Ellis blinked and then scoffed. “What’s the good in finding a cure now? Everybody’s dead, Jess. I say let the world go. Our time is up.”
“What are you going to do? Live here in our old house the rest of your life?”
“I don’t see why not. I can grow vegetables in the greenhouse, and there’s an endless supply of potato chips.” He laughed. “I was even thinking of setting up a badass game system. Solar powered. Biggest television I can find. I figure I could go through every game on the store shelf as many times as I want.”
“None of that will last,” Jessie shook her head. “And there’s a ton of people out there trying to survive this. Kids. Families. People who deserve saving. You don’t want to leave them out there in a lurch, do you?”
Ellis crunched another chip and raised his eyes to the ceiling.
Jessie glanced down at the dog. She didn’t want to force it with her brother. Given enough time, he usually came around.
“You need a haircut,” she said, rubbing Dinky’s chest.
“Barbershops are all closed,” Ellis spread his hands and grinned. “Besides, I like my wild man look.”
“And I’m so happy Dinky didn’t get sick,” Jessie said.
“She was sick for a day or two but got better.” Ellis tossed a chip on the table near Dinky’s mouth, and the dog promptly scooped it up and crunched it down. “There’s a few packs of dogs running around. We have to watch out for them. I look both ways when I take her out to do her business.”
Jessie’s eyes flashed to the back door. “I’m going outside to talk to Mom and Dad a minute. Then we have to hit the road. We’ve got plenty of room for you and Dinky. Fiona would love her.” She gave the dog another light squeeze.
“I don’t know, Jess,” Ellis frowned. “You think it’s crazy for me to stay here, but I’m used to it now. And I was only half-joking about the video games. I realize I have to focus on my supplies.”
“And raiders,” Bryant added.
“True,” Jessie nodded, arching an eyebrow.
Ellis shot the soldier a look. “Not sure what you’re worried about with the Terminator protecting you.”
Jessie stood from her chair and allowed Dinky to hop down. She turned to Bryant. “Give me ten minutes.”
“Take all the time you need.”
She stepped to the sliding glass door and pulled it open. Then she walked across the old pine deck past the dirty hot tub and into the backyard. Their parents had a small plot of land, surrounded by a privacy fence that had fallen into disrepair. Parts of it sagged or lay broken.
It would have been her father’s summer project to repair it, but he wasn’t there, and Ellis wasn’t good in the yard. He’d had the hardest time following their mother’s chore schedule, and he’d clearly let everything go after she died.
Jessie walked past the mark left by the above-ground pool which was removed when they were little. Beyond that was their garden.
The tomato plants were wilted and wormed through with Asphyxia. Strange fungal stalks sprouted out of the earth with gray sheaths, a mockery of the vegetables they’d fed upon. The fungus had decimated the three rows of corn and covered five heads of lettuce to form lumps in the dirt.
But green grew amidst the destruction. New tomato plants, a pair of small watermelons, and a few bushy growths of onions.
She walked around the square patch and found the graves. Despite the mess her brother left inside the house, he’d done a good job with their parents’ resting places. He’d put them side-by-side behind the garden, the holes dug perfectly rectangular and spaced a foot apart.
He’d marked their father’s grave by burying the man’s telescope halfway in the ground. He’d marked their mother’s gravestone with the chalkboard she kept on the kitchen wall. While some chalk-scribbled chores were smeared and wiped away, her name was written there in baby blue. Tuesday–Jess-Vacuum.
The tombstones might seem crude to others, but the thoughtfulness at which he’d placed them moved Jessie to tears. She knelt at the foot of the graves. She plucked at the dirt and allowed it to sift through her fingers, reliving dozens of memories in her head.
There’d been that long summer after Dad first put up the pool where she and her friends had swum nearly every night. He’d let them stay up well past curfew, sometimes until midnight or until they received complaints from the neighbors, whichever came first.
