Praying for Grace (16 page)

“Let’s head over by the fire pit and I’ll rub your back,” whispered Gus as the others began to breathe deeply as they fell asleep.

He helped me up from my seat on the ground and we walked back toward the lake’s edge. I lowered myself onto the ground in front of one of the logs so that Gus could sit higher to rub my shoulders. His hands kneaded my aching muscles and I quickly melted while he continued to work his magic.

“What do you make of the yellow lightning?” he asked me.

“I have no idea. At first I thought maybe a meteor, but it seems more like lightning.”

“I think so too. It doesn’t make much sense. All I can figure is some kind of contamination in the atmosphere. Maybe it’s whatever’s responsible for this whole mess.”

“Maybe,” I moaned as he continued to massage me.

“Say that again?” he teased.

I repeated myself, moan included. “Maybe.”

He continued pampering me, and we enjoyed the silence of the night for a minute.

“We should talk about what happened, Gus. With Gretchen and Emmett.”

“Probably. Trade me spots and I’ll rub your feet.”

Once he stood, I hoisted myself onto the log and kicked my shoes off.

“Be careful, my feet are pretty nasty right now.”

“Nothing about you is nasty,” he said with a yawn as he took hold of my left foot.

I placed my hands on the log to steady myself as he began rubbing. “Why do you think she turned?”

“I think she miscarried and the fetus hadn’t passed. Just a theory, but I think it infected her.”

I could tell by his voice and the glistening in his eyes that it was difficult to talk about her.

“I never heard Emmett cry,” I said quietly.

“Me either. We have to just hope that it was fast, for both of them.”

He switched to my other foot and as I relaxed even more the baby I was carrying began moving wildly. I placed one of my hands on my belly.

“Is she moving again?”

“More like dancing or doing karate,” I said with a yawn.

“May I?” he asked, gesturing toward my belly with his chin.

“You know you don’t have to ask.”

He adjusted himself until he was on his knees right in front of me. Leaning forward, he laid his ear against my bump and wrapped his arms around me. “I wish I could make it all better, Zoe. I really do.”

I bent down and kissed him on top of the head. “I know.”

Clark and Dan took the next shift while Gus and I laid down to sleep. The ground wasn’t exactly comfortable, but we’d been much worse off. I fell asleep cuddled up next to Gus for warmth.

***

“You have to wake up, Zoe.”

I knew the voice, but it sounded muffled and distant.

“Boggs?” I called out. “Where are you?”

All around me was dense gray smoke. Nothing else. No light, or dark. Just gray smoke.

“You have to wake up, kid,” he said again.

His voice came from all around me. I spun in a circle, but it made no difference.

“I can’t see you. Where are you?” I called.

“I have to go now. Molly’s here with me. Wake up,” he said once again. “Wake up!” the voice yelled this time.

I woke up with a start, gasping for breath. My stomach was tight again, but not painfully so.

“Gus?” I called out, even though I felt his warm body beside me.

Gus grumbled in his sleep.

“What’s wrong, Zoe?” asked Danny from not too far away. He and Clark had rekindled the fire and the glow highlighted their faces eerily.

By now Gus was sitting upright next to me.

“I just had a bad dream,” I said. “Sorry.”

“You ok now?” asked Gus, speaking quietly so as to not wake Abbey or Katie.

“I think so.”

“You two ok over there?” called out Clark.

“Yeah,” answered Gus.

Nearby, Katie adjusted her position while she slept. Abbey was snoring softly and an owl hooted in the distance. I felt Gus tense beside me. I looked over and he put a finger up to his lips. I listened attentively. The crickets had stopped chirping and the frogs were now silent. The owl hooted again. Gus was crouched next to me now, still listening. Clark and Dan were looking at each other intently, their postures suddenly changed from only a moment before. Images of the night Emilie had died filled my mind.

“Zoe, honey, you need to get down. Go lay next to Katie,” whispered Gus so quietly that I barely heard him.

“What is it?” I whispered back.

“That’s not an owl,” was all he said before crouching down onto the ground.

