Thunder (11 page)

“Why don't you remember? Where are your folks?” Selah continued rooting for stems.

The girl sat cross-legged as Selah cleared the roughage from her hair. “Ain't got folks. Momma said Poppa got killed in a wagon tip-over when I was five. I don't remember it. Momma died of the sickness thirty-six moons ago.”

“Thirty-six moons?”

“Yeah.” Her hand traced an arc. “When the moon comes up full in the sky at night. I been counting the big full ones.”

Selah gasped. The girl had been on her own for three years. “Do you know how old you are?”

Amaryllis put a grimy finger with a dirt-encrusted fingernail into her mouth. Selah gagged. She wanted to snatch the girl's finger from between her teeth but feared scaring her. Still, it made her queasy thinking about what was going into the girl's mouth.

“Best I can remember, Momma made a little Birth Remembrance cake.” She held her fingers together in the shape of a cupcake. “I was nine, and that was the month before she died.”

So she was now twelve years old. It broke Selah's heart that the girl had no parents. She was learning to deal with that feeling herself. “Who do you live with now?”

“Nobody. I live in the woods and in my hidey-hole in the city.”

“What city?” Selah didn't remember ever seeing any cities along this road, and she'd come this way many times with her mother.

“The city all broke down in the ground. That way.” She pointed off down the road and through the trees to the east.

Selah looked back in the direction of Bodhi and sighed. Her backpack was back there, but there was no going for it now. Better luck tomorrow. She took the child by the hand. For a split second she imagined Dane beside her.

The girl pulled away. Her eyes widened.

“I won't hurt you,” Selah said in a soft voice.

Amaryllis shrugged, but the right side of her lips raised in a grin. Just like Dane. She thought about it for a second. “Okay.”

They walked down the center of the road with the moon behind them as a companion. The long shadows they cast added to the eeriness and strange sounds. Selah couldn't remember being alone outside this late at night, but she worked at identifying every sound.

An owl screeched from a nearby perch. She heard crashing and rustling as it swooped down and grabbed a tiny squealing prey from the forest floor. Sounded like a mouse, or was it a baby rabbit?

The owl screech must have unnerved Amaryllis. She slipped her hand into Selah's and increased her grip. About a quarter mile down the road, Amaryllis stopped and stared into the forest on their right. She gestured with her free hand.

“You lead,” Selah said. She took notes of the twists and turns through the forest in case she ever needed to come back this way. They broke through the trees near the remnants of the forgotten town. In the moonlight it seemed to have been plopped in the middle of the forest. There were no roads, just overgrown vegetation and big trees. Time and travelers passed it by.

The girl skipped ahead, pulling Selah. She would have let
go but she feared losing the child and having her fall in some great chasm where she'd be injured or killed. Dane's escapades came to mind.

“Come, I'll show you where I sleep. It has magic light.”

“Magic light?”

“Yes! It's friendly. It always knows when I come. It likes me.” The girl slithered out of Selah's grasp and dodged into a pile of rubble behind a huge pine tree.

“Wait!” Selah reached for her but missed. “Don't run ahead. It might not be safe.”

She felt her way along the maze of stone pillars and tumbled boulders. Suddenly there was light streaming through the jumble of roots and kudzu vines invading the rubbled cavern. She could see where she was going now. Her heart pounded. What manner of light could be this bright? What had the girl found?

“Amaryllis? Come here, please. Where are you?” Her voice echoed as she maneuvered among the debris. She could tell by the change in her echo that the narrow tunnel opened into a large hollow area.

Selah found Amaryllis standing on a jumbled pile of benches and tables. The child grinned broadly, her arms held wide.

“The light is happy to see me! It gets bright when I come.” She twirled around on the flat area of the pile, laughing and giggling.

Selah scrambled into the cavernous room and peered up at the walls. She stared in awe. High above, on a two-foot-high marble slab, were engraved the words “City of Hampton, Public Library.”

Buried in the rubble of time, a library had survived the Sorrows. Now she knew the name of the city. Her father rarely knew the original names of the places they passed through unless they found an old sign or met an aged resident of the Borough.

The cavernous room rose about three stories tall. Cobwebs hung from every available beam and pillar. The shimmering curtains of floss reflected the light emitted by the glowing ceiling. Large, leafy kudzu pushed its way through cracks in the ceiling and crept along the surface in a few areas.

Row after row of stacked glass columns marked by engraved plaques covered the perimeter walls. Mother had taught her to read them. The markings were called a Dewey decimal system—a catalog that survived the ages. Selah gazed at the thousands upon thousands of glass crystals representing digital renderings of books. Her years of education had been accomplished with handed-down paper books, but occasionally she'd been graced with the use of these crystals by one of Father's traveling friends.

Amaryllis pulled a slingshot from her pocket and reached down to grab a small rock from the litter on the pile. She took aim at one of the stacks on the wall. “Listen to the music.”

