Theo and Jen turned to see Frank standing there, holding a clump of weeds dripping dirt from their roots.
“Oh, right,” Jen said, and adjusted the hem of her shirt by pulling it down tighter over her breasts. “I better go see if Selena needs me today? Maybe I’ll see you later tonight? In Yellow Mountain? For the story-telling?”
That was three question marks too many, but who was counting? Although he didn’t know what she was talking about, he figured there was nothing else to do. “Probably will,” he replied. She gave Theo a melting smile as she skirted away, walking toward the house.
“Spends more time lookin’ in the damned mirror or scavenging for clothes,” Frank grumbled, “or talking, than doing anything else.”
“She lives around here?” Theo asked, bending dutifully to the strawberries. A basket appeared on the ground next to him, ostensibly from Frank, and he began to pick the ripest berries.
“In Yellow Mountain. ’Bout five miles down the hill,” replied the old man. “Supposed to relieve Selena, but spends more of her damn time talking to Sam and Tim than working. And when she’s around, they don’t do nothing either.”
Theo hid a smile. Sounded just about normal for young people with raging hormones. He hadn’t met Sam or Tim, but he figured he’d need to make a point of doing so—if for no other reason than because if they hadn’t found him, he’d still be dead.
He paused for a moment and thought of Lou. Damn. And as he sat there, in the hot sun, red stains from the berries on his fingers, he opened his mind once again to his brother.
Chapter Three
Lou was working in the subterranean computer lab when a familiar sizzle of awareness zipped over his shoulders. His hands stilled over the keyboard.
Theo! he thought, and opened his mind. You there?
Yeah.
Lou’s fingers collapsed onto the keys, creating a jumble of letters. Relief blitzed through him. Are you okay?
He didn’t know for certain whether Theo could actually read those specific thoughts, but he tried anyway. On his end, it was more of a feeling that communicated whatever they were trying to communicate to each other. But it had been more than a day since he’d had that brief connect from his brother, and Lou wasn’t certain if he’d imagined it or not. So to have that feeling again was a great relief.
I’m safe.
That communication came through loud and clear. Solid.
Lou opened his eyes and was mortified to find that they were damp and stinging. He wasn’t ready to lose his brother, not quite yet. Thank God he was still here.
Good, Lou sent back vehemently. He waited, wondering if Theo had anything else to say. Ever since the whole thing with Sage had gone down, Theo had been a little more reticent and quiet. And snappish. But, although there was now silence from his twin, the connection was open and Lou took comfort in the familiar bond. Just the awareness that he was there.
Lou looked at the computer screen, where he’d been writing a new program that was trying to analyze numerical information they’d obtained from a journal stolen from the Strangers, who were also called the Elite. The jumble of letters and numbers was, ironically, comforting to him, despite the fact that he hadn’t figured out the significance of the sequences.
Now, he could concentrate. Now, he’d be able to set his mind to the task he’d been using as an escape from the fear that he was once again alone.
Elsie had died a little more than a year after the Change, trying to have their baby in a world without Pitocin, without epidurals, without emergency C-sections. A little flutter of her presence brushed over the back of his neck, beneath the silver-gray pony tail.
Where are you? he asked Theo.
You won’t believe me.
Where?
I’m at Brad Blizek’s ranch.
Lou’s eyes widened. Holy shit.
He could almost hear Theo’s chuckle. I have to look around. More later.
Report back asap with deets. I’m expecting Tony Stark’s lab, you know.
Me too. Later.
Brad Blizek’s ranch. Sweet. Would there be anything left of his office? With that tantalizing thought, Lou returned his attention to the computer screen, deciding then and there that if it was even half as amazing as he imagined, he was going there too. No matter what Theo said.
“What’s up with that new guy Theo?” Jen asked as she passed Selena in the hallway from the kitchen.
“What do you mean?” Selena replied. The front of her shoulder hurt where the gangas had torn into her, and there was a deep abrasion on her lower back that she’d made certain Vonnie hadn’t seen.
