Текст книги "Day Zero"

Автор книги: Summer Lane

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Chapter Ten

As they followed the 405, they bypassed abandoned rest stops and gas stations. Elle warned the kids not to stop at any of the buildings. Oftentimes roadside stops had become traps for wandering travelers. It was a great way to get robbed and killed.

Neither of which were appealing. At all.

“Here we go,” Elle announced, pointing to an off ramp. “We follow this road and by this time tomorrow, we’ll be there!”

She was excited. Aunt and Uncle would be so surprised to see her. They probably thought she was dead. She had disappeared such a long time ago… what if they had forgotten about her?

No, Elle thought. They would never forget about me… right?

Elle was far more comfortable as soon as they left the freeway. The road that they were following was older, and as they progressed, became smaller. It was hardly ever traveled, and the lack of tire tracks made it obvious that there had been no recent traffic in this area.

To Elle, that meant just one thing: Omega hadn’t been here.

Yet.

They pushed on, walking until their feet hurt. The open space of the mountains was a huge change from the snug confines of the city. Elle felt exposed, like she was walking around with a huge target on her back that said: SHOOT ME. It put her on edge, but the fresh air and the stunning scenery was terrific.

“I almost forgot what it was like to have this much space around me,” Elle commented. “I’m so used to Hollywood and Santa Monica. Everything is squished together there.”

“It’s a good change,” Jay replied. “There’s freedom out here.”

Yeah. Maybe he was right.

They traveled all day, making camp at nightfall. Elle wrapped her hands in strips of cloth to keep them warm, pulling her hood around her face. She leaned her head against her backpack. The earth was slightly damp, leaving streaks of dirt on her pants. Jay made a small fire when it got dark, enough to warm the kids’ pinched, red faces.

Sleeping in the wide-open spaces was different than sleeping within the confines of an apartment building. The sky was dark, deep blue. Elle stared at the stars. The longer she watched them, the more she seemed to see. She fell asleep, sucked into the mesmerizing swirl of the Milky Way.

Early morning came too quickly. It was bitterly cold. Elle sat up, flexing her stiff fingers. She nudged the others awake. They moved slowly, shivering in the frigid temperature. The remains of the fire smoldered in the coolness of the morning. Jay stamped it out with his boots, hiding traces of their presence.

“Breakfast,” Elle muttered, opening her backpack.

She took two sealed granola bars and split them between the five kids. It wasn’t appetizing, but it was heavy enough to tame the hunger pains. For now.

They left the campsite.

As they followed the road, they wound upward around wide, dry hills. Drought-resistant foliage was clumped together in places and patches of forest lined the mountaintops. They stopped once to eat a snack and drink water, then kept moving again. They didn’t want to stop. Stopping was dangerous. Constant movement gave them a better chance of survival – this was something Elle had learned the hard way, after months of living in the city, being hunted by bloodthirsty Klan members.

In late evening, they finally arrived.

“We’re here!” Elle said.

She jogged forward, up the last part of the road. It flattened into a gravel driveway. The driveway led to a ranch house. It was painted in muted tones, blending with the hills. The house was surrounded by a chain link fence.

“Nice place,” Georgia remarked. “Were your folks rich?”

“My parents weren’t rich,” Elle corrected. “But my Aunt and Uncle were.”

“What did they do?”

“My Aunt’s family was cattle ranchers… probably a hundred years ago.”

“Ah. Lots of money,” Jay muttered.

As Elle approached the chain link fence, she noticed that it was hanging open. She stared at the front door. Weeds were growing around the entrance steps.

“The dogs are gone,” she whispered.

“The dogs?” Pix echoed.

“There were German Shepherds. Lots of them.”

Elle pushed the gate open and whistled softly. There was no answer, no barking. She followed the path to the front door and jiggled the handle. It was unlocked. She pushed the door open and gripped the handgun tucked into her belt.

“Elle… this is wrong, isn’t it?” Flash said, his voice shaking.

“Very wrong,” Elle replied.

The door swung open and revealed a long hallway. The spacious rooms were empty. Curtains were drawn.

“They’re gone,” she breathed. A sob lodged in her throat. “They haven’t been here for a long time.”

“What do you think happened?” Georgia asked.

