by Robert Reed
I blinked and looked at him.
He said, “Why don’t we go down? All of us?”
“I just wanted to talk…to Dr. Florida,” I persisted.
“Only he can’t come here, son.”
“But—?”
“Ryder. He has his own problems now. All right?”
I felt terribly selfish all at once. I hugged myself and thought for a long moment, then decided, “If the others go, I’ll go.”
Tina said, “Honey?”
Cody stood and put down the dart gun and took a long breath, then she closed her fists.
Tina said, “We want you safe. Please?”
Cody drove her right fist into the ceiling, one long board screeching and jumping loose; and she shook her hand afterwards, grimacing.
“Please?” Tina repeated.
Beth said, “I’m staying,” with a soft voice.
“No,” said Cody. “You’re coming too.”
“I’m going to go,” Marshall announced. Then he rose and started to cry. I didn’t think any of us could cry anymore. I felt embarrassed and wished he would stop himself.
Jack said, “You big baby,” and tried to kick him. Jack’s face was dark and crumbling. “You big shit baby—”
Cody pushed between them, saying, “Quit.”
“Can we climb down?” asked Dad. “In peace?”
“Sounds find to me,” said Marshall’s dad.
I glanced outside. Dr. Samuelson and the guards who were still awake were standing in a ragged line in front of their battered van, watching us, and beside them were Mom and Marshall’s mom and May. I saw the blowing grass and the houses beyond, a couple of Jack’s brothers sitting on the back porch, smoking and watching us—
Dad said, “Ryder?”
I turned.
He smiled at me and said, “Never mind.”
Beth told us, “I’m not leaving.” She looked tiny sitting in the corner, on the floor, and Cody knelt beside her and said something into her ear. Then she said, “Come here, Marshall. Help me.”
The two of them picked Beth up by her arms.
She said, “They need me. I’ll just talk to them,” without strength, speaking about her folks.
Cody said, “Easy,” and Beth was standing. Cody said, “Go first,” and Beth climbed into the maze. Cody followed, making certain she wouldn’t try to hide. Then Marshall left, and me. Dad was swinging a leg out the window, straining to catch the topmost rung of the ladder, both of his hands clinging to the window frame and his knuckles white and sweat beading on his forehead.
“I’ll lock up,” Jack promised.
“But you’re coming?” I asked.
“In a minute.”
I slid through the gloom, smelling people and feeling so very tired, yet no longer able to imagine sleep. I would never sleep again, I told myself. I was stupid with fatigue. Turn and turn and turn, down and up and down again, then out of the maze for the last time. For the last time I was straddling the branch worn smooth by all of our butts, and Beth and then Cody were on the ground, then Marshall, and I came down and jumped the last few feet and stumbled. I was down and tasting the dust in the air, very dry and rough against my teeth, and Mom asked if I was all right. I said, “Yes,” and rose, dusting myself with both hands.
Dad was off the ladder.
Marshall’s dad was as clumsy as Marshall, almost falling before he was clear of the window. Then Tina came out without hitches, Cody’s grace showing through. She didn’t look where she was setting her feet, and I watched her and then Jack. Jack was sliding out onto the polished branch, a snake sack dangling from one hand.
“What’s that?” asked Marshall’s mom. “What’s he got?”
Cody said, “He caught them yesterday.”
“Snakes?” she squealed.
Dad was looking for Lillith. He asked Dr. Samuelson, “Where did she go?”
“The girl’s house,” he explained. “Beth’s.”
Dad said, “All the luggage is in the van.”
“We’ll walk,” May suggested. “Why don’t we walk them over?”
Everyone nodded in a sluggish way. We organized ourselves, kids with their folks and Jack jumping down among us. He untied the sack and pulled out bull snakes and a pair of tiny ringnecks, throwing them into the brush. He didn’t bother putting their tongues to his face. He left his garter snakes in the sack.
“Call Lillith,” said Dad. “Have her wait.”
“You’re walking straight over there?” Dr. Samuelson seemed worried that we might cause more trouble. “Is that the plan?”
