Sometime that afternoon he crossed into Mexico.
He slept in the desert that night, stretched out in the bed of the truck.
The sky was clean and clear and full of stars. Jubal wondered how many people were left to wish upon them.
He dozed for a while, only to jerk awake for no apparent reason. He couldn’t remember any dreams.
Then he heard it. A nearly silent hum.
Jubal lay quietly in the truck’s bed, afraid to move. High above him something passed over the face of the moon.
It was one of the alien?ying machines.
He held his breath until the hum was long gone.
6
September 6, 2048
The next day he drove to the Gulf. He waded out naked into the warm ocean until the salt water burned the wound on the back of his neck, as if scalding it clean. He?oated for a long time, allowing the ebb and?ow of the water to carry him away from the beach.
It would be so easy to just give up, to allow the sea’s embrace to deliver him down to a peaceful surrender.
After a while, Jubal rolled over and swam back to shore.
7
September 12, 2048
The plague hadn’t reached this far. Not yet.
Jubal found a small house on the beach. It had no power, but there was a bed and a lot of canned food in the kitchen.
He also found others who were still alive. More arrived every day.
He had been here nearly a week. The wound on his neck had scabbed over. It looked like Fiona had been right. He didn’t have the disease and apparently wouldn’t get it.
The newcomers had all seen the zombies. Most had to deal with family who had changed. One man from Del Rio had to put down his own wife and kids. After he told his story, he didn’t say much more.
Every night there were more?res on the beach. It had become a regular refugee camp.
But Jubal couldn’t forget the sight of the alien?yer in the desert.
They couldn’t stay here much longer.
Most of them wanted to keep moving, stay on the run, hide until there were no more safe places.
There were a few who felt like Jubal, who had nothing left but the screaming in their heads that could only be silenced through vengeance.
It was something he could use.
They would travel to the Paci?c, then make their way through California. Eventually they would reach ground zero. Nevada.
He hoped they would pick up others along the way. It was a suicide mission; they all knew that. Jubal just wanted to take as many of those red-robed alien fuckers with him as he could.
For his mother and Fiona and the rest.
For Serenity.
He sat on the porch of the cabin and cleaned his guns, watching the sun set in the green sky.