Hollowland
Page 26

“But I’m hungry. And I have to pee,” Harlow persisted.
I turned to face her and walked backwards, meaning to encourage her to keep moving. She had already taken her messenger bag from her shoulder, dragging it behind her.
“Fine,” I sighed. “Let’s do a quick lunch.”
“Thank you!” Harlow immediately plopped onto the road.
Vega turned to me, and without any tone to indicate her approval or disapproval, she said, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
“Okay.” I matched her blank tone. “We are going to have lunch now. So… we can work better.” I didn’t know what she was trying to get at, and I didn’t really want to offend her.
“Okay,” Vega nodded. “I’m going to go to the bathroom.”
“All right. Excellent.”
I watched her as she walked off the road to do her business behind a few bushes, purposely giving a wide berth to the area where Ripley had lay down to nap. Ripley had been following us closely, but spent most of the time walking in the grass. I guessed that was easier on her feet than the hot asphalt.
“Are you eating, Remy?” Lia asked.
She had already squatted down on the road to go through her bag, next to where Harlow sat. Blue and Lazlo wandered back over to them, and Blue slipped off his oversized backpack. He stretched and rolled his shoulders, and I was eager to ditch my bag and do the same. My shoulder and back were killing me.
“Maybe just a beef jerky,” I said.
My stomach complained, wanting more food, but it was hard to walk on a full stomach. Besides that, we were dividing the food among six people. I needed to conserve as much as possible.
I dropped my bag onto the road with a thud and pulled out warm bottled water. Lazlo tossed me a beef jerky when I got closer to where they sat in a circle, but I didn’t sit down myself. It would just be harder to get up. My feet throbbed, and my legs ached, but I knew we had to keep pushing through it.
“So what’s up with her?” I asked Lia, nodding in Vega’s direction, where she had finished peeing and moved on to praying.
“That’s just how she is,” Lia shrugged. “She was always different, even for us.” She opened a can of tuna with a can opener Blue had smartly taken, and gave it to Harlow.
“I’m so glad she decided to come with us,” Harlow muttered, eating the tuna out of the can with her fingers. Sanitation wasn’t much of an option anymore.
When Vega came back towards us, Lia excused herself to go to the bathroom. Lazlo sat on his messenger bag, using it as a chair. Taking a big bite of his beef jerky, he eyed up Vega.
“You hungry?” Blue asked her, nodding at the food Lia had taken out.
“I won’t eat until sun down,” Vega said, like that meant anything. “But I will take some water.” Blue handed her a bottle, and she took a long drink.
“So… Vega,” Lazlo looked at up at her, forcing a friendly smile and squinting in the sunlight. “That’s a fun name. Were you named after Vegas?”
“Vega means ‘light.’” She stared at him so hard, I half-expected him to burst into flames. “‘I am the light, the truth, and the way.’”
Lazlo rubbed the back of his neck, growing uncomfortable, and even Blue looked away. Harlow alone remained unabashed and stared up at Vega curiously.
“So… you’re saying that you’re the Messiah?” Harlow asked, voicing the conclusion we had all just come to.
“Maybe we should get going,” I interrupted before Vega could answer. I didn’t want to know what she did or didn’t believe. Indulging people in their delusions never helped things.
“‘For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be,’” Vega said, turning her attention down to Harlow.
“I don’t know what that means,” Harlow replied, still bravely meeting Vega’s gaze. “You say things all the time, and I don’t know what any of it means.”
“It is the end of days,” Vega said.
“Well, obviously,” Lazlo laughed dryly, but he stopped short when Vega glared at him.
“‘I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.’” Vega wasn’t speaking to us so much as preaching by then.
“Everything you see around us, that is the fourth horseman.” Vega gestured broadly to the barren landscape, knowing somewhere out there were legions of zombies.
“So what happens next?” Harlow asked, and I couldn’t tell if she believed anything Vega was saying, or if she was just asking questions to kill time.
“‘There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth,” Vega continued.
“We need to go,” I said, more forcefully than I had before. “We need to get somewhere before sundown. So, let’s pack up and get out of here.”
“But I’m still tired!” Harlow protested, and that’s probably why she had been engaging Vega. The longer they talked, the longer she went without walking.
“What’s going on?” Lia asked, returning from her bathroom break.
“We’re leaving.”
I tossed my beef jerky wrapper on the side of the road, since littering didn’t seem like that much of a problem when most of the world’s population was dead. I slung my bag over my shoulder again, carefully wedging the gun behind me.
“Can’t we wait just a little bit longer?” Harlow begged as everyone packed up
“Five more minutes won’t make your feet feel better,” I said. “And I told you to stop wearing those stupid shoes.” I nodded down to her oversized combat boots.
“They protect my feet.” Harlow admired them lovingly.
“By destroying them?” I scoffed
“Come on.” Lazlo held his hand out to her. He had already gotten to his feet and put his bag over his shoulder. “I’ll give you a piggy back ride, since it’s my fault we’re walking anyway.”
Harlow looked at his hand, almost too excited to trust him, then tentatively, she put her hand in his and let him help her up.