“There are lots of cars pulled off on the sides. Looks like they’ve broken down, but I can’t tell how long they’ve been there. Could be from the hail, or more recent. The road’s in bad shape. The quake broke it up in places. The quake broke everything up.”
Jake’s breaths were rhythmic and steady. It seemed too intimate a thing, to listen to his breathing like that.
And then it grew faster.
“Just … picking up … the pace a bit…,” he said, slightly breathless. “Hard to breathe in this thing.”
There were a few streetlights on, which was somehow surprising to me.
“Okay,” Jake said. “Just a nice stroll on a nice quiet street.” His voice was nervous.
“The streetlights are on?” Niko asked into the walkie-talkie.
“Yeah, and I’ve got the gun out. Just in case anyone’s watching me.”
Jake walked in the darkness, for what seemed like forever.
The kids ate their popcorn and I wanted to shush them, but I couldn’t even spare the breath.
Jake approached the hospital.
“It’s not looking good,” he said quietly. “It’s dark. No lights anywhere.”
We saw a ghost of a building, windows crashed out.
“The hospital’s dead,” Jake said. “There’s nobody here.”
“Shoot.” Niko dropped his head into his hands. “What are we going to do?”
On the screen, the walls of the hospital seemed to be fluttering, moving.
“What are we seeing?” Alex asked into the walkie-talkie, taking it over from Niko.
“There’s flyers up. Letters, notes, pictures,” Jake said.
He drew close so we could see.
A flyer of a photo of a middle-aged man: “Missing, Mark Bintner. Last seen on Mount Herman Road.”
“Have you seen my daughter?” A photo of a pretty blond toddler.
A hastily scribbled note: “Grandma, I’m still alive! Going to Denver.”
“Everyone’s gone,” Jake said as he continued to scan over the flyers.
There were multiple flyers saying the same thing: ALL SURVIVORS GO TO DENVER TO BE AIRLIFTED TO ALASKA. DEPARTURES EVERY 5 DAYS ON THE FIVES.
“Every five days on the fives,” I said.
“What day is it?” Josie murmured.
“It’s the twenty-eighth,” Niko answered grimly.
There was a photo of a girl in a prom dress.
A photocopy showing someone’s grandmother.
A picture of a woman taped to a paper: “Anne Marie, Find me at DIA!—Lou”
And there, our Christmas card.
“Stop!” I screamed. “Tell him to go back. That’s our Christmas card! That’s our Christmas card!”
Niko told Jake to go back and he found the card.
My mother, my father, Alex, and me.
Standing in front of our house.
Smiling, waving.
I grabbed my hair with both hands.
“What does it say?”
Jake took the card off the wall. He held it in his hands and opened it.
“Seasons Greetings from the Grieders!” it said in pretty red writing. And below that:
DEAN AND ALEX, in my father’s neat print.
WE DIDN’T DIE. STAY SAFE OR GET TO DENVER.
WE LOVE YOU ALWAYS.
Alex and I launched ourselves at each other and embraced.
Everyone seemed to be crying along with us and I felt myself hugged, embraced by bodies from every side.
Josie, Chloe, Batiste, and Ulysses were hugging us. Henry and Caroline, Niko, even Astrid. We were at the center of the group and everyone was hanging on to each other.
I don’t know if we were crying that they might be alive or they might be dead or if it was just that contact had been made.
“Oh God,” said Jake’s voice. His voice was thick with tears. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, guys.”
He moved away from the hospital.
“I’m not … I’m not coming back. I can’t do it anymore.”
“What?!” Astrid said, breaking away from the group.
“What did Jake say?”
There was the sound of tape ripping and the bungling sound of clothing being rearranged.
“What is he doing?” Astrid asked.
The angle of our feed changed suddenly and I realized Jake was taking the video walkie-talkie off his chest.
“Tell Astrid I’m sorry,” was the last thing we heard him say.
We all stood in front of the monitor and watched.
Jake set down the video walkie-talkie on the street.
We could just see his boots. The pavement. The darkness beyond.
Jake walked away from us. Away from the camera.
And all we could do was watch him walk away, disappearing into the black day-night.
* * *
“No!” Astrid wailed.
