by Harley Vex
earlier, but my nose picked up enough. I was glad when the wind shifted again, taking the truth away from us.
But I shuddered despite the fuzzy heat all around us.
Bethany cleared her throat. “We have to check—”
“You do not want to check,” I said. “She’s gone. The fire got her. I know neither of us wants to think about that. She can’t tell us if any help is coming. And this means that Dr. Marson must not have gotten far, either.”
“But we don’t know,” Bethany said after a pause.
I hadn’t thought about Dr. Marson for a while, but since we hadn’t seen him come back after the event, I figured he was lying somewhere, overcome by the UV rays or by some random firestorm.
“Look, I doubt that smell was anything else,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“You always seem to assume the worst, don’t you?” Bethany raised her voice at me. Not, of course, that there was anyone out here who would hear us.
I did not want to win this argument. And I didn’t want to yell back. She was under incredible stress, and it had to go somewhere. “If you want to check, the best chance is behind that tractor.” We faced each other, and Bethany stood there, her features hard. Yes. Behind the tractor was something I didn’t want to see, and something Bethany didn’t want to see, either. “I hope she didn’t take the keys with her.”
Bethany’s chin wobbled. “Okay. Laney, I believe you. And I’m sorry that I yelled. It’s just that we shouldn’t ever have to deal with this level of stress, you know?”
I breathed out. “I’m sorry, too.” There was no pleasant introduction to the apocalypse, and definitely not one that was gentle. No matter how it happened, it sucked. “So, the work tractor. Having two of them will help, though I’m not sure how much gas this one has.”
Bethany shrugged, looking as if she’d released some tension. “Yeah. We can take this one back. It’s worth a shot.”
“Pray the keys are still in the ignition. And that it stood up to the firestorm.” I imagined a wall of flames racing towards Dr. Shetlin. I’d seen videos of firestorms online, and they always shocked me by how fast they moved.
A nervous laugh later, Bethany went ahead of me and climbed into the tractor.
“The keys. They’re here. I feel them.”
I heaved out a sigh as I followed her, not daring to look at the road ahead, the source of the smell. In her shock, Dr. Shetlin must have run in any direction she could, taking any route that was free of fire. She only had to run back a few hundred feet to survive, but the firestorm could have closed in behind her. My heart raced at the thought, so I focused on Bethany as I stood on the road, waiting for her to test the ignition.
She did, and the tractor roared to life.
But unfortunately, so did the headlight.
I gulped.
The road to the side and ahead illuminated, and Bethany let out a small but piercing scream.
“Don’t look,” I told her. I should have turned on the tractor, since this wasn’t my first rodeo. I turned my gaze from the lump about fifty feet up the road, a lump that looked like a misshapen, charred, contorted mass of–
Bethany hopped out of the tractor, and I got into the driver’s seat as she retched on the side of the road, right over the embers. I wanted to tell her to stop, that she was wasting valuable calories, but I knew the experience of having someone to tell me how to feel at my lowest.
She finished after keeping her back to me for minutes, and I died inside.
When she faced me again, skin pale, I just said, “We have to get out of here. I’ll drive. There’s only one seat in this thing. You might fit between the step and the glass right here, and I’ll move carefully.” Yes. I would drive. Bethany was in no shape to do it.
I was glad the tractor faced somewhat away from where Dr. Shetlin had fallen to the firestorm, probably while our field trip was stuck in the mine. Bethany got inside, pressing against me in the glass compartment while I eyed the controls. It was better than eyeing what was in my peripheral vision. Fuel. That was easy enough. We had a half tank in this thing, but I didn’t know how good the fuel mileage was, so I couldn’t calculate how far we could travel. The safest bet was to go back to the Center.
“Can we go?” Bethany asked, her voice scratchy.
“Yes. Let me figure this out.” I eyed the gearshift, which had only a few gears. At least our little compartment had a light that allowed me to see what the heck I was doing. I’d only just realized it. We had a gas and brake pedal. Easy enough. “Here goes.”
The tractor lurched forward, and I hit the brake, shocked at how the driving felt. I’d only taken driver’s training so far, but I still didn’t feel ready for this.
“Where are we going to go?” Bethany asked.
I swallowed, looking at the gas gauge. “Back. The others can use this, too.” I really, really didn’t want to plow ahead and run over Dr. Shetlin.
“Okay,” Bethany said.
And I could not leave the others behind with David. Maybe there would be gas back at the facility. There must be, if they had garages, because driving these things all the way to Happy’s Gas and back wasn’t workable, or efficient. “We’re going back, for now. We’ll have to tell everyone we went up the road, but we’ve got something to buy David off, at least.” And it would distract him from my phone.
I took a few minutes to figure out how the gears and pedals felt, and then once I was confident that I could drive this tractor in a straight line down the road, I gunned it. We could only reach speeds of maybe fifteen on this flat surface, but it was better than walking, and we’d get back to the others without wasting precious energy. Embers faded on either side of us, and then the headlight illuminated rocky soil, untouched scrub plants, and gentle hills. A few flying insects parted for us, and I was glad I had something to distract me from what we had left behind.
Bethany stayed silent.
