The more he saw of his dead town, the faster he wanted out of it. He goosed the gas. Somewhere out there, far away, was a place where no one knew him, where no one knew that David was his brother; and where no one loved him, and where no one who could take their love away.
Now Leaving Pale Ridge, Colorado. Come back soon.
The sign zipped past, and Will pulled onto the two-lane interstate that extended ahead of him for miles. Heavy green forests crowded the road on both sides, and the asphalt was littered with leaves and twigs and debris like it hadn’t been driven on for a while. Will poured on the gas and zoomed down the road.
Lucy had loved him once. He hadn’t imagined it. Her love had felt so real to him. It had kept him going, kept him fighting, through everything he’d faced. Lucy’s love had given him a reason to act right, it let him believe that he could be a man. But he didn’t realize that her love had been provisional. She loved him, but only as long as David was dead.
Will accelerated. The trees whipped past.
He felt like a fool. He’d walked David right to her, not thinking that would tempt her. He’d assumed she’d want the same thing he did. God, it was laughable now. Dreaming about being the father of her child. He’d conjured the boy so clearly in his mind. He was like Will, but before he’d made any mistakes. Will was going to make sure the kid never messed up like he did. Those desires were the purest emotions he could remember experiencing. And he supposed they were real, and they were warranted, because at one point the baby had been alive. The sadness of it hollowed him. It ate at his insides.
Your baby is dead. Your baby is dead. Your baby is dead.
Will cranked the throttle, and felt the handlebars try to pull out of his hands. He hunkered down and gripped the bar harder, and clamped down on the rumbling beast with his thighs.
There had to be a way to blame it all on David, and he wanted to find it. The anger was there, but Will couldn’t find the logic to support it. David had taken Lucy away, he tried to tell himself. But he hadn’t. Lucy was the one who had turned her back on him. He knew he shouldn’t have said what he had said to David. His brother had done nothing to harm him. But that was just the thing, David didn’t have to do anything. Just as it had been for Will’s whole life. All David had to do was walk into a room, and Will ceased to matter.
Will cranked the throttle, and the motor yelled. The forest was a blur of green in his periphery. The bike shook. Bugs pelted his face shield.
What a piece of shit Will was. A loser and a sore one. What had he accomplished by storming off? Did he really think it would change Lucy’s mind to see him have a hissy fit? If anything, his behavior had probably done away with any doubt she might’ve had. All he’d done was cement her decision. He felt like a hurt little boy running away from home because he just got spanked. He wondered if—
Oh no.
Will felt a familiar sensation. A wrongness.
His brain became a vacuum, no thoughts, no words, no firm ground to stand on. He felt the bike fall away from him, even though it was still there. His eyes rolled back in his head, against his will. Then they jerked to the right, then left, and the last thing Will was aware of was the wobble of the motorcycle against his crotch, before the world disappeared.
He was tangled in a bush on the side of the road. There was pain in his head, all through his body. His brain spun. Dizzy and nauseous. His gas mask was intact. His faceless motorcycle helmet was still on over it. He looked down at his body and found everything still attached and bending in the correct directions. He’d gotten lucky.
David was right, Will shouldn’t ride motorcycles. He shouldn’t ride a bicycle. And he should have never skipped a day of taking his pills. Not enough food and water had undoubtedly made it worse. He’d been seizure-free for so long that he’d forgotten how easily his epilepsy could bitch-slap him, especially when he got himself worked up.
He was always trying to forget that he was epileptic, and prove that he didn’t need anyone, but he did need someone. He’d always need someone.
Will kicked his leg free of the bush and planted it on the ground. Everything hurt. He wondered if he would ever learn. Would he always push people away when they tried to help? Would he always repel girls once they found out how much help he really needed, and realized that his tough act was just a desperate charade?
Will heard an approaching engine. He craned his neck to peer down the road, and he saw a giant white vehicle driving his way. It looked like a cross between a garbage truck and a double-decker bus. The windshield was black and he couldn’t see through it, but the rest of the thing was painted glossy white. A giant red cross was painted on the front. The vehicle came to a stop thirty feet down the road from him, with a hiss from its air brakes.
A gentle female voice called out from the speaker on the roof.
“Are you infected?”
Will shook his aching head, and pointed to his gas mask.
A door opened on the side of the vehicle, and out walked three adults in white haz-mat suits. They approached Will, and when they got a few yards from him one of them raised a hand. It held a gray device that looked like a large garage door opener. With the click of a button the device fired a dart.
Will felt a sting in his leg, and looked down to see the dart protruding from his thigh. Its tail had a blinking blue diode.
“Virus-free,” one of them said.
“Who are you?” Will said.
“We work for the government.”
“You’re military?” Will said. His stomach lurched.
“No,” one of them said. “We’re here to administer the cure.”
27
LUCY WANTED TO SEE DAVID BY THE GOALPost. That was what Mort had told him, and David headed there right away. The parents and the infected were getting along just fine now. Some kids had left right away, to head for their families’ houses, but many had stayed. The parents were tending to the kids like they’d been wishing they could do for two years, and the McKinley kids were soaking up the attention, regardless of whether it was from their own parents or not. Sam’s dad seemed to have accepted the situation. He was showing some Freaks how to milk a cow, and do other things to help around the farm.
With the afternoon sun on his back, David walked behind the school to the football field. He looked for Lucy at the goalposts. One of them had been knocked down at some point, and the other goalpost was still standing, but he didn’t see her by either. Then he heard a whistle.