EVELYN
The sun had just dipped below the horizon when they finally reached the intersection between Boundary Road and Southeast Marine Drive. While Evelyn had heard about other survivor colonies, mostly from Adam's reports, she'd never imagined they'd look the way River District did. The place was a fortress and resembled something out of a Hollywood movie. The entire community was gated by high walls built using stacked shipping containers. The entrance tunnels were visible, three long shipping crates stretching out from the barrier like the spokes of a wagon wheel. As they drew nearer, Jonathan bundled up the earbuds and Walkman and shoved them back into his pocket.
"Home sweet home," he said roughly.
Evelyn followed him as they picked their way over the debris towards the entrance. The sound must have reached her ears before his because he looked completely caught off guard when she stopped suddenly and then tackled him to the ground behind a broken-down car near the first tunnel.
"Shhhh," She hissed sharply.
He did as he was told, but by the way he tilted his head, she realized that by the time he knew what she was referring to, the sounds of shouting and jostling in the tunnel were too close for comfort. Evelyn pressed herself down against the rusting car. She could see her shallow breaths turning to mist in the air, and she did her best to even out her breathing. She glanced up at Jonathan, crouching beside her, he had two fingers pressed against his throat. He was checking his heart rate, she realized. Though his breathing was steady she could see the muscles in his jaw tensing beneath his mask. Following his lead, Evelyn felt for the pulse on her wrist. Her hands were shaky and clammy but soon she found it. She took a deep breath, and then another, and another. No big emotions.
The sound of a heavy lock was turned, and the door to the entrance burst open. A middle-aged woman with stringy blonde hair tumbled out, followed by two intimidating-looking military personnel in black armor.
"No, no, no!" The blonde woman was screaming, her voice was gravelly and strained as if she had spent hours shouting at the top of her lungs. She bore the marks of those newly turned: cloudy eyes that looked as if she suffered from cataracts and pale flushed skin. Her hair was thin as if she had been tearing it out and long scratches were visible up and down her arms which matched the stains on her fingernails. Her mouth overflowed with saliva as she continued to bawl, and her bloody hands raked across the ground as she tried to claw her way back towards the entrance. The guards forced her back with two blunt lances.
Evelyn felt her breath coming quickly again. As much as she had heard, she had never seen with her own eyes what it looked like before someone had become completely soulless.
"I'm sorry, Martha," The taller of the two soldiers said solemnly, as she batted Martha back with the metal lance.
"I'm sick! I'm just sick! I'm not dangerous, I'm sick! No one believes me!" Martha begged struggling to swallow the abundance of saliva foaming from her mouth, "it's a cold!"
"You attacked him, you attacked Ben." The shorter soldier said gruffly, his voice was cold, "Remember that?"
Martha shook her head violently, "I would never! Ben is my husband. Ask him! He'll tell you the truth! I would never hurt anyone!"
"Ben is dead." The soldier said. Martha blinked then twitched as if she were short circuiting. Her head shifted at an unnatural angle to the right as if the information did not compute. The twitching quickly dissolved into larger body shakes and Martha collapsed to the ground, seizing uncontrollably. The two soldiers pulled back, both drawing their firearms. Martha's body suddenly went limp. The shorter soldier's finger twitched over the trigger.
"DON'T!" The sound of Jonathan's voice startled Evelyn. She'd become so engrossed in the scene playing out in front of her that she hadn't noticed that he'd left her side. He had hobbled out from their hiding place with his hands on his head as if he was under arrest. He'd hastily rolled his sleeves up to expose the chevron tattoo on his scarred forearm.
"You don't want to do that," Jonathan said calmly. There was something different in the way he carried himself in front of these strangers, Evelyn realized. She'd never noticed it before, but now it was all too apparent. Jonathan was a soldier. It was in the way he moved, in the way he spoke and even in his eyes. They were grey, too grey... almost silver. As she looked between Jonathan, the soulless woman, and River District guards, she knew if she'd been in his shoes, she would have frozen and withdrawn but, Jonathan was eerily calm.
No, not silver. It was steel she saw in his eyes. It was something to be admired about him, but also it was something that made her feel incredibly sad. If there was one thing his perfect poker face told you, it was that he was used to putting up walls.
"Johnson?" The taller soldier said, lowering her gun. There was noticeable surprise in her voice and her head whipped to look at her partner, as if she could try to gage his reaction through their helmets and goggles.
"Hey Captain Singh," Jonathan said, using one hand to offer a small wave.
