So the plan was this: find something battery-powered to make noise close to the Vs and draw their attention away from the building. I would bike across the high school campus with the noise into the multi-purpose room. The Vs would follow me into the building. I would exit through the side doors, barring them behind me. Corrina would wait until they were all inside and then lock the entrance doors behind them. The Vs would be trapped and then we could help everyone down from the building and make our way back to the bike trail and get the hell out of town.
It didn’t sound like the greatest plan in the world, but we couldn’t think of anything better.
“Ready?” Corrina said.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said. I straddled my bike and checked the bungee cord that held a battery-operated music player in place. It had taken us scavenging through four houses to find a cordless device with actual speakers instead of an iPod or other earbud player. The chains we planned to lock the doors with had been easy to find in the first garage we’d hit. The locks were a little harder, but we were ready nonetheless.
Corrina took off around the corner of the building, chains and padlock in hand.
I pushed the ON button and cranked up the boombox volume. I’d tested it once already, in the house, to make sure this 90s tech still worked at all, but I held my breath all the same.
The CD spun up.
Suddenly Lady Gaga blared, the instruments starting low and then quickly rising in volume and fullness. I straddled the bike and pedaled toward the crowd of Vs milling around the building. I dared look up for a second and saw six faces peering down at me from the roof’s edge.
A mild wind started blowing against my back, carrying the sound better to the crowd.
Finally one V stopped fidgeting, cocked his head, and then turned to face me.
A lump rose in my throat. My mind screamed to turn around now, but one V’s attention was not enough.
I pedaled to within a football field’s length of the crowd. A few more turned their heads, then went back to bumping into one another.
“Hey!” I squeaked. I gulped down a deep breath and forced the next yell from my belly. “Hey! Over here!”
Now a half dozen Vs turned. I kept pedaling to them. Now only fifty yards away. I needed more.
Suddenly one began sprinting. Sprinting with a limp, but eating up distance all the same. I wasted precious seconds to make sure others followed his lead, and then I fishtailed the bicycle around. The boombox shifted, slipping halfway out of the bungee cord tie, dangling over my back wheel.
I straightened the bike but did not reach for the player. The lead Vs were only yards away now. In spite of the music, they were so close I could hear their hard breathing, the slaps of their shoes, those that still wore shoes, the grunt of pain from one of them, the smell of ripe body odor and urine and worse. In spite of my injured leg, I put all my weight into the downstroke and stood up for more momentum. I rode in a straight line to the open multi door and hoped the player would stay attached long enough to make it into the building.
I almost flew over the handlebars as the bike slowed. I screamed, pumped the pedals again. The bike moved slowly but did not fall over. A V had latched onto the player, pulling the player off my bike, but the cord was still attached, acting like an anchor.
I tried reaching back and unhooking the cord, but this only made me wobble dangerously. Other Vs closed in on the box.
“Corrina!” I screamed.
One V stared at me with bloodshot eyes. He twisted his head at the player and then back at me. Then he took a step toward me, then looked back at the player. Then another step toward me.
Corrina came running, the knife in her hand glinting in the sun. She slashed at the bungee cord. It snapped back and stung me on the cheek. A group of Vs collapsed on top of the player, but others still advanced.
“This way!” Corrina yelled. She ran backwards, facing the Vs, waving her hands around, yelling and screaming. “This way, this way!”
Suddenly the player died and the music stopped. Vs pushed past those who had stopped for the player. I jumped back on my bike and rode after Corrina.
The thick crush of their bodies sent an overwhelming aroma of sewer that enveloped me like a cloud. Their grunts and groans sent hot air across my neck. I knew, I just knew any moment that something would grab my shirt and yank me off the bike and I would fall to the ground under a pile of bodies and they would suffocate me with their filth and make me bleed with their violence.
My front tire crossed the building’s threshold and slipped sideways across the slick, polished floor. My balance shifted, tilted. I slammed a foot down and a sharp pain shot up my shin. Corrina waved to me at the opposite side—the door open, the light silhouetting her body.
“Go faster!” she screamed.
I wanted to yell back something about how I would take my damn time if I felt like it. What the hell did she think I was trying to do?
