| |
Bright fireworks lit up the desert sky in the distance, the first break we’d had in hours from the perpetual darkness.
“That must be Amarillo!” shouted Tyler.
Garnet sat up and stretched. “It’s about time.”
Twelve hours of traveling and Amarillo was the first town we’d come to that offered the possibility of food, water and a much-needed rest. With the water from the north being diverted and the lower Rio Grande dried up, every town between Flagstaff and Albuquerque had turned to dustbowls, the inhabitants long since moved on or dead. We’d been lucky to find shelter in an abandoned warehouse in Flagstaff through the afternoon, willing to risk whatever dangers lurked rather than burn to a crisp in the sun, but our meager supply of food and water had been used up hours ago.
Amarillo, Texas—with fireworks to greet us—seemed like an oasis in the desert.
“Keep your eyes open for a place to stay overnight,” I said as I slowed off the exit and turned onto the main street. It was long past dark and gas torches illuminated storefronts with broken windows and crumbling buildings beside new ones. People congregated in doorways, having what appeared to be a very good time. The loud crack of fireworks filled the air and bursts of colorful sparks painted against the night sky caused the crowd to cheer. Horses tied to a post in front of a bar drank lazily from a trough, giving me hope that there was water to spare somewhere nearby. I wondered how these people managed to maintain their lifestyle. We passed another group of men, pawing a woman and shoving her between them as she cowered, her shirt torn off her shoulders. I wanted to stop, but knew I couldn’t. My heart squeezed. “Keep looking,” I said tightly.
“Don’t get me wrong,” said Garnet, “I don’t want to stay in this vehicle one minute more, but this place doesn’t look safe, Lily.” She ducked her head as a heavily bearded man yelled and whistled for us to stop and party with him and his friends, all of whom looked equally as grizzled and drunken as the group on the previous corner.
I sped up as best I could on the broken road, rolling through the desert sand that covered the street. The large tires on the Border Patrol vehicle had maneuvered well on the rough terrain leading us here, but we needed to find a place to lay low and rest. Concerned the solar battery on the buggy would soon die out, I had no choice but to stop and wait for morning light. I cruised further down the main street and then turned off into what appeared to be a residential neighborhood.
“Stop!” Garnet pointed to a small sign that hung by one hook in front of a house. Barbara’s Boarding House was etched in gold letters on the sign. There were bars on the doors but a light in one window signaled the place had electricity of some kind—probably from solar panels on the roof and storage batteries and an inverter in the basement, much like we used back home in Stanton. I pulled into the driveway and slipped the vehicle around the side of the house.
Tyler, Garnet, and I collected what few belongings we had and silently approached the door by the kitchen, our bags over our shoulders. We needed to stay out of sight. Who knew how far Malevich’s eyes and ears went? Not to mention the three of us were prime targets for slavers who would eagerly cash in on selling us as “fresh meat” to the highest bidder. Exhausted, I shuddered in the cool night air. I knocked on the door one more time, worried no one would answer and we’d have to continue our search for shelter.
Before we could turn around and leave, the door opened a small crack. “What do you kids want?” A middle-aged woman with unevenly cut layers of short blond hair and no teeth peeked through, her bathrobe pulled tight.
“We need a place to stay the night,” I said, my hope renewed.
“Some food and water would be good, too,” added Garnet.
“We can pay you,” said Tyler, a little too loudly. Garnet elbowed him in the ribs.
The woman, presumably Barbara, opened the door, and with a crane of her neck she quickly searched outside to make sure we were alone. She looked each of us up and down and then eyed me suspiciously. “What do you have for trade?”
I dug in my pocket and pulled out several crisp bills. The woman’s eyes lit up and she opened the door the rest of the way.
“Why didn’t you say so?” She snatched the government bonds and started counting them as we passed by her into the dimly lit kitchen. “You want two rooms or one?” She glared at Tyler and his deep skin tone brightened with a flush. I wondered if he was reading her mind and just exactly what she was thinking.
“We can share a room if you have one with two beds,” I said.
“I can do y’all one better,” she grinned a gummy smile at me, tucking the bills in the pocket of her tattered bathrobe. “I’ve got a room with a single bed and a set of bunks next door to the bath.”
“Perfect.” The three of us nodded and agreed.
“If y’all got a few more of those bills, I’ll make sure you got clean towels, fresh water, and some food for your bellies, too.”
Reluctantly, I dug in my pocket again, glad we had split up the money between us. Tyler had swiped the roll of bills from Agent Graves when we’d ambushed him back in the elevator at the hotel in Vegas and made our escape. The bonds were as good a trade as gold or diamonds.
