The Last Woman Standing (Part 2)

Carley Thomas

"She's just trying to pass the time, Anthony. You don't have to take your bad temper out on her. Besides, she wasn't even talking to you." Nate didn't turn around to speak but it was obvious from the tone of his voice that he was rather irritated. My hero.

The tension made for an awkward silence that stretched for a good while. I simply lost myself in my own thoughts as we pressed forward, the smudge ahead growing darker and more detailed the longer we walked. Even without conversation or decent scenery, it was still nice to relax a bit. Our world was a constant fight for survival and the stress could twist your mind in terrible ways if you let it. Maybe that was why Tony was so snippy lately.

"Hey, Carley?" Maria tapped my shoulder as she leaned close to talk to me. "Do you know what 'signo de Dios' means?" Maria's mother had spoken Spanish fluently but Maria herself spoke almost none. As young as she had been when she arrived in the Underground, she had been raised in almost nothing but an English speaking world.

"You know I'm not the best translator but I'm pretty sure it means 'sign of God' or something close to that. Where did you hear it?"

"Mom," she replied softly, her eyes dropping to the ground near her feet. "She told me to look for 'un signo de Dios' to guide me when she couldn't anymore. I've tried to look for something wherever we've gone but I don't know what it is."

"I wish I could help." I shrugged helplessly and left it at that. I didn't exactly have any sort of experience with signs or God. I doubted that any of us did. Religion pretty well disappeared when the war started and the rest of us all went into hiding in the Underground. Politics, racism, poverty, controversy, and all the things that seemed like the driving force of humanity just faded away like a bad dream. It made all the arguments and division seem so petty and pointless.

"It's fine," Maria replied. "I'll figure it out eventually. Besides, I have you guys to help me. Maybe Mom was wrong about the sign."

I definitely wasn't going to agree with her there. Granted, my mom hadn't been the best example but she had been there for me when no one else had. She had been right about things even when I didn't want to accept them. No one was perfect but you couldn't dismiss advice like that out of hand just because you felt a little doubt. Sometimes you had to keep moving forward, even when things seemed like they were hitting a wall. I glanced briefly at Tony. Maybe there were others in our group that were starting to feel the pressure of doubt.

We walked for hours in relative silence, time being a difficult thing to track when you had nothing to go on but the angle of the sun. We could see the city much clearer now, broken high-rise buildings and rusty vehicles starting to stand out in the distant smudge. There was little comfort in being this close but, thankfully, we wouldn't be getting much closer. We needed to stay in the outskirts and keep the city in sight as a reference but there was no need to go inside. Even as far out as we were, there were still signs of death everywhere. Corpses littered the ground amongst the rubble, mostly small bones that probably belonged to whatever became of the city rodent population. There were blissfully few human remains unless you went digging in the cars for supplies. I wasn't volunteering for that job. It was...unnerving.

Suddenly, a breeze started to kick up the fine, red sand under our feet. The wind grew stronger and we were forced to pull up makeshift bandanas over our noses and adjust scavenged goggles over our eyes. Maria linked her arm with mine and we all huddled closer together in the brewing storm. I felt someone grab hold of my bag behind me but I didn't turn to look. None of us could see very far so we had to trust that Nate was shuffling in the right direction. Dust storms like this were usually more inconvenience than danger but they could certainly get bad. As long as it didn't last too long, we wouldn't be too bad off. Even so, peeking over Nate's shoulder didn't show me anything but a hazy cloud of rusty red.

The wind continued to swirl and rush around us and forward progress was little more than a slow shuffle of five pairs of feet trying to move all at the same time without giving up space. There was no way we were going to make it to where Nate had wanted to make camp tonight but we were still moving. If I had learned anything in these years of wandering, it was a positive attitude. I just hoped we didn't have to stop too close to the city. Dust storms often brought some unsavory scavengers in their wake, things that lurked at the edges of the city and waited for unfortunate visitors that were disoriented by the shifting dust. I didn't want to be one of those visitors.

Thankfully, the storm didn't last long into the afternoon and, as the dust began to clear, we could see the sun was still a few hours away from setting. Of course, I could also see what I had been hoping against. We had shifted course slightly in the confusion of the storm and were getting too close to the city. I could see the moss-like scum that grew on the buildings and cars in vivid detail. Nate was an excellent navigator but this was definitely not where we wanted to be.

Movement just beyond the edge of the city made my feet freeze in place. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the gloom, tracing every broken line and every hazy curve in search of whatever had moved. There was nothing that revealed itself now that I was really looking but I just knew I had seen something. I knew it. Yet, I couldn't seem to find anything no matter how hard I looked. It bothered me.

"Carley?" Maria tugged on my arm and it dawned on me that everyone had stopped because of me.

"Sorry. I thought I saw something." I tried to play it off as nothing but I still couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't imagining things. I started to step forward to keep moving but Nate's pack stopped me. His face was pointed the same way as mine, eyes still hidden behind his goggles and unreadable. I could see the tension in his jaw, as if he was clenching it tighter and tighter.

"Well, can we get moving before we actually see something?" Tony asked from behind me. His voice seemed enough to snap Nate back to reality from wherever he had been but he still seemed a bit off. He nodded and pointed his feet away from the city skyline, more towards the north. We would have to angle back towards our original track and hope we could make enough progress before nightfall to stay out of sight of anything lurking around the outskirts. I could feel my heart pounding in my ears and I risked a short peek over my shoulder. Whatever had been there, if anything at all, must have been long gone now.