Ellie swore again and again. Did America really need a map to remind them where the disaster had occurred? Had they already forgotten the corner of hell that had popped up in the middle of their safe little world? She was ready again to smash the screen in when the graphic changed. Instead of just one small red dot where Penn County was, a dozen pinpricks of red appeared scattered throughout the middle of the country. Ellie dropped her arms and stared as the old man pointed to several of the dots and spoke with short bursts of hand movements. He was angry; periodically he looked into the camera. Whatever he was telling America, he intended it to scare them.
The old man touched the screen again and Georgia, Florida, and South Dakota turned pale red, while several others glowed a flashing yellow. The newscaster nodded with a television-friendly scowl and motioned for a new graphic. A list filled the screen.
Sites of Contaminee Apprehension:
Georgia (confirmed)
Florida (confirmed X2 locations)
Oklahoma (unconfirmed)
South Dakota (X5, lockdown in place)
(All contaminees deceased.
NO CONTAMINATION RECORDED.)
Ellie staggered back, feeling behind her for a place to sit, but she had thrown every chair against the walls. Unable to keep her feet, she let herself fall backward, landing hard on her bottom, and kept watching the news. The screen filled with photographs of men and women, like mug shots. She recognized those photos. They were too small to make out the faces, but she recognized the background and the tags superimposed on the bottom of each picture. Those were Flowertown identification photos.
Had people escaped?
Chairs clattered as two guards swung open the door. “What the hell?” Seeing the chaos around them, they lifted their guns and trained them on Ellie, who sat on the floor clutching her knees.
“On the ground!” the second guard screamed, jabbing the air with his gun.
“I’m on the ground,” Ellie said, not moving. “How much more on the ground can I be?”
The two men kept their guns trained on her as they came into the room and circled her, careful not to trip over the debris. The one in front of her shouted to someone in the hallway. “The room is not secure, sir. I repeat: the room is not secure.” Ellie started to protest, and he turned his full attention and his weapon on her. “Put your hands behind your head.”
Ellie stared at him. “No.”
“Put your hands behind your head.”
“No.” She was too tired to be angry. “You want to keep going? I’m free all night.”
“Stand down, gentlemen.” Guy stood in the doorway. The two guards hesitated until Guy nodded at them. “Put the weapons down. The room is secure.”
“Mr. Roman,” the guard behind Ellie lowered his voice, “someone has been searching this room. If the suspect has an accomplice on the premises—”
“Hey, Gomer,” Ellie said, “I can hear you. You know that, right? I mean, I’m sitting four feet away from you.”
The guard looked like he wanted to kick her where she sat, but Guy put his hand out to stop him. “Nobody’s been searching the room. It’s been trashed. There’s a difference. I’ll handle it.” Both guards looked unhappy with the decision, but a look from Guy kept them quiet. Ellie saw resentment on their faces as they holstered their weapons and headed out the door. Guy had been at Feno for less than forty-eight hours and already he seemed to wield a great deal of authority.
When they were alone, Guy pulled the door shut and leaned against it. He pointed to the heap of toppled chairs. “Love what you’ve done with the place.”
“I was feeling a little penned in.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
Ellie shook her head. “A couple of years in here, you’ll figure it out.”
Guy nodded, his eyes moving over the damage around him. “Found your phone.”
Her mouth went dry and Ellie was very glad to be sitting at that moment. She said nothing, only held onto her knees and waited. “I’ve sent someone out to retrieve it.”
“Be sure to tip him for me.” Her voice wasn’t as steady as she’d hoped.
“Aren’t you going to ask where it was?” Ellie could only shrug. “Someone turned it in at the med center, said they found it on the street just past the stairs.”
Ellie struggled to hide her relief, but when she looked up she could see Guy examining her face. He nodded at something he saw there.
“So I guess that means you’re free to go. The last truck is loading witnesses now.” He turned and opened the door. “You might want to hurry. It’s a long walk back to town.”
