As they went into the lobby, SarahBeth said to Perry, "I don't know about you, but before we go anywhere–"
"Anything I can help you with?" asked a teenage boy with a shaved head as he came up to them. The lobby was deserted except for the three of them.
"We're hoping to go out on one of the medical teams," Perry said. "But it looks like they all went out already."
The young man rubbed his hands together briskly, "Well, I'm sure we can work something out. There is, as you can imagine, a pressing need . . ."
His voice trailed off as he regarded SarahBeth, who had taken Perry's arm in both of her hands and was starting to gnaw on his forearm through his jacket.
The young man pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Perhaps you might want something to eat before you set out?"
Perry also looked down at SarahBeth, who was continuing to gnaw with her eyes closed. "That might be a good idea," he admitted.
She opened her eyes and grinned. "Oh, is there food?" she asked innocently. "I was afraid to ask the others, in case we were all planning on starving to death heroically or something."
The young man waved his hand negligently. "Come with me to the kitchen and we'll see what we can come up with. I think starving to death heroically isn't scheduled until later on in the week."
They went through the swinging doors into the large kitchen, which was also deserted. There were large pots on the stove, but the burners weren't lit.
"Ah," the young man said, lifting the lids and peering inside. "There was a little gas in the pipes, so we got them to burn for a while, but it appears that's used up." He leaned forward to sniff the contents of the pots. "This still seems fairly warm, though." He turned to them with a flourish. "For your eating pleasure, we have spaghetti. And, in addition, sauce." He shrugged. "That's about the only option at present, I'm afraid."
SarahBeth had a plate in each hand. "That will be fine," she said, and Perry started to pile food onto the plates.
"My name is Fifteen, by the way," the young man said. "I have to say that I'm surprised and pleased to see you here, sir, since I've heard that you have a negative opinion of our project."
Perry smiled as he and SarahBeth moved to the door with their food.
"We were persuaded that some further investigation could be productive," he said as the door closed behind them.
In the narrow corridor between the kitchen and the lobby, they nearly ran into Katherine, who was carrying two empty plates to the kitchen.
"Oh, hello," she said. She gestured at the plates. "I brought some food to my friend, and I thought I should wash the plates."
"We were hoping to go out on one of the medical teams," Perry said, "but there doesn't seem to be anybody for us to go with."
Katherine thought for a moment. "I could go," she said. "My friend is staying here, at least for tonight, to see if his ankle gets better."
"Do you know anything about medicine?" Perry asked hesitantly, as SarahBeth made faces indicating how much she wanted to start eating.
Katherine laughed unxpectedly. "No, I only know how to cause injuries, not how to cure them. Did I hear right that the Jinx are staying? My friend said he saw them drive up from his window."
"From what people said, I gather some stayed and some didn't," Perry replied.
She looked surprised. "Really. Where are they now?"
"At the bridge," SarahBeth said, "wherever that is. The good-looking blond guy said he was going to deploy people from there."
"Neil," Katherine said, nodding. "Some of the Jinx know something about medicine. Maybe one of them can come with us. We can ask. I'll be right back."
Perry and SarahBeth sat on a dusty sofa in the lobby and started to eat. A few people came through, but there was no sign of anybody forming teams of any sort.
A few minutes later, as they were nearly done wolfing down the cold spaghetti and lukewarm sauce, Katherine came back.
"I'll just run upstairs and tell my friend where I'm going," she said. "So he doesn't worry."
"She seems very domesticated," SarahBeth said after she had gone. "Not at all what I would have expected."
Perry said, "Expected . . ." and then his voce trailed off and his eyes got wider. SarahBeth didn't notice, her attention was focused on making sure she got every scrap of food off of her plate.
When Katherine came back, they set out through the ruined, dirty streets of the city: the young and successful novelist, his teenage girlfriend, and the internationally famous murderous lunatic who he had just, belatedly, recognized.
The streets were nearly deserted, the air was foul and full of dust. It was impossible to tell what time of day it was, or even if it was day or night.
After a couple of blocks, Perry asked Katherine, "Do you live around here? Do you know your way around?"
She nodded, slowing her stride a little as she realized she was getting ahead of them. "I've been here for a while. My roommate and I used to take long walks around the area, so I know it pretty well." She smiled. "As Raymond said, I have some problems I'm dealing with, and, when I get tense, I find a good walk can help."
Perry nodded. "Apparently you're going to get one tonight. How far is it to the city?"