"Christ! We thought you were dead!"
"Nope, nope. Unfortunately, still very much alive."
Singh looked Jonathan up and down as if drinking in the fact that he looked like he had walked through a paper shredder. "What happened to you? You look like hell!"
"I stand corrected, maybe very much alive is a bit of an exaggeration, perhaps mostly alive is a better answer?"
The soldier, Captain Singh apparently, was not impressed. She made a small noise as if she were about to respond when suddenly a gunshot rang out. The bullet caught Martha in the shoulder. The corpse released a loud howl in pain, jerked upright and lunged towards Jonathan and the two soldiers, shrieking like a banshee. The involuntary scream was out of Evelyn's mouth before she could stop it and the monster's head snapped to attention. Her glassy white eyes turned on Evelyn, locking on to her new target. The lost soul was on all fours and snarling, any trace of the pleading woman she once was, now gone. She hurtled towards the rusted car and Evelyn scrambled backward, hopelessly trying to get to her feet but tripping over herself clumsily.
Suddenly there was a loud popping sound as a second bullet was fired and lodged itself into Martha's back. Martha staggered but kept moving towards Evelyn. The soldier fired twice more, and Martha's body fell limply to the ground. Evelyn recoiled in horror. The woman's arm was still outstretched towards Evelyn, the chevron tattoo on it was a disfigured mess of flesh covered by a freshly branded Greek letter, Σ.
Jonathan's hands were clamped tightly over his ears. Singh let out a low whistle. The second soldier holstered his still smoking gun and shot both Singh and Jonathan a cold look before disappearing back into the tunnel without another word. Though perhaps she only imagined it, Evelyn thought she saw Jonathan flinch as he passed him.
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Evelyn had never taken a blood test using the Sigma testing unit, it had been developed early on in the pandemic and was reserved for military personnel. In the bunker, they had always used saliva testing, so she was unprepared for the process of getting her finger pricked.
"It does hurt a bit, sorry," Singh apologized as she pressed Evelyn's finger against the pressure pad. Evelyn nodded and stole a glance at Jonathan. He'd been quiet since the incident with Martha. While Jonathan had never been the most talkative, there was something in the way his jaw kept tensing and his unfocussed eyes stared at the floor, that made Evelyn wonder what was wrong. After he'd gotten his finger pricked, he had secluded himself on the opposite wall of the tunnel with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. Every now and again, he'd reach one hand up to the collar of his jacket to stretch the fabric away from his throat. Singh didn't seem to notice anything was amiss. She just eventually stopped pestering Jonathan with questions when she'd realized that he was not going to answer her and instead had turned her attentions to Evelyn.
"If he's not going to answer, you better start talking," Singh informed her, and Evelyn nodded quickly. Her tongue felt thick and awkward in her mouth, she hadn't spoken to another individual save for Jonathan in weeks now and she was beginning to think she'd forgotten how to socialize. She also didn't know how much of Jonathan's side of the story should be shared. She knew that no one except her, knew about his radio show and she didn't want to accidentally get Jonathan into any trouble.
"My name is Evelyn Li," She said finally, "I came from the SFU colony to search for my family. Jonathan was kind enough to bring me here in case they might have passed through," She looked back at Jonathan, who had moved one of his hands from his pocket to clutch at his side. His ribs must have been bothering him again. "There were a few rough patches this past week." Evelyn added, hoping that it would be enough of an explanation to satiate Singh's curiosity, "He's going to need medical attention."
"I see," Singh said, checking the green lights that were blinking at the top of the testing units and disposing of the needles in a biohazard container, "It was kind of him to bring you here, but Mr. Johnson knows the rules." She shot a glance at Jonathan, but his eyes wisely avoided hers. "You're both clear, but all 'visitors' must go through processing, and quarantine. We'll take your weapons until a decision about your admittance is made."
Evelyn looked mournfully at her backpack which Singh was putting inside a lockbox. The radio, her swiss army knife and everything she owned in the world was in that bag. She shot a desperate look at Jonathan, but he didn't meet her eyes. Singh had taken off her helmet revealing a mane of intricately braided black hair that had been coiled into a bun. She appeared to be in her late thirties, but her face had a timeless quality that made it difficult to know for sure. With her tall, elegantly muscled stature and warm brown skin glistening in the low light, she looked as if she were cast in bronze. She reminded Evelyn of the amazon warriors she used to read about in books, but her eyes were softer somehow. There was something gentle behind them that Evelyn hoped she could trust.
