H10N1 (17 page)

A couple of houses had burned to the ground, and the grocery was nothing but a shell like Judith said. The window of a nail salon was smashed; the clothes at the dry cleaners were gone.

“We’re going to need some wheels,” Judith said.

If it was still around, Judith had her heart set on a Ram quad cab that belonged to some local jerk. He’d given her and Dev grief about their mixed race marriage whenever they came to town. They found the turkey rotting in a chair on his front porch, his rifle still in his lap. A new poster boy for the NRA. The quad cab sat in the yard, gleaming in the morning sun.

“Shit,” Judith grumbled. “I hope the keys aren’t in his pocket.”

“That’s what these are for.” Rick snapped the wrist of his glove.

* * *

Back at the house, Rick heaved a huge Army duffle bag into the back of the truck. Devin decided to make a quick side trip to his marijuana crop for some tops. When Rick volunteered to help, Judith stepped into his path.

“Bullshit,” she snapped. “You two aren’t getting stoned out of your gourds again.” She poked him in the ribs. “You can help haul all the canned goods out of the cellar. Taeya and I are going to pick produce.”

Rick wasn’t getting vibes that Judith was seething about this whole fiasco. In fact, if he had to pinpoint her mood, she seemed stoked about checking out this Biosphere. Last night, she and Sanchez had chattered about the place like Girl Scouts getting ready for camp.

Judith insisted on bringing her huge iron pot and skillet, even though Sanchez was sure the folks at the Biosphere had plenty of cookware.

“Got to have a contingency plan,” Judith said. “I appreciate you including us in your gig, but it sounds too easy. I can’t believe they’ll just let us come in and join the party.” Judith shoved the pot to one side. “So, once we get there, if they don’t have room…well …I guess we’ll push on.”

Sanchez waved away Judith’s fears. “All I know is the last couple times I’ve talked to Mai, it sounded like they were short-handed. The place was built for probably ten to twelve at least. And it didn’t sound like she and her new boyfriend could handle all the work. Who better to step in and help than you and Devin?”

“We’ll have that place humming like a finely tuned machine.” Rick threw that in, just to remind Sanchez he was part of the team, too.

Judith pushed her wooden treasure chest of seeds into his hands and nudged him along. They had the truck packed when Devin came trotting around the back of the house with a bulging canvas bag slung over his shoulder. Surely their special cargo would buy them some favor with the residents at the Biosphere.

After Devin threw the bag into the back seat, he draped his arms on Judith’s shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Got everything?”

She nodded.

“You okay?” he asked.

Wrapping her arms around his waist, she pulled him close for a kiss. “I got you. That’s all I need.”

What Rick wouldn’t give for a woman who felt that way about him.

Their tender moment didn’t last long though. Judith broke away and climbed into the back seat of the truck. She wanted to make tracks.

Devin banged the tailgate shut, then turned for one last look at the house. Rick shuffled up next to him, slipped an arm onto his shoulder.

“Look, man. About this mess—”

“I’m fine,” Devin insisted.

“You’re stoned.”

“Yeah. But I’m still fine.” Devin looped an arm under Rick’s and patted him on the other shoulder. “We’ve been through worse. Every now and then Mother Nature gives us a good swift kick in the nuts to remind us none of this is really ours.”

Rick scoffed. “Maybe I’ll start wearing a cup.”

“That’s a thought.” Devin glanced down and saw his jug of moonshine next to the tire.

He bent to pick it up, but Rick grabbed it first. “Here, let me find a good place for that.” He flung it as far as he could out into the woods.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Taeya climbed into the back seat with Judith. “This must be very hard for you.”

“Why?” Judith never even turned to take a last look at their place. “You said you jumped around all the time. You know what it’s like to pack up and move on.”

“Yes, but that was tents and jeeps,” Taeya said. “I’ve never gotten attached to my own home.”

Without the first hint of emotion, Judith said, “Neither have I.”

Granted, Taeya had never become attached to a house. But as she’d watched Judith and Rick load belongings into the back of the truck, a revelation struck her. The jerks who stole the van also got her laptop bag, with Randall’s Baume and Mercier wristwatch, a gold locket her mother had given her, and the only pictures she had of her family.

