Race to Refuge

Chapter Eight: Ty

           Ginny hung onto the passenger door of the minivan until her knuckles were white. I couldn't blame her—she'd never even been in the car with me driving before. And I was driving pretty fast, hoping that we could get out of town before the roads got clogged up with people trying to escape.

The main road out was already jammed with cars. Some were emergency vehicles, some looked full of people. There were a lot of horns honking.

Ginny said in her quiet voice, "We could go that back way. Do you know the way? It's how Mom takes me to skating practice when it's rush hour."

I'd been back there a couple of times, but didn't really know the way. "Can you give me some directions?"

I heard Ginny draw in a deep breath and sit forward in her seat. I could tell she was funneling as much focus as she could into where she was. "Turn off at this light."

Not that I stopped at the red light.

Soon we were on a curving, narrow back road with a lot less traffic. But I was still driving as fast as I could, right up to the time where we finally got to the edge of town. When we drove into the rural area north of town, I finally felt myself start to relax.

"Ty, where are we going?" asked Ginny softly.

"That's something I've got to figure out," I said. I tried to sound strong and confident as I said it, which was tough since my head was pounding and I felt totally lost. All I'd known was that I had to get Ginny and that we had to get out of the town. After that point, I really hadn't put a plan together. "I'm going to drive a little farther out and then we're going to sit in this locked car and I'm going to map out where we're heading and what the short-term plan is." It was to survive, but I sure wasn't going to tell Ginny that.

We continued for a few more minutes and I could tell that Ginny had a million questions on her mind. Finally she asked in a hesitant voice, "Why is there so much stuff in the back of the car?"

I glanced over at her tight, pale face. "Ginny, something terrible is happening. Some kind of virus is making people sick and then those people are trying to hurt other people. The town is going to get taken over by those sick people, and if we stayed, we wouldn't be able to survive. I threw a bunch of stuff in the car that I thought might help us if we were out in the country for a while." Until I could figure out how to get us more food and water.

She took this in and then glanced back in the back of the van again. "So ... food, camping equipment, water."

"That's right." I was glad Ginny was taking this as well as she was.

"Toilet paper?" she asked in a worried voice.

I shook my head. "I was in a hurry."

"Clothes?" Her voice was even more anxious.

Obviously, Ginny would have focused on different things.

"Ginny, I just didn't have time. I wanted to throw stuff in the van and then pick you up from school."

She was quiet again for a few minutes and there was a quiver in her voice this time. "My retainer? Did you remember my retainer?"

At first I felt this tired anger bubbling up. Then I took a deep breath. She was scared. She didn't understand. She thought things were going to be the same. Or she hoped they were.