Burn Page 7

  “How did you…?”

  “I can tap the power, but I haven’t addressed its smartsource. My next step is to crack the cloud. Or create my own.”

  Liam turned the weapon over in his hands. “Can I shoot?”

  “Yes, but it won’t analyze the shot and document the event. It can’t adapt to your scenario either. The smart safety isn’t on.”

  Noah flicked off the flashlight and Liam’s firearm went still. Its lights faded into the darkness until they were just an imprint in the back of Liam’s eyeballs.

  Noah returned to the fire and popped the lids off both cans of beans before pouring the contents into the skillet. The juice sizzled as it hit the pan. “My lab is still there.” he said, “Months of work is back there. I stayed to bring my home back online. I can’t just walk away from that. We can’t just walk away from Tucson.”

  Liam tucked his duty weapon back into its holster, still feeling its residual heat and his heart pounding in his chest. After two years of dormancy, the GridGun’s familiar energy had caused a rush of impulses throughout his body.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” he said.

  They stood in silence for a few minutes, watching the beans heat up, the smell drifting through the station and out into the open air. In the distance, a shadow moved gracefully toward the railcars. Liam recognized Talisa’s form, the flow of her dress, tendrils of damp hair pressed against her neck and shoulders. She had left Ellie behind in the car. She stopped for a moment, studying the railcars. Picking out a place to sleep, perhaps.

  Noah watched her as well, and he sighed. “We’re here now,” he said. “You know you can rely on me.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re the one that saved me back at the house,” he pointed out. “Thank you.”

  Liam nodded.

  Talisa climbed up the back of one of the railcars. They watched her slowly navigate the metal ladder before swinging her legs over the edge and pulling herself onto the roof. Then she sat down, facing the mountain. She remained motionless against the flashing sky. Liam considered going out to her, but decided against it. Sometimes people just needed space.

  The beans were done, and Noah scooped half onto a paper plate to give to Liam. They finished eating in silence before Noah kicked out the dying embers and left the skillet on the ground to cool. He stood up and went over to the opposite side of the room. Liam couldn’t see him in the darkness, but he could hear him settling down to sleep. He did have to give him credit, Noah could sleep anywhere.

  Tomorrow would bring answers. Liam rolled over and shifted to find a comfortable spot in the debris, grateful that it wasn't raining. In the distance he heard the solemn howl of a coyote.

  He remembered the first night after the Fall when everyone still in the city tried to sleep without power to warm their houses against the cold desert night. That was the first time he heard the coyotes really howl, the packs moving in from the surrounding open space. He didn’t go home that night. Instead, he worked tirelessly in the downtown district during what turned out to be his final shift as a county sheriff before the entire agency became obsolete.

  He thought of the helicopter blazing in the middle of Congress Street, the cabin an eternal inferno in his memory.

  Noah was right. He couldn’t abandon Tucson now. Maybe with his latest discovery, they could work to save it again.

  He wanted to stay up a few hours to keep watch, but his eyelids drooped heavily. He barely allowed himself to close his eyes when he felt someone shaking him awake. He struggled to turn over, his body suddenly stiff and unresponsive from hours of sleep. He grunted.

  “Liam.”

  Noah’s voice.

  “Liam. Get up.”

  He opened his eyes and grimaced painfully as sunlight flooded into his sight. Everything was blurry. He blinked and his vision cleared.

  Noah hunched down in front of him, covered in blood.

  “Whoa!” Liam jerked up, his mind reeling from the sudden juxtaposition from last night. The sun blazed overhead. He checked his watch. Nine-thirty in the morning. How did he sleep so long?

  “He took them,” Noah said, the whites of his eyes a stark contrast from the bright red blood splashed across his face. “He took Ellie and Talisa.”

  Chapter Ten

  5:00 AM - Earlier that morning

  Noah woke up in pain.

  Sleep hadn’t been kind to him. By early morning, the skin along his throat had crusted over and threatened to split with every movement. Biting back tears, he sat up carefully. Liam lay sleeping on the other side of the train station, his shoulders softly rising and falling with each breath. Noah looked out across the open land, hills and mountains gently rolling in the distance. No movement along the horizon. A layer of thick clouds stretched across the sky. It had to be near sunrise, there was just enough light to see the outline of mountains and rail cars.

  He shuffled back through the desert with his laptop bag slung over one shoulder. Dried branches and twigs snapped beneath his feet. He stepped carefully through the brush, his eyes slowly adjusting to the golden light cresting from behind the mountain peaks. His neck throbbed painfully with his pulse.

  The car was where they had left it the night before, the dash light now glowing a bright green. With a loud groan, he slipped the laptop bag off his shoulder and onto the ground. He tapped gently on the back window. He felt bad for waking Ellie up, but he couldn’t hold out any longer.

  The car rocked lightly and he saw movement through the window. He heard the familiar flick of the handle turn, and he stood back so she could push the door open.

  “What?” Her voice was groggy. He had woken her up.

  “Do you have any more of that cream?” He grimaced through the pain.

