The Survivor Chronicles (Book 3): The Forsaken (12 page)

He just didn't want the situation to deteriorate to the point where someone got hurt.

"There was a raccoon at the window in the bathroom, damn near gave me a heart attack."

Mary Ellen paused in the act of brushing Rochelle's hair back with her fingers to look at him. "I imagine it did."

Al realized they were missing the point when Carl lifted his head off the glass door and turned it toward him. "It must have been hiding somewhere when I searched."

Al shook his head. "It was outside the window."

"Oh."

"It was
alive
, and it was outside the window," he elaborated as their exhausted brains seemed to have decided to take a vacation right now.

Riley was the first to gasp as she confirmed his doubts about her truly being asleep when she suddenly bolted upright. "Animals!" she blurted. "There's a live animal outside!"

"So there were coyotes in Sturbridge..." Bobby's mouth parted as his eyes became round. "Oh. I wasn't even thinking."

"You saw coyotes?" John asked.

"We did. Did you see anything?"

John tapped the gun against his knee as he focused on the door. "Nothing good," he muttered.

Riley moved to her knees and placed her hands in her lap as she eagerly leaned forward. "So the farther away from the coast we move, the better things seem to get."

"It would seem so," Al agreed.

"Do you think there will still be sick people out there or do you think that will also get better as we travel?" Rochelle inquired.

"Yes, but maybe they'll dwindle down the farther inland we go," Al answered.

"There could be a steady food supply in the mountains," Carl said. "If there's animals here then there's a good chance there will be even more in the mountains."

"Do you really think so?" John asked.

"I think we've been seeing signs of life that we haven't really noticed until now because of everything else that has been going on," Al answered.

"Do you think we should just stay here?" Josh asked. "We have shelter, water and there are animals we could trap and eat. Though I can honestly say that the idea of eating raccoon doesn't sound all that appealing."

"Better than starving," Carl told him.

Josh shrugged as he looked around the building. "There's also bathroom facilities."

"I don't think that's a good idea, it's right on the highway. Don't get me wrong the highway has been good to us so far today, but I'd prefer to be somewhere that won't attract the attention of other passersby," Al said.

"But it is safe here right
now
," Josh insisted.

The tone of his voice made Al recall the scene at Xander's grandparent's house. A tendril of dread slid through him as the young teen looked on the verge of losing it. Though he wasn't proud of it, Al found himself hoping that Peter and Josh
did
decide to go their own separate way. Whereas everyone else seemed to be holding it together fairly well, Josh was becoming a little too unstable for his liking.

"It won't stay that way," Carl told him. "More people
will
stop here and they may also decide that it's where they would like to stay. Riley's right, we don't want to be around them when that happens."

Josh folded his arms over his chest as he glanced nervously around the room. "I'm going to the cabin," Riley said forcefully. "I think it's the best choice we have and our best chance of surviving."

"I think so too," Al agreed.

Peter tugged at his hair as he shook his head. "We'll decide tomorrow."

Al made his way back to the office door and leaned against it as he slid down to the floor. Like John though, he pulled out a gun and rested it against his knee. He didn't look at Peter and Josh, he didn't want them to feel threatened, but he was acutely aware of their every movement. He realized there would be little sleep again tonight as he, the teacher, and student settled in against the vending machines.

Xander,

Xander glanced down at Riley as she pulled off her other sneaker and wiggled her toes. He blinked and did a double take as his gaze landed on her one striped black and blue sock and one red and white one. Memories of her and his sister running through his house flooded him. He could clearly see them laughing as they slid across the hardwood floor together. Carol had always worn white socks, Riley on the other hand had always revealed a myriad of colored socks over the years, but had never worn a matching pair at the same time. He knew, because he had asked Carol about it, that the socks were matching when Riley's mom put them in her sock drawer, but when Riley put them on she would always mismatch them.

"You still do that," he remarked.

She twisted her head to look up at him. Her eyes had circles under them that were big enough to rival any football player getting ready to step onto the field, but they were still beautiful. Lines creased her forehead as she frowned at him. "Do what?"

"Mismatch your socks."

For a moment she didn't seem to understand what he was talking about and then her gaze drifted down to her feet. A wistful smile curved her mouth. "Well yeah, why would I start being normal now?"

"You'll never have to worry about being normal," he assured her.

"You know just what to say to make a girl feel special."

He rested his hand on her shoulder. "I try."

His attention was drawn back to the sky as light seeped outward, becoming angrier as the sun rose higher into the fiery sky. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning," Riley murmured as she pulled her shoes back on.

"I think the sky is going to be red from now on," John said.

