Morgan didn’t finish. Instead she sat up and made a face that Andy could barely make out in the waning daylight.
“What’s wrong?”
“Can you stop the car? I feel sick.”
Andy immediately applied the brake without noticing that the truck ahead was doing the same. The sudden deceleration awakened Charlie in time for him to see his sister leap out of the van.
“Is she okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, just carsick.”
Andy stepped outside as the two boys approached.
“She okay?” Jim asked.
“Just carsick,” Andy repeated.
Morgan recovered quickly and apologized to everyone.
“Don’t be sorry,” Jim assured. “You need water or anything?”
“That would be great, thanks.”
As Jim returned to the truck, Ben took advantage of the moment. “So, where are you guys coming from?” he asked, trying to sound casual. “Before Washington, I mean.”
“Bermuda,” Charlie quickly answered.
Ben couldn’t have been more surprised had the answer been the Moon. “Are you joking?”
“Nope,” Andy replied as she placed a comforting hand on Morgan’s shoulder. “We were there for five years. Ever since the virus.”
“What were you doing in Bermuda?”
“Vacation,” Andy answered.
Jim returned with a glass bottle filled with water. He handed it to Morgan, who thanked him.
“So you guys sailed here from Bermuda?” Ben continued.
“Bermuda?” Jim repeated, sounding amazed. “Wow, what’s it like there?”
“Not much different than anything we’ve seen here so far,” said Andy, purposely vague. “Just add some ocean.”
“When did you leave?” Jim asked.
Andy looked at Charlie. “What, about a week ago?”
“Yeah. It was your birthday, remember?”
“Oh, right.” Andy shook her head. “The days are blending together. Until today, we’ve been on a boat most of the time.”
“Where are you two coming from?” Morgan interjected, wanting to change the topic from anything involving the last month.
Ben and Jim exchanged looks.
“New York,” said Ben flatly.
“New York
City
?” Andy inquired.
Ben cleared his throat. “Yeah.”
“I’ve never been to New York, even before the virus. “What’s it like? Any better than DC?”
Ben looked down at his shoes and kicked at a stone. “Not really.”
“Just a lot more people,” Jim added, rather hastily. “That’s actually why we left. Not enough food and too many people. You know how it is.”
Andy looked back and forth between the two. “Yeah. We know how that is.”
Ben glanced at his watch. “Let’s get moving. I hate driving in the dark.”
The group separated back into their respective vehicles.
“What d’ya think?” Jim asked after Ben started the engine.
“Not sure, but it’s hard to imagine making up something like Bermuda.”
“Isn’t that in the Caribbean?”
“Can’t remember.”
“Do you think we can trust them?” Jim pressed.
“Trust them? Not yet, but I believe their story.”
“Fair enough.”
In the minivan, Andy was behind the wheel again, and after a few minutes, Charlie had fallen back asleep.
“You sure you’re okay?” she asked Morgan. “Is it the food? Or the water, maybe?”
“No, it’s not any of that,” Morgan shook her head. She looked down at her delicate hands. Her face crumpled and tears sprang from her eyes.
Andy now understood. She reached over and squeezed her friend’s hand. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered. “I’ll make sure everything’s okay.”
Morgan wiped her eyes and nodded. “Just don’t say anything to Charlie? I don’t want him to know—not yet, anyway.”
“Of course,” Andy replied, employing her bravest tone despite her own distress. What were the odds? One in a thousand? Ten thousand? A million? Part of her wanted to go back to Bermuda just to find those boys and put a bullet in each of them.
They drove on in silence. Relieved of her secret, Morgan drifted off, leaving Andy alone with her thoughts. The sun disappeared over her left shoulder as the minivan continued along the Interstate. It was uncomfortably hot, and she felt like her skin couldn’t breathe. Even with windows rolled down, the rushing wind offered little relief.
The events of the past few days replayed like a movie in her head. The rotting body in the car. The horrific state of the Washington Monument. Being shot at by faceless, nameless strangers, then killing some of them. Ben saying,
There’s really no America anymore.
What did that even mean? Did countries no longer exist because those who were once in power were now dead? And did anyone even care about such things anymore, or had daily survival consumed everyone’s thoughts that there was no longer room for anything else?
In Bermuda, she and her friends had struggled to survive, but they still managed to fill their days with meaning: reading, learning, and teaching. Without this, they would have been little more than animals, fighting each day just to live to the next, and Andy couldn’t help thinking that this was the only future she had to look forward to.
More tired than she could ever remember, she leaned against the open window with her elbow and cradled her head in her left hand. The temperature began to fall as the sun made its western descent, and the air coming through the window now was refreshing. For a few miles, her mind became mercifully blank. With both Charlie and Morgan now sound asleep, a welcome serenity enveloped her for a few peaceful moments.
Then her mind drifted to the two young men inside of the truck she now followed. They seemed nice enough, but there was definitely something mysterious about them, especially Ben with his reticent demeanor. Andy presumed he often avoided personal questions and topics, preferring instead to throw the attention back on someone or something else. His cousin, Jim, seemed less guarded and friendlier.
They didn’t look like cousins, or any blood relation for that matter. Both were handsome and about Andy’s age. Ben was at least six-one or six-two, and looked strong enough to lift twice her weight with ease. He reminded her of a younger, but rougher version of Clark Kent, with his dark brown hair and memorable blue eyes. A Superman in a worn T-shirt, tattered jeans, and dirt under his nails.
