Contagious (14 page)

“
You had surgery?” Raeya asked, her voice high. “And didn’t tell me?”

“
I knew you would worry,” I said meekly. “I had my appendix out.”

“
Riss! You should have told me!”

“
Nah, it was no big deal.”

Jason loudly cleared his throat. I hadn’t realized the others had gathered around. Out of the dimness of the attic, I recognized the blonde as Lauren Hill. By some evil twist of fate we had at least one class together every year. I couldn’t stand her. She came from an upper-middle class family that wasn’t touched by the depression, always had perfect hair, and acted like she was better than everyone, though she lacked any credible reason to back that up.

There was a minute of awkward introductions. Zombie boy introduced himself as Spencer and sounded like he might burst into tears at any second. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Padraic look Lauren up and down. It seemed at first that he was checking her out.

“
Did any of you get hurt?” he asked. He was checking for infection. They told him no and I wanted to add that they didn’t due to being giant sissies and running away, leaving Raeya and me to kill the bastards that used to be their friends. Lisa and Zoe mentioned being hungry. Now was as good a time as any to eat. With three extra people, our food would go fast. We needed to find more.

Raeya and I took our cans of tuna and walked a few feet down the road. I wanted to be alone with her, to make sure she was ok since losing her boyfriend. We settled down on the pavement, dumping the extra water from our cans and eating it with our fingers. Padraic joined us, sitting cross legged next to me.

“
How did you survive?” he asked Raeya, staring at her wide-eyed.

“
I had a list,” Raeya replied, as if that was a normal thing to say.

“
You had a list?” Padraic repeated.

“
Well, not physically. Orissa helped me make it awhile ago...it was a disaster plan for regular disaster then. But I remembered what I wrote. And I did what I thought Orissa would do. If anyone could survive something like this, it’s her.”

“
And Orissa,” he continued, “how do you know how to-to
survive
?”

I looked at Raeya and smirked, remembering the years spent with my grandpa. “Trust me; I was put to the test.”

“
How? You need to explain. Are you some sort of government agent? Is that why you are so insistent that no one is coming?”

“
No,” I said, almost laughing.

“
Give me something,” he pleaded with a charming smile. “The way you fought back there…it was amazing.”

“
I’ve been taking martial art lessons since I was twelve,” I supplied.

“
That’s the key to survival?” he asked, not convinced.

“
Listen,” I said, shoving the last of the tuna in my mouth. “We can talk in the car. We’re wasting daylight.” I stood up and carefully stretched. I extended a hand for Raeya and pulled her to her feet. Already an inch taller than me, she towered over me in three inch heels. “We need to find you some practical shoes.”

“
And a new outfit!” she exclaimed. “I am not going to be a sexy nurse forever.”

I laughed. “I have some clothes in the car.”

“
Nothing of yours will fit me, Riss.”

“
Oh shut up, yes it will.”

The three of us walked together. I called for Argos, who had run off the moment he got out of the car. A few seconds went by without seeing him, causing a flicker of fear to strike in my heart.

“
Maybe I should put you on a leash,” I told him when he finally galloped to the car. I opened a can of tuna for him, dumping the contents on the ground. I felt their eyes on me. When I turned, all nine of my companions were looking at me. “What?”

“
W-what do we do now?” Hilary asked.

I waited for someone else to make a suggestion. Why were they asking me? I kicked the empty tuna can aside, not knowing if I should feel bad about littering. Did it matter anymore? “Well,” I started, my brain turning on its survival mode. “There are ten of us plus Argos and only two cars. We need to find another vehicle, preferably one with four-wheel drive. And a hybrid would be nice, but beggars can’t be choosers, right? We’ll take what we can get.”

“
And where are we going to find a car?” Lauren asked. Maybe only I heard the doubting jeer in her voice.

“
We need to find another town, not a big city since they seem to be overrun with infected people. If we’re lucky, the virus will have killed the majority of the people who stayed behind.”

“
How does that make us lucky?” Lauren pursed her lips, eyebrows raised.

