PODs (37 page)

So much for getting a good night’s sleep
.

We walked for two days. The temperature was rising, and there was more flat, sandy land than lush green forest around us. We had made it to the panhandle of Texas. We found three more vehicles in Shamrock and drove until we ran out of gas somewhere in New Mexico.

That’s when I saw it.

It was off in the distance. I had to strain to see, but it was there—hundreds of green army tents, with wind turbines in the distance.

“David, look.” I pointed down a dirt-covered road.

“Devlin, turn down this road. I want to check something out,” David called.

We walked down the road, tripping over ruts and slipping in the stone-filled dirt. Our feet made the dust billow around us. I shaded my eyes with my hand to keep the grit out of them.

“Next store we stop at, remind me to get goggles,” I muttered.

It took most of the day to get to the tents. “We’re wasting time, David. We need to go back to the main road,” Devlin called.

“It’ll be worth the extra trip.”

“It better be,” a redhead named Margie complained. I shot her a dirty look. She seemed to like David a little too much, which meant I disliked her a lot.

We walked over a mound of red sand and Devlin whistled. “What are they doing out here?”

“They’re the tents the army set up when we exited the PODs. A tent for each area. The POD entrance is in the middle of them. There should be supplies and beds,” David said, his hand shielding his eyes from the sun and sand as he looked at the tents ahead.

“There’ll be showers,” I sighed. I couldn’t get to the PODs fast enough. A shower—I hadn’t had one in weeks.

“How do you know there’ll be water?” Devlin asked.

“The PODs had to be self-sufficient, right, Eva? Look at all those windmills. They generate electricity,” Jessica said.

“Yep. The water system was completely contained. As long as we use it carefully we should have plenty. Tonight, we can all have nice, long showers.”

We picked up our pace, moving as fast as we could while bogged down by our gear. The wind whipped around us. Sand blew painfully against my face. Tumbleweeds bounced across the ground.

“Welcome to the southwest,” David muttered.

The entrance to the elevator we’d used, back when we’d entered the POD the first time, was deserted and locked down with a code. We found an emergency access hatch close by, set into a cement square. David wiped the sand and grit off the hatch. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here.”

“The way the sand is blowing, you wouldn’t be able to tell,” I said through the red bandana Roy had given me to tie around my face. Only my eyes were uncovered. I must’ve looked like an outlaw in an old western movie.

“Well, the only way to know is to open it up and see. C’mon, Devlin. Give me a hand.” A few blows with an axe usually used on firewood broke off the padlock. The hinges creaked loudly when David and Devlin pulled open the hatch. The thick metal door hit the sandy ground with a thud.

We peered down into the opening. Narrow passages led away from the hatch, disappearing into the dark in four directions, and a circle of dim light showed a ladder that led downward.

“It sounds quiet down there.”

“Yeah, let’s go.” I stood and took a single step before David grabbed me by the waist and lifted me away from the POD opening.

“We’ll go first.” He pointed at Devlin and Juan.

“Oh, ‘cuz a girl can’t look around an empty tin can. Yeah, okay. Go first, David.” I turned and walked to the nearest tent and sat on a bench. Jessica followed me.

“Guys are a pain sometimes, huh?” she said. “Devlin is such a control freak, it’s unreal.”

“He’s your brother. He’s supposed to be a pain.” I put my arm around her and pulled her into a hug. “How are you doing?”

“Good. I mean, well, you know. I’m good.”

I smiled at her, smoothing her hair out of her face. “I’m always around if you need to talk.”

“Thanks.”

David strode over to where we sat. “It looks all clear.”

“Good. Let’s go take that shower,” I said, standing.

“Do we get to use the elevator?” Jessica asked.

“It’s locked down—there’s a keypad. Maybe the code’s written down somewhere in the POD—keep an eye out. Right now, we get to jump through the hatch into a small passageway and then climb down the ladder.” I remembered seeing the ladders on the schematic of the entire POD I’d memorized in quarantine.

“That sounds fun! I’ll race you, Eva,” Jessica called over her shoulder, already running toward the POD opening.

David easily caught up to me and grabbed me around the waist, lifting me off the ground so Jessica could run by and get into the POD first. She giggled as she ran by, waving her fingers at me.

“Cheater!” I called after her, laughing. David put me down, turning me around by the shoulders to look at him. “You’re a cheater, too. Picking me up so Jessica could win.”

“Yeah, but I had ulterior motives,” he whispered, lowering his lips to mine.

