Apocalypsis: Book 3 (Exodus) (5 page)

Peter was staring at me like I’d lost my mind.

“Stop looking at me like that.  Bodo’s not dead.  I’d know it if he were.”

Peter’s eyes got wide but he said nothing.

Kowi cleared his throat but otherwise remained quiet.

An uncomfortable silence fell over us, so I said the first thing that came to mind, trying to change the subject.  “So … canners.  Some escaped …”

Kowi glanced down at the journal he held in his hand and said, “Yeah.”  He looked back up.  “I’ve been reading some stuff in here, and I wanted to talk to you and Trip about it.”

“Why me?” I asked.

“Because I trust you to make good decisions for our welfare.  You know how to fight better than any of us, and it’s always going to fall to you to make us ready for whatever comes.”

I felt proud and pressured at the same time.  It brought my happiness level down several notches.

Peter slung his arm across my shoulders.  “Bryn’s totally there for you guys, just like I am.  But she needs time to recover.  She’s been through a lot.”

“We all have.  I’m not saying she needs to do anything until she’s ready.  But I’m worried those canners who got away will try and find us.”

“How will they?  They don’t even know where we came from,” said Peter.

“We were all wearing moccasins and warpaint.  It’s no mystery most of us are Native Americans.  We can hardly hide that from anyone.  And LaShay told us they have spies all over those neighborhoods, and most of them lived in the area before everything fell apart, so they know about the Miccosukee village.  They probably saw us pulling up the minute we came near.  It wouldn’t take long to put it all together with the direction we came from.”

“Shit,” I said, the weight of his words sinking in. 
Our sanctuary has been compromised. 
“I’m so sorry.”  I couldn’t think of anything else to say.  It felt like it was all my doing.

“It’s not your fault, so why are you apologizing?” said Kowi, sounding angry.

“Because it
feels
like my fault, that’s why.”

“So,
you
brought the canners to the area and forced them to hunt kids?” he said sarcastically.

“No.  But your lives were fine.  Everything was going well and then we showed up and the shit hit the fan.”

“Coincidence.  Just an unlucky coincidence.”

I heard a hiss of breath behind me and turned to find Coli standing there, scowling.

“Oh, Jesus,” I said, frustrated that I was going to have to deal with her.  “Are you following me now?”

“Coli, I’m not going to say it again,” warned Kowi.  “You either get over your shit or don’t come in here anymore.”

She glared at Kowi and then at me, looking like she was going to say something back; but instead she turned on her heel and left us.  We watched her back fade into the trees.

Kowi was shaking his head.  “I honestly don’t know what to do with her.”  He ran his fingers through his hair, making the tangles look even worse.  “One minute she’s smiling and the next she looks like she wants to rip my face off.”

I smiled.  “I thought I was the only one she showered with affection like that.”

Kowi laughed.  “Hardly.  Dealing with her mood swings is like being on an emotional roller coaster.”

“Without a seatbelt,” added Peter.

Kowi smiled but didn’t comment.  “So, back to the journal.”  He tapped it a few times on his lap.  “I’m thinking we need to shore up our defenses.  That’s how George put it.”

“In what way?  And what defenses, exactly?” asked Peter.

“Well, to be honest, we don’t really have any defenses other than the natural ones like gators and stuff.  So we need to put something together and try to anticipate what our enemy … the canners … might try to do.”

My mind was racing with the possibilities, both of attack and defense.  “We really could do something, I’m sure.  To make it more difficult for them to get too close.”

“That’s what I was thinking.  So when do you think we can start working on it?”

I held up my arm.  “Well, I’m a little out of commission for building stuff, but I’m okay to discuss and plan.”

“So long as you don’t overdo it,” said Peter.  He looked at Kowi.  “She passed out on the toilet yesterday.”

I shoved Peter with my good arm.  “Shut up, Peter!”

Kowi laughed.  “I heard.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Oh great.  Paci’s gonna get punched.”

“No,” said Kowi, shaking his head, “it wasn’t Paci.”

I put my good hand on my hip.  “Who was it, then?”

Kowi lifted up an eyebrow but said nothing.

“Oh, right.  Yeah.  Roller coaster whacko.”

“Hey,” said Kowi, “try not to forget she’s my girlfriend.”

