Smoke Road

by Toby Neal

  “I want him too, but I think we need to get out now. I’ll come back.” Luca’s voice was quiet but firm, his jaw set hard as he ran, pulling her along.

  “You mean we’ll come back.”

  “Yes, doc.” A smile tugged at the edges of his lips. It felt good to tease just a little, in spite of everything. Her courage and persistence never stopped impressing him—his Dr. Relentless.

  A searchlight swept over the compound ahead of them as they took cover against a building across from the main gate, Peaches close against Luca’s leg. He headed for the small door in the wall next to the gate used as an exit when on foot.

  They might actually survive.

  The white glare of a searchlight caught them against the wall.

  “Halt! Stop where you are!”

  Luca lifted his AK and sprayed the light in reply. The bulb blew with an arcing pop, and answering gunfire roared around them.

  Bullets dug into the dirt spraying up chunks of soil as they raced between two buildings.

  Nani’s hand in Luca’s was a reminder of all that was good in this world. He’d saved her from hanging, and together they’d destroyed the virus. They might not make it out alive, and they hadn’t killed Hillish, but Luca’s only real regret was that he hadn’t told Nani how he felt about her. As he turned to her, ready for “I love you” to be his final words, Nani patted the wall.

  “Look!”

  A door he hadn’t noticed was camouflaged in the metal siding, only visible because of the small handle that Nani found.

  Shouts and footsteps were coming to their location.

  Luca turned back toward the opening between the buildings to watch their six, his AK up and ready, as Nani got the door open and dove into the dark space. The white glare of a new searchlight lit up the night, almost reaching his feet as Luca followed, Peaches right behind. He grabbed the door and slammed it shut. They were enveloped in darkness.

  Luca kept one hand on the doorknob, feeling around with his other until he found a deadbolt.

  He slammed it home.

  Luca could hear voices and then the jiggling of the handle outside. They were trying to get in, but the deadbolt held firm. Hopefully, they wouldn’t know the door had been breached. Luca pulled out the pack of matches and lit one.

  They were in a small office space; a row of filing cabinets lined one wall and a desk and chair the other. Maps and whiteboards decorated the walls. “No windows here, so I think we can turn on a light without giving ourselves away.”

  Nani found the wall switch and hit it. A fluorescent tube flickered and illuminated the tiny office.

  There was no other exit.

  Nani looked around the space. “What a weird setup—this is a big building for this little hole in the wall to be all by itself.”

  She was stunning without her hair: her eyes seemed even larger and more exotic, her cheekbones sharper, her lips lusher. Luca had loved her hair, had fantasized about rolling around with her, his hands sunk deep into it. But this shorn look was even more beautiful.

  Her gaze met his. “What do you want to do?”

  “Let’s see if there’s anything we can use.” Luca scanned the office again, his eyes falling on a United States map near the door. He crossed the small space and inspected it more closely.

  There was a red pin in Idaho, right on North Forks. Luca touched it. That’s where JT’s farm is. Hopefully his mother, sister, and other brothers would make it there and be safe.

  He felt a stab of homesickness, a nostalgia infused with regret. His family knew he loved them. And he knew they loved him. So, really, that was all that mattered but still, Luca longed to see them, to hug each in turn and say the words out loud...just one more time.

  Luca traced a string extending off the pin in Jackson, Wyoming to the edge of the map where in neat script was handwritten: dispersal unit.

  “Oh shit,” Luca whispered. He glanced around the small room, his pulse picking up. He couldn’t die here. He had to warn his family.

  Seeing his expression, Nani quickly crossed the room to him. “What’s wrong?” She looked past him to the map.

  Luca touched the pin. “That’s near where my brother’s farm is located. It says it’s a dispersal unit. What do you think that means?”

  “Nothing good.”

  The door shuddered, a loud bang reverberating the small space. They’d been discovered.

  “Get Peaches and take cover behind the desk. I’ll move these cabinets in front of the door to buy us a few more minutes.” Luca shoved the metal cabinets over to block the door as Nani went behind the desk with Peaches, covering him with her AK.

