Storm

TWENTY-TWO

It was a tense, quiet, and very long journey.

Jon estimated the trip would cover roughly two thousand miles, which is a very long time to be stuck in the same car with people who were all on edge. We mapped out a route that was the most direct, while carefully skirting major cities. Fortunately most interstates didn’t swing too close to downtown areas, and the only time we had to stop was when we needed gas or to pillage a grocery store. Our route took us from Louisville to the southernmost tip of Indiana and on to Illinois. We swung way south of St. Louis, hit Missouri, and headed straight for Kansas City.

We passed through places I’d always heard of but never expected to visit. I wished I could have appreciated it more. Or even a little. Here we were, traveling across America, but rather than getting a glimpse of all the different cities and places of interest, we saw nothing but abandoned cars, empty skies, and weeds growing up through the roadbed.Nature was already hard at work, trying to take back control. It would have to get in line behind the Retros, SYLO, and anybody else who wanted to stake a claim on the planet.

We guesstimated that it would take us three days of driving. We could have made it in less, but we didn’t dare drive at night. The first night we stayed in a hospital east of St. Louis in a town called Independence. There were plenty of signs all over the empty town that boasted it as being the birthplace of Harry S. Truman. It made me wonder what a former president of the United States would think of the mess his country had become.

We planned to spend the second night near Denver then push on to Nevada the following day.

Very few words were spoken the entire trip. At least very few between me and anybody else. I think they were all pissed at me for abandoning them and then acting as if I didn’t care. Kent and Olivia cozied up in the third row whenever they got the chance. I heard them whispering and giggling but could never make out what they were saying, not that I wanted to know. A couple of times Jon turned around to look at them, and Kent immediately smacked him and told him to mind his own business.

Tori barely acknowledged my existence and kept her baseball cap down low over her eyes. She had once again become the sullen girl from school who rarely spoke to anyone. I knew by now that it was her way of protecting herself.

I may have been traveling with four other people, but I was alone.

A few times along the way we passed the wrecks of some Retro jets, as well as destroyed Navy fighters and bomb craters. Each time it meant that a battle had taken place nearby, but there was no way to know whether it was a SYLO base or another construction site where the Retros were erecting a gate to hell.

A gate to hell.

What did that mean? I didn’t believe for a second that it was literally a gate into the afterlife. That made even less sense than Kent’s alien-invasion theory. But if Granger was telling the truth, SYLO would do anything to stop them from building another one. Based on what had happened at Fenway Park, I believed him. That left the question: What were they? What was their purpose? What power did they give the Retros?

Was the “gate to hell” another monstrous killing machine?

Weighing it all kept my head spinning.

The morning of the second day we got up early, well before dawn, and started on our way to Denver. It was over eight hundred miles away, and we wanted to get there in time to find a place to spend the night. One great thing about driving in an abandoned world was that there were no speed limits. A few times when I was behind the wheel I hit a hundred miles an hour. We all did at one time or another. I don’t know if we were in a hurry to get there or to end the torture of being in the car together.

Of course, we had to stop several times to gas up. I usually siphoned the gas while Tori and Kent hit stores for food. Kent loaded up on jerky, which was basically dried meat sealed in plastic that would probably last a hundred years. It was salty and a little too chewy for my taste, but it provided protein. I think.

We had gotten our stops down to a science. Between gassing up, grabbing food, and going to the bathroom, we were never stationary for more than fifteen minutes.

The silence was making me crazy, but I didn’t want to make conversation with people I didn’t trust. I couldn’t discuss plans or strategy for fear that the information would go right to the Retros. For all I knew somebody was using our walkie-talkies to contact them. I decided to hold anything I had to say until we hit the Valley of Fire.

We made incredible time into Colorado and were closing in on Denver before three o’clock in the afternoon—plenty of time to find a place to stay. Kent was behind the wheel, and without any explanation, he took an exit off of the interstate.

“What are you doing?” Tori asked. “We’ve got plenty of gas.”

“Side trip,” he said.

That got everybody’s attention.

“What are you doing, Kent?” I asked sternly.

“Relax,” he replied calmly. “I want to check something out.”

“You can’t make that call,” Jon said nervously. “Tell him, Tucker. That’s not how it works!”

