ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK (15 page)

I shrugged and grabbed
the radio from him. “My dad showed me this trick when my brother got hold of
his power screw-driver and left it outside. Mildew corroded the contacts. You
take the eraser like this and rub the green stuff off the contacts.”

“Well, aren’t you just
the little mechanic now.”

I flashed a quick grin
and handed him the radio before turning back to search the shelf and the little
plastic drawers; there were about twenty of them, five across, and four down
inside a black casing. I smiled when my hand landed on top of cold cylinder,
realizing it was a flashlight. I picked it up and turned it on. “Hey! Look. We
have flashlight.”

“Good. That will help.
Shine it over here after you find some batteries. 

I opened almost all the
drawers until I finally got lucky. “Bingo,” I said, turning to Max, holding two
AA batteries between my fingers and pointing the flashlight at them.

I held the flashlight
over the radio while Max removed most of the corrosion. After all the rust and
gunk were gone, he stuck in the new batteries and turned on the radio. All we
managed to get was static.

“I think I’ll need to
take this out of here in order to get anything,” he said and climbed the steps toward
the door. As soon as he opened the door, the static cleared and a faint male
voice echoed down the stairs. Max set the radio down on the steps and turned up
the volume, which didn’t help much, before walking back down.

“Can’t hear much down
here, can you?”

I shook my head.

“I’ll go back up and
turn it off, no sense wasting the batteries. We’ll need to sit up there if we
want any news.”

A thumping, loud and
powerful, had me stopping in my tracks on my way back to Court.

Max stomped his brown
ECCO sneakers down the stairs so hard I thought we were having another
aftershock.

“What’s for dinner,
honey?” Max asked when he reached the bottom step.

Once I realized we weren’t
having another earthquake, I stared at him, my eyes feeling as wide as two golf
balls from the shock of the “honey” remark. Max ignored me and strolled over to
the stacks of cans on the shelf without even looking at me. I felt like an
idiot.

“Okay, listen up. We
have chunky chicken noodle, clam chowder, beef stew, and cream of potato.
Anybody have any preference?”

I looked at Court and
he shrugged.

“Whatever you want is
fine. But how are we going to heat it?”

“Hmmm … problem there,”
Max said and perused the shelves before turning with a smile. “
Voila
!”
In his hands were two cans of liquid heat. “These should do the trick.”

I smiled. “Yay, I hate
cold soup and I’m starving. Any crackers to go with it?”

“No, only soup. I don’t
think my mom really believed we would ever need to live down here, even
temporarily.”

“Well, that’s okay.”
Aside from crackers, Max’s mother had thought of just about everything else
needed to survive for a few days in the cellar. I even found a stack of Styrofoam
bowls, plastic spoons, and paper towels. Max opened the can of chunky chicken
noodle with the can opener his mother had remembered to provide and placed the
can on top of the small flame.

When he considered it
warm enough, Max divided the soup into three equal portions, but burrowed his
eyes together and shook his head when he spooned some into the third bowl.
“There’s not much in one can, but we’ll need to make do.” He picked up one and
sat back to eat. I picked up another and carried it over to Courtland.

“Here’s some soup. Do
you feel like eating?”

“Yeah, I can eat.” He started
to sit up and I put the bowl down and placed my arms around his chest to help
lift him to a sitting position. My face was inches from his neck. He smelled
good—a little smoky, but the musk he must have used that morning still lingered
on his skin. I didn’t think I was much help, but he managed to sit up. I was
amazed at how broad and firm his chest was. I had never had my arms around a male
body before, except when hugging my dad, but that was completely different.
This made my stomach flutter as though a dozen tiny butterflies suddenly took
flight in it and I was no longer as hungry as I had been a few moments before.

I handed Court the bowl
and walked back to where Max sat against the wall. I thought about when I was
crying and leaning on Max’s chest right after we found my mom’s sweater. I
didn’t remember feeling the same butterflies then. I’m sure I’d been too
distraught to notice.

Almost as if Max read my
thoughts he whispered, “You do like him a little, don’t you?”

