H2O (6 page)

I made it to
the parking area and saw eight trucks parked side by side. Two had drivers
sitting in their cabs. I parked near the building and decided that instead of
going inside like I’d originally planned, it’d be safer to talk to one of these
drivers. He might be more likely to talk without other drivers around. The
closest of the two was in the sixth truck down.

I got out of
my van and walked past the trucks’ snub-nosed hoods. I circled out a little so
the driver in the sixth truck could see me approaching. I passed the alley
between the third and fourth truck and thought I saw movement at the back end.
I ignored it. A bad decision.

The driver in
the sixth truck spotted me and he looked wary, but not hostile, so I continued
forward and moved toward his cab. I hoped he’d roll down his window, but
instead, he looked at his side view mirror. I glanced to the back of his truck
to see what he was checking out, thinking it might just be a reflex on his
part, but I’d never been more wrong. My luck had just run out. A brown uniform
was moving toward me. A Fib.

I don’t why I
did what I did next. I could’ve stayed put and let the Fib question me. I
could’ve used my job at Corolaqua to explain why I was here. I was a water man
checking out a water storage facility. My story would’ve eventually unraveled
and I would’ve been jailed as a deserter, but staying put and telling that
story would’ve been better than what I decided to do.

I ran.

I bolted out from between the
trucks, raced toward my van, but it was already too late for that. Another Fib
was blocking my way. I veered away from him and raced toward the storage tanks,
picturing the facility as I remembered it from above. I sprinted east, toward
the large refueling island at the edge of the woods. I’d use the tangle of
trucks at the island as cover, then disappear into the thick forest behind the
facility.

I didn’t look
back, but I was sure the two Fibs were behind me.

A slow moving
truck cut me off, so I hurled myself to the ground, rolled under its tank,
caught a glimpse of the two Fibs behind me, then rolled out on the other side.

I scrambled
back to my feet, raced around the storage tank in front of me, across a lane,
around another tank, then alongside a moving truck. I passed a flagman, but he
didn’t stop me, and I wondered if the flagmen had been alerted in advance. Had
the Fibs been watching me since I’d entered town? But what were they doing in
Yachats in the first place?

I made it to
the refueling island where half a dozen trucks were filling up. I didn’t see
any Fibs and I weighed whether to change my plans and double back to my van. I
decided against it for fear of running right back into their hands, and I
sprinted between the trucks and into the woods.

I ran up into the hills,
crunching leaves and twigs underfoot, hoping that the Fibs weren’t following
those sounds. As I raced deeper into the forest, the horrible truth set in.
Even if I escaped the Fibs for now, they’d eventually catch up with me. In
Yachats, in the wilderness, or in Clearview. But I kept going.

After about
twenty minutes, I slowed down and looked back. I didn’t see anyone heading up
the hill, but it was hard to know for sure because the forest was so dense. I
continued forward and weighed my next move and as I did, I caught a glimpse of
a lodge, about a quarter mile up the hillside. If the lodge was inhabitable,
families might be living there, and if they were, one of them might have a car.
That wasn’t guaranteed, as cars were a luxury, but this was a truck town, so
people here might know how to keep cars running. My plan was simple. Hike to
that lodge, steal a car, and head back to Clearview.

I moved cautiously through the
forest, toward the lodge. Each time I heard a burst of rustling leaves, I
stopped, glanced around for Fibs, but it was always just a squirrel or rabbit
scurrying away. I started to think less about the Fibs and more about Crater.
Had I seen what he’d wanted me to see or did he want me to go even farther
south?

I made it to
the back of the lodge and, from the safety of the woods, I started to check it
out. The dark forest was now my ally. I saw laundry lines, weighed down by wet
clothes, strung across the back lawn. Kids’ toys were scattered about.

Families
were
living here.

The lodge itself
was a three-story wooden building that, before the Virus, would’ve been called
rustic. Now, it was dilapidated. As I moved around it, toward the front, the
parking lot came into view and my simple plan crumbled.

