The Last Boys in Clinton - 2. Two Becomes Three

Apparently, it seemed the boys were not destined to meet up with Marie-Louise. Shortly after they went inside George's house, she drove past.

"Did you hear a car, George?"

"Maybe."

George looked out the front window, but Marie-Louise was already out of sight, "I don't see anything."

"Maybe we can have a drink and go back out. If we sit at a corner on the main road, maybe someone will go past us?"

"That's not a bad idea, Lionel."

George took a couple bottles of iced tea out of the refrigerator, "This OK?"

"Yeah. I like iced tea."

They took their teas and rode their bikes out to Beaver Avenue, turning right and stopping at the Golden Rainbow Antique shop.

"Do you think this will be busy enough?"

"Yeah. There's almost always traffic on that second road. It's state route 31, a pretty main road. If nobody goes by soon, we'll ride up onto the highway. We'll be able see most of the roads around here from up there. Besides, there's a couple chairs on the store's porch. I don't think they'll mind if we borrow them."

"We could go in and ask."

"I don't think we'll find anyone alive in the store, Lionel."

"Oh yeah. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. This is new for both of us."

After dragging two chairs out near the road, it didn't take long until a car drove past them on 31. They stood up, shouted, and waved. The woman in the car honked the horn and pointed up the road, spinning her finger around.

George pointed to their right, at the overpass just up the street, "She's going to go up there and turn around, I think."

"Maybe. She saw us here, so we should stay anyway. Hehe, besides, I like this chair."

The car came back and turned into the store's driveway. There wasn't much of a parking lot, basically just a wide driveway. A girl, maybe a couple years older than George, hopped out.

"Oh, wow. I've been driving around for like an hour, looking for someone living and breathing. You guys are the first I seen. I'm Marie-Louise. Who are you?"

"I'm George, this is Lionel. He's kind of like my neighbor; next street over, anyway."

"This is rad, ain't it? It's like everybody left."

Lionel disagreed, "No, everybody died."

"I know. I didn't know what you knew and didn’t want to upset either of you anymore than you probably are. I wonder why we're still alive when nobody else is."

George made a guess, "Maybe it's something in our blood, or something."

"Could be. You guys hungry?"

"I had a bagel at Clinton Bagel, and after I passed by Lionel's house, I made him some eggs and toast."

"Little miss homemaker, you are, huh?"

"No! I just tried to help a younger kid out!"

"Hey, don't get your panties all up in a bunch. I was just kidding. Sorry. Geez!"

"I'm sorry too. It's OK. I get called names at school, so I'm kind of sensitive to stuff like that."

"Yeah? What kinds of names?"

George looked at Lionel, "Um, I'd rather not say."

Pansy, fruit, and pussy were pretty much the top three. He was skinny, and his asthma kept him from doing any sports. Neither fact should have translated into those names, but that's kids for you.

"It's cool. I have a feeling before long we'll know a lot about each other. Anyway, Clinton Bagel sounds good. I ran out of my house so quick this morning, late for school, you know. Man, was I surprised when there weren't nobody there. Locked up tighter'n a... Well, never mind. It was locked."

"You got lucky then. My school's front door was unlocked, and I happened upon the janitor."

"Croaked, huh?"

"I didn't know it at first, but yeah. Lots of them in cars, too. Then I found my mom dead, then a bunch of dead cops. Lionel's mom..."

"And Jimmy."

"Who's Jimmy?"

"He was my little brother. I couldn't wake him up either, George checked, he's dead too."

"That must have sucked for little guys like you, seeing them dead."

George ignored her comment, "I think my dad might be dead too. I talked to him a couple times, but he stopped answering his phone."

"Why don't you try again? If he was alive before, he probably still is."

"Not unless whatever this is made it to Tennessee already."

George tried again, "Nope. Still getting voice mail."

"Shi... shoot, sorry little guy. If this happened all the way to Tennessee, wow. There may not be a lot of people left anywhere."

"There has to be. What are we gonna do with no adults?"

"It's OK, Li-guy. We'll find more people. Besides, you got me now. Clinton's a hole in the wall. We'll head to a bigger town, like Bedminster, or even Bridgewater. Yeah, we'll head to the mall. If they're all dead there too, everything's free."

"If it ain't locked up, like your school."

"Yeah. Well, maybe someone was alive long enough to open it up. Who knows where this shi... Sorry, almost did it again, stuff started."

"It's OK. I've heard people say shit before, Marie-Louise."

"Man of the world at ten, huh?"

"Nine."

"How about you, Georgie? I'm sixteen."

"Thirteen."

"Well, hop on in. We'll be like the three musketeers, at least until we find more people."

Lionel was concerned, "What about our bikes?"

"Leave 'em. There's thousands more you can choose from if you want another."

"I guess. I don't think it's right for us to just take things."

"Look at it this way, Li-guy. When someone dies, someone else gets to keep their shit. Usually, it's someone they know. If there's nobody like that, it goes to someone else. We just inherited a big chunk of the good old U S of A."

"Maybe. You're older, so I guess you know better."

"Damn straight, let's go with that. Ready to hit the mall, boys?"

“What are we doing there again?”

“Looking for people, Li-guy.”

“Oh. OK.”

Marie-Louise drove them all to the Bridgewater Commons mall. They walked up to one of the entrances. By the time the death cloud got that far the night before, the mall was closed.

“Well, shit. I guess we ain’t finding nobody here. See if you guys can find a big rock or something.”

“Why?”

“So we can break in, Georgie. What did you think? We’d drive all the way down here and not go in?”

“Uh-uh. I’m not breaking in. You’re nuts. You want to do that, fine. I’m going back to the car.”

“Me too.”

“Car’s locked, guys.”

“I’ll wait outside it.”

Lionel took it one step further, “I wanna go back home.”

“Really? Where’s your sense of fun?”

George had heard enough, “Fun? The whole fucking world could be dead, and you want to have fun? Take us home, please. Then you can do anything you want. We’ll wait for someone else to find us.”

“You’re serious?”

“Yes! Fuck this. TAKE ME HOME!”

“Wow. If I ever had to pay for gas again, you’d be giving me gas money.”

“Fine. Take me home and I’ll raid my mom’s purse.”

“Losers. Fine.”

They went back to the car and Marie-Louise drove them back in silence to the Golden Rainbow. They began to jump out of the car barely a second after it stopped.

“Whoa, buddy. Your mom’s purse?”

“Fine. I live around the corner on Belvidere. Number 5.”

“Get your bikes. I’ll wait for you there.”

The boys got out of the car; she took off.

“She’s a real jerk.”

“I’d go a little stronger than that, Li-guy.”

“Don’t call me that, please George?”

“Yeah, OK. I wasn’t all that crazy about Georgie myself.”

“You give her some money and hopefully she’ll leave us alone.”

“Yep, that's the plan.”

They rode to George’s house. George went in, grabbed two twenties out of his mom’s purse and took them outside. There was more, but that was all he was giving Marie-Louise.

As he handed them to her, she complained, “That all ya got?”

“Yeah. She doesn’t carry a lot of cash.”

“Welp, beggars can’t be choosers. Thanks. Don’t bother stopping me if you get lonely and then see me.”

“Don’t worry about that. Thanks for nothing.”

“What babies. Hope I never sees yous again.”

“Yeah, same here.”

Marie-Louise got back in her car and peeled away, practically hitting the neighbor’s mailbox.

“I’m glad she’s gone, George.”

“Yeah, me too, Lionel. Hopefully the next person we find is nicer.”

“If we find somebody.”

“I’m sure we will.”

George immediately thought, ‘I sure hope so.’

Next Up - "Riding the Roads"