Autumn in the Dark Meadows (The Autumn Series) (13 page)

“Autumn, let me hold the bag for a little while.  You keep an eye on this one’s pulse for me,” Sam said, exchanging seats with me.  I smiled gratefully at her and stretched my shoulder after I handed her the bag.

“I’m really glad you weren’t hurt in the stampede.  When I saw the horses coming, I was so scared either you or Ben were going to be trampled.  I suppose it’s selfish, but I don’t have a lot of friends yet.”

Against my better judgment and despite our past, I’d begun to like Sam.  I had a feeling she liked Ben, and I didn’t want to step on any possible chance for his happiness, even though her past relationship with Karl greatly concerned me.

“I understand,” I said.  “That was a terrifying experience.”

“Yeah,” Sam continued.  “I wanted to get away so badly, but I didn’t want to hurt anyone.  But they were all rushing at me.  I wish I could just forget the whole thing.”  She stared off in the distance, new tears shining in her eyes.

“We all do,” I whispered.

“Autumn...” her voice changed.  “I’m scared.”

“We’re all going to be fine.  We’ll get back to Hoover, and life will go back to normal.”

“No, it’s not that,” Sam said, adjusting the IV bag she held and looking toward the approaching medical center.  Her once-pretty face looked sallow and pinched in the unfiltered, noon sun.

“What are you scared of?”

“Karl.”

His name sent a wave of tension through my stomach, and I tried to take a breath and release the tight muscles.  “Don’t be.  He can’t reach us here.  He’s miles away.”

"What if he isn’t?” Sam said.

“Did you see him?” Rissi asked, now at attention.

“Sam, do you know something?” I asked, concerned, fear fluttering inside me.

“No, no.  Nothing like that,” Sam replied.  “I just meant, what if he’s got people out here, watching us?  All this bad stuff.  It could all be his doing.”

I put a hand on Rissi’s shoulder, wishing she weren’t in hearing range.  “You’re being paranoid.  I really think your past with him has you on edge.  I mean, most of the damage to this town was caused by a sandstorm, and it’s not like Karl can control the weather.”

Sam sat quite for a moment, considering.  “I guess you’re right,” she said.  “It’s just that, when I left... well, I deserted.  He doesn’t forget things like that.  And if he
were
here, I could be in real danger.”

This time I reached forward and placed a hand on her knee. “You aren’t in any danger. We’re all here for you. We won’t let Karl get to you, ever again. I promise.” I saw Sam choke back tears as she nodded her thanks.

When we finished transporting all of the wounded, we rode with the truck back to the parking garage behind the Egyptian.  Rissi reclined in my lap, and I played with her hair, letting my mind wander.  In the shade of the garage, the gasoline tankers and the few cars that had been properly maintained were lined up in a row, taking up half of one deck.  When the driver parked the truck, I eased myself out and helped the others.

“Hard to believe that’s the last of all the fuel in the West,” I said, staring at the long row of tankers.

“Well, that we know of.  There may be more out there,” speculated Sam.  “Still, it’s more than The Front had in Los Angeles after The Plague.  Karl spread it around, so I guess we could’ve had extra.  It’s still impressive they were able to save this much.  I wonder where we’d keep it if we had, you know, loads of it?  Additional tankers?  Wells?  What do you do with gas?  Doesn’t it evaporate after time?  Seems like it would.  Can you imagine the massive headache you’d get if it was your job to stay around a big well of gas and protect it?  Talk about the fumes!”

Her sentences rambled as she strung them together, and I was reminded of the cocky girl waiting in her concert chair the day we’d first met.  I wondered if this slightly spacey girl was the real Sam.  I almost chuckled at her as she jabbered on.  I nodded in understanding, and she tailed off.  “Crazy, isn’t it?” was the last she said.  I agreed.  It was crazy.  Gas had always been more expensive on the West Coast, but at least there had always been plenty of it to go around.

“Sam, you talk a lot,” said Rissi.

“Yeah.  I guess I do.”  She laughed.

“Come on,” I said.  “Let’s get inside.”

