Rabid (14 page)

With all that had happened over the last twenty-four hours, Taylor thought it was odd that they had so little to talk about.  He couldn’t help but feel that everything he said was
forced
; that he was creating noise if only to break the silence.  And that made him feel self-conscious.  He scoffed at the feeling. 
Let it go,
he thought.

For the next thirty miles the highway was remarkably free of obstruction.  They encountered two abandoned vehicles, both of which had been courteously parked on the shoulder of the road, almost bumper to bumper. 

He caught himself taking abnormal breaths; quick shallow ones that weren’t at all satisfying to his lungs.  He noticed he started breathing that way whenever he got to thinking about whatever disease had affected all the people they had encountered.  It was mostly due to Tina suggesting that whatever it was might be airborne that brought on the brief fits.  He would think about how those same particles could be hovering in the air all around them now, and almost immediately his pattern of breathing would change.  As though somehow, if he was careful and didn’t pull air too deep into his lungs, he would be okay.

Carl saw him in the middle of one of his shallow-breathing sessions and said, “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.”

“You look like you can’t catch your breath.”  Carl let their speed drop as he watched Taylor with a concerned look.

“Keep going.  I’m fine,” Taylor said.  “I can breathe fine.”

“That’s not what it looks like.  Your asthma?”

“Yeah, but nothing serious.  It’ll only last for another minute or two.”  He sucked in a long breath to prove it.  He lied because it was less humiliating than telling the truth.  “See.”

“All right.  If you say so.  But let me know if you need me to stop.  It’s pretty isolated out here.  I’m starting to get the feeling that all those things have cleared out.  All traveled east on their hippie parade or whatever you want to call it.”  What he didn’t say was that he
hoped
he wouldn’t need to stop.  Rabid things or not, Angie was the focus of his mind.  The uncertainty was eating him up inside.  For some reason his mind had the most difficulty envisioning a scenario in which she was safe and sound, Angie and his mom and his dad all camped out around a fire somewhere in the mountains.  Instead, his mind insisted on showing him all the negative possibilities. 

Taylor said, “We’re almost there.  Only a few more miles.  I’m nervous again, you know that?   I’m almost starting to think it would be better not to know one way or another.”

“I
need
to know,” Carl said.

Tina thought about her father and said, “I think it would be better to know.  When you know you can deal with it either way.  Not knowing, it kind of stays with you and you’re always wondering.  I keep thinking of my dad.”

It’s time to tell her,
Taylor thought. 
Maybe not right this second, but as soon as possible.  Otherwise that guilt could eat at you forever.

He was determined to tell her.  It was a promise to himself.  And he would do it…soon.  It all had to do with timing.

Tina could already see the forest up ahead.  She could also see the huge rock formations and could see why someone might mistake them for mountains.  She had a minor fear of heights.

Carl pointed.  “That’s what we call the mountains.”

“I think she’s smart enough to figure that out on her own,” Taylor said.

“Right.  Well, they aren’t much, but it’s what’s available.  A lot of people do their rockclimbing here.”

Carl turned onto the first path available; a narrow dirt road barely wide enough to support two-way traffic.  Carl drove slowly because of the road’s state of disrepair.  “The roads are shit,” he said.  “They have been for as long as we’ve been coming here.  Four-wheel drive is practically a necessity.”

“Will we make it in this?”  Tina asked.

“Yeah.  We can make it.  I don’t know if it rained out here last night, the ground looks pretty dry.  That’s a good thing.  Otherwise we’d probably get stuck.  I’ll take it slow and we should be okay.”

Tina took in her surroundings.  It would have been a beautiful place had the circumstances been different.  Her mind was a full plate, and it was difficult to appreciate the beauty around her.  She was too expectant of those rabid things to come running out from the trees. 

“Where to start,” Taylor said.

“If Dad brought the boat, the lake is the best place to start.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Carl said, “That’s about two miles in.  We can drive most of the way.  When we get close it might be easier to walk the rest.  Usually the ground gets muddier the closer you get to the lake.  Just the way it is, so we don’t want to chance getting bogged down.  Search on foot.  We can come back for the stuff in the car.”

The dirt road curved to the left.  Tina felt like they were making a lazy circle and that they would end up in the same place they had started, but the road eventually curved to the right and then straightened.  The trees seemed to be closing in on them.

The giant rocks spiked up all around them.  They reached the top of a hill and Carl pulled as far over to the right side of the road as he could without hitting a tree.

“This ends the driving portion of the tour.  From this point on, we proceed by foot,” Carl said.  He killed the engine and stepped out of the car.  The others joined him.

“Do we need to take anything with us?” Tina asked.

“It’s about a mile to the lake.  Maybe a little less.”  He picked up the shotgun and then walked around to the trunk.  He opened one of the packs and placed several bottles of water into it.  “Besides the guns, it would probably be good if we each take some water.”

“You’re starting to get good at this,” Taylor said.  “Acting like a grown-up.”

