The Long Way To Reno (15 page)

I
straightened in my seat, saying, “I may have failed at what I was supposed to
do in life, but those two stood behind me. Well, aside from the fact that dad
was ready to haul me off to some sort of adult boot camp and mom was going to
set me up with her coworker’s dykey daughter – “

“I
get that you were a warm and fuzzy family – “

“ARE
a warm and fuzzy family,” I corrected, and continued on. “But the point of my
mission is to get home. No matter what it takes. If I have to climb Horse
Mountain on my hands and knees and swim through Spark’s sewage plant to get
there, I’m going to do it. Either my parents are waiting for me, or I have to
find them.”

He
exhaled again. “Okay.”

I
examined my newly painted nails. “Whatever it takes,” I murmured, mainly to
myself. I felt that tremendous surge of need and want in me, in needing to be
with my parents again. I wanted to hear the aggressive warmth of my dad’s
voice, and feel the cool palms of my mom’s hands on my shoulders. I wanted the
reassurance that, despite it all, we were going to face this new world
together.

For
several long minutes, he focused on ignoring me, and I contemplated what may be
ahead of us.  It was so still and silent in the house that it made me jump
when I heard the sound of mice running atop of the kitchen counters, squeaking
their communication to each other like they were completely alone.

I
glanced at Harley, to see his brown hair curling on his brow. I realized I was
talking way too much about myself. He knew what I was about, but all he’d given
me was that he lived in Cold Springs with two gay roommates, and that his dad
taught him how to handle guns.

“So…your
dad taught you stuff about guns?” I questioned.

He
set the magazine aside. Sighed as if my very presence annoyed the hell out of
him. Which, considering the situation, it probably did.

“Yes,”
he answered reluctantly.

“Where
are you originally from?” I asked.

Another
deep exhale. A flip of a magazine, which he promptly gave up and set aside.       

“Montana,”
he said. He looked at everything but me, and I struggled to look interested so
he could continue. It didn’t matter, because he wasn’t looking at me anyway. So
I stared at the hideous wallpaper and wondered why it was allowed to survive
for so many decades. “Originally from Montana.”

“So
why move to Nevada?” I asked. “There’s nothing here.”

“Well…my
parents…” He looked really reluctant to continue, actually glanced at me to see
if I were paying attention – and I was, because I wanted to know why -
and continued with, “my parents divorced when I was sophomore. My…dad moved
down here. My mom was…my mom was really furious about it. Bad mouthed him
constantly – but I kept in contact with him. Y’know? He’s my dad. Even if
he didn’t…y’know, have feelings for mom, he still loved me. Being in the middle
of all that was just…exhausting.”

“Only
child?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then
we have something in common. Bet you were hella spoiled, too,” I said.

He
gave a slight nod, a ghost of a smile, then remembered he was mad at me. “Yeah.
I guess so.”

“So
where does your dad live?” I asked curiously.

He
looked extremely uncomfortable, and I assumed the worst. I did apologize
quickly, sure that his father had passed away from something like a heart
attack, a stroke, whatever it was that killed parents at that age.

“Oh,
there’s – there’s nothing to apologize for,” he said slowly. Picked at
something on his wrist, and when he shifted, I saw that he was still wearing my
Halo shirt. I wondered if I could somehow get that shirt back.

“There’s
some extra clothes, maybe in your size back there,” I said, trying for a
helpful tone. “Well, there’s those ugly Wranglers in there, but it doesn’t look
like you wear that type, but here’s some shirts and stuff if you want to,
y’know, change?”

“I
could just take a shower, later,” he said, eyeing my outfit with a skeptical
expression. It might have been a little impractical, but I went through a lot,
I deserve to look pretty! “I like the stuff I have on. It’s not that bad, and
it’s pretty pointless to change clothes during a time like this.”

“Okay,”
I said, figuring that the Halo shirt was a goner. “Just…I’m really kinda
embarrassed. I hadn’t washed that shirt since the shift started. It was
probably really stinky when I gave it to you the other night.”

He
shrugged. “I smell like a lot of things. “

“Anyway,
so…your father’s not dead, then?” I asked, combing through my hair with my
fingers.

“Oh…oh,
no, he’s not. He…he uh…my roommates…” He exhaled heavily. “I lied about the
roommate thing. My dad, he, uh…realized he…he was gay. He’s been with the guy he
met in Montana, and…and that’s…”

“Ooohh,”
I said, blinking. I stared at the coffee table and wondered why the ugly rodeo
bookends. “Why are you ashamed?”

“People
are…funny about that sort of thing.”

“Not
in Cold Springs,” I exclaimed sarcastically.

Harley
snorted.

“So
your dad taught you about guns,” I continued. “How utterly convenient,
especially now.”

Conversation
trailed off after that, and I tried to think of other things to say. I twiddled
my thumbs.

“So,
how are we getting to Reno?” I then asked, failing to come up with anything
that wasn’t about myself.

“I
don’t know.”

“You
think those guys will put a ton of effort in looking for us?” I asked. “Like,
make it their mission to get rid of us? Hell, not only are we hiding away from
Rabid, aliens, we’re hiding from our own? Oh, let’s not forget people like
Jeff.”

