Exposed

by RJ Crayton

  He swallowed, and his eyes searched her face for assurance. “If there’s one other person who knows you, it means your life wasn’t a waste, right?”

  Elaan squeezed his hand, finally understanding the bond Josh and Lijah shared, and why he seemed so hesitant to break it. Why he was so willing to yield to Lijah’s demands that he stay away from her. Not just because it was dangerous, but also because Lijah mattered. Lijah was the only other person who really understood him. Not just what it was like to be in his shoes, but him. She gave Josh a reassuring smile. She understood exactly what he meant.

  “Anyway,” he said. “That’s what it was like in the quarantine. It would have been a lonely experience alone. But Lijah and I had each other. And I’m telling you not to worry about him. When things seem dark, that’s when he turns on the light. He had the Willie situation figured out, and I’m sure he’ll be fine and get to your mom’s. In fact, I’ll bet you five bucks that he’s already at your mom’s place when we get there.”

  Elaan laughed. “Can we bet toilet paper instead?”

  “Alright, one roll,” he joked back.

  Elaan shook her head. These last two days were the kind you either laughed or cried about. Josh had made her laugh, but part of her really just wanted a good cry. She stared up at the ceiling. It would be completely dark soon, and she wasn’t ready for that. She wasn’t ready to be claimed by darkness.

  “You should try to sleep,” he said.

  “Can’t,” she admitted. “My mind is too busy.” She took a deep breath, and said, “Talk to me for a bit. Tell me stories. Talk to me the way you did Lijah when you were quarantined. The way you talked to each other when you didn’t want to feel alone.”

  Josh released her hand for a second, and the mattress shook slightly. He rolled on his side to face her, leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. Heat flooded her cheeks, and his warm skin pressed close to her. For a moment, she was lost in the feel of him, then he pulled away. “I talked to Lijah, man to man, in a way that builds a bond of friendship that’s unbreakable,” he said. “I want to talk to you in a way that builds a different kind of bond.” He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek. “I’ll talk to you about anything you want, but we’re not just friends, OK?”

  She nodded, his fingers still grazing her cheek, leaving warm streaks.

  “Why don’t I start with the stuff you asked me about the other night?” Josh said, removing his hand from her face and rolling onto his back.

  Elaan raised an eyebrow, though she was sure he couldn’t see it. “What stuff?”

  “Where my dad gets all his gadgets. You asked me if he was a spy or something.”

  “Is he?”

  Josh laughed, then found her hand again, pulling it into his own. “No,” he said. “But mild-mannered, cookie-baking, PTA President Jennifer Wells was.”

  Elaan’s mouth popped open as the shock of his words set in. “Are you serious?”

  “Umm, yes,” he said. “She told people she worked as a translator for the State Department. A lot of spies say they work for the State Department, and while technically true, it’s part of their cover.”

  “She went on missions and stuff?”

  He laughed again. “No, that would have made her job more exciting and probably left her less time to volunteer at my school. Nope, she had various jobs in the agency. At the end, she was in charge of some covert ops program that I don’t know a lot about. Before that, she was in the tech department. She was the real-world equivalent to Q, who was James Bond’s tech guy. She designed gadgets for spies to use. You’re not supposed to take certain documents and tools home, but she had a high enough clearance to bring home some stuff most people wouldn’t have access to. She was also considered essential personnel. She had an emergency kit that had everything she would need if she had to leave and go to a safe house. My dad took the kit after she got sick. That’s probably where he got most of the stuff. I’m sure there’s protocol to retrieve those kits, but with the virus and everything else that was going on, it must have slipped through the cracks.”

  Elaan was stunned. It was hard to believe she knew someone whose mother was a high-level CIA operative. And he knew about it. He hadn’t talked about his mother much back at the SPU. She’d assumed it was too depressing, just like it had been for her. Missing someone so much sometimes made it hard to dredge it all up for others. But had his reticence been because of her job? His mother was a spy, someone who lied for a living. Elaan had trouble wrapping her mind around the idea. Yes, spies existed in real life and not just the movies; spies just weren’t people she knew.

