A World Apart

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Logan

I've made a mental check-list of every emotion that has abandoned me since leaving Las Vegas. Remorse, guilt, sorrow. All gone. Disbelief has not made the list however, and I find myself needing to confirm things with my own eyes. Thousands, Stella said when she climbed down, her face pale. It's not that I don't believe her, it's just that the threat doesn't seem to worry me, and I'm curious if seeing it for myself will change that.

So I trade her the shotgun for the binoculars before making my way up the Ferris wheel. Its bones creak and groan as I climb. One snaps beneath my feet and I just manage to heave myself up in time before any sense of fear manages to take hold of me. Then when I reach the top, I look out across the beach, down the coastline, and even without the binoculars I can already make out the squirming mass of them in the distance, like a swarm of ants clamoring over a morsel of food.

Stella was wrong, I think as I look at them through the binoculars now. There aren't thousands of them, there are more. Tens of thousands. And that's just from what I can see. Who knows how many more there could be further up the coast. Yet still, despite seeing this very real cause for concern with my own eyes, I'm assaulted with no sense of anxiety about the situation.

I'm not sure whether that's a good thing anymore, but I decide for the moment to keep enjoying this reprieve, for however long it lasts.

As I begin climbing back down to the pier, taking precaution of which beams I grab, I'm reminded of the school where we met Aaron and Gale. A horde, sizable enough that it overran Los Angeles, was heading towards them. In an effort to divert it's course, Stella went out lighting fireworks, but in the end, the school burnt to the ground, and as a result every infected in the area flocked towards the billowing cloud of ash that was left in its wake.

The stuff of nightmares, I remember calling it.

Now it seems that nightmare has moved on from the school and is drifting up the coast towards San Fransisco. When I'm back on solid ground, I offer this explanation to the others and no-one finds reason to dispute it.

"Oh! I saw that smoke!" Ed says, "Me n' Yuki spent an entire day placing bets on what it could be. That was you that caused it?"

"One of the cars caught on fire and spread to the buildings," I tell him, neglecting to mention how the inferno had started. All because of a certain drug addict who was seeking revenge. If he hadn't pulled that stunt, I can't even imagine how different things would be now. How many more of us would still be breathing.

If Joey is alive somewhere, I hope he's suffering more than I am.

"Damn," Ed says, turning to his sister, "I think you guessed something like that, didn't ya, Yuki?" He looks back at us. "I thought someone was burnin' bodies or somethin'."

Well, bodies were certainly burning, I think, my thoughts turning sour as I remember the infected that chased us and the flames that clung to them, melting the flesh off their bones.

"How did you two manage to avoid the horde?" Stella asks. I glance at her, watching as her green eyes squint and her brow furrows. I know that look all too well now. She's thinking of a plan. "If they're following the coastline then they must have come by here."

Ed nods. "They sure did. Was real scary when it happened, too. Nothing we could do but board up the doors and windows and stay real quiet. Took an entire day for them all to pass, and we didn't come out for a whole 'nother one just to be safe."

"Do you think we might be able to go around them?" Stella asks, and I have to repress the urge to sigh or grunt.

"I mean . . . ya could," Ed says, scratching the back of his neck. "But what's the rush? Would be much safer to just wait a couple days for them to pass wherever it is you're goin'."