Running Away - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 4) (18 page)

A
fter they’d finished
we all sat in the living room. None of us were able, nor wanted, to sit on or even look at the sofa. We’d sat in silence for a long time before anyone spoke.

“So, there’s a van in the garage,” Penn announced breaking the silence. “I’m going to start packing it up.”

I looked at Dean and then at Sienna, “Maybe one more night?”

I thought that maybe another night of sleep would help Sienna. She was sitting up and looked a bit better, maybe the rest was helping. Or maybe it had been the can of food.

“I don’t know,” Penn said looking at each one of us. He didn’t like staying in one place. It was obvious. If we ever made it to Michigan would things change? Would he be able to relax once we made it to our destination or would he want to keep moving? Maybe he wouldn’t ever be able to just stop and try to make somewhere our home. What if he wouldn’t be able to stop?

“Maybe we should make this place into our home?” I said looking around. It was fairly secluded, we could make it safe and if we could find Lucy’s house again, we knew there were supplies there.

“No,” Penn said pressing his fist into the wall. “There’s no water here, and what’s left of the food won’t last long. We don’t know anything about this area and we don’t have any ammo.”

“We don’t know Michigan either,” I said shrugging.

“But we don’t have ammo,” Penn said jabbing his finger into his palm. “We can find ammo along the way. If we stay here who knows if we can find anything? Where is the nearest gun shop? What if it’s been emptied?”

“What if the other gun shops along the way have been emptied?”

“Then we’ll try police stations,” Penn said as if he couldn’t be more sure leaving this place behind was the best move.

Maybe he was right. There were things we’d have to find. Things to stock up on before we could settle in somewhere. There could be a city close to where we were, but it would take time, energy and gas to try to find anything. And if we couldn’t find anything quickly we’d be in sad shape.

In Michigan, or maybe somewhere along the way, we could find some place close to water. First and foremost, we needed water. And this place didn’t seem to be near water.

“We’ll leave when Sienna’s ready,” Dean said gripping the armrests of the chair he was in so hard his knuckles turned white. Penn’s eyes quickly shifted in Dean’s direction, but his body softened when he saw the look on Dean’s face. I saw it too. He was filled with worry.

“Don’t be dumb,” Sienna said with a weak smile on her face. “I’m mostly fine… just really, really tired, but if we have a van, I can rest as we move.”

She started coughing softly at first, but it turned more violent. Her hand was over her mouth and it looked as though it might turn into her throwing up in the bathroom again. Carter held her shoulders gently and looked ready to get her to the bathroom if she needed him to. Dean stared at her.

“Seriously, it’s just a bad cough,” she said in a rough voice that barely sounded like her own. She’d coughed so much it had actually changed her voice. Not to mention her throat was probably sore. She forced a smile, “Let’s go!”

“Well, hold on,” Penn said smiling back at her, but he had worry in his eyes too. “I’ll pack up as much as I can first. Ros, you check the closets for anything we could use. Dean, can you help me in the kitchen?”

The only thing that really mattered for us right now was getting food and water. At least it was all I could think about, but even still, I took towels, a pail and bandages I’d found in the bathroom closet.

Dean and Penn filled the back of the van up with plastic bags as if they’d went shopping. They’d stuffed the bags with the can opener, cans of food, rice, and half-eaten boxes of noodles. They’d also put the mostly empty jug of water, a pot, and a tea kettle in the back. Inside one of the bags I spotted random cups, one of them was a different color than the others.

“Whoever lived here sure liked soup,” I said looking at the plastic bag that only had the soup cans.

“A couple of those are jars of gravy,” Dean said flatly.

“Mmm,” I said rubbing my belly.

“Dibs on the gravy?” he asked lightly, jabbing me with his elbow. He was trying to tease me, but I would have gladly slurped down the gravy.

I could tell that Dean’s mind wasn’t fully on packing. If I had to guess, his thoughts were probably mostly on his sister. I knew he was worried she’d suffer the same fate Alice had.

Everyone was quiet, lost in their own thoughts as we climbed inside the van. Penn must have found the keys at some point because he started the van and we drove away, leaving the small home and Alice’s grave behind.

Sienna rested on Carter in the backseat of the van. I leaned forward, looking between the two front seats as we drove down the road in search of the highway.

We’d been on the road for a long while before we found a highway. I wasn’t completely sure we were going the right way until we found a sign that was still standing to confirm that we were, in fact, heading east.

I hadn’t seen him do it, but at some point back at the farm house, Penn must have cut up a piece of hose. He took it out at every abandoned car we came across, but pretty much everything had been drained, probably months and months ago.

The van wouldn’t make it to Michigan unless we found more than a few drops of gas soon. I wished I would have never suggested Michigan.

Why hadn’t I picked somewhere closer? I barely even remember my reasoning, but now it was like a finish line. We had to get there before we could stop moving.

I had thought of the lakes and the distance from HOME and the resistance. It seemed like it would be a good place. But it was so far away. Maybe it was time to come up with a plan B.

* * *

W
e drove as far
as we could until the van sputtered to a stop. Dean and Penn looked at one another as if they hoped the other had a brilliant suggestion. But neither of them knew what to do.

A droplet of water hit the windshield, followed by another and then another. I looked up at the sky. There was a gray cloud blanketing it for as far as I could see. The sprinkles of rain quickly turned into a full on downpour.

“Guess we’ll wait it out,” Penn said tapping the window. It was coming down so hard against the van I wondered if it was making tiny drop-size dents.