“I don’t know.”

Elle walked to the end of the hall, turning into the living room – a familiar spot for her. The couches and chairs had been covered with white sheets. Dim sunlight filtered through the slits in the shuttered windows. The house was cold, empty. Elle stared at a mirror hanging above the empty fireplace.

She was alone. Again.

_____________________

Elle huddled against the back of the cage, panting. She was caked in filth. The Klan had taken a knife to her thick black hair and hacked it off. Blood slipped down the back of her neck. She’d never been so dirty before. She’d never been so tired.

She’d just witnessed a fight in the Pits. Two women, both middle aged, thrown into a muddy, deep pit. Thrown against each other in a fight for their lives.

A fight to the death, the Klan called it. But Elle couldn’t do it. She couldn’t kill her opponents. They were prisoners, just like her. Forced into a sick, twisted game used as a form of entertainment.

Sooner or later, she would end up dead, too.

Someone would kill her, out of desperation.

The night was cold. She shuddered and watched the Klan guards round the park, lighting the torches. Tomas stood near the bonfire in the center of the rows of cages, warming his hands. His tattoos and the shadows from the flames became one in the dim lighting. Elle hated the sight of him. He was a sadist – the embodiment of everything Day Zero had done to the world.

Tomas felt Elle’s gaze on him and he turned, offering a smug smile.

She buried her head in her knees, hiding her face.

There had to be a way out of this hell, she thought. There was always a way.

She peeked through the bars and looked at the cages, at the guards making their normal rounds. There was a routine here, a rhythm of operation – even if the Klan was little more than an oversized group of organized thugs.

Elle drew a square in the dirt.

That was the beginning of her map.

____________________

Aunt and Uncle’s rooms were abandoned. Everything important had been stripped and taken from the house. Elle found traces of broken glass and splintered wood in the corners of the rooms. Something had happened. Aunt and Uncle had left suddenly, but someone else had cleaned the house up after their departure.

Who?

It was dark. Elle sat in the large, rustic kitchen.

“Where would they have gone?” Georgia asked.

She sat near Pix and Flash on the countertop, biting off a piece of jerky. Jay sat next to Elle.

“I don’t know,” Elle shrugged. “The only reason they would have left would be if Omega found them. They were working with the National Guard and the militias that are fighting Omega – it was dangerous work. Anything could have happened.”

“But where would they go if they were… well, still alive?” Georgia continued. “They must have had a backup plan that you knew about, right?”

“Not really,” Elle answered. “I only lived here for a few weeks. They were just starting to help the militias when I left.”

“Well,” Jay spoke up, breaking the depressing conversation, “I guess there’s only one thing we can do: keep heading toward Sacramento.”

“It’s hundreds of miles from here,” Georgia sighed.

“It’s safe,” Pix whispered.

“Oh, I know. I’m just saying.” Georgia kicked her boots up on the counter. “It could take us weeks to get there.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Jay replied. “We’ve got to keep moving. If Omega knows where this house is, they might be watching it. It’s not safe to stay here.”

“He’s right,” Elle agreed. “We should get out of here as soon as possible.”

“Are there any old cars that we could use here?” Flash asked.

“I don’t know. We could look.” Elle jumped off the counter. “My Aunt used to keep horses in the stables behind the house, but they’re empty now. I don’t know what happened to the animals.”

She opened the kitchen door. It led to the backyard. Moonlight fell across the overgrown gardens and the dry fountain. Elle bypassed the stables and approached an old shed.

“Aunt and Uncle were smart,” Elle said. “They didn’t keep their stuff out in the open, where people could steal it.”

“They hid it in the shed?” Georgia asked. “That’s so original.”

Elle smirked.

She opened the shed door. It was a fancy building with high-beamed ceilings. It smelled like must and rust. Elle hadn’t been here for a long time. She’d only come inside once, when Uncle had shown her the shed, in case of an emergency…

She flicked the light switch for the heck of it. Nothing happened.

Elle pulled back the thick curtain over the window near the worktable, shedding moonlight inside the building.

She walked to the far corner, counting her steps.

“Help me move this—” she began, but Georgia cut her off.

“Oh, my god!”

“What?” Elle demanded.

