manageable.

The three of us hurried to the lower spot and scrambled down the bank, back to the roadway
.  By the time we were able to resume our eastward march, the sun had drifted lower and sunset was beginning in earnest.  I glanced back over my shoulder and shielded my eyes from the sun’s glare.  I estimated that we had about an hour left before we’d be walking in total darkness.

“We should hurry,” I told the others
.  They both nodded in agreement.  Even little Priyanka seemed to understand the dangers of being out after dark.  For most of the day we’d wandered along at a leisurely pace, but now we all felt a sense of urgency.  None of us wanted to be left exposed at night.

***

I had always found it kind of amazing how much ground a human being could cover on foot when he or she put her mind to it.  As a child and a teenager, I would never have imagined that I’d be out walking the roads instead of driving, and as such I never stopped to think how long it would take to travel those routes without the benefit of a car.

Dusk cast long shadows all around us as we descended the eastern side of the hill into the valley beyond
.  The low angle of the sun rendered the landscape in shades of grey and made it harder and harder to see.  The trees around us were tall, making the world beneath their boughs seem darker and more threatening.

“I think I see something.”
Michael was the first of us to speak up.  At first I worried, but the tone of his voice was one of relief, not fear.  My shotgun held at the ready, I stepped forward to try and locate what he’d seen.  There it was, nestled amongst the trees – an old white mailbox.  I couldn’t see the house though, because the trees were too thick.

“I think we’re going to have to risk it,” I said
.  Michael nodded in agreement.  He took the lead this time, and we sandwiched Priyanka between us as we picked our way in the direction a driveway had once gone.

With the sun almost down and darkness descending across our wild little world, we could hardly see beneath the trees
.  We clicked on our torches to light the way, but the tiny beams of light they produced barely penetrated the gloom.  I strained my ears but I couldn’t hear any threats, just the sound of the birds chattering as they went to sleep, and the sound of our own footfalls.

Between one step and the next, Michael’s tread changed in timbr
e.  I recognised the sound of gravel crunching beneath his boots.  Ten years ago, I would never have noticed the difference in the sound, but now it sounded like a clarion call to me.

“I see a house.”
Michael’s voice was soft as a whisper, but I heard it clearly in the relative quiet around us.  It was so dark that I couldn’t see his broad back in front of me anymore, only the sweep of his torch as it swung back and forth.

“Lead on,” I whispered back, as much to reassure him that we were still following as for any real need to give him instruction.

Our little convoy picked its way across the old, grass-hewn gravel that had once been someone’s driveway.  Again I found myself worrying about Priyanka’s feet, but she didn’t protest at all.  The flash of Michael’s torch beam cut across timber, and again I heard the sound of his boots change; he was climbing wooden stairs, and then walking across a porch.

As loathe as I was to turn my own torch away from the dark forest behind us, we had to focus in front to make it safely up the stairs
.  I felt a hand touch my arm gently as I cleared the top step: Michael, reassuring me of his protective presence.

“Watch the door while I clear the house,” I instructed
.  I felt more than saw him nod, then his torch beam cut away from us to scan the edge of the forest.

I found the front door not far away, and when I tried the handle it was unlocked
.  I could hear Priya’s breathing behind me as I stepped inside and scanned the interior of the house by torchlight.  The place wasn’t large, just a small, cosy home that had seen better days.  To the right of the doorway I saw a living room with a couple of fat couches and a fireplace.  To the left was a dining room and kitchen.

Directly in front of me was a long corridor that led towards the rear of the house, where I imagined bedrooms must be located.

“Stay with Michael,” I told Priyanka, then I crept deeper into the house to check each of the rooms carefully.  Nothing stirred in the living room, kitchen, or dining room.  I picked my way carefully along the hallway towards the rear of the building.  One at a time, I opened doors and checked for hostiles, but I found nothing more threatening than an army of dust bunnies.

At the far end of the hallway, a back door opened into darkness
.  I closed it quickly and locked it, then I hurried back to the front of the building.  I found Michael still standing guard, and Priya hovering uncertainly between him and the doorway.

“We’re clear
.  Get in here so we can lock the door,” I whispered to him.  Michael fell back on my word, his torch still sweeping the dark forest.  The moment they were both inside, I closed the door and locked it.  Suddenly, we all felt safer.

I heard Michael heave a sigh of relief, and I grunted wordlessly in agreement
.  A strange, dark house in the middle of nowhere was not my favourite place to be, but at least we weren’t out in the open any longer.

“We’ve got a fireplace
.  That should give us some light.” I padded across the thick, dusty carpet and knelt down in front of it to see if I could get it going.  “Honey, there’s a back door at the end of the hall.  I’ve locked it, but I’d feel a lot safer if we could figure out some way to block it, just in case.”

“I’m on it,” he answered, his deep voice disembodied in the shadows
.  “Priyanka, come help me? I’ll need someone to hold the light.”

“Okies,” the girl agreed amiably, and I heard their footsteps retreat towards the rear of the house
.  Soon, there were sounds of things being dragged around, but I ignored them and I focused on getting the fire started.

A stack of old wood still sat nearby, with all the fixings to get it going
.  After so many years indoors, it couldn’t have been any drier; the fire started easily and stayed burning with minimal effort.  It didn’t give us a lot of light, but it was enough.  By the time they returned, I had the fire burning cheerfully in the fireplace.

