Chapter Seven: La Carretera (pt1)
"Uy." Mami hissed.
"What happened?" Alexander asked immediately as he leaned against the back of her seat.
"This is going to be difficult to drive through."
No kidding.
It looked like this whole highway had turned into one huge traffic accident on both sides of the lanes. There was a big truck overturned and cars on their sides... a few of them were black with soot, their hoods melted and crushed. There weren't any muertos... but even the cars that weren't wrecked had been abandoned. The RVs are so big, that going through the maze of destroyed cars would be an incredible -and nerve wracking- feet. Heck, it'd be magic if the RVs didn't get stuck.
"Huh... it looks like we're stopping." Mami murmured in confusion as the RV in front of ours stalled. Which really wasn't that surprising.
Camila slammed into the back of my legs before tugging on my overalls, "I can't see."
A small snort escaped from my pressed lips, but I lifted her up and propped her on my hip anyway, "You're getting too big for this Cami."
She didn't say anything, only wrapped one skinny arm around my neck for balance before pointing at the sheriff as he and a few others got out of the vehicles, "Mira!"
Alexander scowled, "Are we going out there too?"
More of the other group spilled out into the highway, coming together into a clump to discuss... something, before they started dispersing and roaming through the cars.
"No." Mami said firmly, she lowered her window and poked her head out, "Is something wrong?"
"Dale's RV broke down!" Glenn called back before jogging over so that he didn't have to shout... he looked so small looking up at all of us as we crowded closer, "While we get it running again, Rick wants us to scavenge what we can from the cars."
"I see..." as is on cue Eva starts crying, "I can't go out right now, Evita needs to be fed."
Glenn's face pinks, Alexander's chuckle is catching as Isabella and I start giggling at the man's embarrassment, "Oh! Okay!" he squeaked out, "I'll, uh, tell them your, um, occupied at the moment." before sprinting back to the main group. Even Mami snorted at Glenn's retreat before closing the window, turning the engine off, and getting up to tend to my youngest sister.
My arms had grown numb so I plopped Camila onto her feet and pushed her toward one of the puppies, "Go play."
Before picking up Eva, Mami unbuckled Olivia and let her roam around. Olivia squealed happily as she was finally able to throw herself towards the puppies with glee, I snorted when an alarmed puppy ran straight for Dottie. It only took Mami a couple of seconds to plop down at the booth and bring Eva to her chest.
Isabella tugged on my shirt, "Didn't we bring the special pillow from the nursery?" when I nodded she grinned, "I'll get it!" before running to the bedroom.
"You guys did a good job cleaning up in here." Mami praised as Isabella came tripping back with the green boppi, "Gracias, mija."
"De nada!" Isabella chirruped before sitting down across from her.
Without looking at my mother, Alexander leaned against one of the cabinets and asked, "So I know that we're sticking with these people... but where are we going?"
Mami hummed, "For now, we're heading for Fort Benning. It's a military base."
"It'll be safe there?" I asked, my head tilted to the side making my hair spill annoyingly in front of my face before I tucked it behind my ear, "I thought Papi said it was better to stay away from crowded places... that's why he wasn't happy that we were staying in the nursing home... 'cause it was in the city."
"The American military were the ones to drop the bombs on us, right?" Alexander brought up, "What if they try shooting at us when we get there?"
A shiver wracked down my spine. The bombs exploding in the city had been one of the most terrifying nights we'd had since the world fell apart... not knowing if the next one would be dropped right on top of us and kill us all in one go... or worse trap us there to be an easy meal for los muertos. Not even Papi's arms around us, or Abuelita's kisses in between fervent prayers, helped.
"They left us all to die, right? That's what Miguel said. He said that the army would sooner kill us than save us." Isabella's hands were clenched into tight fists as angry tears brimmed in the corners of her eyes. The injustice of it all had hit her hard and Isabella had been inconsolable for days.
Alexander nodded, "Carlos was saying that it was because they got overrun from los muertos and gave up... won't this base be overrun too?"
"That means we're heading right to a death trap." I mumbled nervously.
"Hey!" Mami said strongly, "I know this is scary. I know." she soothed, "But this is where we're going for now. These are good people, and there aren't many of those left. This world has only brought out the ugly... And you're right, maybe going to the base is a mistake, but this is going to be a long journey. You never know, we might find a better place before we get the-"
Dottie let out a low menacing growl, stealing my breath away. Dottie never growled. I didn't even know that she could be aggressive enough to growl... it just wasn't in her nature. Heck, she'd gotten kicked out of service dog training because she was too friendly! She didn't look too friendly now. No, Dottie's fur was standing up as she guarded the only door to the outside, before Dottie promptly turned around and grabbed one of her puppies by the scruff of their neck and hightailed it to the bedroom to hide under the bed.
Mami gasped, "Oh God." fear dripping from her tongue before she hissed, "Get down! Away from the windows!"
My knees hit the floor without thinking before I tugged Camila down. Dottie reappeared to grab another puppy. Alexander's shoulder pressed into mine, "What is it?" he whispered as Isabella and Mami slipped from the booth to the floor. Even Olivia froze before crawling towards us for comfort as the tension skyrocketed.
"There are hundreds of muertos marching outside." a whimper hit the air, "Quiet- Quietly move to the back. Anda, to the bathroom. We're going to lock ourselves in there."
