Brad followed Romie’s pointing arm and stared at the car. It seemed like an ordinary car—a dark-brown Chevy sedan with its driver’s door propped open. Brad hadn’t witnessed any people disappear, but he pictured it from the descriptions of those who had. He imagined the driver pulling over with eyes glazed over and mouth slightly ajar. The driver probably stepped all the way out of the car before being sucked up into nothingness. He turned to Romie, wondering why she was suddenly interested in this car.
“Look. There,” she said, jabbing her finger at the car.
When Brad looked back he finally understood. Peeking around the rear corner of the car he saw a small head. Two intent eyes locked onto his for a moment before the head disappeared again behind the bumper.
“Is it a kid?” Brad asked.
“I think it is. A little girl,” Romie said. “Come on.” She slipped past the passenger’s seat and slid out through the door.
Brad shut off the truck and followed her through the snow.
Romie walked towards the car and held out her hand like she was approaching a stray dog. “Hello? Are you back there?”
Brad hurried to catch up with her. He pulled alongside as Romie rounded the back of the car.
“Hey there,” Romie said as she dropped to a crouch with one hand on the trunk of the car. “What’s your name?” The child retreated when Brad moved into sight. The kid shuffled backwards until the far side of the car and then sprinted around the corner.
“She’s headed for the others,” Romie said. “Hey! There’s a kid coming your way.” She shouted in the direction of the sled. Brad ran after the child, sprinting through the slippery snow around the van. Nate jumped down from the deck of the sled as the child ran up. The kid threw arms around Nate’s leg.
Nate bent and hefted the child to his chest. He whispered in the kid’s ear and clutched tight.
“So you know her?” Romie asked, arriving at a jog.
The others arrived and formed a semicircle around Nate and the child.
“Him,” Nate said. “His name is Brynn.” Brynn’s face remained buried in the space between Nate’s neck and shoulder. Brad understood why Romie had thought Brynn a girl. The child wore pink sneakers, red leg-warmers, and a purple jacket with a fur-lined hood. Long, curly hair poked out from the edges of Brynn’s hood.
“Come on, boy,” Nate said. “Introduce yourself to the people.”
Brynn shook his head without removing his eyes from Nate’s shoulder.
“He’s shy,” Nate said.
“Why didn’t you mention him earlier?" Ted asked.
“You didn’t ask, and I hadn’t gotten around to it,” Nate said. Brynn was too big for Nate to hold for long. “I’m going to put you down now,” Nate said to Brynn. “You’ll be okay.”
He set the boy down on the edge of the sled. Brad thought the child somehow shrank in Nate’s arms. He seemed so helpless, sitting on the edge of the sled next to the stacked bodies. Brad was terrible with guessing ages, but figured Brynn was about ten. Brynn folded his hands into his lap.
“He was supposed to stay back in our truck until I came to get him later. Weren’t you?” Nate asked Brynn. The boy didn’t acknowledge the question, he simply stared back at Nate.
“Does he speak?" Ted asked.
“Ask him yourself,” Nate said.
“Brynn? Is that your name?” Romie asked. The boy glanced at her and then back to Nate.
“You stay out of the way, boy,” Nate said. “We’ve got to move some more of these people. We won’t take too long, I promise.”
Brynn did as he was told. He moved off to the side of the road, cleared away the snow from a section of pavement and spent his time lighting books of matches. While they moved the bodies, the group held a whispered debate about Nate and Brynn. Romie and Lisa shared the opinion that Nate and Brynn should be welcomed into the group and invited back to the apartment building they all shared. Ted maintained his distrust of Nate.
“Are you and Brynn coming back with us tonight?” Robby asked Nate. “There’s plenty of room at the building where we’re staying.” Ted approached and stood at Robby’s side, ready to revoke Robby’s invitation as soon as he got a chance to speak.
Nate beat him to it—“Thanks, but no. We’ve got a place to get back to. Stuff to take care of. We’ll be back in the morning if you’re going to fill the rest of these sleds.”
“Yes,” Robby said. “We’ll meet you here two hours after sunrise, if that’s okay?”
“See you then,” Nate said. “Nice to meet you all.”
Lisa waved, but nobody said goodbye. Nate whistled to Brynn and the two trudged off through the snow walking south on the highway until the overpass, and then over the embankment and down the hill.
THE GROUP COMPARED notes after their first day of collecting corpses. Their second day proved much more productive. Ted and Lisa rounded up nearly a hundred on their own and the unloading was so smooth that all the teams managed to fit in a second gathering trip. By the fourth day, they’d exceeded Robby’s quota of one thousand bodies.
Nate showed up each morning and helped them unload and stack. He never went with the collection teams. While they were out, Nate disappeared with Brynn only to show up just as a team returned with a full moving van. Ted remained wary, but the rest of the group warmed to Nate and Brynn. The boy rarely engaged with anyone except Nate. He stayed away from the others, usually focused on burning something with his endless supply of matchbooks.
Pete strapped tanks of diesel fuel to the tractors and to the sleds they would pull. It wasn’t as volatile as gasoline, especially in the cold, but Pete still got nervous whenever Brynn and his matches strayed too close to one of the tanks. He approached Nate several times who would then scold Brynn until he moved farther away with his pyromania.
On the fourth day, as they strapped the last of the corpses to the final sled, Nate finally accepted the invitation to dinner. He and Brynn followed the group’s convoy over to the apartment building they shared.
The only fresh thing they cooked was the bread, which Lisa set to rise as soon as they returned. Everything else came from cans, but they prepared a good variety of fruits, vegetables, and two kinds of canned ham. Ted opened a bottle of wine while Robby showed Brynn the assortment of soda he’d collected. With the generators running, they had lights and music. Pete hooked up a propane tank for the oven and a camp refrigerator.
Sheila prepared a selection of cheese and crackers while they waited for the bread to bake. The group took up positions in the living room of the largest apartment. Through the big French doors to the balcony they could just see the spot on the highway where they’d loaded the sleds. Nate perched on the big couch by the coffee table. He sat on the edge of his seat, ready to jump up if need be, or perhaps just to spare the couch from his dirty clothes. Sheila gently suggested that Nate could change into Ted’s extra clothes—they were about the same build— but Nate declined. Next to Nate, Brynn folded himself deep into a corner of the puffy couch. His arms were crossed tight. Brynn’s hands looked empty without matches. Nate relieved him of all his packs of matches before he allowed him inside.
A silence formed when Robby shut off the TV over the bar. He’d started a DVD of a kid’s movie, but Brynn wasn’t interested in watching. Sheila set her tray of cheese on the table and Nate broke the silence.
“So you’re leaving in the morning?” Nate asked.
“Yup,” Pete said. He turned in his chair to glance over at the highway where the tractors were parked.
“I guess you’re not going to need this setup anymore then?” Nate asked.