Becca (18 page)

I hate this. It’s my call. If I say we should go to the moon he’d agree. I could say we should all shoot ourselves and he’d reach for his gun. This is way too much pressure. What is wrong with my parents? Have they just fallen apart completely?

Amber and David came back out and we headed away. Amber was riding with me and Tasha again, and she was crying and looking back as we drove off. I feel so bad for her.

Tasha slowed at the intersection and looked both ways. Don’t really want to get in an accident right now, I guess. But after she crossed the intersection she locked the brakes.

“What the heck?”

She was staring straight ahead, not blinking. I looked forward, but I couldn’t see anything. I looked over at her and she turned toward me, her mouth open, her eyes wide. She blinked hard.

“Tasha?”

She shoved the shifter into reverse and shoved her foot down on the gas. She backed into Dad’s car. She turned to me with that same blank look again.

“Tasha, what is going on?”

She put the car in drive again and spun the tires as she took off, turning down the road we had just passed. And that’s when I saw it. Her Mom’s car. It was sitting in front of their house. Their house that had been sitting empty, waiting for their return from the overseas tour six months from now.

“Holy crap.” I said.

She slid to a stop in front of their house and leaped from the car. I was stunned. But then I noticed that she left her gun behind. I hurried from the car, chasing after her. She was banging on the front door with one hand and pressing the doorbell with the other. Hey Tasha, the doorbell doesn’t work when the power is out, hon.

Mr. Johnson opened the door and Tasha stood there, staring up at him, for probably fifteen seconds. Then she collapsed against him, and he wrapped his arms around her.

“You’re safe.” Mr. Johnson said.

“Mr. Johnson?” I said, like a moron. “Is that really you? You’re alive?”

“Hello Rebecca. How are you? I hope your family is okay?”

“Um, yes sir.” I waved toward the car with my family in it. “We’re all good.”

“Natasha!” Mrs. Johnson shouted. Tasha slid from her dad and fell against her mother. “Oh honey, oh I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“Hi Mrs. Johnson.” I said.

“Natasha,” her mother said. She looked up at me. “She is okay, isn’t she? She has cuts.”

“She’s okay.” I said. “Just shocked, I think.”

“Th-thought you were... de-dead!” Tasha sputtered out.

I couldn’t think of what to do. I knew we couldn’t just stand out there in the open all day, but I sure didn’t want to interrupt their reunion. Mom, Dad, and Bridget walked up beside me. Dad had a big smile on his face.

“Howard. How the heck are you?” Dad greeted him. 

“It’s good to see you, Rob.” he said, extending his hand toward Dad. “Libby.” he said, nodding at Mom.

“How’d you get here?” I asked.

“Military transport. They evacuated our base when it was all over. Landed us in Charlotte. We had to find our own way here. Been back about a week.”

“What do you know about what happened?” Dad asked.

“They hit us hard. We hit them hard. Not much left, I’m afraid. Europe’s as bad as it is here. The Middle East and South Asia are a wasteland after the Russians and us threw ten thousand nuclear missiles at them. I think the only continent that wasn’t completely obliterated is Antarctica.”

“Damn.”  Dad replied. 

“There’s probably around a hundred million or so people left on the planet. Sounds like a lot, but half of those are going to die this first year. We were working out the numbers, my crew at the lab and I, and we figured within five years there may be less than ten million people left.”

“Why is this happening, Dad?” Tasha managed to ask. She’s sobbing so hard she’s having a hard time breathing.

“I don’t know.” He rubbed her back. “Someone made a comment that got someone else mad, then they escalated it, then it gets escalated some more. Next thing you know we’re close to extinction.”

“We need to get inside.” I said.

They headed in, I went to Tasha’s car to get Amber and David. He had come over to sit with Amber while we were all chatting. We headed inside, where everyone was eating cookies and laughing.

It was nice to sit and listen to them talk. Tasha telling her Mom and Dad about all the stuff we’ve been through, them telling her about the horrific scenes they’ve seen.

“Becca has just been awesome.” Tasha told them. “She has kept us all safe.”

“Well, we’re very grateful, Rebecca.” Mrs. Johnson said. “We’ll take it from here.”

“It’s not safe here.” I told them. “We really shouldn’t stay here for long. We were heading south.”

“We wish you the best of luck.” Mr. Johnson said. “I think you’re all going to do just fine. Maybe one day we’ll meet up with you again.”

“We’re going with them.” Tasha said to him.

“No, Natasha, we have other plans.”

“What? No, Dad,”

“We’re expected in Wyoming. There’s a base in Cheyenne, we’ll be safe.”