“Fine.  Sorry.  Whatever.  She’s not the nicest girl in the world, though.  You can’t blame me for being pissed at her.”

“No, I don’t blame you.  But Coli’s a complicated person.  She’s just … a little lost right now.”

“I can help her find herself …,” I said, thinking about doing it with a nice upper cut to the jaw.

“I’m sure she’ll do it on her own, eventually.  But thanks for the offer,” said Kowi, winking at me.

“So where’s Trip?” I asked, looking around the clinic.  I knew he’d been hurt but hadn’t seen him since we got back.

“I don’t know,” said Kowi.  “Haven’t seen him.”

“He’s back at his hut,” said Peter.  “Do you want him to come by?  I’m going to see him later.”

I looked at Peter confused. 
How come I didn’t know he was taking care of Trip?  And what’s that all about, anyway?

“Yeah,” said Kowi.  “Tell him to come see me.  I want to be sure he’s okay with all this.  If he is, we can start planning tomorrow.  I’m sure Nurse Coli will tell me I can’t do anything else today after this meeting.”

“Sounds lame,” I said.

“She’s just looking out for me,” he said, shrugging.  He obviously didn’t care she was smothering him.

Good for them
. 
Even wackos need love. 
“Alright, so I’ll see you later.”  I held my hand out for a fist bump and Kowi joined in.  Peter tried but fumbled around helplessly, so I just grabbed him in a hug before releasing him and walking out of the hut.  “I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” I shouted over my shoulder.  “Come on, Buster.  Let’s go take a walk,” I said, patting my leg to get his attention.

“Where are you going?” yelled Peter.

“Nowhere!” I said, lying my butt off.  “I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Okay.  Later.”  Peter left going in the opposite direction.

I practiced my quiet walking techniques as I headed out to the clearing where I’d first seen Bodo with Nina.  I was going to give the harmonica in my pocket a try, and see if I could call any scary-looking pterodactyls over to me.

The leaves crunched under my feet and I sighed, knowing that despite my best efforts, I still sounded like a herd of pachyderms moving through the brush.

***

I reached the clearing where I’d seen Bodo working with Nina a couple times.  There were gators lazing around near the banks and some long-legged birds out in the water, wading around looking for fish; but there were no big hawks that I could see.  I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, really.  A part of me had hoped to see her and another part didn’t really want that.  Maybe if she wasn’t here it meant she was somewhere with Bodo, looking for a way to come home.

I took my shirt off and wrapped it around my uninjured forearm.  Just in case Nina did come, I didn’t want her to tear my skin apart.  I wasn’t sure if the shirt would be enough, but I figured it was better than nothing.

I pulled the harmonica out of my pocket and stared at it for a few seconds.  It was the first time I’d really examined it since Winky had handed it to me.  Bodo had always kept it in his pocket, so I’d never really gotten a good look at it.  I turned it over, noticing a scrolling design on both sides.  It was like flowers and thorns mixed together with some stylized leaves.

The instrument was heavy, much more so than the few toy harmonicas I’d had in my lifetime.  A scratch that looked different than the scrolling on one side caught my eye.  I brought it up closer to my face to see what it was, and was almost sorry that I had, once I realized what I was looking at.  Bodo had etched a small heart with my name next to it into the metal.

My heart squeezed uncomfortably in my chest and my throat got sore with unshed tears.  I couldn’t look at it anymore or think about what it meant, so I lifted the instrument to my lips and blew on it.

One clear note came out and echoed eerily across the swamp.

A few of the nearby birds flew away but none of the gators even flinched.  No hawks appeared on the horizon.  I stared up into the sky, looking for a tiny brown shape that might be coming toward me, getting bigger and bigger as it got closer, but there was nothing above me but blue sky and some wispy white clouds.  I sighed.  At least the rain had finally let up.

I blew on the harmonica a few more times, using different notes and even trying to make a tune out of a few of them, but Nina never showed up.  Adding insult to injury, I was reminded once again that I have zero musical talent, even on an instrument that had only ten holes to blow into and no place to put fingers.

I looked down again at my name and the heart scratched into the metal and rubbed it, enjoying the feel of its uneven surface under my finger.  Bodo had done this with his own hand at some point.  I wondered when. 
Was it before he told me he loved me or after?  Did he do it after I knew about Nina or before?  What does it even matter?  He loved me, he told me, and now I have to go find him so I can tell him back.

