This Would Be Paradise (Book 2) (2 page)

Chloe and I got back into the Mazda and drove down the ramp. I spotted a truck at the bottom of the exit and we waited for them to get moving. Roy was saying something to the other two, but it looked like Tim kept interrupting him. They eventually nodded and broke apart. Karla and Tim headed up the ramp, back to their posts, while Roy got into the truck. He peeled out, and I set after him.

“Do you think these are good guys?” Chloe asked.

I hated that we’d resorted to classifying people as good guys or bad guys.

“I think they’re just scared, that’s all, and that’s why they have all this security in place,” I said, choosing my words carefully.

She pointed to the truck we were following. “That guy looked kinda familiar.”

I thought about it. “When would you have seen him?”

She shrugged. “Dunno, but he does.”

Maybe we had seen him at the school, but I didn’t remember much of that chaotic day, other than us fighting to escape with our lives. He led us down the main road for about five minutes, then he took a right. We followed the truck. The streets had no one living, or otherwise, on them. Leaves and trash lined the gutters, like colorful lane bumpers in a bowling alley. The houses we passed weren’t fancy, reflecting more of a middle to lower class lifestyle.

“Do you think there’ll be lots of people? Do you think maybe Ethan is there?” Chloe asked, practically bouncing in her seat.

“I have no idea. I guess we’ll find out.”

The truck came to a stop in front of an aged low-rise apartment. I pulled up behind him, and Roy hopped out. He headed toward us, so I turned the engine off and exited.

He motioned to the apartment complex. “This is what we’re protecting.”

Curtains were drawn back and faces peered out at us from various windows.

“How many people are staying here?”

“About thirty. We’ve had all sorts of numbers, as much as seventy once, but people move on and such.”

The “and such” part caught my attention.

“Why the heavy security screening?” I decided to just get it over with. We could easily leave while we were still outside.

Roy sighed. “You really want me to explain right here?”

“I’m sure as hell not stepping foot inside without some sort of explanation. I got a kid I have to look out for.”

“I have a daughter inside.” He looked at the building, taking a few seconds. “No doubt you’ve seen those markings on the highway?”

He didn’t need to be specific; I knew exactly what markings he was talking about. “Yeah.”

“We think they belong to this gang or group or whatever they are, and they’ve been causing all sorts of problems. You see those bullet holes?”

I squinted at the building. Sure enough, black dots lined the outside in various places. I also noticed the few boarded up windows and some side paneling hanging on for dear life.

“They attacked you?” I asked. The last thing I needed was to get in the middle of a turf war.

“Yes, and we lost innocent people. They
took
some people, just one or two, but it was … awful.” Roy gulped. “All I’ve got left is my daughter, and I won’t let something like that happen again. After the incident, we set up watches at the off-ramp and on the roof of the building. They keep an eye out for intruders and the rest of the able bodies go on small scavenging trips for supplies.”

“How do you know they belong to that group?” I probed.

“During the fight, one of the men who came inside the apartment and kidnapped our people dropped a pendant that looked like the spray-painted symbol, and they left a huge reminder of who did this.” Roy headed down the sidewalk.

I held my hand up to Chloe, signaling for her to remain in the car. Roy brought me around to the side of the brown building. A large red hand, almost six feet tall with an eye in the center, marred the side like a grotesque calling card, as if saying, “We’ve been here.”

“Shit,” I murmured.

“My thoughts exactly.”

“Why not move somewhere else?”

“We thought of that, but they’d just do this all over again. At least this way, maybe they got what they came for?” Roy suggested. “We haven’t seen them since.

“So, Roy, tell me why we should stay here versus finding a place of our own in this city?”

We started heading back towards the direction we had come from. “I noticed Chloe has a bandaged arm. We have a nurse here who could take a look at her injury. And you seem to have some damage yourself.”

I mulled it over. Chloe seemed fine; I’d like to think I’d done a good enough job treating her arm. The execution might have been poor, but she was alive and well. Although the chance at getting a skilled practitioner’s opinion on her condition—not to mention my own—was too good to pass up.