It was small consolation that her abuela’s conch shell that talked to angels was safe in her medical bag. Apart from that, Taeya had nothing to remind her of her loved ones.

Rick poked his head in the front window. “All right, boys and girls, we’ve got at least an eighteen-hour drive ahead of us. I figure we’ll break it into four-hour shifts for now.” He seemed more chipper than he should be—considering. “There’s no way we’re pulling over except to take a piss and siphon gas. Anyone want to drive first?”

When no one answered, Rick hopped into the driver’s seat.

Instead of driving up to Little Rock to pick up Interstate 30, Devin suggested Rick head south on back roads. “We’ll catch the highway in Texarkana.”

As the miles piled up, the guys talked about football, speculating on how many years before the first franchise was back on the field; and how soon colleges would be up and running so they could watch basketball again. Taeya found their optimism interesting, more probability than possibility. They just assumed life would get back on track.

At one point, Rick glanced in the rearview. “Hey, Sanchez. How many shutouts did Donnie LaPeeto pitch the last year they played?”

“Regular season?”

“Yeah.”

“Seven,” she said nonchalantly.

Rick nodded his head at Devin. Taeya bristled. Was he playing some juvenile game of one-upmanship? My girl’s better than yours?

In the middle of nowhere, they drove up on an old farmhouse. A man was stooped over some crop in a field, perhaps chopping at weeds. When he heard the truck approaching, he dropped his hoe and sprinted to the edge of the field where he swept up a rifle. He looked scared as he ran for the house, urging his legs to go faster than they could, and stumbling in his haste.

As Rick drove closer, Taeya spotted a woman in the backyard hanging out her wash. She turned at the sound of the truck and dropped the shirt she was hanging. Snatching up her own rifle, she dashed into the back of house.

“Paranoid, aren’t they?” Rick said.

“Wouldn’t you be?” Devin asked.

The image of that man tearing across the field stayed with Taeya. At first, she’d thought he meant to protect his property. But once she saw the woman, Taeya knew the farmer’s bigger concern was his wife. She thought about how tenderly Rick had treated her after she’d been attacked in the van. Was that the kind of devotion she’d sometimes longed for?

An hour later, the truck was out of farmland and she was enjoying the rolling hills of southwest Arkansas, with nothing but forest in all directions. It was so tranquil, so isolated. No billboards or gas stations, no tire stores or Walmarts. When America was first being settled, it must have looked a lot like this.

Judith scooted up from the back seat and tapped Devin on the shoulder. “I smell smoke.”

“Me too,” Devin said. “I thought maybe a farmer was burning, but I haven’t seen anything.”

It was impossible to see beyond the tall pines that lined the road. But a few miles later, when the truck hit open fields, the sky in the distance held the unmistakable haze of smoke.

“What do you think?” Rick glanced nervously at Devin.

“Keep driving,” Devin replied. “The fire is probably miles away.”

It was miles away, but unfortunately, in
their
way. After another ten miles, the smoke became so thick it hung in the air like fog.

“This doesn’t look good,” Rick said. “Maybe we should turn back.”

Reaching for the map book, Devin flipped to the page for Arkansas. After studying it for a moment, he said, “There’s a highway fifty-seven coming up. Let’s see if we can get that far. Maybe find out if the fire is north or south of us.”

Rick drove on. But within a few more miles, the smoke was so thick, Taeya’s eyes started burning. She felt the smoke collecting in her lungs, making her choke.

When Rick spotted a road sign that read: “Ouachita 11”, he hit the brakes. “What’s this?”

“Just some country road.” Devin opened his door. “Give me a minute.”

He stepped out, craning his neck to see which direction the clouds were blowing. It was impossible to tell.

Climbing back in, he said, “Take it.”

After a quick skeptical glance, Rick turned south on the winding, narrow road. But instead of escaping the choking smoke, the sky grew darker. Frantically, Taeya dug into her medical supplies for masks, quickly soaked them with a bottle of water, and handed them out. They didn’t do much to filter out the smoke.

