“All right. Thanks for the heads-up.”
“What route do you plan to take north?”
Max and Shelby both shook their heads. They’d agreed to share as little as possible. There was no point in doing so, and in the worst-case scenario it would make it easier for someone who wanted to ambush them. They’d learned in Austin that you can’t trust everyone you meet, even if they appear to be on the right side of things.
“We haven’t decided,” Max said.
Shelby added, “More like figuring it out as we go.”
“Well, you came from Abney and you’re headed north. Take my advice. Swing west. Don’t attempt to go through Hico.”
Max wanted to ask more, but they’d reached the group of folks manning the roadblock. They’d learned all they could from Fletcher. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Stay away from Hugo and avoid the town of Hico.
TWELVE
Shelby wasn’t too surprised when they reached the prearranged spot before the rest of their group. The Dodge Ramcharger was sitting in the middle of the lane pointed north, pointed away from Hamilton.
“I can’t believe they didn’t take anything.” She’d spent a few minutes digging through their supplies. As she mentally checked off what they’d brought, Max rearranged things now that the second seat was empty, what with the boys riding with Gabe.
He held up her pack and helped her shrug into it. When it nearly tipped her over, he steadied her with his hands on her shoulders. “Did you think they would steal things?”
“I thought they might.”
“Who needs a tent when you have a coffee shop?” He laughed as he rearranged things in the back.
“Maybe no one in Hamilton does, but Hugo might decide he wants it, along with our ride, weapons, and food.”
“You’re worried?”
“You’re not?”
Max shrugged, and Shelby had to fight an urge to argue with him. It wasn’t that Max didn’t take their situation seriously, but he’d learned to save his energy for the fights that actually happened. Shelby, meanwhile, found herself constantly anticipating trouble.
“Relax. We’re not going to sit still long enough for Hugo or anyone else to find us.”
“That’s the plan, I guess.”
Max finished repacking, shrugged into his own pack, and pulled out a jug of water from the backseat. He took a swig and then handed it to her.
“Are you glad you came, Sparks?”
“I wasn’t about to let you—”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I know what you asked.” She didn’t look at him. Instead, she focused on recapping the jug of water and placing it on the floorboard behind his seat. “You’re asking if I’m glad to be off the ranch, and the truth is that I don’t know.”
“I have mixed feelings too.”
“Yeah. But you hide them better.”
“So tell me about it.”
She felt the smile spread across her face. “You want me to lay bare my feelings right here, sitting in the middle of Highway 281?”
“Good a place as any.” Max hopped up onto the hood of the Dodge, patted the spot next to him, and then he leaned back on one elbow.
Shelby wished she could draw. She’d always been good with words. She’d filled three of her notebooks describing what she’d seen and experienced since the aurora borealis spread across the sky as they hiked the trails at Gorman Falls. But what she wanted right in that moment was to be able to sketch what she was seeing—everything she was seeing.
Max, his cowboy hat pulled low to block the morning sun, sitting on the battered Dodge with a half smile on his face. Wildflowers blooming in the pasture behind him, and a mockingbird that had lighted on the barbed wire fence paralleling the road. If she could draw that picture, if she could capture it, she could believe that there were moments of normalcy even in the midst of the tragedy that had become their lives. Looking at the picture, at Max right now, she could almost believe in their future.
She tried to hop onto the hood of the Dodge, forgetting the weight of the pack on her shoulders, and nearly fell off the bumper. Max grabbed her hand and pulled her up. She only did it so she could see the road to the west better. Not so she could sit next to Max in the sunshine. She needed to watch for the rest of their group. At least that’s what she told herself.
Sensing that Max wasn’t finished with their conversation, she said, “The ranch was safe.”
“Relatively.”
“Safer than most places.”
“But…”
“Yeah, I want to know what’s going on. I’m curious. I don’t want to know badly enough to get shot by some loser named Hugo.”
“I wouldn’t let that happen.”
“I won’t let that happen.” Shelby shook her head, causing curls to drop in front of her eyes. She shoved them back and leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “I’ve changed, Max. I’m not the little girl who used to live next door, or the single mom who wrote romances. I feel stronger than I’ve ever been. It’s like we’ve been tested, and our ordeal has stripped away all the fluff.”
“Careful, or I’ll think you’ve become an optimist.”
“I’d rather be a realist. I want to look at life as it is, not as I want it to be.”
“You’re still worried about Carter.”
“Of course I am.” It came out too sharply, as though she blamed him. “It was a good idea for us to come to High Fields. You were right.”
“But he needs more insulin.”
“He does. Yeah.” She didn’t want to admit her thoughts to Max or to anyone. But she was so very tired of them circling in her brain. “This isn’t like our trip to Austin. It’s not enough to find another year’s worth because we’ll be out here again a year from now…searching for supplies that will grow harder and harder to find.”
