Summer Lane - Day Zero

She wouldn’t. Not if she was in her right mind, anyway.

No, something was wrong.

They each headed in a different direction. Elle liked being alone, separated from the rest. It gave her time to think, to get in touch with her surroundings on a different level. She’d hardly had a moment of silence since she’d joined the group.

Silence was something she missed.

She walked through the tall, golden grass until the jeep and the bush were specks in the distance. The grass was taller than her in most places, and Elle realized that it would be easy for Pix — who was short — to get lost here. She quietly called her name but received no reply.

I can’t believe it, Elle thought. Why am I even here? Wasting my time, looking for a kid that doesn’t even have enough common sense to stay in the stupid jeep while we’re all sleeping…

Elle tried to put the anger out of her mind, but it was still there, simmering under the surface. For the second time, she was sticking her neck out for Pix — for this group of kids. And for what reason? They hadn’t done anything for her. So far, she’d been the one who had helped them stay alive.

Stop overthinking, she thought. Just look for Pix.

An hour passed. Elle searched through every stretch of tall grass that she could find, calling Pix’s name. She came up short, checking the time.

Where was she?

At the hour and a half mark, Elle turned around and started heading back to the jeep. She hoped someone else had found Pix. If not, they would be stuck in this godforsaken strip of wilderness forever. She hopped across a dry creek carved into the terrain, shielded by tufts of six-foot tall grass.

Elle stopped and bent down. What looked like a pile of discolored rags was crammed on the side of the creek. She tilted her head. It was an odd shape. She got closer, realization dawning.

“Pix?”

She splashed through the shallow creek bed and grabbed the pile. It was Pix, and she was unconscious. Her little face was slack. Elle checked her pulse. Pix’s heart was still beating. But why was she unconscious?

She bundled the girl in her arms and struggled up the creek bed, through the grass. Pix was small, but so was Elle. Carrying Pix was like carrying a small bag of bricks. The jeep was a quarter of a mile away, and every step was difficult.

Elle kept going, stopped to rest, then picked Pix up and continued again. Finally, Interstate 5 came into view. She all but dragged Pix the remaining distance to the jeep. When she arrived, the others were already there.

“You found her!” Flash exclaimed, rushing to Elle’s side. “What happened to her?”

“Don’t know,” Elle huffed, trying to catch her breath.

“Here, let me help,” Jay offered. He picked up Pix’s limp body and laid it across the backseat of the jeep. “Wow, she’s really out.”

Elle grabbed a canteen of water and drank.

“She looks sick,” Georgia stated.

Brilliant observation, Elle thought.

“What do you think happened?” Jay asked, studying Pix’s face.

“I think she wandered off, got lost and dehydrated, and I don’t know what else happened to her,” Elle shrugged. “Can we just keep going, please? It’s not safe to stay in one place this long.”

Georgia was standing to the side, digging through her backpack. She removed a new package of cigarettes. It seemed like they were the only things Georgia had taken the time to salvage from the city.

Elle pulled back Pix’s shirtsleeves and searched for open wounds on the girl’s body, but there was nothing. It looked like Pix was ill. Her eyelids fluttered open for a moment and she struggled to speak. Instead, she leaned to the side, vomited on the seat, and passed out again.

“Gross,” Georgia muttered, frowning.

Elle wrinkled her nose.

“She might have food poisoning,” Elle stated. “I’ve had it before, it’s a lot like this.”

“Food poisoning from what ?” Georgia demanded.

“Anything. We’re eating supplies scavenged from the city, and not everything is guaranteed safe,” Elle pointed out. “When I was first living in the city after Day Zero, I ate something that had gone rotten and I got sick. Almost died.”

“How’d you get over it?” Flash asked.

“I found some antibiotics at a pharmacy,” Elle replied. “It saved my life.”

Elle folded her arms across her chest.

If Pix was going to survive, they were going to have to do something.

It would be dangerous.

2 Days Later

Elle held her breath, crouched behind the pharmacy counter. Jay was right behind her, a bottle of antibiotics in his hand. Elle’s heart raced. Early morning sunlight filtered through the dirty windows of the looted pharmacy.

“Where are they?” she breathed.

“They’re coming around the back,” Jay answered.

Elle closed her eyes and prayed for a way out.

They’d come into town — just the two of them — in a desperate search for antibiotics from the pharmacy. They didn’t expect to find any, but Pix was fading fast. She had barely regained consciousness in two days, and her heart rate was slowing down. Elle and Jay had found an old strip mall. The standard buildings were here; former clothing outlets, fast food restaurants and nail salons. Everything was empty, and only about a mile from the freeway, where Georgia and Flash were watching over Pix.

Everything had been fine. The strip mall was abandoned. Elle had entered the front of the pharmacy just as a parade of vehicles rumbled down the boulevard on the street. Vehicles meant trouble. Vehicles meant Omega.

Elle and Jay had run into the building, searching frantically for the antibiotics. They had been fortunate enough to find a limited amount of medicine, but the patrols were checking the buildings. Omega men, dressed in their dark uniforms, were going through each one. What were they searching for? Elle didn’t know. She didn’t care.

Now they were hiding in the back of the pharmacy, behind rows of empty medical shelving. The patrols were getting closer to their building. There was nowhere to run. A wide, open parking lot in the shopping center made it impossible to escape without being spotted by the patrols. The back entrance was a no-go, too. Patrols were checking the rear entrances.

“We’re screwed,” Jay whispered.

“We have to hide,” Elle replied.

“Where? There’s nowhere to go!”

Elle looked around. The pharmacy was huge, but it had been torn apart. Aisle dividers were overturned, trash littered the floor and shattered glass was sprinkled across every surface. The rumbling engines of the trucks outside rattled the walls.

“We can climb into the air vents,” Elle said. “Come on!”

She jumped up and rolled over the counter, staying low to the ground. The front of the store was filled with high shelving that was bolted to the wall. She swung herself up, climbing each level until she reached the top. Jay did the same.

Elle pointed to the large air vent in front of them. They were big — about three feet wide and two and a half feet tall. “Come on,” she said. “We can fit.”

“This is crazy,” Jay muttered.

They worked to unscrew the vent from the duct, setting it aside.

“Go first,” Elle instructed. “I’ll follow.”

“But—”

“—Just do it!”

Jay crawled inside the vent, making an ungodly amount of noise. Elle watched him disappear into the dark passageway. She crawled in feet first, pulling the vent in behind her. She slowly backed up, farther and farther away from the opening.

They said nothing.