Doc Harrison and the Apocalypse Page 15

  The tunnel levels off, and Julie rolls to a stop. “Hold up!”

  Mama Grren rushes past us toward the entrance.

  “She’s going back for her friends,” Julie says.

  The grren who saved the injured cub remains with us, and the cub’s crying softly.

  “Bastards,” Julie mutters. She tries to move forward to help the cub, maybe try to stop the bleeding, but they won’t let her…

  Tommy lowers his scarf. “Y’all okay?”

  “I’m good,” I say.

  “Same here,” Julie answers.

  I look around.

  My heart skips a beat. “Where’s Keane?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Tommy looks over his shoulder. “The boy was right on my wheel, just a few seconds ago!”

  “Keane?” I shout. “Keane?”

  No reply.

  I boot a pedal and whirl around, aiming for the entrance. “We need to get him.”

  “Stay put,” Tommy orders. “I’ll go.”

  “I’m coming.”

  “Son, am I speaking alien? I’ll be right back.”

  I gasp and imagine Keane lying in the dirt, bleeding to death. He’s clawing at the sand and calling for us, but his voice is barely a whisper.

  I’m beyond frustrated. “We can’t just sit here,” I tell Julie.

  She raises her brows. “Technically, we can stay here and look for Keane.”

  She’s right. I offer my hand. “Let’s do it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “A short jump. Come on!”

  “All right, if we get lost, we’ll do it together.” She grabs my hand, and I envision us outside the tunnel, just behind the boulders.

  Okay, so I’m a little off.

  We wind up behind the smoking remains of the hoverjet about two hundred feet from the rocks. We crouch behind a wing that juts from the sand like a shark’s dorsal fin.

  I catch a glimpse of Julie.

  Whoa. She’s wearing the nomad’s tunic and armor instead of the boy band shirt. Her hair’s still combed, the glasses still gone. She’s kept the eyeliner. And damn, she’s lost a lot of weight. Even her face has cleared up. They say girls mature faster than boys. Maybe that applies to gaining control over your persona, too.

  “Hey, you’ve been looking... uh, better.”

  “Yeah, I know, whatever. Where’s Keane?”

  “Hang on.” I scuttle along the wing to the opposite side.

  From here I can see the rocks, where Tommy’s found good cover. He’s down on a knee, staring through his rifle’s scope and panning the horizon.

  Behind him, Mama Grren paces near two friends who are in their bodies and lying there, dying. Maybe their personas were damaged too much like Keane was telling me, or maybe they just got hit the old fashioned way, with bullets tearing through flesh and blood. Either way, Mama Grren is howling up a storm... and if Tommy’s smart, he won’t go anywhere near her.

  My gaze continues past them, toward the foothills and the steeper banks, where the rocks and shrubs and sand form a carpet that rolls out forever.

  No shadows. No silhouettes of a person riding a bike.

  “Anything?” Julie asks me.

  “Nada.”

  “Keep looking.”

  I retrace our trail all the way back to the Palladium.

  There, portions of the great wall lie hidden behind dust clouds, and the gunfire and explosions continue—

  Along with the roars. The shouts. The strangled cries.

  I tremble and look toward a new sound.

  Off to our left, a four-wheeler with an open passenger’s compartment bounces along the ridge line with six nomads jammed into the seats

  I squint hard, wondering if I’ll spot Keane. He could’ve been cuffed and taken prisoner. The nomads’ goggles and head wraps make it difficult to tell them apart, but Keane’s much taller than them, and with a much longer neck. No, I don’t see him.

  A spotlight flicks on near the passenger’s side door.

  “Doc, get down,” Julie says.

  “Coming.”

  The light sweeps across the burning hoverjet—

  And finds the wing just above us.

  We duck and shove ourselves deeper into the sand.

  Julie’s back is mere inches from my nose. She’s sweating. Major body odor. And that’s strange—even our personas give off heat and breath and smells...

