The Breadwinner Trilogy (Book 1): The Breadwinner (12 page)

Another hour passed before Veronica finally woke up.  She slept like the dead when she was exhausted.  The rest of the group had made small talk, not really discussing anything of importance.  Isaac felt awkward among the strangers, his sister was the one who made friends easily and she never had any trouble talking to people.  He was relieved when she joined them in the kitchen.  Lucy offered her some of the leftovers from the morning.  She sat next to her brother at the table.

“What’s been going on?”  She asked him, hoping he hadn’t pissed anyone off or told them too much about himself.

“Honestly nothing.  We’ve kind of just been sitting here.  Nobody wanted to bother you.”

“You needed the rest.”  Lucy smiled, sitting off to the side.

“Oh.  Thank you.”  She broke off a piece of English muffin and chewed it slowly.  Sal was going through things in the pantry and Ben still stood beside the window over the sink, chain smoking.  He met
Veronica’s eyes and nodded before returning to his quiet watch over the back alley.  She remembered their conversation from the night before in Ben’s tiny bathroom.  No one said anything about leaving the city or heading for the coast so Ben must have kept it to himself.

There was not much conversation to be had over the next hour.  Veronica had left the kitchen after eating her stale breakfast and went over to her bag in the living room.  The gun she had taken from the street was still there, the few things from the house.  Everything looked fine.  Isaac followed her in, doing the same with his bag, but only because he had seen her do it first.

“What are we doing, V?”  He looked at her expectantly. 

She didn’t respond because she didn’t know what to say.

“Well, I don’t know what we’re doing here, I’m just grateful they took us in like they did.”  He sat down on the linens he had folded earlier.  “They didn’t have to.  You know that right?”

She sat down on the floor next to her bag and brought her knees into her chest.  She didn’t respond but she knew Isaac had a point.  Maybe it was only right to try and make it to the Bay with the group, stick together.  They weren’t by any means bad people.

“What do you think about asking them to come with us?”  She stole a glance at the kitchen and made sure her voice was low. 

Isaac shook his head, “I don’t know.  That’s up to them.  I mean, I wouldn’t have left our house if we didn’t have to.  We might be safe here for a little while if they let us stay.  Don’t you think?  I mean, there’s bad shit out there.”

“There’s bad shit everywhere man.”  She rested her forehead on her knees.  Since when did Isaac become such a pussy?  She hated that he kept asking her what they were doing or where they were going.  Here was her brother looking to her for the answers when she felt like she might fall apart any minute.  Do I really seem that put together right now?  She asked herself that question and immediately knew that the answer was yes.  She knew that getting emotional would only hold them back and slow them down.  It happened out on the street, almost got her brother killed and all she had allowed herself to be was irritable.  She knew she was behaving as if the world outside didn’t scare her a bit and she knew that was the way she needed to be.  She lifted her head and looked at Isaac, his sad dark eyes were fixed on the floor.

“I’m sorry, you know that?”  Isaac looked up at her.  “I’m sorry about last night and I’m sorry about dad.  I’m sorry that the world sucks ass and I’m sorry if there isn’t any time to grieve.”  She paused, giving him a moment to say something but his words never came.  She was disappointed and her voice grew stern and she spoke slowly as she continued.  “We have to do, what we have to do, in order to keep ourselves intact.  Do you understand?”  She could tell her brother was getting emotional but she pressed harder.  “I might not have a solid plan or know exactly what I’m doing, I definitely don’t know what the hell is going on with the world, but I can promise you I know one thing and that is the fact that I will do
whatever I need to do to keep myself alive.  I will do whatever I need to do to make sure this world doesn’t determine what I become.  That goes for when I’m alive and if I’m dead.  Do you understand?

Isaac blinked back tears.  His face grew hot and his mouth was dry.  He wanted to tell her he was proud of her, that he always wanted to be the one to look out for her, but he knew how lucky he was to still have her here with him.  He tried to open his mouth to thank her for saving his life and getting him out of that apartment and to promise her he would put his big boy pants on from here on out, but Ben casually strolled in the room and sat down in his recliner. 

