The Freeze (Barren Trilogy, Book 3) Page 8

  “Those people can,” I said, trying to look away. It wasn't before I caught the stare of a man with sunglasses who was dining next to a woman who was dressed the same. The suits they wore made them look like crows.

  I hurried along.

  “These people are tough,” Gina said, limping in between Jasmine and Mina and looking around the city. “They just keep going.” She watched a group of older women walk out of another shop that was open on generator power. The lights were on, highlighting slender dresses on faceless models. Even in the apocalypse, people were trying to make money, but it was so good to see some life here that wasn't just about survival. Maybe not all of the world had become like Colton and the dead countryside that made up half the country. Maybe it wasn't all bodies and sickness. I even passed a woman in a coat walking a poodle. She was bunded up but the dog didn't seem affected by the cold or the ultraviolet rays coming down from the sky.

  “You know, this place gives you hope,” Jerome said, drawing closer to me.

  This time I didn't pull away. It was strange how the outside world was affecting my inner one. “Makes you want to stay,” I said. “There are places open.”

  “That's temporary,” Tony said. “They won't last forever. That fancy food place back there won't get shipments for long. That's why the prices are so high. They're running out. I think people are getting the last nice meals they'll have in a while.”

  I glanced back to make sure the creepy sunglasses people weren't watching. I couldn't see inside the window now, which had the shade half down. Jerome wrapped his arm around me and made me forget about the creeps. They were probably watching everyone.

  We passed street after street, avenue after avenue. The buildings gradually got taller and I even spotted the Empire State Building rising out of the others when the low clouds cleared. I hadn't realized how tall it was until now. It towered like it was trying to reach the sun that was still behind the horrible smog but unable to poke through. The smog was impossibly high, maybe higher than the ruined ozone layer itself.

  But at least here, no one was burning. A few brave guys even walked around without hats or hoods, even though they stuck under awnings.

  “How much father is Times Square?” Alana asked me.

  Dread filled my insides. “I don't know. A few miles?”

  It was there that we would all be saying our goodbyes.

  Maybe even our final goodbyes. It had been Alana's idea to do it there, where things might feel special. Until we arrived, we were together. After that our adventures would split. I might never see most of these people again and I hated that it was getting to me.

  Goodbyes were never easy, especially the final ones. This was almost like death all over again.

  The buildings continued to get larger. We walked past an empty outdoor mall that had already been looted, even though there were a couple of police officers talking to each other near a closed-down McDonald's. They both had really long looks on their faces.

  We passed a smoldering apartment building. Someone might have been trying to cook again. A lot of the fires had started from cooking. I glanced, but didn't spot any bodies inside the blackened doorway.

  Another squall hit and left, during which we took shelter in a looted jewelry store among shattered glass and empty shelves. People had taken the gold, not realizing yet that it was useless. The real treasure was food and shelter. None of us spoke much while we waited for the near-whiteout conditions to calm down outside. The squall left a thin sheet of white on the roads. A lone taxi braved the conditons and slid through the intersection. Salt trucks weren't out in this city, either.

  “It's going to be fun to walk,” Gina said. “Especially with my foot.”

  We wound up finding Gina a wheelchair. There was one stashed in the back room of the jewelry shop, as if either one of the workers needed it quite a bit or all the patrons in this place were old. It still didn't make the walk through the border of Manhattan any less hazardous. The few cars that were out were crawling at less than ten and were still sliding through intersections on the new layer of ice. Occasional horns blared. We passed some steps headed into the underground. I had forgotten about subways. I could see why the people here used them.

  “I think we're almost there,” Alana said. “That looks like the billboard you always see on TV that's playing news all the time. Laney, I think it's on!”

  She grabbed my arm with excitement and I looked. We walked around another tall building.

  We had reached Times Square.

  It was just like you saw on television and in the movies. The giant news screen was broadcasting, with a woman against a blue background who was obviously reading off some cue lines. A small crowd of people were gathered on the sidewalk, watching. Her droning voice was faint and echoing through the square. The place was emptier than I thought it would be.

  “I can't hear her,” Christina said.

  “We need to get closer,” I said. We had left our emergency radio back in the truck with the military. They might be going through our precious food right now. My feet ached and I searched around for a bench, but people were taking up all of them, including a homeless man who was stretched out and snoring away. Another taxi rolled past on the shiny pavement. It was icy here. Very icy. I felt like we were walking on a rink.

  “I'm sure she's not saying anything good,” Gina said. “Wheel me closer and try not to die.”

  The crowd consisted of every kind of person you could imagine. We penguin-walked across the street and stopped at the back of the small crowd. Tony pushed Gina up onto a pedestrian island. No one bothered to stare at us. We were just more people coming and going.

  “Cold temperatures...” the woman was saying. Another car went past with no muffler. “Advised to dress for the conditions in the Northeast. We may be seeing a storm system coming up the coast along with very strong low pressure in the next few days. This is typical weather for mid winter, and forecasters say it could intensify to record strength.”

  “That sounds nice,” Jerome said.