Carl looked at his brother, smiled, and said, “Shut up.”
Taylor slid the gun into the waistband of his jeans, feeling the cold metal of the Glock resting at the small of his back.  He took the Ruger, slinging it over his shoulder, and grabbed one of the backpacks, filling it with water to the point that it was heavy, but still comfortable enough to carry.  He handed Tina the other rifle.

“What?  That’s all you’re giving me to carry?”

“You’re complaining?”

“If you’re taking it easy on me because I’m a girl then, yeah, I guess I am complaining.”

“Look.  It’s not a long walk.  Between Carl and me, we’ve got plenty of water for such a short trip.  On the other hand, if one of us gets tired, you can carry one of the packs for a while.”

Tina closed the trunk, noticing the smirk on Taylor’s face.  “You’re full of shit,” she said.

Taylor turned to Carl.  “Why does everybody keep saying that?”

“Because you are.”

“Right.  Anyway, if you’re still itching to carry something more, I’ll hand over my pack at the halfway point.  Fair enough?”
Taylor stopped and handed her the car keys.  “There.  You can carry those.  What they lack in weight they make up for in importance.  That makes it even.”

“You’re a dick,” she said, taking the keys anyway, and following them as they began the walk.

You don’t know the half of it,
Taylor thought.

Tina glanced back at the Escort every so often.  It looked lonely sitting there along the side of the road; like an abandoned puppy.  It was also the first time she could readily admit that it had been a dependable vehicle and served her well over the last three years.  While unappealing to the eye, the fact that it had gotten them here was an endearing quality.  As they crested a hill she looked back once more before they descended the hill and the Ford vanished out of sight.  Instinctively, she thought it would be the last time she would see it.  She couldn’t explain why.

They traveled at a diagonal angle from the road.  “It’s faster,” Carl said.  “The road narrows some more and then curves around in a half-circle.  Without it being wet, you can usually make it with four-wheel drive.  This is kind of a shortcut because we can cut across instead of following the road all the way around.”

It was a leisurely hike.  Almost recreational.  At the halfway point, Taylor removed the pack and offered it to her.  “This is halfway.  You still interested in lugging this thing around?”

Tina, not wanting to contradict herself, took the pack and clumsily shouldered it.  Taylor adjusted the straps so that it rested snugly against her back. 

“Okay?”

She nodded.

“Good enough.”

“It’s pretty up here,” Tina said.

“Yeah,” Taylor said.  “I’m surprised you haven’t been here before.”

“I may have been.  I just don’t remember coming here.  I think I’m more of a city girl.  Is that possible?  To be a city girl without ever having really lived in a big city?”

“I guess so.  I figured with you studying to be a vet that you would be more a country gal.  You know, live on a farm with horses.”

She shook her head.  “Nope.  Not for me.  I do like horses, though.”

Carl had been right.  The ground became damp, and as they progressed Tina could feel her shoes sinking into the mud. 
If those things tried coming after us now it would be hard to outrun them,
she thought.

They climbed a steep hill.  When they reached the top, Tina stopped, awed by the view.  Ahead of them, she saw the lake.  It wasn’t large by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a thing of startling beauty.  The water was dark and still.  The land surrounding it was decorated with large moss-covered rocks and trees
.  It’s beautiful,
she thought.

A boat sat in the center of the lake.

Even from this distance, they could tell that it was empty.

“That’s Dad’s boat all right,” Carl said.  “But where are they?  You don’t leave a boat sitting in the middle of a lake.  The only way out would be to swim to shore.  You think those things attacked them and they had to swim?”

“No.  I don’t think so.  Whatever happened, I don’t think they were attacked.  At least not while they were in the water.  Those things wouldn’t step foot in the water.  Right now, I’d say that boat is probably one of the safest places in the world.”

From most of what they had seen, Taylor thought it was sound logic, but he remembered how the rabid things hadn’t seemed to be bothered by the rain.  He hadn’t really thought about that, but it occurred to him now, making him a little uneasy.

“Then what?”

Taylor continued forward without saying anything.  They were careful coming down the hill.  The steepness and muddy terrain made it a precarious descent.  When he reached the bottom, Taylor removed the Glock from his waistband with every intention of using it should the need arise.

Taylor guessed it was something like fifty yards from shore to the center of the lake where the boat sat.  The boat rocked gently on the water. 

“Should we swim for it?”

“Maybe later.”

“What if they left a note for us?” Carl said.

“Let’s have a look around first.”

He followed the edge of the lake.  On the opposite side, he found the remains of a campfire; a pile of twigs and broken branches charred into a black pile of ash.  Several twigs surrounded the campfire.  One end of each of the twigs had been sharpened to a point.  He said, “They camped here.  They used those twigs to eat.  Hot dogs or marshmallows would be my guess.”

Taylor picked up one of the twigs and examined it.  Carl stood behind him and said, “Abandoned?  Why would Dad leave the boat in the middle of the lake?”