They turned a corner. "About five or six more blocks. Then we walk over the bridge, I guess. We–"
"Oh, my God!" came a woman's voice. They turned, and Katherine's hand fell to the butt of her revolver as a woman rushed over to them. She was in her twenties, slender, with long dark hair. "You're Perry Nelson!" she exclaimed, ignoring SarahBeth and Katherine completely. "What are you doing here?" she asked him excitedly. "Are you going to write a book about the explosion and everything?"
He shook his head. "At the moment, we're going out to try to give people medical assistance. We're–"
"Oh," she said, "can I come? Do you need help? I'm a nurse. My name is Monica." She barely waited for a response. "Just let me go get my medical bag." She rushed off down the block, and SarahBeth glared at Perry.
"If she can help us," he said, "then–"
"I didn't say anything," she said. She took out a cigarette and lit it, offering the pack to Katherine, who took one also.
Monica reappeared a moment later, carrying a leather medical bag, and they started walking toward the bridge again.
As they approached the bridge, they saw several of the Jinx. Neil regarded them for a moment as they came closer, then he apparently decided Perry was the leader. "Leaving town?" he asked.
Perry shook his head. "We're going over the bridge, to provide medical assistance where we can, and to collect medicine if we can find any."
Neil nodded. "I guess you're in good hands if that should prove to be dangerous." He glanced at Katherine. "Hey, Kat," he said.
She nodded. "Hey."
He turned back to Perry. "We don't know what you're going to find, or how dangerous it might be. So, as you're helping people, if there are people to help, it would also be a good idea to find out as much information as you can."
Perry nodded, smiling. "No problem. It's part of my job."
Going over the bridge, SarahBeth walked beside Katherine, making faces as Monica gushed about Perry's writing and he occasionally made awkward replies.
"Can I ask you a question?" Katherine said suddenly.
"If it's not about his books," SarahBeth said sourly.
"Books? Oh, I don't read a lot of books. I can ask my roommate about–"
"Listen to her!" SarahBeth said, making a face. "She's completely missed the point of The World, and he's not even bothering to fucking correct her."
Katherine looked puzzled. "'Missed the point of the world'?" she echoed slowly.
SarahBeth shook her head. "I'm sorry, The World is the name of his first novel. But you were going to ask me a question, and I am determined not to listen to any more of her drivel, so ask away."
Katherine looked around. "This is something I do with Raymond sometimes, when I'm getting tense. He and I try to take apart what I'm getting tense about, and figure out if it's real or not. So, here we are on the bridge, and now I'm getting a little tense. Is there a reason for that, or not?"
SarahBeth looked around. "I don't see another person in any direction. What's there to be afraid of?"
"Well, what if we run into cops on the bridge, or what if they're waiting at the bottom of the bridge for some reason? Or the army."
SarahBeth shrugged. "What if they are? We're going for medicine and stuff, that's pretty wholesome, I would think."
Katherine nodded. "True. But remember, any soldier or police officer would shoot me on sight, and maybe the rest of you, too, for being with me."
"Oh, crap. Really?"
"My roommate said that he read somewhere that I'm the most wanted criminal in the world. That seemed kind of weird to me, but they would shoot, without asking questions, I know that from experience."
"Damn," SarahBeth said, and they walked in silence for a few minutes. The bridge seemed to go on forever, but she realized that they were walking downhill now, which meant they were more than halfway across.
"So," Katherine asked, "do you–"
"I think it will be fine," SarahBeth said. "There's no particular reason to worry. Not until we actually see something. Okay?"
Katherine nodded. "I thought that was probably true." She smiled. "Thanks."
Perry's little house in the woods was looking better and better, and more and more remote. As SarahBeth thought about it, she didn't look where she was going and stepped into a hole in the road.
Katherine grabbed SarahBeth's upper arm and quickly pulled her away from the hole. Perry and Monica rushed over as they heard SarahBeth curse.
"It's so fucking dark out that I didn't fucking see it," she said. "Shit!"
"Are you okay?" Perry asked her.
She made a face and snapped, "I'm fine."
Katherine pointed ahead of them. "There are more holes up there," she said.
Perry squinted in the gloom and dust, then he looked across the trench which held the subway tracks at the other roadway, on the other side of the bridge. "It looks worse over there," he said, "though we couldn't get across even if it was better. Let's stick close together and go slowly. If it's too bad, we'll have to turn around."
They walked carefully, but the road surface seemed stable under them. There were a couple of large holes, but they could get around them. In one case, they had to walk along the top of the wide metal wall which separated the road from the subway tracks.
"Nobody will be driving over this bridge," Katherine said. "That's good to know, though I'm sure Neil looked into that already."
