Skylar’s sudden collapse scared Robin badly, enough that he hovered by the end of the couch—where Shia had carried Skylar after catching him before he could hit his head on the floor—until Skylar groaned and rolled over onto his side. Robin reached out to catch his shoulder and keep him from tumbling off the couch, offering a worried smile and getting a fuzzy one in return. Gradually Skylar’s eyes cleared and he sat up, examining his hands intently; turning them back and forth as though waiting for the white glow to reappear.
“Here.” Shia held out the glass of water he’d fetched from the kitchen. “How you feeling?”
“Pretty good, actually. Just a bit tired.” Skylar drained most of the glass in one long swallow. “How’s your shoulder?”
“Fine.” Shia rolled his shoulder to show that he had no problems moving it. “I owe you.”
“Gotta stick together.” Skylar smiled a bit and rubbed at his eyes, yawning.
“You should go to bed,” Robin said, trying not to let his worry show in his voice. “Rest.”
“In a bit.” Skylar settled back against the couch cushions. “I want to hear about you guys first. Like where you came from, and where you’re headed.”
Robin gestured for Shia to go ahead and tell him the story, settling himself on the floor beside the couch and tuning most of it out in favour of studying Skylar. Skylar listened intently, nodding slightly when Shia brought up things about the creatures like their sensitivity to light, and told his own story when Shia was done. When he mentioned the pendant he’d found in the bar, he pulled it out from under his shirt and showed it to them, admitting that he didn’t know what it said.
“Can I see?” Shia leaned forward and laid the pendant across his palm. “Neutiquam erro. It’s Latin, I’d guess, but I don’t know what it means.”
Skylar shrugged and tucked it back under his shirt. “I’ll figure it out later. I just kind of like it.”
“What do we do now?” Robin asked. “Keep going or stay here?”
“I’m pretty good on supplies, and I’ve got electricity,” Skylar replied. “But with three of us... I don’t know, I don’t think we can stay here forever. But for a few days, yeah. Let Shia recover.”
“Let you recover,” Shia said, stretching. “No decisions tonight. I’m going to bed. Night.”
Robin echoed Skylar’s good night and watched Shia until he’d gone up the stairs, then turned back to see Skylar studying him. He started a little then offered half a smile and said, “What?”
“Sorry, I’m just trying to figure out what we have in common. You know, that would keep us sane and normal.” He looked down at his hands again. “Normal-ish.”
“Um... Can’t be a race thing, you’re white and Shia’s black.” Robin thought about it, chewing absently on his thumbnail. “Luck of the draw, maybe?”
Skylar laughed a bit. “Kind of seems that way. Can you do anything weird?”
“No,” Robin said automatically, then thought about it. “Well, I thought I saw something when I met Shia. A woman, and a college campus. And he said he was at college when all this happened. I figured I was seeing things.”
“Try and read my mind.” Skylar flashed a grin then frowned in concentration.
“I don’t even know if that’s how it works,” Robin protested. “I really might have been—” He stopped as, between one blink and the next, the living room disappeared and was replaced by the shadowy interior of a pub. It was half-full and the woman standing behind the bar looked bored as she swiped a cloth along the shining counter. He blinked again and the living room came back, along with a headache that made him close his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose.
“You okay?” He felt Skylar touch his hair and soothing coolness spread through him, washing his headache away. “What’d you see?”
“Uh... A bar and a woman with bright red hair. She looked bored.” Robin looked up at him. “Is that... what you were thinking of?”
“Pretty much.” Skylar ruffled his hair and pushed himself to his feet. “Congratulations, looks like you’re a telepath. I’m gonna head to bed.”
“What, just like that? You act like this is perfectly normal.” Robin glanced down at his own hands and folded them in his lap to stop their trembling. “What if I don’t want to read minds?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Skylar dropped down on his knees and to Robin’s surprise gave him a hug. “I just think it’s cool, being able to do this. Like suddenly becoming one of the X-Men. You can probably learn to block things out. Think of waterfalls or static if you start hearing things or seeing things you don’t want to.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Robin mustered a smile. “Sleep well.”
