Kimber

by L K Hingey

  She was glad she had said goodbye to Caleb in the eastern pools and looking back on it was as sweet as it was bitter. She had not known it then, but Inanna, and everyone and everything about it, would soon start to feel like a piece of her past. She had not processed what the knowledge of the Cheyenne Mountain Compound meant in full, but she had a hunch that she and Tristan would be swept into the west. Kimber stood up and stretched towards the sky. The air was warm, and the sun burned like an ember on the rocky red horizon.

  What would mountains look like? Not foothills of the Appalachian, but real jagged peaks that unapologetically split the sky. Pictures of the Rockies in encyclopedias always showed the mountains snowcapped and evergreen. What would they look like stripped of all of that, peeled back to their rocks and roots? She was looking west, lost in her reverie, when Tristan came up next to her and followed her gaze. “Wondering what lies out there?” he asked in his uncanny way of knowing what was on her mind.

  “Think we’ll find out?” Kimber countered, appreciating how in sync they always seemed to be.

  “I don’t know. Honestly, I can’t see how we won’t,” he said softly. “I think the likelihood of a party being sent out of Inanna with Eve is highly probable. And even if it doesn’t happen now, someday I think curiosity will get the better of our people.”

  “Think we could resist going if a party was organized?” Kimber asked, a hint of mischief and challenge floating up from her voice into the colorful ribbons above them.

  Tristan grinned and crossed his arms. “Well, I think you’re too crazy to say no. And since I made a promise to not let go, I think I’m in for the trip of a lifetime.”

  “Oh, come on, you know you’re curious about what’s out there too!” Kimber scoffed.

  Tristan’s eyes softened with wonder and contemplation. “Okay, okay. I’ve always dreamt about getting out. To leave Inanna and see what’s left of the world. Before yesterday though, they were just dreams. Selfish ones at that. But now that we know something could be out there, I can’t imagine growing old never knowing for sure.”

  Kimber nodded next to him. She knew he was being honest. She had seen it. It was the wildness in his eyes. She had recognized it immediately because it resonated with the same untamed longing in her own heart. The borealis lit up the barren earth in a purple-blue hue, and for a few moments, the pair stared out across what looked like an ocean instead of cracked red dirt. With a sigh, they turned to go, both knowing the journey in front of them was long.

  “Let’s go rummage around for some dinner. And keep your eyes peeled, would you? I wouldn’t mind finding a backpack somewhere,” Tristan said as they collected their things and set off farther into Elizabethtown.

  Chapter XX

  Elizabethtown surrounded them like crypts in a graveyard. The dead buildings glowed in the shifting purple light, and the unclaimed vehicles dotted the area like large gravestones. Kimber and Tristan both knew the dark events of the day before was casting everything in an extra bleak shadow, but that did not make them feel any more at ease. They walked down Highway 31 like ghosts, looking for a grocery store.

  Kimber was the first to spot the bleached sign. She nudged Tristan, and he peered through the darkness at the worn-out lettering hanging above a brick building. The had never been in a store like this one. “E-Town Army Surplus and Tactical Resale,” he read excitedly.

  The inside of the store was a wreck. Goods had been pulled down off the shelves and scattered, and the curio cases that had once displayed all sorts of weapons were busted and combed over. Every sword, knife, hatchet, and gun had been taken, while more random items like binoculars and throwing stars were left behind. There was quite a bit of military clothing left in the store, along with a multitude of racks bearing hats, scarves, gloves, and socks.

  Kimber pulled out the flashlight and gave it to Tristan, who she knew would get more enjoyment out of seeing every detail. Although items like lanterns, matches, ammo cans, and batteries had been cleaned out, there were still many useful supplies in here. High-tech ponchos that felt like cotton but repelled water; air-activated hand and toe warmers; canteens with metal cups; pouches; straps; mess kits containing pots, pans, plates and utensils; sticks of camouflage face paint; rope; and much more of the sort, dotted the shelves and the ground.

