Domino Falls (ARC)

by Steven Barnes

  “Could you get in again?” Myles said.

  Kendra and Sonia looked at each other. They hadn’t talked about it, but one look at Sonia’s wide eyes told Kendra neither of them had any interest in going back to Wales’s ranch. But what if they could rescue Rianne?

  Poor Terry was yanking so hard on his hair that Kendra was afraid he’d pull a hank of it out of his scalp. He looked scared. He had promised to help her make her case for leaving Threadville, and now Myles and his family were making the case for her.

  “Why should they go back?” Terry said.

  “Yeah, for what?” Piranha said.

  Kendra couldn’t tell if Terry and Piranha were trying to protect them or merely negotiating terms.

  “You asked about your bus before,” Myles said

  An expectant silence. Terry stepped toward Myles. “Yeah,” Terry said. “What about her?”

  “I can get her running,” Myles said. “Give you enough gas to get to Southern California. What’s that place? Devil’s Wake?”

  “You said she couldn’t be fixed,” Terry said.

  “No,” Myles said. “I said she couldn’t be fixed without stealing.”

  Terry’s eyes stayed riveted on Myles’s. “Oh, I get it. So she stays dead unless we do something for you?” he said. “Like helping you get Rianne?”

  “It’s not like that, son,” Myles said.

  “It sounds exactly like that,” Terry said. “Doesn’t it, P?”

  “That’s what I heard,” Piranha said.

  Deirdre stepped forward, begging. “Please, just listen to him. Go on, Myles.”

  Myles held up his hands. “Nobody’s saying ‘Do it or else.’ Could you buy the parts you need for your bus over time? ’Course you could. Brave, skilled kids like you will do well here. You could scavenge a better vehicle and take your sweet time deciding if you like it here or not, but I suspect in the end you’ll want to move on. Rianne can’t wait that long. Wales is shipping Sissy and Rianne out in the morning.”

  “We’ve heard things,” Deirdre said. “From inside the ranch.” Her voice fell to a whisper as she protected her source.

  “Go on,” Kendra said.

  “People have disappeared,” Myles said. “Outsiders. People nobody would miss, from the survivors’ camp outside Threadville.”

  Kendra remembered the encampment beyond Threadville’s checkpoint, where she had thought they might have to wait too.

  “Wales’s radio broadcast reaches a thousand-mile radius,”

  Myles said. “People come here from north, east, and south. A lot get turned away.”

  “No one over sixty gets in, I’ve heard,” said Deirdre. In a flash, Kendra remembered seeing white-haired men and women sitting around a fire watching the bus drive past. “Or anyone who’s too hurt. Or too sick. So they wait at the camp, hoping to get in if they heal or fatten up. Hoping the policies will change.”

  “They have to be healthy,” Myles said. “Fit to work. Like you.”

  Kendra’s stomach tightened as she realized how lucky they had been. What would have happened if one of them had been badly injured when they arrived? She glanced at Piranha, and she saw the close call on his face. The family she’d met at the beach would have had to leave Sharon behind, she realized. What had happened to them? Kendra had been so happy to find refuge, she’d forgotten about everyone else.

  “The camp is terrible,” Deirdre said.

  “You can see squatters on the way to the checkpoint, but they send the rest farther out, where you can’t see,” Miles said. “People stay a month or two, with a permit. Hard to imagine anyone would want to live there, but at least there’s help against the freaks. They all work together. Gold Shirts might shoot you, though.”

  “If they just suspect you,” Deirdre said. “If a dog barks at you. So we hear.”

  “We don’t see that part on the inside,” Myles said. “While we’re at dinner and the movie. Those gunshots we hear all day and night aren’t just shooters killing freaks. Don’t think that for a minute.”

  Horror tickled Kendra’s throat like chilled acid. Just as she’d thought, Brownie’s death was only the beginning of what was wrong with Threadville.

  “But at least they take children in,” Deirdre said reluctantly. “Or, that’s how we lived with it, for Jason’s sake.”

  “Or kids get snatched and brought here,” Jason said. His voice was hollow. “Kids have told me.”

