"Are you awake?" SarahBeth asked.
Perry stretched. "Yes, more or less." He looked around, trying to figure out what time it was, what day it was.
Then he saw the piece of paper on the door. "What's that?" he asked.
"What?" she asked, not looking.
"There's something on the door."
She looked around quickly. "A bug?"
He smiled. "No, it's not a bug. It looks like a piece of paper."
She squirmed around. "Somebody came into our room when we were asleep and put a piece of paper on our door? Damn." She climbed over him and went to the door. Leaning over, she examined the note in the dim light, without touching it, and then she returned to bed.
"It's a note," she said, squirming around so that she was facing the wall and her back was to him. She snuggled against him, as if ready to go back to sleep.
"Well, what did it say?" he asked after a minute.
"I don't know. It's folded up."
He laughed. "And you didn't want to unfold it?"
"I know the handwriting. Our names are on the outside. I'm not touching it."
He looked at her for a moment, but she was obviously not about to move again. He got up, padding across the cold floor, and looked at the note. It said, "SarahBeth and Perry" on the outside. He didn't recognize the handwriting.
He pulled it from the door and quickly got back into bed. The room was cold, and he wondered if there was any way to get a second blanket.
"Shall I read it out loud?" he asked.
She buried herself further under the covers. "I'm cold," she said. "Read it first, before you read it to me. Then you can edit out the nasty parts."
"Okay." He opened the note and read.
Dear SarahBeth and Perry,
I just wanted you both to know how great it was that you went out yesterday. I know it didn't turn out as you'd hoped and expected, but sometimes we do very good things when we were planning to do something else completely, and we need to stop and take a look at what we really did and what a difference it made.
I'm hoping that you three can go out again today (of course, I have no idea what day or time it is, so what I mean is, "when you get up").
At the moment we have very few people with medical qualifications, so there is nobody to go with you. A couple of other teams are going out with people trained in first aid, but they were very uncomfortable about the idea of going with Katherine (please don't tell her this).
So, I think the most valuable thing you can do is exactly what you did yesterday, get as much medicine and other supplies as you can. Please stop by the meeting room before you go and I'll have a list with a few things you can look for especially.
With respect and affection,
V.
"It doesn't really have any nasty parts," he said.
She snuggled against him. "That's it," she said. "Shield me from the unpleasant realities of life. You're a good boyfriend."
The room was very cold when they got up, so they dressed quickly. SarahBeth shivered as she pulled on her jeans. "The next time you see your big important friends," she said, "see if you can get us another blanket."
He laughed. "Some of them are related to you, so how did they get to be my 'big important friends'?"
"Because they like you," she said, pulling on a sweatshirt. She came over and pressed herself against him. "Warm me up," she said.
He held her close with one arm and rubbed her with the other, periodically alternating until she said, "Okay," and went to her duffle bag.
"Do you have a winter coat?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No, but I can wear a couple of sweaters and I'll be fine." She pulled one out and put it on. "I got through last winter without a coat, I can survive this one, too."
"Well, if I see an unoccupied coat, I'm grabbing it for you."
She smiled. "Just get the blanket and you'll have a happy girlfriend. Are you going to see Vicki and the others?"
"Yes, they have . . . You're not coming?"
She shook her head. "I don't think they're pining to see me. Why don't you go see them, and I'll find Katherine?"
He shrugged. "Okay. I'll meet you in the lobby."
When SarahBeth got to the lobby, and she decided there was no way she was going out on the team again without some breakfast. She smiled. Maybe she'd even get some for Perry. If she felt like it.
She went down the corridor to the kitchen, and walked in on Vicki and Pat. They were holding hands, and Vicki was holding a saucepan over a small fire in a a huge wok.
"Good morning," Vicki said, as SarahBeth tried to read Pat's expression. "We're heating water for tea. Do you want some?"
"What I really want is some food. I'm not picky, I'll eat pretty much anything."
Vicki smiled. "Then we've got just the thing for you." She pointed at a table on the other side of the room where there were several baking pans. "Somebody figured out a way to bake muffins yesterday. They're pretty dry and flavorless, but they'll fill you up."
Pat nodded. "They're . . ." she searched for a word. "Dense," she finally said as SarahBeth went over and took one.
She started to chew as Vicki asked, "Where's Perry?"
SarahBeth held up a hand as she continued to chew. Pat got two mugs and brought them over so Vicki could fill them from the saucepan.
"He's gone to the meeting room," SarahBeth said when she'd finally managed to swallow the mouthful of muffin. "Something about the note you left on our door."
Vicki put the pan down. "That's the list of medical supplies. But there's nobody there to give it to him. Jan and Marshall are–"
"I'll go," Pat said, and she left, the swinging door closing behind her.
SarahBeth shook her head. "I know I'm prejudiced, but I really don't know what you see in her."
Vicki put a teabag into her mug and stirred it with her finger. She smiled. "You know what I see in her? I'll tell you, though I know you weren't really asking. We shared a room when we first got here, and we got into the habit of talking after we turned out the lights. She was very good at asking about me, finding out about my life, but I realized I wasn't learning a lot about her."
SarahBeth took another bite of her muffin.
"So, I started asking more questions, and I found out that she's had a rough life, too, way worse than mine. But I started to realize that she ... she was still optimistic whenever she met a new person. She always expected them to be nice, to be helpful and honest."
SarahBeth rolled her eyes, and Vicki laughed. "She even thinks you're really nice, so maybe we should have Ray examine her. But seriously, one night she got real upset, talking about things that happened when she was young, and I went over to her bed to comfort her."
"I know the rest," SarahBeth said around the mouthful of muffin. "She was crying and you cuddled her and then you started kissing her. Don't you ever pick up girls any other way?"
Vicki looked puzzled. "Another way?" she asked, then she laughed. "Don't make fun, you know who I learned that from."
SarahBeth managed to swallow the muffin in her mouth. "Have you told her?" she asked.
Vicki shook her head. "About us? I'm not going to tell you if I have or not."
SarahBeth laughed. "Why not?"
