Fred snorted and when she flew into his arms hugging the old man’s frail body, Brody felt a lump. He sure as hell hoped they all came back. Fred would be all right for a few weeks on his own but, with winter approaching, they needed to get back before the snow made roads impassable.
“Let me just pack a few things.” Hannah bustled into the house.
Brody looked at Fred. “Are you sure, Fred?”
“Hannah needs to see the world outside of this town. This Amish village might be what she needs, what we all need. If things look good, then come back and get me. Beth is right about one thing, this town is dead. If we’re going to rebuild, we need to be around people.”
“We’ll be back,” Brody promised.
“Of course you will, son,” said the old man. “You got protection I assume?”
For a second Brody misunderstood and blushed thinking Fred was asking if he had condoms-an item that also had expiration dates, not that he wanted to use any. He’d love to see Hannah pregnant with his babe. But Fred meant another kind of protection. Brody opened the mini pouch strapped over the tank and pulled out the revolver he’d stashed in there, a more comfortable spot than shoved down the backside of his jeans. “Never leave home without one.” He also had another gun stowed in the saddlebags as a backup, although he fervently hoped they didn’t run into anything that caused them to need the protection of a gun.
Hannah came back out of the house, a knapsack dangling from her hand. Kissing her uncle and admonishing him not to overdo it, she approached Brody and held out her bag, which he stowed in the large, rigid side compartments.
Straddling the bike, he looked at her and waited as she gnawed her lip. With a creased face, she looked at her uncle and the only home she’d ever known.
“I’ll bring you back, I swear,” said Brody.
Taking a deep breath, she clambered behind him on the passenger pillion and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“Let’s go find my sister,” she said bravely, but Brody could hear the worry and fear underlying her words.
With a roar, he sped off on the bike without looking back, unable to shake the feeling that nothing would be the same again.
Hannah clung to Brody as he drove down the debris strewn road. Beth had hours on them and Hannah, looking around at the streaming landscape, really had to wonder if they’d be able to find her. This could be worse than searching for a needle in a haystack.
Brody hadn’t been joking when he’d said the roads weren’t car friendly. He spent a lot of time slowing down to detour and weave around vehicles abandoned on the road, some of which still had the remains of occupants.
Closing her eyes, Hannah leaned her head on Brody’s strong back. A sense of loss consumed her.
It didn’t matter what her head said though, her heart remained steadfast in its belief. Hannah tried thinking of Beth instead, a subject that worried her even more than coming home.
A few hours from home, they entered the first decent sized city on their route. Brody took them to the center of the city, a thing of dead neon signs, some of which hung drunkenly. Slowing he stopped the bike by a gas station that looked like a derelict parking lot.
“Let’s stretch our legs for a few minutes and eat something,” he said, getting off the bike and stretching his body.
Hannah followed suit, her cramped muscles protesting as she unfolded herself from the hunch she’d adopted on the bike. She stared in morbid fascination at the buildings around her. It had been one thing to see her small town deserted with only the tumbleweed missing to mark it as a ghost town, but quite another to have towering skyscrapers and surprisingly intact storefronts lining the too quiet street.
Hannah did a three sixty, taking it all in. Nothing moved, a fact eerily compounded by the mournful whistle of a light breeze through the buildings.
“It’s like a tomb,” she whispered, afraid to raise her voice for surely ghosts hid in this haunted place. She almost expected the undead to come shambling out of this oversized tomb, their arms outstretched, moaning “Brains.” Hannah shuddered.
“All the cities are like this,” Brody said, barely sparing a glance to the surroundings, his nonchalance comforting her somewhat. “At least the smell is gone. At first you couldn’t come near the major centers for the stench and flies. I’ve heard a few survivors say that the buzzing of their wings was what almost put them over the edge.” His words gave her goose bumps, and she rubbed her arms. She still remembered the smell and sound of death.
“So nobody lives here?”
“Would you?” he said finally looking at her, his shadowed eyes belaying his aloof words. “I’ve yet to meet anyone who elected to stay in the cities. Those that survived have moved outside into the farming areas where they can live off the land. They still send out gathering parties looking for goods: clothing, canned food, weapons, and other items we can no longer make ourselves. Stockpiling them before nature claims these places back.”
At his words she noticed the grass trying to creep through the cracks in the pavement. Straggly vegetation doing battle with a concrete jungle. Like humans, it was determined to survive.
“Oh Brody.” Hannah’s eye flooded with tears. She’d spent the past year being strong, never stepping out of her secular world. And now that she had, she realized just how bad things were. The bubble she’d inhabited for so long suddenly burst and sorrow overwhelmed her.
Sinewy arms wrapped around her and held her tight. Brody rocked her in his embrace, rubbing his cheek over the top of her head and supporting her as she sobbed.
She didn’t know how long they stood there while she cried for everyone who had died. While she cried for the dreams that were lost. She also cried knowing her sister, the little girl she’d helped raise, was alone in this terribly dead world. And finally she cried because she realized Brody was her last chance at having love and a family. If he left, there was nothing and nobody to fall back on. She’d truly be alone.
Eventually her tears subsided to hiccups and, moving out of Brody’s embrace, she scrubbed at her red eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice and eyes laced with concern.
Hannah nodded, not trusting herself to speak without breaking into sobs again.
“It’s getting late. Do you want to find a place to camp here for the night or do you prefer to get out of here?”
Hannah answered that instantly. “Anywhere but here please.” She didn’t want to sleep surrounded by this monument to humanities follies and death.
With a nod, Brody got on the bike. Hannah took a step toward him and stopped dead, suddenly struck by the image. Like some kind of apocalypse cowboy, he straddled his steel horse with his weathered leather jacket, snug jeans, and windblown hair. The only thing missing was a wide brimmed hat. His gaze held hers, and she could see the love shining in his eyes. She almost cried again.
They left the oversized graveyard, the miles flying by but never far enough to make her forget.
Twilight arrived early this time of the year, and Hannah clutched Brody tightly as the diminishing light made the drive even more treacherous. Finally, he pulled into a roadside motel and stopped the bike.
“Stay here for a second.” With long strides, he went into the motel office and came back out moments later dangling several sets of keys. Trying the doors of units with no cars parked out front, he went into two and exited, before entering a third and signaling her.
“Why don’t you go in the bathroom and see if there’s any water still running. I’ll bring some food and stuff in.”
Too exhausted to argue and with a sore ass, she went into the motel room and found it dusty but intact. Wandering into the bathroom, she turned on the tap and, after sputtering brown for a few minutes, the water ran
