The Haze [Watty's Shortlist 2021]

The Haze (Chapter 13)

Chapter 13

Tink said she was good at what she did and to be careful. I was thankful he had been able to slip out a message that I would soon have someone on my tail. He asked me not to kill her. I'd never killed anyone. I have a few people on my list that I wouldn't mind ending, maybe with a stake through the heart, something really personal, but I had never killed anyone. Quinn had quite the reputation out here in the Void. I was upset to hear she was the one after me, some of the others I could've gotten rid of quickly, but I wasn't so sure about her. I don't think she had ever actually failed one of her little missions they handed out. The Bubble was absolutely ridiculous. Convincing people to actually KILL, just to breathe. Like they hadn't caused this. Like they weren't holding this whole damn town hostage to complete their experiment. The tree I was sitting in starting to make me sore. I had watched Quinn leave the Bubble and had followed her. Logic told me she was planning on cutting through the park, which would head straight for my neighborhood. I'm assuming Vincent, that nasty creatin of a man must have told her where I lived. She wouldn't find me there. I hadn't been there in a few weeks, after returning Mr. Davidson's corvette. I had always wanted to drive that thing. Tink had rigged me up a solar charger so I was finally able to get her up and going. The gas had aged and she didn't have the pep she would have had in her prime, but man. It was a blast. I considered driving her all the way to the blockade on the other side of the mountain just to fuck with the mercenaries. I had needed that drive. I felt like I was under so much pressure that I might explode any minute. My head felt like it was made of lead most days. The amount of grief and guilt I had carried felt almost unbearable.

She might find Mom's lab, but Vincent had made sure to take everything important from there long ago. I rushed ahead of her taking a different route, planning on finding a vantage point to watch her from. I needed to scare her. I was thankful when I saw her reach the edge of the park, the branches were starting to poke into my shoulders, making me sore. I watched her move through the park, aware of the infected chasing a squirrel. She moved with a quiet grace, aware of her steps. I heard the groan before I realized there was an infected so close to me. A woman was a few feet away from me down on the ground. She hadn't seen Quinn yet. Quinn finally spotted her and was moving very slowly, still unaware that I was around. I studied her face as closely as I could, even obscured by the mask, she was handsome. Her eyes were soft. They didn't look like the eyes of a killer. I shook those thoughts from my head and focused on what I needed to do. Scare her. I needed her to stay away from me. I was so close to finishing this and I didn't need something like this getting in my way. Being hunted was not something I could deal with right now, or ever. I pulled a pack of fire crackers from my jacket pocket, a memory of cracking these on the driveway with Mason popped into my mind and I let myself smile. She was always so afraid of them, but would still beg for me to light them. Mom and Dad would watch from the front porch and yell to keep Mason far enough back from them to be out of danger. She would clap her little hands and smile when they exploded.

I lit the fuse, hoping she could handle herself out here in the Void and that Tink hadn't just been talking her up. I looked at the man across the park and then at the woman in the skirt. She could surely handle two of these things unscathed. Enough to make her adrenaline spike and hopefully enough to get her to drop my case. I dropped the firecrackers. Quinn was all the way underneath me at this point. The firecrackers landed next to her and she looked down at them, and then back up at me. I couldn't help but smirk, like I had played a good hand during a game of poker. She was had this round. When the pops started, I climbed higher and waited a moment. That's when I saw them. Shit, shit shit. This was not what I meant to happen. An entire horde was racing towards us. I had seen infected gather together on the other side of town. I had some of my scouts track their movements, but they had never made it this far over. I didn't plan for this. I looked for Quinn and finally spotted her. She was climbing on top of a building. I hopped down and ran towards the farm. This wasn't my intention, but it may honestly work in my favor. She'll be safe up there as long as she doesn't do anything stupid. I'll check back in the morning and if she's still stuck, I'll figure out a way to draw them away from her, maybe break some of the windows across the street with Tommy's air rifle or something. I took one last look at the dead reaching for her up on that rooftop. There were too many. I wished her good luck in my head and kept heading in the direction of the farm. Eddie was waiting on me.

I made it to the farm without incident. I could see Eddie's silhouette through the many layers of plastic we had used to help set up our safe zone. It helped us conserve our oxygen while we worked here. I found Eddie working on some spread sheets, running the numbers to see if we had enough food planted to make it through winter. I hadn't been able to make it back here to him since I went into the Bubble. He greeted me with his usual head nod and continued typing. I pulled off my mask and rubbed my ears where the mask had been. He was surprised when I nonchalantly slapped the USB stick onto his desk next to his mouse.

"Dude. No way."

"Yes way."

His faced lit up and he reached out for a fist bump.

"This is our best shot." I sighed. I was close to my breaking point. I needed this USB to be as important to us as I thought it was.

"I'll get to work on it boss, now get to work. We've got hungry people to feed."

"Yeah yeah, I'm on it. Run those numbers by me when you get it all finished, will you?" I motioned towards his screen as I stood.

He nodded as I headed out towards the roof top, grabbing a basket on my way up. I harvested everything that was ready and brought the food inside to wash and process. I took my time and focused on my task. I filled several jars and containers with the fresh food, sticking it all in the fridge we kept up here until tomorrow's delivery. I was disappointed it all fit in this fridge. I normally would need to use the mini fridge we kept downstairs too. Eddie was still typing away when I finished up my work. I grabbed an orange from one of the many trees we had growing in here.

"I'm out bro, don't stay here all night again. It isn't healthy to work on this and only this."

"I'm fine, I just want to run the numbers and see if it's worth it to start processing the trout in the river for fertilizer."

"Why don't we just eat the fish?"

He rolled his eyes at me.

"Well, nah shit, we're going to eat the fish if we do that, I just mean is it worth it for us to haul it all here and process it and then process the waste into fertilizer for the vegetables. Duh."

"Ah, well that makes sense. Let me know what you come up with and we'll get a team together if it is."

"See ya." He waved me out.

I stopped outside the building, pulling off the stupid oxygen mask and savored my orange. The sweet tangy citrus hit my tongue. There was nothing like this fruit we were growing. It really was the best thing we had done was start this farm. With my drive to help the town, and Eddie's help with the plants and research, we had a great thing going. Eddie's real talent lied in working with computers. Hacking, programing, writing code, you name it and he can probably do it. When the Haze hit, he really dove into trying to find ways to keep us all alive and food became his niche. He could run the numbers on the probability of seed germination and the amounts of fertilizer and nutrients we needed on his programs and he had really fine-tuned our little operation. Moving it away from the zone and to its own location had been a great call, but it still meant I had a bit of a walk before I made it home. I double checked to make sure my tank was off, but replaced my mask. There was no sense in wasting oxygen that I didn't need. My mind drifted to Quinn and I wondered if she had escaped. I hoped so.