"Because it's going to annoy you if I refuse to tell you. If I tell you that I did, you're going to start strutting around in front of her, like I'm only on loan and you could take me back if you wanted to. If I tell you that I didn't, you'll take that as evidence that my relationship with her isn't strong enough to take it. Then you'll start to drop little hints around her, to make me all squirmy and uncomfortable." She smiled. "But if I don't tell you, you'll just get cranky about it, and that's okay."
SarahBeth made a face. "I don't strut!"
Vicki came over to her. "Of course you do," she said, standing close but not touching. "And it is fucking sexy when you do it." She smiled. "Have a great day, B."
She left, and SarahBeth made a face. She found a large piece of paper and wrapped up muffins for her two teammates.
Back in the lobby, SarahBeth looked on the blackboard Fifteen had showed them. She saw "Pete and Katherine" written next to room 221. She figured that "Pete" must be the roommate Katherine had mentioned the day before.
There was no response when she knocked on the door of room 221. so she opened it and looked in. In the gloom, she saw a small man with long hair lying in bed, on his back, snoring quietly. Katherine was next to him, fully dressed, lying on top of the cover. One arm and one leg were on top of the man, and her head rested on his chest.
SarahBeth walked over and touched her shoulder. "Katherine," she began. but Katherine jerked awake and growled. She turned and rolled, crashing into SarahBeth, who ended up on the floor with the other woman on top of her. Then SarahBeth felt hands close around her throat.
Operating on instinct, SarahBeth yelled, "Stop!!" as loudly as she could. This startled Katherine, whose eyes came into focus, and awakened the man in the bed.
Katherine looked at SarahBeth, and quickly pulled her hands away. She sat up on the floor and pushed herself backwards with her heels until her back was against the side of the bed. She looked helpless and sad.
Pete was looking at them by then, peering over the side of the bed, and he spoke to SarahBeth. "Whoever you are," he said, motioning for her to get Katherine up on the bed.
SarahBeth got to her hands and knees, practicing breathing to make sure she still could, and then she stood up. Katherine looked like she was in shock.
The man was still motioning, so SarahBeth put her hands on Katherine's shoulders, working with some assistance from Katherine herself to get the taller woman up on the bed. Pete put his arms around her and started to stroke her hair. She collapsed so she was lying across his lap, facing away from SarahBeth.
"Thanks," he said to SarahBeth. "I'm Pete."
"SarahBeth Wasserman," she said, sitting on the only chair in the room.
"Any relation to Vicki?" he asked calmly, still stroking Katherine's hair.
"Cousin. Ex-lover. Bête noir."
"I gather you know Katherine already."
SarahBeth was starting to feel like this was some alternate universe where attacking other people on sight was a common way to say hello.
"We went out on a medical team yesterday," she said. "We were hoping she'd come out with us again today." She gestured at the small bedside table. "That's where all the cigarettes came from."
Pete looked and saw the cigarette packs for the first time. He grinned as Katherine rolled onto her back and glanced nervously at SarahBeth.
"I like your priorities," he said. "Most people don't think of cigarettes as being medicinal."
She shrugged, relaxing a little. "Well, I smoke, too."
"Who else was on the team?" Pete asked. He was trying to open one of the packs one-handed while he held Katherine with his other arm.
SarahBeth got up and went to the bed. She opened one of the packs, took out three cigarettes, and handed one to Pete. She stuck one in her own mouth and held out the other one to Katherine.
"Kath," she said, "have a smoke?"
Katherine sat up and took the cigarette. SarahBeth took a pack of matches and lit Pete and Katherine's cigarettes, then used a second match for her own.
"It was me, Katherine, and my boyfriend Perry," she said.
Pete smiled. "Perry Nelson?"
"How did you know that?" she demanded.
"There's been a certain amount of buzz that he's here." He shrugged. "I wouldn't mind meeting him at some point."
"Just don't talk about his books all the time," Katherine said, sitting up on the edge of the bed. "He doesn't like that."
"So, Kath, can you come out with us again today?" SarahBeth asked.
Katherine nodded and said, "Yes." She looked at Pete. "Will you be okay?"
"Oh, sure. Fifteen stops by to see if I need anything. I walked some yesterday, and I'll try to do more today."
Katherine got up and went to the dresser, which had only three legs and leaned against the wall at an odd angle. She took off her army coat and put on her shoulder holster. Then she clasped the worn leather gunbelt around her hips. She took a small holster and clipped it inside the waist band of her jeans, in the small of her back. The final holster was a small one she strapped to her right ankle.
Then, one by one, she took the guns from the top of the dresser, methodically checking each one to make sure it was loaded before she slipped it into its holster.
"Does she do this every morning?" SarahBeth asked.
Pete nodded. "Every day."
Katherine smiled over her shoulder. "He's obsessive-compulsive, too, just about different things."
Pete laughed. "She's in therapy," he explained to SarahBeth.
"And I've told him he should give it a try–"
"But it's not my thing," he concluded as Katherine, now fully armed, came over to the bed and squeezed his hand.
"I know," she said. "I'm just saying."
He smiled. "You're just saying."
"I can leave, if you're going to get mushy," SarahBeth said, standing up. She grinned. "If you're going to fight, though, I'll stay."
Pete laughed. "Neither one, right now. We'll do one or both later on, when you're not around."
As SarahBeth turned to leave, Katherine pointed at the crumpled paper packet in the corner. "What's that?" she asked. "I think you were holding it when I . . ." She waved at the edge of the bed where she had attacked SarahBeth.
SarahBeth had forgotten about the muffins completely. "It's nothing," she said, picking it up. "Let's go."
"How come you never call him your boyfriend?" SarahBeth asked as they walked down the hall toward the stairs.
Katherine looked sheepish.
"All yesterday, it was 'my roommate,' and 'the guy I live with,' and 'my friend.' Just call him your boyfriend." She grinned. "Come on, I want to hear you say it."
Katherine smiled. "My boyfriend," she said slowly. "Pete, my boyfriend." Then she revealed unexpected dimples. "My sweetie," she said.
SarahBeth held up her hand. "Let's not get carried away."
Katherine nodded. "My boyfriend."
SarahBeth patted her shoulder. "That's fine. So, do you always sleep on top of the covers?"
Katherine laughed. "No, we sleep together like normal people. I just didn't want to wake him up last night. His ankle was hurting pretty bad yesterday, and I was afraid if I woke him up he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep."
