Dark Inside (21 page)

“I’m thinking we should take the bikes,” she said. “They’re in good shape, Jack looked them over. We’ll be faster that way—but more in the open.”

“What happens if we find other normal people?” Nathan said. “I think you’re right. There’s got to be lots out there.”

“That’s why I want to pick up some handheld receivers. If we’re going to start searching the city, we need to keep in touch.”

“Agreed,” Joy said. “Let’s make a list of the important things
besides food. Less stinky blankets for one. I need a coat, too. And let’s not forget weapons. We need to arm ourselves.”

“We all need coats,” Nathan said. “This could get heavy. Are you sure we can manage with bikes? We could steal a car. Anyone know how to hot-wire?”

Colin snickered.

Aries ignored him. “Cars are loud. Might as well slap a Here I Am sticker on our foreheads. They’ll follow the sound. If we can make it in without them knowing, we’ll have more time to shop. I don’t want us getting trapped inside.”

“And we don’t want to drag them back here either,” Joy agreed. “So far they haven’t found us. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Me too,” Aries said.

“Okay,” Nathan said. “Bikes it is. Maybe we can get some of those large camping backpacks. That way we can take more stuff.”

Colin snickered again.

“Do you have something you’d like to say?” Aries asked.

“Nope,” Colin said, never taking his eyes off the magazine. “You’re doing just fine. Keep on planning. If you find any hot female survivors, send them my way. I could use a change of scenery.”

“Why are you even here?” Joy asked. “You’ve made it clear you don’t want to be a part of this. So why don’t you just take off? Go read somewhere else. I don’t want to look at you.”

Colin threw the magazine aside and jumped to his feet. “Wish granted,” he said before disappearing into the hallway.

“He’s horrible,” Joy whispered after he stormed off. “He complains about everything and everyone. Yesterday he screamed at me because the coffee’s gone. I don’t even drink coffee.”

“He’s having trouble adjusting,” Aries said. “I think he … misses Sara too.”

“If he’s so miserable he should just leave.”

“Where would he go?”

“Right now I don’t care.”

Aries didn’t either, but she kept her comments to herself.

Part of her wished that she’d never gone to the school. She should have ignored Daniel’s warnings and tried finding her parents. She might have reached them or ended up someplace completely different, with people she’d never met before. People who didn’t constantly remind her of everything she’d lost. She still couldn’t look at Colin and not see Sara. No, that wasn’t fair. Both Joy and Jack were good people; together they’d helped one another. She couldn’t have come this far without them.

She had to take the good with the bad. She’d put up with Colin because no one else would. She’d continue to defend him because they were a group and they had to stay a group in order to survive. If things got to the point where they started turning their backs on each other and kicking people onto the street, well, then they weren’t any better than the monsters.

“Let’s go take a look at the bikes,” Nathan said, trying his best to change the subject.

“Okay,” Joy said. “I get the blue one.”

Night came quickly.

Aries had a list. It was tucked away in her jeans pocket. Nathan and Joy each had one too. They discussed it for hours, trying to reduce the necessary items to the bare essentials. No point in carrying what they didn’t absolutely need. If they pulled this off successfully, then they’d try again. Her job was
to find clothing and sleeping bags. Nathan and Joy were on food duty.

The store was roughly eighteen blocks away. One of those big all-in-one, shop-till-you-drop, everything-under-one-gigantic-roof places. They weren’t even sure they’d be able to get inside. They didn’t know who might be there waiting or if it was still standing. The earthquake destroyed so much, and lately there’d been lots of fires. The city was covered in a smoky haze. So many what-ifs. But they had to try.

They waited behind the locked door while Jack and Eve checked to make sure the streets were empty. Aries absently squeezed the brakes on her handlebars. It was like psyching themselves up for war, bicycle messengers heading out to acquire foodstuffs to save their troops.

“I feel like I’m getting ready for a journey into hell,” Joy said. “I used to love shopping.”

“Me too,” Aries said. “But I don’t remember it being such a violent sport. Except maybe on Black Friday.”

