At least someone isn’t alone.
Martina lay in her bed for nearly an hour, staring at the ceiling as the weapon fire and dialogue of what sounded like Aliens seeped through the partially closed dividing doors. Her mind was filled with memories — her family fleeing to the mountains; a trip with Ben to the aquarium in Monterey; tossing a football with her brother in the backyard; a cough from the back room of the cabin; her mother’s eyes, rheumy and unfocused; her father dead.
All of them dead.
She pushed herself angrily out of bed, pulled on her shoes, and grabbed her jacket. As she passed the adjoining doors, she peeked into the other room. Riley and Craig were propped up on the bed, riveted by the movie, their arms around each other.
Quietly, Martina opened the main door and slipped outside.
The cold air made her cheeks feel as if they were freezing in place. Each exhalation created a cloud of vapor three times the size of her head. But the cold didn’t bother her at the moment. It was nice actually, a distraction.
She wandered down the road toward the freeway entrance. There was a Chevron gas station just ahead, and to her right a small strip mall that consisted of a jewelry store, an antique shop, and a combination mini-market and liquor store.
She almost kept walking, but something in the half-lit liquor store window caught her attention. Framing the top and sides were strings of silver and red garland, and sprayed on the glass in a frosted white:
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Christmas had been a week ago, a day that had gone uncelebrated as the world began to die. In fact, it had been almost exactly a week ago, which meant today…
She checked her watch. It was fourteen minutes until midnight. There was still time.
She hurried across the street to the liquor store and pulled on the door, but it was locked.
“Crap!”
She looked around. Typical cement blocks marked the ends of the nearby parking stalls. The blocks were old, and a few were cracked and broken. She grabbed a loose chunk of cement and slammed it through the glass window.
She looked at her watch again. Eleven minutes. No time to waste.
She ducked through the opening and searched the store for the rack she wanted. It took a few minutes, but she finally found it. Two bottles would probably be enough, but she grabbed three just in case, and stuffed them into a bag she found behind the counter. In another aisle, she snatched up a bag of plastic cups and headed back outside.
It was exactly 11:59 when she threw open the door to her room and flipped on the lights.
“Hey, everyone!” she yelled. “In here.”
She set her bags on top of the dresser and started unloading the bottles.
“What’s going on?” Noreen asked, only half awake.
“Get up,” Martina told her without looking back. “We don’t have much time.”
Suddenly alert, Noreen said, “Is something happening? Do we need to leave?”
Martina ignored her and ripped open the plastic holding the cups.
“What’s with all the noise?” Riley asked, walking into the room holding hands with Craig.
“Over here,” Martina said.
She ripped the foil wrapper off the top of the bottle, removed the metal safety cap, and popped the cork.
“Is that champagne?” Craig asked.
Martina smiled, and poured four even cupfuls.
“Come on!” She forced a cup into each of their hands.
“I don’t know,” Riley said.
“You just need to take a sip,” Martina said. She looked at her watch. “Okay, here we go. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six…”
“What are you doing?” Noreen asked as Martina counted.
“Five, four, three, two, one.” Martina raised her glass. “Happy New Year.”
Noreen was the first to laugh, then Riley followed, and finally Craig joined in.
“Happy New Year,” they said.
They all drank.
“Hey, this is pretty good,” Noreen said. “Can I have some more?”
“Sure,” Martina said. “It’s New Year’s.”
Another round of the wine was shared.
“I thought you were going to tell us we needed to run,” Noreen said.
“Why would we need to do that?” Craig asked.
“I don’t know. Could be anything.”
Martina knew exactly what her friend was thinking. “Don’t say it.”
“Don’t say what?” Riley asked.
“I swear, Noreen, if you say it…”
“I didn’t,” Noreen said.
“Didn’t say what?” Riley pressed.
“Didn’t say zom—”
“Noreen!” Martina said. “What did I just tell you?”
“Zombies?” Craig asked.
Noreen shrugged. “Maybe.”
Riley rolled her eyes. “Oh, great. Now I have that in my head.”
Martina looked at her. “Your fault. You kept asking.”
They laughed and joked about it for a while and had some more champagne.
When the conversation lost some of its steam, Craig said, “I’m not really sure we should actually be celebrating New Year’s. I mean, what’s there to celebrate?”
“The most important thing of all,” Martina said. “We’re alive.”
The others contemplated her response.
After several seconds, Craig raised his cup. “To being alive.”
The others raised theirs.
“To being alive.”
January 1st
Year 1
World Population
1,000,207,113
10
Sanjay peered out the third-floor window at the alley. It was still empty.
Where was she?
It shouldn’t have taken Kusum more than four hours at most to make the round trip, but five had already passed. He cursed himself for about the thousandth time. He should have been the one to go, not because he thought she was incapable, but at least he would know what was going on. Instead, he could only sit there as his anxiety spiraled out of control. But the decision had apparently not been his to make.
“You went for the close-up look of the survival station,” Kusum had said. “That means it is my turn.”
“Why do we need to take turns?”
She looked at him, clearly thinking it was a stupid question.
“Maybe we should both go,” he suggested, hoping for at least a partial victory.
“Someone needs to stay here and keep an eye on what is going on,” she said. “You are familiar with both the buildings and the people—”
“Not all the people,” he interjected.
“Many of them. You will stay. I will go.”
He was beginning to see the pitfalls of falling in love with a woman who was smarter and potentially more competent than he was. “If you take too long, I will come look for you,” he said.
“You will not,” she said. “If I do not return by sundown, you will go to the camp, but you will not come looking for me. Do you understand?”
“Sundown? Impossible. I cannot wait that long.”
“Sanjay,” she said, her voice mellowing in the way it did when she tried to point out the obvious. “There are many people counting on us now. If something happens to both of us, they will have no chance.”
“I will not let anything happen to you.”
“I know. And I love you for that. But do not come looking for me.”