by Jen Crane
But that didn’t mean she had to like it. The thought of saying goodbye to Cooper made her chest tight and achy. There was a hole there, too, like she’d suffered a loss. No, she was not ready for him to leave. She was angry, and sad, and lonely already.
“Will I ever see you again?” Nori couldn’t meet his gaze.
Cooper stepped in close and ran his thumb over the single tear scurrying down her cheek. When she finally looked up, his green-gold eyes pinned hers. “Never say never,” he said so low that only she could hear. He slid his fingers into her thick hair, which was still wet from their swim. He leaned into her with exquisite tenderness, the flecks of gold in his eyes flaming as he searched her startled gaze.
Nori’s heart pounded against her ribcage before it stopped completely. She’d never been kissed. Not ever. And God, but she wanted to be kissed by Cooper. Nori met his body with hers, some instinct filling in the holes of her inexperience. His face moved ever closer, and both her eyes and her will were open to his intentions. When she licked her bottom lip, his eyes followed the movement. A tiny smile pulled at his mouth just before he touched his lips to hers. One, two, three velvety-soft kisses before he pulled away.
Nori stood stunned, her heart stalled and brain short-circuited. And when she finally recovered her senses, it was to wave goodbye as Sam Cooper kick-started his motorcycle and sped out of her life.
“Well, this sucks,” Grant said after several hours on the road.
Nori had to agree. Without Cooper’s bike, one of the three of them was left to walk. She could hardly travel ahead with Kade and leave Grant behind, and they would never leave her; she’d tried that. They took the vow to see her home safely very seriously.
“Look,” Nori explained, not for the first time. “Cooper said Esperanza was just on the other side of the mountain range. The cenote meant we’re not far, and we’ve gone miles beyond even that.” She stopped and rubbed her lower back. “You two take the bike and go. I can make it from here.”
Just as before, her offer was met with disgusted looks.
“We’re not leaving you, Nori,” Kade said brusquely. “And that’s final.”
“Besides,” Grant’s tone was playful, but she couldn’t help feeling there was an underlying sadness to it, “we’ve got nowhere else to go.”
“Where will you go?” she asked. “After you get me to my parents, I mean. Will you stay in Esperanza?” The two men shared a sour look. A topic of contention, then.
“You think Cooper’s right?” she asked to change the subject.
“He’d better be.” Grant’s limp suddenly became more pronounced. “Considering all the trouble he’s caused us. I’m sick of walking, and my pinkie toe is blistered to the bone.”
“I told you to take the bike,” Kade said hotly.
“You know I can’t drive that thing.”
Kade clenched his teeth and looked at Nori. “What Cooper said is hard to believe, but everything he’s done, everything he knows… It checks out.”
“But that would mean billions of people were murdered.” She simply couldn’t believe it was true. “That the Earth was sabotaged, and its plants and animals…our whole world was destroyed on purpose.”
“It would,” Kade agreed.
No one spoke after that. There was nothing left to say.
46
Reunited. It Should Feel So Good
“What are we supposed to be looking for?” Grant asked again.
Nori and Grant walked ahead of Kade, who’d been stuck for most of the trek pushing the motorcycle despite his injury. He’d given up riding ahead and waiting for them to catch up, too bored and worried, he said, to make it worthwhile. Their system of trading off walking the bike had worked for a while, but Kade gave much more than his fair share, eventually taking sole responsibility.
“Graffiti, carvings, signs of any kind,” Nori answered, stopping to wait for Kade. “Cooper said we’ll know it when we see it, but at this point I’m wondering if he didn’t make up the whole incinerated-Earth thing just to escape us.”
Grant laughed, but Kade met her gaze, his face serious. “You know he didn’t,” he said. “I don’t know what you two had, but it wasn’t nothing.”
Nori flushed, her virgin heart taking flight as she remembered their emotional goodbye. Just as quickly, though, it plummeted to the ground. She and Cooper might’ve had something, but it was gone now. He was gone. To save the world, it would seem. How selfish to want him back. How very short-sighted. And yet, she did.
“Could this be it?” Kade asked them.
The question dragged her attention back to the now. The motorcycle’s headlamp had been left on so Kade and Grant could better search for the exit, but she could still make out what they saw ahead. There wasn’t a sign, no watchful graffiti. The road simply made a Y, the left side going on and the right ending at a metal door.
“It must be,” she whispered. Light snuck through the sides of the old metal door. She stopped farther away than was probably necessary, but the damage even those slim rays could do to her eyes or skin wasn’t worth the risk.
“Is it really that bad?” Grant asked.
She nodded and blew out a breath.
“We’ll wait until dark.” Kade tested the rusty door knob, but didn’t open it. “Then we’ll go up and see about finding your parents.”
Nori was quiet as Grant picked through the last of their food stores. “Kade?” she asked after a while.
“Hmm?” The big man had pushed his jeans up to his knees to massage thick calves.
“I’ve been thinking.” She swallowed hard. “I…I think you and Grant have to go now, while it’s still daylight.”
He turned toward her, eyes wide. “What? No. Why would you say that?”