  Kimber followed Tristan to the back of the store where there was a wall of tactical bags. Many were missing, but a lucky few remained. Some were duffle bag style, some were body bag style, and a few of the smaller ones were backpack style. Tristan whooped and picked one up. They had had backpacks in Inanna, but they were housed in the decontamination room.

  He tried the bag on and cinched the straps, testing how it felt. He grinned. It fit great.

  “While we are here, we could look to see if there is anything that may be useful for extended Rocky Mountain bound foot travel,” Tristan offered, walking over to a mirror hanging up nearby to check out his new pack.

  “Boys and their gear,” Kimber grumbled with a chuckle. She set her shoulder pack down and tried on one of the backpacks. She cinched it up as far as it would go and jogged in place. “Not bad. There’s still one left too. I’ll scrunch it along with one of the smaller duffle bags and stick it in my pack. Someone will want them. Maybe Jameson or Hunter. Or Aaron or Zaak?”

  “Oh yeah. Take anything that may come in handy. Just be careful not to carry too much weight. Whatever we take is going to slow us down. Check these out!” Tristan threw a soft face scarf her way. The material was a thin blend of fabrics and had a complex pattern woven into it. It had a middle eastern quality, and the tag read Authentic Shemagh Desert Face Shield.

  Tristan had selected a blue, white, and black scarf for her and a green and tan one for him. “To keep the dust out!” he explained excitedly wrapping the shemagh around his head like the picture on the tag showed. He then grabbed every other shemagh that was left, stuffing them in his bag as presents for the Auroras.

  “That looks really good on you,” Kimber complimented, and from what she could see in the low light, it really did. He had wrapped it perfectly, and its tan tassels hung down ornately. Kimber wrapped hers around her own head, surprised by how light the fabric felt. It really would be good for traveling out in the hot sandy conditions.

  They continued around the store looking for anything else that would come in handy. They each picked up a canteen pouch and slung the straps over their bodies. Tristan picked up some green paracord and meandered over to the mess kits. He opened the bundle of kitchen supplies, weighed the pieces in his hands, and then set it all back down, deciding it was too heavy.

  Half buried under a heap of synthetic camouflage blankets was a box of freeze-dried food packets specially designed for backpackers. Tristan riffled through the box. The Auroras had seen meal pouches like this once or twice before, but they had never appreciated how genius this lightweight of food actually was. And since the food had been dehydrated, it would keep well for decades.

  Tristan read the meal options out loud: “Blueberry cobbler, lasagna, ravioli, meatloaf, peaches and cream, breakfast scrambler, beef stroganoff, nuts about oatmeal, and deviled brownie. A few of them have duplicates.”

  Kimber felt her stomach starting to growl. She didn’t mind eating spam and canned fruit every day, but “nuts about oatmeal” sounded quite a bit more enticing. “Let’s fit as many as we possibly can in our packs. We can eat them sparingly when we find water to mix them with.”

  “You got it,” Tristan said, passing her a handful.

  By the time they left the surplus store, their packs were bulging but were not particularly heavy. Tristan had packed the briefcase in his bag and Kimber slung her knapsack over the straps of her backpack. The pair set off to find some dinner, eventually coming across a shabby convenience store not too far from the intersection of I65. They made a quick stop in, using a busted front window instead of the door, and came back out holding a couple cans of food.

  Despite its dingy a
ppearance, the shop had been well stocked. Tristan and Kimber took a seat on a curb in the parking lot, soaking in the purple glow of the evening and happily sharing cans of mini hotdogs, spaghetti-loops, and green beans.

  “Still thinking of pressing on?” Kimber asked Tristan.

  “Yeah, I feel better after drinking and eating. And running without a briefcase in my hands is going to feel great. I don’t know if we will make it all the way to Sonora, but we’ll see how far we can get!”

  “Fantastic. Yeah, and we can test out all our new gear!” Kimber said, excited to get underway again. Deep down, she was getting nervous about another windstorm popping up, and new shemagh or not, she hoped they could make it back to Inanna before the next one hit.

  “You’re worried about a storm, aren’t you?” Tristan asked keenly.