Xander's attention was pulled away from the sky as someone's shoe squeaked on the tiled floor. Peter's eyes were swollen, his hair stood out at odd angles from his face as he made his way into the bathroom. It was time for them to start moving again but his feet seemed to be stuck to the floor as he watched the sky brighten over Carl's shoulder. They could stay here for one more day, maybe get some rest or at least let their brains take a break. They all needed it, but he knew there would be no rest for them, not today anyway. Maybe one day in the future.

Riley held her hand up for him. His fingers slid over her skin as he wrapped her wrist within his hand and helped pull her up. She winced as she stepped onto her feet and shifted uncomfortably. "Are you hurt?" he asked.

"Just some blisters growing blisters," she informed him. "I'm going to use the bathroom. I'll take a look at your leg when I get out."

"It's fine," he assured her.

There were mom's holding a report card full of F's from their child that didn't look anywhere near as disapproving as Riley. "And we're going to keep it that way."

"She is a bossy little thing," John muttered but Xander was aware of the fact that he had waited until Riley was out of hearing range first.

"She's calmed down in her old age," Bobby said with a laugh from his position near Al. Though Al had stayed up for most of the night, he'd recently nodded off and his chin was resting against his chest. Rochelle was snoring against Mary Ellen's chest; Mary Ellen was as sound asleep as her daughter was. Josh was curled into a ball beside them, his back to the room as his chest rose and fell in an even rhythm.

Bobby rose to his feet and wiped his ass off. "We didn't bring any medical supplies inside but I'll go get them."

"I'll go with you," Xander volunteered.

John squinted one eye up at him. "I could stand to get out of this place for a bit."

Carl lifted his head off the door as they walked over to join him. "A car just went by on the other side of the highway. People are starting to move again so be careful out there."

"Aye aye captain sir," John told him with a brief salute that Carl seemed to find about as amusing as a gob of spit. John didn't seem to notice though as they stepped into the daylight.

Xander took a deep breath of the not so fresh air and leaned back to stretch. His back cracked with a loud pop that made him feel more like forty than nineteen. He didn't make it one step before the layer of sweat that seemed to constantly coat his body now began to trickle down his skin again. He'd give anything for a cold shower, an icy beer, and some air conditioning but those things all looked like distant pipe dreams, especially the air conditioning.

A low sound brought his attention back to the road as a car moved down the other side of the highway. He found his gaze riveted upon the filthy blue sedan as it maneuvered in and out of the vehicles blocking the road. "I never thought I'd experience the day when seeing another car gave me the creeps," Bobby said as he stepped off the sidewalk and into the road.

Xander followed behind him. "Let's grab the stuff and get out of this place before more people stop by."

His leg was a little stiff, and he could feel the scabs breaking as he walked, but it wasn't as on fire as it had been for the past couple of days. He wasn't about to argue with Riley over it though, she wasn't going to relent until she'd taken a look at it. Bobby went to the Cadillac and popped the trunk. He pulled out the medical supplies they had stashed there when they had stopped before.

"Do you think Peter and Josh will leave?" Bobby asked as he closed the trunk on the car.

"I don't know," Xander answered.

"I think they're crazy if they do, but to each their own," John said with a shrug.

Xander leaned back on his heels to survey the road. "I think we're all going to be a little crazy by the time this is over."

"Maybe we already are," John responded. "Maybe we're all in an insane asylum and none of this is real."

It was an absurd notion but one that Xander couldn't shrug off as he studied the hushed world around him. A low rumbling brought all of their heads up as a Mac truck crept down the highway toward the exit ramp headed for the rest area. Xander's breath froze in his chest as he waited to see what the large black truck with flames shooting out of its grill would do. It slowed as it neared the ramp but the driver seemed to change their mind as the truck remained on the highway.

The cab of the truck was packed with people as it crept by them and he wondered how many more were piled into the trailer. "Seems like a poor choice gas wise." John shaded his eyes against the sun as he took a step toward the front of the car. "But it would hold a lot of supplies and probably go right through a good chunk of the obstacles."

"I doubt any of us know how to drive one of those, and even if we did, we would never make it far trying to keep it gassed up," Bobby said.

"I didn't know how to piss in a toilet for a couple of years either but I eventually figured that one out," John retorted.

"And we appreciate that fact," Xander told him.

John was still watching the truck as it disappeared from view. "I wouldn't mind driving one though."

"I wouldn't mind a freaking shower but we're all SOL on that for now," Bobby said.

John glanced over his shoulder and shrugged. "That we are. Let's get you doctored up and hit the road."

Bobby kept the bag in hand as they retreated toward the building. "Our friend Lee, did he become sick?" Bobby asked. "When Riley was talking last night she made it seem as if you also had some experience with the sick people."

