Monster Nation(32)

About ten miles past the last houses of the city they started seeing cars coming from the other direction, headed west. A station wagon flashed its lights as it sped by them and Charles looked pensive. 'Yeah, f*ck you too, grandma,' he said, and chewed on the hair of his lower lip. When they started to see exit signs of Tehachapi it happened again, this time with a Mazda Miata. A third car honked its horn at them repeatedly.

Nilla stared through the windshield and saw the driver emphatically shaking her head and waving a hand to tell them to stop. 'Charles, maybe we should slow down,' Nilla suggested.

'Yeah, and maybe you should just sit there and not talk to me right now,' he said, turning in his seat, the seat belt tugging at the skin of his neck. She had a momentary pang of desire'she really wanted to put her teeth in that throat of his'but she fought it down. 'I'm kind of busy, and you wouldn't like me when I'm angry, okay, ho?'

Nilla crossed her arms and looked away.

They started to see more traffic heading east and Charles had to slow down anyway to match the prevailing speed. The lanes heading west grew packed and drew to a standstill. Charles switched off the radio and squinted at the road. He didn't like what was going on but he'd already told Nilla to shut up and he didn't want to show any signs of weakness.

Many of the cars they passed honked their horns now and occasionally someone would lean out their window to shout at them. Nilla couldn't understand them'they were moving too fast. She found a map in the pocket of the seat in front of her and pulled it out. Just east of Tehachapi' there. Brown blotches surrounded the road on either side. She studied the tiny print.

Edwards Air Force Base.ChinaLake NavalWeaponsCenter .FortIrwin Military Reserve. Twenty-nine Palms Marine Corps Base. It looked like the Armed Forces owned all the land between them andNevada . She remembered the man in the Army uniform, the one who had almost presided over her execution.

'Charles, listen to me'we have to get off this road!' she shouted. The boy sneered and showed her one fist. He didn't want to hear her but she was far more worried about falling afoul of the Army. 'Charles! There's a roadblock, that's what's happening. Do you really want the Marines to ask you why you're running away from home?' It was a bluff'she still didn't understand what had made him flee his hometown'but it had to be at least partially right.

He started to grumble again but Shar sat up straight in her seat and looked right at him. It kept him from growling, anyway. The girl put a hand on his arm and stroked it gently. 'They'll split us up. They'll find out I'm underage.'

He lowered his head and refused to look away from the road. Nilla didn't have time to argue anymore. 'There's a road'route 14. We can turn off at a town called Mojave.' It wasn't a great solution'it would take them along the edge ofChinaLake 'but it would get them out of immediate danger.

Charles still refused to respond and she had to content herself with staring at the back of his head and imagining what would happen if the Army found her. They wouldn't fall for her trick again, would they? Even if they did there was no way Charles and Shar would let her stay in their car once they knew her secret.

Come on, Charles, she thought. Come on.

The big green signs for the exits at Mojave came up on the side of the road and Nilla had never wanted anything so much in her life. At least as far as she could remember.





Monster Nation





Chapter Five


It is recommended that travelers arrive at the airport four hours in advance of departure time to complete the required medical examinations before boarding. [FlyDenver.com 'Tips for Travelers' page, updated 3/31/05]

A star had fallen to earth and gotten lodged there, still burning bright.

Its silver radiance illuminated the ridge, sending out long streamers of brilliance that made shadows on the facing slopes, shadows like the clouds made during the day, impossibly big, always moving. Like ocean waves of light and darkness washing across the spine of rocks and trees at the top of the world.

He headed toward it, drawn'physically pulled in. Death had not been kind to his eyes but he could make out more details as he got closer. There were buildings on the ridge, low concrete blocks. There were other shapes there as well, like titanic lizards eroded by rain and wind until their shapes were soft and smooth. They occluded the light, their silhouettes thrown across him, over him.

Others'other dead people'had gathered in the scree below the ridge. They stood apart from one another on ground crawling with lichens and dwarf pine trees that throbbed with energy but they weren't trying to devour that life. They stood motionless, their faces tilted upwards to catch the sleeting luminosity of the fallen star. As he came among them they made no sign of noticing him. They were too busy studying the endlessly changing glow. Feeding on it. One of its beams touched Dick and though he was mentally incapable of surprise anymore his body could still feel the shock. It felt like something had been torn from him, burnt out of him perhaps. The hunger. When that light reached him it drove the hunger away. It fed him a constant, steady stream of energy, the energy he needed to continue his existence. More than enough.