The Nightworld (13 page)

Chapter 25

Zeke is gone in the morning when I go out to the living room. Lara and Kath are fussing over Tank, who looks at me like he knows I’m an old friend but he’s forgotten my name because his new friends are so much better. I make a face at him.

“Morning.”

Lara turns, and her smile is like the sun. “I have some breakfast waiting for you.”

“You’re both going to spoil that dog.”

Kath grins. “He’s so sweet! I already fed him breakfast; some of the canned Spam. He loved it! But we’ll have to see if we can’t find some dog food.”

“Thanks, Kath. But don’t spoil him too much.” I shake my finger at her and follow Lara into the kitchen. There’s a box of Cheerios on the counter and a can of peaches next to it. Lara gets a bowl out of the cupboard.

“We’re out of milk now, but the peach juice from the can actually tastes decent with Cheerios.” She hands me the can opener.

“Who would have thunk it?” I open the can and fork out the peaches, then pour the juice over some cereal. She’s right; it’s good. “Thanks, Lara. Where’s Zeke off to this morning?”

“He went to see if he could find some more supplies. He said he thought if he left really early it might be quieter on the street.”

“He seems . . . intense.”

She nods. “He’s been through a lot. I mean, I guess we all have. It affects people in weird ways.”

I rinse out my bowl and spoon and we go join Kath in the living room. Tank is still in canine nirvana, getting his ears rubbed.

I look around; the plastic hanging in front of the windows drifts in the heated air put out by the gas fireplace. “That to keep the light in here from showing on the street?”

Lara nods. “We figured better safe than sorry. They look for it from street level and then break in if they can. Before the news reports stopped, we heard they were killing people for their blankets.”

I decide to try to talk with just the girls about leaving. “How long do you figure you can hold out here?”

Kath looks up. “Where else can we go?”

I tell them about the scribbled note on the desk calendar at Charlie’s. About the geothermal guy. “I wonder if there isn’t something there, someplace where people are making it work. Someplace better than this, anyway. The guy on the website was some sort of scientist.”

Kath gets up to go check the stairwell door for Zeke. Lara waits for her to leave before she says anything.

“Zeke will never go for it.” She scrunches Tank’s fur on his shoulders. “He believes Meagan is still alive. He wants to find her. I think that’s where he is now, really. Not that he isn’t keeping an eye out for food or whatever, but I think he’s out trying to find her.”

“Do you think she’s still alive?”

“Honestly?” She looks sad. “No. I think they probably killed her pretty soon after they took her. Or traded her to somebody else who did.”

I’m thinking about that, about what “pretty soon after” means in a world like the one down on the street, where kids are cutting off fingers, when Kath comes back into the room, Zeke right behind her. He’s empty-handed, but he’s flushed with excitement. He looks like he’s been running.

“Listen.” He paces the room, agitated. Tank watches him, ready to growl. “I was at the Mexican grocery store, you know that one on Third? I thought I would chance it, see if anybody overlooked a couple of cans of something. And I ran into these two guys.”

“Crazies?” Kath looks scared.

“I don’t know.” Zeke looks almost manic. “They weren’t in the getup—no black-jacket stuff. They almost got the drop on me, but I managed to get one of them covered. I told the other guy I’d kill his buddy if he made a move.”

“Zeke, sit down. You’re freaking Tank out.” Kath pats the seat next to her.

He ignores Kath and continues to pace. “These guys—one of them looked to me like one of the guys that night . . . the night they took Meagan. I decided to interrogate them. So I asked them if they knew about her. And they said they
did
. They said they can get to her!” He looks at me, a weird intensity in his eyes.

I don’t think I like where this is going.

“Wait, you think one of them was one of the crazies from the night Brian died?” Lara is shaking her head.

“I know he was, Lara!” Zeke is breathing like he just ran a race. “They can get Meagan. Not for nothing, of course, but I told them we had something they might want.”

“Like what?” I’m afraid I already know the answer.

“Your thing.” Zeke looks defiant. “That thing that makes light. I’m going to trade it for Meagan.”

“Wait.” I’m not about to offer up my dad’s device for a scam. “
You
told them about Meagan, Zeke. They didn’t tell you. They just said what you wanted to hear once they knew you had something they wanted. There’s no reason to believe they know anything about her.”