“Well, he’s not dying. And he doesn’t know anyone here,” Jen replied, seemingly unaware of Selena’s tone. “Why is he here? Do you know him? Is he staying?”
Good question. Selena shrugged and then winced at the sharp twinge. “I don’t know if he’s staying, but he’s perfectly healthy as far as I can tell.”
“He sure is,” Jen said with relish. “Did you see that red dragon on his arm? Bang.”
Selena resisted the urge to mention the even more ‘bang’ dragon on Theo’s back and merely shrugged again—this time, more gingerly. Jen had been leading Sam on a merry chase for awhile—poor sixteen-year-old Sammy was too young for the cute, if not easily-distracted, twenty-three year old, but since she worked a lot with Selena, the proximity had contributed to what Vonnie called a big, fat Orange Crush.
Obviously, Jen had found another, more appropriate outlet for her flirtations, if the way she peered out the window toward Frank’s garden was any indication. Selena had seen Theo walk out with the elderly man some time earlier, and could pretty much assume that Frank had put him to work. Jen must have met him as she walked through the area from her home, halfway between here and the settlement of Yellow Mountain.
Selena wondered if Theo had gotten hot enough in the sun to take off his shirt yet, and the thought made her pause in surprise. Not the idea itself, but the fact that she’d thought it. Selena certainly admired a wixy male body when she happened to see one, but normally those sorts of thoughts didn’t just crop up in her mind out of the blue. She was over fifty years old, for creep’s sake, and her days of passion were long behind her. Besides, having a man in her life would be too dangerous.
Aside from that, she had other things to deal with. Things that generally put a damper on anything like passion or sex.
What guy wanted to sleep with a woman who got up close and personal to zombies in order to save their souls?
“What?” asked Jen.
“Nothing,” she replied. “I just forgot something I wanted to check on. How’s Maryanna doing?”
But as Jen rattled on about the young woman, Selena couldn’t quite keep her attention from the window. She wondered what his skin tone, already a rich olive color, would look like when it tanned. And she knew how sleek and muscular his back was, how it curved into square shoulders and round biceps.
“Remember?”
With a start, Selena looked at Jen. “Uh,” she began.
“You promised,” the younger girl reminded her. “Vonnie will be busted if you shove it off again. And Mom and Dad are going to stay here so you can go.”
Right. Vonnie was doing her monthly storytelling gig in Yellow Mountain tonight. Everyone from the surrounding areas—about a hundred people—attended the pig roast and entertainment without fail, partly because Vonnie painted amazing pictures with her words, and partly because it was a social activity that brought them all together and gave them a rest from the daily work.
“Yes, yes, I’ll be there.” She smiled, but it was a little forced.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go or to socialize, but she had to be careful about that sort of thing. She’d learned her lesson back in Sivs. And again in Crossroads. She couldn’t let anyone too close, because once they found out what she did, it could get ugly.
While Selena never thought of herself as alone—for she had Sam and Vonnie
and Frank—she often felt lonely. She didn’t have a partner. Someone whom she neither had to take care of, nor who tried to mother her to death. Just…an equal. Someone to listen. To talk to. To laugh with. And…other things.
Someone who didn’t need anything from her.
But maybe tonight…maybe she’d just have fun. Drink a little wine. Relax a little.
Maybe she’d even drink a lot of wine. For some reason, her gaze wandered back to the window. She knew what would happen if she drank a lot of wine. It had been a long time…she searched back in her mind…three years? Four?
No, good grief…six. Six years, because it had been Sam’s tenth birthday party, the last time she’d let herself relax. Have a good time.
No wonder she was a little tense.
And so…maybe tonight. A night where she could just do…what she wanted.
Selena couldn’t help glancing toward the window again. Would it be so bad to flirt a bit with a guy younger than her? Especially one who looked like Theo? Plus he wasn’t from here; surely he wouldn’t be around much longer anyway.
