“It was just good luck,” Bobby said. “If I hadn’t seen T.J. was a kid, then I’d have shot Sookie and found out my mistake later.”
“And we would be bad guys then.”
“From T.J.’s perspective, yeah.”
“It is tough. Doing right thing.”
Bobby nodded and rolled out his sleeping bag onto the tarp, then listened as Yuri did the same. The shadows finally merged, and the moon rose between the trees.
He was woken—seemingly minutes later—by Yuri shaking him. “Truck is coming!”
Bobby came around instantly, and felt on the root-entwined ground for his pistol. Yuri was right. It was so loud it seemed as though it was on top of them, but they had to wait for some seconds before a light appeared, coming up the incline and sweeping slightly back and forth as the vehicle climbed. He held his breath, waiting for the lights to disappear along the valley, but instead they stopped and the engine was turned off.
“You got two minutes!” a voice called, followed by the sound of several pairs of booted feet jumping down onto the road.
Several flashlights swept around, one of them landing on the trees where Bobby and Yuri hid. Most of the boots stopped, seemingly content to relieve themselves by the side of the road. But one flashlight was coming closer, running alongside the ruts left by Bobby’s truck. It was only feet away when a voice called out, “Miller! What d’you think you’re doing?”
The flashlight swung around. “Just going in here, Sarge!”
“What d’you think this is, a four-star hotel? Get your butt back here and squat like the rest of the ladies. Who the hell do you think you are?”
Bobby heard a groan and a woman’s voice, speaking too quietly to be heard by the sergeant. “Who do I think I am? A real estate agent, that’s who.”
“Miller!!!”
“Coming, Sergeant!”
And the flashlight wobbled off toward the vehicle. Moments later, the boots jumped on board, then the engine fired up and the lights disappeared along the road.
“I think, maybe, we have found bad guys. Or is matter of perspective.”
Bobby didn’t say anything, but Yuri was right. That soldier didn’t sound like his enemy, and yet if the unit had caught up with him and Yuri, she would surely have followed her orders.
“You think they go after Sookie?”
Bobby thought about that for a moment. “I don’t reckon they’ll see them as a threat. They’re just people passing through the mountains.”
“And what do we do? Go back the way we came?”
“No, we can’t afford any delays. We’re just going to have to hope they’re passing through on a patrol. They weren’t acting as if they were expecting to find us. Come on, we’d better get some sleep if we can.”
Bobby climbed back into his sleeping bag, emitting a cloud of fog that passed in front of the moon, then zipped it around his neck and put his hat back on. He was tired of skulking around. They could pick their way through the hills at a snail’s pace and still run into a patrol like that one. Of course, the soldiers might not have been looking for Bobby and Yuri, but he was willing to bet they were on a watch list and if they were pulled over then that would be the end of it.
So, tomorrow they would stop hiding. Time for the last push.
#
As he opened his eyes on a gray morning, Bobby wished he could recall the boldness he’d felt as he’d drifted off to sleep the previous night. A soft but persistent drizzle had soaked his woolen hat, run down his face and wet the back of his neck.
But Yuri was up already. Somehow, he’d stayed dry and he was busy warming some oats over a camping stove. “You want porridge? You better, I used two ration packs. A good day for something warm. I also have coffee.” He handed Bobby a steaming mug. “I know you, my friend. Coffee first, oats after.”
Bobby pulled himself up so he could lean against the bottom of a tree as he sipped on the coffee. Instant, of course, but better than the finest roast on a cold, damp morning like this.
Yuri spooned the oatmeal into an aluminum bowl then, with a smile, reached into his pocket and pulled out a white paper sachet. “I stole this from brothel. I think it is just sugar. If not, we have an interesting day to come, my friend.”
Bobby, who could see quite plainly that it was, indeed, sugar, took the bowl and felt his spirits revive.
