by Rachael Wade
But when I glanced back at him, I found him silent. Staring at the exchange.
A flash of something soft glinted in his striking blue eyes as he locked gazes with me. The connection was so penetrating, I had to look away. My gaze dropped back to the dog, where something else caught my attention. Just a few feet behind him lay a soft flannel blanket, and a notebook of some kind. I rose to my feet and walked over to it, turning back to face Jet when I spotted even more items stuffed into a cardboard box near the blanket. “Hey, I need some more light.” I waved him over.
Jet was at my side in an instant. The flashlight began to flicker again, and I knew I had to work fast. I dropped back to the ground to rifle through the cardboard box, and I could feel Jet’s gaze scanning the area around us, could feel the apprehension emanating from him. “We need to move.”
“I know, hold on.” I continued to fumble through the box, finding a can of corn and then a few more notebooks, their pages blank and damp. I snatched the corn and blanket and held them up to Jet for him to stash away, then gave the box one last dig. My fingers stilled at something soft. I tugged at it, pulling it out from underneath the notebooks.
A teddy bear.
I studied the brown stuffed animal, searching for any damage. A small splash of white stuffing peeked out through a gash on the left leg, but other than that, it was in good condition. “Here,” I said, standing to my feet. “Take this, too.”
“I don’t think a toy will be much good for trading. It’ll take up too much space in our bag. Leave it, come on.” He dismissed the bear with a wave and turned to head back in the direction we came.
My hand shot out and grabbed his elbow. “No, not for trading.”
“What?” He turned, his confused expression prompting a wry grin to tip my lips.
“For Hera.” I pressed the bear into his chest. “When you find her.” I bent down and petted the dog one last time, wetness sneaking up on my eyelids. I wished we could take him with us, but I knew it wasn’t possible. He’d be safer foraging on his own than he would be on the run with us, and knowing my burning passion for four-legged, furry creatures, I knew I wouldn’t be able to bear it if something happened to him while he was with us.
Still, the thought of leaving him stung. I needed to distance myself immediately.
Sucking in a breath and swiping the moisture from my eyes, I pried myself away from the dog and moved hastily past Jet to head back to our original path. When I found the light wasn’t following me, I swung around, squinting to focus on him in the dim light. “You ready?”
He still had his back to me, his head lowered as he stared down at the bear, the flashlight dangling limply from his other hand. This was the first time I’d seen neither of his hands cupping the gun strung across his chest.
“Jet?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled halfheartedly, still making no effort to move. When a bone-shaking boom echoed in the distance, he raised his head. Stuffing the bear into his bag, he jolted toward me; the flickering light of his flashlight bounced with his movement. The dog let out a small whimper and darted off, disappearing into the darkness before I had a chance to catch a final glimpse of him.
“Black Hole raid,” he said, his voice low. “Somewhere nearby. Not a good sign. Let’s move.”
My thoughts slipped to the Black Hole we’d just left behind and the men who’d led us inside, and to Lillian and all of the men, women, and children huddled within its walls. Those thoughts were ruptured with the sound of another loud boom, this time a faint orange glow permeating the sky above us, accompanying the loud bang. I threw my body into motion and raced after Jet, my breath skipping in the night air while twigs and leaves crunched beneath my boot-clad feet.
“Twenty miles?” I asked.
“Twenty miles,” he confirmed, flicking off the flashlight. The black sky flared with another grim hue of pale coral light, calling my thoughts back to its possible source and with them, a shudder.
I only hoped we would make it that far.
* * *
My lungs, thighs, and torso ached by the time we reached the railroad track Lillian had told us about.
But it wasn’t me my worries were focused on.
From what I could tell under the cool moonlight, Jet was looking rougher by the second. We’d managed to find the track in the dark with the map’s help, aided by Jet’s skillful sixth sense for sensing any movement within a two-mile radius.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a sixth sense, but the man put my instinctual sensors to shame.
He was perceptive, and his reflexes lightning. Always patient, and observant to a fault. The more time I spent around him, the more I longed to be like him—good at something. Back in Morton, I’d never really had the chance to pursue any potential. Taking classes at the community college had been the first step, but even then I felt at a loss. I didn’t fit into that mold, and I wasn’t sure I ever would.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to.
“Anyone can learn how to fly,” Jet had told me during our trek to the train track. “But being a naturally observant person makes learning how to operate an aircraft that much easier. Being aware of your surroundings for safety, being aware of your gauges and instruments … it’s all a part of the job. Training to work for the Invaders made me even more watchful. Of everything.”
The quiet drone of a train’s chugging grew louder as it approached but was still eerily muted, a graceful ghost passing in the night. Minimal light shone from the front car as Jet stepped forward to align himself with its path.
“How do we know where it stops?” I asked, positioning myself next to him.
“We don’t.”
“So …”
“So we have to make a run for it.”
“You mean jump?”
“Yup.”
“As in … jump onto a moving train.”
“Yup.”
“This is crazy.”
“A dangerously disturbing level of crazy. No worries, baby.” He patted my shoulder with a smartass grin. “It’s just your area of expertise.” I narrowed my eyes at him, storing that one away for a future retaliation jab of my own.
