Cruel World(64)

“You saw a taller one,” he said, readjusting himself on the floor. “We both did.”

“Where?”

“On the internet.”

Her eyes widened a little and then she blinked. “How far away do you think that one was from the car?”

“Not sure, but a pretty good distance since at first I thought it was a tree standing there.”

“So did I.”

“I would say it was way taller than the one you saw in your town.” Now they were both whispering.

A knot popped in the fire like a gunshot and they jumped.

Alice laughed under her breath. “Sitting around telling scary stories in the dark like kids.”

“But now the stories are real,” Quinn said, dropping his gaze to his hands.

They both fell quiet, and after a time, Alice volunteered for the first watch. Quinn curled up beside the couch on his sleeping bag, his rifle within easy reach. Ty’s small snores were the only sound besides the fire chewing the oak to cinders, and the tension from the day began to uncoil inside him like a rusted length of wire. His muscles slackened, their strains relaxing to dull aches. The burn on his shoulder still flared with each heartbeat, but it was muted somewhat by the lingering touch of Alice’s fingers. He imagined them there again and then pushed the thought away. There had never been room in his life for useless fantasy and there was even less in the world around him now.

Their little visitor had retreated with a small piece of bread and was gnawing on it in the corner of the room. He watched it as sleep began to draw his eyes shut, and the last thing he saw was its tail disappearing through a gap in the floor.

He awoke hours later to the feeling of fingers touching his face.

With a start, he began to sit up, his hand reaching for the AR-15, but then he made out Ty’s small form kneeling beside him, only a shadow in the low light of the fire. The boy’s hands traced the humped curve of his cheekbones, the incongruence of his left eye socket, the jutting point of his jaw. The urge to pull back ebbed as Ty’s fingers ran down his nose and then fluttered across his forehead before falling away. Quinn lay there, frozen, waiting for Ty to begin crying or call out for his mother, but the boy simply sat beside him, looking down with eyes unseeing.

“You’re different,” Ty finally said. “Like me.”

Quinn struggled for words, but nothing would come. Ty smiled and rose from his knees to lie back down on the couch. Within minutes his breathing was deep and rhythmic once more.





Chapter 15



Forks in the Road



“If there wasn’t anything blocking the highways, we’d be there in less than a day.”

Alice glanced at him from the passenger seat, the early morning sunshine settling on her hair so that it shone like oil. They were on a four-lane highway, the sides of the road still heavy with trees and brush, its stretched path through the country unblemished save for a motionless car every few miles that they pulled around without looking into. The occasional farm would appear, dormant, without movement except for a flag attached to a porch or a weathervane tattooed against the sky atop a silo. He could barely keep his eyes on the road for all there was to see beyond it. The sky, the fields, the houses. Everything so large, so open and wide. The whole world beyond the windows.

His stomach rumbled, and he placed one hand there. They’d risen early and eaten jerky since there was no hot water, and no one seemed in the mood for powdered eggs anyway. Without saying much of anything, they’d loaded the Tahoe and pulled away from the little farmhouse along with the glade it sat in. Now his appetite was returning again, the three square meals a day Graham had cooked only a memory from another life.

“Seems strange, doesn’t it?” Quinn replied. “That so much could change in a few days’ time?”

“Strange doesn’t touch it.”

“There’s other people out there; we just have to find them,” Ty said from the backseat. He’d awoken better rested than either of them, though Quinn knew that wasn’t where the boy’s unfailing optimism came from.

“You’re right, baby,” Alice said. “We’re on our way right now to look for them.”

“The army, right?” Ty asked.

“Yep.”

“Like Grandpa Fisher was in?”

Alice froze and something passed across her face. The clouds that were usually there deepening into a storm before sliding away again.