Chapter 8
Adam stood at the top of the hill. The bodies were lying down in front of him in a pile. It continued to remind him all too much of the corpses at the cafe. Those had been old people, these were kids. Still, it was becoming somewhat of a pattern.
He turned to Jane. She wasn't looking at the bodies. Her back was toward them and her focus was on the school. Now that they were done, it didn't look like she wanted anything to do with them.
Adam reached out to touch her shoulder. She jumped at his touch. He was happy that she wasn't holding the gun in her hands, sure that she would have blown him away.
"You all right?" he asked.
Jane composed herself, took a deep breath, then talked, "I'm sorry. I'm just a little on edge. You surprised me, that's all." She began walking away.
Adam knew there had to be more to it than that and almost reached out to stop her. He thought better of it. "Wait," he said. "That's not what I meant. I was asking if there was something wrong, if there was something you wanted to talk about."
Jane looked at him, a slight smile on her lips. That smile, however, didn't reach her eyes. She looked hurt, scared.
"I'm okay," she said. "Honest."
She wasn't being honest. He knew that
.
Sh
e
knew that.
He shook his head and gave her a disapproving look, but she didn't notice. She had already turned around and was walking quickly back to the school.
He'd have to talk to Charles about her. Surely the old man would know what was wrong with Jane. And he'd have to do it soon.
Adam watched her go.
After a moment, he turned to look once more at the children's corpses. Lying there in a pile
.
Like garbag
e
.
N
o
, Adam couldn't let himself think that way
.
They were dead, sure. But they had also once had lives. They had had families.
He thought about his own family. More than once he had wondered what had happened to them
.
It was likely that they had changed. And if they hadn't, there was a good possibility that they had been killed by those who had
.
Either way, it didn't look good.
Stop it
!
he told himself
.
It didn't help to think about these thing
s
.
He saw Jane, farther away now, and ran to catch up with her.
Chapter 9
Jane felt sick. Though she often did nowadays. Fear did that to her. And everywhere she went she was expecting her husband and daughter to pop out at her.
She knew that she was being silly. They were dead. They weren't coming back to haunt her. It was her imagination. But it was a strong imagination. And the images scared her.
She continued to walk quickly. She didn't want to be near those bodies anymore. It had been hard enough getting them out of the school. Every time she picked one up she expected it to lift its head and start talking to her. Or maybe just wink at her like the one upstairs. To her relief, it never happened.
Of course, it never happened. Those things can't happen. They're just her imagination!
She had left Adam back at the corpses. She knew that she had been somewhat rude to him. And that wasn't okay. Adam was a good guy. He was only trying to help. But Jane couldn't reach out to him. Not yet. She needed more time. She needed to see if she could do this on her own.
Just a little bit longe
r
, she thought.
Besides, what would she say? That she was being haunted? That she was losing her mind?
Maybe Adam would understand. Then again, maybe he wouldn't. He might tell the others that she wasn't safe to keep around. That they should kick her out of their group. That she should fend for herself.
Of course, Charles would never allow that. Even little Robert would fight for her to sta
y
.
But it was something that played on her mind, and she didn't want to risk it.
No, she was sure that she could get a handle on things. If she couldn't, then she'd talk to him. Only then.
What would he be able to do anyway
?
she asked herself
.
He wasn't trained to deal with this type of thing. None of them were.
Still
,
it might just be nice to talk to him about it. Get it out there.
She continued to walk, her eyes focused on the school. She had to get there as quick as possible.
However, as she neared it, that desire quickly changed.
Her eyes glanced up at one of the school's second floor windows and she saw someone standing there. She knew right away who it was
.
Her daughter, Becky.
Jane felt her heartbeat pick up. And she felt an overwhelming urge to scream. But she knew that Adam would hear her and she didn't want to startle him. She didn't want to bring any more attention to herself than she already had.
Her daughter kept looking at her. Jane stared back. She couldn't take her eyes away, no matter how much she wanted to.
Her daughter smiled, a bright set of teeth appearing between her blood red lips. Then she started to wave. Her head move from side to side, following the movement of her hand. Back and forth.
Jane tried to look away again, but couldn't.
The little girl started to laugh, her shoulders jerking up and down. Then she slammed her face against the window. Jane heard the thud and saw blood appear on her daughter's forehead.
She hit her head again. And again.
Becky's laughter grew louder.
Chapter 10
Adam came up behind Jane and noticed that she was staring at something in the school. He couldn't make out what it was.
"Jane," he said. She didn't respond. "Jane?"
When he touched her shoulder, she jerked around. A look of terror crossed her face. And he knew it had more to do with him surprising her.
"Jane, what is it?" he asked. It was time to get things out into the open. He had been putting it off long enough. "Tell me."
Jane started to speak. "It's...it's..." She turned her head to look back at the window.
Adam could see that the window was empty. "Jane?"
"It's nothing…I…I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"It's nothing," she said, nearly shouting over her shoulder.
"Jane!" Adam wanted to shake her. Something was wrong. She needed to talk about it. "Tell me already!"
