End of the Road

by LS Hawker

  “She’s right,” Berko said.

  “How are we going to get there?” Elias said.

  “We’ve got to—”

  “Oh, shit!” Berko yelled.

  “What is it, Berko?”

  “They must have trackers on our phones,” he said. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before. Remember the instant messaging app they had us download? Turn them off! Turn them off now. It may be too late. If they’re not looking at it now, they’re going to know soon. We’re going to have to leave our phones right here. Right now.”

  “But—” Elias said.

  “You guys are supposed to be the computer geniuses, not me,” Berko said. “And you didn’t think of that?”

  If she didn’t have her phone, she couldn’t call her parents. But maybe their phones were tapped. Maybe she couldn’t call them anyway.

  “Damn it,” Elias said, turning off his phone and throwing it to the ground. “Gilby, can some of your people come get us maybe?”

  “My people are nowhere near here,” Gilby said.

  “We need to walk then,” Elias said.

  Berko looked around. “But where are we going to go?”

  Jade said, “The closest place is a horse ranch about three miles from here that way.” She pointed. “We need to go there and see if we can borrow a car. And then we’re going to my parents’ to get the AIP cartridge and Elias is going to hack into the system from there, and we’ll load this program to stop Clementine.”

  “How are you doing, Berko?” Elias said. “Can you walk three miles?”

  “I’ll try,” he said.

  “How about you, Gilby?” Elias said.

  Gilby gave him a thumbs-up with one hand while the other clutched his side.

  Berko stood and stumbled. Without talking about it, Jade took one of his arms and put it over her shoulders, and Elias did the same with the other, and they set off for the horse ranch, Gilby falling in step behind them.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Jade calculated having to drag Berko three miles should take them no more than three hours.

  “You should leave me here,” Berko said. “I’m going to hold you up. I can’t do it.”

  “We’re not leaving you,” Elias said grimly.

  They picked their way across what used to be pasture land and aimed toward the horse ranch. Jade hoped they were headed the right way. The darkness made it difficult to tell, and her eyes began to play tricks on her. She saw dark figures everywhere, and kept jerking this way and that, wringing grunts out of Berko every time she did it.

  They stopped to drink some water before going on. No one spoke, and Jade was grateful for that. She found herself drawing her head into her shoulders, as if that could keep her head from exploding if a bullet hit it.

  Jade’s right heel had developed a blister, and the pain burned up her leg.

  “Does anyone have a watch?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Elias said. He lifted his wrist and pressed a button on the watch. It illuminated. “It’s ten thirty,” he said.

  Berko pulled the last water bottle out of the backpack and cracked it open. “Sorry, guys,” he said and drank.

  “Not your fault,” Jade said.

  “I’ve always had a nervous stomach. This is the first time it’s had a real reason to be nervous.”

  “Can’t be helped,” Elias said, and put Berko’s arm over his shoulders.

  Jade could see the light over the barn in the distance, but no matter how long they walked, it never seemed to get any closer.

  Finally, they were walking behind a stand of large trees to the south of the house, trying not to be seen. She heard a dog bark sleepily inside, as if just going through the motions.

  “What time is it?” Jade asked.

  Elias looked at his watch. “Midnight.”

  Inside the dark house, the dog continued an intermittent bark.

  “Should we knock on the door and ask to use the phone?” Gilby said.

  “Okay,” Jade said.

  If these folks were like most ranchers and farmers, they’d have been in bed for a good two hours by now.

  Jade stepped out from behind the trees when a pair of hands grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back behind the tree. It was, of course, Elias.

  “Dude,” she said. “You really gotta stop yanking on my arms. I’m going to need them someday.”

  “Wait a minute,” he said. He stood thinking.

  “What?”

  “What if . . . these people are part of SiPraTech?”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Jade said uncertainly. “I talked to the woman and . . .”

  “But what if it’s not?” Elias said. “What if these people were planted here to help keep an eye on us?”

