And then he is just climbing into the car and slamming the door, while I and the others stare at him in shock. He starts the car and looks questioningly at us all.
“
What? Maggie knows I’m a cowboy; this isn’t really anything new to me. It’s a cake walk.”
I snort out a cross between a laugh and a cough, while my brother and the others in the back think we’ve both lost our minds. Maybe we have, it certainly would make sense if we had now wouldn’t it?
Gabe is just pulling Noah’s car out onto the dead packed street, when I notice with excitement that there are three other cars on the road with us. This makes me turn in my seat and look back to the City Hall. On the stoop of the building are Randy and Brady still shooting into the dead, then just like with Noah and my parents, a double image of Randy rises in my mind.
This one is weaponless and dressed in a uniform that I can’t really see all that clearly.
He is reaching out to me, and before I can even say anything about him, the image evaporates, and then there is only the real one. He and Brady don’t stay outside after that, and while they head back inside, Randy looks up and waves in our direction. I don’t bother to wave back since he can’t really see us, but I hope one day I do get to thank him for all that he has done for us and my family; and wouldn’t it be nice to know why I’m seeing things like I am.
I do the only thing that helps.
This is to rub at my throbbing temples, but it only offers a slight relief.
Chapter Eighty Four
I turn back around in my seat, and continue to massage my temple, as Gabe steers us down the crowded street after the other cars. I know it’s going to be a long drive we have ahead of ourselves, and I’m really not looking forward to it.
“
That was some good throwing Gabe. I thought you hated sports.” Dan says from the back seat.
Gabe chuckles and glances up at Dan in the rearview mirror.
“
Not when it counts my man.”
Dan is the one to chuckle now, and he leans forward enough so that he can smack Gabe lightly on his shoulder, but hard enough to make a ‘whack’ sound.
“
True that.” He says as he sits back.
No one says anything for what feels like forever, and I welcome the silence. It’s almost fully light out already and I can see clearly out of the window at everything as we drive past. Usual as of late, there isn’t any sign of life, as we breeze through our old patch of town. I almost wish we had time to run home and I could get some of the stuff I left behind.
Deep down, I know it really doesn’t matter to have that, but it doesn’t stop me from feeling like I do.
The traffic that came from the Collisee must have come through here, because it seems like some of the debris and abandoned cars are all pushed to the side, like something barreled through them. Nothing is like a speeding caravan of vehicles to clear a path for you.
We are just driving past where we would take the turn for our housing development, when Maria breaks the silence.
“
Do you really think everyone back at the tunnels will be alright?”
Her voice is so quiet and full of longing that I know her question is meant for Dan, but the car is too quiet and we all pick up on it.
“
I’m sure they will be, but it won’t do us any good to worry about it alright.” Dan tells her gently, but also a little too intently.
Not that I blame him, he and I left our parents there so I can see him being irritated at her, even though I know she is just being typical sweet Maria.
“
Dan is right Ria, we wouldn’t leave everyone behind if they weren’t safe. We’ll see them again.” Michael says to his sister after a moment.
In my passenger side mirror, I can see Michael behind me, and for the first time since we found him hiding in his room, he is reminding me of the boy he once was. By reassuring Maria, he’s acting like the older of the two again, and it makes me feel slightly less upset for some reason. I watch as Maria turns away from Dan and leans on her brother, and when he wraps his arms around her just as her tears fall, I have to look away.
I go back to staring out of the window, and find that we are now on the highway leading out of Maine. Normally I would be exhilarated to be on yet another road trip, but leaving the state is bothering me more this time. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve never traveled more than an hour away from my house.
Don’t judge, I like my town, it’s nice and safe.
Or it used to be, that is.
“
You guys should get some sleep, we’ll be on the road for a while, and who knows what we’re driving into.”
I know Gabe is right and that we should sleep while we can, and who the heck knows the last time I actually slept. But I’m too jittery and wired to even think about closing my eyes. Apparently the others don’t feel this way though, because I can hear them shifting around to get comfortable.
Lucky them.
I can feel eyes on me as I continue to view the vast scenery of the trees outside, and I turn to see why Gabe would be taking his eyes off the road to watch me. He gives me a quick grin, when he is caught Maggie gazing, and I shrug my shoulders at him.
This gets me an eye roll. “Go to sleep Maggie. Please, you of all people need it.”
Sighing, I know he’s a little right and I am just closing my eyes as we pass through into New Hampshire and out of Maine. I try to make my body relax, and the more I try it, the more I can feel every ache and pain I got the past couple of days. That’s when my head begins to pound again and I try to ignore it and just let everything go. It doesn’t work, even though I know I’ve been sitting here closing my eyes for the last half hour like a moron. When my right eye begins to itch really bad and then start to water, I finally have had enough.
Opening my eyes and blinking against the sunlight that is pouring into the car, I sit up a little straighter.
“
That lasted longer than I thought.”
I turn to Gabe annoyed, and find him smirking at me. “What lasted longer than you thought?”
“
You trying to sleep, I could tell how tense you were, and it only got worse as the minutes wore on.” Gabe says as he laughs quietly.
Nice to know he didn’t let me suffer through that, and he’s the one that told me to sleep. I’m about to yell at him or lightly scold I guess, when I see where we are out of the window. Apparently I tried to sleep longer than I thought, because we are almost to Vermont already.
Damn, the boy can really drive.
“
I’m sorry Maggie.” He says quietly all of a sudden.
At first I look at him and am about to say it doesn’t matter, but then I realize he means about my parents. I’ve been trying not to think about them, but it’s useless not to, especially since just him saying sorry brings tears to my eyes.