"You're nicer than I am," SarahBeth said.
Katherine shrugged. "In some ways, maybe."
"Yesterday I thought I was going to start killing people myself, if that Monica had been any more annoying." She glanced at Katherine. "I'm not supposed to joke about that, am I?"
"Well, she was kind of annoying. But you were really jealous–"
SarahBeth made a face. "Hey, you want to be in therapy, that's fine. You can even talk about being in therapy. But don't do it to me." She glanced at Katherine, who looked like she was about to explode with laughter. SarahBeth blushed. "Okay, don't ever tell anybody, but I guess I was a little upset."
"I won't tell a soul." Katherine mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key. "And she is prettier than you are–"
SarahBeth laughed and punched her in the arm. "Oh, shut up!"
Katherine was silent for a minute as they walked down the stairs, then she asked, "So, what's in the package?"
SarahBeth laughed. "Muffins. For you and Perry, for breakfast. I didn't want to say it in front of Pete, because I didn't have one for him." She opened up the piece of paper and handed one to Katherine.
"That's no problem, you hadn't even met him yet." She took a bite and started chewing.
"Will he get something to eat?" SarahBeth asked.
Katherine nodded, still chewing. They went into the lobby, where Perry was sitting on a sofa and waiting. He stood up and SarahBeth handed him the remaining muffin.
"Breakfast," she said. "They're not much to look at, but it will fill you up. So, did you see Pat?"
He nodded. "She gave me a list of things to try to find . . . How did you know it was Pat who I saw?"
"I ran into them, Pat and Vicki, in the kitchen, and Vicki sent Pat to see you so she could stay behind and flirt with me."
"And did she?"
"Yes, but I told her I had a fella now and I wasn't interested." She jerked her head toward the door. "Come on, let's get going,"
Outside, as they walked toward the bridge, Katherine said, "Lots of people come to visit him during the day, when I'm not there."
SarahBeth looked puzzled. "Who?"
"Pete. You asked about him and if he was–"
"Oh, I remember. I'm sorry."
She laughed. "It shows how long it takes to eat a bite of these things. No, Pete will not starve. He has a lot of friends, and I think sometimes they try to stop by when I'm not there."
"That's not very nice of them," SarahBeth said sharply.
Katherine shrugged. "Maybe, but I'm sort of used to it. I don't want to cut him off from his friends, so it's okay."
Neil was not there at the base of the bridge, but a red-headed Jinx came up and introduced herself as Christy.
"Anything happen since yesterday?" Perry asked.
She smiled. "Quite a few people have come over. Apparently the word is getting around over there that this is the better place to be."
He nodded. "It is, comparatively. At least people aren't getting rounded up like cattle over here."
She laughed. "If we were rounding them up, it would be to put them to work, not to lock them up. Well, good luck."
"Thanks," Perry said, and they started up the bridge.
After a minute, SarahBeth said, "Maybe we should have gone on the other side. I forgot about the holes."
"Well," said Perry, "at least on this side we know where the holes are already. Besides, it looked like the other side was worse."
She shrugged and put her hands in her pockets, hunching her shoulders against the cold breeze.
When they were about halfway across the bridge, just before they reached the first hole, they saw a light moving on the other side of the bridge. "Get down," Katherine hissed, but before they could move a spotlight hit them.
Perry walked toward the light, motioning behind his back for the others to stay where they were. Katherine's hand fell to her revolver, but SarahBeth quickly moved Katherine's hand and zipped up her coat, hiding the guns. Katherine looked down at SarahBeth, her mouth grim.
"Don't start shooting," SarahBeth whispered. "This may work out."
Katherine bit her lip, but she remained motionless as Perry reached the edge and waved. "Hi," he called.
There was no response, and the spotlight didn't waver. Finally, a male voice, amplified by a bullhorn, said, "Please identify yourselves."
"I'm Perry Nelson," Perry said. "I'm here to do an article about the disaster and the clean-up efforts. This is SarahBeth, my girlfriend, and my assistant Kathy."
There was another pause. "Please have the ladies step up to the divider. Everybody please keep your hands on plain sight."
"I'll do what I can," he said with a chuckle. "They're both pretty nervous about heights." He made a hand motion for them to come forward, and they stepped about halfway toward him.
"Is there a problem?" he asked, his tone still very friendly. "I can give you my editor's phone number, if that would be helpful. And I do have press credentials."
SarahBeth put her hand on Katherine's arm, which was almost vibrating, and her facial muscles were so tense that she looked like she was about to explode. "That's it," she whispered. "I am not going to die with my fucking hands in my pockets!"
SarahBeth grabbed Katherine in a bear hug, pinning her arms to her sides, and called, in her best helpless-girl voice, "Is everything okay, Perry? Kathy and me are getting real scared!"
Perry, in defense of his women, adopted a somewhat firmer tone. "I think you should identify yourself at this point," he said, leaning forward. "We have heard that there are a lot of criminals and looters in this area, and we can't afford to take any chances."
Finally the spotlight clicked off. "Sorry to bother you, Mr. Nelson," the voice said. "We can't be too careful under these circumstances."
Perry waved at the unseen figure. "I completely understand," he said.
They walked down the bridge in silence, not sure if the person with the spotlight was still around and might hear them.
At the base of the bridge, they looked around and didn't see anybody. SarahBeth lit a cigarette and sat down on a concrete barrier. She offered a cigarette to Katherine, who took it and lit it, sitting a little distance away.
"Frankly, I'm surprised he let us go," SarahBeth said. "If he really was a cop."
Perry shook his head. "It was touch and go, but I was relying on a couple of things. One is that, seeing me, he would focus on me and not look at the two of you very closely. The other is that I wrote those articles against U-town, so he would generally think of me as 'friendly' rather than hostile."
"You okay, Kath?" SarahBeth called, but Katherine didn't react. SarahBeth got up and went to sit next to her. Katherine's body slumped and she didn't give any indication she even knew they were there.
"Hi," came a voice, and they both jumped. Katherine didn't react. Perry and SarahBeth turned, and they saw Jeff from the day before, with about a dozen people behind him, including Monica.
Jeff stepped forward, obviously speaking for them all. "We wanted to go over the bridge. It just gets worse and worse here, and from what Monica's been telling us, it sounds like it's better over there. But we weren't sure if we'd be welcome."