  “Okay, I think they’re leaving,” she says, and then crawls out for a look. “Yep.”

  “You think they got him?”

  “How? He was right behind us.”

  “You think he just took off?”

  She snorts. “Why?”

  “Maybe he just used us.” I’m already choked up. “But I thought we could help each other.”

  “Don’t make me cry,” she says.

  “Sorry. Come on. Let’s get back before Tommy does.”

  “Don’t get lost,” she warns me.

  I’m suddenly depressed. “Maybe I should.”

  I close my eyes and return to the tunnel. The first things I feel are the bike seat and my grip on the handlebars.

  Julie faces me, shaking her head. “This really sucks.”

  Tommy glides into the tunnel and squeezes his brakes. Mama Grren and two others bring up the rear. “I looked for tracks, but it’s too hard to see in the dark. Still a lot of traffic out there, too. But my guess is the boy didn’t get shot. He either got picked up... or he had another plan.”

  “Like what?” I ask.

  “Don’t know. It’s his party. We didn’t get invited.” Tommy lifts his chin at Julie. “Now Little Girl, I need you to talk to big mama. Tell her we’re not safe yet.”

  “Roger that.”

  Julie dismounts her bike and crosses to Mama Grren, who’s examining her wounded cub.

  I rub my eyes where the goggles dig into my skin. I’m just so bummed, but I can’t get all emotional. I just can’t.

  Tommy squeezes the back of my neck. “You did all right.”

  “I didn’t get shot, if that’s what you mean.”

  “I mean you remained calm under fire. Bravo Zulu.”

  I roll forward, pulling out of his grip. “So Keane’s gone. And now we’re alone.”

  “We still got a few friends. Of course, if we piss them off, they’ll eat us, but for now we’re good to go.”

  “Guys?”

  We look to Julie.

  “We’re going up to the Highlands with the grren. The tunnels will get us there.”

  “Good,” Tommy says. “Tell her we’re leaving now. Tell her I’m sealing off this entrance so they don’t follow. Don’t worry about the explosions.”

  “Okay. Not sure I can get all that, but I’ll try.”

  While Julie’s busy with that, I mention to Tommy that I have an idea.

  “That’s great, son, but we need to move.”

  “Yeah, but I was thinking I could go to the Hood. Maybe we can find Keane.”

  “Your dad told me all about the Community and the Hood. And that’s a good plan. But it’ll have to wait.”

  Some dirt falls from the tunnel ceiling—

  And into Tommy’s eyes.

  He glances up, listens a moment, and then throws down his bike and charges back toward the entrance.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  He’s gone for a few seconds...

  But then charges back like Indiana Jones with a giant rock at his shoulders. “They found us! We’re leaving now!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Friendship is a strange thing.

  When I was in middle school, I hung out with Ira Drazen and Ricardo Hernandez.

  We played the same games, read the same books, and laughed at the same YouTube videos.

  Some days we’d go to the mall and imagine we were this three-man action/adventure team on a mission. We all wore these cool G-Shock watches that looked huge on our skinny wrists. We were the Action Badasses, Incorporated.
Our logo was a dragon’s head surrounded by ninja darts.

  So, yeah, Ira and Ricardo were my best friends, and they slept over at my house every weekend for an entire summer.

  Bros forever, right?

  But then Ira’s dad forced him to play soccer, and we barely saw him anymore. Ricardo couldn’t play sports because of his asthma, but he started hanging out with gifted kids doing sciencey stuff, and we drifted apart.

  During freshman year at Winter Springs, we bumped into each other at registration. We were strangers all over again.

  Makes me wonder if we were being honest. Were we really friends, or were we just using each other to have fun?

  Or maybe that’s just life? That’s what you do?

  I don’t know. But I want to believe that Tommy’s my real friend. Nothing will ever come between us. Then again, I say he’s like my uncle (which makes him family), which means he doesn’t really count in this comparison. Damn.

  And then there’s Julie.

