ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK (25 page)

I almost choked when
Cooper told me to be careful where I made my bed. What the hell did he think we
were going to do, sleeping only a few feet away from him? I thought about it
and supposed it did seem a little odd that Court and I shared that sleeping
bag, but I told myself it was the best way to stay warm. And it was. I wondered
though, if Max had been with us, if I would have shared a bed with Court. Most
likely not.

I liked the way my hand
fit into Court’s larger one and smiled when he squeezed his around mine. My nose
tickled and I had the sniffles. My eye sockets ached when I pressed my fingers
to them to try to clear the cloudy feeling in my head. Switching my focus to
Ambie and Aaron, the image of Ambrosia’s concerned little face bloomed in my
mind as I remembered her screams during the very first earthquake and her load
of questions afterward.

“Earthcracks,” I
blurted out.

“What?” Court gave me a
puzzled look and I could imagine he must have thought I’d lost my mind.

“Earthcracks. That’s
what Ambie and Aaron had called the earthquakes. “Stupid earthcracks. In a way,
that’s what they are, I suppose. After the quaking, that is.” I glanced up at
Court and his stunning green eyes flicked down at mine.

“I think that about
sums up the whole experience.” He smirked. “Not.”

His grin transformed to
a scowl as we passed several demolished homes. Almost every single house was either
totally destroyed or partially caved in and abandoned, but every now and again,
we would see someone sitting outside. I glanced to my left as a man crying in
front of a steel barrel with flames flickering out the top wiped the back of
his hand across his cheek. Neither one of us recognized him and he shouted at us
about how the world was coming to an end and everybody needed to repent. I’d seen
people in disaster movies do that and a shiver crawled up my spine, because
however much I wished this was only a sick horror movie, it was real. I
squeezed Court’s hand tighter for support. We were close to the preschool and I
looked in the direction of where it should be. Hope sprang as I saw the school
still there, at least part of it. I let go of Court’s hand and ran toward the
broken-down building. He limped behind me, still unable to put his full weight
on his ankle. But I couldn’t wait. I had to go find out if anybody was alive.

“Ambie? Aaron?” I
called out at the top of my lungs.

Court came up behind me
and yelled out too. “Ambrosia, Aaron. Is anybody here?”

“Cory’s gone too.” A
soft voice from behind us startled me and I twirled around to find a woman wearing
a dirty, brown wool coat buttoned completely wrong. As I studied her, I
realized she seemed a bit off, sorta wacked, if you asked me, but still a
person who might know what happened to the kids. I said, “Hello. Do you know
what happened to the kids?”

She shook her head.
“Gone. All gone. My Cory. Gone. There’s no trace of him.”

I glanced at Court as
my heart sank deep in my chest.

“Has anybody else been
by here?” Court asked. “Have you seen anybody?”

“No. No one’s been
here. Where did they take my Cory? Have you seen him?” She grabbed the front of
my jacket and clung to me as her eyes suddenly flamed with anger. “Tell me
where you’ve taken my Cory.”

I shook my head, trying
to free myself from the woman’s grip. Court yanked her away, holding her at arm’s
length before she could latch on to him.

“She doesn’t know where
Cory is.
We
don’t know where Cory is. We are looking for Ambrosia and
Aaron Castielle.”

The lady calmed and stepped
back, shaking her head. “I can’t help you. I have to find Cory.” She turned and
walked in the opposite direction calling out in a cracked and hoarse voice.
“Cory, Cory, come to Mama.”

“She’s delirious,”
Court said. “Maybe we should help her.” Court went to her and placed his hand
on her shoulder. “You should come with us.”

“No, I have to wait for
Cory. He’ll come back here. I have to wait.” She tugged away and kept walking
around the dilapidated building.

Court turned slowly,
scouring the area. Something in my gut told me things were about to get ugly.

“Come on, Adela. Let’s
keep moving.”

“But where? She’s
right. What if they come back here?”

Court took my shoulders
in his hands, staring directly into my eyes. “Adela, they won’t bring them back
here. If they are alive, they’re in a shelter somewhere. Trust me. We need to
keep moving. This place isn’t safe.”