Perry shrugged. "I don't have any official standing, but I think everybody is welcome, if they're willing to help out."
SarahBeth stepped forward. "And, if you're willing to help out, here's an idea. Don't arrive empty-handed. Is there a supermarket near here? One which hasn't been looted, or at least isn't emptied out yet? Get some trash bags and fill them with food, and bring it with you."
"Good idea," Perry said. "Bring non-perishable food, obviously. Pasta and rice, canned vegetables and fruit, canned fish and meat."
"We could fill up shopping carts," somebody said.
Perry nodded. "But do put things in trash bags, because there's part of the bridge where there are holes, and you won't be able to take the shopping carts all the way across."
"And we need a couple of volunteers to get medical supplies," SarahBeth added. "Go to a drugstore and get the things on the list Perry is about to give you." Perry took out the list and handed it over to Jeff. "And anything else which you think would be useful for treating injuries. We'll wait here."
After a couple of questions, they went off, and Perry said, "I thought we were getting the medical supplies."
SarahBeth shook her head. "We seem to have our own medical problem here." She gestured at Katherine, who hadn't moved. "We can't do anything else until we help her."
Perry looked at Katherine uncertainly. "If this was a World War II movie," he said, "we would slap her, she'd shake herself and say, 'Thanks, I needed that.' and then she'd be back to normal," Perry said.
SarahBeth shook her head. "Don't get all macho on me. I have a much better idea."
She pushed Katherine's shoulders back so she was sitting up straight. Then she plopped herself onto Katherine's lap, threw her arms around her friend and kissed her.
Katherine's eyes snapped open as SarahBeth's tongue rocketed into her mouth. She looked around as if in panic, and then tried to push SarahBeth away, yanking her hands back when she realized she was pushing on SarahBeth's breasts.
SarahBeth broke the kiss and said, "I do have to tell you, I am not making a pass at you. I'm just trying to get your attention. I can tell you're not really into kissing girls." She grinned. "I, on the other hand, am very much into kissing girls, but you are definitely not my type. So, are you back with us?"
Katherine nodded slowly.
"Good. We survived up on the bridge a few minutes ago, nothing terrible happened, everything is cool. And we need to have you with us. Oh, and we're having dinner tonight."
"What?" Katherine asked.
"The four of us. You, me, Perry and Pete. We decided that while you were ignoring us. Perry hasn't even met Pete, and I only saw him for a few minutes this morning. Plus, we want to spend some time with you when we don't have all this stuff to do, when we can just relax and hang out more." She smiled. "How does that sound?"
Katherine looked uncertain, as if nobody had ever asked her such a question before. Then she smiled. "I'd really like that. I'll have to check with Pete, but I'm sure it will be okay with him."
SarahBeth laughed. "His ankle is messed up anyway, so even if he doesn't like the idea, he'll have trouble getting away."
Katherine laughed. "True." She turned to Perry. "Pete's my boyfriend," she explained.
"I look forward to meeting him," he said.
SarahBeth leaned forward, almost nose to nose with the other woman. "Oh, and Katherine? That thing you were doing before? Where you sit and stare and ignore me when I talk to you? That really pisses me off, so don't do that anymore."
She nodded.
"Because, if I have to do this again, I'm going to do a lot more than kiss you. Okay?
"Okay." She shifted a little on the concrete. "Are you going to get off my lap now? You're getting kind of heavy."
SarahBeth didn't get a chance to respond to this because they all became aware of a strange sound coming closer. She got to her feet as Katherine stood up and pulled her guns.
It sounded like a supermarket cart race, which is more or less what it was. Jeff and Monica and the others appeared around a corner, all pushing carts, all running as fast as they could.
Perry turned and held out his arms. The people in the front slowed and a couple said simply, "Tanks!"
"Oh, shit," SarahBeth said.
Perry motioned for everybody to stop. With the carts stopped, they could now hear the deeper sound of other vehicles coming, but none were visible yet.
"Do not run on the bridge," Perry said in a loud voice, speaking very quickly. "There are holes in the roadway, and you will fall in. Go carefully, and look out for each other. When you reach the big hole, take the trash bags and walk across the divider in the middle of the bridge. Wait at the other side of the bridge for us, so we can tell you where to go, and so we can make sure everybody made it. Okay, go!"
They started onto the bridge as the first tank appeared a couple of blocks away.
"As soon as they all get on the bridge, we follow," Perry said. He looked at Katherine, who still held her guns. "You're not going to shoot it out with a tank, are you?"
She smiled and holstered her guns as SarahBeth said, "Hey, she's crazy, she's not stupid." Katherine smacked her very lightly on the back of the head and she grinned.
The shopping carts were all on the bridge, so they followed quickly.
Walking up the incline, SarahBeth asked, "Will the bridge hold the tanks?"
Perry shook his head. "I doubt it. I'm hoping they won't . . ." he turned and looked back, then he pointed. The first tank had already rolled past the base of the bridge.
"They're securing their territory, and making sure people know they're still in business. I guess they're just as happy to ignore us, at least for now."
They reached the first hole, where people were pulling their trash bags from the shopping carts and stepping up onto the metal divider. One middle-aged man, with salt and pepper hair and beard, was holding his trash bag but not moving.
"I'm really bad with heights," he explained as they came up.
"I'll take the bag," SarahBeth said, opening it to peer inside. She pulled out a candy bar and stuck it in her pocket, hoisting the bag and climbing up on the divider.
Perry stood behind the man and wrapped his arms around the man's chest under his arms. "Go limp," he suggested as Katherine lifted the man's feet. "Close your eyes," Perry suggested as they awkwardly got up on the divider, carrying the man between them.
At the other side of the biggest hole, they lost their grip on the man as they tried to get off the divider and he slid to the road surface. He opened his eyes and looked around. "Thanks," he said as he got to his feet.
"You get to carry this the rest of the way," SarahBeth said, pointing at the bag as she ate the candy bar.
"No problem," the man said.
At the base of the bridge, Perry and the others led the
newcomers to the hotel, where Fifteen supervised the unloading of
the food and medicine and other supplies.
"So, I guess you're going to go and Make your Report," SarahBeth said to Perry.