There’d been cookouts and softball tournaments and Christmases with wonderful presents. Those old times were gone, and she’d never get them back. She had to let them go and try to make new memories with her new family.
That started with Fiona. She’d come to love that little girl with all her heart, and she swore for the hundredth time to protect her. While having kids used to be something she feared, she’d come to love her place in the little girl’s life.
She let the weight of the past slide away and welcomed the future. Then she climbed to her feet and turned back toward the house.
Inside, she gestured to Bryant. “You ready?”
“Yeah.” The soldier munched one more nacho flavored chip and stood.
Ellis followed them to the door, holding Dinky in his arms. They stepped outside and stood on the tiny square of cement that comprised their front porch.
“Remember, Jess,” he said. “You’ll always have a place here, too.”
She scoffed. “What? Living in my dead parent’s house the rest of my life? No thanks. There’s a whole world out there to explore.”
“A whole dead world.”
Jessie pursed her lips. “I’ve got a little girl on the bus who’d call you a big baby.”
“Aw. That’s cold, sis,” Ellis grinned, looking slightly embarrassed but taking it in stride.
“It’s a cold world, bro.” She smiled back, then her expression sobered. “In a year, this place will be overgrown. It’ll cave in on itself, covered with leaves and foliage. And you’ll be stuck inside here, rooted to the spot while the rest of the world rebuilds around you.”
Ellis stared at the concrete and shuffled his feet.
Jessie lifted a paper she’d been holding. On it was their military exchange number and destination in Little Rock Arkansas. “We’re meeting some friends down there. Would love to have you.”
She stuffed the paper in his front pocket and then hugged him.
“Be good, baby brother.”
“You, too, sis.”
Jessie let Ellis go and stepped off the porch. She retreated two paces, flashed him a smile, and strolled to the RV with Bryant limping quietly behind her.
Chapter 5
Moe, Chinle, Arizona
A small crowd gathered for Aponi’s funeral. Waki, Sage, Rex, Casey, Josiah, Melissa, and Tyler. They were the last people to see her alive. They’d witnessed the warrior woman’s final moments, and they were her only remaining family.
Sick, Sheriff Ahiga stood off to the side with a surgical mask on to keep himself from spreading the fungus to anyone else.
The traditional graveyard was too close to Chinle, so they marked a new cemetery deep within the Tseh-Ya-Kin canyon. They buried her near the ancient burial caves, far away from any dwellings to discourage her spirit from returning to haunt them.
They’d constructed a special hut where Sage and Casey bathed and dressed her in ceremonial clothes. Moe and Rex dug her grave and then collected her body. They carried her to the hole and gently placed her inside. Tradition dictated that they place her rifle and backpack by her side, but the camp was low on weapons and supplies, so they kept her things with the hopes of putting them to good use.
They piled dirt and stones on top with shovels. Once done, they quietly backed away, careful to cover their footprints with brush.
The group stood far off in silence. There was no singing or crying, though Moe felt a deep sadness in his heart. It was Navajo tradition to allow the spirit of the deceased to pass on to the next world in peace, without much fuss or fanfare. And any signs o
f emotion or disturbances might disrupt the process and draw the spirit back to haunt the living.
After ten minutes, the group turned and walked a good distance to their vehicles. They’d brought out a table and on it they placed cookies, beef jerky, and water. They sat and talked quietly about the Las Vegas raid and Aponi’s bravery.
Sheriff Ahiga approached and seated himself in a chair ten yards from the group.
Moe stood and walked closer to the man so they wouldn’t have to yell. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“I’ll get there,” Ahiga waved him off. “I feel fine, for now. I wanted to talk to you about our next move. What should we do next?”
“That’s a good question, sir.” Moe shook his head and sipped his coffee. He’d not been able to eat much since learning of the spreading infection, and the bitter brew settled poorly in his belly. “I want to work on my rig before we set out again. I’m thinking a day at most. We can focus on getting medicines this time. Antibiotics, antifungals, or anything that might give our folks a fighting chance.”
