by S. S. Segran
“I suppose. And I heard you’re letting them take your Jeep?”
Roberto nodded. “It’s a gas-guzzler, but it’ll keep them safe and I’m happy with that.”
Roshon suddenly piped up. “Daddy, dinner!”
Samuel jumped up. “Whoops!” He hurried to the barbecue and opened the lid to let the smoke escape. He checked the beef patties to make sure they were thoroughly cooked and began sliding them onto hamburger buns as Roberto called the friends and their siblings over.
As they ate, jokes were cracked and laughter was plentiful, as were the smiles. The families were close to one another, mainly because the parents had been good friends since they themselves were teenagers.
Ice cream was served for dessert as the sun began to set. Kody caught his father’s eye and smiled. Samuel smiled and nodded in return. Excusing himself, Kody stood up and headed into the house, then returned a minute later with a fair-sized tote bag.
“Whatcha got there, Kode-man?” Jag asked curiously.
Kody wore a sly look. “When you guys are done eating, come join me.” He headed out to the center of the backyard and sat on the grass, waiting.
The rest looked at each other inquisitively. The kids gobbled down the remainder of their ice cream—with Roshon saying “Owie, brain freeze!”—and hurried down the steps of the deck to Kody. The adults finished a little more slowly, then made their way over.
From inside the bag, Kody carefully produced five rocket fireworks. The group gasped in delight and Roshon clapped his hands. “Yay!”
“I got these for a couple of reasons,” Kody said as he got to his feet and began setting up the rockets on the ground. “The first is for fun, of course—just all of us being here and having a great time. The second reason I got these is to kick off our road trip.”
A whoop came from Jag, Tegan, Mariah and Aari. They raised their fists in the air and wore huge smiles. “Love you, man!” Jag laughed.
Kody raised his fist as well, a large grin on his face. “So the idea is, we’ll each fire a rocket and see how high it goes.”
Roshon ran up to Kody and wrapped his arms around his brother’s leg. “Kody, I wanna fire a rocket.”
Kody picked Roshon up. “Tell you what, why don’t you help me fire mine?”
Roshon draped his arms around Kody’s neck happily. “Okay!”
It warmed Samuel’s heart to see them like that. Looking at his boys, he felt reassured that he and his wife had done right by their children. It had always been a question in the back of their minds—in the back of any good parent’s mind—whether everything they were doing as they raised their kids was shaping them to be the best they could be.
They watched as Jag lit the first rocket. There were cheers as the missile flew up into the sky before exploding into a bright array of colors. Tegan launched hers next, then Mariah, then Aari. When it was Kody’s turn, he kept to his word and let Roshon help him light the rocket’s fuse before scooping him into his arms and bouncing off to a safe distance. Roshon watched along with the others, his mouth open and his hands covering his ears, as the final rocket burst and gave the darkened sky vibrant colors that lit up the night.
Another round of cheers and laughter swept over the families. Samuel watched it all with a small smile. While the chat with Roberto had allayed his fears, he couldn’t help but feel some trepidation as he watched the five laughing and enjoying each other’s company, their arms around one another. He could clearly recall the heart-stopping moment when he regained consciousness in a hospital after the crash, only to be told that the five were nowhere to be found.
He slowly looked up at the sky as the stars began to appear and silently pleaded, Keep them safe.
4
Kody packed the last of the five’s baggage into the back of the black Grand Cherokee. When he was sure everything was tucked in properly, he readjusted his sunglasses, closed the rear hatch and gave the others a thumb’s up. “We’re good to go!”
The families were crowded in the Sanchez’s driveway to see the friends off. Jag, Tegan, Aari and Mariah went to their parents and siblings to give them one last hug. Kody turned to his own family and hugged his mother and father tightly before gathering his brothers in a huddle.
He turned to the youngest Tyler of the family and removed his shades, his green eyes warm. “Alright, Roshon, you gotta be good, okay? Don’t be a brat all day long.”
Roshon looked thoughtful. “Is half a day okay?”
“As long as that half a day is when you’re sleeping.” He smiled and turned to his ten-year-old brother. “George, you know the drill.”
