Glory (Book 5) (8 page)

Chapter 3

By the time Adam got back to the school, there was a slight orange haze filling the sky. No one was outside waiting for him. Though he hadn't really expected them to be. Regardless, he had to admit that it would have been a nice welcome if they were.

Several thoughts continued to pass through his head as he got closer to the side door. None more so than the fact that he hadn't been able to find Jane
.
He had let her down once again.

No
,
he argued
,
that wasn't true. He had tried. He really had.

He stepped onto the school's pavement and looked for any sign of the others. They weren't at the playground. They weren't on the roof. He thought about calling out to them, then decided that it wasn't necessary. He'd see them soon enough.

He headed to the side door and opened it.

A surge of happiness overcame him. It felt good to be back. Like this was his home. His family.

He went inside and walked to the library.

At the library door, he stopped.

He could hear voices…and they weren't familiar.

His happiness was replaced by panic. Images of people like Sam and Big Mike ran through his already crowded mind.

He raised his gun out in front of him and, without pause, barged through the library door.

A group of people spun around to see him. Claire, Shelly, Charles and Robert were among them. They were all seated in the middle of the library.

"Whoa!" Claire shouted as soon as she saw him...and the gun. She darted to her feet and rushed over to him. "It's okay. They were just passing by the school when Shelly saw them. They're like us
.
Survivor
s
. They're not here to hurt us."

Adam wanted to keep the gun trained on the newcomers, but he lowered it anyway.

"Come on," Claire continued. She put his hand on his arm and led him over to the group. "Everyone, this is Adam, the guy we told you all about."

"Hey, Adam," one of them said. A young man. "I'm Scooter."

Adam looked him over. He didn't look all that dangerous. Except for the axe that he had beside him. That being said, Adam supposed that it was understandable. It was important to have protection. So long as Scooter didn't use it against any of them, Adam figured it wouldn't be a problem.

"My name is Julie," a young woman said next.

Adam noticed that she was wearing a tight t-shirt and a pair of tight jeans. And if they hadn't been covered in blood and dirt, Adam would have found her attractive. Almost sexy. He also knew that if he continued to look at her, Claire would notice. She probably already had.

He turned to look at Claire. She rolled her eyes at him. Other than that, she didn't seem too bothered.

"I'm Marianne," a woman said. A lot older than Julie. A lot older than himself. A little bit overweight. And a little bit homely. Yet, there was something about her that Adam liked. It might have been the way she held herself. It might have been the bright yellow shirt she wore. Or the purse that she carried. "And this is Buster," she added.

Marianne pointed to a dog. Adam hadn't thought much about pets since the whole change had taken place. He had never really had one of his own, aside from a small fish when he was around ten years old. But now that he saw Buster he realized that there must be thousands of animals out there, looking for their owners. And just as many more that had been killed by them.

Buster raised his head when he heard his name, though he didn't seem all too concerned with it. He was too busy being pet by Charles.

He turned to look at an old woman.

"I'm Alice," she said. She looked tired compared to the rest. Worn down. But he supposed that was to be expected at her age.

"And who is this?" he asked, looking at a little girl sitting beside Robert.

It was the little boy who answered, "This is Emily." He reached over and grabbed her hand. "She's going to be my best friend."

Emily nodded her head in agreement.

He looked around at the group, again
.
No, they definitely didn't look dangerous
.
He was sure that they'd be fine
.
Maybe better than fin
e
. It was good to have more people around.

"It's nice to meet you all," he said.

They shared the same sentiments.

But, now it was time to broach a more serious subject
.
He had to tell them about Jane. "I couldn't find her," he said bluntly.

"Jane?" Robert asked. "You couldn't find her?" The little boy no longer looked excited at the prospect of having a new friend. Instead, his thoughts had gone back to the woman who had taken off, the one he felt responsible for.

"No, I couldn't find her, “Adam said. “I'm sorry."

The little boy paused as his young brain tried to make sense of it all. "Will you look for her again?"

"Sure, I will." Adam didn't think that it would do any good, but it wouldn't do any harm, either.

"Tomorrow?"

"Sure, I can look again tomorrow."

"I know you'll find her."

"I hope so."

Charles spoke to him next, doing his best to control the emotion in his voice. "Well…thank you for trying," he said.

"And she still might come back," Shelly added hopefully.

"She might," Adam agreed, though his heart wasn't in it. He turned to the others in the group. "I really am glad to have met all of you, but I think I should go lie down." All that had happened was beginning to overwhelm him.

Claire stood up and moved toward him. "Do you want to stay here?" she asked. "We can all leave the library, go outside or something."

"No, it's okay. I'll just go in to one of the other classrooms. I'll be fine in there. I just need a little rest. That's all. I'm really sorry."

Everyone shook their heads. There was no reason for him to apologize. They all knew what it was like to need rest.

Adam walked to the door. Claire with him. She held the door open and followed him through it.

They found a little room just down the hall. It was clean. And the windows were still intact.

Adam made his way over to the teacher's desk and sat down in the chair there. Claire rubbed his back.

"You did a good job today," she said. "We're all glad that you tried."

"I had to give it a shot. I just wish that I had found her."

"We all do. But, like Shelly said, she might come back."

Adam could tell that she didn't believe her words all that much. "I'm too tired to think about it right now," he said.

"Of course." Claire rubbed his back again. "Just get some rest."

"I will. And I'm sorry that I'm not in a better mood."