“None of the antibiotics we used at the FEMA camp worked,” Sage said, overhearing their conversation. She stood from her chair and joined them as a wisp of desert wind blew through her hair. “And they had some pretty powerful stuff.”
“I know,” Moe nodded glumly. “But I don’t know what else we can do.” He glanced at Aponi’s grave. “Our people are sick because of Carver. I knew how evil he was, but I was too stupid to see this coming.”
Ahiga chuckled. “Is that it? It’s all your fault? What about me and Cynthia? We were the ones naïve enough to accept stragglers out of the desert. We should have screened them better from the start. Victoria had been in camp a week before our meeting with Carver, causing who knows what kind of mischief.”
And while Ahiga’s words rang true, Moe shook his head and paced toward Aponi’s grave. He stopped to cross his arms over his chest. His body ached, his ankle screamed, and his soul was tired. He was exhausted from fighting, and he didn’t have a devious mind that could outsmart someone as devilish and conniving as Carver.
Frustration overcame him as he stared across the peaceful basin. He thought about his mother and the promises he’d made to make her proud. Was her spirit watching? What did she think of her son now?
Two gentle hands settled on his shoulders and slid around his chest. A body pressed against him, and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Don’t lose hope,” Sage said with a squeeze. “There might still be a way.”
“I’m a soldier, and not a very good one.” Moe shook his head and smiled with dry humor. “Now I’m an overweight, overworked truck driver, not a doctor. All I can do is keep driving and shooting. That’s not going to help our people. We need a better solution.”
“We might just have one,” Melissa said as her boots crunched across the gravelly desert floor.
Moe didn’t reply but continued staring over the green brush and creek trickling off to their right.
“I’ve spoken with my husband twice,” she said. “Scott’s on his way to Little Rock, Arkansas with a group of soldiers and a CDC field agent who’s working on mass-producing a cure.”
Moe’s head ticked to the side as a glimmer of hope blossomed in his mind. But he wouldn’t give in to fantasies. “Vaccines take a long time to test and--”
“They already have a serum,” Melissa insisted. “My husband is infected, and he’s taking it. It’s almost fully negated the symptoms of the disease. They’re meeting another scientist in Little Rock to finish working on it.”
He held Sage’s hand as he turned. He regarded the captain with a challenge in his eyes. “Arkansas is a long way from here. And likely through hostile, spore-infested territory. Bandits and raiders at every turn. A straight drive would be less than a day, but we just don’t know what’s out there.”
Melissa shot a glance at Ahiga. “We can fly.”
“What do you mean, fly?” Moe narrowed his eyes. “You said before you didn’t have much fuel. That’s why you grounded your chopper.”
“I think I might have found a way. Take a look.” The captain walked to the snack table and pulled a thickly folded piece of paper from her pocket.
She unfolded it, laying it over the plates of cookies they’d been nibbling on. The captain smoothed it out while Josiah found stones to weigh the corners.
Everyone gathered around the table except Sheriff Ahiga, who remained standing off to the side.
“I made some calls on my short-wave radio. The military has access to hundreds of refueling stations across the country. These could be small airports, landing fields, and shipping facilities. Several are still manned by active personnel. These here.” She pointed to a line of blue marks dotting the map, leading to Arkansas. “Others might be viable but abandoned. I have a basic route planned out, and backup sites in case we meet hostile forces at any of the stations.”
Moe studied the map. He knew the combat range for a UH-1Y Venom was about one hundred and fifty miles, though a good pilot could stretch that.
“That’s incredible,” Moe shook his head, daring to allow hope to slip into his mind. “I hate to be negative, but your chopper will need to be serviced at almost every landing point. Who will do that work?”
“I’m qualified to do basic maintenance,” Melissa nodded as if expecting the question. “I can keep her in the air. But I’m not going to lie. We would be taking some risks flying it such a long time without a deeper health check.”
