Desolation (17 page)

Andrew looked over at her, teeth chattering.

 

“I’m guessing this isn’t exactly how you remember it?” Andrew
said.

“Well back then I usually had beer, a campfire, and good
friends,” Jerri said with a smirk. “Now I have a baby, a dope fiend, and a
cop for company. It’s also a lot colder than I remember.”

Andrew laughed.

 

“Sometimes you have to make do,” he said.

Jerri smiled.
“What kind of things did you do… before?” she asked.
“What? Before I found my calling working at Best Buy?”
Jerri laughed.

Chris, walking ahead of the group, rolled his eyes. He was starting
to feel like he was coming down with the flu, the first effects of morphine
withdrawal. It had been over twenty-four hours since he last got high.

“Well,” Andrew mused, “I guess I liked to travel more than
anything else.” He stopped and looked over at her. “I guess that’s kind of
a cheap answer, isn’t it?”

Jerri nodded.
“Everyone says that they love to travel,” she said.

“Well I meant it,” he said in his defense. “I went to every state
that counted…”

 

“Which states didn’t count?” Jerri asked, curious.

“Most of the mid-west and the deep south,” Andrew said. “I
think it’s now safe to add Arizona to the list. Fuck the Grand Canyon.
Just send me a post card.”

Jerri laughed. As much as she hated to admit it, the guy had a
certain charm about him.

“How about you? Did you travel much?” Andrew asked.
Jerri shook her head.

“I never left the state, being busy with work and all,” she said. “I
was going to take a huge trip to New York… but the Piedmont Flu saw
an end to that dream.”

“Busy with work? Don’t tell me that you sold televisions too,”
Andrew said with a smile.

 

Jerri grinned.

“No, I actually went to college, thank you very much,” she said in
a playful tone. “I worked part-time as a manager trainee at a rental car
outlet.”

Andrew laughed.

 

“Rental cars?! Sorry, but that doesn’t sound much better,”
Andrew said, elbowing her. “I think I won the job competition.”
Jerri punched his arm.

 

“Well if only I had a few more years then I’d be firmly on top!”
she proudly announced.

 

“Too bad the world ended before you had your big break, eh?”
Andrew said.

 

They both smiled and then looked straight ahead, smiles fading.
“Do you really think it spread across the whole world?” Jerri
finally asked.

 

Andrew shrugged.

 

“Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that I haven’t seen
any jets in the sky,” he said.

 

“True… and I haven’t seen any pesky Canadians trying to come
down here to escape the cold,” she added.

They both looked at each other and started laughing.
Chris stopped walking and stared ahead, bewildered at the sight.
The dirt road had finally come to an end.
“Guys, I think we’ve reached the end of the road,” he said.

Andrew walked ahead and stood next to Chris, surveying the
scene ahead.

The road ended at a derelict helipad and a small dilapidated
shack. The helipad’s asphalt was cracked and the painted yellow ‘H’ had
mostly peeled away. The shack was weather-beaten and its two windows
were shattered. The door was swung halfway open. An army jeep, covered
in sand, sat next to the shack; one of its rear tires was flat. A gas pump sat
next to the jeep. A ramshackle chain-link fence encrusted with rust
surrounded the area and portions of the fence had toppled against the
ground.

Andrew knew it was once the research team’s old transportation
hub, the place the white-suits landed when they flew in from Camp 7.

“Think that jeep still runs?” Chris asked, staring at it.
Andrew gave him a threatening glance.

“I don’t know… you’d know better than I would, right?” Andrew
asked.

 

Chris looked away, embarrassed.

 

“Right, well…” Chris stammered. “It’s been a while since I’ve
been here.”

 

“Quite a while, judging by the look of things,” Jerri said with
suspicion.

 

Chris offered her a nervous smile and habitually scratched at the
crook of his left arm.

 

“Come on,” Andrew said as he started walking towards the shack.
“Let’s go check it out.”
26
A
ndrew pushed the rusty gate open and drew his gun.