  Ursulina’s face stormed silently. The children at the day care didn’t often talk about where they had come from, except the younger ones. Kendra had assumed it was mass trauma, but what if they weren’t supposed to talk?

  “Other folks just get snatched and … disappear,” Myles said.

  “How many?” Kendra said.

  “At least five,” Deirdre said. “Mostly young women. A couple of older men.”

  “How do you know?” Ursulina asked. Her first serious question.

  The vibration Kendra felt reminded her of the visit to the ranch, but it was different this time. Something familiar and electrifying was growing in the barn between them; they were waking the part of them that had slaughtered the Yreka pirates, that had crushed everything between them and a place called Threadville.

  We’re just a little bit scary, aren’t we? Kendra thought.

  “We have a network at the camp, and we hear stories,” Deirdre said. “We send food, blankets. When we can.” She didn’t sound like it was nearly enough.

  “But it was outside, so we put up with it,” Myles said. “That’s the truth. Well, now it’s coming inside. Sissy and Rianne wander into Wales’s mansion, enchanted by his Threadie talk. One comes back out a stranger, and Rianne never comes back out.”

  Deirdre held her dress sleeve to her nose, muffling her voice. “Now Brownie.”

  “We weren’t the best of friends,” Myles said, “but he traded fair and he aimed straight. That’s how I measure folks now. And you’re those kind of folks. I know what you’ve survived. I hate to say it, but you young ladies might just save Rianne’s life.” Now that the whole business lay naked in the sunlight streaming through the barn’s rafters, Kendra felt paralyzed. What had she been trying to draw her friends into? Maybe it was crazy to expect Devil’s Wake to be any better than Threadville. Sonia glanced at Kendra: Well?

  “What are you asking?” Kendra said.

  “Find Rianne in there,” Myles said. “Tell her what’s happened to Sissy and Brownie. Try to snap her back. If she’ll come with you, bring her home. If not …”

  Myles reached for his back pocket, and something metal gleamed. All of them tensed, expecting him to pull out a gun. Ursulina’s hand parked on her holster, and she didn’t relax until she saw a video camera in Myles’s hand.

  “This is digital, and it’s fully charged,” Myles said, giving Kendra the camera. “If Rianne won’t listen and go with you, just press the red button to record. Let her tell us in her own words. If she’ll do that, tell her we’ll leave her alone.”

  “Wales won’t like that,” Piranha said. “We’d be burned here.”

  “That’s where the Beauty comes in,” Terry said. “We’re back where we started.”

  “If Rianne comes, we’ll all go,” Myles said. “You’ve got your bus, and it’s big enough for all of us. My last crew wasn’t good enough, not enough experience. But you survived the Yreka pirates, so I’d take my orders from you.” He looked between them, unsure about which of them was in charge.

  He gravitated toward Terry and Piranha, but Ursulina and Kendra also caught his eye.

  “Where would our little road trip be headed?” Ursulina said. Terry looked at Kendra, eyes full of sad understanding and apology. “Devil’s Wake,” he said. “Just like Kendra’s been saying.”

  “We hear good things,” Myles said, encouraged. “Worth a try.”

  “What if Rianne won’t go?” Kendra asked.

  “Then you all still have your bus,” Deirdre said.

 
; “I guarantee you can get as far south as Long Beach, and she’ll take you much faster than she was,” Myles said. “Conditions notwithstanding, of course.”

  But conditions were everything. Of course.

  “What’ll happen to you?” Terry said.

  “If we get stuck here, we’ll say we were robbed,” Myles said. “I know cars, so I’m well liked here. They’ll leave me alone. Just drive like hell, so they don’t catch you.”

  Deirdre heaved her shoulders as if she were unburdening herself of a great secret. “When Jason turns fourteen, they’re sending him to the fences,” she said.

  “Better than a scav crew, Mom,” Jason said.

  “Don’t be a scav,” Piranha said. “Wait a while on that one, little man.”

  “But he needs to go to the fences,” Myles said. “He needs to know how to shoot a moving target.”

  You may have to kill to survive, Kendra. Grandpa Joe’s voice came into her head, as if Myles had brought him back to life.

