By the time we were done, we looked like group of punk kids who had a serious Goth fetish. Each girl used the coroner’s cream, and no one complained about what they would be doing. It was life now, and if we didn’t clean the houses out, we would all eventually end up sick. We couldn’t bury them, because we couldn’t embalm them to prevent the disease from contaminating the ground.
I pressed the code into the buttons of the panel and opened up the doors, and waited until everyone had passed through before I turned to Addy. I gave her the sign for I love you, and blinked three times.
“Love you too, mute; in fact, I really like you mute!” she smiled as I raised my gloved middle finger.
Outside, Greta had the camouflaged tarp off of the Humvee, and was folding it up already. When we went out in large groups, we normally used the Humvees we’d stolen after the military had left Newport. No reason to leave them there for someone else to steal. I waited until they were loaded up, and climbed on my bike. I gave them the hand signal for them to move out, and followed behind them.
I waited until we hit the edge of town before moving in front of them and signaling which side of town they should hit first. It only made sense to clear the dead out of one side and work our way across it.
I sat with my feet on the pavement as I watched them head in the opposite direction of the way I needed to go. I did a scan of the surrounding area and looked for a place to hide my bike. I would walk most of the way to the hospital, since I couldn’t chance being caught there. The place was full of those who had sought treatment for the flu, but it was a small hospital and the waiting and treatment rooms, beds and morgue were full of the dead.
I ended up parking it in the bushes of one of the houses beside the highway, and glared at the sundial/thermometer in Mr. Linksys’s front yard that said it was a blistering ninety-five degrees today. I passed through the yard, with kid’s toys scattered through them and hated knowing that these houses still had those poor, innocent souls inside of them. Ones we would have to burn eventually. You would think that more people would have gotten out of town, but it was as if they’d gone into shock and just tried to ride it out at home.
Newport hadn’t boasted of many residents. Sad part was, it was one of the largest cities in Pend Oreille County. It hadn’t even been considered a city until the late seventies.
I reached down and picked up a discarded Newport Minor paper, and then let it drop to the ground. I scanned the dark corners of the buildings down South Washington Ave, and listened. Even though it was a small city, it had once been alive.
Now, it was a ghost town. I brought up my crossbow and slipped an arrow from my pouch into my hand. The silence of the town was unnerving and set me on alert every time I came to it. It was silent today, and deafening. Bodies had been littered all over the streets for the first few months after the flu had had ravaged the town.
Dad had said in the panic, the overwhelming numbers of people who’d come out from the smaller towns for help, Newport had been the rally point for those in need. It ended up being a mass grave site when the CDC had announced that there was no vaccination for what was killing millions of people.
I wasn’t even sure we still had a CDC anymore. If we did, they’d gone to ground. I peeked around the corner and eyed the hospital, which looked exactly the same as it had before. The cars were in the same places, as well as the few items I’d placed to be able to tell if it had been disturbed. When I was sure it was safe, I started forward.
At the doors, I paused and listened again. Silence. I hated silence. Once, I used to want it. I had a younger brother who was both annoying and loud, and I could remember thinking how blissful it would be if I could only have silence. Well folks, it isn’t golden…it sucks.
I stepped through the broken glass doors, and tried to avoid the crunching of glass my boots made as I stepped on the unavoidable remains of the windows. It was darker inside, but luckily it was early enough that the sun was working with me. I passed the emergency room, and made my way toward the pharmacy.
I stepped over the dead body that was leaned against the doorframe and pulled out the key I had from my clinical here. I’d been so close to getting my degree, and Mr. Kenan had agreed to hire me. He had even given me keys to the locked areas the day before the world had gone to hell. He was here, in his chair, with his body decomposing. He’d worked until he hadn’t been able to from the looks of it. I slid the key in, and turned it until the door to the drug room slid open.
I added a few bottles of this and that which would be needed. I grabbed Phenergan for nausea, along with pain killers just in case we ever had need for them. I grabbed the pregnancy test as I sent a silent prayer to heaven that God wouldn’t be so cruel as to do that to Cathleen. I also grabbed a few bottles of prenatal vitamins just in case God wasn’t listening to me.