He nodded. "They will want to hear about what happened today. You know, you can come, too. They ask about you when I see them."
"What do you tell them?"
"I tell them how wonderful you are, but I don't give any specifics and I don't get mushy about it."
She smiled. "That's good. No, you go and hang out with your big important friends, I'm going to get ready for our dinner with Katherine and Pete. And don't be late."
SarahBeth washed up as much as she could, brushed her hair and changed her clothes, putting on her nicest shirt.
Then she went to Pete and Katherine's room, where they had apparently not made any such preparations. Well, she thought, they were the hosts and she was the guest.
They offered her the only chair and Katherine sat on the bed next to Pete. They started to tell him about what had happened that day, but then SarahBeth looked at the door and shrugged. "I don't know what's keeping him," she said.
Pete chuckled. "I can guess. Fifteen told me before that there will be a meeting tomorrow sometime. Perry is with Vicki and the others." He shrugged. "In the past, he's been pretty vocal about how bad an idea U-town was, and now here he is helping out. I'm sure they want him to say something to the meeting, it would be a big morale–"
There was a knock on the door, and then it opened and a small old man came in. He was wearing a battered fedora and a bathrobe over what looked like pajamas. He had bedroom slippers on, and was carrying a doctor's bag. "So," he said, moving toward the bed, "how's the ankle feeling today? I–"
"Finch!" SarahBeth said suddenly, and he turned to face her.
"Young lady," he said, "you really shouldn't yell like that. I'm not a young man, and–"
"Don't you remember me?" she asked, standing up.
"Of course I remember you," he said testily. He seemed to be regarding her chest, as if that's what he remembered most vividly. "You're just as impossible as you were when you were introducing Sarah Little to the pleasures of–"
"I'm not with her anymore," SarahBeth said quickly. "I'm with Perry now."
Finch's eyes widened. "Indeed," he said. He put his medical bag down and sat on the bed, nearly sitting on Pete's sore ankle. "Perry Nelson? My esteemed ex-wife will want to know about this. So, you were stalking him after all? This is very interesting."
SarahBeth sat down again, clearly wishing she'd never said anything. "Shouldn't you be examining Pete's ankle?" she asked.
He turned and pulled up the cover. "Looks fine," he said.
"It's the other one," Katherine pointed out.
A few minutes after Finch left, there was another knock on the door. Katherine went over to answer it, one hand holding a small gun behind her back. She opened the door and Perry wheeled in a small cart. He smiled as Katherine closed the door behind him. Then she started putting her guns on top of the dresser.
Perry gestured at the cart. "I may be late, for which I apologize," he said, "but I brought dinner." There were four plates on the cart, each with an ample portion of spaghetti and sauce, and a small scoop of macaroni and cheese. He hefted a shopping bag which clinked. "And wine."
"Where did you come up with wine?" SarahBeth asked.
"I noticed a liquor store on the way to the bridge. It's been broken into, and all the beer and wine coolers were gone, plus the hard liquor, but there were some pretty good bottles of wine in the back." He looked around. "I'll go find another chair," he said.
He turned to the door, but Katherine said, "No, you're the guest. I'll go." She tucked the small gun into the back pocket of her jeans and left.
"I hope she's not planning to shoot somebody over a chair," Perry said.
Pete smiled. "I'm sure she won't. She never leaves this room unarmed. In fact, she obviously trusts the two of you, or she wouldn't have put her guns away until you were gone."
The door opened a few minutes later and Katherine came back in, followed by Fifteen. She was carrying a straight-backed chair, which she placed next to the one where SarahBeth was sitting. She turned to Pete and pointed at Fifteen.
"He followed me home," she said with a smile.
Pete laughed. "What can we do for you?"
Fifteen turned so he was facing all four of them. "I saw Miss Starling and she said you were all together, so I thought I'd come by and give you the announcement. Tomorrow afternoon, there will be a meeting. It will be a memorial for Doc Morse and Jack Longstreet, and there will be some other things, too. No specifics have been announced."
SarahBeth glanced at Perry, and Fifteen added quietly, "I've been told that everybody has to be there."
SarahBeth made a face. "How are we even supposed to know when it's afternoon?" she asked. "It always looks the same out."
"The runners, myself included, will go around and inform everybody. Also, today the sky seemed a little clearer, at least to some people, so soon we may actually be able to tell day from night. Oh, and if you folks go across the bridge in the morning, I guess it will have to be a short trip. Up to you, of course." He shrugged. "I think that's it."
"Thanks a lot," Pete said. Fifteen saluted, made two crisp quarter turns, and marched out, closing the door behind him.
"I thought you weren't going by 'starling' anymore," SarahBeth said as Katherine brought them plates of food from the cart and Perry started to pour wine.
She smiled. "I'm not. Raymond's idea, of course. And Katherine is my real name. But Fifteen has always called me 'Miss Starling,' and I haven't got the heart to ask him to stop."
Once they all had plates of food and had started to eat, Pete asked, "How did it go today? It seemed you got back a lot faster than the day before."
So, they started to tell him the story of their second trip over the bridge, leaving out Katherine's near-violence and her subsequent withdrawal. During a pause, though, when they were all chewing on the spaghetti (which was not completely cooked), Katherine said, "They're leaving out how I freaked out when the guy had a spotlight on us, and I almost got us all killed." She smiled. "Raymond says it's important not to try to hide these things, that part of working it through is being honest about it."
"It worked out, though," Perry said. "That's the important thing." He got up and poured everybody more wine. "I know I speak for both of us when I say that we really wouldn't want to go out without you."
She smiled. "Thanks. I understand that not everybody feels that way. And I can see why they don't."
"Katherine, can I ask you a question?" Perry said.
"Sure."
"The first day we went out, when we were in that alley–"
"When I shot those men?"
"Yes. Now, it looked like they were robbing that guy, but what if it was something else?"
"What if he was a bad guy and they were good guys, is that what you mean?"
"Yes."
"You sound like Raymond. He asks me questions like that. I don't know what was going on, who was 'good' and who was 'bad.' That's not the point. They had weapons. They turned to face us, holding weapons, weapons they might have used on us."
"So, you shot them to protect yourself?"
"And us," SarahBeth said.