I wished she would come back, but I understood.
After what felt like only a few minutes, the gate to the Visitor Center came into view, dusty but shining under our headlights. And as I turned the tractor and its bright lights into the drive and past the horrific smell now coming out of the guard shack, people poured out of the Visitor Center.
And David was, of course, first in line.
“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted.
I pulled the tractor into the main parking lot and shut off the ignition. The headlight remained on, revealing David’s narrow eyes and everyone else blinking sleep from theirs.
“Getting more help,” I said, anger flaring.
“By taking the tractor out for a spin?” He circled around and motioned for me to get out. “Laney, this is not a joke. Look at what she’s doing.” He turned to the others, as if trying to incite a small mob.
“David!” I shouted. “This is not the same tractor. Bethany and I went down the road a bit and we found out that Dr. Shetlin took this one, so we brought it back. If you’d stop accusing us of stupidity for five seconds, we would have told you right away.” I turned to Bethany for backup, but she jumped out of the compartment and straightened herself out.
She did not want to attract David’s ire. And after the shock she’d endured at the remains of the wildfire, I didn’t blame her. But I couldn’t stop getting on David’s nasty side. The end of the world had brought out something mean in me.
Or maybe it was just the need to survive and breathe for once.
The headlight turned off on its own after I yanked the key out of the ignition. It tempted me to tuck it into my pocket, but I didn’t want David ordering a body search. My phone was still a safe secret.
“Just get out, Laney,” David said. Then he took a breath, somewhere close, and I sensed he was ready to pull me out of the compartment. But I didn’t jump down.
“Why is trying to help us so bad?” I asked.
But David, of course, had to turn the blame on me. “You’re trying to mess up our chances for
survival by going out on your own. Teamwork is what we need here.”
“Come on, man,” Jerome said from somewhere closer to the Visitor Center. “She and Bethany got us another tractor. And that means more gas. Just because your parents never gave you a cuddle doesn’t mean that you have to take it out on the rest of us.”
I was glad I couldn’t see with the headlight off, and no one had brought out the industrial flashlight. I took a breath and jumped down on what I thought was the opposite side of the tractor as David. Slowly, things came back into focus, and I blinked afterimages from my eyes and came back to the silent world. The darkness. The pale orange glow of the sky. The distant reds that were raging wildfires, destroying everything in their paths.
“Where’s Dr. Shetlin?” David asked on the other side of the tractor.
I walked around it to speak. “She’s dead. She got caught in a wildfire and tried to run, but didn’t get far.” It was best to air the bad news now, rather than wait. Suspense, I knew, was worse than anything.
People gasped and breathed out. But it was only one more layer added to the shock that had been the day.
“And Bethany and I went out to find her, because we knew she couldn’t have gone that far with the ozone layer being mostly gone,” I continued. Yes, I would do the talking. “We thought she might have sheltered somewhere, and that she’d know if rescue was coming or not.”
I couldn’t see David’s reaction, not that I wanted to. Silence dragged out for what felt like a mini eternity. But shoes scuffed at last, and he clapped.
“Okay, everyone. So we have another tractor,” he said. “That’s a good thing.”
Finally, he was seeing reason. I breathed out.
“And everyone needs to get inside,” David ordered. “It must be close to midnight by now. We will start hooking things up tomorrow. And Tony?”
“Yeah?”
“Guard the door. We have to keep everyone in line.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Despite David reverting to his totalitarian dictator mode, I got back onto the floor of the Visitor Center and slept.
It wasn’t as if I had a choice. I joined Alana back inside the building, thanks to Gina turning on that massive flashlight, and we all found places on the floor to crash again. Being the first two people inside, Alana and I took the spot closest to the bathroom. The last thing I wanted to do was irritate anyone else by stepping over them if I had to use it.
“You’re not lying low,” Alana whispered in my ear.
Ugh. I’d suffered enough of the apocalypse, and David was not making it any better. But I had to do this for Alana. “I know I’m not, and I’m sorry. I’ll try to fall in line better tomorrow.”
Okay, so that didn’t come out the way I intended. After a quick apology, Alana and I stretched out on the floor, flat, and I stared at the darkness above me as the flashlight’s beam moved around. I was lying on top of my phone, but I wouldn’t complain. Even while off, removing it from my pocket was the bad idea of the year.
“We just have to do this until we reach Colton, and then we can probably find more working vehicles and other survivors. Then we can get on our way,” Alana whispered. “‘Night, Laney.”
“Night,” I said, not wanting to dash her hope.
Poor Bethany went to lie down near the elevator and by the safe food, and she said nothing. She’d seen reality, and Alana was still hanging onto something else. I couldn’t bear to pry her hands off whatever life preserver she was using right now. A selfish part of me wished she would figure it all out on her own before we reached Colton.
And me?
Well, we all had to cope somehow.
I closed my eyes as an exhaustion like I’d never felt swept over me, and pulled me into a world of oblivion below the Visitor Center. I sank into the mine, where Mr. Ellis would lie for eternity, and then into an underworld of compressed stone and jagged caves. At last, those broke apart into nothingness, and I drifted into it as all feeling left.
