Summer Lane - Day Zero

Eventually the door to the pharmacy opened and the patrols came into the store. The voices of the men were clear.

“Find anything here?”

“No one.”

“Copy that. There’s no sign of militia activity here.”

“Well, did you really think we were going to find any sign of them, anyway?”

A pause.

“The National Guard is heading north,” someone said, their voice echoing off the walls. “Didn’t the Colonel tell you? We captured Commander Young. They’re taking him to Los Angeles.”

“What about the other one — Cassidy Hart?”

“No idea where she went. I’d like to kill her myself, though. The reward is huge, enough to set me up for life.”

“There’s a lot of that going around…”

The voices faded into the distance as the patrols left the building. Elle held her breath, the cramped walls of the vent pressing on her hips and shoulders. They waited several minutes before crawling out.

“That was uncomfortable,” Jay breathed, pulling himself onto the top of the shelf. “But good thinking, Elle.”

Elle nodded.

“Did you hear what they were saying? They were looking for militia groups,” she said. “They captured someone important.”

“Chris Young,” Jay replied. “And Cassidy Hart. They’re both pretty well known leaders in the militia groups. We used to hear the militias talk about both of them on the radio in the bunker.”

“I’ve heard of them, too,” Elle mused. “Sometimes the Klan would talk about what was going on in the Central Valley. That was how I got information about the outside world.”

They sat on the top shelf, lapsing into silence.

“We should get back,” Jay said, clearing his throat.

“Yeah.” Elle swung her legs over the side and climbed down. They crept to the front of the pharmacy and peeked out the window. The vehicles were gone. The coast was clear.

Elle and Jay shared a glance as they put the antibiotics into Elle’s backpack. This was their last shot. If Pix didn’t get better, she would die. And they would have to move on without her.

It was a harsh reality.

It was the world that Day Zero had created.

The antibiotics didn’t seem to help Pix at first.

“We can’t move on until she gets better,” Flash said.

“We need to get to Sacramento,” Jay replied. “They’ll be able to help us. They’ll have medical supplies and doctors there, if the rumors are true.”

“And if they’re not? Pix will die,” Flash argued.

Two days had passed since they had administered the antibiotics to Pix. She didn’t seem to be recovering. She was comatose, in and out of consciousness. Elle had found a gash in Pix’s left hip. It was infected, poisoning the rest of her body. Elle’s guess was that Pix had been injured since they had rescued her from the Klan, and the infection from the open wound had finally caught up with her.

“I’m not staying here,” Elle said, leaning against the hood of the jeep. “There are Omega patrols in the area, and they could come back. And let’s not forget that there could be nomads out here. Bad people.”

“Really?” Georgia slammed the door to the jeep, eyes flashing. “We’re supposed to be a team , Elle. You can’t just leave us. That’s selfish and irresponsible!”

“It’s called self-preservation,” Elle replied. “We all need to move forward, no matter what is happening to Pix.”

“Just give her some more time,” Flash pleaded. “We can afford to wait.”

“We’ve been here for four days,” Elle pointed out. “That’s long enough.”

“But anything could happen out there on the road. Pix might get more sick if we try to travel.”

“We have a jeep, ” Elle snapped. “We also have gas . We can do this.”

“Yes, we could do that,” Jay answered. “But we can also stay here. We don’t need to keep moving if we don’t have to. We can wait until Pix is better, then we can move on. At least until she’s conscious.”

Elle stared at the sky. Jay was right, of course. They both were. They could stay here, relatively safely, and wait for Pix to regain consciousness before they moved on. Or they could keep working their way toward Sacramento.Elle hated the thought of sitting here, waiting. She wanted to be in Sacramento. She was tired of the day-to-day stress of survival. She was tired of arguing with them, tired of pointing out the obvious, only to have them ignore her advice. She wanted to be safe. She was exhausted, traumatized, shocked. She’d been through so much since Day Zero.

Elle didn’t want to wait for a happy ending anymore.

She wanted to grab it.

Georgia, Jay and Flash continued to bicker, their voices getting higher and louder. Elle hated the arguing. It was stupid. To stay alive, they needed to pull together.

“There is no reason for us to keep moving on,” Jay said, turning to Elle, his voice harsh. “When Pix stabilizes, we’ll leave.”

“But I don’t want to stay here !” Elle yelled.

“Then leave! ” Jay snapped.

Elle flinched.

There was a long, tense silence. Georgia swallowed.

At last, Elle said, “Don’t be your own worst enemy. Omega might try to kill us, but in the end, you can do a pretty good job of getting yourself killed.”

Getting killed was easy.

Staying alive… that was the hard part.

Elle left during the night. Jay and Georgia had argued for hours. Flash had withdrawn, and Elle had removed herself from the conversation. They were being stupid and petty. All they had to do was drive, but no one could agree to move forward. There was no majority decision, just factions of disagreement.

I can’t believe this, Elle thought.

She had taken her share of supplies and ammunition and disappeared into the night, leaving them behind. She wanted to get to Sacramento. She wanted to do it now, and she couldn’t bear to wait any longer. The last year had been hell, and she had no intention of stretching the torture out any longer than she needed to.

She covered mile after mile, stopping to rest when the sun rose. She ate a quick meal, drank some water, and continued. The freeway extended endlessly, but the mountains were beautiful. Elle was exposed on the highway, so she kept a sharp lookout for any unsavory characters. She avoided rest areas and roadside restaurants. It wasn’t worth the risk.

She heard something slap against the concrete. She checked her shoelaces. Nothing. She heard it again, and this time she recognized the sound, snapped out of her daze.

Gunshots.

She looked behind her. A small pillar of black smoke was rising into the air in the distance.

She froze, slowly rising to her feet.

The kids, she thought.

The anger was gone, replaced with concern. She started walking back, toward the pillar of smoke. She kept going, jogging. It took several hours to reach the campsite again, and by the time she did, the black smoke had mostly dissipated. She ran forward. The bush that they had been hiding behind was gone, charred to the roots. The jeep was overturned, smoking. The supplies had been grouped into a pile and the remains were smoldering.

“Jay!” Elle cried, dropping her backpack to the ground. “Georgia?”

She rounded the jeep.

Pix was lying on the ground at an unnatural angle, her arm thrown to the side. A ribbon of red blood trailed down the side of her mouth. Elle dropped to her knees and checked Pix’s pulse. Nothing. Her skin was cold.

“Pix?” Elle sobbed. “Pix, no. Please…”

Tears streamed down her face. Pix’s shirt was stained with blood. She had been shot. Elle hugged the dead girl to her chest and rocked back and forth, weeping. She laid her body in the dirt and crawled to her feet. The world spun around her. She vomited on the gravel, clutching her stomach.