“Either tell us what you’re doing or get back on the interstate,” I said adamantly.

“Look,” Kent said. “We’ve been on the road for hours. My butt is killing me. I just saw a sign back there, and I want to check it out, that’s all. No big deal.”

“Sign for what?” Olivia asked.

Kent turned around to us and smiled. “It’s a surprise.”

The rest of us exchanged worried glances that all said the same thing: We’d already had far too many surprises for one lifetime.

I had an added worry: Was Kent leading us into a trap?

“You’ll like this,” he added. “Trust me.”

Unfortunately, trusting him was the one thing I couldn’t do. But while we were arguing, Kent was driving us closer to whatever it was he wanted to see.

“Do you have your gun, Tori?” I asked.

“Whoa! Easy there, Rook!” Kent exclaimed. “Don’t get all paranoid.”

“Then tell us what you’re doing,” I demanded.

Kent huffed and said, “Fine. This trip has been torture. We all know that. Rook, you’re always saying how we have to be careful not to lose our sense of civilization, or something like that. It’s not normal to be stealing cars and eating out of cans and living on floors and peeing in pits. I get it, but there’s more to it than that. You know: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Remember that? I don’t know about you guys, but I haven’t been happy in a long time, and that’s about as important to me as anything. So if you’d all just rela x, I say we stop worrying about SYLO and Retros and survivors and Armageddon for a couple of minutes and have a little fun.”

“What kind of fun?” Tori asked suspiciously.

“This kind,” he said and turned the car into a huge, empty parking lot.

There wasn’t much to see other than wide-open spaces and a few one-story buildings. As Kent drove us toward the structures, I spotted a sign that actually made me smile.

“The Track at Centennial,” I read aloud.

“The what?” Tori asked, confused

“Go-karts!” Kent exclaimed.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Olivia said sourly. Apparently racing go-karts wasn’t on her list of fun things to do.

Tori didn’t seem too thrilled either.

But I kind of liked the idea.

“What do you think, Rook?” Kent asked hopefully.

I hadn’t seen him this enthusiastic about anything in a very long time.

“I think… we ride.”

“Yeah!” Kent exclaimed.

“You’re both crazy,” Olivia exclaimed.

Kent parked in front of the low buildings, where there was a snack shop, an arcade, and the track office.

“I’ll go find the karts,” he said and hurried off.

The rest of us were left in the car.

“What exactly are go-karts?” Olivia asked, perplexed.

“Little cars that you drive around a race course,” I replied.

“Oh. Like we haven’t been driving enough?” she shot back.

“Let’s give it a try,” I said. “We haven’t had fun in a long time.”

“Yeah,” Tori said sarcastically. “That darn genocide thing really got in the way of my playtime.”

“Kent’s right,” I argued. “We’ve been going nonstop, so why not take a little break? It won’t change anything, except maybe help blow off some steam.”

I didn’t add that if anybody needed to blow off steam, it was me.

“I’d like to give it a try,” Jon said. “We still have a few hours of daylight left.”

“All right, let’s do it!” I said and got out of the car, headed after Kent.

I was nearly at the building when I heard the sound of a gaspowered engine firing up. I circled the building to see a row of colorful, miniature race cars ready to be taken for a spin. Kent had started the first one and had moved on to another.

“They’re easy to start,” Kent called over the sound of engine. “Flip on the red ignition, open the choke, and pull on the handle. Easy peasy.”

I chose one of the carts, and after a quick once-over, I saw that it was more or less like starting my father’s riding lawn mowers. I powered it on, pulled the cord, and was rewarded by the deep, loud rattle of the gas-burning engine. It was a powerful go-kart. I was looking forward to taking it on the track.

“Everybody take one!” Olivia shouted.

She was holding an armload of helmets that she must have gotten from the office. Olivia was up for fun, but she didn’t like taking chances. At least not where there was potential for injury. Jon followed behind her with several more helmets. We all tried them on until we found one that fit. All but Tori.

She sat alone in the shade of the buildings.

“I’ll get her,” I said.

I jogged to her and held out a helmet.

“C’mon,” I cajoled. “It’ll be fun.”

“I don’t need to have fun,” she said flatly.

“I hear you,” I said. “It does feel a little… disrespectful.”

“You could say that.”

