Hot Zone (13 page)

“I walked around the cabin, in wider and wider circles. I was thinking that I’d heard all sort of tales from people, and the one that was repeated the most was of people just running off into the woods, unable to stay in houses or towns anymore. There are a significant group of these people, and I think I might have seen traces of some of them as I drove there and back. I wonder if they’re grouping together. They certainly are not just going out to die. I’ve heard from several people that they’ve seen them running through the woods, always keeping away from the people.

“And as I did the circles, I started to wonder if that is what had happened to one or both of your parents. There were footprints out there, some way from the cabin. Enough time had passed that I couldn’t tell how many footprints there were, or where exactly they went, but I know there were at least two different people out there, maybe more. Some of the prints were of shoes, and the larger ones were barefooted. And they had stayed near the cabin for a time—in one area there was some evidence of a kind of … nest. You know, pine boughs and some pieces of clothing.”

I just stared at him.

“You know what people are calling those people who ran off like deer? Runners. I think maybe that one or both of your parents went runner.” He watched me anxiously.

“Oh, God.” I sighed. Was that better than dead? To think of Mom and Dad just out there like wild animals? Wouldn’t they die of exposure? And to have a sort of nest? That was just horrible.

Tucker put his arms around me, and I leaned into him. I couldn’t let myself cry, not right now, anyway. Still, I appreciated his offer of comfort. Finally I stepped back away from him, trying to put a smile on my face. “Thank you for telling me, and for looking for them. It really means a lot to me.”

“Madde, I wasn’t sure if you would be better of not knowing—if it would upset you more to think of them that way.”

My smile became a shade more genuine. What had we done to deserve this guy? “No, I’m glad to know. I just can’t fall apart right now with the creepy Gabriel triplets waiting for me.”

“Yeah, that’s another thing. Everywhere I went there was a buzz—Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel. He’s really . . .” He shook his head, looking for the appropriate word, “Dominating the area. It makes me a little nervous. How is he doing it? Why is he doing it? I doubt it’s just to help out. And since so many people seem to have or be developing certain talents that they never had before, what sort of gift has helped vault him into the upper echelons of power?”

I frowned. I was glad he was skeptical of Gabriel. In my humble opinion, far too many people just accepted him and didn’t think past the obvious PR. On the other hand, he’d made me nervous with new ideas I hadn’t considered. Gabriel had some kind of gift? A gift that no one could deny? Did I want to get within a mile of this guy?

“I don’t know,” Tucker said as if he could read my thoughts. As far as I knew, maybe he could. “I don’t think we really have a choice. But I’m going with you.”

“No,” I said suddenly. I wasn’t sure why I thought this was a bad idea. “I want you to stay here and keep things together while I’m gone. As ridiculous as it sounds, I’ve become a sort of … leader around here. And while Meri knows everything that is happening, she is way too sweet to lead. She’d give everybody whatever he wanted. It wouldn’t work. But you can do it.” I rubbed my forehead absently. “I’m afraid, Tucker. I’m afraid if I go and see Gabriel I’ll turn pod person like everyone else who is around him. Or maybe he’ll threaten me or something. I don’t know. But I do know I will feel a little better if you’re here. If I come back and I don’t seem like me anymore, then I trust you to kick my ass if necessary.”

He gave a low laugh but shook his head. “You can’t go alone.”

“I’m not sure I have a choice.”

He thought for a moment, finally shaking his head. “You shouldn’t go alone. It would look—weak.”

I hadn’t thought about that.

Someone stuck her head in the door. It was Phil. “Oh, here you are.” She eyed us. “Did I interrupt something? Your colors are blended.”

I shrugged and glanced at Tucker. He shrugged back, mystified.

I grinned suddenly. “Tucker!” I said with mock severity. “Keep your colors to yourself!”

As soon as I said it I hoped I hadn’t offended him. I needn’t have worried. He shrugged as if guilty. “I can’t do a thing with them.”

Our joking flew right past Phil. “Everyone is looking for you. Those Gabriel boys are freaking out,” she said softly.

I threw a glance at Tucker as I hurried out of the room. I went back into the main room as someone, I wasn’t sure who, called out, “Here she is.”

The leader of the Gabriel triplets came up to me, his face tight. “We believed you were trying to leave.”

