Into the Badlands (16 page)

He stood up then stretched, listening to the sound of his knees and his back popping. He was getting old, and living on the road as they were seemed to exacerbate these problems. He checked the kids once more then walked back to the back of the RV. He opened the door and checked in on Trish. She was still asleep. He smiled at the sight.

He walked back to the living room of the RV, found his backpack, then took a drink from his canteen. He then laid back in the chair again. He didn’t want to wake the boys; if they were hungry they’d wake up and find him. Sleep called to him again, the siren song of peaceful escape and rejuvenation. Within a minute he was asleep again.

That day all four of them slept the whole night through. It was the first time any of them had slept a full night in years.

The following morning Ed awoke feeling better than he had in months, maybe even years. Both boys stirred shortly thereafter, both complaining they had to pee. Ed did too. The RV provided a bathroom with a functional toilet, so all three made quick use of it. Ed then checked in on Trish. He found her lying in bed with her eyes open, looking at the wall.

“You okay?” he asked her.

“I’m great. Feeling much better. How long did I sleep?”

“Long enough, I suppose. You're feeling better, right?”

“I am feeling better. And I’m hungry again too.”

“Excellent,” he said. He walked over next to her, then placed the back of his hand on her forehead. She felt a little warm, but not hot. “Looks like your fever has gone down again. I’m about to make breakfast. Not sure exactly what’s on the menu, but I’m hoping it’ll be something better than Spam and beef jerky.”

Trish smiled. “We can always hope, can't we?”

Ed walked out of the room and into the kitchen. Both of the boys were in the living room playing with a deck of playing cards they’d found inside the RV. It looked as if that would occupy them for some time.

He opened up the first cabinet and scanned over the canned food labels. He eventually chose green beans and corn. He also found some spud flakes in a tin. It had been a long time since any of them had had a meal that substantial in one sitting. His mouth watered at the thought of it.

He found some bowls in another cabinet then opened the cans with a can opener he found in a drawer. He then divided up the food between the four of them, in more or less equal portions.

He called the boys over to the kitchen, then they carried their bowls into the bedroom to eat with Trish. They ate in silence, all of them eating ravenously, enjoying every last bite. They drank the water they had in their canteens, using up most of it. Ed thought it might easily qualify as the best meal he’d ever had.

After they were finished eating Ed had the boys clean up. Trish said she wanted to get out of bed and go sit in the living room for a while, so Ed allowed the boys to use the playing cards in the bedroom while he helped her to the living room. Once there, Ed offered her the plush chair. She accepted, then took a seat on the couch. They sat in silence for a while.

“I’m sorry I almost shot you,” Trish said, seemingly from nowhere.

“I’d almost forgotten about that,” he told her. It was a white lie, but it sounded good.

“I just didn’t know if I could trust you then,” she continued.

“The important thing is you didn’t actually shoot me.”

She paused, then took a deep breath. “I wasn’t sure if I could trust anybody again, not after what happened.”

Ed didn’t reply.

“Three guys caught me while I was sleeping one night,” she went on to say. “They drugged me and then raped me for days.”

“That’s terrible.” Ed’s tone was somber. He couldn’t begin to imagine what that must have been like.

“I killed at least one of them, maybe even two. I stabbed one to death.” She paused, thinking, looking almost through the walls of the RV. “I lost count of how many times I stabbed him. He was a monster; once I started stabbing I didn't want to stop.

“The second one, I sliced open his eyeball with a knife when I escaped. I left him pretty fucked up, so I hope he died. I never saw the third one again. I never even saw his face during the whole thing. The last thing I remember after all that is walking toward that Target, and thinking that if I could just find food and water there I’d be okay. I don’t remember anything else until I pulled the gun on you in the bedroom of the farmhouse.”

Ed shifted in his seat. He called to the boys to make sure they were okay, then refocused his attention on Trish. Even in the relative safety of the RV he was a little uncomfortable with them being out of sight. It was a habit that kept them alive.

“Have you ever killed anyone, I mean anyone not infected?” she asked him.

“No,” he replied. “I've been lucky in that respect.”

“I keep thinking I should feel badly about it. I feel like I should wish it hadn't happened. The truth is, I'm glad he's dead, and I'm glad I sliced up the other one. Does that make me a monster too?” she asked.

“They did horrible things to you. Of course not,” he told her.

She looked at Ed in the eyes, her face more serious than he'd ever seen it. “You know what my only regret is? That I didn't get the chance to kill the third one.”

Silence ensued. The awkwardness was palpable; Ed needed to diffuse it. “It was fortunate our paths crossed, I think.”

She smiled. Her face returned to normal, and most of the tension lifted. “Yeah, it was.” More silence followed, then Trish changed the subject. “So what's your story? How long have you guys been on the road? How’d you end up there in the first place?”

Ed took a deep breath, then began. “We’ve been on the road for maybe two years. We spent the first year after the outbreak in a border town, east of here. After the first year the town ran out of food. People also started to get sick; whooping cough, measles, stuff we hadn't seen in decades.

“It didn’t take long to figure out that we needed to get out of there. We took what few things we had left along with whatever food we could scrounge up, then we just walked out.”

“Just you and boys?” she asked.

Ed paused, then looked away. “My wife was with us then.”

“I see. I didn’t mean to bring that up.”

“It’s okay. It was a long time ago,” he told her. That was another lie; it seemed like it was only yesterday to him. That wasn’t Trish's fault though.

Trish looked directly at Ed. “I understand. I lost Tim last year. He was my boyfriend. I’ve been on my own since then.”

“Sorry to hear that,” he told her. “You mentioned him back at the farmhouse.”

