Collide

  With all the bank card pin numbers memorized we joked about the ‘youth camping trip’ to ward off any suspicions as I swiped the card. The cashier laughed and told us she had three teenagers, and once again we get the ‘are you sure you got enough?’ joke.

  As we left, I glanced up to the wide open windowed managers office. There it was. I saw his dark coat and pants, his jet black hair and dark eyes and pale skin. He was looking around the store, watching people intently, with clear fascination and disdain.

  I immediately panicked. What if Jeff was wrong and all the Marker poison wasn’t gone. Oh no. Why was a Lighter in a grocery store anyway?

  I kept walking, glancing to my cart then back to the Lighter. The last time he caught my glimpse, locking his gaze with mine and I froze. The smile he gave was nothing but fake, unadulterated evil. He nodded a hello and I fake one back and shuddered as we moved under the exit sign. Phillip noticed nothing of my distress. I couldn’t help but think if Merrick had been here, he would have noticed right away.

  Van loaded down but not near full we drove around but found nothing that looked different on the surface. Phillip took us past the city limits. There was a lot of abandoned buildings but none seemed to have been messed with recently. That would be the point if someone was hiding there wouldn’t it? We can’t just go and investigate every empty place in town, no, we’d have to find another way for that. I groaned and slumped in my seat. This was impossible.

  Then I hear a thumping, a loud thumping and banging. And then cursing. I looked over at Phillip.

  “Flat tire,” he said curtly.

  I rolled my eyes at the timing as we pulled over to the side. He went in the back and searched frantically.

  “No jack,” he yelled up front to me and my heart jumped.

  It was already 3:00 in the afternoon and getting darker. They’d start to wonder where we were. Phillip said he was going to walk up the road a bit and try to find someone. I got out and started walking to him, amid Phillip’s protest for me to stay put.

  “Un-uh.” He pointed behind us. “Get your cute butt back in that van. You are not coming with me.”

  “Hey, I have legs just like you. You’re not leaving me here, alone.”

  “I’m the man here, darling. I think I can handle it. Just stay with the van. You’ll be fine, nobody will mess with you way out here.”

  “I don’t doubt your abilities, Phillip. I doubt mine. I can’t stay here by myself. It’s too... It’ll be dark soon.” I so didn’t want to reveal my silly insecurities to Phillip, of all people.

  “Merrick told me to keep you safe. Now just go on back to the van,” he said more softer this time.

  Oh! He was pulling the Merrick card, huh? No way!

  “You’re not leaving me out here alone,” I repeated. “I’m coming. Let’s go.” I passed him in our walk to drive my point home.

  “Fine. Fine by me, toots. You can tell your old man you wouldn’t listen to me, if anything happens to you,” he said, emphasizing ‘old man’ with clear disdain.

  No point in waiting for someone that isn’t coming to save us and I’m not being left alone. I had my sweater but it was still cold. I wrapped myself up and rub my arms as we walk.

  Time passed quickly as my mind raced. Every time I looked at my watch at least fifteen minutes has passed. Adding it together, it’d been almost two hours of walking and talking. Well listening.

  Phillip was good with the small talk. In the past two hours, I’d learned everything there was to know about running a convenience store, being in a hunting club, Leukemia and making your own pickles.

  Odd but to each his own.

  He explained how the store used to be packed with people but then the interstate came in and took most of the business away.

  He still makes enough to live off of, but nothing extravagant. I wondered to myself how many rich convenience store owners I’d ever seen anyway.

  I’m glad that he dropped most of the flirting and just talked to me, like a normal person. To me he seemed like he finally understood that there would never be a him and me. I tried to fit in a question or story in but, Phillip was a talker for sure.

  Did he even realize he’d talked so long non stop?

  Suddenly, Phillip grabbed my arm, pulling me down abruptly, making me squint from the pain in my shoulder and drag my pant legs in the dirt as he pulls me behind a bush, none to gently. I felt some gravel in my shoe.