“How’s it goin’ in here you two?”  He had a smirk on his face and made it obvious he had been eavesdropping. 

“It’s fine dude.”  Isaac discreetly wiped tears from his cheeks, his face red with embarrassment.

“So, I can’t help but hope, that ya’ll know how to use those weapons you got on ya.”

“Yes.”  She was annoyed that he’d looked through her bag.  “My dad loved to hunt and go to the range.”

He scratched his messy blonde hair and laughed at her.  “I figured so.”  He leaned back and put his feet up.  Veronica imagined him watching football in that chair once upon a time.

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, for one, you don’t just go carrying around rifles and pistols if you don’t know how to use them.  Plus I didn’t want you to hurt yourself out there.”  He was still smiling to himself when Lucy and Sal joined them in the living room and sat on the couch.  “What’s the verdict?” Ben asked Sal.

“Well, there is not much.  Not enough to supply 5 people.”  Sal realized his tone of voice might have been a little harsh.  “I did not mean to be disrespectful, but it is the truth.  We did not plan on two more.  In fact, I hate to admit, but we were glad the other three left us.”

“You are young, like my son.”  Lucy chimed in.  “We could not have turned you away.” 

Ben’s face looked so serious, his lips made a straight line and his eyes were narrow.  “But the truth of the matter is that we would have had to eventually leave.  Whether or not anyone else showed up.”  He said this without looking at anyone. 

Sal rubbed his shiny bald head and sighed.  “Yes.  But we could look for food maybe.  See what’s out there to bring back.”

Ben laughed.  “Sure, we could stay here, continue to shit in a pizzeria.”

“We’re going to the coast.”  Isaac chimed in.  “If we’re going to go as a group, we should all be on the same page and we should leave as soon as possible.”  Veronica cringed at her brother’s decision to volunteer information like that but she was also surprised he had made a decision at all.  She tried to hide her smile.  It made her happy for the first time in days.

Ben, Lucy and Sal decided they would leave with them in the morning.  The rest of the day proved uneventful.  Things were packed, Ben cleaned his gun, Lucy made jam and peanut butter sandwiches on what remained of the English muffins for the morning and the group ate canned tuna and green beans for dinner.  They quietly chatted and laughed as they ate, each of them thinking about leaving their semblance of safety and distracting themselves in daydreams of finding refuge on the coast.

None of them slept very well that night.

XI

The crack of dawn came and the group gathered their things and readied themselves for the road.  Veronica had overheard Sal and Lucy that morning, whispering to each other in Spanish.  She couldn’t understand what they were saying but she could tell the conversation upset Lucy very much. 

“We’re gonna walk out the back door and take a left down the alley.”  Ben addressed them when they were all ready to go.  “We stay together and keep it tight, don’t talk unless it is absolutely necessary.  When I go, you go.  When I stop, you stop.  Weapons always ready but do not fire them unless you are saving someone’s life.”  Veronica held up her kitchen knife.  Ben laughed, “Yeah, you probably shouldn’t let yourself get that close to one of them things though.”  He continued laying out the plan on how they’d make it to the highway and get off of it and out of the open as soon as possible.  The farther they got from the city, the more trees there would be, and more trees meant more cover from their surroundings. 

Veronica didn’t like how nervous Lucy looked as she clutched the crucifix that hung around her neck.  She prayed to herself in Spanish before they left and Sal made her assure him she was okay to do this.  Before they left Ben offered Veronica his own hunting knife in place of her kitchen knife. 

“No thanks,” she said sheepishly, “my mom spent a lot of money a long time ago watching infomercials.”  Ben chuckled as she shook it at him.  “Lifetime guarantee.” 

The group, led by Ben, did exactly as Ben said they would.  They walked down the stairs and out the back door.  Nobody wanted to reenter Pisano’s kitchen again.  Sal brought up the back as they took a left and made their way down the alley, slowing down as they neared the street.  Ben put up a hand and the group stopped, he poked his head out to make sure the way was safe.  The street was empty as he had wished.  He motioned for them to follow and they took a right.