“You were wrong, and even if you were right, it would be none of your business.”

He scowled at me. “We—”

I cut him off. “I’m coming with you as a courtesy, not as a prisoner. Remember that.” I deliberately turned my back on him, my head giving a twinge. I fully expected the man to grab my shoulder, and wasn’t exactly sure what I’d do if he did. But as I threw a glance back at him, he looked calmer, if not more docile. Imagine that. Someone actually seemed to find me a little scary. I wanted to laugh out loud.

Tucker was talking to a group of people in one corner of the room, Meri at his side.

I looked about and realized that most of these people had become family of a sort. Fred, Pewter, little Jacob, Granny … oh man, was Granny talking to the Gabriel group? This I had to hear. I drifted closer, eavesdropping.

“But I don’t understand.” Granny insisted, actually grabbing one Gabriel-man’s arm with her claw-like hand.

“He is a great man,” the Gabriel-drone said. “People see that.”

“No, really,” Granny said dryly. “You know, they say even Jesus Christ had some people who didn’t like Him. Is he more likable than Jesus Christ?”

I started to choke with laughter and had to move away. Phil intercepted me. “Hey. Uh, I think you should be really careful.” She gestured towards the men who had come from Gabriel. “Their colors, their energy, is borrowed, or maybe changed.” She looked up at the ceiling. “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.”

My eyes widened. What the hell was this?

Phil looked back at me. “I’m okay. It’s just that their energy isn’t all just theirs, or maybe it’s infected.” She looked frustrated, and then shrugged, her calm look returning. “Just be careful.”

Tucker was waving at me. I went over where he had been talking to people. This cocktail party atmosphere was starting to get on my nerves. Not that I didn’t enjoy a party, but I was nervous and wondering if I could put this whole thing off for a day, or maybe a week?

Tucker seemed to know how nervous I was. The information he had told me about Mom and Dad was securely tucked away to be examined later. I just couldn’t afford to be distracted right now. Tucker took my hand and squeezed it, then let it go. “I really think it would be a good idea for you to bring several people with you. It would be like a delegation, instead of a hostage situation.” He grinned as he said the last part, hoping to make me smile, I think, but I was spooked by how close his thoughts were to my own.

“We talked about it.” He motioned to the people, mostly men, around him. Tucker was a good guy, but apparently not into female empowerment. Not sure at this moment that I was either. I noticed all the people would be people Tucker would know, except for Fred. He saw me look at him.

“I wanted to be part of it, and still do.” He gave Tucker a look. “But he believes it isn’t completely safe, and I have Jacob to think about.”

I smiled back at Fred. I think he would have been good if it was actually a delegation. But he was like a father now. Too bad. “No, I think he’s right, Fred. Thanks though.”

Tucker gave Fred a look that I couldn’t identify. Not jealousy, certainly. Maybe he just wasn’t completely sure about him. Tucker looked back at me. “We were thinking that Evan, Luis, Randy and Karen would go with you.”

I didn’t know any of these people well, although small towns being, well, small, I knew them all, technically. Tucker continued, “Evan is a paralegal, which is the closest thing we have to a lawyer right now. Luis was in the army, so he’d be good protection, if needed. Randy was in public relations over in Caroo, so we thought he might be the closest thing we have to Henry Kissinger.” Tucker grinned at me, and I saw Karen, who had known Tucker’s brother fairly well, and through him, the ‘old’ Tucker, shake her head in amazement. “Karen, well, I’ll let her tell you herself.”

Karen pulled her attention away from Tucker and looked at me. “Since I got sick, I sometimes get flashes of things that might be what people are thinking. Then again,” she added, blushing, “I could just be nuts. But Tucker thinks it might be really helpful.” Oh, I knew what she was thinking as she looked at Tucker, and I didn’t need to read minds. She was sweet on him. Hmm.

Tucker didn’t seem to see the admiration shining in her eyes—typical man—and turned back to me. “I really should ask you. What do you think about these choices? Do you think this will work?” He looked at me like I was able to pull out my magic wand and tell the future.

“I think it sounds great,” I said. In a quieter voice to Tucker, I said, “But I don’t have any ‘feelings’ about it one way or the other.” He nodded, understanding.

