Alone, Book 3: The Journey (18 page)

     And Dave was the only one around to hear her words.

     “Tell me about your friend. Tell me what happened.”

     Red looked at him, needing to get the words out, but still hesitant to show her tender side. She’d learned over the years that when men saw her tender side, their feelings toward her often changed. She became less one of the guys and more like… someone to pursue.

     That was why she took such great care to protect her hard-shell appearance. To help keep men at a distance.

     It was the same reason she stopped wearing makeup a long time before.

     But then, she figured, what the heck. She’d never seen this man until two days before. She was going to hitch a ride with him and never see him again.

     The truth was, she missed the comfort of one-on-one conversation.

     “You met her in Blanco. Bonnie. She gave us a ride back here. She’s been my friend since as long as I care to remember. At times I felt she was the only true friend I had in the world. The only one who would accept me on my bitch days. The only one who would never judge me, no matter what I did. The only one I could talk to and confess my sins to.

     “The only one who really truly loved me unconditionally.”

     “What happened to her? I mean, how did you lose her, exactly?”

     She hesitated, as though the question caught her unprepared.

     “I… I gave her away. Actually, I loaned her to someone. But I’m pretty sure I’m never coming back to claim her. I think she knows it too. She looked so sad. Those big brown eyes were so full of sorrow.

     “I’m afraid I broke her heart.”

     “But why did you give her away?”

     “Because I’m coming with you. That’s why.”

     Dave swallowed hard.

     Even that hurt.

     “Yeah. About that… do you even know where I’m going?”

     “I know you’re going north. That’s good enough for me.”

     “I’m going as far as Kansas City. You’re more than welcome to ride with me that far. I owe you that much, for saving my life. But after Kansas City I’m turning back.”

     “I’m not going that far. I’m going to Lubbock. It’s up in the Texas panhandle.”

     “I know where Lubbock is.”

     “I know it’s out of your way. I’m not asking you to take me there. Just take me as close as you can and I’ll walk from there. Or I’ll barter for a horse and saddle.”

     “Why do you want to go to Lubbock?”

     Red shook her head vigorously.

     “Na-uh. If you want to play forty questions, then that’s fine. I’ll play your silly game. But that means I get a turn too.

     “Why on earth are you going to Kansas City?”

     “My family is there. My wife and two little girls. They were on their way to a wedding when the power went out. Their flight was due to land at almost the exact moment the EMPs hit. After a year I still don’t know if they’re alive or dead. I don’t know if they landed safely just before the world went black. Or if they were still in the air and the airplane lost power and fell from the sky.”

     “So, you’re going up there to see if they’re alive?”

     “Yes. And if they are, I plan to bring them back to San Antonio.”

     “Is that where you’re from? San Antonio?”

     “Yes. Born and raised. Lived there all my life, except the four years I was in the Marines.”

     “What if your family didn’t make it?”

     “I don’t know. I may stay with the relatives up there, if they have the room. But I think I’d rather come back to Texas. I think I’d be more comfortable at home. I really try not to consider that possibility.”

     “You have to. No matter how hard it is. If you don’t prepare yourself for it, and if it’s reality, it’ll kill you. Or at least make you wish you were dead.”

     “I wish I was dead every time I even consider the possibility.”

     “If you found out they were dead, would you kill yourself to join them?”

     “I honestly don’t know. That would be the easy way out, I suppose. The problem I struggle with, is they were all three good enough to go to heaven. If they didn’t make it, I know they’re in heaven, waiting for me and hoping I make it too.

     “But I’ve always believed that committing suicide is as much a sin as killing someone else. And I don’t like my chances of going to heaven if my last act here on earth is a sin.”

     “You don’t think God would forgive you under the circumstances?”

     “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

     “There seem to be a lot of things you don’t know. How did you get your car started?”

     “Uh, uh. That’s at least a thousand questions. It’s my turn again.”

     “Okay.”

     “I know why they call you Red. But how did you come to be so…”

     Dave struggled to find the right word.

     She smiled and tried to help him.

     “Bitchy? Mean? Hard?”

     “No. None of those. It’s just that… well, you’re a beautiful and compassionate woman. But it’s easy not to see that because you’re so rough around the edges.”

     Red laughed.

     “Well, that’s about as diplomatic a way to describe me as I’ve ever heard.

     “The truth is, I have a girly side. I just seldom show it.”

     “Why?”

     “Because it seems that every time a man sees my girly side, he falls for me. Young or old, rich or poor. It doesn’t matter. And I can’t return the emotion. I don’t believe in love anymore. I haven’t in a very long time.

     “I just got tired of breaking hearts. It’s easier to keep my hard shell and act like a tough woman. It keeps men at arm’s length. It’s just easier that way.”

     “Why are you going to Lubbock?”

     “To find the man who murdered my husband and my son.”

     “And what do you expect to do when you find him?”

