Jilly
sat outside the market, watching. It was what she was good at.
She
kicked her feet back and forth in the dust, making patterns and
letters. She wrote a “bad” word with the tip of one shoe, then
quickly erased it with the other, giggling and looking over her
shoulder to make sure no one had seen her.
“Never
happened,” she told the dirt.
She leaned far to the
right, then far to the left, rocking back and forth to see as much as
she could. Finally, she stood on the wall for a better look at the
parking lot.
Not many cars. Fewer places for bad guys to
hide.
Of course, there could be someone hiding inside one
of the cars, watching her and waiting for her to look the other
way.
She hopped down and backed up against the store wall.
No one was going to shoot her in the back of the head today.
Inside
the store that was once a busy suburban supermarket, Lucas and Rob
moved cautiously through the debris, hoping to find something others
had missed.
Lucas was near the front window, keeping an
eye on Jilly outside and also watching the parking lot himself. He
shifted to get a better view.
He took a slow breath and
looked again. Nothing there. They'd been traveling together for about
a week now. Long enough to learn that quiet didn't always mean
safe.
Something shattered inside the store.
Jilly
glanced toward the open door. “What was that?”
Rob
popped up from behind a collapsed shelf. “Sorry.”
Lucas
leaned out from behind a checkout stand. “What did you do?”
“I
touched something.”
Lucas shook his head. “Of course
you did.”
Rob reached for a box just slightly out of his
reach, and another shelf gave way, sending boxes and cans tumbling
across the floor with another crash.
“Okay. I'm done
with this aisle.” He stepped carefully around the mess and headed
to the home goods section and found a small toolkit and a can of
WD-40, shoving both into his pack. He also found a bottle of hand
sanitizer and a four-pack of partially crushed but still wrapped
toilet paper buried under toppled cans of sink cleaner.
He
picked it up, kissed the plastic wrapping, and stuffed it into his
bag.
Lucas made one final sweep around the store and found
a box of mostly crushed crackers. He stuck it into his backpack,
figuring crumbs had calories, and that was what they needed if they
were going to stay focused and alive.
Rob gathered his
things and headed for the door. Jilly saw them coming and carefully
scanned the parking lot before giving them an all-clear
thumbs-up.
They met at the far end, close to the trees, to
figure out what came next.
Lucas pulled out the box of
crackers and passed it around.
“Yum. Saltine sawdust,”
Rob said as he blew crumbs off his hand and watched them settle into
the dirt. “Living the high life now.”
“Don’t knock
it till you’ve tried it,” Lucas said.
He tipped a
large clump into his mouth and immediately started choking.
Jilly
licked the crumbs off her fingers. “I kinda like them.”
Rob
looked at her. “Of course you do. You like crunchy, and these are
crunchy-adjacent.”
Lucas finally caught his breath.
“Hello. I almost died over here.”
“Yeah,” Jilly
said. “But you didn’t.”
Lucas shot her a look, then
poured a much smaller portion into his hand.
“I'm still
hungry. That wasn't nearly enough.” She informed him.
“See
if I give you any more of my food finds.” He huffed.
Rob
reached into his pack. “Here.”
He pulled out two
slightly squished candy bars and handed one to Jilly.
Her
eyes widened. “Where did you get those?”
“Found them
in the store.”
She stared at the candy bar, then at Rob.
“You are officially the coolest person ever.”
Rob
grinned. “I knew my moment would come.”
Lucas shook
his head. “It’s a candy bar.”
“Don’t ruin this
for me,” Rob said.
Jilly smiled and pulled off the
wrapper.
“So where are we going?” Rob asked.
“Not
north,” Jilly said immediately.
Lucas looked at her.
“Why?”
“Just a feeling.”
“We're not
taking directions from your feelings.”
“Fine. Where do
you want to go?”
“West,” Lucas said. “We're going
west.”
“West is good,” Jilly said. “West feels
survivable.”
Rob shook his head. “Survivable. That's
reassuring.”
Rob’s car had finally run out of gas the day before and every station they came to had pumps that wouldn’t
dispense anything unless they paid, and since they couldn’t work the
registers, they were now on foot.
They agreed it was
time to find another car. They’d already tried newer vehicles, but
without keys or working electronics, most of them were useless. Something older might be easier to get running. They headed
out, keeping to the edge of the road, trying not to make themselves
easy targets. The only sound was the crunch of their boots on gravel,
loud in the quiet.