“Look, this is it. After tomorrow, things are going to change. I don’t know what we’ll find in Nevada, but I’m pretty sure that whatever it is, we won’t be together much longer.”

“We’re not together now,” she corrected.

I held out the helmet and said, “So then why not have a last hurrah?”

Tori looked at it, then stood up and grabbed it. Did I detect a small smile?

“Stay out of my way,” she said and strode for the track.

Five karts were powered up and purring. They were so loud that we had to shout to be heard.

Olivia and Jon were already strapped in, ready to go.

“It looks like a Grand Prix–type course,” Kent yelled. “Go around clockwise.”

I gave him thumbs-up and put on my helmet.

Tori snapped on her helmet and buckled into a kart, as did Kent.

The first to take off was Olivia. I could hear her screaming with excitement from behind her helmet and over the roar of the engines. She drove out of the pit area, turned left onto the track, and was gone. Jon sped out right behind her. I was next. I settled into the padded seat, secured the safety straps across my chest, buckled up my helmet, and jammed on the gas. The little go-kart lurched forward, and with a roar of the engine, I was off.

I sped out of the pit area and in seconds I was on the wide track. I’d driven go-karts before, but never on a track this big. In a word, it was awesome. After I figured out the nuances of handling the powerful little car, I jammed my foot to the floor and never picked it up. There were long straightaways and sharp turns on the snaking track. The trick was to cut the angles and avoid swinging wide, which would kill your speed.

I easily passed Jon and then Olivia. Both were driving conservatively, slowing down on the curves and not jamming it on the straights. I flew by each with a loud “Wooo!”

“Come back here!” Olivia called playfully. “I’m gonna get you!”

I figured I was the class of the track—until Tori cut me off on the inside in a tight turn and sped past. She even had the presence of mind to throw me a wave as she flew by. I was so busy watching her that I didn’t notice Kent coming up on my other side. He blew by almost as fast as Tori, and I got a taste of my own “Wooo!” as he shot past.

I didn’t care. I was having too much fun. For those few minutes I felt like a little kid again, because I was. There was nothing to worry about but the next turn, nobody to fear, for they were only trying to pass me, and no mystery about how it all worked. There was no death. No betrayal. No murky future.

It was perfect.

I lost sight of the others and ended up driving on my own for a good long time. That was okay. I was having a blast pushing that little go-kart to its limit, drifting into turns and speeding on the straights. For those few minutes all the dark thoughts and memories were washed away, or at least pushed so far back so that I didn’t think about them. It was all about the pure joy of a mindless yet thrilling activity.

After four or five laps I realized that I had to pee, so I pulled the car into the pit and killed the engine. No sense in wasting gas. I popped off my helmet and jogged for the building to see if there was a working bathroom.

When I rounded the corner to far side of the building, I saw something that rocked me and forced me to skid to a stop.

Standing together in the shadow of the awning over the bathrooms were Kent and Tori… making out. It was such a stunning sight that I didn’t know what to do at first. They were locked together in a full-on, mouth-open, passionate kiss.

I almost shouted something. I’m not even sure what it would have been.

“What’s going on?”

“You’re kidding?”

“Seriously? Kent?”

“Does Olivia know about this?”

All those words went through my mind, but none came out of my mouth. Instead, I backed away quickly. They didn’t even know I had seen them. For some reason, I no longer had to pee.

I walked back to the track, holding the helmet tightly under my arm, not sure of how I should be feeling. Was Tori’s anger and disappointment in me what drove her to Kent? It was hard to accept that, because I knew she thought he was a tool. And what about Olivia? As far as she knew, Kent was a puppy dog who would do anything for her. Was this fair to her? And did it matter, since she was coming after me every chance she got? She was an emotional girl. This could really hurt her.

Or me.

Tori and I had a complicated relationship. I had told her that I loved her, and I meant it. But things had changed since then. I had let her down in a big way. She wanted nothing more to do with me and seeing her with Kent proved it.

I had officially lost everything I cared about.

“Back on the track!” Kent called as he ran past me, headed for his go-kart. “Had to tap the bladder. Admit it, Rook. This was a good idea, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Excellent idea.”

He had no idea that I had seen them.

