Zach’s face has gone even paler. “It all makes a lot of sense now. I wondered how things got so bad so quickly. The disease spread so fast.”
“Yeah, a mass migration of people leaving the coasts carried the disease inland in no time. The first time I saw an Infected man, I could barely believe it. He flat out killed three people in our group before we stopped him. And ten of us got injured enough to draw blood. I was one of them. By some stroke of luck, Marcus was back in our tent and didn’t get hurt. Within a day, nine of the people injured started getting sick. Everyone except me. That was my first hint I was immune. Our whole group fell apart in a couple of days when one of the sick people started attacking the rest of the group. From that point forward, Marcus and I knew we were better off alone. So we kept traveling from house to house, looking for food. But it kept getting more difficult. That’s when we ran into Connor.”
Zach stares at me, eyes wide. “You mean the guy who’s hunting us?”
I frown and nod. “Yep. We knew something was different about him because he didn’t seem as destitute as everybody else we ran into.”
“Just like when I first saw you,” Zach says.
“Yeah, I guess so. He figured I was immune like him, since I’d been exposed a few times but survived. So he brought us back to this bunker deep underground. Over a hundred people, all doing medical research. They needed people like me who were immune, who could scout and deliver things. That’s how I joined the Scientific Collective and became a courier.”
“What happened next?”
“Hey, look.” I point up ahead. “Our destination, I presume.”
On the horizon, the junkyard comes into view.
Chapter Fifteen
The Junkyard
ZACH
It’s midafternoon as we approach the junkyard. But my mind is miles away, processing Aiden’s story. I immediately thought about my family when he mentioned the tsunamis and the storm surge. Our house is right on the water on Vashon Island. But it’s fifty feet up on a bluff and in a protected inlet. That gives me some hope, but I’m still sick with worry. I shake off the thought and focus on the task at hand.
The dirt road leads to a tall chain-link fence with barbed wire on top. Piled up behind the fence are countless rusty cars. The road comes up to a sliding gate with a large padlock on it.
Aiden points to aBeware of Dogsign. “Is that something we need to be worried about?”
“What, Daisy? She’s a sweetheart. She knows me.”
Aiden’s sour face shows he’s not convinced.
My friend Ezra is nowhere to be seen.
“Ezra? Hello?” I call out. No response.
We do a complete circle around the fence perimeter but come across no one and find no other entrances. The junkyard office is next to the front gate, so we peek in the windows, hoping to see something. A desk with piles of papers and old coffee cups rests against the far wall, but no Ezra.
Aiden turns to me. “He doesn’t seem to be around. Do you know where this car is that he offered you?”
“Yeah, he keeps it in there.” I point to the middle of the junkyard at a rusting metal garage with a large rolling door. The door is closed.
“Well, let’s get in there.” Aiden picks up a large rock and smashes it through one of the exterior windows of the junkyard office.
“Hey! I don’t want to destroy the place.”
“See those?” Aiden points to tire tracks going into the junkyard.
“Yeah?”
“Those tracks are weeks old. Maybe months. See how the imprint is no longer well formed? Also, in the office, you can see a thick layer of dust over everything. Nobody’s been into or out of this place in a while.”
I nod but say nothing, worried about what that may mean.
Aiden punches out the remaining glass with his fist balled into his shirt sleeve. He reaches in and unlocks the window. After opening it, he climbs in, and I follow behind.
As Aiden pointed out, the interior of the office is clearly unoccupied and has been for some time. And it’s not only the dust. The air is stale. The whole place feels abandoned.