“You know, I was thinking. You are right. Time for hiding is over. We are not mice, we are men. And I am tired of running. I have to tell your president or all of this, and the deaths of my friends, would be for nothing. Do you understand?”
Bobby patted his friend on the arm. “Yeah. This job needs to be finished. But first, I need to finish my oatmeal.”
Half an hour later, they were reversing the truck out of the little wood and back to the road. Bobby briefly wondered what Sheriff Cline would make of what they’d done to the vehicle he’d loaned them, but he figured that would be the least of his problems if he ever made his way back to Hope.
As he sat in the driver’s seat, Bobby felt his heart lighten. It was time for the last push, and he drove more confidently along the mountain roads. A handful of cars passed them going the other way, but nothing that suggested they were being hunted. They kept their weapons handy.
Chapter 10
Exploration
Ellie climbed out of the pool and immediately grabbed her towel before scampering inside. Mist rose in tendrils, turning the area into a set from a 1950s B movie. As she dried herself off, she half expected to see a reptilian monster rise and walk toward the house.
She knew that heating the pool was a colossal waste of energy, and that she should feel guilty about that. But she didn’t. After an initial burst of enthusiasm, Jodi had decided that it was too cold to use the pool because by the time she’d gotten dry again and pulled on some clothes, all the warmth of the water had vanished and she was left freezing again. For Ellie, on the other hand, a hot swimming pool was worth freezing her tits off for (a charming term Patrick had once used when they were on Kujira). She’d once had a vacation in Iceland, where the place lived up to its name, but the hot springs were amazing.
Ellie pulled on her sweater and padded through to the kitchen area where Jodi was reading a book while pouring a coffee.
“Enough left for me?” Ellie asked.
“Yeah, sure.”
“What are you reading?”
Jodi flipped the book around so she could see the cover. She read, in big letters, The Long Night. “It’s about everyone dying from their implants. Near future. Pretty cool.”
“Good grief. Wouldn’t you be better off reading something escapist? Or maybe a Bill Bryson?”
Jodi shrugged, taking the book and her coffee into the lounge and collapsing into a big leather couch. “I dunno. I guess when the world’s gone to hell, it’s good to read about people who are even worse off than we are.”
Elle dropped into the armchair, then tilted it around to take in the view. The house had been built on the edge of Sylmar, in the north of the San Fernando conurbation and up against the edge of a valley that was the border of a mountainous open space to the south of Santa Clarita. She couldn’t guess what had happened to whoever had lived here before the flood, but their possessions and photos were everywhere, giving her the feeling that she was a guest in someone else’s house. Which she was, of course. The weirdness was caused by the fact that the place wasn’t owned by the person who’d invited them here. There was precious little evidence of Joel Baxter except for a few of his possessions in the master bedroom.
Snow lay on the lip of the valley, settling into the folds that ran down its side and mixing with the deep greens of the grass and scrub. It was beautiful, but also freakishly unnatural. Black clouds hung above the valley, threatening more snow and she couldn’t help thinking that the people on the West Coast would, in the end, suffer under the same blanket of snow as those in Denver.
“What d’you want to do today?” Jodi asked, sp
eaking out of the heart of the sofa she’d curled up in.
Ellie glanced across at her and winced. She reckoned if she tried to do that with her back, she wouldn’t be able to move for a week. “You don’t want to just hang around here?”
Her face appeared from behind the pages of the book. “We’ve got a mission, remember?”
“How could I forget? It nearly got us killed.”
“Fosho, but now we’ve got a pass, so we can go anywhere we like and nobody’ll stop us.”
Ellie scowled. “That just puts a bigger target on us. It means anyone can trace our movements.”
“So we need to be careful. Let’s just go for a ride, yeah? Nothing gnarly.”
Returning her gaze to the snow, Ellie sipped on her coffee. “Sure, why not? We haven’t seen anything of the city since we got here.”
“Oh, I was thinking of heading up the coast.”
“Were you? Why?”