Kent got back into his go-kart, and I got into mine. He took off a few seconds before me. I rolled out near the finish line, turned left, and punched it. This second go-round was a whole different experience. It wasn’t so much fun as it was… necessary. I put the pedal to the metal and never let up. I cut corners so tightly that I rumbled over gravel. On one corner I cut inside Kent. It was a dumb, dangerous move, but I didn’t care. He had to pull out of the turn to keep from hitting me as I flew by.

I eventually passed Jon and then Olivia. As I rounded the final curve before the finishing straight, I had the fleeting thought of driving the go-kart right off the track, through the parking lot, and out onto the road. Why not? There was nobody to stop me. I could just hit the road and keep on going until I ran out of gas.

But I didn’t. I pulled the car into the pit and, breathing hard, killed the engine.

Kent pulled in behind me.

“What was that!” he screamed angrily. “You could have killed us both.”

“Just having a little fun,” I said. “That’s what this was about, right?”

“Yeah, but… jeez, Rook. We’re all on the same side here.”

“Stop calling me Rook,” I said with no emotion.

“Aw, lighten up. It’s just a dumb word.”

I looked him square in the eye. He got the message and backed off.

“Okay, fine, whatever.”

He got out of the kart, dropped his helmet in the seat, and headed for the snack bar. I wondered if he was going to look for Tori, because as far as I knew she hadn’t come out on the track again.

Jon and Olivia pulled up, both still flushed and excited.

“That was the most fun I’ve had in forever!” Olivia exclaimed dramatically. “Kent is a genius!”

I could think of a lot of words to describe Kent. “Genius” wasn’t one of them.

I gathered everybody’s helmets and put them back in the office. I don’t know why. Guess I was still trying to be civilized.

When Olivia, Jon, and I got to the Volvo, Kent and Tori were already inside. Not making out. Kent was in the third row, and Tori was riding shotgun. Maybe I imagined it, but the atmosphere seemed icy. Or maybe they were just playing it cool so Olivia wouldn’t know what was really going on. Or me.

Olivia jumped in the third row and threw her arms around Kent.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said. “It’s just what I needed.”

“That was pretty cool, Kent,” Jon said. “I’m glad you talked us into it.”

“Yeah, well, I do have good ideas sometimes.”

Everything he said had a double meaning for me. I was about to say, “So, Kent, when did you and Tori get together? By the way, are you a traitor?” But I bit my tongue.

We were about to hit the last leg of our journey. The go-karts were a fun diversion but nothing more. It was time to get back to reality. I had to make sure my head was on straight and focus on what lay ahead, not on what could have been.

I drove out of the racetrack and headed toward Denver, where we found yet another hospital. We went through our practiced routines of finding food, washing up, and claiming beds in the ER. Jon didn’t even bother trying the radio. What was the point? We would find the truth for ourselves the next day. We went to bed with the agreement that we would get up early to begin the final leg of our journey.

Nevada.

After all the speculation and debate, we were almost there. When we left Colorado, we had to traverse the width of Utah before entering the state of Nevada. The Silver State, as a highway sign proclaimed. Once we crossed the border, it would only be a short leg to the park, and… whatever.

The map looked as though we were going to be traveling through some desolate country with nowhere to stop for supplies. There was limited room in the Volvo, so we chose to stock up on bottled water rather than gas. There were plenty of abandoned cars to siphon along the way but no guaranteed spot to find fresh water.

Once again, we hit the road long before dawn. When we loaded up the car, there was a definite pregame feeling. Whatever was in Nevada, we would find it soon. Was it hope? A new life? Would we find a group of tenacious survivors who had banded together to wrestle control back from the two military forces that had decimated the country? Or would we fall into a trap that was set to lure in the stragglers who weren’t wiped out the first time?

Or would we find a gate to hell?

I drove first. The camaraderie from the go-kart experience was a thing of the past. We were back to stony silence. I imagined that this was what it was like to be nearing the appointed hour on death row. Up until then, it had all just been theory. What lay ahead was real.

Kent and Olivia were snuggled together in the way back. I wanted to call him out so badly, but if Tori wouldn’t do it, I wasn’t going to rock the boat.

