Instinct (58 page)

“I’ll do it. Leave me alone,” she said.

“Let’s go,” Brad said quietly to Robby. “Don’t get in her way.”

Robby smiled and ran ahead with Brad’s bag. After grabbing his own things, he made a quick tour of the farm to say his final goodbyes. Word had already spread that they were leaving early. Nan—the woman who ran the garden—gave Robby a box of vegetables they’d saved for him. Wesley, who worked with Bethany, baking in the kitchen’s brick oven, gave him a loaf of bread. Robby waited by the end of the driveway, hoping that Tim would get back before they left.

The van rolled up behind him. He heard the brakes whine as it came to a stop.

“Time to go,” Lisa said. She was leaning out of her window.

“I wanted to say goodbye to Tim and Cedric,” Robby said. He saw Brad’s look through the windshield. He knew what Brad was thinking. Robby quickly reversed his position. “It’s okay. I said goodbye earlier.”

Robby walked to the rear door.

CHAPTER 50: CONNECTICUT

T
HEY
TRAVELED
SOUTH
AND
then turned east before they encountered too many buildings. Sometimes, they would travel halfway through a town and need to turn back. At some point in the past, tornadoes had ripped through, leaving the roads impassible.

Their trip only lasted a few days, but it was enough to break some of their old paranoia. They drove during the day and slept in hotels at night. Each room was already equipped with clean sheets and a minibar. The rooms were ideal.

Romie and Lisa split the driving. Brad’s leg ached too much if he didn’t keep it elevated.

They didn’t intend to go far, but once they started, they wanted to head for the coast. Romie was driving when they crossed under 95 and found themselves in a town called Gladstone. The center of town was almost quaint. All the big box stores were on the other side of the highway. Just east of the public beach, the coast rose up in a rock wall and a gated road led to the fancy houses. Lisa picked a place and Robby ratified the decision. The house was big and had solar panels, a generator, and a rock garden built to disguise the access to the drilled well.
 

Robby had the generator going and the water running before they finished unpacking the van.

The four spent the early fall preparing for winter. They collected food and fuel. Before long, the house was an efficient machine, but they couldn’t stop preparing. They filled the extra rooms with cans and boxes and spent many evenings discussing potential disasters and how they would react.

Romie’s injury needed only time to finish healing. Brad’s leg took a lot of effort. He split wood, ran, lifted weights, and practiced yoga. Still, as the mornings grew colder, Brad walked with a limp until he managed to stretch through the pain.

Lisa became the explorer of the group. She visited the neighboring houses, and spent long afternoons investigating local buildings. She formed a clear picture of the people who used to live in Gladstone, and talked about her findings at the dinner table like she was disclosing the latest gossip.

Some nights, they fired up the generator or tapped the batteries, so they could watch a movie. It became difficult to find things to watch. It was interesting to see movies with big populations moving through vibrant cities, but it was also depressing. Life didn’t look like those movies anymore.

The leaves were starting to turn color when Robby made his announcement.

“I’m going to go back to the farm tomorrow,” he said.

The sound of utensils scraping on plates continued, but the conversation stopped. Brad and Romie exchanged a glance and then looked back to their food.

“Do you want us to go with you?” Lisa asked.

“I’m not opposed to it,” Robby said. “But I understand that I’m the only one who wants to go.”

Everyone took a second to think about what he had said. They ate in the kitchen because it had big windows looking out towards the ocean, and they could see the moon rising over the water.

“We’ll go if you want,” Lisa said.

“I’m fine on my own,” Robby said.

“Why do you want to go?” Brad asked.

“I don’t know. I guess I want to make sure that everything is still okay there. I want to check on it one more time before winter.”

CHAPTER 51: NEW YORK

I
T
DIDN
’
T
TAKE
R
OBBY
as long to get back. They’d marked their map on the way to the coast, so he didn’t have to explore for good roads. He stayed one night in a hotel, with the couch pushed up against the door while he slept.

The hills leading to the farm were beautiful. The leaves flashed orange and gold in the soft light. Fall was on a faster schedule this far north, and Robby loved the crisp air. It was something they never got much of on his island. It felt like a rare treat.

Robby parked his motorcycle on the other side of the washout and walked up the drive. The horses had eaten the pasture down to a fine fuzz of tan and green. They walked along the fence, tracking his progress, but shied back when he tried to pet them.

There were no sounds from the hill as he walked up. Robby had a terrible premonition that he would find everyone gone—mysteriously vanished, like before. Or, worse, he’d find their corpses littered around the yard with their eyes popped out.

He glanced back towards the road, wishing for his motorcycle. Robby pressed on.

Robby sighed with relief when he saw the people working in the garden. The operation had expanded. There were corn stalks growing in one of the pastures, and the arched poles of a greenhouse where one of the barns had sat. The gash left by the tornadoes had been filled and replaced with fresh grass. The new barn wasn’t pretty compared to the old one, but it looked solid.

Robby walked up to the garden.

“Robby?” a woman asked. She stood up from her weeding. She wore a bandana over the lower part of her face. Robby didn’t recognize her voice. “It’s Elizabeth,” she said, anticipating his confusion.

