by Susan Kim
When the newcomer turned to Caleb, he seemed polite enough. “I’m Lewt. And this here’s my boys.”
As the two shook hands, Rafe was inwardly seething. He didn’t like the way Caleb inserted himself into the conversation. It made Rafe look weak, as if he weren’t the real leader. Didn’t Caleb think he could handle a perfectly ordinary situation by himself? Rafe hitched up his jeans in a display of decisiveness.
“Sorry, but you can’t join us,” he told Lewt in a brusque voice. “And I’m afraid we can’t give you any of our supplies. I wish you luck on your travels.”
Caleb nodded; then he and Esther started back to the camp. Rafe was following when Lewt caught up with him.
“Wait,” he said to Rafe in a low voice. “We might be of use to you.”
“Oh, yeah?” Rafe said. All he wanted now was supper. “How’s that?”
“Well, Quell here’s real strong. Boy like that comes in handy when something needs lifting. And Tahlik knows how to fix tires pretty good in case any of your vehicles need mending.”
Rafe gave him a pinched smile. “Thanks, but we already got folks who can do that.” Before he could leave, Lewt spoke one last time.
“Then how about you go with us, where we’re going?” he said. “Seems there should be room for us all, if it’s what they say it is.”
“Yeah?” Rafe said. “And where’s that?”
“Mundreel.”
Rafe stopped and stared at the other boy. He glanced at Caleb, who had already disappeared into the darkness. Then he swiveled away, excited, confused, and self-conscious. He shifted his torch to his other hand and wiped the copious sweat that had somehow sprung up on his face.
Lewt drew closer. “You heard of it, I can tell.”
“Matter of fact, it’s where we’re headed,” Rafe said. He felt faint.
The other boy smiled his peculiarly wolflike grin. “Well, looks like we come along at the right time then. Right, boys?” This last was addressed to Quell and Tahlik, who giggled once more. “We know how to get there. We just need some help with provisions and backup, case there’s trouble. We could travel together. After all, there’s strength in numbers. Ain’t that what they say?”
Rafe avoided Lewt’s piercing gaze and looked down at the dirt.
He alone knew that his own directions were worse than shaky. And no matter how hard he studied them, Rafe couldn’t make any sense whatsoever out of Joseph’s maps. As a result, he had only the vaguest sense of where they were headed.
“Okay,” he said, impulsively.
“Great.” Lewt slapped his companions on the back. “You won’t regret it. We’ll just go get our stuff.” Smiling, the three boys turned and disappeared into the night.
Alone, Rafe breathed a sigh of relief. Then Caleb stepped once more from the darkness.
“What’d you do that for?” His voice was stony. “We don’t know them. And we got enough people to care for.”
“You got that girl to come,” Rafe retorted. “The useless one, with the messed-up face. At least the mutant can hunt.” He turned to go, but Caleb grabbed his arm.
“That’s not an answer.”
“Then I’m in charge,” Rafe said, freeing himself. “That’s the answer.”
Rafe walked away. He knew Caleb was staring after him with anger, but, as he reminded himself, it was loser’s anger. Rafe had won this little fight of theirs and there was nothing, really, Caleb could do to change it.
Rafe could hear the strangers laughing in the distance.
That night, the three newcomers stayed by themselves on the outskirts of the bonfire. They spoke to no one as they ate their meager rations. Later, as the townspeople scattered through the village’s desolate buildings looking for a secure place to sleep, they instead chose to stay in the open, under the cloudless night sky.
When Rafe awoke in the morning, he discovered that the book of maps he had taken from Joseph had disappeared from his wagon. But at breakfast, he saw Lewt poring over it, nodding his head as if it made sense to him and clapping it shut when Rafe approached.
“Yeah,” Lewt said, “it’s what I thought. It’s the same as our directions.” He then suggested the caravan continue on the side road in order to avoid the oil spill. After several wrong turns and many hours, the caravan finally returned to the desolate interstate.
