“Shut up! There’s something out there,” said the tattooed girl.
“Thorn went with the Krylovs,” said Rose as she looked around cautiously.
A swooping WHOOOMP cut through the air. A tree trunk whizzed over our heads knocking Sage, Rose, and Waynesburg to the ground. The treetop grazed the trailer scratching the siding with an ear-piercing SQUEEEEEE.
Sage and Rose stumbled to their feet and took off together, disappearing into the night. Waynesburg lay unconscious on the ground, bleeding profusely from a head wound. Reflected firelight danced on the growing pool of blood beneath him. The tattooed girl was nowhere in sight.
“Is everyone all right?” Cole stepped into the campsite.
“You are the best big brother a girl ever had.” Faith smiled at him.
“How about getting this foul crap off us?” said Josh.
Cole ripped away the back of Josh’s sticky cocoon.
“Jonah’s still out cold,” I said. “The girl with the tattoos had a spider that bit me and knocked me out. I don’t know what knocked him out.”
Cole freed me and moved on to Faith. I ran to the picnic table and grabbed a bottle of water. I cracked it and gently tipped it into Jonah’s sleeping mouth.
“It was the girl. She got all of us except Josh,” said Faith.
Cole reached Jonah and removed his cocoon gently, placing him on the ground afterwards. I resumed trying to get Jonah to drink. A few moments later his eyes flickered open. I hugged him. I felt Cole’s stare bore into my back. I didn’t turn to face him.
Ilya stepped into the campsite and I realized the snarl we’d heard had been one of his illusions.
“Speaking of the world’s greatest brother! How did you know?” I said.
“When you screamed for something to get off you, it caught my attention. You come in louder than most of course, even from a hundred miles,” said Ilya.
Suddenly my chair started quivering. The trailer began to tinkle and crack. The plates on the picnic table rattled. Nausea surged up inside me. The ground, the air, and everything around me vibrated. Cole shielded Faith as a branch came down from one of the tall pines overhead. Cole caught the branch and threw it back into the forest.
“Oh shit!” Faith covered her nose and mouth with both hands.
“Was that what I think it was?” I said, frowning as I tried to listen for something, anything.
“That was an earthquake,” said Cole, hanging his head, dejected.
“It wasn’t so bad,” I said.
“Here, no,” said Ilya.
“Damage in rural areas is often minor, even when the epicenter is close. It’s the urban areas which usually suffer. The shaking didn’t last for even a full minute, so the damage shouldn’t be that bad. Let’s pray there are no aftershocks,” said Cole.
“We should go back to the cave for the others,” said Faith.
“We need to get Jonah to a hospital,” I said.
“No, I’m fine.”
“He’ll have to wait in line behind people with life threatening injuries. They can’t offer him any useful treatment. We’re better off to try to keep hydrating him ourselves,” said Josh.
“Can we even get back into San Francisco?” I asked.
“We should at least try,” said Ilya.
“What do we do now, after we meet up with Nellie, Bruno, Ralph, and Adelaide? We’ve failed,” I said.
“We should still go to the NCEDC at Berkeley. We can’t undo what just happened, but we can warn them the technology exists. This is still only the beginning,” said Cole.
“I don’t know if I can face the city. What if buildings came down? Real people could be dying, trapped in rubble . . . and we could have stopped it. What if a tsunami is coming?” I fought a lump in my throat.
“Like I said, the damage won’t be that bad with such a short quake. Worry when the shaking lasts more like four minutes. That’s when you’ll get an epic wave,” said Cole.
“Save the melodrama for later. We still need to move quickly. Now!” Ilya gestured toward the trail.
I helped Jonah to his feet, hanging on to his waist, pulling one of his arms around my shoulders. I relished the excuse to be close to him. I felt foolish at failing to release my feelings for Jonah. Since the moment we met, all I’d wanted was to be close to him. First, I thought he’d never look twice at me. Then fate turned his toxic touch to an inability to be touched. Resentment at my luck crept into my heart and I took a deep breath to steady myself. Anger wasn’t going to help anyone.
“Come on, follow me. I left quite the path in here. I’m parked next to Josh’s Jeep,” said Cole.
Chapter 19
The hour of the night saved the Bay Area from total chaos in the wake of the earthquake. I rode with Cole this time, cradling Jonah’s head on my lap in the back seat. I’d put a beach blanket on my legs first even though I wore full-length jeans. I wasn’t taking any chances of draining any hydration or energy from him.
I pulled out my phone and searched ‘San Francisco’ and ‘earthquake’ and tapped ‘News’ in the results. The Bay Area had suffered a five point five earthquake. No risk of tsunami. Authorities continued to assess the damages, but residents and visitors alike were strenuously encouraged to stay put. Instructions were to find a stable building and wait for further announcements.
We didn’t have the luxury of remaining in one place. We still saw city lights across the Bay, so we headed back the way we’d come, south on Highway 101 through Sausalito. Glancing around at the moonlit landscape, San Francisco didn’t look much different. There isn’t really any damage, I told myself, until we hit traffic backed up at Lime Point.