“No! Stop!” Selah scrambled to climb the pile but was too late.

The crystal column exploded with a pop and a shower of tinkling shards of glass, creating a lilting melody as it rained down three stories onto a large pile of previously destroyed crystals.

Selah scrambled to the girl's side and snatched the slingshot
from her. “What are you doing? Stop it! Those are books you're destroying! No one will ever be able to replace them.”

Amaryllis shrank back. Her eyes widened and she began to cry. She crawled down from the pile and threw herself onto the corner of a bench, her head in her hands.

Selah closed her eyes with a sigh. She sometimes yelled at Dane with the same result. Would she ever learn not to scare children? The girl didn't know what she was destroying. She barely knew her own name.

Selah bit her bottom lip and slowly approached. “I'm sorry for yelling.”

Amaryllis scrambled from the bench, crawled underneath, and hid her face. “Stay away! You're mean.”

“Please come out.” Selah softened her voice and lowered to her haunches. “I was trying to stop you before you destroyed more books.”

Amaryllis uncovered her eyes and sniffled a few times. “What's a book?” She looked up as tears created clean trails through the dirt on her face.

Selah balked. She'd heard about people who didn't school their children. Her mother said if the parents weren't taught, their children couldn't do much better. Mother named lack of education as the number one reason that society languished and had never recovered from the Sorrows.

“Did your mother teach you any schoolwork?” Selah asked.

The girl softened her cry. Selah needed to gain her trust again—after all, she owed the child a debt. Amaryllis nodded but then shook her head. “Momma taught me some numbers and the alfbit and how to read some words she wrote on a slate, but then she got sick and we didn't do it no more.”

“Alphabet. Your mother taught you the alphabet. That's great.” Selah smiled. “So you know some words. That's what all of these are.” She raised her arm and waved it around the room.

Amaryllis crawled out to the edge of the bench. She looked up at the walls. “I don't see no words, just glass, and it makes a pretty sound when it breaks. It's like music. I come here a lot to make music. I was just trying to show you.”

“I understand now. You didn't know.” Selah reached out to pat her hand.

Amaryllis flinched and pulled back. She shook her head. “I don't see no words. You must be wrong.”

“Let me show you.” Selah stood and walked around.

The interior of the building was in adequate shape. Apparently no raiders had ever found it because all of it would have been stripped out for salvage and the power source drained and confiscated. She glanced up at the LED lighting. Somewhere in this building or beneath it there was something nuclear, probably a cold fusion power source with a working motion detector. Selah silently thanked her mother for cramming knowledge into her, even when she fought tooth and nail to resist learning things she was sure she'd never use. Once again Mother was right.

“These aren't just pieces of glass like in a windowpane. They're called quartz data glass.” Selah walked to a stack and carefully removed one of the one-inch-square, wafer-thin pieces of clear crystal. She held it up to the light between her fingers.

“Come see.” She motioned Amaryllis over. The girl shook her head and stayed put.

Selah carefully replaced the square in the stack and navigated around various piles of rubble. She glanced at the large heaps of crystal shards. So much knowledge destroyed. She searched for a reader, lifting several chairs and an overturned bench, until she spied a rack pinned beneath a pile.

“Come help me.” She attacked the pile, throwing off chairs and pushing aside benches and racks. How did the furnishings wind up in piles like this when the stacks were mostly untouched?

“What are you looking for? There's nothing under there. I've been everywhere here.” Amaryllis inched forward. Selah turned to her, but the girl backed away again. Selah continued digging.

“It's something very special.” Selah mimicked the girl's interpretation of the automatic lights. “I want to show you more magic.”

Amaryllis smiled. “Magic? There's magic in there?” She inched forward again, peering into the space Selah was creating.

“Here, help me with this.” Selah took one end of the bench, figuring if she could get the girl engaged, her fears would subside.

Amaryllis gripped the other end of the bench and helped Selah push it aside. Selah strained to reach into the mess. She grabbed a grayish-black metal rectangle about two inches wide and four inches long with a narrow slot across the leading edge. The back side had a molded finish for easier gripping. She brushed off the dust and cobwebs and blew dirt from the slot. Now, if only it worked. She pushed the button indentation and felt the hum in her hand.

She turned to Amaryllis. “Go to that stack and bring me one of those glass chips. Hold it by the edges with your fingers like you saw me do.”

Amaryllis scrambled to the wall stacks. She returned, walking slowly as she looked at the piece of glass between her fingers. She grinned and handed it to Selah. “Did I do good this time?”

“Yes, you did very good.” Selah loaded the quartz glass into the reader slot, and a beam of light shot from the leading edge of the reader. Selah aimed it toward the closest surface, a tipped-up table covered with 150 years of dust.

