Static finally emerged from the tent. Jasper, yawning and stretching, followed close behind. Peyton handed both Jasper and Static a mug of some herbal tea. They accepted it with murmured thanks and sat, side by side.
“How are you feeling?” Peyton asked Static as he sipped at the brew.
His face still burned red, but it did not look as desperate as the day before. His shoulders slumped as he sat, but he was able to move. “Tired, but I can do it.”
“I didn’t ask if you could do it. I asked how you felt. Be straight with me, Static.”
“Yes, Mom,” he said with a roll of his eyes.
Jasper snickered into his mug.
“I’m tired and a little sore. My shoulders are stiff, like they’re tense, but I don’t have a headache and I don’t feel nauseous.”
“That’s good,” Cooper replied. “The medicine and salve worked. Dr. Easton will be happy to get this report.”
“So what are the plans for today?” Jasper asked. He turned and shook the mug to remove the final drops and dry it.
“We’re going to move camp to the other side of the river and set up there.”
The boys looked at her, mouths twisted in frowns of confusion.
“Set up over there? Why?” Cooper asked.
“We need to be looking in the city, not on the edges,” Static argued.
“Shouldn’t we set up at night where we are?” Jasper added. “If we wander too far away, we’ll get stranded without our gear.”
“We won’t get stranded. We’ll keep an eye on the sun and where we are.” Peyton glanced at Nixie before addressing the boys. “We don’t know if we’re going to find water in the city. We need to stay where we have an abundant source. I’m not going to risk having what happened to Static happen again to someone else.”
“She’s right,” Cooper said after a moment. “It would be better. We can only carry a finite amount of water. We’ll just have to map out the roads we take. It’ll make for slower going, but we’ll be able to find our way back easier.”
“Should we split up and search?” came Static’s question. “We can cover more ground that way.”
“Absolutely not.” Peyton’s hair flew out as she shook her head vehemently, as if the very idea offended her. “We don’t have enough resources to divide up. What if someone gets hurt? Nixie can’t carry someone back. And I’m not saying we will, but what if we run into a wild animal or Scavengers?”
Cooper and Jasper darted their glances away from Nixie and quickly busied themselves, and when she tried to catch Static’s attention, he scratched his head and kicked at the dirt. Despite getting to know each other on this trip, despite all her help, why did they still turn away from her whenever they heard the word Scavenger?
CHAPTER TWENTY
Though the bridge had begun to decay from the lack of use and repair over the last twenty years, it was stable enough for the group to cross. They trekked down to the riverbank and found a good flat spot away from the river’s edge, where trees shaded the area. It almost mirrored the place they had slept the night before. It took less time for the group to set up camp, and Peyton surveyed the landscape. She didn’t see any signs of recent human activity, so they wouldn’t have a problem with leaving their gear behind.
Cooper found some fallen branches and carried them to the site. They had full canteens of water and Jasper slathered Static’s face in the salve once again.
“Which direction should we take?” Jasper asked as he put the container back in his bag. “The city is huge.” He turned to Nixie. “Are you sure you don’t remember where you were?”
Peyton hoped she remembered something, because, up close, the abandoned city looked even more intimidating than she had imagined. Inside would be a labyrinth of streets, little to no access to water, and no food. Who knew what conditions the streets would be in? And what if someone was injured? They were hours—if not days—from help.
Nixie turned toward the city, her face scrunching as she concentrated. “We traveled on the highway, looking for promising places. We took one of the exits but I don’t remember which one. I know it wasn’t immediately beyond the river.”
“Would you remember what it looked like if we stuck to the highway?”
Again the scrunch as she concentrated; Peyton wanted to smooth the wrinkles away. Her eyes took on a distant look, as if she were trying to see the past. “I can’t make promises, but maybe seeing it will trigger my memory.”
They all turned to Peyton then and she nodded, decision made. “Then we stick to the highway. It’s the best option we have right now. We should be able to see more, too. Take the gear you need, but leave the rest here.”
Everyone nodded and gathered their things. Peyton pulled Nixie aside, turning away from the group so no one could eavesdrop. “Any idea on the water situation in the city yet?”
“Not a drop.”
Peyton swore softly and Nixie murmured her agreement. “As long as we’re out of the city before the sun hits the horizon, we’ll be okay.”
“We’re ready to go,” Jasper announced from somewhere close behind. Peyton hoped he hadn’t overheard anything.
“Good, then let’s get a move on.”
*
Abandoned vehicles clogged some areas of the highway, as if they had all been dropped there at once. Peyton didn’t understand how it could happen, but so many things During Collapse confused everyone, especially those who had never experienced it. After was all she knew. Before was a foreign concept she just couldn’t grasp.
Seeing the heaps of metal, now rusted from being exposed to the elements but still mostly intact, made her feel as if she were in an alien world. She’d never seen a vehicle that ran. Why had the people Before not pushed for alternative sources for fuel?
“I wish I could drive one of these,” Jasper said, his voice hushed as he looked across the makeshift graveyard spread out before them. He touched one of the cars, the red paint still visible in some places.
