Chapter Text
Henry pushed open the bathroom door. "Jessie?"
His sister lifted her head up from where it had rested on her knees. "Don't—don't call me that. That was Mom's—" She trailed off and wiped a few tears from her cheeks.
He inwardly winced. "What is it, Jess?"
"We ate the last of our food at lunch. And I don't know where to get any more. They cleaned out the convenience store already. I could try next door, but…"
Henry nodded. The elderly couple who had lived there had succumbed to the sickness the day after their parents fell ill. "Someone already broke in there a few days ago, yeah." He walked over to Jess and sank down onto the tile floor facing her. "I could try to trade for food."
"Trade what? With who?" Jess's face held a good deal of skepticism.
Henry shrugged. "I don't know. Jewelry? Tools? Might be some useful stuff in the garage. Whatever Seth might go for."
Jess scowled. "Seth Baker? He's a bully."
"He's got food and we don't," Henry pointed out. "I saw him and his friends this morning with some."
"OK, if you think you can find something to trade." She wiped her eyes again and tried to smile. "I'd better go check on Vi and Benny."
Henry flicked on one of their precious flashlights as he entered the garage. The thick blackness receded as he let the beam play over the contents. It had taken him all of ten seconds to figure out that Seth wasn't going to care about jewelry. Maybe if he could get it somewhere where people still valued precious metals and stones—was there such a place anymore? It was impossible to know. He wished he'd paid more attention to geography and current events in school. A part of him even missed school…
He shook his head to refocus. What was something that Seth would want? His eyes fell on the bicycles, but he discarded that idea quickly. As much as those might appeal to the gang, the bikes were the Aldens' only way out if they needed it. (A tiny thought in the back of his mind reminded him that that day was probably a lot closer than he suspected.) No, those were far too precious to barter for a bit of food. And he didn't have a scooter or skateboard or anything like that.
His eyes fell on the workbench, covered in various tools… but without electricity, Dad's power tools weren't useful. Yeah, people had generators here and there, but they needed fuel to run. The thought slammed into his brain in a flash. Fuel! Didn't Dad have a can, just in case… He picked his way to the one corner of the garage where the car-related things were stored. Sure enough, there was the gas can. And it was still full. He hauled it into the entryway and began unlocking the door.
"You found something?" Jess poked her head out of the living room. One lock of brown hair fell into her eyes and was promptly shoved back behind her ears.
"I'm hoping he's got a generator to run," Henry told her.
"Can you tell me another story?" came Benny's voice from out of sight.
Jess held up crossed fingers to Henry and turned back into the living room. "Sure, why don't I tell you one about Thomas the Tank Engine? Or maybe Vi can do it?" Henry heard just before slipping out the door empty-handed. He'd come back for the can if and when Seth said yes.
"What do you want, shrimp?" asked Seth. His buddies snickered.
It hadn't taken long to find them, but Henry was beginning to wonder if it was worth it. "I want to trade for food."
His demand was met with derision. "And you think you've got something we actually want?"
"I can give you a can of gasoline," Henry offered.
Seth looked at the friend to his right for a moment, then shrugged. "All right, bring it and Jeff'll have something for you."
Henry ran back to the house before Seth could change his mind. He caught his breath, then rapped on the door.
"Who is it?" came Jess's voice.
"It's me," he replied. "They said yes—I need the gas can."
The deadbolt snapped back into the door with a clunk and Jess yanked it open wide enough to hand the can over. "Good luck," she told him.
Jess was thankful Vi loved making up stories for Benny. It meant she could take a few minutes to flop onto the couch in the living room, out of sight of her younger siblings, and try to think of what to do if Henry's plan didn't work out. For that matter, even if it did, what would they do next? It wasn't as if the house was full of useful stuff to trade every meal, and even if it was, they'd run out eventually. We're going to have to leave, she realized. She heaved herself back up with a sigh and dug in the end table drawer for a piece of paper and a pencil. Time to make a list.
She liked lists, actually, used to make lists of anything and everything—back when there was school and friends and the other life she was already thinking of as "the past". Unlike those lists, however, this list would be critically important to her life, one of the most important lists she ever made. If they left, they wouldn't be coming back for anything. Whatever they left would be gone forever. So…
She chewed on the end of the pencil, trying to think of what categories to write. Well, they had to wear something. Clothes, she wrote at the top of one column.
They should take at least a few pictures of Mom and Dad, she decided, so they could remember them in a different way, something besides… She forced her mind away from the images left seared on her brain. At least Vi and Benny hadn't had to see them at the very end. As it was, Benny would barely remember them anyway. They definitely needed pictures. She wrote Personal at the top of another column.
The sound of Henry's knock interrupted her thoughts. She left the list on the end table, hurried to the door, and undid the lock to let him in. "What did you get?"
He sighed, closing the door behind him and flipping the lock back into place before he pulled the bag from behind him.
"A loaf of stale bread?" The disappointment tingeing her voice was reflected in his eyes.
"That's all they gave me. Plus they basically ordered me to join their gang—tonight. We'd have to give them everything." He frowned at that.
Jess wrinkled up her face in disgust. "What? No way."
