by Kirby Howell
* * *
Nearly two months passed before things began to feel normal again. In that time, Grey’s heartache over The Plague victims eased some, and Connie’s belly grew and grew. We’d all been torn about Grey coming to Paris. I worked up the nerve to tell him to stay and keep working on the cure for Connie’s baby. He’d taken my request seriously and thought about it for a full week, until one night, he and Connie came to me and said they’d both decided Grey should come to Paris with me. The few days away might even allow him to come back to the problem with fresh perspective. If all went according to plan, there would be some time left before Connie’s baby was born.
After this decision was made, the time leading up to the Summit felt like a heartbeat. I spent hours every day sitting with Ben and the radio, meeting and talking to all of the people from the different settlements, and even befriending a couple of the delegates who were supposed to meet up with us in Vegas before heading out to Paris. Ben took diligent notes for me, assessing every delegate individually to make sure I knew as much about everyone as possible.
Spending so much time with Ben was a comfort. We hadn’t been together this much since our days back in the marina. Jen frequently visited, and I watched as their flirtation grew into something more. They referred to each other as boyfriend and girlfriend, and any animosity I used to harbor for Jen faded away. She made Ben happy, and that was enough for me.
Often times when Ben put me on the radio to talk, he and Jen would go off to spend time together. Most of the time, she was assisting him on a side project that would “give him eyes on the Westside.”
Daniel had taken to using every dinner as an opportunity to help me develop my debating skills. He picked a new topic each night that I’d likely encounter in Paris and assigned everyone a perspective on it. Then I’d have to go point by point with each person. Even Rissi participated. I loved going back and forth with her but dreaded the rounds with Ben and Daniel. They both challenged me to near exhaustion. The one good thing was that I’d been allowed to skip all food prep duties to study each evening, and after the first month, I was starting to feel more confident.
One day the trip was weeks away, and then suddenly I woke up one morning with our departure looming in a matter of hours. I didn’t want to leave New Burbank. But I knew what needed to be done, and I’d been chosen to speak for my people. It was an odd thought. My people. I’d never wanted a place in leadership, yet somehow I was finding myself at the forefront more and more since the outbreak of The Plague. I wondered if that’d been the case for so many others I’d read about in my history books.
The sun wasn’t up yet, so I headed to the stable. Snicket’s coat gleamed orange, as the sun’s rays filtered through the low-hanging mist clinging to the mountains. Snicket nervously ebbed back and forth, making the simple task of brushing her down difficult. She was a smart girl. She knew something was up. Her anxiety echoed what was going through my own chest, though I thought I was doing a better job of hiding it.
“Easy girl,” I whispered, stroking her long face, enjoying its softness. “I won’t be gone long. Rissi knows to bring your evening apple.” She snorted, as if responding that it wouldn’t be the same.
“Do you need any help?”
I turned and saw Grey. The unease between us had gradually faded, and I smiled up at him, happy for his company.
“You’re up early,” I said.
“Couldn’t sleep. Is anyone else up yet?”
“Not yet. I thought I’d spend a few minutes with Snicket before I go, just in case,” I raked my fingers through her long main and curled a few strands around my index finger.
“I wish you wouldn’t talk like that,” Grey said, resting a hand on Snicket’s side. “We’re going to be fine. I promise you.”
“We don’t know who to trust after we leave here,” I said. “Any one of the delegates at the Summit could be in Karl’s pocket. They all might be.”
He nodded. “I know. But they may not be. We’ll just have to be careful.”
“Until we know where peoples’ allegiances lie, it won’t be easy to achieve anything this Summit was created for in the first place,” I said. “And how are we supposed to find out whose side they’re on? Doing too much digging or asking the wrong questions, or too many questions could make people suspicious.” I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “When did we reverse roles? You’re usually the cautious one.”
He took my hand. “I’m still cautious, especially when it comes to your safety. But I know we have to do this, too.”
I stepped forward to lean against him, knowing I was safe for a moment, but knowing that moment wouldn’t last... couldn’t last.
“I’m scared,” I whispered into his chest, and he slid his arms around me.
“The Great Autumn Winters, scared?” he said, then huffed.