  “We’ve heard your proposal.” Terry glanced around, checking their faces, lingering on Kendra’s. “We’ve got to talk to our other friends. All of us … alone.”

  Ursulina sighed, hanging her head. To Kendra, it looked like Let’s do it.

  “I didn’t expect a decision now,” Myles said. “But decide soon. You could take off before first light. But you need to go to the ranch tonight.”

  Ursulina didn’t raise her head. “How long did Rianne live with you?” she said, as if she were speaking to the ground.

  The family paused. No one wanted to say.

  “Two months,” Deirdre said finally.

  Ursulina raised her head, staring at Deirdre with laser eyes. “I had a daughter,” she said. “But Rianne’s not your daughter. You barely know her.”

  Deirdre rocked back on her heels as if Ursulina had struck her. Her jaw trembled. “You’re right, we barely know her,” Deirdre said. “But she’s all I have. And wherever the child I gave birth to is, I pray to God somebody’s giving her a chance.”

  How could any of them argue? Kendra had known them far less than two months, but time went deep these days. Survivors aged years in days.

  Ursulina sighed and walked toward the barn door. Deirdre watched her, alarmed, wondering what her departure meant. To Kendra, the frantic hope in Deirdre’s eyes felt like body blows. What could a handful of people do? Kendra wanted to confess that they had no idea if anything good was waiting for them outside of Threadville, and that she couldn’t talk to her great-aunt in Devil’s Wake before four, when the power went on. Or that they didn’t have enough time.

  “Please.” Jason’s voice shivered, more a child’s. “We need help.”

  Twenty-Two

  Bang—you’re dead.”

  Terry’s knees almost buckled when the voice floated from the brush directly below him, someone invisible targeting him. When he reached for his gun, his fingers were so unsteady that he missed the butt on his first swipe.

  “You ain’t funny, man,” Piranha said beside Terry. He picked up a small rock and tossed it behind the brush.

  “Ouch,” said a bush that sounded like Darius. “Hey, that hurt!”

  The grass rose as Darius sat up, draped in his ghillie suit. Another mound of grass ten yards from them shifted as Dean sat up too. They were both perspiring. Jackie had directed Terry and Piranha to an old tire swing as a landmark, but Terry hadn’t seen the Twins with their camo. A dozen men were building a fence around a field in the valley below, and Jackie had told them that the Twins were covering the wooded area just adjacent from a hilltop fifty yards away.

  No freaks in sight now, but Jackie said they made an occasional appearance—smarter ones who wound their way around from other barricades. When Terry stared below, he saw at least two downed freaks who had wandered from the shaded woods and been shot almost as soon as they reached the light. A third, smaller form was nearly hidden in the tall grass. A child? Terry looked away, not wanting to see.

  Piranha smiled. “I gotta admit, this looks better than getting chased all over the street,” he said.

  “Best job I ever had,” Dean said, keeping his eyes on the tree line.

  “But you won’t get those scars the ladies like so much,” Darius said. “By the way, you scratch my bike, I’ll shoot you for real.”

  “Ditto,” Dean said.

  Since the Twins were stationed at the north end of Threadville, Terry and Piranha had borrowed their motorcycles, burning precious drops of gas. Nobody was allowed to touch their bikes, so Terry had figured they would complain. But this was an emergency. Instead of arguing about what to do about the mechanic’s proposal, Terry and Piranha had agreed to see what the Twins thought. They couldn’t consider leaving Threadville without their best shooters, especially if Ursulina decided to stay.

  “We met with the mechanic,” Terry said.

  Darius snickered. “Did he give you a lube job?”

  “Something like that,” Piranha said.

  Terry was sure he was wasting his time, but he told them about the Blue Beauty and the dangerous rescue that was Myles’s conditions for fixing her. As he laid out the story of Rianne, he realized he could be talking about Lisa.

  The Twins listened silently, watching the woods.

  “That’s it?” Darius said.

  “There’s one other thing,” Terry said.

  “Let’s hear it,” Dean said. He sounded impatient.

  “The camp?” Piranha said. “That what you mean, T?”

  “Yup.” Terry shoved his hands in his pocket, trying to draw the Twins out.

