by Tonia Brown
Part of Jonah—the disquieted, curious, nervous part—found this odd, but as much as he wanted to ask, he couldn’t worry about it. He, as Dale said, had bigger fish to fry. And the black-suited fish in question was swimming his way. Jonah fell to a crouch beside Candy just as the man entered the store.
“What are you doing?” Candy asked.
“I’ll help you find it.”
“Find what?”
“The quarter.”
“It’s okay. I don’t need it after all.”
“Nonsense. You might need it later.” Jonah patted the floor and swallowed hard as, through the spaces between bags of potato chips and cans of dips, he spied a well-shined pair of black shoes strolling down the next lane. He dropped his voice to a whisper and said, “I hope you got to use the toilet, because we—”
“We need to go,” she whispered over him.
“Yeah. Let me grab some coffee—”
“No. I mean we have to go now. As in right now.” She shoved the empty thermos into his arms and duck-walked toward the door.
Confused, Jonah could do nothing but follow.
As they reached the end of the aisle, Candy stood and slipped out of the door in one fluid, sensual movement. Jonah tried to mimic her, but the best he could do was clamber to his feet and stumble through the door. Candy was halfway to the Focus before he caught up with her.
“Why are you in such a rush?” he asked, his curiosity piqued by her sudden need to flee. Not that he minded. This was a lot easier than having to make up excuses. Stranger, but better.
“Am I?” she asked.
“Well, yeah. A little.”
“I hadn’t noticed.” With a quick glance at the SUV, she picked up her pace, all but running to the car.
The men in black seemed to make her as nervous as they did Jonah.
Which made Jonah even more nervous.
“Wait,” he said, as he touched her arm. She stopped and let him turn her about, her face a mask of worry. “Are you in some sort of trouble?”
“No,” she said, almost before he was done asking the question.
Jonah stared hard at her, trying to see past her thin smile, the moment of danger forgotten in his sudden worry for this new friend. “Are you sure—”
“Dude!” Dale shouted from the pump behind them. “What’s the holdup? Let’s roll!”
“Sounds like good advice,” Candy said, and pulled her arm free as she returned to her march toward the car.
Jonah looked once more to the store, satisfied to see the guy inside entangled in conversation with the clerk. Where the other two had gotten off to, he wasn’t sure. Instead of worrying about them, he slid into the driver’s seat and got the Focus back on the road without a word. In fact, it was several minutes before anyone spoke.
“It’s my dad,” Candy finally said. “I called home, and he’s not doing so well. I need to get back as soon as I can.”
“Oh,” Jonah said. “So I guess that’s what the quarter was for?”
“The what?”
“The quarter you dropped?”
Candy seemed confused at first, but the cloud lifted as she realized what he was talking about. “Yeah. That. Yeah, I needed another fifty cents to keep on the line with Mom, but I dropped the darned thing.”
“I see,” Jonah said, though he didn’t see. Not at all.
Dale asked the question on both of their minds. “Modern girl like you don’t have a cell?”
“It needs charging,” Candy explained. “But I think I left the cord in Nevada.”
Digging around in his pocket, Dale said, “I’ve got a cell. Maybe the chargers match.”
“Thanks, but I’m good for now.”
“Let me know next time, and you can just use mine. Save your money. Payphones can kill you these days.”
Candy nodded and mumbled, just under her breath, “They aren’t the only things.”
Jonah paid little attention as Dale and Candy’s conversation returned to more mundane topics: the weather, music, childhood stories. In his mind, under the droning voices of the zombie and the girl, he mulled over two distinct thoughts. Two truths that struck him as troublesome, weighing on his mind and taxing his very soul. The first was the fact that his thermos was now empty. There would be no more coffee until he was sure they could stop safely again.
But perhaps worse than that?
Try as he might, Jonah couldn’t remember seeing a payphone in the store from which they’d just fled.
Chapter Twenty
Hwy 70, CO
126 hours: 16 minutes: 11 seconds remaining
“Jonah,” Candy cooed. “Honey. It’s time to wake up.”
“Five more minutes,” Jonah said, then sighed as he hugged her close again.
Candy snuggled with him under the mink blanket, cradling her naked, perfect body against his. The fire crackled and warmed them through the thick layer of fur, keeping away the driving cold of the ongoing blizzard. The cabin was buried almost ten feet under a layer of the white stuff, but the pair of them had found ways to keep warm.
Deliciously naughty ways.
Candy touched his chin, lifting his face to meet hers. “You really need to wake up, hun.”
He stared into her jeweled irises flickering in the low light of the fire, marveling at the interlaced threads of brown and gold. “I never want to wake up. I want to stay here forever. With you. Like this.” He rolled his hips against her, emphasizing his desire with gentle prods.
“Sweetie, I’d like that too. But you know you have to wake up.”
“No.”
All at once, she lowered her mouth to his ear and shouted, very loudly, “Wake the fuck up!”
