ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK (32 page)

The guy grunted, moved a
little, and Court shook him again. “Hey, buddy. You okay in there?”

He grunted again and
turned his head toward us.

“What the …?” Court
said.

“Max?” I said.

Max blinked, rubbed his
fists in his eyes before opening them again and squinted up at us. In a low
hoarse voice he said, “Help me.”

“He needs water,” Court
said, reaching into the backpack and pulling the bottle we’d filled with tap
water. He held the bottle up to Max’s lips and let him drink.

“Why are you sleeping
out here in the cold? Where’s your jacket?” I asked, not sure why I was
concerned with his missing jacket considering we didn’t have any.

Max shivered and shook
his head. “Some jerks attacked me and stole it.” His hands and lips trembled as
he spoke. “I couldn’t go any further. I ran out of water yesterday. How did you
guys find me?”

“We’re heading to the
next town, which shouldn’t be too much further. There should be people there,” I
said trying to make my voice sound enthusiastic.

Max nodded. “Thanks for
the water. Do you have any food?”

Court handed him a
piece of the leftover rabbit. “Here, it’s the last of it.”

“Thanks,” Max said,
taking a bite, never even inquiring what it was.

“Do you have enough
strength to walk? You should come with us. I think the next town is about two
miles ahead,” Courtland said.

Max nodded. “I think so,
now that I’ve had some water and food.”

I was glad to see Max
was okay. I was also glad to hear Courtland invite him to come along with us,
considering. Now that I knew the real story about them, I admired Court’s
ability to put the past behind him and help Max out even if he didn’t deserve
it. Maybe because of what Court and I did that morning and him knowing that I loved
him helped him see that Max was no longer any threat.

We finally reached the
edge of the clearing and stepped onto a paved road. Court stood in the middle
of the narrow street, looked up and closed his eyes, smiling. I did the same,
soaking up the warm rays of sun.

“Come on. There has to
be a town close by.” Court took my hand, pulling me along with Max following
close behind.

We walked along the
road for what felt like an hour when we saw the buildings. I wanted to run, but
my legs had something else in mind. They just wouldn’t move fast enough.

As soon as we got closer
to the town, we realized we were the only ones there. This had to be the tiniest
town I’d ever seen, smaller than Pleasant Ridge and I’d always thought Pleasant
Ridge was the smallest town in the world.

Everything was quiet.
There wasn’t a soul around. A ghost town. We walked by a building and read the
sign posted on the door.

“Museum – Hours: Monday
through Saturday, Twelve noon to 5:00 pm, closed Sundays,” I read aloud and
Court tried the door. It was locked.

We looked up and down
the vacant street. The museum and one other building were the only two
structures standing.

“This isn’t a town,” Max
said, “at least not anymore.”

“What’s that other
building?” I asked, pointing at the red brick and wood structure down the road.

“It looks like a little
store and behind it is an old gold mine. Let’s go. Maybe the store has
something in it,” Court said.

We approached the
little market. The door was locked, of course. Court and Max peeked in the
window. “There’s some stuff on the shelves, but not much,” Max said.

“It looks deserted,”
Court said, then went to the door, took a couple of steps backwards, looked up
at the roof, then at the ground. He bent down and picked up a large rock.

“Stand back,” he said
and threw the rock at the window, shattering the glass. Using a stick, he
cleared the shards of glass from the window frame and climbed in. Max followed
him. I walked up the wooden steps. The rickety wood planks on the porch creaked
as I crossed over to the window. Court stood on the other side.

“There’s not much in
here as far as food. It looks like the store has been deserted for some time.
There is a bathroom if you want to take advantage of it. You’ll have to climb
in through here.” He held out his hand to me. I took it as he helped me climb
through the window. I sort of fell against Court’s chest when I entered, and he
caught me around the waist to steady me in an embrace, our lips an inch away from
each other’s. We smiled and I glanced over at Max who studied us curiously. I
lowered my gaze, shoved gently against Court’s chest and walked to the
bathroom, avoiding Max’s stare the entire way.

