by Jen Crane
“Like a Western?” Cooper asked with a laugh.
“Don’t ask.” Nori said.
“O-kay.” Cooper shrugged. “Oh, and someone operated a couple of stills here during prohibition.”
His dreams of the Wild West momentarily forgotten, Kade’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “You think they forgot any?”
“Oh, we can do better than that,” Cooper said smugly, stepping into the creek water and disappearing under a wide, low-hanging stalactite.
Nori followed him, ducking beneath the sharp, cone-shaped rocks hanging from the ceiling careful not to impale herself or break one. Kade splashed heavily behind her. On the other side of the mineral deposits, completely hidden from view, was a bridge across the widening creek leading to a metal door.
Nori pegged Cooper with a murderous glare. “This belong to the CCC too?”
“No.” He pushed back the chunk of dark hair that fell into his eyes when he shook his head.
Nori moved both fists to her hips. “Who then?”
“Someone who can’t enjoy it,” he said almost sadly. After unlocking the door with a key found beneath a rock, Cooper pushed open the door, extending a hand like a butler welcoming guests. Nori crept forward, but was flung to the side by a very eager Kade.
“After you,” she groused, but her friend wasn’t listening. He was already to the end of a narrow hall.
Cooper switched on a set of lights before locking the door behind him. Nori cringed and blinked in an attempt to adjust. Cooper and Kade were having the same trouble. Artificial light didn’t usually affect her, but after the ease of seeing in the darkness, she’d realized her visibility in actual light wasn’t great. And there was a lot of light in the room. Too much, like whoever installed it wanted to forget they were underground.
“Ah, Cooper?” Kade’s face wrinkled in confusion as he surveyed the main living space.
“Yeah?”
“I’m pretty sure the James Gang didn’t appreciate contemporary design. And no way did they have smart TVs.”
“Well, they weren’t the last ones to live here.” Cooper shot Nori a look that said ‘Where did you get this guy?’ which she ignored.
Nori craned her neck to take in the expanse. The walls and ceiling were all natural cave that had been coated with some kind of shiny epoxy, but the floors were a pale, polished cement that ran beneath tasteful high-end furniture. The kitchen island alone seated six in sleek silver chairs.
“What is this place?” Nori couldn’t keep her mouth closed as she opened pantry and closet doors stacked high with food and supplies. “Is it someone’s home? Do you know them? Is it okay we’re here?”
“It was actually built by some hedge fund manager after reading an end-of-days novel,” Cooper said. “He thought the apocalypse was coming and built this place to shelter his family.”
The man had been right. Nori wondered if he and his family had made it here in time for the first sunscorch. A wave of nausea snaked through her. If they had, wouldn’t they still be here now?
“This is the nicest place I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I had no idea people lived like this.”
“Woulda been better if they’d preserved some of the history, though,” Kade mumbled.
“Like what, shell casings? Spittoons? You and this Wild West hang-up.” Nori grinned at her friend.
“You say that now,” Cooper called to Kade from a spiral staircase. “But you haven’t seen the wine cellar.”
Kade had grown quiet after his initial enthrallment with the luxury bunker. He’d stopped mid-sentence of wondering aloud whether Jesse and Frank had stood in the very spot he occupied, staring off into the distance. His eyes had gone glassy, and his body slumped, like he was stumbling around, lost inside his own head. Nori could always tell when he was thinking of Grant.
Getting shot at was worth it, Nori thought, as she adjusted the thick towel she’d tucked between her head and the garden tub. She’d had to drain and re-fill the bath twice to get rid of all the grime that washed from her body.
Running her toes under the hot water cascading from the chrome faucet, she sipped from a glass of pink wine. Compared to her first experience with alcohol, the wine was sweet, tasty. More than anything, it made her feel both normal and pampered, and she closed her eyes in supreme bliss.