Moe stared at the map, his eyes moving from point to point as he added up the potential success of such a mission.
“I hate to put the burden on you,” Ahiga said, distantly. “But you’re the only one of us Chinle folk qualified enough to say whether this is viable.”
“I’m hardly qualified for something like this.” Moe shook his head, though he’d already agreed to the mission inside his heart.
“You led a successful raid into Las Vegas and bought us a world more time. This will be a walk in the park.”
“I had a competent captain and trained soldiers,” he said. He glanced toward Aponi’s grave. “And some of the best warriors in the tribe.”
“You and Melissa make a great team,” Ahiga agreed. “Which is why I have confidence you’ll come back with the cure our people need.”
Moe raised his eyes to the captain. “Are you sure about this?”
She shook her head, and a grin stretched one side of her mouth. “Not particularly, but I can’t think of a better reason to risk our lives.”
Moe straightened and leveled a hard stare at the captain. He had no doubt that part of her wanting to do this was to get closer to her husband. “And, if we make it there and find a cure, you’ll fly me back?”
“I know I’ll need to leave Scott to complete the mission,” she said firmly. “But if seeing him was my only objective, I would have already left.”
Moe nodded, satisfied with that answer.
“It might be a good idea to train a person or two to drive for you,” Ahiga said. “We’ll still need to make supply runs while you’re gone.”
“I’ll do it,” Waki raised her hand. “I’ll learn how to drive the rig. Pick me, Moe.”
He shot her a sour expression. “If you drive my rig like you drive your quad, no way.”
“I know how to be careful.” She folded her arms over her chest and fixed him with her dark eyes. “Come on, big brother. I can do it.”
He gave a slow shake of his head, narrowed his eyes, and thought about his sister behind the wheel of his rig. The picture made his heart race with uncertainty.
*
Up at the North Rim scout camp, Moe drove the Peterbilt in a wide arc around a space of flat-packed dirt. The sun peaked over the horizon to the east, illuminating the canyon tops in bright highlights.
He eased the truck to a stop, facing the sun. Then he smiled into the morning light, taking a sip of his hot coffee.
He felt refreshed, a
live, and a little excited about the flight ahead. After Aponi’s funeral and Sage’s shift at Mercy Rock, his girlfriend had joined Moe in a small tent she called her “new apartment” just fifty yards from the caves near a trickling stream.
They’d lain next to each other, talking long into the night. He was amazed at her journey from “rez kid” to a full-fledged doctor with a string of degrees that made him respect her more and appreciate that she’d chosen him to be her man at the end of the world.
They’d done other things in the late evening hours. Touches, kisses, and warm intimacies that had left Moe tingling from head to toe. He grinned thinking about it.
“Earth to Moe,” Waki said from the passenger seat. “What next?”
Moe blinked and pushed pleasant thoughts of Sage out of his mind long enough to focus on the driving lesson. Besides his sister, Ron Stone sat on the sleeper bed behind them. He had scavenging experience from the Las Vegas run, and he had driven tractor trucks for a spell back in his younger days.
Moe had reservations about Waki. She was a wild, reckless driver on a four-wheeler, but she also had enough confidence for ten people. And a person needed a lot of that to drive a rig.
“It’s eighteen gears, but it’s not as hard as you think.” Moe tried to find an analogy they could understand. “It’s like shooting pool. It’s easy to understand but hard to get good at.”
“I’ll practice,” Waki nodded.
He gestured to the gear shift. “You have your typical H-pattern, like in a regular stick shift.”
“Like my old Honda,” she said. “You taught me how to drive that. Remember?”
“Right,” Moe gestured. “You’ve got first through fifth gears, but those are in the low range. See this switch here on the front of the gear shift? It’s the high-load selector, and that allows you to shift gears six through nine.”
Spore Series | Book 5 | Torch Page 5