After I used the
restroom, I came out and Max walked past me and said, “My turn.”

“I got a couple cans of
pears and a jar of applesauce. They were stuck in the back corner of one of the
shelves. That’s all there is as far as food. No water,” Court said.

I nodded. “Do you know
what town this is? Or was?”

“I think this is Jonas
Mill. It’s an old abandoned mine town,” Court said.

When Max walked out of
the bathroom, Court looked over at him and then back at me. “I guess I’ll go
and take advantage of it too. Be back in a minute.”

Max walked up to me.
“So how long did the two of you wait in the cellar for me?”

I glared at him and
walked away.

He followed me. “What
is wrong with you?”

I turned toward him.
“You left me there. You walked out and left me.”

“I was coming back, but
I ran out of food and water. In fact, I almost died back there!”

“Court and I almost
died, if Cooper hadn’t come to dig us out.”

“Dig you out? What
happened?”

“The cellar caved in during
one of the aftershocks. We were trapped down there for three days.”

“What did you guys do
down there? I mean did you and Court … you seem a rather comfortable together.
Did he try anything?”

Court must have come
out of the bathroom without us hearing him because he came and stood next to
me. “Why would you think that, Max? Do you think I’m anything like you? Watch
what you say to her, or I’ll give you another black eye to match the one I gave
you eight years ago.”

“I can say anything I
want to her. She’s my best friend.”

“Best friend? I think
we both know how you treat your best friends,” Court said. “Don’t you ever call
her that again.”

“Why, you lousy son of
a bitch. You’re the one who stole my dog.”

Court frowned and stood
with his hands fisted at his sides. “Yeah, that
would
be the way you’d
remember it. Come on, Adela. Let’s get out of here. The next real town shouldn’t
be too much further from here.”

“Wait, Court,” I said.

He turned to look at me
and raised his eyebrows.

“Maybe we should stay
here for a little while. It’s getting late in the day. It’ll be dark soon and
the temperature is starting to drop. We may not find another town before nightfall.
We will be warmer in here.”

Court glanced at Max
who sank down on the cold cement floor and put his head in his hands.

“You’re right. We’ll
stay here for the night and head out in the morning. But let’s go see if we can
get in the museum. I saw a chimney on the side of it, so there will at least be
a fireplace for warmth and to cook something in.” He walked by Max and picked
up his backpack, shrugged it over his shoulder before strolling over to the
window and hopping out.

I glanced at Max, still
on the floor with his head in his hands. I shook my head and followed Court.

“I don’t want to break
any of the windows if we’re going to stay inside here tonight. The door looks
kind of old. Maybe I can kick it in.” Court stood back and kicked at door, but
it didn’t budge. I came up beside him and Court looked at me. “On three?”

He counted to three and
we both kicked at the door, but it still didn’t open.

“One more time?” I
said.

“Okay. One, two, three.”
I kicked as hard as I could along with Court and the door swung open.

“Yay!” I said, turning
to see Max slowly walk up behind us, dragging his heels. I knew he was spent.
He said he hadn’t had anything to eat for two days and I wondered if he would
have fought with Court back in the store if he hadn’t been so drained.

When we all went in,
Court and Max headed straight to the fireplace while I looked around. There was
nothing in the room except three empty display cases. It had to have been the
smallest museum in the world. There were still signs hanging on the wall
describing what was once on exhibit—mostly gold mining equipment and pictures.
The entire museum was basically confined to one room. I glanced across the empty
space and couldn’t believe my eyes. A vending machine stood against the wall.
It didn’t seem to be that old and when I walked to it, my mouth salivated at
the sight of bottled of water.

“Hey, look. Water,” I
said, pointing at the machine.

Max hurried over and
shook the machine but nothing happened.

“Stand back,” Courtland
yelled and my eyes just about popped out of their sockets when I saw him
standing there holding an ax in this hands. Max and I took several steps back
as Court smashed the glass of the machine. We kicked the pieces away and
grabbed the four bottles of mountain spring water.