Cooper had shown her to a bedroom suite, complete with her own bathroom, before heading off to his own. Fine throws and blankets were placed throughout the room, which was as frosty as the rest of the underground world. A chill was part of Subterranean life. Nori had learned to accept the fact, though she didn’t like it. Wrapped in a thick towel she’d found in a drawer, she perused the room, basking in the luxurious details, and pressed a button beneath a large rectangle. An electronic screen flashed to life, revealing a thick forest of ancient trees and a lush carpet of ferns beneath them. Breath left her in a rush, and for a moment she forgot where she was. No way was that real. The screen pixelated and changed to a deserted beach at sunset. Nori backed up to the thick, soft bed and sat down to watch the show. It was an artificial window, no more than a screensaver, really, but held gorgeous landscapes she’d never get the chance to see in real life.
“How was it?” Cooper asked when Nori finally emerged from her personal oasis.
“A dream,” she gushed. “I was never allowed to use enough water for a bath like that. Ours were shallow—and infrequent. Hot water was just something my mother heated on the stove. How is it even possible?”
“A tankless heater makes it on demand. Electricity comes from a big windmill on top the side of the mountain. Guess it made it through the scorches. They took every precaution. Pretty nice, huh?”
“It’s unbelievable. I almost wish we could stay here forever.” Nori lowered her voice like she was revealing a secret and tugged at a tuft of cotton on her robe. “I mean, I found a bar of dark chocolate in the pantry.”
Cooper’s answering grin was smug, like a caveman who’d provided for his woman’s every need.
“I…ah…I found their stash of DVDs,” he finally said. “You wanna watch a movie?” He flipped through the album of discs, but stopped after a while. “Nori?” He looked up at her and patted the couch beside him.
She sat a modest distance away. “Mmm?”
“We will have to leave,” he said. “Sarge and those guys won’t stop until they find us. They don’t know about this place, but we can’t stay long.” His expression was apologetic, but his words firm. “And your parents. We have to meet your parents at the 25th Parallel.”
“I know. But it’s nice to dream.” She sighed but then sat up straighter. “What would they do with us if they caught us, anyway? I assume there’s more to the CCC than those three?”
“There are more.” Cooper took a deep breath. “A lot more. Sarge is just a henchman. And there are more dangerous threats than Sarge out there.” He shook himself. “But let’s not think about that today. We have this beautiful lodge, all the food, hot water, and wine we could want. Let’s make the most of it and think about our troubles tomorrow,” he said and Nori laughed. “It’s not every day I get to lounge on a leather sofa and watch a movie with a pretty girl.”
“Well.” The color of Nori’s cheeks matched her wine. “What should we watch?”
35
A Short Detour
Nori woke to a dragging gasp. She didn’t remember falling asleep, much less who might be snoring nearby. Smacking her dry lips, she cut her eyes in the direction of the sound…and jolted wide awake. Her head was nestled in Cooper’s waist as he lay slumped against the edge of the sofa.
Oh God, she thought. Oh God! How did this happen? Nori wanted to curl up and die. At least she had the curling up part down already.
This was bad. Riding behind Cooper on the bike was one thing. Falling asleep on him and snuggling into his warm, muscled—Nori shook herself and harnessed her erratic thoughts. Anyway, yes. This was too intimate. Much, much too intimate.
If
she craned her head, she could just see his face, still relaxed in sleep. His dark hair was clean, and laid messily across his forehead. His eyes were closed, and Nori could see movement beneath his lids as he dreamed. He’d shaved, and the skin of his cheeks and chin was smooth. Touchable. Nori’s hand twitched to do just that, but she got control of herself in time.
What should she do? Pretend to be asleep and stay still? She couldn’t do that for long. Not with the way her thoughts kept wandering. She did try, though, and laid her head tentatively back onto Cooper’s side. His breathing softened, and hers synced with it. For a while, she closed her eyes and allowed her body to rise and fall in time with his.
Too soon, nature called, and Nori needed up. She squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath, making slow, precise movements to peel off of him and sit upright.
Just as she disconnected the last inch of her side from his legs, a green-gold eye popped open. He found her face immediately, as if he’d known exactly where she was.