“Of course I do. Don’t worry about me.” George lifted his chin and grinned up at Kody.
Kody hugged them both, then put his shades back on. Someone placed a heavy hand on his shoulder and he looked to see his father gazing down at him in hopeful confidence and a hint of concern. “Take care, okay? Be safe. Don’t do anything senseless . . . please.”
Resting his hand on his father’s, Kody gave him a reassuring smile. “We’ll be fine, Dad, don’t worry. No dumb stunts, I promise.”
He heard a whistle and turned to see his friends already piling into the Jeep. He waved goodbye to his family then jogged back to the vehicle and slid into the back with Mariah and Aari while Jag and Tegan sat up front.
“Get the AC on, I can feel the heat already,” Aari said, grimacing.
Jag started the engine and quickly turned on the air conditioning. The five breathed a sigh of relief. It was only eight in the morning, but the heat was building up rapidly. Kody turned around so he could see their families standing at the back of the vehicle. He started to wave as Jag drove the car onto the road. Aari and Mariah joined him.
“Okay, keep waving, keep waving . . . ” Kody watched carefully until their families were out of sight, then faced the front, whooping. “And we’re clear! Woo!”
His friends laughed. There was a feeling of release as they left behind their school and homes. For the first time in nearly a year, they were starting to feel truly at ease and their sense of adventure was returning, coursing through their veins like fire.
They passed by a small park, barely noticing the parents sitting on benches and their little ones monkeying on the playground. As the Jeep rolled past, a woman with a white streak in her jet-black hair sitting astride a motorcycle picked up her phone. She tapped the device a couple of times before placing it to her ear. She stared intently at the retreating SUV as she waited for the person on the other end to pick up.
There was a click and a voice came on. “Hello?”
The woman only said two words before hanging up: “They’ve left.”
* * *
Kody watched Aari as his friend pulled a slim laptop out from his black sling bag. As he opened it, Kody let out a mew of incredulity. “Are you serious, dude?”
“Eh?” Aari didn’t look up from the screen.
“We’ve only just left for a trip and you instantly pull out your inner geek.”
“Inner geek?” Tegan echoed. “He’s never had to bring it out. He pretty much wears it all day, every day. Like a cape.”
“Captain Geek,” Mariah said with a grin. “No, wait. Super Geek.”
Aari raised an eyebrow calmly without taking his eyes off the screen. “Laugh it up all you want, powder puffs. Who’s the guy who fixes your tech, takes care of malware and all the bad stuff you let onto your computers?”
“I’m sticking up for Aari, here,” Jag chimed in. “I’ve saved a lot of cash with him helping me out.”
“What else do you do on that little computer of yours aside from surfing and gaming?” Mariah asked.
Aari’s fingers moved quickly over the keyboard. “I don’t use a laptop to game. That’s what an actual computer’s for.”
“But what do you do?”
“Stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“Programming and whatnot. Nothing any of you would really be interested in.”
“Try us,” Jag said.
Kody rested with his head back against the headrest, eyes half-closed as he listened to the other four chat. Aari spoke about some of the knowledge he’d been picking up on his own for the past few years. Kody managed to follow along for a bit but was completely lost—and somewhat bored—after Aari explained different methods to achieve denial-of-service. His thoughts wandered off and he slipped into his own world.
Jag noticed Kody’s quietness. “Hey, Kody, you alright?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Just thinking.”
“Uh oh,” Aari said jokingly. “ ‘Thinking’, he says. Something’s definitely wrong.”
“Let’s hear him out before jumping to any conclusions,” Jag replied, somewhat amused. “What’s on your mind, man?”
Kody rubbed the top of his head. “It’s nice to be away from . . . from home. It’s weird to say that, because you’d think of home as a place of safety and warmth. Home is where you’d want to be. But we’re pretty much running away from it.”
The others were silent for a few moments until Aari spoke up. “We’re not really running away. We just need a break from it.”
“Because home’s not home anymore.”
The words sank in and silence took hold of them again. Jag glanced at Kody through the rear-view mirror. “Home . . . home is where we are. As long as we’re together, that’s home. Nothing will change that. Not the idiots in Great Falls, not the media, not the doctors.”