Adrenaline spiked as the train grew closer, every nerve ending a live wire to the heart pounding violently in my chest. Jet grabbed my hand, glancing at my gun. “I’ll go first. Once I get a good grip, I’ll haul you up. Whatever you do, don’t stop running. And don’t let go.”
“I should go first,” I raised my voice to speak over the rumbling of the track. “You’re hurt. You’re going to need upper body strength.”
“I’m fine. Don’t fight me on this.”
Blood pounded hot in my ears, my heart rate jumping and hair blowing wildly around my cheeks when the train began to whizz by. The rush in my veins propelled me forward the moment I spotted an opportunity, and I launched into a controlled sprint. Springing upward, I lunged forward and latched on to the side of the car, the metal handle slipping beneath my sweaty grip. I shrieked and latched on harder, hearing Jet’s voice thunder behind me. The train’s vibrations rattled against my chest, sending my senses on high alert.
Clenching the handle until my knuckles hurt, I bit down on my lip to ease the tension and yanked hard to the right, feeling a heavy latch click and shift beneath my fingers. The door slid open and I hauled myself up and inside, grabbing onto the side of the frame to steady myself before flipping around to reach for Jet. He was running full speed after me, his arms pumping tight and sharp at his sides as he tore forward.
“Come on!” I yelled, extending one arm. It only took him a few seconds to catch up, his agile form sending his body off the ground and up onto the car before I could blink. With a loud shout, he clamped onto my arm, his other hand flying over his chest to cradle his gun. I was thrown onto my back with a thud before I knew what hit me, his body covering mine with a crash that left me seeing stars.
“Fucking crazy woman!” he shouted over the rail’s relentless roar, louder now that we were l
evel with it. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” His heat pressed into me, his arms caging me in as he stared down into my eyes, his nose aligned with mine.
“Fulfilling my sole purpose to drive you mad, it seems.” I couldn’t help it. The rush sent me sky-high, and an explosive laugh escaped my lungs. I shook beneath him, my breath heaving against his chest.
“Damn it, Skylla!” He dropped his head as he gasped for air. “Seriously!” he added for effect, but there was nothing serious in his voice now. He was laughing too, just as deep, just as euphorically as I was, and I decided right then that the sound of Jet’s laugh was almost as sexy as his full lips and ripped body.
“Wanna go again?”
“You’re reckless. I can’t even look at you.”
“You’re crushing me.”
His head lifted, those blue eyes settling on me as his laughter slowed. “You deserve it.”
My hand shifted and found his injured hip; my fingers brushed the bandage through his shirt. He flinched. “And you need to admit when you need help.”
Pushing himself up, he rolled off me and sat back on his heels, wincing and gripping his side, his lips pulling back and teeth visibly grinding with the motion. I sat up and scooted forward, mindful of the gaping railcar door. I reached up and slid it shut, slamming it with a loud grunt until I felt it lock into place. The loud rumble of the wheels hitting the track was muted now, but the rattling hum still thumped away from outside, filling the dimly lit car with a shaky buzz.
“I’m fine,” he said.
“Fine. Play it your way. I’m going to see if I can find you some medicine.”
I helped push him backward to prop him against the wall, peeling his backpack from his shoulders first. “Try and rest, I’ll see what I can find out.”
“I’m not letting you wander around these cars alone. Not fuckin’ happening.”
“If you don’t rest and get medicine for that wound soon, I’ll be stuck wandering everywhere alone. That ointment won’t cut it. You’re going to need antibiotics. It’s starting to get infected.”
His gaze snapped up to mine and held my stare. “Finger on the trigger.”
“Fire on your mark.” I smirked.
“I mean it, Skylla. No fuckin’ around. If someone so much as looks at you the wrong way, you get the hell out of there and get back here right away, got it?”
I wasn’t about to deliver anymore snarky comments to the man. The fact that he was actually cooperating with my suggestion that he stay put was a feat in itself, and I wasn’t about to lose the ground I was gaining with him. “Got it,” I said, giving him a lazy salute. I handed him the water canteen from the backpack and adjusted my gun.
I didn’t need to travel far to find anyone. Just as I’d moved to search for a way into the next car, four men appeared to block my path, weapons in each hand, all of them aimed directly at us.
“Hitchin’ a ride, are ya?” one of them asked, sneering over my shoulder at Jet, who was now standing to join me.
Jet raised his gun at my side. “No need for that,” he gestured to the colorful array of weapons in the men’s hands. One held an axe, another a meat cleaver of some sort, while the other two were armed with shotguns and rifles.
“We might need some convincing,” the man shot back, his black, beady eyes igniting into hot pools of fire at the sound of Jet’s assertive tone. “Who told you about us? Let us see your hips. Now.”
I glanced at Jet.
“I said, now!”
Jet slid me a look and nodded, using his free hand to lift the hem of his shirt to reveal the bloody bandage where his chip used to be. I did the same, showing the men my untainted skin.
“Changed your mind, did you, traitor?”
I bristled at the man’s words. “He’s not traceable anymore. Isn’t that good enough for you?”