The kids were clinging to each other and to us, sobbing.
Niko strode away, his hands in fists at his sides.
Astrid slid down on the floor. Caroline and Henry heaped themselves onto her lap, hugging her and crying. Astrid buried her face in Caroline’s hair and wept.
* * *
Maybe two minutes later we heard a mechanical growl. An engine VROOM-ing to life. Luna started to bark. The sound came from the opposite end of the store.
It was the bus.
Niko had started the engine.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
THE BUS
The sound of the bus rumbled through the store.
As if in a daze, we wandered over to it. Like the engine’s roar was casting a spell on us.
The engine shut off, just as we drew near.
It was sitting there by the front doors, where it had always waited. Niko came to the door of the bus.
“You all have ten minutes to get a bag packed. It should be mostly clothes. You can bring one special toy,” Niko said to us.
“Wait!” Astrid said. “What are we doing?”
“Brayden needs a doctor. So we’re going to take him to one.”
“To where?” asked Max.
“We’re going to Denver.”
The screaming, the hoorays, the giddy laughing were all deafening.
I felt sick to my stomach.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Can’t we talk about it?”
Niko walked over to me as the little kids skittered away to pack. Alex came to stand at his side.
“Brayden’s worse. The wound is infected. He looks green!” Niko said.
“But the roads!” I said. “They could be damaged or blocked—”
“He’s going to die if we stay here.”
“But, Niko—”
“You have ten minutes to put together a bag. You know the bus is stocked. We’ll be fine.”
“Dean,” Alex said. “It could be our only way to see Mom and Dad again!”
“You want to see your parents?” Niko asked.
“Of course I do,” I shouted. “But I don’t want to turn into a blood-drinking, bone-chewing monster on a bus with a bunch of eight-year-olds!”
“We’re going to sedate you,” Niko said. “Alex and I discussed it.”
He nodded to Alex.
“What?” I asked.
“We’re going to sedate the three of you with O-type blood, and also tie you up, as a precaution,” Alex said.
“Thanks for having my back,” I said.
It was logical, but it still felt like a betrayal, especially with the two of them trying to convince me together.
“Plus, maybe the compounds have dissipated a bit by now,” Alex said. “Your reaction could be less severe.”
“I don’t have time to argue about this anymore,” Niko said. “It’s my decision and if it’s wrong, I’ll live with it. But I can’t let him die and not do anything about it.”
“Niko, you’re supposed to be the smart one,” I said. “Cautious and smart and thinking everything through.”
“This bus is a tank,” he said to me. “It will get us there, I know it.”
“We have to go,” Alex said. “It’s our only chance to see them.”
“And if we’re going, we have to go now. The next evacuation is in two days.”
I turned and walked away.
“Where are you going?” Alex called.
“To pack my bag, of course,” I spat out. “What choice do I have?”
“Hurry,” Niko called after me. “I need your help to load Brayden onto the bus.”
I went and grabbed a backpack from Sporting Goods and then I went to Men’s Clothing.
Inside, I was ranting.
It was stupid. It was a big mistake. They didn’t understand what the compounds would make me do.
And what about the roads? What about the bandits?
“It’s a bad idea,” came a soft voice behind me.
It was Astrid. She looked small and scared under the bright fluorescent lights of the store.
“I know,” I said.
“We shouldn’t go,” she said.
“I know. Niko is so scared Brayden will die that he’s risking everyone.”
Astrid stepped close to me and embraced me.
She pressed her face to my chest and held me tight.
It felt so good. Like we were magnets, meant to be fitted together. I put my arms around her and held her to me.
“Stay,” she said. “Stay with me, Dean.”
“What?”
“I’m not going,” she said, pulling away to look up at me. “And I want you to stay with me.”
My heart was in my throat. My vision was swimming.
She was going to stay and she wanted me to stay with her?
“You want me to stay with you?” I said. “Me?”
She pulled out of my arms and drew back a step, putting her hands in the pockets of her vest.
“I mean…” She blushed. She was blushing.
“I’m not going,” she said, not meeting my eyes. “I can’t. And neither should you. The compounds will make us into monsters. They don’t know what it’s like. We do. You and me and Chloe, we need to stay.”