Elixir (Red Plague #1) (Red Plague Trilogy) (17 page)

He groaned something unintelligible under his breath, and then declared to the whole roof, “Maya, you are the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. I’m trying to take care of you.”

My cheeks flushed hot, and I watched him march across to the opposite side of the roof. I didn’t get what the big deal was. Why did he care where I slept? I didn’t have to sleep at all, if that were my choice. None of this was his business.

“Well,” I returned loudly, “I never asked you to!”

“I
want
to,” he shouted back. With quick, abrupt movements he laid out his blue tarp and piled it with jackets and bedding.

Hunny threw her arms around Pollard’s waist and held on tight. “Please don’t fight,” she whined.

“Nobody’s fighting.” He massaged her narrow shoulders. “I’m just frustrated. Go make your bed in the tent.”

I stared at Pollard’s back as I attempted to form logical thoughts. I’d been taking care of myself for so long I wasn’t sure why anyone would even want to worry about me anymore. I had things covered. But something had upset Pollard, which strangely upset me, too. Apart from the kissing snafu, he’d been generous and kind and I’d inadvertently irritated him.

I glanced at the spot I’d chosen for my bed. Maybe I could try something new. Hunny was a good cuddler, sort of like a breathing teddy bear.

“Come on, Hunny.” I picked up my bedding and led her inside the green polyester dome. “I’ll help you.”

“Try to sleep.” Pollard said. “We’ll leave at first light.” His mattress made of coats rustled as he settled upon it. “Wake me if you hear anything.”

I created a pallet inside the tent with sweaters and some extra clothes. It wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t anything like a real bed in an actual house, but it was more comfortable than the walk-in had been the night before.

Hunny slid in beside me and wiggled around, catching me in the ribs with her elbow. Probably not on purpose.

And then, just as I’d feared, she threw an arm
and
a leg over my midsection. The temperature in the dome tent ticked up a few degrees. I lay very still to counteract her body heat and listened to all the sounds around us.

The birds must have settled down for the night, too, but several noisy cicadas buzzed in the trees below, reminding me not every living thing had been infected and gone mad. No footsteps, though. No doors opened or closed. No sound from the parking lot reached me at all.

Without any streetlights or house lights to ease us into night it got dark fast. Soon after the sun passed behind the horizon it was full dark.

I curled on my left, punched my jacket pillow, and then turned on my right side. Blowing hair from my eyes, I faced Hunny, who couldn’t sleep either, apparently, and put my finger to my lips.

I signed, “
M-e p-e-e.
”

She frowned, and then figured out what I was communicating and nodded.

I dug the bag of beef jerky from my pack, attached my sword to my belt, and motioned for her to stay put. Where it was safe. She spread out onto my half of our pallet, essentially stealing my spot. I’d have to wrestle her out of it when I returned.

Before I descended I checked that Pollard and Russell were at least trying to fall asleep. All I could see in the moonlight were two shapes beneath the AC vent. But neither shifted when I zipped the tent closed.

I climbed down to ground level, falling the last five feet or so onto my rear end on the cab of the truck we’d used as a ladder.

“Maya?” Pollard called out. “Is that you?”

Crap
. “I have to go pee,” I said, hoping he’d allow me some privacy and not follow me into the parking lot. It wasn’t that I was sneaking around, not exactly, but if Pollard saw Ben again he’d be pissed. He’d lecture me on carrying a gun. And I just wanted to get another look at Ben without making a big fuss about it.

Pollard didn’t respond, and I pressed on with my plan.

It was dark and silent on the ground, nothing but the wind whistling through the buildings making any noise at all. I must have startled the cicadas with my tumble off the roof.

Before the virus, it had been a bright and busy shopping center. Now, it was another symbol of all the human race had achieved, and all we had lost.

Something moved on the opposite edge of the building. A shape appeared. A Red. I did what I wasn’t supposed to. Alone and unarmed, I edged closer.

I reached the end of the sidewalk and circled Ben, giving him about fifteen feet of space, until I crunched through a patch of dry grass.

He plucked a small water bottle from his trouser pocket, showed it to me, and then rolled it across the grass. It bounced off my foot.

“Is that for me?” I picked it up. Still sealed. Clean and fresh. “That’s funny because I brought you something, too.” I tossed the packet of beef jerky like a Frisbee, and Ben caught it one-handed.