“So why are we here? What do you think you can find?”
“Our future?” She looked at him now, allowed herself to meet his gaze directly even if his brown eyes did send her stomach tumbling. How she wished that she didn’t feel anything for Max Berkman. He’d claimed her heart when she was a high school kid, and she’d never quite learned how to stop the fluttering when he was close by. She still couldn’t control the blush that crept up her neck when he turned those warm eyes in her direction.
She did her best to ignore all of that and focused on Max’s question, trying to make sense of her feelings and intuition and hopes and prayers. “I need to find how Carter fits into this world. And I don’t mean for twelve months. I mean his future…where he belongs. How he can live with certainty for the next five or ten or fifty years.”
“I’m not sure any of us have that anymore, Shelby. I’m not sure we ever did.”
“You’re right.” She shrugged, jumped to the ground, and stretched her neck left and then right. On the horizon she could just make out two vehicles headed their way, sunlight glinting off windshields. “You’re right, but that isn’t going to stop me from trying.”
THIRTEEN
Carter jumped out of the Hummer before Gabe brought it to a complete stop. They didn’t bother to pull off the road. What was the point? They’d passed no other moving vehicles. The real trick was maneuvering around the broken down cars and places where people had created blockades, only to abandon them.
“You okay?” he asked his mom, glancing over at Max, who gave him a quick nod.
“I’m surprised we beat you,” Max said.
“We had to go around a few places.” Patrick, Bianca, and Gabe joined the group. The sun was up, but the wind had definitely turned directly from the north. It would be cold by evening.
His mom relayed what they’d seen in Hamilton, which wasn’t much.
“They had a coffee shop?” Bianca shook her head in disbelief. “And you didn’t stop?”
“I wanted out of there. It was like there were eyes on us the entire time.”
“She’s not exaggerating.” Max glanced ba
ck over his shoulder. “They’re being very careful, which is probably why they’re still standing.”
“But you know what we didn’t see? Any families or children—maybe some older teenagers working the roadblock, but no little ones. Even the people who were trading goods in the marketplace were older. And the only other people we saw were the ones on patrol.”
“Maybe they stay off Main Street,” Patrick suggested.
Gabe leaned against the front of the Hummer. “We had an interesting conversation with a farmer back on the county road.”
“He just walked out and talked to you?” Max asked.
“Nah. He saw the Hummer,” Lanh explained. “We were going nice and slow, watching for any type of trap.”
“He was in the middle of the road by the time we reached his place.” Gabe smiled. “It was either run over him or talk to him…and I figured the five of us could take on one farmer. Plus, he didn’t look like much of a robber.”
“The guy was old,” Carter chimed in.
“Former army. Still flying the Stars and Stripes over his place too. How could I pass that up?” Gabe ran a hand up and down his jawline. “Bad news is, we won’t be going through Hico.”
Shelby was shaking her head before he’d finished talking. “We heard the same thing, but it’s only another twelve miles, and…”
“I know, Shelby. I know that was the plan, but we all agreed to stay fluid. According to Mr. Hinojosa, the barricade in Hico is a little different.”
“They’re requiring a toll.” Bianca pulled on a shoulder strap to try to relieve the weight of her pack.
Carter couldn’t resist walking behind her and holding the bag up. Everyone laughed, which made Carter feel as if he’d finally done something useful. Yeah, they could be heading into a bad situation, but everyone was so tense it was making him itchy. He didn’t mind being the comedian of the group now and then.
“What kind of toll?” Max asked.
“That’s the worst part of it.” Patrick had been scanning the road, but now he directed his attention to the group. “They decide. Basically, they let you in on one side, take what they want, and let you out the other.”
“So that’s what Fletcher meant,” Shelby said. “I’d hoped she was being overly cautious.”
She explained to the others what the officer had told them about avoiding Hico, and then she showed them the symbol Carter had drawn on her palm and told them about Hugo.
“We’ve been seeing that since Langford Cove,” Carter said.
“First one was on a vehicle north of there,” Lanh confirmed. “Once on a road sign, another time on a truck, and I spotted another when we were making our western detour.”
Patrick glanced at Bianca. Carter still couldn’t get it in his head that the two of them were married.
Stepping closer to her, Patrick said, “Pretty wide territory for a punk with horses and antique trucks.”
“He won’t be able to outrun us,” Gabe assured them. “Maybe he won’t even try when he sees the Hummer, but one person in each car needs to remain on lookout at all times.”
They pulled out the map and traced a route around Hico.
Though it was only ten thirty in the morning, Patrick suggested that they eat something while they were stopped. Carter was always ready to eat. There was a gnawing hole in his belly that couldn’t be satisfied, but he hated taking more than his share.
