Strays Read online

  She sat beside Curly. He smiled and playfully nudged her shoulder with his own.

  “What’s all this?”

  “Um, I screwed them up, so I’m just putting them back in order.”

  “Yeah, but what are they?”

  “Uh… some of us were just thinking of ways we could get rid of Strays. We were talking about building a fence or gate or whatever.”

  “Like clearing the city?”

  “Something like that, yeah.”

  Max would love to see it, but she didn’t think it was feasible. Strays were too powerful. Plus, whatever they were going to do they would have to do during the daylight. It would take years to achieve something like that, clearing the whole city of Strays and building a gate to keep them out. Plus, repopulation! Max thought it sounded great, but it was a dream.

  She looked over her shoulder at Dakota on the sofa. His long dreadlocks hung off the side and nearly touched the floor. He had taken off his jacket so the tattoos on his arms were visible.

  “You’re different,” Max said, looking at Curly again.

  “What?” his eyebrows were turned down intently as he focused on the sloppily written words on the paper.

  “You and Kota.”

  “Oh. Yeah, I guess.”

  “Does he need to, like, feed or anything?”

  Curly looked over his shoulder at him. “Nah, he’s fine.”

  “You sure?”

  “Are you scared?” Curly laughed and pushed her with his shoulder again. “He won’t hurt you. I don’t know why he’s acting like such a badass lately. He wouldn’t smash a gnat.”

  Max found that hard to believe. He hadn’t hesitated to kill that Stray the other night. “How’d he lose hearing in his left ear?”

  “You’re just full of questions about my brother, aren’t you? Don’t you care at all about me?” He smiled again and Max found an unusual comfort in his toothy smile. “I’m just kidding.”

  “No, I’m interested in you. Like… did you serve?”

  His head snapped to her and he looked at her for a while before shaking his head and shrugging. “I served in Iraq for a while, yeah.”

  Max understood now. He had told her that their dad had left when they were kids and that he hadn’t stuck around either. Had he gone off to war? “How long did you”—

  “I don’t want to talk about that war.” He turned his attention to the papers again. “We’re in a new war.”

  “Did Kota?”

  “And we’re back to Dakota.” He laughed. “No. He’s only nineteen. He was in high school. Played drums in a band and drove a motorcycle. Does that interest you?”

  “Nothing about him interests me.”

  “Doesn’t seem like it to me. You’re asking all these questions about him.”

  Max felt stupid. He was right. She had a bunch of questions about him, but she had a bunch of questions about Curly, too. She just didn’t know in which order to ask any of them. She wiped her hands over her face, trying hard to fight her exhaustion. She didn’t want to sleep. She wished she could float through the darkness like a ghost and get to her brother faster. Alas, this was all she had. Eric would have to wait.

  “What did you do? You know, before all this?”

  “High school. And didn’t even get to finish.”

  “Just like your pal Dakota… except he did finish.”

  “Whatever.” She smiled.

  “Whoa!” Curly dropped his papers and looked directly at her. “I don’t think I’ve seen you smile since I met you. Have I? You should-you should definitely do that more often.”

  Max tried to control her smile now. She didn’t want him to think he was growing on her. “I was a dancer.”

  “I thought you said you were in high school.”

  “Eew! Not that kind of dancer.”

  “No?”

  “Ballet.”

  “Even hotter. No wonder you’re so skinny. I was starting to think you needed to eat more. I was going to try to rescue you. Stuff a couple squirrels down your throat, you know. Hold you down and feed you an apple or two.”

  “Well, how sweet of you.”

  “Yeah, I’m a nice guy.” He picked up another sheet of paper. “About earlier”— he talked now without looking at her. “Sorry about that.”

  “Are you apologizing for Dakota, too?”

  He looked at her. His eyes dropped from her eyes to her mouth. “I can’t apologize for someone else.” His eyes met hers again. “And I doubt he’ll do it on his own.”

  “You’re doing it wrong then.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re apology’s all wrong.”