Partly hidden by the long grasses and plants, he crept over toward Danny and Clark. I shrunk back and crawled toward Katie and Abbey. Hoot. He had been sleeping next to Katie when I fell asleep. He was gone now. Gus, Dan, and Clark were too far away now to warn them that Hoot was gone. The owl cry came again, this time closer. I shook Katie awake gently. Not wanting her to cry out from being startled, I kept my voice low and hid what signs of panic I could. I did the same with Abbey, who by now was familiar enough with me to know to not show her own concern. Once they were both awake, I spoke quietly.

“Something’s going on,” I said. “The frogs and crickets all got quiet and there’s an owl hooting, but Gus says it’s not an owl. He wants us to stay here, and stay down.”

“Should we spread out?” asked Katie in a hushed whisper.

“No. I think we need to stay together. Hoot’s gone.”

“Where?” asked Abbey.

“I have no idea,” I answered.

We all turned our heads in tandem as a rustling broke out in nearby shrubs. The sounds of a struggle were easy to recognize. I didn’t smell death, so assumed it was either human or animal. I stood along with Abbey and Katie, facing the noise. The sound of the men around our fire running up behind us was nearly muted by whatever struggle was going on. My eyes had finally adjusted to the small bit of moonlight that graced us. Several yards away, two figures fell to the ground.

“Stop struggling!” barked the familiar voice of Hoot. “Stop! I’m not going to hurt you!”

Mixed in with the sounds of struggling and Hoot’s yelling was a primal grunting. It sounded female.

“Stop!” he yelled again, more firmly than before. “No one’s gonna fucking hurt you, goddammit!”

“Let me go!” yelled a woman.

“Hoot!” yelled Katie. “You ok?”

“
Let me go
!”

“Stop struggling and I will,” repeated Hoot. “We won’t hurt you.”

The woman grunted again, but it sounded like a form of defeat.

“Hoot, who’ve you got?” asked Gus.

Like everyone else, I had moved forward and was now close to the struggling people. As the woman realized there were several of us, she relaxed a bit. I was close enough to see her eyes, and she looked sincerely scared.

“Alice, run!” she yelled all of a sudden.

I wondered if Alice was the one playing owl.

“Settle down, lady,” said Gus. “No one wants to hurt you. We’re all good people here.”

“Fuck off,” spat the woman.

“Gus, Hoot, back off a bit,” I said. “Let me talk to her.”

I was standing close enough to touch the woman. Her face was covered in a layer of dirt, her hair unkempt, and she smelled like a campfire. Earthy.

“Alice!” she screamed again. “Al, get out of here!”

“Shhhh, it’s ok,” I said firmly. “We’re just passing through. We’re not here to hurt you.”

“Then let me go!” spat the woman.

“Hoot, let her go. It’s the only way she’ll see we’re ok,” said Gus.

Hoot released his grip on the woman. She backed away a couple of feet from him, but was obviously limping.

“Mom!” came a voice from behind us.

“Alice, go!”

“No, you’re hurt!”

“Ok. Let’s settle down a bit,” said Hoot. “So Alice and…?”

“Megan,” answered the girl called Alice.

I’m Hoot, and there’s six others. That guy over there is Clark and we’re just trying to get to his house.”

“Clark?” asked Megan, the woman who had struggled with Hoot.

“Yeah. That’s me,” answered the man.

“You know Laura?” she asked.

“My wife. Is she with you?” The excitement in our companion’s voice was contagious.

“No, no…” trailed off Megan. “But she’s okay. She thought you’re dead. She’s a wreck.”

“Where is she?” he pressed.

“At the house. She never goes farther than she can spit anymore, so we leave her behind while we hunt and gather.”

“Oh my God,” he said, collapsing to his knees. “She’s alive? Really alive?”

“We’ve been with her since a few days after the dead rose,” came the much younger voice of the girl named Alice. She looked, in the dark, to be about Abbey’s age, if not a touch older.

“I have to go to her. Now,” said Clark through a clenched throat.

“Best wait till daylight, brother,” said Gus in a tone filled with kindness and understanding.

“I need to go to her now,” the man managed to mutter.

“I can take him,” offered Alice. “I know the way in the dark.”

“No baby,” said Megan. “Remember our rule? Never separate.”

“Mom, you’re hurt. You can’t walk right now.”

“It’s just a little sprain. I’ll soak it in the lake and be fine by morning.”