Jodi sat on the arm of the chair and dropped her book on the coffee table. “Dad said he’d be a few days, so he could turn up any time now. It’d probably be easier to find out what’s going on without him watching us.”
“You think he would stop us?”
“I reckon he’s involved somehow. I don’t know, but I think he’s got some beta on what’s going on here.”
“We could just ask him.”
Jodi shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You don’t trust him, do you?”
She shook her head, her blonde hair flicking Ellie’s face. “No. I don’t think he’d do anything to hurt me, but I also think he’s scared. The more we know about what’s going on before we see him, the better.”
Ellie took one last look at the snow-speckled hills. “Come on then.”
They decided to head toward Santa Clarita, which was just to the north, and see how close they could get to the new coast. As they approached the city on I-15, it quickly became obvious that the highway had been below sea level, but that the road had been raised by using what looked like Army pontoons. The level had then gone down again, leaving them meandering along the highway as they’d settled just above the marshy terrain.
To either side of the highway, the tops of the tightly folded hills were white, but as she looked down toward their bases, she could see a brown tide mark where the level had once been.
“What do you reckon’s happened to the sea?” Jodi asked, gesturing at the view outside.
“It’s got to be connected to the weather, surely?” Ellie said. “It can’t be a coincidence that the water goes down just as everything goes cold.”
Jodi shrugged. “I dunno. The place looks a mess, though.” The highway ran alongside a truck stop, the top of a McDonald’s sign poking out of a mass of mud and green slime. “It stinks!”
Ellie watched it slip by, wondering how many souls were lost in that fast-food restaurant when the flood came. It looked as though the sand and dirt of the hills had sunk down and buried all the buildings, entombing them in moments. She couldn’t imagine the terror those poor devils must have felt. She didn’t want to imagine it.
Aside from the devastation on either side of the highway, Ellie was most surprised by the level of traffic. Some of it was military, but there were plenty of trucks and sixteen-wheelers heading in both directions. Not many cars, however. It was as if only essential traffic was allowed.
Ellie’s stomach tightened as they reached the end of a line of stationary traffic.
“Don’t worry,” Jodi said. “We’ve got a pass this time.”
Ellie nodded. “I know. But I wish we’d set off earlier. I want to be back by nightfall. I hadn’t factored sitting in long lines in our travel plans. Maybe we should turn around as soon as we can.”
“Oh, come off it, El. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“This isn’t a game, you know!” Ellie snapped. “I’m sorry. I’m just stressed. I’m not cut out to be a spy.”
“So, don’t be a spy. Let’s call this a practice. We’ll see how long this line takes, add that to the return journey and see how long that gives us. I don’t want to be out late either. I’d like to be there when Dad arrives. Okay?”
“Sure. Me too. Even if only to find out what he’s been up to.”
Jodi chuckled, then pointed ahead. “See, it’s only a short line.”
A police officer in a blue uniform tapped on the driver’s window. Ellie noticed that behind him stood a soldier with an assault rifle hanging across his chest.
“Pass?”
Ellie handed over the pass Joel had given her and watched as the officer’s eyebrows lifted and he pushed his hat back on his head. “Presidential pass? Care to tell me where you got this?”
Jodi leaned across. “You know Joel Baxter?”
The police officer tilted his head, eyes narrowing. “The president’s special advisor? Sure.”
“I’m his daughter.”
For a moment, the officer examined her silently, as if working out whether he believed her and, if not, whether it was worth it to take it further. Then he withdrew, handed back the pass, and thumped the car’s roof. “Safe journey,” he said, as Ellie rolled up the window.
“I thought he was going to call that in,” Ellie sighed.
Jodi shrugged unconcernedly. “Who cares? For once, we’re not doing anything wrong. Well, as far as Dad knows.”
Ellie put her foot down, glancing in the rearview mirror as the police checkpoint and the line of vehicles beyond it receded into the distance. She couldn’t help feeling that with every step, every deception, they were digging themselves a deeper and deeper hole.