Two more blocks up they made a left and from there it was a two mile stretch to the highway.  They quickened their pace and were making excellent time.  Empty cars were everywhere, trash littered the streets and every now and then you’d hear a wail or moan from somewhere they silently hoped was not too close.  Embers glowed from dying fires in the hearts of what once were shops and Veronica wondered if the lifeless bodies she passed on the streets had been lucky enough to lie dead where they dropped.  They suddenly heard Sal gasp at the back of the group and abruptly stopped.  To everyone’s dismay, Lucy screamed at the top of her lungs at the sight of a man with a knife to Sal’s throat.  He had his hands up in surrender.  The man had long hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and enormous arms
that held Sal in place.  Ben felt his chest tighten as he saw everything unfolding; he would have rather run into the hungry dead than deal with the maniacal living.

“Shut that bitch up.”  The man said and another man appeared from the alley beside him.  Lucy continued to scream as the man raised a gun to her face.

“Jesus Christ Lucy, please.”  Sal pleaded with his wife.  A scream even louder than Lucy’s was heard in the distance, but this was a scream of the dead.

“Fuck this.”  The second man with the gun reared back and smashed his weapon into Lucy’s forehead.  A sickening crack was heard as she dropped to the pavement.  Sal cried out and squirmed against the man with the knife, tears forming in his eyes as he watched Lucy’s body twitch before him. 

Ben, caught off guard by how fast everything was spiraling out of his control finally had the chance to speak.  “What do you want?  Our bags?  Take them.  Now!”  More howls and yells were heard but this time closer than before.

“Look what that bitch went ahead and did.”  The second man yelled at his friend, still pointing the gun at Lucy’s unmoving body.  Everyone stared at the man with the knife with Sal still in his arms.  The man let go of Sal and threw him to the floor.

“Drop all your shit, weapons, bags, and fast.”  Nobody moved but Sal, on the ground, holding his wife’s head in his hands, frantically trying to find a pulse in her neck, praying to a God that wasn’t listening.

The second man’s gun was on Ben now.  “Seriously, take the shit and let us go.  They’re coming.”  Ben lowered his gun to the sidewalk while Isaac removed his bag from his back.   Veronica heard the familiar sound of feet slapping against the asphalt behind her and turned around. 

“Holy shit!”  The man with the knife yelled as an eater slammed into Veronica, the two of them flying down to the sidewalk beside Sal.  Isaac hurled himself at the eater on top of his sister and with strength he didn’t know he possessed, yanked it from her body.

“Isaac! No!”  She screamed from the ground as her attacker turned itself on her brother and sunk its decaying teeth deep into his side.  Isaac let out a roar of pain as he grabbed the eater by its head and pulled it away from his ribcage.  A huge chunk of flesh tore from his side and the eater hungrily gobbled it up.  Isaac’s blood poured from his side and at the sight of it made his knees grow weak.  The eater thrust itself back upon him, opening up another huge hole in his stomach as it feasted on his flesh.  The two looters watched on in horror at their robbery gone wrong.  Sal, enraged by his wife’s demise brought himself up and head butted the man with the knife, instantly shattering his nose.  The man with the knife buried it into Sal’s stomach and in the same instant, his face disappeared as Ben fired a shot into it.  Sal collapsed with his assailant’s body still in his arms.  He looked up at Ben, his face twisted in pain.  Veronica threw herself onto the atrocity that was ravaging her brother and plunged the kitchen knife into the eater’s head with a force so hard that the blade, with the lifetime guarantee, snapped off in the eater’s skull.  She cried out in anger, watching her brother bleed out.

“We need to go!”  She attempted to get Isaac to his feet.  “Please!”  She looked back at Ben as he beat the ever living shit out of the second man.  “Ben!”  She cried out to him, Isaac’s blood covering her chest and arms.  He stopped, still holding the man by the throat, even though he had already stopped breathing.  He stared into his lifeless eyes and wished he were still alive, so he could kill him one more time.  The desperate cries of the eaters were upon them as they turned a corner a few blocks away.