Nathan gave them a forced grin through the murky room.

“All clear!” Eve poked her head out from the top of the stairs. “Don’t go right. A group of them just headed off in that direction. Straight ahead is clear, but there’s a lot of smoke two blocks over by the Irish Pub. Low Road’s clear. I’d head that way.”

Nathan waited while Eve raced down the stairs. It would be their first time apart since this whole ordeal began. Although she was trying hard to be strong, Aries could see the worry in her eyes. She threw her arms around him and held on tightly.

“I’ll be back,” Nathan told her when it became apparent she was having trouble releasing him.

“You’d better,” she whispered, reluctantly letting go. “I still need you.”

Nathan nodded and turned back to the group. “Let’s do it.” Reaching out, he unlocked the deadbolt and gave the iron doors a hard shove. Fresh night air swept over Aries’s face. For the first time in weeks she found herself wishing it was raining. The pelting drops would have helped cover the noise they were about to make.

“Remember,” Aries said, “if we get in trouble, split up. We’ll meet again at the back of the store. The loading docks. It’ll be darker than the parking lot. And if there’s trouble, go inside and get what you can.”

“Sounds good,” Nathan said.

Joy nodded.

Pushing her bike out into the street, Aries placed her foot on the pedal and lifted her leg over the saddle. The bike was small and Jack had raised the seat so that her knees wouldn’t be hitting the handlebars. He’d found a small bottle of oil in the maintenance room and spent most of the day oiling the chains to guarantee less friction.

They pushed off silently into the night. Tires crunched against the cement, but the noise was minimal. Unless they directly crossed paths with one of the killers, they’d be able to make it to the shop without being discovered. Although her heart jumped around in her chest, the muscles in her arms relaxed a little. The air cooled her face, and she inhaled deeply, such a wonderful change from the moldy apartment.

It was hard.

The earthquake destroyed a lot of the city. Most of the buildings were still somewhat attached, but glass littered the streets, and pieces of concrete and brick made everything more challenging. There were holes in the roads too, some of which sank deep into the earth.

Abandoned cars filled the streets, making it impossible to
bike in a straight line. The roads became a maze in which they were forced to crawl along, weaving in and out between the silent machines. Many of the car doors were left open, adding to the obstacle course. Aries turned left to bypass a van and swerved to avoid riding straight into a mailbox.

There were bodies on the roads, on the sidewalks, in cars, on benches, everywhere. Some of them were seriously starting to decompose. The fresh air that felt so wonderful on her face began to change. The smell of rotting flesh reached her lungs and was absorbed into her clothing.

She began to breathe heavier. The ride got even harder; she was out of shape after hiding out in the apartment for the past three weeks. Her calves ached and sweat poured down her forehead and into her eyes. She kept rubbing her face, and soon her hands were slippery with perspiration. Her handlebars grew sticky. She glanced over at Nathan, who barely looked winded at all. Joy, however, lagged behind them, and Aries felt better knowing she wasn’t the only one having trouble.

When they got through this, she would start exercising on a daily basis. Running up and down the stairs or doing push-ups—whatever she could do to keep healthy.

She almost didn’t notice when Nathan hit the brakes. Pulling on the hand gears, she stopped hard, almost flipping herself right over the front tire.

“What’s going on?” Joy whispered.

“Over there,” Nathan said.

They all looked at once.

A block ahead, a group of people moved down the street. The darkness made it impossible to see any faces, but there were too many of them to take a chance on finding out.

“This way,” Nathan said. Turning his bike to the left, he
jumped the sidewalk and headed straight into a courtyard. Aries and Joy followed.

“Do you think they saw us?” Joy asked. They were moving slower now. The cobblestone was slippery and the tires wobbled side to side on the uneven surface.

“Not sure,” Nathan said.

They passed through the courtyard and into the next street over. They continued in the direction of the store, but Aries knew something was wrong. It was too quiet.

They were waiting for them at the intersection. Two dozen people or so emerged from the shadows. They came from all directions at once, running, closing the gap.

“Split up!” Nathan screamed.