I glanced around and my
eyes focused upon a couple of creepy looking guys across the street, leaning
against a pole, looking right at me. I stared at the men, unable to take my
eyes off their scuzzy faces and Court shook my shoulders. “Adela, look at me.”

When I didn’t respond
he took my chin in his hand and pulled my face toward his. “Look at me. Do you
understand?” He briefly glanced to the right and then back at me and repeated,
“This place isn’t safe.”

His green eyes were intensely
dark and something told me he was afraid, and that brilliant assessment was
quickly confirmed when I stole a glance at the two men. One, completely bald, wore
a huge silver belt buckle with an even bigger capital “F” on it under an
oversized stomach hanging down slightly over the top of the buckle. A beer gut,
no doubt, the way his pants sat below his watermelon-sized stomach. Under any
other circumstances, I would have laughed to myself because I often wondered
how men like that managed to keep their pants up, but there was nothing funny
about this guy. The other one’s greasy brown hair stuck to his forehead and he
reminded me of a stick figure used in playing hangman. The clumps of hair swirled
above his bony face looked like they’d been drawn there with a big black crayon,
making his skinny-as-a-broom-handle frame appear even scrawnier. Big belly
creep smiled at me revealing yellow crooked teeth and puffed on a cigarette
before throwing it to the ground.

I looked at Court and
nodded. He grabbed my hand and we walked out onto the street. We had no sooner
taken a couple of steps down the hill than the two dubious looking mongrels approached
us, fast. In the blink of an eye, they stood right in front of me.

“Hey, sexy girlie,” skinny
guy said and scooted close to me, reaching his hand behind me, grabbing my
braid. “Nice hair.”

I twirled around and tried
to pull away from his hold on my hair when I heard a bone- crushing sound as
the skinny guy landed on his butt in the middle of the road. Big belly guy put
up his hands. “Whoa, man, take it easy. We’re not going to hurt the pretty girl.
Just wanted a little kiss, that’s all. See that lady over there? She gives us a
kiss.”

“Ha, more than a kiss,”
skinny guy chirped, pulling himself back up and rubbing his chin.

“You lay one hand on
this one and you’ll never use those lips again,” Court said.

“You got in a good
sucker punch on ol’ Len there, but what’s a boy like you gonna do against
two
strong men, huh?”

“Try it and you’ll find
out.”

The creeps circled us,
snickering. “You gotta share, boy. Hey, I know you. You’re that Miwok kid that
talks to animals. Didn’t your Miwok mama teach you the ways of the white man?”

They know Court? How
did they know Court was part Miwok? Did he know them?

I watched the vein in
Court’s neck throb as his pulse thrummed along the side of his throat, and he
stood focused on the two men, his eyes cold, dark, without emotion. His uninjured
hand stayed by his side while his other one grabbed me and shoved me toward the
men. I stumbled forward as he held on and kept me from falling.
Why was he
shoving me toward these two creeps, when he should be pulling me behind him?

“Yeah, my mama taught
me all the good manners I’d need to get along in your white man’s world. You
want her? Take her. She’s all yours.”

“What?” My head whipped
around at him as I shouted, “Court, please don’t do this …”

Court intended to hand me
over to these two smelly scumbags? Just like that without even fighting for me?
I thought he would at least try to defend me. I fought against Court’s hand as
he shoved me forward but his grip on my arm was too strong and the squirming
only made his fingers press into my arm deeper. How did he do that with his
injured hand? I was sure I’d have a huge bruise there later, an imprint of
Court’s fingers on my arm to remind me how he betrayed me, just when I thought he
would do anything to protect me. I never expected this.

“That’s a good girl,
come here darlin’, let’s have a whiff of your pretty hair.” Big belly guy
reached out for my braid as Court dug his elbow into the guy’s gut, making him
double over and clutch his stomach. I stood in shock, not only at the fact that
Court was taking action but also that big belly guy could even feel the jab
through all that fat. Court did a one-eighty and slammed his fist into skinny
guy’s jaw again, sending him falling to the ground. Court shoved me aside and
swung his leg around, hitting the big belly guy square across the face with the
heel of his boot. Blood spurted from the guy’s nose as he stumbled backward.