I looked around at the delegation. “Okay, well, I want to give everyone time to get things settled since I don’t know how long we’ll be gone. I will tell the group from Gabriel we can leave in the morning.”

Luis glanced over at them, where they were trying to look nonchalant, but were watching me carefully. “They aren’t going to like that.” He grinned at me, enjoying the idea of messing with them.

“Tough,” I said. I took a step towards them, but looked back. “Uh, should you do this, Henry?” I said to Randy, our Henry Kissinger.

Randy shook his head. “Oh, I doubt they would listen to me. And cut out the Henry crap. I’m nervous enough about this.”

“Sorry, Randy,” I said easily. I went over to the men, noticing that both Luis and Tucker flanked me. Ahh, he-men were so cute sometimes. And also I was a little less nervous now.

“Hi guys!” I said cheerfully. “We can leave in the morning. I have a few people who will be coming along. I can find you some beds here at the house, or you can find somewhere else if you wish.”

The leader frowned. “Gabriel said we were to return immediately. I don’t—”

“You certainly can return. We, however, will not be leaving until morning,” I said firmly, very glad of Tucker’s and Luis’ presence behind me.

The leader looked angry, then worried. “I don’t know.”

I felt a little sorry for him. He really looked like he didn’t know what to do. Was this Gabriel such a monster? Maybe I should be worrying about myself. “Look, I really doubt Gabriel will be mad. I’m sure he meant that you should come as soon as possible, and this is as soon as possible for us.”

The leader looked relieved as I said this and nodded in agreement. Either this guy didn’t have much of a mind of his own, or Gabriel didn’t like people making their own decisions. Ugh. Did I really have to go and meet this guy?

Meri appeared as if by magic, and led the guys to a place she had found for them to sleep. I’d lost track of who was sleeping where, so was extremely glad she was so organized. Tucker followed her. Luis turned to me. “I wonder if we’re going to actually get a choice in this process.”

“I know. Me too. But I haven’t heard anything about Gabriel being cruel or even raising his voice. People love him.”

Luis thought about that. “Yeah, well, Germany loved Hitler, too.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say.

Chapter 10: I Meet the Grand Poo-bah

We were driving in a little van/SUV-train to see the Great and Powerful Gabriel. Due to the number of people in our little delegation, we had our own van and were driving behind the creepy trio of Gabrielites. The leader (who still had never given his name. Maybe Gabriel had outlawed names. I had taken it upon myself to just name him Bob.) hadn’t liked us to be split up, but we had insisted. I really didn’t know why that was necessary, but Randy had decided a position of power would include us coming on our own, not escorted in like prisoners. He had a good point. He still wouldn’t let me call him Henry, though.

It was really humbling to see the destruction as we went through towns on the way. It shocked me anew each time, possibly because the countryside essentially looked the same as it always had, albeit emptier. Cattle grazing, farms waiting for spring, fields and trees. I wondered how many farms would be growing anything this summer, and how much the rest of the U.S. would miss the produce we grew here. But it wasn’t my problem, or was it? I still wasn’t sure how I had become the leader of our little group of survivors. I felt like I was in someone else’s dream, and was sent here and there with no say of my own.

And if I was a leader, what did that mean? We needed food, but just a few farms in the area would probably feed the whole town. We needed gasoline for the tractors and combines. We needed to keep the electricity working. We needed to protect ourselves.

That might be the hardest one of all. The Gabriel Trio had told us we should stop for no one. Apparently people would stop the cars along the way and rob them of their supplies or just kill them. I felt like maybe we had gone back to stagecoaches and robbers. If we were de-evolving that quickly, how long was it until we were worshipping fire and using clubs? No, I still had to believe that this was going to end. If I believed that, then all I needed to do was make sure people talked to each other and wait it out. I could do that.

It didn’t take all that long to get there. Obviously traffic was nonexistent until we got close to the cities. I was watching avidly now, and there were signs that roads that had been congested with cars had been cleared, and there were actually people in cars going about their business. We came in on I-35, taking the 35E option to take us to St. Paul where Gabriel had set up shop, and although we had to be routed to another road for a bridge that had been destroyed, it was mostly operational. We ran into serious trouble for driving when we got to the downtown area. Most of it was in ruins. Buildings had tumbled, and many showed evidence of fire. It was heartbreaking to see.