“No,” I said. “We need to go, all of us.” Fire had started to creep from my core to my extremities, and the last time that happened the dead were near.

“Zo?” said Gus. “Talk to me.”

“Boggs told me we need to leave, and I sense the dead near. Like before when we first met Clark. I feel really hot inside.”

“Alice, Megan, Zoe’s able to sense the dead. We can explain later but right now I suggest we get out of here,” explained Gus.

I heard Megan chuckle and didn’t blame her. What Gus had said would sound ridiculous to anyone who hadn’t experienced it, or seen my interaction with the dead firsthand. Clark stared at me, but didn’t say anything.

“Mom? What do you want to do?”

The woman was straight-faced by now and obviously considering options. “We leave, head back to the house. You can all come with, but if you fuck with us I’ll kill you all myself.”

I placed a hand over my belly as my baby began thrashing within. It was at that moment that I realized it was my baby sensing the dead nearby, not me.

It didn’t take long to convince Megan and her daughter to leave the lakeside. It also didn’t take long to realize that Megan was a bit disturbed in some way. Alice had a way with calming her, otherwise the remainder of our journey to Clark’s mountain home might have been unbearable.

Our walk away from Reflection Lake was hurried. We heard what sounded like a single Roamer following us for a few hours. We all walked as fast as we could while maintaining a tolerable pace. Despite my own aches and pains, the ones who had the most difficulty keeping up were Abbey and Megan due to her twisted ankle. The farther we walked, the calmer my baby became and the heat in my core began to subside.

“Clark,” I called out to the man who was walking in front of us all. “Clark!” I said raising my voice a notch. “We need to stop for a few minutes.”

The man reluctantly paused and turned to look at us. “It’s getting close. We could make it there just a bit past dark if we keep going.”

“Just fifteen minutes. Abbey’s exhausted, and I’m right behind her. And Megan’s ankle must be killing her,” I said.

“I’ll be fine,” said the injured woman flatly.

“Well the rest of us need to stop,” I snapped at her.

“Suit yourself,” she snapped back.

Gus cleared his throat. “I know you’re anxious to get home, brother, but we’ll all be more efficient if we take ten.”

Clark put his hands on his hips and looked at the ground. I heard Abbey whimper behind me.

“I can go ahead alone. Megan and Alice can show the rest of you where it is,” said Clark.

Hoot coughed lightly. “It’s never a good idea to split up.”

“Abbey’s having a really rough time,” said Danny suddenly.

I looked over and saw him helping her down to the ground. She looked like she was having trouble breathing.

“Abs? You ok honey?” I asked, rushing to her side.

She nodded but didn’t answer.

“It’s her asthma,” said Danny. “She told me it bothers her when she has a bad cold. She started coughing a couple days ago.”

“Gus, I’ll go ahead with Clark. You and the rest can follow behind at a slower pace,” suggested Hoot.

“I don’t like it,” said Gus.

“I know, me either.”

“Hold up. We’ll stay together. It means another night out here, but it’ll have to do,” Clark said with a look of disappointment, but he was a reasonable man as far as I could tell. “Let’s just find a safer place for the night.”

***

We walked another quarter mile before coming across a stream that was swollen with glacial melt. Megan was no longer nursing her ankle, but Abbey was still coughing and her pale skin now had a chalky look to it. I could hear a rattle in her chest as she breathed. Only yards away was an outcropping of rock and soil. The sun was setting, casting long shadows that nearly hid the entrance to a rock shelter. It was Katie who first took notice of the entry into a shallow cut-out in the earth. Luckily part of the opening was near ground level, making our access easier than it would have been otherwise. Abbey and I had the hardest time of all of us getting up into the shelter.

“I’m hungry,” said Alice under her breath.

“We all are, Al,” answered her mother.

The rock shelter was shallow, barely offering us protection from the elements. Abbey’s cough had turned into a wet hacking, and she was flushed now.

“I’ll go check on her,” offered Gus, seeing the worry on my face.

“We don’t have anything to help her,” I whispered.

“I know.”

