Afterglow: An Apocalypse Romance (6 page)

“Whose helmet is this, anyway?” she asked.

“A spare.”

“You just happen to have a spare helmet in a small size sitting around your garage?”

Creed grinned but didn’t respond.

“It’s for girls, isn’t it? Girls you’re trying to impress by taking them for a ride?”

A single wink was the only response she got, but it left her just short of breathless. And more than a bit annoyed. Her earlier instincts not to trust him, not to take him seriously, had been right. She was using him; that was all.

“I’m surprised there aren’t notches on here for every successful ride, if you know what I mean,” she teased, tossing the helmet casually in her hands before turning it over to examine the buckle.

Creed just snorted.

“Do we have to wear them, since there won’t be any traffic?” she asked.

“Not the whole time. Normally I always wear a helmet. But it’ll depend on what kind of obstacles are in our way and what the terrain’s like. Put it on and see if it fits.”

She tried it on, and Creed stepped close to her to adjust the chin strap. When his rough fingers touched her skin, a bolt of electricity went through her, and it took all her self-control to stand still while he worked with the strap.

“Perfect,” he said, his voice muffled slightly by the helmet. He pulled it off her head and attached it to one of the saddlebags. “Let’s leave them off for now so we can see and hear what’s going on better.”

“It’s creepy,” Nina said. “How there’s nobody else around. We haven’t seen anyone except each other since those guys the other day.”

“Lucky you’re pretty enough to look at so I don’t get bored.” He winked. Again. And once again, a pulse beat between Nina’s legs. It was his confidence, and his irreverence, and something in the way he looked at her that made her want him.

His face got more serious then. “There’s bound to be more people on the road. We’re going to run into them eventually. I have a feeling there’ll be more like those three assholes out there.”

Nina nodded. She had that same feeling. A wave of fear came over her again. She was tough. She knew she was. Still, the knowledge that this was just the beginning, and maybe the beginning of the end, tore through her.

“Hey. Nina.” The low rumble of Creed’s voice pulled her out of her reverie. When she looked up, he was staring right into her eyes. “We got this, OK?”

“OK.” Her voice was small.

“I can be a badass when I need to be. And you’re the toughest chick I’ve ever met.” He got onto the bike, straddling it with his thick, denim-covered legs. His forearms, gripping the handles, were clad in the worn black leather of his jacket.

Nina couldn’t help smiling at his attempt to make her feel better. “I’m ready,” she said. She put her backpack on over her leather jacket.

Creed gestured behind him with his head. “Get on. You can be my cowgirl.”

Nina laughed. He knew it! He knew the song. She reached one leg over, settling herself on the seat behind Creed.

He turned the ignition and the bike came to life, rumbling underneath them and vibrating between Nina’s legs.

“Hold on tight.”

Nina did, putting her arms around Creed’s leather-clad torso, awkwardly at first, then more firmly as he revved the engine.

“You ready?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Ready,” she responded.

“All right then. Here we go, sweetheart.”

And they were off.

–Creed–

It felt good to be on his bike again. And it felt good to have Nina grabbing onto him as he rode the bike slowly on the curved streets of the housing complex. It shouldn’t. Or he shouldn’t admit it. He didn’t like attachments, especially at a time like this, when being self-sufficient and ready to bolt at a moment’s notice was crucial. It would only burden him to have someone he needed to take care of.

That’s why he was still trying to figure out why he was doing this, why he’d decided to take this cross-country trip with Nina on the back of his bike. He’d told himself it was because she needed looking after, but he didn’t do the whole
looking-after
thing. Not anymore, at least. So it couldn’t be that. And once they got to her grandmother’s house, he didn’t have a plan, except to go off on his own, as quickly as he could.

He wanted to be alone, to live out the rest of his days without people around him to worry about. There was no guarantee, anyway, that they’d make it to Nina’s grandmother’s place. There were no guarantees at all anymore. The world was fucked up, and the assumption that tomorrow was a new day no longer existed.

They pulled out onto the first major street as they left the subdivision, and soon they were on the strip where the major shopping of the area took place. A Home Depot and Walmart were the two biggest buildings, and Creed slowed down so they could take a look at the stores, windows broken, packaging strewn throughout the parking lots. Abandoned cars spotted the area, some of them with their doors open, some of them with their windows smashed. Shapes on the ground, at closer inspection, were bodies, fallen either from illness or at the hands of another person.

Creed swore under his breath, unable to contain his emotion. It was fucked up to see bodies just lying there. Like something out of a nightmare. Nobody was around to pick them up. Nobody was around to take control. It hit him then how completely on their own he and Nina were. He imagined Nina alone on a motorcycle making her way hundreds of miles, and his blood ran cold. Thank fuck he’d insisted on coming along.

