After Days (The After Days Trilogy) (12 page)

Aside from the constant worry that the Chinese might discover us, it was a great few days. We were able to recharge and recover from our injuries. I finally let on about my Kung Fu experience and for the first time in over a month, I was able to practice and spar.

Sonny’s crew were good, especially Arthur, who I could tell was on a par with my own skill, possibly better (although I wouldn’t admit it). I had a few sessions with Sonny and he was way out of my league, on another level completely in fact, but by the fourth day, I was managing to hold my own against him, defensively at least.

Luke took the opportunity to practice his crossbow. All that gaming appeared to have come in handy. He was a natural, but with practice shooting at the Kung Fu dummies in
the academy’s long practice hall, he became absolutely lethal. He painted targets on them and was able to hit the bulls-eyes on
every
shot after just two days.

He even had ti
me to craft his own arrows, and apart from the painted finish and slightly more refined materials of the originals, I could barely tell the difference between his and the manufactured ones. To say the least, I was in awe of his many skills and wondered what other talents he might have hidden behind that slightly goofy exterior.

We even learned some new information. While foraging,
two days before they came across us, Sonny’s group had met a group of three survivors as they passed through Worcester. The three teenagers had also come up from Rhode Island, but from the city of Warwick. They had been led by a headstrong girl who had told them that the Chinese were using children as slave labor to clear the city of its dead.

She had speculated that it was their foothold in the state due to its sea access
. It was useful information, and only confirmed our worst fears. Sonny had offered to let the group stay, but the girl was determined to head to Canada.

              Our four new mouths taxed the food supplies at the academy though, and on the third morning, Sonny asked if Luke and I would like to go out on an expedition to get some more supplies. There were some grocery stores a few blocks from the academy, and a couple of carts of canned food would feed us all for a while longer. We agreed to go that night under the cover of darkness. The helicopter fly overs had died down, and the Chinese seemed to have delayed a ground search.

             
“Remember not to cross Foster Street though, it’s the turf of that gang I told you about, the Red Tigers,” Sonny said, as Luke and I prepared to slip out through the side door of the academy.

We were armed and not overly concerned about the warning. Sonny had handed me an assault rifle that had been taken from the Chinese soldiers who captured us.

              The rifle was heavy, and designed in what I thought was a funny way, with the magazine and action located behind the grip and trigger. It was a style that Luke called 'bull-pup', and he said it was the new big thing in assault weapons. It was supposed to offer better control or something. Luke rejected the rifle that Sonny offered him and held up his crossbow.

“Quieter,” he said simply at Sonny’s raised eyebrow and showed him the handful of crossbow arrows he had in the large pocket of his parka. Old fashioned it may have been, but it looked plenty deadly in the cold light of the open doorway.

Sonny had given me a quick run through on how to operate the weapon. He’d shown me the selector switch which was currently set on ‘3’; the other settings were ‘1’ and ‘2’. He told me that on setting 1 the gun shot one bullet at a time, on 2 it shot a three round burst, and on a 3 it was probably fully automatic, meaning I'd burn through my ammo with one squeeze of the trigger and the gun would be a bitch to control.

I assumed that because he sounded so confident he knew what he was talking about. He turned out to be
almost
right. Remembering the three round bursts that had downed Luke and me with the rubber bullets, I switched the selector over to ‘2’ before we left the alley.

“It's freaking cold out here tonight, dude,” Luke said, carefully stepping around a
sheet of ice on the sidewalk. We were dressed in our normal clothing, although I had added a stocking cap under my parka's hood because it was another clear and very cold night.

“Yeah,” I replied, watching my breath puff forth. Suddenly I slipped and only caught myself at the last moment. The black ice on the concrete was almost invisible. “I hope these stores aren't too looted out, I'd hate to think we're wasting our time.”
             

             
“Sonny seems like a good guy,” Luke said. “I don't think he'd send us out if he didn't think there was a good chance of us getting something.”

             
“He could be hoping,” I replied. “By now you should realize how stupid that is.”             

             
“Man, everyone’s gotta have hope, it's what keeps us going.”             

“Well every time I find myself hopeful, everything turns to shit. I have given up on it.”

              “You're still trying to get to the safe haven,” Luke pointed out, with a smile. “That tells me that you still have some hope.”

             
“Well, I guess,” I replied. “But I have my doubts we will ever get there. Between wild dogs, psycho traitor kids and Chinese soldiers, the chances aren’t that great. Do I want to get to the safe haven or whatever they call it in their message? Yes, of course I do. Do I expect that I will? Well look what happened to Sarah. It could happen to any of us at any time.”

Luke was quiet for a moment, digesting what I had said. “Have you ever heard of Pandora?”

              “The internet radio thing?”

             
“No, the legend,” Luke said. “A long time ago there was this dumbass giant, Epimetheus, who wanted a wife, so the gods made him the perfect woman, her name was Pandora. Now this dumbass giant had been given a magical box, like a golden chest or something to guard, and the king of the gods had told him that it must never, ever be opened. After getting Pandora as his wife, the first thing Epimetheus did was show her the box and tell her it must never be opened.