“I’m going to ask Theo if he wants to go,” Jen was saying. “He can sit with us.”
Selena pulled her attention away, her light thoughts deflated. Right. He’d fit in perfectly with the group of friends that Jen normally interacted with. Young, vibrant, and filled with energy.
She turned away. It had been a while since she’d felt like that.
Young. Vibrant. Filled with the joy of life.
Since he’d gotten the news that this was Brad Blizek’s place, several things had occurred to Theo. Aside from the realization that there could be some awesome plans or even prototypes of some of Blizek’s unmanufactured brain children (which he fairly salivated at the thought of getting his hands on), he had to believe there would be a state of the art, NASA-like technology setup somewhere.
Maybe even still viable.
So, as soon as he finished helping Frank with a variety of chores in the yard, he asked about it. And was rewarded by the old man trudging him up two flights of steps to what he said they called the arcade.
Theo was conscious of holding his breath when he entered the space, and it took long moments before he expelled it.
Holy gearhead’s wet dream, Batman.
It was like the Bat-Cave meets Tony Stark’s lab meets NASA.
The space was long and open, running the entire length of the ranch. Tinted transom windows kept the glare of the sun from messing with computer or video screens. The left half looked like something from an old ‘80s movie: it was lined with old arcade video games—Pac-Man, Centipede, Galaga—along with some from Theo’s generation, as well as pinball machines. But on the right, the large room was a fantasy. Massive computer touchscreens built into the walls, clear acrylic countertops and keyboards, a clear glass electronic whiteboard, and projector screens and webcams. Theo saw a dataglove and headgear for AI work, and he could hardly form words to thank Frank—for he’d learned that the man had kept the space clean, dry, and powered up.
And yet…the stairway to the arcade was kept boarded up and inaccessible.
“Keeps the damned snoot outta here,” Frank said, eyeing Theo sharply.
“The snoot?”
“Bounty hunters. They take this stuff. Take anyone who’s got it, too. No one knows it’s here, so you shut your goddam can about it to anyone.”
And that was all Frank would say on the subject…but Theo didn’t care. He just wanted to get to work. He didn’t even spend much time wondering why Frank trusted him enough to give him access to the secret room.
The first thing he did was set up a network access point, or NAP, to link into the new Internet that he and Lou had been trying to create. Despite the fact that Envy, which of course was the cornerstone of the network, could be as far as a hundred miles away, Theo figured he could find enough equipment here to build a receiver strong enough to tap into it. Aside from that, he, Lou, Sage and Jade had spent the last two or three years setting up NAPs within a thirty to fifty mile radius around Envy, and hopefully there would be one close enough that he could link into.
It took him only a few hours to rig an NAP, and he sent off an actual message back to Lou, who would be in the Resistance’s Command Center, hidden two stories below the ground of New York-New York. Later, he might even be able to send him webcam pictures of the place. Lou would be fucking insane to get here, get his hands on this stuff.
But by the time he finished that and sent off a message to Lou, Sam was calling up the stairs that it was time to leave for Yellow Mountain. And, mindful of Frank’s warning that the place must be kept secret, Theo had no choice but to leave the Bat-Cave before everyone came looking for him.
“Once upon a time there was a magical place with castles and princesses, and a little, winding river. A bright red and yellow train trundled along on a track that surrounded the land, stopping at three different stations. There was a busy place called Main Street, filled with families and couples walking along. Shops lined the street where people could buy ice cream or chocolates or wonderful sandwiches called hot dogs….”
As Vonnie’s sure, easy voice lulled the audience, Theo found himself alternately sliding into the story and watching everyone and everything around him. And fantasizing about getting his fingers back on those sleek, dust-free touchscreens.
The audience sat on an expanse of grass, safely inside the walls of the settlement of Yellow Mountain, with a fervent fire blazing in a stone-lined pit in the center of the group. He estimated about eighty people of all ages had either settled on the lawn on blankets, or on portable chairs that were very similar to the ones he’d taken to picnics or sporting events fifty years ago. But these chairs had seats made from curtain remnants and supports from broken pieces of wood or reformed plastic. A few dogs settled near their masters and mistresses, and off to the left, a man had just put his guitar aside.