Jerri followed behind him, holding Jacob tight. The baby was still
fast asleep but she knew that when he woke up he would be hungry and
she wasn’t even sure if she could feed him. She never even had a child
before and wasn’t even sure if she could lactate. In her youth came certain
ignorance.

Chris trailed in the back, looking over his shoulder and scratching
his arm habitually.

As Andrew approached the shack, the cracked door swung open
and two javelinas scurried out of the shack, snorting and grunting as they
bounded past the intruding humans.

Andrew fell backwards onto the ground and dropped the gun as
one of the skunk pigs knocked against his legs in its hasty retreat.
Jerri screamed as the two animals brushed past her; she felt their
bristly fur catch on her pants and smelled their noxious stench.
Chis ducked down and covered his head, cowering as the pigs ran
past him.

 

The pigs retreated into the desert night and disappeared in the
horizon.

Andrew, embarrassed, got back on his feet and picked up his gun
as the group composed themselves and the still of the night returned once
again.

“I always hated those things,” Jerri muttered, cradling Jacob who
was awake and crying.

 

Andrew took a deep breath and stepped into the shack.

The interior of the shack was dirty and the floor was covered
with sand and shards of glass from the shattered windows. Thorny
shrubbery, tattered clothes, and clumps of mud made a crude nest in the
corner of the room, undoubtedly courteously of the former hooved
residents. A bench sat against the rear wall and two military lockers, both
of which were still sealed shut, sat next to the bench. An army cot sat
against one of the walls, covered in cobwebs. A weathered sign with a dry
erase marker attached to it on a chain hung above the bench:

Despite the devastation, a result of derogation combined with the
aftermath of a desert storm, it didn’t appear like a human had been in the
derelict shack for quite some time.

Andrew hurried to the lockers and searched through them,
throwing the mounds of trash stored in them out onto the floor. Empty
MRE containers and old books filled both lockers.

Jerri stood in the doorway and stared at the sign on the wall,
tilting her head.

 

“Skybridge?” she asked, looking over at Andrew.

 

Andrew didn’t answer and continued to search for anything of
value in the lockers.

 

“It’s how the camp moved their VIPs safely across the country to
other camps,” Chris answered, careful not to use the term ‘researchers’.
Jerri gave Chris a harsh glare and he looked down at the floor,
silent.

“Found some,” Andrew happily announced. He was holding a
green metallic ration box. “We’re lucky that nobody stumbled across this
place.”

He opened the box and handed Jerri and Chris each a small can
of beans, two energy bars, and a bottle of water.

 

Jerri, ravenous, tore open one of the energy bars with her teeth
and started to shovel it in her mouth.

 

“Careful,” Andrew warned. “We don’t know when our next meal
will be.”

The three sat on the bench and ate and drank, taking conservative
bites and careful sips. No matter how long you stretch it, a small meal is a
small meal and nobody felt satisfied.

Andrew and Jerri each managed to save one of their bars.
Andrew saved half of his water and handed to Jerri.
“For Jacob,” Andrew said.
Jerri smiled.
“Thanks.”
Chris left nothing behind.

Jacob lay in Jerri’s arms, crying, starving. His beautiful stared at
her and his tiny pupils sparkled. He really was a rare sight.

 

“I need to try to feed him,” Jerri said, looking down at the child.
She was nervous.

 

Andrew nodded.

 

“We’ll step outside,” he said as he stood and walked outside into
the cool desert air. “We have to talk over a few things anyway.”
Chris followed and closed the door behind him.

 

The two men walked to the end of the helipad and disappeared
into the darkness.

Jerri walked over to the cot, brushed off the accumulated
cobwebs, and sat down. She slowly lifted her shirt, hesitant, not even sure
how to proceed.

Jacob promptly took things over and started suckling. The baby
grew frustrated and suckled harder, hurting her.

 

It was no use; it just wasn’t going to happen.