They sure played a huge part in making home feel unfriendly, Kody thought, but kept it to himself. Out loud, he said, “Sorry for bringing it up. It just bears down on you after a while, you know?”
Mariah smiled comfortingly at him. “Let it out. This trip is for healing.”
He gave her a half-smile in return.
“How about some music?” Tegan asked.
“Anything but the radio,” Aari said, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Everything is so repetitive nowadays.”
“Agreed. That’s why we’ve got these”—Tegan plugged her iPod into the car’s system—“and voila! No need to worry about recycled tunes.”
They drove for a few hours, taking in each other’s company and jamming to the long playlist of songs. The scenery of shrubs and faraway mountains rolled by and they stopped taking notice of it after a while. They were nearing the Montana-Idaho border when there was a brief pause as one of the songs ended. In that period of silence, a collective rumble sounded from their stomachs. Laughter ensued and Jag said, “I guess it’s time for lunch.”
Kody nodded. “I think you’re right.”
Tegan craned around to look at Kody and poked his knee. “You don’t get a say when we eat, Mr. I-Eat-A-Lot-But-Don’t-Gain-Weight.”
He looked miffed and adopted a snob tone. “How dare you, peasant? I must eat, otherwise my metabolism will end me.” He reached over to mess up her long ash-brown hair. She retreated instantly and grumbled something incomprehensible as she combed her fingers through her layers.
“Let’s check this place out,” Jag said as he turned off of the highway into a town. A sign greeted them.
“Welcome to Llama?” Kody read, frowning.
Jag chuckled. “It’s Lima, not llama.”
“Oh, good. I’d hate to have lunch where a bunch of fluffy long-necked animals will spit at me.”
“Um, yeah . . . ”
As they drove up and down the streets, they realized quickly that Lima was a very, very small town. Kody pressed his face against his window. “Where’s the food?” he groaned. “The restaurants? The takeout?”
Mariah pushed Aari’s head back so she could look out of his window. “Hey, what about this little thing?” She pointed to a small building with her free hand as Aari flailed. “Mountain High Subs.”
“Let’s give it a shot.” Jag carefully parked the car and the five got out. He locked the doors as they hastily made their way out of the heat and into the shop. Once inside, they looked around, pleasantly surprised by how charming the deli was. They ordered their sandwiches and happily munched away before grabbing fresh-made ice cream.
“This is so good,” Mariah commented as she started to chomp down on a waffle cone. “I’m glad we stopped here.”
“I wonder what we’ll have for dinner,” Kody said.
“We just had lunch!”
“What’s your point?”
“You are unbelievable.”
He beamed. “Why, thank you!”
They quickly finished their dessert and headed out after thanking the storekeepers, who smiled and waved. They got back into the Jeep and Jag drove toward the highway, leaving the small town behind.
They crossed the border into Idaho and traveled for a while until they reached Idaho Falls, whereupon Kody cleared his throat. “Um, I gotta take a leak.”
Jag made a sound of exasperation. “Dude, you shoulda gone when we stopped for lunch!”
“I didn’t have to go at that time, though.”
“Okay, okay—here’s a donut shop. Be quick.” Jag parked the car and Kody hopped out.
“Was it smart to let him go into a shop that sells food?” Tegan murmured.
“We just had lunch. He’s not gonna get anything.”
A couple of minutes later, Kody walked out of the store with a large cardboard box in one hand and a half-eaten donut in the other. Jag groaned and slid down in his seat.
Tegan smiled, her gray eyes lit with laughter. “Never underestimate that guy’s appetite. After seventeen years with him, you should know that.”
Kody strutted back to the Jeep and got in. “Glazed delights, anyone?”
“Why not.” Aari reached past Mariah and took a fudge-covered donut for himself. “You know,” he said thoughtfully as he took a bite, “if we were to drive thataway to Highway 20, we’d be heading toward Yellowstone National Park.”
“As much as I’d love to visit, I don’t think we have time for a detour,” Jag said regretfully as he put the Jeep into drive.
