Emmy Laybourne - Sky on Fire

Sahalia cried herself to sleep. She was curled on one of the banquettes.

Max, Batiste, and Ulysses went and lay down on the bed around Josie. They arranged themselves like puzzle pieces, fitting themselves next to her body as closely as they could. We were safe, but I think they wanted some extra feeling of comfort.

I took the other banquette, which was not comfortable at all, and used my very smoky sweatshirt as a pillow.

I woke up to the sound of arguing. I had missed the start of the argument. I had also missed the moment when Josie woke up, but it must have been quite a shock for her to find us not on the bus and learn she was type O and how Niko had drugged her and then about the cadets and Brayden.

It was Brayden she seemed stuck on.

‘How could you leave him?’ she demanded.

‘Josie, I had a choice. Him or you,’ Niko protested.

‘He’s wounded!’

‘It all happened fast. I didn’t have time to do anything.’

They were standing near the door. Just one candle was lit on the Formica counter, peach-scented, I think, and it gave them a glowing quality. I could just make out their shining silhouettes.

‘After everything you said about not wanting him to die, you left him on a bus with a bunch of strangers?’ she asked softly.

‘I had no choice.’

‘There had to have been a way, Niko!’ Josie said.

I could hear the tears in her voice.

‘Josie. Josie, please,’ Niko pleaded.

Their voices became hushed. I craned my neck up to see. He had her by the arms and had drawn her close to him so their foreheads were touching.

‘I promise I feel just as bad as you do,’ he said.

And then they kissed.

Okay, that was new information.

I guess Niko and Josie were boyfriend/girlfriend now.

‘We have to go after them,’ Josie said.

‘It’s impossible. We have to go on. We have to try to make it to Denver.’

‘But Niko—’

Suddenly he was close to shouting. ‘You’re the one who said we could do this! You said if anyone could get us to Denver it would be me!’

‘And I meant it—’

‘Well, now we’ve got to try,’ Niko said. His voice was flat and gruff, the way it gets when he’s serious. ‘We’ve got maybe two days’ worth of food and water if we really conserve and we’re about 25 miles away. Jean told me she heard there is an Army camp about 10 miles down the road. If we get there, they’ll help us.’

‘What about the others?’ Josie asked. ‘The cadets are headed right for them.’

‘Dean is smart,’ Niko answered. ‘That store is a fortress. He won’t let anyone in. And who knows if the cadets will even make it there? Maybe they’ll get ambushed.’

There was hopeful malice in his voice.

I had been thinking along the same lines.

‘So we’re driving, then?’ Josie said. ‘Can we find a car, do you think?’

Niko turned away from Josie and started repacking his backpack.

‘Is that the plan?’

‘No,’ Niko said. ‘I mean, the white stuff. It eats the tyres. That’s why we didn’t see any other cars moving on the road. So unless we can find one that’s been inside this whole time…’

‘We’re going to walk?’ Josie asked. Her voice was hard and incredulous.

‘But don’t worry, Josie, I can carry you.’

‘What?’

‘I’m going to sedate you and carry you. Or look for a wheelbarrow.’

Josie started to laugh.

‘That’s absurd, Niko.’

‘I can do it. I can do whatever it takes to get you to safety, Josie!’ he promised.

She shushed him and then she kissed him, pressing her body to his.

‘If you’re walking, I’m walking,’ she said. ‘I’ll tape the gas mask down or something. I’ll be very, very careful.’

‘No, Josie,’ he protested. ‘It’s not safe—’

She must have stopped him talking by kissing him on the mouth.

Josie whispered something to him. I think it was, ‘I love you,’ because then Niko said, ‘I love you, too.’

I tried to go back to sleep. I didn’t want to be a Peeping Tom or anything and they were making out pretty hard.

‘Josie?’ called Ulysses from the bedroom. ‘Josie!’ Then something in Spanish.

Maybe he was having a nightmare.

She moved to go comfort Ulysses.

‘We’re going to get these kids to safety, Niko,’ she said and I could hear the smile in her voice. ‘We can do it. You and me.’

What about me? I thought to myself.

And then I realized, maybe she was talking about me. Maybe she thought I was just one of the kids.

AFTER A GOOD, LONG while. The rage receded.

I became aware that I was lying facedown on the linoleum. I tried to move and the pain in my shoulders and quads was unbearable.

I realized I was hog-tied.

Jake had hog-tied me.

I was groggy, and for a moment I just lay there.

Blood from my mouth was sticking my cheek to the inside of the air mask. Slowly I used my tongue to loosen the bond. I felt around in my mouth for broken teeth. There were definitely a couple of teeth missing.

My glasses were gone. Broken, no doubt. Awesome.

I breathed in, taking a good long draw of the moist, clammy air filtered into the mask.

Jake and Astrid came close, arguing.

‘I’m telling you, I was walking around the store. I was going to try the intercom in the back when I heard the noise.’

‘Why were you coming back anyway?’ Astrid asked, her voice muffled through her own air mask.

‘’Cause I missed you. Why do you think? I felt terrible I left that way. I really did.’

‘You probably just came back because you ran out of drugs,’ Astrid hissed.

‘That’s not true.’

They were lifting and fitting the cement blocks back into place.

‘Let’s just fix the wall,’ Astrid said through her mask.

‘Where is everybody?’ Jake asked.

‘Oh, Jake,’ Astrid said, her voice sounding sad. ‘They left. Niko started up the bus and they’re all trying to make it to Denver.’

‘No kiddin’,’ Jake said. ‘I didn’t think he had the huevos to pull something like that.’ He was trying to be jocular, but he sounded exhausted and spent.

I moved my head, shifting my body onto one of my shoulders. The stupid face mask they’d duct-taped to me was cutting into my jaw.

I groaned. The grogginess was wearing off. Listening to Astrid and Jake was bringing me back – mostly because I felt like I was spying on them. I wanted no more of that !

‘You mean it’s just you and Dean?’ Jake asked.

‘I’m awake,’ I said. They didn’t seem to hear.

‘It’s not just me and Dean. Chloe and the twins are here,’ Astrid told him.

‘Well, where are they now?’

‘I told them to lock themselves in the Train,’ Astrid answered.

‘I’m awake,’ I repeated, louder. ‘Can you untie me?’

‘Hey, killer,’ Jake drawled, bending into my field of vision. ‘How you feelin’?’

He nudged me with his foot.

My shoulders were on fire.

‘Untie me!’ I demanded.

‘You gonna behave like a human being? You all done being a monster?’

‘I’m fine,’ I grumbled. ‘And where did you come from, anyway?’

‘I felt bad about the way I left so I was coming back. Then I saw that guy attacking the store. Then I saw you attack the guy. Man, that was something.’

He looked a little green remembering it. But through a face mask, colours are off. I might have been wrong.

‘Lucky I came along when I did,’ he drawled. ‘You might have hurt my girl.’

I turned my face away from him, pressing it to the cold linoleum of the Greenway floor.

He was right.

That felt like the worst thing about everything that had just happened.