After Days (The After Days Trilogy) (6 page)

             
Sarah couldn’t remember the exact message, but she did remember enough for us to get excited. She remembered that it was about a place, some kind of safe gathering place in New Hampshire and it instructed listeners to go to the ‘dragon’. Sarah was adamant that the
safe haven
, as Barbara had named it, was the answer to their prayers. Literally. Apparently Barbara had no clue of where it actually was, but the plan had been to head to New Hampshire and worry about the rest later.

Sarah told us it was a place where all the children of America were gathering, a place where the Chinese couldn’t get to them. I knew that the message had been embellished by Barbara; for her, this Morse code message had seemed like a sign from God, she had told the children as much.

Soon after, she had duly loaded the kids in her charge into the church bus and started the trek north to New Hampshire. They'd almost made it to Fort Carter, less then fifteen miles from where they had started in North Providence, when the red Toyota had run them off the road and the two boys had taken them prisoner. It had been January 4, the same day that I had ventured into town to find supplies.

The two looters had taken their captives to a trailer park that they had made their base.
Sarah wouldn't tell us about what had happened while she was a captive of the looters, other than to say that the oldest looter had taken Barbara off to a separate trailer almost as soon as they had arrived and the kids had never seen her again.

Every day since, the looters had loaded them into the pickup and taken them on scavenger runs. I assumed that Barbara was captive in one of the trailers…or worse, dead. But we didn’t have time to go hunting for her, Sarah had no idea where it was or even how far away.

They had been on a run that morning. And the stop near Walt’s Diner had been the first of the day. When the young looter had not been paying attention, a boy named Johnny had convinced her and a seven year old boy named Brent to make a run for it. The shotgun toting delinquent, clearly not as distracted as they had thought, had shot Brent in the back as they jumped out of the back of the truck, and then given chase to Sarah and Johnny. As they ran around the side of the diner, Johnny had stumbled, and his last words to Sarah had been to tell her to keep running. His death had been the result of the second shot I had heard while retrieving the revolver.

              There was an old radio in the kitchen. Luke and I had never turned it on, but after hearing Sarah's story he checked it and the batteries still worked. We moved the station bar around for a while, looking for anything other than static, but found ourselves getting no place fast.

             
“Maybe the place…this dragon safe place, has been taken out by the Chinese already,” Luke said with a shrug.

             
“Just a little bit longer,” I said, moving on to another station frequency. “It was a church retreat, right? Maybe they were listening to AM.”

             
“Nobody listens to AM radio, man,” Luke said, looking at me like I was stupid or something.

             
“My foster mother did, on Thursday evenings AM1107 used to have a gospel hour program that she enjoyed.”

             
“Alright, we can try it if you want,” he still sounded incredulous, but like me, was willing to try anything. I could tell that he wanted the safe haven to be true as much as I did.

             
I pushed the button that switched the radio from FM to AM and began slowly cycling through the frequencies. Less than a minute later I had found the broadcast. It was just as Sarah had described – sequences of long and short beeps. I knew nothing about Morse code, and although Luke was a scout, Morse code had never been his strong point. Apparently he was more into the outdoorsy and sporty stuff, so we made no attempt to translate it. We simply accepted that the message would be largely the same as Sarah had relayed it to us.

             
Luke and I grinned at each other over the radio, while an exhausted Sarah slept fitfully on my pile of belongings in the corner. We were excited to finally have an objective, a place where we could try to go to. Then a look of consternation crossed Luke's face.

             
“New Hampshire is two states away, and we don't know where in New Hampshire this haven might be. This could suck.”

             
“Oh it's going to suck alright,” I replied. “It’s the middle of winter, and we are going to be walking.”

             
“What! Why?”

             
“I think the Chinese are looking for vehicles moving around, probably with satellites or something. Didn't you notice that the first moving vehicle we've seen in days shows up a few minutes before a Chinese chopper? I don't know about you but I don't really want to be driving along when the car I am in is turned into metal confetti by cannon,” I said. Luke blanched, probably thinking of the red pickup's fate.

