Chapter 11: Alice’s Friends, Part Deux

“So just who is it we’re picking up?” David asked, as they headed out to meet the mysterious Peter Alice had spoken to over the walkie-talkie earlier. They’d spent the morning helping Betty recover and reacclimate, including a mini ‘Welcome Back’ party, before finally putting her to bed under Tom’s watchful guard. That had taken a while, and then preparing to venture out had taken even longer, so by the time they managed to hit the road it was late morning, meaning whoever was waiting for them had been sitting on their hands for hours.

“Peter is a classmate of mine from Washington, DC,” Alice explained excitedly, leaning forward and peering out the windshield. “I don’t know how he got here, who he’s here with, or even how they managed to find us, but he said they came here looking for you, of all people.” David glanced at her in surprise, both by the fact that a classmate of hers could have found her after all this time, and that they’d be looking for him, not to mention that he’d survived at all. It was an incredible distance from DC to here, especially for a friend of Alice’s to manage.

David glanced in his rear-view mirror, confirming that the other two vehicles venturing out of the compound were still close behind. Curiosity about the new survivors had prompted the others to tag along. The three that had walked much of the way to David’s were interested in how Alice’s friends had gotten there; debating whether they’d walked as well. It was generally assumed they’d probably been driven by their surviving family members. Not knowing how many people they’d find, they took three separate vehicles, with David, Alice and Mattie leading the way in David’s old Suburban, Greg and Melissa in a spare SUV, and Monique and Debbie in a small panel truck they’d been using to transport scavenged finds. In a first for David, they’d actually stopped driving their dead truck since they’d cleaned up most of the streets. There were still plenty of dead animals in the woods, but those were harder to process.

Mattie remained silent in the back seat, but David could hear the steady click-click-click as the young girl loaded bullets into clips. “Do you know anything about the group?” David pressed, anxious to know what they were facing. “How many there are or what shape they’re in?”

“No,” Alice replied with a quirky grin, “if you’ll remember, we were a little distracted at the time. I simply told him we’d be by to see them and didn’t get into any details.”

David grunted, well aware of how unprepared they’d been for the distraction at the time, but still curious about whom they were meeting, a little nervous about it as well. “So what can you tell us about this Peter kid?” he finally prompted, still trying to fight off his exhaustion following the marathon with Betty over the past several days. His eyes still felt gritty—about all he’d had time to do was to scrub and disinfect himself, trying to rid himself of any contaminants remaining on him before they’d headed out. He felt sure he’d succeeded, but he’d been so nervous about it that his skin felt like it was burning, even now, as a result of how hard he’d scrubbed.

“Not much, really,” she said thoughtfully, trying to recall details about her friend. It seemed so long ago since she knew him. “He’s a kid from my school, but he wasn’t in my class. He was quiet, not real popular, but he seemed nice enough and did well in his classes, as much as I can remember. We never really interacted that much, but I know he lived near our neighborhood.” She shrugged, indicating there wasn’t much she could add to her limited description.

David grunted, frustrated at their lack of preparation. It showed the costs of his allowing himself and the others to get so distracted. There was no sense pushing for more information, though the others were busy guessing over the radio about what they might encounter.

Pulling up to the familiar police station that Peter had called from, they found it deserted. Climbing out, David, Alice and Greg held their guns at the ready, each scanning their surroundings, flinching at any imagined movements, suspecting the lack of anyone waiting might imply a potential ambush. Mattie remained by the cars with Monique, her gun at the ready, as well, to provide support or to defend the other women. Melissa remained alert behind the wheel, keeping the radio handy and prepared to take off at the first sign of trouble. However, still not seeing anything after reviewing their surroundings, and not being attacked as they’d feared, David finally turned to Alice expectantly.

Just as mystified as the others, Alice stepped forward, keeping her rifle pointing down but still holding it ready, scanning the quiet deserted building for any signs of movement. “Peter?” she called out, the sound echoing eerily off of the surrounding buildings. She called twice more before receiving any response.

A young boy stood, revealing himself from behind the cover of the long overgrown grass surrounding the public park near them. The boy, around Alice’s age, but standing about a few inches shorter and sporting longish brown hair cut in bangs straight over his eyebrows. He merely stood there, silently regarding David and his caravan without saying a word, eyeing them with suspicion.

Finally Alice broke the silence. “Peter?” she asked.

“Hey, Alice,” he responded, still sounding hesitant. “Is that you, Mr. Scott?” he added, addressing David directly, not taking his eyes off of him.

“Yes it is. Have we ever met?”

“No, sir, though my father knew you. He described you, and I’m pretty sure it’s you, but if you don’t mind, who were the kids who came to see you earlier?”