  “Did you always know she was a spy?”

  Josh shrugged, his hand pulling slightly on hers with the move. “I didn’t know when I was younger, but my mother told me, before I left for college.”

  “Were you shocked?”

  “Not entirely,” he said. “I’d seen the stuff she brought home. I’d been to her office a few times. Everything I saw seemed more interesting and mysterious than what a translator should have had access to.”

  He’d seen things. She wondered what kind of things, but then remembered his special talent. “You saw stuff and your photographic memory detected later it wasn’t kosher.”

  He sighed and said, “I actually have to view it a certain way for the photographic memory to kick in, but I knew enough to know that what she did was more complicated than what she said.”

  Elaan nodded. She paused, and then decided to say what was on her mind, the thing that had been bothering her ever since Lijah had told her about it. “You never told me that you have a photographic memory.”

  He took a moment before he spoke, his brows crunching together slightly. “I generally don’t tell people,” he said, finally. “Sometimes, people put up walls after you tell them something like that.”

  She stared. That didn’t make sense.

  It was as if he could read her thoughts. “It’s not people’s first reaction,” he admitted. “At first they think it’s cool, and they go through this testing phase where they’re like, ‘Hey, do you remember this? What was on the paper I just showed you?’ But that wears off eventually. Then, they move into suspicion and distrust. They’re reluctant to show you stuff because they think it’s there with you, forever. I don’t like being in that place with people. So, it’s better just not to tell anyone.”

  Except Lijah, she thought, but kept the words inside.

  “I’m glad you know. I wasn’t actively trying to hide it. I just didn’t want you to shut me out or think I was weird or something.”

  Elaan laughed. “You told me about your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle collection, but thought I’d find photographic memory weird?”

  “Lijah said you liked TMNT, that you were always watching it.”

  She laughed even harder now. “Because I was babysitting the twin boys next door, Fred and Frank. They loved that movie.”

  “So, were you just teasing when you told me Raph was your favorite?”

  “No, I do like Raphael best,” she admitted. “There are just other movies I think I’d rather watch.”

  “Like The Princess Bride?”

  “Yes. Or Ever After,” she said. “Something where things end well and people live happily ever after. Something different from how the world is now. The world right now is filled with a disease that kills people by the millions, most of them good people who’ve done nothing wrong. The world right now is a government that hunts you down to experiment on you or kill you, depending on your genetic makeup.”

  Josh put an arm around her. “I know it’s been hard these past few days, but you’re gonna be OK, Elaan,” he said in a reassuring tone. “We’re going to be OK.”

  She took a deep breath and sank into his arms, relishing the safety of his embrace. She wanted to feel safe again, like the world wasn’t falling apart. She leaned into him, and inhaled. He smelled slightly earthy and sweaty, and for some reason, she liked that. She blew out, her breath land
ing on his chest, and he tremored afterward.

  “We should get some sleep,” he said, pulling away from her. She heard him swallow and then take in a couple of long, steady breaths.

  She didn’t like that he’d pulled away. He said he wanted to be more than friends, but he was letting her go when she needed to be held. She snuggled close to him, resting her head on his shoulder. “I can sleep like this,” she said, placing a hand on his chest, enjoying the thump of his heartbeat under her palm.

  He wrapped an arm around her. “Sure,” he said. “So long as you’re comfortable.”

  “I am,” she said quickly, enjoying the warmth of his body next to hers. “Thanks for being here with me. I know you could’ve gone on your own, but it means a lot that you stayed with us, and that you’re coming with me to Illinois.”

  He put his hand on top of hers, and his chest rose as he inhaled. “I’m glad I came, too.”

  Chapter 12

  In the morning, Elaan woke to sunshine streaming in. The watch she’d placed on the nightstand read six-thirty. She felt refreshed, especially since she’d slept so poorly on the train.

  The space beside her was empty. Josh was gone. She sat up, telling herself not to panic. He probably just went to the bathroom. Across the room, where they’d set their clothes to dry, she saw his pants were gone. His shirt, however was still draped over a chair.