As they passed the local high school, Creed slowed the bike then stopped at the sight. It looked like the entire football field had been commandeered by the military. Army Jeeps were parked along one edge of the field where dozens of large canvas shelters had been set up. He could see a makeshift office in the one nearest the entrance, and his heart rate kicked up for a second. Answers? Maybe.

“Let’s check it out,” he said, and Nina climbed off the back of the bike.

She scanned the area, and Creed could see the same wariness in her face that he felt. “Do you think anyone’s there?” she asked.

There was no movement, no sound, just the two of them staring at the football field. There was no denying how eerie it was. And, when the air was stirred by a sudden breeze, the sickening smell of rotting bodies assaulted them.

Creed coughed, and Nina muttered, “Oh god,” as she covered her face with her hands and bent over. Digging into his back pocket, Creed pulled two bandannas out and handed one to Nina.

“Tie this over your nose and mouth,” he instructed, doing the same with his. “It’s not going to keep the smell out, but it will help a little. Come on.”

He headed to the field without looking back, knowing she’d follow. The main tent, set up like a makeshift office, was vacant, and he and Nina spent a few minutes looking around. There were weatherproof bins with medical-history and registration forms, some filled in and some blank.

So this had been a temporary hospital. Another bin was filled with death certificates, and another with drivers’ licenses and IDs, these just thrown in, as though there’d been no time to fill out the paperwork and attach the proper identification to it. It was like looking at the history of what had happened through the disintegration of organization in the tent, pointing to the fact that too many people had started dying, and there was no way to keep up.

“Check it out,” said Nina, and Creed turned to her. She was holding a brochure. “It’s a CDC fact sheet about the virus. They’re calling it URS here.
Unidentified Respiratory Syndrome
. It says to stay away from sick people. Don’t leave your home if you’re sick. Blah blah blah. Oh here. This is interesting.
URS is unable to survive outside a host for a significant amount of time, and is weak when exposed to air. It can be killed on surfaces with bleach-based cleaners and alcohol. Using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer is believed to significantly decrease chances of transmission.
”

“Isn’t that what I already told you?” asked Creed.

“Yeah. But, you know, hearing it from an official source makes it more believable.”

“You don’t trust me.” It was a fact. He could feel it. Could see it in her eyes.

“I do. I wouldn’t be here with you right now if I didn’t,” she insisted, but she looked away when she said it.

They wandered through the field, checking out the tents, many of which were set up with hospital beds, IV stands keeping guard like scarecrows. The first tents were vacant, but in some farther away from the entrance to the field, dead bodies lay in beds, sheets and blankets strewn on the ground, possibly in fits of fever. Blood spatter, dried and brown, decorated the linens.

Creed remembered the feeling, the horrible sensation of being both too hot and too cold at the same time, the way he was utterly unable to find a comfortable position. He remembered the struggle to breathe, the coughs that racked his entire body. At the end, Leslie and Kaylee coughed up blood, barely able to breathe, choking, their faces blue.

How did he survive? Why didn’t he end up like these poor assholes? He shook his head; he didn’t want to dwell on it. Survivor’s guilt wasn’t a new concept to him, and right now he needed to stay strong.

“Oh god.” Nina had moved on ahead of him, and she stood, staring at the far end of the field, her hand to her bandanna-covered mouth. “Creed. Look.”

At first Creed wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but then recognition slammed into him. It was a huge pile, and at first he thought it was trash. Taking a few steps closer he realized it was bodies. Upon bodies. A gigantic stack of human beings, charred but not completely burned, as though someone had tried to set the whole damn group of corpses on fire but hadn’t realized how much fuel that would actually take.

“Jesus,” he hissed under his breath as a rat scurried out of the pile, then back into it again. He turned away, his stomach clenching with nausea. “Let’s get out of here.”

Nina turned to follow him, and suddenly her cool fingers fluttered against his hand, then wrapped around it.

For a second he hesitated before grasping her hand as they continued walking. Somehow holding her hand made him forget, at least for a second, how bad their situation was.

Once they got to his bike, neither of them said a thing. They put on their helmets, and Nina got on behind him. Her arms circled his waist and, for a second, Creed closed his eyes and pretended they were leaving the football field after a big game. They were in high school, and Nina’s voice was hoarse from cheering for him while he played. His parents were out for the evening, and he’d take her back to his house, where they’d make out on the couch and he’d try to convince her to come up to his room, and whatever happened, everything would be OK.

* * *

They drove for hours, some of them going slow. The expressway was like a parking lot, cars abandoned most likely after the solar super storm instantly and completely shut everything down, including car batteries and electrical systems. In some places, they had to get off the bike while Creed walked it around obstacles, then get back on again. Dead bodies slumped over in some of the cars, but many vehicles were empty too.