  The door swung wider and Ellie crawled out. She was still wearing the clothes from yesterday, but now she’d pulled her thick curly hair into a topknot on her head. He noticed the gentle curve of her neck, a few loose strands curled softly against her brown skin. Their eyes met, and he quickly looked away. He listened to the sound of her feet shuffling in the sand, then the familiar click as she unclasped her bag. He wondered how often she woke up to pathetic men begging for pain relief.

  She didn’t seem perturbed. “Lean back, please,” she said. He leaned awkwardly against the front passenger door. He heard the sound of metal popping against metal, and caught the distinct scent of peppermint. He resisted the urge to check his own breath.

  She seemed to read his mind. “Mint?” she offered.

  He nodded, and she handed him the container. He popped open the lid and hurriedly put two mints in his mouth. Not as good as an old fashioned oral scrubbing, but it would have to do. He wished for soap and a washcloth and maybe a comb to tame his unruly hair. He’d come a long way from his pristine technician days.

  “Thank you.”

  “Sometimes you find little treasures in the grocery stores,” she said. “Mints are my favorite.”

  He leaned against the car and blinked back tears as she slowly unwrapped the bandages, the pain radiating from his throat to his head and shoulders. He tried not to look at her, even though he was highly conscious of how close she was to him. She tentatively touched his jaw to angle his face back for a better look in the morning light, and her fingertips felt like fire against his raw skin. She hesitated, eyes tracing the burn lines that wrapped around his throat in the distinct shape of a hand.

  “Who did this to you?”

  He thought of dark shadows. He swallowed hard. “I couldn’t see it.”

  “It?”

  Flames flashed before his eyes, and he squeezed them shut. “I don’t know.”

  She reached into her bag. “The skin is blistering and your movements aren’t helping.” She uncapped the same cream she’d used the night before and applied a fresh coat. It felt like ice against his skin, and he let out a long sigh of relief. She worked quickly, then applied a fresh bandag
e.

  “Be careful. You’ll split your skin again.”

  “It’s a little hard, you’d be surprised how important moving your head is,” he said.

  “That’s too bad, I recommend you trade it in for a new one, then.”

  She spoke so dryly he couldn’t tell if she was joking or insulting him. Then he spotted her smirk and he laughed with relief. The sound was startlingly loud against the still morning air.

  “Take this.” Ellie shook out two pain capsules and handed them to him. Their fingers brushed together briefly. “If you start to hurt again this afternoon, let me know.” She wrapped the final end of the bandage and tucked it safely beneath the folds before stowing the cream and packaging in the car. He popped the pills in his mouth and swallowed. She sat down in the backseat, her legs dangling out of the open car door. “Thank you,” he said.

  They sat in silence. Noah stared at the golden outline of the mountain, wishing he could think of something to say. He inwardly cursed Liam for dragging him into this, and not for the last time. He was never good at talking to girls. His stomach gurgled loudly. Did he leave the food back at the station?

  “I was right to want to leave Arizona,” Ellie said.

  “Yeah, the job opportunities are pretty dead,” he joked.

  She quirked an eyebrow at him. “We’re all dead if we stay here, whether it’s by the heat or by each other. Or by...whatever it is we’re running away from.”

  She sat hunched over with her elbows on her knees, curly hair pulled back in a knot. She looked so sad. He stared at her for a moment.

  “That was a nice car you had back there,” he blurted out.

  She smirked, remembering the trash heap comment from the night before. “It was something I had been holding on to for awhile. We didn’t know how long the gas would last, so we kept it hidden until we absolutely needed it.”

  She had a father, Noah remembered. They had seen each other in passing throughout the neighborhood. He was a hard man to miss. Always happy, always where patients needed him. But then he disappeared. Noah wanted to ask about him, but the look on her face changed his mind. “What’s in California?” he asked instead.

  “You haven’t heard?” she looked at him incredulously. He shook his head. “Grid communities have been restored along the coast.”

  “I thought the Fields were down.”

  The Elysian Fields were the power plants that activated the Grid satellites rotating slowly around the Earth. Without energy to the Fields, both the Grid power system and the Cloud couldn’t function. His entire two-years work had been dedicated to recreating both environments.

  “The Phoenix-based Field remains down,” she corrected, “but I’ve heard rumors the western region is back up.”

  “Wouldn’t they have contacted us? There’s still several thousand people living here who need help.”

  She gestured across the valley. “Do you see all this? It’s hot. We were never meant to live out here. When the Grid fell, they learned exactly why. They’re not planning to restore civilization in the southwest.”

  Noah felt queasy. “They would just leave us all out here then? To fend for ourselves? Die?”

  “That’s what we’ve been doing for the last two years, isn’t it?”

  Noah shook his head. “I don’t believe it. They could have easily just restored the southwest plant. The fact that they haven’t tells me they can’t. The Grid is down everywhere.”

  “You just don’t want to believe it.”

  “So, what, you were planning on driving to the nearest online community? What about your patients? You’re just going to leave them?”

  Ellie looked sharply at him. “That’s my business.”

  Noah considered whether to argue with her or not. He couldn’t believe she would think Utopian Industries would be so sinister. But then she turned away, tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and said “how long do you think we’ll be here? In Vail?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Your roommate’s the one leading the charge. He didn’t tell you?”

