Instinct (56 page)

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It was the smell of her cigarette that had drawn Robby. He’d seen the footprints headed up the sidewalk, but at first he’d kept moving. People could be trouble. But with the cigarette smoke, he had remembered his grandmother, and that had drawn him to investigate.

The footprints continued up the sidewalk of the bridge. The railing on the left held back the growing drop down to the river. On the other side, a concrete barrier separated the sidewalk from the roadbed. There wasn’t much snow here—just enough to see the outline of small sneakers.

Robby glanced up and saw the woman. She was standing at the railing, but not leaning against it. Her arms were crossed and her attention was focused on the horizon. In the distance, the ocean met the clouds. Both the water and the sky seemed to dissolve into the same gray color.

“Hi,” Robby said.

She looked over. Her head turned quickly, but she looked more annoyed than startled.

Electricity shot through Robby’s body as she leaned forward and looked over the railing. He didn’t like heights. He stopped and put a hand down on the concrete barrier, to steady himself.

She fumbled inside her coat and her hand came out with a pack of cigarettes. She flung them over the edge and then leaned forward again to watch them tumble down towards the water.

“I quit,” she said.

“That’s good,” Robby said. “Those things are deadly.”

The comment seemed to catch her by surprise, and then she smiled. They both laughed for a second at the absurdity of the thought. With all the threats that seemed to be lurking, any type of cancer was a distant concern.

“Are you okay?” Robby asked.

She grabbed the railing with both hands and pulled herself back and forth. It almost looked like she was trying to get momentum for a jump. She finally released the railing with an expulsion of air that turned into a sigh.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m fine.”

She backed up until she reached the concrete barrier and she sat down on it.

“My name is Rob,” he said.
 

“Rob,” she repeated. She turned down the corners of her mouth as she said it. “You don’t look like a Rob. What’s your name, really?”

“Robby,” he said. He looked down and blushed.

“I’ll call you Rob if you want,” she said. “My name is Judy.”

When Robby looked back up, she had a cigarette in the corner of her mouth and a different pack was disappearing inside her jacket. She lit it and then held it delicately between her fingers.

“I thought you quit.”

“A dozen times a day.”

They didn’t speak for a few minutes. Judy puffed and Robby moved closer before sitting on the wall too. They looked out towards the place where the clouds met the ocean.

“I’m not like this,” Judy said. “I have my own apartment, and a job. I’m a legitimate adult.”

“Okay.”

“I don’t live there anymore.” She laughed at herself and then threw away the cigarette. “I haven’t been back since Thanksgiving. I guess I’m homeless. Where do you live?”

Robby was very careful about his living arrangements. He never approached the building from the same direction, and he left footprints and tire tracks all over the neighborhood, to throw off anyone who might try to track him through the snow. Robby had rigged up a security system and slept with a bureau pushed against the door to his bedroom. A rope ladder sat next to the window, in case he had to escape into the night.

Still, he didn’t hesitate when she asked the question. “A little house over near the marsh. I’ve got it fixed up. I have power, and water, and hot showers. You want to see?”

“Yeah,” Judy said. She stood up.

Robby stood too. He brushed the snow off the back of his pants and started walking down the sidewalk. It only took a couple of steps for him to realize that he was the only one walking. He turned back around.
 

Judy was gripping the railing again and leaning out over the drop.

“You coming?” Robby asked.

She looked at him for a second. She really seemed to study him, like there was something important to be learned just by looking.
 

“Sure,” she said. Judy pushed herself back and began to walk towards Robby. “You have a guest room in this house?”

“There’s a master bedroom I’m not using. You can have that.”

“Can I smoke there?”

“Out on the back bench, sure.”

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Robby began to cover Judy with dirt.

CHAPTER 46: CLINIC

R
OBBY
WALKED
BACK
TOWARDS
the school. The snow had tapered down to light flurries. He pulled up the hood on his sweatshirt and stuffed his hands into the pouch. When he looked over the buildings, he still saw the flickering glow of the light back there somewhere. He turned and took another route back. He put a block between himself and the site of the battle.
 

In the alley, he found the remnants of the vines. Under a thin blanket of snow, they looked wilted and impotent. He walked over them and found the hole that he’d gone into. The firehose was still draped over the edge. It was black down there. The stream of lava on the edge of the hole had gone cold. Its ripples were hardened into black rock.

He followed footprints until he found the tire tracks of the ambulance. They led down to the street and took a turn. Robby followed them on foot.

It wasn’t too much of a walk, but it was far enough that Robby lost track of time.
 

The snow stopped somewhere along the way. He glanced up and saw the ambulance parked outside of a long building with a flat roof. Robby walked towards it and saw the dog, Cedric, run forward. The dog stopped a few paces from Robby, and then came forward with his tail low and wagging. Robby patted him on the head and then entered.

They had wheeled the beds into the lobby and shoved all the chairs to one side. Robby saw two people hooked up to plastic IV bags that hung from metal stands. To one side of the room, he spotted Tim and Ty working on a person. They wore masks and blue gloves. Robby stood several paces away, in deference to their work. Ty was impossible to mistake because of his size. Robby recognized Tim mostly because of the way that Cedric ran to his side and pressed against him.

“Outside, Cedric,” Tim said. He glanced up and saw Robby. He gave him a nod.

Robby looked around the room. Facing away from him, one of the people hooked up to an IV was Brad.