  We’ve been friends for our entire lives, and I’ve wanted so badly to be her boyfriend.

  But now everything’s changed.

  And when I tell her the truth, she may stop talking to me forever, let alone be my girlfriend.

  But do I even want that kind of relationship anymore? Can I ever look in her eyes and NOT see her father?

  And there’s Keane. I think he wants to be our friend. He needs people who care about him because he’s been through so much, but it’s hard to forgive us. I get that.

  He’s not a mean person. Just tortured.

  And now I can’t believe he’s gone. He didn’t seem like a liar. Okay, he kept secrets because he was told to, but when he realized we weren’t “normal,” he really tried to help.

  That says a lot. That says we shouldn’t give up on him.

  Maybe he was captured at the last second. Maybe he was forced to give up our location, and that’s how they found us.

  Maybe he didn’t stop being our friend.

  I wish I could get off this bike and go look for him, but all I can do is focus on Julie’s wheel.

  We race after the grren. Muffled explosions come from the rear. That’s Tommy blowing up the tunnel entrance.

  I slow down and look back. Where is he? I look again—

  And then... a shadow, the spitting of dirt beneath tires. A deep sigh. It’s him.

  “Tunnel came down,” he cries. “Think I bought us some time! Come on, now, son, pick it up!”

  * * *

  After pedaling for hours through crisscrossing tunnels that suggest the grren are more like giant moles than green tigers, we emerge near the top of a wooded valley.

  It’s quiet, peaceful, with the stars shining down on a river winding its way through the forest. In some areas where water remains calm, the stars gleam like the eyes of tiny fish along the surface.

  We glide down a rocky path beneath trees that make the sequoias in Northern California look like miniatures from a train set. I’m talking Return of the Jedi forest moon of Endor big. As we draw near, we’re like tiny action figures gliding under these enormous branches and limbs.

  I look across the valley, and I’m surprised again.

  Shocked, really. The trees there—every last one of them—have been leveled. It’s a mountainside of gigantic toothpicks lying across each other. Between some of the fallen trees comes a sprinkling of tiny blue lights. Strange...

  I’m reminded now of that black-and-white nuclear test footage from the 1950s, where houses just disintegrate in an instant. That’s what happened here, but our side of the valley must’ve been protected from the blast wave.

  We eventually roll up to a cave entrance concealed behind a long section of rock that acts like a half-open door. Just outside lie more piles of stone whose edges are covered in a furry growth like moss.

  The grren and her cubs go inside, but the grren who saved her injured cub blocks the entrance. We’re not allowed in. Julie says we can rest here.

  I climb off my bike and plop down on a particularly flat stone. The moment my butt hits the rock, my stomach growls like there’s an alien chest burster waiting to come out. I can’t remember the last time I ate.

  Julie sits across from me, and Tommy finds a spot a few rocks down. He looks toward the path, trying to make sure we haven’t been followed.

  I take a deep breath through my nose.

  The damp sand along the riverbank combined with the spicy scent from the trees is strong enough to make me sneeze. Even the small shrubs with their pointy leaves have a powerful odor, like the fresh basil or something.

  For a moment, I just listen. No recognizable bug sounds, but something different, a crackle like rain on high-tension power lines. I wonder what that is...

  “Looks clear for now,” Tommy finally reports. “Time for a SITREP.”

  “A what?” Julie asks.

  “A situation report,” I explain. “And the situation is that I’m thirsty and starving, and we’ve got nothing.”

  “Solid copy,” Tommy says. “Rule of threes.”

  “Can you stop talking in guy code please?” Julie asks.

  “Tell her,” Tommy orders.

  I nod. “Rule of threes. You can survive three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food.”

  “You memorized that?” she asks.

  “He sure did,” Tommy answers for me. “Glad I made him learn it, too, because now he gets it. And the clock’s already ticking.”

  “So we have air,” I say. “Could be contaminated, but Hollis said it’s worse near the city. We could be far enough way. And I’m sure we can find shelter. Maybe the grren can hook us up.”

