Human Extinction Level Loss (Book 1): Nicole's Odyssey (15 page)

“It’ll be all right.  He’s just scared.  After everyone-” 

This time Nicole cut off his words.  “This is why I didn’t want to take on riders, you know?  I could be in Colorado by now if it wasn’t for…” 

Nicole’s words trailed off and she rested her head on the steering wheel.  Sam looked at her, hurt, before turning.  He climbed up and sat on the trunk.  He took a deep breath and tried to relax.  He thought they were done for sure out there.  When he saw Paul waving them in, it was like a couple of miracles, one, that there were other survivors, and two, that they just might survive the latest mess they had gotten into.  Regardless of how everyone felt right now, he was sure it could only be a good thing that there were other survivors, and they had helped them.  The clamoring Dead on the other side of the Polycarbonate doors tried to make a case for the contrary.

Walt sat in the stairwell of his bus and looked at everyone.  Each had retreated to their own space.  He noticed how each had their head down and was seemingly lost in thoughts of doom.  Looking over at Paul, Walt’s eyes wandered over to the line of fruit trees.  He hauled himself up and made his way over to Paul. 

Paul saw Walt approach and buried himself in his book.  Walt shuffled his feet nervously and looked over at the fruit trees.  Several seconds of silence passed before Walt spoke. 

“Hey, man… listen, I know we crashed your party and we’re real sorry about that, you know.  Times being what they are, you find a place to hold up, that can be a precious thing,” Walt said. 

Paul did not look up from his book.  Walt continued to stare at the trees. 

“Me, I got a place on an island, man.  I only came over to the mainland to see the sites,” he continued. 

Paul snorted.  “Your timing was perfect,” Paul said. 

Walt rubbed his chin and smiled.  “Yeah, people keep telling me that,” Walt said. 

Paul looked up at Walt and could not hide a smile.  Walt smiled down at him and Paul looked away. 

“Where’s your island?” Paul asked, almost begrudgingly. 

“It’s in the Hawaiian chain.  It’s a little one but real nice, you know.  I noticed your trees, man.  They look awesome.  On my island, I have trees too.  Fruit, man.  It’s nature’s candy,” Walt said, chuckling. 

Paul looked at the trees.  “The stuff across the street isn’t going to last forever, so I thought I better do something,” Paul said. 

Walt looked down at the book Paul was reading.  “That book there, you know it’s not really for the kind of trees you got, man,” he said. 

Paul tried to hide his insecurity over his lack of knowledge about the trees. 

“Yeah, I know that, but it’s not exactly like the Net is still up is it?  The government said they were shutting down lines of communication when martial law was declared.  Internet, land lines, even the satellite feeds in the broadcast booths went down.  All they showed was the same stupid public service announcement.  Stay in your homes, don’t panic.  Yeah, right.  Trouble is, there was no one left to turn it all back on again,” Paul said. 

Walt smiled at him.  “Well, that’s okay man, cause I love my fruit, learned a lot about them.  Those trees are gonna need pruning.  You don’t do it right you could kill the whole branch, man,” Walt said. 

Paul’s eyes sunk and Walt noticed. 

“I could show you how to do it, you know?  I really love my fruit trees, Man,” Walt said. 

Paul looked at Walt, interest battled caution on his face and interest won. 

“Yeah, alright, I mean… yeah, okay,” Paul said. 

Walt smiled.  “Alright, man!” he said as he watched Paul haul himself out of his chair. 

“You sure say ‘man’ a lot,” Paul said. 

“Yeah, people keep telling me that a lot, too… man,” Walt smiled a big smile at Paul.

Before Paul could catch himself he smiled back at Walt.  The two went over to the trees. 

“My name’s Walt,” he said, introducing himself. 

“Paul.” Paul said.  “Welcome to Liberty Bell Stadium.”

Billy sat against the front tire of the bus hugging his knees to his chest.  He thought the girl on skates was pretty, but he didn’t know what to do about it.  The decision was taken out of his hands as Jordan skated up, doing a perfect pirouette before stopping in front of him. 

“Hi, I’m Jordan, like to skate?” she said. 

Billy looked everywhere but at her face.  He was fear stricken.  He was sure she just talked to him, but he did not know what he should do about that either. 