  “What kind of camp?” Darius said.

  Terry and Piranha glanced at each other, both realizing that they didn’t have to say more. They could say Never mind and leave the Twins to their work, reporting back to Kendra and Sonia that the group had voted to stay.

  Piranha went on first. “If you’re not good enough to get in, they leave you in a camp outside,” he said. “You know, like they told us. If you’re too sick. Too hurt. Too old. You get a permit, stay a while.”

  “Better than outside,” Terry said. “More people.”

  “Unless you get shot ’cause a Gold Shirt thinks you’re a freak,” Piranha said. “Or says he thought you were a freak. Or the town snatches your kids from you. Or you just … vanish.”

  “Not that it matters,” Terry said. “Nobody cares about the people in the camp.”

  Even swathed in camo-green face paint, Terry could see Dean’s jaw go tight. An explosion seemed to shimmer the air. Smoke curled from Dean’s rifle. A hundred yards downhill, a shadowed figure near the trees turned in a bizarre waltzing motion before it fell. Damn! Terry hadn’t even seen the freak coming.

  Down at the fences, people waved. Terry gazed at the fences and the people of Threadville as if he might not have another chance, already homesick for a home he’d barely known.

  “Who says we don’t end up in a camp,” Dean said, “if we leave here?”

  Terry reminded them about Kendra’s aunt Stella and told them Kendra would be calling her later that day to find out if they could all get sanctuary. He told them about their first radio call.

  “She said she might be able to send a plane to pick her up in Long Beach,” Terry said.

  “A plane?” Darius said, left eyebrow arched.

  “But if it’s gonna happen, tonight’s the night,” Piranha said.

  The Twins didn’t look at each other or at them. They settled back down flat on the ground, disappearing into the underbrush.

  “Not our problem, right?” Terry said, sensing a way out.

  Again, a nearly unbearable silence.

  Darius spat a bug out of his mouth. “Don’t know yet,” he said. “Tell us what happens when our girl calls Devil’s Wake.”

  Kendra checked back with Gloria at the Arco station once at two, then again at three, just to make sure she was welcome and the radio was still working. She kept expecting Gloria to cool off, suspecting h
er plans somehow, but Gloria seemed as excited as she was about her plans to talk to Aunt Stella.

  Now Kendra was sorry that Gloria had heard as much as she had already, since Kendra had already hinted at leaving one day. The only alternative she knew was the main broadcast station where Sonia worked, and Sonia had warned her it was all Threadie. That would be like broadcasting to Wales himself.

  By ten minutes to four, Kendra was pacing the Arco lot with Terry, dodging the dozen cars and trucks waiting to fill up with gas when the power came on. Gloria and her boss, a middle-aged Asian man named Ichiro, were busy bartering. The customers who brought livestock were turned away; other items like clothes and weapons were haggled over until Ichiro decided how much gas each item was worth. Few people seemed happy about the deals they struck, complaining loudly. The price of gas must be going up, Kendra thought. How long would it be before all the gas was gone?

  Kendra watched Gloria in the gas station lot. “We have to make sure she stays out here when I get on the radio. She seems nice, but she could say the wrong thing. She might want to be an ambassador too.”

  Terry nodded. “I was just thinking about that. A goodwill trip. But you know it doesn’t matter, right?”

  “What doesn’t matter?”

  “If Gloria hears you or not,” Terry said. “That Max guy will be on the other end too. Don’t say anything you shouldn’t.” Kendra nodded. She’d forgotten about the radio operator in Devil’s Wake.

  “Terry, can we do this?” she whispered. “Is this crazy?” Terry looked at his watch and showed her the time: five minutes to four o’clock. “We’re about to find out,” he said.

  Kendra went to Gloria, who was nodding compassionately while a wild-eyed woman told her she didn’t have anything to trade except jerky and kerosene.

  Kendra caught Gloria’s eye, and Gloria nodded toward the gas station door.

  “Radio’s already set to the frequency,” Gloria said. “Running on batteries now. It’s okay if you don’t know the radio lingo. Ham operators aren’t supposed to use their names, but we’re making this up as we go.”