Barely Alive (19 page)

A scream shattered the calm afternoon, my false security and the sense that we’d left the trauma behind us at the city. Yelling and crashes followed. I dropped the cap to the ground and rounded the pump, ready to kick some serious ass.

Dr. Duncan had his arm wrapped around Heather, and he propelled them from the double glass doors. Two white bags dangled from her arm and one slung from his.

Heather’s mouth was screwed up in a tight grimace. Tears streamed down her cheeks and I swear, if Dr. Duncan hadn’t yelled at us to
go! Go now!
I would’ve gone into the building and ripped the place and its occupants to shreds. I jumped over the trunk of the car, adrenaline spiking, and slammed my door in sync with Heather.

I started the car and revved off. Nothing followed us. I leaned over and said, “We need to drive somewhere we don’t have to burn rubber as we leave.”

She sniffed and dropped the bags to the floor.

“
Why are you holding your arm?” Red liquid dripped to the vinyl seating. The smell hit me at the same time that I realized she’d been injured. But how? She lifted her arm to wipe her nose and cheeks while applying pressure with the other hand.

Connie rolled the window down and shoved her face out into the wind. James crawled over Dr. Duncan and shoved him toward his wife. My brother copied Connie, his hair whipping in the wind.

I gritted my teeth against the blind craving overtaking me.
Drive. Paul. Damn it. Drive.

Heather watched me. She whispered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

Dr. Duncan patted her shoulder. “It’s okay, Heather. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know he was back there.”

I shook my head to clear the haze from the desire her blood shot through me. “What happened? Start from the beginning.”

Heather dug in her bag for a handful of napkins and pressed them to her arm. “We went in to the store and didn’t see anyone. So we used the restrooms and then ‘shopped’. We got food, drinks, whatever we needed then went to the counter. No one was there. We even dinged the little thingy.” She trailed off and looked out the window.

Dr. Duncan took over. “I grabbed some of the bags off the side of the counter and shoved our stuff in them. But Heather insisted on leaving some money. I wrote a check and she reached over the counter to drop it on the register. The guy jumped from behind the counter and bit her arm. He was covered in blood and was working on the body back there.” Dr. Duncan shook his head. “I have no idea how we didn’t hear him. He was tearing into the body like there was no coming back.”

“
Dr. Duncan, the radio was on. I couldn’t hear anything but that stupid music.” Heather broke in.

“
I think it’s time everyone start calling me Travis. Enough with the Dr. Duncan crap. I don’t even make my students call me that.” He sighed and rifled through his own bag. “Connie, I brought you some milk and a lunch meat sandwich. I’m sorry. They didn’t have any more meat than that.” Weariness dragged his features down. Poor guy had lost a lot in a day. Realistically, we wouldn’t find a cure and he’d lose his wife in twelve weeks. That was a lot to deal with on the same day your life was threatened – multiple times.

I nodded toward the phone. “We’ll be out of range in a little bit. Do you want me to call for you?” She couldn’t do much with her injury at the moment.

Heather pressed her lips together. “Okay.” She slid the phone across to me. “The number is already in there, just hit send twice.”

I pressed the green button and pushed the phone to my ear at the same time I checked behind me for cars. Multitasking – my mom would be so proud. The phone rang. And rang. And – “Hello?” The announcer’s answer was breathy and shaky.

“
Hi. I wanted to give you some information you need to share with your listeners.” I swallowed, feeling suddenly like I was tattling on my own kind. “The only way to kill these monsters is with fire. You have to burn them. They’ll go toward the heat. It draws them.”
Us.

Hope-filled excitement tripped up her words. “Really? And is what they’re saying correct? Is this a virus?”

I glanced at Connie, James, Travis, and Heather. “We think so, but we’re not sure. We’re working on a cure.”

Her voice turned serious. “What’s your name? How do you know all this?”