“Look!”

Georgia pointed. Elle’s eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could see Jay climbing on something. It was a car of some sort.

“What is it?” Elle asked.

She knew a lot about the Klan and Hollywood, but she didn’t know anything about cars.

“It’s a Suzuki Samurai,” Jay beamed, patting the hood.

Georgia and Elle shared a confused glance. They got closer to the car. It was a jeep. There was no roof, just four seats. It was painted a muted tan tone.

“It’s a jeep,” Elle stated.

“It’s not just a jeep,” Jay corrected. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is an EMP-proof 1989 Suzuki Samurai.”

Realization dawned on the twins.

“It doesn’t have an electronic chip,” they said at the same time.

“Which means the EMP didn’t affect it,” Georgia added.

“And it’s been inside a big metal shed,” Pix pointed out. “Just like a Faraday cage.”

“That’s awesome,” Elle agreed. “But now if I could get someone to help me, I’ll show you something that will make you all really happy.”

“We don’t have the keys for the jeep, anyway,” Georgia sighed. “We couldn’t start it to even see if there’s gas in the tank.”

“And we have no gas,” Pix added.

“Not true,” Jay replied. “I can hotwire this thing – I don’t need keys.”

“Hey, you guys!” Elle said, crossing her arms. “Would you listen to me for two seconds? Help me move this worktable.”

Jay, Georgia and the twins each took a side of the table and pulled it forward, away from the window.

“Geez, thanks,” Elle said, rolling her eyes. “Took long enough.”

A multi-colored rug had been rolled out under the table. Elle pulled it up, revealing a hidden door. Elle tapped it with the toe of her shoe.

“Ta-da,” she said. “A secret storeroom. Emergency fuel. You’re welcome.”

Georgia whooped loudly.

“YES!” she said. “We don’t have to walk all the way to Sacramento!”

Jay laughed aloud.

“Finally,” he said. “A stroke of good luck.”

Chapter Eleven

Elle had waited a long time for this. She curled her fingers around the bars on the cage, looking around the park. It was nearly sundown. She sat back down on the floor, staring at the map she had drawn in the dirt. It had taken her weeks to create it, but she had finally constructed a decent replication of the layout of the park. Every cage, every pit, every guarded Klan hotspot.

She had tucked a knife into her boot. She’d stolen it earlier from Tomas when he had been sleeping, hung over. He had so many knives and weapons hanging off his belt.

Your loss, my gain, Elle thought bitterly.

As soon as it was dark, she would use the knife to work through the wire holding the cyclone cage closed. And then she would navigate the park, slip out of the boundaries of Klan territory… and she would be free.

She hoped she survived.

______________________________

The jeep was running. Jay had hotwired the thing, and it was rumbling. It had been so long since Elle had heard the sound of an engine. Outside of Omega’s Humvees and patrol vehicles, there were no more cars.

The kids had found a small trailer in the shed and hooked it to the hitch on the back of the jeep. They had filled the trailer with gas canisters. The few supplies that they had scavenged in the city remained in their backpacks.

The jeep itself was only built to hold four people, but Pix and Flash were small, and they were able to cram three people in the backseat instead of two. Elle crawled into the front passenger seat, next to Jay, who sat behind the wheel. He was happy to be in control of the vehicle.

“So were you a car thief?” Elle inquired slyly.

Jay only grinned. “Why do you say that?”

“You seem to be an expert in hotwiring cars.”

Jay laughed, his white teeth a flash against the early morning darkness.

“I’m not an expert,” he replied. “I’m just… I have a wide range of skills, let’s put it that way.”

Elle wasn’t buying it. She plopped her backpack down at her feet. Georgia, Pix and Flash hopped into the backseat. The trailer was secured and they had enough gas to get them to Sacramento. They shouldn’t have a problem.

The thought excited Elle.

“I haven’t been in a car in ages,” Georgia drawled, chewing on a piece of gum. “Not since I was arrested, and the ride in the back of the cop car sucked.”

“That’s what you get for being a criminal,” Elle commented.

Georgia stuck her tongue out at Elle, and she laughed.

“The engine seems to be in good condition,” Flash said, adopting his teacher voice. “Pix and I haven’t found any problems with it, other than the fact that the battery is low.”

