Dissolve (17 page)

Blushing, I turned away and climbed into the first bed with Mia. After a few minutes of settling and rustling we were both still. I was so tired, I fell out like a light and the room faded to black.

Chapter 15:

I was in such a peaceful sleep that I dreamt. I was weightless and floating, no ties that bind. It was a full release from the stress of the day and I reveled in the feelings of the dream. I felt like hues of soft green and lavender swirling in the air. Then I heard my name in the background soft and faded.

It took me a moment to realize that it was Nessa calling my name. With a snap I had reformed, disoriented. Nessa tossed me my clothes and I looked at Shane’s wide eyes before I hurriedly got redressed.

“Damn, did I do it again?”

“Yeah, but you must not have gotten far because I was able to reach you pretty easily. Good thing we are sleeping in shifts,” Nessa replied.

“It’s about time for second shift anyway. Do you want to wake Noah? Let’s let Mia get some rest. She has had a pretty rough day,” Shane added.

I stepped over to the other bed and gently shook Noah’s arm and whispered his name. He bolted up in surprise, caught off guard. I smiled at him and he finally managed to flash me a warm smile.

“I guess it is time for our shift? Man, it felt good to get some sleep. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I hit the sheets.”

“Cora pulled another dissolve. We had to cut your sleep just a few minutes short, but it is close enough. Besides, Shane and I are exhausted,” Nessa said.

“Hmm, I am sorry I missed that,” Noah said with a wry smile.

“Ha ha, I am going to take a shower if that is alright with you. This room is icky and I now feel germy being as my particles rolled around in it.”

“Yeah, sure, I will be here, on watch,” he replied.

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I grabbed a towel and entered the bathroom with a soft click of the door.

I soaked every pore on my body and washed with the little motel soap until I felt squeaky clean. Then I just stood there in the hot water, absorbing the day. Every time I closed my eyes I saw murder. My mind reeled with Tom’s death and the innocent deaths of Mia’s family. Now we were immune to the world wide destruction that was happening all around us. That thought never stopped being scary.

I finally managed to collect my thoughts enough to shut off the shower and dried with the little white motel towel. I got redressed in my shorts and tee before stepping out into the cool air conditioned room. The feel of the ice cold air on my warm skin sent goose pimples up and down my skin and I shivered. Noah looked up from the old newspaper and smiled softly.

“Do you feel better,” he asked.

“So much better, you have no idea. This room is just as disgusting as the last, minus the murder scene,” I replied.

He stood up and offered me the chair. “Sit, I will take the floor.”

“It is okay, I can take the floor. I don’t mind, really.” I told him.

“Nonsense, I believe in ladies first. I will take the floor and that is the end of this discussion,” he said tersely.

“Fine, thank you very much for being so gentlemanly,” I said taking the newly abandoned chair.

“I have been over this paper several times and can’t seem to make any sense of the situation. There are no clues about these acts of terrorism that we don’t already know. I hope Washington provides better answers. At this point, there is no way of knowing what will happen next,” Noah replied with frustration clear in his voice.

“Here, let me take a look at it. It never hurts to have another set of eyes. Maybe I will find some small clue you might have missed.”

“Sure, please be my guest,” he said handing over the paper.

“Thanks,” I told him as I picked up the paper.

I scoured every inch of the paper from the mysterious state destructions to the movies in the entertainment section. The state destructions still had no further leads and the paper proved useless as far as information about it. I was about to give up when I spotted the classified section. The clue was so obvious that it stuck out like a sore thumb. In the wanted ad was a blue colored recycle sign amongst the black and white advertisements. I read the caption and it said
Ashes to Ashes life evolves.

My jaw dropped and I snapped it shut once I noticed Noah staring at me intently. “I found something. Here, it is in the classifieds,” I told him with a grave look.

He took some time to absorb the information and then his muddy brown eyes stared into my blue ones. “That doesn’t look good. I guess we know what the symbol means now, and I am not too thrilled about it.”

“Yeah, it sounds like he is forcing his own mass evolution. We have big shoes to fill if we are going to stop him,” I grumbled.

Switching topics, I decided to ask a prodding question. I was too freaked to continue this topic. “Do you wonder what you would be doing if we had never met and this never happened?”

“I have thought about it, but it isn’t the situation and I have only forward to go. Pharmaceutical salesman as a profession is one I am far less likely to be pursuing anytime soon. I prefer to focus on us and what will happen in the future,” he said thickly.

I didn’t miss the innuendo but chose to ignore it and store it in another one of my boxes on an internal shelf. I liked Noah, but the loss of Tom was just too fresh to get past. “I was a real estate agent before this. I just graduated college with a business degree last winter. The job market is tough right now in this economy,” I admitted.

I walked over to the curtains and peaked out long enough to see the rise of the vivid orange sun on the horizon in the east. I smiled at the view and pulled the curtains open slightly to enjoy the sunrise. Noah joined me and we just stood there against the window watching the sky turn from darkness to a fresh orange glow. It was time for the day to start if we were going to make up the time we lost.

Before waking anyone up, I changed back into my faded frayed jeans and brown V-neck tee today, not wanting to wear that horrid black outfit again. Noah motioned to the shower and I nodded. He went to the shower and I was left alone with my thoughts once again.

There were now five of us in our merry band of misfits. If we found any more people, we were going to need a bigger car. The whole situation was the stuff of horror movies and novels. We were living in a nightmare that had come to life. My mom must be worried sick, but I knew I couldn’t involve her in this mess. I loved her too much to risk her safety.

Soon, I heard Mia stirring and I turned my attention to her. “Good morning, hope you slept well,” I offered politely.