I fought the weight of my tongue. I didn’t want to own up to what I was. The truth was hard to acknowledge, even if I lived it. “I’m an original.” The words split on my tongue like lemons.

She stuttered, but I hung up before she could ask more or make judgment calls I already made about myself. I tucked the phone into Heather’s lap and avoided everyone’s eyes.

The radio announcer came back on the air, cutting through another trivial ad. “It’s come to my attention by a very reliable source that the only way to combat these bastards is to burn them. Start fires, people. Large ones. Get the infected ones to the fires. From what I understand they are drawn to the heat. This is the only way to kill them” She drew a breath. “And to the anonymous caller, I’d just like to say thank you. It took guts to do what you did. Your city appreciates it.”

My city.
I’d never thought of it that way. I’d been so sure my parents, my friends, the world was against me, I’d never thought to consider I wasn’t really alone in any of it.

Heather winced as she held the pressure on her wound.

Travis handed sandwiches over to Connie. James watched the exchange with more than a little envy. I wanted something so bad… so bad.

Heather pulled a bag onto her lap. “James, I got you some stuff, too. Just to hold off the hunger, you know?” That girl was so damn sweet. She looked at me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think anything would work for you.”

He leaned forward, eager to put something in his mouth. I didn’t blame him. I would’ve eaten a dust-flavored chip in that moment, just to feel my teeth breaking through something.

Anything.

“
Hey, Paul. Do you think I could call Mom? Have her meet us in Sandpoint?” James didn’t meet my gaze.

I reached behind me and offered the phone. I had nothing to say.

Button tones as he dialed her cell. Ringing.

I watched the road. No one needed to know I listened with my heart in my throat.

She answered on the second ring. “Hello?”

“
Mom, it’s James.” He gripped the phone with white knuckles, but his voice calm.

Mom sighed. “Oh, James. I’m so glad you’re okay. I’m trying to get a flight in, but the airport is closed.” She paused. “Have you heard from your brother?”

My heart pounded. She thought of me. She’d asked about me.

James didn’t answer for a second, like he didn’t know what to say. “Um, yeah. Actually, Mom, that’s why I’m calling. I’m with Paul —”

“—
oh, you are?—” Was that joy or suspicion in her voice?

“—
and we’re heading toward Sandpoint, Idaho. He wanted you to meet us there.” James didn’t meet my eyes in the mirror, but I’m sure he knew I looked at him.

“
Sandpoint? But, why? What’s going on?” She didn’t ask what I wanted, at least.

James sighed. “Mom, don’t question everything, okay? You can’t get in to McCarran anyway. Rent a car and head to Sandpoint. Call me when you get there. I’ll have more information for you then.” He lowered his voice. “Mom, I’m serious. Vegas is like a war zone now. It’s so important you meet us. Please.”

I could almost see her eyebrows lower as she considered what my brother said. “Okay, James.” Her next words came soft and hesitant. “Is Paul there? Can I talk to him?”

James met my gaze then. I shook my head to his unasked question.

“
You know, Mom, he’s driving, but he sends his love.” And I did, but James didn’t know that.
Ass.
He smiled. “I love you. Be careful.”

“
You, too, son. Both of you.” And she clicked off, leaving me with a warm feeling in my chest. Heather wasn’t the only one with family to watch out for.

Heat waves shimmered from the gray-black highway. Sparse trees lined the roadway and brush had a burned out look, like you could snap them in two with the right kind of glare.

We passed the county boundary sign. I’d never driven that far before. My driving had been relegated to Clark County, mostly Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin and Boulder clear out to the dam.

Miles passed. Heather’s arm clotted, the iron in the air less concentrated. I slid my arm along the seat behind her shoulders and asked in a low voice, attempting intimacy but failing miserably. “Are you okay?” James snickered in the back.
Bastard.

She peeked at me through her thick lashes. “Yeah, thanks.”

I worried that she wouldn’t tell me the truth, aim for false bravado. The girl was a puzzle – holding me captive with a knife and then crying on my shoulder because of the attacks on the highway. I liked the fire and water show. Entertaining, if nothing else.

