Praying for Grace (17 page)

“They’re close,” I whispered to Gus. “Runners.”

“I know. Stay quiet, darlin’.”

I nodded into his chest. Abbey whimpered behind us again. It wasn’t safe to call out to Danny to try to keep her quiet. A rock tumbled nearby and soon we were met with the sound of footfalls landing on the rocky ground just outside the opening to the cavern.

I felt Gus’ warm breath on my neck, very close to my ear. “Don’t question me. We have to run, and we have to run now. They’re right outside and if we don’t get out of here, we’ll die.”

I shook my head back and forth. I knew he was asking me to run blindly, leaving the others behind.

“Listen. I have to get you out of here. Don’t let go of my hand.”

And with that, I felt him take my hand in his. His grip was firm. Clicking suddenly came from our left, at the cave entry. I could hear my own breathing and smell the dead. A commotion to my right caused my heart to stammer as Gus pulled me forward. I felt a whoosh of rotten smelling air directly behind me and the screams of someone caused me to resist Gus’ attempt to get me out of the cavity in the rock face. He tugged at my arm, refusing to let me fall behind.

“Run!” It was Hoot, already ahead of us.

“Mama!” I heard Alice scream. “Get off of her! Get off of her!”

“Gus, we can’t leave her!” I yelled as I struggled to get away from his grip.

“Don’t fight me!” he screamed.

“Alice get out of here! Run Al, oh my God r..!” screamed Megan, her sentence suddenly cut short.

I could hear Danny huffing and struggling with what I could only guess was the Runner. Alice was sobbing pleadingly. I finally broke free of Gus’ hold and found my way back to the entrance to the shelter.

“Danny!” I called out.

The only answer I heard was several cracking blows, like stone-on-stone, along with the continued sobbing from Alice. I presumed her mother was dead.

“We need to help,” I yelled. “I think it killed Megan.”

“Danny?” called Gus. His tension was palpable. “You in there, son?”

“It’s dead,” came the young man’s shaky voice.

A blood-curdling scream emitted in the distance.

“Zoe get back in the cavern! Now!” Gus barked at me. “Hoot!”

“Down here!” he answered.

“Who was that?”

“No idea!”

“We’re out of options. All we can do now is fight them off.”

“How many are there?” asked Hoot quickly.

“Dan killed one. That leaves at least two more,” answered Gus.

“Well, let’s go get the fucks.”

“That’s suicide,” I muttered.

“No choice,” said Gus as he began guiding me back into the cavern.

The area reeked of blood, rot, sweat, and tears. I tried not to gag.

“Dan, son, keep her here.”

Danny, at sixteen, was already bigger than me. When Dan set his hands on my shoulders, I knew better than to try to follow Gus. It didn’t matter because Gus didn’t have a chance to leave. Hoot rushed past him, pulling him along.

“One’s coming, and it’s fucking fast.”

“Against the back wall, now!” yelled Gus. In a tangle of arms and legs, the still-crying Alice fell beside me. It was still too dark to see much, but her sobs were unmistakable. Hands guided me back upright. Whose, I had no idea. Once I felt the wall to my back, the crying girl clutched at me uncomfortably.

“Alice,” I whispered. “You have to be quiet.”

I heard her take a shuddering breath just before she stifled her own sobs.

“I’m to your right,” said Dan. “I hear it.”

The next few seconds were filled with the sound of running, and it was getting closer.

“Get ready,” said Gus.

My heart rate sped up and I held my breath. My belly contracted hard as the baby within moved uncomfortably. I slid down the rock wall until I was sitting on the hard ground. Drawing into my own world of pain, I listened half-heartedly as the three men at the cave entrance began to struggle with something. I heard the impact of a fist with flesh.

“Stop! It’s me, Clark!”

“Fucking A,” came Gus’ voice. “Where the hell did you come from, brother?”

“They got Katie.” Clark was breathless. “I tried to help her…”

“How many are there?”

“I only saw three,” huffed the older man. “I killed one down by the stream. Hacked the mother fucker’s head off with a fucking broken goddamned fucking tree branch.”

“Jesus,” mumbled Hoot. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah I think so. I didn’t give the fucker time to bite me.”

“I crushed one’s skull in,” said Danny. “It killed Megan.”

“There’s at least one left, then,” said Clark, stating the obvious.

My contraction wasn’t ending, and the pain was becoming unbearable. It didn’t feel like my labor with Molly. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure it was even a contraction at all.

“Gus,” I huffed through clenched teeth. “Something’s wrong with the baby.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said quickly.