“Okay, but we only need to stay for one night. We’re heading to New Orleans tomorrow.”

“I wouldn’t go there if I were you,” Roy said. “There’s nothing left. The sick ones own it.”

“Our people might be waiting there for us. We got separated over a week ago.”.

“What are their names? Maybe we have them inside.”

“Ethan, John, Zoe, and Darren,” I said. “A couple of them have really thick southern accents.”

His face remained passive until he asked, “Wait, were you in the city months ago, trying to escape?”

“Yeah.” His question was a fair enough guess. Most people in the area would have started out in the cities.

“When my family and I were heading into the shelter, we ran into a guy named Ethan. He had a big truck and a southern accent. Nice guy. Ethan offered to let us come with him, but we decided to continue to the Superdome. We should have taken him up on his offer, because we couldn’t even get close to the dome in all the chaos. We ended up backtracking and stumbling upon the apartments here.”

Everything clicked into place. This was the guy we’d had to squeeze around on the one-way. Ethan had tried to talk him out of going into the city. Chloe had been right about Roy looking familiar.

“Small world. That was Ethan.”

Roy smiled. “Small world indeed.”

When we’d seen him all those months ago, he’d been with his wife and two daughters, yet he only mentioned having one daughter. I didn’t think it was appropriate to ask about that; the answer wouldn’t paint a pretty picture.

“That’s his sister in the car.” I hefted my thumb at the Mazda that was now back within sight. Chloe was staring intently out the windshield at us.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have any of them inside,” he said.

“I didn’t think it would be that easy anyway,” I said, still a little disappointed.

“Now do you trust me enough to come inside?”

“Depends. Can I have my gun back?”

He looked as though he were debating it. “All right, but you can’t carry it on you when you’re inside. You’ll need to leave it in your bag.”

“Fine.”

After he handed me my handgun, I returned to the car and got inside. I pulled into the parking lot behind the building so people couldn’t easily spot our vehicle. Chloe and I grabbed our backpacks, each containing some supplies, and headed for the building. As much as I didn’t like the idea, I obeyed and put the handgun in my backpack. An armed doorman greeted us at the entrance, and when he saw Roy, he opened the doors. The lobby smelled of cheap air fresheners. Multi-colored pine trees had been placed all over like tacky Christmas decorations.

We introduced ourselves to the doorman, José, and kept moving. Roy led us down the hallway to a large common area. People were scattered all over the place. A couple of kids were sprawled on the floor, playing a board game. Adults either had books in their hands or were busy with activities like knitting. The place seemed rather cozy. I hadn’t seen this many people in one place since the school.

“Dad!” A little girl wearing clothes a size too big ran to Roy and threw herself at him. She was a shade lighter than Roy and super cute. She could have been on the Disney Channel.

He hugged her back. “Hey, girly.”

When she unlatched from him, she turned to me, her brown eyes taking me in. “What happened to you?”

Clearly she was talking about the bruises around my neck.

“Fell down some stairs.”

Roy narrowed his eyes, not buying my story either.

“Elaine can look at it if you want?” the little girl suggested, half hidden behind her father.

“We can take you guys to her, right, Amanda?” Roy said, smiling down at his daughter.

Amanda led us from the room of curious eyes and across the hallway. She knocked on one of the wood grain doors.

A stern voice rang out from behind the door, “Come in.”

The door opened to reveal a makeshift doctor’s office. An ambulance stretcher sat against one wall and a cabinet with meager supplies occupied the other.

“Yes, Amanda?” asked the lady in green scrubs, who I assumed was Elaine.

She had her red hair up in a tight bun and her glasses perched on her nose.

“These people need an examination,” Amanda mumbled.

The nurse looked pointedly at Roy for confirmation. I shuffled my feet, feeling like a burden.

“The little one can have a seat.” Elaine gestured to the stretcher.

Chloe walked over and climbed on. Elaine got up from her desk and waved the others out.

“We’ll be right outside if you need anything,” Roy said. Whether to me or the nurse, I wasn’t sure.

“What happened?” she asked me accusingly.

“Cut her arm open on a fence. I had to … glue it.”