They turned into a neighborhood and
started checking driveways. Most were empty. The few cars they found
were either too new or otherwise useless. They’d been at
it for nearly an hour when Jilly spotted it first.
“Hey,”
she said, pointing. “That one looks old. And possibly
cooperative.”
An old blue pickup sat in a gravel
driveway up the block. Lucas got to it first, tried the door, and it swung
open. He slid behind the wheel, pulled down the visor, checked
the glove box and under the seat. When that didnt turn up any keys,
he popped the panel under the steering column, and stared at the mess
of wires hanging loose.
“…yeah, I have absolutely no
idea.”
“Try it anyway,” Jilly said.
Lucas
exhaled. “I’ve seen people do this in movies. That’s the full
extent of my training.”
He pulled a few wires loose,
hesitated, then started touching them together hoping he didn’t
electrocute himself. For a second, nothing. Then the
engine coughed.
Lucas jerked back. He moved the wires
around some and it coughed again, once more, then it roared to
life.
“YES!” Jilly shouted.
Even Lucas
cracked a grin. “Okay… yeah. That was dumb luck. I didn’t
actually know what I was doing.”
Jilly grinned. “Do
you ever?”
Lucas shot her a look. “Get in the truck
before I change my mind and make you walk.”
Everyone
piled in and with Rob driving, they were finally back on the road.
They drove out of the neighborhood, not really sure where they were
going, just hoping that they could turn up some answers. Rob turned right, cutting through a small
business district just outside of downtown when the truck slammed
into nothing.
The impact snapped them forward against
their seatbelts, sending bags, cans, and supplies flying everywhere.
No one moved as the engine sputtered and something ticked under the
hood. All three of them scrambled out of the truck.
Rob
stood staring at nothing. “…what did we just hit?”
The
truck wasn't damaged at all. No dent, no broken glass, no sign
of impact.
Lucas started to circle the front for a better
look and walked straight into it. He staggered back, grabbing his
forehead.
“What the...” He stared at the empty space.
“…there’s something there. But not there at the same
time.”
Rob approached slowly, hands out in front of him.
Until he felt it and pressed his palm forward. It was soft at first
then firm the harder he pushed. He could feel it but he still
couldn’t see it.
“Look!” Jilly pointed, her voice
tightening.
They both turned and froze.
On the
other side of the barrier were dozens of people casually walking
around the streets, talking to each other, eating at an outdoor cafe.
Going about their business like nothing was out of the ordinary. A
couple of the people saw them and waved happily. Another started to
walk towards them, still smiling, beckoning them to come
closer, then pointing towards the cafe.
Jilly’s smile
faded. “…okay,” she said quietly. “That’s a big
nope.”
They all turned and scrambled back to the truck,
slamming the doors. Rob threw it in reverse, tires screeching as they sped away. They drove until they finally felt safe enough
to pull over and let their breathing slow. Lucas leaned forward,
gripping the dashboard so hard his knuckles went white.
“What
the hell was that?” he breathed. “That was the creepiest thing
I’ve ever seen.”
Jilly stared out the windshield.
“…they looked nice,” she said.
Rob let out a shaky
breath. “Yeah,” he said. “But not the kind of nice I want to
have a meal with.”
They started driving again, very
slowly this time, turning down streets that led toward the city, only
to be met with the same invisible wall.
It took a few
hours, but they pieced it together: the barrier stretched for miles
and wrapped completely around downtown. And inside were all the other
people… living their lives.
Jilly watched through the
windshield, quieter now than she’d been all day.
“…this
is so weird,” she said. No one disagreed.
They noticed
small flying crafts, definitely not from Earth, coming and going
throughout the day. They appeared high above the clouds, swooped down
to land somewhere inside the barrier, then later shot straight up and
vanished.
Rob stepped out of the truck and leaned against
the door, squinting at the sky.
“I wonder if there’s
no top to it,” he said. “Or if they’re just… phasing through.
I was not prepared to be living in an episode of Star Trek in my
lifetime.”
Normally, that would’ve gotten something
out of Jilly. This time, she didn’t even smile. They got back into
the truck, turned away from the city, and pulled onto the road.
At
first they drove slowly. Then faster, like distance might make it
less real.
“…we’re not going back there,” Jilly
said finally. “Ever. Right?”