“You must be hungry,” I whispered.

He sniffed the bag, but didn’t open it.

I, however, twisted the cap off the bottle and took a long drink. “Thanks,” I said, wiping water from my mouth with the back of my hand and then tucked the bottle under my arm for later.

“Do you remember music, Ben?” I glanced at the name embroidered on the breast of his dark navy work shirt. “Is that even your name?” It was always possible the shirt belonged to someone else.

But Reds didn’t seem to care about fashion. It was more likely I’d see one wear the same outfit until it rotted off. So, Ben probably wasn’t wearing found clothes. He’d been a mechanic once. Or a janitor, maybe. An appliance repairman?

His red eyes bored into me as he shuffled to see me more fully, the jerky pouch dangling from his left hand.

 “I’ve been writing a new song. It’s a little sad,” I admitted. “But maybe it’s appropriate. Maybe that’s what I am. Depressed.” I cleared my throat. “Way down here,” I warbled, “I disappear. My heart hurts when you leave.” I closed my eyes briefly. “I don’t know. It needs work, obviously. But it’s starting to come together. I just need a good chorus.”

Exhaustion settled over me like wet clothes. I hadn’t exactly been sleeping well the last couple nights and running from that toy store pack had drained me. I knelt in the grass, and then lay flat on my back.

Above me an endless ocean of stars stretched to the horizon. There hadn’t been this many stars visible in the sky in a long, long time. It made me feel small and silly to worry so much about the virus when my whole world was a speck in a very big sky.

I heard a rustle and flinched, grabbing the hilt of my sword, my heart kicking into panic mode. But, no. Ben laid down, still keeping three yards between us, and turned his face toward me.

I had never seen an infected person behave so much like a human being.

“Who are you?” I marveled. “Where did you come from?”

His red eyes seemed to glow in the starlight.

“Why are you following—”

“Maya!” Pollard jogged over, his damned gun drawn. Russell was a step behind.

I hopped to my feet and put myself between them and Ben, partly because I didn’t want them to shoot, but partly because I didn’t want them to know I’d been lying in the grass with a zombie.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m okay.”

A throaty growl sounded from behind me. The kind of warning rumble a big dog made.

“What is going on?” Russell demanded, an expression of utter disgust on his face. “That’s a Red. Pollard, shoot that thing.”

“No!” I held up both hands in a silent plea. “He’s not hurting anyone. He’s just listening to me talk.”

“Are you hearing yourself right now?” When it became obvious Pollard wasn’t going to shoot anyone, Russell stepped around him. “Zombies don’t listen. They don’t think. They kill people and eat their organs.” His eyes got all shiny, and I suspected he was reminiscing about his little sister. She’d been murdered and probably devoured by zombies not that long ago. In front of him. “They’re not your friends.”

“He’s not—”

“If it walks like a duck and eats human flesh like a duck… Do you get what I’m saying?”

I was sorry about his sister, but Ben hadn’t been involved. He wasn’t violent the same way other Reds were. He was different. “I should judge him on the actions of others? Now who’s being a jerk?”

 “Shut up, Russell.” Pollard didn’t holster his weapon, just slowly shook his head at me. “I thought something bad had happened. You were gone a long time.”

“Forget this.” Russell stomped away toward the truck we’d used to get on the roof and hoisted himself up.

I gave Pollard half a smile. “I found Ben. Or, rather, he found us.” I glanced behind me. Ben was on his feet again. “Let’s go back up top.”

Reluctantly, Pollard came away with me. What he thought of me and my zombie companion, I didn’t know. Maybe that I was crazy. Sometimes everything felt a little crazy, me included.

“Maya,” Pollard said under his breath. “Whatever you’re doing, you have to stop.”

I didn’t pretend not to know what he meant. “Thank you for all your help,” I said under my breath, “but it’s none of your business.” I wished I could flash back onto the roof.

I collected my water bottle and took a couple steps before I realized he wasn’t beside me.

“It
is
my business.” Pollard reached for my hand and twined his fingers with mine. He had nice hands. Strong. Kind of rough, but in a good way. “Because when he kills you, I’ve got to take care of it. If he doesn’t kill all of us.”

