by S. E. Smith
“Dust!” Sammy cried out as she scrambled out of the car and ran around to kneel down next to him. “Oh, Dust.”
“Food,” he wheezed, trying to pull in enough air to talk.
“Todd, get a soda,” Sammy called out in a panic.
“Here you go, Sammy,” Todd whispered, handing his sister a can of soda through the opened driver’s door.
“Drink this,” Sammy ordered.
Dust heard the click of the metal tab on the can and the fizz of the sugary drink a second before Sammy held it to his lips. He panted heavily several times before he felt he could take a sip without throwing it back up. The moment the liquid hit his taste buds, he felt an almost savage hunger sweep through him. He pushed up off the ground onto his knees and greedily grabbed for the can, spilling some of the contents on his shirt.
“Slow down,” Sammy whispered in a soothing voice. “That’s it. Let me help you.”
Dust forced his hands down to his lap, clenching them, and let Sammy hold the can while he drank as fast as he could. He finished the can in seconds. She must have realized that he needed more because she ordered Todd to get her another one before he finished the first. Three cans later, he was able to sit on the ground next to the car with his back against the open driver’s side.
“Here you go, Dust,” Todd said, holding out several bags of chips.
Dust looked up at Todd and gave him a weak smile. “Thanks, Todd,” he whispered in a rough voice.
“No problem,” Todd replied, hanging out of the back seat window. “That was even cooler than the disappearing through the door thing that you do.”
Dust gave a dry laugh as he shakily opened a bag of potato chips. He reached in and grabbed a handful before stuffing the lot of them in his mouth. A soft moan of pleasure escaped him as the salty chips sent a flood of energy into his system.
“That good, huh?” Sammy teased, sitting down across from him.
“Yeah,” Dust mumbled around the mouthful of crunchy snack food.
“I smell gas,” Todd complained.
Sammy lifted her head and sniffed the air. A frown creased her brow and she stood up. Dust groaned and pushed off the ground with one hand while hanging onto the bag of chips with the other. He could smell it now, too.
“It looks like one of the cans was punctured,” Sammy said, standing on the edge of the driver’s door.
“We need to put it in the gas tank before it runs out,” Dust muttered, tilting the bag to refill his mouth.
“I can do it,” Sammy said, glancing over her shoulder at him with a chuckle. “You finish eating.”
“Okay,” Dust agreed with a salty grin before turning to look at Todd. “Do we have any more cans of fruit?”
Todd nodded. “Yeah, we have some pears and some apricots,” he said, sliding back down to look inside one of the bags in the very back of the car. “How many do you want?”
“Five,” Dust automatically replied before he glanced up at Sammy when she turned from releasing the leaking gas can to stare at him with a raised eyebrow. “Two,” he hastily corrected. “I’ll take two.”
He stepped back when Sammy stepped down from the door frame with the gas can. She tilted it to keep the dime-size holes in the top of the plastic container from pouring down over her. He quickly stepped around her to open the gas cap before moving back against the side of the culvert again.
He watched as she extended the spout and slowly tilted it so that the gas went into the tank and not all over the ground. Popping open the first can of fruit, he drank the heavy syrup before picking out the tasty tidbits. With each mouthful, he was feeling better.
“Thank you again,” Sammy said.
Dust paused and frowned. Her head was tilted slightly away from him so he couldn’t see her face. He licked his lips and swallowed the fruit in his mouth before he spoke.
“For what?” He asked in confusion.
Sammy glanced over her shoulder at him for a second before refocusing on what she was doing. He saw her draw in a deep breath. She was silent for a second before he heard her softly spoken words.
“For saving us again,” she replied.
Dust set the empty fruit can down on the ground by his feet and took a step closer to Sammy. He gently reached out and took the nearly empty container from her hands and set it down on the ground next to the tire. Turning her around to face him, he lifted his hand to gently tilt her head back so that she was forced to look at him.
“You never have to thank me for that,” Dust whispered, looking down at her.
Dust wasn’t consciously aware that his hand was sliding along Sammy’s jaw and around to the back of her neck. Or that he was pulling her towards him. All he was aware of was that he was slowly drowning in her hazel eyes. Her eyes widened and her lips parted when he started to bend his head. Deep down, he knew he should stop, but that thought seemed to evaporate as fast as it formed in his mind.
Her eyes fluttered for a brief second before they closed as his lips settled over hers in a kiss that shocked them both. He had never kissed a girl before, and if he had to guess, Sammy had never been kissed either. He wasn’t real sure what to do, just that he liked the feel of her in his arms as they wrapped around her and the soft touch of her lips against his. He would have taken more time to explore if he hadn’t felt a tug on his left arm.
Pulling back, he looked to the side with a dazed expression. Todd was staring back at him with an expression that was a mixture of distaste and amusement.
“Why are you kissing Sammy?” Todd asked, tilting his head and staring up at Dust.
Dust turned to look down at Sammy. She was looking away from her little brother and had bowed her head so he couldn’t see her face again. His hand rose and he ran his fingers down along her cheek.
“Because I wanted to,” Dust murmured.