Halfway across the space decorated with flags and banners displaying softball tournament wins, I risked looking over my shoulder. The door had created a bottleneck, but a half dozen had tumbled through and were racing for me.
“Go, go, go!” Corrina screamed.
I didn’t look back again.
I flew past the doors and the sunlight blinded me with its intensity. My tires hit the rough asphalt with a slap and I traveled another few yards before forcing on the brakes.
Sweat slicked my hands and made them slippery on the handlebars. My heart pounded so hard in my chest I couldn’t hear very well. My legs felt like jelly. Corrina struggled with the chains and lock. Vs pushed the door out a few inches.
“Watch out!” I raced back to her side, jumped off the bike and slammed my own weight into the door. My shoulder took most of the shock but I ignored the pain. Corrina wrapped the chains twice through the handles and clicked the lock in place.
“The other side,” she said, a crazy light shining in her brown irises. Her face was streaked with dirt from somewhere. Her mouth formed a rectangular grimace around the teeth she bared. “You go around one way, I’ll go the other.”
“We should stick together,” I said.
“No.” She shook her head and took off.
I wanted to shake her. I didn’t want to go around the building, I didn’t want to meet a V by myself. I didn’t want to be alone but she was already gone.
One of the Vs slammed against the door, bucking it out, but the chain held.
I scrambled backward and ran around the side, leaving my bike but pulling out my bat. A V turned the far corner and sprinted for me.
I centered my weight on my feet, aimed, took an extra second to breathe, and swung. She dropped to the ground. I continued running and slammed my back against the wall just before turning the corner. I peeked. The space was mostly empty except for a group of Vs struggling against each other to get into the building. The player lay scattered in glinting black pieces on the asphalt. I held back, hoping they would all go inside as long as they didn’t see me.
The last V, a teenager who had maybe once gone to school here, was the last one in. I raced to the doors, threw aside my bat and grabbed the chains coiled in a pile behind the cement trash can. I pressed the doors shut and then there was another set of filthy hands over mine.
I yelped and jumped back.
“Cool it,” Corrina said. “Hurry up.”
I laced the chains through the handles several times. Corrina snapped on the padlock. We both stepped back, waited.
Shuffling feet, more groans, and that sewer smell again. The breeze made one of the plastic pieces skitter across the ground. A bird chirped.
One of the Vs slammed against the door. I jumped.
“Corrina!”
I followed the sound. Dylan waved and ran to her. Corrina met him halfway and he lifted her and kissed her hard on the mouth.
I walked past their little reunion and admitted to myself that if not for Corrina and her knife I would be dead by now.
The rest of the group straggled across the campus. Ricker and Ano walked on either side of Maibe, helping her stand. Spencer came last, behind Jimmy, Kern, and Laurel.
■
The group sat in a circle in the middle of the athletic fields. It would let us see anything coming our way even as the knee-high grass provided some camouflage. Though it also made Jimmy break into a rash and itch like crazy.
Dylan was still awake, sitting with his arm around Corrina. Fires still burned, but the grass smell that surrounded us helped mask it.
Maibe’s memory-fever was gone, but she kept throwing up. The wound on her arm was festering. It was bright red, swollen, hot to the touch, oozing a pus that kept coming back no matter that we’d cleaned it three times. She needed medicine.
Ricker helped Maibe down onto the grass and she fell into a troubled sleep. He brushed hair back from Maibe’s forehead. Ricker had always been whip-thin, but it was worse now.
No one spoke about the Vs trapped in the multi other than to thank Corrina and me for saving them. We were leaving the Vs to die a slow death. I sort of did and didn’t care. They had tried to kill me and my friends. Sick or not, human or not, I wasn’t going to forgive that. There were no right answers. Better not to think of them at all. We couldn’t help them, we could only worry about our own safety. But that was easier said than done.
Kern pointed at Ano’s arm of scars. “What’re those for?”
When Ano only answered with a steady stare, Jimmy said, “For people who have died.”