* * * * *
“Up. We’ll need to cover ourselves when crossing between buildings. I still suggest running,” David shouted, breaking into my dark ballroom of peace. “Cut down the awning, and I’ll keep it with me in case someone needs to run back and forth.”
I blinked, and the light quality in the Visitor Center had changed. It was getting light. Everyone seemed to push themselves off the floor, including Alana, and I realized someone had already moved the framed pictures to the east-facing windows. Thin lines of pinkish-red sunlight came through, and it was a strange shade I’d never seen before. Something between peach and rust.
Holding back a groan, I sat up. We were back in the nightmare. A gut punch hit me, and I held back a cry of frustration.
David clapped as he paraded through the room. The radio crackled as someone tried it again, but nothing came through this morning. It was all silence out there.
I hoped that was because of atmospheric conditions, and not because whoever was broadcasting had died.
“Turn the radio off,” David told Gina. “We have to conserve the batteries. Today, we get those tractors hooked up to some vehicles we can tow. That’ll get all of us out of here and at least to that gas station in no time. Eric. Move the food out into the hangars, because those of us who will work will need the calories.”
“Aye, aye,” Eric said with a fake salute.
Was he using sarcasm, or just looking forward to getting out of here? I couldn’t tell.
“Gina, you and Christine will be in charge of the awning. Shield the rest of us while we work,” David continued. “I’ll have Tony stand here and guard the door.”
Alana was already awake. She stood near Bethany on the far side of the room, and, I noticed, Jerome and I were both seated by the bathroom. He had collapsed next to us, then.
“What are we going to do?” Jerome asked. “What’s our role?”
David ignored us at first, and I knew today would not be good. Jerome and I wouldn’t even have the privilege of holding the awning over whoever was working on the vehicles, probably the guys. I watched as Eric lifted one batch of the food and took it outside.
My stomach rumbled.
Yes, something told me that today would be even worse than not good.
David finally set his stare on the two of us. I stood up and motioned for Jerome to stand with me. He did.
“You two are going to stay here, so you don’t get in the way,” David told us. “We can’t have disruptions right now.”
Despite the activity inside the Visitor Center, a dead silence fell. “How are we getting in the way?” I asked. “We’re asking about what we can do to help. We want to get out of here, just like the rest of you do.”
Alana stood frozen on the other end of the long room. Bethany did the same. I wanted them to stay quiet, just in case we needed her backup plan.
Thankfully, it seemed like David had forgotten Alana was my good friend. I’d seriously been that invisible through my entire junior high and high school career. He didn’t even look at her. “Laney, how do we know you won’t take off on us? People are going to get desperate over the supplies soon. If the radiation was as bad as they said, then even the food in town will have it. That means harsh rules, at least for now.”
I couldn’t argue his point, because I had taken off. But so had Bethany. Of course, I would not throw her under the bus by reminding David of that fact. She still had that shocked look in her eyes, and didn’t need that right now.
Thankfully, Jerome spoke for me. “Have I shown signs of running off? I’m legit asking.” He shrugged.
David’s cheeks flushed red, and I feared another fight. “Tony,” he said, ignoring Jerome. David’s ego had taken an injury, and that was what this was about. Jerome had one-upped David in every way since this started, and proven himself worthy of his place in the Science Club. That, and I had the sinking suspicion that more than a sprinkle of prejudice was involved. Of course, Jerome would be more painfully aware of
that than I was.
“Yes?” Tony asked, puffing out his chest.
“I’ll need you to help with the tractors, of course, but guard the front door. And make sure that these two don’t cause any trouble. Meanwhile, Alana and Bethany, carry the rest of the food out to the garage. That’s where we’re going to need it.”
* * * * *
I was hungry, and I was sure that Jerome was starving, too. My stomach felt as if it were ready to eat its own lining, and all I could do was sit there, hating that I’d done so much walking last night. I’d burned too many calories, and I had the sense that David was using this as yet another punishment.
“What the hell is his problem?” I asked Jerome, who sat against the inner wall of the Visitor Center with me.
The two of us were alone in the long building, with just the mostly blocked windows and the distant sounds of banging and cussing coming from the garage outside. The sun had fully risen by now, and though I knew Tony had the task of monitoring us from somewhere outside, he couldn’t possibly be standing just outside the door. Not when it was facing east, where the deadly UV rays would come from. No, everyone would have to be in the garage, only daring to go outside for a minute or two at a time. And even then, anyone venturing out would have to cover themselves.
I was still burned from yesterday, and every movement hurt.
Tony didn’t need to stand outside the door.
The sun itself was keeping us inside, and David knew it.
The others had even moved the second tractor to the garage before the sun fully rose. We had nothing useful outside the door, and I was also pretty sure that David had the keys to the mine, as I didn’t find them back in the receptionist’s drawer. He’d shut the door to the ladder, and it didn’t budge when we tried it.
Jerome sighed after a minute. “What’s David’s problem? I don’t think you’ve gone to too many football games. Or sports games.”
“I was never a sports girl,” I admitted.
“You know that stereotypical parent that cusses their kid out right there on the field when he doesn’t get in first place, all the time?”