  “How do you do that?” Kimber groaned cocking her head to the side.

  He laughed. “Because I’m getting worried about one too. Let’s put some miles behind us.”

  They finished their dinners and rounded up the trash. Whenever they could, they liked to throw the refuse away. If for no other reason, it eased their minds to know that they were not adding missiles to the already dangerous airborne arsenal of the windstorms. They cinched up their loads and checked each other over. Once they were set, Tristan and Kimber veered off Highway 31 and jogged onto the I65 ramp. They tucked into a rhythm, watching out for the gapped hazards of the superhighway, and started to put down distance.

  They ran for hours underneath the fiery phenomenon. It seemed strange that they had traveled this same road only days before because it felt like it had been a lifetime ago. Kimber watched Tristan run in front of her, his pack bobbing up and down. Her heart swelled with gratitude, and her mind lulled itself into a state of calm. This is what she was good at. This is what she knew. She let the landscape roll by in a blur and focused only on her breathing.

  Time and space became a blur as the pair ran. Nothing else mattered but their footsteps and the light dancing above in the heavens. The borealis had turned into a cascade of electric blue, as if a waterfall were flowing off the Earth, tumbling into the cosmos. Even the road itself took on a beauty of its own, the rebar and broken concrete looking like twisted sculptures illuminated against the blue alien landscape.

  Tristan and Kimber ran for so long and were so deep in thought, that they were both surprised when a tall pole came into view. The sign had been knocked off, but they could tell it had belonged to a travel plaza. Kimber perked up as they drew closer to the huge building. She liked travel plazas. She had never been to one this large, but even at the smaller ones she enjoyed imagining the hustle and bustle of the road, the massive automated trucks that would stop here for service, and the travelers going about their business.

  Travel stations like this were sophisticated facilities, even by the standards of the late 2100’s. They included restaurants, bars, and rest lounges for patrons of the superhighways. Tristan and Kimber slowed to a walk and gawked at the modern architecture of the main building and its adjacent glass maintenance hangar. The bays inside the hangar were large, and some still had trucks stranded on lifts with robotic work arms hanging limply nearby.

  “I can’t believe we made it here. That’s...” Tristan calculated the miles. “Twenty-six miles. We traveled a marathon today.”

  “See, that wasn’t so bad, right? We’ll make a runner of you yet!” Kimber smiled and bumped him with her hip.

  Tristan was still in shock. “I guess it did take us seven hours to get here, so it’s not like our pace was crazy fast, but...a full marathon!” he grinned proudly.

  “One more will get us home,” Kimber slipped in slyly, winking obnoxiously as she walked up to the breezeway of the travel center. The automatic front doors were locked tight. The entrance had two manual side doors, and Kimber quickly knelt by one, grabbing the wire coil from her belt.

  “We’ll see how we feel tomorrow.” Tristan raised his eyebrows with a sharp intake of air.

  “Deal,” Kimber said as the lock sprung open. They pushed their way in, but she did not reach for the flashlight. The windows were so large, and the skylights so impressive, that the whole place was illuminated. There was a centralized seating area that served as the hub for a food court, a dine-in kitchen, a travel store, and a traveler’s lounge. Kimber and Tristan looked at each other in excitement. Lounges meant comfortable furniture.

  They beelined to the lounge to get a feel for the sleeping arrangements and found a dark room filled with massaging recliners. The massaging features would obviously not be operational, but they would be able to lean the chairs back and raise the footrests. Kimber and Tristan set their packs down, realizing how tired their muscles were. “Worth it,” Kimber said shortly, excited to tuck into one of the leather chairs.

  “No kidding. Want me to go see if there is any food out there?” Tristan asked.

  “I’ll go with you. You have already doted upon me enough today. I’m in danger of getting spoiled,” she replied and walked with Tristan into the store. Not much was left, save for rotten snacks and flat sodas. Kimber had an idea. “Follow me!” she said, leading him into the diner’s kitchen.