“There’s
a lot of stuff stacked against us. We have to consider Emmy, too. She has
nobody. Her entire family lived in Fernley, and she had to kill them all when
they turned on her.”

“Oh
yeah…so we consider her.” I looked up at the heavy drapes. “Let’s work out the
custody issues now. I take her for one week, you the next.”

 “You’re
a personality that hates kids.”

He
was wrong – I liked babies and small children – mainly because I was
able to give them back afterward.

“You
can have full custody,” I agreed. “I’ll pay child support.”

That
ghost of a smile was back, but he hid it as he shifted in his seat. Clearing
his throat, he said, “Once you get home…I’m headed to Cold Springs. We live
northside, y’know, past all the trailers? Big house. Emmy would be safe there.”

“Do
you think your dad and his partner will be there?”

He
nodded with confidence. “My dad has an arsenal the military would be jealous
of. Diego hates it – “

He
stumbled over his stepdad’s name, and I wondered why, figuring he still had
issues to work out regarding his father’s homosexuality.

“-
but he agreed to it. Both of them…they know how to fend for themselves.”

I
studied Harley for a few moments. “There’s not that big of an age gap between
you two. Maybe you can fall in love when she’s of age?”

He
stared at me for a full minute, then rolled his eyes as he rose from the couch
in an outraged huff. “Fucking ridiculous! Go back to bed! Rest up!”

“The
human race is dying, Harley,” I reminded him, examining my nails. “Someone’s
got to contribute to it.”

“To
talk like that about a – a teenager, a
young girl
- !” he was so
outraged, he sputtered and stammered crazily, waving his hands around. He
looked red in the face, so maybe what I said was wrong.

“Right
now I can’t think that way. I’m way more focused on finding my ‘rents than
finding love,” I said, turning in my seat to look at him. “I’ve already
factored myself out of this re-population situation. I thought that, by now,
you knew what sort of person I am.”

“I
get that now!” he snapped.

“I’m
just watching out for your future!” I protested. I saw that I’d crossed the
line, and huffed, resuming my earlier position to look at the fireplace once
more.

He
was once again in my line of vision. “Bet it would be different if Benson were
around.”

I
curled hair behind my ear, finding it a huge shame that Benson was now one of
the ‘bad guys’. Frowning mournfully, I nodded to agree. “Yeah…damn it.”

He
stared at me for a few minutes – long, silent minutes. Minutes that made
me turn around and look at him, trying to capture him within one eye’s working
vision. I was startled to realize that, sometime during the night, I could see
out of the heavy slit in my other eye.

“You
know what?”

We
were talking in loud whispers to keep from waking Emmy, but he raised his voice
slightly to be heard clearly. “I think you do this deliberately. Make yourself
into this bad person, to keep people from getting close to you. I’ve watched you
at work – how you talk to those other guys. Let them in close, then keep
them at arm’s length when you see they’re getting too familiar with you.”

“
Stalker
,”
I commented, twisting in my seat to give him an outraged expression.

“And
you’re doing that now. Because there is
no way
someone with your
attitude, with your way of thinking, actually exists. I get that this is an
apocalypse of some kind, that people are dying left to right – I get that
it’s hard to get close to somebody like this, but to talk like this? Act like
this? It’s fucking overkill!”

I
frowned, affronted. “I told you before, Harley, I don’t pretend. I’m actually
that despicable. And seeing it now, on full display, makes me feel kinda bad
for other people.”

Another
full minute of angry eye contact. Then he whirled and stalked off down the
hall, saying, “Well, you should!”

I
heard him enter the boys’ bedroom at the end of the hall, shutting the door
tightly enough to have Brandon give a low ‘woof!’ at the sound. Moments later,
his heavy weight and his doggy toenails were catching in the carpet as he
investigated the trouble our whispers caused. Once he caught sight of me, he
stared at me for a few moments, then snorted as if exasperated.

I
frowned after him as well, sitting back in my seat and looking around myself.
Wondering if it were officially my turn to keep watch.

:
:

Later on, as I
was yawning and searching the kitchen for some sort of caffeine stimulant, I
heard Brandon walking back up to the front room. He scratched at the front door
with a light whine, so I assumed he needed to go out. Abandoning my search, I
accompanied him outside, where the horses had taken post in the front yard and
gave us sleepy looks. Brandon ignored them, setting off for a point beyond the
front gate, while I shivered and attempted to curl back into myself. The cold
air made my lungs ache, and through there were coyotes yelping in the distance,
to which Brandon answered with low barks, there didn’t seem to be much going on
out there.

            One
of the horses snorted, shuffled his hooves on the dead grass – the other
two lifted their heads and looked in the direction the sounds were coming from.
It was really cold, so I hissed at Brandon to hurry up. He took his time
finding the proper spot to do his business, so I pranced in place, trying to
get warmth in me when the horses suddenly stalked away in a group, whinnying
and tossing their heads. I figured the coyotes were coming closer, as Brandon
stiffed, his tail sticking straight out, ears up. He then took off in a loping
run, woofing lightly.