I ignored the question.
“You know, you could at least be cordial. We’re all in this together. Would it
kill you to sit closer? Then maybe we can all talk and figure out what we’re
going to do next.”

“No, it wouldn’t kill
me. I just didn’t know he was capable of talking yet. I thought he was in too
much pain.”

“Stop it, Max. Let’s go
sit by him. You know he can’t get up and come over here.”

I sat on the blanket
with my back against the wall, wishing I were somewhere else, anywhere but in
that cellar, listening to Max and Adela argue about me. What did I care if they
came over here and ate their soup with me or not? Well, I had to admit it would
be wonderful if Adela came and sat with me, but I could do without Max. I could
stare at Adela all night long.

I spooned through the
soup, barely able to make out what exactly was in the bowl. The single candle
lit on my side of the cellar flickering on the floor next to me provided a
little light, and for that I was grateful. Taking another spoonful of soup, I
glanced up to find the two of them sitting cross-legged on the floor in front
of me. I almost laughed and spit soup all over them when I saw them there,
quietly slurping their soup not looking at me. No one said a word. They brought
over the other two candles too, which helped light up the area a little more.

Since laughing would
have hurt a bit too much I said, “So, what’s the plan?”

They looked at each
other as if they didn’t know I could speak.

Max shrugged. “I think
we should head out as soon as possible to explore the area more. We didn’t
check out too much today. It got late, and the wind came up. The earthquake’s
done some weird stuff to the air. The temperature outside seems to be about
twenty degrees colder than this morning. How soon do you think you can travel?”

I stopped chewing and
stared at Max for a few seconds, having a hard time believing he actually uttered
something intelligent. This was the most he’d said to me in seven years. I
swallowed the last bite of the soup and laid back down, setting the bowl on top
of my stomach, holding it there so it wouldn’t fall. “I don’t think it will be
as soon as you would like.”

“What’s that supposed
to mean?”

“It means I’m not going
to be leaving here in the next day or two. If you need to go exploring, you can
count me out.”

“We can’t just sit here
and do nothing.”

“Agreed. But I’m not
ready. You guys should go without me.”

“No.” Adela shouted,
and Max and I stared at her. She cleared her throat and added in a much calmer
voice, “We can’t go and leave Court here. His leg and hand might get infected
or something. He can’t even walk across the room to fix himself something to
eat.”

“Um … speaking of
walking ... Max, if it doesn’t cramp your style or interfere with your great
dislike for me, would you mind giving me a hand outside?”

“Outside? Why, you want
to punch me around?”

“As tempting as that
sounds, no. I need to take a leak and I don’t think Adela is up for the task.”

Max snickered. “Oh, yeah.
I gotta go myself.” He stood and held out his hand to me, but I hesitated. “Come
on. I won’t let you drop.” I grabbed him around the wrist and Max helped me up
from the floor.

“Wait. Um … I need to
go too.” Adela’s entire face turned crimson.
She was a delicate angel to be
sure.

She leaped up, brushing
her hands on her pants, her embarrassment clearly forgotten.
A tough soldier
as well as an angel.

Max and I stood staring
at her blankly.

“Well, I don’t want to
go up there alone. I’ll go when you guys go.”

Okay, so she wasn’t
much of a tough soldier, but still most definitely an angel.

“Hold on.” She took off
toward the bar and tore a sheet from the roll of paper towels.

Max shrugged, snatched
up the flashlight before he grabbed my left arm and Adela took the injured
side, carefully maneuvering her head under my arm to avoid my hand.

It was slow going, but we
made it to the top of the stairs and Max pointed to the left. “Adela you can go
over there. Hop-a-long and I will be over here.” He dragged me to the right. It
was dark, darker than normal without any city lights from the larger towns
below the foothills and I tripped over a rock but surprisingly, Max tightened
his hold and kept me from falling.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t get used to it,
Reese.”

“You’re truly enjoying
this aren’t you?” I said, hopping on one foot, closer to the trees.

“Yes … and no. This
part? The part where you can’t even piss by yourself? Yeah. I’m tickled pink, but
spending this much time with you is another story.”