She turned to him. "I…I…" She lowered her eyes. "It's nothing. Honest."
Honest? She was being anything but.
"I wish you'd talk to me," he said.
Her eyes came back up to meet his own. For a moment, he thought that she was going to tell him the matter. Instead, she forced herself to smile. There wasn’t any happiness in it.
"I'm just being silly." Her voice trailed off. "A silly goose."
A silly goose
?
"Jane, please."
"I'm okay, Adam. Honest."
There is was again
:
hones
t
. Yet, if she didn't want to talk about it, he couldn't make her.
"All right," he said. "I won't bother you any more with it. Let's just go upstairs."
Fear came back into Jane's eyes. "Upstairs? Why?"
"To get the other bodies."
The other bodie
s
. Jane had forgotten about those. "We could do it tomorrow," she said.
"I thought you wanted all of the bodies out of the school."
"I did…I mean,
I
d
o
. But I'd rather do it tomorrow."
"Fine," Adam said. "We can do it tomorrow. Let's get back to the library to see how everyone's doing. Hopefully they have the place cleaned up by now. I don't want to do any more work."
Jane laughed at his joke, but as with her smile Adam didn't think there was any happiness in it.
Chapter 11
Adam stood on the roof of the school. He had found a ladder leading to it in a supply closet next to the staircase. Claire and Shelly were there too. The others had chosen to stay downstairs. They were tired after walking. And after cleaning.
He went to the edge and looked out over the land that stretched out behind the building. The sun had recently set and darkened the line of trees before him
.
The bodies were lying out there at its base of them
,
he thought. He was glad he couldn't see them.
"Looks beautiful," Claire said, coming up behind him.
At first, he thought she was talking about the pile of bodies, then realized that that couldn't be the case. She didn’t know what he was thinking. She was talking about the sunset, talking about the landscape.
In the dull red light, he wanted to say that she looked beautiful too, but he had already made that mistake before. He didn't want to sound any more ridiculous than he already had.
"It is," he agreed.
There wasn't much conviction in his voice. His thoughts had shifted back to Jane. Something was wrong with her. And she wouldn't talk to him about it. After he had gotten back to the library, even Charles hadn't been able to answer many of his questions.
"What's wrong?" Claire asked. She was looking at him now instead of the sunset.
Adam shook his head slowly. "Nothing," he said.
"I don't believe you.”
"You don't believe me?" Adam was trying to make a joke of it, but he could see that Claire wasn't going to give up that easily.
"No," she said. "I don't. Tell me what's wrong."
Adam looked at Claire, then turned to Shelly. The young girl had been walking around the roof, looking over the front and sides, but was with them now.
"It's Jane," he said. "I'm still worried about her." They had talked a bit about Jane while they had been in the cafe, but hadn't said much since.
"Me too," Shelly agreed.
Adam was surprised. He didn't think that anyone else had noticed anything wrong. "You are?” he asked. “Why?"
"It's the way she holds the wagon."
"The wagon?"
"She holds onto it as though she's afraid to let it go."
"Maybe she's just worried about Robert."
"Maybe. But I think there's something more than that."
"I've thought the same thing," Claire said.
Adam turned to her. "You've noticed as well? Why haven't you two said anything about it?"
"We have," Claire replied. "We tried to talking t
o
he
r
, but she won't tell us anything."
Adam hadn't known this. It made him feel a bit better. At least he wasn't over-reacting. Others had the same idea.
"We should try again," Adam said.
Claire and Shelly nodded.
"But we have to be careful,” Claire added. “I think she's really upset about something. We don't want to frighten her any more than she already is. And we don't want to make her feel bad about it."
Make her feel bad about it
.
Adam couldn't help but wonder if Claire was talking a bit about herself here
.
Don’t make her feel bad about what she had gone through with Big Mike.
"Of course," he said. "We won't make her feel bad. Should we speak to her now?"
Claire shook her head. "Not yet. Let's wait until it's dark. It looks so beautiful up here."
There it was again
.
Beautifu
l
.
Adam stared at Claire
.
Yes, it was beautiful up here.
Chapter 12
Shelly started walking around the rooftop again while Adam and Claire sat down. Claire let out a deep sigh.
"Now what's the matter wit
h
yo
u
?" Adam asked.
"It's nothing. Just thinking about things."
"Like what?"
She turned to him. "I was just wondering if we're going to find other people out there."
"You don't like the people you've met?" He exaggerated his voice, pretending to be hurt.
Claire laughed and slapped his arm gently. Adam liked the feel of her hand on him
.
Even if it had only been for a second.
"It's not that," she explained. "I was just wondering if we're going to be able to settle down anywhere. If there were groups of people looking for others like us. If everything is going to be okay."
In the end, that's what it came down to
:
is everything going to be oka
y
?
"I think we'll be fine," he said. "I really do."
He shifted his eyes to look out over the landscape. He didn't know if he believed what he said, but he hoped that it was true. And maybe that was enough.