“You wanna get fresh with us, sweetie? I dare you to come over here and say that again.”
“Skylla,” Jet murmured, “don’t.”
“We’re here to trade, and to catch a ride west.”
“Skylla,” he insisted, his voice more persistent.
“We have what you’re looking for,” I said, “so drop the traitor shit or we’ll jump right back out that door and you’ll be worse off because of it.”
“I doubt that, honey. Go ahead, try and jump. You’ll be dead before you’re airborne.” The man raised his gun higher and leveled it with my forehead. Tension crackled around us, the air stuffy and suffocating. I swallowed and did something Jet was vehemently against.
I took my finger off the trigger.
Raising my hands in open surrender, I glanced at Jet, begging him to do the same, but he wasn’t onboard. “We were sent here with a map,” he said. “From a Black Hole near precinct 74. We have information and some goods to trade, in exchange for antibiotics and a ride. We don’t want any trouble, so take it or leave it.”
“What kind of map is it?”
“I traded for it, fair and square. That’s all you need to know.”
The man burned Jet with another icy stare and shuffled a few feet closer to us, taking the lead in front of his friends. “I’ll tell you what I do and do not need to know, punk. Especially when it comes to traitors like you and your little girlfriend here. You know how many people claimed to have something we want, trying to hop a ride on this train? Too many to count. Right now, their bodies are dumped along the railroad ditch near Highway 85. So you either tell me exactly what I want to know, or you’ll be joining them in less than two minutes. Make your choice.”
My teeth clenched at his warning, but I kept my hands up, hoping to God Jet did the right thing. I didn’t doubt for a second that this guy would follow through on his threat. “Don’t you want to know what we have to offer you first?” I asked, my voice coming out a bit shakier than I’d hoped.
“We’ll get to that, sweetie. First, the map.”
Jet inhaled and lowered his gun back to his chest. “It marks known Black Hole locations around the country. That’s all.”
“That’s all?” the man laughed. “Hand it over.”
I didn’t know where my sudden bravery was coming from. Maybe from the adrenaline high I was still riding from the jump onto the train. Maybe a product of pure desperation or a crack in my sanity. Whatever its source, I harnessed it with a vengeance and didn’t plan on letting go until we got what we came here for.
I stepped in front of Jet, allowing the man’s gun to press against my forehead again. Every bone in my body shook, every hair on my neck raised in pure, stripped fear, but I worked to steel my stance and hold myself upright. “That’s not going to happen,” I said, my voice firm. “We’re not going to just let you rob us and then toss us out with the rest of those bodies. You’re going to hear what we have to say.”
“Is that so?”
“The fact that you assume anyone who works for the Invaders is a voluntary traitor shows just how little you actually know about the inside. If you want us to enlighten you, you might want to start with some good old southern hospitality.” I shrugged, trembling beneath the effort to make the gesture appear casual. “Then we’ll see what we can do.”
The man’s fingers brushed over the barrel of his gun and he started laughing again, turning to glance back at his friends. “You believe this chick?” He gestured to me with a wave of his gun. He turned to glare at me, his maniacal laugh lingering. “Saucy little thing, aren’t you? I love it!”
Jet shifted beside me, heat rolling off him in waves. He remained still, the tension in his neck and face coiled tightly.
“We also have this,” I said, carefully pulling the canned corn from the backpack, along with a can of beans that we’d found not long after escaping the prison. I tossed them at the man’s chest and he caught them, his eyebrows rising in amusement. I cleared my throat. “And one other thing you’re looking for.”
“Oh, yeah? Let’s see it, honey.”
I hesitated for a beat, th
en stepped forward, placing myself directly in front of the men and their leader. I couldn’t think, just had to act before I lost my nerve. This was the only way to save Jet, and essentially, his sister Hera. A little girl that somewhere, was depending on him. It was the only way to save myself, by giving myself something to live for. Because right now, what did I have to live for? In this now barren, depressing wasteland once known as Earth—my home—what did I really have left? My only choice was to commit to devoting my fight to someone else. Jet’s battle had to become my battle, or the fire in me—the little bit I had left—would surely flicker out. And then what? He’d already saved me once and had done everything in his power to protect me. He’d more than made up for collecting me.
I had to do this.
The men waited, their eyes bouncing around curiously, and I breathed deep, aware I’d have to make my message clearer.
My fingers dropped to the knot in my shirt and I slowly began to unravel it, pulling it up and over my head the second it fell loose. Reaching out, I offered them the shirt. The dry air caressed my bare skin and I quivered under their zealous gazes.
“Skylla!” Jet flew to my side in a cloud of fury, snatching the shirt from my fist before they could accept the offer. He shoved me behind him and brought himself nose–to-nose with the men’s ringleader. “We’ll handle this another way.”
“Go on, boys.” The man smiled widely at Jet. “Cuff him.”
“What? No!” The men moved in and Jet started throwing punches, each crack of his fist escalating the scuffle until he was kicked to his knees, forced to kneel at their mercy. “Skylla, jump! Fucking jump, right now. Don’t do this!”
“Hands on your head,” one of the men shouted, sending a sharp blow to Jet’s temple when he refused to comply.