Zeke stops pacing for a minute. He looks confused, but then he shakes his head. “No. No, they knew. And my sister’s life is worth more than that stupid toy of yours.” He stands in front of me, towering over me. “Those guys want it. When I told them it made light, they were all over it. They said they would get Meagan, no problem, and I know they can. They had walkie-talkies, and they contacted their headquarters right in front of me.”

The sound of static, the clipped orders coming over the two-way radio in my bedroom, the smell of the gunpowder in the air when they were gone, leaving Dad dead on the floor.

“Did you tell them about this apartment?”

“What, do I look stupid or—”

“Did you tell them where we are, Zeke?” I stand up and meet him head-to-head.

“Zeke.” Kath stands and goes to him. She turns him toward her and takes his hands, tries to steady him. “Honey, it’s okay. We all miss Meagan, but she’s gone, Zeke. She’s dead.”

The slap comes lightning fast. “Don’t you ever say that.” Zeke’s voice is low, and he’s shaking now. I put myself between him and Kath.

“You need to go calm down. Go calm down.”

“Go fuck yourself.” Zeke storms out, slamming the apartment door behind him. We all hear the door to the stairwell slam too.

He still isn’t back after dinner, and Kath is practically beside herself. She’s also got a huge black eye from where Zeke slapped her. Lara has been switching out cool cloths for her, but all Kath wants to do is check the stairwell door to see if he’s come back.

“You guys go to bed,” she says, waving us away. “I’ll just wait up, and as soon as he’s back I’ll crash too.”

Lara shrugs at me, and we finally do leave Kath to her thoughts. I’m beat, and I say good night to Lara at the door to her room, but she follows me down the hall to mine.

“I don’t really want to be alone tonight, Nick.” Lara stares at the carpet instead of looking at me. She looks so tired, and yet she looks tough too. There’s something about her that’s totally different from how she was in school. I wonder if I seem different to her too.

“I don’t know what kind of guy you think I am, but all I’m willing to do is spoon.” I wait for her to look up, and when she does I grin. She looks relieved, and I know I’ve said the right thing. We climb into the bed and heap the blankets over us. And we spoon, and I think I sleep the sweetest sleep I ever have, just holding her close.

Chapter 26

I don’t want to be awake, but I am. I wish Lara and I could just go on sleeping, so warm, so close. But we can’t. I rub the fuzziness out of my eyes and stretch. I automatically check the clock radio on the nightstand, even though the power has been off and on for days and it won’t tell me anything true. That’s when I see it.

The low light from the nightstand lamp is enough to reveal that the box is gone. I left the device in its box on the nightstand, and it’s not there.

“Shit.” I’m out of bed and on my way to the living room in less than thirty seconds. Kath is asleep on the couch. I touch her shoulder.

“Kath?”

“Hmm?” She doesn’t wake all the way. Lara’s up now too, looking at me with alarm.

“What’s going on?”

“That device—the thing my dad made. It’s gone. Where’s Zeke?”

“Oh, no.” Kath is awake now. She sits up and holds her head in her hands. She starts to rock back and forth. “Oh, no. He promised me he wouldn’t do it. He promised me he wouldn’t.”

“What?” I can’t believe it. “What, Kath? It’s Zeke, right?”

She nods. “He showed up really late. He tried to talk me into going with him, but I said no. I said you were right, that those guys were trying to trick him. He wouldn’t listen at first, but then he finally acted like he’d had time to think, and he agreed with me. I should have known better than to believe him.”

“Going with him where, Kath? Did he say where?” Lara is pulling on her shoes. She’s looking around the room for something—her coat, which she finally spots on the back of the couch and throws on too.

“He said they were meeting him behind Rosy’s.” Kath is up, pulling on boots. “Where’s my damn jacket?”

I run to the bedroom to get my shoes and my gun. When I get back to the living room, the girls are waiting at the door. They each have a pistol.

“You both sure?”

They don’t even bother to answer.

The alley behind Rosy’s is dirty. Overturned garbage cans spew rotted food. It’s hard to tell, because there’s no light back here, so their eyes don’t glint, but I think I see the movement of rats.

Zeke is crouching behind a Dumpster. He hears us coming, and when he turns, he’s holding his gun. Not pointing at us, but close. In his other hand, he’s holding the box with the device.

“Zeke.” Lara reaches him first. She stops three feet away. “Don’t do this. Those guys are lying to you. They’ll probably kill you.”

“You there, Zeke?” The voice comes from about thirty feet down the alley. I can make out another Dumpster down there; they’re probably using it for cover. I wish I could tell how many are there.