Katherine nodded. "All of us."
"In movies," Pete said, "people usually make speeches before they shoot you. In real life, they usually don't, unless they've seen too many movies. The U.S. government, if there still is such a thing, has offered a huge reward for Katherine, dead or alive. And they've made it pretty clear that 'dead' would be preferable." He shrugged. "Ray Stone has been very helpful, but his advice that she stop carrying her guns is impractical, no matter the possible psychological benefits. Psychology only matters if you stay alive."
Katherine smiled. "Finally, something about psychology we can agree on."
"I think we can all agree about this mac and cheese, too," SarahBeth said. "It's pretty nasty."
Pete nodded. "This is what happens when you make it with water instead of milk. But I guess they think it's got some protein at least."
Perry took another sip of his wine.
"Pete," he said, "I realize that we know very little about you. What do you do?"
He laughed. "Not much these days. I was a bass player, but my band broke up, and my equipment was destroyed, so that's about the end of that." He shrugged. "Plus, with no electricity, rock and roll is pretty much out of business anyway."
"How did you two meet?" SarahBeth asked.
Katherine said, "I came to this area looking for somebody, and the people I met said there were four people who knew everything and everybody, and Pete was one of them. So, I went to the store where he worked and threatened to kill him if he didn't help me."
"That is so romantic," SarahBeth said, and they all laughed.
"So, I took her around for a few days, asking everybody I knew, with no result," Pete said.
"And how did that, romantic as it is, turn into a relationship?" Perry asked. "If you don't mind my asking."
Katherine said, "Well, when we were spending all that time together, we really hit it off. The last couple of guys who were interested in me were creeps. One wanted to sleep with me because he thought I'd kill his wife for him. The other was just weird. He was really into it, asking me details about different times I'd killed people, and how many." She made a face. "I got away from him. I thought of killing him, but it seemed like maybe that was what he wanted me to do.
"So, I sort of figured that was it, that I'd just be on my own. And that's okay, I can be on my own. But then I met Pete, and he really seemed okay with the whole thing. Like he wasn't into it, but it didn't freak him out either."
"So, you jumped his bones?" SarahBeth asked.
Pete laughed. "Lord, no. We're both really cautious about that kind of stuff. It took us forever to even kiss, and then even longer to sleep together."
"There were some other issues going on," Katherine said. "Things were very hectic around us, so we had a lot of other things to deal with and think about. I remember in the first couple of weeks we were together, there was only one day without a lot of crisis going on. The rest of the time was crazy."
"Which was a great excuse for both of us to avoid thinking about each other."
"And, with all that going on, we learned a lot about each other, too. Very quickly."
"She saved my life a few times," Pete said.
Katherine took his hand. "And he saved mine. He killed a man, to protect me." She smiled. "I still think I could have taken him, but Pete didn't want to risk it."
"So," SarahBeth said to Pete, "I didn't realize you were dangerous, too."
Katherine laughed. "He's not that dangerous, he never even carries his gun unless I make him bring it."
"Perry," Pete said, "I have to ask what you think of all this. I . . ." He noticed SarahBeth's expression. "I mean both of you, of course. The explosion and the electricity and so on. Do we know anything, what it was, how big it is, anything?"
SarahBeth smiled. "He may know more than I do, he hangs out with the important people."
Perry laughed. "Who don't know any more than we do, I can assure you. They spend most of their time worrying about medicine and food, as far as I can tell."
Pete nodded. "And correctly so, they have to keep people alive. They don't have the luxury I do, to lie here all day and speculate. Do you know what occurred to me today?" He pointed out the window. "Empty skies. No helicopters, no fighter jets, either for show of strength or to keep an eye on us."
He put his empty plate on the bedside table and took a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his T-shirt. Katherine took one also and he lit them both as Perry got up and opened another bottle of wine.
Perry refilled SarahBeth's glass, and then moved to Katherine's side of the bed, but she held up her hand and looked at Pete.
He smiled and nodded. "It's okay," he said quietly.
"He tells you if you can drink or not?" SarahBeth demanded as Perry filled her glass and then Pete's.
Katherine nodded seriously. "Sometimes, when I'm in some moods, it's a very bad idea for me to drink very much. But Pete knows me really well, so I check with him, because I can't always tell myself."
Perry nodded. "That makes sense. Pete, you were saying . . ."
"Nothing in the skies. That means one of two things." He ticked them off on his fingers. "Either this is all really minor, not worth the effort, or it's really major and they can't." He sipped the wine. "I'd say it's pretty obvious it's not the former. This is major, either a natural disaster or an attack, or the prelude to an attack, or a collapse of the infrastructure. But I'd bet money, not that I have any, or any idea if it's still worth anything, that this is widespread and that it's not about to get better."
He chuckled. "You can get so spoiled. We're all so used to being able to turn on the TV or the radio, or read a newspaper when we want to know what's going on. And now we can't, and it's like our world just got a lot smaller. But, through history, this is how things have mostly been, until very recently."
"It's not unusual for him," SarahBeth said, pointing at Perry. "He doesn't have a TV or telephone or anything anyway."
He laughed. "Well, I do have a radio. I–"
"Oh, my God, sweetie," she interrupted, "I just thought. What about the windows? The broken windows?"
Pete and Katherine looked puzzled, and Perry said, "Due to an excess of excitement and enthusiasm, right before our departure, two windows in our house got broken." He shrugged and turned to SarahBeth. "Do you really think, at this point, that we're going to be going back there?"
She frowned. "We're not? I mean, I sort of figured we would. Someday. You know, like in a book, when the adventure is over, we get to go home."
He smiled. "If we do ever go home, I'll have everything fixed, or I'll buy us another house. As Pete would say, if money is still worth anything at all, I have a lot of it."
"But what about all your stuff?"
He shrugged. "I have some clothes with me."
"But what about your books?" Pete asked. "I agree that getting back home is uncertain right now. If things were going to go back to 'normal,' we'd probably be seeing some signs of it already."
Perry leaned back. "There are millions of copies of my books all over the world. Short of the world blowing up, they're not about to all get wiped out. As for my notes, I have them with me."