  She and Berko looked at each other. The sweat running down Jade’s neck tickled, making her nerves even more jangled. This couldn’t be the case. They were getting as paranoid as their captors. But she and her friends had good reason.

  “So what do you suggest?” Jade said. “The next town beyond Miranda is fifteen miles away. It would take us all night, and Berko, you’d never make it.”

  “Why don’t we hitchhike?” Elias said.

  “Have you seen any cars driving by here?” Berko said. “Ever?”

  Jade heard the horses in the barn nicker and shift restlessly on this hot night.

  Horses.

  “We could . . . borrow some horses,” she said.

  “We can’t steal horses,” Gilby said.

  “Borrow, not steal,” Jade said. “We’ll write a note. Let them know we’re going to leave them in the next town over—Niskuwe City.”

  “I’m not sure I can do it,” Gilby said.

  The jostling of a horse ride could definitely screw up Gilby’s ribs even more. But what choice did they have? Leave him here and hope he’d be found by a friendly? Not likely.

  “What if the horses won’t come with us?” Berko said.

  “I’ve been riding since I was big enough to walk,” Elias said. “It’s our only option.”

  Berko looked alarmed. “I can’t ride,” he said.

  “Don’t worry,” Elias said. “We’ll help you.”

  “No,” Berko said. “You don’t understand. I’m terrified of horses.”

  Jade tried to subdue her agitation. “Berko, I want you to think about what’s going to happen if we don’t get that AIP cartridge. We have to get away from here and find a car and . . .” The thought of all this exhausted her. She had a nearly irresistible urge to lie down behind that stand of trees and fall asleep. But she had to rally. “We can’t let them upload Clementine. It’s happening, and we’ll be responsible.”

  But he shook his head, and Jade realized what was going on. If he only focused on his fear of horses, he wouldn’t have to think about the real danger. Because if any of them thought about it too much, they’d be paralyzed.

  “Just come with us to the horse barn,” she said. “We’ll just go over there and look at them.”

  They walked to the barn, Jade in the lead, and she tingled with excitement. This she could do. She was good at riding. But she wondered with trepidation how these horses would react to people they didn’t know. She’d been around some horses in the past that wouldn’t let strangers touch them.

  “Wait here,” she said.

  Jade opened the barn door slowly. Inside, in the first stall to the right, a bay stuck her head out. The name plate on her door said Sugar. Jade approached her slowly, assessing the horse’s stress level. Sugar neighed at her in greeting.

  “Hi,” Jade said, and slowly raised her hand. She wished she had an apple or some carrots or a lump of sugar. But she talked in a low voice, and allowed the horse to sniff her hand. Then she petted her nose, the velvety smoothness bringing a special kind of calm to Jade. “How many friends you have in there?” she asked, peering around the bay.

  There were four other horses inside, and she’d need to figure out which were the most docile.
It would be tricky getting Berko up on the horse and able to ride away. It would take her and Elias a good thirty minutes to saddle and bridle four horses. Quietly. She went inside the barn and went around and said hello to all the horses. One was a pregnant mare, so that one was out. In addition to the bay, a palomino named Gabby, and a brown horse named Obadiah nickered curiously in their stalls. The last horse, huge and black, stamped and snorted at her, not happy with the strangers in his barn. She reached out slowly toward him and he snapped at her. She glanced over her shoulder, hoping Berko hadn’t seen this. But she could tell by his wide eyes he had.

  “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I’ll ride him.”

  But would he let her?

  A chalkboard nailed to the wall offered a tiny piece of chalk to write with. She scrawled WE HAD AN EMERGENCY AND HAD TO BORROW YOUR HORSES. WE WILL LEAVE THEM IN NISKUWE CITY BY THE WATER TOWER.

  She didn’t know what else to do.