Visions of Graves slumped in the elevator filled my mind as we followed our host down a back hallway and up a flight of stairs. Underneath my concern that Graves would be mad as a hornet when he came to and found we’d looted his pockets and even stole his platinum belt buckle, was the satisfying knowledge that we’d bested the man who had killed Josh.
Whether leaving Graves alive was in our best interest remained to be seen. An uneasy sense of dread crept in. Tyler had wanted Graves dead and I had talked him out of murdering the man, knowing that once Tyler’s need for vengeance was fed, it would grow inside him like a cancer—turning him from the innocent fourteen-year-old boy he was into a killer—and giving the Industry one more reason to hunt us down.
There was almost certainly a price on our heads, and flashing cash around wasn’t the best way to stay hidden. Maybe a white lie was in order to keep the woman from thinking she’d hit a gold mine with us.
“This is all we’ve got, but if you could include water and food for the road tomorrow, it’s yours.” I held up a few more bills and her eyes lit up.
“Sure thing, darlin.’”
She led us down a hallway, turning on lights as she went along, illuminating a well-maintained house, which appeared to have a half dozen or so bedrooms, the doors all closed.
“Do you mind if I ask how you get all your supplies?” As I followed the woman into a room with the number four on the door, I tuned my senses in to the others in the house, already asleep down the hall. My innate awareness of the energy of others came in handy—especially when I needed to know if it was safe to close my eyes for the night. A clock on the dresser flashed 12:30 a.m.
As Barbara turned to say goodnight, she kept her voice low. “As long as Texas keeps supplying the government with oil and protecting the Mexican border, we get a decent shipment of food and water every week or so. We were even promised one of those solar barriers, but the good folks of Texas don’t want any of those nasty Guardian critters patrolin’ our streets. I hear they’ve overrun San Antonio and Austin. I suppose it’s only a matter of time till they get Dallas too.”
“Is it true that Houston and most of the Gulf coast is under water?” Garnet asked, her own voice no more than a whisper.
Tears welling in her eyes, the woman nodded. “Damn shame, too. Nothing but swamps and a cesspool of chemicals from all the debris left behind after the big one hit a few years back. God only knows what’s become of the sea creatures that used to live in the Gulf. I haven’t had a decent bit of fish or crab in ages.” She licked her lips as if trying to recall the taste. “That tsunami wiped out everything as far east as the Mississippi Delta and as far north as Baton Rouge.” She pulled herself together and started to close the door. “Y’all sleep tight, and make sure you lock this door after me. I run a clean establishment here, but my man and some of our tenants are downtown at the bar and I bet they’ll be none too sober when they come in. You don’t want ’em wandering in here in the middle of the night. I suggest you be gone before they know you’re here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I agreed.
“If you want to wash up, don’t bother with the shower or try to run a bath. Water’s got to last us till the next shipment so we keep the pressure down. Might be enough to wash your essentials.” She handed us a small stack of clean towels accompanied by a fresh cake of soap, and left us alone.
Tyler released a sigh of relief. “She seems okay, but she’s worried about that next shipment.” Tyler’s mind reading ability and his assessment of Barbara gave me enough reason to let my guard down—at least for the moment.
Garnet, Tyler and I each claimed our beds and took turns in the bathroom, all of us thankful for the trickle of clean water to wash off the dust. When I came back to the room, Barbara had brought us a pitcher of fresh drinking water and a snack consisting of bread, nut butter, and honey. We thanked her, wolfed down the food and water, and fell into our beds, exhausted.
But my sleep was tormented with the same nightmare I’d had each time I closed my eyes the past few days.
Smoke rising above tall pines...the cries of women and children...death and destruction. At the center of the dream was Sam. I screamed to warn him, but nothing came out. I ran faster—farther—closer—but still, I wasn’t close enough for him to hear me.
Amid the dark clouds of smoke, ash fell from the sky like snow.
∞∞∞
After a restless night’s sleep, I awoke at the crack of dawn to the sound of arguing outside the room. I sat up fast—banging the bunk above me. Pain shot through my head and I cursed, waking Tyler and Garnet. Everyone jumped. I tuned in to the voices.
Barbara was in a heated discussion with a man—presumably her husband. “Be quiet, you big ox! You’ll wake them...” Her voice became muffled, but a moment later the man’s voice rose again.
“Damn straight! If the government’s gonna pay for their hides, I’m the one’s gonna be collectin’.”
My heart skipped a beat. I exchanged a quick glance with Tyler. Garnet slipped off the top bunk, the soft thump stopping the conversation out in the hall. My finger shot to my lips and Garnet froze, her face twisted into a cringe.