“Very funny,” I said.
“You’re the bravest person I’ve ever known,” he whispered, suddenly serious. “You put on such a good front, I forget that deep down inside you there might be fear.”
I pushed him back to look up at him. “Grey, I’m scared all the time. It seems like every time I turn around, someone I know is in jeopardy.”
“But your reaction is to do something about it. Charge into battle. Make the world safe again.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m not scared.”
“I know. It’s just easy to forget you might be, because all I see on the surface is this bold, courageous woman.” He pulled me close. “It’s no wonder I lost my heart to you. Who wouldn’t?”
We stayed in that embrace for a while. It wasn’t until Snicket chortled for more attention that I released Grey.
An hour later, the whole house was up, and we were all ready to go. We milled around the backyard, not wanting to begin the goodbyes. Connie wrapped me in a firm hug.
“I wish I could come see you off at the airport, but no more horseback riding for me for a while!” She smiled and patted her enormous belly.
Rissi was in a mood and followed me around until we were alone. “I want to come with you, Autumn,” she whispered. “I can help... like last time. I packed my bag already, just in case.”
“I have no doubt you could help, but with Daniel and me gone, someone needs to help Connie. And you know Ben likes having you around. Besides, when we get all the other delegates in the plane, there won’t be enough room.”
“I fit fine in the small plane before,” she said petulantly.
“What small plane?” Ben asked, wheeling up behind her.
“Never mind,” she said, annoyed. “You better come back, Autumn. Or I’m coming after you.”
“We’ll both be coming after you if you don’t report in as scheduled,” Ben added. “I really wish I could go with you.”
“We’ll be alright,” I promised.
“I’ll make sure these kids behave, don’t worry,” Shad said, clapping Ben heartily on the shoulder while giving us an exaggerated stink eye.
“Here,” Ben said, handing me his well-worn journal. It contained all the notes he’d taken over the last several months. “In case you need it to refer to.”
I took the journal and smiled, truly grateful.
“It’ll be like I’m there with you, spouting off every little statistic and fact I know.” Ben grinned, but I could see sadness behind his eyes. I hugged him.
“This is going to come in handy. I just know it,” I said. “Thanks, Ben.”
“Come on everyone, we need to hit the road,” Daniel called.
I tucked Ben’s journal in my bag and tied it to the back of my saddle. Connie appeared at my side and caught me in a hug that left me breathless.
“Take care of yourself. Stay on guard and watch out for the guys, too.” She patted me on the back and released me. “You seem to always get mixed up in the middle of things, so please be wary of these people.”
I nodded, and Grey helped me on to Snicket before mounting his own horse. As I got settled in t
he saddle, Connie continued, “Trust your instincts, and don’t do anything rash!”
“Okay, Connie,” I said, smiling at her as she began to walk next to us toward the road.
“And enjoy Paris! I never got to go, so you’ll have to tell me all about it when you get home.”
“I will,” I promised. We turned onto the road leading out of Hoover Hollow, and Connie called to us one last time, “Fly carefully, Daniel! Shad, I’ll kick your butt if you get hurt again! Keep everyone safe, Grey!”
Her voice faded the farther we got, and we waved to her, Rissi, and Ben one last time before turning onto the main road toward the airport.
When we got there, I saw Karl standing next to a long, narrow private jet that sparkled in the early morning light. Next to him stood his barrel-chested henchman, Hart. I gritted my teeth and dismounted Snicket.
“Ms. Winters, good morning,” Karl said, slightly bowing. “Are you and yours ready for our voyage?”
It was too early to think of a witty response, so I ignored him and started up the steps of the plane.
“Please, ladies first,” he said, sarcastically.
The plane was larger inside than I’d expected but still very tight quarters. There was a single aisle with two large seats on either side, with sixteen seats total. I sat in the front row, wanting to stay as close to Daniel and Shad as possible. Grey sat beside me, on the aisle. Karl eased himself in the seat across from us, and Hart squeezed into the window seat.
“You know, there’s plenty of room for us to spread out,” I said to Karl.
“We’re fine here. Thanks.” He seemed to be taking great pleasure in making me uncomfortable. “Hey, maybe one of the in-flight movies will have Adara O’Neal in it.”
