Dead Spots (44 page)

A gentle knock summoned her to the door. Opening it a crack, she was surprised to see Lucas, fully dressed, his hand resting against the doorjamb, gazing at her with a distressed look on his face.

“What is it?” she asked worriedly.

“Can we talk?”

Mackenzie nodded, slipped into the hallway, and gently shut the door behind her. Lucas leaned toward her and said softly, “I'm thinking maybe it's best if we leave Johnny here.”

“What?” She covered her mouth, realizing that her surprise had elicited a much louder response than she had planned. She hoped she hadn't waked anyone else.

“Between what you said and something Seth said to me, I wonder if we should let him stay. What if time is messed up, like you said? Or what if we're no longer real to our old world? What if we do end up instantly dying when we reach the other side? And if we survive, Johnny has nowhere to go once we get out. He's been here a very long time, and his parents may be gone by now. If they're not, how do we explain that he's still a little boy and his brother is still missing?” Lucas rubbed his brow with irritation. “I've been up most of the night thinking about it.”

Mackenzie frowned, anger filling her. She had not expected Lucas to doubt himself or their plans. “Are you just trying to abandon him? I already went through this with Grant!”

“No, no. Never! But I am starting to wonder if he's better off here with Seth and Rosita. This dream palace is stable. It's been here for decades. You saw how happy he was playing with Betsey today. On the road, he's going to be faced with the monsters he fears. And if we get out…”

Mackenzie saw the worry in Lucas's expression and it tugged at her heartstrings. Unlike Grant, who had wanted to eliminate Johnny so he could keep Mackenzie to himself, Lucas was sincerely worried about the little boy. She gently placed a hand on Lucas's cheek and gazed into his eyes. “You're overthinking this.”

“I don't want to ruin a kid's life, Mac. You're an adult. You can make choices for yourself with a clear head. He's a little boy.” Lucas laid his hand over hers and leaned into it, obviously needing some comfort.

The door behind them swung open and Johnny peered out with a flushed face and clenched jaw. “I'm not some dumb little kid,” he said in a furious voice, tears welling in his eyes. “I know that my mommy and daddy are old now or dead. I know it's been a long time. I like to pretend that I can go home, but I know I can't.” The tears burst, sliding over his freckled cheeks. “I'm not dumb, Lucas. I know!”

Mackenzie fell to her knees and Johnny threw himself into her arms. Holding him close, she patted his back while he sobbed. Her heart filled with affection for him and she snuggled him close.

“Don't leave me behind! Don't leave me!” Johnny cried out.

“If you stay here you'll have a good home, Johnny,” Lucas said, his fingers gently raking through the boy's hair. “I don't want to put you through any more grief.”

Lifting his head, Johnny said, “I don't want to stay here. I want to be with you and Macky. Even if we're not real anymore, I don't care. I want to stay with you! Macky kills the bad zombie when he tries to bash my head, and you have the fastest car!”

After pressing a kiss to his warm forehead, Mackenzie wiped the boy's tears away with the hem of her robe. “I won't make you stay here, Johnny. And Lucas won't either, will you?” She gave Lucas a sharp, warning look.

Crouching, Lucas rested his hand on Johnny's slender shoulder. “No, I won't make you stay. I just thought maybe it would be better for you. There's so much I don't know and we might escape only to—”

“Disappear?” Johnny asked. “My brother told me if we went back to the old world we would disappear because we're not real anymore.”

Fear clogged her throat, but Mackenzie refused to give in to it anymore. “I don't want to live my life always running away from monsters. Even if it means disappearing if I escape. But that's my choice. You have to choose for yourself.”

Lucas stared at the boy, warmth in his eyes. “Whatever you decide, little buddy, is what we'll do.”

“I want to go. I want to get out. Maybe if we disappear we'll go to the real heaven, right?” Johnny stared at Lucas hopefully. “We won't just die and come back again like we do here. We'll go to the real heaven?”

Mackenzie bit her bottom lip and deferred to Lucas. Her belief system was shattered, and she didn't have any real answers, but Lucas did believe in a higher power.

Lucas nodded firmly. “I believe that if we were to die trying to go back, that yes, we would go to a better place than this.”