“I’m awake!” Jonah shouted, snapping to consciousness from his snowbound dream world as he wrestled with the steering wheel. He tried his best to point the nose of the car in a reasonable direction while maintaining the illusion that he had been awake the whole while. Which he hadn’t. This was the third time he had driven off the road. The third time he had fallen asleep at the wheel.
Candy crossed her arms and said, “That’s it. You either pull over and let me out or pull over and let me drive.”
“I’m awake.”
“You weren’t five seconds ago.”
“I am now.”
“You weren’t five minutes ago either.”
“Well, I am now. Okay?”
“’Okay’? Are you kidding? You’re gonna get us all killed.”
“Don’t be silly. I’m fine.”
“You’re as full of shit as a Christmas turkey.”
“She’s right,” Dale said. “You are full of shit.”
“I’m fine,” Jonah repeated.
“We’ve gone off the road at least five times in the last half hour.”
“Three times,” Jonah corrected Dale.
“Five times,” Candy corrected Jonah. “You can’t even remember two of them. How’s that for ‘fine’?”
Jonah glanced up to the rearview mirror, where Dale held up his good hand, wiggling all five fingers at Jonah’s reflection. “Okay, maybe I’m a little more tired than I would like to be. But if Dale hadn’t kept me up all night—”
“Blah, blah, blah,” Candy said. “I’m tired of excuses. Just pull over and let me out. I’d rather walk the rest of the way.”
“You can’t walk on a busy highway. It’s dangerous out there.”
“It’s dangerous in here!”
Jonah gripped the wheel and contemplated his choices.
He could just ignore her.
Yeah right, as if that were a realistic option. She had a remarkable way of getting and keeping your attention when she wanted it. Namely, she had a strong voice.
He could let her walk.
And then hate himself for the rest of his days for letting her slip off his lusty hook. He certainly wasn’t going to just put her out on the side of the road, wasn’t going to let her get away so easy. Not when he was just getting to know her.
The only other thing to do was let her drive.
Would Satan hold it against Jonah? Why would he? The Lord of Darkness suggested that the zombie should drive, why not other passengers? It made sense to let her drive. It was a sound idea. And grabbing forty winks while she did the work for a bit sounded like a good idea. Make that eighty winks. Or more.
“Pull over!” Candy shouted. “Now!”
“All right!” Jonah yelled as he eased onto the shoulder. Candy opened the door, but before she could grab her bag—damned if she wasn’t serious about walking!—Jonah said, “You win. Okay? You drive.”
“Seriously?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Jonah paused to yawn a full, healthy, not-fighting-it-this-time kind of yawn. “I can’t stay awake, and I’m sure you’re just as capable a driver as I am.”
“I’m a better driver.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Jonah agreed, too tired argue the point.
“Good then. Scoot over.” Moving across the seat, Candy pushed him toward the door.
Jonah got out of the driver’s side and made his way around the front of the car, but when he arrived at the passenger’s side, he found it occupied. Dale had crawled between the seats and now smiled at Jonah through the windshield. Jonah knocked on the passenger window and waited patiently as Dale settled himself in and rolled the window down. He had no choice but to wait, because Dale had locked the door.
“What are you doing?” Jonah asked.
“It’s my turn to ride up front for a while,” Dale said. “You can stretch out in the back for a bit.”
“I don’t want to—”
“You’ll sleep better.”
“I don’t care.”
“Come on!” Candy said, then laid down hard on the horn a few times. “Time’s a-wastin’!”
Jonah lowered his face to growl in Dale’s ear, “Please keep your conversation away from my lack of sexual exploits.”
Dale saluted Jonah while grinning ever wider. “Aye aye, captain.”
Crawling into the back seat, Jonah decided he didn’t really care what the pair up front talked about. It wasn’t long before the rocking of the car lulled him into a peaceful, dreamy sleep. In moments, he was back at the cabin, showing his dream Candy just how much he wanted her. He could have slept for hours, for days even, as long as he stayed in that perfect dream world with his perfect dream girl.
This time, when Dale shook him awake, Jonah felt refreshed. He blinked and yawned and stretched and wondered why he hadn’t let Candy drive before.
“Time to get up,” Dale said.
“How long was I out?” Jonah asked.
“Four hours.”
Four hours without incident? He supposed that Candy could be trusted with the wheel after all. Jonah rolled forward in the seat a bit as the car came to a gentle stop. They must be refueling, which meant he could snag some coffee. “Where are we now?”
“Still on 70,” Candy said, the worry in her voice palpable.
“And we have a problem,” Dale added with an anxious look.
His face wasn’t just apprehensive; it was also faintly blue. Then red, then blue again. Jonah lifted himself from the back seat, already knowing and already dreading what he would see. The scenery had changed considerably; the dry stretches of open road were long gone, replaced by a rich, thick forest. And sure enough, a set of flashing lights rested atop a Colorado State Highway patrolman’s vehicle parked right behind the Focus.