“
It’s not your fault, it’s mine.”
He takes his eyes off the road and gives me a shocked expression.
“
Maggie, it’s not your fault either. It was their decision to make, not yours.”
He means the decision to stay, and I mean something else.
“
Not for that, I couldn’t control that even if I wanted to. I meant that she got shot in the first place.”
Now he looks pinched like he swallowed something sour, and if we were talking about anything else I might have picked on him for it.
“
Maggie, come on, you didn’t have anything to do with that. Tell me what you’re thinking?”
Sighing, I turn sideways so that I can lean on the seat and face him while we talk.
“
Before you threw out the grenade into the hall, I saw Vin moving around like he might wake up. And he is the one that came after us and shot her, so tell me whose fault is it then?”
“
Technically it’s the person that does the shooting that gets the fault put on them, and that wasn’t you. What’s all this Vin business anyway?”
I don’t agree with him and I’ll always blame myself, but he is like my mom in the way that they never give up. So I laugh softly over his name confusion.
“
He looked like the actor Vin Diesel, so I’ve been calling him Vin.”
Gabe nods his head like it makes sense to him, and he’s probably thinking I’ve lost my mind, and really maybe I have. We’re silent for a moment, and I think maybe he has let the topic drop enough for me to wallow. Then he sighs, and it’s a sound I can almost feel all the way to my bones and his eyes flicker to me. He has the look of the boy that saved me so long ago on Austin’s front yard, like his heart is breaking because I’m in pain.
“
You know, I really hope we make past the border and outrun the bombs, because……. I’d really like to spend the rest of my life with you Magdalena. No matter how long that may be.”
I look at him so fast, that my head spins and leaves me feeling dizzy and nauseas at the same time. All I can think is wow, for a second, and I know I have this goofy grin on my face as I watch him. I lean towards him without thinking, and place a soft kiss onto his warm cheek, and pull away to sit back in the next second.
“
I love you Gabriel.” I say softly.
He is smiling now and trying his best to keep his eyes on the road before us, when Dan sits up awake with a yawn.
“
You guys are rather cheesy, did you that?”
Embarrassed, I turn away and stare out the window again with my cheeks on fire. Dan is chuckling and yawning at the same time, which makes him sound like a hyena, yeah that’s him alright. Gabe doesn’t say anything and just snatches my hand in his.
I’m okay with that.
That is until we reach Vermont, and have to pass through a City before the borders of Canada.
I sit up tense, when the number of cars picks up, and it’s difficult to not miss the amount of the dead in the area getting larger too. They all shuffle along in the background stiffly and I notice that they sense us even in the car. That’s when I hear the planes begin to pass above in the sky. The sound chills the blood inside me, and I pray to anyone listening that we make it out of here before the explosions hit.
Traffic slows down now, the farther we get out of the small city street we go down and then it comes to a stop all together. We are at the back of a long line leading to what I believe is the border of Canada; and it doesn’t sit well with me knowing it’s still about a mile away. There are hundreds of the dead here all around us, and they all shuffle closely to one another so that they appear almost as one body. The only thing I think to describe them is that they look like what I would call a horde; for that is what they are. They are close enough that they push against the car, but they don’t try to get in, almost like they know we aren’t a threat to their numbers.
That thought alone makes me think that they really can sense that there is more of the living in this area, or at the very least that they just followed everyone here? I guess it doesn’t really matter either way, because they are still out there and we still have to get out eventually. A deep ruble passes along the ground below us, and shakes the car, like an earthquake.
It’s not one though, because through the side mirror of the car I can see a bright light filter from the ground and rise into the sky in the distance. I gasp in alarm then, as we all hear the bombs going off, they sound so close even though I see that they are far off still.
Gabe pulls the car to a stop with the other vehicles in front of us do the same, and Dan quickly wakes up Maria and Michael, as all I can do is stare out of the window. I’m completely speechless and absolutely afraid for our lives when I see the stretch of land between the border is mostly grassland and tree’s except for the occasional house, but the dead fill in the empty space completely and push still into the space where all the living are; which isn’t as many as I would like.
Then there is the thing that makes me hold my breath, at the end of the road to the border there is a twenty foot high wall blocking any entrance. For some reason, I really don’t think the wall has always been there, but the question is how did it get their so fast.
A throbbing pain forms behind my eyes then.
I have the feeling it’s not going to go away any time soon.
Chapter Eighty Five
All around us there are people jumping out of their cars and braving it into the mass of the dead that are everywhere. They all fall to the ground before my eyes, and I swear that I can almost feel the teeth of the dead as they bite into the flesh of all the living they catch. The sky is filled with planes as they pass overhead, and I have a sense of urgency; that we’re running out of time.
It doesn’t feel very real though suddenly or maybe it’s just the throbbing of my temple as if it’s a living breathing thing, which makes me feel this way. As I look over the mass of bodies the dead and to the gigantic wall that is before us, I honestly can’t see an entrance anywhere in sight. That doesn’t seem very logical though, there has to be a door or something, right? We can’t just have a warning to flee, and then when we make it to the end, we get trapped.
The ones that sent us here, wouldn’t be trapping us would they?
My head is throbbing, so profusely now. It’s hard for me to really concentrate on anything. I’m about to ask the others in the car if they can see anything that I can’t. A rush of dizziness gives me a breathless pause. Feeling distant and almost outside myself, I hear Gabe tell my brother Dan to open the back hatch to the trunk, because they are going to need ammo. I want to tell them to stop, and to not get something we won’t need.