“I don't want to stay here anymore. I don't want to die anymore. I don't want to see the bad thing that hurt Macky, or my brother 'cause he tries to hurt me, or the zombie because he bashes my head. Please, Lucas, don't leave me!”

Unexpectedly, tears filled Lucas's eyes as he nodded. “Then I won't. We'll leave together.”

Johnny flung himself into Lucas's arms and they clung to each other. Standing, Mackenzie walked to the window and looked into the street below, allowing them to have their moment. She fought her own tears, trying not to think of Joshua and Tanner. It was easy to see that Lucas and Johnny had formed a strong bond that reminded her vividly of the father and son relationship she had dreamed of for Tanner and Joshua. Her own motherly role to the boy was complicated emotionally. At times, she wondered how Joshua would have behaved at Johnny's age and those moments hurt. Yet, she was forming a bond with the boy and growing to love him. At first, she'd just wanted to protect him because he was an innocent, but now she cared for him because he was an amazing little person.

Outside the window, the early rays of dawn brushed the horizon in pale blue. In the drive below, the Mustang sat ready for their trip. Soon they would be far away from the safety of the dream palace and traveling through the world of dreams and nightmares. To her amazement, she realized she was not afraid.

Unable to sleep, they readied for the day. Lucas lingered in the guest bedroom spending time with Johnny while Mackenzie bathed and dressed. It was an oddly familial scene with the tattooed man and little boy playing with the dog. It again gave Mackenzie pause and a sliver of doubt wormed its way into her thoughts. Estelle had infected her with paranoia, and Grant had played off her fears. She refused to allow herself to even wonder if Grant's warning about Johnny and Lucas was true. She was safe and far away from the creature that would have stolen her life away.

Later, after a rich, very filling breakfast of waffles, bacon, eggs, and lots of coffee, it was time to return to the road and continue their quest. On the front porch, Mackenzie gave Rosita a slight hug before shaking hands with Seth.

“You sure you won't reconsider, Mackenzie?” Seth's young, gentle face held a sorrowful cast to it. It was a far cry from the completely blissful look he had worn the day before.

“Don't worry about us, Seth. You have your life here. We just need to find our own way.”

“Johnny is welcome to stay here while you try to find a new place,” Rosita said, smiling.

“Thank you for your offer, but we'll keep him with us,” Lucas answered, his arms looped around Johnny. The little boy looked much happier and content in spite of his earlier emotional farewell with Betsey before breakfast.

“Lucas, it's always good to see you. I wish you would reconsider. There are several places here in town that you could shape into your own dream palace,” Seth said as he clasped hands with Lucas.

“Oh, yes,” Rosita said, smiling. “It would be nice to have you as neighbors.”

“We're not ready to settle down yet, Rosita.” Lucas gently squeezed the hand she proffered.

“Well, whenever you're in town again, please come by and visit. Seth and I love to have company.”

Seth slid his arm around his wife and smiled at her proudly. “It's always good to see friends, isn't it?”

“Oh, yes! Please come back.”

“Thank you again,” Lucas said, stepping onto the lawn and snagging Mackenzie's arm.

Making a show of waving goodbye, the three of them hurried to the car, ready to be on their way.

“See you next time!” Seth called out.

“Hopefully there won't be a next time!” Lucas shouted back.

Seth nodded while his wife kept smiling and waving.

Once they were all settled into the Mustang, Lucas gunned the engine and tore out of town. Mackenzie held on to the dashboard for dear life, but the boys were in high spirits. As the car accelerated to top speeds, Lucas and Johnny whooped it up.

“Faster!” Johnny shouted.

“You do realize you're far exceeding the speed limit?” Mackenzie braced herself as they took a turn far faster than she would have ever dared.

“You do realize we're the only car on the road?” Lucas shot back, grinning. “I have a tank of gas that is perpetually full and miles to cover. I say we can ride like bats out of hell for a little while.”

“And what if something jumps into the road?”

“I'll go around it. I have mad driving skills.”

“God, you're annoying.” Mackenzie rolled her eyes.

“He's not God,” Johnny said, laughing. “He's Lucas.”