I winced as the pain grew even stronger. Beside me, Abbey groaned. It wasn’t the same as the noises she’d been making in her fevered sleep. She sounded sicker.

“Gus, Abbey needs you,” said Danny. His voice was shaky. “She’s having trouble breathing,” he said through tears.

“Oh God,” I groaned as the pain in my abdomen grew even more intense. “Danny get back from her!” I yelled.

“She can’t breathe!” he cried out. “Abbey!”

“Gus!” I yelled. “Gus!”

My baby was pressing on my insides painfully and I felt like I was on fire. I scuttled back on my hands and knees, despite the pain in my abdomen. My wrist twisted on the uneven surface and a sharp pain traveled up my arm. My insides felt like they were on fire.

“Danny get away from her! Abbey’s turning!” I screamed.

“It’s not her!” Danny yelled back. “It’s not Abbey turning!”

Suddenly the rock walls were bathed in the white glow of a flashlight beam. I immediately looked to where Danny sat cradling Abbey, who was ashen and struggling to breathe. Movement from the right caught my eye. Alice was curled into a ball with her eyes clenched shut. She was covered in blood from her own mother, who was slowly pulling herself along the floor of the cavern. Her spine must have been broken, as her legs trailed limply behind her. Her face was pale white and her mouth had been torn open on one side, revealing a mouth full of white molars. Her progress toward Alice was blessedly slow. Her daughter kept calling out in a hushed yet high-pitched voice. “Mommy, no.” She was clearly too traumatized to move.

In a whirlwind of activity, Gus rushed to Abbey’s side and began tending to her. Hoot and Clark tag-teamed Megan. Clark lifted a rock in his hands and brought it down upon the newly risen dead woman’s head, crushing the top of her skull inward. Her head and chest lifted for a lingering moment before she collapsed to the ground with a loud thud. At last, the pain in my belly subsided.

Hoot went to Alice’s side and dragged her farther from the corpse of her mother. I turned my focus to Abbey. Gus laid her flat on the hard rock floor and was tilting her head back. Danny sat nearby, looking completely helpless and devastated.

“Dan, son, help me get her onto her side,” barked Gus.

The two of them turned her body to the side, and Gus began clapping her back with his hand. She looked terrible, and her struggle for breath resulted in a high-pitched wheeze. She vomited thin clear fluid mixed with white froth. Gus took his t-shirt off and used it to clear her mouth. Slowly, but surely, her breathing evened out.

As soon as the sun rose, Gus carried Abbey outside and the rest of us followed. The morning was crisp and cool. As a group, we decided to leave the small rock shelter behind and not look back. Come hell or high water, we would not split up again. Gus set Abbey down on the ground next to the stream. Danny cradled her in his lap and used a strip of cloth from Gus’ ruined shirt to wipe her head and face down using water from the stream. She was delirious and kept mumbling something about Katie. I took Alice by the hand and guided her to the water’s edge, where she and I both cleaned up the best we could. We were both coated in her mother’s blood, and no matter how hard we tried we couldn’t rid ourselves of all of it.

The idea of fashioning a stretcher for Abbey out of sticks was abandoned. Instead, the men decided to simply take turns carrying her. Once a plump preteen, she had leaned out and grown lanky since she’d entered our lives. Danny took the first turn, carrying her over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold.

We quietly walked the valley, listening for signs of the third Runner that we could only assume was still nearby. Clark led us eastward, up out of the valley. We stopped after about fifteen minutes so that Gus could relieve Danny. He easily swung her over his shoulder. It was at the bottom of a Douglas fir where we found Katie’s body. She was only recognizable from a bracelet that she wore on her right wrist. Her head had been eaten away to a point where all that remained was the curved back of her skull, barely attached to the stump of spinal cord that now protruded from her neck. Her belly had been ripped open and the contents scattered beside her. Flies now buzzed around her carcass, a sickening reminder of how nature cleans up after itself. Her legs lay beside her bent and twisted unnaturally. Most of her flesh had been stripped away and bone showed through in several places. I pulled Alice close to myself as we walked by. She hadn’t spoken since her mother had died. I felt a need to take care of her. She was barely an adult, and seemed even younger now that she had been so traumatized.

We moved on, anxious to put distance and time between us and the rock hollow. Gus carried Abbey, admirably, for the next mile or so. We stopped to rest, but only for a short time. My contractions hadn’t been a problem since Megan had risen. We never did find the third Runner.

Hours passed and evening was quickly upon us. Clark was carrying Abbey piggy-back. She awakened not long before and was strong enough to hold on. She didn’t remember any of what had happened back at the cavern. She continued to cough horribly and was still feverish.

