Infinity's Reach (9 page)

“I…don’t hear their voices anymore,” I said quietly. “That’s a good sign.”

“I think they’re as lost in this fog as we are.”

Suddenly I had an idea. “Then let’s retrace our steps. Let’s go back.”

“Back?”

“Yeah. We might be able to find our backpacks and our gear. We could even go back to Harmony and maybe that old woman would take care of us.”

Infinity shook her head. “I got the idea that the only person she took care of was herself. Did you see how fat she was and how skinny everyone else was?”

But I wasn’t that easily discouraged. “Look, do you have a better idea?”

“Yeah. We do what Evangelist said and head west. He’s bound to catch up to us sooner or later.”

“How, Finn?” I asked, my voice beginning to get shrill. “How will he find us? We don’t know where we are, we don’t know which way is west, and we have no way of getting out of here!”

“Ellie, calm down,” Infinity said. “It’ll all work out. Evangelist works for my Daddy and I know for a fact that my Daddy only hires the very best, the smartest, the most determined men and women available. I know that Evangelist will be here.”

“Someday,” I added.

Infinity nodded, then added. “Real soon.”

Logically, I knew she was right. But I had a hard time admitting that our best course of action was just to sit tight. I’ve never been a patient person, and sitting on a little island in a sea of sludge and fog wasn’t easy for me. I nodded agreement with Infinity, but inside I knew that I was close to the end of my rope.

“So what do we do now? Sing?”

Infinity shook her head. “Those crazies are still out there. We sing and that’s like ringing a dinner bell for them.”

“Eww, did you have to say that?”

Infinity grimaced. “Sorry.”

“So singing’s out of the question.”

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t advise us to do anything loud, at least until we know who’s out there.” We looked at her and I nodded, then she apparently had an idea of her own. She held up a finger and then reached down and selected two small, straight sticks that lay at the waterline. She gave me one and took the other and drew four lines, two left to right and two up and down. I instantly recognized the pattern.

I drew an X in the corner. She drew an O in the middle.

An hour later, we were sick and tired of tic-tac-toe. So we tried to think of some other games. Finally we improvised a checkerboard and checkers, me using pieces of driftwood for the white checkers, she using small stones for the black checkers. That lasted a couple of hours.

Finally we looked at each other and sighed. Neither one of us wanted to say it, but we were hungry, cold and depressed. Water surrounded us, but we didn’t dare drink it. And as we looked around us, we realized that it was getting dark again.

Tears came into my eyes even though I tried to be brave. Infinity reached over and wrapped me in a hug. We sat there on the edge of the water for a long time, our arms around each other, both lost little girls. And then the tears came hard and fast for both of us. After a long 15 minutes of crying, we both were spent, but felt better.

“Maybe we should have done that earlier,” Infinity said, sniffing.

“Ahh, I’m a mess, and no tissues in sight,” I responded. “But thanks. I needed that.”

“Should we try a fire?” Infinity asked.

“No,” I said. “You’re right. Those crazies could still be out there. And I want them to stay on their side of the neighborhood.”

“Then I guess the only thing left is for us to get some sleep,” Infinity said.

We lay down together on a soft piece of sand and listened to the small waves lapping on the shore. We huddled close together to keep warm, Infinity behind me with her arm draped over my waist.

“Finn?” I asked quietly after a few minutes.

“Yes.”

“If the fog is still here in the morning, I want to go back.”

She paused. “Let’s talk about it in the morning.”

“OK,” I said, but I knew that she’d never go back.

My stomach growled all night. It had been more than 24 hours since we’d eaten that possum burger in Harmony, and I couldn’t get the sight of it out of my mind, or the taste of it out of my mouth. Infinity fell asleep right away, but I stayed awake for a long time. Every time I heard a strange sound—a splash, a distant scream, an animal noise—I shook with fear. I realized that even though I’d gone camping with my father years before, I would never be totally comfortable in the wild. And when I thought about walking across the entire United States—these wild, frightening United States—I realized that I couldn’t do it.

I slept fitfully that night and was awake with the first rays of light that brightened up the fog around us. And I realized that the fog was heavier than ever. And that was when I knew what I had to do.

I slipped out from under Infinity’s arm and stood up. My body was stiff from lying on the cold ground all night. I stretched and looked down at Infinity, still lying on the ground, sleeping peacefully.

“Goodbye, Finn,” I said quietly. “And God be with you.”

Having said that, I waded back into the water. I tried to remember the part of the island that we’d landed on, then set out from there. I waded for quite a few minutes through the cold water, then after a while leaned forward and began breast stroking in the direction I thought the sunken town of Despond lay. I turned over on my back and looked behind me. Already the island had disappeared into the fog. I waited for Infinity’s voice to come through the fog, calling me, wishing me to come back to her. And chances were I would have turned back at that point. I’m really a chicken at heart. But her voice never came, and I kept swimming back toward the town.

Ten minutes of swimming brought me back to sunken rooftops, and another five minutes later I saw the church steeple where we’d hidden from the crazies two nights before. Now I had a choice. I could turn right and go back the way we’d come, up the hill onto the levee and try to find my way back to the backpacks. Or I could take the road that I’d seen coming out of the valley in the other direction.

I treaded water for a full minute, trying to decide which direction I should take. Going back risked me running into the crazies again somewhere along the road. But I had no idea where the other road would take me, and I was tired of surprises. So in the end, scared out of my wits, I opted to go back the way we’d come.

I climbed out of the water where the road had dropped in, just where we’d been two nights ago. And I was relieved to hear no animals or human voices. I slowly made my way back onto the levee and headed back the direction we’d come. By the time I got to the patch of brambles that we’d gotten lost in, my clothes had dried. The path seemed easier this time, which I imagined was because I didn’t have wild men chasing me now. I skirted the bramble patch and found the hill where we’d camped on the other side.