We stood side by side
and I managed to unbuckle my belt and unzip my jeans one-handed, surprising
even myself. The way Adela wrapped my hand up, I couldn’t move my fingers at
all. I didn’t think I’d be able to zip them back up as easily.

“Well, the feeling is
mutual. You should go out and do your scouting tomorrow. My ankle is swollen
and without ice, I won’t be walking on it anytime soon, Max. I’ll need a couple
of days, at least. You can leave me here. Regardless of what Adela says, I can
take care of myself.”

As I finished declaring
my independence I reached for the zipper on my pants and tugged, but it didn’t
budge. I chuckled. Who was I fooling? I couldn’t even zip my own pants back up.
“I uh, take part of that back.”

“What part?”

“The part about taking
care of myself. Can you give me a hand?”

Max pointed the
flashlight at my crotch and rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Dude?”

“I can’t move my fingers.
I can’t grasp onto anything with them.”

“Damn, Reese! You
better not tell anybody.”

“It’s just a freakin’
zipper and trust me; if I see anyone, this will be the last thing that’s gonna
be on my mind.”

Max stepped toward me,
grinning.

“If your finger sways
in the slightest, I’ll break it as soon as my hand heals. Hear me?”

“Hey, I’m doing you a
favor here. And you don’t need to worry about my fingers swayin’. Max took the
little metal tab between his thumb and finger, pulled the zipper up while I
held the bottom part taut and waited while Max buckled my belt.

“Thanks.” Not one of my
finer moments.

I turned, hoping to see
Adela close by but the area to the left of the cellar was dark and covered with
bushes. “Where’s Adela?”

“Adela? Where are you?”
Court’s voice croaked out. He sounded worried.

“I’m over here.”

“Are you finished yet?”
Max yelled.

“Almost. Hold your
horses. It takes me a little longer, you know. I can’t just whip it out like
you guys.”

“Girls.” Max mumbled
and I could picture him shaking his head as I tugged up my pants.

“You guys didn’t expect
me to go right out in the open, did you?” I stepped out from behind the red-tip
bush where I’d gone for some privacy—the darkness overwhelmed me.

With no electricity, I
could barely make out the two figures standing by the door to the cellar. If
not for the half moon, I would not have been able to see them at all. I stepped
up to them and realized they were staring up at the sky and my eyes naturally
followed their gaze. I had never seen such an awesome sight. Without any city
lights for miles and miles, the stars in the sky were unusually bright and
plentiful. A truly beautiful sight.

“Wow,” I whispered,
standing between Max and Court. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Court’s
focus change and he stared down at me. There was something strange about the
way his eyes bored into me, as if he could see into my soul. I waited for him
to look away but he held his gaze on me while I pretended to marvel at the sky.
I’d never seen him stare at me that way before and I got nervous. My fingers
fidgeted with each other and I clamped two of them in my other hand to steady
them. If I hadn’t known better, I never would have guessed in a million years
he had injuries. His eyes stayed fixed on me with an intense tenderness I had
never seen from a boy before. Maybe Courtland Reese wasn’t so bad after all.
Standing between the two of them in all their glorious hotness had my stomach
doing flip-flops. I knew it was wrong to think these things under the
circumstances, but maybe my mind just needed the distraction … or confusion. I
loved Max, but I was beginning to like Courtland too. Man, I was in so much
trouble.

As if on cue, Mother
Nature recognized the ramifications of the moment and needed to squelch the effect.
The rumbling started with a low growl and within seconds, the roar raged around
us. The ground rolled under our feet, swaying so hard I almost lost my balance
but Court grabbed on to me with his good arm, holding me tight against him.
Whether it was to hold me up or himself I couldn’t really tell, but I ended up
wrapping my arms around his waist for more support. It turned out to be just a
small aftershock but the shaking brought back the realization of our situation.
I pushed away from Court, embarrassed by the way I’d held on to him and glanced
at Max who seemed oblivious to the fact that I’d even had my arms around Court.
I lowered my head and studied the ground as though the earth under my feet held
the secret to my feelings as well as the shaking.