What were you doing outside this morning? Cass asked gently.
Sammi looked at her hands; the nails were bitten. I sneak out sometimes, she said. When the raiding parties go out at night. I hate it here, its like being in jail. And I always come back before it gets light out.
What about this morning?
Ikind of got turned around.
You were lost, Cass clarified. Sammiyou have to know how dangerous it is to be out there alone.
You were alone. How far have you walked, anyway? Sammi demanded. Since you, you know, woke up.
Look, Sammiyou cant tell anyone what Im telling you. About me being attacked.
Sammi nodded solemnly. I promise.
No, really. You cant tell anyone.
Sammi nodded again.
And you have to stop going outside on your own.
This time Sammi didnt react, didnt meet her eyes.
Say it, Sammi, please. I know you dont like being cooped up here, but just promise me you wont go out alone.
Sammi rolled her eyes. Okay, okay, I promise.
Cass sighed. I dont know how far Ive walked, really. At first I didnt It was like I was sleeping and awake at the same time. I didnt go very far for a while. I was stopping a lotmaybe that was a week. Until I felt right again. And even then Cass passed a hand over her eyes, rubbed the skin between her eyebrows. Even then I didnt cover a lot of distance. Because of trying to hide when it was light out. You know, to keep watch.
And at night, when the moon went behind a cloud, or the stars failed to light the sky, she couldnt go very far at all, because she couldnt see. Back in the library, shed hoarded matches and two good flashlights and a cache of batteries. But she had none of that when she woke up. No pack, no food, no supplies, and she was wearing clothes shed never seen before.
How far did she travel every night: maybe a few miles? As close as she could figure it, Cass had started out about thirty-five miles down-mountain, maybe a little more since she had weaved back and forth to avoid going too close to the road. The Beaters didnt leave the roads when they could help it; they liked to follow an easy path, and their stumbling, awkward gait did not lend itself to obstacles. On uneven terrain they stumbled and fell a lot.
Still, if theyd caught her scent, a glimpse of her in the woods, nothing would stop them from coming after her, no matter how deep she ran, so she had tried to stay out of sight of the road. And roads eventually ran into towns, which she had to avoid more and more once she noticed, like Smoke had said, that the Beaters were clustering around the population centers of Before.
One time, a few days after she woke up, shed been dozing the afternoon away in the skeleton of a live oak tree. It was a hundred yards or so from the road, and upwind, so Cass figured it would be safe enough. Low in the foothills, the trees were sparse to begin with, and most had died; there was little in the way of cover.
A sound broke nearby and she came awake instantly, her heart racing. She almost fell as she looked around for the source of the sound. Then she spotted the man who had walked directly below the tree, his footfalls cracking on broken branches. He was walking fast, a bulky pack on his shoulders, his gait sure and strong. A loner, Cass guessed, someone who-like Sammi-would rather take his chances outside than live cooped up in a shelter.
Suddenly there was a second sound. Over on the road.
Cass had been so focused on the man that she hadnt seen them approach. Beaters-four of them, stumbling and crying out-and theyd heard him, too.
Fear turned Casss blood cold.
For a second, the man paused, looking around wildly. His eyes went wide and he began to run, faster than Cass had ever seen a man run. After a few dozen paces he shrugged the pack off his back, and it fell to the ground as the Beaters cries escalated into enraged screams. Unburdened, he ran even faster.
But he wasnt fast enough.
It was dumb luck that he ran forward. If he had run perpendicular to the road, the Beaters would have come close enough to Casss tree to smell her. As it was, Cass guessed the man stayed ahead of them for a quarter mile before they caught up. She watched the whole time, willing the man forward with her entire being as the beasts knocked into each other and stumbled on the uneven ground and shoved at each other. They were so awkward, so ungainly, but their strength and speed were otherworldly.
In the end, two of them tripped each other and fell to the ground, snorting and snapping with fury as they beat at one another with clumsy fists.
But two surged ahead.
Cass pressed her face into the scratchy trunk of the tree and covered her ears with her hands, but she could hear the mans terrified screams and the Beaters triumphant crowing as they carried their prey back down the road to wherever their nest was.
Sammi was watching her, light brown eyes wide and speculating. Smokes going to take you, isnt he?
Cass nodded.
Sammi gave her a fragile shadow of a smile. Hes good. Hes brave. You know how he got his name?
No.
He was living up at Calvary Episcopal. I mean, not like because it was a church, they were just using the church for shelter.