Nori paced the narrow space of the tunnel and ticked off on her fingers as she made her points. “We don’t know how far it is to Esperanza. We don’t know how much time we have under the cover of dark. We don’t know where my parents are once we get there. And, God, we don’t even know if they’ve made it there yet.”
“I’m sure they’re all right, Nori.” Grant moved to stand beside her, but she took up pacing again.
“I mean, none of us has ever been here before. Without Cooper, there’s no way to know the distance or the landscape. What if there’s trouble? As much as I hate to say it, I think it’s best if you two find them then come back for me.”
“There’s no way I’m leaving you here alone,” Kade said.
“You have to. It could take days to find them. I can’t be stuck on the Surface not knowing how to get back to safety. Getting caught in the sun would kill me. Kill me. And if what Cooper says is true, and there’s a scorch coming, we don’t have any time to waste.”
“You know the kinds of people who use these tunnels, Nori. And if we’re this close to the CCC headquarters, there’s sure to be more of them. What if they find you?”
“They won’t.”
“You can’t know that,” he said.
“I’ll take precautions. I’ll hide, keep a weapon.”
Kade growled and shook his head. “Dammit, Nori. No.”
She jerked at his impassioned demand. She’d never seen Kade angry. Never. Silence stretched between them like melted plastic. Eventually, it went on too long and broke.
“I can’t go aboveground, Kade,” she finally said. “It’s a bad idea.”
“I know.” He kicked a rock that tumbled down the tunnel. “Grant will have to stay, too.”
“Whaaaa?” Grant’s face was wounded.
“You two will stay here together,” Kade said then turned to Nori. “I’ll take the motorcycle and go in search of your parents. Alone.”
“But that’s too dangerous,” Grant protested. “You have no idea what you’re getting into up there.”
“I can protect myself. You know that. I’ll be fine. It’s faster this way, anyway.”
Grant made several more protests, but his attempts to dissuade K
ade were futile. He was right. This was their best shot.
“Up you go, then.” Nori said and hugged her friend one last time “I’m going back around that last corner to make sure I’m away from the light when you open the door.” She wandered off, trying to give Kade and Grant what privacy she could.
Nori’s chest grew tight when Kade started up the bike. Had her parents made it to Esperanza? Were they all right? Did they remember the plan about a blue padlock? Oh, God. She and Kade hadn’t discussed it again. Did he remember? As the roar of the motorcycle faded in the distance, she closed her eyes and sent a silent prayer that everything would go according to plan. Then she leaned against the rock wall and slid abruptly down, laying her head on her knees.
Grant tentatively touched her shoulder then gave her two quick pats. “It’ll be fine,” he said. “We’ll all be fine.”
Nori didn’t have the nerve to look up at his face, to see if he actually believed his own words. So she added his hope—false or not—to hers, and even with it, her cup was less than half-full.
“My mom always said a watched pot never boils.” Nori leaned her head against the wall. “I think it must also be true that awaited time never passes.”
“Tell me about it,” Grant grumbled. “How long’s he been gone?”
“Twelve or fourteen hours, I think.”
“God, it feels like two days.” Grant rose and began pacing again. “And I’m starving. I swear I’d give my right arm for a Vitabar right now.”
Nori smirked. “The one you hypothetically chewed off not to have to eat another protein pellet?”
“Yes, that one,” he nodded, then leaned his head to the side. “You hear that?”
“Your stomach talks almost as much as you—”
“No, I’m serious.” Grant cut her off, his eyes wide and panicked. He shined his flashlight up and down the tunnel.
“Turn that off,” Nori’s harsh whisper echoed as he fumbled for the button.
“You think it’s Kade?” he asked.
“I hope so.” She threw her backpack over a shoulder.
“Should we go back to the door to meet him?”
Nori shook her head before realizing Grant couldn’t see it. “I don’t think so. We’re hidden here. Let’s wait until we’re sure it’s him before we move.”
She could barely hear anything over the rush of blood roaring through her ears, and made an effort to calm her ragged breathing before she hyperventilated. It was a sad state of things when Grant was calmer than she was.
But she’d been imagining seeing her parents for days. She had no idea how long it had been since they parted ways back in Ralston. Weeks? A month? Nori swallowed and clasped Grant’s hand in hers.
He squeezed back, but stayed silent.
“Nori?” The sound of her father’s voice echoed through the tunnel, through her mind. Had she wished so hard she’d imagined it. “Nori?”
“Daddy?” Her shaking voice came out small and childlike. She said, louder, “Daddy?”
“Nor? Nori, where are you?”
“Here!” She left the alcove and ran toward her father’s voice. “I’m here!”
“Oh, God, Nori.” His voice broke on her name as he clutched her around the shoulders and lifted her in a bear hug. “Are you all right?” He touched her face, her hair.
“I’m fine, Daddy.” A laugh of pure joy bubbled to the surface from her soul. “You?” She stopped, her face suddenly serious. “And Mom? Is Mom okay?”
“Fine,” he said. “Just too hard to get down here. She’s waiting up top.”
“I’m sorry it took so long,” Kade said. Nori hadn’t noticed him standing behind her father.