In earlier days we had always managed to find medicine, with Gus being in charge of our healthcare. Now, though, we were about as far from the old civilization as we could get. I rested with my back against the hard stone wall and watched as Gus joined Abbey and Dan. She was lying on the ground with her head on Dan’s lap. Even from several feet away, I could see sweat beading on her brow.

Gus knelt down and felt her neck with the back of his hand. “She feels hot.” He crouched down farther and laid his ear to her chest for several seconds. “She sounds bad. Probably pneumonia.”

“Fuck,” mumbled Danny. “What can we do?”

“Keep giving her fluids for now. Moving her is risky but I think at first daylight we need to head out and get her to Clark’s house.”

“Can we build a stretcher?” asked Dan.

“Yeah. I don’t think a basic frame would take long and we can wrap the sheets from the knap sacks around it. We can put one person on each end and we can trade on and off. As a last resort we can drag it, but it’d make a rough ride for her.”

“I’ll get her some water from the stream,” offered Katie. “Who has the empty carrot cans?”

“They’re over here,” said Clark. “I’ll come with you. We can look for some good sticks for the stretcher.

“Mind if I come with?” I asked.

“Sure. The more the merrier,” said Katie with a smile.

The three of us left the rock shelter, headed toward the stream. The air smelled stale and heavy with moisture. It had been a calm day, but it felt like the weather was turning again.

“Zoe, come with me to use the bathroom?” asked Katie quietly.

“Sure.”

“You girls stay close,” instructed Clark. He was older and likely felt obligated to watch out for us, so I took no offense at his concern.

Katie and I only took a few minutes to relieve ourselves and freshen up by the stream. The cover of night hid Clark’s position from us. He coughed gently, so we walked toward the sound.

“Clark?” Katie whispered.

“Over here,” he called back. “Just finished filling the cans.”

“You guys okay hunting for wood while I take the water to Abbey?” I asked.

“Sure. You need a hand getting back?”

“No. I’ll be fine.”

“Watch your step,” said Katie. “We’ll be in soon.”

“Zoe, you ok heading back in the dark? I only brought one flashlight,” said Clark.

“I’ll be ok. Just be careful out here,” I said as I began walking back to the raggedy stone shelter.

The night sky was full of stars. I began to worry about how Clark and Katie would find their way back should their flashlight fail.

***

Hours passed with no signs of either the man or woman. The mood was grave. Abbey was still asleep, although she moaned occasionally between coughing fits. Danny stayed at her side. They were both so young, but obviously loved each other in some sort of way, even if it was just as best friends. Dan sat with Abbey’s head still resting in his lap, stroking her sweat-damp hair. Hoot sat near the entry of the shelter, along with Megan and Alice. Undoubtedly they were watching for the return of the others. Gus sat beside me, quietly watching Abbey. He was hiding his worry, but I knew him well enough to know that he thought her situation was critical.

I leaned against him and sighed. He reached over and wrapped one of his hands over mine. The sound of frogs croaking in the distance grew louder, threatening to lull me to sleep. I closed my eyes and nestled in against Gus, his warmth spreading through my whole body. My baby was calm for a change. I forced myself to let go of worry over Katie and Clark, but especially the fear I held that Abbey might not make it. Eventually I fell asleep.

***

A gut-wrenching scream woke me from a deep slumber. Gus reacted at the same time that I did, standing abruptly. My body was stiff, but I forced myself to move quickly. The inside of the small cavern was dark, but someone had lit a small fire near the entrance. The flames cast a dim flickering light that was disorienting.

“Who was that?” asked Gus quickly.

I quickly looked around to see who was, or was not, among us. Dan had fallen sleep with Abbey still propped on his lap. He tried to stand, but appeared to have a numb leg from sitting for too long. Hoot was standing near the entry to our hollow. Alice clung to her mother near the back wall. The scream pierced the silence of night again. It was a garbled cry of deep pain.

“That’s the
rougarou
,” said Megan with a crazed look on her face. “An evil creature that kills during the night.”

Gus ignored her and turned toward me. “Zoe? Feel anything?”

I shook my head side to side to indicate that I had no idea what we were hearing. It didn’t sound exactly human, or like one of the walking dead. My body was giving me no indication of the undead nearby, but my sixth sense was also no longer reliable.