She continued. “We weren't married, but we might as well have been. He gave me his class ring, sort of like a wedding ring, and then those assholes who raped me took it from me. I never found it. It makes me ill to think that it's gone forever.

“Tim and I met at the beginning of my senior year of high school. I was seventeen at the time. Then the virus hit, and before I knew it my mom and all my friends were dead. Tim’s too. All we had then was each other.

“We spent the first couple years on the road, just trying to find food and avoid being killed. We were close, as close as two people can be, I think. Shared tragedy does that to people. He was my rock and then he was gone, just like that. I had never felt so alone.”

They sat in silence again. Ed liked this girl; she was tough. She’d been through a lot, and she had fought her way through it. She had also lost someone close to her, so she could relate to his pain. He felt drawn to her, despite their age difference. Kindred spirits knew nothing of age, he supposed.

“So where are we headed?” she asked. The subject change seemed abrupt. Ed couldn't help but notice the phrasing of her question; if there was any doubt of her desire to travel with him and the boys it was now erased.

“Which version do you want?” he asked her. “The optimistic version, or the pessimistic version?”

“How about both? Then I can decide which one I like better.” She grinned at him.

“Well, the boys and are I headed west, toward St. Louis. While we were still in the border town I caught a ham radio transmission one night about the city possibly being a safe haven. Problem is that the message was garbled. I couldn’t make out whether or not the operator said St. Louis
is
a safe have or St. Louis
is not
a safe haven.

“The boys have faith that the city will provide them the safe haven they need. They go to sleep every night believing it. They get up the next day and it drives them forward.

“But, if the story isn’t true, and St. Louis is just as fucked up as the rest of the world, I don’t know what we’ll do. I don’t have a contingency plan, other than to just keep walking until we hit the ocean, or until we die; whichever comes first.”

Trish looked at him earnestly. “What do you think, Ed? Do you have faith?”

“Whatever faith I had I lost a long time ago,” he replied. “But for those boys I’ll pretend the moon is made out of cheese, if that’s what it takes.”

Ed stopped talking then looked directly at Trish. His face became expressionless, his voice flat. “Nothing is going to keep us from reaching that city. Everything else is secondary. It's all they have, and it's all I have left to give them.”

She smiled at Ed, despite being take aback by his serious tone. “Well, I’m on board, if you’ll have me. I can pull my own weight, I swear, I just need some time to get better.”

Ed smiled back, genuinely pleased. His voice was back to normal, his face lit with expression. Trish knew what she had seen though. She couldn't underestimate how important reaching the city was to Ed. She had to be on board, or she had to get the fuck out of the way. If the city was safe, though, then she was all for it. It wasn't long ago she was wandering around with no purpose, staring down the wrong end of a gun barrel for release. It might as well become her quest too. At least it was a chance.

Ed was surprised by how happy he was to hear that Trish was coming with them. Not even a week ago he’d been completely against picking up another person. Now he would have been disappointed if she had decided to part ways.

“We’d love to have you come with us,” he told her. That wasn’t a lie.

“Then it’s a deal.” She looked down at her hands, pausing for a moment. “Ed?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks again, I mean it.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“I really owe you guys. You went out of your way to help me, a total stranger. You risked your lives.”

Ed felt his face flush. His modesty was chided by her graciousness. “Don’t fret about it, we’re square,” he assured her.

“You risked your boys' lives,” she said, staring into his eyes.

He didn't respond. It was true, after all.

“And the city,” she continued, “I’m on board. We’ll make there, or we’ll die trying. I mean that.”

Ed smiled. “You need some rest,” he told her, changing the subject. “There’s a whole bed back there with your name on it. Go rest up. The boys and I are going to go fetch some water. We’ll lock up the camper while we’re gone.”

A concerned look crossed over her face. “I think I should come with you.”

“You’ll be safer here. You’re not road-worthy just yet. It’s dangerous to take you outside while you’re still not fully recuperated. And I’m not sure I can carry you anymore. I’m not as young as I used to be.” He grinned with that last remark, pointing to the gray hair around his temples.

Trish smiled. Ed thought her fears seemed to be somewhat quelled. She still seemed a little anxious, but he couldn’t really blame her for that.

Ed and the boys carried their canteens with them, plus six other containers with lids they found in the RV. He remembered seeing a small stream about a quarter mile back, down in a gully within the woods. He hoped it was fresh enough to suffice for a watering hole.

Between the canteens and the containers Ed hoped they could squeeze two days out of the water they were collecting. The safety of the RV was comforting, and the more they stayed inside it the less they exposed themselves to peril.

It took twenty minutes to make it to the stream. They passed the normal collection of random, rotten corpses and deserted cars while they walked the highway. Once, off in the distance, they heard the tormented scream of a carrier, but it was very far away. Regardless, it reminded them to be quick about their work.

Within ten minutes of arriving at the watering hole they were fully filled and on their way back to the RV. They made the whole trip in a little more than an hour. Although the trip was uneventful, Ed felt more exposed than usual. The threat of danger was palpable, and he believed it might be due to the feeling of safety provided by the RV. He had to be careful; the RV was only a temporary respite from the horrors of the outbreak. The lull of temporary safety and comfort could be dangerous.

For better or worse, they were going to the city. Although it might be a pipe dream, the city was the only thing that could possibly provide long-term protection for his boys. And that was all that mattered to him.

The water lasted two days, just as Ed had hoped. Trish slept most of the days away, usually stirring around lunch and dinner, then going back to peaceful sleep. Her strength was returning, especially with all the food she was eating, and she showed no signs of fever since the night they’d slept in the woods.