“I’m sorry I fell asleep on you,” she said in a rush. “It was the wine—I’m not used to… Oh, never mind.”
Cooper’s grin was lazy. “No problem.” His gaze snagged a little too long on her sleep-swollen lips and mussed hair.
“What time is it?” she asked, suddenly very anxious.
He stretched, raising his arms above his head and flexing to the side, then checked his watch on the way down. “About 7:30.”
“In the morning?” Nori smoothed the skin under her eyes and the wild hair buzzing around her face.
“Yes, in the morning.”
“I’ll never get used to the days and nights down here,” she said. “Always the same. It’s maddening. At Hank’s, I never knew when I was supposed to sleep. The lights went out at nine, and I could follow meal schedules, but it’s hard when there’s no sunlight. Ever.”
“Even if you were on the Surface, the days are so messed up it’s not like you could set your sleep schedule by light and dark.”
“That’s true.” She shrugged. “So, how do you do it? How can you live down here?”
The shuffle of bare feet preceded Kade as he rounded the corner into the living room. “Morning,” he said crisply. Freshly showered, he stopped to look between them. Nori was suddenly very aware of her disheveled hair and loose robe, and Cooper’s faint, smug smile.
“Morning.” Nori cleared her throat and stepped away from Cooper as she pulled her robe tight. “Sleep okay?”
“Yeeeaaaah,” Kade said slowly, brows rising toward his hairline as he looked between them. “You?”
“Like a baby,” she said. “Being cold and wet and filthy gets old. But this place…with heat and hot water…a palace compared to Hank’s.” Nori cinched the belt of her robe. “Speaking of, I’m going to take a shower. And yes, I know that’s extravagant after my bath last night, but at this rate, it may be a week before I get another.”
“Oh my God,” Nori said later around a mouthful of bacon. “This is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth.”
“Where did you find this?” Kade’s top lip crept toward his nose. “There’s no telling how many years it’s been here.”
“I don’t care,” Cooper said, closing his eyes on a bite of the meaty strip. “It’s divine.”
“I’m a vegetarian, you know.”
Cooper grunted. “You’re a vegetarian because you’ve never had bacon.”
“Well, we’re not gonna get very far if you two get food poisoning.” Kade crossed his arms over his chest and looked down his nose at them as they fought for the last slice.
“If I die,” Nori shut her eyes in bliss at the crisp, salty goodness of the only fried pork product she’d ever had, “I’ll die happy. And full.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Kade frowned as he popped bites of dried cereal.
“The plan,” Cooper swallowed, “is to clean up after ourselves. Leave no trace we were here. Sarge and the boys will be looking for us now, so we have to be careful. I found this place on my own, so they may not even know it’s here. There are a lot of places we could’ve gone, but they’ll be on our trail. We need to keep moving.”
Nori was already moving. “Our laundry should be about finished. I’ll check it.”
“I’ll clean up the kitchen,” Kade said, “but I’m not touching that bacon.”
Nori’s butt hurt, and she was stiff, and sore, and grumpy. They’d ridden for at least six hours.
She fidgeted and flexed to relieve her strained muscles, finally whining, “Can we stop?”
At Cooper’s sagging shoulders, guilt stabbed her. He must be sick of her complaints. She tried not to fuss, she really did. But, my God what she wouldn’t give to get off the motorcycle and stretch her legs. To run.
She glanced back at Kade, who lifted fingers from the handlebars in a silent hello.
Cooper turned his head toward her. “There’s a town in twenty-five miles. I know you’re sick of riding. Me, too. The road gets tough. Have to get through a pass before we stop again.”
Nori slumped against Cooper’s back in defeat. Besides a sore backside, it was what she hated most about riding the stupid bike. She had a hundred questions, but Cooper only answered in short, cagey sentences when shaking his head wouldn’t do.
Finally, when she was sure she couldn’t ride a single mile more, Cooper slowed to a stop.
“What are we doing?” she asked as he dismounted.
“We walk from here.”