"Don't be silly. We all understand. Now put your head down and go to sleep."

Adam did as he was told. He felt her kiss the back of his head.

Then Claire walked out of the room, leaving him alone.

*

Adam was surprised at how overcome with emotion he had become. After meeting the newcomers and telling everyone about his failed attempt at finding Jane, everything seemed to set in. One after the other, thoughts had bombarded him.

Jane. Claire. Shelly.

He sat there with his head on the desk. Eyes closed. One arm over them to help further block out the waning light.

Charles. Robert.

He thought back to Woody
.
Finding him dressed as a woman in the department store. Leaving him in his house. Probably to die.

There were the newcomers.

The possibility that there were more survivors out there as well.

They had all had to endure so much since the change. They were always on the go, always trying to survive.

A few weeks ago he would never have thought that he'd have been wandering through the forest with a shotgun, looking for a woman who had lost her mind. He could never have imagined that he would have had to search for a young girl who had been kidnapped by thugs. It was hard for him to believe that he had fallen for someone who had been captured by these same thugs, raped by one of them.

Sam. Big Mike.

It was all too much to handle.

He could definitely understand why Jane had had a hard time keeping it together. Her husband had killed their daughter in front of her. She had had to do things that any mother (and teacher) would have hated. She had killed children, shot them in the face. Charles had even told him that she had beaten one to death with a shovel, had smothered another that had been tied to a bed.

None of it was fair to any of them. And it was happening so fast.

Adam took a deep breath and tried to settle his mind. The thoughts continued to come. Faces danced before him. People he had known before th
e
chang
e
. People he had met after.

He felt remorse. Sadness. Happiness. Longing.

Then he felt nothing.

He had fallen into a dreamless sleep and didn't wake up until Claire came to get him.

Chapter 4

Scooter stood on the rooftop. He had been taken up there to watch the last of the sunset. He looked out over the distance. Though the truth of that matter was that there wasn't much out there that he wanted to see. It depressed him to think that those creatures were out there - as was John's mutilated corpse. Cities had been destroyed. Houses ruined. People killed.

No, there definitely wasn't much that he wanted to see.

Then again...

He thought about the school, about the people he had found people there. Or, more accurately, the people had foun
d
them.

It had been Shelly who had run out to meet them. At first, he had thought that she was one of those things. He had even raised his axe in defense. But when she had waved and called out to them
-
with that smile of her
s
- any fear he may have had had left him.

Everyone else seemed nice as well.

So that was something positive. There could be others like that out there as well.

Marianne came up beside him. "How are you?" she asked.

Scooter turned to look at the woman. A grin on her face. Her purse clutched underneath her arm. "I'm fine," he said. "You?"

"I"m all right. A bit tired. We've had a busy couple of days."

"We've had a busy couple o
f
week
s
," Scooter corrected her.

Marianne nodded
.
I
t
ha
d
been a busy couple of week
s
. "So what do you think?" she asked.

"Of the people here?"

"Yes."

He told her what he had been thinking.

"They seem pretty nice," Marianne agreed. "It's nice to have found them. It'll be good to stay here for a while too."

Scooter did feel good here. Safer.

Marianne reached out and rubbed his arm. She could tell that he wasn't in much of a mood to talk. "I'll leave you alone for a bit," she said. "Come and talk to me when you want."

At that, Scooter felt bad for the way he had been acting. He hadn't meant to be rude to her. He had simply been too preoccupied with his thoughts. He began to explain this when Marianne stopped him.

"It's okay," she said. "Like you said, it’s been a couple of busy weeks. We all need time to process things. Just come and talk to me when you're ready."

"I will."

Marianne walked away.

Scooter turned back to the sunset.

Before he had much of a chance to think about anything else, Shelly came up to him next. The young girl stood to his side, looking out over the distance with him.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," she said.

Scooter looked at her her. He could tell she was excited to have them here. Ever since they had arrived Shelly had been cheerful, playing with Buster; talking to little Emily. There was something refreshing about her
.
Energizing.

"I guess," he said.

"You guess? Look at the colours."

The sky had darkened to a deep orange and red. If he was being honest, it was nice…
i
f he didn't think about the creatures and death.

"Okay," he said. "You're right."

Shelly smiled. "So what do you think about everything?"

"Everything?"

"Yeah
,
everything."

Scooter almost laughed. It was such an absurd thing to ask. He couldn't possibly tell her what he thought about everything. "That's a big question!"

Shelly admitted that it was. "Okay, so lets go back to the view. What goes through your mind when you look at it?"

Goes through his mind
?
That was another big question. A lot went through his mind. Yet, he thought he'd take a shot at an answer.

"Honestly," he said, "it looks lonely." He knew that it had a morbid thing to say, but that was how he felt.

"I can see that," Shelly agreed.

"You can?"

"Yeah. There's not much moving out there, is there? And the people who are left are probably on their own."

Her words made him think of how lucky he had been to find the people he had. More than likely, most out there hadn't been as lucky. People still on their own. Struggling to survive.

"But I also think it looks hopeful," Shelly added.

Scooter couldn't understand why. "Hopeful?"

"The world is so big. It might look lonely now. But I think we're going to find others out there somewhere. I can't help but believe that there's something more for us out there."

She definitely had an interesting way of seeing things
.
A smile came to his lips.

"I like that," he said. "I don't know if I agree with it. But I like it."

"It's the best we can hope for."

"You're right," he agreed. "It's the best we can."