Emmy Laybourne - Sky on Fire

‘It’s safe?’ I asked her, pointing to my own.

‘I don’t know about up front. But back here, it’s okay.’

I handed her a flashlight and took my mask off. Removing my glasses for a moment, I rubbed the bridge of my nose.

‘Oh, Dean,’ Astrid said. ‘Your face.’

Maybe she’d forgotten that I had the two black eyes. Maybe she’d also forgotten that it was her boyfriend (ex-boyfriend, I hoped), Jake, who’d given them to me.

Truth is, I deserved those black eyes, though that didn’t make me feel charitable toward Jake. He was handsome and popular and charming, and when the going got tough, he had started doing drugs from the Pharmacy.

Then he wandered away when we sent him outside to find out if the hospital was up and running. Astrid deserved better.

‘The power is out because we drained the solar power reserve,’ I said.

The twins gasped and I rushed to reassure them, ‘It’s okay, it’s okay. We’ve got lots of batteries and flashlights and there are even some lanterns. We’ll be fine.’

‘How will we cook?’ asked Henry.

‘There’s a pretty big camping section,’ I answered. ‘Ever cooked over a camp stove? It’s really fun.’

Suddenly there was a groan.

Astrid turned and the light caught on the form of Chloe, sitting up and pulling off her mask.

She looked around and rubbed her eyes.

‘You guys,’ she said menacingly, ‘why am I not in Denver?’

Chloe on a good day was a handful and this was not a good day for Chloe.

She was livid.

‘I am supposed to be in Denver right now, snuggling up to my nana and you tell me you kept me off the bus ON PURPOSE?’

She was really throwing a fantastic tantrum and I was sort of sad that the lights were out. I would have liked to see her red, screaming little face.

‘I should be on a jet plane getting evacuated to Alaska, not trapped here with a bunch of Greenway losers !’

I bet the veins in her neck were standing out, like she was some three-foot-tall drill sergeant.

But, alas, I could only get a glimpse of her every once in a while, when she walked into one of the twins’ flashlight beams.

Caroline and Henry did not think it was funny and they were both crying, trying to get Chloe to stop shouting.

‘Chloe, please! It’s better here. It’s safer and it’s not scary,’ Henry pleaded.

‘We came back, it was so scary out there!’ Caroline said. ‘We’ll be rescued soon. You’ll see.’

Astrid had retreated a while ago. She went to get more flashlights and some battery-powered lanterns. Maybe some candles, too.

I just sat on the futon couch and let Chloe rant. I figured eventually she’d either lose steam or her voice.

But then Luna started acting funny.

She jumped up, ears perked.

Her legs twitched and she gave one short bark, looking off in the direction of the front of the store, then looked up at me.

‘Shhh!’ I said to Chloe.

‘And to think I even ever liked you, Dean !’ she was yelling.

‘Chloe, shut up!’ I shouted. ‘Look at Luna!’

And then Luna took off like a shot.

I hollered to Astrid as we followed Luna.

Luna raced toward the Kitchen.

‘Who’s there?’ I shouted as I approached.

I tried to sound firm, but my voice broke.

She kept running into the Kitchen and barking at something behind the main counter, then running back to me.

‘Who’s there?’

There wasn’t any sound. Not any human sound.

Suddenly Luna stood stock-still, one front leg pulled up into her body and her nose aimed under the stove.

‘What’s wrong with Luna?’ Chloe screamed.

What was she doing? I didn’t know.

‘She’s pointing,’ Astrid said, coming at us from the direction of the Food aisles. ‘Luna’s just pointing. There’s some kind of animal under there.’

She was pointing ! You think about a hunting dog pointing, like a golden retriever or a Lab. Not a fluffy little puffball like our Luna.

I shined my flashlight under the stove and, sure enough, I saw two small red eyes shining back at me.

‘It’s a rat,’ I said.

‘Ew!’ the kids screamed.

‘Can I see it?’ Chloe asked.

‘Stay back,’ I commanded. ‘Just stay back.’

‘I’ll go get a trap,’ Astrid said. ‘Or two… or twenty.’

‘Yeah” I said. ‘Good thinking.’

‘Don’t kill it!’ Chloe protested. ‘We should catch it and keep it for a pet.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘That’s a horrible idea.’

‘No, it’s not, Dean ,’ she spat. ‘I’m going to catch him and then we can tame him and have him as a pet!’ she bragged to Caroline and Henry.

‘But we already have a pet. We have Luna,’ Caroline objected.

‘You can never have too many pets, dingball!’

‘Chloe, you stay away from that rat. Astrid’s bringing back a trap.’

But the little twerp went over to the counter and picked up a cardboard box full of straws and dumped them on the ground.

‘Come on, I’ll get it out with that broom, and, Henry, you scoop it up with this box!’

‘Chloe! Get away from there!’

She just wasn’t paying any attention to me at all! I went over and grabbed her arm. I didn’t want to blow my top, but really, I’d had enough of her.

‘You don’t get to tell me what to do, you traitor ,’ Chloe yelled.

She broke out of my grip and slammed against the stove.

The rat came out, like a streak, and ran right toward Caroline. Luna barked like crazy and attacked it.

Caroline screamed and took a step back, but the rat and Luna got all tangled up with Caroline’s legs, and somehow, that godforsaken rat bit Caroline.

Then, finally, Luna got that rat between her jaws and shook the life out of it.

Chloe and Henry and Caroline were all screaming. I grabbed Caroline and lifted her into my arms. She was clutching her leg.

Luna dropped the rat at my feet and sat down.

‘ Bad dog! Bad dog,’ Chloe screamed at Luna. ‘We were supposed to catch it, not kill it.’

Luna cowered away from Chloe.

‘ Shut up , Chloe,’ I hollered. ‘That stupid rat bit Caroline! If you’d just have left it alone, none of this would have happened.’

Chloe started a different type of wailing now – a you-hurt-my-feelings kind of cry.

Luna began to lick her wounds.

‘It’s not my fault!’ Chloe sobbed.

But it was. It totally was.

‘What happened?’ Astrid yelled, rushing back with the now-useless traps.

Astrid shined the way for me as I carried Caroline back to the Train.

Ther were first-aid supplies right in the living room.

The wound was small. Two sets of puncture marks. It was more of a nip than a bite, really.

I cleaned it with Bactine and applied some antibacterial ointment and a big neon-orange Band-Aid.

Caroline’s freckled face was pale and tear streaked.

She and her brother were so dreamy, most of the time.

Sometimes I had the feeling that they didn’t really know where they were, even, or understand how serious the situation was.

They were five years old.

Five.

‘I hate rats,’ she said to me quietly.

‘Everyone does. They’re horrible.’

‘I’m glad it’s dead,’ she choked out.

Her face was twisted up.

‘I don’t care if God will be angry at me. I’m glad it’s dead.’

I hugged her to me.

‘God’s not mad at you, Caroline,’ I told her.

But I had the thought that if you were a person who believed in God, and you lived in Monument, Colorado, in the fall of ’24 you really had to wonder.

We tried to clean Luna’s wounds but she scooted between the back of the futon couch and the wall of the Train.