“Yeah.” Zeke yells out the word without taking his eyes off us. “You got Meagan?”

“She’s not here, Zeke. The deal was that we get her from those scum and take her to a safe house. Once you deliver the device, then we reveal the location, and you go get her and take her home.”

Zeke looks at us, excitement and triumph shining in his eyes. He mouths a word.
See?

“Ask them how you know she’s safe, Zeke.” I’m stalling. I wonder if we could take them if we knock Zeke out and all three go in, guns blazing. I hear the crackle of one of their two-way radios, and my heart sinks. That noise is all too familiar. Is it possible that the guys who killed my dad could have tracked me here? Have they been watching Lara’s house, waiting for one of us to come out, a weak link to try to get to me? “Zeke. The guys who killed my dad were carrying the same radios.”

He shakes his head. “Lots of guys have radios, Nick.” But even as he utters the words, he seems to realize they’re not true. Nobody has radios. At least nobody we know.

“How do I know she’s safe, guys?” Zeke shouts, angry. He keeps his eyes on me, but I know somehow that it’s not me he’s angry at; it’s the whole thing. It’s the cold. It’s the fear. It’s the dark.

“You’ve got our word, Zeke. She’s such a sweet little thing. It’s great we could get her out of there before something bad happened to her.”

Zeke’s face crumples. “She is a sweet little girl, isn’t she?” He swallows. “Did she ask you to read her a bedtime story?”

The guy answers right away. “She did—she wanted
Snow White
.”

I hear Lara gasp.

“What?” I look from Lara to Zeke, but neither one says anything.

“Meagan’s at least six feet tall.” Lara’s whispering. “She’s Zeke’s fraternal twin. He calls her his little sister because she was born eleven minutes after him. But she’s the same age—seventeen.”

They don’t have her. Zeke knows it too, from the look on his face.

For a moment I think he’s going to cry, but he tightens his jaw and takes a long, shuddering breath. He looks at Kath, shaking his head.

“You gotta run,” he says softly. “I didn’t tell them where we live, but they’ll come looking.” He flips the box at me; I’m not sure what’s happening, but I catch it. And then Zeke is gone. He’s walking around the Dumpster, gun in hand, toward them.

There’s a sudden flurry of movement behind the other Dumpster; static crackles. A floodlight switch gets thrown, and Zeke is illuminated with a harsh glare.

“Where’s the device, Zeke?”

Zeke doesn’t say anything. He just keeps walking. Kath lunges to stop him, but Lara manages to hold her back.

One more time the voice from the other side shouts, “Where is the device?”

Lara loses her grip. I try to grab Kath, but she twists away from me and runs into the floodlight, toward Zeke. At the same time, Zeke raises his gun and shouts out at the night sky.

“Same place my little sister is, you assholes!” He pulls the trigger.

Immediately the air is filled with the deafening sound of automatic-rifle fire. Kath reaches Zeke just as he falls, and she’s caught in the rainstorm of bullets. I duck back behind the Dumpster. Lara is staring, transfixed. I grab her arm and pull, running as fast as I can, half dragging her along. The sound of the rifles doesn’t stop.

Chapter 27

We do a quick check to make sure no one has disturbed the entry to the apartment while we’ve been out, and we grab my backpack and Lara’s and get ready to make a run for it. No time for anything but the smallest stash of food and water, and we’re off. Tank senses that something is wrong and he follows close, moving silently. I’m trying to think, but I feel like I’m in shock—everything seems to be going by really slowly, and it’s like I’m seeing it from inside one of those old-fashioned goldfish bowls. I keep us moving for a half hour, until we’re both so out of breath we can’t keep running.

The street we’re on looks deserted, but they all do now, so that doesn’t mean we’re safe. There are plenty of smashed-in storefront windows, and the rubble on the sidewalk keeps tripping us in the dark. I duck through the door of what looks like an abandoned diner.

It’s empty in front. I leave Lara with Tank and check the back rooms. There’s a small office and a storage room. Inside it, there’s a walk-in pantry. I go back out front and get Lara and Tank. We all collapse on the floor at the back of the pantry. Tank’s panting is the loudest sound; I can barely make out the shape of his head in the gloom.

“What do we do?” Lara sounds hopeless. I wish I had an answer for her. I keep seeing Kath’s body in my mind, jerking in the floodlight as the bullets hit it.