Aries turned her bike left, toward the closest group. She took the direct approach, straight through the crowd. Someone grabbed hold of her shirt, almost yanking her backward. She managed to stay on her bike by delivering a blind kick. She heard a loud grunt as her foot struck home, and the hand on her shirt loosened.

She didn’t look back to see how the others were doing. There wasn’t enough time. Hitting her brakes, she swerved to avoid a greasy-haired attacker, turned sharp toward the right again, and pushed all her weight onto the pedals, picking up speed but going in the wrong direction.

The street ahead was clear. Behind her, shoes slapped the pavement, and people screamed and swore, but the sounds began to decrease as she gained speed. She kept up the pace for a few blocks and then turned again. There was a path she knew would take her back in the right direction. There were no more sounds behind her, but she was too spooked to turn around and look. Up ahead she could see the road she needed to take. Increasing her speed, she pumped her legs with everything she had.

She hit the corner too sharp and felt the tires slide out from underneath her. Her jaw clamped down as she hit the pavement, cutting off the scream that should have come from her lips. Her jeans tore as she sailed across the ground; gravel and dirt bit through her skin, blazing a trail of white-hot fire against her leg.

When she opened her eyes, she expected to see a group of people staring down at her. But the streets were empty. She listened, but there were no more footfalls. No screams. Nothing. All she could see was the night sky glaring down at her. Pulling herself up, her entire body resisted, screaming at her. Everything hurt—even her eyelids complained.

But she couldn’t afford to listen.

Legs shaky, she picked up her bicycle from where it lay spread out beside an abandoned car. The forks were a little bent and the handlebars were scuffed, but the chain was still on and the tires looked like they’d turn. Limping, she pushed the bike a few feet to make sure it wasn’t broken. Climbing back on, she ignored the pain and started pedaling. When she got to the store, she’d take the time to check out her damage. Until then she’d grit her teeth and fight the throbbing mess that used to be her body.

It took her a few blocks before she got back on track. She wasn’t overly familiar with the area, and it was even harder at night with the shadows mixing up her sense of direction. But eventually she found the path that led along the inlet and farther into the city. She moved silently, aching, her heart beating rapidly against her chest.

She almost cried out in relief when she saw the store. It stood out against the night, the bright white building with miles of empty parking spots. It didn’t appear damaged. Even the windows were intact as she pedaled up to the front. She
tried the doors, but they were locked. Cupping her hands against the glass, she peered inside but couldn’t see much. The store was dark, the aisles empty. Nothing seemed out of order.

It was a miracle that it had lasted this long without being looted. But they chose it because it was farther out in the industrial area and hopefully there’d be fewer people. Maybe this had saved it. The Costco was much closer, but it was in the middle of downtown, and they’d all agreed it was more of a risk.

She decided to head around to the back and see if the others were there. A small voice in her head spoke to her, asking her what she’d do if Nathan and Joy didn’t show up. She tried to ignore it, but it was strong.

She’d have to be stronger.

Behind the building, she climbed off her bicycle and pushed it as she walked the length of the store. The loading docks were at the other end. The big double doors were pulled down and locked tightly. She stepped up to the side entrance and tried the handle. If it was locked she’d have to try and find another way in. She didn’t know the first thing about breaking into buildings.

It opened.

Stale air hit her face. It was pitch-black inside. She stood at the door for a few minutes, listening to the emptiness of the building. If someone was inside they might not have heard her open the door. But if someone was inside hiding, wouldn’t they have locked the door to begin with? It would have been the first thing she’d do. She pulled out the flashlight Jack found back at the apartment block and turned it on, shining it inside the massive room. There wasn’t much there, lots of boxes, a receiving desk, and two hallways that led off in different directions.

There was no indication that anything had been disturbed recently. None of the boxes were opened, and the receiving desk had a thin layer of dust on it. She tried shining the flashlight on the floor, looking for fresh footprints in the dust. She couldn’t see anything.

Pushing her way through the back doors, she moved onto the sales floor, carefully scanning the area to make sure it was clear.