Henry nodded. "Yeah. I think we'd better get out of here, and fast."
"That's what I'd figured," she said. "I started a list of everything we need to take with us."
"We can't take a whole lot," he warned her. "Only what we can stuff in backpacks—and the bike trailer."
"What about Benny?"
"He'll have to ride on the tagalong behind me. My legs are just long enough to handle Dad's bike. You can ride Mom's, right?" he asked her.
"Yeah, I think so? But you'll have to hook up the trailer. I don't remember how they did it." Jess shrugged, a little helplessly.
"I think I remember how. I'll have to use the electric lantern to find everything, though—hopefully there's enough battery left." He walked over to the end table and picked up the piece of paper. "Not a bad start. Add a category for Tools. Anything you can think of that we'll want to have with us later, write it down. We can always cross something off if we decide we can't take it after all."
"OK. Good luck," she told him. She picked up the pencil again and added the new column before starting to list individual items under each column.
"I need Thomas to take another load to the downstairs railway station," Jess called. Benny's obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine came in handy at times, and she wasn't above making use of it to get the packing done.
"Thomas is here!" Benny shouted as he ran into his bedroom.
"Here, take these clothes downstairs and unload them onto the couch," she told him.
"OK!" His steps were slower this time, and she was unsurprised when half a minute later he came trudging through the doorway. "Thomas is tired," he announced, and promptly sat on the floor.
Jess smiled at him. "Vi! Thomas got too tired to carry any more loads. Would Percy be up for it?"
"Sure," she called back from the other room. "I just finished carrying my things downstairs." She soon appeared at the door and gathered up the few things Jess had set aside in the meantime.
"Thomas can do it," Benny said.
"Oh no, you said Thomas was tired. He needs to rest for a minute and then he can carry another load, OK? They can take turns," Jess suggested.
Benny looked like he was about to object.
"I know something I need your help with. Can you pick one toy to take with us? Only one," she cautioned. "Which one would you want?" She left him to the task and went to find his largest clothes, thankful that her mom had bought several outfits in the next size up for him just the month before. There was no way to know when—or if—she'd ever have a chance to find new clothes that actually fit him when he outgrew his current ones.
Benny went to his toy box, opened it, and began to pull toys out to look at. "I want to take Thomas," he said after a minute, clutching the toy engine in his hand.
Of course, Jess thought, feeling a bit stupid for not thinking of it right away. It wasn't like it was a new toy that she could have easily forgotten, but in the rush of packing, it had slipped her mind. "Can you take him downstairs and put him with the other things on the couch? That way we can make sure he goes with us."
"OK," he called as he bounded out of the room, his energy clearly restored.
Jess smiled at him and stood with the last bundle of clothes. "Here," she said as she passed it to Vi. "I'm going to go look for blankets and pillows now."
Henry finished tightening the last nut and laid the wrench on the kitchen floor. "OK, you can start loading the trailer now," he called to Jess. He carefully backed up the bike and trailer into the living room. "I've still got to attach the tagalong to Dad's bike."
"Can you also grab any tools you might want with you? Like whatever you're using to put these together," Jess suggested.
"Sure," he said. He looked over the couch, covered with clothes, blankets, and random things. "I'm not sure all of this can go."
"Maybe not, but we have backpacks too. See?" she said, pointing to Vi, who stepped off the last stair with her backpack in hand. "I figure the stuff that takes a lot of space but is light can go in those, and we can put the heavier, smaller things in the trailer."
"That sounds like a lot to pull. Your legs up to it?" he asked.
"I beat Emma racing up a hill when we spent the day at the park last month. And it was a steep one," she added. "I'm sure I can do it. You have it worse; if Benny gets too tired, you'll have to carry him on your back while you bike. I've got a sheet around here somewhere just for that."
Vi took advantage of the momentary lull in conversation to approach. "Here, I found Mom's sewing kit," she said, handing it to Jess. "She was teaching me how to mend things. Maybe we'll need that."
Vi's lips quivered a little during the last couple sentence, and Jess gathered her in her arms. "I miss her too," she whispered to her younger sister before pushing her shoulders back to look at her face. "I'm sure we'll need it, and you'll do great with it. Now, can you go keep an eye on Benny for me? That will help so much, so I can finish packing this."
"OK."
"Good luck with the tagalong," Jess told Henry.
"Thanks," he said, and headed over to where he'd set the electric lantern.
"There," Jess declared as she zipped the trailer canvas shut around its bulging load. "That's all we can manage. The backpacks are already stuffed."
"Did you put in any photos?" Henry asked.
His eyes met Jess's, and she gave him a nod. "I pulled the family portraits out of their frames and stuck them in an envelope in between pages of a book, to keep them flat."
"We all have backpacks," Vi said. "Except Benny."
"I thought of that," said Jess. "There's a spare backpack that was in the bottom of the hall closet; it can go in the mounted seat Mom used when he was a baby. He can use it when he gets older."
"I'd better go mount that seat, then," said Henry. "That's the last thing to put together, right?"
"As far as I know," Jess answered. She looked at Vi, who shrugged. "We'll go do one last walk-through, see if there's anything we need that we forgot."