“
Let’s think about it: less zombies, less crazies, and more supplies for us.” I rolled my eyes. Raeya shot me the ‘be nice’ look. She knew I was no fan of Lauren’s.

“
It makes sense,” Jason told her. “We were able to get a ton of stuff in Indy.”

“
Can I see all this stuff?” Lauren requested.

Jason rolled loose gravel under his foot, running his hand through his messy, brown hair. “We, uh, ran into some complications.”

I removed the strap from my satchel and dropped it on the ground. We needed to get the car situation sorted out first. In short distances, cramming into the Camaro wasn’t a big deal. Even I couldn’t expect anyone to put up with being stuck in the back with no leg room for hours. Lisa and Zoe were the smallest. Though I didn’t want to not have Zoe in my sight or protection, it made sense to put them in the back. Hilary, by default, would drive and I knew I couldn’t handle Lauren being in the same car with me for more than ten minutes.

Raeya had picked up my purse and extracted the notebook. She pulled the pen from the metal spiral and sat on the hood of the Range Rover.

“
Ok,” she said. “We need to first find shelter, right? Then another car and food.” She quickly scribbled it down. “Then what, after that?”

“
Head south,” I answered, so used to Raeya’s incessant list making it didn’t strike me as odd. “We don’t want to be here for the winter.”

“
Just anywhere?”

“
I had a place in mind.” I joined her on the hood of the car, not wanting to play the lead role anymore. I just wanted to talk to my best friend. “My grandparents’ farm.”

“
And then what?”

I sighed and rested my head on her shoulder. “I don’t know.”

She put her head on mine and, for just a second, I thought we’d be alright as long as we stuck together. “Can you come up with something? I already wrote a number five. I need to put something there.”

“
Go to Disney World and live in the castle.”

Raeya’s body twinged with excitement. “Can we?”

“
No. Well, maybe. I don’t know what it’s like there. A zombie Mickey Mouse would scar me for life. Let’s avoid the theme parks.”

She recapped the pen and set the notebook down. “What’s the point, Orissa? What’s the point of going on living in a world like this?”

“
We just have to, don’t we?”

“
I guess. There has to be more, right? More people like us?”

“
I’m sure there are. And I’m sure there are real quarantines,” I said, wanting to believe it.

“
If anyone will get us there, it’s you.”

I jumped off the SUV. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

She gave me a half smile. “I know.”

“
Tonight,” I said loud enough for everyone to hear me. “We should start heading south. Kentucky is our current destination.”

“
What’s in Kentucky?” Jason asked.

“
It’s where we grew up,” I explained, glancing at Raeya. “We know the area and it’s warmer, it’s worth a try.”

“
You’re from Kentucky?” Zoe asked, scrunching up her nose. “You don’t have an accent.”

“
I wasn’t born there,” I told her. “Not everyone from Kentucky has accents, either. That’s a stereotype,” I explained.

“
Oh,” she said apologetically. I shrugged to show her it was ok. We resituated our bags and loaded into the cars. Padraic and Spencer sat up front in the Range Rover, Raeya, Jason and Sonja sat in the backseats and I nestled down next to Argos in the cargo area. Using the sun as our guide, we headed south. It wasn’t long before we entered a desolate town, empty long before the virus hit.

“
This is one of those ghost towns, isn’t it?” Sonja asked her brother.

“
I think so,” he said quietly while looking out the window. “I’ve never seen one in person.”

According to the news, several hundred new ghost towns existed all over the United States. When the Second Great Depression hit, small, farming communities were the first to go. It was cheaper to buy crops that were grown in a lab, and they were available all year round. Why pay the extra few dollars for freshly grown produce that was only sellable a few months out of the year?

The farmers ran out of money, went bankrupt, and were forced to leave their fields. They flocked to big cities, trying to find a job. One by one they left, eventually pulling so many away from the town that there was simply nothing left. Without the farming families, restaurants lost customers, business lost clients…it was a scary fast domino effect.