“Check it out. The Golden Gate Bridge is packed to the gills with gridlock,” said Cole as the tip of the Bridge came into view on the horizon. Jonah sat up, energized with adrenaline like Cole and me.
“Why are these people lined up here, waiting?” said Jonah.
“I don’t know, but turn around now, before we get trapped. Josh will follow.” I tried to imagine what Faith and Ilya were saying in Josh’s Jeep. As the thought entered my mind, I concentrated the traffic jam, thinking hard at Ilya, holding the picture in my mind. My phone jingled. Faith wrote. What the hell is this?
I tapped back, Earthquake panic probably. We’re turning back. There’s another bridge to the north. Have you heard back from Nellie?
Faith replied, No, nothing yet.
I wrote furiously. Tell them to meet us at Berkeley. Cole wants to go to NCEDC. He thinks they can help.
Faith answered, Will do. Josh says we’ll follow you north. It’s called the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Check to make sure it’s moving! I can’t find anything on it yet.
I replied, Keep going anyway. If it’s blocked, we’ll deal with it then.
“Faith says the bridge to the north is the Richmond-San Rafael. She can’t find anything online saying it’s open or closed,” I said.
“We might as well go anyway. It’s not like we’ve got any choice.” The tension in Cole’s voice ratcheted up my own anxiety. If we got bogged down in San Francisco, how could we possibly hope to catch Ivan?
“How far do you think Ivan and Tatiana got?” I asked.
“You said they were waiting on Tatiana because she could fly them out on a helicopter, right?” said Jonah.
“I’m sure they went as far as a chopper could take them on a single tank of fuel,” said Cole.
“Wait, let me try my cards again,” I said, mostly to myself.
I fished my cards out of my backpack and eased them out of the pack. I took the first card off the top and ran my fingers across the faded diamond pattern on the back. I flipped it over and frowned at the image.
The Sun. It displayed upside down, so I rotated it for a bette
r look. A personified pale yellow sun looked at me sternly, overseeing an androgynous naked human on horseback. The artistry of the cards still caught me off guard at times. I ran my fingertips firmly across the surface, thinking more about serum than strange old art. I thought about Ivan’s face, the cast on his arm, and then the fresh image of Thorn’s frightening visage popped into my mind.
Cole’s car fell away around me and I stood in a dusty desert at night. Ivan and Tatiana were camping again, alone. As I watched, they toasted opaque camp mugs, the liquid inside dark under the desert night sky. Thorn walked into view, dressed in greasy overalls and a dingy brown T-shirt, his matted hair pulled back into something resembling a ponytail. His arms hung savagely at his sides, tipped with filthy claws as always. Instinctively repelled, I dropped the cards and Cole’s car reappeared around me.
“They’re in a desert. It looks like they had a campsite all prepared and waiting for them,” I said.
“Probably the Mojave or the Sonoran. They couldn’t have gone much farther,” said Cole.
“Never mind Ivan for now. Irina, look for Nellie and the others. If she’s not answering Faith, they could be in trouble. They could be trapped in the Sutro cave for all we know,” said Jonah.
“Of course. Sorry,” I said, fumbling my cards back into my hand.
I repeated the strategy, fingering and flipping cards over in my hands. I came to rest on an image of a compass with strange characters on it, hoisted into the clouds by a pair of angels, another pair of angels below, pointing up. The Wheel of Fortune.
I touched it and in a flash, I stood in the parking lot above the Sutro Baths. Adelaide’s van remained where she’d left it. She sat behind the wheel, with Nellie in the passenger seat. I concentrated on shifting my view and floated around in front of the windshield. Sure enough, Ralph and Bruno were in the back of the van.
“Is it charged yet?” said Bruno.
Nellie picked up her tablet, connected to a cord, plugged into Adelaide’s console. She removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “You’ll be the first to know when it’s got enough juice.”
I concentrated again to float high above Adelaide’s van for a view of the Baths. The ruins had been demolished. Only rubble remained. They couldn’t possibly have been in the cave when the earthquake hit. In a lucky turn, it looked like most of the drill’s damage had been above ground in its immediate vicinity.
I dropped my cards again and texted Faith. They’re all right. They’re in Adelaide’s van above the Baths. Nellie’s tablet is dead. Keep going to Berkeley and tell Nellie to follow as soon as you hear from her. It won’t be long now.
We reached the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and hit more gridlock. We had no choice but to push through. It took us an hour of tedious, mind-numbing stops and starts before we were back in the city.
Traffic had thinned in the late hour and we moved freely onto Highway 80 south into Berkeley.
We found University Avenue and made our way to the Berkeley campus. Josh’s Jeep kept up behind us. The gate I recognized from my vision was perfectly intact, exactly as I’d seen it. I smiled, foolishly hopeful.
“It’s down this street here.” I pointed at the next turn. “The entrance has Roman-style pillars on either side.”
“Nobody will be there at this time of night,” said Jonah. Cole parked in a lot across the street from the building I thought housed the NCEDC. Josh parked next to us. I looked up at the brick and pillar structure. It held all my hopes for quelling Ivan’s seismic arm of the Compendium.