  “He’s still sleeping.” He felt bad giving such a simple answer, but at the same time didn’t feel like making excuses for Liam.

  “Oh.” She sat silent for a long moment. Noah counted the seconds, distinctly aware that he was letting their awkward conversation fade into awkward silence but not sure how to save it. The sun slowly rose in the east. Only a few bright clouds dotted the deep blue sky. Orange light haloed the railcars. It wouldn’t take long for the hot desert sun to dry the rain-soaked ground. If the storm stayed at bay, Noah could switch the car over to solar power and give the battery a rest. That would give Liam plenty of power to get Talisa wherever she needed to go.

  East, she had said. To the darkness.

  He frowned. Something was off. He glanced around. Endless expanse of open fields and rolling hills. Interstate 10 stretched into the distance. A soft breeze tickled his ears. Birds chirped in the palo verde trees behind them, their dissonant songs suddenly ringing too loudly in the open field. There was no other movement around the train station.

  “So how did you and Liam get involved with Talisa?” Ellie asked. She was looking down at her feet, toes digging into the dirt. She had left her shoes inside the car.

  “Where’s Talisa?” Noah asked suddenly.

  From his vantage point he couldn’t see the fourth member of their strange, impromptu crusade. The railcars were bare, and he didn’t remember seeing her in the station.

  Ellie shrugged. “She wondered off last night, which I was okay with, she was saying some weird things while you were in the store-”

  He stood up. “She was on top of the roof for most of the night, but I didn’t see her crawl down.”

  “Maybe she left.”

  He pushed off the side of the car and walked slowly back to the station, eyes searching for a figure in the landscape. Maybe it was time to wake up Liam. He might know what to do. Would they go back to the city if she had left them?

  The birds stopped singing. He heard a loud snap from behind..

  “Noah!”

  “Don’t worry, I’m just going to get Liam. I’ll be right back,” he called over his shoulder.

  “Stop there.”

  That was not Ellie. The voice was startlingly low and sent chills down Noah’s spine as it reverberated inside his head with startling intimacy. The hair on his arms stood on end. He turned.

  A man stood behind Ellie with his arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders against his chest. He held a knife against her collarbone with the other hand. Dark, matted hair framed large, crazed eyes bulging from a sun-exposed face.

  Noah raised his hands. “Don’t!”

  Ellie cried out as the man gave her a warning shake. “Get in,” he snarled, gesturing at the driver’s seat.

  Noah held up both his hands and walked toward the door, his heart pounding in his chest. The man turned to watch him, knife tip still digging into her skin. Ellie’s face twisted into a grimace, her eyes watering. “Don’t hurt her,” Noah pleaded as he opened the driver door. He gave Ellie one last look before he dropped down into the seat. Ellie cried out again as the man shoved her into the backseat, then he climbed in next to her and slammed the door. Noah looked in the rearview mirror, and saw the man’s fingers locked around Ellie’s arm.

  “Go,” the man snarled.

  Noah turned on the car. “Where?” he asked.

  The man kicked the back of his chair, nearly sending Noah’s head into the steering wheel. “Just go!”

  Noah slammed on the gas, and they went.

  Chapter Eleven

  9:35 AM

  Liam watched Noah dip his hands in the rusted metal basin and splash rainwater on his face. Blood trickled down his neck and into his shirt collar, soaking into the fabric. He scrubbed his skin vigorously, trying in earnest to get clean.

  “He has them still,” Noah sputtered water d
own his chin. “We have to find them.”

  “The man from the Circle K? From the house?”

  “No. No, it’s someone else.”

  Liam stood on the edge of the building and peered at the empty parking lot, eyes squinting against the bright sunlight. He glanced at his wristwatch again, an archaic model he had inherited when he first swore in as a county sheriff. Minimalist white face with gold hands. The glass had cracked since then, nearly obscuring the time, but it still worked.

  How did he sleep in so long?

  He watched his roommate dip his hands back in the basin, this time splashing water over his head. Noah’s blood-smeared face burned in Liam’s mind, eyes stark white in sharp contrast. He should have been awake to help them.

  “Where did this man come from?” he asked.

  Noah shook water drops from his hair. “He snuck up on me and Ellie when we were talking by the car.”

  “Smuggler?”

  “I don’t think so. He’s deranged. He didn’t say what he wanted.”

  Noah’s clothes were caked with dirt, his arms covered in scratches and bruises.

  “How did you get away?”

  “I opened the car door and rolled. Hurt like hell. The car kept going, and I ran back here as fast as I could.”

  “How far away were you?”

  Noah looked toward the north, the mountains looming in the distance. “Maybe two or three miles.”

  At least fifteen to twenty minutes away on foot if he ran the entire time. The sun was getting high in the sky. Liam tried to calculate. The battery was freshly charged, they could be even farther away by now.

  “Jesus. And Talisa and Ellie are still in the car?”

  Noah shook his head. “Talisa wasn’t in the car, I think he was taking us where he was holding her.”

  “Why would he be holding her?”

  Noah held out his arms in frustration. “I don’t know! Why would I know that?”