David had to smile. The kid was no dummy—when a bunch of people show up carrying guns, it only makes sense being cautious. “There was a bunch, but their names were Caitlyn, Sara, Amy, Julie and Erica,” he answered, motioning to the others to lower their guns.

With that simple assurance, Peter put two fingers to his lips and whistled loudly. At that, other figures started appearing. A tall thin girl with longer tangled blond hair dropped from a tree, a younger girl, equally blond, stood up from behind another patch of overgrown grass. A boy smaller than Peter with short cropped blond hair climbed out of a parked car, and finally an older girl, probably a teen ager, dropped from the roof of the police station. One by one, they moved to join Peter, standing beside him, still warily regarding David’s group.

“Nina, it’s good to see you again,” Alice called out, clearly recognizing one of the girls. The lanky blonde brightened, a broad smile splitting her dour face, but she didn’t shift from where she stood. Alice remained where she was, not moving or making any threatening gestures, not wanting to spook them. “Is that your sister, Wendy?”

“Yeah, it is,” the girl called back. “Man, it’s great to finally find you. We’ve been looking forever!”

She still didn’t move any closer, and neither did any of the kids, although they were clearly excited to have finally arrived. The smaller kids were dancing in place, yet they looked clearly nervous about approaching.

“We stayed behind because no one could reach us when Mrs. Scott took off searching for you,” Peter said, finally opening up, the words practically pouring from his mouth. “We helped our parents clean up the damages to our houses, and then they kept us indoors when people started getting sick.” The older girl with hair the same shade of his moved up behind him as if to protect him. Their similar colors and features make it pretty clear they were brother and sister. While he seemed to be about Alice’s age, his sister appeared to be older, somewhere in her mid- to late-teens.

“While they protected us by keeping us away from everyone else, our parents were talking to people every day. When my mother and a few others got sick, my father made a decision and started making plans with the other neighbors. They got us together and told us that we had to leave them behind, that they probably wouldn’t make it, and that if we stayed we’d only end up getting sick as well.” As the words tumbled out, tears appeared in his eyes and his voice trembled, but his sister, clearly yearning to hold and shelter him, remained behind him, not reaching out to touch him.

“He told us to stay away from anyone we met,” Nina interjected, the spindly girl taking up Peter’s story as the boy sniffed. “And to not ask for anything but to take whatever we needed from unoccupied houses, warning us that anyone we talked to would either try to hurt us or might infect us.”

All the kids looked thin and lean, as if they’d been struggling, both for food and physically working for the past couple of weeks. They had a certain hard look about them that signaled they’d been struggling on their own, and their clothes, while typical of kid’s clothes everywhere, looked worn and frayed.

“There used to be six of us,” Wendy added, sounding remorseful but refusing to let herself cry. The kids had clearly learned to face death every day, so they weren’t about to break down now, even though they were finally amongst friends at long last. “Another girl accompanied us. She was older, home for the summer from college, and she was supposed to watch out for us. But she was sick when we got up one morning and told us to take off without her, taking the car with us and abandoning her,” Wendy said, looking tearful as she said it, as if she’d been holding it in all this time, only now feeling free enough to admit such emotions before a group of strangers. Yet still, none of them actually broke down and actually cried.

“We didn’t want to leave her, but Jenny insisted,” Nina explained, pointing at the older girl shadowing Peter. “She shoved us into the car making us leave her behind.”

“It was our only choice,” Jenny said flatly, finally speaking for the first time. “It was rough, but as we watched the bodies continually increase, and more and more people getting sick, we knew it was for the best.”

“Well, you know who I am,” David said, pausing the kid’s story as he proceeded to introduce everyone with him. “Who are each of you?”

“My name is Jenny Thomas, I’m Peter’s sister,” the older girl behind Peter answered, not referring to anyone in a friendly manner, playing the role of senior matron; the one tough enough to order the others to abandon their companion. “The others are Wendy, Adam and Nina Foster.”

“How are you doing?” David asked, trying to shield his assault rifle behind his back and smiling to ease the kids’ minds, though he wasn’t having much luck with his rifle. “If you don’t mind, Monique here is a nurse and can check you out,” he added, waving to Monique, behind a protective Mattie standing in front of her holding her rifle proudly, though she kept it pointed well away from everyone. “We also have food if anyone is hungry.”

The kids all perked up at the mention of food, so seeing her chance Monique returned to the car and took out the bagged lunches, using them to purchase her acceptance into the group. As each one hungrily grabbed the sandwiches and began eating, she checked them over, gently asking about any accidents or injuries they’d had.