His mom tossed a couple of looks his way, but she didn’t ask about his blood sugar. Carter was relieved about that. He appreciated all she had done, all everyone had done, but he didn’t need them watching over him like mother hens. He knew to monitor his blood sugar, knew what to eat and what not to eat. In fact, he’d checked his glucose levels in the Hummer while they were driving toward the meeting spot.
The fact that they trusted him to do that—well, it went a long way to making him feel like a part of the group rather than deadweight they’d been forced to bring along.
In some ways, what they were seeing was worse than anything he had imagined.
How many nights had he and Lanh stayed up, wondering what was going on in the world outside of High Fields, trying to imagine what life for most people had become? A lot. Too many. He’d always regretted it the next morning when he had to be up at sunrise slopping pigs or bringing around the cows.
Which didn’t stop him the next night from doing the same thing.
And though the devastation was harder to see than it had been to imagine, in another sense it put many of his nightmares to rest. Yeah, there were bad people who would try to take their things or even kill them. But they weren’t invincible. In many respects, they weren’t even smart. As long as their group stuck together and planned out each step, they should be able to make it to Kansas. And when they did, he hoped they would find the new world.
FOURTEEN
They drove northwest through Lamkin, Edna Hill, and Dublin, skirting both Hico and Stephenville.
Information would have been nice, but after hearing about Hico, they decided unanimously that it wasn’t worth the risk.
The going was slow, as Max had known it would be.
At each hill, they stopped a few yards shy of the top to scope out the area in front of them. Two times there were roadblocks, though they were nothing like the one in Hamilton. Regardless, they backed up and went around.
Everyone tensed as they prepared to cross over Interstate 20. They pulled all three cars over to the side of the road, and Max and Lanh jogged ahead.
“Cars in both lanes,” Lanh radioed back as Max looked down on an interstate that was both crowded and deserted. There were cars aplenty, but not a soul in sight. Had people been fleeing the city and run out of gas? Or had they been caught on the highway when the flare first occurred? They were directly west of Fort Worth. Where had they gone when their vehicles had broken down? Where were they now?
Gabe replied, asking for more details, and Lanh said, “We might be able to push them out of the way.”
In the end, it was the Hummer that pushed them out of the way. There were four vehicles in the right-hand lane headed northbound, though they contained no bodies, and Max was grateful for that. Three were trucks, abandoned in the northernmost part of the bridge that crossed over the interstate. They managed to move them by hand. Max put them into neutral. Carter and Lanh and Patrick helped push. Gabe, Shelby, and Bianca waited inside their three vehicles, engines idling, ready to make a fast break if necessary. But they didn’t see a single soul. Only the carcasses of abandoned cars.
The last vehicle was a Suburban. The fool who had left it had also locked the thing. Perhaps he’d thought he might be back to get it and didn’t want to find anything missing. Patrick busted the window with the end of a military-grade flashlight he found in his pack, but there must have been some type of security installed—LoJack maybe. The wheels seemed to be locked.
Gabe pulled up behind it, nice and slow so that the bumpers were touching and nearly interlocked. The Hummer pushed the Suburban off the bridge without even straining the engine.
By the time night began to fall, they’d reached a curve in the road southeast of Graham, barely a hundred and fifty miles from High Fields.
“At this rate we’ll reach Kansas in July,” Shelby grumbled.
“Summer in Kansas doesn’t sound like such a bad thing. Think of it this way—the weather will be better there in July,” Patrick pointed out. “Better than the typical one hundred degrees we have.”
“I know you’re kidding, so I refuse to answer that.”
They’d pulled behind an abandoned gas station, effectively hiding their vehicles from the road.
“I’m going to check the station out,” Patrick said.
Lanh and Carter immediately volunteered to go with him.
At the look on Shelby’s face, Max picked up his rifle and said, “Wouldn’t mind looking around myself.” He understood that she was trying to treat both boys like men, but maternal worry ran deep.
They stepped over broken glass into the building, and all four of them stopped, fanning out slightly and covering the entire store.
“Lanh and I will take the back,” Patrick said.
Max and Carter walked through the retail area of the store, though it was obvious from the second they stepped into the building that nothing useful remained.
Shelves were empty, displays were knocked over, mud and trash and blood were tracked across the floor.
The significance of the blood hit Max less than a second after he saw it—the time it took something you see to become an electrical signal and travel through the optic nerve to the brain, connecting it with something you know. Which was a fraction of a second too long.
Carter had started around the counter separating customers from workers.
All color left his face, and he backed up into a still-standing display, sending it careening against the wall. What he didn’t do was drop the rifle. Max put a hand on his shoulder as he raised the M16 and sighted it in on the bodies.
“They’re dead, Carter. It’s all right. Put it down.”
Carter lowered the rifle, still holding it in his right hand and wiping at the sweat beading down his face with his left. “Better check them.” The words were strangled, but they showed he was thinking straight.
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