“You too.” Skylar clapped him on the shoulder and got up, heading for the stairs. Robin watched him go, wishing he had the same sort of confidence as Skylar, then leaned back against the couch and closed his eyes for a few moments.
Eventually he got to his feet again and stretched, cracking his back audibly in the silence, then wandered up the stairs to the second floor. He used the bathroom at the top of the stairs then glanced into the bedroom next to it. He could just barely see Skylar, snuggled up under a pile of blankets with his hand curled under his cheek. Robin smiled a little and quietly moved away, checking on Shia—also fast asleep— in the next room over before taking the small bedroom at the end. As he lay down a wave of exhaustion washed over him and he quickly dropped into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Shia woke him the next morning and he grudgingly pulled himself out of bed, sniffing appreciatively at the scent of frying bacon and eggs permeating the house. He pulled his clothes on and went downstairs, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The sun had barely risen but it was enough to see that it had snowed again overnight, covering their tracks from the evening before.
One of them had gone out to fetch the map from the car before Robin came down, and Shia spread it out on the table as Skylar served up breakfast. Robin mostly tuned out their discussion on if they should leave, and where they should go if they did, happy just to have a hot meal. When he finished he pushed his plate away with a contented sigh and leaned back in his chair to let the meal settle, watching Skylar and Shia through sleepy eyes.
After nearly an hour of bouncing ideas back and forth, they came to a tentative agreement that they should find other survivors. Shia suggested that they move south, talking about a geography course he’d attended that had touched briefly on the fallout from a super volcano. He couldn’t remember everything about it but the idea that stood out in his mind was that the winter would be much harsher than anything they were used to.
“I guess it can’t hurt to go south,” Skylar said after a moment’s thought. “Other people have probably had the same idea, and I’m already sick of all this snow. The only thing is, how do we find other survivors? I don’t really want to just wander around and hope.”
“What about Toronto?” Robin asked. “It’s big enough that odds are good on survivors, plus it’s close to the border. If we have to, we can head into the States.”
“Zombie border guards.” Skylar snorted a laugh. “Probably not much difference.”
“Is it settled then?” Shia said. “When should we go?”
“How are we going to go? Your car’s trashed and I don’t really want to hike it.”
“Might not have a choice. Even if we could find a car and even if we can start it, we’ll run out of gas pretty soon. No electricity means no pumps.” Shia leaned over the map again. “If we plan out our route then we can plan on where to stop for shelter when it gets dark, or if it storms.”
“All right,” Skylar said after a moment of studying the map. “You want to do that, and I’ll take Robin to stock up on supplies?”
“Sounds good.” Shia bumped his fist against Skylar’s, making Robin laugh a little. “See you two soon. Be safe.”
“Will do. Come on, Robin.” Skylar got up and went to get his coat, handing Robin’s to him. “You ready for this?”
“I’m fine,” Robin said, trying not to get annoyed at the ‘you scared?’ he heard at the tail end of what must be Skylar’s thoughts. “It’s daylight, I’m good.”
Skylar just squeezed his shoulder then grabbed the rifle from the closet and led the way out. They walked in a comfortable silence into town, enjoying the pale sunlight as the sun slid in and out of the clouds. Skylar took him to one of the sports supply stores first to get two more sleds and more winter gear, then they browsed for food in the grocery. Down one aisle Robin stumbled across a box of grapes and carefully went through it until he’d salvaged as much as he could, carrying it back to where Skylar was loading the sled up with cans and boxes.
“I’m definitely keeping you around,” Skylar said when he saw the grapes, reaching over to snag one and pop it in his mouth. “Mmm. A little frozen, but good.”
“Hopefully they last a while.” Robin tucked the box carefully onto the sled and went back to searching.