  He wrestled the last cabinet into place as the door cracked under the blows from outside.

  “Nani,” Luca knew this was his last chance. Any second that door was going down, and they would make their final stand. Before they died, he had to tell her he loved her.

  Peaches gave a sharp bark. There was something happening behind the desk. Nani had disappeared and he heard thumps. Peaches barked continuously now, ears back, ruff raised.

  He ran over in three long strides. The desk chair, shoved aside, revealed a trapdoor opening into darkness, and Nani was struggling on the floor underneath a man.

  Luca raised his weapon, but Nani let out a guttural scream and rolled them, getting herself on top of the man and blocking his shot.

  Tanner Hillish was now pinned between her thighs, a spooky smile on his face, as if he was not afraid to die or thought it impossible that he could.

  Nani looked like a warrior, a fearless fighter on the cusp of victory, that awful dress rucked up over her strong legs. She raised a hand gripping a letter opener from the desk but Tanner Hillish had a weapon too, and the cult leader brought a flashy 357 up to point right at her head.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Tanner

  Tanner Hillish felt God’s hand wrapped around his own, a warm caress, a familiar touch, as he raised his favorite 357 Magnum, the Justice Hammer, toward the creature’s head. The she-male on top of him was a rabid animal begging for death. She smelled of shit and rot—the stench of her soul.

  His throat stabbed with sudden bizarre pain, and he abruptly lost all sensation. Why?

  The Justice Hammer fell with a clank as his arms went slack.

  There was warmth at his throat, pulsing wetness leaking over his collarbones.

  Something was blocking his airway.

  His lungs bubbled as he tried to draw breath.

  Heat in his eyes.

  Thundering heart.

  Gurgling.

  The creature above him was panting.

  He saw a blade slick with bright red blood in her raised hand. He felt her thrust it through his skin this time, felt it enter his neck and penetrate his vertebrae—the sense of metal on bone was like the shock of chopping up a raw chicken. So that’s why he was numb.

  She’d cut his spinal cord.

  She stabbed him again. It made him smile to see the tormented expression on her face.

  God was hovering close above him and His glowing eyes welcomed Tanner to the other side.

  Tanner’s vision dimmed at the edges, going spotty and gray. He heard bells—a familiar refrain.

  Was this the end?

  Good.

  God was pleased with his work. The virus was loose, the unworthy infected, and the world would be transformed by his love.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Haunani

  Nani left the letter opener, sunk to the hilt, in Tanner Hillish’s neck. She wiped her hand, sticky with blood, on her skirt, staring down at the man’s serene face.

  Peaches whined, and licked her arm. “They’re getting through in a minute,” Luca’s voice was calm and steady, coming from close behind her. His hand landed on her shoulder. “Wherever this tunnel leads, we have to follow it.”

  Nani nodded, expecting feelings.

  She had completed the mission.

  But she felt nothing. Not
horror, satisfaction, or triumph.

  “There’s a ladder down,” Luca pointed. “This must be where Hillish hid during any security issue, so I bet there’s an exit, too.”

  Luca took Nani’s hand in his, sticky as it was. She felt a wave of revulsion for him; he shouldn’t touch her hand, polluted with the blood of a mass murderer. But she didn’t pull away because his touch felt too good, the only warm spot in a world gone gray. She was in shock, and knew that objectively. With the crashing on the door and the shouting getting louder, escape was paramount.

  Luca hurried down the ladder ahead of her. “Boost Peaches and shut the trapdoor behind you. “

  She helped the dog as Luca called her. He caught Peaches and lowered her to the dirt floor of the tunnel. Nani descended the wooden ladder, lowering the trapdoor behind her and shooting the sturdy bolt.

  Luca’s steady hand on her waist supported Nani as her bare feet touched the cold floor—soil, soft and powdery. She turned in his arms and he opened his mouth to say something, but a massive crash from above spurred them forward, running deeper into the tunnel. Nani’s legs were wobbly as she ran behind Luca, Peaches by her side. The earthen walls were shored up by railroad timbers every few feet like a mineshaft, with light bulbs on a wire tacked to the timbers.