“We drove as long as we could, sleeping in the woods at night after we hid the car,” Peter continued speaking around a mouthful of food. “People would come by, and we saw them attacking and hurting others, so we were glad our father warned us, and we stayed away from others that much more.”

“We learned what to do through trial and error,” the younger boy named Adam related. “Whenever we came upon a house that was quiet we’d watch it, then Wendy would approach and call out. We figured if anyone would try anything, they’d do it if they only saw her, since she’s the youngest. If we saw any movement we’d run away, but if we didn’t, we’d wrap our shirts over our faces and Jenny would go in, grabbing whatever food she could while trying to avoid the bodies.”

“How long did the car last?” David asked, guessing why it had taken so long.

“It was rough. The roads were bad and abandoned cars blocked the roads, so we had to drive around obstructions.” Jenny resumed the tale. She was busy peeling open a treasured package of chips, but hesitated when Wendy Foster looked beseechingly at her. She reluctantly handed it to her, smiling as she continued. “We were stopped by a flat tire, rather than running out of gas. The other girl and I changed the first tire, but when we got a second flat we had no more tires. We ended up taking one off of another vehicle, but it didn’t match the car. It made it wobble and drive funny. When the next tire blew out, we knew the car couldn’t help us anymore, so we decided to walk.” Turning to the other girls she started issuing orders. “Nina, Wendy, grab our backpacks.” The other girls hurried to do her bidding while she wolfed down the rest of her sandwich.

“We walked until we found some bicycles in an abandoned house in a housing complex. We eventually found some for everyone. That was better, since the bicycles are better for getting around the rough roads and being silent, are easier to hide. We’d ride along the roads at night, then hide the bikes and sleep during the day with someone keeping watch, usually me.”

She paused, taking a deep breath. “We saw some horrible things, but we managed to avoid most of it, and since we never talked to or interacted with anyone, we never managed to get sick. But it took forever to get here as a result.”

“Peter and Jenny managed to repair our bikes whenever we’d get a flat, but we had to trade them in for newer ones every so often,” Wendy added as she dropped two backpacks beside Jenny, sounding as if the simple task of changing a bicycle tire was a vital service helping them all survive.

“If you’re interested, we’ve got hot food back at the house,” Alice suggested.

The kids’ heads shot up at this news. “You’ve got charcoal grills?” Wendy asked, her mouth practically salivating she looked so intrigued by the concept.

Alice couldn’t help herself, breaking into a big grin. “Even better, we have full electricity. We have music, TV, heat and air conditioning.”

“No way,” Adam exclaimed. “I didn’t think anyone had electricity any longer.”

Getting another wicked grin, Alice pulled something from her jacket and tossed it to the smaller Wendy, who jerked defensively at the sudden movement but still managed to catch it. She examined the MP3 player she now held in her hands before looking back at Alice.

“Does it work?”

“Yep. It’s got music and discussions about how to stay safe and survive in the weeks and months ahead,” Alice explained. “We broadcast over the radio to anyone who... ,” Alice tried to continue, but Wendy was hurriedly putting the earphones in her ears, turning it on as the other kids clustered around her, astounded by Alice’s simple gift.

“Sorry about not trusting you initially,” Peter apologized while the other kids each tried to get a chance with the magical device. “When we saw the bodies in the trees, we were afraid maybe you’d been killed by bad guys. When we called, Alice sounded so weird, I was sure she was being held against her will and couldn’t talk freely.”

“Yeah, I was ... uh, a bit distracted,” Alice tried to explain without getting into what the distraction had been.

“Is your place ... safe?” Jenny asked, still looking out for the others.

“That’s a complex question,” David said, speaking before the others could respond. Though he wanted the kids to trust them, he also wanted to ensure they knew what they were getting into before they joined them. It may hurt them if they didn’t join them, but he could tell from looking at them that they were used to making difficult decisions on the fly, so he’d decided to level with them.

“Some of us are like you, never having been exposed. However Alice, Mattie and I, and another girl back at the house, got all the diseases but survived, so now we’re immune to them. However you can’t touch us because we have a weakened version of it, meaning we can still infect someone if there’s enough contact.”

The kids all looked at each other, and then Jenny waved them over. Suddenly their meal was forgotten as they crowded together and discussed what to do, their voices low as they’d cast an occasional glances at the caravan.

“It’s really quite—” Alice started to tell them, hoping to assuage their fears before David waved her off again.

“This is something they have to decide for themselves,” he told her quietly. “Once they do we’ll explain how it works.”