“We’ll get the world back someday,” Static said, no longer bouncing with each step. Peyton had noticed his decline in energy as they walked. At first she didn’t know if he was hurting from the burn or needed to rest, but she came to realize he was mourning the world he’d lost before he’d ever had a chance to live in it.
“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” Cooper said, shaking his head. “Everything’s a mess.”
“Start small. Build up. One piece at a time.” They all turned to Static as he said it. Peyton had never seen him so solemn before. So calm. The effect was eerie and left her with chills running down her spine. Maybe he will reconnect us. It was the first time since they’d started their crazy mission that she thought maybe, just maybe, it was possible. If a girl could sense water with her body, then a boy could rebuild a radio and make it work, right?
“We need to keep moving. Stop gawking at the cars and walk,” she said after a few more solemn moments of silence. Nixie smiled up at her as she walked by, then fell into step behind her. At each exit they approached, they would stop to let Nixie get her bearings. Sometimes she would say no immediately and they would keep walking. Other times they would pause and she would close her eyes, tilting her head first one way and then the other. Once she started down the exit ramp, convinced she had the right one, only to get to the end and turn them back around.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to Peyton.
“Nothing to be sorry for,” she replied, content with resting a hand on Nixie’s shoulder when she really wanted to pull her in for a hug. “Without you we’d be even more lost on the city streets right now. Probably facing a Minotaur or something,” she added teasingly.
“What’s a Minotaur?”
“Greek mythology?”
Nixie just stared blankly and Peyton told her to forget about it. It was getting easier with each passing moment to forget about their differences. In the past twenty-four hours, Nixie had managed to blend into the group. There had been that odd mom
ent last night after Peyton mentioned Scavengers, but today that weird tension was absent. Cooper no longer looked at her strangely. Sometimes when she said something, he laughed or added his own comments. Nixie took to Static like a mother hen, and he allowed it. Jasper teased her good-naturedly like he did with Willow. When Graham asked what Peyton would do with Nixie, she had only considered making her a part of their group to appease him. Now the idea didn’t seem as far-fetched anymore. Indeed, it sounded downright alluring.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“This is it. This is definitely it,” Nixie announced. She stared at the weathered green sign announcing exit forty-two. She looked around, and fragments of images flickered through her mind: Ranger suggesting they get off the old highway and find shelter for the night. One of his men arguing that it was easier to just keep moving on until they reached the river. Ranger wanting to check out the area and scout for supplies. A scuffle.
Nixie looked down at the pavement, expecting to see the blood from the other man’s head still staining the surface, but nothing remained. It would have been washed away by one of the infrequent rainstorms. It had seemed like so much blood then, but now Nixie knew what it looked like when a man was killed. That had been just a scratch. “Head wounds bleed a lot,” Ranger had told her afterward, when she’d screamed at them to quit it. She wondered how they were faring without her now that they had the water filter. Why hadn’t he tried to come back for her? Or had he, and Peyton hid it from her?
“Are you sure?” Peyton asked, yanking her back to the present from her reverie.
“Positive.” Nixie pushed the sudden flare of doubt from her mind and gestured down the ramp. “It’s coming back to me now. I remember we stopped here. There was an argument.” She recalled the rest of her vision to them, leaving out their names, and then started down the ramp, sure that they would follow her.
They did.
Peyton pulled up next to her, keeping pace and constantly scanning the area. She was good at that, and Nixie admired how vigilant she was. She felt perfectly safe knowing Peyton was keeping tabs on their surroundings. Sometimes she would get lost in her own thoughts and Ranger would yell at her to snap out of it. He didn’t mean it to be nasty. Not usually. He wanted to protect her and make sure she could defend herself, which was hard to do when lost in a daydream—like she was right now. Peyton looked at her expectantly and she looked at the ground to hide the fact that her cheeks were burning. “Sorry, what was that?”
The guard chuckled. “I asked which way to go now. We’re at the end of the ramp.”
Oh.
So they were.
Nixie surveyed the area. Not much had changed that she could tell. “Straight ahead. We’ll run into a field. I think.”
“You think?” Jasper muttered from behind. She felt Peyton turn and could only imagine the look she shot him. He stopped talking.
“Yes, I think. I know there’s a field somewhere. I’m sorry, but I’m doing my best.”
A warm, comforting hand rested on her shoulder and Peyton leaned closer. “Just ignore him.” To the rest of the group she said, “We’ll get there. Without Nixie we wouldn’t have even crossed the river.”
The road of houses had long since been abandoned. Many of them had burned in a fire, and others had been vandalized. Messages were scrawled over the buildings, some common graffiti, others religious messages of repentance and salvation. Nixie hardly glanced at them as they moved along, though she did hear Static murmur something inaudible behind her to one of the boys. A large, empty field stood before them at the end of the road and Nixie smiled in triumph. At this rate, they’d be there in no time.
“Nice sized plot of land,” Cooper noted. “It would be a perfect place to grow crops if it were closer to the river.”
“That’s probably why no one settled here,” Jasper added. “It’s too far out of the way. A shame, too. It would be nice to start resettling the cities.”