The three strangers rode their own bicycles, which were dusty, rickety, and defaced by obscene carvings. Each carried an overstuffed backpack or shoulder bag. Lewt’s was a battered black duffel half as tall as he was, with the words OKLAHOMA STATE COWBOYS on the side. Like the others, he kept it with him at all times.
Most of the time, Tahlik and Quell rode up front, next to Rafe. They said little to nothing, pedaling in silence. Lewt, on the other hand, was more sociable and kept dropping back to chat with the girls in the caravan.
Many of them were receptive to his playful tone and rough good looks. He often bicycled next to Rhea, bending close to say things that made her giggle. Asha would ride near him, too, trying to draw his attention. Later that afternoon, when the townspeople encountered a break in the road and had to carry everything over by hand, he went out of his way to help the girls, talking to them the whole time. The only females he ignored were Skar and Michal, barely glancing at either of them. As for Esther, she did her best to avoid him.
Throughout, Caleb kept watch over Lewt. Once or twice, he attempted to make eye contact, which Lewt avoided. In fact, he noticed that the boy had nothing to do with any of the males, even after the caravan stopped for the night.
Since there had been no exits for miles, Rafe ordered everyone to pull their wagons under the shelter of an overpass and set up camp on the concrete shoulders that tilted upward at a steep angle. Yet after dinner, Lewt and his companions once again moved off by themselves, setting up their own camp near an abandoned truck farther down the road.
Esther had set up their sleeping bags against one of the massive pillars that held up the overpass. It wasn’t much, but it afforded her family at least a modicum of privacy.
Around her were the rest of the townspeople, buried in piles of quilts and blankets. Only an occasional snore or muffled exclamation broke the silence. To her right, Kai had finally nodded off. But she could tell that next to her, Caleb lay wide awake.
Esther couldn’t sleep, either: She flopped over for the hundredth time, her hip bones pressing against the hard road. Then she shifted to be nearer to Caleb. She strained to see his features in the dark, then ran one finger, light as a feather, along his profile. When she pressed forward to kiss his neck, he turned to her.
“Maybe this will help,” he whispered with a smile.
Esther moved into his arms. It was risky, she knew, with so many people close by. Yet it had been so long, neither could control themselves any longer. It became a challenge, an oddly exciting one, not to be detected by the others.
When it was over, they lay drenched in sweat, their fingers intertwined.
“I love you,” Esther whispered.
“I love you, too.” But Esther could tell he was thinking of something else.
“What is it?” But she knew: It was the strangers. She didn’t trust them, either.
After a moment, Caleb sat up and pulled on his jeans. “I’ll be right back.”
Walking with care, Caleb picked his way down the steep ramp filled with slumbering bodies and then along the highway. The three strangers were huddled close together around a small campfire, too engrossed in whatever they were doing to look up. But when Caleb stepped on a shard of broken plastic, Lewt grabbed a lit branch and swung it upward to cast light down the road.
When he saw it was Caleb, he hesitated, then smiled.
“What can we do for you?” His voice sounded too casual. “Abel, was that the name?” There was something around Lewt’s mouth, which he wiped off on his sleeve. Behind him, Caleb noticed the other boys trying to cover something on the ground.
“Caleb.”
&nb
sp; “Right . . . you’re the one with Esther. What can we do for you?”
“I want to know what you’re up to.”
“We’re sleeping. What’s it look like?”
Tahlik snickered and even Quell gave a bearlike rumble, which seemed to indicate amusement. Caleb kept his voice steady.
“Where’d you get it?” he asked.
“Get what?”
“What you’re eating. You can’t smell it from down the road, but I can now.”
Lewt stared at Caleb, the bonfire throwing flickering shadows across his face. Then he shrugged and dropped the branch back into the fire. The flames blazed up, revealing platters of cooked beans and flatbread.
“So you caught us,” Lewt said. “Congratulations.”
“When did you steal it? Just now, when everybody was asleep?”
