by A N Sandra
From the moment Tawna had moved into the penthouse she hadn’t been happy until Lourdes had Helena’s room. Then Tawna had insisted on remodeling the kitchen because it wasn’t stylish enough. After that, Tawna had relentlessly pursued membership at the best country club in Dallas. When simple membership was no longer satisfactory, she had tried to force Joel Harris to be on the committee for the club. When he’d put his foot down over that, arguing he had no time or interest, she had pouted for months.
“Look at them,” Helena nodded toward Tawna and Lourdes who were laughing over a spill they had just taken when they didn’t hit the jump at the end of the run straight on. “That is the happiest I have ever seen them. And I’ve known them four years.”
“Being here is good for them,” Duane observed.
“I think it’s really good for Lourdes. She’s happier than she’s ever been. Ray has had to back off on his video game playing and he looks better than he ever has. I haven’t seen Tawna much in weeks. When she got the house she mostly stayed there. Since I quit serving group meals at the storage building, I almost never see her anymore.”
“You don’t sound too disappointed.”
“I’m not,” Helena nodded with satisfaction. “That is probably why I’ve managed to stay happy day to day. I have a really hard time not getting annoyed around Tawna. She’s like a vortex for bad feelings. I needed a break.”
“And look,” Duane nodded toward Lourdes and Tawna, who were clearly already trading cross words over something. “Their happiest moment didn’t last long.”
“It never does,” Helena sighed. “Try living with them for almost three years.”
“I’m sorry,” Duane said.
“My education is probably better for it,” Helena sighed. “I joined every homework club at school to stay away and I went to every summer camp for every interest I could.”
“Did you go to space camp?” Duane had a big grin on his face. “I loved space camp.”
“Twice! Once in Houston, once in Pasadena! I took everything that I could find. Once, I did a three-day camp about what edible weeds could be found in your local neighborhood.”
“You found edible weeds uptown?” Duane was shocked.
“No, it was a complete rip off. We had to eat at Chango’s.” Helena smiled. “But it was a fun boondoggle.”
“You make whatever you do fun,” Duane said.
“I’m learning,” Helena told him. Her heart pounded because she thought, hoped, he was taking a real interest in her.
Chapter 11
October 22nd, Kern County, CA
“I think this is the best week of weather we’ve had in two years,” Casey said as he and Joshua finished removing some deserted railroad track with the rest of their crew and prepared to climb into the truck to go back to the work camp.
“I don’t have anything to compare it to,” Joshua agreed, “But it’s better than it was when I got here.” The company had improved too. Not only did Joshua know everyone’s names on his own crew, he knew everyone on the other crews. All thirty-nine workers from all crews were no longer resentful of his presence. The work atmosphere was comfortable, as if everyone was simply in sync, and the camp atmosphere was downright friendly.
Instead of wondering what he had gotten himself into, Joshua was growing glad to be with these people. They were smart, fun, and hardworking, even if they did all look like bad photocopies of each other. The biggest surprise was that they were all more sophisticated than he was. Most of them had influential families that had run afoul of the Hollisters. As a group they were more than the badass military types that they appeared to be from the outside. He no longer had any qualms about the idea of bringing the rest of his family to wait out the apocalypse with them. It would be good for the group to have Danica in charge of cooking. Twilight could work in IT. Rachel would be done with nursing school by the end of December, and Jael… well Jael was a marketing major, she could market herself. Michael would be fine, everyone always loved Michael. His cousins were sketchier. Would they come? Would they want to? Joshua hoped so, but he wasn’t sure. Bryan and BJ had been happy to help rescue Brock, but it was hard to know if they would leave everything and hunker down to wait for the fallout that was coming.
“Another job done early,” Court observed while everyone from the site climbed into the truck. “You all have gotten a lot more efficient lately.”
“We’ve been working together a long time,” Brett reminded her. “We’ve been banging out projects for weeks and you keep getting surprised.”