  Luca reached his hand back and when she didn’t take it, he wiggled his fingers. Something about the gesture tightened Nani’s throat—how could it be familiar when she’d never seen him do it before?

  She placed her palm in his and he gripped it. God, it felt good to be close to him. “In case we get stuck here, I have to tell you something.” His voice was low and urgent and he glanced back at her, his eyes a warm brown in the low light.

  Nani shook her head. “Tell me when we’re out of here.”

  The tunnel had begun to slope upward, and then ended abruptly at a wall with a ladder leading up into darkness.

  Luca looked back. “Get up there and see where we come out. I need to make sure no one can follow us.”

  Nani nodded and forced her exhausted, trembling legs up the ladder. The bolt was rusted, but she worked it loose and pushed the trapdoor open. Stars and the night sky unfurled above her in pure, quiet radiance. A breeze smelling of water touched her abused nasal passages and the whisper of nearby trees sounded like heaven.

  “Help me get Peaches out,” Luca called from below.

  She turned back, and between them they were able to boost the hundred-pound dog up the ladder and out.

  Nani knelt at the trapdoor as Luca reached into his pack and took out a grenade. He pulled the pin and hurled the explosive down the corridor, surging up the ladder.

  They didn’t have time to shut the door before the device detonated, rocking the earth and belching hot debris out of the shaft after them. They both fell, Luca on top of Nani. Dirt rained down, hitting the ground with steady thumps, stinging Nani’s exposed skin.

  “They know where this exit point is,” Luca stood up quickly. “I’m sorry, I know you’re exhausted but we have to get some distance from here.” He offered his hand again, and she grabbed it.

  “Okay. Let’s go.” Nani was ready to get this horrible experience behind her.

  Luca hauled her to standing, but he didn’t move. Nani blinked up at him. His rough-hewn face was so tender in the moonlight, his honey-brown eyes lost in the dark. “I found something of yours.” He pressed an object into her hand.

  Nani curled her fingers around the dear, familiar shape of Mikaela’s beach glass. She hadn’t even realized it was gone. Tears stung her eyes as she looked down at the glass, softened by years in the thundering ocean.

  “You took a beating and spent hours in the stocks. We killed people, blew shit up, fulfilled the mission, and barely escaped. Then I tell you we’ve got to run another few miles, and you just say, ‘let’s go.’ There’s not another woman in the world like you.”

  “Thanks.” Nani ducked her head. Compliments weren’t something she’d ever been comfortable with.

  “I love you,” Luca’s voice was a low and steady rumble—thunder from distant lightning. “I had to tell you before anything else happens.”

  Nani gazed into his face. The skin around his eyes was tight, his lip pulled between his teeth. He was nervous, afraid she wouldn’t say it back, that she didn’t feel the same.

  Nani threw her arms around him and snuggled deep into his big body, her fist curled around the glass behind his back. “I thought I was the only one crazy enough to fall in love in the middle of the apocalypse.” She turned her face up for the kiss she knew was coming, the kiss she craved like oxygen. “I love you, too, Luca Luciano.”

  And oh how sweet his mouth was, a refreshing promise of things to come, a brief statement of passionate intent that might have become more if Peaches hadn’t whined urgently.

  Luca ended the kiss with a groan of effort and took her hand again. “We gotta go.”

  Nani squeezed his hand, the promise passing between them that there would be much more of that.

  They broke into a run, heading across the sagebrush-dotted plain where the secret exit dumped out. They quickly reached the source of the breeze, a steep canyon with precipitous walls.

  “They’ll expect us to go straight down in there and hide. Tempting as that is, let’s go along the rim as far as we can, keeping to the rocks,” Luca gestured to the sandstone lining the lip of the canyon. “Hopefully they don’t have tracker dogs.”