We drove as fast as the day before, stopping for gas several times. Until then, we had been driving through civilization. Granted, it was an altered civilization, but most of our journey was through developed land. The West proved to be very different. In Colorado, we crossed the Rocky Mountains. I’d never seen anything like them before. It was breathtaking. In Utah, we passed through deserts that were stunning in their natural simplicity and rugged, unspoiled forests. I’d lived in only two places in my life: Connecticut and Maine. I’d only seen sights like these in the movies or on TV. It was awe inspiring, and depressing.

I would have liked to be seeing them with my mom and dad.

As I took in the amazing vistas, I was struck by yet another disturbing thought. We were used to living in towns with electricity and clean water. We could watch TV and send texts and buy whatever we needed in a store. We had enjoyed all the advantages of living in an advanced, civilized society. And now those luxuries were gone. We had been adjusting to that reality for some time now. What I hadn’t considered was what these changes would mean to the ecology of the planet. What plans did SYLO have for the land? Or if the Retros triumphed and were allowed to “reset” civilization, what would that mean to the physical world?

Until then, I’d only thought about the war’s impact on people, and cities, and governments. But this was real life. This was our world. What did these military powers have in mind for the most basic aspects of life on earth? Civilization was going to change. Did that mean severe changes for the mountains and deserts and oceans too? The Retros had not only wiped out people, they’d decimated other living things as well. What would that do to the balance of nature? To the food chain? The circle of life had been broken for good.

Once again, I was overwhelmed by the scope of the change that this war had brought.

Kent, on the other hand, was probably thinking about making out with Tori.

He was behind the wheel when we entered Nevada.

“We’re here,” he announced.

It was as simple as that.

The final leg of our journey was through wide-open desert. The temperature outside rose to 110 degrees. There was nothing to see for miles but sand and rocks and more sand. In the distance were mountain ranges, but they were hundreds of miles away. We were square in the middle of beautiful desolation.

“Look at the temperature,” Kent said. “A hundred and five. Sure seems like we’re getting nearer to hell.”

“We gotta decide,” Jon said. “What are we gonna do when we get there?”

Nobody answered.

“Seriously,” he pressed. “We just drove two thousand miles. We’ve got to have some kind of plan.”

“It depends on what we find,” I said. “We’ll go to where the coordinates say. Who knows? Maybe it’s a camp of survivors.”

“In the desert?” Olivia asked skeptically.

“What can I tell you?” I said. “This is where we were called, so this is where we’re going. Once we get there, we’ll figure out what our next move is.”

That seemed to satisfy everyone, though it was a totally unsatisfying answer.

“There!” Jon pointed out.

There was a highway sign for the Valley of Fire State Park.

The tension in the car suddenly amped up.

“It’s real,” Olivia said with a gasp.

“Here we go,” Kent announced and took the exit.

We followed a barely paved dusty road for several miles. Each time we thought we were lost, we’d see another sign that directed us to the park.

Nobody spoke. My mouth was bone dry as we entered the Valley of Fire.

“It’s beautiful,” Tori said. They were the first words she’d said since we left Denver.

We were surrounded by towering natural sculptures cut from rusty-orange rock. The “valley” was the desert floor. Surrounding us were soaring, jagged peaks of the same amber stone. Looking off into the distance, I saw many other impossible rock formations. It was like a sculpture garden created by nature.

“Are those pueblos?” Jon the historian asked.

He was pointing to several huts that at first seemed like part of the terrain, but when you looked closer, you could see the hand of man. Ancient man, probably. Native Americans.

We had hit the park at the exact right time of day to get the most stunning effect. The sun was sinking toward the horizon behind streaks of clouds that glowed orange and purple. Its fading light spread over the desert floor like warm butterscotch, highlighting the detail of the rock formations and their multiple layers and colors.

Olivia said, “This doesn’t look anything like a gate into hell. This is… beautiful.”

We drove further on, past a section that was scattered with mobile trailers. Abandoned mobile trailers. My mind was already jumping ahead and thinking that we could spend the night in one of them.

We continued until we hit the parking lot and a building that looked like the visitor’s center. Kent parked in front, and we all got out.

After traveling in an air-conditioned car, stepping into hundred-degree heat was a brutal shock.

“Okay, maybe this is a gate to hell after all,” Olivia commented while dabbing her forehead.

We all glanced around looking for… what? We didn’t know.

