Read Online Dead Highways: Origins by Richard Brown - Free Book Online Page B

of us got back into the car. I waited for Jerry to hustle back across the street before turning the engine back on.
    “Weird guy,” Peaches said, watching him go from the back window.
    “You have no idea,” Naima said.
    Jerry stood in the corner of his carport and watched us drive away.
    “What’s wrong with him?” I asked. “He was . . . nice.”
    “I don’t know,” Naima replied. “He always seems—”
    “Heavily medicated,” I interjected.
    Naima smirked. “That’s probably it.”
    “How long has he been living with his parents?” Peaches asked.
    “Maybe two or three years now. I don’t know them all that well. I know his mom is in a wheelchair. They’re quite a bit older than my parents, and they usually stay inside. But Jerry, he’s always wandering around like a stray dog. I can’t go outside without running into him.”
    “Maybe he likes you,” I said jokingly.
    “There’s no maybe about it. He does. He’s asked me out numerous times.”
    “Ugh, he’s old enough to be your dad,” Peaches said.
    “I know. And he’s lucky I’ve never told my dad. He’d probably kill him.”
    “I could see that,” I said.
    The hospital was no more than five miles from Naima’s house, but still it would take over ten minutes to get there, even as I rolled through every stop sign. The hardest part was crossing US-1. I had to go a mile or so out of the way before I found a spot to cross.
    “I see some more people,” Peaches said. “That’s a good sign, right?”
    “The couple hiking on the train tracks? I saw them too. There’s also a few other drivers on the road actually driving, which ain’t a bad sign either. One was behind us.”
    Peaches turned and looked out the back window. “Where?”
    “I said was behind us.” I checked the rearview once more. “They must have turned off somewhere. But they were on our tail for a while.”
    “What do you think we’re gonna find at the hospital?” Peaches asked.
    I looked over at Naima. She had her head turned away from me, looking out the passenger window. She still hadn’t broken down yet—she’d been as quiet as a statue the entire car ride.
    “Hopefully Naima’s parents,” I finally replied.

Chapter 16
     
    I hadn’t been to the hospital in many years—knock on wood. Not since seventh grade when a soccer ball collided with my nose during P.E. I guess I should have been paying attention. One of the teacher’s aides had to take me to the hospital. I remember being scared I might die. Bleed to death. That’s how much the fucking thing bled. Irrational fear, I know, but I was like twelve at the time. I knew it was broken. It had to be. I heard the crunch . But the X-rays said it wasn’t, and my nose healed up good and straight. Coincidentally, that was the same year the Doberman chased me home from the bus stop. When I pissed my pants. Yeah, it was that kind of year.
    And that was the last time I’d been to the hospital. You don’t get injured a lot staying indoors reading. Just paper cuts and the occasional butt cramp.
    All four entrances to the hospital were plugged up with cars. We ended up leaving the Buick in the parking lot of a Cancer Care Center not far from the hospital, and then walked over. I had hoped that maybe the hospital would be teeming with more life than what we’d seen so far. Maybe all the remaining people like us, the survivors, the immune, those not in a coma, had converged on the hospital like athletes to a free steroids seminar.
    But it wasn’t to be.
    Coming up to the front entrance, I could already see the hospital would offer no comfort, only more of the same.
    More people. More slowly dying people.
    More sadness.
    The doors didn’t open for us automatically as they normally would, but it wasn’t due to lack of power. They must have been manually switched off. Luckily, they weren’t locked.
    We stopped just inside the building and looked around. A television mounted up on the wall in the waiting room