Max took one, opened it
and guzzled half before Courtland reminded him to take it easy.

“That’s all the water you
might get for a while,” Court said.

Max took the bottle
from his lips and glanced at me. “I thought you said the tap water was okay
around here.”

“Yeah, but we don’t
even know if there is any tap water in here,” I said, taking one of the bottles
Courtland held out to me. I opened it, took a couple of sips and handed it to
Court figuring he wouldn’t want to open the other bottle until we emptied one.

After Court took a
drink, he handed it back to me. “I’ll go outside and see if I can find some
firewood anywhere.”

Max looked at me then
followed Court out. “Um … I guess I’ll come and help.”

When we stepped
outside, Max surprised me with a hard shove at my back and I turned to face
him, immediately feeling the heat directed at me from the rage smoldering
behind his blue eyes. “You took advantage of her, didn’t you?” Max shouted and
slammed his head against my stomach. I fell backwards, tripping over a pile of
rocks. I leaped up, tackled Max to the ground, and punched him in the jaw. Max
was weak from not eating, and too easy to take down so I let him go, got to my
feet, shook off the anger surfacing and turned to walk away, but Max pounced on
me again from behind.

“She never would have
given you the time of day if she hadn’t been stuck with you,” he huffed and I
wrestled him off.

“Lay off before I hurt
you. You’re energy’s zapped from lack of nourishment, so I’m not going to fight
you now.”

“You took advantage of
her in the cellar. I’ve known her a long time. I can tell by the way she’s
acting.”

I didn’t think it was
any of Max’s business what Adela and I did or, more to the point didn’t do in
the cellar, but I’d waited a long time to get back at him. “I never did
anything to her that she didn’t want me to do.”

“What’s that supposed
to mean?”

“Whatever you want it
to mean.”

Max charged me again.
“You slime bag.”

Adela screamed and ran
over shoving at Max. “Stop it. Stop it!” She gripped Max’s arm and he shrugged
her off.

“How could you let that
freak near you? You two belong together. You’re no better than he is.” He
stormed past her and went back inside.

She stood in front of me.
“What was that all about?”

“Nothing. Old shit,
that’s all.” I walked away, gathering up some firewood from a pile of discarded
boards and walked back into the museum. “Grab a couple of boards if you can.”

I entered the room and
placed the wood on the hearth, knelt down and built the fire. When it was
blazing, I sat back on my heels. Taking the knife out of my pants, I glanced
over at Max sitting against the wall with his knees up and his arms over them
with his forehead resting on his arms. I wanted to hurt him. What right, what
damn right did Max have to act like he owned Adela? He took her away from me
when we were kids. I’d be damned if I’d let him do it again.

Adela pulled things out
of the backpack, placed them on the floor by the sleeping bag, and looked up at
me, a ton of questions on her face. I didn’t have anything to tell her, so I
headed toward the door. “I’ll be back. I’m going to see what I can find to eat.
We’ll need more than a can of pears and a jar of applesauce. I’ll be back in a
few.”

I needed to vent and
needed the space by myself to do it. I walked a few hundred yards into the
brush and found a cozy little niche to settle in and hide with plenty of bushes
around to camouflage myself. The brooding time was well deserved I thought,
considering I didn’t rearrange Max’s face. The solitude was nice, not that I
needed it from Adela, but from Max. I didn’t hate Max, but the jerkwad sure
made it difficult for me to like him.

Max stood with his arms
across his chest, glaring at me. He shook his head as he walked over to the
fire and sat next to me.

“Max, why didn’t you
tell me the truth about what happened between you and Court?”

“I did.”

“No, you left out a
whole bunch of stuff.”

“Oh, so I see. You
believe him now? I’ve been your best friend half your life and you spend a
couple of days with him and now I’m suddenly the liar?”

I stared straight ahead
at the fire. “You left me.”

“I didn’t leave you. I
told you I was coming back.” He picked up one of the thin boards and played
with the fire.