*
The sky continued to darken until it went black. Adam and Claire continued to sit on the roof. Shelly was there also. She was on the other side and hadn't bothered them for a while.
Adam turned to look at Claire. He could barely see her. The moon and stars only gave him a little light to work with. When he had first seen the stars after th
e
chang
e
, he couldn't believe how many of them there were. And he was still amazed by them.
However, at the moment, they were the furthest thing from his mind.
"Claire?" he said.
"Yes?"
Without saying anything else, he leaned over and kissed her. For a short time, she kissed him back. Then she quickly pulled away.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have done that."
"No, no, no. Don't be sorry. It's just...well...it's just..."
Adam knew what the problem was
.
Big Mike
.
"I am sorry," he said again. "I really shouldn't have done that."
"No, don't say that. It's…" Claire sounded as though she felt guilty for her reaction. "It's just…" She couldn't finish her sentence.
"I really am sorry. You don't have to explain anything."
She turned to look at him, a soft look in her eyes. "I know that…but, you know, maybe it would be good for me to talk about it. At least, some of it."
As much as he wanted to help her, now that it was happening Adam didn't know if he actually wanted to hear about Claire's time in the cage, or what had happened before that. He was worried that he wasn't going to be able to handle it.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"No, I'm not sure. But it might do some good."
"Only if you want."
To Adam's surprise, Claire chuckled. "Of course it's only if I want. It's not like you're going to torture it out of me."
It had been meant as a joke. Adam knew that. But he could tell that Claire regretted saying it as soon as she had. After all, sh
e
ha
d
been tortured.
“I...um...,” she began. Then she took a deep breath before she spoke again. She wrung her hands together.
"I was with my mom," she said, "when everything happened. We were watching the news when the reporter changed into one of thos
e
thing
s
. We didn't know what was happening."
"You mean you and your mother?" Adam asked.
"Yes."
"So she didn't turn into one of thos
e
thing
s
?" From what he had seen, the probability of a mother and daughter remaining unchanged was extremely low. It made him wonder once more about his own family
.
Not that he could do much about finding them.
"No, she didn't."
Adam started to ask his next question
-
what happened to her
?
- but was able to stop himself before the insensitive words came out. Embarrassed, he broke eye contact.
"I know what you're wondering," Claire said. "It's okay. It's the only question that makes sense."
He looked back at her. "I don't want to pry."
"You're not." Claire took another deep breath. "We were trying to figure out what was happening when my father burst into the room. I knew straight away that he had changed. My mother wasn't as quick. He attacked her. I had to hit him on the head with a lamp to stop him. I may have killed him." She shuddered as she spoke. "My brother came in next. He had changed as well. I tried to get my mom to come with me before anything else could happen, but she wouldn't listen. She even tried to hug my brother as he attacked her. She was smiling as he bit into her neck." She shuddered again. This time, Adam did as well. "Then I ran."
There was a brief pause that Adam filled with, "There was nothing else you could have done."
Claire quietly agreed, then continued her story. "He must've heard the door shut behind me. I got into the woods behind my house and tried to lose him. I couldn't. It was only when I thought about the gas station near my house that I figured I might have a chance. The problem was that I didn't know who was waiting for me there."
She told Adam about how she had run for the station, her brother coming behind her; how she had turned the corner and had fallen to the ground; how her brother nearly was on top of her when his face was blown apart.
"It all happened so fast," she said. "One moment I was afraid for my life. The next I was happy that I’d been saved. It didn't take me long to realize that I was still in trouble." She ran her finger along the mark on her wrist. "He had me handcuffed to a desk for days."
She didn't say much else about what had happened with Big Mike, though she didn't need to. Most of it was obvious.
When she stopped speaking, she looked at Adam, her eyes dry. "It's funny," she said. "I thought that story would have made me cry. But if anything, it just makes me mad." She clenched her teeth and bashed her fist against the ground. "I can't believe he did that to me!"
Adam couldn't believe it either, but he didn't want to say anything about it to make matters worse. He thought about what he should tell her
.
Everything's okay now. You survived. Don't worry about it
.
They all seemed shallow.
“There’s good people out there,” he decided on. “And we’re going to find them.”
"I know," Claire said. "Look at us. Me, you, Shelly, Jane, Charles, Robert. We're not like Big Mike. We're not like that guy Sam. We'll find others like us out there. It's just…well, not so easy to keep reminding myself of that."
Not so easy
.
To Adam, that was an understatement. He couldn't imagine how he would feel if their roles had been reversed. He didn't think that he'd be looking on the bright side of things. She was definitely a lot more positive than he would've expected
.
And he liked her all the more for it.
Claire sat back and looked up at the stars. Adam did as well. Though he also put out his hand and grabbed hold of hers. She didn't pull away.
*
They sat like that until Shelly came up behind them. Once they heard her footsteps they pulled their hands away from each other like little children caught doing something bad. They didn't actually think that Shelly would mind, but it was all so new to them.
Adam looked at Claire with a nervous look across his face. She started to laugh. Adam joined her.
"What's so funny?" Shelly asked.
That only got them to laugh all that much more.