They were flagged down again at Castaic Junction. Ellie wanted to head west to see how close to the previous coast they could get.
“Where are you headed?” A female police officer ducked to peer through the open driver’s window.
“West, toward the coast,” Ellie said, handing over the permit and noting with satisfaction how the cop’s eyebrows jumped.
“You won’t get too far. The water’s dropped, but the highway’s a mess the other side of Buckhorn. Do you mind if I ask what your business is out there?”
Ellie smiled. “Sightseeing.”
The police officer didn’t bother to hide her disdain for this response, but merely stood up and waved them on.
“She didn’t think much of that,” Jodi said.
“I don’t care. I reckon it suits us if she thinks we’re just a couple of airheads on a day trip. That pass Joel managed to get looks as though it’ll get us past just about anyone who challenges us. Though it leaves a trail that he could follow later, so we have to stick to our story. We’re heading this way because Bobby used to take Maria to Ventura Pier and I’m suffering from a dangerous case of melancholy. Got it?”
“Sure,” Jodi said. “But I’m not sure Dad will buy it.”
Ellie accelerated away from the roadblock and onto what had been a four-lane highway that threaded its way alongside the Santa Clara river valley. Aside from a solitary sixteen-wheeler, they could see no other moving vehicles, so they followed the big truck. Mud had been piled up like snow on the sides of the road and, within a mile of the intersection, it had narrowed the highway to a single open lane. As she followed the tail lights of the sixteen-wheeler, Ellie’s eyes were drawn to the piled-up filth speckled with frost and settling snow that sealed in the stench. For months, this highway had been underwater, and seeing the valley sides that were smoothed by black and brown sludge, Ellie was reminded of the power of nature to reclaim its own in just a short time.
She wished they could pass through the country more quickly, but the truck was picking its way carefully and not getting above forty. So, she felt forced to look at the objects poking out of the barren, moonlike landscape. Rusting, rectangular objects that were the ruins of civilization, swept away in a moment and left to rot until revealed again.
They plunged into an artificial canyon cut between hills of mud, the gray sky visible above them, the sides i
lluminated by the white and red lights of the truck in front and their car. Then they emerged into the open air as the road inclined upward. To their right was a valley wall, to their left, a wide, open vista of low, crumpled mountains that would once have been covered in green grass and trees, but which now were dull and brown. She’d seen images from the surface of Titan that looked spookily similar to this. Dead Titan.
And then she saw a rust-stained iron roof sitting on top of a pile of rock and mud, surrounded by the wreckage of what had once been a working farm and was now a post-apocalyptic nightmare. She looked ahead to a line of hills that cut across the horizon and wondered what lay beyond it, and whether she wanted to find out.
The highway ended in a police barrier beside a signpost to Buckhorn, but a smaller road ran toward the hills. A man in military uniform emerged from the end of a metal shipping container, stretching and hugging himself as if he’d been asleep beside a fire.
“You folks are lost,” he said. “You need to turn around and head back the way you came. Got me?”
Ellie handed out her trump card. “We’ve come to survey the new coast. And we have a presidential pass.”
The man, who had a black beard flecked with gray which she hoped was hair and not the remnants of a meal, screwed his eyes up as he examined the pass.
“Hey, Archie! Come on out here!”
A second man emerged, rubbing his back and fingering his pistol. “What is it?” He ambled up to the car and took the pass, then looked into the car. “And what are you girls doin’ with this?”
“My father’s the president’s Chief of Staff,” Jodi said, leaning forward and smiling. “He sent us out here.”
Archie leaned arthritically into the car and squinted at Jodi. “And what are you expectin’ to find?”
“It’s confidential,” Jodi said.
“This here’s Center Street, heads up toward Piru. You won’t get much beyond it.”
Ellie said, “Is that where the coast is now?”
Lost: Deluge Book 5: (A Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Story) Page 9