“Surely you don’t mean through there.” Kade nodded toward a hole in the wall as Cooper walked his bike off the main path. “Why are we leaving the main road?”
“This is the way we’re going,” he called over his shoulder. “The main road is quicker, but more dangerous, too. It gets treacherous around here, and I’m not just talking about the terrain. The Deep South has some low people. I told you this trip would be tricky. This is where it starts.”
“Starts?” Nori balked, jogging to catch up to him. “You don’t count our little run-in at the hydroponic farm as dangerous?”
Cooper shrugged and kept pushing.
“That hole’s not big enough for our bikes,” Kade said. “Hell, I’m not sure I can fit through there.”
“We’ll fit. I’ve done it before.” Cooper took off his leather jacket and stuffed it into the bike’s saddlebag. “Nori, you’ll have to go first.”
Fear skittered up her spine like tiny spiders. “Ah, no. No way.”
He growled low in his throat. “Kade and I have to push the bikes through. You need to go first to see if there’s anything blocking the path. If there is, you can remove it, and we can push the bikes past. We have to keep moving.”
“Oh, God,” Nori groaned as she pulled her hair into a ponytail. “I can’t believe you’re making me do this. There are probably spiders in there. I hate spiders.”
“You know,” Cooper cocked his head dramatically, “I already miss the bike. I could barely hear your whining over the engine.”
Nori’s mouth fell open before she found words. “I am not whining. I’m just saying this sucks. And that I hate spiders.”
Cooper stopped pushing the bike, and she closed in on him. She could see the gold flecks in his eyes even in the darkness. They were always more visible when he was upset. He let out a heavy sigh. “You’re right, okay? It sucks. A lot of this sucks. But what’s the alternative? You wanna go back to the lodge and wait for Sarge and those guys?”
“You know, that very thought had crossed my mind,” Kade muttered from behind them.
Nori went first. Of course she did. Making her parents wait and worry was out of the question. Allowing Sarge and his crew to catch up to them wasn’t an option either. So she closed her eyes and repeated the mantra she knew so well. One breath at a time. One step at a time. One day at a time. Then she ducked into the tiny offshoot to join the creepy crawlies.
Nori kept moving, cursing each time a jagged rock snagged her hand or tripped her. Cooper was right. She coul
d see, and she could help them make it through the tight space. He and Kade were nearly duck-walking, the tunnel just tall enough to scrape the motorcycles through.
“Why couldn’t we take the main road?” she asked. “It would’ve been so much easier.”
“Remember how Sarge found you that first time?”
Nori whipped around to look at Cooper, forgetting where she was, and struck her head on the low ceiling. She rubbed the newest knot with bloody fingers and glared at him with murderous intent, though he couldn’t see her face.
“Oh yeah, I remember. I remember you were with them.”
“God, can we please not argue this same point again?” he said, and she didn’t answer. “Anyway, there are other people who would be just as happy to find you. To find us. We’re trying to avoid them.”
She turned away from him, tired, and angry, and frustrated, and the shadows changed in the tunnel ahead, as if the detour were ending and they could finally get back into a bigger passage. As usual, the smell of wet, damp earth permeated everything, but she also scented fire. Smoke. She sniffed. Sniffed again. Yes, definitely smoke.
In hindsight, it wouldn’t have changed anything if she’d told Cooper about the smoke. There was no way they could’ve backed all the way through the tiny passage in time. There was never really an escape. The moment she stepped from the jagged shortcut back into the main tunnel, there was a flickering orange light of fire, of flames, and then nothing. Blackness.
36
Sword of Yahweh
The sound of a child’s soft humming dragged Nori to consciousness, though she regretted it immediately. Apparently, someone had mistaken her head for an egg and cracked it. She groaned and opened one eye, but squeezed it shut again at the pain ricocheting through her skull.
Finally, she gathered the strength to open both eyes. The child sitting in front of Nori was a filthy little thing, her clothes rags concealing only the important parts. No shoes. Her tiny feet were covered in so much black she might’ve had no skin beneath it.