“I do,” was all Court said before taking one more wary look around the site. Without looking at anyone else she climbed into the truck and it spun to life with its customary rumble. Joshua leaned into Casey just a bit as they steadied themselves and it was as if they had been friends for years instead of weeks.
Joshua remembered how efficient the Macdonald Road Materials quarry outside Blythe had become before Randy Macdonald had sold it. Joshua had written two great songs in two weeks and his whole family had become suddenly more productive than normal. Without thinking, Joshua patted the box in his pocket quickly. Joshua wasn’t sure how long Bud had had the box before he died, but he was pretty sure that the box had everything to do with the surge of efficiency that had overtaken the crew.
Twilight had once made Joshua a tee shirt that said:
Play all Night
Sleep all Day
These days in the desert everyone started work so early in the morning that it was almost like playing gigs and then going to parties before falling asleep mid-morning. Joshua ate and slept away the heat of the day in the small rig trailer with Steve and Casey. It wasn’t as good as being home, but it was so much better than the glorified closet in Sacramento that he was grateful to be there.
“Shhhh,” A hand was over Joshua’s mouth to keep him from exclaiming in surprise since he was being wakened from a sound sleep. The same person shook him gently with their other hand. It took a few seconds for Joshua to bring the person waking him up into focus. Court was standing next to his bunk, one hand on his arm, one hand held her finger to her lips to show that she expected him to be quiet. Joshua nodded and got up almost silently even though he was very surprised.
Once he shut the door to the rig trailer the night sky popped out at him. There was a small fire in the fire pit and Court dropped into a chair right in front of it and gestured for Joshua to do the same. To Joshua’s astonishment Court pulled a blunt from her shirt pocket, lit it with a small orange Bic lighter, and handed it to Joshua after she took a drag. Joshua looked at it suspiciously, but he took his own drag just the same. Court took one more, handed it back to Joshua, and then carefully put it out.
“I know the rules better than anyone,” Court told him in her dark low voice. In the firelight she looked softer than the severe image she normally projected. “There is a time to circumvent them. I don’t do it often.”
“You never talked to me before,” Joshua said, surprising himself.
“I communicate with you when I need to,” Court said. She sat back in the low lawn chair and looked toward the sky.
“You do,” Joshua allowed. The pot made every detail of the beautiful desert night more magical. He didn’t even feel resentful as he told Court what he really thought. “I know you don’t want me here, but I’m trying hard.”
“I didn’t want you here, and you’re trying too hard,” Court said. “It’s working. I don’t know how you got everyone to fall in love with you so fast.”
Joshua didn’t think anyone was in love with him, at least he hoped not, but he stayed quiet.
“I even like you, and I was so mad when you got here, I cried.”
“You did?” Joshua couldn’t understand the depth of emotion over Curtis simply changing his mind about accepting someone new. Also, it was impossible to imagine that Court ever cried. “Why?”
Under the influence of her recent tokes, Court smiled a bit. It was easy to see how beaut
iful she was when she smiled, and her eyes softened. Even with her masculine clothes and haircut she was possibly the most beautiful woman Joshua had ever been next to. She definitely made the biggest impression on him that any woman had.
“I read the letter your father wrote your sister on the Dark Web last summer. I read it the day after Robbie… I just wanted a dad so much. Your dad wrote all the things to your sister that everyone wants their dad to say. I went to Curtis and I begged him to take your family if they ever decided to come. Natalie was here then, and it was easy for him to pass along the message. Really, Natalie went to your family because I begged Curtis to invite your family here.”
“He changed his mind for you?” Joshua asked. Curtis seemed to be his own man.
