In a Handful of Dust (31 page)

Ben crossed his arms, and Lander pulled her back up to face him. “Well, I can’t be held responsible for the quality,” Ben said. “It’s the quantity that’s the problem. Nora and I had a long talk about swelling a few years ago, and I figured out that if we broke every bone in their bodies first, there was a much better yield.”

Lucy went over into her own mess then, kicking Ben’s bucket away from her and spilling the pink water over his pants. Ben wiped at his jeans, looking distastefully at the spreading stains.

Flat on her stomach, Lucy stared at the pile of red that had once been human beings—three men, she guessed—and the tiny amount of water that had come out of the bucket she’d kicked. “What a waste,” she cried into the sand, her tears drying on her cheeks before they could cut tracks in the dirt griming her skin.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Ben said, hands on his hips. “True, we can’t cook them long before they start to rot, but everything left over goes right into the garden for the plants.”

Lucy dry-heaved, her stomach clenching so tightly she cried out with the pain of it.

“What?” Ben asked. “I thought you liked tomatoes?”

The ride into the city was silent. Lucy sat in the backseat, the blooming hope of a new life here having been plucked and withered within a short time. The emptiness swelled again, making her limbs so heavy Lander had to carry her to the room she shared with Nora. The older woman gave her a smile and tucked her into bed, explaining in her calm and reassuring voice that there was no other way.

“Now do you understand why we need you to witch for us, and to do it well, little one?”

“I can’t find water if it’s not there,” Lucy said. “If the veins dry out, that’s not my fault.”

“It’s not about fault,” Nora said. “It’s just important you know the situation. We’ve been adding the water Ben’s machine gathers to what we had left of the pool and fountain water.”

“Why don’t you say what it is?” Lucy asked. “It’s not water you’ve
gathered
. You killed for it pure and simple, and you’re drinking . . . I’ve drunk . . .” Her lungs hitched, spiking her blood pressure and sending black dots across her vision.

“All right, that’s enough,” Nora said sternly, pushing Lucy back onto her pillow. “I understand you’ve got your reservations about the process, but you’ll understand in time. And remember, if it weren’t for our ways we’d have been dead in this city long ago, and you on the road with no one to save you.”

Lucy nodded meekly.

“Good then.” Nora smiled. “You get some sleep for now. We can talk about it more in the morning.”

Nora slid into her own bed, and Lucy listened to her breathing even out and soon hitch with the light snore she’d become accustomed to hearing. Once she knew Nora was deep asleep, she slid from bed, dressed in her threadbare clothes from the road, and dug in her pack for the two Tasers Ben had given her.

“Sorry, Nora,” she said, before striking. “I kinda liked you.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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S
he’d never been in the hallway in the middle of the night. The blackness was so deep Lucy couldn’t see her hand in front of her face, and had to feel the walls until she reached the stairwell. The walk felt infinite because of her blind, measured steps, and the slow simmer of panic began deep in her gut as Lucy wondered if she’d made a mistake and was on the wrong side of the hall. If Nora was conscious before they were gone, she could only imagine what Lander and Ben would do. She doubted the grisly contraption in the desert was the only machine Ben had created.

The stairwell door wheezed open beneath her hand and she inched forward, toes reaching for the drop-off of the first step, hands flailing for the railing. She found it and latched on, counting each step and sliding her foot forward once she reached the landing, her hands following the curve of the railing as she made the turn to the next set of stairs. The barest smear of gray marked the window in the stairwell door, and Lucy emerged into the lobby to the pulsing light of clouds racing across the face of the moon.

She hit the outside doors at a run now that she could see, the cool desert air threaded through with the smell of rain rolling in. A bank of black clouds lined with the reflected silver of the moon were piling on top of each other to the west, and Lucy could smell the electricity in the air. A storm was coming. A homegrown surge of elation at the promise of rain lent new strength to her legs, and Lucy sprinted past the sand-filled fountains into the lobby of the hotel Lynn now shared with Lander and Ben.