  “The squalls we are seeing now are not related to this system,” the woman was saying. “We are not able to show you the radar or the satellite imagery as our resources are very limited. In fact, broadcasting from this station has required emergency power and infrastructure. The government is advising all residents in the Northeast to brace for this storm. Full impacts are not yet determined.”

  “The weather's going to get worse. Point taken,” I said. “Just when we get out of one kind of bad weather, more hits. I want a place that's sitting safe in between this stuff.”

  I was delaying saying what we needed to say to each other. Well, good luck. Don't die in this coming blizzard. Silence fell over us as the woman continued to talk about the coming storm. It was the only topic on the news. I wondered if that was on purpose, to distract everyone from the fact that others were taking their food away.

  “Well,” Tony said, shifting leg to leg. “It was good traveling with all you guys. Mina and I need to head into Maine before this thing hits.”

  “I hope you find your grandmother,” I told him. It was his grandmother that was up there, right?

  “I hope so, too. She's pretty isolated. I don't think anyone's gotten to her.”

  And then Tony stretched his huge arms out for a hug.

  It was a hug fest for a few minutes as we all took turns with each other. I was going to miss these guys.

  And then after this, I might find Dad.

  “Good luck,” I repeated over and over. It was going to be just that. Luck. It was all life felt like to me. No one managed to say anything more sentimental than that.

  “And Laney?” Mina asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks for not leaving me in that dust storm.”

  “It was no problem,” I said, watching her link her hand with Tony's.

  “And thanks for driving on the ice,” Jasmine said.

  “And helping get us off the military
base,” Gina added. “Well, it's a good time to head to Florida from the sounds of this.”

  In a way, I was relieved. These people weren't my responsibility anymore. I had shed five lives from my shoulders and I felt lighter. Looser. It was just me, Jerome and Alana now.

  And then I watched the others walk away, Gina wheeled by Christina and Jasmine and Tony and Mina headed back the way we had come. The three of us remaining stood there under the woman who talked about doom and gloom and watched until Tony and Mina finally vanished around the side of another tall building.

  They were gone. All of them.

  It was just us now and I felt like there was something final about it.

  “I'll miss those guys,” Jerome said. “Even Tony, and he was David's biggest minion for a while. But at least he respected you, Laney.”

  I felt weird. “Well, I did find him lying in the dust storm and I kind of saved his life. I was a jerk to him afterwards, though.”

  “I don't think Tony was a bad guy,” Jerome said. “I hope he finds his grandmother. He has someone worth finding.” I could hear the jealousy in Jerome's words. Jerome had nobody left to look for, nobody to hold onto.

  He needed me and I wasn't sure I could give that to him.

  “We should go,” Alana said. “Where's that avenue your dad's supposed to be staying on?”

  I struggled to remember. “It started with a C,” I said. “Chuck Avenue. Holiday Inn. Near the Hudson River. Wait. It should be pretty close to the water. Dad said it would offer him a view of all the boats and maybe some pilot landing their plane on the water.”

  Jerome laughed. “That was a long time ago. I think I was in fifth grade or something when that happened.”

  It was what Dad had said before leaving on his trip, before slinging his laptop bag over his shoulder and going out the door for the last time. He had flashed me a weak smile, a guilty smile, right before climbing into his car. Be careful, Laney, he said. It was what he always said and I missed it.

  And then he was always gone, over and over again over the past year like he couldn't stand the fact I hadn't thought Mom's moles were anything serious until it was too late.

  But I was being careful. Very, very careful. He would be proud of the shield I was holding up. He had his own and it was physical distance. Mine was the emotional kind.

  “Which way is the Hudson?” Alana asked.

  I turned to face north, the direction Tony and Mina had vanished in. I half hoped to see them coming back, but the cold wind threatened to get even worse and the light was already starting to fade into night. I didn't want to be out here during nightfall. There might be too many Davids out.

  “West,” I said, pointing. “The map said Cnuck Avenue went all the way to the coast, so we should be able to follow it up to the Holiday Inn. We'll find it. It's one of those really tall ones.”

  My feet felt ready to explode. We had been walking for hours and my legs were starting to cramp. I was hungry, so hungry that I was getting light headed. I searched around but saw no options for food. I had the feeling a lot of it had been raided already, judging from the broken windows and doors around us.

  But we walked. I was so sick of doing nothing but walking and driving but I hoped it was almost over. Once I found Dad he could take over and make all the hard decisions. I could let my guard down.

  If he was even there.

  I had to tell myself that. If. It was always an if in this new world.

  After another twenty minutes of walking, I spotted the gray of the water ahead, which was reflecting the reddish brown smog. It was the strangest sight, but at least the squalls had cleared up for now. I felt like I was staring at some surreal painting. The waves were calm now that the squalls had ended. We could walk along the beach.

  And the beach was empty except for a group of rowdy guys blaring rap from a portable radio they might have looted for all I knew. I spotted beer bottles all around them and the five of them were in coats, but seemed to be having a good time. They weren't bothering us and we were walking in the opposite direction anyway.

  Out in the open, the wind was worse. I didn't get why anyone wanted to hang around out here.

