Bethany

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BETHANY LAUNCHED HERSELF out of the truck and traveled on the radio waves back to her body. At first she couldn’t figure out how to get back in. What if Vera tried to take over her body while she was out? Would she become the ghost haunting the train station? With that terrifying thought, Bethany crashed back into her body. She felt a thousand pounds heavier and slower than sap down a tree in January. With great effort, she got to her feet. She heard that Clark was going to blow up this place. It seemed like a damned waste just to be vindictive, but that was Clark for you.

People were milling around her, and she felt like a salmon swimming up river.

“Get out.” Bethany’s voice sounded thick to her own ears. “He’s going to bring the ceiling down.”

But no one seemed to be paying her any mind in their attempt at looting whatever they could get their hands on. Gods, she was tired. Her brain felt like scrambled eggs, and it was hard moving her arms and legs to get her outside where the tracks were.

“What happened to you?” Lisa gripped her arm and helping her sit down on the ground.

“What?” Bethany asked.

“Your face. It’s covered in blood.”

“Nosebleed. I get them all the time when I’ve been overdoing it.”

“That was you in the trucks then?” Karen double-checked the harnesses on her horses.

“One of them.”

“We’ve got two Techs?” Lisa smiled and did a little happy dance.

“Not exactly,” Bethany told them Vera’s story.

“That’s how you’re going to wind up, if you’re not careful,” Karen said.

“How’s Lucas?” Bethany suddenly remembered where she had left him and tried to push her way back to her feet.

“He’s healing,” Lisa steadied Bethany. “He’s out like a light. If he stays in the truck while you drive it, he should be fine by morning.”

“I don’t like traveling with the horses at night,” Karen settled into the driver’s seat of the wagon.

“We don’t have much choice. It’s either follow the trucks or fight the nomads on their turf,” Lisa told her, after steadying Bethany who was swaying on her feet. “You’ll light our way with those headlights, right?”

Bethany nodded and then winced as pain poured in from the gesture.

“It’ll be a miracle if the horses don’t step into a rut and break their legs.”

“Vera and I will keep the headlights on the ground and avoid any chewed-up areas.”

“Look on the bright side, if they do, we can eat real good for a few days.” Lisa smiled at her. “Besides, it’s only until the train catches up to us.”

“The train crew has to clear the blocked tracks, fight off the nomads and other ambushers, and fuel up the second steam engine. We’ll be at the Colorado station by that time, if the nomads don’t take us out first,” Karen grumbled.

Bethany hugged them both. “Stay safe. I’ll make sure Lucas is guarded until he’s better.”

“This will all look better in the morning,” Lisa promised.

“That’s easy for you to say. You can just turn into an owl and fly away,” Karen said.

“I won’t leave you.” Lisa gripped Karen’s hand until she nodded at her.

Bethany staggered back to her truck. Clark was nowhere around. He was probably setting the charges. She nodded to his two favorites, Flint and Lynn, and climbed in the back with them.

Lucas was still in his cougar form. When she rested her head on his chest, she could hear his heart beating and feel the rise and fall of his chest with each shallow breath that he took. She held his paw and whispered into his ear.

“Lisa and I are all right. We’re going to Colorado station and getting on a train. We just have to survive the night first.”

Clark poked his head in. “What the hell happened to your face? Lynn, get the Tech some water to clean up with. Flint, give her something to eat.”

Before she could protest, Lynn had doused a handkerchief with water and was scrubbing away at her nose and cheeks. Coughing, Bethany pushed her away.

“I’m okay,” she said, but the headache was starting. It felt like a train roaring into her head, and she was the mountain it was going to run into. She accepted the buttered bread Flint handed her, though, and crammed it in her mouth. Bethany couldn’t believe how empty she felt. It was if she was starving.

“We’re going to follow the train tracks into Colorado,” Clark said, cradling the detonators in his hands.

“No, we’ll follow the roads,” Vera’s voice came over the radio. Linda and Flint seemed a little spooked by it. But Clark just looked annoyed at being interrupted.

“I’ve been talking with the satellite that runs the global positioning system.”

“The what?” Flint said.

“Tech nonsense,” Lynn said.

“You mean to tell me there is still a satellite orbiting Earth?” Clark said.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Bethany asked.