Rick sat hunched over the steering wheel, coughing and wiping at tears that streamed from his eyes. The visibility was so bad, he slowed to a crawl. As the truck rolled over an old country bridge, Taeya spotted three deer galloping through the water.

The road took a turn to the left, and suddenly off to Taeya’s right, she spotted a burning line of trees about a hundred yards away. A raccoon dashed in front of the truck and Rick swerved to avoid hitting it.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Rick yelled. “We’re screwed!”

He was right. If they’d been in the van, with its filtered air system and reinforced bulk, they might have had a chance. But in this pickup, they were sitting ducks for the first burning tree that fell in their path. Or on the truck.

For another half a mile, the road headed east before curving south again. Then it hit a dead-end at another country road running east and west. Rick turned back east. But behind them, Taeya heard the rumble of what sounded like a train.

“It’s gaining on us!” Devin yelled over the roar.

A gust of wind came up from behind and the forest on both sides of them burst into an inferno. It was like a giant wave of fire washing over them. Burning leaves and limbs pelted the truck. Taeya swung around to look out the back window. Flaming branches dropped on their supplies. Husks flared on the basket of corn they’d picked that morning. A burning branch landed on one of the duffle bags and the canvas began to smolder.

Taeya jerked back around to the front. The firestorm was actually outrunning them. But it was also pushing the smoke ahead of it. The road cleared enough for Rick to pick up some speed.

He tried to keep at the front line of the fire without driving ahead into the smoke, but the heat quickly became intense. The skin on Taeya’s face grew taut, as if she was standing too close to a campfire.

When they came to another country road, Rick swerved to the right.

“No!” Devin yelled. “This is cutting back west. We’ll hit the fire again.”

“Goddamit!” Rick stripped the gears reversing the engine, then careened back onto the soft shoulder, skidding in the dirt until the front wheels jumped back onto the road east.

The canopy of trees overhead sagged with the fire. Chunks of flaming debris rained down ahead of the truck. The whole top of a pine tree exploded and crashed onto the hood, the burning branches shriveling before their eyes. Rick jerked the steering wheel to the left, and the fireball rolled off.

As the truck zoomed over another small bridge, Taeya wondered if it was time to abandon the truck. Was the water in the stream below deep enough that they could swim to safety? She doubted it. The deer she’d seen at the last creek were splashing through only a foot of water.

Taeya’s head jerked from side to side, watching the horror unfold. Why had she agreed to join Rick in Arkansas? What was it about him that had made her go against her better judgment? If she’d just gotten her own car and headed for Arizona, she’d be there by now.

“Take this road!” Judith screamed.

Grabbing the handgrip above her window, Taeya held on as the truck skidded sideways onto yet another country road. The sign simply had a number and an “S” on it. They were headed south again.

If the smoke overcame Rick first, Devin might be able to take the wheel. But probably not. So the truck would travel out of control until it went down an embankment or hit a tree. Even if Judith and Taeya survived the crash, would the truck still be drivable? How soon would Taeya be overcome by smoke? Hopefully, she’d be unconscious by the time the fire heated the truck’s gas tank and it exploded.

Rick broke through the frontline of the fire again. He was coughing in spasms, along with the others. He would become disoriented soon. Taeya found it nearly impossible to draw a breath. And still the pickup barreled on.

After another mile, the smoke faded from dark gray to a dirty white. A short time later, the heavy fog was back to a haze. The road dipped into a small valley and a town called Buena Vista appeared. Devin croaked out a hoarse cheer at finally finding a road that appeared on his map. He directed Rick west.

For the next hour Taeya and the others coughed out smoke. Her hands trembled as she blew soot from her nose. That had been more terrifying than the assailant back at the farm. Of course, the attack had happened so quickly that she hadn’t had much time to react. But the idea of burning to death had made time slow to a crawl.

It wasn’t until they reached Texarkana that Rick pulled over. As soon as he turned off the engine, he leaped out, leaving the truck door open. Devin was right behind. Taeya climbed out with Judith to check their supplies.

Big holes had burned through their duffle bags. The skins on the tomatoes had burst. The basket of corn was literally steaming. Devin came up alongside Judith, snaked an arm around her waist, and nuzzled against her cheek. “Looks like lunch is ready.”