She smiled, crooked front teeth showing she’d never had any dental work done, which was odd. “I’m Katie. I come out here every Wednesday. Deb’s bus is the only one that still comes, but if it does, it’s Cecily’s business.”
“How old are you?”
“Nineteen, I think. I know the year I was born, just not the month. Yeah, this is an AK-47. Pretty nice, right?” She held it up with ease.
“Can I…?” He opened his hands. Reaching. Hopeful.
Suddenly she was guarded. “I don’t know. Who are you exactly? I get that they are related to Cecily, but you…”
“Never mind, I’m sorry. I study history. I’ve just never even touched a gun. Just seen them in glass cases and in pictures, videos. Games.” He took a step back. “It would take some time to explain who I am, but I used to live in Tempe. Then something happened. My memory was erased, but I got it back.”
“Because you took out your implant.”
“Yeah.”
“I bet that was awful.” She took the mag out of the gun and walked over to Jamie, looking up. “Here.”
The gun was heavier than he thought it would be. He tried to hold it with one hand, away from his body, aiming at a wall with an old, shredded painting of a cactus bloom on it. He put his finger on the trigger and pulled. “I like it,” he said with a grin.
“Me too. Hey, let’s get them out of the heat. That little girl’s gonna die in a minute.”
He felt stupid for forgetting them just to touch a gun. “Of course. What am I thinking?”
An hour later, they had bellies full of crackers and fish, washed down with chilled water. Katie told them nothing; she didn’t have a chance. Uncle Steven was doing his best to be charming to her, and even Emily seemed embarrassed for him. Katie, however, didn’t seem to mind. Maybe she thought he was amusing. Who knew what they had out there in Gold Canyon. Steven could be the first guy around her age she’d seen in ages.
It was about time for some answers. “I have to ask. What’s with the gun? Why do you even have one? They aren’t even made anymore, haven’t been for thirty years.”
Katie looked down at the tabletop, shifting in her chair. “I don’t know much. I just do what’s right. I know what I’m supposed to, but not in a way that I don’t think for myself. You know what I mean?”
Jamie assumed that meant she indeed did know something, but wasn’t going to tell, especially three strangers off the last bus in the middle of nowhere. At least she hadn’t reinserted the mag back into the gun.
“Well, we’re all fed and cool, let’s get the supply cart loaded and head out,” said Katie. “It’ll be dark in an hour and that’s when we need to be moving.”
Jamie wondered why that was, but said nothing.
Outside, amidst the old electric buses, a stable was set up and Jamie saw a donkey tied next to a small, four-wheeled wooden cart. It already had food stores in it, but Katie took empty plastic water jugs from the back of the cart and handed two to Jamie and two to Steven. “Fill ‘em up at that spigot there. It’s clean and still works.”
Within an hour, they traveled a sunset-smitten path through a desolate Apache Junction. Nobody spoke much. Emily was having a hard time keeping up, and Jamie asked, “Can she ride in the cart?”
Katie nodded and looked at the child in concern. “For a while. We’ll let her rest.”
Steven asked, “How long does it take to get there?”
“We’ll be there by dawn.”
“If you was gonna be here, why’d she send me a map?” Steven asked.
“Let’s just say I’m not the first person to have this gig,” she said in a soft voice. “Sometimes people disappear in the desert.”
Emily whimpered as Jamie hefted her into the cart. “I don’t want to disappear in the desert. I’m scared, Uncle Steven.”
“No, no, sweetie. There’s nothin’ to be afraid of. There’s four of us. And this pretty young lady has a strong weapon.”
“That thing’s a weapon?”
“It’s called a gun,” Jamie told her. “Lots of people used to have them. They were used in wars. Police used them. Sometimes bad people got them and used them for crime. Now, we don’t need them anymore, so they aren’t made.”
“But she has one,” Emily said.
“She does, doesn’t she?” Jamie responded. His head was feeling much better, and he wanted to clean his wound. It would have to wait. He asked Katie, “What exactly is this apartment complex in Gold Canyon?”