“Hellooo… I said, do you like to skate?” Jordan pressed. 

Billy was left with no choice but to face his fear and talk to her.  “I… I don’t know… never done it before,” he stammered. 

Jordan twirled again, watching her feet.  “That’s okay.  I can show you.  I have another pair of skates over there.  I like to change so I always bring more than one pair with me.  Those are pink though, so you’ll just have to make do,” she said. 

Billy kept looking away.  Jordan turned and began to skate away.  When she noticed Billy was not following her, she stopped with her hands on her hips. 

“Well come on, pink ain’t nothing but a color,” she said. 

Billy would have rather taken his chances outside with the zombie horde than interact with this girl, but he thought she was so pretty.  He thought maybe if he didn’t say anything, she wouldn’t think he was stupid right away.  Hoping the risk might be worth the reward, Billy got up and followed after Jordan.

Sam rested his feet on the back bumper and reclined against the back window.  He knew that Nicole was upset and that is why she said the things she did.  It didn’t matter to him.  He was alive and Nicole was the reason.  He knew enough to know that he was not falling in love with her because of that, but he also knew he owed her his life.  Regardless of what happened, he was not going to leave her.  He vowed to himself to do whatever he could, to make sure she got to Colorado.  Comforted by this firm resolution, Sam drifted off to sleep.

In the front seat of the GTO, Nicole fumed.  She watched Walt talking to Paul.  She looked over and saw Billy, looking like he wanted to crawl under a rock as he stood all too unsteadily on his feet in pink roller skates, receiving instructions from Jordan.  She glanced back and saw Sam resting on the trunk.  She shook her head and stared off into the distance.  She wondered what was going on in Colorado.  She needed to get there, that was her only goal, not gathering around her a bunch of misfits who looked like they could not take care of themselves and were only slowing her down.  If she had been by herself she could’ve jumped in the GTO and sped away, could’ve left the horde in her dust.  She had had to wait for Walt to get moving and that wait had cost her precious seconds.  An opposing thought entered her mind.  If Walt had not called to her on the radio, she might be trapped in the All-Mart instead of here.  Then again, maybe not.  Maybe if she had been alone, with nobody standing outside playing the human slim-jim on top the bus, the horde would have moved on by.  The debate tired her and she rubbed her face.  Her head fell back against the head rest.  Inactivity was her enemy.  What did her dad always say? 

“
What’s the most dangerous thing in the world?  A bored Infantryman.
” 

It was why he always made them do something, even when his troops were sitting on the deck with their gear.  It was a lesson Steven Bennett said he learned the hard way.  He was a young LT on an incursion into enemy territory.  They had cleared their zone and were resting up.  A couple of young recruits were off by themselves and were messing with a rocket propelled grenade, when they blew themselves up.  They were the only casualties his unit suffered on that operation.  From then on, even down time was filled with purposeful activity.  Besides, her father said, an idle mind gives you time to feel bad about where you are, and there was no value on a mission in feeling bad.  Nicole had gotten to feeling bad.  She raised her head and climbed out of the car.  She grabbed her gun and went around to the back. 

Sam snoozed, lightly snoring. 

“Come on, Sam.  You need to learn how to field strip and clean your rifle,” she said. 

Sam woke up and looked around.  He grabbed his rifle, hauled himself off the trunk and followed Nicole. 

☣

Nicole and Sam finished reassembling their rifles and were wiping them down when Walt approached. 

“Hey, guys.  Paul says if we’re hungry he can show us the cafeteria.  Says he’s got a whole spread in there, man,” Walt said. 

Sam stood up and looked at Nicole.  Nicole smirked at him. 

“You don’t need my permission, Sam.  If you’re hungry, just go,” she said. 

Sam was about to say something, but figured it would not be all that helpful.  He turned and followed Walt over to Paul.  Nicole slung her rifle and watched them a moment before falling in behind them.

Paul looked for his daughter.  She was slow skating next to Billy, who was a little more sure on his feet but nowhere near the point of steady forward motion.  Paul approached. 

“Put your skates up, Jordan.  It’s time to eat,” he said. 

Jordan and Billy went over and sat on a bench by the sidelines and exchanged their skates for their shoes.  Paul eyed Billy with suspicion and not altogether hidden hostility.  When Jordan rose, Paul took her hand and led her away, whispering to her. 

