The Dark Rift: Redemption (4 page)

"Jodie, I know where they're taking them," her father said. "You know they're expecting us to follow. They're leading us right into a trap."

"I know. We have to find a way to get out of this forest, then take the long way around back to Nevada, don't we?"

Noah stirred in his seat. "But, my mom --" he said, not able to finish the sentence before emotion overtook him.

"They won't hurt your mom or anyone else, Noah. They want me and my dad. We'll get them back. You and Hunter try to rest for a while. You're going to need your strength to help us." Jodie realized she was holding on to a hope that might not be realistic. There was nothing to prevent Gypsum from killing everyone if they wanted to. She just prayed they were too stupid to realize that.

Jodie pulled out a map and started looking for a backwoods route to their destination in Nevada. For now, they would be hidden by the trees. Once they were in the desert, they would be out in the open and she was unsure how to travel in that terrain without being seen. As she was thinking through the details, Isaiah gently touched her arm and pointed at an outfitter's store sitting back in the woods. It looked abandoned.

"Want to go take a look? We don't have any food or water," Isaiah said.

Jodie didn’t want to stop, but knew they would need supplies. This might be their last chance to find some before they were deep into the woods again. "Drive by slowly. We'll see if anyone follows, first."

Isaiah slowed the SUV as they looked for movement in the outfitter's shack. Everything appeared quiet.

"Drop me off up the road and hide the vehicle. I'll walk back and call you when everything is clear," Jodie said, grabbing the hand-held radio.

Isaiah pulled over to the side of the road and stopped.

"Be careful," her father said.

Jodie nodded and jumped out of the SUV. She ran down the side of the road toward the outfitters and veered off into the woods behind the building. She crept up to the side of the old converted house and leaned to peek in the window. The shock at what she saw took her breath away. "Fucking Gypsum."

Jodie took out her handgun and approached the door, turned the knob and swung it open. Nothing greeted her but the sound of flies buzzing and a deeply rancid odor that she recognized immediately. She stepped in to the kitchen area and looked down at the bodies on the floor. A mid-twenties man and woman lay splayed out, their blood intermingled. She reached down to feel for a pulse, just in case. The coldness of their skin told her everything she needed to know.

Jodie stood up and moved into the storefront area, which was ransacked, but was still teaming with supplies strewn everywhere. She checked each aisle, making her way to the rooms off to the side. A bedroom lay empty. A photo of the young couple she'd seen in the kitchen sat on an end table. She picked it up and cradled it in her hand. The photo showed them during a happy time, linked together in an embrace in front of a campfire. Feeling a combination of anger and sadness beginning to bore through her, she set the photo down and pushed on until she'd cleared all the rooms. She closed the door to the kitchen, where the bodies lay, and went out the front to call Isaiah.

"Isaiah, it's me. All clear here." Jodie sat on a bench sawn from a large log and set the radio down next to her. She felt weary in a way that seemed insurmountable. How many people would have to die before this nightmare was over? She wanted to surrender, to give in to the idea of failure. Trying to regain her composure, Jodie instead started to feel a tugging from the back of her mind, a pull to retreat, to wrap herself in a ball, walled away from everyone and everything. The urge to let herself go to that place was so overwhelming, it scared her.

For a moment, she wondered if she could convince Gypsum to spare some lives if she traded her own. Yet, she knew that wasn’t possible because Gypsum couldn’t be trusted. If she was going to save her friends, she’d need to set her emotions aside again.

She stood and shook her head, trying to throw off the thoughts. Isaiah's voice called to her from somewhere in the distance and she looked up to see him standing in front of her, reaching out to grab her arm.

"Are you okay, Jodie?" Isaiah asked.

"Yeah," she lied as she sat back down on the log. "Please ask my dad to take Noah and Hunter for a walk. They shouldn't go in there."

Isaiah looked at Jodie, his eyes searching her face. He nodded, walked over to the SUV and talked to Jodie's dad and Noah for a brief moment, then returned and sat next to her.