"Could you check, if my family's here?"
"I can't answer that yet. You ready to go?" Singh asked, though by the way she had positioned herself beside Evelyn it was more a command than an actual request. Evelyn nodded anyways. Singh knocked a pattern onto the wall of the tunnel. The lock on the other end turned and the door swung open to reveal a lanky young man with bleached white hair.
"Hey Singh, your partner just—" The newcomer began. He froze suddenly realizing who was waiting for him in the tunnel, "Johnson?" he gasped, "You look like hell!"
"So people keep telling me," Jonathan said casually though his voice sounded tight, "it's good to see you too, Kells,"
"Who's this?" Kells asked nodding towards Evelyn.
"Evie—Evelyn." Jonathan said with a cough, "an acquaintance,"
"I'm taking her to holding. Can you call McKinney to take Johnson to the infirmary?" Singh asked.
Kells shook his head, "I'll take him, I'm headed there now, and Terrance will be here any minute to start his shift anyway."
Singh nodded and before Evelyn knew it, she and Jonathan were ushered off in separate directions. Singh kept a brisk pace and Evelyn had to nearly jog to keep up as she guided her towards a large warehouse with faded orange and cream-colored paint. From the looks of the single-story building and drive-up units, as far as Evelyn could tell, the place must have served as a public self-storage building in the old world. Singh marched her up to one of the units on the far side turned a key in one of the padlocks and pulled open the roll-up metal door. On the inside, the storage unit was a 10 by 10-foot window-less cell, walled with corrugated metal. Two foldable chairs and a table had been left in the center of the room with a sad looking cot in the back corner. Singh nudged Evelyn inside and then turned on the camping lantern which was suspended from the ceiling. Singh was tall enough that she needed little more than to reach above her head to flick on the light. It was so bright, Evelyn had to shield her eyes at first.
"You're going to have to wait here, I'm afraid," Singh said, "They'll be sending someone in here to run questioning. If Johnson vouches for you, food and water will be sent. Someone will be by if you need to use the facilities."
"Thank you," Evelyn said as Singh turned to leave, "I really appreciate it,"
Singh scoffed, "not many people thank me for locking them up in holding,"
"Well, I am," Evelyn said, "I would do the exact same if some random stranger just showed up at my door in the apocalypse."
Singh laughed and Evelyn saw her hardened expression soften, "Wherever did Johnson find you?"
"I found him actually," Evelyn replied. "You know; besides your friend Jonathan, I haven't seen any survivors since I left SFU... it's nice." She said quickly, realizing she was oversharing.
"What's nice?" Singh asked.
"It's nice to see that there are still people out here."
Singh gave her a small smile, "I suppose you're right. I'll do what I can for you. By the way, what did you say your last name was again?"
Evelyn beamed gratefully, "Thank you! My last name is Li. Honestly, you and Jonathan really don't know how much your help means to me!"
A look passed over Singh's features, but it was gone before Evelyn could decide what it revealed. She turned to leave and then stopped, "speaking of Jonathan," Her voice lingered on his name and then she sighed, "be careful with him. He's more fragile than he lets on."
"You care about him," Evelyn realized.
Singh nodded, "Jonathan and I— we're not super close," Her brown eyes cast to the floor and from the brittle sound of her voice, Evelyn got the feeling that their distance was something that she regretted, "He's a bit of a loner, but I suppose you can't blame him after everything he's been through and his father, you know, my partner, is... um... a complicated man."
Evelyn suddenly thought back to the second soldier, the one who had shot Martha right in front of her only moments ago. That had been Jonathan's father she realized with a shock. The revelation sent a shiver down Evelyn's spine. The man's son had been missing for almost a week and he'd barely acknowledged him. It was a relationship completely foreign to Evelyn, who had only known the loving bond shared within her own large family.
"They're good people. They've just had a rough go of it," Singh said as if reading Evelyn's mind, "it's hard to come back from something like what happened to them, but I'm afraid it's not really my place to say."
Evelyn fought the urge to demand Singh explain exactly what she meant by that. "Are you going to check on him before you come back?" she asked instead.
Singh smiled, "If they let me come back, I'll try to get you an update. Also, how do you spell your last name again? Is it L-E-E?"
"L-I."
Singh nodded and then without another word, she closed the sliding door behind her leaving Evelyn to wonder if she'd only imagined the troubled look in the woman's eye.