  Elaan heard noise coming from the next room and called, “Josh?”

  “Yeah,” he called back. “One second.”

  She climbed out of the bed, put on her pants, and searched her bag for something other than the camouflage shirt. She heard the door creak open as she rummaged in the bag. She looked up to see Josh standing in the doorway wearing clothes she’d never seen before. “Where’d you get those?”

  “Last bedroom. They were in the drawers. They seemed clean, so I figured it would be a good idea to swap these out for the fatigues.” He held up an empty duffle bag. “This was in one of the other rooms. I figured we could use another bag.”

  “Won’t it be heavy? Slow us down?”

  Josh sighed, walked over to the bed, and sat down. “Well, yeah it will be heavier, but I think it’s worth it.” He closed his eyes for a second, then opened them. “From the map and my best-guess, it’s about two hundred thirty miles from here to Dahinda. If the average person walks one mile in twenty minutes, that’s forty-six hundred minutes, or roughly seventy-seven hours. Even walking ten hours a day, that puts us there in eight days, and probably exhausted and near starvation. And ten hours a day is being generous. I’d say eight hours of walking to be on the safe side, putting us closer to a ten-day trip. How likely is it that we’ll find decent shelter for that many days in a row?”

  Elaan stared, not clear where he was going with this. “What are you saying?”

  “I think we should try to steal a car. With a car, it’s a four-hour trip, not a week and a half.”

  Elaan raised both brows. “How are we supposed to steal a car? You guys nixed the idea earlier. Lijah said most cars need a chip to start.”

  He nodded, and crossed the room to her. “I know,” he said, touching her shoulder. “But being out here isn’t like being in a city. A lot of people are dead, and their heirs are dead, and their things just are. They’re like this house — unoccupied and forgotten about. It’s possible there’s a car in a garage somewhere that has a full tank of gas, a set of keys, and no occupants. Any car with decent mileage and full tank means we won’t even have to stop for gas.”

  Elaan lifted her hand to her chin and sat on the edge of the desk. “So, where do you think we’ll find an abandoned car before it gets dark?”

  “I checked out some of the other rooms while you were sleeping and found some binoculars and a fifty-state atlas. The map is a little more detailed, and I think if we walk along the highway, we might spot a house or two that’s abandoned. However, the ones closest to the roads are also the likeliest ones to have been looted already. This one here is a little off the beaten path. But I still think it’s worth a shot. I mean, a few hours versus ten days is a huge difference. Plus, we’re going to really have to figure out food if we can’t find a car. We don’t have a way to carry ten days of food with us.”

  Elaan nodded. He was right. “But you still want to take the extra duffel?”

  Josh shrugged. “It would allow us to carry more rations, but it’s going to be heavier. So, it’s a tradeoff.” He paused. “Do you know any, like, wilderness survival tips? You know, stuff about edible plants and herbs.”

  Elaan burst into a full belly laugh. “Um, no. You should’ve gotten stranded with Lijah. He could’ve helped you. I have zero outdoor skills. If you rely on me, we’ll probably eat the first poisonous bush we come across.”

  He chuckled. “OK, Elaan doesn’t have a secret life as a survivalist,” he said. “Well, neither do I. So, we’ll wing it. Why don’t you look around, see if there are any extra clothes you want to take with you? Try to find stuff that’s warm and would dry quickly if it got wet. Fleece, polyester, synthetic fabrics. We don’t know what kind of weather we’ll get.”

  Ugh. The weather. She hadn’t thought about that.

  “Hey, don’t worry,” Josh said. “We can do this. We just need to prepare.” Elaan managed a smile and Josh went on. “Just see if there’s anything that’s a good fit for you, finish getting ready, and then come down. I’ll start packing some light food and water. The map showed a couple of ponds and creeks on the way, so we can try to refill there if we have to walk the whole way. I’ll poke around outside. I think I saw a shed. Maybe there’s something we can use to make the trip easier.”