Kern looked around at each of us, his eyes catching on the ridged, white lines that formed messy, childish-looking names. He didn’t say anything more about it. Instead he searched the inside of his bag and began pulling out little packets. He did it without a word, but the crinkle of plastic wrappers drew our attention. The yellow caught my eye first—peanut butter and chocolate. Bright, fire engine red for a package of candy. A green bag of vinegar chips. Even a few soda cans. He emptied the backpack until there was a small mountain of junk food in front of him. I tried not to picture how the chips would taste: salty and sharp on my tongue.
“So, who wants what?” Kern said.
Jimmy reached over first, but stopped before touching any of it.
Kern looked around and raised his eyebrows. “This isn’t a trick or something. I raided a gas station when we first woke up.”
“And you took all the junk that would make you sick?” I said.
Kern squinted at me. The bag of chips seemed to stare at me too. “I’m trying to say thanks for letting us tag along.”
“We’d like to come along, if you don’t mind,” Laurel said.
“I mind,” I said. “I don’t know you and I don’t trust you.”
“We could use all the help we can get,” Corrina said.
Corrina and I had come to a truce of some sort, but that didn’t mean I had to agree with her, but I also couldn’t get up enough energy to fight her on this.
“We could all help each other out for awhile,” Dylan said. “I’m not back up on my feet yet, not really. Right now I’m a burden, which means you’re more likely to get killed hauling me around—”
“We’re not leaving you behind,” Corrina said.
“I know,” Dylan said. “I’m not suggesting that. But that does mean we could use more help, more muscle than just a bunch of kids.”
“Go to hell,” Ano said.
I silently cheered at Ano’s words.
“Who do you think saved your ass?” Ricker said.
“That’s not what I meant,” Dylan said. “I’m sorry. I know neither of us would be alive without your help.”
I waited for Ano to rip Dylan again, but there was only silence.
Jimmy looked back and forth between me and Kern. His hand still hovered over the chocolate peanut butter bar.
“Take it, kid,” Kern said, smiling. “I promise I didn’t secretly poison it—like Gabbi over here seems to think.”
Jimmy still didn’t move. Now everyone seemed to be looking back and forth between Kern and me. Everyone except Spencer. He still looked out over the field. I scowled.
A hint of a smile appeared on Ano’s face. “I claim the chips.”
Kern smiled back and tossed over the bag. I burned holes into Ano’s head. He popped open the bag and crunched down on the first chip, looked at me, looked back at the bag. Laughed. He tossed the bag into my lap. “I’m full. Do you want the rest?”
I took the first, delicious chip out of the bag before I even knew what I was doing. Jimmy dove for the chocolate bar, which made Laurel laugh. Corrina and Dylan split a soda and Ricker took a package of candy. Spencer took nothing.
Kern drained his soda and tossed the can into the grass.
My first impulse was to snatch it up for the recycling money. I saw it in Ano too, the way his muscles tensed even though he was sitting. He shook his head and half-smiled.
“So what’s next?” Laurel asked.
“We get out of the city,” Ano said. “We get medicine for Maibe.” He didn’t say anything about Dutch Flat.
At the sound of her name, Maibe moaned. It was good that Dylan was awake, for however long that lasted. Maibe would need the trailer.
Kern looked at me for confirmation on Ano’s words. I shrugged.
“Good chips?” Kern said.
I turned onto my stomach without answering and licked the last of the salt and vinegar from my fingers.
Kern laid flat on the grass on his back. He was only several feet away now. His arm stretched up and over his eyes to block the sun. This pulled up his shirt enough to reveal dirt-streaked, well-defined muscle, and a strip of hair that disappeared into his jeans.
I pinched myself hard and twisted around to stare up at the sky. Now was not the time for a crush.
I turned and focused on the blades of damp grass in front of my nose. An ant crawled along the underside as if its whole world hadn’t fallen to pieces. You never trusted somebody out of the goodness of your heart—whether they shared junk food with you or not. They always betrayed you. But fighting off the Vs would fall to Ano and me, and we weren’t enough, and I didn’t know what should come next.
I tore the blade of grass in half and threw it into the air. It spun and drifted to the ground a few feet away. Let’s see the ant put the pieces back together now.