Faye snorted. Light and shadow played across her face, highlighting her crow’s feet and the frown lines around her mouth. “Doesn’t look like heading for Phoenix was such a good idea from where I stand.”
In the distance, pillars of black smoke dwarfed the skyscrapers wicking scarlet flames ever closer to the sky. The sunrise had painted a fuzzy, jaundiced ball over the jagged Superstition Mountains to the East. Ebony storm clouds spread like spilled ink on the western horizon and were cleaved apart by cracks of lightning.
Her nightmares were far more pleasant than this new world. They also contained fewer people, less rats and no out-of-control fires that were supposed to contain them. Soon she could walk away from it all. She just had to find the soldiers.
“That’s Phoenix. We’re going to Mesa.” Lifting her hand, she pointed out the right side of the bus.
The vehicle tilted as many passengers shuffled closer to the windows and pressed their noses against the glass. Seventeen may be dead but the rest were awake and, aside from a few snuffles, she hadn’t heard a single cough. How could that be?
Oscar ducked under Faye’s arm, crawled over the yellow line and sat on the top step. He swayed from side to side as he looked out the folding door’s spotted panes of glass.
“At least the fires seem to be out.” Faye tucked her pearls back into her dress.
Not with that much smoke still billowing. Great belches of gray rose from the ground, obscuring any buildings except those along the freeway.
“There’s nothing on the freeway that would burn.” But the bridges and overpasses could collapse. Tucson had taught her that. Yawning, Audra shook her head to try to clear it. Tears raced to her eyes blurring her vision. She blinked them away. It had been a long night.
Oscar twisted at the waist to look at her. “What if all the soldiers are dead?”
“Then we salvage what we can and push on.” She slapped on the turn signal. Weaving through a handful of abandoned vehicles, she worked her way to the right hand lane. Someone had cleared enough space for her vehicle to merge onto the 202. She hoped it was the military and not some parasite laying a trap for travelers.
“To where?” Faye shot back.
Audra sighed. Like I have all the answers. Most of you didn’t listen to me when I was trying to teach your little ingrates English, yet now I’m supposed to know everything. “Not everyone in the military can be dead. Someone flew those Army choppers and Air Force planes. We saw them just this morning and they were heading north.”
A lucky guess on her part since they’d set out last night. Of course, not everyone had gone with them. Most had stayed behind at the school. They weren’t her problem now. Neither were the two buses who hadn’t made it beyond Casa Grande. And, if they reached the soldiers, this lot wouldn’t be either.
She wouldn’t feel guilty about leaving them.
“North could be Flagstaff for all we know.”
A muffled sob rose from the back. Either someone new was sick or they’d discovered the person next to them was dead.
I can’t deal with this anymore. I can’t… She clamped down the thought. The opposite of can’t was death. She refused to die. “Then we will go to Flag and find them.”
“And how are we going to get there if we can’t go through Phoenix?”
“I’ll find a way.” Audra clamped her jaw closed. She’d go to Timbuktu to get rid of the woman. The engine grumbled as she climbed the onramp onto the Santan freeway. Merging, she blinked. The freeway was deserted. Four empty lanes as far as her eye could see. True, blowing smoke reduced that to a mile or so, but she’d take it.
“Missus S?”
“What is it, Oscar?”
“I’m glad we came with you.” His heel tapped out a beat on the floorboards. “You’re smarter than anyone I ever knowed. You can get us through this.”
Well, crap. Why did he have to go say something like that? Now, she couldn’t throw him off the bus, let alone correct his improper English. Most of the half-covered faces in the rearview mirror nodded. “Thank you, Oscar. I hope you’re right.”
For all our sakes.
“I am, Missus S.” He leaned against the dash and drummed on his leg. “I am.”
She cleared her throat and blinked rapidly to clear away the tears. Stupid smoke must be getting in her eyes.
“Breaker. Breaker. Two. Eight. This is seven-niner. Come back.”
Audra rolled her eyes at the gibberish crackling through the child’s walkie-talkie strapped to the dashboard in an old blue jean’s pocket. Mrs. Rodriquez had certainly thrown herself into bus driving with enthusiasm. Her passengers quieted and expectation hummed in the air. After seven hours of near silence someone outside their bus spoke, too bad it wasn’t a radio broadcast with an update.
“Can I answer, Missus S?” Oscar jumped to his feet. Steadying himself, he clutched the bar near her head, snagging a lock of her hair in the process.
Heat burned along her scalp at the pull. Leaning toward his hand, she eased the burn a little bit. “Sure.”
Faye snorted and plopped down on the seat behind Audra. “An adult should answer it. That toy is the only thing keeping us together.”
She was the only thing keeping them together. For some strange reason, people listened to her, followed her. Good Lord, when would it end?
Duct tape protested when Oscar pulled the walkie free. A corner of the empty pocket folded over. He squeezed the black button on the side and held the toy against his mouth. “This is bus twenty-eight, er, I mean two-eight coming back to you seven-niner.”
“Good morning two-eight,” Mrs. Rodriquez chirped.
Audra twisted her hands on the wheel. How could someone be so happy so early in the morning and without coffee, especially when they’d been up all night driving?
“We’re running low on gasoline.”
Audra bit her lip. The happy pronouncement was battery acid in a wound. No gas. No go. No soldiers. No safety. No rest. She eyed her own gas gauge. The red needle flirted with the bar just a hair above empty. The tank had been full since the schools were prepping to return to action when the Redaction had returned. She eyed the roadsign, mentally tallied the distance between them and the targeted campus. “How low are you? We’ve got twelve miles to go.”
“I’m near to coasting.” The chirp dulled in her voice. “And we have no idea how long the last twelve miles will take.”
Three other voices echoed Mrs. Rodriquez’s concerns. That made every driver in the convoy. Audra tapped her brakes as the smoke thickened.
“We can’t stop here!” Lurching to her feet, Faye swayed while standing on the yellow safety line. “I hear rats.”
Gray clouds pressed against the windshield and the sound of squeaks penetrated the bus. Rats. Audra’s toes curled in her cowboy boots. The flames herded them. She leaned forward until the steering wheel cut into her belly.
“Do you see the fire?”
Bending, Faye braced one hand on the dash. Her head turned from side to side. “It’s everywhere.”
Which meant they couldn’t stop or even slow down.
Oscar clicked the on/off button, punctuating the rat serenade with static. “What do you want me to say, Missus S?”
“Ask if anyone sees flames.” Her eyes strained to detect the red tongues of fire high above the sloping concrete walls. Rats streamed down the pink surface but didn’t swarm in a panic. Still, if they pulled off too soon, they’d be overrun and eaten by the fleeing vermin. Cold snaked down her spine. She’d seen it before. Please God, don’t let me ever see it again.
“Missus S wants to know if anyone can see where the fire is.”