The Road Home by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 33

Maya’s nerves were steadying as her head began to clear and sitting behind Jackson, she asked what direction they were heading in. “West on ninety-five,” he answered. While Maya had been dozing, Eli and Aurora took the opportunity to rest, each on their own cots. But shortly after Aurora drifted off, Eli got up and quietly attempted to slip in next to her. Not yet sleeping deeply, Aurora, feeling the cot shift slightly, turned to face Eli.

“Eli!” she yelled.

He was definitely not one of her favorite people and Aurora often saw him as a child—selfish, cowardly, and only caring about what he could get. And this included Aurora.

“Get the fuck away from me!”

Eli let out a slight giggle that only added to her anger and in an outburst of rage she brought up her hands and pushed Eli off the cot onto the floor. He let out a vulgar yelp as his hip struck the carpeted floor. The bruise would fade after a few weeks and with continued scolding, Eli eventually accepted the lesson Aurora had taught him. On some level, he understood that pain can sometimes be the best medium for learning. Maya did not intervene, knowing Aurora could handle herself despite her fragile nature. But turning away, she could not help but laugh at Eli’s unsuccessful advance.

With Jackson still at the wheel, he saw something in the distance that looked familiar and, getting Maya’s attention, pointed it out.

“Those are buildings,” she said. “Where are we?” Retrieving the map, she studied it closely and soon determined they were approaching the town of Cle Elum. Always cautious, she asked Jackson to pull over near the edge of the town. “Why are we stopping?” he asked.

Maya leaned forward and looking through the windshield scanned the landscape. “Marty said this disease was whipping out millions of people,” she said. “He saw bodies being burned outside of hospitals and there were bodies everywhere. But if we survived, you know there are others, and I’d rather not run into them.” Jackson had watched enough news to know what happens to people during times of crisis, and what they were facing certainly qualified as a crisis. She continued staring out at the town, looking for any signs of activity—wondering if the disease that was likely spreading across the country could have made its way into such a remote place as Cle Elum.

Maya hesitated, trying to think of how to get into the town, get what they needed, and leave without being seen, but traveling in such an enormous vehicle wasn’t exactly low profile. Jackson, also studying the town and seeing nothing, couldn’t help feeling nervous—not about what he could see, but what he couldn’t.

“Do you see anything?” he asked. Maya was just as nervous.

“Not a God damned thing,” she replied. “But we can’t just sit on our asses. There are things we need, and we’re going to get them, sitting here. And we have to get some gas.”

By this time, Aurora had also made her way to the front of the vehicle and, studying the town, made a suggestion.

“Why don’t we drive in slowly so no one hears the engine?” she began. “We can find a place to park it where no one can see it. Then we can look for a store and a gas station. What do you think?” It was brilliant. As long as they could find a place on the edge of the town, the RV would likely go unnoticed. But if they saw an intruder near it, they would be completely unprepared to defend what had now become rightfully theirs. Maya now realized that what they needed was weapons. As former graduate students, none of them had ever been near a gun, much less fired one. And the idea of killing someone, even out of self-defense, left her feeling nauseous. Although she was the person in charge, Maya already doubted her willingness to take a life, but she wouldn’t stand to see another one of her friends meet an untimely demise.

“Aurora,” Maya began. “That’s a brilliant idea. But where do we park?”

The town was fairly small and seemed to lack buildings of sufficient size to hide an RV behind, but they agreed that if they worked together, what needed to be done wouldn’t take a lot of time. “Okay,” Jackson said. “Let’s find a place to hide this beast.”

Turning on the engine, Jackson touched the gas pedal, sending the RV to a crawling speed. It was only a few minutes before reaching the edge of town and having already spotted the place to park the RV, they pulled in and shut off the engine.