"There are supplies in there, I take it?" Isaiah said.

"Yeah. Let's go load up and get out of here," Jodie said, noticing the look of concern building on Isaiah's face. "Don't worry. I haven't cracked up yet."

"Good to know,” he said, reaching over and squeezing her hand. “Let's go see what we can find."

About twenty minutes later, the SUV was loaded with all the gear and food they could carry. Isaiah detached a spare gas tank from a jeep sitting in back of the old house. Once it was loose, he shook it. "We've got about three quarters of a tank and maybe four or five gallons in this jug. We'll have to scavenge if we don't want to walk."

"Okay, let's hit the road," Jodie said.

She watched her father helping Noah pack up Hunter's bowl and food. Their relationship seemed so easy. She felt herself wondering what her life would have been like if her parents hadn't abandoned her as a child. Jodie knew her father had stayed away from her for years to protect her from finding out what Gypsum had planned for the planet. But, in the end, nothing worked out the way her father intended. She wasn't protected from seeing her best friend lying dead on the floor. She wasn't shielded from knowing her mother was a mass murderer. And, none of them were safe now. 

Knowing she wouldn't sleep, she took the keys from Isaiah. "I'll take it for awhile. Why don't you see if you can get some rest?"

"You're sure?" Isaiah said, his expression a mixture of concern and relief.

"Yeah. You know I'm wired," Jodie said, thinking she might never get a good night's sleep again. "If I see anything worth stopping for, I'll let you know."

Once they were on their way, Jodie turned the radio on. Static greeted her. She pushed buttons, finding someone had left a CD in the slot. She pushed the eject button and read the name of the band. “Anybody know them?”

"I do. They're really cool," Noah said.

Jodie glanced at him in the rearview mirror, seeing his face brighten just a bit. A little music might take their minds off of the events of the day. Jodie pushed the CD in. "If you say they're cool, they must be. Let's give it a whirl."

They'd ushered Hunter to the far back, into the cargo area. Isaiah sat in the back seat, with Noah next to him, eating snacks they’d procured from the outfitter’s store. Noah laughed, watching Hunter attempting to chew through some especially tough beef jerky. Her father dozed off in the front seat and, for a while, no one talked. Jodie was glad to let the music occupy her thoughts.

Her father woke as they made the transition from forest road to pavement. He yawned loudly as he brought out the map. "Okay, my dear. Shall we map our journey?"

Jodie laughed. His formality, although seeming so out of place, still fit him so well. "Yes, Dad. Remember, not too much pavement, okay?"

* * *

As they traveled, Jodie noticed the world looked dark everywhere. Power plants and portions of the power grid had been destroyed during the earthquakes, resulting in spotty surges of electricity to outlying areas. Much of what they’d seen in California and Nevada flickered on and off at night like a defective light bulb. A sustained glow emanated from fires in the more populated areas. The first few hours, Jodie jumped as the shock waves from explosions came at them, one after another, the result of built-up natural gas from ruptured underground lines pouring into abandoned houses and businesses. It seemed as if the whole world was on fire, at times.

A few hours before dawn, they pulled under the cover of the trees, taking care to shield the vehicles with camouflage tarps they'd taken from the outfitters' store. They cooked their meals for the day under the cover of darkness, careful to extinguish their campfire before dawn so that the smoke wouldn't reveal their location. They rested during the day and planned the route to minimize fuel consumption.

When darkness came once more, they would have to head into town, sure to be a dangerous place during the daylight. Their gas reserves were running low and the need to refuel defined their path for the time being. If Gypsum was waiting anywhere, it was sure to be near gas stations. Jodie knew they would need to be very careful.

Back on the road at night, Jodie drove slowly to avoid the torn asphalt. Many of the vacation homes they passed were abandoned, not because of damage, but because their occupants were dead now, buried in an undersea tomb that was once San Francisco. Or, perhaps they had been evacuated by Gypsum. Whatever the reason for the lack of people, Jodie found it unnerving. She could tell the quiet was getting to her father as well.