Pete nodded. "I woke up one day with a bunch of cops in my apartment, looking for her." He indicated Katherine. "We got away from them, but we were on the run for a while, with just the clothes on our backs and some money I'd stashed away for emergencies. I missed all the other stuff, like I miss my bass and my amp, but they're just things. Things are fun to have, but you don't have them forever."
SarahBeth laughed. "I didn't know you were all going to get so zen on me here."
"Hey, you've got everything you own in the world in a duffel bag," Perry pointed out. "It doesn't seem to bother you."
She nodded. "That is true, I guess. I'm not opposed to having more stuff, though. I just don't have any right now." She poked Perry. "If this all does go back to normal, buy me a bunch of stuff."
He laughed. "Okay, that's a deal."
"So, Pete," Perry said, "I gather you think the adventure isn't about to be over."
"Stop making fun of me!" SarahBeth said with a laugh, smacking him on the arm.
"I don't think he is," Pete said, "and I'm certainly not. The next part of the adventure will be coming pretty soon, though." He smiled. "I am making a prediction about this meeting tomorrow, and you can all laugh at me if I'm wrong. I predict that, in addition to the memorial and whatever else, there will be some discussion of a whole different way of getting food, or a way of getting us out of here, all of us, or both."
"I'm sorry?" Perry said.
"Out of here, to somewhere else, all of us. Look, we have a lot of human beings on this concrete island, many were killed in the explosion, but most weren't. We all need food and medicine and clothing and eventually, when winter comes, heat. Scavenging won't work forever. In fact, even at best, it won't work for very long. Jan and Vicki are very intelligent, they know this, and I'm sure that if they're spending 75% of their time worrying about getting us all fed today and tomorrow, about food and medicine, they're spending the other 25% making some sort of longer-term plans, I have no idea what."
He smiled. "That's why they're in charge. I can see the problem, but I'll bet they'll have an idea about the solution. Or I certainly hope so. Otherwise, none of us are going to outlive the people who died in the explosion by very much."
"Did you two lose a lot of friends in the explosion?" Perry asked Pete and Katherine after a moment. "Family?"
"Our families aren't in the area, and we're not close to them anyway. People we knew were killed, friends, but no close friends. This guy we knew, Barry, he ran a pirate radio station. He was in his basement, making a broadcast, and the roof fell in on him and killed him. And his girlfriend Bernice, she was his engineer. Some of the Jinx were killed, including a guy named Rex who I used to play poker with."
"We think our dog was killed," Katherine said sadly.
"We haven't seen her since the explosion," Pete explained. "She always came back before. Fifteen and the runners are keeping an eye out for her, but they haven't seen anything."
Perry shrugged awkwardly. "I've never had pets, so this is probably the wrong thing to say, but you could get another dog."
They shook their heads. "Not like her," Pete said. He stubbed out his cigarette and took a sip of his wine. "I know everybody probably says this about their pets, but Daphne really was one of a kind."
Pete looked at Perry and SarahBeth. "So, how did you two meet?" he asked.
"I stalked him," SarahBeth explained simply, lighting another cigarette. "I read his books when I was younger, and they made sense to me. I hated my family, how we lived, so I ran away. I found the big reclusive author, which wasn't easy, and I moved into his house. He didn't like the idea, but I won him over."
"Did you grow up with Vicki?" Pete asked.
"The last few years, when her mother got too nutty to take care of her."
"I asked because she's always said how horrible it was. She said she was happier with her mother, even though she was crazy."
"Well, I've met her, and she's more than crazy," SarahBeth said. "She's here, by the way, staying in the hotel."
"Really?" Pete said. "How did she end up here?"
"That's kind of a long story," Perry said. "Even longer than some of these we've been telling. But if you see a tall, skinny woman, very well dressed–"
"Other than Jan." Pete added.
"But looking a lot like Jan." He paused. "Jan and Vicki are sisters, if you don't know."
Pete's eyes widened. "No, I didn't know that."
Katherine poked him. "Make a note," she said, and he laughed.
"Vicki just found out recently herself," Perry continued. "Jan knew, but she was afraid to tell Vicki because she's so anti-family."
"So, their mother looks like Jan?"
"Sometimes," SarahBeth muttered.
Pete looked puzzled.
"It sounds weird to tell," Perry said slowly, "but it's no weirder than Vicki. Alexandra has multiple personalities." Katherine's attention seemed to come into focus at that moment. "But, more than that, her appearance actually changes, quite radically, when her personality changes. She's always tall and thin, but her hair changes color and length, her complexion changes."
"And her clothes even change," SarahBeth said, getting up to pour more wine all around. "It was fucking freaky. Vicki confronted her, when she didn't expect it, and suddenly she changed into a different person."
Pete frowned. "Well, as you say, it isn't any weirder than Vicki, and I had a friend once who was much stranger even than her. So, what does she look like these days?"
"As I say, tall and thin. Long red hair–"
"Strawberry blonde," SarahBeth corrected him.
"So, I guess Vicki would really have been happier with her mother," Pete said. "I'm assuming that things were pretty rough for you both, since you both ran away."
"It wasn't that it was violent or too strict, it was too loose. Our parents – my parents – let us do whatever the hell we wanted to. Like we were already adults, but we weren't. Everything we did was okay, even if it was me and my sister being really mean to Vicki. Even if it was me and Vicki having sex. A lot. They just figured we were growing up." SarahBeth shook her head.
"It's like 'The World,'" she said, leaning forward. "It's what that fucking bitch Monica missed. I heard her, going on and on about how Nicole got away from her asshole father, but then she ended up with Patrick, who was a lot older than her, like she was trying to fuck another version of her father. That completely misses the point.
"Kids need parents, parents who act like parents, to help them become grown up. They don't need cops and they don't need hippies, they need a way to get to be adults. And that's what Nicole needed in the world, though she didn't find it in 'The World,' but that's what she needed, it's what everybody needs, though the point is to get it until you don't need it anymore, until you're grown."
She leaned back, face flushed. "Can I explicate, or can I? Fuck, yeah!"
"Fuck, yeah," Perry said quietly. He stood up and took her hand, pulling her to him. "We should go home."
Katherine was asleep, curled up against Pete, making little happy sounds as she held him close.
Pete held out his hand. "Pardon me if I don't get up. Folks, it was great. We should do it again, soon. Maybe with a little less wine."