I didn’t say what I was thinking.
Ben won’t kill me
.

“Maya, I’m worried about you.”

Our fingers were still linked. I hadn’t even noticed.

“I’ll be careful.” I retrieved my hand and returned to the roof. Hunny was sitting in the tent, waiting for me. We laid down together and listened to Pollard settle into his pallet.

It wasn’t easy falling asleep beside Hunny and her doll, and I woke feeling stiff and sweaty and slightly headachey. The morning sun and a faint breeze had turned the small dome tent into a convection oven and I scrambled into my new jeans and white top before emerging into the cooler air on the roof.

While Hunny slept on, snoring lightly and clutching her new doll to her bony chest, I stretched my tired and sore muscles. Pollard and Russell were already up and preparing to leave.

“Morning,” I greeted.

Russell turned his back on me and lit up a cigarette on the far side of the roof.

Pollard smiled half-heartedly. “Did you sleep well?”

“No. You?”

“No.”

I bent to zip the tent so Hunny would sleep a while longer, but her eyes popped open. “What’s for breakfast? I’m hungry.”

“Brush your teeth and hair first.”

She grumbled about it, but we did our morning routine together.

Clean and groomed, we all sat around the pile of backpacks. Breakfast was a dry oatmeal bar from a box.

I observed Russell as I chewed. Last night had been awkward. His response to Ben, while understandable, was an overreaction as far as I was concerned. And a mediocre night’s sleep hadn’t appeased him in the least. The expression on his face told me he hated me, and Ben, too. In fact, I
disgusted
him.

Forcing down the last of my breakfast I excused myself and headed for the edge of the roof. Ben wasn’t in the same place he’d been the night before. But he was still there, now closer to the buffet restaurant next door. There was so sign of the jerky.

Had he eaten it? Had he slept at all, or had he stood sentinel for ten hours straight? I wished I could study him more carefully and record his decidedly un-zombie behavior. If he had slept, what bed had he chosen? The cold, hard ground under a tree like an animal? Or had he found a more civilized shelter?

I was so wrapped up in my speculations I didn’t notice Russell until he was about twenty feet away. He too was watching Ben. Then he drew his handgun from the small of his back and aimed it with both hands at the Red in the distance.

If Russell was a good shot he might actually hit Ben. My guts clenched inside a rusty vice. “What are you doing?” When he ignored me, I shouted for help.

Pollard reached Russell first and forced his arm down. “Stop it,” he growled. “You’re acting crazy.”

Russell wrestled free of Pollard and backed away, the weapon still in his hand. “I’m crazy?” He laughed creepily. “
I’m
crazy?”

Hunny bolted and locked herself around Pollard’s waist.

“There’s a little girl up here,” Pollard said, as if it weren’t obvious. “Give me the gun.”

“That’s a zombie,” Russell argued, pointing in Ben’s direction. “How can you protect that thing? You know what they do!”

“He hasn’t done anything,” I said quietly, unable to hold my tongue any longer. “He’s just standing there.”

Russell turned bright, bloodshot eyes on me and I cringed. “My sister was
just standing there
,” he mocked me, “and those zombies didn’t care.” He crept toward me. “Are you some kind of freak? You love zombies?
Zombies kill people!
”

Pollard stepped right in Russell’s face, and his voice lowered. “Give me the gun. I’ll give it back when you cool off. You’re not thinking clearly.”

Russell stared up at Pollard, his chest heaving. “You’re going soft. You’re gonna get us all killed because of
her
.”

They had a sort of standoff as each tried to stare down the other. But in the end, Pollard won. Deflating like a balloon, Russell handed his weapon to the older male. Pollard immediately zipped it into his backpack along with his ammo.

Cigarettes and lighter in hand, Russell marched off to the far side of the roof to smoke and calm down. I hoped anyway.

The threat of violence quelled, I exhaled, not sure how long I’d been holding my breath.

Pollard gazed down into Hunny’s eyes. “Don’t be scared,” he said, clapping her on the back.

“I thought he was going to shoot us,” she said in a small voice.

“You know when something bad happens for no good reason and you can’t do anything about it?” Pollard explained. “Well, it can make you really mad.” He motioned toward Russell’s back. “He’s angry. But he’ll eventually calm down. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”