Katie looked off into the distance, where the sun had moments ago dipped below the desert horizon. She took a long sip from a canteen as she walked, her face orange in the light. “There’s so much. You’ll just have to see it. Part of the reason we travel at night is because of G-Floats. They don’t come around these parts at night.”
“I don’t like G-Floats,” Emily said. “It’s a stupid name, too. They hover, they don’t float. And why a G?”
“They were named after an old Internet system,” Jamie told her. “Google. It was a big thing in the early twentieth century. They had cars. The gasoline kind, not on tracks. No floats. They’d drive around and snap pictures, and then later, videos of the world. People could see things they’d never seen before.”
Steven interrupted. “Is it some renegade hideaway? Cec is always into that shady stuff. If it is, wouldn’t it show up on satellites?”
“There’s so much,” she repeated, not explaining anything. She sounded sad, as though her version of the mysterious truth was a tragedy.
They all stayed hydrated, but the night cooled the sandy, rocky desert. Soon after nightfall, Emily slept soundly in the cart. The path they took was part of an old highway from when people still drove gas cars. It was cracked and Emily had to be bouncing like mad, but still she snoozed, at peace with all. And why not? She was going to be reunited with her mother as soon as dawn came. Sleeping would make that happen much faster.
Chapter 12
The half-full moon hung low in the night sky. The city was far enough away that they could see a million stars. Emily still slept, and the burro seemed to be fine with her added weight.
They were now far from any old structures and just walked the road bordered by moonlit desert. Katie suddenly stopped, holding up her arm with a fisted hand. She whispered, “We have to feed and water Sunshine.”
“Is Sunshine the donkey?” Steven asked. “’Cause that should be your name.”
Katie grinned and shook her head at him. “Keep your voice low. There’s coyotes out here. We’re near a wash, and those coyotes like to stick near washes.”
“What’s a wash?” Steven asked.
“It’s where the water runs when it rains,” Katie told him.
“Like a river.”
“Yeah, but it’s dry most of the year. That’s why they are called washes. They just flow when it rains in the summer monsoon season.” She had strapped a feed bag to Sunshine’s head as she talked, and now she stroked the burro’s neck. “Good girl. You’re doing good, you sweet young lady. This is only Sunshine’s second trip to the station. Last burro died from the heat, but she was really old. Still, I was attached to that gal.”
After Sunshine stopped munching, Katie gave her a bucket of water, which she drowned her muzzle in. After that, Katie loaded the gun.
“Why’d you do that?” Jamie asked, looking around for danger.
“I always stop here and rest my burro. I wasn’t kidding about the coyotes. They attack every time I come through. We’re going to have to shoot to scare them off. Maybe even kill a couple, but they make for good food. Just have to know how to cook them.” She scanned the silvery dark horizon. “The next couple hours are tricky. I have a knife.” She looked back and forth between Steven and Jamie. “Sorry, Steven, but Jamie looks like he’s fought before.” She reached in her tunic and pulled out a seven-inch blade, handing it to Jamie.
“What am I supposed to do?” Steven said, sounding offended.
“You,”
Katie said, “stay with Emily no matter what. We have to get her to her mother. Do you understand?” Any casual flirtation she’d allowed had left her tone of voice. Steven didn’t say another word, and Katie put the water bucket in the cart. “Let’s go. Keep your ears open. They sound like crying babies just before they attack.”
Jamie felt tense as they walked in silence. He knew coyotes all too well. They’d raid Tempe during the harshest of the summer months. Back then, he’d mostly thought of them as harmless pests. Animal control used laser stun pointers on the ones who were brave or desperate enough to come into human territory looking for food and water. Then the wild things would be taken back out and left close to some water north of the city.
When Jamie was little, like most little kids, he’d loved animals. He hated thinking of the coyotes being left in a strange place without their families, not knowing where they were or who any of the other coyotes were.
Now, however, walking in the dark with only the cart wheels bumping over the destroyed cement for sound, he suddenly felt differently. They would hunt and kill any meat for food. They had great noses, could sniff out their whereabouts. As he had this thought, Katie made it worse.