Perry nodded. "I agree. Come on, explicator-girl, let's go home."
As they got undressed, SarahBeth said, "I had an idea earlier today, I wanted to tell you. I think it would make a good story. So, there's this character, middle-aged, lives alone."
"Man or woman?" Perry asked.
"Whichever. There's a knock at the door. It's the child that the person never knew they had, or that they thought was dead. Or maybe it's just news of the child, that the child exists. All grown up now, of course."
"Then what happens?"
"The person says, 'no, thanks,' and closes the door." She smiled. "Isn't that a good story?" He laughed as he got under the covers. "It would be pretty short."
"Well, that's how long it needs to be." She shrugged, getting into bed and pushing him over to give herself more room. "That's what I would do. People in stories and movies always turn their lives upside down when a surprise kid shows up, but I wouldn't."
He hugged her. "If you abandon a child, it had damn well better stay abandoned, huh?"
"Exactly. I'd . . . okay, poker-face, what's eating you now?"
"I just thought of something. This kind of reminded me. Do you know who's staying here at the hotel, down on the second floor?"
She shook her head. Then her eyes widened. "It's not my fucking family is it? Any of them? Or Johnny Mac?"
"I wouldn't know your family, or Johnny Mac, if I fell over them. No, it's Sarah Little."
"Oh, motherfuckingcocksucking shit! You are kidding me."
"No, I'm afraid not. I–"
"Does she know I'm here?" She rolled over abruptly, the springs squeaking, and turned her back to him.
"If she doesn't know, she will," he said quietly. "Sam and the others have seen her."
He put a hand on her shoulder, but she jerked away so hard that she would have fallen out of the bed if she'd been on the other side.
"Fuck! Shit! Goddamn it! Leave me alone!"
She jerked around a few more times, nearly knocking him out of the bed. Perry decided it would be best to wait for her to make the next move.
Perry waited what seemed like a long time. There was no further motion, and he waited patiently.
Finally, she sat up, her eyes red, and he broke several of his cardinal rules by reaching for her shirt and taking the pack of cigarettes from her pocket. He held it out to her, and, not meeting his eyes, she took one. He handed her the lighter and she lit it. Then she threw the lighter across the room where it tinked against the far wall and fell to the carpeted floor.
She smoked sitting on the bed, her shoulders slumped, her head bowed so that her face was mostly in shadow, but he could see her soft cheek and full lips through her long curly hair. She was slouching, which might have made her voluptuous body less attractive, but Perry thought she was beautiful in the faint light from outside. He wondered what he could ever do to keep her with him, to keep her from leaving him eventually, as she had apparently left everybody and everything else.
It was all he could do not to reach for her breasts, watching them quiver almost imperceptibly as she breathed. Then, in a sudden burst of inspiration (he was later to classify it this way to himself, but it was probably mostly lust), he cupped her left breast in his hand, and she quickly stubbed out the rest of her cigarette on the wall and met his lips as he sat up and put one arm around her, the other pressing her breast harder, feeling the softness and the weight of it, catching her nipple between his forefinger and his ring finger. She kissed him hard, clasping her hand over his and pressing it more firmly into her breast.
Then, suddenly, she lay down on her back and lifted her knees. He started to move around to go down on her, but she grabbed his shoulders and pulled them up, her expression fierce, and before he had even placed his knees in a reasonable position, he was inside of her.
Her expression was unlike anything he'd ever seen, her neck rigid, her eyes wide, her mouth pressed closed, and she used her hands and her hips to urge him to fuck her faster and harder, her hands on his shoulders, her body jerking up and down in the bed so that her breasts wobbled in a way that he found hypnotic.
Then she made a gutteral, urgent sound, her eyes still wide and locked on his face, and (his knees finally placed so that he had some purchase) he started fucking her as hard as he could, feeling that she was somewhat dry and quickly getting sore.
Then, without warning, she opened her mouth and yelled. It was not an orgasmic sound, at least not one he was familiar with, more like a prolonged "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" until she ran out of air, but he felt her clench around him like a vise.
Then she threw her arms and legs around him and pulled him down to her. Her rather sour breath flowed around his nose and mouth, and he wondered if he had come. He thought he probably had, he was getting soft inside her, but there had been so much else going on, he didn't remember it.
Perry woke up, and it took him a minute to realize that he was still on top of SarahBeth, her arms still locked around his neck. Her legs were no longer around him, but her knees were still raised and, after a few moments and a couple of small attempts to move, he realized that he was still inside her.
He kissed her forehead and said, "Good morning, darling." It was the first time he had ever called her that, she'd made fun of any previous attempts to call her romantic names, but her eyes opened and she smiled.
"Good morning," she said softly and he kissed her.
Then she shifted around a little. "You're squashing me," she said, punching him lightly in his side. "Get off."
He did, and she smiled again as he plopped softly out of her. She sat up and leaned over to peer between her legs. "Fuck, I'm sore," she said. "No action for you tonight." She turned and looked at him. "Are you going to protect me if anybody tries to beat me up at breakfast?"
He took her hand. "Always. And at lunch or dinner, too, not only breakfast."
She smiled, almost made a wise crack, then just laughed and said, "Thanks."
As they got dressed, SarahBeth looked in dismay at her bra.
She turned to Perry. "Hey," she said, "we need to get me some
bras. Fairly urgently. Today." She looked at him more closely
and then came slowly across the small room to examine his averted
face.
She smiled and whipped her bra around his neck, pulling his head down so she could kiss him on the cheek. "I love it when you blush," she whispered. "You're thinking, 'Can I make her go off and get her bras and whatever other girly stuff she needs and leave me out of it?' The answer is no." She pressed up against him, his cheeks turning more and more red. "Trust me," she whispered, "you'll enjoy this. Bra-shopping with me is fun." She squeezed him. "I promise it won't be like buying the tampons."
As they were about to leave the room, Perry said, "Of
course, we're both glad that she's okay."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm glad she's okay. She should be fine and okay and live forever. Just somewhere else." She frowned. "I should have asked if she was okay, shouldn't I?"
He shrugged.
She linked his arm through his as they went down to breakfast. "I'm a bad person," she said cheerfully. "Get used to it."
Next Chapter:
Distance and Time