     “I don’t know for sure. I’ve dreamed about it a lot. Sometimes, in my dream, I just shoot him and get it over with. Then I keep on shooting him until I’m out of bullets. And sometimes I dream that I reload and shoot him some more. Just for the good feeling I get each time I watch a bullet go into his head.

     “Other times, I want to take him alive, so I can torture him a thousand different ways. Make him die a slow and very painful death. Just like my husband and my boy.”

     “How did they die?”

     Red suddenly grew silent. His question made her think about something she’d been trying very hard to forget. He’d touched a raw nerve.

     Finally, she spoke again.

     “I’m sorry, Dave, but I’m tired of this game. Let’s continue it another time, okay?”

     “Okay, sure. And I’m sorry I made you sad.”

     “Oh, you didn’t make me sad,” she lied. “I’m tough as nails. I’m tougher than you ever were, even on your toughest day.”

     She thought for a moment, and then added, “And by the way, they didn’t die.”

     “Who? Who didn’t die?”

     “Your wife and daughters. They didn’t die. At least not in a plane crash. Their plane didn’t fall from the sky.”

Chapter 37

     Dave was shocked. He would have sat bolt upright on the bunk, if his body had allowed him to.

     He looked at Red in stunned silence, not knowing quite what to say.

     “You want to know how I know?”

     He managed a nod of his head.

     “On the day the lights went out, I walked out of the hardware store where I helped my dad. I wanted to see if one of the transformers on the power poles had blown. That’s what generally caused the blackouts in Blanco. Either that or a car veered off the highway and took out a power pole.

     “Everyone else was gathering in the street, too. There weren’t any cars driving down Main Street, because Blanco never did have a lot of traffic. So we still didn’t know it affected the cars too.

     “We just figured the electric company would do what they always did, take their sweet time getting out to Blanco, and taking even longer to fix the problem.

     “We’d been through it before, you see. And each time before when the power went out it took at least a full day, sometimes two or three, to get everything going again.

     “So everyone was planning what they were doing after the sun went down. Some of my neighbors decided to take all the meat from their freezers, since it would probably spoil anyway. And everybody was going to gather on the town square and have a barbeque and roast marshmallows.

     “To most of the townsfolk, it seemed as good a reason as any to have a party.

     “Anyway, Dad even came out of the hardware store to join us. He couldn’t do much in there anyway with the lights out.

     “Right after he came out, a huge passenger plane flew right over our heads.

     “That wasn’t uncommon. Blanco is on the approach path for one of the runways at the Austin airport. When the wind direction called for them to use that particular runway, we’d see them fly over several times a day.”

     Dave’s eyes closed.

     He finally had verification his theory was correct. The EMPs, when they struck the airplanes in the sky, didn’t short out all their systems and make them fall to the ground. They reacted as though the airplanes were flying Faraday cages. The EMPs merely behaved as electricity would have. Zapping the outer shell, but not penetrating the inner compartment where the electronics were located.

     He turned his attention back to Red, who was still explaining.

     “Someone in the crowd asked my dad a question, because they knew he was once a pilot. He flew what they called ‘heavies’ in the Air Force. Cargo planes. C-141s, if you know your planes. He also flew passenger planes for Delta for several years.

     “Anyway, they asked him what would happen if the power ever went out at the airport. How the pilots could land their planes without their glide slope beacon on, and without the aid of the air traffic controllers guiding them in.

     “Dad told them it would never happen, because the airports had backup generator systems that were set up to work independently of the electric company.

     “But he said that just in case it
did
ever happen, that there was no power at the airport, that pilots would be able to land anyway.

     “He explained that the FAA required all commercial pilots to stay proficient on emergency landing procedures, which included airports that were blacked out.

     “I remember him taking me to the flight simulator building once when I was young, and showing me the simulator. It was a cross between training tool and carnival ride, this great big blue enclosed box that had the very rough shape of the front of an airplane. It was on a dozen hydraulic legs that enabled it to move back and forth in a hundred different directions. Once we were inside, it looked like we were in the cockpit of an airplane.”

     She paused long enough to look at Dave, who had stopped listening long before.

     He was now staring at the ceiling of the sleeper, tears rolling from his one good eye.

     He said, simply, “They’re alive.”

     Red smiled and said, “Fine. I’ve been ignored by better men than you, pal…”

Chapter 38

     The next day, Dave was getting better, and was also getting antsy.

     He sat up on the bunk, albeit with much effort and much pain, and called out to Red. She was sitting in the passenger seat, half reading a magazine and half watching out for trouble.

     “Red, I’m tired of sitting here. I want to get back on the road.”

     “Well, well… I knew that if we hung out together long enough we’d finally find something to agree on. And I’m way ahead of you. I already cleaned out the passenger side of your front seat. You’re a slob, you know that?”

     “Yeah. I know. Sarah was always telling me that. And I think I’ve gotten worse in the last year. It’s just hard to get motivated, you know, when there’s no one around to impress. Or to yell at you for not doing it.”