“Hmm,” was all she said as she examined Chloe’s arm.

I gritted my teeth. I could already tell we wouldn’t get along. Her attitude made me feel three feet tall.

“Clearly you aren’t trained in first aid, but it did the job, and the cut is healing well enough,” she deduced. “I’m just going to add some more antiseptic and rewrap it.”

When she was done, Chloe climbed back down the stretcher and walked over to me.

“Roy!” Elaine bellowed, and he opened the door almost instantly. “Please take the little miss to get some food.”

“Come on, Chloe. You can get some supper with Amanda and me.” Roy waved at her to come.

She looked up at me.

“Go get some food. I’ll be in here if you need anything.”

Dragging her feet, she walked to Roy and followed him down the hall, back to the common area.

“Now, tell me what happened to your neck.” Elaine crossed her arms and leaned against the stretcher.

I had to think about how to word this. How did you explain that a psycho tried to kill you but you killed him first?

Elaine looked at me expectantly, not unlike a grade school teacher who’d asked if I’d been passing notes in class.

“I had a run-in with a rather unscrupulous character,” I said, remaining purposely vague. She didn’t need to know my business.

She regarded me for a few seconds as if she were waiting to see if her silence would prompt me into revealing more. When I didn’t, she pushed off the stretcher. “Well, have a seat then.”

I took Chloe’s vacated seat. She began prodding my neck in random spots. I didn’t give her the satisfaction of wincing at the pain. She held her hands at the front of my neck.

“Swallow,” she instructed. It took me a moment, but I did as she said. “Does it hurt when you swallow or breathe?”

“Not anymore.”

“Any random pains?”

“Just from your poking,” I said with a little too much force.

She ignored my comment. “Difficulty turning your head?”

I shook my head for emphasis.

“I think you’ll be fine. There doesn’t appear to be any permanent damage. The bruising should be gone completely in a couple days.” She wiped off her hands on her pants.

I jumped down from the stretcher and reached for my backpack.

“I hope whoever did that to you got what they deserved.”

At her words, I froze for a second before picking up my backpack. It jingled with the extra antibiotics I’d stashed. We wouldn’t need that many, so I pulled out a bottle and placed it on her desk. She picked up the bottle and looked up at me.

“Consider it payment,” I said by way of answering her unspoken question.

“Thank you. These are getting harder to come by.” She placed the bottle among the other medication in her cabinet, like a found artifact.

I left the office and headed back toward the common area. The smell of tomato sauce wafted into the hallway. The people inside were all slurping away on spaghetti, but I couldn’t see the source, as the common room didn’t have a kitchen.

“Bailey!” Chloe waved at me from one of the plastic tables they’d propped up.

I walked over. Her lips were stained tomato red like a childish rendition of lipstick.

“Where’d you get the spaghetti from?” I asked, my stomach growling at the tangy smell.

“Apartment 1F,” Roy answered. “It’s just down the hall. Go help yourself.”

I put down my backpack next to Chloe and set off in search of hot food. I followed the apartment numbers until I hit 1F. A larger set man stood inside the apartment kitchen, serving up food to a line of people. When it was my turn, he passed me a plate with a smile.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You’re most certainly welcome, miss.” He winked at me, the corner of his eyes crinkling. He reminded me of a neighbor from back home and seemed friendly enough.

When I got back to the common area, Chloe had already eaten her entire serving. Guilt flared. I’d been too preoccupied with the drive that I forgot to check if she was hungry, and she didn’t say anything along the way.

“Want some more?” I waved a hand over my full plate.

“No, I’m stuffed.” She patted her stomach.

After I scarfed down my food, I noticed the looks we were getting from all over the room.

“Wanna play cards?” Amanda asked Chloe, clearly happy to have a new playmate.

“Sure. Go Fish?”

Amanda nodded at Chloe’s suggestion and produced a well-used deck. “We’re missing a few cards, so we’ll have to take those out.”

Once they started in, Roy turned to me, eyeing the bruises on my neck. “Stairs, eh?”

“Yep, they’re dangerous. Should come with a surgeon general’s warning.”

