"I know where the adoption agency my parents used is," Coby said the next morning while we ate a breakfast of dried fruit and granola bars.
We all stared at him. My mouth hung open, full of half-chewed banana chips, before I collected myself.
"Really?" Zara asked, taking the wrapper off another granola bar.
"Yeah, my dad took me there when he told me. We could check it out, see if there are any clues."
"Okay, Sherlock," Zara said. "Where are we headed?"
"It's a city called Newbury." Coby said.
Jake pulled out his road atlas. "That's at least 100 miles from here. But I guess that's not so bad when you have a car."
I laughed, realizing I'd been calculating the walking distance in my head. Five or six days, if the terrain was flat.
"It's parked up the highway, about a mile away," Coby said, taking a swig from his canteen.
"We do some hiking," Zara said as she zipped the granola bars back into her suitcase. "Shall we go?"
"I can't wait to see it," I said, looking at Jake, who only shrugged.
We quickly packed up camp. I was excited; I hadn't driven or ridden in a car in over a year, and having one again felt like we'd gained a huge technological advancement overnight. I longed for the feeling of the road beneath the tires, the scenery zipping by.
We trekked toward the car, chatting as we crunched our way through the forest. Birch trees and maples lined our path, and I viewed them with some regret. I wasn't ready to head back into an urban jungle, but the mystery was intriguing. Could there really be a reason the four of us survived?
"How do you get gas for your car?" I asked Coby as we hiked.
"We siphon it out of abandoned cars along the road."
"Oh," I said, feeling foolish. "That's obvious."
He laughed. "Each of us has been surviving so differently. I could ask you how you're able to hunt with that thing." Coby nodded toward the compound bow and quiver slung across my pack.
"I started when I was young," I said, shrugging. "I joined an archery club because I wanted to be like Robin Hood."
"Robin Hood, huh?" I liked his smile.
"Yeah," I said. "I didn't think I'd ever hunt with it."
"I never thought I'd be doing post-apocalyptic mechanic work." He laughed.
I tripped over a root and he grabbed my elbow, stabilizing me. "Thanks," I mumbled.
Behind me, Zara asked Jake, "Are you much for cars?"
"No," he said.
"How about archery?"
He didn't say anything, so he must have shaken his head.
"Not very talkative are ya?" Zara asked.
"He used to be," I said. I turned to look at Jake and he raised an eyebrow at me.
"Oh yeah?" Zara said. "What happened, Jake?"
He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. I tried to give him a look that said "we'll talk later" before I restarted my conversation with Coby.
"If you haven't been hunting, what have you been eating?" I asked him.
"Canned food, MRE's—you know, the military meals-ready-to-eat that you boil? But that's only when we can find them. We tried hunting. At one point I'd found a shotgun and shells, but I'm a horrible shot and I didn't have the patience for it. What have you taken out with that bow?"
"Not much, actually. A couple of turkeys and other birds. Rabbits and squirrels are easier to catch with snares."
"No venison?"
"I thought about it, but I didn't want to skin and clean a whole deer by myself and I wouldn't have been able to eat all the meat before it went bad."
"Not wasteful, huh?" He grinned again. "My dad's always saying, 'waste not want not'."
Zara interjected, "And those big brown eyes. It'd be tough to kill Bambi, right?"
I laughed. "I suppose so."
"I'm glad we found you two," Zara said. "It'll be nice to eat some real, fresh food again."
A few minutes more and we were at the old highway. Parked just off the road a few hundred yards down was a bright red Mustang. It was a classic version, sleek yet strong.
"That's your car?" I asked.
"Yup," Coby said proudly, spinning his keys around a finger and catching them in his palm. "There are so many options these days. And this is the one I always wanted, so I thought, why not?"
"Shotgun!" Zara called, swinging open the passenger door. Jake and I climbed into the back and Coby hopped in front. Zara pushed her seat back and shut the door.
"Thank God for these things," she said, popping a CD into the slot. "Otherwise we'd never hear anything good anymore. Now let's drive!"
I rolled down my window as we whizzed down the highway to a soundtrack of 1980s hair bands. The forest views made things seem almost normal again, and I enjoyed the breeze running through my hair. Right then I felt that anything was possible; that the world could be made whole again.