"How many bridges are there?" Perry asked.
"Just two," Monica answered. "This one and the highway bridge. That's down that way, on the other side."
"That's how we got here," Perry said.
Katherine nodded. "I'm sure Neil has people watching that, too."
After the two large holes, the rest of the road surface was untouched, and they were now very near the other side of the river.
There was nobody at the base of the bridge. They stood for a minute and looked around.
Everything was covered in dust, just as it was in U-town. but the dust on this side of the river showed a lot more tire tracks. There had been a little breeze on the bridge, but the air here was still, and both Perry and Monica coughed a few times.
Katherine examined the tire tracks. "These aren't from cars, I think," she said. "It looks like mostly trucks and busses."
"But where is everybody?" SarahBeth asked. "Over there, it's pretty deserted, but there are some people. This is spooky."
"Let's walk around a little and see if we see anybody," Perry said. "This is sort of strange, but we can't learn anything about it unless we find somebody to talk to."
They were a few blocks from the bridge when Katherine suddenly stopped and whispered,"Wait." Then they all heard the noises coming from the alley up ahead.
Katherine crept to the corner, drawing her guns, and peered around. She looked for a moment, then motioned for them to follow as she turned the corner.
They looked into the dark alley and saw several people crouching over a body lying on the ground next to a dumpster. They seemed to be going through its pockets, but then one of them saw Katherine and the others.
"Hey," he said, and the others stood up, turning toward the alley entrance. SarahBeth felt her chest get tight as she saw that they all had knives, and at least one had a gun.
Katherine quickly shot the one with the gun, and then methodically shot the others. The noise seemed deafening in the small alley.
"Come on," she said, holstering her guns as she hurried forward. The others came more slowly behind her. SarahBeth felt like she was floating, about to pass out, and she found she couldn't even look at the bodies.
Katherine was crouching next to the body beside to the dumpster. She felt of his chest and his wrist, and said, "He's lost a lot of blood, they cut him pretty bad. Hurry up and look at him." The last was addressed to Monica. She crouched next to the body and opened the medical case, fumbling inside. She looked about to cry, and SarahBeth noticed that she seemed to be avoiding looking at the body as Katherine quickly loosened the man's tie and opened his shirt.
"Oh, my God," SarahBeth said as Monica continued to fumble in the bag. "You're a fake," she said. "You have no idea what you're doing there, do you?"
"Now, that's crazy," Perry said. "She's–"
Monica let the bag fall to the ground and started to cry. Katherine's shoulders slumped and they were all silent for a moment. Then Katherine sat heavily on the ground. "He's dead," she said.
"So," Perry said to Monica, "SarahBeth was right?"
She nodded. "Yes. It's my roommate's medical bag. She was killed in the explosion. I thought . . . I thought I could help."
"And you thought you could spend some time with a big old famous writer," he said. He turned to the others. "Come on, we might as well go back. We can't do anything here."
He started walking, but Katherine said, "Monica, come on."
Perry turned. "She doesn't come with us! She–"
"She doesn't deserve to end up like that guy in the alley. We can take her back across the bridge, at least." Perry started to protest, but Katherine said, "She comes." She stood looking at him until he dropped his eyes.
SarahBeth closed the medical bag and brought it along as they left the alley.
They walked in silence for a couple of blocks, then SarahBeth stopped and pointed at a drugstore. "Hey," she said, "we can get some medicine and stuff here. That's one thing we're supposed to do, right?"
Perry looked dubious. "Just break in?" he asked.
She nodded. "That's what they said we should do. There's medicine in there, and people need it."
"Well," he looked around, but Katherine had already gone to the door and tried it. It was locked, so she picked up a trash can from the corner and threw it at the plate glass window, shattering it.
Perry looked around nervously, as if someone might appear, or an alarm might go off, but there was no response. Meanwhile, Katherine went to the window and stepped in carefully, avoiding the broken glass.
She climbed through the window display, into the store, and came around to open for door for them. The store was dark and dirty, some of the dust which was in the air had obviously made it inside even though the place had been closed.
SarahBeth took a flashlight from a rack and tried to turn it on. Nothing happened, so she unscrewed the bottom and looked in. "It has batteries," she said.
Katherine appeared through the gloom from the back of the store, carrying a small candle.
"There are trash bags in the back," she said. "We can use them to carry things. We just have to figure out what to bring."
SarahBeth took a candy bar from a rack and started to eat it. "We should bring some candy," she said. "In addition to the medicine, of course."