  They fled along the canyon’s edge, shale and rock hiding their footprints. Nani could hear the trickle of water below them. “We can hide down in there.” Her throat was raw and burning with thirst. “But we eventually have to make our way back to where we stashed the Humvee. I have to contact the White House and let them know the outcome of the mission.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  They found a navigable way into the canyon and as they wove their way into the depths, all Nani could think about was the water. The smell was seductive, and growing stronger by the minute.

  She fell to her knees beside the stream and scooped a handful to her mouth, drinking the cool, fresh water with Peaches beside her, doing the same thing.

  “Not a great idea.”

  She glanced over her shoulder. “I’m too thirsty to worry about parasites.”

  “Well, I guess we’ll get sick together.” Luca squatted next to her, cupping his hand and bringing the stream water to his lips.

  Their thrust quenched, he took her hand and they splashed upstream, the chill water numbing Nani’s bare feet. Thirty minutes later, exhausted and out of energy, Nani pulled Luca to a stop. “I just need a minute.”

  Luca nodded, his eyes scanning the rock walls surrounding them. “Is that a cave?” He asked, pointing to a narrow, black slit in the wall. A little tributary trickled out to gleam across the rocks as it joined the larger stream. Luca splashed over to the bank and found a dry stick. He tore off the edge of his shirt, wrapped it around the stick, and pulled a flask from his pocket, dumping alcohol onto the cloth.

  “Some of their homemade hooch,” he explained. “Anyone we didn’t kill tonight is going to die from this stuff.” Luca clearly liked the idea of those people drinking themselves to death. Nani found that she did too—but her preferred execution method for the cultists would be hanging.

  Luca lit the alcohol-soaked shirt from his trusty book of matches. The crude torch illuminated a slit of cavern with warm, flickering light.

  “Scout,” he told Peaches. The dog preceded them into the opening, her head down as she sniffed. Peaches gave a short bark moments later, and Luca led Nani forward.

  The initial cave was only a narrow passage, barely wide enough for them to fit through single file. They crouched under a low ceiling, splashing through the water that trickled out, and entered into a larger space.

  Luca held the torch aloft, revealing a vast cave around a stone abutment. They couldn’t see the edges of the space, but the smoke from the torch floated up, finding a crack
in the ceiling that allowed fresh air to circulate. The source of the small stream, a pool, shimmering black, was in the middle of the cave. At the sight of it, all Nani could imagine was getting her filthy, blood-spattered dress off and washing in that water.

  Luca unslung his pack. “I’ll go gather some firewood, or it’s lights out as soon as this stick burns down.” He handed her the torch and disappeared into the darkness, returning with a pile of sticks which he quickly turned into a small, cozy fire.

  “I’m bathing.” Nani pulled the filthy garment off, and took a moment to enjoy the look on Luca’s face as his eyes roamed over her naked body.

  Nani was wounded, covered in filth, yet under Luca’s gaze she felt beautiful and loved. Warmth bloomed in her chest as his mouth parted slightly, his body rock-still as he watched her. To be Luca’s sole focus was almost like being held, almost like being touched by him.

  “I lied when I told you that you didn’t have anything I wanted.” Luca referenced his harsh words in the shower.

  “I suspected as much.” Goose bumps fanned over her skin at the memory of his coldness, at his cruelty.

  “I’m so sorry.” Luca’s voice was steady. “I couldn’t handle how I felt about you. It was unforgivable.” His voice dropped an octave, an edge of that anger she’d heard in his tone before—that dangerous blade of pride and hurt slicing through the darkness. But he wasn’t angry at her. He was mad at himself.

  “And yet, I forgive you.” The words freed her, and she hoped they would do the same for him.

  Nani turned and walked into the water with a sway to her hips, the pain of her injuries forgotten, her heart light and body thrumming with anticipation.

  The surface of the dark pool reflected the firelight as Nani felt her way forward. Ripples expanded across the still water, making the flames undulate and dance. The water was cool, and a chill swept up her body as she waded in.

  The deepest part of the pool only came to her waist, so Nani sank in with a sigh. Pebbles and sand lined the bottom, and she scooped a handful, using it to scrub herself, mentally and physically letting go of the filth, trauma, and violence of the last twenty-four hours.