Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Parrish

Getting out of Washington D.C. proved to be a lot easier than getting in had been. For one, they had a military-grade vehicle that could off-road way better than her mom's van. Second, there were several routes out of the city, and Crash had done his homework. He'd used video surveillance and reports he could find online to determine the best path, taking them north up the Anacostia Freeway. There was only one brief section of I-95 where he had to take them off the road and ride on the bumpy shoulder for a few hours.

Cars were lined up for miles in an endless traffic jam out of the city. Parrish saw glimpses of half-eaten faces inside cars. Some rotters were still trapped inside, beating against the windows but strapped in with seat belts that would hold them for possibly years before they gave out.

She didn't see any survivors.

Parrish wasn't sure what she was expecting, really, but she was surprised there was no one else on the road. There had to be survivors somewhere.

Had they all just locked themselves away in their houses for now?

Crash had told her that the earlier days—the days when she and the others had been safely tucked into their quiet suburban neighborhood—had been rough. Panic had taken its toll and people had starting looting grocery stores, Walmarts, gun stores and the like. A lot of the survivors who ventured out during those times had either been bitten or murdered.

Others had decided to wait this thing out as long as they could. They'd gathered whatever supplies they could get their hands on easily and, like she and Noah and Karmen had done at first, they'd boarded up their windows and locked themselves away from the rest of the world. Praying for a cure.

But there was no cure. And all the good men who were working on one were dead. Including Noah's father.

Parrish shuddered and leaned her head back against the seat as the Humvee bounced along the shoulder at the edge of the traffic jam. She'd been geared up to fight their way out of the city, but as they broke through the line of traffic and settled back on the main highway, D.C. fading in the rearview, she dozed off and started to dream.

The dream was familiar—almost more of a memory, really.

Deep blue water stretched out in front of her for miles, the boat under her feet rocking gently back and forth in the waves. In the distance, a small island came into view, filling her heart with hope for the first time in what felt like forever.

***

"Is that Baltimore?"

Karmen's voice woke Parrish and she opened her eyes. The dream had felt so real, it was difficult to come out of it and be plunged back into the nightmare of reality.

"What's going on?" Parrish asked.

Karmen had scooted toward the front and put her head between the seats. She pointed just ahead and Parrish saw what she'd been looking at.

Smoke billowed up in the distance like a wall of darkness beyond the trees.

"What is that? Another fire?"

"Holy crap," Crash said. "Baltimore must be burning, too."

"The whole city?"

"It looks like it," he said. "If I had to guess, D.C. will probably look like this before too long."

As they drove, smoke seeped into the Humvee from the outside. Parrish lifted the top of her shirt to cover her mouth and nose.

"What the hell happened here?" she asked.

Crash shook his head and threw the vehicle into park as the outer limits of the city came into view. He stared ahead, his jaw slack.

The city was on fire, alright. Even from a distance, she could see the flames devouring everything in sight. Tall buildings had toppled to the ground. Homes were completely destroyed and turned to ash. It was scorched earth.

"It's been burning for a while," she said.

"Days, at least. Maybe longer," Crash said.

"How many people do you think lived there?" Noah asked, leaning forward.

"Over 600,000, I think," Crash said, the number bringing tears to Parrish's eyes. "I don't think there's any way to tell exactly what happened, but whatever it was, there wasn't anyone still alive here who was able to put it out once the fire got started."

"I hope some of the survivors got out," she said. She thought again of New York. How many big cities would be lost completely to fire or other disasters over the next few months? With no fire departments to keep it contained, all it would take was one building going up in flames to take down an entire city.

She thought of all the survivors in the big cities, holed up in their homes or apartments. They'd made it through the virus just to be burned to death in their own houses? She couldn't even imagine it.

Maybe it was for the best that Zoe was gone.

As Crash started rolling again, she took it all in as best she could through the thick smoke that hung in the air for miles.

Everyone in the Humvee covered their mouths as Crash navigated around the burning town. They were all quiet, watching the destruction but unable to fully comprehend its meaning.

Until Crash slammed on breaks.

"What?" Parrish asked, staring at him. Why had he stopped?

She followed his gaze and peered through the dense smoke, her eyes growing wider as the outline of rotters appeared.

Hundreds of them, fleeing the city.