“That’s great!” Natasha said. “It’ll be a little colder, but you’ll all be safe, Rebecca.” she said.

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Johnson said. “They aren’t going to be allowed in. There’s a limited space. The only reason we’re getting in is because they need a biologist.”

“But...” Tasha’s face fell into a full face frown. “I can’t go without Becca.”

“I’m sorry, they just won’t allow it.”

“But Dad,”

“They aren’t my rules.”

“Well then we shouldn’t go!”

“We have to. There are a million things that could come up, and I need to be there to help sort them out. We’re talking the survival of the human race, Natasha.”

“But...” She stared over at me, her eyes raining tears. “Can we just take Becca?”

“I’m afraid not.”

They’re taking her away from me. I feel like I could just die. But at least she’ll be safe. At least I know she’ll be safe. And maybe I can get my family to a safe place in the south. And then I can just shoot myself, because I don’t know if I can live without Tasha.

“Becca?” Tasha whispered.

I got up and moved over next to her. She put her arms around me and we cried. It felt really awkward, because everyone was watching us. I pulled back from her.

“You’ll be safe.” I told her.

“I can’t go without you.” she whispered. She turned to her parents. “I love her. She has to come along or I won’t go.”

“Natasha, it’s not really open for discussion.” her father said.

“You don’t understand, I
love
her.”
 

“I’m sure they’ll be safe, wherever they go, Natasha.”

“
No
!” She slammed her fist down. “No. I’m in love with her. We’re together. As in sleeping together together. I proposed to her, we’re going to be married.”
 

“Don’t be ridiculous.” her mother said, laughing.

“I won’t go without her.”

“You don’t have an option.” her father told her.

“Tasha,” I said. I grabbed her face and turned it toward me. “You have to go with them.”

“What? No, Becca,”

“I love you.” I gave her a quick kiss. “You’ll be safe with them. Forever. I can’t keep you safe. Not like they can.”

“I don’t want to go.”

“You’re just confused, Natasha.” her mother said. “Understandable. This has been a traumatic experience. But you will see when we get there. There will be lots of boys. Even some of the soldiers aren’t much older than you.”

“I don’t care!” She shouted. “I’m not going.”

She really loves me. Clearly. Not that I doubted that. She told everyone we’re sleeping together. But she needs to go. It’s more important that she live. And over time she’ll forget about me. She’ll fall in love with some soldier or the child of one of the other scientists. She’ll be okay without me.

“I love you so much, Tasha.” I told her. “I want you to survive.”

“Becca,”

“You should go with them.”

“I can’t.” she squeaked.

“You don’t have a choice.” her father told her.

“See, you don’t have a choice.” I said. It hurt so much to even say it.

There wasn’t much else to say. I locked down my emotions and tried hard to not show anything for the next hour. No matter how Tasha cried and sobbed and begged, I held it together.

She gave me her car. And when we pulled away from the curb, me driving her car with Amber and David riding with me, I tried very hard to think only about how to protect my family. Dad, Mom, Bridget. Except I guess Amber and David are my family, too, now. It’s my fault, I made them come along. So I guess I sort of adopted them. I’m sure Amber would be thrilled by that idea.

I think I made it ten miles before I had to pull to the side of the road. I leaned my head against the steering wheel and cried. Dad honked from behind us. Amber ran her hand down my back, trying to comfort me. She found some tissues in the glove box and held them out to me. 

“I’m really sorry, Becca.” she whispered. “I know how much you love her.”

“This can’t be happening.” I said.

“We gonna sit here all night?” David asked. “It can’t be all that safe.”

“David, shut up.” Amber told him. “We’re going to sit here as long as it takes.”

There was a knock on the window. I glanced up. Bridget. She motioned for me to roll the window down. I wiped at my eyes and rolled it down.

“Dad wants to know what the plan is.”

“I don’t know anymore.”

“We can’t just sit here, Becca.”

“Don’t you think I know that?!” I shouted.

“We’re going on as planned.” Amber told her. “She just needs a little while. Go back to your car, Bridget.”

“I’m really sorry, sis.” Bridget said. “Natasha is like a sister to me. Did she really propose to you?”

“Now’s not the best time for this.” Amber told her.

“Right. Sorry, Becca.”

I knew I had to pull myself together. There’s too many people relying on me. I leaned back and wiped my eyes, then put the car in gear and pulled away. Life sucks.

Monday, May 16
^th
 

We stopped on the edge of town. There were bodies. A
lot
of bodies. Thousands. Many of
 

them are piled right in the center of the highway. It looks like a crowd came running out of town and someone with a lot of firepower just mowed wave after wave of them down.