We can’t stay in this diner too long. It’s too open, too exposed. We can’t go back to the apartment, because for all we know Zeke got tailed there last night. For a second it all feels so hopeless.

“Don’t never give up.” I see Gus, raising his hand good-bye. “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

I rip open my backpack and dig through it, and there they are. The set of keys Gus gave me. The locker with the bicycle in it. If it’s big enough to hold a bike, it’s probably big enough for the three of us to hole up in, at least for the night. I unroll the paper with the locker’s address written on it and show it to Lara.

“Do you know where this is?”

She takes it. “Yeah. It’s a self-storage place off Madison. It’s not far from here. What is it?”

“I think for tonight it’s home.”

We make our way to the storage facility address. The front door is wide open. I scope out the hallway. There are metal rollup doors lining both sides of the hall, and ours is all the way at the end. The place looks surprisingly undisturbed; I guess the locks must be pretty good.

“It looks clear,” I whisper. Lara nods. We scoot to the door with the number twelve on it. The key fits the lock and we’re inside in no time. It’s pitch black. Lara finds her flashlight and turns it on.

It’s a pretty large unit. There’s nothing in it except a large, lumpy shape at the back, covered with a canvas tarp.

“Shine it here?” I point at the door. Lara directs the light to me, and I see that there’s a manual latch on the inside of the unit. I shove it hard into place and hope it will keep us safe tonight. I walk toward the back.

“Let’s check it out—maybe we can make that tarp our mattress for the night.”

I tug it and it slips off, sliding to the floor with a scratchy sound. Lara whistles.

“That,” says Lara, “is our ride to Detroit.”

What I assumed must be a ten-speed bike when Gus talked about it has turned out to be a huge, powerful-looking motorcycle. I don’t know what kind it is, but it looks vintage. There’s room for both of us on the double saddle of the seat. And the best part? It has a sidecar.

“Looks like you’re in luck, buddy.” I scratch Tank’s ear. “Your chariot awaits.”

The gas tank is empty, but there’s a can of gas that smells fresh enough. I wonder when the last time Gus rode this was—it looks polished and ready to go.

“If this thing starts, we’re heading out tomorrow morning.” I look at Lara to see what she will say. She nods.

“Look.” She reaches into the sidecar and fishes out a brown envelope. Inside are some newspaper clippings. Lara unfolds one, and there’s a photograph of this bike, with a man on the seat and a lady sitting in the sidecar, wearing an old-fashioned hat. The caption reads “Agustus Gannon, with his wife, Irene.” There’s an article that goes with the photo.

“Wow.” Lara is smiling. I realize I am too. I wonder where Gus is now. I hope he’s still alive. I hope he found his family. If nothing else, I hope he managed to scavenge himself another six-pack.

Lara and I make a bed out of the tarp, and we’re so tired that we’re asleep before we can do so much as curl up into each other. I know Tank will warn us if anybody tries the door. Even though it’s only been a matter of hours since we woke up to find Zeke gone, so much has happened that our brains just need to shut down.

I dream about sunlight. It’s coming down from the sky through tree branches, dappling everything with a beautiful warm glow. I feel a breeze, and the light plays on the ground, changing as the branches move. There’s green grass; I think I’m in a park not far from my house. When I look ahead, I can see Lara, and Charlie. They’re sitting on a park bench, laughing about something. There’s a man sitting with them, facing away from me—when he turns, I can see it’s Dad. He smiles, waves toward me. He’s saying something, but I can’t hear him. . . .

I wake in the dark, the cold from the cement floor penetrating all the way to my bones. The dream is over. Time to move.

We pack all of our stuff into the nose of the sidecar and belt Tank into the seat with some canvas strapping we found in the corner. It’s as close to a safety belt as I can get, and I think he’s secure. I pour some of the gas into the bike’s tank and stow the rest in the sidecar next to Tank. Lara stands by the door, ready to open it as soon as the bike starts,
if
it does. I turn on the ignition, mentally cross my fingers, and give it a kick-start.

The bike lives! The rumble of the motor is so loud inside the storage garage that we can’t hear anything else. Tank doesn’t love it when the motor starts, but he has no time to protest because as soon as it does, Lara throws the door open, hops on the seat behind me, and I drive the bike down the hall and out onto the street. Lara has her gun out and ready, with mine tucked in her belt. I head for the freeway ramp we mapped out a few blocks away.