Cruel World(49)

Quinn ran on, stumbling over something in the dark, and reached the back corner of the building. Alice perched at the entry to the bathroom, Ty in her arms now, her eyes wild and looking past him. He said nothing and simply grabbed her arm, leading them across the dark store to the lit hallway. More gunfire exploded outside and there was a deep, inhuman cry of pain that mingled with one of the brothers’ voices, yelling obscenities. They reached the hall and raced down it. Quinn kicked at the safety bar on the rear door and then they were outside in the sunshine, gunfire and screams following them into the open air.

They didn’t speak or hesitate. Alice rushed down the concrete steps and flung the rear, passenger door open, boosting Ty inside before scrambling in herself. Quinn jumped into the driver’s seat and threw his father’s boots into the passenger wheel well. His thighs caught beneath the steering wheel and he realized Alice had adjusted the settings. He jammed the button on the seat down and when he could move freely, started the Tahoe. The engine roared to life and he jerked the vehicle into drive, hammering the gas as he did so. The SUV leapt forward and Quinn spun the wheel, his eyes searching frantically along the rear lot. They couldn’t go around the front of the store and back to the highway. What if the stilts were still alive and decided to give chase? How far would they follow them? Or even worse, what if the brothers had survived and saw them escaping? They would know instantly who had called the stilts in with the car alarm.

A small dirt access road approached on their right, partially hidden by a sign reserving parking spaces for Thor’s employees. Quinn swung onto it, and the vehicle rattled over a dozen potholes as he accelerated. The access road emptied out into an industrial park devoid of vehicles. The large buildings were dark and the streets running between them clear of obstructions. Quinn cruised a mile, doing almost sixty, and then turned up another street, bringing them into a residential development with an assortment of new homes growing out of the cleared earth. He swung into an uneven driveway and pulled past the two-stall garage and out of view of the street before stopping.

“Are you guys okay?” he asked, looking in the rearview mirror.

“We’re fine,” Alice said. She was still holding Ty, stroking his hair, his face buried in her shoulder. “We’re fine.”

Quinn let out a long breath, the humming of adrenaline in his veins quieting, but slowly so that he felt like a struck tuning fork growing still.

“That was crazy,” Alice said.

“Yeah, it was.”

“No, I mean what you did. You could’ve gotten us all killed.”

“I didn’t see any other choice, did you?” Quinn said, turning in his seat to face her. She held his gaze for a beat and then looked down, shaking her head.

“No, I guess not.”

He watched her for a few seconds, how Ty trembled in her arms.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think; I just reacted.”

Alice nodded and pried Ty away from herself enough to speak to him.

“Good thing we went potty before all that, huh, buddy?”

Ty giggled a little as Alice laughed shakily. Quinn met her eyes, and the look held for a moment that drew out, hardening into something nearly solid before she glanced away and gasped.

“You’re hurt,” she said, pointing to his thigh.

There was a long gouge on his right leg where the license plate had torn through his jeans and split his flesh. A little blood seeped from the bottom of the gash, and the upper half of his pants were stained red.

“I think it’s okay. It doesn’t hurt anyway.” But as he said the words, the pain began to burn in the wound.

“Let’s get inside and get it looked at. We don’t want an infection now. Doctors are in short supply, I’m guessing.”

They climbed from the vehicle and approached the house. It was a simple two-story with a concrete basement. It appeared newly completed. When Quinn made his way around to the front yard, there was a realtor’s sign stuck in the dirt beside the curb. A sliding glass door on the back of the house gave them entry after Quinn began to pry on it with a small multipurpose bar he’d taken from the store. The inside of the house was cool and empty. No furniture adorned the living room or kitchen and the three bedrooms upstairs held no beds. When he tried the faucet in the large bathroom on the main floor, cold water poured out on his palm, turning hot when he adjusted the handle.

“We have hot water,” he said, meeting Alice and Ty in the kitchen where she deposited the black duffel on the floor. “Power must still be on in most of the city.”