I was almost out when I heard a strange noise, which sounded almost like an animal. It wouldn’t be unlike animals to come and feed off the dead; I’d seen it a lot actually. It was a danger I was also trying to prevent. Birds like crows and vultures couldn’t get in here, but bobcats, coyotes and foxes sure could. I peered out of the room and started toward the main doors, but as I moved closer a growl sounded from entirely too close to where I stood.
There in the middle of the hospital was a huge red timbre wolf, his fangs huge and pristine as they dropped saliva. He hadn’t seen me yet, but I was willing to bet he’d smell me before he saw me. I stepped back, and winced as my foot crunched on something littered in the hall. Friggin’ hell! I turned and ran, but the moment I did, the beast let out a haunting howl, and gave chase.
I was just passing the elevator and moving further into the darkening hospital and the patient rooms when an arm yanked me sideways, into one of the many rooms. The door slammed shut, and I stepped away from my savior. I could hear the beast outside, its nose blowing hot hair under the thin door.
“That was stupid, kid.” It was the mystery man again.
I eyed the window and noted that it was broken. My pack was secured to my back and not too full yet; if I was fast enough, I could get out of it before he even noticed I’d left. Instead, when he turned and looked me over, I was stunned. Last night he had been hot, but today? Today he was friggin’ gorgeous.
I met and held his turquoise eyes. Eyes that made the air expel from my lungs as they searched my face intently. He was covered in shadows, but his eyes were in just the right amount of light that they looked positively stunning. They reminded me of gentle swaying of waves as they crashed against sandy beaches. They were the most beautiful swirls of tropical greens and blues that created the perfect shade of turquoise. Those eyes of his sent butterflies into my lady parts, and I wasn’t sure why it felt like there was a party in my pants; I only knew there was one.
“You really don’t talk, do you?” he asked as scraping and snarling sounded from the other side of the door. I tore my eyes from his to where the sound was getting worse. “Shame, I’m betting you could tell me a little about this town.”
Yup, I could. I just wasn’t going to. I watched as he stepped more into the light, and wondered if I should be making an exit soon, but when the sun fully exposed his body, my mind went to hussy town, and I followed it.
My brain turned over and I changed my mind from my earlier assessment. His eyes were the shade of a Caribbean ocean in full summer with the most beautiful mix of blue and greens, and his hair wasn’t as dark as I had first thought it to be. Instead, it was a dark blond color that reminded me of the wheat fields in Washington State, and it fell to just above his wide shoulders. He towered above me by a foot at least and looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He looked like he belonged to another age in time, as if he’d stepped out of a Viking movie and right into my path. This guy could give Thor a run for his money, and Thor was a serious hottie in my book.
He wore a white T-shirt and loose-fitting jeans with black biker boots. He had guns strapped across his chest, and another tucked into his belt which was held together in the front with a silver skull.
“Do you sign?” he asked as he turned back to face me, which put his features back in the shade, and gave my hussy-fried mind a break. I shook my head, but his lips tipped up in the corner, as if I’d just given something away.
Crap!
Chapter 4
“Funny, most mutes can sign.”
I pointed to my throat, and shook my head. His eyes however, slid down my body slowly making my libido kick into drive, and that stupid heartbeat was back, and throbbing between my legs. He smiled, and bit softly into his full bottom lip.
“As a matter of fact, you don’t smell like a boy, either,” he continued casually, reiterating the statement he’d made the day before.
I didn’t smell like a boy? Note to self, roll in dirt next time.
“Remove the mask,” he said, and I shook my head slowly as I stepped back. He followed. “Scared I won’t like what I see, boy?”
Oh friggin’ hell bells! He was gay, and I was playing a boy! It friggin’ figured that I’d find the only hot gay guy left on planet earth and it seemed only fitting that said gay guy thought I was a boy! Someone in hell was laughing pretty damn hard at my misfortune, I was sure of it.