  “There’s a van parked behind that thatch of bushes,” he whispered and I felt the goose bumps rise on my arms. “Sit tight. I’m gonna walk over, see if anyone’s in it.”

  He crept up slowly and began to sweep towards the van, bent low but quick. I barely saw the silhouette of the dark conversion van against the darkened purple and baby blue streaked horizon.

  I could see him, he looked as if he was going to open the door, without knocking? I heard a click behind me, making me jump. I turned to see the rusty barrel of a gun, pointing right in my face.

  Merrick - Fancy That

  Chapter 15

  As I watched her leave up the bunker steps, my heart fell. It felt like it was being pulled from this fleshy chest. It was completely wrong to let her go without me but I couldn’t go and put her in danger if someone found out what I was.

  I can’t stop her from going either, no matter how much selfishness I could conjure, and we do need someone to get supplies, but why her? Why out of this many people the most fragile and sweet had to go out? And Phillip. I couldn’t believe he had the nerve to ask me about her.

  He actually asked me if we were serious. What did he think I was going to say, ‘No. We’re not. She’s all yours’? He’s about as lame as Bobby was if not more. Shameless.

  I know how it is, I understand. I do.

  She’s amazing and irresistible and so gorgeous but she was mine until she decided not to be and I wouldn’t trade her for anything in this or any other world. For whatever reason, she chose me.

  And the second time this morning that Phillip made a point to mention to me that Sherry was ‘something special’ was the last straw for me. I made a very pungent point to glance over my shoulder at him before I kissed Sherry, knowing he was there watching her and gloating about getting to take her away from me for the day. Even though the room was full of people, I had to make a point. She was mine.

  Sherry did not disappoint. She wrapped her arms around me, fingers gripping my shirt back, completely pliant and trusting in my arms. The way she always was with me. I hope Phillip finally got the message and let it go. I know her and she wouldn’t have wanted to go with him today had she known the things Phillip said to me about her.

  Mrs. Trudy was always in the kitchen. Max was there with her. She seemed to really like him. A good Keeper-Special relationship used to be really important when we made our way here. These days, I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. Everyone is in danger now.

  “You want a snack or something, honey? I got some homemade peanut brittle,” she asked me, smiling as it seems to be the norm for her.

  “I’d love some. Thanks. I’ve never had any before.”

  “Land sakes, really? How’s that possible? Oh. I guess it is possible.” The wholesome fluttering laugh that came next was contagious.

  “Yes ma’am. Thank you.”

  I took a quick bite and it is good. Very good, seemed to get better the more you chew.

  “So sugar, that Sherry sure is a sweet thing,” she prompted.

  “Yes ma’am. She is.”

  “My Phillip sure has taken a liking to her, but she said she was already taken.”

  “Yes ma’am. She is,” I repeated.

  “So, how’s that work?”

  “Still finding that out.”

  “Hmm. Well. In times like this, anything’s possible. Ya know, Max is real nice, I’m really enjoying him. Phillip’s gone so much with the store, Max is good company but...I have no interest whatsoever in taking it beyond that. So what happened with Sherry? Wha
t did you do that was so wonderful she couldn’t resist ya?” she asked with genuine curiosity, not animosity for her sons competition.

  “I’m not sure but I’m not Sherry’s Keeper. I’m Danny’s, her brother. Sherry was just an...unexpected surprise.”

  “So... It was you then.” How she jumped to that conclusion must have had something to do with the look on my face. “You fell in love with her. It wasn’t her chasing after you. Interesting.”

  “I’ve kind of...watched her for a while...”

  Mrs. Trudy was altogether wonderful. I couldn’t stop talking nor confessing. I kept saying things I shouldn’t but she was so understanding and her tone of voice is so non- judgmental. I couldn’t help it.

  “So you watch her and come to earth to save her brother, tell her how you feel and somewhere along the way she falls in love with you too. Well...fancy that.”

  I paced in the commons room. If there was carpet, I’d be wearing a hole in the shag. It’d been way too long. I knew I shouldn’t have let her go.

