It was true, but Benny tried to come up with an argument to get around it.
“I’ll go,” said Lilah.
Tom shook his head. “No. You’re tough, Lilah, but I can’t allow it.” Lilah stiffened at the word “allow,” but Tom didn’t back down. “I admit that you’re good. You survived out here for years… but I’m still better at this. I’m bigger and faster, and I’ve been hunting these mountains for fourteen years. Besides, the Chongs left their son in my care. This is my fault, and it’s mine to make right. I also don’t want to argue about this. I want you to stay here with Nix and Benny. You can help them fortify this place. Remember, Sally Two-Knives is due through here tonight, and J-Dog and Dr. Skillz are in the area. Wait for them. Are we agreed?”
Nix, Benny, and Lilah all began yelling at once, telling Tom why they thought the plan was bad, arguing why they should all go, and growling at him for treating them like they were helpless. Tom took about five seconds of it before his face darkened.
“Okay-enough!”
Silence dropped over them like a net.
“This isn’t a debate. The three of you will damn well stay here and do as you’re told. That means you, too, Lilah.”
Three sets of hostile eyes glared raw heat at him. However, what Tom said next changed their looks from hostility to fear.
“If I’m not back in twenty-four hours, Lilah… I want you to take Benny and Nix back home.”
“What?” demanded Nix.
“Hold on a frickin’ minute,” snapped Benny.
“Okay,” said Lilah.
Benny and Nix whipped their heads around and looked at her liked she’d just betrayed them. Lilah’s face was a mask of stone.
Into the silence, Tom said, “Good.” He patted his pockets to reassure himself that he had everything he needed, then fished out two of his three bottles of cadaverine and handed them to Benny.
“I don’t plan to be gone long enough to need this much,” said Tom. “You might.”
“Tom, I-,” Benny began, but Tom cupped him around the back of the neck and pulled him forward. He kissed Benny on the forehead.
“Stand tough, little brother. You’ve learned a lot in the last seven months. Use it. Be warrior smart.”
Benny nodded. “Warrior smart.”
Tom hugged Nix and patted Lilah’s cheek. “All of you,” he said, “warrior smart.”
They nodded.
Tom turned and began running along the line of glacial rocks. He moved with an oiled grace that was deceptively fast. Within seconds he was nearly to the tree line; within minutes he was gone, swallowed up by the darkening forest as the sun tumbled over the edge of the world.
PART THREE. HARD LUCK AND TROUBLE
It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love.
This is how the whole scheme of things works.
All good things are difficult to achieve;
and bad things are very easy to get.
– RENÉ DESCARTES FRENCH MATHEMATICIAN
PHILOSOPHER, AND SCIENTIST, 1596-1650
32
AFTER TOM LEFT, LILAH TURNED TO BENNY AND NIX. “IF WE’RE GOING to spend the night here, let’s make this place secure.”
“Tell us what to do,” said Nix.
The first thing they did was find string and lengths of rope and construct a network of lines around the gas station. Lilah set Benny to work gathering cans from the rubbish heap out back and buckets full of small stones. Nix used a hammer and awl from Brother David’s tools to punch holes through the cans. Then Lilah strung the cans on the taut lines and filled each one with a few stones. She strung the lines at various heights so that any zom would walk right into them, and the sound of the stones rattling in the cans would be clear and loud. The strings of cans would also hopefully trip up a human sneaking up in the dark. There was some starlight but no moon, and the tripwires were virtually invisible once the sun was down.
They hung towels and sheets over the window to block out any light. Lilah gathered wood for the stove.
There wasn’t much else they could do, and so they settled down to wait.
At first it was merely tense. Benny worried about Chong and worried about Tom. But as time wore on he began to feel irritable and jumpy.
“I wish Tom was here,” he complained.
Lilah, who was cleaning her pistol again, shot him a look. “He would be if Chong had not been stupid.”
“Okay,” Benny snapped, “so Chong made a few mistakes… how about laying off him?”
“Why? He has caused every problem since we left town.”
“Chong’s just scared, okay? You going to tell me you never made any mistakes because you were scared?”
Something seemed to move behind Lilah’s eyes, but her voice was cold and steady. “Yes, I made mistakes. But they never put anyone else in danger.”
“That’s because you never had anyone else,” Benny said savagely, and immediately regretted his words as he saw the hurt register in Lilah’s eyes. “Oh, crap. Look, Lilah, I didn’t mean-”
She gave him a murderous look, flung open the door, and went outside. The sun was a fiery dragon’s eye peering through the trees.
Benny stared at the stiffness of her retreating back until Nix came and stood over him, blocking the view. The disapproval on her face was eloquent. Benny closed his eyes.
“What was that all about?” she asked.
“I can’t believe I said that to her.”
Nix punched him in the chest. Not hard, but hard enough to make her point. She turned and walked away.
Benny’s inner voice said, Smooth.
“Shut up,” he muttered.
It was nearly full dark before Lilah came back into the house. She ignored Benny completely and went to the table and continued with the process of cleaning her gun as if nothing had happened. Nix locked the door and pulled the curtains over the window.
They built a small fire in the stove. They made and ate some food. They drank water from their canteens.
They slowly went crazy from waiting.
Lilah and Nix barely spoke to Benny. At first he felt bad about that, but as the evening wore on he began to resent them for it. An hour crawled by. Outside crickets pulsed in the grass, and a dry wind began to disturb the treetops.
They listened to it as they ate more of the beans and rice. Nix was the cook, and she added some onions, garlic, and spices from Brother David’s meager stores. Lilah could cook, but no one alive wanted to eat what she prepared; Benny could cook too, but he had no sense for seasoning. To him spices began and ended with salt and hot sauce.
Another half hour limped by them. Lilah gathered up every knife in the way station and began cleaning them. She placed them in a neat row.
“Are we just going to sit here?” Benny griped as he glared across the table at Lilah.
Nix gave him a cold look and flapped her hand. “There’s the door. No one’s forcing you to stay here.”
“Very funny.”
Lilah kicked the table very hard. “Nix is right. You are welcome to leave if you think you can do something useful.”
“Maybe I should.”
“Maybe you should,” Lilah agreed, getting in his face.
“Maybe you should,” Benny fired back. “We probably wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for you.”
Lilah looked totally perplexed. “What?”
“Oh, come on. You think this is all Chong’s fault, and maybe a lot of it is, but he wouldn’t even have come along on this dumb camping trip if it wasn’t for how he felt.”
Lilah blinked in surprise. “What?”
“You heard me. If you weren’t here, then there’s no way Chong would have come along. He’d be home safe.”
“Benny!” warned Nix, but Lilah cut in.
“Me? Why? What do I have to do with what he does?”
“Because he’s head-over-freaking-heels in love with you, Lilah. How can you be so freaking observant and not know-”