It was that simple for me.  I couldn’t have Bodo out there in the world somewhere not knowing how I felt.  If he was dead, well, then he already knew, and I was going to have to be okay with that.  But until
I
knew that he knew how I felt, I wasn’t going to rest.

***

Lunch was filled with talk of setting up our defenses.  Paci and Fohi had designated themselves as leaders of the defense team.  Rob and Jeremy joined in, okay in theory with letting the other two call the shots.  I got the impression they were all just excited about the idea of setting boobytraps for canners.

“Okay, so we need to map out the traps and make sure everyone knows where they are,” said Paci.

“Yeah.  If anyone we
like
goes into any of them, I’m gonna feel like crap,” said Fohi.

I frowned.  “Are they going to be death traps?  I thought you were just digging some holes or something.”

Fohi smiled.  “Yeah … holes with sharpened sticks in the bottom, maybe.” He snickered.

I flinched at his bloodlust.  “Geez, Fohi.  Lighten up a little, would ya?”

He frowned at me.  “Why?  Do you think the canners will lighten up on us?”

Jeremy joined him, mocking me.  “Yeah, right.”  His voice went up an octave.  “Excuse me, indian boys?  Do you mind if we come into your swamp for a little visit?”  He frowned at me.  “It’s gonna be more like, ‘Hello, assholes.  Here’s a bullet for your face.  Now give me your kidney.  I’m hungry.’”

I couldn’t help but laugh.  “Yeah, okay, so they’re not nice guys.  I’m just saying, if a good guy
does
end up falling in and getting killed, you’re gonna feel bad.  Just like Fohi said.”

Fohi jumped in enthusiastically.  “No.  I change my mind.  Anyone who’s stupid enough to fall into a trap we tell them about, deserves what they get. 
BAM.
  Darwin award winner.”

“What if someone stumbles into it at night?”

“Darwin award.”  Fohi nodded his head.

“What if someone’s being chased by a canner and forgets where a trap is because they’re panicking?”

“Hopefully they’ll both get killed,” said Jeremy.

Fohi looked a little worried.

Rob held up his hands.  “Okay, so it’s not perfect.  We’ll do whatever we can to make sure the good guys aren’t caught in any traps.  But maybe Bryn has a point.  Not all of our traps have to be deadly.  Some can just … immobilize.”

Paci looked right at me when he said, “So if we catch a canner in a hole, are you going to be able to execute him later?”

Everyone got quiet, waiting for my answer.

I stared back at him. “Why is this all on me?  Who says
I’m
the executioner?”

He shrugged.  “Just seemed like you didn’t do all that well with the canners you already killed.  Now you’re talking about having to kill more, instead of letting them kill themselves in a trap.  I’m just asking …”

I didn’t like being pushed into a corner like this, and least of all by Paci.  I thought he was my friend.  I scowled back at him, refusing to answer.  I shoved a piece of fruit in my mouth instead.

“Whatever.  I say we figure out the best places to put them first, and then we can figure out which type of trap would work best.  It’s going to depend on the landscape and stuff,” said Rob.

“Someone’s gotta do a map of this place,” said Jeremy.

“And someone has to be sure the bad guys never get their hands on it,” said Peter, sitting down next to me.

“Where’ve you been?” I asked in a low tone so no one else would hear.

“Out.  Somewhere.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.  “Out somewhere
where?”

“Out
somewhere
.  That’s where.”  Peter picked up a hunk of bread and shoved it in his mouth, acting like he couldn’t talk anymore because his mouth was too full.

“You know … you’re not fooling me for
one second.
  You’re hiding something from me, and I’m going to find out what it is.”

Peter gave me a sassy look, but didn’t respond.  He handed a hunk of meat to Buster who laid down in front of us with it between his paws, pulling bits of it off and chewing away.  If a dog could smile, Buster would be grinning his butt off.  He stopped every once in a while to look at us, his tongue hanging out.

“Buster, you’re a goof, just like Peter,” I said.  The dog started to get up, thinking I wanted to play, but I pushed him back down. “No, stay.  Eat your brontosaurus.”  I turned my attention back to Peter.  “I can’t believe you’re keeping secrets from me.  That’s so rude.  I’m injured, you know.”  I held up my bandaged arm, hoping it would earn me some pity points and make him feel guilty.