Rage Within (6 page)

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe. It’s pretty clean. I don’t see any blood. But that doesn’t mean anything, right? It’s been raining lots.”

Her shoulders hunched forward and he instantly realized he’d said the wrong thing. Up until that moment, she’d still had hope that she’d come home and find her parents waiting for her. There would be hugs and tears and things would return to the way they were supposed to be. But seeing the open door and hearing Mason’s casual words had crushed that particular fantasy.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

She turned to look at him. “Why? You didn’t cause this.”

“You may not find what you’re looking for. Just remember that certain things you see, you can’t take them back. And no amount of wishing will make them go away.”

She paused, looking him straight in the eyes. He held the gaze as she studied his face. “Is that what happened to you?” Glancing downward, she studied his hand, the fingers of which had been broken by one of the Baggers. “Does it still hurt?”

He flexed his hand a little and dull pain shot up his arm. There hadn’t been much he could do. It’s not like he could have gone to the emergency room and had it fixed up. In the end, Clementine strapped it with some bandages they found at a Safeway pharmacy. “Yeah, a bit. Usually when it’s raining. Guess it didn’t heal properly.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He shook his head. What had happened that day was between Daniel and him. The important thing was that they’d
stopped the Baggers long enough for everyone to meet up and stay alive. They were safe for the time being. Aries was a tough girl and he had no doubt she’d understand what they did to survive. There was blood on everyone’s hands. There had to be, otherwise they never would have made it this far. But he wasn’t ready to share. She knew nothing about his past and he intended to keep it that way. No one would ever know about his background, what happened to his mom and most definitely not about Chickadee.

“I understand,” she said. But he could tell she didn’t.

“Do you want me to wait out here?” It seemed like such an invasion of privacy. He never would have allowed someone to come with him. He’d have had to do it by himself.

She shook her head. “No, it’s not safe. And I’ll be okay. You don’t need to worry. I’m not going to fall apart and drop to the floor or anything. I’m just as strong as you, you know.”

“I may not know you well, but I know that’s true,” he said.

“Let’s do this.” Turning back to the door, she gave it a soft shove. Immediately a blast of foul decay hit their faces. Now that was a bad sign.

But Mason could tell Aries was determined not to let anything stop her. She held her head high and stepped past the entrance. He paused and then followed her into the house.

Inside, Aries lost some of her control. She tore down the main hallway and disappeared around the corner. Mason followed her, his police baton poised and ready. The living room was dark and cold, dust particles floating in the small slivers of light that beamed through the closed blinds.

“Mom. Dad?” Aries’s voice was barely more than a whisper.

No one answered her call. The room felt empty. Unused. Wherever Aries’s parents were, Mason was 100 percent positive they weren’t there.

At least not in any shape that would be considered alive.

In front of the fireplace, a not-so-fresh splatter of dried blood stained the fine cream carpet.

Aries turned and pushed past Mason, running around the corner. He heard her feet on the stairs as she climbed. Sighing, he walked over to the blinds and opened them a crack with his fingers. The street was still clear. A good sign, but they couldn’t spend much more than five minutes in the house. The motorcycle may have been small, but it still made noise, and that attracted not-so-nice people. There was a good chance they were already being watched.

Safety first.

He went up the stairs carefully, listening to Aries as she opened doors and checked out bedrooms. At the top, the long hallway branched out several directions, each blocked by a white door. He wasn’t sure which one she was in, so he started by opening the first. Inside he found a master bedroom and more carnage. A torn and rust-stained shirt. A bloody handprint on the wall. A series of drips that led through another door, which opened up to a small peach-colored bathroom. A broken mirror.

But no bodies.

He found Aries in what used to be her room. She stood in the middle, close to her dresser, holding a hairbrush in her hands. Posters on the wall, a laptop on the desk, a large bed covered in pillows and stuffed animals. It looked like the room she should be living in, instead of the house she was currently surviving in with a group of strangers. She deserved so much better than the hand she’d been currently dealt.