The van was parked halfway in the ditch so that we were slightly blocking the road. It didn’t seem likely that another car would be traveling out this way, so it probably didn’t matter. Anyone around here that was still alive was probably staying dry, deep inside whatever hideout they had.

We were somewhere in Iowa. I remembered miles ago reading the sign where the people of Iowa welcomed us. Somehow I doubted the words on the sign were still true.

“We’re more than halfway there,” Dean said looking over his shoulder at Sienna. She smiled at him, but it didn’t even seem as though she knew what he’d said.

“We’ll need to find another car. It’d be a long way to go on foot,” Penn said as he traced a line of water that rushed down the opposite side of his window.

We sat in the car staring out at the rain for what felt like hours and it still wasn’t showing any signs of letting up. Without being able to see the sun in the sky, I couldn’t even guess at what time of day it was. All I knew was that it was still day time based on the amount of light trying to push through the gray clouds.

After we all had our fill of the cans of soup, there was little to do but sit there and watch the rain fall. Penn slapped his knee sharply, and I jumped at the unexpected sound.

“Jesus, Penn!” I said digging my fingers into my thighs. “I thought that was a gunshot!”

“Sorry… it’s just something occurred to me.”

“And that is….?”

“Hand me the pot and the jug,” Penn said twisting around in his seat so he was looking back at Carter. He slapped his leg again, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner!”

Penn looked out the window as if he was nervous it might stop raining any second. Carter reached over the seat and pulled out the jug. He handed it to me before he turned back around to fish out the pot.

Sienna held herself up while she waited for him to finish. Her body seemed to sway ever so slightly. Carter settled back in his seat and pulled her back into his arms.

She didn’t look good which had me worrying even more. She’d gotten rest, food and some water, but it didn’t seem to be helping. There were dark circles under her eyes and her lips were cracking. I looked up from her and met Carter’s eyes.

“Did she eat anything?” I asked softly.

“Some,” he said shaking his head, which I took to mean she hadn’t had enough.

“I’m right here,” she said as if she was annoyed we were talking about her as if she wasn’t there.

“Sorry,” I said handing Penn the pot. I turned around and leaned forward in case I could help Penn with his water gathering project.

He scooted away from the door and pushed it open. The volume of the rushing rainwater increased drastically. It was almost too loud.

Penn stuck the pot out and collected the rainwater. The pot filled much quicker than I thought it would.

“It’s really coming down,” he said as he tried to carefully fill the jug on the console with the water he had collected in the pan. He tried not to spill, but water splashed out and ran down both sides of the console.

“Dude,” Dean said moving closer to his door.

“Sorry,” Penn muttered. He put the jug of rainwater to his lips and gulped down the water before passing it to Dean. “What do you think?”

“It’s good,” Dean said nodding at Penn. After he took another drink, he smiled and handed me the jug.

The cool water felt soothing in my mouth. I could feel it as it moved down my throat. A smile spread across my face and I was about to share with Carter and Sienna, but when I looked at her, my smile faded.

“Where’s her cup?” I asked holding the jug in midair. We should have probably all used our own cups. Maybe one of us was sick and just not showing symptoms.

“It should be in the back. I took several… one is a different color,” Penn said nodding towards the back of the van. Carter reached over the back seat and dug around inside the bags.

“Found it,” he said spinning around and holding out the plastic cup. I filled it halfway with water, but she probably wouldn’t even drink that much.

Carter placed a gentle kiss on her forehead as she moved her head towards the cup. He helped her drink several sips of the refreshing liquid.

Sienna nodded and laid back down on Carter. I reached out to take the cup, but he held up his palm and rested it on his knee. He probably was going to try to get her to drink it all, it would just take time.

I had major reservations about sharing the jug with Carter. After all, he’d been closest to Sienna since she’d gotten sick.

“Is there another cup back there for you?” I asked carefully.

“Yeah, I’ll get some later,” he said looking down at Sienna. “After she finishes.”

“Sure,” I said nodding. All he was thinking about right now was getting Sienna well, but he’d have to remember to take care of himself too.

Penn worked at filling up the jug while the rain poured down. He didn’t care how much he spilled in the van because we’d be leaving it behind as soon as the rain stopped.

The air outside was cool, and it got even cooler when darkness fell around us. We’d been in the van for hours and hours and it was still raining.

Even with how cool the air was outside, the van would get stuffy. Every so often Penn would open the door for fresh air, but the inside of the van cooled down too quickly. When I started to shiver, he’d close the door.

I hoped his seat hadn’t been too soaked from the rain that would drip inside every time he opened the door, but it seemed as though the rain was falling straight down. He didn’t complain about being wet, but then again, even if he had been soaked he probably wouldn’t have complained.

I laid down on the seat thinking about how maybe HOME was up to something. The rain was still coming down, and I worried that maybe it wouldn’t stop. HOME would flood out whatever remained of the world.

I didn’t bother telling the others about my fears. There was no reason to tell them when I had no reason to think it was anything more than just rain. Perhaps they were all already thinking it anyway.

Sleep didn’t come easily in the van. The seat was uncomfortable… I could feel every spring poking through, jabbing at my overly slim body. The noise from the rain was anything but soothing. It was harsh and unrelenting. The metallic clanging noise it made when it pounded into the van made me think of someone banging a wooden spoon against the bottom of a pot.

The rain might have had nothing to do with the fact that I couldn’t sleep. It definitely didn’t help that every time I closed my eyelids, I saw Alice’s dead eyes staring back at me.

At some point everything must have gotten to be too much, and I fell asleep. When I opened my eyes, it was morning. The rain had slowed to a drizzle and I could finally see out of the rain-sprinkled windows.