“I know, but . . . ” Aari took another bite. “You guys know that there’s a huge active volcano in Yellowstone, right?” When the others nodded, he continued. “Did you know it’s actually considered a super-volcano?”
“A super-volcano?” Tegan repeated.
“Yeah, the Yellowstone Caldera. Some folks are saying that it’s actually long overdue for an eruption.”
“That’s a real jolly thought.”
“It gets better. Because of its sheer size, when it erupts, the effects would be devastating. Everything within a hundred-mile radius would be destroyed. Ash would hang in the air for ages. With so much of all that stuff in the atmosphere, it’s not just North America, but the entire planet that would be affected. Sunlight would be blocked, making the temperature fall. It will be nature’s equivalent of a nuclear winter.”
Kody, who had been silently listening with a perturbed look on his face, emitted a funny sound. “Can we please not talk of depressing doomsday scenarios? Donuts are present here, and all you guys care to chat about is the end of the world as we know it. Come on, people. Priorities.”
“Alright, alright.” Mariah reached behind her to tie her copper-blonde hair into a ponytail. “Teegs, where are we spending the night?”
“I think we were gonna stay at a motel in . . . hold on, let me check the GPS . . . Ah, right. Salt Lake City, Utah.”
“Three states in one day. Neat.”
Tegan grinned. “I have a funny feeling Jag’s gonna be so done with this car once we return from this trip, what with all the driving we have to do.”
Jag scoffed. “How could I ever get tired of a car? Especially a beast like this.” He patted the dashboard affectionately.
Kody rested his head against the window, yawning, then muttered, “Food coma.”
Mariah glanced at him. “All the food’s catching up with you now, huh? How many donuts did you eat?”
“Like four,” he groaned. “And they were pretty dar
n big.”
She sighed. “Well, I hope you don’t get carsick. I wouldn’t want to be next to you when you throw up.”
“Gee, thanks for the concern.”
“Anytime, buddy boy.”
As they drove on, the chatter slowly died. Kody fought to keep his eyes open as Tegan, Aari and Mariah nodded off. He wanted to keep Jag company, but Jag could tell that he was struggling to remain awake.
“Take a nap, Kode-man,” he advised. “I’ll be fine.”
Kody stifled back another yawn. “You sure?”
“Yeah. You look barely alive right now.”
“Mmh . . . ” The sound had barely left his mouth when his head lolled back against the headrest and he fell into a deep sleep.
5
One of the most family-friendly places in the United States, Provo, Utah was teeming with activity this particular day. With summer in and school out, kids and teenagers were biking, hiking, and enjoying the many outdoor activities that the town offered. Families were swarming the parks, trails, and recreation centers. Drivers had to be careful around neighborhoods and look out for kids and pets.
In one of the neighborhoods made up of different-colored homes with single-car garages, a small blue house sat nondescriptly near the end of the street, overlooking Utah Lake. The view was splendid. The front yard was well-kept, with trimmed hedges and a perfectly manicured lawn.
Inside, the house was equally neat and organized, with the exception of a few papers strewn on a large teakwood desk next to a window. Upon the mantle of the living room were several framed photos. In between them, a carefully-placed box held a United States military decoration of valor, the Silver Star Medal.
A man dressed in a dark polo shirt and fitted jeans sat on a sofa facing a television that had been muted. He tinkered with a tennis ball-sized device in his hands; a light-shelled glass container that looked like an oval perfume bottle with a deeply-notched surface. Attached at the top was a safety lever and a pin. The container was filled with luminescent blue liquid.
The man glanced at the watch on his wrist and continued to fiddle with the device for a minute more before placing the object into a cotton-lined pouch. He then very carefully tucked the pouch into a pocket in his backpack, and headed to the bathroom where he turned on the tap and splashed his face with cold water. It was late afternoon and the heat was clinging to the day as it always did this time of the year until after the sun began to set. When he was done washing he grabbed a towel off of a rack and patted himself dry, then studied himself in the mirror. He eyed the scars on the left side of his face and grumped at the recollection of his mishap two months prior. Looking down at his arms where longer scars were somewhat visible, he shrugged to himself. At least he was alive and in terrific physical shape.