  She saddled the bay first. Then she approached the black one. When she opened his stall door, he reared up on his hind legs. The wooden sign on his door said Kodak. She had to find something to give this horse to settle him down, so she searched the cabinets along the west wall. Nothing but brushes and currycombs and other horsey stuff. She reached into one and found a withered apple, but it would have to do. She rubbed it on her shirt and walked back to Kodak’s stall.

  “Kodak,” she whispered. “You like apples? You want an apple? You hungry?”

  She pulled out her pocketknife and cut it in fourths and held one of them out toward the suspicious horse. He snapped at her again but less convincingly this time. He wanted that apple. Jade held it with her left hand and reached up with her right to pat the horse’s neck. Kodak sniffed the apple piece and then ate it out of her hand. “That’s a good boy,” she said, patting his neck. She reached for the halter and held it out for the horse to examine. She held out another apple piece in front of the halter so Kodak would put his head in it to get the apple. He shook his head and whinnied loudly.

  “Yes,” she said. “You can’t have it unless you let me bridle you. That’s that.”

  He argued some more, shaking his head, Jade nodding at him, until he plunged his head forward and took the apple and almost part of Jade’s hand with it. She got the halter over his head. She placed a Southwestern patterned horse blanket on his back then pulled the heavy saddle off the stall side. She put it on top of the blanket and handed him the third piece of apple while she cinched it up. He held his breath to make himself bigger so the saddle wouldn’t fit properly, but got too interested in the apple, so she was able to cinch it.

  When she turned, Elias was saddling the palomino and had already done Obadiah. It seemed like months ago that she learned his uncle worked on a ranch in New Mexico, but it was only day before yesterday. Jade led Kodak out of his stall and out of the barn, holding on to the jingling parts of the bridle to keep them from making noise.

  Gilby got up on the brown with difficulty, the effort further injuring his ribs. He waited, agony etching his face.

  “Okay, Berko,” Jade whispered. “Let’s get you in the saddle.”

  “No,” Berko said. “I can’t go. I can’t do it.”

  Elias made a cradle of his hands at the bottom edge of the horse’s stomach. “Put your foot here and your right hand on the saddle horn. Put your left hand on my shoulder. Then step up and throw your right leg over the horse.”

  “Did you not hear what I said?” Berko said. “I can’t.”

  Elias got close to his face and said, “This is not the time to nerd out. This is the time to be a superhero. This is your time.”

  Elias’s words seemed to fill Berko with renewed determination. He followed directions and on the second try got his leg over the palomino’s back. He sat like a sack of potatoes in the saddle, clutching the saddle horn and sweating, looking terrified. She felt sorry for him, but not sorry enough to let him stay here. Martin and his people would find him here. He had to come with them.

  Elias got on Sugar, the bay, and she mounted Kodak, who made a half attempt at rearing. She still had a quarter of the apple to give him if things got rough. And now they needed to make their way to the town beyond Miranda.

  “We’re going to walk, Berko. You need to grip the horse with your knees. I’m betting Gabby will follow wherever these two go, so you don’t need to move the reins. Hold them loosely. I’ll lead, and Elias will fall in behind you. All right? We ready?”

  Kodak jumped this way and that, trying to let her know he was in charge. He didn’t know yet that she was. She murmured at him and gently nudged her heel into his side. He didn’t budge, so she kicked harder and he reared, pawing the air, but Jade held on.

  She heard Berko gasp as she leaned forward and threw her weight down to get him onto four legs. “Come on, Kodak. Let’s go.” He danced sideways and then in a circle. She yanked hard on the reins. The trick was to not feel any fear, because the horse knew if you were nervous and used that against you. She wasn’t afraid of Kodak. She’d been on nastier horses than this.

  She’d have to push him to a full gallop and wear him out a little to calm him down, so she dug her heels in. Kodak lurched forward and ran as fast as he could.

  This felt good.

  She lay flat against the horse’s back, streamlining for greater speed, hearing the clump-jingle, clump-jingle as the distance disappeared beneath the horse’s hooves.

  After about a quarter mile of full-on gallop, she tugged at the reins to slow him, and he gladly did.