I
did
see a couple of cars, but I also saw five SUVs. Fib SUVs. Brown with green
stripes running down the sides. The green symbolized the Territory, that narrow
stretch of land along the coast. I now realized that the two Fibs who’d hunted
me down were part of a larger contingent. But why were they here? Had I driven
right into some sort of crisis? And that thought made me angry. At Crater. He
was the one who’d led me into this.

But then I saw
something that made me forget all about my anger. Victor Crow stepped out of
the lodge. What the hell was
he
doing here? He was the Territory’s top
cop, the leader of the Fibs, and as I watched him and two other Fibs amble
toward one of the SUVs, I reached one definitive conclusion. I’d stumbled into
something way over my head.

I had met Victor Crow five years
ago. There’d been a rumor circulating around Clearview that the marauders were
going to attack the Corolaqua plant and within days of the start of that rumor,
Crow and three dozen Fibs swarmed into town to protect the plant. During the
day, they dominated Clearview, and that didn’t stop at night. But at night, it
was more personal. They stayed in people’s homes. Including the Levingworths’,
which was where I met Crow.

Rick Levingworth was working on a
software program and he needed help with it, so he asked to come over.

Though Benny
was my only friend, Rick was family. After my father’s murder, I lived with the
Levingworths for many years. Even though I begged Mrs. Levingworth to let me
move back home, she didn’t let me go until I was seventeen. The result was that
Rick was forced to share his house and his parents with me. He’d been an only
child and now he suddenly had a brother. And it didn’t help that Mrs.
Levingworth,
his
mom, acted like she was
my
mom and treated me as
if I were her son. When it came to presents, attention, and even love, she
never favored him over me.

And not only
did I ruin Rick’s home life, but I also ruined his life at school. As soon as I
moved in, kids at school started making fun of him. He was permanently linked
to the weird kid. They’d taunt him and tease him and when it got to be too
much, he’d fight back. Rick was strong and fearless so it was always his
tormentors who’d end up with the bloody noses and fat lips. But I knew Rick’s
punches were really meant for me. After decking a kid, he’d sometimes scan the
crowd of kids watching and he’d lock eyes with me. He didn’t look triumphant.
He looked angry as if he were telling me that the punches he’d just unleashed
were meant for me instead of the kid on the ground. I was the one who deserved
to be laid out flat, dazed and bloodied.

Still, Rick
never taunted me or punched me. But he didn’t defend me either. At school, he
didn’t speak to me and, at home, he ignored me. And that’s how it stood for the
first six years of our forced brotherhood. Then everything changed.

It was the last day of school,
eighth grade, and I was supposed to go home with Benny. Jack Forman was having
an end-of-school-year party at his house and Rick was heading over there. Benny
and I weren’t invited.

After school,
Jack changed his mind and invited me. He wasn’t one of the kids who regularly
ambushed me, so I wasn’t suspicious. Maybe Mrs. Levingworth had been right all
along. She was always saying that one day the kids would come around. Maybe
today was that day.

I didn’t have
the guts to ask Jack if Benny could come to the party, too. I was too happy for
my own reversal of fortune. So I told Benny that I’d come over tomorrow and I
ignored his disappointment. I convinced myself that if I made headway with some
of these kids, he’d benefit, too.

I took off
with Jack and five other kids, and one of those kids was Gary Ledic. That
should’ve tipped me off. Before Ledic grew into a nasty adult, he’d been a mean
kid. A mean kid who reveled in plotting and executing cruel pranks. In
elementary school, he’d told Benny that he’d seen some electronic Remnants in
Grainer’s boathouse. The boathouse had been abandoned for fifty years so Benny
imagined that it might just hold some hidden treasures. Benny went to check it
out and Ledic locked him in. For two days, everyone in Clearview thought
marauders had killed Benny. But Ledic bragged so much about his deed that the
truth got out and Benny was rescued.

I headed to Jack’s house with
Jack, Ledic, and four other kids. We cut through Glenn Field Woods, but when we
were crossing the bridge over the Mory Aqueduct, the kids all stopped. I didn’t
know why and thought that maybe they were going to do some kind of
end-of-school-year ritual. I realized I was completely wrong exactly one second
later when Ledic stepped up to me and said, “Why are you always studying?”