“Straight over,” said Dad.
We walked down the slope and across the bottoms. Suddenly Jack shot past us, running, and for a moment I thought he was escaping. Then I saw the sack in one hand and him flipping boards and concrete with his free hand, moving quickly…with enormous intensity…as if there was no work more vital in the world…
“What’s he doing?” asked Marshall’s dad.
“What are you doing?” asked Cody. “Jack?”
But he had no time for answers. He shook his head and found something, chasing it through the highest weeds and kicking up brown bugs and coming into view again, his arms bleeding and black bugs sucking at his flesh. A broad female garter snake, pregnant and placid, dangled from his free hand while he opened the sack, putting her inside now. Safe now. Saved, I told myself. I realized what he was doing.
We crossed into the woods.
“Where are we?” asked Mom. She admitted, “I am lost.”
I was walking between my folks. Cody and Cody’s moms were ahead; Marshall and Marshall’s folks were behind, Beth in front of them. Mom told me, “I guess we should tell you to be careful…out there…and behave—”
Dad made a sound. It wasn’t a word, it was a sound.
I glanced behind us. Jack had come up alongside Beth. “I’m getting as many as possible,” he explained. “They’re tough and adaptable, so I’m going to take them.”
Mom sobbed.
“I meant what I said,” Dad told me. “About being proud, son.” He paused, then he said, “We’re both so proud. And would you please promise us something? Remember we were proud? Every so often, please?”
“I will.”
Mom stopped and hugged me, crying.
I hugged her back and then Dad too, and we were walking again, climbing through the shadowy woods. I saw a pair of bambis hiding in the brush, their bodies rigid and their eyes like glass. I saw Cody hugging her moms and Beth now coming closer to us, and I felt like a brown leaf in the sun. I had no weight besides my skeleton. I wished I was an old, old man and all of this was some ancient memory and with a blink of my eyes—I blinked—I could be past it, beyond it, free of the ache.
Then I heard a voice, soft and colorless.
It came from up in the trees, I thought. I heard someone calling for Beth, and I was so very tired that I started looking for someone on a high branch. Did I know that voice? It was a woman’s voice, and I knew which woman. I said, “Beth?” as she bolted past me, racing up the path, Mom now asking, “Who is it? What’s happening?”
Beth was past everyone now. Cody said, “Look,” and pointed and then ran too. I followed her.
Three figures were standing on the stone staircase.
I came out from under the trees and saw Lillith’s face, then blinked and saw two people dressed in flowing long clothes with enormous hats on their little heads, and gloves, and veils, and the weak soft urgent voices were saying, “Beth? Beth?” through filter masks.
She ran up the stairs to them. “Get inside!” she cried. “Are you crazy? You get inside, now now now!”
Her father said, “You have to leave.”
“No arguments,” said her mother.
“I told you! I’m not!” Beth was with them now. Cody and I were climbing after her, nearly there, and Lillith was behind them and leaning against the stone wall, so terribly spent that she was taking this chance to breathe.
“You’re going with your friends!” said Beth’s father. His voice was dry and strange. “We told you—!”
“You can’t make me!” Beth screeched.
Her parents seemed to glance at each other, and then something was decided. They moved with deliberation. Her mother said, “If we have to,” and reached, slapping Beth with one gloved hand.
“You’re going!” her father said. He slapped her too.
Beth was shocked. She crumbled on a step and wept, and her parents wept too. Then her mother kicked at her body. Not to bruise or break bones, no, but hard enough. Lillith was moaning, “Please! Please, no!” and Cody was beside me, stunned like me. Motionless.
They pleaded for Beth to leave, and now, and they swatted her. Beth held up her hands and tried to fend off their blows. But at last she couldn’t take any more, and she promised, “I’ll go! Stop! I’ll go with them, just stop!” and Cody grabbed Beth’s father. She told me to get Beth’s mother now. Fast.