Yes, I remember, there were people living there when I was at the library.
And the Beaters came and they got one of them. Or, I dont know, maybe more than one, Im not sure. Only, they got this one guys wife, and he went nuts and tried to burn the place down. With everyone in it, you know, like a group suicide? They had this tank, natural gas or something. And he totally blew it up, you could see it all day, the sky was like black. You know, liketotally dark. He died, but Smoke-well, I dont know what his name used to be, it was right when we all moved in here.
No.
He was living up at Calvary Episcopal. I mean, not like because it was a church, they were just using the church for shelter.
Yes, I remember, there were people living there when I was at the library.
And the Beaters came and they got one of them. Or, I dont know, maybe more than one, Im not sure. Only, they got this one guys wife, and he went nuts and tried to burn the place down. With everyone in it, you know, like a group suicide? They had this tank, natural gas or something. And he totally blew it up, you could see it all day, the sky was like black. You know, liketotally dark. He died, but Smoke-well, I dont know what his name used to be, it was right when we all moved in here.
How long ago was that?
It was around the beginning of May. We saw the fire, we saw the sky go dark and all Well, Smoke got a lot of the people out.
He rescued them?
Yeah, he got this whole family, Jed and-Jeds that guy who was babysitting with me. Hes sixteen. His parents and his brothers and a bunch of other people, too. Smoke helped them get out. And when they came here his hair was burned but that was all. He smelled like smoke, but he wasnt burned, and people said it was a miracle. I dont know if it was really a miracle but
The girl seemed suddenly embarrassed.
Cass followed a stray impulse and covered the girls hand with her own. Sammis skin was warm and she could feel her strong pulse at her wrist.
I dont know, she said softly. Maybe theres still room for a miracle or two in the world.
Maybe, Sammi said. She sounded like she thought Cass was going to need one.
07
LATE IN THE AFTERNOON, SMOKE RETURNED. Sammi was long gone, not wanting to worry her mother any more than she already had. Casss heart went out to the girl; shed once walked the same complicated tightrope of parental loyalty and teenage rebellion, the challenges of school and friends and her fathers absence. Aftertime, everything was turned upside down. Kids, with their more elastic notions of what was real, rebounded and adapted while the adults struggled.
Except for the ones who lost their families. Aftertime orphans did not fare well. They were responsible for much of the looting and destruction that happened now-the ones who managed to escape predators, whose movements were no longer tracked and monitored. They found each other somehow, their senses tuned to the same frequency of grief and anger, and formed gangs who roamed the streets with breathtaking indifference to the danger, destroying everything in their path-just as everything that they had loved had been destroyed. Cass didnt doubt that the bands of fake Beaters that Nora had mistaken her for were comprised of kids like these.
Sammi had already lost one parent. Cass prayed that the girls mother would stay safe.
Smoke brought plates piled with food and two plastic bottles filled with murky boiled water. There was a salad of kaysev greens dressed with oil and vinegar. There were also three blackened strips of jerky.
The aroma caused Cass to salivate, and she could practically taste the salty meat. Still, before accepting the plate, she asked: Why?
Smoke didnt meet her gaze. They want something in return, he said. Newsthere are a lot of people who wont make the trip anymore. In the last couple of weeks its become a lot more dangerous. Theres been trouble, and not just from the Beaters.
What do you mean?
Smoke made a dismissive gesture. Long story. Ill tell you about it on the road. But just folks with their own ideas about who ought to be running things.
What, you mean like whos in charge here? Cass saw a chance to ask something that she had been wondering. Who is, anyway? You?
Not me, Smoke said with finality. Were a collective here, we make decisions as a group. But look, like I said, its a long story. Well have time for it later, but now you should eat.
But Cass gestured at the plate. What kind of stores do you have?
Smoke shrugged, but his unconcern wasnt convincing. Quite a bit, actually. We still go raiding. Me, some of the others. There are still houses within a mile or two that havent been cleared yet. We only do one a night, take five or six of us and go.
Cass nodded. She had come across some of these houses herself, even sheltered in them.
What about the Wal-Mart?
Smoke shook his head. Beaters got there first. Nested all over it. Theres still a lot of canned food and other stuff in there but we cant touch it.
It was an older store, up Highway 161 outside the Silva town limits. It didnt sell produce or meat, but that would actually be an advantage, since there would be no spoilage. And there would be medicine. Diapers, clothes, toiletries, processed foods. Winter coats and gloves. Boots.