  “This is nice,” Jerome said, moving to put himself between us and the wind.

  “How do people live with this three months of the year?” Alana asked, wrapping her arms around herself. “My torso's warm, but the rest of me has gone numb. I feel like my legs have had a giant novocaine shot. Just without the shot.”

  I searched the tall buildings of the coastline. There were boardwalks. So many boardwalks, and empty pool clubs, and boats bobbing up and down in the water. The river itself was huge. Wide. A few little boats moved back and forth as if scared something would come down and snatch them up. I even spotted one from the Coast Guard. A rooster tail of water shot up behind it as it sped down the river towards the ocean.

  And then, I saw the two most glorious words I had ever seen.

  Holiday Inn.

  “That's it,” I shouted. “That's it. That's where he might be.” Hope rose inside of me and overwhelmed me with emotion. I was letting it take over but right now I didn't care. We had journeyed across the country for this moment.

  “Come on,” Jerome said, grabbing my arm. “Let's run and get out of this cold even faster.”

  He was coming with me. I wouldn't have to do this alone. This could be good, bad, or neither. If Dad was gone I wouldn't have to go into his room alone.

  Where the walls were closing in.

  Where I was isolated and utterly alone, unable to speak.

  The thought brought me back down to the world again. Alana and Jerome and I ran through the sand the best we could in our tennis shoes as the wind kicked up. I slowed for a second. No. Waiting was the worst. I had to keep going.

  Room 414. I had memorized it. Fourth floor.

  We turned onto the avenue, jumping a metal guardrail to get on the road. There were cars parked on the sides of the road here and a taxi right underneath the awning. A woman walked out of the hotel, bags under her eyes, and got in. The car slowly inched onto the road between two others and crawled away. The inside of the Holiday Inn was dark. Like everything else it was out of power.

  “The glass isn't broken,” Jerome said. “Looters haven't been here.”

  “Who wants to loot a hotel?” I asked.

  “They went after the jewelry stores,” Alana said. “Plus the food.”

  “Hotels have food,” I said. “Crappy food, but food.” I hoped. I was starving and praying they didn't kick us out.

  I pulled open the door and entered.

  The lobby was dark and there was a stagnant water fountain in the middle of the room with some empty leather chairs. A woman was sitting behind the receptionist desk and she was squinting to see a crossword in the dark. I could tell by the look on her face that she'd been without power for days. One of those portable batter lanterns sat on her desk, casting dim light.

  My heart leapt into my throat and I had the urge to run from the building, but I had to conquer that fear. But...I couldn't see another person I loved dead.

  “Excuse me,” I said.

  She looked up. “What do you want?” she asked.

  I'd heard stories about New Yorkers being rude, but I had the feeling it was the stress getting to her more than anything. Understandable.

  “We don't have any food here,” the woman said. “Try any of the markets.”

  “We're not here to loot,” Jerome said. “Laney just wants to find her father.”

  I was glad he was there. This woman's gaze was sharp. She wasn't a David but I could tell she had already dealt with them.

  “What room?” she asked, her voice softening just a little. “Some of our patrons left, but the ones who live out of state are stranded, so we let them stay. It's not like money has any worth anymore and all flights to the west side of the country have stopped.”

  There was more to this than the woman was letting on. Something
was going on here, as she didn't seem like the friendly, warm type.

  “Then how are people paying to sleep here?” I asked.

  The woman gave me a sharp smile. “Food.” She pointed at me. “Just stay quiet about this.”

  “So you're sending people out to loot,” I said.

  “I only have a few patrons staying here,” she said in her heavy Northeastern accent. “Some went home but the ones from the west side of the country didn't see the point so they're staying here for now. The army might not notice the food in here and if we keep the lights off, I think we'll be fine for a while. We've got a couple from Oregon. A woman from Hawaii who's got no way to get back. Oh, and some guy from Arizona.”

  “What room?” I asked, leaning across the counter.

  “Rude,” the woman said. I could read her name tag now in the dim light. Sheri. Sheri was scary. She even had green eye shadow that reminded me of a reptile. “I think he's on the fourth floor. And if he's the one you're looking for, tell him he's due for his next payment. I hear food's getting harder to find. The stores are getting empty.”

  The only thing stopping me from bolting up the stairs was the fact that the inside of the Holiday Inn was dark, almost pitch black in places except for an occasional emergency lantern. The three of us had to creep to the end of the hall, where Alana felt around until she found a staircase. Another emergency lantern was on the first landing, lighting the area up enough to tell us this was the second floor. There was one on the entrance to the third floor, too, and it was there that I thought I smelled potato chips. Sheri was stockpiling food here, all right. She had a good system going, a smart system for survival. She was one of the fit ones who might make it.

  The fourth floor's lantern was flickering like its battery was running out. I felt like we had stepped onto a haunted floor. The shadows were deeper here and I stood there for a second, eyeing the rows of closed doors. A few had been flung open like their occupants had left in a hurry, suitcases and possibly kids in tow.

  “Dad?” I called.

  I heard nothing. Outside, a car honked. The rest was silence.