“Thank you, Professor,” Georgia replied, making a face. “Can you please can the child-genius comments for just an hour. Please?”

Flash folded his arms across his chest, insulted. Pix patted his shoulder.

They couldn’t help being smart. They just were.

“Are we ready?” Elle asked, looking over her shoulder.

“Yes,” Georgia answered. “But I want to know why you get to sit in the front. I’m one of the oldest ones here.”

“How do you know I’m not the oldest one here?” Elle pointed out.

Georgia blew a bubble.

“Oh? How old are you, Tinkerbell?

“Fifteen and a half.”

“Ha. I’m seventeen. You’re a mere child.”

Elle rolled her eyes.

“Let’s just go, okay?” Jay sighed. “Everybody in? Good. Say goodbye to the ranch.”

He slowly shifted gears and pulled away from the house. The gravel driveway crunched under the Suzuki’s tires. Elle refused to look at the ranch house. She just watched the shadow of the building fade into the rearview mirror as Jay eased the jeep and the trailer down the mountain road.

She hoped her Aunt and Uncle were safe, wherever they were.

She hoped Sacramento was all that they hoped it would be.

She hoped that they would all survive this road trip.

Chapter Twelve

Elle knelt next to Pix, touching her forehead. The girl’s skin was on fire. Her face was drained of color and her breathing was heavy, labored. It was raining. Everyone was cold and wet. Flash’s face was pinched. He held his glasses in his hand, teary-eyed. Georgia was standing next to the jeep, taking a nervous drag on a cigarette. The girl was rattled.

“What do we do?” Flash whispered.

Pix was lying across the backseat, semiconscious. She had been sick for two days, and it had slowed down their progress. They were stopped on the side of the road, past Bakersfield, California, near the Kern River. Interstate 5 stretched north and south as far as the eye could see, paralleling the golden coastal mountains on one side and the Central Valley on the other.

“We’ve got to get her medicine,” Jay said. His fingers curled into fists. “She’s dying.”

“We don’t have medicine,” Flash said, choked up. “We’ve got nothing.”

Elle continued to hold Pix’s limp, sweaty hand.

Georgia was silent, wordless. She was angry that their journey to Sacramento, to safe haven, had been stopped by something as seemingly petty as Flash being sick.

Elle wished she’d grow up. Everyone wanted to get to Sacramento.

If Pix was sick, that wasn’t her fault.

“We’re close to a rest stop,” Elle pointed out. She had spent a lot of time studying the maps from Aunt and Uncle’s ranch house. “There’s a community a few miles from here, and there’s probably a pharmacy in town. We can search it and look for something that might help her.”

“I thought we were supposed to avoid towns,” Georgia snapped.

“We were,” Jay replied, his tone sharp. “But Pix’s sick. We don’t have a choice.”

Georgia closed her mouth, throwing her cigarette to the ground.

“Jay and I will go into town,” Elle said. “Georgia, you stay with Pix and Flash. Keep them safe.”

How did this happen? Just two days ago, they had left the ranch house in the Tehachapi hills full of high hopes. They had a car, gas, supplies and a map. They were on their way to Sacramento, the rumored safe haven for wartime survivors and militia fighters.

Nothing ever went as planned.

2 Days Earlier

Elle could smell the blood. Georgia leaned over the side of the Suzuki and puked. Pix and Flash gripped the door handles tightly. Jay stopped the jeep and they sat there, staring at the huge expanse of freeway that curved down the last stretch of the Tehachapi hills – the Grapevine.

Parts of the highway had been blown apart. Chunks of concrete was scattered throughout the hills. Dead bodies were strewn through patches of dry grass. The air stank of rotting flesh and there were spots in the soil where the rain had mixed with blood, creating red rivers in the mud.

“What happened here?” Georgia breathed, shaking.

Elle closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and looked at the scene again.

“This was a battle,” she said. “Omega versus somebody else.”

“Who was the ‘somebody else?’” Jay said.

“Us,” Pix replied automatically. “Look at the dead. They’re Omega. They’re mostly Chinese, too. I see some National Guard uniforms out there, though.”

“So this was a fight between the National Guard and Omega,” Jay said. “Unbelievable. They just left the dead here to rot?”