Lewt chuckled, then shook his head, still smiling. “Now that hurts my feelings,” he drawled. “We didn’t steal this. Did we, boys?” The other two murmured a negative. “It may surprise you to hear it, but some folks are happy to share. Like the pretty gal whose mind ain’t right? We saved her life, so she wanted to give us extra. And Rhea—turns out her partner died in an earthquake, poor thing, so she’s a little lonely. Other gals felt the same way.” He licked his lips, which glistened with saliva. “Why, you might even say, they feel like they owed us.”
Caleb’s heart had begun to pound. His old impulse was returning, that dangerous, violent part of himself he had sworn off for good; it was starting to fill his veins and pulse through his body like cold fire. His fingers twitched at his side, reaching for the weapon he no longer carried.
With a shudder, Caleb closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Slowly, he forced his hand to relax.
“This is the last night,” he said.
“Why? You going somewhere?” Lewt’s tone was insolent and the others laughed.
Caleb met his eyes. “The last night it happens.”
Lewt smiled, yet seemed unnerved. He spread his hands, indicating the array of food, and this time, he sounded sincere.
“I got a better idea. Why don’t you just help yourself?” he said in a soft voice. “Not just tonight. Any time we get some, you get some, too. Who would ever know?”
Caleb said nothing, and under his unblinking gaze, Lewt’s smile faltered and then died. “All right,” he muttered as he glanced away. “You made your point.”
Esther was waiting by the time Caleb returned. “Everything okay?” she whispered.
He nodded and kissed her on the forehead as he slipped beneath their shared blanket.
“Try to sleep,” he said.
In the darkness, Esther curled close to him, draping one arm across his chest as if in protection. Within moments, the soft and even sound of her breathing filled the air.
But Caleb was unable to sleep, for every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was Lewt’s leering face. Instead, he stared up at the night sky and counted stars until, one by one, they were scrubbed out by the light of a new day.
The next morning was even more suffocating than usual. Esther could feel the heat of the road beneath her sneakers, and far away, waves of air danced on the horizon like a field of tall grass.
She trudged behind her wagon and paused to run her fingers through her spiky hair, trying to catch a breeze. She and Skar were taking turns on the bicycle that pulled the wagon; one would walk behind, pushing it when needed.
In front of them was Rafe’s opulent wagon. It moved slowly; the load was clearly too much for the boy pedaling its bicycle, who struggled to keep it moving. As she and Skar drew alongside, Esther wondered why no one was helping push it from behind. She glanced inside and was startled to see Lewt.
He was leaning back, propped up on his elbows, the book of maps in front of him. When they passed, it seemed Joseph noticed him, too. He opened the tarp and leaned out to speak to him.
“Excuse me,” he called. “Are you sure we’re heading the right way?”
Lewt, who had been dozing off, cocked an eye open. “Sorry?”
“It seems we’re heading west.” Joseph’s voice quavered; it cost him to talk to the stranger like this. “But if I could just look at my maps, I’m sure I could—”
“Hush,” Esther said.
“No, let him talk.” Lewt spoke deliberately. “I just wanted to see if your maps match with our directions. And they do.”
“That’s fine,” Joseph said. He seemed frightened by the boy’s attention. “Never mind.” Then he disappeared behind the tarp.
Lewt settled again into the shade of his vehicle. “You a good friend to that boy, pretty. Esther, I mean,” he said hastily when he saw the flash of anger in her eyes. “You wanted to save him embarrassment. Or worse. That speaks good of you.” He paused, then lowered his voice. “I bet you a good friend to your partner, too.”
His tone was suggestive. Esther ignored it and kept her eyes ahead, although her cheeks flushed. He continued speaking, keeping his voice soft and low so no one else could hear.
“I could use a friend like you. All three of us could. I think maybe you got enough friendship in you to go around.”
Again, Esther said nothing but threw her weight behind the wagon, pushing it onward. “Hey . . . everything okay?” Skar called from the front.
“I’m fine,” Esther replied, her throat tight. To her relief, they had passed Rafe’s wagon by now and within moments pulled even farther ahead. Yet she imagined she could feel Lewt’s gaze, boring into her from behind.