Sammy’s head jerked up and she stared at him in silence. A look of uncertainty and worry darkened her eyes. He wished he could wave his hand and erase it. He was about to say something to her when a sense of warning swept through him. Turning, he pushed Sammy protectively between him and the car. He turned his body and held his hands up, palms facing outward to show he was unarmed, as several dark shapes appeared on both sides of the culvert.
“I told you I saw a car coming down the road,” a deep voice said from the front of the car.
Chapter 10
Uncertainty:
Dust stared uneasily as four men stepped into the large culvert. He kept Sammy behind him. Todd must have realized that this could also be dangerous as he had disappeared back into the car and was crouched down in the seat. Glancing back and forth, Dust waited to see which one spoke first.
“That was some fancy driving for a boy,” an older man reflected.
Dust noticed that he stopped about four feet away, keeping a safe space between them. The man looked to be in his early fifties. He was partially bald on top and had a weathered face like he had spent most of his life outside in the sun. He was dressed in a pair of faded jeans with a dark red button up shirt and a pair of well-worn boots. There was nothing unusual about the man’s clothing. What caught and held Dust’s attention was the rifle in the man’s hand.
“Thank you,” Dust murmured, shifting to the left a little when another man tried to get a good look at Sammy.
“Where you from?” The man asked.
“South,” Dust replied.
A soft chuckle from another one of the men drew Dust’s attention. He stiffened when the younger man pointed his gun at him. Instinctively, his hands clenched in preparation.
“He doesn’t talk much, does he, Beau?” The young man chuckled.
“Shut up, Alex, and keep your damn gun pointed down,” Beau replied in a curt tone. “How many times do I have to tell you that? You’re going to shoot somebody one of these days.”
“What’s the girl’s name?” Another one of the men asked, trying to get a better look at Sammy.
Dust turned to look at the man
with a piercing stare. “Why do you want to know?” He asked.
“Back off, Howard,” Beau said with a wave of his hand. “If you haven’t figured it out, my name is Beau. I’m in charge of the compound. That is Alex, Howard, and Randolph.”
Dust turned to look at each man as Beau pointed to them. He nodded his head to each man, but didn’t say anything. These were the first people other than Sammy and Todd that they’d met. They appeared normal, but then again, so did he. At least, he thought he did. It took a minute for him to realize that Beau was waiting for him to respond in kind. Wiping his right hand down his pant leg, he drew in a deep breath before he spoke.
“I’m Dust,” he said in a husky voice. “This is Sammy. Todd’s in the car.”
Dust watched as Beau nodded and glanced in the car at Todd. Todd murmured a quiet greeting when Dust said his name. His lips tightened when the man looked appraisingly at Sammy before he looked through the back window of the car at the items they had gathered.
“We might as well get back to the compound,” Beau commented. “We got caught out in the storm as well. Randolph and I will ride with you while Alex and Howard drive the trucks.”
“Aw, Beau,” Alex grumbled, shooting Sammy a grin. “I wanted to sit with the girl.”
Beau pursed his lips. “That’s why you are driving the other truck.”
“No,” Dust said in a husky, but determined voice. “We’ll follow you, but no one rides with us.”
“Like hell…,” Alex started to say, but stopped when Beau chuckled.
“No, the boy’s smart. He knows to be cautious. I wish I could say that about some of the others,” Beau commented.
“Others?” Sammy asked, speaking for the first time. “How many others?”
Beau smiled at Sammy. “Ten,” he replied.
“Ten,” Sammy repeated her eyes widening at the thought of there being so many others in one place.
Dust reached back and touched Sammy’s arm. It was just enough for her to know that he wanted her to get in the car. Sammy understood his silent message and slid along the car so that she could crawl through the driver’s side to the passenger’s side. Only when she was safely in the seat did Dust step up to the door.
“We’ll follow you,” he told Beau with a nod of his head.
“Let’s go, boys,” Beau said, jerking his head to the others. “Just drive forward. This ditch goes along for about a half mile before there’s a cutoff where you can drive out.”
Dust nodded and started the car, inching it forward behind the men. He blinked in the bright sunlight. Ahead of him, he could see another large culvert where the other section of road crossed over. It was hard to see what the land above looked like after the tornado. It took a little while for the men to turn the trucks they were driving around. They must have seen the storm coming and headed for the gulch as well, only from the opposite direction.
“Do you think it is safe?” Sammy asked, staring at the two trucks.
“I don’t know,” Dust admitted reluctantly.
“I don’t like this, Sammy,” Todd said, leaning forward. “You couldn’t see the other guy, but he kept staring at you.”
“He wasn’t the only one,” Dust muttered under his breath.
Sammy giggled and reached over to lay her hand on his thigh. An intense wave of possessiveness swept through Dust at her touch. She and Todd were his to protect. Sammy may not have seen Randolph’s intense look, but Dust had. A part of him wanted to take off, just keep heading north, while another part of him wondered if he was just being paranoid.
“Thank you, both of you, for looking out for me,” Sammy replied in a quiet voice. “Why don’t we see what it is like? If we don’t like it, we take off and keep heading north.”
“I think we should do that now,” Todd said in a sullen voice before he sat back in his seat.