“This was pretty recent,” Flash observed.

“Should we go back?” Pix asked.

“No. There’s nothing for us down south,” Jay replied.

“We can’t drive on the road the whole way. So much of it has been blown to pieces.”

“We’ll use the side roads.”

“I don’t see any signs of Omega,” Georgia added. “And I don’t see any signs of the United States military, either.”

Elle’s heart sank.

She had been hoping that they would run across the United States military, somehow, and that they would be protected. Surely the National Guard would take care of survivors. That’s why they were going to Sacramento, after all.

But that wasn’t happening. Not today.

“We need to get out of here,” Elle said. “They could come back.”

“This battle is over,” Jay replied, clenching his fist. “We have to keep going.”

No one argued. They didn’t want to go back to the city, and the only way to escape was to keep heading north. So they did. Jay navigated side roads, trying to keep the trailer from getting rocked too much. The gasoline was too valuable to lose.

It took hours to get down the mountain.

Elle tried to avoid looking at the dead that hadn’t been collected from the battlefield. Many of them had been blown to pieces. She’d never seen anything so horrible.

“Do you think it’s like this everywhere?” Pix whispered.

Elle didn’t answer. She hoped it wasn’t.

By the time they reached the bottom of the mountain, night had fallen. They passed a rest stop, Laval Road. Signs of recent military presence were everywhere. An American flag had been painted across a freeway overpass. Someone had scrawled USA FOREVER on the side of an abandoned restaurant.

“USA forever,” Georgia snorted. “Wishful thinking.”

“At least someone’s trying to keep hope alive,” Elle replied.

“It doesn’t do anything.” Georgia watched the scenery roll by, a blank expression on her face. “We’re dead. The United States, everything good about it. It’s gone. And it’s not coming back.”

Elle sighed. It was easy to believe that. Very easy.

The question was… was she going to believe it?

Jay rolled onto a freeway ramp that veered left, keeping onto the Interstate 5 freeway. It would take them straight to Sacramento if they weren’t stopped by Omega patrols. That, of course, was the trick. None of them knew where Omega was coming from or where they were keeping their forces. If they stumbled across an armed force of soldiers…

Well. It would be bad.

They drove until it was too dark to see the road. Jay decided that using the lights on the jeep would be too risky – they could be spotted a mile away – so they voted against traveling at night. They pulled over to a sheltered area on the side of the road, unrolled a piece of canvas over the roof and hunkered down for a dinner of cold canned food and stale crackers.

And then they slept.

_____________________

“Pix’s missing!”

Flash was panicking. He circled the jeep twice, the color drained from his face. Elle sat up, grabbing the door handle. She had fallen asleep slumped across Jay’s knees. Realizing this, the blood rushed to her cheeks. She hoped he hadn’t noticed.

Jay was wide-awake already, jumping out of the jeep.

Good. He hadn’t.

“Missing?” Georgia practically screeched. “Again? How many times is she going to do this to us?”

Elle climbed out of the jeep, onto the gravel. They were parked behind an overgrown bush on the side of the freeway. It was cold – low thirties. She shivered and looked around. Flash was right; there was no sign of Pix.

“Why would she wander off?” Jay said, and Elle could see that he was angry. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Maybe she just had to pee,” Georgia suggested. “She might be right back.”

“No. I’ve been calling and calling for her,” Flash replied, adjusting his glasses.

“She must have gotten turned around,” Jay said.

Georgia gestured to the sprawling, flat landscape around them.

“How could you get lost here?” she demanded. “It’s impossible!”

“Anything is possible,” Elle said. “The grass is high and there are lots of shadows. Jay’s right… she must have gotten lost when she got up. When did you notice she was gone, Flash?”

“Just now – I woke up and she wasn’t next to me.”

He seemed embarrassed that he had managed to sleep through his sister’s disappearance.

Jay answered, “We need to find her. She doesn’t have any food or water with her. She’ll get dehydrated fast.”

“Let’s split up,” Georgia suggested, sighing. “We’ll be able to find her faster.”

Jay pulled the map out of the side door of the jeep and spread it flat against the hood. He pulled a pen out of his pocket and marked their location with a small X. “We don’t go more than two miles away from this spot,” he said. “We’ll meet here in two hours.”