             
“Well, telling someone not to do something only makes them want to do it, and all she could think about was what treasures might be in that box. So one night while Epimetheus was fast asleep, Pandora crept down to the treasure room and decided to take the tiniest peek at what was inside the box. As can be expected, it didn't turn out so well – when the gods decree that something shall not be opened, you’d damn well wanna keep it closed.”

             
“Okay, you have my interest,” I said, “What was in the box?”

             
“Pandora opened the box, just a crack so she could take a peek, but the box was flung open by the force of what was held inside of it... all manner of monsters, plagues, pestilence, and disease came flooding out of it. All of the evils of the world followed by old age and death, two things the world had never known to that point.

Imagine that… living in a world where there was no sickness, no growing old, no death, and to suddenly have eternal blessed life snatched from you! Anyway, all the evils of the world escaped the box, leaving only one thing behind, looking into the now emptied box Pandora spied Hope, lying at the bottom. Because before then, without the adversity of the things that had been trapped in the box, there was no need fo
r hope. There is only need for hope when things are at their darkest.”

             
“I'm impressed, you actually managed to turn your story into a metaphor that is appropriate for our situation,” I said.

             
“Well of course, was that not my intention?” he said in a deep, theatrical voice.

             
“That seems like some heavy duty mythology there, did your parents read you a lot of books about myths of gods and heroes when you were little?”

             
“Naw, it was the background story for
Goddess of Vengeance 2
,” he replied with a sly smile. “But it seemed appropriate. Great game. Of course, in the game the ‘Hope’ inside of the box is Nemesis, the Goddess of Vengeance, and you spend the rest of the game playing her and conquering those evils to put them back in the box.”

             
“I should have spent more time playing video games. They seem to have served you well.”

             
“It's not like all I ever did was play games,” he said, somewhat defensively.

             
“Sorry, I was being serious; the games seem to have taught you a lot about coping with situations like this.”

             
“I guess,” he shrugged. “Most of it doesn't transfer that well to real life. Real life is way harder. Anyway, it's a pity that part of my life appears to be over.”

             
“Yeah, a pity for all of us…there's a Honey Farms store on this block, want to try there first?” I asked, pointing at the convenience store sign. “It's not actually a grocery store, but I guess we won't have to worry about paying higher prices.”

             
“Sounds good to me, chief,” Luke said, adjusting his course.

The Honey Farms was about half way down the block, past a line of silent cars; the frozen snow and ice on the windows of the cars kept us from seeing inside of them, so we watched them warily as we trooped on past.

A similar line of cars was parked on the far side of the street. I wondered, much like I had back in Fort Carter, if any of these cars might have frozen corpses in them, still sitting where they succumbed to the Infection. I thought about knocking the snow off some windows and looking in, but decided against it.
No reason to disturb the dead, if they’re there
, I thought. Besides I had creeped myself out enough.

             
The Honey Farms had the glass of the door busted out, so it was not difficult for us to get inside. There were no shopping carts, but we found a rack of cloth grocery bags and each grabbed two.

It looked like a bunch of kids had ransacked the place. The chip and candy aisles had been demolished, but the canned soups and vegetables had hardly been touched.

Luke watched while I loaded my bags first, I packed cans of chicken noodle soup and peas. I had almost filled the two bags when I spotted tins of creamed corn on a higher shelf. I took out some of the peas to make room and replaced them with the corn. I’ve always had a thing for creamed corn. I realize it is a funny quirk to have, but I love the stuff.

While Luke was loading his bag, I wandered up toward the front door to keep a look out. Th
at big, full moon was out again, and being so clear, the night was fairly bright.

I hadn't been standing there long when movement caught my eye. I ducked down a little and watched as a girl pulled herself out from under a car across the street and scampered into a nearby alley. I couldn't get a great view of her, because even though it was a bright night, it was still dark, but she looked to be about the same age as Luke and I. She was wearing a yellow rain slicker, not good for stealth at all.

              “Should we go after her?” I asked.

             
“Go after who?” Luke responded, looking up from his half full grocery bag.

             
“There's a girl across the street, she just went down that alley,” I said.

             
“A girl? Did it look like she needed help?”

             
“Really, man? We are in the deserted remains of a city, and she seemed to be all alone and hiding under a car in the freezing cold,” I said. “What do you think?”

             
“If she needs it, I'm all for helping her, man,” he said, leaving the half packed bag and walking up to the door where I stood.

             
“Okay, we'll go ask if she wants help. Maybe bring her some of that hope you've been talking about,” I said, setting my own grocery bag down. “We can grab the bags on our way back.”

We exited the store and ran across the street to the mouth of the alleyway, the buildings crowded close together above it, limiting the moonlight and making it much dimmer within.

              “You sure she went in here?” Luke whispered.

             
“Yeah. Let’s go...”

             
Luke took the lead, cautiously entering the alley with me close behind him. We hadn't gotten very far when we heard a girl’s scream and a cry for help from behind a dumpster about half way down the alley's length. “I guess she does need help,” Luke said, cocking his crossbow and taking off. I un-slung the automatic weapon that Sonny had given me and followed.

             
We rushed down the alley, doing all we could to avoid slipping on the thin sheen of frost that seemed to cover everything. As we approached the dumpster, we slowed and heard the sounds of a struggle and loud laughter coming from behind it. We were obviously a little noisy, because at the sound of our approach, first one, then another figure stepped out to block the way in front of us.