Not one car had passed us since the city, like we were it, the last sane ones in the world.

“
Look out!” Connie yelled from the back seat window. She had collected Travis’s offerings in her lap, clutching them as she avoided the scent of Heather’s blood. She grabbed both my shoulders and pulled backward. “Look out, Paul.”

But I wasn’t fast enough – I still nicked the damn buck with the headlight of the Nova. His haunches jerked from the angle of his body making him swerve off course. Three does raced across the highway behind him.

I slammed my foot on the brakes. Excitement filled my voice. “Connie, James. Food!” I barely shifted into park before I bounded, literally bounded from the car after the deer. I’d cut him. His blood was easy to track. James and Connie followed me, close enough I could hear the excitement in their hitched breathing and quickened paces.

With two fingers I pointed toward the flattened grasses where the injured buck had fled. Connie didn’t pause, dodging to the right and disappearing between the bushes after him. One would have to be enough for her. James and I hunted the does.

Oh, the thrill of hot air against my skin. The females ran, just ahead of us. And my strength consumed me. Adrenaline powered, I flew in the sunlight after them. Maybe I was solar-powered – pushed onward by the chance at meat and heat. Another stupid rhyme that I matched my steps to.
Meat and heat. Meat and heat.

And there they were. They’d stopped, unsure what chased them, worried about their male. Maybe the buck had been a fawn. Does didn’t usually care about males.

James flanked them and rushed the group at me. I grabbed at one as they ran past, jumping on its back as I tackled it. I snapped its neck and left the body for James to start on. We had two others to get before I’d be ready to eat. I was having too much fun.

Chapter 16

“
You guys get filthy when you eat.” Heather inched closer to the door when we returned. Relief filled me that it was in disgust and not fear. She leaned down to her second bag and pulled out some cheap t-shirts. “Thank goodness I grabbed these. Yours can’t handle anymore feedings.” She tossed a pale yellow “Welcome to Vegas!” tee across the seat for me and a blue one for James.

I exited the car again and pulled my damp, red shirt over my head. James followed.

All we did when we scrubbed at our arms and necks with our shirts was rub around more blood. Before I needed to ask, Heather shoved a handful of napkins to me through the doorway.

The question had to be posed. Or maybe it didn’t. Seemed almost too easy with James since we’d left Dominic. Too easy compared to the hatred I’d seen in his eyes at the McCains’, too easy after the fight we’d had. “Are we okay?” I didn’t look at him, couldn’t. My throat tightened. I cared. I really did.

He was quiet as he, too, wiped and patted at his dirty skin.

Connie hadn’t returned from her feeding yet. I wanted to get going, but we had some time, needed to take some time.

Heather poked her head from the car again. “Hey, Paul, look what I found in the dash.” She tossed me a full package of baby wipes. “Why would anyone keep those in the car? There aren’t any baby seats.”

I laughed, but it was tight and controlled. “Yeah, but they clean the car awesome. My mom’s boyfriend is a car freak and he kept two or three in each of his cars and trucks.”

“
Was
.” James snagged a wipe and rubbed it on his face.

I did the same. “What? He
was
a car freak? Did he give up the cars?”

“
Was.” He cleaned behind his ears. “Mom’s not with him anymore. She made him leave after you left.” He still hadn’t met my gaze. “That’s why she’s in Seattle. She had a job offer, a really good one, but she doesn’t know if she should take it or not. You’re not home and she doesn’t feel like she can leave in case you come back.”

Heather returned to the car.

What did I say to that? Shame filled me. If nothing else, the guy had made my mom happy. He was a jerk in some regards, but in others he was awesome. I cleared my throat. Things were suddenly uncomfortable between us again, not throw-down-I’m-going-to-kick-your-ass uncomfortable, but silent-not-sure-what-to-say uncomfortable.