RecruitZ (Afterworld Series) (17 page)

“So far so good,” I whispered, opening the door.

“They might not know we’ve escaped yet,” Preston said.

Everything inside looked exactly like I’d left it. The basement door was still secure and all the lights were still off. It was getting dark outside, but I wasn’t sure it would be a great idea to turn any lights on so I didn’t.

I grabbed two duffle bags out of the hall closet and tossed one to Preston. “You can get some clothes from upstairs. The bedroom’s all the way at the end of the hall.” I told him. “You guys are the same size.” I turned away after the words tumbled out.

He nodded and went up the stairs while I unlocked the door to the basement. I hastily removed all of the maps off the wall, rolling them up. I began emptying out the drawers and a wave of sadness hit me from nowhere. There were so many things I needed from here. I crawled under the desk and grabbed Gavin’s notebook from behind the wall. I stuffed it in the duffle and began filling the bag with my notes, laptop, and anything else I could cram inside.

Preston walked down the stairs, startling me when I looked up. He was in a grey Henley and jeans, one of Gavin’s standbys. I forced my gaze away and picked up the duffle.

“I took a quick shower. We should probably put some more ointment on,” he said, reaching for my duffle.

I nodded and handed it to him. “Where are we going? Do you actually have a place in mind?”

“I do. There’s a safe house that our family used off and on during the outbreak. It’s underground and anyone who knew about it is dead.”

I shivered at the harshness of his words. I knew he didn’t mean it, but they still had an unintended effect. “Should we try to bring these?” I slid a section of the wall to reveal all the weapons I’d collected so far.

“Wow. You’re certainly prepared for something, aren’t you?”

I twisted my lips as I contemplated what it was I really wanted to accomplish any longer. “I’m gonna go take a shower. You wanna figure out how to get everything in the truck?”

He nodded and I jogged up the stairs, holding back the tears that so desperately wanted to escape. Weeks ago, my life had purpose. I wanted revenge. I was on the pursuit of truth and vindication. I wanted to find out what happened to Gavin, what really happened to Gavin. Now it felt like everything I’d worked for was being dismissed…everything was just about staying alive, and I wasn’t sure that I really cared about that any longer.

It was pitch black. We’d been driving a little over two hours when Preston turned off onto an old forestry road. The truck bounced and hopped down the dirt road with only the truck’s parking lights leading the way. Tree branches hit the windshield and scraped the side of the truck.

“If I had known this was what we’d be doing, I wouldn’t have had us switch out the vehicles,” I said, holding onto the grab bar tightly.

“Then you really won’t like what I’m about to do,” he said, turning off into the woods.

“So I’m guessing we don’t have wifi where we’re going?”

“Actually, we do,” he said. “But this isn’t where we’ll end up. We need to trade vehicles.”

“What? We can’t leave the truck here,” I objected, panic setting in. It felt like pieces of Gavin were being littered along the way, and before I knew it, all traces of him would be gone.

“We have to,” Preston replied. “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if they had a tracer on this truck.”

“You think they could be tracking us right now?” I folded my arms as he put the truck in park.

“Pretty likely.”

He flipped off the lights and the surrounding forest went dark. If he was right, the longer I put up a fight the more I put us in danger.

“Chances are the truck will be fine,” I muttered, opening the door.

Preston turned on a flashlight and grabbed two bags. I grabbed my duffle and followed him only fifteen or so feet to another truck. He opened up the driver’s side and checked the engine. It turned over quickly and he threw his bags in the front and so did I. We hauled everything from one truck to the other and took off the same way we came in.

“Now, we’re headed up north,” he said, turning on only the parking lights as we drove slowly back onto the forestry road. “It’ll be a couple hours longer.”

I leaned into the seat and relaxed my neck against the headrest as hollowness began spreading through me. The clash of emotions inside me made me leery of the choices I’d recently made.

“Do you even think we have a shot at this?” I asked, turning my neck to look at Preston.

“By this you mean…”

I smiled. “Motive, finding a motive.”

“Depends how we go about it.”

“My back is killing me.” I cringed at what I sounded like. As if he wasn’t hurting too.

My eyes focused on Preston as he continued to drive, and I felt some of the fear begin to dissipate. Being around him somehow made me feel safer, more secure, and it was a sensation I didn’t know I’d missed until I had it again.

“Sorry for whining.”

He started laughing. “Rebekah, believe me. That wasn’t whining.”

“Well, thank you.”

My lids began to feel very heavy as I watched his expression change from surprise to satisfaction at my remark. He was a handsome man, kind. The only noise surrounding us was the sound of the highway and our steady breathing. It wasn’t long before I couldn’t fight sleep any more, and my mind drifted into another world far from the one we lived in where peace and calm resided.

***

The sound of a woman’s voice blaring through a speaker woke me up. My eyes blinked open, and two large lights shined through the windshield. I glanced over at Preston and realized he was ordering us both cheeseburgers and those lights belonged to the fast food restaurant our truck idled at.

What a rude awakening.

“And two strawberry shakes.”