  “Oh.” He looked away, shuffled his papers into one neat stack. Then, without warning, he turned and kissed her.

  Max had had a boyfriend before the Stray epidemic, but she still felt like she was kissing him wrong. His hand went up to her cheek to control her head and his tongue went deeper into her mouth. She wished the smacking of their lips was quieter, because of Dakota and because of Strays. She had learned to do things quietly. She didn’t know Curly. Kissing him wasn’t about knowing him or liking him. She wanted to feel something. She liked that, maybe, he was interested in her, even if he wasn’t. She wanted to feel something other than pain and worry and fear. She wanted to feel calm. Kissing Curly was calming.

  Eight

  Max

  ●

  I’m on a train. It’s going through a tunnel. The tunnel is dark and discharges that pungent smell of an oven when it’s just been cleaned. Most of the boards have been knocked ajar or broken, so Strays are halfway through. This is the moment I’m either supposed to get up from my seat and run away or close my eyes and give in to them. I don’t do either. I just sit there and stare straight ahead. There’s something in the doorway of the next car, a dark figure. I can’t make out who it is… or what it is. It could be Stray. It could be human. Male. Female. I hope it’s my father, coming to take me away to wherever he has gone. I hope he’s come to relieve me of this hell. Whoever it is waiting for me holds out his hand. There’s a black tattoo of a fish on his wrist. Yes, he’s a man, judging by his large hand… which is so familiar to me. I stand up, trusting him completely. But it’s too late. The boards have been broken in and the Strays come pouring through the window…

  Max went to scream when she woke, but slapped her hand instinctively over her mouth before she could. She didn’t know how much longer she could live with the nightmares. She had taken up the master bedroom with Curly last night, though they had just ended up having sex on the floor because the bed smelled too sour. She looked at him sleeping and was shocked to see him still lying there. She thought he might have gotten up in the middle of the night and gone down to the living room with Dakota. It had been a long time since she was intimate with anyone. He had divulged he was twenty-five years old during their after sex conversation, and Max didn’t know why—the world had gone to shit so the last thing she should have cared about was the guy’s age—but she felt like she had done something wrong.

  For a long time she scanned the room, looking over every tiny detail. It had been beautiful once upon a time, she was sure, but bugs had taken up home there and tiny mice droppings resided in almost every corner. The ceiling was stained with something yellow.

  Curly groaned beside her and turned onto his stomach, smashing his face into his puffed up jacket. “I’m thankful for the sunlight, but it’s so bright.”

  “Mm.” Max nodded and sat up. There was an incredible sinking feeling in her stomach, a heavy weight. Guilt. While she should have been off looking for her brother, she was sleeping around with some guy she barely even knew. But that wasn’t it, was it? She couldn’t put her finger on why she felt this way. She just knew she hated the feeling. “We have to go.”

  He brought his head up. “You’re all about moving aren’t you?”

  “My brother’s life depends on it, so yeah.” She shifted into her pants with the blan
ket over her and looked around the room for her boots.

  “Left them downstairs, doll.”

  “Right.” She jumped up, and whipped her hair over her shoulder. The sun beamed through the window, but the heat from it was nothing compared to the cold. She could hardly believe how cold it was already. She was thankful for the sun too, though. Her body had adjusted to its early morning wake up call. If the sun was up, she was up. “We should leave now. The earlier we go, the longer we’ll have before the sun sets again.”

  “You got it.” Curly sat up. “I’ll pack as much food as we can carry.”

  “Good.” Max couldn’t look at him for more than two seconds. It might not have been awkward if she knew him better or if he hadn’t had sex with her like he’d known her for so long. She pictured it in her mind and it made her shiver. “I’ll wake up Dakota.”

  “He’s already up.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because he’s my brother.” Curly grunted as he stood. “Guess my shoes’re downstairs, too.”