The fire gave off a bit too much heat for a warm July evening, so there was a ring of empty grass around it. The sun was just sitting on the horizon, and its disappearance would plunge the world into dangerous darkness in an hour or two. In the air lingered the remnants of barbeque smoke, and behind the crowd, the carcass from the roasted pig still hung on its spit. A few yards away were the scattered buildings that made up the settlement, the largest of which was an old McDonald’s.
“Hot dogs weren’t made from puppy-dogs, of course! Who would want to eat a sweet little puppy?” Vonnie said with a little laugh after one of the girls squealed in horror and clutched her own dog closer. “They were meats, long and skinny, these hot dogs,” she continued explaining to a group of youngsters who sat in the front row and gazed up at her with wide eyes. “And you’d put them in a special long bread called a bun that sort of hugged them. They tasted sooooo good, especially with ketchup on them. The princesses loved to eat them, and there were lots of little shops in this magical world where you could buy them or other tasty things called corn dogs.”
A little pang flipped inside Theo’s belly. Every so often that happened—a sharp reminder of what he’d lived through, what it had been like before. How many hot dogs had he had by the time he was the age of those kids there? What were they, eight, maybe nine or so? And none of them would have seen or tasted one in this world.
Not that the lack of processed food was anything to be upset about.
“And there was something called cotton candy,” Vonnie went on, her own eyes growing wide and a big smile rounding her cheeks. Her voice dropped into a tantalizing whisper as she bent forward to the young audience. Theo smiled. Here, for the first time, her enthusiasm was channeled into something more deliberate, more controlled than when she was in the kitchen or caring for Selena’s patients.
Selena.
Theo shifted his attention to the so-called Death Lady, who was sitting on a small rise of ground above and behind Vonnie. It put her in his vision without him having to move to look at her. He could sneak peeks without even turn
ing his head. Convenient.
And interesting that he should care.
He turned that thought over in his mind for few moments, considering.
Something bumped Theo gently in the ribs and the warmth of a body sliding next to him pulled him back to his grassy seat. Jen had walked away from their little group a few moments before the story began, and now she’d returned to take her place between Theo and another young woman.
Jen’s long, bare leg slid along his calf as she settled on the grass next to him. Bare toes, ringless but somehow painted pale pink, burrowed into the cool green blades. She carried the scent of some flower that he couldn’t identify and didn’t really care to—he just knew it was a nice, girly smell. Then she giggled and whispered something to her girlfriend, bumping her arm against Scarlett as she did so.
About two hours ago, Theo and Jen, along with Sam and Frank, had ridden in a horse-drawn wagon to Yellow Mountain. They’d arrived early enough for dinner and to join a collection of about twenty young people. Theo assumed he fit right in, at least visually, with the twenty-somethings, two of whom were pregnant and all of whom were looking forward to tonight’s social activities. Several bottles of wine and beer had been passed around while they ate, and now everyone had the makings of a good, warm buzz.
Life was pretty good, considering the fact that he’d been dead three days ago.
“Cotton candy was like pink or blue clouds,” Vonnie was saying, spreading her hands to demonstrate. “And it melted in the princess’s mouth, so sweet and sticky! In the hot sun, it colored her fingers so that they turned pink and blue, and when she gave her mama a kiss, she left a sticky blue lip-print on her cheek.”
Jen whispered something about her hair to the friend next to her, smoothing her hand along its blondish-brown length. She lifted it in a bunch, twisting it high at the crown of her head and then draping it over her shoulder and laughed softly. Then she leaned back to say something to the young man behind her, something about his “bang” jeans, which were torn over one knee and stitched with bold black at the hems. A little bit of knotwork hung from the edges of the tear in the denim.
Night Beckons Page 6