"We need bandages," Perry said. "Iodine, pain killers, that sort of thing. And face masks, if they have them, in case this stuff in the air gets worse."
Katherine motioned with the candle. "I think that's back here." They followed her, and quickly started to fill a trash bag from the racks.
"I'm going to get some protein bars," SarahBeth said, taking an empty bag. "They'll be good if all we have to eat is spaghetti."
After a minute, Katherine came up to SarahBeth carrying a box of tampons. "I thought we should take some, but I mentioned them to..." She gestured.
"Perry," SarahBeth supplied.
"Yes, and he blushed and got weird."
She laughed. "He's like that about girl stuff. A couple of weeks ago I made him go buy me some, and I thought he was going to pass out. Don't worry, I'll break him in." She held open the trash bag. "Get some more," she said. "We'll need them."
Perry appeared, pulling the other trash bag and carrying another candle. "What about real medicine?" he asked, pointing at the prescription counter.
"Insulin," SarahBeth said suddenly, poking Perry in the stomach with a box of tampons. "For diabetics. Come on."
They followed her behind the prescription counter and they started looking along the shelves. "This doesn't seem very well organized," SarahBeth said after a few minutes.
Perry laughed. "Well, there's probably some system to it that we don't know about, since we're not . . ." He looked around. "Where's Monica?"
"You were with her," Katherine said. "When we went to get the protein bars."
He shrugged. "I thought she went with you."
"Well, I expect we'll run into her again," SarahBeth said. "It's up to her– Here it is!" she said, pulling the boxes from the shelf and putting them into the bag.
"Anything else?" Katherine asked as they started to move toward the front of the store.
Perry looked at the two large bags they had already. "I think this is a–"
Suddenly Katherine dropped the bag and drew her guns. Perry and SarahBeth quickly blew out the candles.
She fired one bullet into the ceiling and shouted, "Get on the floor! Now!"
"It's me," came Monica's voice from the front of the store, sounding terrified. "We're on the floor. Please don't shoot!"
They moved forward, and SarahBeth took out her matches and lit the candles again. "Who's 'we'?" Katherine asked as they came to the front entrance, where Monica and a man were lying on the floor.
The man looked up, saw Katherine, and put his head down on the floor again.
"May I get up?" Monica asked quietly.
"Who's this?" Katherine asked.
The man glanced up. "My name is Jeff," he said. "I just ran into Monica outside and we started to talk. I don't mean any harm."
"Can we ask you some questions?" Perry asked, squatting down.
Jeff nodded. Katherine let her arms fall to her sides, but she did not holster her guns.
"Where is everybody?" Perry asked. "It looks like a lot of people lived around here. Where did they all go? We haven't seen hardly anybody."
Jeff looked uneasily at Katherine, then he sat up. He didn't make any move to stand, and Monica slowly sat up next to him.
"The army has come through a few times," Jeff said slowly. "They scoop up all the dead bodies into big trucks, and they put the people in busses and take them away."
"Take them away?" Perry asked. "Where do they take them?"
"Out of town, they say, to a stadium of some sort. I don't know what happens to them then."
"And why are you still here?"
"Because I don't want to go. You can get some food still, in the stores, and I found a little basement room to live in." He shrugged. "It's pretty lousy, but the stadium thing sounds worse. So, when the army comes around, I hide until they go away. So do a lot of other people."
Perry nodded. "That makes sense." He looked at SarahBeth and Katherine. "We should get going. It's a long walk back, and we have a lot to carry now. I don't know about the two of you, but I feel like I haven't slept in about a week."
Katherine holstered her guns and they moved toward the door. "I'm going to stay with Jeff," Monica said quickly, but the others barely reacted.
"Cigarettes!" SarahBeth said as they were leaving the store. She pointed triumphantly at the huge rack behind the counter with the cash registers.
"We're not going to–" Perry started.
"Oh, of course we are." She looked at Katherine. "Who's with me?"
Katherine raised her hand as Jeff and Monica left, and Perry sighed. "Okay," he said, and the two women went around the counter and started pulling out packs and putting them in one of the garbage bags (and in their pockets).
When they were done, Perry glanced at Katherine's coat pockets, which were bulging with cigarette packs.
"My roommate smokes, too," she said.
As they approached the bridge, Katherine and Perry carrying the two trash bags, SarahBeth asked, "Do either of you know what time it is? There's so much crap in the air, it's like it's never going to get light out."
Katherine shrugged, obviously not much interested in the question.
Perry glanced at his watch and made a face. "It stopped working as soon as we got here," he said quietly. "So, I have no idea. I think it must be very late at night, like way after midnight, but it could just as easily be ten in the morning."