“Hi,” Robby said.
 

She came forward and extended a gloved hand. Robby shook it and then wiped the dirt off on the back of his jeans. She kept her bandana up. Robby noticed that the other gardeners had their mouths covered as well.

“When did you get back?”

“Just now.”

“I heard the motorcycle, but I figured it was Jax. He’s always zipping around on that thing. Are you guys back in town? Someone was just asking about you. I think it was Frank.”

Robby noticed that some of the other people had stood from their work to listen to the conversation, but none approached very close. They kept their distance—a semicircle of masked gardeners.

Elizabeth followed his eyes and Robby saw her eyes smile.

“Forgive us,” she said. “We’ve all become a little germ-phobic.”

“Oh?”

“Something spread through here, and a bunch of people got sick. Some said it was the food, but Ty said it was a virus. I forget what he called it. Everyone split up after that. There were just too many people living in one tent. Now, everyone lives alone or in pairs. We’re all spread out everywhere now.” She swept her arms around to illustrate her point. “We just come back here to keep up the garden.” She laughed. “This is the only place people exchange information. Here, and at the clinic.”

Robby nodded. He forced himself to not take a step back. He suddenly wondered if the bandana was for her protection, or for his. Another part of his brain spoke up and he wondered if maybe the bandana was hiding some terrible symptom of the virus she talked about.

“You should go see Ty,” she said. “He’s at the clinic. He’s got a vaccination that he swears will work on anyone who’s not sick yet.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“I’d give you some veggies to take, but they might not be safe for you. Better safe than sorry, right?”

“Yeah,” Robby said. He gave a laugh, but he couldn’t make it sound real.
 

“You know where the clinic is?” she asked. “In town?”

“Sure,” Robby said. He wasn’t sure, but he had the urge to go back to his motorcycle. In one of the panniers attached to either side of the seat, he had a bottle of disinfectant. He wanted to soak his hands in it. “I’ll go see him.”

“Good to see you,” she said. She waved and he saw the smile in her eyes again.

Robby waved to everyone and left.

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Ty didn’t wear a mask. Neither did Tim.

Robby found them outside the little clinic in lawn chairs. They were sipping drinks and basking in the autumn sun when Robby rolled up.

“You need to wear a helmet,” Ty said.

When Robby swung his leg over the motorcycle, Cedric ran up to him with his tail wagging. Robby knelt and pet the dog for a minute before he approached. He found a third chair and pulled it up next to Tim’s.

“There’s a virus?” Robby asked.

Tim laughed. Ty shook his head.

“It’s nothing,” Ty said. His voice rumbled low in his chest when he spoke. Robby couldn’t tell if he sounded tired, or angry. “We had a little influenza run through the group. Everyone panicked.”

“Did you know that guy everyone called Truck?” Tim asked.

Robby shook his head.

“Older guy,” Tim said. “Killed himself.”

“Oh,” Robby said. He shook his head.

“He was depressed. It just caught up with him,” Ty said.

“Everyone said it was the sickness that killed him. Even people who saw the body would swear that the sickness took him. Next thing you know, everyone ran for the hills,” Tim said. “Ty even gave them all a vaccine, but it didn’t help.”

“People still got sick?” Robby asked.

“No,” Ty said. “They still panicked.”

“They all spread out. It’s not such a bad thing, I guess,” Tim said.

“I suspect they’ll come back together over time,” Ty said.

Robby thought about his own little group, down in Connecticut. There were only four of them, but sometimes they all seemed to find different corners of the town to disappear to. If it wasn’t for their dinners together, they might not see each other at all for a whole day. After each trauma, their bonds were weaker. They were slightly less inclined to rely on each other, knowing how easily they could lose a close friend.

“Where did you guys end up, anyway?” Tim asked. “I’ve looked for you from the air, but it’s a big world.”

“I brought you this,” Robby said. He took out a folded map from his back pocket and handed it to Tim. It showed the location of their house. He’d also marked the nearest airport. “We left a car there with the keys in it. It’s a five-minute drive to our house.”

Tim nodded and traced his finger over the map.

“Why do you think that people will come back together?” Robby asked Ty.

“Kids,” Ty said. “Families will bring people together. You remember how they used to say, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’? The corollary to that expression is that a child will bring together a village. People bond over offspring.”

Robby shook his head. “We can’t have kids. One reason we were all spared is because we’re all sterile for one reason or another.”

Ty laughed. “I’ve heard other people say that too. You know what else I heard? This isn’t the first time the humans have nearly been wiped out. Well, guess what?”

“What?” Robby asked.

“We came back from those times, and we’ll come back from this.”

Robby furrowed his brow as he tried to think of logic that could fit Ty’s optimism.

Ty turned to Tim and nodded. Tim smiled back and pushed up from his chair. He didn’t say a word, but went through the door to the inside of the clinic.
 

Robby started to ask what they were up to, but Ty held up a hand, beckoning him to wait. Robby heard Cedric’s tail thump against the concrete porch as the door swung open again. Tim held a tiny amber puppy to his chest.