♦♦♦
I sensed someone near me when I woke and grabbed for the revolver hidden in my pack before I realized it was Jake. We were still on the road, and he was leaning across me to close the car window. I dropped my pack to the floor and relaxed.
"Sorry," Jake said, settling back into his side of the Mustang's rear seat.
"It's okay. I can't believe I slept." I rubbed my eyes and wondered how I'd been able to fall asleep in a car full of near-strangers. During The End it had been hard to sleep anywhere, never knowing if the next people you'd meet were diseased or dangerous.
"How could we all have the same birthday?" I asked, loud enough for Coby and Zara to hear. I was so thirsty for conversation after months on my own that silences among our group made me feel nervous, like we were squandering precious drops of companionship.
"I'm telling you, the stars were aligned just right," Zara said.
I rolled my eyes. "No, seriously. What could it be?"
"Maybe we were quadruplets," Coby said.
"But we look so different," Zara said. It was true. Coby, with his bright red hair and burly frame, couldn't have been more opposite to Zara's short stature and East Asian features.
"That happens sometimes." Coby glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "What do you think, Nadia?"
I glanced at the two of them and at Jake. God that would be bad for the survival of the human race. "I don't think so," I said. "Maybe the birthday is fake."
"Ooh, yeah!" Zara said. "We were found that day. In toxic waste that made us immune!"
"The hospitals could've given us medicine that day—a weird batch or something—that gave us all immunity to the virus," Coby suggested.
"We're immune to more than the virus," Zara said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I survived one of the nuclear attacks, too," she said, without her usual carefree tone.
"Really? How?"
She looked out the window, her fingers playing with the hem of her shirt. "I'll tell you about it sometime." There was a note of pain in her voice.
Coby and I made wild speculations for a while longer, but then the CD hit Zara's "jam". She spun the volume knob and all conversation was drowned out by her loud, off-key singing.
I turned to Jake, who hadn't taken part in our guesses, and asked in a low voice, "What's the matter?"
He looked to be sure Coby and Zara weren't listening. Zara was still shout-singing along to the radio, adding air-guitar riffs where appropriate, and Coby was laughing and trying to join in, but he only knew parts of the chorus.
"It's nothing," Jake said.
I gave him my sternest glare and he, unexpectedly, broke into a grin. It faded before he spoke, though.
"We just met them."
"So?"
"It'll be a while before I trust them."
"Really?" I glanced at the front seat. Zara and Coby were still blissfully ignoring us.
"Yeah," he said. "Nothing against them, it's how I am."
"Do you trust me?" I whispered.
"Yes," he said immediately.
I had to stop myself from laughing. "Why? We just met too, you know."
He lifted his shoulders. "We got to know each other for a long time. Weeks. And, it's hard to explain—but I felt like I already knew you."
He lapsed into silence, so I sat back and looked out my window. We were entering the city of Newbury now, and I was happy to see how well-preserved it was. We passed a neighborhood of houses in pastel colors with cute front porches, an empty industrial park, a hospital, and several vacant stores. Only a few had smashed windows or other evidence of looting. Coby didn't stop, so I assumed we hadn't passed the agency yet.
Newbury must have been one of the cities evacuated after the virus was discovered. Those were the only cities I visited if I could help it. Those where the disease swept through quickly were veritable hellscapes, and those demolished by nuclear fallout were too risky to scavenge from.
"We're here," Coby announced as he pulled into the parking lot of a huge mall.
"Yes!" Zara said. "I haven't been shopping in ages." She turned and grinned at me.
"I thought we were going to the adoption agency?" I asked.
"We'll have plenty of time for that. First, see what you can find in there," Coby said, nodding his head at the mall's entrance. "Jake, I'd like you to come with me to the hospital we passed."
I sat up, alarmed. "Do we need medicine?"
"Something like that. You'll see." Coby said. The corners of his mouth turned up.
I glanced at Jake, not wanting to leave him. He looked calm, though. Zara pulled her seat forward and beckoned me to get out of the car.
"We'll be back in an hour or two," Coby said before taking off. "Meet you at this entrance."
"Sounds good," Zara said. "Let's go, Nadia!"
"Seeyou in a bit," I said, looking at Jake. He nodded. My stomach was tight as theydrove off. Now that we were all together, I didn't want to split up.