Xander took a few steps farther before he realized that John wasn't with them anymore. He looked back to find that John had frozen in the middle of the road. There was a look in his eyes so similar to the one he'd seen in Riley's when they were back in the grocery store that for a second Xander couldn't breathe.

"He did," John confirmed after a full minute elapsed.

"Did he die from it?"

John's gaze slid past Bobby to the front door of the building. His fingers began to fiddle with each other as he shifted from foot to foot and searched for words. "No, he didn't die from the sickness," Xander finally answered. He wasn't sure what to say or how much to reveal. Bobby had known Riley for almost as long as he had, they were friends, but even he had been thrown off and uncertain of how to proceed when she had told him what had happened with Lee. "There are some times when the best thing you can do for someone is let it end."

Bobby frowned as he glanced between the two of them. "Lee killed himself?"

John finally tore his attention away from the building. "No."

"Did you kill him?" Bobby demanded.

"No."

Bobby looked like a high school student trying to figure out quantum physics. "It was Riley, Bobby. She killed Lee," Xander said gently.

Those words didn't seem to penetrate at first but eventually the baffled look slid from Bobby's face as his mouth parted and his eyes became as round as Cheerios. "What?" he gasped.

"You didn't see him and you don't know what we went through," John retorted defensively. "She tried everything she could to save him, she rode in that car with him for hours while he was sick and we were all nervous... No, we all
knew
what he was becoming, but none of us wanted to face it. She took care of him and stayed with him when the smartest choice might have been to leave him on the side of the road.

"And then, when we didn't think things could get any worse we stumbled across some loony tune with a gun who tried to kill us. You have no idea what it was like to be stuck in that store with someone firing at you, no idea what it was like to be certain you were going to die and somehow miraculously surviving. No idea what it was like to see Lee tearing into that man like a vulture on road kill, and you have no idea what it was like to be Lee's next target. No one else was able to pull that trigger, but she did."

Xander could only stand and gape at John as his face flushed the color of the sky and sweat slid steadily down his temple to his cheek. That look in his eyes was no longer haunted and tormented but full of passion as he glared at Bobby. "Don't judge us and don't judge her. Be glad she's on our side, I know I am."

Bobby still seemed to be reeling from John's tirade as no words came from him. "No one is judging," Xander said while looking over at Bobby. "
No
one."

John remained unmoving, his shoulders thrust back as he glanced between the two of them. The door opening brought all of their attention back to the building as Riley stepped out. Her hair hung in wet tendrils about her face as she studied them. "Everything ok?"

"Everything's fine," he assured her. "We'll be right in."

She hesitated for a second before retreating into the building. "I can't believe it," Bobby whispered.

"Yeah well, you just wait till you have to do something crappy and then you'll believe it," John told him.

"We've all done crappy things," Xander said.

"Yeah, yeah we have," John muttered before brushing by them and heading for the building.

Xander turned back to Bobby. He knew him well, or at least he had before he'd gone away to college, but he had no idea what was going on in Bobby's head right now. Bobby may actually have been closer to Riley over the past year than he had been to either himself or Lee. Bobby had also always been the most tolerant, even-tempered and easy going one of them, but there was no way to know how he was going to react.

"You knew about this?" Bobby asked.

"She told me yesterday, at the grocery store. Bobby..."

He shook his head as he turned to stare at the highway. "This is a cruel world," he muttered.

"It always has been." Xander felt like he was telling a child there was no Santa, but he didn't know what else to say. "It's just gotten a whole lot crueler and weirder."

"I feel like I fell down the rabbit hole."

"At this point I actually wouldn't be amazed to run into a talking rabbit."

"Me either." Bobby admitted. "She must feel awful."

"I don't think she's had time to process how she feels, not with everything else that's been happening."

"I suppose she hasn't."

Xander wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm. "Don't say anything to her."

Bobby's hair stood on end when he tugged at it with his fingers. "I wouldn't even know where to begin."

"Neither do I," he admitted.

Bobby seemed to stare right through him before he finally focused on him once more. "We should probably get in there before she starts to yell at us."

"Yeah," Xander agreed.

There was a mountain of unspoken words between them that needed to be said, but for the life of him he couldn't think of anything right at that moment. Maybe if things were different they would talk about the expensive therapy sessions they would all require in the future. They could ponder the lasting and damaging impact all of this would have on them, but therapy sessions didn't exist anymore and the way things were going they might not have the time to develop any long lasting damage.

Riley gave him a quizzical look when he stepped through the door and Bobby handed the bag over to her. "Everything ok?"

"Fine," he assured her.

Bobby squeezed her shoulder and gave her a sympathetic smile before disappearing into the bathroom. Her forehead furrowed with realization as she stared after him before turning back to Xander. "He knows," she stated flatly. "You told him."