“What was the good nurse’s verdict?” He leaned in, his elbows resting on the scratched plastic surface of the table.

“Chloe’s arm is healing well and no permanent damage for me. Probably the best checkup I’ve ever had,” I answered. “By the way, you wouldn’t happen to call this place Hargrove, would you?”

Roy shook his head. “You heard the broadcasts too? No, we’re not them, but some have been trying unsuccessfully to find Hargrove. It’s like a needle in a haystack.”

I guess we’d have to keep looking for our oasis in the desert. Luck was
not
on our side. But a stomach full of hot food was a decent consolation prize.

“Well, not exactly. Chloe said she heard a broadcast with the others a while back. Apparently they liked to keep me out of the loop,” I muttered, hiding the bitterness from my voice.

“You’re not missing much. They don’t put them out a lot. They rely more on word of mouth from the few who have heard them. It’s just the usual babble about how Hargrove has protection, medical care, food, etcetera. I half expect the guy making the announcement to end with, ‘You are the resistance,’” Roy said.

I laughed. It had been a while since I’d heard a joke that wasn’t in my own head.

“The one thing that bugs me is that they never give directions. Like maybe they’re trying to avoid overpopulation?”

“That is weird,” I said.

The broadcasts sounded like those Disneyland commercials. All you saw was magic on TV, and then when you got there, you realized it was all two-hour wait times and guys in lice-infested costumes. You could call me a cynic, but it was true.

“Is that where you’re heading to?” The intense curiosity in his voice betrayed his aloof composure.

Maybe he wanted to find this place too. I had a hard time believing he would just pack up his daughter and leave this place, but I didn’t know enough about him to judge. I deliberated telling him about John’s gun store. We would need all the ammo and guns we could find, and if they wanted to come with us, that would cut our haul down considerably. But if they did come with us, we’d have extra bodies to watch our backs.

“Eventually, yes, Hargrove is the goal,” I admitted. “For now, we’re heading to a friend’s gun store.”

“What makes you think it won’t be picked clean?”

“Its location.”

“And where’s that?”

I assessed Roy and leaned over the table, matching his posture. “Look, you seem like a nice guy, but I don’t know you, so I feel like keeping that information to myself is probably best.”

He looked me in the eyes and then finally said, “I suppose you have just as many trust issues as we do.”

“
Trust
me, it’s a recent development.” He didn’t laugh at my bad joke.

A yawn escaped me and heaviness weighed my eyelids like hooks were pulling them down. People began lighting lanterns around the room as the sunlight outside started to fade.

“Come on, I’ll show you to a spare room,” Roy said, getting up from his chair.

I gathered my backpack and Chloe. We followed Roy up the three sets of stairs to the top floor and down the hall. The room was literally as deep into the building as we could go, and I had a feeling it was for tactical reasons rather than a lack of space. If we decided to leave during the night or do something worse, the creaky floor and stairs would give us away.

Roy opened the door and revealed a sparsely furnished apartment. A sofa bed, which was permanently left down, occupied the living room, and the rest of the furniture had been pushed off to the side. The kitchen table was propped up on its side, pressed against the bay window, leaving only the corners for light to seep through.

“It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a clean bed to sleep in. There’s a queen bed in the bedroom. The bathroom and kitchen don’t work. If you need to use the washroom, we hooked up a system in 1E downstairs.”

“Thanks.” I placed my backpack beside the sofa bed.

I noticed the mesh tote full of yarn and knitting needles on the floor beside the pullout couch. If they thought I’d spend my day making scarfs and itchy sweaters, they had another thing coming.

“Well, have a good night’s sleep, ladies. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And with that, Roy shut the door behind him.

I walked up to the door, flipped the deadbolt, and pulled the chain across, just to be on the safe side.

“Which bed are you takin’?” Chloe asked, rubbing her eyes.

“You take the bedroom. I’ll sleep out here.”

She muttered something and then shuffled into the bedroom. I quickly brushed my teeth in the bathroom sink, using bottled water to rinse. I collapsed on the bed, then laid my head down hoping to get a peaceful sleep.