My heart sank when he said my mother’s name, and I sat back in my chair. If I thought for a minute I could take him, I would’ve shot out of my seat and broken his nose — again.
“You’ll have to find alternate means to Paris if you keep this up,” Grey said, glaring at Karl. “I know the fuel is yours, but it’s in our plane. If you speak to Autumn that way again, I’ll personally remove you.”
Karl smiled, as if pleased to hear Grey threatening him.
“Touched a nerve did I, Mr. Alexander? Deepest apologies.” He leaned his seat back and crossed his arms behind his head.
I took Grey’s hand and squeezed it. “It’s going to be a long flight,” I whispered, and he nodded, agreeing.
Moments later Daniel entered. “We’re almost done pre-flighting, folks. Just bear with us a little longer.” I smiled at Daniel as he passed and waved at Shad, who was seated on the right side in the cockpit. He winked in acknowledgement. Moments later, Shad’s voice came over the PA system.
“It’s a fine morning here on Apocalypse Airlines. We know you’ve got no choice of other airlines, but we’re still glad you chose us. Now, if you’ll please put your seats and tray tables in the upright positions, we’ll get this freakshow on the road. Oh, and by the way, at some point, we’re gonna be crossing a mother of an ocean. If something happens and the plane gets ripped apart, feel free to poke around for flotation devices, or you can follow my lead and just bend over and kiss your butt goodbye...”
Daniel rushed past us and wrestled the PA away from Shad. “Thank you, Shad. Uh... we’ll be taking off in a second. Everyone stay buckled up until we level out... um... yeah.” The PA blinked off.
I couldn’t help but grin, and when I looked at Grey, he had a smile on his face, too. Leave it to Shad to break the tension.
As the jet engines whirled to life and got us moving, the speed of the plane pressed me back into my seat. The sensation was familiar and bizarre at the same time. I used to fly frequently to visit my mom on some faraway movie location, or to see family in Ireland, but after The Plague I thought I'd never ride in a plane again. Now here I was in a plane with Grey... and Karl. How odd — my beloved and my most hated in one small place, being lifted into the air and setting off into the unknown.
Less than an hour later, we began our descent into McCarron Airport in Vegas, only a couple blocks from the Palmetto, where the community had relocated after the accident at the Egyptian last year.
Franklin and three others were waiting on the tarmac. Daniel got out and shook hands, then ushered them all aboard.
Franklin boarded first and tipped his ten-gallon cowboy hat at me and Grey before sliding into the row of seats behind us. While I was glad to see a familiar face, I didn’t have a lot of love lost for him. He had been willing to kill Grey in the not too distant past. But then he and his people had been instrumental in fighting back The Front in Hoover shortly after, so all was forgiven — mostly.
Next, a vaguely familiar blonde man with a goatee ducked down to edge his tall, slender frame through the doorway into the plane. He nodded politely to me and sat down by Franklin. I finally recognized him as the newly elected mayor of Hoover. We’d spoken some on the radio in the recent past, but I’d never met him in person.
“Guys, this is Eric Holland,” Franklin said. Eric offered his hand to Grey between the gap and the seats, then to me.
“I see you let any ol’ riffraff on this thing,” Franklin said loudly, motioning his head at Karl. “You’re a sonofabitch, you know that?”
“I’ve been told,” Karl said with a disingenuous smile.
A 60-something woman with radiant skin and a 40-something Asian man came in the door in close succession and made a beeline for me.
“Autumn?” the man said, smiling brightly. Deeply tanned, muscular arms showed below the sleeves of a neat, black t-shirt. “I’m Joe Boo.” He extended a hand to me and then to each of the other three people on the front row in turn. “And this is Cheri Tyson.”
Cheri all but lunged at me, embracing me in a firm hug. She and I had spent several hours over the last few months talking over the radio, and I felt suddenly more at ease now that she was on the plane. I’d heard all about her community at the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington and about her companion, Joe.