  “And we could drink from the river,” Tommy suggests. “Might be clean. I’m sure the grren are using it.”

  “Or maybe it’s not water at all,” Julie says. “And don’t forget that anything could kill us here. Some little creature like a frog. This nasty stuff on the rocks. Anything. Be careful what you touch.”

  “Let’s not get too paranoid,” Tommy says. “Follow the grren’s lead. I believe they’ll keep us safe.”

  Julie shrugs. “I hope so. Anyway, I have a few questions.”

  I take a deep breath. “Uh-oh.”

  Tommy gives me a look, his face cast in darkness so I’m not sure if he’s worried or just warning me to keep my mouth shut. “Fire away,” he tells Julie.

  “Okay, so when they kidnapped us, you said he lied.”

  “I was talking about Doc’s father. We had a plan in case something happened, but he changed it without telling me. I was supposed to rescue you, but he had Hollis and the rest of the team send us here. Hollis linked up with Ms. Martha at the Palladium.”

  “Okay, but you also said that you needed Doc and I to find his father. Why both of us?”

  “Well, you know, two heads are better than one. Plus, you have your personas.”

  “Okay, but wait a minute. This means that Doc’s father trusted you with like... everything.”

  He shrugs. “Not sure what he saw in me. Maybe it was my military service, maybe something else. I’ll tell you what, when I saw his persona for the first time I thought, damn, this boy’s not lying. And then I was ready for a ride up to the mothership. He just laughed. Over the years, he told me stories about this place, about growing up here. It was pretty cool.”

  “And you never told anyone?”

  “I’m a Marine. My word is my bond.”

  Julie nods, satisfied with his answers. She turns her frown on me, and I squirm under her gaze. “So I heard you talking to those nomads.”

  “Yeah, I figured they might know something.”

  “About what?”

  I could tell her right now. I should.

  I’m scared.

  “I thought they might know where the engine is.”

  She frowns. “What engine? That thing you were talking about when we first got here?”

  “Yeah, remembe
r? So, anyway, Hollis told me about it.”

  “What else did he tell you?”

  “A lot of stuff.”

  Julie hardens her eyes. “If you’re holding back something because you’re trying to protect me, don’t.”

  “I’m just saying we need to find the engine. If we do that, we can get home.”

  She thinks a moment. “Do we even want to go back?”

  “Excuse me? This place is nuked. And didn’t you just say that anything could kill us?”

  “Doc, think about it. We’re not humans. Earth’s not our real home. Our parents lied to us about everything. We go back, we’re freaks. They’ll send us to that Area 57 place and lock us up forever.”

  “It’s Area 51, and you don’t know that. And our parents were just trying to protect us.”

  “Well, that didn’t work out so well, did it?”

  “I guess not.”

  “So we’re screwed either way.”

  “Look, you’re just mad right now, but we have to go back. You know why? Because I think my father’s still there. I think he’s being forced to do something really bad.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like another apocalypse.”

  “Who’s forcing him?”

  I glance at Tommy for some reassurance, but he’s just waiting on me. It’s my decision now. How much of the truth will I tell her?

  “Doc, I asked you a question. Who’s forcing your father to do this?”

  “His name is Solomon.”

  “You asked the nomads about him.”

  “Yeah, he was my dad’s old research partner. He got left behind after the nukes went off. He put together the nomad army, and then he built himself an engine. He used it to go back to Earth and kidnap my father—and now we need to stop him.”

  “We as in us?”

  “I know this sounds insane.”

  “Sounds like a job for the Corps,” Tommy says. “Oorah.”

  Julie bolts to her feet. “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, we’re going, Julie. All of us.”

  “So we’re supposed to find this engine, zap ourselves back to Earth, somehow stop this Solomon guy, and rescue your father. Am I missing anything?”

  “Nope, that about does it.”

  She sighs through her teeth and then shouts, “We don’t even know where to start!”