Shifting

Eight

I got back to the cabin with only an hour or so to spare before dark. I could have stayed in town or gone to set up camp at the medical center with the rest of them, but I just couldn’t stop thinking about Monika and Vance. I’d already left them alone all day long. Vance moved fast, who knew how things had gone?

When I got there, the Durango was in the driveway, and I felt somewhat relieved. In these new times without phones or any other form of instant communication, sometimes your timing was off and you missed each other. Vance opened the door and poked his head out.

“`Bout time you showed,” he said and waved.

Inside, it took me a moment to realize that Monika wasn’t there. My frown amused Vance.

“Sorry, lover-boy, the Doctor kept her down at the medical center. They really are building it up as a fortress. They’ve got a watch post on the roof and everything. I suppose you heard about it?”

I nodded bitterly, realizing I had chosen the wrong path. I had missed my chance to see her without Vance hanging around.

“Eric Foti is there, with his kids, and Carlene Mitts and that goofy Nick Hackler and the Hentons and the Dagens too. Even old Brigman is there. Remember good old Mr. Brigman from back in school? We both had him for Algebra. He said he had been away for summer vacation, but then his family called him back home and when he got here everyone on his block was already dead and now he’s stuck with us in this one-flea town full of monsters,” said Vance. “Poor bastard.”

“At least he’s alive. That’s about all any of us have got.”

I looked outside. In the distance, I could see the sun would soon set out over the west shore of the lake. I came to a sudden decision.

“Let’s pack up and go join them.”

“Huh? Now? It’s getting late for that, bud.”

“Let’s just do it. We’ve got a hole in our roof and some kind of smart hoofed monster out there. With this map,” I said, handing him the map. “We know what to avoid. We’ll be safer in town with the rest of them as long as we keep everyone away from these lines.”

Vance pondered the map for a moment. “I’ve heard about these, they were running them off on the color copier at the center. I didn’t get my hands on one yet. What do you think of them?”

“I think they might be our salvation.”

We packed quickly, if you can even call it packing. Really, we threw things in the back of the Durango as fast as we could. We thought about taking the generator, I’m sure they could use it down there, but it would take too much work. We decided to leave it until later. We started down the hill with less than a half-hour until dark.

I took the wheel and we rolled out spitting gravel.

Vance kept checking the dying sunlight nervously. “I’m saving one round in here for you in case we buy the farm,” he told me darkly.

“We’ll be okay.”

“Has that girl got such a hold on you already?”

“I don’t know.”

Vance laughed and went back to scanning the road. His rifle poked out the window. The trees flashed by as we negotiated the potholes and sharp turns.

“Well, I like her too,” said Vance seriously after a bit. “I mean, it’s not like there are a lot of choice females running around here.”

I nodded and sighed. It was only natural. “Yeah. We’re twenty-somethings stuck out in the woods without women. “

“So,” he said, delicately. “I guess it’s a free-for-all? The best man wins?”

“I guess,” I said accepting the idea unhappily. “In the end, the girl always makes the choice anyway.”

“At least when she’s a babe,” laughed Vance. He sounded way too happy with our arrangement. He had always been the more confident of the two of us with girls. He probably thought he had it in the bag. I set my jaw, determined to give him a run for his money if we all lived that long.

When we had driven about two-thirds of the way, I saw something in the woods off to my left, toward the distant lakeshore. It was bluish, and it shimmered, or glowed in the trees. Without any ceremony, I killed the Durango’s engine. We rolled to a stop and I pulled it over to the side.

“Gas?” asked Vance.

I pointed into the woods. “Something’s out there.”

“No kidding? There’s always something out there. Let’s get rolling.”

I shook my head. “This something is glowing.”

Vance looked at me as if I had lost my mind. “That is all the more freaking reason to crank that ignition.”

“Look,” I said, turning to him. “I’m going to go check it out. This is pretty close to where that shift line is on the map. Right where the Preacher said it was. He wanted me to check this one out.”

“Okay, so we just checked it out,” said Vance slowly, sounding like someone who was trying to talk a stubborn, rather thick-brained child out of something foolish. “The line is right where he said it would be. You saw a glowing critter, you have confirmed it. Now, we can go back and tell him he was right, something really is out here, hallelujah.”

“All right,” I said and turned on the ignition. It didn’t start, the Durango was dead.

“Oh, come on,” complained Vance. “Are you faking?”

“No, I think we should check this thing out now, though.”

“The engine won’t start? Let me try.” Vance climbed across and got into the driver seat. I got out of the way and stood outside in the road.

He worked at it and cursed.

“Come on, you are going to wreck the starter or something,” I told him.

After six or seven more grinding tries, he gave up. He glared at me in defeat.

“We need to check it out,” I said earnestly. “We need to learn from it. We can’t just run from everything forever.”

Vance leaned his head back against the headrest, rolled up his eyes and sighed hugely. “Okay, okay, I give the hell up. I’m giving you five minutes.”

We got out of the Durango and headed into the woods.

We found nothing right away, and he demanded to see the map. I showed him the unconfirmed green line that ran down to the lakeshore.

“So where is it?” he asked.

“Right here, as close as I can tell.”

“What?” he choked, stopping dead. He looked around as if expecting to see a shimmering haze nearby.

“You can’t see the line. At least I don’t think you can. Don’t worry, we’ll be okay, just keep going.”

“Look the whole point of those lines is to avoid them,” he said in exasperation. “What is the bloody point of mapping these lines if we go messing with them?”

I sighed. I checked the map again and this time I had to use one of the flashlights we had brought from the truck. It was getting dark. “See, here’s the line, we won’t have to cross it, and we are on a parallel path.”

“It’s a green line, man,” he complained. “Don’t you get it? Green means the old man wasn’t sure if it’s really there, or where it is, or what the hell direction it goes. It’s a guess and I’m not betting my balls on a guess!”

“Well, what do you want to do?”

“I’m heading back to the road, getting in the truck and I’m leaving your butt out here if you don’t come with me.”

I nodded. “All right.”

“That’s it then?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I need to go closer and see if I can figure anything out about this line. That’s the whole point of my scouting job anyway. This is an opportunity to do some of that scouting.”

Vance looked at me in dead silence for a few long seconds. “You crazy bastard, you are as bad as the Preacher himself. What’s the point of putting down warning lines if you are going to go play around with them?”

“Someone has to figure this all out or we are all dead in the long run, Vance.”

“You said that already,” he looked troubled. “Okay, so we split up. Do you have a gun at least?”

I nodded.

His eyes slid to the bulge in my coat pocket. “Good, good.”

“I’ll see you at the center in an hour.”

“Sure thing,” he said in an odd voice. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

And we split up. The world seemed much darker after his flashlight vanished into the trees.