He put his hands on my waist, just under my shirt. His touch sent jolts of electricity through me. I touched my tingling lips with the tips of my fingers. They were swollen from his kiss.

“What? Did I do something wrong?” he asked, a look of confusion on his face.

“No,” I whispered, “I think you did something very, very right. That’s the problem.” I turned and walked to the POD entrance as the last of our group lowered themselves inside.

“That explains everything.” He snatched up his gear and followed me down into the POD, pulling the hatch closed after him. It shut with a loud clang that echoed through the metal halls. The internal locking wheel screeched when David turned it, sealing the hatch.

We were safely locked in. I hoped we were the only ones inside.

“It’s weird being down here again.” I looked around the main room of the POD.

“It isn’t very pretty down here.” Jessica wrinkled her nose.

“The sub-PODs are prettier inside. C’mon. I’ll show you.”

Jessica and I walked the circular room until we came to sub-POD 29. I stopped at the end of the corridor and stared. I don’t know what I was expecting to see.

It’s so different without Tiffany’s smiling face and Seth and Aidan playing cards and George in his beanbag. Katie should be painting the walls and Jai Li practicing her English…it’s too quiet
.

“Was this your sub-POD, Eva?”

I smiled and nodded. “Mm-hmm.”

“Sub-POD 29,” she read the sign. “What’s this?” She pointed at the red and white striped box next to the sub-POD door.

“I don’t know. The information we got never mentioned it.” I looked closer. The metal box around the lever had a glass door; it looked like something that would hold a fire alarm. I read the label above the lever. “‘Main Shut-Off—29.’ Oh my…” The lever was how people in the main POD cut off a sub-POD. That was how they’d cut off Cam’s POD, how they’d cut off David’s friend’s POD. “David?”

“Let’s go get that shower, huh?” David said. Jessica bounded ahead of us down the grate-floored corridor.

“I wondered how they did it.” I looked at the air, water and electrical lines running through the large box below the lever.

“Now we know.”

“
H
ow are you going to make it through the desert?” David asked.

“The same way we’ve made it this far,” Devlin answered.

“We’re only just into New Mexico, barely past the panhandle of Texas, and already the heat is horrid. The towns are further and further apart. You don’t know when, or if, you’ll find a town for supplies. Stay here. We have food and shelter.” He gestured at the people assembled in one of the greenhouses, which was large enough to hold the several hundred researchers and medical personnel who’d lived in the main POD for more than a year. “It’s a perfect set-up. We stay until another group moves through. They can join us, or whoever wants can leave with them.”

I looked around at the faces of the others we’d been travelling with. In the three days we’d been down in the POD, people had cleaned up and gotten some rest, but many still looked weary, exhausted from the constant travelling and fights with the infected. Others were shaking their heads—the ones who were convinced there was a safe compound in California and that’s where they wanted to be.

The greenhouse was thick with humidity, making it hard to breathe. I felt sweat slide down my spine; our faces were slick with it. The thick, glass domes above looked foggy with condensation, giving the room a filtered look, like looking through a piece of opaque plastic.

The air smelled of ripe, lush fruit, but the vegetable gardens were overgrown and needed work. The smell of decaying plant life tickled our noses, blending with the sweet smell of the fruit trees.

Water dripped from rain chains into tanks, collecting the extra moisture for re-use.

We could live here indefinitely if we wanted to. The POD latched from the inside; the infected couldn’t get in. The gardens offered a constant supply of fruits and vegetables, and occasional hunting trips could supplement our diet. It seemed like the perfect set-up. David and I knew it could work. We’d even moved back into our old sub-POD. Jessica and Devlin had joined us there.

“We’ll vote on it,” Devlin decided. “Secret ballot, majority rules. Everyone go talk it over with your family or significant other. We’ll meet in the main POD for dinner and vote afterward.”

David and I headed back to our sub-POD after the discussion in the garden. Jessica ran ahead of us on the metal walkway. Her footsteps clanged loudly. We pulled back, letting her run ahead.

“They won’t stay,” I said.

“Probably not.”

“And you?” I bit my lip as I waited for his answer.

“Whatever you want, Eva.”

“That’s not fair. It’s not fair to put the decision on me.”

“I’m not.” When he saw the argument coming, he added, “I know where I want to be. With you. Whether that’s here or in California makes no difference to me. So whatever you want is what I want.”

“I don’t know what I want. We could make it work here. But if there’s a chance there is a compound in California it would be a much easier life. We may even have family or friends there. Crap, I don’t know.”