Afterglow: An Apocalypse Romance (19 page)

“Is your niece a little kid?”

“Yeah. Six years old and freckles on her nose, like you.”

“It’s my favorite,” said Charlie in a satisfied voice, gently touching the cat tattoo on Creed’s arm.

“Mine too. It reminds me of her.”

Nina was shocked at the softness of Creed’s tone now.

“Does she live far away?” asked Charlie.

Creed hesitated, but only for a second. “She does.”

“Will she be at Nina’s grandmother’s house?”

Creed shook his head. “No, she won’t.”

“Is Nina’s grandmother nice?”

Creed laughed. “I don’t know. I’ve never met her.”

“Nina’s nice, though.”

“Yeah. She is.” Creed looked up at her, grinning, and once again Nina felt the urge to cry. But not out of sadness this time. It was something else, something she couldn’t pinpoint exactly. Something about how human beings could, yes, be awful. But sometimes they could be so merciful and kind. Like Creed.

* * *

That night Charlie said he wanted to sleep with Nina and Creed. Creed found a comforter in Target, and they spread it on the floor as a mattress, then all three of them lay on top of it, covering themselves with sleeping bags. Charlie was jumpy and restless, excited about their trip in the morning, like they were going to Disney World and not out into danger. But at least he was happy and no longer scared, Nina figured, and she couldn’t help smiling, even though they needed a good night’s sleep so they could leave early in the morning.

“Tell me a story,” begged Charlie.

“You need to go to sleep.” Nina patted him gently on the back, and for a few seconds he lay still, then flipped over.

“Creed?” he asked, though with his tiny lisp it sounded more like
Cweed
, “tell me about the little girl.”

“What little girl?” asked Creed.

“The little girl who likes cats.”

“My niece?”

“Yeah!” Charlie kicked his legs up so the sleeping bag lifted in the air.

“OK. But only if you lie still and try to sleep. Got it, buddy?” said Creed.

Nina marveled at this new side she was seeing of Creed. She’d known he could be gentle, like when he took care of her, but she was surprised to see how good he was with Charlie. She knew it was probably hard for him to be around Charlie, because he was the same age as his niece and because he insisted on talking about her. But Creed was handling it so well.

“Got it.” Charlie nestled up under the blanket and moved closer to Creed, curling up against his arm.

“So her name was... is... Kaylee.”

“There’s a girl named Kayla in my class at school...”

“No interrupting, Charlie. You’re supposed to be trying to sleep, right?”

“Right.”

“Her name is Kaylee. She’s a really funny kid. She likes to make silly faces so that even when you’re mad, it’s impossible not to laugh when she does it. She loves to play this game she made up called
hot lava
, where she pretends the floor throughout the whole house is lava, and if you step on it you’ll be burned. So she takes all the cushions off the couch and chairs and uses them as stepping stones to get from one room to another. She loves corn on the cob with, get this, peanut butter on it.”

“Eww,” whispered Charlie.

“I know, right?” Creed chuckled. “And her favorite TV show is
The Powerpuff Girls
. She makes me wear a cape and pretend to be Mojo Jojo, the evil monkey.”

“I never saw that show before.” Charlie’s words were slurred, like he was about to fall asleep.

“That’s OK. I saw some
Powerpuff Girls
comics. We’ll bring some with us tomorrow, all right?”

“Mmm hmmm.”

“And I’ll tell you more tomorrow, Charlie.” Creed was whispering now, and when Nina looked over, she could barely make out, in the glow from the flashlight they were using as a night light, Creed stroking Charlie’s black messy hair. Soon she heard the deep rhythm-ed breathing of sleep coming from Charlie.

Nina wanted to tell Creed
thank you
, tell him he’d done a great job with Charlie. But she didn’t want to wake the child up, and she didn’t want to sound condescending. She closed her eyes to sleep, hoping to drift off quickly so morning would come soon, so they could begin what she hoped was the last stretch of their journey to find her family.

“Hey.”

Nina opened her eyes at Creed’s whispered voice. She could see him looking at her over Charlie’s small body.

“Hey,” she responded.

“This is fucking hard, Nina. The kid… Charlie… it’s fucking sad.”

“I know.”

“He needs us, though, doesn’t he?” Creed’s voice was a low whisper, a rumble in the dark.

“He does.”
And I need you
, Nina thought. But she wasn’t sure where that thought had come from.

They were silent then, but Creed reached out his hand after a few minutes and found Nina’s. Across Charlie they held hands as they fell asleep.

* * *

In the morning, they were up early. Creed went outside before Nina and Charlie to load Trigger into the truck, then move the stuff he’d stowed in the cab to the bed so they’d have room to sit. He told Nina he’d siphoned enough gas from other cars so they had a full tank. Enough gas, he said, to get them all the rest of the way.

The thought that they might make it to her grandmother’s house that day left Nina’s heart thumping, and though she tried to fight the excitement—because she knew things might not be what she was hoping for—it was impossible not to smile as she packed things up and helped Charlie change into a clean set of clothes.

He was excited about the trip. “Does your grandma have any pets?” he asked.

“She has a dog,” said Nina.

“Does he bite?”

“No, he doesn’t bite. He used to work at hospitals.”

Charlie giggled. “The dog has a job?”

“Sort of,” laughed Nina. “My grandma took him to special classes so he could be a therapy dog. He used to visit people in hospitals to make them feel better.”

“Did he quit his job?”

Nina realized Charlie had picked up on the past tense she was using to talk about her grandmother’s dog. “I think he’s taking a break,” she said, unable to think of a better explanation for the fact that hospitals were probably all filled with dead bodies right now.

“What’s his name?” Charlie stuck his feet into the brand new sneakers Creed had found.