The next day, a memorial service was held to honor all of the people lost the past few days. A beautiful ballroom, nearly identical to the one that served as a temporary triage area, housed rows of chairs and a podium in the front.  Among the dead were three men who had been scouting outside the city on horseback and not returned after the sandstorm, the twenty-eight people who died from the explosion after the helicopter fell into the Egyptian, and the nineteen victims from the stampede yesterday, including Vonna.  On top of those losses, nearly fifty people were at the medical center down the street being treated for their injuries.  The amount of human suffering in Vegas was nothing short of staggering.

There were no candles to light, and flashlight batteries needed to be conserved, so a few people spoke simply about those who’d been lost.

I was surprised when I saw Grey leaning against the wall just inside the doorway.  I didn’t think he’d be able to get away from the clinic.  He looked weary, reminding me of how he’d looked after the long trip back to the underground camp in Los Angeles.  He was down one on his medical staff.  JR, from Hoover, was one of the nineteen killed in the stampede.

The loss of JR was compounded by the fact we still couldn’t get in touch with Hoover to report the situation and ask for more help.  At the end of the memorial, Franklin said the light at the top of the pyramid would be extinguished for twenty-four hours, in remembrance of all the lights that had gone out in their city.

The beam at the top of the pyramid was the last reminder of the city’s former glory.  Seeing it go out, and knowing what it symbolized, was a weight that sat on my chest like an anvil.

The service came to a close with a shaky version of “Amazing Grace.”  Not everyone knew all the words, but the sentiment wasn’t lost.  My parents’ faces were in the forefront of my mind, and my feet felt heavy as I filed out of the ballroom with everyone else.  I wished my parents could have received some kind of service, despite everyone who’d ever known them being dead, except me.  And Sarah.

A small voice in my mind rang out.  I stopped walking, letting everyone else file past me.  Sarah.  I’d had no time or space inside my head to think about her much since leaving for Las Vegas.  I needed to get to her.  I hated knowing she was scared and being held by Karl.  I hated that I hadn’t been able to leave yet to go find her.  But I would, and soon.  I quietly promised myself.

As I was thinking this, I saw Grey farther down the dark hallway, and I hurried to catch up.  We hadn’t spoken since our brief conversation at the clinic yesterday.

“Grey!” I called out as I caught up with him.  He looked at me briefly then continued walking.  His eyes were slightly unfocused, as if in a trance, and the skin under his eyes was dark and puffy.   Concerned, I asked, “Have you slept at all?”

He stopped walking suddenly and turned on me.  “Why?”

“Because you look –”

“No, why are you frightened of me?  I’ve never hurt you, never done anything to warrant you being afraid of me.  So what is it?”

I let the last few people filter out of the hallway, and we were alone in the semi-darkness.  He waited, watching me.  The plainness of my answer worried me.  Would it anger him?  His eyes suddenly came alight, as if he knew I had an answer, and I found myself opening my mouth to the truth.  “You’re, you’re a,” I hesitated, not wanting to say the word.

“An alien?”

I nodded.  His lip curled in disgust, and he looked away quickly.

“And this is just now occurring to you?  This is why you flinch away from me whenever we’re close?”

“Yes!” I replied, almost too loudly.  “I mean, I knew, of course, because you’d told me and shown me what you could do, and I believed you.  But I guess I didn’t really understand, or comprehend... the magnitude of what you told me was... it was made real that night on the dam.  And then I’ve been having this dream over and over and I –”

“What kind of dream?”

I stared at him.  It was as if he knew.  Shaking my head, I said, “It’s not important –”

“Yes, it is.  It’s keeping you from talking to me, from trusting me!  Of course, it’s important.”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.  Suddenly, I felt foolish for being frightened by a dream.  Foolish for pushing away Grey, the one person I knew I could trust implicitly.  Foolish for wasting so much time.

“Autumn, listen to me,” he said, gently placing his hands on my shoulders.  “I will never... ever... hurt you.  In any way.”  He paused, his brow crumpling in concern.  “Don’t you believe me?”

The weight in my chest suddenly lifted, and sadness over our lost time rushed in to fill the now empty space.  I wanted to nod so badly, but I couldn’t make my head move.  The truth was he did frighten me.  Not because I thought he’d physically hurt me.  It was the knowledge Grey even existed that frightened me.  Other intelligent beings were out there, moving around us, observing us.  All we knew about the universe was dwarfed by what one historian from The University knew.  And he’d been among us, unnoticed, for hundreds of years.  It was too much to accept.