  They rummaged under the counters and found, not only normal canned goods, but bulk-sized food. There were full gallons of pears, tomatoes, black olives, corn, chickpeas, chili, and pinto beans. Next to the canned goods, there were large glass jars of pickles, several over-sized bottles of vegetable oil, a jar of peanut butter, a jug of mayonnaise, and an industrial helping of maple syrup. Kimber squeaked in excitement and started pulling the giant cans off their shelves.

  “I haven’t had olives in forever! Think the peanut butter will be any good?” she asked eyeing the large jar.

  “Only one way to know,” Tristan replied, pulling the chili and pickles towards him.

  Luckily, the bulk-sized cans featured the same easy-open tabs that came standard on all normal sized cans. Not only did this make them a breeze to get into, but it indicated that the food would be fresher, as the cans would also be enhanced with post-World War III seal technology. There had been a surge after the war to bring back the art of canning, as it had previously almost fizzled out entirely. The Auroras sat together on the floor of the kitchen enjoying their feast and dreaming about sleep.

  It did not take long for their now full stomachs to meet their exhaustion head on. When they started to notice that every bite was becoming a labor of concentration and effort, they decided to call it for the night. The weary travelers stumbled back to the lounge, drunk on fatigue and food, and collapsed into the soft recliners. Although the borealis was splendid as it shone through the skylights into the common area of the plaza, Kimber was grateful for the darkness the lounge provided. Within minutes, both she and Tristan were sound asleep.

  A scream yanked Tristan from his deep slumber. He groggily came-to and heard Kimber murmuring and thrashing. He bolted upright, listening for a few seconds to see if her nightmare would pass. When she cried out again, he leapt over to her chair and knelt by her side, speaking in a soothing voice and stroking her hair. The tension left her face and body as she slowly eased back into a relaxed sleep.

  He understood why she had wanted him to lie by her in the hotel room. Of course, she would be worried about the shadows that currently lurked in her subconscious. All Tristan could do now was soothe her head and hold her hand. He stayed by her for a few more minutes to make sure her mind had settled into a more peaceful place, before returning to his own chair. He fell back asleep instantly but found himself waking up throughout the night to listen, dozing back off only when he was sure Kimber was alright.

  Daylight came too soon, especially for Tristan. It leaked into the lobby and gradually lit up the building in a brilliance of skylit sunlight. Neither he nor Kimber wanted to acknowledge the morning’s presence, and they both turned over in their chairs trying to ignore it. Yielding to the daybreak, Tristan eventually sat up and stretched. He inventoried the l
ounge around them and tiptoed out of the room. The lobby was elegant and bright, and Tristan let himself outside to relieve himself.

  It was a calm morning. The washed-out daytime borealis hung overhead, and the landscape glowed copper in the low angles of the sun. The pair had another day or two of running ahead, depending on how far they could make it today. Tristan took stock of how his body felt. Overall, not too bad. His knees were a bit sore, his forearms and back burned, but it was not as bad as he had feared. Maybe he was better at this endurance stuff that he had given himself credit for.

  He finished up and wandered back inside to where Kimber was carrying the oversized can of peaches towards a table in the lobby.

  “In the mood for breakfast?” she asked. “I know last night we were too tired to care, but today we can pretend we’re not feral by eating on a table.”

  “Breakfast sounds great. Day looks calm by the way,” Tristan said, taking a seat and eyeing the can. “We are going to be buzzed on sugar, that’s for sure. I plan to drink half that juice.”

  Kimber peeled the peach’s tab back, treasuring the sweet smell of the plump fruit. “Mmm. Yes, we are. How do you feel?”

  “Surprisingly good. I vote we take today one step at a time and see how we feel. Let’s get some good miles under our belt before making a judgement call on whether to keep going.”

  Kimber nodded. They each ate a few bites and out of the blue, her tone became solemn. “I’m sorry I haven’t told you all of the details of the laboratories. I know that you are trying not to pry... and I really appreciate it. It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. I just know as soon as we get back, I’m going to have to tell everyone all over again. I’m trying not to dwell on how alarming it all was. At least not until I know that my mother and Eve and her baby will be safe.”