JS. John Slains? Probably. Cam passed the note to Kory, who stuffed it into his pocket while Cam’s head spun. Double what? A bribe? A payoff? From who? Perhaps his mother had answers, but she wouldn’t share with him. He squeezed his temples, a headache building as his thoughts continued to spin. This payment would have come from his mother. He’d wait to talk to Kory and Captain Wilson about his suspicions in private upon their return to xTerra. They would need to speak with her.
They returned to the larger group, where Cam filled them in about Aiden. He sent two men to cut stretcher poles. They stayed in sight, returning in minutes. He kept his eyes from lingering on his brother’s corpse as he grabbed a tarp and wrapped it around the long poles. They lashed everything into place. Aiden’s body was stiff and difficult to move, but eventually, they wrangled it into place and tied it to the field stretcher. With a second tarp draped across Aiden’s body, they headed for home.
For the rest of the afternoon, the group walked as quickly as they could manage while lugging their extra burden, taking turns carrying the poles. They only stopped for quick breaks. The second time, Cam felt eyes on them, his shoulder blades twitching again. His hackles rose as he scanned the surrounding landscape for signs of people out there.
At last, he found a figure in silhouette on a distant ridge, a reflection glinted in the sun. Probably binoculars or a scope. He felt sick that a gun might have its sights on them. Still, there were no further shots. Everyone stayed together and hurried, marching at as quick a pace as they could manage. Nobody wanted to be caught outside the walls for another night.
Darkness fell as the somber group arrived at the Outpost. Kory sent most of them ahead to xTerra with Aiden’s body inthe back of a truck. Cam felt guilty about the relief coursing through him as he settled for the night at the Outpost. At least he wouldn’t have to break the news to the rest of his family. He felt like a coward, but Captain Wilson would have the sad task.
It was safe to assume the rest of his family, or at least his mother, would never forgive Cam. She would make this death his fault because he should have looked out for his younger brother better. Never mind that she’d likely sent Aiden out to do her bidding. Medical would perform an autopsy, and the official cause of death would be bullet wounds. It didn’t matter the reason that Aiden had gone off on his own. He’d paid the ultimate price.
Cam wished they’d had time to investigate the area where his brother had gone missing more fully—his circle on the map. He’d try to have that search approved in the near future, if it didn’t put too many others at risk. With Aiden’s death, they might hold off longer to be cautious.
As soon as the truck carrying his brother’s body left, Kory radioed Captain Wilson to give him a heads-up and to explain the situation.
Chapter 18: Lissa
Lissa left at dawn the next morning, hitting the road for the three-day journey ahead. Last night, after planting her garden in hurried rows, she’d slept in restless bursts, each time waking with a sense of urgency and panicked fear for Cam. With the sky pale, the sun not yet past the horizon, and the air still chilly, she hefted her pack and resolutely followed the path down the fading driveway without looking back.
Her best estimate was she’d be gone for a week and a half. The journey had taken Cam three long days, so she’d allot four each way, just to be safe. He’d talked about cutting across country, while she planned to follow the roads he’d marked on the map. Once she arrived, she also hoped for a couple days to spend with him, which sent giant tropical-size butterflies flitting through her stomach. She tamped them down. This trip wasn’t a vacation. She needed to give warning about the imminent threat to xTerra’s community.
Lissa swallowed the lump in her throat, picking up the pace when she hit the main road. She had no time to waste. She needed to travel hard to beat the Slains. Though fit from hard work, she was least in shape after the long winter. Still, she’d done yoga most evenings to keep strong. Her pace picked up another notch once her muscles warmed.
As the day progressed, her pack grew heavy, and her shoulders ached. She wasn’t used to this kind of travel anymore. A journey without her cats also seemed strange. She hated leaving them behind, but to hurry, it didn’t make sense to bring them. She could trust them to take care of themselves. Plus, she’d be returning as soon as possible. There and back.
Lissa remained alert, only stopping to check her map once when she reached the crossroads heading for the highway. She imagined punching the destination into a Maps app on her extinct iPhone. Paper maps were difficult to find because they’d been replaced years before the asteroid. If she ran across an old general store, that might be her best bet to find a real one, but she wasn’t about to go out of her way and search.
This map wasn’t difficult to follow, and she was grateful Cam had labeled each turn as though driving, making navigation easy. She didn’t have a compass and relied on his directions, that and the knowledge that road signs would direct her toward Edgemont, the town nearest his bunker city. Without further delay, she turned north on Dodd Road, continuing for several miles.