Dust looked in the rearview mirror at Todd. The little boy sat with his arms crossed and a mutinous, stubborn pout on his face. He winked at Todd to let him know that he felt the same way. Still, if Sammy wanted to give it a couple of days, it might be worth it. They could all use some decent sleep and a hot meal.
“Todd, hide the food we’ve found under the other stuff,” Dust ordered as another worry struck him.
“Why?” Todd asked, already undoing his seatbelt so he could start moving things around.
“You’re afraid they’ll take our food?” Sammy asked, biting her bottom lip and turning to watch Todd.
Dust nodded. “We just need to be careful. If they take our food, who knows when we’ll find any more,” he said, glancing at her. “I want you and Todd to stay close to me. We can’t let them separate us.”
Sammy nodded. “Okay,” she whispered, glancing back out the front window as they began to slow down.
None of them said anything else as they drew to a stop along a flat area with the remains of several buildings. The truck in the front paused in front of a long half domed building. It looked like it had been half buried on each side except the front.
“What is it?” Sammy asked, leaning forward and bracing her hands on the dash.
Dust shook his head. “I’m not sure,” he muttered, bending forward as well so he could see better. “Just, stay close to me.”
“We will,” Sammy promised, sitting back and resting her hand on his leg again.
Dust swallowed when he saw one of the men open the double doors. He eased his foot off the brake and let the car roll forward behind the other two as they entered the building. There was something about Sammy’s touch that calmed him while at the same time confused him.
He thought about the kiss he had given her earlier. He didn’t know why he had kissed her. Heck, he didn’t even realize what he was doing until his lips touched hers. It had been… amazing! He was startled when he felt a warmth deep inside him and his… Dust glanced down at his lap in shock.
“Dust, stop!” Sammy said, moving her hand to brace against the dash again.
Dust’s head jerked up, and he slammed his foot on the brake just inches from the truck in front of him. He felt his cheeks warm and was thankful for the dark interior of the building so that Sammy couldn’t see him blushing. Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, he hoped that the rest of his body returned to normal before it was light enough to see.
“I don’t see no one else,” Todd said, breaking into his thoughts.
Dust looked around the interior of the building. Dozens of large crates were stacked along the walls. Further down, he could see two more trucks parked. They were larger box trucks used for moving and hauling stuff. He reached for the door handle and pushed it opened. Twisting, he breathed a sigh of relief when he felt his body return to normal.
He grabbed the back door when Todd pushed it open and slid out. Closing it, Dust glanced over at Sammy as she got out of the passenger side and closed the door. Reaching down, he pulled the keys out of the ignition and pocketed them before pressing the lock button on the door and closing it.
“This way,” Beau said, nodding his head. “The rest of you unload the trucks and bring the items downstairs.”
“Downstairs?” Sammy whispered, reaching out her hand to grab a hold of Todd’s cold fingers.
Dust blinked. Now, he remembered where he had seen a building like this. It had been in one of his games. He reached out and stopped Sammy when she started to walk ahead of him.
“It’s an old military silo,” he whispered, nodding to the end of the building. They had buildings like this. They must have moved this one in front of the entrance to the silo.”
Fear swept across Sammy’s face and she pulled back, dragging Todd with her. Dust could feel her trembling and she was shaking her head. He slid his hand down her arm and grasped her free hand.
“I’ll be with you,” he promised, squeezing her fingers. “I told you I’d protect you and Todd.”
Sammy visibly swallowed and nodded her head. “I know, but aren’t they really deep? This isn’t like the storm sh
elter behind the house. This goes way down in the ground, doesn’t it?” She asked in a barely audible voice.
“Come on, Dust,” Beau called out. “I’ll introduce the three of you to the others.”
“Yeah, it does,” Dust responded before he started forward. “Together.”
“Together,” Sammy and Todd murmured at the same time as they stepped up to the narrow staircase leading down into the ground.
Chapter 11
Downward:
Dust kept his eyes on the man in front of him. He didn’t like that Alex and Howard had stayed back in the upper area, but he liked it even less that Randolph was walking behind them. There was something about the guy that rubbed Dust the wrong way. It was more than the way he looked at Sammy. There was just a feeling about the guy that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
“Are you okay?” Sammy whispered, leaning down over his shoulder on the steps.
Dust squeezed Sammy’s hand and nodded. He didn’t want to talk in the narrow stairwell. They went down several flights before they reached an open doorway. He paused for a moment, taking in the large, circular room. It looked like a command center of some type.
“This way,” Beau said, glancing over his shoulder. “We still have a long way to go. This room is just used for getting ready to go topside.”
Dust nodded. He heard Todd whisper to Sammy in excitement. He also felt the tremble in Sammy’s hand as they moved deeper underground. She was squeezing his fingers to the point they were beginning to grow numb.
“I was stationed here back in the early sixties. After the Cold War ended the government sold these off. I figured it was a good deal, especially since they were selling them real cheap. I’ve been working on remodeling it for the past twenty years. After fragments of the comet hit the Earth, I realized it was the best investment I had ever made,” Beau said, walking down a wide corridor to a thick, red metal door.