She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. ” She jumped and hugged Kade’s neck. “You found them,” she said and squeezed even harder. “You did it.”
Nori’s self control evaporated at the sight of her mother. She sobbed as she bent to embrace her, leaning over the arm of the wheelchair. Her body was so thin, so frail, Nori worked not to squeeze her too hard.
When she finally pulled back, her mother reached for her face and held it in bony fingers before kissing her cheek, her hair, and looking over every inch of her face. “You’re all right.” Her mother’s breath hitched as she repeated, “You’re all right. I worried every second of every day.”
“No need to worry now, Mom,” she said. “We did it. We found each other, even at the other end of the world.”
47
Hope in Esperanza
“Did you tell them about Cooper? About the CCC?” Nori asked Kade when she finally got him out of her parents’ earshot. Her father and Grant rode in the front seats of their dented and dingy van. She and Kade took the back with her mother, who’d nodded off during the bumpy ride back to Esperanza.
“No. They were already so worried, I thought I’d spare them until we found you.” He swallowed and searched her face. “Your mom looks so different since I last saw her.”
“I know.” Nori’s eyes lit on her mother’s sweet but strained face as she slept. Nori had propped a pillow between her shoulder and head. “You did the right thing. One worry at a time.”
“They’re not fans of Cooper’s right now, I’ll tell you that,” Kade said.
“Do they think he just abandoned us for no reason?”
“I just said we parted ways. Didn’t get into it.”
Nori nodded. She didn’t care if they hated Cooper. She’d tell them the truth, and they’d understand. Eventually.
With a jerk, Nori remembered the CCC worker’s warning. Forty-eight hours. “Kade, how long has it been since we were in that cenote?”
“’Bout thirty-six hours,” he said.
“Have there been any news reports about another sunscorch?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“You’re sure?” Nori scooted forward in the seat. “I thought they could predict scorches now?”
He shrugged wide shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe those guys were wrong. Maybe this whole thing’s been blown out of proportion.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Nori said and then her body went rigid when the thought struck her. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
“What is it, Nor?” Kade leaned around to look at her face and flinched at what he found.
“What if Cooper didn’t make it?” she breathed, her voice shaky and weak. “What if he never got word to whoever’s in Chicago?” She met Kade’s worried glance and knew they were both thinking the same thing. “What if no one knows the scorch is coming?”
“Yes, but we’ve heard nothing from the new alert system,” Nori’s father said. “How can you be so sure a scorch is coming?” He searched her face as they sat around a table in the basement of their new home. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe her, she thought, just that the thing itself was unbelievable.
She shared a look with Kade and Grant. He was her father. Of course she should tell him. And Nate and Deanna were trusted, lifelong friends who’d gone miles out of their way to help her and her parents. But she took her promise to Cooper seriously. They all did. At length, Kade gave a stiff nod, and she sagged with relief before telling them all what they’d overheard, and what Cooper had revealed.
Her father stood up from the table so quickly his chair flew back and hit the floor with a clank. “We’ve got to tell the people at the Climate Research Center.”
“Yes,” Deanna agreed. “The media, too. And fast.”
“All right.” Nori’s father took charge of the battle plan. “The Research Center isn’t far from here.” He turned to Kade. “Will you come with me and Nate? And Nori, the landline here works. The phone lines are buried, so the scorch doesn’t affect them. You, Grant, and Deanna call any news outlets you can find and try to get them to report it.”
“What about…me? What can I…do?” her mother’s breathless voice came from the top of the steps. They’d left her resting in her bedroom after the tough ride home. They’d made
it, though just barely, scrambling into the house before sunrise with only minutes to spare.
Nori’s father beamed and jogged upstairs. “Hey, hon. You overhear all that?” At her nod, he said, “Can you help get the word out?”
“You just give me a phone and I’ll make them listen.”
“Dad?” Nori cornered her father as he readied to leave. “It’s important you don’t tell the Climate Research people about the CCC. We promised Cooper. Don’t mention anything about the organization or the headquarters. Nothing. If they find out someone’s on to them, it could sabotage all the work Cooper’s group has put into stopping them.”
“I understand.” He nodded. “I know it’s important to keep his secret. I see the long-term goal.” Her father rubbed his forehead. “It’s going to be hard to convince the Research Center without some proof, but I’ll do my best. At the very least, maybe I can encourage them to run some tests, or whatever it is they do.”
Though she tried not to, with each call to a news outlet that hadn’t heard of an impending sunscorch, Nori worried Cooper hadn’t made it to the communications post. And if he hadn’t made it, then something—or someone—had stopped him. She closed her eyes against the images ravaging her mind. Had the CCC caught him? The Sword of Yahweh’s Mexican cousins? Some other unknown threat?
She rubbed her eyes and dialed another number her mother had found in an old phone book.
“What did that one say?” Grant asked as Nori slammed the handset onto the heavy receiver.
“They thought I was crazy, too.” Nori stood, holding her forehead as she paced the basement floor. “Maybe I am crazy. I can’t think past worrying about what’s happened to Cooper.”