He had a flashback of the night he’d stood in the middle of his house, the moment before he set it on fire and burned it all down.

“You okay?” He didn’t know what else to say.

She didn’t turn as he approached her. Up close he could see her hands trembling. She stood a little straighter and walked over to the closet. “I thought maybe I could pack a few things,” she said. “You know. Take something back. A girl can always use some makeup right? Would be nice to look good again. I’m sure some of my clothes will fit Clementine and Joy. Eve too, but she’s a bit smaller than us. Too bad I didn’t have a younger sister. Maybe we can find a way to get into some of the shops on Robson. I’m sure she’d like to go shopping with us.”

“You don’t have to do this to yourself,” he said.

From inside the closet she pulled out a gym bag. Opening it, she dumped the contents onto the floor. Some old shoes. A pair of sweatpants. A bottle of liquid soap and a small travel towel. She began yanking clothes off the hangers, some of which she discarded on the floor; others went into the bag. There didn’t seem to be any reasoning behind it.

“Aries.”

She ignored him. Went over to the dresser and pulled the drawer right out and onto the floor. Got down on her knees and started digging.

“Aries. Don’t do this.”

The heel of a boot got tangled up in a tank top. She yanked hard, tearing at the fabric until it ripped clean in half.

Mason got down on his knees and grabbed her arm. “Stop it.”

“No!” She pulled away from him, smashing her back on the bedpost. There were tears in her eyes. They rolled down her cheeks and splattered onto the carpet. She looked at the torn tank top and turned it over in her hands before tossing it on the floor.

Mason sat on the floor beside her, leaning back against the blue-and-green bedspread.

“My parents are dead, aren’t they.” It wasn’t a question.

“I don’t know.”

“The Baggers must have been here. They came in and cleaned up the mess.”

“Maybe.”

“Where do you think they’re taking the bodies?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they’re burning them. Or burying them, but I think that would take too much time.”

“Yeah, probably.”

They waited in silence for a bit. Aries finally got up and opened the window. Fresh air immediately hit his nose, but it wasn’t enough to get rid of the scent of decay. If anything it made the stench worse. She walked back into the middle of the room, where the gym bag sat on the floor. She kicked it. Picking the brush up off the ground, she came back and joined Mason again. Turning it around in her hands, she plucked some of the dead hairs from the bristles.

“I can’t do this,” she said. “Everyone thinks I’m strong, but I’m not. They want me to lead them, but there’s nowhere to go. What am I going to do? I’m going to get them all killed.”

Mason didn’t say anything. How could he when he was constantly thinking the exact same thing?

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“What for?”

“For freaking out like that. I guess everything just got to me. You were right. I shouldn’t have come back. I should have known it would mess me up like this. Those days are over. The big question is: Where do we go from here?”

“We survive, I guess.”

“Yeah, I guess we do.” She got up off the floor and offered
him her hand. “We should get out of here. We’ve been long enough. They’re probably waiting in the bushes to jump us as it is.”

Mason climbed to his feet and she threw her arms around him, hugging him hard. He almost pulled back at first, feeling his muscles tensing as her hands touched his back. He breathed deeply, trying to relax, forcing himself to bring his arms around her and complete the hug. Bits of hair pressed against his cheek, and the warmth of her body burned into his. She pressed harder.

She smelled good in spite of the lack of hygiene these past few months.

And then it was over and she untangled herself from his grasp, lowering her chin as if she was embarrassed she’d actually touched him. Moving past him, she returned to the window and closed and locked it. She pulled down the blinds and the room instantly grew darker.

“Do you ever think about it? Going back? Don’t you wonder what happened to your family? You’ve traveled a long ways.”

His mother was probably still rotting away in her deathbed at the hospital. His home was burned to the ground. His friends were dead and buried beneath the remains of his exploded high school.

“There’s no going back,” he said. “I’ve got nothing there.”

She nodded in agreement. “We should go.”