Elle looked at the map. Georgia was right – it would be difficult to get lost with the miles of flat freeway and grassy plains on each side of them. It would take hours to reach the top of the coastal hills on their left… and Pix hadn’t been gone that long. Besides, why would she wander that far in the first place?

She wouldn’t. Not if she was in her right mind, anyway.

No, something was wrong.

They each headed in a different direction. Elle liked being alone, separated from the rest. It gave her time to think, to get in touch with her surroundings on a different level. She’d hardly had a moment of silence since she’d joined the group.

Silence was something she missed.

She walked through the tall, golden grass until the jeep and the bush were specks in the distance. The grass was taller than her in most places, and Elle realized that it would be easy for Pix – who was short – to get lost here. She quietly called her name but received no reply.

I can’t believe it, Elle thought. Why am I even here? Wasting my time, looking for a kid that doesn’t even have enough common sense to stay in the stupid jeep while we’re all sleeping…

Elle tried to put the anger out of her mind, but it was still there, simmering under the surface. For the second time, she was sticking her neck out for Pix – for this group of kids. And for what reason? They hadn’t done anything for her. So far, she’d been the one who had helped them stay alive.

Stop overthinking, she thought. Just look for Pix.

An hour passed. Elle searched through every stretch of tall grass that she could find, calling Pix’s name. She came up short, checking the time.

Where was she?

At the hour and a half mark, Elle turned around and started heading back to the jeep. She hoped someone else had found Pix. If not, they would be stuck in this godforsaken strip of wilderness forever. She hopped across a dry creek carved into the terrain, shielded by tufts of six-foot tall grass.

Elle stopped and bent down. What looked like a pile of discolored rags was crammed on the side of the creek. She tilted her head. It was an odd shape. She got closer, realization dawning.

“Pix?”

She splashed through the shallow creek bed and grabbed the pile. It was Pix, and she was unconscious. Her little face was slack. Elle checked her pulse. Pix’s heart was still beating. But why was she unconscious?

She bundled the girl in her arms and struggled up the creek bed, through the grass. Pix was small, but so was Elle. Carrying Pix was like carrying a small bag of bricks. The jeep was a quarter of a mile away, and every step was difficult.

Elle kept going, stopped to rest, then picked Pix up and continued again. Finally, Interstate 5 came into view. She all but dragged Pix the remaining distance to the jeep. When she arrived, the others were already there.

“You found her!” Flash exclaimed, rushing to Elle’s side. “What happened to her?”

“Don’t know,” Elle huffed, trying to catch her breath.

“Here, let me help,” Jay offered. He picked up Pix’s limp body and laid it across the backseat of the jeep. “Wow, she’s really out.”

Elle grabbed a canteen of water and drank.

“She looks sick,” Georgia stated.

Brilliant observation, Elle thought.

“What do you think happened?” Jay asked, studying Pix’s face.

“I think she wandered off, got lost and dehydrated, and I don’t know what else happened to her,” Elle shrugged. “Can we just keep going, please? It’s not safe to stay in one place this long.”

 Georgia was standing to the side, digging through her backpack. She removed a new package of cigarettes. It seemed like they were the only things Georgia had taken the time to salvage from the city.

Elle pulled back Pix’s shirtsleeves and searched for open wounds on the girl’s body, but there was nothing. It looked like Pix was ill. Her eyelids fluttered open for a moment and she struggled to speak. Instead, she leaned to the side, vomited on the seat, and passed out again.

“Gross,” Georgia muttered, frowning.

Elle wrinkled her nose.

“She might have food poisoning,” Elle stated. “I’ve had it before, it’s a lot like this.”

“Food poisoning from what?” Georgia demanded.

“Anything. We’re eating supplies scavenged from the city, and not everything is guaranteed safe,” Elle pointed out. “When I was first living in the city after Day Zero, I ate something that had gone rotten and I got sick. Almost died.”

“How’d you get over it?” Flash asked.

“I found some antibiotics at a pharmacy,” Elle replied. “It saved my life.”

Elle folded her arms across her chest.

If Pix was going to survive, they were going to have to do something.

It would be dangerous.