Lucy burst into the lobby and came to a sudden halt. She had no idea where Lynn would be. She could assume Lander and Ben would live on the first floor, as the rising heat would make it unbearable to live any higher. They would probably have Lynn nearby to keep an eye on her, but Lucy could hardly go down the hall knocking on doors when she didn’t even know which room Lander and Ben used.

“Shit,” she said to herself. Lucy peered into a window, teeth sinking into her lip as she thought. A fat drop of rain hit the glass, sliding down to leave a streak in the grime, and inspiration struck. Lucy raced outside, looking for a fluttering curtain. Even though nights were cool, the trapped air inside still baked with the heat of the day long into the night, and Lucy slept with her window open, anxious for the freshness of outside air.

She could only hope Lynn did too.

The face of the hotel stared at her blankly, curtains drawn. A rumble of thunder rolled through the desert, shaking the ground beneath her feet. Lucy’s panic grew with it, taking over her body and sending a spasm of fear down her spine. She ran to the back of the hotel, tripping over her own feet in her haste and flying out of control, skidding on her knees and crying out as her jeans gave way and then her skin.

Lightning flickered and she pulled her knees up to her chin, the black threads of blood mixing with the tattered denim. Tears of frustration pooled in her eyes, and Lucy swiped at them viciously as she tried to stand. The thunder boomed again, seconds after the lightning, and this time the vibration was so great Lucy could hear thousands of windows rattling in their panes.

Movement caught her eye and Lucy lunged for the Taser, springing to her feet. Only a few feet away a white hand was pressed against the window, aching to touch the fat spattering of raindrops as they struck the glass.

“Lynn,” Lucy breathed, but the other woman hadn’t seen her yet, only drawn to the window by the storm. Lucy shuffled toward her, wincing with pain as the newly exposed pink skin on her knees stretched with every movement. The top of her head barely reached the windowsill, and she had to stand on her tiptoes to reach the glass, her own hand spread against it.

Soon she felt the answering warmth of Lynn’s hand pressed against hers from the other side.

There was a guard at Lynn’s door, a man whom Lucy had exchanged nods with as she passed him in the city from day to day. He was asleep, and the gray line of light that fell from Lynn’s cracked door made his spasms all the more gruesome as Lucy tased him. She hadn’t been able to see the grimaces of pain on Nora’s face, only hear the bucking as she convulsed in the dark. When he was still, Lucy looked up at Lynn, hating the tears that ran down her face as she did.

“Huh,” Lynn said. “I guess those things are useful after all.” She was dressed in her clothes from the road, her backpack drawn tight against her shoulder blades.

“We have to be fast,” Lucy said, as Lynn dragged the unconscious man into her room and shut the door behind them. “I knocked Nora out too. Once they find out, we’re dead.”

“Probably,” Lynn agreed. “But we can’t leave without my gun. There’s more danger between here and Sand City. We can’t face it with two Tasers that’ll run out of batteries.”

“Shit, Lynn,” Lucy said. “We have to go
now
! They’re . . .” Her words failed, cut off in her throat by the memory of dark red against white sand. “They’re drinking people.
We’ve
been drinking people.”

Lynn took one Taser from Lucy, face grim. “I’m not going to ask what you mean by that until we’re out of here. In the meantime, I’m sorry if this hurts much.”

“If what hurts?” Lucy asked a second before Lynn zapped her.

Lucy felt a strange vibration coursing through her body, and her wounded knees gave out underneath her as she slid to the floor. “What the hell?” she asked Lynn, curling into the fetal position.

“I set it real low, but you’ve still got a mark from it. Can you stand?”

“I think so.” Lucy pulled herself to her feet using the foot of the bed. “So now what?”

Lynn’s mouth set in a grim line as the storm clouds enveloped the moon, leaving the room one shade above black. “Now we go get my gun back.”

Lucy sank back against Lynn’s strength as they stood before Lander’s door, the metal prongs of the Taser biting deep into her neck.