  Max feigned a smile, but Curly saw right through her. He sighed. “Look, is this going to be awkward for you, because”—

  “Save it. It’s not awkward.” Though she could only think about his age at this point. Her parents would’ve never allowed it. She opened the door to the brisk air of the hall and headed downstairs. Dakota was in the kitchen. She ignored him as he packed the food into Curly’s bag and he ignored her. She went to the living room. Her weapons and jacket were still waiting on the table. Quickly she gathered them and put them on. Her jacket provided instant warmth, though she doubted that would last long if the weather kept getting colder.

  Curly was quiet as he put on his boots. Max wanted to talk to him about what they had done last night, but every time she thought about it she remembered how he had made her moan. She was embarrassed. She had learned to do things quietly, but last night she hadn’t been able to contain herself.

  Dakota walked to the living room, but paused at the threshold. He looked from Curly to Max and back to Curly.

  “What?” Curly said, firmly.

  Dakota shrugged. “Most of it was bad.” He held the bag of food out for his brother to take. Max’s breath caught when she saw the fish tattoo on his left wrist. She didn’t know what kind of fish it was, but she knew that it was identical to the man’s fish in her dream. If she had been eating anything she might have choked on it.

  When Curly was finished tying his shoes he took the bag and stood up. “We ready?”

  Dakota looked over his shoulder, licking his lips like he had something that he needed to get off his chest. When he turned back around to Curly, his hands were moving so fast that Max couldn’t tell if he was actually saying something with them or making stuff up.

  “I’m not,” Curly said to him, running his hands over his face.

  Dakota’s lips moved when he did Sign Language, but Max couldn’t read them. She tried to read his facial expressions, but it all came off as anger.

  “It’s not a big deal.” Curly said, still calm. He watched Dakota as intensely as Dakota watched him. “I’m a grown ass man, Kota. I can do what I want!” He inhaled deeply, watching him. “Watch your mouth.” He paused. “No, it doesn’t!”

  Shaking his head, Dakota stormed off, like he usually did when he was upset about something. He left out through the front door, slamming it after him. He slammed it so hard that the walls trembled.

  “What was that about?”

  Curly checked the bag to make sure his papers were still there. “Nothing.”

  “Were you talking about me?”

  “Yes. You got everything?”

  “Well, what did he say?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  She grabbed his arm. “What did he say?”

  Curly sighed heavily. “He called you a whore! And said that sleeping with you changes everything.”

  “He called me a whore?” Max hated him! She hated Dakota. He had done nothing but gotten on her nerves since she met him. She didn’t know what his deal was, or why he had disliked her from the start, but she was sick of it. She was sick of him treating her like she was a child and she was sick of him talking to and about her like she didn’t matter.

  “Just leave it alone. It won’t change anything. We’re going to get you to your brother and then we’re back at Lincoln Academy.”

  She didn’t care what Curly had to say. She was focused on stupid Dakota and his stupid fish tattoo. She raced outside, where he waited on the porch, his eyes far off in the distance. “I knew I slapped you for a reason!” She walked in front of him, but he was taller so she had to look up at him. She pointed her finger in his face. “If you weren’t Curly’s brother, I would slice your freaking neck.”

  “How gallant,” he said sarcastically, laughing and walking around her.

  “What is your problem, Dakota?”

  “I don’t like you. Wow, Dante, you picked a clever one, didn’t you?”

  “Why? You don’t even know me.”

  “I know you well enough to dislike you.”

  “Gaah!” She wanted to pull her hair out. His vague answers and that stupid grin on his face made her want to stomp his face into the ground. If she could slap him again without him losing his temper, she would. “You’re impossible to deal with. Your mother never once considered abortion an option?”

  “Hey!” Curly said, walking to her. “Enough. That’s”— he sighed. “Don’t talk to my brother like that, Max. You’re both acting like little children. Shut up. Both of you. Now, look, we’re going to get you to your brother and then we’re out of here. That’s it. That’s how the story ends. Understand?”

