All Is Silence - Deserted Lands #1

Chapter 11 - Part II

She shrugged. Where do I want to go? Not to some stranger’s house. Lizzie set down the sandwich. She wasn’t hungry, but she’d eaten half of it. “No, but if Zach wants to…”

“I don’t, not really,” Zach said. “Probably stop by at some point. Besides we’ve got our choice of rich neighborhoods.”

Lizzie’s mind leaped. “There’s a house out on Lake Whatcom. My ex, Chad, lived there when his dad was home. Chad hated his dad. The house is really nice in a stuck up, rich-businessman kind of way. We sometimes used it when his dad was out of town.” She laughed wryly. “Sometimes I think he dated me to piss off his uptight father. If we’re lucky he was away when the virus hit.”

They didn’t bother cleaning up the lunch leftovers.

Lizzie looked up the address in her phone and told Zach where to go. Mama had made her text her where she was going to be. Chad had always driven, so she wasn’t sure she could find it without help. She plugged her player in the auxiliary jack. Lynyrd Skynyrd came on.

“Unluckiest band in history, “Zach said. “Seems like a good soundtrack for the day.” He sang along. “‘Hell, yeah. Ooh that smell, can't you smell that smell?’”

Lizzie tried to laugh at his off-key singing, but the subject of the song twisted her gut. “Zach, I’m gonna skip this song.” He shrugged as “Lady Luck” by The Black Crowes came on.

“Could we listen to something from this century?” Nev asked. “Maybe after this song?”

Lizzie shook her head. “Nothing on my player younger than me, except U2.”

Nev rolled her eyes. “You need to get new music. It’s all gonna be old soon enough.”

Lizzie lit another cigarette and rolled the window all the way down, paying attention to the streets. She figured she should be able to find it again if she had to. It was down a long driveway through trees and invisible from the road. “Solar power.” Zach nodded, scanning the house. “Cool. Good choice, Lizzie.”

“Let me go by myself. In case his dad is there. Okay?”

“Good idea,” Nev said, “You sure we should be breaking in?”

Lizzie smiled. “You never made a good criminal.” She jumped down from the Tank, ground out her cigarette on the ground and put it in the soda can in the door. If this was going to be home, she could at least keep it nice. The stray leaves and branches covering the always clean and neat multi-texture driveway suggested no one had been here this season.

She knocked on the door, rang the doorbell and waited. Then she glanced back at the Tank and shrugged. After a few minutes, she stepped into the rock ‘garden.’ They hadn’t grown at all since the last time she’d seen them. She picked up one of the larger red volcanic rocks. Her fingers squeezed inside the hole in the bottom and loosened a key. She held it up and waved her friends over.

As she slid the key into the lock she had a momentary twinge of guilt. Like she was using Chad. And he was dead. But Chad always wanted to give her all she wanted. If only she knew what she wanted. She took a deep breath, noticing how fresh the air smelled out here, turned the key and pushed the door open. A loud warning beep repeated.

“Shit.” The alarm. Hopefully he hadn’t changed the code. She punched in the numbers—hoping she remembered. The beeping stopped and she breathed again.

Lizzie walked through the clean, empty house and out to the back deck. Something smelled. She followed her nose and found the emaciated body of a big mastiff out back stuck in its chain-link fence enclosure. Lizzie saw where it had tried to dig itself out under the fence, but it was strong with poles embedded in a wall of cement. Another perfect prison for one of man’s best friends.

Zach came up behind her. “Awww, shit.”

“What a shame,” Nev said, cradling Saj and blocking his eyes. “Saj, look at the lake. Big lake.”

Zach found a shovel and dug a grave on the slope by the lake while Nev and Lizzie explored the house and got some dinner going.

After dinner, as the sun set, they all went down to the newly covered grave. No one said anything. Lizzie wanted to, but nothing seemed profound enough. She held Saj tight, kneeling to smooth the dirt. Zach and Nev wrapped her in their arms as she held Saj. He clung to her, eyes wide. For once he did not cry. Powerlessness overwhelmed her. She let herself be comforted by the warmth of her friends.

When the cool night wind came and the sobs stilled, Lizzie sniffed and let them help her to her feet. The sun had passed behind the dark hills and in between the scattered clouds a few evening stars sprinkled the sky.

Lizzie pulled her shoulders back. Saj was heavy, asleep in her arms. “I’m gonna crash. Zach, you can have Chad’s room. It’s down the hall, second door on the left. Nev, let’s take the giant bed in the master suite. There’s room for you, me and Saj.”

“You okay, Liz?” Nev asked.

“Okay as I’m gonna be for a while. I need sleep and Saj here’s my sleeping pill.” Lizzie figured they’d be talking about her and how screwed up she was, but tonight she didn’t care. She took Saj and collapsed into bed.