Cheri looked amazing for her age, and I noticed she was wearing makeup, actual makeup. I’d rarely bothered with that since The Plague, and I suddenly felt unkempt in comparison. She wore a gray power suit, and a string of pearls highlighted her elegant neck. She looked like she was ready for a board meeting, while I was wearing jeans and a button-down shirt. Connie had wanted me to wear a dress. This was our compromise.
“It was worth the trip down from Washington, just to meet you face to face, Autumn,” Cheri said in the strong, rich voice I knew so well from our radio conversations. She made her way to a seat in the row behind Karl and Hart, and Joe followed.
“How was the trip to Vegas?” I turned around in my seat to talk to them, prepared to listen carefully for any oddities in their story. While I thought I knew Cheri pretty well from our talks, Ben and Daniel had trained me to ask questions of all the delegates to look for clues whether their allegiance was with Karl.
“Most ambitious thing I’ve ever done, I’ll tell you,” Joe said. While Cheri was the actual delegate from Washington, I knew she’d chosen Joe to escort her. “We used an electric car most of the way. Brought extra batteries with us and took the chance to charge up whenever we found an area with power. Took us nearly three weeks.”
“Joe is an excellent navigator. I don’t know what I’d have done without him.” Cheri touched his shoulder warmly and left it there for a moment. “He used to own a dealership with all those electric cars, so he knew how to get every last morsel of power out of them.”
“I thought most of the freeways were still impassable,” I said, thinking if they were in Karl’s pocket, he might’ve astral projected them to Vegas.
“We used side streets, toll roads and even a few dirt roads,” Joe said. “The car was small enough to drive on the shoulders of some of the more crowded areas, but not all of them had shoulders. Couple of times, we’d get fifty miles down one road, only to get stopped and have to turn back to try anot
her one. It was a real labyrinth. We made it here just last night.”
“Though that car of yours won’t be any good for the ride back, I tell ya,” Franklin chimed in. “One trip down and it looks like it’s ready to fall apart. We’ll have to figure out some way to fly you both home when this is all over.” Franklin nodded at himself, as if satisfied that that was that.
“We’ll take any help we can get. I never had any doubt Joe would get us here, though,” Cheri said. “He’s a truly remarkable travel companion.” She smiled at Franklin, who’d just reclined his seat. “And the Vegas community were wonderful hosts while we waited on the plane to arrive.” Franklin tipped his hat in the old cowboy manner, as if to say, “much obliged.”
“I’m so impressed with you, Autumn,” Cheri said, her face lighting up with pride. Then she looked to Grey. “Both of you, actually. So young; so brave. The famous Autumn Winters and Grey Alexander. It’s going to be a real treat for all of the delegates to meet you both in the flesh.”
I glanced at Karl, expecting him to make a sarcastic comment, but he appeared to be reading, uninterested in hearing my compliments. Hart didn’t bother hiding his curiosity and was staring like a dope.
“I know people in the west recognize us, but I’m not sure about the farther we go out...”
“Of course they will recognize you,” Cheri said, beaming. “You may not have heard the excitement in their voices, but before you began broadcasting, you were already famous there. Once the radios started humming, and the people got to talking and trading stories about all the riots and turf wars and hell on earth, legends were born. Everyone knows the story about the young doctor and the actress’ daughter from the City of Angels.”
I looked at Grey. “Did you know about this?”
He shook his head, his blue eyes wide. “I’ve been so focused in the laboratory... I must have missed it.”
“I’m surprised the people I’ve been talking with never mentioned...”
“Oh, they wouldn’t. I know I never did. I didn’t want to embarrass you, but I suppose I don’t mind now!” Cheri said. “The stories Ben used to tell were truly amazing. He spoke of you all often, that is, before you took to the open frequencies yourself. The Pacific Northwest just wasn’t as turbulent a place as Los Angeles was after The Plague. I mean, it was a sad, sad thing, dealing with all of the fatalities... well, you know. I’m sure you went through the same thing. But we unified much faster, and without bloodshed. I suppose, in some ways, it was a bit of a miracle. After hearing others’ stories, like your own, I truly appreciate how our area came together. We eventually all went to the hydroelectric dam, like your people in Hoover. The power it provided gave us the stability we needed to start moving forward. But now I’m rambling. You know this already.”