  “Good boy,” she said, slowing him to a walk. She walked him in a large circle, waiting for the other three to catch up, which took two minutes. By the time they caught up, Kodak’s breathing had almost returned to normal.

  She faced her companions, watching them come toward her, Gilby grim with pain and poor Berko tense and terrified, him also flat to the saddle, holding on for dear life. Elias looked natural and comfortable on the bay.

  She pulled up beside Berko. “How are you doing?” she asked.

  He didn’t say anything, just looked grimly determined.

  “You think you might be ready to try a canter?”

  He shook his head vehemently. “What about a—what do you call it? Trot?”

  “You don’t want to do that,” she said. “That’ll rattle your bones and make you sore all over, especially your butt. Plus it’s more wearing on a horse to trot than to canter.”

  “Galloping is much smoother. We can’t wait. I’m sorry. We’ve got to get there.”

  Berko kept shaking his head.

  Elias nodded at her.

  She dug her heels into Kodak’s sides again, said, “Hya!” and they raced forward. Elias did the same, and Gabby took the hint and galloped behind them.

  “Stop!” Berko yelled. Luckily they were far enough away from the house now to not attract attention.

  “No,” Jade yelled over her shoulder. “We’ll stop when we get there. Just hang on!”

  They kicked up dust on the dirt road, and Jade was terrified they’d run into someone before they got to the lake park area where they could get off the main road and go through the back country.

  They slowed to a walk and Jade suddenly had an urge to look back.

  She did, and watched the Compound lights cycle on one by one. The operation was back up and running, which meant Martin and the militia had discovered Jade and her friends had escaped.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  When her comrades realized Jade had stopped, they all stopped too and wheeled their horses around.

  “Shit,” Elias said. “They’re going to come for us. We need to get off the road, but where—”

  “Follow me,” Jade said. She dug her heels into Kodak’s sides and whipped them with the reins.

  “Let’s go!” she shouted and didn’t wait for anyone.

  Jade guided her horse to a barbed wire fence alongside a pasture and urged him to a gallop. She kept looking back at the Compound, w
ondering how long until the Hummers went out onto the road toward them.

  She almost missed it and had to double back to the makeshift gate, which was just a section of the fence that could be swung away and then put back in place with a loop of wire over one of the fenceposts.

  Jade managed to reach the loop from horseback and popped it off the post. Then she peeled it back and motioned for the others to go on through.

  “Is it safe?” Gilby said, panting. “Isn’t this trespassing?”

  “Is it safe to get caught by Martin and his pals? You can wait here if you want, but we’re going across this pasture. We can’t stay on the road.”

  They galloped across the pasture, the horses’ hooves thundering across the prairie on this overcast, moonless night, Jade terrified one of the animals would stumble into a prairie dog hole and break its leg, but it couldn’t be helped.

  The next time Jade looked over her shoulder, two vehicles trundled down the county road in their direction and two were going the opposite direction on the county road.

  They galloped toward Niskuwe City, Jade's mind whirring with static all the way, thinking the same thought over and over. Gottafindacargottafindacargottafindacar . . .

  Niskuwe City was larger than Miranda, and the first chance they got, she directed the horse train toward the water tower a few blocks from downtown. The horses made an ungodly racket, blowing and breathing hard, their hooves clopping noisily on pavement.

  Jade kept an eye out for citizens but saw only one car drive by at twenty miles an hour. Chances were good they’d attract a lot of attention if anyone saw them riding horses in the dead of night. But the town was quiet and dark for the most part, and Jade prayed this town would be like other little towns in regard to their cars—with the keys left in them.

  When they stopped, Berko slipped out of the saddle and spilled onto the ground.

  Jade tied their horses next to the base of the water tower, which had a livestock watering tank.

  The horses dipped their heads into the tank and Jade patted Kodak’s neck. “Thank you, friend,” she said to him. “Sorry for riding you so hard.”