Esther managed to avoid Lewt for the rest of the day. By the time the sun began to drop in the sky, she saw that he was on his bicycle and riding in front of the caravan with Rafe. Without drawing attention to herself, she fell back so she was well out of his view.
“Getting late,” commented Rafe. He had bicycled a great deal that day and had the sore legs to prove it. The caravan was approaching an exit and he raised his arm, ready to pull everyone over for the night. But Lewt shook his head.
“We’re near that shortcut I mentioned,” he said. “Why don’t we get a start on it before we break? It’s a lot more protected than we are here.”
Rafe hesitated, then agreed. By now, he had no idea where they were; there was no choice but to trust Lewt.
Time, he knew, was of the essence. Lewt and his boys, especially Quell, ate a shocking amount. They winked at the food restrictions and helped themselves to seconds, especially when Caleb wasn’t around. Rafe was aware of this, yet felt helpless to enforce the rules; he needed Lewt’s directions too much. As a result, even with strict rationing for the rest of them, their stores of food and water were dangerously low and getting lower.
Taking any shortcut that would trim a day or two off their journey would be well worth it, Rafe decided. So he dropped his hand and let the caravan continue. It wasn’t until the sun brushed the horizon that they finally reached the exit Lewt spoke of.
“That way,” Lewt said, indicating an off-ramp.
The caravan swung its way up the ramp and around a wide circle, where it joined with a smaller road. By now, Joseph had peeked his head from the tarp again.
“Where are we headed?” he asked.
“They say it’s a shortcut,” Esther replied. She too was wary.
The caravan now found itself on a narrow, two-lane road that cut its way through a darkening forest. No one spoke; everyone was too exhausted, and it was a difficult path to navigate, badly damaged by earthquake and deeply pitted and split. Still, they continued.
Skar caught up with Esther. “Why aren’t we stopping for the night?” she asked in a low voice. Esther shook her head. She didn’t know, either. But up ahead, Lewt was waving everyone on, pointing them toward a turn in the road.
“There’s a place to rest up ahead,” he called. His voice was faint but it carried well in the windless dusk. “We just about there.”
Esther saw that the road they turned onto was no more than a street, narrow and heavily wooded on both s
ides. Next to her, Skar stumbled on a fallen branch and Esther grabbed her by the arm to keep her from falling. Lewt ordered them to take one turn, then another.
Eventually, they all came to a stop. They couldn’t help it; there was simply no way to proceed.
They faced an immovable barrier, a wall of a fallen bridge, which blocked any forward motion. On either side, they were hemmed in by the forest and its dense undergrowth. The travelers were crushed together, wagons overlapping, bicycles pushed into others. There was general confusion as people milled around, looking to Lewt for an explanation. But he had disappeared from his position at the head of the caravan. Esther looked for Caleb but couldn’t find him in the squall of others, in the growing darkness.
“Look,” someone said, pointing.
Several townspeople turned. They saw something too bizarre to comprehend.
Lewt, Tahlik, and Quell stood at the back of the group, straddling their bicycles at the open mouth of the road. The smallest held a loaded and cocked hunting slingshot at eye level. The largest carried a retractable steel club, which he tapped against an open palm. And Lewt gripped the strangest object of all, an item made of wood and steel, with a long, narrow muzzle.
“If you do what we say, no one gets hurt,” Lewt said. His attempts at charm were over; his voice was cold and businesslike. “Pass up any weapons you got.”
The crowd murmured as, one by one, they began to understand what was happening. They had walked willingly into a literal enclosure, boxed in on all sides; there was no way to escape.
Asha turned to Eli. “What’s going on?” she asked in a plaintive voice. “What’re my friends doing?”
“Never mind,” he said, his voice dead.
Tahlik had lit a torch, which he held high. Now he moved among the townspeople, collecting items that he handed off to Quell. More than a few resisted. One of them, a sixteen-year-old boy, exchanged sharp words with Tahlik and shoved him. As Tahlik staggered backward, Quell stepped forward with surprising speed and hit the boy, hard, on the skull. As he sank to his knees, two others jumped on the giant and took hold of his arms, as another attempted to seize his club.