Emmy's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

They ran until the town was a smear behind them and the scrub opened into low dune country. Julius kept the blue device tucked against his chest. Bethany held Emmy's hand so tight it hurt. Emmy did not let go. "Slow," Julius said. "Walk now. Running spikes your heat." He dialed something on the device. The blue light dimmed. "Cache is close. We move to it, we sit, we plan." Emmy studied him. She had only known his name for an hour. He was big through the shoulders, bald, tattoos crawling down both arms. He kept scanning the ridge while he talked. He had not looked her in the eye once. That was fine. He had kept Bethany alive. "Emmy," Bethany said. Her voice cracked. "This is Julius. He found me the day after. I was under a car and he pulled me out." "The camp," Emmy said. "Bethany. The camp." Bethany's mouth worked before the words came. "They came in through the wall. The light, and then the quiet. I saw them take Marcy. I saw them take the twins. Most of them, baby. Most of them didn't run fast enough. I ran. I hid in a drain until morning." Emmy kept walking. She had known. Hearing it was different. "Thomas," she said. "My dad. He got out. He's at a place with walls. Real walls. People with guns." Bethany stopped. "He's alive?" "He's alive." Bethany pressed a hand over her mouth and kept walking. Julius led them off the track toward a broken building sunk in rubble. Half a wall stood. The rest was a pile of stone and brick baked pale by the sun. He crouched at the base of the standing wall and pulled loose stones aside until a green ammo can showed. "Two rifles," he said, lifting them out. "Ammunition. Water. Ration bars. A second panel like this one, half charge." He handed a bottle to Emmy first. She drank. It was warm and it was the best thing she had tasted in a week. "Where were you going?" she asked. "Before them." Julius sat back on his heels. "North. Mountains. I heard a man up there can't be seen by the Vael at all. Not masked. Shielded. If it's true, we find him, we learn how." He looked at Bethany. "That was the plan. Then the six cornered us on the roof." "He's real?" Emmy asked. "Rumor is real. Man, I don't know yet." Emmy set the bottle down. Thomas was behind walls. Her camp was gone, most of it. But a man in the mountains could not be seen. If that was true, he could go anywhere. He could go where the Vael kept the ones they took. "I'm coming with you," she said. Julius finally looked at her. He nodded once, the same hard nod he had given from the roof. "Then we move at dusk," he said.