“I did sleep well, thanks. My headache is much better. I wonder if I will get a power like you guys have,” she asked hopefully.

“I have no doubt that you will, we just don’t know what it is yet,” I replied.

Just then, Noah stepped out of the shower in nothing but a towel and I couldn’t help but stare. He was so dark and rugged that I almost swooned. He pretended not to notice, though I was pretty sure he did it on purpose. He grabbed his bag and slid back into the bathroom with a click of the door.

I shook my head and returned my attention to Mia, who no doubt noticed our little interlude. She chose not to address it and I was thankful.

“What should I wear today?” Mia asked, looking at the bag I was stuffing my tee and shorts back into.

“Here is a spare pair of jeans and a floral baby doll tee that you can borrow. The jeans might be just a little big and long, but your pumps should fix that until we can get you some new clothes.”

“Thank you so much. The thought of wearing that dress another minute sends chills up my spine. I hate dresses,” she said quirking a smile.

I decided not to tell Mia of our discovery until everyone was up so Noah and I could address it at the same time. Noah finally stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed in his original polo and khakis and Mia rushed behind him to get dressed.

“I take it you found her something to wear?” Noah asked.

“Yeah, it should work until we can get her a few things from the store. When we get to Kansas City we need to stop for coffee, food and clothes. I am just about out of money so we need to figure out what we have left. Also, if we come across any more of us, that car is going to get us nowhere.”

“I can pull some more money from the ATM and as far as the car; we may need to trade it in for a van. They are usually pretty cheap and we can have Shane or Mia finance it. They aren’t really running from the law. As long as you and Nessa stay out of sight, we should be good,” he replied.

“Brilliant idea, I guess we should wake Shane and Nessa now and let them know our plans and discuss the clue we found,” I said.

“I will take Nessa, you take Shane,” I added.

Noah nodded and approached Shane’s sleeping form. I turned and headed to where Nessa lay blissfully asleep and winced at the thought of waking such a peaceful slumber. I gently shook her and she slowly cracked one eye open.

“It can’t be time to get up yet, I am not ready,” she said.

“I am sorry. We tried to wait as long as possible, but we have a lot of ground to cover today. If you want, you can sleep and I can drive,” I offered.

“Okay, okay I am up,” she groaned.

Nessa tossed the covers back and sat up. She tucked her honey blond hair behind her ears as she so frequently did and yawned. Then she noticed the grim look on my face that I couldn’t disguise from her.

“Cora, what is going on? Did something happen?” she asked, concern abundant in her voice.

“We will talk about it once everyone is dressed and awake. I want to tell everyone together.”

Nessa wasted no time grabbing the bag and heading for the restroom just as Mia was coming out. Her eyes bugged out and she looked to me.

“Geez, what is she in such a hurry for?” Mia asked.

“After everyone is up and dressed we need to have a little group discussion that is all.”

“Oh, so now we will just be waiting on Shane,” she said, pointing to Noah still trying to wrestle him out of bed.

“For Pete’s sake, let me try,” I said as I moved to Shane’s side.

I hollered for him to get up and he finally stirred.

“I see, he wakes up for you but not me,” Noah said.

“He just needed a woman’s touch,” I said teasingly.

“Get dressed, we need to have a group meeting,” I said, tossing him his clothes.

He patiently waited for Nessa to leave the restroom and proceeded to jump in for a quick shower. When he finally came out, we were all sitting there in silence waiting for him to join us.

“Okay, who died?” he joked as he shook the water from his blonde hair.

“Sit, we have a few things to go over,” I said in a neutral tone.

Once everyone was seated, I gave Noah a look and he nodded encouragingly.

“We need more money first of all. Noah is going to pull more cash out of the ATM. Also, when we get to Kansas City we need to get coffee, food and some clothes for Mia. Is everyone okay with this so far,” I asked looking around at the group nodding in unison.

“Second order of business is the car situation. We don’t know who else we will come across and no one else is going to fit in that mustang. Mia and Shane aren’t on the run and have no connection to Nessa or me. We should trade in the car for a van. Mia or Shane can finance it.”

“I will, I feel partially responsible for this situation and am happy to be able to help,” Mia said.

“Great and now on to our third and final issue we need to discuss. Noah and I scoured the newspaper for any clue and we found one,” I said passing the classified page around the room.

Nessa sucked in a deep breath as she read aloud “
Ashes to Ashes life evolves.
He put the blue recycle sign with it. I guess now we know what it means. Good job finding it, I never would have.”

“Does this mean he is going to turn the world to ash and we will be left standing?” Mia asked with fear in her voice.

“I think so,” Shane said as he stared at the picture grimly.

“Let’s take it with us and get to Kansas City. We have a lot to do before we can head towards Denver,” Noah said grabbing the bags off the bed.

“All right everybody, let’s head out,” I said taking queue from Noah and following him.

Nessa took one last look around for anything we missed and followed us outside.

“I am driving first shift,” I volunteered.

“I will navigate,” Noah said jumping at the opportunity to sit passenger.

I pulled up my seat and Nessa and Shane climbed in. Noah opened his door and pulled forward his seat for Mia. It was ironic to see Shane in the middle of a female tug of war. I pushed my seat back and got in. Noah did the same and I started the engine and flipped through the stations for something to wake me up. I settled on an angry girl band and put the car in gear.

I made my way back to the highway in silence, everyone absorbing all the information of the morning. The highway was finally empty and we cruised along at a decent pace until we made it to the outskirts of the city. The cars started creeping along in the midst of the morning commute.