“Trouble,” she whispered. “Wind. It’s picked up. Coming from the northeast. They’ll smell us in the southwest. Keep close together.”
They kept going until Katie stopped again. “Did you hear…?” she said.
Jamie heard rustling to his right, somewhere down the slope of the highway in the prickly brush.
“Stay here,” Katie said. “Protect Emily no matter what.” She disappeared into the dark with the gun at attention.
Jamie and Steven looked at each other. “Here,” Jamie said, handing Steven the knife. “I’m more used to hand-to-hand fighting.”
He hesitated and then took it. “Thanks. But they ain’t got hands.”
And then they heard the coyotes howling into the night, all at once, and it did sound like crying babies somewhere just south of them. They were maybe fifty yards away.
Steven cursed and hopped into the cart, standing over Emily. She woke up as soon as the sound hit and started screaming.
“Em, shhh!” Steven whispered.
“What is that?” she squealed.
“Emily, stay calm,” Jamie told her in his steadiest voice. He widened his eyes, trying to let as much moonlight in as possible in hopes he could see them coming. Katie had gone to the west. The coyotes were south, and coming fast.
“I’m so scared,” Emily moaned. She started crying in big heaves before quickly slipping into a full-fledged panic attack.
“It’s okay, honey, I’m here and I got a knife. A big knife. Ain’t no coyote gonna get you,” Steven promised. He crouched down in the cart and held Emily as she sobbed.
The odd yipping, crying howls got closer until Jamie made out the forms of at least a half dozen wild mutts tearing down the highway toward them. Their eyes shined like opals in the moonlight.
“Jamie, man, what do we do?” Steven yelled over the sound.
The coyotes were right on top of them, but to Jamie’s surprise, they jumped the burro first, ignoring the humans.
Jamie counted seven, all tearing and ripping the flesh of the poor kicking and screaming Sunshine.
Emily yelled, “No! Stop!”
“I don’t know what to do!” Steven cried out.
Jamie stood stunned, watching as Sunshine fell to her side. One coyote had taken a fierce deathblow to the head and lay dead, but the other six feasted on the still braying donkey.
Something Jamie never thought he’d hear in real life pierced the air. A long, ear-splitting pattering of gunshot hit his ears. Katie came out of the dark, tunic flying and gun spouting out light with each automatic shot. She screamed as she destroyed the coyotes, their brains and guts flying everywhere, blood splattering onto everything.
At first hearing the sound, Jamie crouched to the ground and plugged his ears, Emily and Steven instinctively following suit.
Katie continued to scream as the gun ran out of ammo and the animals were dead. She ran to Sunshine, kicking a coyote body off her, and held her bleeding head in her lap. “Oh, sweet girl. Oh, sweet, sweet girl.” Tears ran down her cheeks, and Sunshine let out a soft bray, as though saying, “Don’t worry about me. I’m alright.”
In a slow, fluid movement, Katie stood up and said to Jamie, “I need the knife.”
Steven said, “I got it. Here.”
Katie gave Jamie an odd look, but took the knife and quickly slit the dying burro’s throat. She petted Sunshine’s neck as she bled out, cooing and crying. “I raised her,” she said quietly. “I saw her born. Her mother was the last one I used to take.”
Jamie walked over to her and knelt down. Katie was covered in blood. He put an arm around her shoulders. “Katie.”
She looked up at him, eyes swollen.
“Thank you for saving our lives,” he told her.
She blinked several times, and a small, sad smile crossed her lips. “We have about three hours of walking till we get to Gold Canyon. Around sunrise, that’s three hours. Right?”
“Right.”
She stood up and Jamie straightened. She reached into her tunic and pulled out another mag, slipping it into the gun. “There shouldn’t be any more of them, if there’s such thing as luck. Because we couldn’t run into two packs. Right?” She shook her head, waves of moonlit hair falling askew from out of her turban and all down her back. Her hair was matted with blood.
Jamie grabbed a water bottle. “We’ll just need one, right?”
“I’ll grab food,” added Steven.
“I’ll carry another bottle, too. You never know what’s going to happen, and the worst thing is running out of water. It’s even worse than coyotes. Emily, honey. Are you okay?”
