SurvivorZ

49

LEE

"Mom!"

Lee sat up in his makeshift bed of floor pillows, suddenly wide awake. He peered around. It took him several groggy seconds to place the dark, unfamiliar surroundings. Once his gaze landed on Emily curled up on a nearby sofa, he finally remembered they were crashing in Judith's living room.

He stared at Emily. The girl hadn't budged since her mother covered her up for the night. He couldn't tell if she was actually sleeping or just lying there in that weird trance of hers with her eyes closed. Either way, he appeared to be the only one rudely awakened by his nightmare.

He pulled out his phone and switched it on. By the time Charlie returned it to him following Maureen and Danielle's rescue, the battery was down to single digits. All it was good for now was a way of confirming that his mother still hadn't tried to contact him.

The phone beeped while powering up, louder than he anticipated. He glanced at Emily, before remembering that it'd take a lot more than that to wake her.

He checked his voice mail, text, and even refreshed his email inbox. There was nothing. Not a single peep from his mother. The only notice he received was a popup warning that his battery was about to die. He switched off the phone, vowing not to try again until tomorrow. Unless his nerves allowed him to catch some sleep tonight, he had his doubts about holding out for that long.

Maybe she dropped her phone somewhere and can't get to another one? he told himself. The notion buoyed his spirits for a second or two, before he dismissed it as wishful thinking. With all that was going on, she would have reached out to him by now if she had to use smoke signals. There was only one explanation for her not returning his calls and the sooner he faced up to it, the better.

He dropped the phone in his blanketed lap and curled his fingers into fists, squeezing them so tightly that his nails dug into the palms of his hands. I won't cry. I won't cry.

He was six when his father died. His mother came into his room while he was weeping. She sat on the side of his bed and said, "Don't cry, honey. Your daddy's with the angels now. We can miss him all we want, but let's both not cry for him because he'll see our tears. We wouldn't want to make him sad, would we?"

He wiped his eyes then, shaking his head vehemently. The last thing he ever wanted was to make his daddy feel bad about leaving them behind. He hadn't shed another tear for him since.

He was older now and not as naive as he was back then. In the space of the past twenty-four hours, he even felt as though his maturity had skipped a decade or two. Though recent events had made him question everything his mother had once told him about the afterlife, he wasn't willing to discard her advice entirely. On the off chance that his parents had found each other in Heaven, the last thing he wanted was for them to see how much his heart was breaking.

That's why he intended to sneak off to the bathroom and wash his face. If any tears happened to wash away with the rest of the tap water, they would remain his little secret.

Lee kicked off his blankets, slipped on his jeans, and tiptoed out of the room. Voices carried from the kitchen. The grownups were discussing what to do. He snuck over to the dining room archway and listened in.

"Hell, no! Are you crazy?" a man shouted, startling Lee. He couldn't place the voice. He figured it had to be the new guy who returned with them. Brad? Bran? Something like that.

"Why is it crazy to want to stay in your own home?" Judith cried. "It's a little cramped for room right now, sure, but we can clear out some space and—"