“Knock,” Lynn said, and she did, the sound echoing eerily down the empty hall.

Lander answered quickly, already awakened by the storm. If finding Lucy held captive on his doorstep in the middle of the night threw him in any way, he did not show it. Instead he smiled at Lynn over her shoulder.

“I’ve been hoping you’d come to me in the night sometime, but not quite like this.”

“I want my gun, and I want keys to one of the cars,” Lynn said. “I know you’ve got both of them squared away in your room, so let’s make it easy and be done with it.”

Lander shrugged. “Or what?”

The prongs dug deeper into Lucy’s neck, and she felt a trickle of blood slip down her skin. “I’ll do her in, Lander, don’t think for one second I won’t.”

The big man’s eyes searched Lynn’s, then Lucy’s, sliding off her face down to the burn mark left on her collarbone from the earlier shock. “You’re a cold woman, Lynn.”

A white sheet flipped off the second bed in the room, and Ben staggered from the darkness, eyes heavy with sleep. “What’s going on?”

The jolt of electricity going into her neck sent Lucy to the ground in an instant, her teeth grinding against one another.

“Holy shit,” she heard Ben say. “She actually did it.”

Lynn’s hand was on her neck and hauling her to her feet before Lucy trusted her own legs, and she buckled slightly against the older woman.

“And I’ll keep doing it, ’til she’s of no more use and you all die a dry death.”

Lander watched the two of them, his mind moving much faster than Lucy’s as she struggled to stay on her feet. “I don’t know I need her all that much, really. Ben says she was confident about those flags yesterday, wasn’t she, son?”

Ben came forward to stand next to his father. “She was,” he said enthusiastically. “Although if you think sticking her again might make Dad change his mind, go ahead and do it. I haven’t seen a girl dance in a long time.”

“Listen,” Lynn said, her voice barely masking the beginnings of a quiver. “I don’t—”

“LANDER!” Nora’s scream ripped down the hall, her robe flapping behind her making her seem like a white specter in the darkness. She ran awkwardly, limbs still deadened by the jolt Lucy had given her. “She’s got away from me!”

Lynn turned toward this new threat, and Lucy’s legs collapsed without her support. Nora careened to a halt, grabbing the doorway to stop herself and glaring at the huddled form in the darkness of the hall.

Lucy peered up at her, a new kind of electricity surging through her limbs as her body warned her to get up, to get away from Nora, seconds before the older woman fell on her.

“You ungrateful little
bitch
!” Nora screamed, blood trickling from one nostril as she smacked at Lucy’s face. Lucy fended off her blows, scooting herself up against the wall. From the corner of her eye she saw Lynn barrel into Lander with all her strength, barely knocking him off his feet. The two of them rolled into Ben together, sending him into the wall. The hard
click
of Ben’s teeth slamming together ricocheted around the room, and the moon came back out for another moment, turning the blood that flowed from his mouth a dark purple and starkly illuminating his own fascination with it as he lifted his stained fingers in front of his face.

Lucy pulled her Taser from her belt and slammed it against Nora’s torso, forcing the other woman away from her before delivering the shock. Nora jerked and was still, a matching stream of blood now flowing from the other nostril.

Lynn screamed as Lander bent her arm behind her back, forcing her face down into the carpet and digging his knee into her spine. Lucy dove for Lynn’s Taser, knocked free during their struggle. Lander let her have it, eyes watching her as she rose.

“I’ve got all kinds of ways I can hurt this one, little girl,” he said, teeth stained with blood from where Lynn had got a good kick in. “You know I will.”

Bright-blue electricity jumped from the prongs. “Get off of my mom.”

Lander bent Lynn’s arm upward. She writhed but refused to cry out, bringing a blood-tinged smile to his face. “She’s not your mom.”

“The hell she isn’t,” Lucy said, grabbing Ben from where he lay and digging both Tasers into either side of his neck. “Now you give her back to me or Ben’s dead, and not missed by many.”