“We’re almost there,” said Clark. He was slowing down and seemed tired, so Hoot took Abbey from him. “Just over the next ridge.”

None of us answered. We continued on, the ridge he had pointed to creeping closer with each step. My stomach was growling and the smell of food cooking made me look up.

“Laura’s stew,” said Alice quietly. “I should go first since she’s expecting me.”

Clark scratched his head in thought. “Knowing Laura, that sounds like the best plan. She’s apt to shoot anyone she doesn’t recognize.”

“Laura?” asked Alice, showing surprise.

“The Laura that I know.”

Alice sighed. At last we came to the crest of the ridge. Clark described exactly where to look in the landscape. Finally, I saw an unusual looking structure built into a hillside. It was well camouflaged.

“That’s home,” said Clark. “We built it a good twenty years ago. It’s called an earth ship.”

“I’ve heard of those,” said Danny from just behind us. “Aren’t they made out of old tires and concrete?”

“Pretty much,” said Clark. “Probably the most secure place we could be.”

“It looks like a Hobbit house,” said Hoot.

“Yeah, it does,” echoed Clark.

“Let me take Abbey,” said Gus quietly. “You’ve taken a long enough turn.”

“I can get her,” said Danny.

Clark let Abbey slide down off of his back. She stood on her own feet for a moment but looked weak and disoriented. As she wobbled on her feet, Danny lifted her onto his back. Alice led the way down the hill and toward the unusual concrete home.

I could tell that Clark was anxious to see his wife again. He began talking non-stop.

“The place is well insulated. There’s a well with a hand pump inside. All the gray water is filtered back into the earth. We don’t have electricity but really haven’t a need.”

“Clark, brother,” said Gus. “Tell us about it once we’re inside?”

Clark looked embarrassed. “Sure.”

Trees gave way to a grassy meadow as we reached the bottom of the hill. The odd home stood before us, less than fifty yards away, nestled into a gentle slope. It looked smaller from this angle.

“Is that the front door there?” asked Hoot.

“Yeah.”

“How’d you manage to build in a National Park?” asked Gus.

“Wasn’t easy. That’s mainly why it’s so well hidden. Laura and I decided to go off the grid, so we just hauled materials in over the years and built it. She’s always been a free spirit. Adventurous. Never has played by the rules.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting her,” said Gus.

“I’m going now,” said Alice as she left the tree line and began walking toward the house. I followed her. Mid-way, a door opened and a woman walked out. She was tall with dark hair piled on top of her head and wore a tank top and free-flowing skirt.

“Alice!” she called. “Are you ok?”

“I’m alright,” Alice called back. “I have friends with me; they’re ok people.”

“Laura!” yelled Clark.

The dark haired woman took a moment to respond, as if she didn’t know just what to do. I heard Clark running, and the woman brought her hands up to her mouth in disbelief. As soon as he reached her, he engulfed her in his arms and the two of them fell to the ground together. I could hear her crying.

Alice looked back at us. “We should hurry and get inside.”

Danny closed the gap to the home and walked inside, still carrying Abbey. Hoot and Alice were close behind. Gus caught up to me and took my hand in his. As we passed Clark and Laura, Gus reached out and patted the man on the shoulder. Only a moment later, Clark and his wife followed us inside. Laura locked the door, which meant fastening a chain, locking a deadbolt, and sliding a wood two-by-four into brackets.

“How, Clark? How are you here?” asked an overwhelmed Laura.

“In time, sweetheart, but first we need to get this little girl tucked into bed.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“We think pneumonia,” said Gus. “Do you have any antibiotics?”

“We do,” said Alice.

“Where’s Megan?” Laura suddenly asked.

“She didn’t make it, honey,” said Clark grimly.

Laura put a hand to her mouth. “Oh, no! Oh, Alice…”

“Dan, follow me,” said Clark. “You can put Abbey in one of the spare rooms.”

Laura was busy hugging Alice. “Clark, put her in the front room. The other one is Al’s.”

I followed Clark and Dan deeper into the home. The inside was a lot larger than I would have guessed. Walls were curved to form hallways that resembled tunnels. In some places they reached ceiling to floor, but in others they were just half-height pony walls. They were fascinating, made from a mosaic of wine and soda pop bottles with concrete used as mortar. The resulting random color scheme reminded me of stained glass. Round cylindrical skylights dotted the ceiling in seemingly random placements. The interior was gray unpainted concrete. The walls and rooms I had seen so far were curved with no right angles.

The hallway leading to the bedroom was dark, with barely enough light by which to see. The room itself was better lit, with one of the unusual skylights placed in the center of the ceiling. A small bed sat off to one side of the room. The mattress sagged and it was covered in an old handmade quilt.