The woman felt tiny and cool beneath her clothes. She had no strength. I could have split her arms without trying, yet she managed to kick at Beth a few more times. “You have to go! You have to!” I had them apart, and the wind gusted. I had her turned toward me, and the wind parted her long veils, for a moment, and I saw the pale false skin etched with enormous scars and one glass eye and no trace of hair on her chalk-colored scalp. I was startled. I gasped and stumbled and hit the old handrail with the small of my back, the tired metal flexing, and I wheeled by instinct with my eyes gazing out at the shaggy trees and the bright open air, half a dozen hands grasping me and pulling me back to safety…
Fourteen
Dr. Samuelson drove fast along the mostly empty streets. It was late in the day, and too much time had been wasted. Lillith was in the seat beside Dr. Samuelson, clinging to her door and gnawing on one of her fists, and the rest of us were bunched close and waiting. I felt Beth on my left, her knees pulled up to her face and her face dipped so her eyes were covered and her mouth, and her glossy black hair hung long and loose over everything. She wouldn’t move or make a sound. I was between her and Cody, and sometimes Cody would glance at Beth and shake her head sadly. Once she reached past me to squeeze Beth’s shoulder, trying to give reassurance.
For a moment I smelled Cody and felt her gentle heat.
Jack and Marshall were behind us. I heard them stirring among the big suitcases. “We’re leaving the world,” I told myself. “The five of us are going to Hawaii, then into the sky, with hundreds and hundreds of kids…”
How did I feel?
I didn’t know. There were moments—brief and terrifyingly strange—when it seemed as though I’d forgotten what was happening to us. Almost. I would blink and look out the van’s windows, wondering where we were going and where were my folks and why was my heart beating so fast and hard inside my aching chest. Stress and exhaustion were doing it, I was sure. And the sheer enormity of events. Then I would blink and remember everything in a flash, and I would shudder. And maybe Cody sensed my mood, because she touched me like she touched Beth, squeezing, her hand strong like a vise and steady like a vise, and warm.
We slowed as we approached the mansion’s gates. Dr. Samuelson said, “Who brought them?” and I saw several dozen soldiers wearing the green U.N. uniforms. Large guns were slung over their shoulders, and they were working to build a low wall of sandbags just beyond the gate. “What happened to the guards?” snapped Dr. Samuelson.
“Will they let us through?” asked Lillith.
One soldier lifted a hand, and Dr. Samuelson braked. Then a different soldier came close and stared at him, nothing showing on his face. At last he said, “They pass,” and we were waved through the gates and the sandbag wall, most of the soldiers pausing long enough to watch us. I could see their eyes and their hard, worldly expressions. Did they know where we were going? I wondered. How could they know? Dr. Samuelson had told us it was an enormous secret—the shuttles and the asteroid and everything. I was watching the soldiers over my shoulder, and Jack said, “It’s okay. I’ve got you here with me.” His snake sack was in his lap, one hand around the well-lashed neck. “We’re doing okay,” he promised. “We’re doing fine.”
Marshall said, “Let me see one.”
I watched the two of them.
“Please?” asked Marshall. “For a minute?”
Jack said, “I suppose,” and unlashed the sack. Then he reached inside with his free hand, his eyes narrowing, and he nabbed a male garter snake with vivid yellow stripes and red blotches on its green sides. Jack was bleeding from one finger. Minuscule red drops formed a U-shaped wound, and when he handed the snake to Marshall he wiped away the blood, closing the tiny punctures in an instant.
Marshall held the snake close to his face, watching it slide between his long fingers. The forked tongue appeared and blurred and then vanished again. Marshall put the snake’s face flush to one ear.
“What are you doing?” asked Jack.
“Listening.” He seemed to be smiling with the corners of his eyes, finding something funny. “It’s talking to me.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
We were driving alongside the mansion, approaching the turn-off for the underground garage. Dr. Samuelson asked if there were any more soldiers lurking nearby, and Lillith said, “No. I don’t see any. Does anyone?”
Nobody answered.
“What’s he telling you?” asked Jack.
“About the fire. The one in the woods.” said Marshall. He breathed and put down the snake and scratched his ear. “A couple nights ago.”