Static sparked over the radio. “Earth is no longer listening. The satellites are out there, though. They plotted a route for us using the old highways and roads, as best as they could.”

“They’ll be torn-up.” Clark shook his head.

“Not as badly as the terrain. It would be safer for the horses,” Bethany said. She liked the idea of an eye in the sky, even if it would have visibility problems. If Vera could use the satellite to plot a course, they had the advantage of speed.

“I don’t like it,” Clark said. “We’ll be too predictable if we follow a road.”

“No more predictable than following the tracks. What are you really afraid of?” Bethany asked.

“Not afraid. Cautious. Those are toll roads out there.”

“Is this really about money?”

“Lady Tech, it’s always about money. Okay, have it your way. We’ll go by the roads until we either lose a horse, are attacked, or stopped for tolls.”

“And then what?”

“We take it from there.”

“Clark!” Jesse ran up to the electric truck.

“Get in,” he said to her. “We’ll make room.”

“I can’t,” she said, out of breath from her run. “I’m going with the Shifter caravan.”

“Don’t be stupid,” he said. “They’re here to guard our retreat. The Shifters are replaceable.”

“No, they’re not,” Bethany snapped.

“Don’t worry yourself, dear,” he said, then climbed out of the car to talk to Jesse. Bethany tried not to listen, but he wasn’t making an attempt to make the conversation private.

“If I can’t persuade you to come with us”—he pressed a brutal kiss on Jesse’s mouth—“you have to promise me to stay out of danger. We haven’t finished our lessons, you and I.”

“Do you care for me at all?” Jesse asked in a tortured whisper.

Clark frowned at the question. “You have skills that I find useful. I’m not sure where you’re going with this conversation.”

Jesse shook her head as if mad she even asked the question. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

Clark regarded her warily. “I value you.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a whistle made of bone or horn—Bethany couldn’t tell which. “If you need me, blow this.”

Snatching it out of his hand, she looked at it. “Is this some kind of joke? Blow it and you’ll come.”

“You’ll have to find that out for yourself.” Clark went for another kiss, but she dodged him. “You’ll pay for that later.”

Jesse shrugged. “Bye, Bethany. See you in Colorado.”

Bethany nodded. “Count on it.”

They watched her walk away. When Jesse was out of earshot, Clark turned to Bethany. “Let’s get going. We want to outdistance this mob as soon as possible.”

“But wait,” Lynn said. “Weren’t we supposed to stay close to the train so the rest of them can catch up?”

“Don’t think, Lynn. You’ll hurt yourself,” he said.

“Don’t patronize me. I’m the one who’s going to tell you that a pack of Shifters are swooping in.”

“We’re giving the nomads three targets. The train, the caravan, and us. I’m hoping that we will take the wind right out of them that they won’t bother with the caravan, and by the time they regroup, the train will barrel right by them. They won’t be expecting it, and their numbers will be lessened. We’ll board another of our trains in Colorado and take it straight through the mountains to California.”

“This is a crazy plan,” Lynn sighed.

“If you have a better idea?” Clark held her gaze. She dropped it. “When you’re ready, Lady Tech, we need to get going.”

Bethany nodded and stroked Lucas’s fur once. “He needs to be kept out of the fighting.”

“He looks pretty out of it,” Flint said.

Bethany cuddled down next to Lucas and let her mind open. It was almost a relief to be back in control of the electric truck. Her body had seemed too heavy and too solid. In here she felt ethereal and in control. A thin line headed up into the sky as Bethany turned over the electric engine. Vera’s voice spoke to her.

“That’s the GPS. Touch it to download the data.”

Bethany did and was jolted as information became sensation. Pleasure flooded through her as the coordinates superimposed over the windshield. She dialed the radio to catch a wave in the big band area and then took off after Vera’s truck. Their tires bounced along on the ruts and roots, but when they hit blacktop that hadn’t been pulverized by the meteorite or ruined by Mother Nature, they flew into the night, turning back reluctantly when they outdistanced the horses.

“Do you see how beautiful it is to become one with the machine?”

“Yes.” A little warning voice in Bethany’s head was trying to tell her all the bad things the prolonged exposure was likely doing to her, but she didn’t care. She was driving, just like they did pre-Meteor. Well, maybe not just like it. But close enough.

“Slow down. Tell her to slow down,” Lynn said, and her voice was hysterical.

So human. So frightened.