Yes, the doctor in Griffin told her it was safe. But that was there, what if it wasn’t safe in Los Angeles?
Baby steps.
What she needed was fresh air. And if by some chance it wasn’t safe, there was really nothing Trixie could do about it. Did she really want to die in the bedroom of her home? Die from starvation that would eventually come.
She walked to the sliding doors of her bedroom that led to the balcony, and with a trembling hand she slid it open.
It was warm and the breeze hit her. Trixie filled with panic when she inhaled.
Once she took that breath, she took that step.
Out on the balcony she stood there, taking in the quiet.
There were no sounds. No birds. Nothing.
She’d made it outside, sure she could now leave her bedroom.
Nothing had been packed, not yet. She’d be leaving in the morning and had all evening to gather her things.
Stepping back in, she didn’t realize how badly her room smelled from lack of ventilation. It smelled like stale food and body odor all mixed with blueberry candles.
She walked across her bedroom and opened the door.
Directly at her feet was the rolled-up towel Anita had placed there.
That towel could have been the difference between life and death for Trixie. And while Anita had not answered her calls, Trixie was going to find her.
She had to.
In fact, after she sought out Lena’s family, Trixie was going to locate any and all of the friends she’d made in the city.
Discover their fate.
If they had succumbed, Trixie prepared herself for the challenge. It wasn’t going to be easy.
Her home was big, too big for just one person, but Trixie never had to worry about where she left her stuff and her purse was still right where she’d dropped it a couple nights before.
On the floor of the foyer near the front door.
She lifted it, pulled out her keys and unlocked the front door.
Her car was still there, badly parked out front.
She wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, what was out there in the city, but the only way to find out was to go.
She got into her car, started the engine, and turned on the radio.
Nothing.
Not even static.
It was as if it had been broken. After placing the car in gear, Trixie pulled down her driveway and turned left.
Lena didn’t live far.
Two or three miles.
It wouldn’t be long before she would find out for her friend the fate of her family.
Trixie prayed it would be good news.
It took until the end of her street when she realized, those prayers probably wouldn’t be answered.
She dashed the thoughts of breaking bad news to Lena from her mind. She couldn’t think that way, but what she saw told her otherwise.
Trixie had always loved the intersection at the end of her street. It reminded her of her hometown in Ohio, a business block with shops and restaurants. Only the ones in Los Angeles weren’t as simple and quaint.
They were eloquent and artsy but still, it was as if she’d driven into a small town nestled in a huge metropolis.
But things were different that day. There were no cars waiting on the light at the end of her road. No one trying to cross and blocking traffic. As soon as she turned onto the main drag, she realized it.
Every day a man stood on the corner with a sign that read ‘free eye exams’ promoting the expensive eyewear store, luring people in.
He wasn’t there and his sign was on the sidewalk.
Cars were stopped in the middle of the road, abandoned with the doors open. A sure sign that people stopped immediately what they were doing and ran for cover, as if some bomb was going off.
In an essence it had.
She had no choice but to stop her car and pull over in front of Grinders Coffee Shop. She wouldn’t be able to get down the road, everything was blocked.
It wasn’t that far, she could walk. In fact, a friend of hers, Steven, lived six blocks away. He had several cars, so she’d stop and see him to borrow a vehicle.
No sooner had she exited her car, everything hit her. At first the quiet, the unbelievable silence. Not a bird, dog, or mechanical sound. Then came the horrid smell. It was rotten and sour and carried in the air around her. Immediately she started gagging and brought her shirt up to her nose. Her eyes lifted to the coffee shop, and she came up with the brilliant idea to use coffee as a smell filter while she walked.
Trixie wasn’t thinking when she opened the coffee shop door; the smell was worse in there and bodies draped over tables and chairs. Latte cups were tipped over and spilled. Had they just dropped that fast?
They must have sought solace in the coffee shop, to wait it out and Trixie couldn’t spend another second in there.
With a whimper of fear and pity for those people, mouth and nose covered, she bolted out.
Her legs moved fast as she raced down the street. She wanted to get out of the section of town that she loved so much.
If ever she was truly scared in her life, it was that moment. In the dead silence, racing down the sidewalk of a once bustling community that was now stripped of life.
She kept looking back, over her shoulder, as if death were chasing her, never realizing she wasn’t running in a straight line until she ran smack into a parked car.
A sharp pain radiated up her side, taking her breath away as she stumbled back.
She nearly fell to the pavement, but in some figure skating style move, she spun, and jumped a little catching herself before she was injured any further.
She told herself right there to get it together. It was only the beginning of her journey, she had friends to check on, people she loved.
“I’m stronger than this,” Trixie said out loud. “I’m stronger than this. I’m….” She froze when she looked at the car she had run into.
The doors were shut, the windows up tight. A man and woman were in the front seat and two children in the back.
It looked as if when the warning came, they pulled over and sealed the car instead of getting out. They all looked the same, heads tilted back, eyes bulging and wide, their cheeks sunk in. Had they passed away from whatever was in the air or simply died from heat exhaustion in the sealed car? She didn’t know and didn’t want to find out.
Trixie had been locked away for days, away from the horror. Now she was cast right into it.
It took everything she had not to vomit, not to crumble on the sidewalk with defeated tears.
Inhaling a deep breath of courage, eyes focused forward, Trixie walked quickly ahead, not looking back again.
As horrible as it was, that crash course in realty was what she needed. It was preparation for what Trixie faced ahead.
16.
HANGING BY A MOMENT
The sight of Eb smoking again took Cass by surprise. It was a habit he picked up as a kid and one he’d given up years before.
He stood outside the theater as people walked in, nodding his head in that ‘up’ way of saying hello as people passed him.
“Hey, Eb.” Cass approached him. “When did you start smoking again?”
“When Ada gave me one yesterday.” He looked down at it.
“She shouldn’t be smoking either.”
“I don’t think Ada cares,” Eb said. “And with all that’s going on, really who cares?”
“We could be the last ones left and you have that attitude.” Cass shook her head.
“So I take it no one is replying to the post?”
“That’s why I’m here, I wanted to give Mark an update before he started. I’ve got to get back to the station, I’m on social media monitoring duty while we still have a connection.”
“Who is there now?” Eb asked. “I saw Kit go into the meeting.”