Ellie sat for another moment, trying to read Guy, trying to get her thoughts together. This wasn’t the place. She didn’t know if she’d ever have another clear thought. Without another look, she got to her feet and headed out the door. She hurried to the end of the hall, and by the time she made it around the building and saw the line of people climbing into the truck, she was at a full run.
The truck dropped them off at the still-smoldering ruins of the records office. Again the ride in the closed truck had made her shaky and woozy; Ellie knew she had to get something to eat soon or she would faint. Blue explosions blossomed before her eyes and she had to lean against a Feno truck to steady herself. The stench here at the cordoned-off area was worse than anything she had ever smelled. Water puddled around oil stains and charred debris, and she wondered if the bag she’d hidden was still intact within the runoff drain. Maintenance crews were hauling debris away in dump trucks under the gaze of armed guards. There was no way she could get the bag out today. Ellie headed toward her apartment, putting the bag and the stolen files on the ever-increasing list of things she would have to worry about tomorrow. Tonight she wanted to sleep.
As she headed down the hallway toward her room, she smelled chili and seriously considered finding the source and falling to her knees to beg for some. Her stomach groaned, and when she pushed open the door to her room and saw Bing and Rachel huddled over bowls, she let out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a cheer.
Bing dropped his bowl and ran to her, holding her by the shoulders and guiding her to the bed. “Oh my God, Ellie, what happened? How are you here?”
“I’ll tell you anything you want, Bing, but please, can I have some chili?” He passed her the bowl and then returned to his spot beside Rachel on the other bed. Ellie put down two large spoonfuls in no time and then took a closer look at her much-improved roommate. “What are you doing eating chili? Eating anything?”
“I know, right?” Rachel grinned at her, showing the gap where her front tooth had been. “I went for another round of detox and they gave me this shot that made me feel so much better. I mean, like, a hundred times better.” She turned her smile to Bing. “And Bing showed up looking for you and totally saved my life by making chili. I’m absolutely starving.”
“No doubt.” Ellie scooped the last bits out of her bowl. “I can’t believe how much better you look.”
Rachel laughed. She could even make a missing tooth look cute. “I can’t believe how much better I feel. Two days. In two days I am outta here! I’m still super tired, but at least I can eat something. And I got a shower.” Ellie noticed Bing’s face redden. “Of course Bing here had to help me. It was so embarrassing. I was too tired to stand up, and you know how nasty the floors are in there. He brought me a chair and helped lather my hair. He was so sweet. And a perfect gentleman.”
Bing leaned back on the bed out of Rachel’s line of sight. Ellie licked the spoon to keep from laughing when he looked heavenward and mouthed “Oh my God.” She could imagine what a perfect gentleman he had been in his mind. “Yeah, he’s a real champ.”
Bing grimaced. “I guess it was a bad idea lying about the med check.”
“You could say that.”
“They checked, huh? Sorry.”
“They didn’t…they knew I wasn’t in the building and then…” The enormity of the explanation was more
than she could face at that moment, and the chili seemed to be heading directly to her eyelids. “It’s a long story. But hey, guess who interrogated me? Guy.”
“What?” Rachel threw her spoon in surprise. “That little prick.”
Bing looked surprised at the profanity from the girl. “So the army was there.”
“No. He’s not in the army anymore. He signed with Feno.” Ellie could see Bing’s curiosity firing up and she shook her head. “It’s another long story. It’s nothing but one long story after another, and I really don’t have it in me.” She put the empty bowl on the floor and fell back into the bed. “There are so many things I have to tell you, Bing, but I just can’t tonight.” Her speech grew thick as she sank into the sagging bed.
“Go to sleep, Ellie.” Bing stood up and pulled back the covers of Rachel’s bed. “You too, young lady. And I don’t want to hear that you were dreaming about me in the shower.” Rachel giggled as she let Bing tuck the blanket in around her. “I’m going to stay here until both of you are asleep. You know you’re both killing me. I’m not built for worrying like this.”