“We’re sure this is the place, right?” Kent asked.

“These are the exact coordinates that were being broadcast,” Jon replied defensively.

“Maybe the survivors are living in those trailers we passed,” Olivia said hopefully.

“If they are, there aren’t many of them,” Kent said. “I hope we didn’t come all the way out here just to hook up with twelve yahoos looking to get even.”

“I’ll look inside the building,” I offered. “Maybe there’s a message or instructions or—”

“I hear something,” Tori interrupted.

We all listened. The sound was faint at first, but it grew quickly. After spending so much time in silence over the past few weeks, it was easy to hear an alien sound because every sound was alien.

“Engines,” I said. “More than one.”

“At least it’s not music from the sky,” Kent said.

The engine sounds grew louder. Whatever it was, it was headed our way.

“What should we do?” Olivia asked nervously.

“Get back in the car,” I ordered.

“No!” Tori countered. “This is what we came for. Whatever it is, we’re going to face it.”

There was a tense silence, then Olivia said meekly, “I wouldn’t mind waiting in the car.”

“Then go!” Tori snapped at her.

Olivia went right for the Volvo and got in, but she kept her face pressed to the window to keep an eye on what was about to unfold.

A cloud of dust was being kicked up on the road behind us. Something was definitely coming in.

“I’m getting kind of nervous,” Jon said. “Should we be prepared to defend ourselves?”

“You have your gun, Tori?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t pull it out unless you think we’re done. We have no idea how well they’re armed.”

“Or who they are,” Jon added.

“I’m not an idiot,” Tori said.

“Motorcycles,” Kent announced. “Harleys.”

As soon as he said that, several motorcycles rounded an outcropping of rock and thundered toward us. I counted ten. “Look!” Jon said, pointing to a ridge behind the visitor’s center.

There were four people on horseback looking down on us. They were dressed in jeans and cotton shirts: civilian clothes. It looked like there were four men, but any of them could easily have been a woman. It was hard to tell because they were all wearing cowboy hats.

“Hey!” I called. “Who are you?”

The four didn’t answer, or budge. They sat on their horses, silently watching.

The motorcycles roared into the parking lot and turned directly toward us. These people didn’t look like military types either. Some wore leathers, like typical bikers. Others had more colorful, outdoorsy jackets and jeans. They all wore full helmets that covered their faces. They definitely weren’t wearing uniforms of any sort, which was a relief. They also didn’t look to be carrying weapons, which was an even bigger relief.

The bikers rode up and circled us. We huddled closer to the Volvo. It was the only protection we had, and having strangers on motorcycles surrounding us in the middle of the desert was definitely intimidating. They formed a tight circle around us.

“I think we’ve just been trapped,” Jon said.

They continued to circle us until one of the riders raised his hand and they all came to a stop. They didn’t kill their engines. All the riders straddled their bikes and looked at us.

“We come in peace!” Kent shouted, holding up his open palm.

“Shut up, Kent,” I snapped.

I took a few steps toward the rider who had given the command to stop. I made sure that I held my hands out to show that I wasn’t hiding anything.

Unlike Tori.

“We’ve come a long way,” I said. “We heard the radio broadcast. Was that you?”

They continued to stare at us. At least I think they were staring. It was hard to tell because their faces were hidden by the helmet visors.

“We’re from Pemberwick Island in Maine,” I called out. “Who are you?”

The lead rider’s response was to reach into his saddlebag… and pull out a pistol.

“Gun!” Kent shouted.

Tori went for hers too late. All the riders pulled out their own guns with practiced precision. It was so quick we didn’t have the chance to defend ourselves. Or run.

The bikers aimed and fired.

I had never been shot before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I was hit in the chest and knocked back against the Volvo. I thought it would hurt more. That’s exactly what went through my mind.

I looked toward Tori to see that she had been hit too. She slid down the door of the Volvo and crumpled onto the asphalt. Her gun was on the ground, out of reach.

The window of the Volvo shattered. Olivia screamed but was abruptly cut off. She’d been hit too. We’d all been hit. The gunmen knew what they were doing. We didn’t stand a chance.

The world began to spin. The horizon turned sideways. My knees went weak, and I slumped to the ground. My last thought before losing consciousness was that it was such a beautiful park to be a gate to hell.