“The one you set?” asked Jack.
“Maybe.”
“Did he see the fire?”
“Maybe.”
“I saw it too,” Jack told him. “Are you done holding him?”
We reached the turn-off. Dr. Samuelson cranked the wheels, steering us up the tree-lined road. There wasn’t any other traffic; we hadn’t seen a single vehicle since the gates. The shadows were long and black, the day close to finished. The emptiness and darkness sent out conspiratorial vibrations, and I felt suddenly chilled.
Jack took the snake from Marshall, returning him to his mates and then securing the sack.
“What did you see?” asked Marshall. “Everything?”
“You didn’t notice me?”
“No.”
“I was there.” Jack described the blast and the fire and how he ran across the bottoms while the flames were still visible. “Some big hell of a blast,” he told Marshall.
“Did you see the concrete block go flying?”
Jack said, “No. I couldn’t.”
Marshall seemed ready to speak, then he stopped himself. His hands lay empty on his lap, side by side, and he held himself very still.
“What did it look like?” asked Jack. “The block, I mean.”
“I don’t know.”
“You must have seen it.”
“Not really,” Marshall admitted. “I had this fuse, see…and when I lit it I just ran—”
“What? You didn’t even watch?” Jack shook his head. He might have been angry, or maybe he was laughing. “All that trouble and you went and hid somewhere?”
“In the slabs,” Marshall confessed. “I was scared—”
“You are such a coward. God! You really are, Marshall!”
Marshall didn’t want to fight. He thought hard for a moment, his eyes focused on a point straight before his face…and his gray voice said, “I am. Yeah,” while he nodded. “I’m a coward, sure.” Then something bright and serene came into his face, particularly into his eyes. It was the same expression he wore whenever he solved a tough puzzle or some hairy equation—anything that had troubled him for a long while—and he started to nod and actually giggled for a moment. “I guess I am, all right.”
And we thump-thumped into the cool darkness of the garage.
Lillith took me to Dr. Florida while the others waited. “He really wants a few m
inutes with you, and then we’re leaving. Okay?” She looked sick. It occurred to me that Jack didn’t have any clothes, only his snake sack—“We’ll get some later,” she promised. “In Hawaii, maybe.” We were walking fast. I asked about the soldiers at the gates, and she said, “They’re here to help guard us. To protect the labs and our scientists,” and her tired eyes didn’t seem sure of her words. As an afterthought, she told me, “They were invited. Dr. Florida invited them,” and she touched my shoulder. “Let’s be quiet now, Ryder. I have to think.”
The hallways were as empty as the roads outside. We didn’t see anyone, not even when we crossed into the research section. The heavy door to Dr. Florida’s office yielded to Lillith’s thumbprint. I blinked and saw a big round bed where the desk had stood. There were the same screens set in the walls, and I glanced at them before my eyes returned to the bed. Dr. Florida sat upright against a pile of pillows. He was so slight and so pale that he seemed beyond age and wear, more an apparition than a human being, and his dry, dead voice was saying, “Come here, Ryder. Good to see you. Come. Come here.”
I was at the foot of the bed, unsure of myself. I glanced sideways and saw the blackness of space on one large screen, scattered stars and then a brilliant flash of light. I gasped and blinked. “Quite something,” he said to me. All at once the view shifted, and I saw some enormous machine with the earth behind it, and the machine tilted a long slender barrel and squirted another dose of energy at something.
Lillith said, “We have to hurry.”
He said, “We’re putting up a fight,” and he sighed. “Ryder? Look at me, Ryder. Please?”
I turned and said nothing.
He lifted a long arm. “Closer,” he said. “Right up to here.”
I approached him until he could touch my shoulder, then he told me, “You’ve been giving people a real headache, haven’t you?”
I shrugged.
“You’ve made the right decision, Ryder. Coming here like this. And I’m telling you that you shouldn’t feel guilty, not for anything.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m the one who is guilty, Ryder.”
I watched his dry, pale face.