Like human insects they hopped and careened and spread out. They rushed at the cruiser and he drove straight through them, casting them aside as he roared out into the street, the last straggler sliding from the hood.
And then he was in the streets.
Safe. Free.
15
“We ain’t getting out,” Joe said with sobering finality. “None of us are. Not by road, anyway.”
He tooled slowly up the streets, driving nowhere in particular. Just driving and driving and driving. There didn’t seem to be anywhere to go. Not until something occurred to them, some escape route.
Nancy and Ben had both been quiet since Joe plowed through that army of psychos. But inside Nancy’s mind, it was not quiet at all. She didn’t know much about these people, about Joe and Ruby Sue, but what she did know, she did not like.
They had an agenda.
It was illegal and they freely admitted as much. They’d lied about when they arrived in town and for some reason this really ate at Nancy. And what for God’s sake were their last names? Maybe that was a small thing, but it mattered.
Just Joe and Ruby Sue.
She supposed bikers were like that. Christian names. Nicknames. Nothing more. But she was not part of that world and did not want to be part of that world. What it came down to was that she did not trust these people. And the more she didn’t trust them, the more she didn’t like them.
“This is so weird,” Ruby Sue was saying. “Totally wild. I saw this movie once, you know, where this city was, like, taken over by vampires. This guy—he was the last human being left—he lived in this house and hung garlic and crosses and shit on the door. At night they’d come banging on the doors, the vampires would, and he’d sit there and get drunk.”
“I don’t think they’re vampires,” Ben said.
“Yeah, I know. But wouldn’t it be wild if they were?”
Ben and Nancy looked at each other, shook their heads.
Joe kept on driving. “What we need to do people, I think, is find some place to hole up in. What do you think?”
Ben nodded. “Sounds good. It’s obvious they won’t let us leave.”
“Right. So we hole up somewhere for the night, see what day brings. This town can’t just fall off the edge of the planet without somebody noticing. My guess is by morning, people are starting to ask questions. Maybe then the cops or the army or somebody will come in and clean this place out.”
Ruby Sue said, “Right. And, hey, maybe they only come at night. Maybe they’ll hide in the daytime.”
“Oh, would you get off the vampire-thing already?” Nancy said, sterner than she’d meant to.
“It’s just an idea.”
Yeah, right, Nancy thought, like you’ve ever really had one of those.
Any other time, she would have been all over someone like Ruby Sue.
Nancy had a real low tolerance for airheads and dizzy blonde bitches of any variety. Usually by now she would have been tearing into Miss Ruby Sue, jumping on every vacuous remark, every twirl of her hair, but tonight she just didn’t have the strength.
She kept thinking about Sam.
Wondering if it was even remotely possible he was still alive. She decided it probably wasn’t… but she still clung to the possibility. They weren’t that close, really, for a brother and sister. Seldom saw each other, seldom had time to take interest in each others’ lives… but Sam was still her brother. She still felt his loss, kept seeing them playing together as children, saw the good times and the golden moments. She had everything she could do not to start crying.
But that would be for later.
For now, there was this mess… and Ruby Sue.
Joe pulled the Jeep to a stop on Chestnut right before a grocery store, Northland A & P.
“It looks quiet here,” he said. “This is as good a place as any.”
“A grocery store?” Nancy said with amazement.
“Yeah, why not?”
“No, it’s a good idea,” Ben said, warming to it. “Food. Drinks. Everything we need. What could be better?”
“An armory, a police station.”
Ruby Sue laughed. “You guys ever see that movie where this gang attacks the police station? That was wild. There was this one part where—”
“Let’s go,” Joe said.
He popped all their door locks and they got out. He went around back of the Jeep and opened the hatch. He took out a black duffel bag and went to the door of the A & P.
“It’s locked,” Nancy said.
Ruby Sue laughed. “So what?”
Joe took a small leather bag out of his duffel. Using a penlight, he sprayed some lubricant into the lock and began manipulating the tumblers with a little L-wrench. Within five minutes, the lock clicked open. “After you,” he said, holding the door open.
“What if this trips some sort of alarm…” Nancy began to say and then realized how stupid that sounded. “Ignore me. Just ignore me.”
They’d all been looking at her, but now they went in.
Joe locked the door behind them.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Ruby Sue said. “What if we trip some silent alarm, you know? But then I thought, so what? Send in the fucking marines, man. Good to go.”
Nancy squeezed her eyes shut tightly, was truly frightened because she was starting to think like Ruby Sue. And that was a very scary thing. She decided she’d probably rather become like one of those zombies out there than a total airhead. It would be less painful to everyone concerned.
The display cases at the front of the store were lit up and there were occasional fluorescent ceiling panels illuminated throughout. It was dim in spots, but not dark. And the food—snacks, drinks, the deli, bakery. Nancy hadn’t realized how hungry she was until this moment. Now her stomach was growling.
She followed Ruby Sue to the donut case and started chewing on a long john, while Ruby Sue found a Bavarian.
Ben and Joe were eating slabs of ham from the deli case, slugging back beers.
It was a fine, peaceful moment.
Nancy sat there on the counter, eating and thinking this was the most relaxed she’d been since they stumbled into this hellhole. It was funny, she’d only lived an hour or so away from Cut River most of her life, but she’d never once visited before this day. It was all very ironic, she supposed.
Fucked-up, ugly, sadly ironic.
She wondered how the kids were doing. Just fine, no doubt. Watching TV. Playing games. Maybe raising hell. Never for a moment guessing that their Uncle Sam had been murdered or the nightmare their mother and stepfather were wading through.
Better it’s us, she decided. I couldn’t handle this if they were here.
Joe and Ben were eating silently. They hadn’t really warmed to each other beyond small talk. Nancy was wondering exactly what sort of man Joe was. He went through the door like a professional. What did that say exactly? She decided they were damn lucky to have him with them, a guy who knew shit like that. He would probably know other stuff, too.
“We’re going exploring,” Ben announced.
Which left Nancy with Ruby Sue.
Whereupon, Ruby Sue began to ply her with questions about where she was from, how long her and Ben had been married, if they had children, what they did for a living. It went on and on. By the time Ruby Sue took a breath, Nancy’s head was spinning madly.
“There’s an apartment upstairs,” Ben said when he returned maybe five minutes later. “Nobody home. Only way in is up a stairway in the back. Joe says it will be a good place to hide out later on. If… if they try to come after us, we can go up there. They’d have to come up the stairwell to get us, so we could hold ’em off.”