By the time I’d started climbing the hill, the fog had begun lifting, and I was encouraged when I got to the top and sunshine shone on me. But I was also disappointed to learn that someone had taken the packs. I didn’t know what I do if I’d found them, perhaps return to Finn with them, for once playing the hero? But that scenario wasn’t going to happen, and so I decided to go back to Harmony.

Now that the sun was out, I was encouraged, my clothes were dry and I had a pretty good idea how to find the town. It didn’t take me long to get there, and sure enough, Flo was still there as usual, selling her burgers. I’d forgotten how old and overweight she was, but considering where I’d been that morning, she looked pretty good to me.

“Where’s your friend?” were the first words out of her mouth.

“We decided to go separate ways,” I told her.

“Oh, you did, did you? And you decided you wanted to come back and get another burger?”

“Actually, Flo, I decided that life on the road wasn’t for me. I was wondering if you might consider a partner.”

Flo frowned and looked down. “I don’t really need a partner.”

I sighed. “That’s what I was afraid of. But to tell you the truth, Flo, I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Flo looked at me as if she were trying to determine my monetary worth. “I don’t take in strays, either, if you catch my drift. But I know that the road is a dangerous place, especially for a young girl like you. How about this: you can sleep in the back of my shed tonight and keep out anyone who might steal something. I’ll feed you today and tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m expecting some business people to come into town. Maybe they can suggest some ideas.”

I brightened. A hot meal and a place to sleep out of the cold was more than I’d had just hours before. Flo brought out a plate full of scraps left over from sandwiches she’d made and not sold, and I wolfed them down. I stayed the day with her and chatted about our lives before the Event. That evening around sundown, she shut down her burger stand and I found a soft place to sleep inside.

The next morning I was awakened when Flo opened the shed not long after sunrise. She had with her two raccoons that she’d caught the night before in traps. I worked with her to clean the raccoons and get meat from their skinny bodies. She then put the meat into a grinder. I was still hungry, and tempted to take raw meat from the grinder as it fell out, but Flo warned me that wild animals often carried diseases that would easily transfer to humans unless they were cooked. I wondered if there were also diseases that transferred even though they were cooked, but said nothing.

Just as it started to get warm, Flo started cooking burgers and people began to file forward. I learned a lot about post-Event commerce from Flo, and noticed that even though she’d said she only did business in caps, there was still a lot of bartering going on.

She hadn’t offered to feed me early on—I suspected she wanted to see how much business she would have and if she would have enough food—but when things slowed down, she went ahead and made both of us a sandwich. I didn’t like raccoon burgers as much as I had liked the possum burger, but I didn’t complain. I was still licking the grease off my fingers when I saw several men in grey uniforms come up to the window.

“Right on time,” she said. She spread a half a dozen burgers on the grill.

“Got another one for us, I see,” the older man in the group said.

“Yup,” Flo said. “She’s a little bit on the bony side, but fatten her up and I think she’ll work for you.”

It took a long minute before I realized that they were talking about me. I stood there, mouth agape, until a young boy, not much older than me, came around behind the counter and looked at me like a dog inspecting a bone.

“Hold your hands out,” he barked.

“What are you talking about? Who are you?” I barked back.

In response, Flo slapped me across the cheek. It surprised me, and I found myself holding my hands out in front of me without thinking. In an instant, the young soldier had slipped plastic cuffs over my wrists and began pulling me out the door.

“Flo, what is this? Flo?” I yelled behind me. I felt betrayed.

“This is the best thing for you, girl. Best thing for me too. Now where’s my 50 caps?”

The six soldiers got back on their horses after getting some food and rode back down the road. I was forced to follow them on foot, my wrists bound and a leader pulling me ahead at a horse’s pace. Fortunately we didn’t go far.

A mile outside of town, a convertible car pulled up, driven by a chauffeur and with a familiar face in the back seat. It was Damien, dressed in the gray uniform of an officer. The others saluted him when he drove up, and Damien reluctantly returned their salute. Damien stepped out of the car he was riding in and looked at me.

“Damien, is that you?” I said weakly.

“Hello, Ellie,” he said smugly. “I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“Can you…can you help me out….”

He looked at me, then at my bound wrists.

“Of course, of course,” he said, motioning to the young soldier to drop the lead he had attached to his horse. “Get in the car.” He motioned to the soldiers to go on down the road, which they did. After I climbed into the car, he climbed in after me.

“Where’s Finn?” he asked.

“Damien, what are you doing in that silly uniform?” I answered.

He responded by back handing me across the face.

While I held my mouth in shock, he spoke again.

“Let me ask you one more time, Ellie. Where is Infinity Richards?”

It was then that my memories came back to me like a bolt out of a thundercloud.  
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12. regrets

ELLIE: EASTERN TENNESSEE: DAY 716

I was wrong. Somehow I knew that I was wrong, that I was making a wrong decision, that what I was doing would condemn me to hell on earth as soon as I said Goodbye to you, Infinity. And now I’m paying the price for that wrong act. This is my letter of contrition, my apology, my sincerest way of saying I wish I would have been as loyal to you then as I had been in years past.

When I saw Damien, it was like a high school reunion—for about five minutes. Then when I realized that Damien had changed, that he was no longer Damien Wiseman, prankster and goofball, but was now Lt. Damien Wiseman, an officer in the occupation forces of the Reformed United States—well, something clicked. I was no longer at St. Eloise’s Academy for Girls. I was a refugee fleeing from a concentration camp. And the guy who was sitting next to me was going to imprison me and worse. He wanted my best friend, and I knew that he would do anything,
anything
, to make me tell him where she was.