"It's strange, driving into darkness like this, isn't it, Dad?" Jodie said.

"Yes, but better than being spotted by a satellite," her father said, glancing up at the star-filled sky. “You know, I really don't think Gypsum's out here. Why would they waste the energy? They know we're coming to them."

Jodie mulled over her thoughts for a moment, wondering whether or not to tell her father what she was thinking. She decided to get it off her chest. "Dad, I have to say something that’s been on my mind for a while now.” She hesitated, seeing the look on his face showing anxiety. “Why didn't you tell me about Mom? And Gypsum? Why keep that a secret when I could've helped you?" Jodie could feel her mouth getting drier with each word, feeling like she literally had to spit out the last few syllables. She heard her father let out a long sigh.

"I didn't want you to know what your mother had become. I wanted you to have the memories I have of her as a younger, happy woman. She loved you so much when you were a child. She loved me, too, I know she did. But, she changed so abruptly, I had no idea who she was anymore. It was like something evil consumed her. I can't explain it, Jodie, but I didn't want you to know. I realize now that I didn't handle anything the way I should've, but I didn't know what to do. I thought I was protecting you."

Jodie noticed her father's voice changing from sad to bitter.

"Gypsum was so big and so connected," her father said, his hands now balled into fists. "I had no idea what they were doing until your mother told me, one night. I could tell she was scared. I got the feeling she wanted out, but was afraid."

"Why didn't you help her get out?" Jodie said, finding herself unable to do anything other than place blame.

"I tried. For years. Finally, she left me and cut me out of her life. For some reason, Gypsum kept me on as a consultant and I was able to move rather freely through their network. I never understood why she allowed that. I still don't."

"Dad, you don't think she really wanted to sabotage their plan, do you?" Jodie asked. She wanted to believe there was more to the story, more of a reason to compel her mother to become part of such a heinous plan.

              "I did at first. She changed so much . . . became, I don’t know, hardened or something, toward the end that I didn't get the sense she cared about anything." Her father's voice quavered. "I'm sorry. You're right. I should have told you. Maybe you could've saved her, too."

Jodie glanced over at her father, seeing his jaw clenched. She remembered her mother’s last moments, the gun in her father's hand going off, the blood spraying from her mother’s chest, and her father’s despondency. She realized he had still loved her mother when he’d ended her life. As she let that realization into her mind, Jodie’s bitterness over the past gradually softened into a deep sadness. “What a waste,” she muttered.

“What’s that?” her father asked.

“I said, what a waste. She threw away her life and yours and the lives of all those people she held captive underground. I don’t blame you, Dad. I’m sorry I made it seem that way. I realize you had horrible decisions to make.”

Her father rubbed his eyes. “Thank you for saying that,” he said, shifting his gaze out the passenger window.

“I’m so happy you’re with us. I hope you know that. I’ve missed you for a long, long time,” Jodie said, reaching out to touch his shoulder. “Let’s make the best of what we have now, okay?”

“You bet we will. Let’s get this done,” her father said, continuing to keep his face hidden from her view.

"I'm hoping the cabin is still in one piece. I realized how much I love that place when I went back there. It would be nice if you'd come and stay . . . once we get done with all this, that is."

“I'd like that," her father said, quickly wiping his eyes. "Remember that old sailboat of yours?”

“Yeah. Of course I do. Whatever happened to it?” Sailing with her father was one of her favorite memories from her early childhood.

“I still have it. I had it restored. It’s ready to go whenever you are.”

“You had it restored?” Jodie was starting to realize the depth of her father’s feelings for her.

“Yeah. It’s a classic now. But, then again, I guess maybe I'm a classic, too," he said.

Jodie watched a smile creep across his face. "We've all gotten older," she said. "As soon as we’re done here, sailing will be first on my list of things to do.” Jodie felt a sudden sadness tugging at her, knowing they might not live through their next encounter with Gypsum. She knew her father must have the same feeling.

“That sounds great,” he said.