“I’ll pull the covers down,” I said quickly, stepping around Danny and Abbey.

I quickly drew the covers back and Danny laid her on the mattress.

“I’m thirsty,” whispered Abbey.

“We’ll get you some water, Abs,” whispered Danny sweetly to her.

“I’ll grab it,” said Clark. He hustled out of the room, skirting around Gus on the way.

“How’s our girl doing?” asked Gus quietly.

Dan looked up. “She’s thirsty. Clark’s getting her a glass of water.”

“Alice is off looking for their stash of pills. I want to try to get some antibiotics down her, and Laura’s heating some broth,” said Gus as he sat on the edge of the bed. “Hey beautiful, how are you feeling?”

Abbey answered with a cough that sounded like it originated deep in her chest.

“Shhh, don’t try to talk if it makes you cough,” said Dan.

She looked from Gus to Danny. “Where are we?” she managed to whisper.

“We made it to Clark’s house. We’re safe. Don’t talk, ok?” said Danny.

“So thirsty,” she said.

“I’ve got water for you,” said Clark, who thankfully returned. “It’s from the well, about as cold as you can get.”

Alice walked in just behind Clark. “Laura told me these are both antibiotics,” she said, handing two small pill bottles to Gus.

Gus read their labels and thought for a moment. Deciding on one over the other, he twisted the cap off of the bottle and shook a large white pill into the palm of his hand.

“Abbey, darlin’, I need you to sit up to swallow this pill. Think you can do that?”

She nodded weakly. Danny helped her sit and Gus transferred the pill to her hand. She slipped it into her mouth and weakly held her hand out for the glass of water. Before long she was tucked in, and quickly fell asleep.

“Dan, she’ll probably sleep for a while,” said Gus as he stood. He looked exhausted, as I’m sure we all did. “I’ll check on her in a couple hours.”

“Thanks, Gus. After what happened last night, I’ll stay in here with her,” said Dan as he kicked his shoes off.

“I understand,” answered Gus. “Wake me if she needs anything.”

Clark, Gus, Alice, and I all left the room. There was no door to close.

“Laura said to come eat when you can,” Alice said quietly as we walked back toward the entry room.

***

Laura’s rabbit stew was delicious. She hadn’t expected extra company, so servings were small. Even so, it was more than any of us were accustomed to after so many days on the road. The dining table was small and made out of wood that Clark had harvested from the surrounding woods. Alice took Dan a bowl of stew before retreating to the room she had shared with her mother. She was too upset about losing Megan to eat.

As evening approached the light level in the home dropped significantly.

“I’ll light the fire place,” announced Laura. “Clark, can you cover the front window?”

“Sure thing.”

“We can’t risk people seeing the firelight,” explained his wife. “You might have noticed most of the daylight comes from above. The only vertical window is on the front wall. We did that to keep the place hidden.”

“Clark told us,” said Gus.  “You both really made something special here.”

“It’s our dream home,” said Clark.

“There’s only three bedrooms. Alice is in hers, and your sick friend and her boyfriend are in the second. Clark and I will need ours tonight; I’m sure you can understand. The rest of you are welcome to sleep on the couches in the back of the house. Just keep the front door locked,” she warned. “Those things wander through here from time to time. Usually they keep going, unless we draw their attention.”

“Hoot, do us a favor tonight?” asked Clark.

“What’s that?”

“Keep the fire going? It’ll keep the whole place warm.”

“No problem. Just show me where the wood is.”

“Follow me,” said Laura. “I’ll show you all to the family room, give you a quick tour.”

Gus and I walked hand in hand behind Hoot and Laura. She first showed us the restroom, which she said was one of two. The second was in their master bedroom. Water for the toilet and sink was pumped by hand. The shower was similar, where water was pumped to a trough much like the showers back at the base. None of the water was heated, but we had become used to that. She told us that the used wash water drained directly to their garden, which she promised to show us during daylight.

Eventually we settled in what she called the family room. It was large and oval with an open circular fireplace in the center of the room, which vented through a pipe in the ceiling. Clark joined us, bearing blankets. Gus and I settled in for the night, utilizing the only sleeper-sofa in the room. Hoot lit the fire, and Laura and Clark turned in for the night and spend much needed time together. They left the room wrapped in each other’s arms. Hoot claimed a long sofa on the other side of the fireplace. From elsewhere in the house, I heard Alice sobbing.

***

The smell of cooking wafted through the family room as we were waking for the day. Gus wasn’t in the fold-out bed with me, but Hoot was awake and sitting on the couch across from the fire, putting his shoes on.