"What time were they going to come by?" Jess whispered to Henry as they wheeled the bikes up to the front of the garage and checked that everything was ready to go.
Henry checked his watch, grateful the battery was still good. "In ten minutes; we better hurry."
They went back into the house. Vi was waiting with a sleepy Benny. He rubbed his eyes. "What are you doing?"
"There's an emergency trip, and Thomas is needed, Benny," said Vi. "Remember?"
"Jackets on," Jess told them, and helped Benny with his before zipping hers up. "We have to be very quiet as we get into place." She knew the garage doors were not well-insulated; one careless comment and the gang would know what they were up to. She handed Vi her backpack, and they put them on before opening the garage door.
Jess flicked on the one working flashlight and helped Benny find his bicycle seat. "Hold on tight and be ready to pedal hard," she whispered.
Vi found her bike, and Henry went over to the manual release. "When I open it, you two need to pedal as fast as you can," he told the girls. "I'll be on mine and Benny and I will catch up quickly."
The garage door creaked and groaned as it slid up, and Jess was sure the whole neighborhood heard it. She veered left, Vi close behind her, and glanced back once to see Henry and Benny gaining on them… and they weren't alone. Seth and a couple of his buddies were chasing them on—scooters! Jess was never more thankful to see a scooter in her life. While they would keep up pretty close on the initial downhill stretch, uphill was another matter. Vi began to lag a little. "Come on, Vi, you can do it! We've got to get as far as Fenton Street before we slow down."
Jess's legs began to burn; it was a lot harder to pull the trailer behind her than just her own bike, and this bike was taller than she was used to. She forced herself to keep going, going, going, until Henry signaled with his hand and coasted to a stop.
"Benny's about to fall asleep; we'd better switch him to my back. You had some idea on that?" Henry asked.
"Yeah, let's see…" Jess unzipped the trailer a short ways, pulling out a sheet. "Let's see if I can do anything with this." It took a good deal of criss-crossing and wrapping it around both Henry and Benny before she was done, but finally Benny was tightly pressed against Henry's back with it. "The knots seem to be holding, but if you feel anything slipping…"
"I'll stop right away," Henry said. "Can you keep going, Vi?"
"Yeah, I can do it," she said, chin up with a determined look on her face.
Jess smiled. "We'll see if we can't find somewhere to sleep soon. I'm exhausted too."
"All right, let's go," Henry told them, and they each slung their legs back over their bicycle seats. It seemed harder to pedal this time, and Jess had to make herself keep her legs moving in the same pattern, again and again. Vi drifted behind them a little, but not too much. Jess glanced back every so often to check that she was still with them.
She felt ready to drop by the time Henry slowed to a stop. He pointed to a house on their right. "There's a camper there we can sleep in for tonight, if it's not locked," Henry said, "and we can stash the bikes either in the shed or the back yard." The shed was full of garden tools and a lawn mower, so the children wearily pushed their bikes behind the wooden fence and covered them with a tarp that had been covering a grill. Henry went over to the camper, Benny still asleep on his back. He pulled at the door handle—and let out a quiet groan of frustration. "It's locked."
"Maybe there's a window we can get in?" Vi asked.
"Good idea," Jess told her. They started around the camper, pushing and prodding at the windows, till Jess found one that would move up some. "Well, this one opens—but it's pretty small."
Henry joined them, and they looked at the opening critically. "I think Benny might fit," he said after a minute of looking it over.
Undoing the knots that held Benny to Henry's back was a lot harder than tying them in the first place, and Jess was near tears with frustration by the time the last one gave way. Vi patiently worked on the ones on her side, and soon they were rubbing Benny's back and helping him stand up.
"We've got a job for you," said Jess. "It needs someone who can fit in a tiny place, and you're the only one who might be able to do it." She lifted him up to the window. "Do you think you can crawl through there and open the door for us?"
Henry helped support Benny as they sent him feet first through the opening. "Are you good?" he asked Benny.
"Yes," came the answer. "Where's the door?"
"It's on the opposite side a little ways down. We'll go knock on it so you can hear us," Jess told him. The door soon swung open, and Benny was showered with hugs from his brother and sisters.
"There's a bed in here—and it's even got blankets on it," Vi said, exploring the tiny space.
"Everything we need," said Jess.
"No, it isn't. I'm hungry," Benny whined.
"We skipped supper!" Jess exclaimed. "I knew I missed something. I'll be right back." She returned quickly with the loaf of bread. "I'm afraid this is all we have." She opened it and passed out a couple slices to each of them. The bread was really stale and a little dried out, but the children were too hungry to care. They chewed it down quickly, washing it down with the last few swallows from the water bottle they had brought from home.
"Where are my pajamas?" asked Benny.
"We're going to sleep in our clothes tonight," Jess told him. "Isn't this a great adventure?" She helped him take off his shoes and pulled back the covers for him to crawl in the middle. Vi crawled in next to him, and Jess and Henry slipped in on either side of the younger ones. The exhaustion and warm (even somewhat soft) bed worked their magic, and all four were asleep within minutes.