Jim was just a tad shorter than Ben and leaner, though still sturdy. His sandy blond hair was cut short like a soldier’s, and his eyes were either green or hazel…Andy couldn’t recall. And despite their initial argument over the food, he had a boyish charm that made him instantly likeable.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the minivan’s slow but steady decline in speed. After checking the fuel gauge, she flashed her headlights. The truck’s brake lights illuminated ahead, and Andy stopped a few yards behind them, seconds before the engine went dead. Neither driver had bothered to pull over to the shoulder—they hadn’t passed a single car the entire day.
“Finally out of gas?” Ben called out to Andy after everyone was back outside.
“Yeah.”
“Then grab your stuff. But two of you will have to sit in the back.”
As she and her friends transported their things out of the minivan, Ben was glad to see that their possessions were few. More stuff meant more weight, which meant lower gas mileage, and three extra bodies was weight enough. Then, knowing his cousin would appreciate it, he suggested that Morgan ride in the front of the truck with Jim. “Tired of listening to him all the time,” was his feeble excuse. “My ears need rest.”
“Um, okay. Thanks,” Morgan muttered. “Charlie, you okay sitting in the back?”
But Charlie was already following Ben into the truck bed. “No worries,” he called out.
“The wind will feel good,” Andy added, preempting the same question. She climbed in last and quickly positioned herself into a corner at the rear. Once they were underway, she closed her eyes.
Ben found himself glancing over at her in the dark even though he couldn’t see her face, or that she had already fallen asleep.
***
After what felt like a few hours, Andy woke up. It was still dark, and since she never wore a watch she could only guess what time it was. The truck was driving much slower than it had been, and they were weaving through treacherous terrain with many hairpin turns and altitude fluctuations. She wondered where they were when she saw a passing sign for Route 441 reflecting off the headlights—a route that meant nothing to her.
The air had grown cooler, so she pulled the bottom of her oversized sweatshirt over her knees and grabbed a blanket lying nearby. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time someone had slept in the back of this truck. After snuggling herself into a cozy bundle, she looked up at the sky and released an unexpected gasp. Thousands upon thousands of stars shone like tiny pin pricks of light in the navy sky. Within the span of a few minutes, Andy witnessed three shooting stars. It reminded her of Bermuda at night, with the smell of moist forest trees replacing the salty sea air and the rhythm of small waves lapping at the coastline.
“Pretty, isn’t it?”
Ben’s voice startled her. She could barely discern his silhouette, making his voice seem disembodied. “What?”
“The stars…they’re beautiful out here.”
“Oh, yeah. They are.”
A long pause followed. Andy didn’t know if the brief exchange was meant to be the start of a conversation, so she remained silent.
“So what was Bermuda like?”
Okay, a conversation it was. “Bermuda? Bermuda was a little bit of everything, I guess.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, it’s tropical in the summer, but the winters can be—”
“—Hang on. I can’t hear you.”
The truck had begun to pick up speed, and the passing wind made hearing difficult. Ben slid back to the rear of the truck bed until he and Andy were sitting across from each other. Charlie, meanwhile, was still asleep at the front of the bed.
“Sorry, say that again,” Ben said after settling in.
“I said it’s tropical in the summer, but the winters can be pretty cold.” Andy had to almost shout her words to be heard.
“Because it’s not in the Caribbean, right?”
“Right. It’s much farther north.”
Off to her left, the faintest light of dawn could be seen. “How can you drive so long without stopping?”
“This truck has three tanks. We could drive a thousand miles without stopping if we had to.”
“Three tanks? Trucks don’t have three tanks.”
“No, but Jim and I modified this one.”
“I bet that comes in handy.” Unsure of what else to say, Andy returned her gaze to the stars. The approaching daylight would soon fade their intensity. She tried to close her eyes again but found she was no longer sleepy. “Where exactly are you guys headed?”
“New Mexico.”
“What’s in New Mexico?”
“Nothing. Just seems like a good place to hide out for a while.”
“Hide from whom?”
“No one in particular. Just to get away from all the people.”
“Seems like a long way to go just to get away from people.”
Ben laughed. “Yeah. Maybe.” His voice faded. Then he asked, “What made you leave Bermuda?”
My best friend was beaten and raped…
“It’s complicated.”
“I’m sure it is.” He didn’t press further.
“Where are you and your cousin from?”
“Virginia, in the suburbs outside DC. Our parents lived two miles from each other.”
“You two don’t look related.”
Ben laughed again. “We both look like our mothers, and it’s our fathers who were brothers.”
“How do you know so much about cars?”
“Jim’s dad was a car mechanic. We used to hang around his shop on weekends just watching him, and we picked up a lot. After the virus, we had all the time in the world to mess around with cars.”
Andy nodded. It was similar for her and learning about medicine. “You like working on cars?”
“I do. And I’m good at it. Cars make sense to me. And what do you do for fun, other than sailing across oceans?”
“I read a lot. Mostly stuff about human anatomy and medicine. My father was a doctor.” It was odd to talk about herself with a complete stranger.
“Cool. What kind of doctor?”
“He was a heart surgeon for a long time, but then switched to having his own general practice when I was nine or ten.”
“Why did he switch?”
“The hours. I barely saw him when he was a surgeon. With his own practice, he could finally join me and my mom at dinner.”
Ben began to ask something else when the truck slowed down and then stopped. Jim and Morgan emerged from the front, both chatting about something that Andy couldn’t hear.
“Hey, my butt’s getting numb,” Jim began, mainly addressing Ben. “Let’s switch for a while.”