He started to tell her they should search the rest of the house first and maybe take whatever supplies they could find. But she raced down the stairs so quickly, he changed his mind. They were okay; the local stores still had stuff on their shelves, even if the stocks were dwindling. Aries made it clear she wanted nothing more to do with the place. He decided to
honor her wishes. Besides, when the time came for them to start scavenging houses, he could always come back.

When they walked out into what remained of the afternoon light, she didn’t look back. Mason completely understood. There was no point in going back. He’d tried to tell her that earlier, before they’d even left the safe house. She didn’t want to listen. But she’d learned.

It wasn’t a good lesson.

CLEMENTINE

“WARNING. WARNING. THE CITY IS CLOSED. . . .”

“Yes, yes, we hear you,” she muttered. “We heard you the first five hundred times, so will you please shut up.”

The white van crawled down the street, the driver hidden behind the tinted glass. From twenty feet away, Clementine and Michael watched, hidden between an overgrown hydrangea bush and someone’s front porch. The van was moving slowly, barely more than a few miles per hour; obviously whoever was inside was scanning the area for signs of life. Clementine didn’t want to imagine what might happen if they were spotted. Being shot on sight was one thing; who knew what might be lurking inside the van and where it might take them if they got caught.

“Dare you to run out there and flash the driver.”

Clementine punched Michael in the shoulder. Hard.

He chuckled and winked at her.

They both grew quieter as the mystery van passed within twenty feet of their hiding spot. Clementine held her breath as it cruised, wondering what kind of heart attack she might have if it actually stopped.

But it didn’t. A few minutes later it came to the end of the block and turned off toward Broadway. They both watched until the bumper and taillights disappeared.

“How many of those things are there?” she asked, even though Michael didn’t know the answer. “That’s the third one we’ve seen.”

“How can you tell?” Michael said. “They’re all white.”

“The first one had a scuffed bumper,” she said. “The second one was a Ford. That one’s a GM. I may be a girl, Michael, but I know my cars. Or vans, as the case may be.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a boy and they’re all white to me,” he said. “Quit stereotyping. You’re looking rather sexist. It’s not very becoming on you.”

She rolled her eyes at him.

“Now, I suggest we get out of here before they come back.”

“Still,” she said as she climbed to her feet and brushed off some of the dirt from her jeans. “There are a lot of those cruising around. If they’re here, they’re probably all over the place. I sure hope Aries and Mason are okay. Didn’t they say they were going out today?”

“Aries can take care of herself.” Michael reached forward and picked a leaf out of her hair. “And Mason strikes me as someone good to have on your side. I’m sure they’re fine.”

Clementine looked at him with both amazement and sarcasm. “You got all that from him? Really? All I get is that he’s some sort of silent brooding dude that always acts like he wants to be anywhere else but here.”

Michael laughed. “Yeah, he’s quiet. I’d say something bad happened to him like something bad happened to all of us. But he does seem a little more haunted.”

“That would be an understatement.”

They started walking back to where they’d abandoned
their bicycles beside a parked car. They were good quality, real fancy Rocky Mountains borrowed from a shop down on Broadway. Clementine didn’t consider it stealing when the store windows were smashed in and most of the place had been looted.

“Let’s get out of here,” Michael said as he picked up the closest bike and wheeled it over toward her. He was always doing little things like that. Michael was quite the gentleman. Not like Colin, who’d pushed past her this morning to snag the last packet of instant mocha-flavored coffee.

She climbed on the bike and they headed off along the empty street.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the university. This would be their third trip out to the campus.

A few days ago they’d only explored around the outskirts. The University of British Columbia was huge. Built on a point, the campus was surrounded on three sides by ocean. There were only a few roads by which to enter, and they had to travel miles through a very large national park before they began to see buildings through the woods. The second day they began to explore the roads, leaving the bikes behind and sneaking across the campus on foot. Although the place was isolated, Michael and Clementine realized immediately they weren’t alone. The white vans were out and they’d watched some Baggers going through the Student Union Building. They were carrying out bodies and loading them into the back of a flatbed truck. Many of the bodies were in the early stages of decomposition. Even the Baggers wouldn’t get too close to them without wearing face masks and protective clothing.