She nodded as they started walking up the bridge. The incline seemed steeper than it had when they'd been going the other way.
As they reached the top in silence, SarahBeth came up next to Perry and said, "I'll carry that for a while." He handed it over, and took the medical bag from her. She shifted the trash bag to her other hand and took his hand in hers. She squeezed her hand and then released it to put his arm around her.
This proved impractical for walking, given the difference in their heights and strides, so they went back to holding hands.
There seemed to be a slight breeze at the top of the bridge, and the air there seemed a little clearer, but as they came down into U-town Perry was seized by another coughing fit. He had to stop and double over for a moment, and SarahBeth reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of cough drops. He took one and put one in his mouth, coughing again, and then, after a particularly violent cough, he straightened up and shivered. He took her hand again and they walked forward. Katherine had stopped a little bit ahead of them, waiting, and then they went ahead to the Jinx roadblock at the base of the bridge.
Neil didn't seem to be around, and the others just motioned them past.
As soon as they got off the bridge, the wind shifted and SarahBeth said, "Oh, my God, what's that smell?"
Perry made a face. "It's even worse than the regular smell."
Katherine sniffed a couple of times. "Somebody's burning bodies," she said.
"Oh, ick," said SarahBeth.
Perry shrugged. "It's better than the alternatives."
When they finally reached the hotel, Fifteen was still in the lobby. He saw them, and immediately came forward to examine the contents of the trash bags. His eyes got wide, and he said, "I'll have to tell the others. Please wait here."
Katherine dropped her bag and said, "I'm going to go to bed. See you later."
"Maybe we can do this again," Perry said. "If we can find somebody with actual medical qualifications."
She nodded. "Let's get some sleep and then we can talk about it. Good night."
"Good night," SarahBeth said. Then she yawned and looked at Perry. "Where are we going to sleep?"
Fifteen bustled back into the lobby. "They want to see you," he said. "What you've done is really tremendous, a literal lifesaver for quite a few people, at least. Did you find out any information about what's going on?"
Perry nodded. "We did, actually, which I'm sure they'll want to hear about." He put his arm around SarahBeth. "I think she would like to crash, though. How do we go about finding a place for us to sleep?"
"Simplicity itself. Follow me."
He led them over to a large blackboard with a list of numbers. Some of them had names next to them, others didn't. He gestured. "These are the room numbers. Pick one which isn't being used and put your name down. Then go to the room and it's yours."
Perry hugged SarahBeth. "Pick a room and write our names. I'll go talk to Vicki and the others, then I'll come."
She nodded, and was rather surprised when he leaned over and kissed her on the lips, his arms going around her. She hugged him back, and he straightened up, his arm still around her waist. "Wake me up if I'm asleep," she whispered.
They turned and Fifteen had already written "SarahBeth and Perry" on the board. "It's one of the better rooms," he said. "Of the ones which are available, anyway."
"I'm sure it will be fine," Perry said. He turned to SarahBeth. "I'll see you soon."
She smiled. "Okay."
SarahBeth looked at the dingy room, the narrow bed, the faint light from outside through the dirty window. She went to the bed and sat down. The bed creaked and she half expected it to collapse.
She waited for a moment, but it seemed stable enough. She kicked off her sneakers, stood up and unzipped her jeans and dropped them to the floor.
Suddenly aware of how cold the room was (and of how much she needed a shower), she put her feet under the covers before she pulled off her T-shirt. She was about to fling it across the room, but instead she put it on the bed, took off her bra and threw that across the room. Then she pulled the T-shirt back on and got under the covers.
She awoke to find Perry sitting on the edge of the bed, gently brushing her hair off her forehead.
"You thought I'd say no about coming here, didn't you?" he asked softly.
"We are where we are," she said, smiling. "Come to bed."
He started to say something else, to offer alternatives, to avoid putting pressure on her, to indicate concern for her feelings and best interests, but she sat up in bed, took off her T-shirt, flung it across the room after all, and pulled Perry to her.
An hour later, as she held him in her arms, she thought with uncharactistic optimism, "Well, it's a start." A fumbling, nervous, awkward and almost entirely unsuccessful start, but a start.
"Hey," she said.
"What?" he asked cautiously.
"I did expect you to say no, and I did want you to say no, but I'm glad you said yes."
As she held him close, she remembered telling Johnny Mac once that conversation following sex was always either a fight or a lie.
Then she wondered if it was possible to publish three successful novels and still be a virgin.
Next Chapter:
Quartet