They met no reapers on the road.
They wanted to. It would have been satisfying in the worst possible way.
The road was open and empty.
Miles melted away behind them, but the road was so long and straight and the scenery so repetitive that it felt like they were standing in place. Only the movement of the fuel gauge seemed to add perspective to their flight. The endless whine of the motors became a mind-numbing monotony, but beneath it was the rage and the fear. Nobody wanted to quit.
They drove in a ghastly silence, each of them in a different kind of pain.
Except for Lilah. She rode beside Chong, and most of the times Benny looked back at them, she was smiling.
Strange girl, he thought, and he wondered if this meant that she would regain all the developmental ground she’d lost since Chong got sick. Would the joy of having her “town boy” be enough to carry her through the coming years of dealing with the limitations of his illness and the risk of contagion?
For now, though, she was happy. It was the only bright spot in their day.
Riot? She was gone. She rode the bike with competence, and during rest times she did her share of the chores without protest or comment. But she was gone. Benny reckoned that most of her was still inside a stone bunker with a small figure who lay on a makeshift bed. Maybe part of her would always remain in that dreadful place.
The day burned down. They lost time going offroad to avoid clogged highways, washed-out bridges, roving packs of zoms, and collapsed buildings. Each lost minute hurt Benny; each wasted hour was like a knife in his heart. They pushed on until Benny’s fuel indicator was nearly buried near the outskirts of Benton, California. According to the map they had to cut through the town, and they didn’t want to do that at night. Not as tired as they were. So they took shelter in a house trailer that had been part of a construction site before First Night.
While Lilah changed the dressing on Benny’s back, Nix filled Riot and Chong in on the flight to find McReady and the battle under Sanctuary. Benny began cringing when Nix got to the part about Archangel, but Riot said nothing.
Chong said, “Guys, we’re busting our butts to get home to warn everyone, but let’s face it, this is really bad.”
“I’ve been thinking about that all day,” said Benny.
“Me too,” said Nix, and even Lilah nodded.
“Well, call me crazy,” said Chong, “but don’t you think we should be talking about this out loud? I mean . . . let’s come up with an actual plan.”
They took turns outlining the problem as they each viewed it and then throwing out ideas about how the towns could respond. After a while it became clear that Nix had the best suggestions for tactics of warfare—traps, ruses, physical defenses, weapons. But Benny surprised them all with his grasp of strategic thinking. He saw things from a distance. After Nix—and to a great degree, Lilah—presented a long and gruesome list of battle tactics that could be implemented very quickly, Benny told them how he thought they could win the actual war.
Chong, the logician of the group, played devil’s advocate to poke holes in each suggestion. But for once he was unable to tear apart Benny’s plan.
“Wow,” said Chong when they were done, “I’m very nearly impressed with you.”
“Bite me,” said Benny.
“Which reminds me,” said Chong. “Time for my pills.”
Benny went outside to take first watch, and Nix stayed up with him for a bit. They sat close, but they didn’t touch.
After a while she said, “Do you hate me now?”
He took his time and thought about what to say before he opened his mouth. “What I am is hurt and angry. Not angry at you, but angry at us. We held hands, closed our eyes, and stepped off a cliff.” When she didn’t reply, he added, “I can’t be angry with you for telling the truth.”
Nix got up and shivered in the chill of the desert night.
“I’ll tell you one thing, though,” said Benny, looking up at her.
“What?”
“I do love you. I have for a long time, and I think I always will. When this is over—if we’re both still alive and if the world hasn’t burned down—I’m going to come looking for you. If the situation and the moment are right, I’m going to ask you out on a date.”
“A date?”
“We never had one. We went from being friends to being a couple. The closest thing we had to a first date was getting chased by Charlie Pink-eye, and I’m pretty sure that doesn’t count.”
He saw her smile etched in starlight.