“I’m not,” I
said.

“Liar,” he
snorted, and shoved me into the bridge’s railing.

I looked over
at Jack, hoping that the invitation to the party was still genuine, but when he
grinned at me and all the kids closed ranks around me, I accepted the harsh
reality that I’d walked right into another ambush.
And
I could tell this
one was different. It wasn’t going to be just punches to the gut and face,
followed by laughter.

“We don’t want
you back next year,” Ledic said.

“Come on,
Gary,” I said. “Let’s just go to the party.”

Right then,
Bill Ely and Walt Becket lunged for my legs and Ledic grabbed my arms, and they
pinned me back against the bridge’s railing. I tried to free myself, but I
couldn’t. I could’ve handled any one of them, but all three were too much.

Ledic looked
at the other kids and said, “So you got the story down, right? We got here and
dared each other to walk on top of the railing. Then it was Roy’s turn and he
was doing good until he got all scared and tripped and fell.”

Fear suddenly
swept up from the pit of my stomach. It was a hundred foot drop to the concrete
channel below and the channel was empty. There’d be no water to cushion my
fall. Ledic wanted me dead and he was going to make it happen right here. I
tried to think straight.

Ledic
repeated, “You got the story down, right?”

The kids all
nodded and I kicked out as hard as I could, freeing one of my legs and knocking
Bill off balance. Ledic and Walt instantly tightened their grips on me and
Bill, now angry, punched me in the balls. I grunted in pain and doubled over.

“Let’s finish
this up,” Ledic ordered, and the three of them wrestled me onto the top of the
railing and pinned me down. I had to stop struggling. Any wrong move now and
I’d tumble off into the concrete below.

Ledic hovered
over me, his face lit up with smug satisfaction. I’d die in the Mory Aqueduct
and Ledic would be proud of his achievement. He’d relish it for years.

Ledic looked
to Bill and Walt. “On three,” he said.

I hoped that a
rush of water would fill the aqueduct below, but I knew that no water would
flow through the Mory Aqueduct that day.

“One,” Ledic
said.

I braced
myself.

“Two.”

Bill and Walt
moved their arms to my side, ready to shove me over.

“Three—”

“Stop!” It was
Rick’s voice, and he sounded angrier than I’d ever heard him. Angrier than when
he yelled at his mom for showering more affection on me than on him.

“This is none
of your fucking business,” Ledic said.

“Get away from
him,” Rick said as he stepped up to Ledic.

“Why you
defending this piece of shit? We’re doing you a favor.”

Ledic was
right. If I died, Rick would have his life back. But Rick said, “Because he’s
part of my family. That’s why.”

And that hit
me in the heart. I felt it. It bonded us forever. Not because I thought Rick
and I were now friends, but because of exactly what he’d said. I was part of
the Levingworth family.

Rick shoved
Ledic away from me, grabbed one of my legs, and pulled me off the railing.

I toppled onto
the bridge, scrambled to my feet, and saw that all the kids were staring at
Ledic. They wanted him to fight back.

Rick was
waiting, too, glaring at Ledic, daring him to escalate this.

Ledic swung at
Rick who dodged the punch and threw his own. It exploded into Ledic’s nose and
we all heard the pop of cartilage as Ledic’s head flew back and he crumbled to
the ground.

Rick looked
around to see if anyone else wanted a broken nose. None of the kids said
anything. They were staring down at Ledic who was looking up at the sky, his
eyes watering and glazed over, blood oozing from his nose and running down his
face.

Rick turned to
Jack, “Benny wants to come to your party, too. You got a problem with that?”

Jack didn’t.

The party was okay. Rick hung out
with the other kids and I hung out with Benny. Nothing changed between the
other kids and me, but everything changed between Rick and me. It wasn’t that
we became blood brothers or anything like that, but his attitude toward me
changed. He no longer resented me, he accepted me, and I wanted to pay him back
for that. I wanted to show him that, yes, I was part of his family. I paid him
back through computers.