A small town near where my grandparents lived had ghosted out. I drove through it two years ago, unnerved then by how people just picked up and left. If it didn’t fit in their car, they left it. Old oak tables, handmade furniture, livestock, and much, much more were left behind. It wasn’t long before the ghost towns started housing America’s most unwanted. The drug dealers and hookers didn’t seem fazed by the Depression, instead viewed it as an opportunity. They would take over two or three houses, man guards on the main roads and continue on about their ‘businesses’.

I hoped this wasn’t one of those towns. Not that it would matter, I supposed. It had been years since any of the fields had seen a plow and the remaining cars were covered in rust. A white farmhouse sat empty in an overgrown field. It had a detached garage and the barn was a good distance away. If we were going to camp out tonight, this was the place to do it.

Argos and I went first. I wanted Raeya to stay in the car where she was relatively safe. She objected and only agreed when I reminded her of the impractical footwear she had on. Padraic and Jason followed behind me. The old, wooden floor boards creaked when I walked across the porch. Refusing to let myself acknowledge the fact this could be the perfect set for a horror movie, I opened the door. The inside was just as haunting: crumbling drywall, sagging ceilings, and soft floorboards. The only light filtered in through the broken windows in the front. Thick dust coated the unbroken glass, making the passage of light impossible. Rain had obviously soaked the once beautiful wooden floorboards and I wondered if we would crash through to the basement.

The house smelled of things forgotten. Broken glass crunched under my feet. Faded cotton curtains weakly blew in the wind on a bent curtain rod, offering little protection from the elements. Torn cardboard boxes lay on their sides, their contents spilled and scattered across the floor. The room stank of animal droppings, and, judging by the way Argos sniffed through the random crap strewn about, mice and rats had made this house their home.

The back of the house was more substantial; the windows hadn’t been broken so rain and snow hadn’t had a chance to ruin the foundation. An old refrigerator greeted us with the smell of food that was beyond rotting and to the point of growing. There were crusty dishes in the sink and an overturned table.

The door that led to the basement had a small hook-and-eye type latch that was still locked. Figuring that a zombie or crazy hadn’t relatched it, we bypassed the basement and moved to the stairs. Each one groaned under the stress of my weight. Pictures hung on the wall, faded and dirty, showcasing a once happy family.

There was a hole in the ceiling. The carpet underneath it was moldy, squishy, and horribly foul smelling. I was pretty sure someone used the toilet and never flushed, and the bedroom across from it was trashed.

“
We can’t stay here,” Padraic said, covering his nose. “If the asbestos doesn’t kill us, the black mold will.”

I sighed; he was right. This house had a perfect vantage point and was secluded. And, except for rodents, raccoons, and possibly an opossum, the house was empty. I whistled for Argos and jogged down the stairs. Jason exited first, telling the others the house was no good. Argos pounced, scaring a mouse from its newspaper home. I whistled again and got no response.

“
Get over here, Argos!” When the dog didn’t listen, I strode over, not minding my footing. Suddenly, the floor gave way. The gun flew from my hands as I wildly reached out. Only one foot sunk down, and I felt stupid for acting so dramatic. Padraic flew over to help; his added weight only weakened the water damaged floor even more. He leapt out of the way just as I yanked my foot free.

“
Are you ok?” he asked.

“
Fine,” I answered, shaking my foot. My ankle was now a little sore, great. “Let’s get out of here.”

“
Good plan,” he agreed and extended his hand.

“
I don’t need help,” I said, not meaning for it to sound as rude as it did.

“
Obviously you can take care of yourself. I didn’t mean to insult you.” He dropped his hand and cast his eyes down. Dammit, he was offended.

“
No, it-it’s ok. Thanks.” I picked up the gun and forced a smile. “Help me to the door?” I outstretched my hand. Once again, I was taken aback at the softness of his skin. I curiously wondered if the rest of his skin was just as soft. It took about half an hour to find more houses. Nothing in a ghost town would be spectacular. I knew we could find something better than the old farmhouse, which had to have been abandoned long before the Depression.