“P.J.”

“Like pajamas?” Charlie laughed, his big brown eyes filled with genuine happiness, maybe for the first time since they’d found him.

“Just like pajamas.”

“Can you tie my shoes for me?”

“I can. But watch me do it, OK? We’ll teach you to do it yourself soon.”

“OK.”

“Charlie, are you ready for our big trip today?”

He nodded.

“It’s a long way still, and there might be some dangerous... situations. I need you to always listen to what Creed and I tell you to do, without asking questions, all right? Sometimes we might have to do things really quickly and we won’t have time to talk about it first. So can you do the things Creed and I ask?”

Charlie nodded again, his eyes serious. “Promise,” he whispered.

Nina’s heart broke. “Come here,” she said, holding out her arms. When he moved closer, she hugged him tightly. “I’m glad we found you, Charlie,” she whispered into his hair.

“Me too,” he said. “The store was really lonely. And smelly, too.”

Nina laughed. “Yeah. It was.”

She heard Creed’s knock on the back door.

“You ready to go?” she asked.

“Ready.” It sounded like
Weady
, and Nina smiled as she took his small hand in hers.

* * *

They drove steadily, though slowly, for about an hour. The roads were clear enough that they could navigate around the few cars blocking their way. Only once they had to veer off the country road and onto the gravel on the side to get around a small grouping of cars in the middle of the street.

“They look like they’re having a meeting,” said Charlie.

Nina laughed, and she saw Creed crack a smile, though he kept his eyes on the road.

“I have to pee,” said Charlie, and with a sigh, Creed said they’d pull over soon.

“Oh my god, look!” Nina sat upright, pointing at a sigh for a motorcycle shop. Mama Maddie’s Motorcycles & More.

“Horrible name. Nice alliteration,” said Creed.

“It’s better than Pete’s Hunting and Fishing Emporium,” said Nina. “But they might have jackets. You need a new leather jacket.”

“We don’t have time to stop,” said Creed, but Nina could see a glint in his eye.

“What’s alliteration?” asked Charlie.

“Good question,” answered Nina. “It’s when a bunch of words sound the same. Like
a silly snake named sally
.
Silly
,
snake
, and
sally
all have the ‘ss’ sound.”

“Wow. You really are a teacher, huh?” drawled Creed, glancing at Nina with a smirk.

“Shut up,” said Nina good-naturedly.

“Shut up is not an appropriate word or action,” said Charlie. It was clearly something he was repeating, probably from school.

“You’re right, Charlie,” said Creed. “Nina did say an inappropriate word.”

Nina glared at him, but she felt like bursting out laughing. This was fun, joking around with Charlie and Creed. And even though she didn’t know what lay ahead, what dangers were in store for them, it felt good, for these few minutes, to have something to giggle about.

They pulled into the parking lot of the motorcycle shop. “Wait here,” said Creed.

Nina began to object—it was much safer for the two of them to check out the store together—but he gave her a look.

“You stay here with Charlie,” he said. “I don’t want him getting out of the car to follow us. And I don’t want something to happen to both of us so he’ll be alone again.”

Right
. It reminded Nina of how, when she and Logan were younger, her parents never flew on the same plane. Her mother admitted it was ridiculous but said she was afraid that the plane would go down, leaving Nina and Logan orphans.

As Nina and Charlie watched Creed approach the store carefully, Charlie spoke in a small voice. “Guns are dangerous, Nina.”

“Oh Charlie,” she said, “they can be. You’re right. They’re very dangerous. But right now, there are some bad people out there who have guns, and we wouldn’t be able to protect ourselves if we didn’t have them too. Does that make sense?”

“I guess.” Charlie was playing with the zipper pull on his jacket. His too-long black hair hung down into his eyes, and he stuck out his lower lip and blew upwards to move the hair out of his eyes.

“But you should never, ever play with a gun or even pick one up. You know that, right? If you see one, what should you do?”

“Tell someone?”

“That’s right, Charlie. You could tell me or Creed about it, OK?”

He nodded.

“Someday when you’re ready we’ll teach you how to use one. But until then, I don’t want you to ever touch one without permission.”

Creed had disappeared inside the store, and Nina felt her heart thumping, hoping nobody was inside, lying in wait to attack.

Minutes passed. Nina grew more and more anxious.

“Why’s he taking so long?” asked Charlie. “I have to pee bad, Nina.”

“I don’t know why he’s taking so long,” responded Nina, her eyes glued to the front door. The thought of something happening to Creed terrified her, and not just, she realized, because she didn’t want to be alone. It terrified her because she didn’t want to lose
Creed
.

Once again she was forced with the truth of her feelings for him. She loved him. When exactly it had happened she wasn’t sure, but some time, during the course of their few weeks together, she’d fallen deeply and insanely in love with Creed.

“I’m going to go find him, Charlie. Can you wait here for me?” she asked, fear rising up inside of her as she realized she couldn’t leave Charlie alone. If something happened to her, he’d be alone. But she couldn’t leave Creed in the motorcycle store, potentially injured or surrounded or worse.

Then Charlie’s happy voice announced, “There he is, Nina!”

She looked up to see Creed walking back toward the truck, nodding his head.

“Let’s go, Nina. Let’s go!” Charlie was bouncing up and down, and as soon as Nina opened the door of the cab, he climbed over her and down to the ground. “Is there a bathroom, Creed? Did you find a new jacket? Can I get one too?” He grasped Creed’s hand, and the sight of Creed’s huge rough hand holding Charlie’s tiny one almost melted Nina’s heart. Almost.

“Why did you take so long?” she hissed at Creed, anger suddenly and inexplicably surging through her.