“I can come back for the rest once we have them settled in,” Grace offered.
“No way,” Fiona said. “We agreed. This was our last supply run. It’s getting too dangerous. Whatever it is out here turning people into mindless cannibals has started to spread. If all the animals can get this sickness as well—” she paused and looked back towards the mangled tool shed and the dead carcasses surrounding it, “—it’s only a matter of time before we get sick, or something like that takes us out first.” She strapped the oxygen mask back over her face.
Grace shuddered and did the same. She climbed onto the ATV and started it up. Fiona sat behind her, turned the other way with the big rifle trained on their passengers, and spoke one last time before they set off. “Besides, it might be nice having someone else to talk to during the winter. Maybe once they’re cleaned up and looking more presentable, we’ll have ourselves a couple of fuck-buddies.”
Louie and Roy perked their heads up at that as the ATV sped away.
Chapter 40
“North?” Amanda asked. “Like where it’s all polar bears and Eskimos?”
“Hopefully not that far north,” Angela replied. “But far enough where the cold will kill any kind of… sickness we could possibly catch further south.”
Caitlan followed the Buick through the abandoned Saskatchewan town of Langenburg and turned right onto a highway marked 10 North. “We’d have to go all the way to Santa’s fricking workshop to be sure,” she mumbled. Angela gave her a stern look. “I’m not trying to scare the kids, but let’s be realistic—what does Hayden expect to accomplish by driving six or seven hundred miles straight north? Yeah, it’ll be colder, but there’s still people there, and wildlife… all kinds of wild life. If this disease travels as fast as they say it can, we won’t be safe anywhere.”
“Do you mean radiation sickness?” Michael asked. “Going north won’t help that if you’ve already been exposed, anybody knows that. Besides, once all that gunk rises up into the atmosphere, it spreads all over. Pretty soon it’ll be nuclear winter all over the planet.”
Caitlan peered into the rear-view mirror at him. “You’re a real Einstein, aren’t you?”
The boy shrugged, leaned back into the seat, and stared at the grey clouds outside his window. Angela turned up the stereo, adjusted the volume levels so it was higher in the back, and continued speaking to Caitlan alone in a lowered voice. “We agreed not to bring any of this up to them.”
“Their mother was shot before their eyes. They lost everything, just like you… just like me. The only reason they’re still alive is because they know how to survive. If you ask me, telling them we’re running away from a horde of zombies would give them a better chance to keep on surviving. We can’t keep pampering them forever.”
“We’ll have more than enough time to break it to them when we get there. We’ll have nothing but time.”
I’m looking forward to it. These last few weeks have been crazy—running around, fighting, killing. It will be nice settling in some place where it’s cold and dark. All alone. More Daddy-Daughter time.
Angela stared out the passenger side window at the same clouds that had diverted Michael’s attention. Beneath the canopy of depressing grey was a carpet of spruce trees. They spread ahead of the Audi on either side of the highway for miles. The bombs that had dropped in the cities had laid waste to everything in their murdering perimeter. Farther out, and further north, things seemed more normal—more like they used to be. The forests were still standing, the lakes still and peaceful. If the sun had the ability to shine through, there might be color in the world again, Angela thought. And then again, there might not. Michael was right. The gunk in the upper atmosphere was beginning to settle back down. Even in the gloom, Angela suspected the endless vista of trees before them was different somehow—not quite as green. The lakes not as clean.
“Hayden was right,” Caitlan said.
Angela looked at her. “What?”
“About heading north. Not only are we putting distance between us and whatever it is that happened in Brayburne, but we’re finding more we can use. It seems all the folks that lived in more populated areas are tending to stay down there… poor bastards. The further north we travel, the more things seem unchanged. All the abandoned cars we’ve found in the last few hours still have gas in the tanks. Looting hasn’t spread this far yet. As much as I detest the cold and being isolated, it was the smartest move we could make.”
“What’s the name of that fishing lodge he’s taking us to again?”
“Odin Lake.” Caitlan took her hands off the steering wheel and shook her fists at the sky. “All powerful god of the north,” She thumped them down lightly on the wheel. “He’s the white-bearded asshole that makes it snow and calls lightning from the clouds.”
Michael leaned forward. “Thor’s the god of thunder. Odin’s his dad.”
“How much of our conversation did you hear?” Angela asked.
“The whole thing,” Amanda answered. “Zombies aren’t all that scary. They move all stiff and jerky, and they’re really slow.”
A shiver ran up Angela’s spine. Not the ones Hayden and Dr. Gill saw.
Fred was driving the Buick. They had just refuelled both vehicles from a farmer’s outdoor tanks on the outskirts of a small town called Baskerville. They’d explored a shed next to the tanks and found a wide roll of clear plastic. Its original purpose was likely meant to protect flowers and vine-growing vegetables during frosty nights, but Fred figured it could serve well enough as a replacement windshield. They sealed it along the edges with a roll of packing tape. The view was a little warped, but it was better than sucking air at speeds over fifty miles an hour.
“My Dad took me to Odin Lake when I was fourteen,” Hayden said as they headed further along Highway 10. “It’s about as far north as you can go on four wheels. Any further than that and you pretty much have to charter a plane.”
“Never heard of it,” the old doctor replied. He looked in the rear view mirror to see if the Audi was still following. It was. “I visited Churchill back in the late eighties. That’s when there were still plenty of polar bears in the area to make it a decent tourist attraction. Swore to myself I’d never travel a single mile north of Brayburne after that. The bears were okay, but goddamn it, I can’t stand the cold.”
“And here you are breaking your promise. Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. Odin Lake isn’t as far north as Churchill, but I’m betting it will get plenty cold in the next few months… cold enough to keep those things away, hopefully.” Fred sighed. “What was the fishing like?”
“I don’t remember. We never went hungry the week we were there, so I guess it can’t be all that bad. A couple of retired school teachers ran the lodge located on an island out on the lake. The place is big, and they had it stocked with enough firewood to get through the coldest of winters. Nice people. I hope they’re still there.”