“I’d like one more night in a bed, if you don’t mind,” Romie said. “I’m not anxious to try to stay awake after eating my weight in canned food.”
“We should at least have a guard out there with the vehicles,” Ted said. “I’m going out there. If you hear two shots in a row, I need help.” Ted pushed up from his chair and headed to his room. He returned with a backpack, sleeping bag, and thick jacket.
“See you all in the morning,” he said.
“I’ll be out to check in with you in a couple of hours,” Brad said. “Don’t shoot me.”
“Stay well-lit with a flashlight, and I won’t.” Ted said, smiling.
“We’ll be there at sunrise,” Robby said.
“Night, all,” Ted said, closing the door behind himself.
Pete moved to the sliding-glass doors and looked down in the direction of the highway.
“Can we go over the list one more time?" Lisa asked.
Romie practically bellowed—“That’s it for me. I’m hitting the sack. A decent bed for the last time in a long time, I’m sure.” She kept talking as she moved towards the door. “If your shower hadn’t burned down with the rest of the place, I’m not even sure I’d be going with you on this little errand. I miss showers.” She closed the door behind her, but the others could still hear her complaining as she made her way to the apartment down the hall that she shared with Lisa.
“I wish we had enough people to drive in shifts so we didn’t have to stop,” Sheila said. She’d been sitting on a stool at the bar, but when Romie left she’d moved to her spot on the small couch. The four seated people—Sheila, Lisa, Robby, and Brad—leaned in closer to each other now that their number was diminished. Pete stayed at the glass door, still looking for Ted.
“Luke’s probably got the rest of them all killed by now,” Pete said.
Robby’s head dropped. The young man looked down at the floor.
“I’m sorry, Robby. I didn’t mean it. I’m sure Judith is fine,” Pete said.
“Call her Judy,” Robby said. “Her brothers used to call her Judith when they’d tease her.”
Pete nodded. He turned back to the view and then reached for binoculars from the end table.
“Hey,” Pete said, “kill the light, will ya?”
Brad dimmed the lantern until the mantle glowed cherry-red.
“Yup,” Pete said, peering through the binoculars out into the night. “That’s him. He’s headed for the tractor in the middle.”
Sheila swirled her mug. Just a trace of coffee clung to the bottom. “I’m never getting to sleep tonight unless I have something a little harder.” She stood and made her way to the kitchen.
“Maybe you should lay off the coffee?” Lisa called out.
“It’s decaf,” Sheila said. Her voice carried easily from the kitchen. She came back with a fresh cup of coffee, topped off with enough creamer it glowed in the dim light. In her other hand she carried a bottle of Irish cream.
Brad squinted to see the bottle she set down on the table. “Is it still good?” he asked.
“Says two years after opening,” Sheila said. “Tastes good and smells good, too,” she added, holding the bottle under her nose.
“Let me get two fingers of that,” Brad said, holding out his glass. His first sip was barely a drop, but he liked the taste. He drained his glass in two good mouthfuls. Heat bloomed in his belly.
“What do you think, Robby? You want to get drunk for the first time?" Sheila asked.
“I’m off to bed,” Robby said. “I’ll make a hot breakfast in the morning.”
“Don’t go to bed. I didn’t mean anything by it. I swear,” Sheila said.
Lisa put her hand on Sheila’s shoulder.
“It’s okay,” Robby said. “Night.”
Robby disappeared down the hallway to his room.
Pete wrapped the cord around the binoculars and took a seat next to Brad. With a sigh he stretched to reach a coffee mug from an end table. Pete wiped out the mug with a bandana before pouring himself a generous helping of whiskey.
“Ted get settled?” Lisa asked Pete.
Pete shrugged as he took a gulp of whiskey. “He’s in the middle tractor. I don’t know how settled he is.”
“Isn’t he the one who said we should always stay together?” Brad asked.
“Yup,” Pete said.
Brad poured himself another half-inch of the Irish cream.
“He misses his wife,” Sheila said. “Marie.”
“Does he think he’s going to find her out there?" Pete asked.
“Don’t be cruel, Pete,” Sheila said. “He’s heartbroken.”
“Aren’t we all?” Brad asked.
“I haven’t had time to be heartbroken,” Lisa said. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but just surviving takes up most of my time. And hauling corpses for Robby, of course.”
Pete muttered a single “huh” into his cup as he took another sip of whiskey.
“I wonder what the others are doing right now,” Lisa said. “You know, the people who went with Luke.”
“What was the name of Robby’s friend? Judy?" Sheila asked.
“Yes,” Brad said. “Judy.”
“They were so close,” Lisa said. “You could almost see Robby’s place from where me and Romie were living, and Robby and Judy went everywhere together. They were really close. I can’t believe he wasn’t more broken up when she decided to go with Luke instead of coming with us.”
“He’s just a boy,” Sheila said. “Kids that age don’t get upset about anything except zits and video games.”
“You know him better than that,” Lisa said.
“I know the face he chooses when he’s around us,” Sheila said. “But I don’t pretend to know who he really is. You can’t really know someone if they haven’t even figured out who they are yet.”
“You sound like my former brother-in-law,” Pete said. “He was always saying inscrutable shit.”
“All I meant was that Robby hasn’t lived long enough to know how he really feels about anything. Don’t you remember how morally ambiguous the world was when you were a teenager?" Sheila asked. “Robby’s a little too young to get broken up about Judy leaving.”
Brad shifted in his seat and rolled his mug between his hands. “I think he was really upset; is really upset. He’s just good at hiding it.”
“Does that mean we shouldn’t trust him?" Lisa asked.
“I never said that,” Sheila said. “I still think his reasoning is sound.”
“I do too, or I wouldn’t be here,” Pete said.
Brad sipped his whiskey and thought about Pete’s statement. He didn’t share the man’s sentiment. He’d told Romie that Robby’s theories could only be proven through testing. Trust in the reasoning didn’t enter the equation. So why was he risking his life? Brad chose to stick with the group because they seemed like good people, and he’d rather be with them than be alone. The world had become a dangerous place with little hope of survival. Why not risk his life? Wasn’t every potential move in this new world a risk?
“I used to have a girlfriend from college who lived in this building,” Sheila said.
Pete raised his eyebrows and cocked his head.
“Not that kind of girlfriend, you pervo,” Sheila said. “Kendra lived down on three. Sometimes I’d come over from Westbrook and spend the night on her divan. We’d walk down to the Old Port on a Friday night.”
“Party girls,” Pete said.
“This part of town was so wholesome back then,” Sheila said. “Even the homeless guys were pretty decent. Kendra tripped on a curb on Chapel Street one time. She busted her knee up really bad. One street person ran and got a cop to call an ambulance. I mean he didn’t really run, he kinda shambled up the street, but still. What a nice town. In Westbrook they would have stabbed us, robbed us, and left us for dead.”