“Our hero,” Rachel said.
Ellie watched Bing settle in on the floor between the beds and pull out a paperback. “Amen to that, Rachel.” She was asleep before he could answer.
She was dreaming she was sorting through enormous boxes of laundry when she felt someone touch her cheek. Her eyelids refused to part as she came up from sleep. “Bing?”
“No.”
That whispered voice brought her out of her dream. She opened her eyes and saw Guy sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning over her. Even in the near darkness, she could see his eyes were bloodshot and he needed a shave. Without a thought, she lifted her hand and caressed his cheek.
He leaned into her palm and closed his eyes. “I brought your phone back.”
“Yourself? Don’t you have underlings that can run errands like that?”
“I wanted to see you. I didn’t know where you’d be tomorrow, and it’s not like I could call you.” He kissed her palm. “I’m so sorry about today. About all of it. Your file and detaining you and those goons. It never should have gotten to that.”
Ellie put her fingers over his mouth to quiet him. “You look exhausted.”
“There aren’t words to describe what I am right now.” He let her pull him down across her body, and Ellie wrapped her arms around him. Earlier today she would have beaten him to death, but now, in the quiet and the dark, she couldn’t think of anything that had ever felt better than his body against hers. She felt his lips on her neck as he twisted himself fully onto the flimsy bed, and she wished she could rip away the clothes and blankets that wrinkled between them. Before she could get to his skin, Rachel cleared her throat from her bed with a theatrical “ahem.”
Guy pulled back, putting his feet back on the floor and pulling the thin sheet back up around Ellie’s shoulders. She kept her hands on his arms, stroking the muscles there. “I’m going to go.” She nodded and he leaned in once more to kiss her. He let his mouth slide to her ear. “Be careful, Ellie. Really careful.”
She clung to his neck, but he pulled away, shaking his head as Rachel once again made her presence known.
Guy looked over to the other bed. “You can relax. I’m going.”
“Good,” Rachel said from her dark corner.
He traced his fingers over Ellie’s cheek before rising and slipping out the door. As the light from the hallway disappeared and the room grew dark, Ellie rolled onto her side and faced the wall.
“You are kidding me,” Rachel huffed. “He arrests you and interrogates you and then expects you to keep banging him?”
“It’s not like that.” Ellie sighed. “You weren’t there. You don’t know him.”
“Don’t even think about it, Ellie.”
But that’s exactly what she did.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The sun warmed her face. Ellie stretched long in the small bed, feeling stiffness before she even knew she was awake. Her mouth tasted like paste, but she felt more relaxed than she could ever remember feeling. She didn’t want to open her eyes, lost in the softness of deep sleep. She heard Rachel moving around the room and decided to ignore her in the hope she would go away and let her sleep all day.
“I know you’re awake.” It was Bing.
“No, I’m not,” Ellie said, keeping her eyes shut.
“Yeah, you are. I know because you’ve stopped snoring.”
“I don’t snore.”
“Okay, then you’ve stopped trying to catch gnats in your epiglottis.”
Ellie laughed, putting her arm over her eyes to keep out the sun. “Leave me alone.”
“I have two words for you.” She could feel Bing’s breath on her face. “Crispin’s Diner.”
“You bastard.”
“I know. C’mon. My treat.”
Ellie pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the bed. “Good lord, I didn’t even take off my shoes. How come you gave Rachel a shower and you wouldn’t even take my shoes off?”
“Because your feet, even bare, look nothing like Rachel dripping in honeysuckle lather.”
“Bigot.” Ellie kicked around in the pile of clothes by the bed. “Just because I’m older and meaner, you judge me.” She pulled a shirt out from underneath the bed and sniffed it. Deciding it would do, she pulled at the hem of the wrinkled shirt she wore. “Keep your eyes peeled, buddy, and I’ll show you what you’re missing.”