  No. She was ok. We should have set a time frame. Sherry was probably doing something stupid, like trying to drag the high school senior class down here for protection.

  Oooh. She was in so much trouble. She has to know I’m worried sick about her.

  But it’s dark. They wouldn’t intentionally stay out after dark. Sherry doesn’t like the dark, let alone driving in it.

  “Hey. They’ll be back soon. Phillip won’t let anything happen to her,” Max said out loud, which was kind of nice.

  Makes me feel even more human, though he was reading my mind at the time.

  “I know. It’s just...hard...to sit here, doing nothing and waiting and not seeing her every move.”

  “You act like she’s your charge, Merrick. I mean, I guess she kind of is now, huh? How in the worlds did that happen?”

  I wonder if people ask Sherry this question as much as I get asked.

  “It’s complicated. I’m sure you’ve seen it in my head,” I ventured and quirked a knowing brow at him.

  “Yes, I have. I just didn’t know if you wanted to talk about it or not. She seems great, in your thoughts. I still don’t quite understand it all, but who am I to judge. Stranger things have happened.”

  “True. Though not many,” I joked but Max isn’t fluid with the humor either and it just hangs in the air.

  Danny, Celeste, Calvin, all of our little group had been checking the staircase, like me. Even Ryan and Jeff. Not pacing like me, but checking. Everyone trying to look like they weren’t worrying.

  Apparently, we don’t have any liars in this bunch. It was all over their faces. Even Mrs. Trudy has come out of the kitchen to peek at the stairs a couple times.

  Calvin came to sit by me on the stairs for a while. He sat one step above me so we’d be almost the same height. He didn’t say much, just sat. Peeking up behind us every so often. I guess he was trying to show me he cared for her just as much as me.

  It reminded me of Danny as a little boy. Always trying to cross the threshold into manhood, show they can be tough when they need to be.

  I watched Max and Trudy and Jeff talk about the store, how it’s run, how we’ll stock it from now on, to keep up our cover. The store is just as important as feeding us. Without it, we’d soon have no income and no cover as to why people would be here. We needed the store to stay running.

  I tried to busy myself and not think about Sherry and Phillip, who better be keeping his hands to himself.

  I washed clothes, helped with dishes, did an incredibly hard old chipped sailboat puzzle with Calvin, talked to Jeff and Ryan and was tempted to take a nap just to make the time go faster but didn’t. Couldn’t.

  I thought about Sherry, sitting in the passenger side of the van, looking out the window. Hoping she’d be thinking of me, but who knows. It was still such a mystery as to why she tolerated me.

  I could literally see her sitting on her legs in the seat, twirling a strand of hair, rolling her eyes as Phillip kept glancing over at her, as I knew he would. His intentions were not shy when we spoke earlier.

  I tried to stay calm, but I think my clenched teeth just made it worse, more exciting for him.

  Oh no. Would Phillip...? No. No way but I was sure he was taking his sweet time bringing her home though.

  Humans! Ugh!

  Why did I let her go!

  What’s Your Business Here?

  Chapter 16

  The long rusted shotgun barrel was inches from my face. There was a flashlight attached to the barrel, blinding me.

  “Get up, thief,” she said through clenched teeth to me, motioning up with the gun barrel under my chin.

  “I’m not a thief. My van broke down, I promise you. I saw your van here and thought-” but, she interrupted me.

  “Thought you’d just take mine, is that it?” she yelled.

  “No! I promise. I’m not here to hurt you or steal from you,” I said loudly, hoping Phillip will hear.

  “Mmmhuh. So what’s you boyfriend doing in my van then.”

  “Just looking for you.”

  She came around and poked the barrel in my back, edging me forward towards the parked vehicle. I stumbled my way over the bushes and rocks at we inched closer. I felt something hard poke through my pants leg, scraping my skin, briers were clinging to me.