No one answered. But
somehow, they all knew they weren’t finished with whatever was
happening in there.
The next day, their truck ran out of
gas. They found another car with keys not too far away,
but by mid-afternoon that one sputtered dry too, leaving them back on
foot again. They trudged along the side of the highway,
packs heavy in the heat.
“So,” Jilly said, “are we
going to find snacks any time soon, or is this more of a
character-building starvation situation?”
Rob glanced
over. “If I could magically make a snack stand appear just for you,
I would.”
“Good,” Jilly said. “Because I would
like to formally request chips from the universe.”
“I’ll
put it on the list,” Rob said. “Right under ‘not dying’ and
‘finding a working car.’”
As they walked, they
spotted a small strip mall just ahead, with a gas station attached.
As they got closer, they could see it had already been picked
clean. The doors hung off their hinges, and glass crunched
under their boots as they stepped inside.
“Looks
promising,” Rob muttered.
“Very,” Lucas said.
They
split up anyway, checking the front counter, behind the register,
hoping to find anything that might’ve been missed.
“Hey—come
here,” Lucas called.
They found him in the storage room,
scooping up a few large bags of crushed chips from a corner. There
was also a case of bottled water—mostly gone.
Jilly lit
up instantly. “You found snacks, even if this is dangerously close
to another cracker-dust situation.”
Rob grabbed a bag.
“At this point, I’m not picky.”
“It’s still more
than we had,” Lucas said.
Jilly ripped one open. “See?
I asked the universe, and it delivered. Things are improving.”
Rob
raised an eyebrow. “Your definition of ‘improving’ is
concerning.”
“My definition is evolving,” she said,
already eating.
“Maybe next time you ask the universe
for something,” Lucas added, “make it a car with a full tank of
gas.”
Jilly grinned. “I’ll try that. Hey,
universe!”
She wandered out the back door, still
munching and talking to herself.
“Where are you going?”
Lucas called. “Don’t go out there alone.”
He hurried
after her. Rob grabbed his pack and followed.
As soon as
Jilly stepped outside, she spotted a motorcycle in the back parking
lot. A woman in black leather pants and a matching jacket stood
beside it, one hand gripping the handlebars as she repeatedly kicked
the starter.
“Come on, damn it!”
The engine
coughed, sputtered, and died. Jilly watched her try again.
They’d
gotten into the habit of hiding from anyone they saw out in the open,
but the woman seemed too busy arguing with the motorcycle to be much
of a threat.
Jilly stepped closer. “Hi!”
The
woman froze. She slowly turned toward Jilly.
In
one smooth motion, she pulled a handgun from the back of her
waistband and aimed it straight at Jilly’s chest.
Lucas
stepped out the door and stopped cold, his hands going up
immediately.
“Easy.”
Rob ran straight into
him and staggered backward.
Jilly blinked at the gun.
“Well, hello to you, too,” she said.
“Take one more
step,” the woman said, “and I drop you.”
Jilly
immediately dropped her chips and raised her hands. “I’m
unarmed. See?”
The woman’s eyes moved between
them—quick, precise, practiced.
“Three of you,” she
said. “None of you tried to sneak up on me. You're either very
honest… or very stupid.”
“We’re a little of both,”
Rob offered.
“Rob,” Lucas hissed.
“What
do you want?” the woman asked.
“Nothing,” Lucas
said. “We saw you having trouble.”
“I’m not having
trouble.” She kicked the starter again. The bike sputtered
weakly.
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Looks like
trouble.”
She glared at him, then at Jilly. “Turn
around.”
“Why?” Jilly asked.
“So I can
see you’re not armed.”
Jilly spun in a quick
circle. “I lost my only weapon when I dropped the chips.”
A
flicker of a smile crossed the woman’s face. “Fair enough.”
The
gun lowered just a fraction. “Stay where I can see you.”
She
crouched beside the motorcycle and popped something open.
“Is
it out of gas?” Lucas asked.
“No. My gauge shows
half a tank. It started sputtering on the highway and then it just
stalled as I pulled in.” Lucas came up to the bike, hunkered down,
and started moving wires around. “Looks like a rock must have flown
up and cracked the distributor cap. Nothing's gonna fix
that.”
“Well, shit.”
She stood up and
leaned on the bike and ran a hand through her dark hair in
frustration.
“That’s been my mantra lately,” Rob said.