Static chimed in with, “If we get the radio parts, it’ll be easier to do that. We can expand and have more room to make advances again.”
Nixie glanced up at the clear blue sky. The sun burned down on them still, but it wasn’t as hot as the day before. “Let’s get moving,” she said. “It shouldn’t be too much farther ahead.” With Nixie’s lead, they turned right down the street and continued to walk. There were fewer vehicles this way, and of those that remained, many were burned out husks.
“The riots,” Static said. “I remember Old Joe telling us about them.”
It wasn’t just the vehicles. Windows on houses and storefronts were smashed. Many of the buildings were brick, and scorch marks scarred the surfaces. Static poked his head into one of the gaping holes and looked around.
“This one has been looted.”
Inside were empty shelving units. One or two stood upright, but the majority had been tipped over and lay on the floor or leaned up against others. Not a single item had been left behind, but even if it had, chances were it would be useless by now. Nixie turned and stared down the road, a frown pulling at her lips. Something didn’t feel right. This place didn’t feel familiar. She wracked her brain, trying to recall the direction they took after the field, and she thought it was to the right.
Maybe we just need to go a little farther. So much of the city looks like this. It’s not like out in Vernon.
“Let’s keep moving. There’s nothing here for us,” Peyton urged, her eyes constantly scanning the area. Jasper engaged in much the same behavior, scanning in the opposite direction. Nixie could tell just by watching them that they had been trained well together. Whenever one turned, the other watched their back. A perfect pair. A surge of jealousy rose in Nixie that she didn’t understand. What reason did she have to be jealous? They had grown up together. They were friends; they worked together. She scowled, directing it at herself, and stalked off.
“Hey! Wait up!” Cooper called.
The pounding feet grew closer and Peyton materialized at her side. “Don’t just wander off without us.”
“Not like I went far,” she muttered.
“What’s up?”
Nixie shook her head. She didn’t want to answer that question. Hell, she didn’t think she could even if she wanted to. “We just need to keep moving,” she said in response.
Peyton didn’t believe the tepid answer, but she followed Nixie as she kept walking. With Jasper behind her scanning the shops as they passed in case she missed something in the first sweep, she knew they were completely safe. In fact, it was hard not to let herself be lulled into a false sense of security. Nothing moved. Precious few sounds even reached her ears. Sometimes a bird would wheel in the sky above them and call out to its companions, and a faint response could be heard from the distance. Not even a single animal seemed to be left in the city. Peyton had read that animals had remained in the cities after people had left, but there were none here, probably due to the lack of food. But every so often, where the pavement had been cracked, a sapling pushed out, spreading its branches toward the sky. Trees that lined the sidewalks had grown larger, and their roots pushed the ground up, breaking the concrete and making passage difficult at times. Dad said Mother Nature was reclaiming what had been taken from her. Someday the animals would be back, and maybe humans, too.
The group continued walking, but with each new side street they passed, Nixie grew more agitated. Peyton could tell by the way her shoulders tensed and how she kept glancing back at them. She wanted to ask what the problem was but refrained, after the way she’d been shrugged off earlier.
“Down here,” Nixie said sharply, picking up the pace as she took a side street. They didn’t question as they followed her down one street after another. Soon they twisted and turned, taking every other street in a new direction. Peyton tried to keep track of the turns in her head, but soon she’d forgotten. It was a good thing Cooper had that map, otherwise they’d be screwed.
Nixie’s usual calm demeanor faded as she glanced around a
t the passing buildings. Her eyes were wide, her lips tightened in a grimace. She darted down a narrow side street and they followed, only to stop abruptly at the dead end in front of them.
The wall from a building had partially collapsed, and the rubble blocked their progress. True, they could climb over and resume their mission, but judging by the look on Nixie’s face, things were not good.
“Let’s stop here and take a break,” Peyton ordered, forcing the words past her lips as Cooper pulled Jasper aside and mumbled something in his ear.
Three of her companions nodded and dropped to the ground, rummaging through their packs for food, but ahead of her Nixie stood statue still, staring at the blockade.
Peyton grasped Nixie’s arm and pulled her out of hearing range of the others. She maneuvered them out of sight of the others. “What’s going on?” she asked, consciously keeping her voice low and her tone light. The last thing she needed was to freak Nixie out and cause her to bolt.
“It’s just a little more,” Nixie replied, her voice quiet. Weak. Not like her at all.
“We’re lost, aren’t we?” When Nixie burst into tears, she took a step back. She wasn’t expecting that reaction.
“I’m so sorry. I thought I knew where we were going, and I was so sure it was down this way, but I think at the field we were supposed to go left or keep going straight or something, but I don’t remember which and instead I turned us right and that was the wrong thing to do. What if we can’t get back in time before nightfall and we’re trapped in the city or we—”
“Stop,” she ordered, grabbing Nixie by the shoulders and pulling her close to shake her a little.
“We could be completely turned around and run out of water and then what do we do?”
“It’s not going to happen. Cooper has a map and you can sense the river, right? Calm down. We’re fine.”
“We’re not. This is a mistake, this is such a mistake! How could I have thought I could lead us to the place?”
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