             
“It could have been a coincidence,” he said quietly.

             
“Do you really want to risk it?” I asked.

             
“Fine, we walk. We're going to need some warmer clothes though.”

             
“Yeah, our first stop's gonna be Walmart. Hopefully it's as well stocked as the grocery store was. Now what about this dragon clue? Maybe we can work it out and find the place on a map.”

“Okay, I’ll think on it, and we should be able to find a map or an atlas at Walmart,” he said, his face turning thoughtful.

Luke packed up what food we could take with us to eat on the road while I carried a linen tablecloth from the diner's storeroom and went out to the alley. Sarah’s friend Johnny was face down on the cold hard concrete.

It was the third dead body in a week and it didn’t get any easier. In fact, it was worse seeing a little kid like that than it had been seeing my foster parents. Tears stung my eyes as I draped the cloth over him and then knelt next to him. The waste got to me, the life that would never be lived. I cursed the Chinese and the dumb cruelty of the looters as I put my hand gently on the shape of his head. I felt like I should say a prayer or something but the best I could manage was a hoarse, “Rest in peace buddy.”

5

Although we dressed as warmly as we could, we didn't end up taking that much food with us when we left Walt’s – we figured that traveling light was the best bet. Sarah was scared to leave the warmth and safety of the diner, and it was all Luke could do to convince her that it was for the best.

I remember the hard, practical side of me thinking at the time that it might be better to leave her behind, to just slip away while she slept...but I couldn't bring myself to suggest that course of action to Luke. He would have argued anyway and it would have ended in a fight. Looking at how things turned out for Sarah, I've been wondering if leaving her there wouldn't have been kinder.

              The walk to the Walmart took us past the shredded remains of the red pickup, and we steered Sarah to the far side of the street and walked so that Luke and I blocked the view of the wreckage. As we were passing the remains of the truck, which had been literally shredded by the high caliber rounds, Luke told me to keep walking as he went across to the wreck.

             
“Watch it, there's a ton of broken glass and sharp metal that could cut you,” I warned as I gently propelled Sarah on, my hand on the small of her back.

             
“I'll be careful,” he replied. “I think I see something that could be useful.”

I watched over
my shoulder as he reached across the body of the driver and pulled out one of the shotguns that the looters had been using. Miraculously it was undamaged and he raised it over his head triumphantly and ran back to us.

“It's a pump action 20-gauge, my dad and I used a gun just like this for duck hunting last year,” he said. “I'm not going to dig through that mess for extra ammo though; hopefully we can find some at Walmart.” I paused for a moment to check it over; it didn’t have a scratch on it.

              “I wouldn't mind an extra box of bullets for my .38 too,” I said, handing it back, before looking up and down the street. “Come on, let's get going.”

             
“Am I going to get a gun too?” Sarah asked, looking frightened by the prospect.

             
“No, guns are dangerous,” I replied, thinking back to the first time I had fired one, hitting the sick looter in the leg. “Luke and I will be able to protect you just fine, you don’t need a weapon.” Looking back now, those words make me feel like a liar, but at the time I couldn't have known how things would play out.

             
We continued walking down Main Street toward the Walmart; it was a walk of about six blocks from the wrecked pickup. The wind picked up, its cutting chill piercing right through my jacket and sweatshirt. I hoped that I could find a more comfortable jacket at the Walmart, perhaps one designed for ski trips, or arctic conditions.

By the time we reached the end of Main, I was starting to second guess my decision to not take the car, wondering whether dying in a shriek of twisting metal and hot raining lead would really be worse than freezing to death in a ditch someplace between here and New Hampshire.

One look at Highway 102 disabused me of that notion however, while in town the streets had been relatively clear of vehicles, the highway was absolutely littered with them. It looked as if anybody that could drive had tried to escape town, and been caught up in the largest traffic jam in history. I wasn't sure that I'd be able to get a car out of town on the highway even if I wanted to. I found myself wondering how many of these cars held the corpses of their owners, claimed by the infection while they tried to escape the town.