She glanced at him. “Yeah. Mine too.
Repeatedly.”
Jilly turned, gesturing between everyone.
“So I’m Jilly. That’s Lucas, my brother. And over there, that’s
Rob.” Rob gave a small wave.
“Carolyn."
She nodded. "Are there any more of you?”
“Nope.
Just us,” Lucas said. “Trying to survive and figure out what in
the hell is going on. We’ve got zero answers to a million
questions.”
Carolyn nodded. “Yeah. I know the
feeling.”
“Do you want to come with us?” Jilly piped
up.
Lucas turned and looked at her. Jilly
shrugged.
Carolyn looked from Jilly to Rob, then to Lucas.
“You always invite armed strangers to join you?”
“No,”
Lucas said. He glanced at Jilly. “But, apparently, we do now.”
Rob
tried not to smile.
Carolyn studied them for a moment.
“And you trust me?”
Lucas hesitated. “Not
exactly.”
“Fair enough.”
“But you seem
to know what you're doing,” Lucas added.
Carolyn nodded.
“That I do.”
“You’re welcome to join us,” Lucas
said.
“Well,” Carolyn said, “I don’t love my odds
being alone. And besides…” She glanced at them. “None of you
seem like much of a threat.”
“We’re really not,”
Rob said. “Though I was hoping I’d at least started to look a
little edgy and intimidating.”
“Never happen,” Jilly
said matter-of-factly.
"What are you driving now?”
she asked.
Lucas looked a little embarrassed. “Currently
nothing, but we're looking and hopeful.”
She glanced
around. “Have you checked the cars in the lot?”
“Not
yet,” Jilly said, “but probably none of them have keys.”
“Well,
there’s always hot-wiring something.” She winked at her.
Jilly
lit up. “Wait, you can hot-wire cars?”
"Yes,"
“How?”
Carolyn
shrugged. “You pick things up.”
“You are absolutely
the coolest person ever,” Jilly said.
Rob sighed.
“Great. I’ve been replaced.”
“Sorry about that,”
Carolyn said, amused.
She glanced toward the parking
lot.
“So let’s take a look and see what's over
there.”
She headed out behind the gas station toward the
strip mall, where at least half a dozen cars were parked. She
moved from car to car, testing handles. She found an older four-door
sedan in front of a coin laundry, unlocked. She slid into the
driver’s seat and disappeared under the dash.
Childhood
memories of being the lookout for her brother Steve as he repossessed
cars came flooding back. She would watch the house while he worked
quickly under the dash. Quick hands, quiet exits. Gone before anyone
noticed.
He’d taught her how, just in case she ever needed
it. It had been a long time, but the muscle memory was still there.
Wires came loose, sparking faintly as she worked.
Jilly
crouched beside the open door, watching intently. Lucas hung back a
few steps, still wary, while Rob leaned against another car with his
arms crossed, keeping an eye on the road.
The engine
turned once, then twice, then roared to life.
Jilly
practically exploded. “Wow! Okay—that is absolutely
fantastic!”
“You weren’t this enthusiastic when I
got that truck running,” Lucas pointed out.
“That’s
because you’re my brother, not the current coolest person ever. And
you said yours was dumb luck.”
“…True.”
Carolyn
smiled, a little more at ease now, and leaned across the seat to
shove the passenger door open. “Get in.”
Jilly didn’t
hesitate as she dove into the back seat. Lucas slid in next to her
while Rob got in front.
Carolyn revved the engine a few
times, settling it into a steady rumble like it had been waiting a
while to be useful.
Jilly leaned forward between the
seats. “So what’s the plan now?”
“West?” Lucas
suggested.
Rob let out a slow breath. “Still feels
ridiculous that a direction counts as a plan.”
“It’s
not a plan,” Carolyn said, shifting into gear. “But it is
movement.”
She pulled out of the lot and onto the empty
road.
For a while, no one said anything. Then Jilly spoke
again, quieter this time.
“Do you think the people in
the city are still… them? Who they were before all this?”
Rob
didn’t answer, and Lucas stared straight ahead. “I don’t
know.”
Silence settled over the car as the road
stretched out in front of them. With every mile, they got farther
from the city.
Rob couldn’t shake the feeling they
weren’t actually leaving it behind.
It was still
there—filled with people who didn’t mind being trapped.
And
somehow, that was what would bring them back.