“I don’t want you hanging out with that boy, we don’t know anything about him or his group.” 

Jordan retorted, “We were just skating, Dad.” 

Paul hurried her away, casting a long glare back at Billy, who sat on the bench looking down.

Paul and Jordan led the group down the home team entrance at the fifty yard line and into a wide hallway that encircled the interior of the stadium below field level. 

“Before you showed up, we went to the All-Mart twice a week to get groceries.  We don’t get much, just enough to last us.  There’s plenty of other stuff, though, if you like stadium food,” he said. 

As they continued down the wide subterranean hall, Nicole came alongside Paul. 

“What about those things outside, can they get in?” she asked. 

Paul did not look at her immediately and gave all appearances of a man biting his tongue. 

“No, they can’t get in.  I don’t know how much you know about their behavior, but I watched them long enough to know that their mindless.  They don’t think things out.  They followed you in here and they will just keep banging away at the polycarbonate until the end of time or something else distracts them.  There’s no way they can get through those doors and the only other exit is the players and staff  parking entrance which are locked tight,” Paul said. 

Nicole kept pace with Paul.  “Okay, well, if they can’t get in, is there any way we can get out?” she asked. 

Paul stopped abruptly and turned on her.  “Look, I had those things all focused on one thing and moving in one direction.  It took me a long time and cost me my best friend!  You people show up and give them something new to think about and lead them right to my door.  Now they are ten deep all around us with nothing else to do, so… no you can’t get out,” Paul said. 

Paul looked at Nicole then looked to the rest of her group. He sighed a deep sigh.  He did not mean to sound so harsh, but those were the facts and he lacked the energy or will to smooth things over. 

“If you’ll follow me, I can show you where you all can get something to eat,” he said, turning back down the corridor. 

He led them past the team training room to a set of wide double doors, over which was a sign indicating the cafeteria.  Paul pushed open the doors, revealing several rows of long tables.  In the back was a large stainless steel kitchen with several massive refrigerators and freezers. 

“The power still works so you’ll be able to pretty much cook what you want.  We passed the training room.  In there are showers and lockers to put any stuff you want,” Paul said. 

The group filed in and looked like kids in a candy store.  Billy, Sam, and Walt were all smiles as they rushed into the kitchen area.  Nicole stood looking around, taking it all in.  She glanced at Paul, who looked like he was not happy but was going to try to make the best of it. 

“Look, I know you’re not happy to see us, but… thanks…” Nicole said. 

Paul smiled uncomfortably at her then looked to Jordan, who was in the kitchen giving a grand tour. 

“Jordan!  Let’s give these people some time to eat and get cleaned up, okay?” Paul said. 

Jordan sighed and her shoulders slumped as she traipsed over to her father.  Paul took her hand and led her out. 

“We usually watch a movie on the jumbo tron at night… you guys are welcome to join us…” Paul said before exiting, closing the door behind him. 

Nicole watched Sam, Billy, and Walt rummage through stacks of stadium food in anticipation of full stomachs before slowly making her way over.

☣

With full stomachs and hot showers, everyone was feeling better.  When Nicole came out of the training room she found Walt, Sam, and Billy standing there. 

“What are you all doing,” she asked as she slung her rifle back over her shoulder. 

She noticed the others did not have their guns, and was about to ask why they didn’t, when Walt interrupted her. 

“Waiting for you, man.  You going to the movie with us?” he asked. 

Nicole was in no mood for a movie, she had meant to talk to Paul about how to either get the Dead away from the building or formulate a plan to get out.  As she looked at the three her resolve faltered.  They all stared at her with pleading and expectant eyes, as if to say, “
yeah, I know we’re screwed, but tonight can we just forget that for a minute
.”  Nicole rolled her eyes, “fine,” she said. 

Sam, Walt, and Billy all seemed to smile at the same time as they turned to make their way to the field entrance ramp. 

When they came up on the field, Paul was talking to Jordan and it looked like they were arguing.  They stopped as the four approached.

“Let’s ask them,” Jordan said and turned to Nicole.  “Daddy wants to watch his favorite movie, AGAIN, but I want to watch one of mine.  Which one do you guys want to watch,” Jordan asked holding out two DVDs.