“I begged,” Court repeated, unashamed in her lawn chair. Even though she had come to terms with the groveling she had turned on Curtis, she addressed the stars as she spoke. “I called in every favor he owed me. He owed me a lot. I promised to do something he’d been pressuring me to do. I was emotional and the letter your dad wrote calmed me somehow. I felt driven to get him here…”
“But then it was me, without my dad.” Joshua sighed. Bud would have been a welcome addition to the group as a father figure, but he had been so different from them that he was just a weirdo. Sure, they were accepting him now. But without the box and the magical efficiency it brought with it, his new haircut and musical ability wouldn’t have been enough to gain acceptance from this group whose loyalty was deeply cemented.
“I knew he was dead,” Court said. “It was on the news. I’ve got people who keep track of the news I’m interested in. I didn’t think anyone from your family would come…”
“Those assholes shot my father in front of my mother and me,” Joshua told her. Interestingly, it seemed more real in that moment than it had yet. “I never saw someone die until I saw my father die in our carport. What did they say on the news?”
“Oh, the usual,” Court said with odd detachment for someone who hadn’t even known Bud but had pleaded for him to come live with the group. “They said he had a mental breakdown and had threatened an Urban Relocation agent who just wanted to visit him.”
“That Urban Relocation agent is my oldest brother’s wife,” Joshua spit out, as mad about it as he could be while stoned. “She’s the head of Urban Relocation for the North State and she busted into our house trying to make my dad admit that he and my brother and my cousins broke into the mental health intake center to get my cousin out—”
“Yeah,” Court interrupted. “About that. Did you do it? Really?”
“We did,” Joshua told her. “It would have been the coolest thing ever… to pull that off. I just can’t forget what a terrible place it was.”
“They do medical experimentation in those places,” Court told him. “That’s why they keep all those people like that. Sometimes they rotate them into group homes so their relatives can visit them. Well, they used to do that a lot more. Now that the time is getting so short, they aren’t bothering with the pretense so much.”
“How do you know that?” Joshua was curious.
“My father is the chief physician in charge of Global Forces.”
“No way—”
“Oh, way,” Court said, her voice was just a touch bitter. “Almost everyone here is related to someone high up enough that they don’t trust the Hollisters, or any of their entities. That’s why this place isn’t full of kids like a real Hollister Youth Foundation work camp.”
“I noticed,” Joshua said. Everyone might be living a sort of military lifestyle in the desert compound, but they were actually fairly polished people, with good manners and abundant vocabulary. In general, they all had a level of cultivation that surpassed the people Joshua had known in Blythe, but until now it had been hard to put his finger on what exactly was different about them.
“When you broke into the Hollister intake center, who made the plan? Your dad?” Court was back thinking about the break in.
“No, my little sister.”
“That doesn’t help me.” Court sighed. “Unless you could get her here now.”
“What do you need help with?” Joshua thought that maybe Twilight was tired of being in the woods with Brock and Ben and maybe it would be time to bring her sooner, rather than later.
“To get Curtis to invite Bud to come, I promised to steal medicine. We have lots of food. For half a pound of pot I can get someone to look the other way while I jack a whole truck of food. Food is everywhere. We don’t have a lot of medicine. It’ not easy to just get someone to look the other way while you load up a bunch of medicine. Also, Global Forces has better medicine than any pharmacy. You saw how they test it.”
“So, what’s your plan?”
“Curtis thinks I should use my connections to my father to steal medicine. I could break into his house, log into his work computer, and change his codes to use the Global Forces LA pharmacy. If I show up there in his Navigator, they’ll probably let me in.”
“How much does your dad love you?” Joshua wondered. “What if you get caught?”
“My dad doesn’t love me at all,” Court reminded him. “That’s why I wanted your dad here. If I get caught, I’m literally dead. And anyone with me is dead. Your family pulled off a caper this big and only one person died the next day. Want to help?”
“Why not?” Joshua shrugged. “I’ll take my chances.”
“Let’s have another toke,” Court suggested. She took the blunt back out of her shirt pocket and fumbled with the lighter.
“Let’s,” Joshua agreed.