“We found some blankets,” Michael told me, dumping them in a pile in the middle of the living room
.  “I’ll bring out one of the mattresses as well.  We should be able to sleep comfortably.”

I nodded my approval, and he hurried off
.  Priyanka stayed with me this time, settling down on the floor beside me to watch me poke at the flames.  Without the breeze to blow away her funk, the smell of her hit me more strongly than ever.

“You need a bath,” I told her gently
.  She tilted her head and looked up at me, clearly not understanding.  “A bath – you know, a wash? You’re dirty.”

I pantomimed scrubbing myself until she finally understood, but she misunderstood my intentions
.  Tears welled up in her eyes and she looked at me like I’d just kicked her.  “I am bad?”

“What?
No, no, no – you’re a good girl.” I swiftly struggled to alleviate her fears.  “You just need a bath, so you won’t get sick.  I’ll help you tomorrow, when the sun is up.”

“Oh…”
The girl absently scratched at herself and looked down.  “The dirty is bad, not I am bad?”

“That’s right.”
I reached over and stroked her hair; her expression relaxed at the touch, reassured.  “The dirty is bad, it can make you sick.  We’ll give you a bath, make you clean.  Then you won’t get sick – and won’t be itchy either.”

“Itchy,” Priya agreed readily, scratching at her arm
.  Up close, I could see a couple of little sores on her arm, and understood just how desperate for a bath she was.  And clothing, for that matter – hers were just rags, so tattered that I couldn’t even figure out what they’d originally looked like.  She could use a haircut, too.  Her hair was so long that she probably hadn’t had one since before the plague struck.

“You poor little thing.”
I sighed as she cuddled up against me, staring up at me with those big, sad eyes of hers.  “I promise, you’ll feel much better after a bath.  No more itchy.”

“No more itchy,” she echoed
.  Further conversation was interrupted as Michael returned, carrying with him a mattress pilfered from a single bed.  He shoved it up against the wall beneath the windows and piled the blankets on top of it.

“Bathroom seems to be functioning, if either of you want to ‘go’,” he told us helpfully, glancing back at us as he went about turning the couch and the mattress into functioning beds.

It had been a while, so I did need to relieve myself.  I guessed that Priya probably did as well, so I took her by the hand and led her off down the hall, where we took turns using the lavatory.  I was relieved to discover that she was toilet-trained.  At least that was one less thing for me to worry about.

Afterwards, I showed her how to wash her hands with soap and explained in simple terms how important it was to do so
.  She was a ready student and didn’t argue, apparently content in the knowledge that grown-ups knew best.  If only she knew that we were all just making it up as we went along, too.

Illuminated by the narrow beam of my torch, we made our way back to our little campsite in the living room
.  Michael had put dinner on while we were away, and the savoury smell of fish cooking lured us to join him.  The three of us sat in a circle around our cook stove until it was ready, then he divided it up into a bowl for each of us and handed it out.

Priya didn’t even bother with a spoon
.  She just dove right in face-first, to our amusement.  Now wasn’t the time to try and teach her manners, so we just left her to it while the two of us ate at a more sedate pace and talked quietly about the day’s adventures.

“We should probably keep a night watch,” I suggested
.  “We didn’t really have a chance to secure this place before we bunked down, so it would make sense.”

“I defer to your experience,” he agreed, popping a spoonful of fish and rice into his mouth
.  Once he’d swallowed it, he added, “I’ll take the second watch, if you want.  That’s always the harder one.”

“It’s sweet of you to offer.”
I smiled up at him gratefully, since he was right.  Waking up in the middle of the night and trying to stay alert was always harder on the body.  “I won’t say no.”

“I didn’t think you would.”
He gave me a playful wink.  We finished our meal in companionable silence.

By the time we adults had finished eating, Priyanka was fast asleep
.  She just curled up on the floor like a sleepy kitten, without a blanket or a pillow.  Between the two of us, we moved her to the couch and wrapped her in warm blankets to keep her comfortable, then we settled down on the mattress on the floor.

Michael snuggled up against me with his head in my lap, while I sat upright resting my back against the end of the couch
.  I ran my fingers absently over his short hair as he fell asleep, feeling a strange sort of contentment wash over me.  Although it felt weird to be sitting guard while others slept around me, I felt a strong desire to protect them.  Sleep would not come to me while I sat watch, keeping my family safe.

After a while, I got bored with my own thoughts, and dug into my pack for the book I’d stolen weeks before
.  I’m still not sure what had driven me to bring it along but I had, so I made use of it.  Angling the book so the flickering light from the fireplace fell across the dusty pages, I lost myself in a world of foolish fantasy romances and long-dead places.

Every so often, a noise would disrupt my peaceful world
.  Something outside would creak, a gust of wind would disturb the trees, or an owl would hoot.  Every time, it got my heart racing all over again, only to end with me chiding myself for being so jumpy.  Once, I heard something that sounded like a footstep, but it faded before I could determine exactly what I’d heard.

At around midnight, I felt Michael stir against me
.  As though awoken by some internal alarm clock, he stretched and yawned, then looked up at me with those fathomlessly dark eyes of his.  “Any trouble?”

“Nothing I’m worried about,” I reassured him as we swapped places; he sat up, while I snuggled down beneath the blankets, looking forward to my half-a-night’s sleep
.  Despite the odd noises, I felt content knowing that Michael was watching over me.  He would never allow any harm to come to me while I was vulnerable, and that made me feel comfortable and relaxed.