Creed wondered where the people had gone. They’d probably tried to walk away, some to their homes, some to the nearest town to find out what was going on. Most of them—if not all of them—were probably dead now.

At one point they saw a small group of people walking, heavy backpacks weighing them down.

“We should stop!” Nina yelled against the wind.

But Creed shook his head. He was tired, still feeling weak from being sick. His arm throbbed in time to his heartbeat, and he didn’t have the energy to deal with potentially dangerous people. Not now. Now, all he wanted was to find a place to stay for the night, somewhere they’d be safe—or as safe as possible.

Nighttime scared him; he hated the idea of letting down his guard enough to sleep in a strange place where anyone could be waiting to kill them. Because that’s what it had all come down to, hadn’t it? Life or death. This was a new world, and Creed intended to stay alive.

They’d just passed the outskirts of a suburb where all the houses and building—hell, the trees and grass too—were black from soot and fire. Smoke rose languidly from piles of charred debris, as though the fire was getting tired but hadn’t given up yet. Creed’s nose burned from the acrid air.  In some places embers glowed where the flames had died, almost pretty as dusk set in.

As the houses began to grow farther and farther spread apart, the neighborhood changed from a tight community to farmhouses separated by fields and land, and the smoky haze in the air decreased the more distance they put between themselves and the town.

“Perfect,” Creed muttered to himself as he continued to drive. They could hole up in one of these houses for the night, barricade themselves in to stay safe.

He was glad Nina was strong and knew how to use a gun, so he didn’t have to worry about keeping her alive. Still, though, he felt protective of her, a feeling he didn’t exactly welcome. He was sick of protecting people, especially since he’d failed so miserably at it his whole life long. His parents had died during his senior year in high school, a car accident he obviously couldn’t have done anything to prevent. But his best friend, who was also his brother-in-law—that was a different story. Everyone said it wasn’t his fault, and he’d practically died himself that day in Iraq. Still, he felt like shit that he was alive and Chris wasn’t. And then Leslie and Kaylee, succumbing to the virus that he, miraculously, had survived.

The last thing he needed or wanted was another person he’d have to feel responsible for. As soon as he got Nina to her grandmother’s house, he’d take off, figure out what to do on his own, where to go, how to start over. He’d be alone just the way he wanted it. Nobody to worry about. Nobody to lose.

Creed pulled up slowly into the driveway of an old but well-kept white farmhouse. The fields surrounding it were sweet with corn, the sun glinting through the tall stalks, long strands of corn silk glowing in the evening light. It was so unexpectedly lovely that Creed forgot for a split second that the rest of the world was falling apart. He could almost picture an old couple on the front porch, drinking tea or whatever the hell old people drank while they watched the sun set beyond their land. Whoever had lived here was probably dead, though that was exactly what he and Nina needed to figure out.

He parked the bike a few yards from the house, and he and Nina took off their helmets and stood, staring at the house, looking for any signs of movement. Everything was still.

“We’ll knock,” said Creed, “and if nobody answers, we’ll go in and look around.”

Nina nodded, yawning, her eyes red and dazed. They both needed something to eat and drink, and they both needed a good night’s sleep, though he wasn’t sure either of them would get it.

Nobody answered their knock, and the front door was unlocked, a stroke of luck, thought Creed. After checking the house out and finding it vacant, Creed maneuvered his bike up the two front porch stairs, then rolled it straight into the living room.

“Aw. Don’t want to leave your baby all alone tonight?” asked Nina, running her hands through her red curls and frowning. “My hair is so gross. I would kill for a shower.”

“If someone takes my
baby
, we’ll be stranded here and we’ll be walking the rest of the way. Did you check the faucets?”

Nina nodded. “Nothing.”

The water in his sister’s house had stopped working, and though Creed wasn’t an expert on plumbing, he suspected that water pumps relied on electricity and that’s why nobody had running water anymore, another effect of the solar storm.

Creed walked through the living room, passing through a hallway on his way to the kitchen, which overlooked a grassy area, woods looming dark in the background. And there, surrounded by overgrown grass, it stood. Just like he thought.

“Sweetheart,” he said, smirking at Nina.

She shot him a dirty look. “My name’s not...”

“Sweetheart. I know. I’ve got a surprise for you.”

“What is it?” She put her hands on her hips and stared at him, her green eyes glinting. She’d taken off her leather jacket and boots and socks, and in her bare feet, tank top, and jeans, she was absolutely gorgeous, despite the day’s grime covering her, the curves of her body undeniably sexy. Undeniably taking all his focus at the moment. It was almost impossible to look away from her lips.

“Well, if I tell you, it won’t be a surprise now, will it?” He cocked his head, grinning when she scowled at him.

“Creed, I’m not in the mood to play games. Just tell me, all right?”