I sat up straighter in the seat and flipped down the mirror. My brown hair was completely flattened against my head, and the swelling hadn’t gone down in my face, not even a little bit. But my lips no longer looked as if they were going to fall off so that was a plus. I grabbed my lip balm and plastered it all over my mouth.

Preston pulled ahead and put the truck in park. There was only one other car in front of us.

“I’m starving,” I said, running my fingers through my hair attempting to fluff it up a little. Not that it really mattered.

“Me too,” he said.

He pulled us forward and handed over his cash in exchange for one bag of food and two milkshakes.

I took a sip of the shake and relished the taste as the cold, creamy liquid ran down my throat.

“We’re almost there,” he said, grabbing a French fry out of the bag. “I just thought we’d like something greasy and heavy before we buried ourselves in.”

“Good call,” I said, shoving a handful of fries into my mouth.

As we pulled onto the road, I looked around trying to place where we were. There were two other fast food restaurants across the street, a grocery store, and a bank.

“Where are we?” I asked, wishing I hadn’t fallen asleep.

“On our way toward Diablo Lake,” he said, smiling. “We used this spot off and on during the outbreak, but we never stayed in one place all that long for safety sake.”

I nodded watching the town disappear as we began our climb up the mountain road.

“It’s underground.”

“You guys had a safe house that was underground?” I asked, bewildered. “That would’ve taken some time to construct.”

Preston looked embarrassed as he thought about what to say.

“My father was a bit paranoid, to say the least. He had it built around the whole Y2K thing.”

“The disaster that never came. I remember reading about that,” I said, not wanting to make Preston any more uncomfortable than he already looked. “Wasn’t it something about computers not being readied or something? People thought the world was going to fall apart, revolutions in the street?”

“Something like that,” he laughed. “Who would’ve thought it wasn’t machines that took us down but zombies.”

“No kidding.”

“Well, 2012 went by as peacefully as the year 2000 and my mom started getting annoyed about my dad’s pastime.”

“I can’t imagine why,” I laughed.

“Once my sister and I were born, my dad cooled his jets slightly. We still visited the place, but we stayed on top of the ground. And then the outbreak happened…” his voice trailed off.

“He wasn’t so crazy after all,” I said, as Preston turned off the mountain road, down a dirt road.

“There was so much conflicting information floating around that we didn’t know what to do. We’d hide out here, and then we’d take off, and then we’d wind up back here.”

“I know. It was a crazy time,” I said, remembering back to my family. “One moment the government said to stay inside, then they’d announce to flee any well populated areas. Then it was stay on the run.”

“Which turned into stay in one place and wait for help,” Preston said, his voice tipped with anger. We turned off the dirt road and drove under sweeping fir trees.

“I never imagined our government would be so inept dealing with an outbreak. We’re lucky the scientists figured it out,” I said.

Preston nodded. “True. One of the biggest disappointments in my dad’s life was that his son went to work for one the agencies. He thought I was just feeding into the system. You can imagine what he thought once the outbreak occurred. I guess he was right.”

“Well, we can always look at our histories and make sense of the nonsensical after the fact, but that’s no way to live. Look at all of the failed predictions over the last century. The one thing that nobody had accounted for was what almost demolished the world.”

Preston parked under a large tree, and I reached over and grabbed his hand. “Your father would be very proud of you.”

Preston smiled. “Ready to see our new abode for the time being? It’s nothing fancy.”

“I’ll take hidden over luxury any day.” I followed Preston to a large boulder and was completely enthralled with the setup as the rock began to move, revealing a staircase.

“Wow,” I uttered in complete amazement, looking down into the ground. The metal stairwell was encased in dim lighting, leading the way under the very earth we stood on.

“Let’s get everything hauled downstairs for the night,” Preston said.

I grabbed my duffle and two other bags, carefully placing the straps along my shoulders. The weight of the bags thumped against my back every so often as I walked, making me wince as the pain erupted from my injuries. I didn’t know how he was doing it all with a backpack strapped to him.

Following him down the metal stairs, I was astonished at what I saw. There was a living room and kitchenette directly in front of us and behind that, a half-wall separated the living space from the sleeping quarters. A control room was tucked under the stairs with a desk and several tablets hanging on the wall.

In a way, it felt like I was walking into a time capsule. Decades-old décor hinted of a simpler time, a happier time. The brown couch had two patchwork quilts draped over it, and there was a beige throw rug on the floor.

“Wow. I can’t believe you guys ever left this place,” I whispered, wishing I could take it back as soon as I said it.

“I wish we hadn’t,” he said, his eyes flicking to mine. “My family would probably still be intact. Let’s go get the rest of the stuff. I’ll show you where we can put the weapons and supplies.”

“You mean there’s more?” I asked, looking around the space.

“Yeah, behind the bedroom wall.” He pointed across the room.

“Okay.” I followed him up the stairs.

Once we reached the top, I was reminded how cold it was. The season was definitely turning. It was really surprising how warm it was below the earth. We walked to the truck and gathered the remaining bags and boxes, locking the truck behind us.

The soft glow of the living room was inviting and the couch was calling to me. I made myself comfortable, wrapping my arms around one of the pillows, and I felt the anxiety began to drip out of my extremities.