             
“Damn…” Luke said, shaking his head. I waited for him to continue his thought but he lapsed into silence.

             
“I guess there's no need to look both ways before crossing,” I said, starting across the highway toward the Walmart parking lot. It was meant to be a funny tension breaker, but it came out weak.

             
“What if there are more bad people like…Bradley, the guy who had us in the truck?” Sarah said, grabbing at my arm from behind. “They could be waiting for us in Walmart... it’s a perfect place to trap people.”

             
“There could be bad people any place,” I said, trying to sound reassuring. I could tell that the poor girl was on the edge of breaking down into tears again. “We need to get stuff from inside of this place or else we are not going to be able to keep going. It’s a risk that we're going to have to take.”

             
“Besides if anybody tries to hurt you they've got another thing comin',” Luke said, holding up his shotgun. I felt a ping of dismay as I remembered how useless the kid’s shotgun had proven to be against the Chinese helicopter.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that
, I thought.

             
The glass of the large door at the front of the store had been smashed in. We stopped at the threshold and I kept my hand on the gun in my pocket as we surveyed the scene. We could tell at once that some looting had been done here, items were scattered over the floor. In places the shelves had been pushed over, but it seemed to still be fairly well stocked. I still haven’t gotten used to empty stores; they are always like haunted houses, places that once bustled with people on errands and day to day tasks. Remnants of the world that was.

I stepped through, careful not to cut myself on the glass around the edges and waved the others through. Once inside we stopped to listen intently, and when after a few minutes we had still heard nothing, I turned to Luke.

              “Want to split up, or stick together?” I whispered. That’s the other thing, even though you know these places are empty, you always feel the impulse to stay quiet.

             
“Together for now,” Luke said, looking a little spooked. “It might take us a bit longer, but I don’t think Sarah should be out of sight. We're not in a hurry, and besides, I'm happy to be out of the wind.”

             
“Okay, where should we start?”

             
“Girls clothing,” he said, nodding toward Sarah. “She's by far the most under-dressed of us for this weather, so I know if I'm cold she's gotta be freezing.”

             
“Girls clothing it is,” I said, with a nod of agreement. “After that, some warmer clothes for us and a trip back to the camping section might be in order.”

             
It didn't take us that long to get Sarah bundled up with some good winter clothing, including a pair of galoshes and some extra pants and thermal shirts which we put in a new backpack for her. She was mostly quiet, nodding her head yes or shaking it no as we suggested various items of clothing to her.

Looking back, it is easy to see that she was still in shock from what she had seen, heck, from everything that had happened to her since Christmas. In reality we should have all been in shock, but I guess my history was helping me to adapt more readily than would otherwise be the case. As for Luke, well, apart from the slight crack in his voice when he mentioned his parents, he seemed to have weathered the storm remarkably well. He's just made of sterner stuff, I guess. Don't get me wrong, Luke was most certainly affected by the situation, and still is. It’s just that he does a good job of hiding it, he has the heart of a hero... if he'd been born six hundred years ago he would have been a knight, always rushing off to rescue the damsel in distress. After everything that has happened since, I am grateful that we found each other after the infection. I’m not sure that either of us would still be here if we hadn’t.

              I grabbed a couple of extra pairs of wool socks and a parka for myself, but didn't take too long gathering extra clothing, as I already had some good warm clothing in my pack. Luke grabbed a few pairs of ‘Long Johns’, as he like to call thermal underwear, and at his insistence I packed a pair for myself as well. “You never know,” he said. “These Long Johns could save your life someday.”

             
After gathering our clothing we went back to look at camping gear. This part of the store had been more thoroughly picked over, but I still hoped to be able to find a tent that was light enough for one of us to carry. I didn't relish the idea of sleeping exposed to the elements in the New England winter. While I looked for a tent, Luke went over to sporting goods, the next section over, to look for ammunition. I sent Sarah down the next aisle to look for some sleeping bags for the three of us. Her scream caught me completely off guard.