She didn't have to tell me twice. The two small windows in the master bedroom were both covered, but I didn't dare stand up. Being the first one in the bathroom meant that I wedged myself in the shower before letting Camila curl up in my lap for comfort as everyone else trickled in. Even Dottie decided to wiggle in with the puppies when she saw that was where we were all going. It was cramped and very quickly became hot, but only the sounds of our collective breathing filled the room.
It felt like we'd hid in there for hours... when it really only must have been about ten minutes before we started hearing voices again... before Glenn started knocking at our door because the black man, T-Dog, had badly cut himself on a car during their scramble to hide.
Mami firmly demanded that we stay in the master bedroom and keep quiet... even with the threat mostly gone now... because one of the kids, the girl, Sophia, had run off into the woods a few minutes ago with two muertos on her heels. She closed off the master bedroom and left to go help T-Dog, but not before pressing a trembling kiss onto all of our faces.
Camila refused to get out of the bathroom, so we decided to leave her and Olivia in the closed shower with Dottie's puppies so that they would stay out of our way. Dottie was content to splay herself on the bathroom floor and watch over her puppies and watch us move around.
With Eva back in her car seat and stationed in front of the bathroom door, Alexander was the one to suggest we start cleaning up the bedroom to give us something to do. Our first order of business was to clear the area on the left side of the bed so that we could set up the pack'n'play... something that we were able to do with minimal fuss and get Eva all nice and cozy. The entire left side of the room was just one giant closet with space for hanging things on the top and six deep drawers on the bottom.
Isabella commandeered one of the drawers for all of our underwear and pants, one with all of Camila's fold-able clothes, another for Mami's undergarments and her long-sleeved shirts, one for Alexander, and the last two for all of the baby clothes that Olivia and Eva owned. We hung up the coats on one side of the closet, and designated areas for each of our things before we all started hanging up the rest of the clothes. It was all tightly packed but there was enough space under the hanging garments to squish everyone's shoes there as well.
The bed had come with sample sheets and pillows so it didn't need any of the linen thrown around the room... the bunk beds in the hall did need them though. Since we promised my mother that we wouldn't leave the room, we just folded everything nicely on top of the bed. Isabella and Alexander were both pretty thrilled after they discovered the DS and Gameboy I'd packed, and put them to charge so that we could take turns playing them once we were done with our 'tidy-up.'
I was more thrilled with the discovery of Papi's iPod in one of the bags... after all, my dad had a wide range of music saved on there and we could connect it to the stereo. I'd missed music. The world had gotten pretty quiet since the start- and even at the nursing home they didn't really play music.
While Alexander started sorting some of the bathroom things, I put the photo album and the few CDs and movies that we'd nabbed from home into the cupboard above the bed. Isabella pushed the two boxes of packed water bottles under the bed, with all the camping gear shoved around it so that the water was hidden from plain sight, and we put the few amounts of toys we'd brought into one of the newly empty suitcases before pushing it under there as well. Hiding things was second nature now, a lesson that was only reinforced by what went down in the nursing home.
I almost cried when Isabella pulled out the children's bible Papi used to read to us in lieu of bedtime stories from her bag. She tearfully whispered that she couldn't just leave it behind before pulling me into a hug when I handed over her old teddy bear. Alexander surprised us both by pulling out the stash of caramel candies that his brother used to hide from us, before mumbling that Andres would have wanted all of us to have something sweet to suck on.
By the time Mami came back the room looked more like a bedroom than a chaotic disaster of a closet. She was the one to bring us all something small to eat, before helping us dress the mattresses of the bunk beds in the hall. My mother had closed all the shades of the windows and even pulled the curtain out to separate the front of the RV where the consul was so that if someone managed to peer in through the windshield they wouldn't be able to see the back. Mami was the one to figure out how to get the overhead bunk down in the main room so that we could outfit it with some sheets as well before putting it back up so that it wouldn't get in our way for now.
Mami didn't want to talk about what was going on outside... but she did tell us that Sophia hadn't come back. That even though the sheriff had gone after the girl almost immediately after she'd run, Sophia was still missing. The sun was already sinking on the horizon and the girl -that was my age- was lost in the woods all by herself. The group decided to stay at the highway tonight and set up a search party for her in the morning.
That night, despite the other beds being set up, we all slept squished together in the king-sized bed in the bedroom.
We were alive.
We were safe.
We were together.
That was all that really mattered.
Words 2219
Translations:
Uy - Oof
[Los] Muertos - the dead
Mira - Look
Gracias, mija - Thanks, sweetheart
De nada - You're welcome
(I know, I know... I've been awol for a really long time. My life once more got really complicated. Between the remodeling we're doing in the kitchen, my never-ending battle with the university admissions office [those assholes are still dodging my calls], to the broken aircons, and to the fact that my whole family -including myself- got freaking COVID one by one -until we were all useless lumps of flesh moaning on a couch- I haven't had the energy to write or edit any of my work. I was feeling particularly guilty because I gave into my muse the other day and posted a new story on AO3 -anonymously, because I got sucked into a fandom I never saw coming and I'll never not be embarrassed about it but OMG I have so many ideas- before my brain immediately started attacking me about abandoning all my other works... so here I am... posting at like 3AM so my stupid brain will leave me alone and let me sleep.)