“You sonofabitch. You
broke my nose, you sonofabitch fuckin’ half-breed.”

Skinny guy stayed down
and held up his hands at Court. “Don’t hurt me, man. It was all his idea. Don’t
hurt me.”

“Come on Adela.” Court
grabbed my hand and we hurried down the hill. Court’s legs were much longer than
mine, making him faster, even with his limp. I glanced back at the two creeps
still sitting in the middle of the street. We continued walking at that impossible-to-keep-up
pace and I ended up running beside Court’s huge stride until we were completely
down at the bottom of the enormous hill. Court held onto my arm the entire way,
pulling me along. He didn’t look back once. When we reached the bottom of the
hill, I stopped and tugged him back. “Please, stop. I can’t keep up,” I huffed.

“I’m sorry if I scared
you. I hope you know I would never let anybody lay a hand on you. We needed to
get away from there and we can’t stop here either.”

I had to catch my
breath, but I managed a nod. I really thought Court was going to give me up to
those two creeps. I should have known better, had more faith in him. He tugged me
to start up again, pulling me along, but we walked a little slower.

“It’s not safe anywhere
now. Everybody thinks everything is a free-for-all. It’s total pandemonium out
here.”

 “How do you know? Not
everybody is like those people back there.”

“Every single person we
passed was crazy to some degree. That lady, those two guys, the yoyo by the
trash can with the fire. Adela, I told you I don’t know what it is I have, but it’s
some sort of ancient power passed down from my Miwok ancestors. It works with
people, too. I just know things.”

“But how?”

“I don’t know how. Just
freaking lucky, I guess.”

I stopped walking
again, jerked him against me and kissed him.

“Did you see that
coming?”

“No.”

“Well, see? There you
go. You can’t know everybody’s thoughts.”

“I didn’t say I knew
their thoughts.” We started walking again. “I said I could sense things.
Trouble, for one. I can see it in someone’s eyes if they’re disturbed or about
to start trouble.”

“Well, a lot of people
have that ability. Doesn’t mean you’re a freak. Let’s just say you’re more intuitive
than most people.”

He sighed. “Okay.”

“Yeah, it is okay. I
like it. It’s handy.”

“Thanks for that. Come
on; let’s go find your sister and brother.”

“I don’t know where to
look. I have no clue where they could be. Ahhhhchoo.”

“God bless you.”

“They weren’t supposed
to go anywhere. They were supposed to wait for someone from our family to pick
them up.” That’s when it hit me and tears streamed down my cheeks. With all the
commotion, the wacked-out lady, the two creeps, I hadn’t had a chance to
comprehend the situation until just then and I couldn’t move. Not a muscle.

“Adela, most of the
school is still standing. I know they are safe somewhere. It’s been four days
since the earthquake. Someone is taking care of them.”

I coughed, sniffled,
and wiped my nose with the back of my hand. “We really don’t know who has them or
where they are, so there’s nothing we can do.”

Court held my face in
his hands and stared into my eyes, then pushed the stray strands of hair off my
cheek and out of my mouth with his fingers. “Listen, I know this is hard, baby,
but you have to be strong. As much as I’d like, we can’t just stop and sit down
here and cry. Your sister and brother are not here. Chances are your mother
already came for them and they’re all safe in some shelter and we’ll find them.
But we need to go into the woods and get off the street or we’re dead and we
will never see anybody again.”

“Why the woods?”

“Because we need to go
north through the forest. Everything south of here has been destroyed. Any
chance we have of finding other decent people would be that way. We need to
find your family. Give me a couple of days, Adela. I can protect you. You can
trust me on that. I will die before I let anything happen to you.”

Court’s words silenced me.
I wanted to find my family more than anything in the world. I had nothing to
lose without them, except my life and Court just vowed his own to protect mine.
I followed Courtland into the dense forest, looking over my shoulder every few
steps, thinking I heard a noise and that someone would jump out from behind a
tree or a rock and attack us.

“Maybe we should have
stayed with Cooper,” I said.