“Just wait for them to come down to breakfast,” Barbara insisted. “No need to cause a big scene at this hour. Those kids were dog tired last night. Let ’em sleep a while longer. If you’re hell bent on turning ’em in, another hour or two won’t make no difference.” After another minute of argument, the man slurred a string of curses as he retreated down the hall. I let out a slow breath.
“Get your stuff together,” I whispered. “We’ve got to get out of here—now.”
Garnet and Tyler sprang to action, the three of us packed and ready to go in minutes. We quickly took inventory of our resources. We each still had a change of clothes in our bags, a small wad of cash each, and full bottles of water, courtesy of our savior, Barbara. In addition, Garnet had a makeup case, toothbrush, and a mirror. I shook my head as she checked her hair and stuffed the compact in her bag.
Tyler had a sack of coins and the small crossbow he’d taken from Josh’s body. A new wound opened up each time I thought about Tyler’s loss, and worry for my own brother crept in. As I went through my bag, thoughts of Zeph filled my mind with a hundred questions, not the least of which was how I was going to stop Malevich from taking Zeph and the other EVO kids into space, presumably to inhabit the colony the Industry had secretly been setting up on Mars for the last forty years.
The Evolutionary Viability Organization, which started the program, had been taken over by the Industry, becoming Malevich’s pet project and plan for escape from what was apparently deemed a dying planet. Having control of the space program, and every other Omni-tech organization in the country, gave Malevich all the resources he needed. Taking the most gifted beings from our world—young people with genetically enhanced DNA—might just give him a chance at survival. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea of traveling through space. It seemed a certain death mission for my brother. But maybe Zeph knew that. My insides twisted tighter.
I clutched my Aunt Beth’s locket and Will’s whistle, and tucked the long chain inside my shirt as I slung my pack over my shoulder. The heaviest thing in my bag—my mother’s ancient copy of a Gray’s Anatomy text book—weighed me down. I reached in the bag and adjusted the clunky load. It was ridiculous to keep it, but I couldn’t part with the musty smelling book. The handwritten notes and indecipherable scientific notations along the margins were precious reminders of the mother I’d lost when I was only three. I sighed and folded my bag closed.
“Let’s go.”
I opened the door a crack, willed the hinges not to squeak, and then peered down the hall in each direction. Ducking around the corner, I pressed my back against the wall, then signaled Tyler and Garnet to follow. We made it to the edge of the main stairs and I raised a hand to motion them to stop. I closed my eyes, tuning my focus to the people below, the sound of a radio coming soft from the living room. A country music station crackled with an old ballad.
Drunken voices rose above the music.
“I’m not lying. You’re just hoping I’m wrong.” The slap of cards being dealt reached my ears, a sign the men had been up all night and were still at it.
“It can’t be that bad,” replied another man.
“I just came from Oklahoma City. There was nothing left but rubble. The storms out that way are vicious. Tornadoes come up with no warning until they’re right on top of ya—a dozen at a time. Some flow together into one massive twister that’ll cover a whole town. I never seen anything like it. I was lucky to get out alive.” The voice of the man who was speaking trailed off and I suspected he was downing another drink.
The back staircase led to the kitchen. As we neared the back door, only feet from making a clean escape, a deep voice stopped us in our tracks.
“You kids ducking out without saying good-bye to Barbara? She’ll be crushed.”
I spun to see who had spoken. Across the kitchen, leaning up against the counter with a steaming mug in hand, stood a man with shoulder-length blond hair and several days’ beard growth, his eyes a calculating gray that reminded me of the wolves back home.
“We don’t want to bother Barbara this early,” I replied, my throat dry.
“You wouldn’t be skipping out on your bill, would you?” A small smile curved one edge of his lips and his eyes narrowed.
I felt Garnet and Tyler go rigid beside me.
“No, sir.” I met his gaze. “We’re paid in full.”
Garnet eyed a loaf of fresh baked bread on the counter. “As a matter of fact,” she said, “Barbara wanted us to have some food for the road.” She snatched the loaf, grabbed the wedge of cheese beside it, and saluted the man as she backed out the door past me, batting her lashes all the while. “We’ve got to run...daylight’s burning...”
Tyler tumbled out the door behind Garnet and I stood frozen for a moment longer, meeting the man’s gaze and feeling as if we’d met before.
I was about to ask when a loud voice and footsteps came down the hall from the living room. I exchanged a quick glance with the blond man, who shoved off the counter and signaled for me to go.
“I’ll hold ’em off. Go on...get out of here.”
I smiled my thanks and ran, wondering if he was being a friend, or if he knew there was a price on our heads and planned to collect at his next opportunity.