They were back by mid-afternoon, ahead of a flurry that dumped another few inches of snow on the ground. Robin watched the snow come down from the kitchen window as Shia and Skylar went over the route Shia had drawn out, feeling restless and out of place. Wanting to do something besides sit around, he volunteered to cook dinner, trying not to think of his mother, a single parent who had taught him to cook as soon as he was old enough to turn on the stove. She’d died when he was 13 and he’d gone to live with a grandmother who didn’t really want him around, though she was always stiffly polite to him. He didn’t know what had happened to her that mad night; he’d been too busy just trying to survive.
He shook his head hard and pushed the thoughts away, concentrating on cobbling together a decent meal. By the time he served it Shia and Skylar had agreed on their route and the day they would leave—two days away, if the weather was still good. Talk turned to simple things as they ate and with the curtains drawn against the night outside, Robin could almost believe that it was a normal evening spent with friends.
The next day passed quickly as they gathered a few last supplies and packed everything ready to move out first thing in the morning. Skylar insisted they help him clean up the house the night before and Robin went to bed feeling tired but accomplished, though he still didn’t want to get up at the crack of dawn the next morning. He was still yawning when they set out, covering it with one gloved hand.
The morning was clear but bitterly cold, burning every time Robin took a deep breath. He pulled his scarf up to cover his mouth and hoped the condensation from his breath wouldn’t freeze the fabric. The sled he was hauling was the lightest one but the strain still took its toll on his unaccustomed muscles and within an hour he was tired of tramping through the deep snow. Sighing, he took a better grip on the sled’s rope, ducking his head against the wind, and did his best to keep to the trail that Shia, ahead of him, was breaking.
They stopped for lunch in the slight shelter of a stand of bare trees, eating on their feet with their backs against the tree trunks. Clouds began to skid across the sky as they ate, and by the time they started out again it was snowing, though only lightly. After a brief discussion they decided to keep going and hope they reached the first shelter Shia had marked out before the snow got too heavy. After the first few minutes the snow stopped and the clouds began to break apart, but only an hour later they returned, darker and heavier.
Heavy thick flakes began to drift down, gradually obscuring their surroundings until they were moving through a shifting white curtain. Early twilight descended on them, greying out the world within a few feet. Robin moved closer to Skylar, almost tripping over his own feet as he tried to look in all directions at once. It was hard to judge distance and the snow turned their path into an alien landscape hunched with oddly shaped lumps and hummocks. More than once Robin thought he saw movement and felt his heart leap into his throat, only to realize it was a trick of the snowstorm.
The steady fall of the snow began to make him feel sleepy and he stumbled again, nearly falling on his face. When he looked up again he was alone in the storm. Blinking rapidly against the snowflakes blown into eyes, he forced himself to move faster, calling Skylar’s name and then Shia’s in a voice that was halfway between a strangled whimper and a croak. Something loomed up out of the snow and he recoiled, then realized it was Skylar when the other boy caught his arm.
“Where’s Shia?” Skylar asked, leaning in to be heard over the rising wind. “We need to get out of this storm.”
“He was right in front of me. Didn’t you see him?” Robin looked around, catching at his hood as the wind threatened to swipe it off his head. “Shia!”
Skylar clapped a hand over his mouth. “Don’t yell. We have no idea what else is out here.” He slid his hand down and laced his fingers with Robin’s. “Keep hold of me. We’ll head for shelter and hope Shia meets us there.”
Robin bit back the urge to ask what would happen if he didn’t and followed Skylar through the snow, trying to keep their sleds from tangling together. They stumbled on the shelter Shia had marked out—a combined gas station and convenience store—almost by accident and quickly ducked into the building. Robin stood by the door as Skylar made a quick sweep of the building, shotgun held at the ready, and came back to tell him it was safe. They used the shelving to block the one broken window and settled down to wait for Shia, both straining to see anything in the shifting mass of snow outside.
The storm broke just before nightfall, revealing a clear sky speckled with the first stars. Robin ducked out enough to look up and down the road but saw no sign of Shia, or anyone else. He stood outside for long minutes, waiting, even when he started shivering in the cold, but the road remained completely empty.
No comments:
Post a Comment