  Elaan sighed. Walking for a week or stealing a car. Neither seemed her idea of fun. But truth be told, nothing in this post-virus world had been much fun, so odds were low things would suddenly turn fun now.

  Chapter 13

  Elaan had searched for things they could use on their journey, but found herself reluctant to take anything. It still felt like stealing, even though the home’s owners were likely dead. The notion of taking other people’s clothes also gave her pause, but for the ick factor mostly. She didn’t want to wear something that had touched someone else’s skin, especially if she wasn’t clear on who they were or how clean their things were. She finally convinced herself to take two fleece zip pullovers. The weather was turning colder, and she’d want something warm if they didn’t find a decent place to stay overnight. The fleece was light, but a bit bulkier than some of the other stuff in her bag. So, it would be perfect for the extra duffle.

  Staring at the pullovers, Elaan still had misgivings about taking them. Perhaps after ten days of wandering, she’d be less picky, but now, having been decently fed, she wasn’t in the best of spirits about pilfering clothing.

  She was sitting on the bed cornrowing one of the last sections of her hair. While she generally liked to wear her hair out, the realities of walking for ten days made her opt for a more practical hairstyle.

  She heard footsteps on the stairs and realized Josh must be back. He’d found a wagon outside earlier. It would make hauling the extra bag easier. He’d gone out to make one last pass for anything useful. Elaan heard the door open and looked up to find Josh staring open mouthed at her.

  “Hey,” he said, his eyes drifting to her hair.

  “Hey there yourself,” she said as her hands deftly braided down the side of her scalp.

  “You changed your hair,” he said.

  “Yep,” she said, trying to gauge his reaction. “You don’t like it?”

  He shrugged. “It’s fine,” he said. Then he grinned. “I just didn’t expect you to go all thug on me.”

  Did he just say that? She took a deep breath as her fingers worked through her hair. She scrutinized his face. He’d said it, but he clearly hadn’t meant any offense. “I’m gonna pretend you didn’t just say that, and you’re never ever gonna say that to a person of color again. Capiche?”

  He said he was sorry,
yet he seemed confused as to where he’d misstepped. She finished the plait and then started on the final one. “Listen,” she said. “If you were to shave your head to better disguise yourself while on the run, I wouldn’t come in and ask why you were going Neo-Nazi or why you were trying to look like a Serbian prison inmate. This is a hairstyle that is easy to maintain when you know you’re not going to be able to comb it out and take care of it daily. Maybe thugs wear it for that reason, but that doesn’t mean everyone who wears it is a thug.”

  He nodded. “Seriously,” he said, walking over to her. “Sorry. I was just joking around with you. I meant it to be funny. But it wasn’t.”

  She shook her head. “Nope,” she said, but then offered him a smile. “But no worries. We’re cool.” She took a minute to finish her hair while Josh rifled through the drawers in the room. “You trying to find something in particular?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “No, I just want to be sure we don’t miss anything. And I didn’t look in here earlier because I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “Thanks,” she said with a sigh, and then she stood, peeking out the window at the bright sun. She supposed it was time. “So, we just go, start walking?”

  He nodded. “After we eat.”

  * * *

  They’d eaten what Elaan considered a “weird” breakfast: canned stew. But they’d wanted a substantive meal before setting out for their walk. Something to keep them fueled up for a while.

  They planned to take mainly granola bars, prepacked peanut butter and jelly snack bars, and peanut butter crackers. Elaan had wondered if the people who lived here worked at or perhaps ran some kind of after-school program, because the house had an inordinate amount of these snack things in the storage bins. The dates on the packaging were pretty good. All next year. The wagon was helpful, but they hadn’t wanted to be completely reliant on it. So they’d compromised and packed the duffle with mainly light stuff, in case they had to abandon the wagon. The heavier things, a few pull-top cans, and water bottles sat next to the duffel in the wagon. Josh had found a Swiss Army knife, which he reckoned could open a malfunctioning pull-top can in a pinch. The knife could also be useful in other instances.