  “Whatever.” She pushed past the both of them. She wanted the story to end now. She was fine with Curly. Curly wasn’t a problem unless Dakota was a problem. Unfortunately, Dakota was always a problem. As they walked, she glanced over her shoulder at the both of them. Dakota’s expression was unreadable, but he looked upset. Maybe she had hit home too hard with the abortion comment, considering his mother had kept him locked in a basement for two years. She could apologize about that later. Right now, what she wanted was to get to her brother. Wherever he was, was home. She was just an aimless wanderer without him.

  After they had been walking for a couple hours and Max’s anger was close to dissipating, Curly stepped up beside her. “All better, darling?”

  “You and Reagan have a hard time calling people by their names, don’t you?”

  “Only the people we like.”

  Max grinned.

  “There’s that smile. I was starting to miss it.”

  “Enjoy it while it lasts.”

  “Will do. Look, I don’t want anything between us to be awkward. We were having fun.”

  She didn’t know if it had been fun. It had been all about greed, mainly. She hadn’t had sex in a long time and Curly had wanted it just as much. Even the sex itself was pure hunger. And fast. It hadn’t been fun or romantic in the least, but it had gotten her away from her world for the time being.

  “Yeah.” Max nodded.

  “You’re really flexible, by the way. That ballet stuff is really working in your favor.”

  She laughed. “Shut up.” The difference between Curly and Dakota was that Curly hadn’t let the world kill him yet. He still had the ability to laugh and make others laugh. Dakota was dying slowly. Did he even know it? One thing was certain: He was the one in her dream. “That tattoo on Kota’s wrist”—

  Curly sighed, and for the first time he didn’t laugh when he said, “More questions about my brother?”

  “Never mind.”

  “No. Which one? The fish or the turtle?”

  He had one of a turtle too? “The fish.”

  “Ah yeah. Well, when we were kids, our dad used to take us fishing. Long story short, one day Kota falls in the water and almost drowns. When he wakes up at the hospital, all he can talk about is how he went to some fish heaven and swam with
the fishes and how he breathed underwater and stuff, you know, stuff a seven-year-old would say.”

  Max grinned. She couldn’t imagine Dakota as a kid, talking about going to fish heaven and swimming with nasty, slimy fishes. She could picture him now, small and innocent. “And the turtle?”

  “That was his second experience with death. The reason he’s deaf in one ear. Meningitis. Fourteen. Everyone thought he would die. There was a nurse. She brought him this turtle from a lab and together they would take care of the tiny little thing. Then one day… it was just… dead. I think that was the moment Dakota gave up. I think at that point he kind of wanted to die, you know.”

  Max nodded, grateful for the insight into Dakota’s life. Maybe she would consider giving him the benefit of the doubt when he got out of hand again. “How’d he get better?”

  “He was bitten. Some vampire got loose in the hospital and sort of went on a rampage. That was his third experience with death. Mom cried for days. Then one day he was just, I don’t know, better.” He shrugged. “Now the only thing that’ll kill him is a wooden stake. Good luck with that.” He walked on ahead of her. Max looked over her shoulder at Dakota. She thought about slowing down herself, but she didn’t think he was ready to talk to her. She wasn’t sure she was ready to talk to him, either.

  A fish and a turtle. Dakota. On a train. She trusted him completely. Why?

  Nine

  Max

  ●

  One can’t fear what can’t be seen.

  You can’t fear what you can’t see.

  I can’t fear what I can’t see…

  “We should probably find somewhere to camp in,” Dakota suggested.

  Max looked up. The sun had gone down so much that the sky had become a dreamy gray. Any other time she would have agreed to find somewhere no problem, but this road was long and dark and there weren’t houses for another five minutes. Even when they got to the houses, they would have to check them to make sure they were clear. He was right, though. They needed to settle in, but her feet wouldn’t stop walking. Her feet wouldn’t stop because she couldn’t stop thinking about Eric. All she wanted was to see his face again. Did he smile anymore? Did he smile? The kid had been through so much.