“I’ll try to contain myself.” Bing sat back on Rachel’s bed and began to roll a joint. He had seen Ellie dress plenty of times. “Holy shit! Did they do that to you?”
“What?” Ellie yanked the clean shirt down. “Do what?”
“Bruises. You’ve got them all over your arms.”
She held her arms out to inspect them. Ugly purple marks spread all along the backs of her arms, up near her shoulders. Her wrists, too, had turned a greenish blue from being dragged by the guards. “I guess it got a little rough in there yesterday.”
“Tell me you didn’t resist armed guards.”
“There was no resisting, trust me. They had me off the ground half the time. But I might have thrown a little temper tantrum. Just plastic chairs. And a few tables.”
Bing shook his head and laughed as he lit up the joint. “Leave it to you to pick a fight in a roomful of goons. It sure looks like they did a number on you. That or you bruise easily.”
Ellie busied herself throwing her incredibly filthy jeans into the corner on top of Rachel’s bloody shirt and pulling on a slightly less filthy pair that hung from the doorknob. Bing didn’t seem to notice her silence, and when she sat back down on the bed, she waved off his offer of a smoke. “I’ve got to tell you something.”
“Don’t try to tell me you’re a man.” Bing took another deep hit and winked at her. “I confess. Sometimes I peek when you dress.”
“No, this is something else. It’s about the bruises.”
Bing leaned forward on the bed. “If you tell me that son of a bitch Guy hit you—”
“No, stop. It’s nothing like that. Geez.” She pulled her hair hard off her face. “And lean back. This is hard enough to say. I don’t need you in Full Bing Alert Mode.” He leaned back a little, but Ellie knew she had his undivided attention. She swallowed hard. “I think the bruises are because I have…um…I’ve been blue-tagged.”
His lips moved like he was practicing words before he said them. Other than that, Bing did not move at all. They stared at each other, Ellie terrified he would say something to comfort her or, God forbid, start to cry.
“How long have you known?”
“About a month.”
Bing stared out the window, smoke slipping through his open mouth. “Have you told anyone else? Rachel? Captain America?”
“No, just you. Although Guy knows. He had my file.”
Bing clamped his lips shut, and Ellie could imagine the things he was trying not to say. Finally he settled on,
“Is that what you were trying to tell me yesterday?”
“Yesterday?” She had to think to remember. She thought of the stolen files, the cryptic message, the news broadcast, even the bullets she had seen in Dingle’s Market. “God, it’s like we haven’t spoken in weeks. There are so many things I’ve got to tell you.”
Bing slapped his knee with his free hand and extended the joint with the other. “Well, there’s no point in telling it in this dump when the dump down the street is making pancakes. Let’s go to Crispin’s. Why aren’t you smoking?”
“I don’t know.” Ellie laughed as she pulled on her sneakers. “I just feel all relaxed and rested. I guess that’s what sleep will do for you.” Bing held out his hand to pull her up, and she scowled at the softness in his eyes. “Don’t stare at me with mushy eyes.”
“Can I send you a Hallmark card with puppies and roses on it? Add you to my prayer chain?” Ellie laughed and pushed him away as he spoke. “I could knit you a shawl. Or slippers.”
“Shut up!” She pulled him back to her and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Save your style points for Rachel. Maybe someday she’ll fall for that crap.”
“Did I mention that I saw her naked yesterday? And that I touched her?”
“Yeah, I think that came up. Lunatic.”
Bing grabbed a table near the window of the little diner, keeping his back to the corner as was his practice. Ellie sat beside him so the sun wouldn’t hit her directly in the face. In Flowertown, window seats had lost a great deal of their appeal. She was just glad she couldn’t see the work trucks that continued to dismantle the records office. Peg, Crispin’s only waitress, turned over their coffee cups and poured them each a cup.
“Thank God you’ve come, Peg,” Bing said. “We’re starving and we want everything on the menu.”
Flowertown Page 15
