Chương 143

The old access road was little more than dirt and broken asphalt. Rainwater filled the deeper ruts, forcing them to pick their way along the edges. Maeve led with the flashlight. Willa kept close to her with the compass and radiation meter. Louis followed with the M1911 in one hand and a survival pack on his back. The pack shifted whenever he stepped around a rut. Angelique carried the other one beside him. Gladice stayed near the front, and Savannah watched the rear.

Cherish walked beside Donya with her rifle held low.

"Northwest is that way," Willa said, pointing at the compass.

"We need to get to Chillicothe."

"And what's in Chillicothe?" Gladice asked.

"That's the frontier town of the Alliance," Donya answered.

"I visited there with my father once."

"It's a checkpoint?" Savannah asked.

"Not just a checkpoint. It's a fortified post." Donya kept her voice low.

"Since the Portsmouth Disaster." Louis remembered the name from a history class in high school. A uranium-processing plant near Portsmouth had failed during the Second Civil War and contaminated the Ohio River. He had paid little attention then. Now he was walking through the exclusion zone it had created.

"Will they let us in?" Cherish asked.

"No. Because we entered illegally," Donya said.

"Except me." She hesitated.

"I am a citizen."

"And the rest of us?" Savannah asked. Donya did not answer at once.

"I don't know. They might repatriate us."

"What is that?" Cherish whispered.

"It means sending us back," Angelique said.

"To where they think we belong." Cherish looked at Louis.

"They would send us back to Dixie?" Louis shook his head.

"I don't plan to let that happen."

"Good plan," Gladice said.

"But you need to figure out how to explain eight people crossing a radioactive exclusion zone with military weapons."

"Then we can't go to the checkpoint directly," Angelique said.

"We need to sneak in."

"We also need to find a way to contact my father," Louis said.

"He can get us out."

"Even if they arrest us first?" Savannah asked.

"If they arrest us, he will still come." He believed it.

"You don't understand," Angelique said.

"Your father will come for some of us. Not all. Especially not Maeve." Louis looked toward Maeve. She kept walking several steps ahead and did not turn.

"We are not leaving her," Louis said.

"So we can't contact the Alliance authorities," Angelique said.

"We will need diplomatic asylum."

"Where?" Cherish asked.

"We need to get to the Dominion Embassy in Chicago," Angelique said.

"We will not be safe until then."

"How far is it?" Gladice asked.

"Five hundred kilometers at least," Willa said.

"But we only need to reach Chillicothe on foot. We will figure out the rest once we are inside."

"Assuming we make it to Chillicothe," Savannah said.

"True. I didn't say it was easy."

"Then what's the plan for the checkpoint?" Gladice asked.

"Sneaking past it?"

"Let's get there first," Angelique said.

"We will find a way." Maeve had slowed and raised one hand.

"Movement ahead. Left of the road." They stopped. Louis raised the M1911. The flashlight beam swept across the left side of the road and lit an abandoned pickup truck with its doors open. Rags and empty cans littered the ground around it. Then the light caught the shape of a raccoon digging through the trash. It looked at them with dark eyes, turned, and scurried into the weeds. Donya let out a breath. Maeve lowered the light.

"Just a scavenger."

"It means there might be people nearby," Gladice said.

"Scavengers follow people."

"There might be," Maeve agreed.

"Keep moving."

"How do they survive the radiation?" Louis asked. Willa looked at the survey meter.

"The reading is still twenty. That's elevated, but not lethal for short exposure. And maybe they don't care about the long term."

"I don't like this," Cherish whispered.

"We will get through it," Angelique said. They passed several abandoned houses beside the road. Some had lost their roofs; others had partly collapsed. None showed any lights or movement. At a junction, Willa checked the compass. An abandoned house stood on the corner, with a sagging porch and a rusted pickup in the yard. Maeve swept the flashlight across the porch. A broken table still held plates and cups. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Who lived here?" Cherish whispered.

"Nobody now. Keep going."

"We go this way," Willa said, pointing down the side road.

"Are you sure?" Gladice asked.

"Yes. This is north." They turned onto the side road. It narrowed to a dirt track, and branches blocked most of the starlight. Maeve dimmed her flashlight. They moved more slowly and watched where they stepped. After an hour, Louis's legs began to ache. He tried to think through the route: Chillicothe first, then Chicago, with some way to contact his father before they reached the embassy. He could not think past the next few yards of road. They came to an old trailer beside the track.

Its wheels had sunk into the ground, and the door was gone. Maeve shone the flashlight inside. A torn mattress and several empty cans lay on the floor.

"Can we rest here?" Cherish asked.

"Only for ten minutes. We keep going after that." They stepped inside. The floor gave slightly under Louis's boots, and part of the roof sagged above them. They settled near the doorway. Louis set down his pack and rolled his shoulders. Angelique set the other pack beside him. Gladice rested her M16 across her knees and watched the road. Savannah began unwrapping the loose bandage around her wrist. The wound had started to scab but still looked raw.

"Let me see." Donya took Savannah's wrist and examined the cut.

"It's not infected."

"It hurts," Savannah said.

"It will heal." Donya took out the trauma kit and wrapped Savannah's wrist with clean gauze.

"You will be fine." Cherish drank from her bottle and passed it to Louis. He took a small drink and handed it to Angelique. Maeve sat near the doorway and looked out at the road.

"Are you okay?" Louis asked her. Maeve looked at him.

"I am fine."

"I know what you did for us," he said.

"You can stay with us. After everything is over." Maeve laughed once.