“What happened?” Jonah asked, as he looked to his partners in crime.
“Nothing,” Candy insisted. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You must have done something.”
“I swear. I haven’t done anything.” She stared into the mirror, begging Jonah with her eyes as much as her voice. “You guys have to believe me.”
Jonah was overcome with the notion that she wasn’t talking about her driving.
“You don’t think he’s looking for us?” Dale asked. “Do you?”
Candy switched her attention to the dead man. “Why would he be looking for you two?”
“No reason,” Jonah snapped.
“Yeah,” Dale said. “We haven’t done anything, either. Not in Colorado, anyway.”
Thankfully Candy wasn’t paying him any attention. She had shifted her concern back to the mirror and the approaching officer. “What are we going to do?”
“Just flash him some tit,” Dale said. “That should get us out of this.”
“Fuck you,” Candy said.
“Yes, please.” Dale grinned, despite the tone of worry in his retort.
“Stop it,” Jonah hissed. “Let’s just see what he wants. If none of us has done anything, then we don’t have anything to worry about. Right?”
Candy nodded, but Jonah heard her swallow hard.
They waited as the officer approached the Focus. Instead of stopping at Candy’s window, he flashed a smile at the back seat, then walked on ahead a few feet, where he stopped and waited. Relief washed over Jonah with that smile. He never thought he would be so glad to see a smile with way too many teeth for a normal human being.
“What the hell was that?” Candy asked.
“I think he wants to talk to me,” Jonah said.
“How do you—”
“Trust me. Just stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Jonah rolled out of the back of the stuffy car into the cool Colorado afternoon. Drawing a deep breath, steeling himself for another encounter with the Devil, he puffed up his chest and swaggered to meet the would-be officer of the law.
“What do you want?” Jonah asked.
Satan stared down at him with his usual mile-wide grin. “Game’s over, son.”
“Excuse me?”
Pointing at the car behind them, the uniform-clad Lucifer said, “Did you think I wouldn’t know? Did you think your little friend there could get away with it?”
“Ah,” Jonah said, as he grasped the situation. “I thought I could let her drive because she was technically a passenger. I’m sorry if I was wrong, but you didn’t clarify that I had to be the driver, just that I had to stay on the ground.”
Satan scrunched up his nose. “I don’t care who you let drive, kid. I’m talking about what she’s done.”
“Done?”
“Yeah. Done. Or should I say has been doing for the last three hours?”
Jonah—more confused than the time he caught his mother masturbating with a cucumber in the bathtub—stared up at Satan with wide, curious eyes. “What has she done?”
“You tell me, son.” Lucifer pointed at the car again.
Jonah’s gaze trailed down the length of Satan’s arm, beyond the pointing finger, and into the cab of the Focus. There sat Candy, trying her best to ignore the proceedings in front of her by busying herself with a cell phone. Dale’s cell phone.
“What is she doing with Dale’s phone?” Jonah asked.
“You tell me,” Satan said. “She’s been diddling with the thing for a while now.”
And all at once, Jonah knew. He didn’t need to watch her place the phone into the cradle on the dashboard to know what she was doing, what she had done. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes.”
He couldn’t believe Dale let her do it. And on his phone? Jonah whipped about in place. “She didn’t know. I forgot to tell her.”
“That doesn’t matter.” Satan stared down at Jonah with a cold gleam in his blue eyes. “I told you maps only. No GPS. You agreed. We shook hands on it.”
“But she didn’t know. It must have slipped my mind. It’s my fault.”
“Yes, it is. And that’s why you lose.”
“But we’ve come so far. You can’t do this.” Jonah could hear the whine in his voice, but couldn’t stop himself.
“Yes, I’m afraid I can.” Satan shrugged and sighed, a bit too loudly. “Though, after all the excitement, it’s seems such a shame to win by default.”
Jonah sensed an opening, and dove for
it headlong. “Then don’t.”
“What’s that, son?”
“Don’t just win by default. We have what, twelve hundred miles left to go? That’s twelve hundred miles of stories and adventures and all kinds of stuff you’re going to miss out on just because I forgot one silly rule?”
“I don’t know,” Satan teased. “Second chances don’t come cheap.”
“How much?”
Lucifer returned to his grin. “Forty-eight hours should just about cover it.”
Jonah winced. Forgetting to warn Candy was going to cost him two whole days. He glanced down at the watch, which read well over one hundred and twenty hours left. Forty-eight hours was a drop in that very large bucket. “Okay. Forty-eight hours.”
“Then we have a deal?” Satan asked, his hand held out for another confirmation.
“Sure.” Jonah shook hands with the Devil, and as he did, the watch beeped loudly and the readout changed. Only it didn’t lose forty-eight hours. The display proclaimed that there were now just forty-eight hours left. “Hang on. This thing is wrong.” He held out his arm, shoving the watch into Lucifer’s face.