Monique walked back behind David and Alice, respecting their roles as the lead negotiators, while Greg and Melissa stood off to the side waiting for the kids to make their decision. Mattie, still holding her rifle proudly, looked like she’d like nothing better than to run and join the new kids, some her own age, but knew she’d need to be careful because of her potential to infect them.

“Is it OK if we don’t join you?” Jenny asked, speaking over the heads of the others.

“Absolutely,” David answered. “In fact, if you decide to keep going, we’ll equip you with food, a car with gasoline, and some weapons you can protect yourselves with.”

They just stared at him for a second, and then hurriedly resumed their private conversation once more, spending several more minutes in intense discussion. Finally they broke apart and turned to address them as one.

“In that case, we’ll trust you,” Jenny said, speaking authoritatively for the group, but then paused, looking into David’s eyes cagily. “We’ll come along and see how safe it is, then decide whether we want to stay.”

“You won’t regret it,” Alice assured them. “Aside from the electricity and food, we’ve got animals, a nice secluded spot and an amazing house.”

“You’re overselling it,” David whispered, making no motions to alert the others they weren’t the entire focus of his attention. He treated them as edgy creatures likely to take flight at the slightest wrong move. “We’ve already made the sale. Let them decide what we have to offer on their own.”

“It’ll be good to get a hot meal,” Wendy said, breaking into a big grin having established their position. She grunted as she hoisted her backpack, and each of the kids grabbed their kits, eager to get on with it now that they’d committed to it.

“And a shower,” Nina added, wiping her forehead after adjusted her backpack. The long minutes spent reaching a consensus while debating how much they trusted these people were more than a little stressful. “You do have working water, don’t you?” When Alice nodded, Nina’s smile beamed across the expanse.

“I’d love to sleep in a real bed again,” Peter exclaimed, a sentiment his sister agreed wholeheartedly with, if her enthusiastic nod was any indication.

David waved them towards the convoy. “Well come on. Let’s get you back, fed and cleaned up.” He turned back towards the Suburban without watching whether anyone followed. He wanted to show they were free to come on their own and that he wasn’t going to treat them as helpless children after surviving on their own for so long. He thought they’d respond better to that than any other approach. The sound of the kids running after him assured him they were convinced.

On the way back, David was anxious to answer one question that had been bothering him for some time. He’d split the kids up, letting Monique and Debbie drive the three Foster kids since they had a whole vehicle to themselves, while he drove Peter and Jenny. In order to not risk infecting them, Mattie and Alice shared the front seat with him. It made the front seat crowded, but they were both small and didn’t mind being that close now that they could do so without worry. Glancing back in the rearview window, David addressed Peter’s older sister.

“Jenny, whatever happened to Betts? Did she ever make it home?” he asked, a slight quiver flavoring his question.

“Betts?” Jenny asked, sounding lost.

“Mrs. Bennett,” Alice explained, reminding them who they were speaking of since not everyone was familiar with the more personal nickname. “Sara’s mother.”

“Oh, no, after she left with your mother and everyone else we never saw her again. Did something happen to her?” Jenny asked worriedly, despite the devastation they’d all witnessed in the intervening weeks.

Steeling himself for her possible response, his muscles tensing in anticipation, David whispered what had occurred. “None of them made it, but Betts decided to go back to try to bring some more of you out here. After she left, we never heard from her again, and we’ve always wondered what happened to her.”

“That probably wasn’t a very smart thing to do,” Jenny responded sympathetically. “The roads were a mess, and not only weren’t they cleaned up, they weren’t patrolled either. People would stop cars at makeshift roadblocks, killing people at random. It was pretty bad,” she reflected with an involuntary shudder as she recalled what they’d experience on the road, unwilling to voice all she’d witnessed.

“Yeah, we encountered that kind of thing ourselves,” David told her. “Did you happen to notice the warning when you exited the highway? We put a quick end to that here.” While David had no way of knowing whether his grisly warning had in fact stopped anyone else, he wanted to reassure the kids that they were now safer than they had been.

“We noticed; that’s partially why we were so nervous when you arrived, especially when you showed up with multiple cars loaded for bear.”

“Our parents said that you’d be prepared,” Peter said, blurting out the words as he changed the subject. “Mrs. Scott described how you had everything, and she drew a map about how to get here, so we didn’t have to ask anyone for directions. But her map wasn’t very detailed, so every time we turned off the trail we had to search until we got back on the same route again.”

“We finally broke into a store someone had robbed and found a map, that helped a lot,” Jenny added.

“Well, one of the things we’ll do is teach you how to shoot a weapon, whether you stay with us or not,” David told them. He paused as he navigated around a large pothole and a couple abandoned vehicles, and then added, “And just so you know, we expect everyone to chip in.”