HAD TO GO. TOOK SOME STUFF. WILL COME BACK WITH A PROPER TRADE FOR YOU AND BOB. I PROMISE.
Yes. That was fine.
She glanced one more time at Bob and Sienna’s sleeping forms.
“See you,” she whispered.
She slipped through the hallway in the back of the building, pushing an emergency exit door open. The cold, biting air slapped her cheeks. She pulled her hood over her head and quietly shut the door. The flat landscape of the Central Valley lay around her. The safety of Sacramento was north. The warring gangland of Los Angeles was due south. And the Slavers… well, they were southeast, bringing their prisoners to the San Jacinto Mountains. Elle would have to travel through the smaller highways to reach the mountains. Her supplies wouldn’t last long. She would have to catch rainwater and eat whatever she could find; rats, lizards, bugs. She might perish in the desert. Her body might be left in the desolate wasteland, dissolving into the nothingness of the plain.
Elle sighed.
She knew what she had to do. It wasn’t going to be easy.
Chapter Four
The highway stretched on endlessly, curving southeast out of the Bakersfield area of California. What might have taken an hour to reach in a car would take an entire day on foot. The fog had finally lifted, and the golden brown of the grassy land was illuminated. Elle just stood there, in the center of the southbound lane of Highway 58, taking it all in.
It looks like velvet, she thought. Miles and miles of golden velvet.
It was beautiful, but daunting. The road was completely deserted. Unlike the roads in and out of Los Angeles, this highway was empty. There was no sea of cars, no evidence of catastrophic vehicle collisions. It was just… abandoned. It was wide and lonely. A strong, cold wind whipped across the valley floor and tossed Elle’s short black hair.
“It could be worse,” Elle muttered.
Elle tucked her head and began walking. It was a boring, monotonous march. The scenery was breathtaking. The rolling, golden mountains spread out in every direction, making Elle feel little more than an ant, a speck in the universe. The weather was clear and cool now, and the endless quiet and openness of the region seemed to make Elle’s thoughts echo loudly in her brain. She struggled to quiet her doubts and fears, so she began searching for patterns in the hills and pictures in the clouds to soothe her overactive mind.
The map that Sienna had given her was tucked firmly into the inside pocket of her jacket. She had memorized the route in case she lost it. Highway 58 to Highway 14, to Highway 215 to Highway 10. It was a convoluted route, one that she had mapped out in order to avoid traveling in the up-and-down, steep terrain of the mountains all the way to her destination. It was the easiest way. The entire journey would take about a week if she stayed on schedule.
What are you going to do when you actually find Jay and the others? She mused. You’re not dealing with the Klan anymore. The Slavers are an enemy that you’re unfamiliar with. Are you sure you want to risk your life like this? You could be on your way to Sacramento.
No. Elle had already decided what she was going to do. Life might have gone to hell in a handbasket since the EMP, but this… this gave her life some meaning. A purpose, she guessed. Something to do. More than just simple survival. Survival was a necessity. Everybody was surviving. But helping others? That was a rarity now. People just didn’t do it as much as they used to, because helping someone else meant risking your own life.
Elle kept walking.
Her steps were a rhythmic plod. She kept her head down, shielded from the harsh wind. She wished she had sunglasses. It would protect her eyes from the wide, sunny plain. But there was nowhere to get sunglasses… so she kept moving, tying a loose scarf from her backpack around her forehead and mouth, shading her face.
It struck her how empty the plain was. It scared her, too. She was a moving object on a still stage, prey for any hunter who was keeping his eyes open. She occasionally stopped and kneeled near the center guardrail, studying the road behind her and around her. She saw no one, so she would continue on.
The silence was eerie, too. Without Jay, Georgia or Flash chattering on about something in the background, the loneliness of the valley sunk in. It was different than Los Angeles. In the city, even the silence of abandonment was broken by the cries and fights of the Klan and Omega. Here… there was nothing. It was beautiful, but it was empty.
Elle shuddered.
And she kept walking.
“So, enlighten me, shadow warrior,” Georgia drawled, stopping to catch her breath. Her long, curly yellow hair bounced in the breeze. They were scaling the side of a small hill in the Tehachapi Mountains, escaping from Los Angeles. Heading toward Elle’s aunt and uncle’s ranch.
“Enlighten you about what?” Elle asked.
“How come you’re so mysterious. I mean, with the warrior mojo and all that.” Georgia wrinkled her nose. “Were you a doomsday prepper or something?”
“A prepper?” Elle laughed softly. “I wish.”
“But you handle yourself… well. Better than us. And we were street kids.” Georgia shrugged. “We all thought we were tough, you know? Me running drugs, Flash and Pix hacking credit cards, and Jay… well, we ended up doing time for it, so the universe killed us with karma, I guess. But still. All of this? It’s a new world. How come you adapted so fast?”
Elle looked ahead. Jay was farther up the side of the hill, in front of Flash and Pix, struggling along, panting and grunting.
“I guess I’m one of the lucky ones,” Elle deadpanned.
“You’re not lucky. You’re just cold.”
Elle stared at Georgia. The tall girl broke her gaze and nervously scratched the back of her neck. “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said.
“Yeah,” Elle replied, “you did.”
“Listen, Elle—”
“You’re not wrong, Georgia.” Elle frowned. “I know what I am. I’m okay with it.”
It was such a lie. She wasn’t okay with anything.
They were living after the apocalypse for God’s sake.
“So are you ever going to tell me what Jay’s story is?” Elle said, clearing her throat. “Or is it still a terrifying secret?”
Georgia cracked a wry grin.
“He’s a man of mystery,” she replied. “I should let him tell his own story.”
“He won’t talk.”
“You two are a match made in heaven.”
Elle rolled her eyes.
“I don’t like him, if that’s what you’re trying to say.”
“I’m not saying anything.”
Elle’s cheeks warmed. “I actually kind of thought you guys were together.”
“Me and Jay?” Georgia smirked. “That will be the day, my little friend.”
“Ah.” Elle looked at Jay again. “But he likes you. I can tell.”