“I don’t have any connections at the NCEDC even if they were open. We’re going to need to win them over,” said Cole.
“Ivan and Thorn are long gone. We’re safe here, unless that clock tower falls on us. From the lack of damage so far, it’s a safe bet everything is still structurally sound. I say we wait to regroup with everyone in Adelaide’s van and come up with our next move after this,” said Jonah.
“First we’ll say our piece to the seismic guys. They probably won’t believe us, but we all we can do is warn them that this is just the start. If we can establish a shred of credibility, they’ll know just as well as we do that a serious quake will bring a wall of water hundreds of feet high to add to the destruction,” said Cole.
“Then what? A chase into one of two California deserts?” I said as I got out of the car with Cole and Jonah behind me.
“Adelaide is on her way. You were right - again. Nellie’s tablet died,” said Faith.
“I’m glad you’re still expecting me to screw up,” I said through a crooked smile.
“Nobody thinks you’re going to screw up, but we know it’s a matter of getting the timeline right,” said Ilya.
“Speaking of a timeline, we were trying to think of what our next move should be, after we give our spiel to the NCEDC. Even if they do believe us, there’s nothing more we can do here,” said Cole. “We could try to find the Innoviro office in San Francisco. If they were expecting it to be buried in an earthquake, they might have been careless about leaving evidence.”
“San Francisco was the only other office working on genetics, as far as I knew,” said Jonah.
I quickly picked up his meaning. The cure for his genetic degeneration might be here. “Then we have to try. Even if we find nothing but notes or files. I’ll settle for salvaging a hard drive.”
“I’m starving. We need to restock our cars with food. It’s been hours since I had a freakin granola bar,” said Faith.
“I’m hungry too,” I said.
“Let’s go. We’ll empty our bags and get as much as we can carry,” said Faith.
Cole opened the trunk of his car. Faith took out her backpack while I got mine from Josh’s Jeep.
“I’ll come with you. More hands are better on a food run,” said Ilya.
We left Cole, Jonah, and Josh to wait for someone to come or go from the NCEDC building.
“It’s three o’clock in the morning. The best we’re going to get is a convenience store,” said Faith.
“And those stores will be swamped. Under the circumstances, I think we need to be a little more flexible,” said Ilya.
“What do you mean, steal?” I said.
“I mean we could take advantage of a little chaos and efficiently get a few bare essentials.”
We got back outside the Berkeley campus and found a street echoing with anger. A handful of people were yelling around an ambulance and fire truck at the scene of a fresh car crash. The collision was about two blocks farther down the road. Had we been passing by twenty minutes later than we did, we would have been stuck waiting behind the accident.
In the other direction, we saw a convenience store with a line outside the door. Several apartment buildings nearby were completely dark.
“Is this what you do in the middle of the night after an earthquake? Run down to the corner store to panic shop?” said Ilya while gesturing at the people around us as though serving a platter.
“People are stupid,” said Faith, shaking her head in disgust.
“Well, we’re trying to shop in the middle of an earthquake. That’s not too bright,” I said.
“We’re different. We’re in the middle of this mess for a reason,” said Faith.
“Reason or not, there’s no way we’re getting even a chocolate bar out of that store,” said Ilya as he pointed to the convenience store sign.
“Should we keep going farther? We might find another store,” I said hopefully.
“Another store on the verge of being overrun,” said Faith.
“We passed a closed supermarket. We can be back there, inside, and out, before anyone catches us. If we set off the alarm, it’ll be passed over as looting damage.” Ilya’s eyes were less certain than his words.
“However they take it, l
et’s hope the cops are too busy dealing with disaster drama to come after us for stealing food.” Faith kicked a soda can out of her way.
“I hate this plan.” I wasn’t bothered by the idea of taking profit from a corporately owned supermarket chain. What bugged me was the idea of being caught. The time Faith and I got locked up in Victoria was enough jail for a lifetime.
“Walk, don’t run. When we get there, we’ll go in the back if it’s safe,” said Ilya.
“Lead the way.” Faith hip-checked my brother with a mischievous smile.
Chapter 20
We reached the supermarket in about half an hour. The large plastic and florescent Albertson’s sign over the entrance flickered and the building was dark.
“Looks like the power is out. Alarm is probably down too then,” said Faith.
“Let’s hope so.” Ilya evaluated the building’s exterior.
No damage could be seen, but my lungs worked overtime fueled by adrenaline nonetheless. The prospect of a supermarket roof collapsing on my head nearly nailed my feet to the ground. I forced one foot in front of the other watching Ilya and Faith marching ahead of me.
My eyes adjusted to the dark as we searched for the household goods aisle. Ilya found a flashlight and batteries. He ripped open the packages and popped the batteries into the back of the flashlight. I watched with raw fascination. It hadn’t taken much to dissolve the social barrier which would normally prevent me from walking into a supermarket and brazenly taking things.
But, here we were, scavenging in a supermarket in the middle of the night after an earthquake. It felt like a post-apocalyptic movie. Little did the already panicked San Franciscans outside know, the end of the world was literally on the horizon if we couldn’t stop my father from completing his Compendium projects.
The Compendium Page 15