 

After several minutes of trying, Jacob let go and started
screaming.

Jerri lowered her shirt back down and sighed.
Someone knocked on the door.
“Is it safe?” Andrew announced from outside.

“Yeah,” Jerri said, trying to drown out the kid’s wailing. She was
getting a headache.

 

Andrew opened the door and stepped inside, looking at the
crying child.

“I’m guessing no luck?”
Jerri shook her head.

“I figured…” he answered, walking over to the cot. He sat next
to her and looked over at her. “I have something that may be able to help.
Let me see the water I gave you.”

Jerri handed him the water bottle and watched as Andrew
reached into his pocket and pulled out two packets of glucose gel.
Andrew tore open the packs, put the gel into the water, screwed
the top on, and shook the mixture.

 

“What is that stuff?” Jerri asked.

 

“Sugar, basically,” Andrew said. “I always kept a few packs on
me, just in case I was about to crash.”

 

“You’re diabetic?” Jerri asked in disbelief. Most of the special
medical cases were the first fatalities in the camps.

 

“No, just constantly on the verge of starvation,” Andrew said.
“These were my last resort.”

 

He took the cap off of the water and held the bottle against
Jacob’s mouth.

 

Jacob stopped crying and started to lick and nearly choke on the
sweet concoction. Nevertheless, he ate and appeared to be satisfied.
Jerri looked over at Andrew and smiled.

 

“Thank you,” she said. “You could have kept those to yourself
and I never would have known… you could have let him starve.”
Andrew returned her smile.

 

“But I didn’t,” Andrew said. “And I wouldn’t. We’re going to be
fine, Jerri.”

Chris walked into the shack, avoiding making eye contact with
anybody, and sat huddled in the corner with his knees against his chest.
His body was trembling and he was sweating.

Jerri glanced over at Chris and frowned.

“What are we going to do?” she asked, bringing her attention
back to Andrew. “Our tour guide looks like he’s going to be going to be
detoxing for a few days…”

“True,” Andrew said. “But for now, we’re going to sleep and try
to get that jeep moving in the morning. All we have to do is find a way to
the interstate. I’m going to sleep in the jeep tonight and keep an eye
open… make sure that nobody sneaks up on us.”

“Don’t you need sleep?” Jerri asked, looking down at Jacob. The
baby had fallen asleep with the tip of his little tongue still in the water
bottle. She took the bottle from him and screwed the cap back on. At
least it would feed him for a while until they came across some real
supplies.

“I’ll get some here and there,” he said. “This is when being an
insomniac comes in handy.” He grinned. “Good night Jerri.”

Andrew walked outside and shut the door behind him. He didn’t
know how to break the news to her that the baby would most likely
starve, so he didn’t mention it. A premature baby required attention that
they just couldn’t facilitate.

Jerri stretched out on the cot with Jacob cradled against her chest
and closed her eyes.

 

Chris stared at her from the corner of the room.
27

J
erri woke up in her old dorm back in Camp 6. Her eyes slowly
adjusted to the moldy ceiling overhead and she took a deep breath. She
sat up and startled when she saw Mitch standing in the corner of the
room, leaning against the dresser.

“Hey sexy,” Mitch said with a smile. He was wearing his usual
pair of jeans and a gray hoodie. His sandy blonde hair looked as untamed
as always. He was holding a joint, nearly smoked all the way down. He
held it out to her. “Want a hit?”

She shook her head, confused.
“You know I don’t smoke,” she said, rubbing her temples.

Mitch nodded reflectively and sauntered over to her bed, sitting
next to her.

 

“Yeah I know,” he said, “but after all the shit you’ve been
through, I thought you might need to unwind.”

 

Jerri gave an exasperated sigh.

 

“What do you know about
anything
I’ve been through? You’re
dead!” she shouted. “You shouldn’t even be here!”

 

“Well,” he said, “I know that your new boyfriend is hiding
something from you.”