The man stirred as Robby took his hand. His eyes opened about halfway.

“Hey, Robby,” he said. “Is she okay?”

Robby took a second to figure out who he was talking about. He glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll find out.” He patted Brad’s hand and then moved on. He checked the other beds. A woman came out of a side room with a pink tub. Her eyes scanned up and down Robby. He looked down and noticed the blood on his own pants. It wasn’t his own.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Have you seen a woman named Romie? She had a wound on her side. Maybe shrapnel?”

“They’re working on her now,” the woman said.

Robby followed her glance over towards Ty and Tim. He rushed back over to them.

“Is that Romie? Is she going to be okay?”

Ty looked up. Robby saw the sweat on his forehead and the mask puffing in and out as he breathed.

“We got the shrapnel out of her kidney and stitched it up as good as I know how,” Ty said. She needs time to heal. Robby barely heard the words. He only caught the sentiment, and all the hedging that was implied.

He approached around the back of Tim and found Romie’s hand under the sheet. She was out. He wondered if they’d given her something to sleep.

“We’ve got food!” someone shouted from the other side of the lobby. Robby turned and saw Jackson pushing Amy Lynne in a wheelchair. Piled on her lap were bags of snacks, liberated from some machine. Ty put a gloved finger up to his mask to quiet them down.
 

Amy Lynne giggled.

“What do you think?” Robby asked. “What are her odds?” He looked down and saw the stitching. What had been a small triangular hole had been excavated and then closed back up. Romie now had a line of puckered skin running down her side.

“Give her a few hours,” Ty said. He turned to Tim. “Ask Hannah to get some fluids into her, would you?”
 

Tim nodded.

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By the time the sun started to go down, it was noticeably warmer outside. Robby shed his sweatshirt and stood out in the parking lot. He was looking in the direction of the school. Some patches of snow had melted. Robby’s eyes were towards the sky. He was looking for any glow from the ball of light. The sun was still too high for him to tell.

Robby glanced behind him. Tim and Ty were sitting on the floor with the dog between them. Robby set off again.

He walked back to the school along the main road and came up to the front of the buildings. Both the main building and the smaller one to the side were covered with dead vines. Robby walked between them and then back towards the athletic fields out back. He paused at the gate to the little stadium and looked over the destruction. The tents were toppled, and the fences were torn from their supports. Even the bleachers had been ripped down on one side.

Robby followed the dead vines that led in a river over towards the lawn.
 

He slowed as he approached, keeping a dumpster between himself and the view of the ball. He moved to the side until he could just see the corona of the ball. It was much smaller than it had been—smaller and closer to the ground. It pulsed. The light it gave off made the shadow of the dumpster swell and fade.

Robby saw a man walking along the hill. The man looked in the direction of the light and then continued on his way. After seeing that, Robby decided to take a chance.

He came around the side of the dumpster and looked at the thing.

It was maybe the size of a car, and it hovered over a brown patch of vines that wilted down into a hole. The snow was mostly melted. A couple of people milled around the site. The light was still bright, but Robby found he could look at it without hurting his eyes. As he watched, a couple of brown spots moved over the surface. They looked like the spots on an overripe banana.

Robby walked forward and caught one of the men.

“Where did everyone go?” Robby asked.

“Most of them went back that way. They’re headed back to the farm. I’m waiting to see if my friend Denise comes back out. You haven’t seen her, have you? She’s about this tall and has short, curly hair?”

Robby shook his head.

“A couple of people went in the thing, and someone said they saw Denise go in.”

“Go into the light?” Robby asked.

“Yes. They just walked right in. That’s when it was still pretty big though. Hours ago, when you couldn’t look at it. I guess she’s not coming back. If you see her, tell her I went back to the farm. I heard they’re going to send a car back for the rest of us.”

“Okay,” Robby said.

The man headed back around the side of the school, where the parking lot was.

Robby stared at the ball of light for several minutes. He sat down on the bank in a spot where the dead vines had been cleared away. The light appeared to shrink, even as he watched it. He considered going in. It might not be too late. Inside, he might see some of the people he had lost, or maybe even his family.
 

He heard a horn honk and saw the remaining people headed towards the side of the school—their pickup point.
 

Robby sat. The sun was going down. He looked back at the ball again. It was obviously smaller. He made up his mind to do it. He would go into the light and look for his mom and dad.
 

“Robby! Oh, thank heavens.”

Robby turned and saw Lisa approaching. She put a hand on his shoulder and lowered herself to the ground next to him.

“I didn’t see where you went and then I heard that you had gone off alone. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I had to bury Judy,” he said. He felt the emotion welling up in his throat and he willed it back down. He didn’t want his grief to come here, in front of Lisa and the ball of light. He wanted to save it for later, when he was alone and could honor the grief.

“Oh,” Lisa said. “I’m sorry.”

Robby looked around. “I don’t even know what happened. It seemed like Hampton had control. I didn’t see the rest.”

“He’s gone,” Lisa said. “They took him off on one of the first trucks. Everyone was so angry and I think they were directing that anger at him. I’d be surprised if he’s still alive.”

“But what made them turn. Why did his guards turn on him.”

“It was that man next to Romie. He got down on his knees. They said he recited some quote. I wasn’t close enough to hear what he said, but I saw the shot. Hampton made one of the guards shoot the man in the head. That’s when they turned. They say the guards just turned on him and told him that they wouldn’t murder for him anymore.”