His hands slipped from my arms, and I looked up at him, wanting to explain how I felt, but the moment for it seemed to be over.  He leaned against the wall, rubbing his eyes.

“Fine,” he said, as if giving up.  “That’s just fine.”

I stared at him, feeling helpless and weak.  I was so tired.  I fought against the urge to slide down the wall to the floor and not get up.  But Grey had to be more exhausted than I was.

“When was the last time you slept?” I asked, suddenly curious if he took a break since we arrived in Vegas two days ago.

“I slept for a couple hours in the spa suite after our feast with Vonna,” he answered.

“That was the night before last!  Grey, you have to rest.”

He took a deep breath, and I could see how fatigued he really was.

“Go get Lydia,” I urged him.  “She could hide from the Hoover people and help you in the clinic.”

“That’s not possible,” Grey began.

“Yes, it is,” I argued.  “You have to.  She can say she came up here by herself when they didn’t hear from us –”

“That isn’t the problem,” Grey interrupted, his voice aggravated.

“I know you hate breaking rules, but you can’t keep this pace up.  You can’t do this on your own!”

“I have to do it on my own, because Lydia isn’t in Hoover anymore,” Grey snapped.

I stepped back in shock.

His face fell.  “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice lower.  “I’m just tired.”

“Where did Lydia go?”

“Remember when I didn’t meet you at the Winged Figures a few nights ago?  Lydia found me right after you left the dance.”  He paused, staring at me as if deciding whether or not to tell me.

“What happened?” I pressed.

“The University is at the end of their traveling period.  Do you remember what I told you about astral projection and the ship?”

“You can only astral project back to it when it’s...” my voice trailed off and coldness began to spread inside me.  “When it’s still...” I finished.

“She went back,” he said flatly, looking at the floor.

The coldness spread through my core, freezing my stomach, my lungs, my heart, and flowed through my veins to the tips of my fingers and toes, numbing me all over until I couldn’t move.  He would leave, too.  He’d leave this ruined planet and go home.  No one at The University knew about Grey’s rule-breaking feelings for me, except Lydia.  He could go back and start over.  And I would never see him again.

“I couldn’t persuade her to come with us to Vegas.  She left right after we did.  That’s why I was so upset on the road here,” he explained.  “Well, that and... this,” he said, motioning between himself and me.

All I could do was nod.  My mouth didn’t want to open.  Not that I knew what to say.  Now that The University ship wasn’t moving, it was possible for them to astral project themselves there.  The ship only “docked” once every four years to allow their field historians a chance to project back to restock on E-Vitamin, transfer records of what they’d observed to the ship’s main database, and catch up on news.

The rest of the time, The University ship was in motion, and never in the same spot for very long.  It was because of this that Lydia hadn’t left when The Plague struck Earth.  Grey told me he wouldn’t have left even if he could have, because he felt it was his duty to help.  Being a doctor and immune because of his E-Vitamin were assets we desperately needed.  He also told me Earth reminded him of Andros, his home planet.  But not anymore.  Not after The Plague.

“Autumn,” Grey said quietly.  “I know things are... complicated between us right now, but I need you to help me with something tonight.”

I hope he didn’t want me to help him pack.  “Anything,” I replied sadly.

“Daniel re-established communications with Hoover this morning,” he said, darkly.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” I asked, confused.

“They’re unable to send any support to us for at least a few days.  The other plane still wasn’t ready, and apparently, the water main that supplies the whole town burst.  They’re trying to get it under control before it causes major flooding.”

“How could that happen?  I thought pipes only burst in cold weather.”

“Or when it’s been tampered with.”

“Do they suspect that?”

“They may not, but I do.”

I was suddenly reminded of Sam’s warning, about Karl having a hand in our troubles of late.  Maybe she was onto something after all.

“I’m going to go back there, tonight, when everyone’s asleep,” he said.  “I need to check it out for myself.  I think I can tell the difference between a rupture and an intentional break, but it would be decidedly easier if I had a look out.”  He shook his head.  “There’s something going on.  The medical supplies I brought that disappeared.  The broken radio.  I inspected it later.  There’s a piece missing.  And the stampede.  Someone
let
those horses out of the corral.”