“Any sign of Katie and Clark out there, Hoot?” asked Gus in a hushed voice. The man he had addressed was still at the rock face looking out into the dark of night.

“I can’t see worth shit,” he answered in a voice full of tension.

“We need to go help them.” It was Abbey’s voice, weak and strained.

“Abbey, go back to sleep,” soothed Danny.

“She’s calling for help. Can’t you hear her?” asked the teenager.

“You have a fever, Abs. No one’s calling for help,” he said.

Abbey struggled to sit up. Her skin was bright red from fever and she looked confused. “I hear Katie. She’s crying out for help.” She coughed hard before laying back down. “She needs help,” she mumbled as she fell back into a fitful sleep.

“What should we do?” I asked Gus, keeping my voice low so that only he could hear me.

“There’s nothing we can do till it’s light out.”

Another scream broke the night, sounding closer than the first two.

“I don’t like being stuck in here,” said Alice. “It’s not safe.”

Gus’ chest heaved as he took a deep breath. “She’s right.”

“We can’t move Abbey,” I said.

“Then leave her,” interrupted Megan.

“Have a heart,” said Danny, snapping at the half-crazy woman. 

“Something’s out there,” said Hoot quickly. He kept his voice low, but it also held an urgency that demanded our attention.

“Talk to us, brother,” said Gus as he walked to join Hoot at the cavern entry.

Hoot knelt down and began dousing the fire with a nearby pile of dirt. “At ten o-clock. A figure. It’s crouching now, like it’s watching us.”

“I don’t see it,” whispered Gus.

Another scream, this time short and deep, made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

The small fire now extinguished, we were in near complete darkness. Only faint moonlight differentiated the outside of the rock shelter from the inside.

“Zoe, can you make your way up here?” asked Gus quietly.

“Yeah. Just a sec.”

I carefully chose my footsteps as I walked toward him. I stepped between the two men and looked out. I could make out the shapes of treetops and the sky, but that was about all.

“Let your eyes adjust, darlin’, and then tell me if you see anything. Or feel anything.”

As I watched the woods, I found that I could see the “ten o-clock” position better if I didn’t look directly at it. After a good couple of minutes of silence, it was the noon position where I noticed movement. Even in the dark, I knew who it was.

“It’s Katie,” I whispered. I could sense Hoot preparing to call out to her. “No,” I said quickly. “She’s not alone.”

“Who’s with her?” he asked in a whisper, as if I were crazy.

“The dead.”

I couldn’t sense the dead. My baby was quiet in my belly. My core was not unusually warm. My head didn’t buzz with their thoughts or visions. My hip was not aching. Nothing was unusual, yet I knew. I knew by how she was walking. I knew by how long she and Clark had been gone.

“Where are they?” asked Dan.

“I don’t know, but they’re out there.”

“Anyone?” came Katie’s frantic voice calling out from the valley just below us.

“Don’t answer,” I whispered. “If you answer they’ll find us.”

“We have to help her,” said Hoot as he whipped around to face the rest of us.

“We can’t, Hoot. We’ve seen them do this before. They’ll use her to find us. We don’t have weapons to fight them off,” said Gus firmly.

“Where’s Clark?” asked Alice.

Katie was sobbing down below now, her words choked off by her cries. Still looking with my peripheral vision, I could see three other forms flanking her. For the first time in days I could smell the stench of death.

“Stop it!” she begged. “Please, stop! Oh, God, no…”

It was hard to listen to her cries of agony. My baby was moving again, as if somehow now aware of the danger outside.

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it! Just stop hurting me! Hoot! Zoe! Help me!” she screamed.

She sounded so desperate. Behind me, Abbey moaned as she writhed with fever. Our situation seemed bleak. I wrapped my arms around the swell of my belly and closed my eyes. Katie’s pleas for help continued for what seemed an eternity. When they finally subsided, grunts of frustration and organized clicks took their place. Runners. I had assumed as much, but the communication between them made it certain. At one point, my eyes still shut tight, I reached a hand out and found Gus’. He wrapped me in his arms as the creatures outside began to snarl at one another. I clenched my hands into fists as I heard them ripping flesh, presumably from Katie’s body. She was no longer screaming or whimpering, and I could only hope she was dead and no longer feeling the wrath of the dead.