Emily stopped crying when the gunshots went off, but now she was at it again. “Poor, poor Sunshine. Why did those dogs eat her? I was so scared.”
“It’ll be alright, Emily,” Katie soothed. She leaned into the cart and pulled Emily out, setting her on her feet. She crouched down and playfully tugged a red pigtail. “I know something about Sunshine that you don’t. But you have to stop crying before I tell you.”
Emily quieted down. “What?” she whispered.
“Sunshine has a baby. Well, she’s a teenager now. Her name is Jenny. That’s what a girl burro is called, so I named her Jenny. Isn’t that a pretty name?”
Emily wiped her eyes. “It is pretty. I never heard that name before. After I see Mama, can I see Jenny?”
“Of course.” Katie smiled at the little girl. “You’re so very brave. Just like your mom.”
Chapter 13
“What is he doing here?” Cecily’s black eyes were exactly that color in the Arizona morning glare of summer. She pointed at Jamie, then walked up to Steven and poked his chest. “Why did you bring him here?” All of Jamie’s worries and feelings of being lost were almost frightened away by her venom. She hated him on sight.
He took a step back.
They stood outside the compound. Katie had explained that the way they kept hidden from G-Floats and satellites was through an old technology used in the 2010s and 2020s. The apartment complex in Gold Canyon had been covered in a low-hanging dome, and both sides were covered in fiber screens. Satellites saw a bankrupt, desolate wasteland, and G-Floats took 3-D videos of the same. Jamie hadn’t seen the inside and at this moment, he didn’t know if he’d get to. This woman wanted nothing to do with him.
Emily clung to her mother. She still cried from seeing her again, but Cecily had only hugged her stiffly, unable to take her stabbing gaze off Jamie. “Mama, it’s just Jamie.” Even though her cheeks were pink and eyes wet, her voice was strong. “He’s like us.”
“I don’t think so,” Cecily said and pried Emily off of her. “Hold my hand.” She turned back to Steven as Emily shrugged and put her palm in her mother’s fist. “Why. Did. You bring him here?”
Her br
other shook his head at her. “Relax, he’s a good guy. Just had his implant yanked too.” They stood nose-to-nose. Cecily was as tall as Steven. She fingered the handgun in the holster at her hip, looking at Jamie again.
“You don’t know anything.”
Jamie wasn’t sure who she was talking to, him or Steven. “I’m sorry,” he said, surprised his voice was as strong as it came out. He glanced at the burro by Katie’s side. It had been with Cecily when they first arrived outside the compound. In an attempt to take the focus off himself, Jamie asked, “Is that Jenny?”
Katie smiled, nodding, but Cecily slowly stepped over to him before the young girl could answer vocally. Although Emily and Steven weren’t affected by Cecily’s attitude, Katie—the coyote slayer and bringer of peace to dying burros—patted Jenny’s neck so hard Jamie could hear it. “You’re not supposed to be here,” Cecily said. He smelled her breath. Spearmint.
He had no idea what he’d do if she wouldn’t let him through. He was about to try his best to calm her, but Steven put his hand on his sister’s shoulder. “Cec, quit, now. I told you he’s alright. You gotta let it go. What the hell’s goin’ on out here, anyhow? What’s with all the secrecy? You ain’t told me nothing in years. You’re in Arizona, you send your daughter to me, you tell me to wait? I think you’re mad.”
“Not now, Stevie.”
“What’s with the guns? You never had guns.”
She spun on him and his arm went flying from her shoulder. “I’ve always had guns. You didn’t know. That’s all.”
“Okay, okay. Like I said, relax. I vouch for him.”
She yanked her chest-length, dark brown straight hair into a ponytail, head down, fanning her red-and-tan neck of the sweat that beaded down it. “Dammit!” The word sounded like a buzzard whose food had been taken just as he’d gotten to the corpse.
“Hey, Cecily,” Katie said. “Um. We gotta get inside. G-Floats soon. You know?”
Cecily turned to Katie. “Hun, not yet. He can’t come in here.”
Disconnected (Implanted Book 1) Page 5