  Once to the open beat up conversion van door I say Phillip’s name, calling him out. I heard him yell something about ‘stubborn girls’ then he emerged and saw the reason I disobeyed his order to stay put. The lights from inside the van were illuminating.

  He hopped out swiftly and cockily, jumping all three steps and waited for her to speak.

  I couldn’t move, but I forced my eyes up to at least see my attacker’s face before we’re blown to bits. A girl, no a woman. Couldn’t be much older than me.

  She was slender and wearing short cutoff jeans and a dirty yellow tank top. Her face was not sweet, pretty but determined and all business. She looked like she might have some Asian in her.

  Her night black hair was blowing in the cold evening air and her dirty fingernails were a flag, a warning screaming that this girl has been through a lot.

  Was she alone? was she staying in that van? What had she been eating? Was someone here with her?

  “What do you to want?” she spat out with the same harshness as with me.

  “Van broke down. We just need a jack,” he said coolly.

  “Well, I got one. But. Why would I let you use it? You’ll run back to town and tell them right where I am.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Those things! The Lighters. I know you know what I’m talking about. Don’t play dumb with me!” she yelled.

  “I’m not. I’m not.” How do you test someone for which side they are on, with a gun in their hands? “Um. We aren’t headed to town. We’re headed home, back past the bridge,” I answered, trying to look up into her face.

  “What the heck you doing all the way out there?”

  “Hiding. You can come with us...” I could say we were hiding from Keepers if she needed me to.

  “Hiding? Hmmm. Lift your shirts.”

  I automatically obeyed, knowing what she was looking for, Phillip followed more reluctantly. When she was done searching and satisfied, she nodded for us to put our shirts down.

  I know I saw Phillip staring at my bare stomach and bra, since this woman decided to pull my shirt up further to fully inspect.

  “We aren’t wearing patches,” I said thinking she must know what I was talking about.

  “How did you know what I was looking for?” she stopped mid search to glare at me from under her lashes, her hand still on Phillip’s arm where she was looking.

  “Because I had to pull one off a guy. Are you a Special or family?”

  She jumped at the word but looked satisfied and settled down, leaning her gun against her shoulder.

  “My Keeper is dead.” She scoffed. “Shot by some idiots trying to steal the van
. I’ve been out here, alone for weeks.”

  “I’m sorry. There are twelve of us. Four Keepers and three Specials.”

  “How’s that? Why more Keepers than Specials?”

  “We lost some too.”

  She sighed, lowering the gun to the ground now and nodded for us to get in the van. She pulled shades of sticks and branches she had stacked and staked up for a blind for the van and tossing them aside. I could only imagine living this way.

  She drove us a few minutes what took us hours to walk and Phillip quickly changed the van tire. The Marker story may have been fun for him to hear, but waiting for one to come was another story.

  As he finished up I tried to talk some self preservation into the woman, and invite her to go with us.

  “I can take care of myself,” she answered for the fifth time.

  “Come with us. Please. We’re in a shelter and have room. There will be others coming for you, you now that. We can protect you,” I pleaded just wanting to say at the end of all this I helped save at least one person.

  “Well. I don’t know. I-” She kicked at the dirt and rocks under us.

  “What’s not to know? Come with us. Please.”

  “I can take care of myself,” she repeated.

  “I can see that but why not come with us and be with others like you. We take care of each other. Come with us.”

  “Yeah, come! We could use some fresh meat in there,” Phillip chimed, grinning.

  “Ok,” she ignored Phillip and relented. “But if it’s gets too...weird, I’m out. I can take care of myself, like I said.”

  “I know. I wouldn’t have made it a day out here by myself. Thank you. Follow him, I’ll ride with you?”

  She and Phillip nodded.

  The twenty minute ride that was left wasn’t quiet. The girl told me her name was Marissa and she was only nineteen too, her Keeper had been Miles. Being alone gets to you and she had plenty to say, not being able to talk to someone in so long. When we pulled into the back of the store she looked skeptical but I patted her arm to reassure her.