Court wondered if it had been the stars. They had been hanging so low that they had been almost as intoxicating as the pot. Because pot was not a good enough reason by itself to trust Joshua the way she did… the mission might well conclude with a dead participant. Court knew how this worked by now. The method of getting a truckload of food for a pound of the best pot on the west coast was not an overnight success. There had been some failures. There were people who’d been nearly killed. Stealing cutting edge antibiotics and opioid pain relievers from a Global Forces pharmacy would be a lot more dangerous than taking some canned tuna. Didn’t he understand that people might die? Joshua was human, and he could die. He’d seen his father die… did he not understand that he might be the one to die?
Despite what she had said to Joshua, it never really occurred to Court that she could be the one to die. She hadn’t yet, although her time with the Hollister Youth Foundation had been full of extreme risk. Somehow Court had come to think of herself as indispensable. If she became expendable, she might be in danger… but she was necessary to the cause, and that gave her a cosmic value that caused the hand of fate to draw back rather than smite her.
Shooting Robbie had been the worst thing she had ever done, but she had done it to keep the compound safe. Robbie had become dangerous. He wanted to die to prove to the universe that he was a good person. Even worse, Robbie didn’t care who died with him or because of him in his wild quest to make the world pay attention to what the Hollisters were up to. No one needs to prove who they are. The universe knows.
The mission was unpredictable even with the best plan. Curtis might get the medicine, he might not. That wasn’t the best possible ending. The best possible ending would be that no one died and that no one was sent on a dam or bridge removal team as a punishment for being caught.
Dam and bridge removal teams were dangerous and deadly. The crews were led by destructive people and filled with people who were being punished for misdeeds on other crews. Reckless people were usually in charge of demolition teams and getting caught stealing from the Global Forces pharmaceutical warehouse would probably mean being reassigned to one of those teams. One of the biggest incentives Court had to make sure that her work crews did good work was to keep anyone from reassigning her people to those dreaded tasks. As it was, the IT people she had in her pocket were always keeping her crew a couple of steps away from being assign
ed to more dangerous work.
Court had been a suicidal fifteen-year-old when the school counselor had taken her under his wing and talked her through the difficulties of living with two narcissists as her main custodial parents. For a long time, escaping every other weekend and Wednesday nights to the relaxed comforts of her mother’s home had been her salvation, but over the years her father and step mother had been gaslighting her for their own amusement. Mr. Brock had saved her life by giving her coping mechanisms to deal with her father and Valinda, and later his techniques for discerning truth had caused her to believe the evidence that the Hollisters were, if fact, going to destroy the world as they knew it.
As Court tried to plan the job ahead, she mentally ran all her suggestions by Mr. Brock, remembering what he had often told her. “Be strong, be smart, be functional. There is no such thing as a real relationship between people of different functionalities.”
Brooke and Joshua were the highest functioning people at the compound, Court was sure of it. Neither of them needed a stronger personality to carry them; they were her equals. Court hoped she was could just make a good enough plan to keep their respect.
Chapter 12
October 25th, Hollister Enclave, ME
“It’s lovely to be dead.” Molly Hollister sighed blissfully, sinking even deeper into her favorite chair in front of the television, watching her fans bring candles, stuffed animals, balloons and flowers to a roped off area of sidewalk outside her family's Manhattan penthouse. “I wish I’d thought of it sooner.”
The outpouring of emotion touched Molly tremendously. Partly because she had not foreseen it when she decided that faking her own death was the only way to get Maddy to surface so that the ivory box could be recovered, and partly because Molly had never experienced devotion like the outpouring she was currently watching on television. She had wanted to feel public adoration so desperately before the end of the world and she was shocked to find that dying had been the magic ingredient that had cemented the experience. A Coast Guard rescuer had drowned in icy water trying to find Molly’s body, which added to the drama of the situation. Molly was watching a two-hour documentary of the Hollister family, mostly in her honor. Every time the documentary went to a commercial it cut away to the scene of her family penthouse where her fans were bringing their “offerings” to her shrine.