Before long, she missed the bluffs and treed slopes around her place. Out here was flat and empty, with few distinctive landmarks. She glanced out at the barren grasslands as she hiked. Tempting though the fields were, she’d best stick to the roads until the last section, where according to Cam’s directions, she’d cut cross-country.
Still, knowing the Slains were moving into position around xTerra, she’d have to be vigilant, watching for other travelers and vehicles. She worried at her lip as she walked, convincing herself she would be brave, even if she intended to hide at the first sign of anyone. Take cover. Ask questions later. Courageous and foolish were opposite sides of the same coin.
She sighed. While easier to travel, the roads were also the most likely route for Slains on the move. They would have a forceful presence around xTerra if they were planning an attack. The probability of running into them somewhere along the route was high. More of a when than an if. She kept her feet moving, her eyes scoping out every possible danger, and alert for unusual noises.
Despite Lissa’s vigilance, the first day passed without incident. Travel remained easy after she left the Crawford hills behind—most of the level countryside dotted with small stands of pines or junipers. Houses were scattered, few and far between. Though the asphalt was pitted from several winters’ worth of freeze-thaw action and eight years without repair, walking the crumbling roads was still easier than the uneven footing along the shoulders. After five or six hours, she’d made excellent progress.
Once she never would have considered walking sixty miles. If she had a car, she’d have driven to xTerra in less than an hour. Still, Cam and his safety were worth the effort.
It was afternoon when she passed another former tourist site with a faded wooden sign, loose and banging against its post, for the Heritage Guest Ranch. Though tempted to check the buildings for always-in-demand supplies, she carried on. No time for scavenging. She continued another couple of miles further along Toadstool Road, passing a tiny, deserted town called Joder before deciding to camp for the night.
She watched for a likely spot after passing through because she didn’t want to sleep in the ghost town. Sometimes, staying in places that should be inhabited, but were instead abandoned, reminded her too much of the world before the asteroid. Best not to think about those days too much. Her former life was like a story, one best kept at arm’s length, as though it had happenedto someone else. She also seldom thought beyond the immediate future, living for now.
At dusk, her feet weary and her stomach grumbling, she halted at a tiny house set a hundred yards off the road. The place wasn’t much more than a run-down shack beneath three bare cottonwoods. At their bases, several dozen saplings had sprouted and been left to grow in disorder in what used to be lawn. She approached cautiously, but like most, the house appeared uninhabited—without smoke or sounds of occupation. Poised to run if someone was inside, she banged on the door. The sound echoed.
No one answered. She exhaled and tried again, with the same result.
When she opened the flimsy door, wrinkling her nose at the foul musty smell wafting out—the powerful stench of a place overrun with rodents. She backed out and down the front stairs. She’d take her chances outside. Not wanting to walk farther with dark fast approaching, she circled into the backyard. She set up her tent behind the house where she wouldn’t be noticed by anyone traveling along the road. She kept her fire small, dousing the flames as soon as she finished boiling water to rehydrate her pasta dinner.
Despite her physical exhaustion, sleep was difficult to come by again, her mind continuing to whirl. After waking before dawn, she unzipped the tent’s fly and observed the sky’s transformation from black to navy, then a faded jean color streaked with dull yellow. She listened for sounds that might indicate humans nearby, but a few bird warbles and a distant coyote were the lone sounds. With dawn imminent, she gave up on rest, ate a quick breakfast, and hit the road.
Lissa’s chest remained tight as she hiked, the day spread out before her. It didn’t seem like she’d drawn a full breath since she’d overheard the news about the attack on xTerra. What if shearrived too late? What if Cam hadn’t returned home? Perhaps he’d been killed on the way. Even the thought made her stomach churn. Best not to dwell on negative possibilities.
A million scenarios swirled through her mind as she trekked along the same highway he’d followed on his journey—Highway 71 running along the South Dakota-Nebraska border.
Out here in the open, swallows swooped through the air chasing insects, often landing on fenceposts to sing, their chirps and trills her entertainment. She followed their acrobatic antics as they fed, flying through the fresh spring air. Crossing the Ogala National Grasslands, the prairies were as brown as around her place, but they probably would be beautiful in later spring with thick green grass.
After lunch, she crossed into South Dakota and passed through another deserted town called Ardmore. The small town was open to the elements, with broken windows and missing doors everywhere. Some roofs were missing shingles or had jagged holes. Most buildings showed similar signs of disrepair, and several appeared on the verge of toppling—perhaps damaged by a tornado.
