Colton’s sunlight held little hope. Martin pumped gas in a station across from the savaged trains. Teresa had objected going outside the Void but he convinced her they needed gas, if it came down to leaving in a hurry. That was bullshit though. She knew they couldn’t really run once they hunkered down. To her this was probably wishful thinking, but in reality, it was Martin who needed the gasoline. Well, the plan needed gasoline.
As the tank reached t-minus ten gallons, news reports buzzed over the speakers. In the wake of the strange orbital anomaly, the City of Colton continues to be the epicenter of some of the most peculiar reported stories. Local water districts and San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department are checking the possibility of a hallucinogenic compound distributed through a local water treatment facility. In other related news, a missing bus from California Rehabilitation Center...
Martin had gotten an hour-long nap in the train, but wanted more—this was ridiculous. He was paying for his carelessness, just like last year; being tired all the time was so exhausting!
Watching Teresa feed the babies brightened his mood though, as long as he could forget the stakes. Through the back he saw her tilt the bottle for the blue-eyed girl, Rebecca. Teresa had never looked happier.
Martin took his drink off the hood and sipped his ice tea. He grimaced at the raspberry aftertaste. Damn.
~ * ~
Once they returned to the train yard, Teresa found herself staring for a long time. Particularly unsettling, in the belly of a gray warhorse of rust and rivets, Martin’s look changed from several dimensions of thought. There was a part of this Teresa didn’t know and she had the feeling he was about to let her in.
He sensed her unasked question. “We’re not going to get lucky again—with slipping away I mean.”
“Yeah,” she agreed.
“But we have the time to act now, while there’s still a chance. We can throw him off. There are plenty of hours left in the day.”
“Throw him off?” She asked incredulously. “That’s not exactly how it works with Cloth. Where’s this going, Martin?”
His face softened. “I’m going to lure him and the children away from here.”
“Are you nuts?”
“The suits will search every Void in town. They always do. We’ve taken precautions but there’s still too much time for them to break through. You have enough energy to protect the kids—”
Teresa smiled but it vanished when she saw his expression unchanged. “I’m not doing fine, as you might well see.”
Martin edged closer. “Best possible scenario is I can keep them chasing me until midnight. Then we’re free.”
“What if they show up here right after you leave? Would that be the worst possible scenario?”
“Radio me.”
She growled, “I’m not keeping a radio turned on in here. They’ll hear it! We shouldn’t even be talking right now.”
He sighed angrily through his teeth.
Putting her own advice to heart, Teresa whispered now, “Cloth won’t fall for cat and mouse, and if he did, you’d be taken sooner than midnight. Don’t fool yourself. This is stupid. You’ll die.”
“If I go to the other Voids, I’m sure I’ll run into Church. If I’m in the Wrangler they’ll assume it’s both of us. They’ll follow me to flush out the Hearts.”
Her head shook to the point of dizziness. “That’s too big a risk. You’re too tired. Besides, we do need the Wrangler if he shows up.”
“You think we’ll have time to pile into the jeep? You, me, and four babies? You want to talk about risk? Going a hundred and twenty miles down the interstate—here is our last stand. Here. We both know that, but Cloth doesn’t have to.”
She grasped Martin around the waist, couldn’t let go. His shell necklace pressed into her neck and his warm breath tickled her ear. He hummed their Sam Cooke song, A change is gonna come.
“This is fucking stupid,” she whispered.
“I’m just too weak to help you here. I’m more help as bait. You know that. You have to know that. This city isn’t big. If they get here, just call me. I’ll be here in no time and have a better position on them.”
“You’re an imbecile,” she said with a sad shake of her head.
“Well you’re the best woman I’ve ever known. You know that?”
“Yeah,” she said with a short laugh. “Among the many.”
He buried his face into her neck. She squeezed his shoulders for reassurance. None came. Just say you’re going to forget this nonsense, Martin. Please?
“For the record, you’re not too shabby either,” she finally said. “What if you don’t come back?”
“I promise—”
“Don’t promise, goddamn it. Okay?”
He kissed her again, then bent over the bundles, one by one, caressed each baby’s face. “You’re some cute little devils. Mama’s gonna keep you safe.”
Teresa tucked a shock of almond hair behind her ear.
Martin fiddled with a detonator the size of an ink pen. “I’m going to padlock the gate and activate the mines now. Remember to go out the other door. There’s probably close to fifty rigged together just on the other side. Deactivation’s the same pin as before—”
She shook her head. “No, don’t go—this—you’re going to die doing this.”
“If I strand the Wrangler somewhere, there’s a bus stop not a block away. For tomorrow, I mean. Just you all stay alive.”
“Don’t go.”
“I won’t be able to bring any more mantles for a long time, Teresa. So this is the only way I can be useful. Let me do this.”
A sudden, incalculable rage tore through her chest. “You knew this would happen, didn’t you? What did you do when I was asleep Martin? What did you do? I sense mantles all over this train yard.”
He shrugged.
“Don’t fuck with me!”
“I set a few out there when you were at the hospital. One I built was pretty damned strong. It took more than a day. That’s why I couldn’t go back to the room. I had to stay put and work on it. They’re great deterrents, but you know that Cloth can go through them like cotton candy.”
She folded her arms and sat back against the wall. For a moment, silence baked in the stuffy train car. “What were you thinking? Stupid!”
Sighing, he said, “Will those be your last words to me?”
She wanted to say, Yeah, dumbass, those are the only words you deserve. Instead: “Yeah just be careful—I’ll kill you if you die.”
He flashed a grin of relief, chuckled. “Wouldn’t want that.”
Each baby had subtle confusion surfacing. She knew how they felt. Martin never acted like this—this didn’t feel spontaneous. This had been planned when she was in the hospital.
She shouldn’t let him go. There was too much at stake. They’d been blessed with escaping earlier, and now he was actually trying to get Cloth’s attention. It wasn’t rational. But Christ, there was something in Martin’s eyes she hadn’t seen in a long time. How could she take that away when she’d seen nothing but the opposite since diagnosis? And knowing she’d put that terminal moroseness inside a light-hearted man who had once joked at everything... she couldn’t say no. He was a prisoner, finally skipping out. To throw him back inside would make her happy but destroy him.
Martin jumped out of the train and moved the squeaky door swirling with bright pink graffiti. The light cut away and left her in the mustiness with the babies. About twenty minutes later, after he’d finished setting the mines, the Wrangler started up. She heard the wheels crunch the gravel as he left.