             
Tearing around the corner with my revolver in my hand, I almost collided with Sarah as she was backing up, still shrieking. Two people, kids about my age, were standing at the far end of the aisle, each holding a bow with an arrow nocked to the string. A quick glance told me that they were a boy and a girl. I shoved Sarah behind me and stepped forward, trying to appear much braver than I really felt, with the .38 raised.

             
“I was just trying to ask her name,” the boy said, eying my handgun warily.

             
“Perhaps we should ask you yours.” Luke's voice came from around the end of the aisle, followed by the sound of the shotguns pump racking. “Drop the bow and arrows and we’ll have a friendly chat.”

A look of frustration crossed the boy’s face, he was clearly upset at having been outmaneuvered, but his arrow stayed unwaveringly trained on me. It was the girl, who shared the same proud features and blonde hair, that lowered her weapon and encouraged him to do the same. They un-nocked their arrows and placed them on the ground, before standing and looking at me defiantly. That's how we met Ben and Brooke.

             
Ben and Brooke are twins, and not only that, they are British, having come to the United States to spend Christmas with their maternal Grandparents. They sure picked the wrong year to take that holiday. Although they are not identical, how can they be when one’s a guy and the other’s a girl? They do look alike though, and they also tend to think alike.

Fear and tension was running high there in the Walmart, and that first meeting could have ended up very different
ly had the twins, especially Brooke, not been so level headed. In the end they took us back to their 'lair' where they'd been holed up in the employee break room, and did their best to make us feel welcome. We shared a meal and spoke of our experiences. Their grandparents had succumbed to the flu quickly and the twins had stayed in their home as long as they could before hunger had forced them to leave. 

While they were realists, they were still hopeful that the rest of the world wouldn’t just let the ‘bloody’ Chinese get away with it, and that at some point they would be reunited with their parents. As soon as we mentioned traveling to the 'haven' though, they wanted in. Ben even had a s
olution to the walking problem, bicycles. Walmart had a huge range of bicycles.

             
“Do we have any idea where this safe haven is located?” asked Ben after we had finished picking out bikes.

             
“Do you remember anything else, Sarah?” I asked, turning to her.

             
“Not really,” she replied. “Barbara just kept talking about the ‘dragon’ clue. She said we would look for it when we got to New Hampshire. That's all I can remember… Wait! There was something about the dragon being on a white mountain!”

“Dragon on a white mountain? It sounds like something out of
The Hobbit,
” said Brooke.

             
“There's a White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire,” Luke said, looking at an atlas that he had pulled from the rack in the book section of the store. “But it's huge; it almost cuts the state in half. It would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”

             
“Well done Luke, that’s a start...unless someone has a better idea of where to go or what to do, I vote that we should head there. Maybe there’ll be other travelers, surely we can’t be the only ones that heard the message,” I said, sounding more hopeful than I felt. “Neither of you happen to be good with Morse code, do you?” I asked, glancing back at the twins. They shook their heads.

“Alright then, let’s find some baskets for these bikes; that way we can carry more supplies. I think we should leave in the morning, head north.”

              “It looks like we can avoid Woonsocket,” Luke said, after thumbing through the atlas to a map of Rhode Island. Woonsocket was the nearest 'city' and that term applied only loosely, although it was far larger than Fort Carter. He flipped to the Massachusetts page, “It doesn't look like we'll be able to skirt around Worcester as easily though.”

             
“We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said. Worcester was a real city, with a little over two hundred thousand people it was the second largest city in New England after Boston. We had sort of come to an unspoken agreement that big cities were to be avoided, that's where we figured we'd be most likely to run into the Chinese military. “If we have to go through we will,” I shook my head. “But maybe something else will come up before we get there.”

             
“Sounds like a plan, man,” Luke said, closing the Atlas. “I think I'll hold onto this, it could come in handy.”