"You think your father will let me live in the Dominion? A defector of the People's Army?"

"He would listen to me."

"Would he?" She looked back toward the road.

"People like me do not get to live in places like that."

"People like you?" Angelique asked.

"What does that mean?"

"Working people. People who have no money, no family, no future. People who are supposed to be grateful for being alive."

"That's not true." Donya sat beside her.

"Let me take a look at your face." Maeve hesitated before letting Donya clean the cut on her lip with damp gauze.

"Your life is not over," Donya said.

"It can be different. With us."

"You don't understand. There is no place for me in your world."

"Then we make one," Louis said.

"Together." Maeve looked at him for several seconds before answering.

"You are a dreamer."

"Maybe," he said.

"But I am a dreamer with a dad who happens to be the Supreme President of the Dominion." Maeve laughed again.

"Alright. I'll think about it." Willa sat beside him and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"How are you holding up?"

"My legs are sore."

"I know. Let me carry the pack later."

"It's okay."

"Let me," she said.

"I hiked in the Alps twice with heavier packs." He smiled.

"You really did that?"

"Yeah." She smiled too.

"I miss Switzerland." Angelique stretched.

"I miss there too. We should go skiing sometime."

"Skiing in the Alps? That would be amazing." Willa smiled. Maeve watched them, confused.

"You've all been to Switzerland?"

"I studied in Munich last year," Willa said.

"I spent the winter in Zermatt with my family a few years ago," Angelique said.

"Of course you did," Maeve said. Gladice snorted.

"You people are something else."

"Where is Switzerland?" Cherish asked. Angelique smiled at her.

"It's a country in Europe."

"I've never heard of it," Cherish said.

"You will see it one day," Louis said.

"I promise." Cherish looked at him.

"Will we?"

"I will make sure of it." Savannah laughed.

"Y'all insane. Alps. Switzerland. I just want a real bed and a hot shower."

"Maybe we will find one in Chillicothe," Donya said.

"Yeah," Savannah said.

"And maybe I will win the lottery."

"I've won the lottery," Willa said.

"Once. Two hundred euros."

"Congrats," Savannah said.

"That's something."

"Not really." Louis put an arm around Willa's shoulders.

"What happened to the money?"

"I bought a flight ticket to Istanbul."

"And what happened in Istanbul?"

"I spent the afternoon in a park feeding cats and watching couples fight. Then I went back to the airport." Gladice laughed.

"That's the saddest story I've ever heard."

"Not really," Willa said.

"The cats were nice." Maeve watched them.

"You people are strange."

"We are a family," Donya said.

"A strange family."

"Alright," Maeve said.

"Ten minutes are up. Let's move." Willa took Louis's pack, and Donya took Angelique's. Maeve led them back onto the road. It ran straight through the trees, with no houses or lights ahead. The flashlight beam cut a narrow path through the dark. Cherish stayed close to Louis. She held her rifle in both hands and looked around nervously.

"I'm scared," she whispered.

"I know." He kept his voice low.

"But you are armed. And you are not alone." She nodded.

"I keep thinking about the chess game. When I won."

"It was a good game. You were brilliant."

"I was not scared then. I was just... playing." She looked at him.

"Do you get scared?"

"Sometimes. Not anymore." He looked ahead.

"Why?"

"Because I have you all with me." She looked at him, her eyes shining.

"Louis."

"Yes."

"After we are safe... would you... would you want to be with me? Like a boyfriend?" He looked at her eyes in the dim light. He thought of her tears when Nicholas and Rita told her to go, her escape to her room when they talked about sex on the table, her prayer under the sink, the way she played chess in the shelter, her song in the room. For a moment, he thought Jennifer was standing in front of him after surviving these days together. He remembered how he lost her. He would never lose Cherish.

He would protect her until the day he died.

"Yes." He smiled.

"I would like that very much." Her face lit up. She smiled back at him.

"Me too." Gladice glanced at them and raised an eyebrow.

"I had a feeling you'd make a move to our chess master, lover boy." She grinned. Cherish flushed, lowering her eyes.

"Gladice…"

"Don't mind me." Gladice winked.

"Just saying our little group is getting more interesting." She looked at Angelique.

"What do you think, Angel? Got room for one more?" Angelique shrugged.

"Louis likes collecting interesting people. I'm not surprised." Savannah sighed.

"And yet I thought I was special."

"You are," Louis said to her, taking her arm.

"You always will be."

"Yeah, but you'll have another girlfriend," Savannah said.

"That doesn't mean you're not special to me." He squeezed her arm.

"You know that."

"Do I?" Savannah looked into his eyes.

"Seems like you're spreading your love a little thin these days."

"I love each of you differently," he said.

"And I'll prove it to you when we're safe." Willa rolled her eyes.

"The things that come out of your mouth sometimes…" Donya smiled.

"Louis is charming, I'll give him that. It's why we're all still here." Maeve turned from the road.

"Are you people always like this?"

"Pretty much," Gladice said.

"Welcome to the most dysfunctional family in North America."

"Great," Maeve said, turning back to the path.

"Just what I needed."

"Quiet! All of you!" Willa whispered. They stopped in their tracks. Maeve turned off the flashlight instantly. Louis saw a yellow light through the trees to the left, about two hundred yards ahead. A house stood back from the road, partly hidden by the trees. One window was lit. Maeve stopped and brought up her M16. Gladice and Savannah covered the house, while Louis drew the M1911. Cherish stayed beside Donya with her rifle pointed at the ground.