*   *   *

The South Texas terrain was flat and full of scrub brush, mesquite trees, and cactus. By midmorning, the sun was blazing in the sky, and the wind was hot as a furnace. It may have been fall in other parts of the world of dreams and nightmares, but it was solidly summer at every dead spot they stopped at that morning. Johnny tagged along at every stop, determined not to be left behind. Wearing his cowboy hat and clutching his toys, he kept close to the adults.

At the seventh dead spot, an abandoned trailer, Mackenzie stared worriedly at the front entrance. The door had completely come off and lay on the ground. “If the door doesn't exist on this end, do you think it can still open?”

“I have no clue,” Lucas answered. He boldly climbed up to the entrance and stood in the gaping opening. Balancing carefully on the edge, he peered down at Mackenzie. “I would think probably not. This place feels like it has a slow leak. I actually think this dead spot might be dying. It feels and looks all wrong.”

“Cross it off?” Mackenzie asked.

“Yeah. No sense wasting time coming here again.” Lucas jumped to the ground and rejoined them.

Mackenzie marked through the dead spot with a red marker and scrawled
DOA
. The blistering wind made it difficult to fold up the map. She floundered for a few seconds, and then finally got it under control. Tucking the map under her arm, she straightened her sunglasses as she surveyed the terrain. It was barren and not very attractive. It looked rather postapocalyptic. It also felt strangely empty now that they were so far away from the various towns in the area.

Mackenzie felt oddly detached from her surroundings as her mind began to whirl crazily. She felt as though she were missing something, and it nagged at her. One thought pushed its way out of the maelstrom and she snatched onto it. “Lucas?”

“Yeah?”

“Show me what it looks like, please?”

“Sure.”

Mackenzie steeled herself for the moment the façade fell away to reveal the true world. Lucas pressed his hand to her forehead, and again, she was overwhelmed by the vibrant and terrifying true face of the world of dreams and nightmares. The desert landscape was transformed into a cacophony of colors, the wide horizon filled with plumes of sparkling energy and flashes of vivid white light. Resting against Lucas for support, she pressed her hand over his, forcing herself to adapt to the blinding beauty of the world around her. The dead spot was a murky ink blot against the terrain, but she could see it was sickly from its pallor and weak vibrations. The surrounding area was devoid of the massive sparkling pulses she had seen before.

“That's enough,” Lucas said, pulling his hand away.

Dizzy with the abrupt transformation of her surroundings, Mackenzie gripped his arm while she steadied herself. Her eyes were still spotty, trying to readjust, tracers sliding across her vision. “I saw what I needed to.”

“What do you mean?”

“We're doing this wrong,” she answered. Her mind had clamped on to an idea and she quickly explored it, her excitement growing.

“Uh, how?” Lucas cocked his head, staring at her curiously.

Johnny mimicked his action. “Yeah, how?”

“This area is too dead! Even the dead spot is dying. There isn't enough energy to sustain it.”

“That's pretty obvious, Mac,” Lucas said, not understanding what she was trying to say.

Feverishly, her mind gripped on to tiny details she had originally overlooked, constructing a new view of the world around her. “Something Seth said about wraiths is the key,” Mackenzie said excitedly. “They feed off of life energy. You even said that dead spots are somewhat sentient. They, too, feed off of us, by eating chunks of our energy when we shape things, right?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said thoughtfully.

“You've been going to each dead spot because if we got in, there has to be a way out. But I think you're looking in the wrong dead spots.” Breaking into a run, she raced toward the car with Lucas and Johnny right behind her. Once at the Mustang, she climbed into the vehicle and grabbed Lucas's maps. “We've been concentrating on places where activity is lower for safety reasons. Right?”

Lucas nodded, watching her flip through the maps. “Exactly.”

Mackenzie scanned over the maps, seeing the pattern forming before her eyes. “You talked about the cities having lots of dead spots like Detroit because of the economy. We assumed that because there are more abandoned places that must be why there are more people coming through in those areas. But what if that's not it? What if the dead spots are opening up their doorways to feed? The areas with the most activity are where the dead spots have access to the human population, therefore a chance to snare one of us! This dead spot is dying because it's in an area where it can't trap anyone. Who's going to even dare go in there? How many people actually travel this road in the real world?”