The surface came alive with a three-foot-square screen featuring pictures labeled “Life in the Sahara Desert.” Selah remembered reading about this place in a country called Africa, but she had never seen pictures. Oasis watering holes with camels, men dressed in colorful robes, fig trees, palm trees, and women picking olives graced the screen.

Amaryllis squealed with delight and clapped her hands. “Are there pretty pictures on all of those? How does that happen?”

Selah chuckled. “Yes, all of those little glass squares have pictures on them. You use a reader like this to see them.”

“I'm sorry.” Amaryllis lowered her head and her bottom lip trembled.

“Sorry for what?” Selah touched the child's shoulder.

“For destroying so much of it.” She looked at the piles of glass near the wall.

“That's all right. You didn't know. Come over here and enjoy these.”

Selah laid the reader on the edge of the bench so Amaryl
lis could watch the screen, then turned and sat on the floor next to the wall. She shouldn't leave this child here alone. It would feel akin to abandoning Dane.

What could she do? Obviously no one had offered to take the girl. Selah chastised herself. She didn't have time or knowledge of the area to find a home for a stray child.

Maybe Amaryllis would solve the problem and run away while Selah slept. She had survived for three years by herself and seemed better equipped than Selah. But on her own, sooner or later she'd be snatched by marauders. Selah didn't want to think about her in their hands.

According to Amaryllis, Raza and Cleon had consented to the second watch. At dawn they'd get back on the road. She needed her backpack and to head for the next station before her brothers.

She pursed her lips. That was her only mission. As for the girl . . .

S
elah jerked awake. She looked around.
Please
let
it
be
a
dream
. She cleared the sleep from her eyes and focused. No dream. She was still in the library, among a pit of data glass rubble. With a heavy sigh, she dropped her head back to her arm and closed her eyes.

A feeling of warmth registered against her side. Maybe she'd attracted an animal in the night. Scared to move again, she opened one eye. Relief. In her fog, she'd forgotten about the girl. Amaryllis slept curled up against her.

She peered around again. The lights had turned off. She glanced up at the ceiling. A tiny shaft of light peeked in near the place where she'd spotted the kudzu. It wasn't a large area but she could see daylight through the slit.

Selah sat up and stretched. Amaryllis awoke.

“I have to leave today, and—”

“No! Don't leave.” Amaryllis grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Selah could feel the tremble in the girl's arms.

Selah shook her head. “I'm sorry. I have to go. You saw my friend last night. Those bad men are going to do something evil to him if I don't get him free.” Strange twist of events, identifying Bodhi as her friend and her brothers as bad.

Amaryllis started to weep. “I like you. I'm lonely. You made me feel safe.”

Selah's heart softened. She'd been lucky to have loving parents and even brothers. It was still up in the air how loving the brothers were, but they were hers. She had never been alone in her entire life until now, and she didn't like it very much. Knowing how a twelve-year-old child must feel, she squeezed her eyes shut. All she could see was Dane standing there on the verge of tears. There was no way to avoid this.

She patted Amaryllis on the head, removing another twig. How many things were hiding in this girl's head? She grimaced. Sidetracked again.

Selah took a deep breath. “Would you like to come with me?” The child had saved her grief twice. She couldn't bring herself to just abandon her for the kindness.

Amaryllis stopped in mid-cry. “Come with you? Where?”

“I don't know where. I'm heading north. I doubt if I'll ever come back this way.”

“Never?”

Selah shook her head. “No. I can't come back.”

“Can I stay with you forever and ever?”

Selah chuckled. “Well, for however long forever and ever is.” The words caught in her throat. She'd never dreamed of a time she would have to leave her own mother or go out on her own.

“But what about this?” Amaryllis motioned to the room.

Selah pursed her lips. “We'll always know where it is, and since I know the power in the reader will outlive us, I think we should gather a library of chips in case we need them.”

She almost choked on the words. Who was this person that had taken over her body? She was consciously thinking of something to entertain the child—what was the world coming to? This was probably the least important thing on her mind right now. But she was sounding more like her mother by the minute. Well, more like a big sister. She had always wanted a sister. Mother had laughed after Dane was born and told Selah he was her last chance for a sibling. She sighed, missing Dane.

Selah searched for one-inch carrier cubes to fit several dozen data chips apiece. She found several virtual catalogs embedded in the walls, but only one of them powered up. She was limited to searching one section, but she filled half a dozen cubes with enough material to keep Amaryllis busy for quite a while. It felt odd planning ahead when she didn't know if she'd be alive next week.
Hope springs eternal.

Maybe she could find a good family along the way, or maybe the girl would take off. Either way, she needed to get back on the road and avoid more distractions.

Selah followed as Amaryllis squirmed her way among the roots and vines, twisting through the boulder-strewn cavern. Outside the library, she used the sun for time. Six in the morning. The boys had been on the road for at least an hour.

Selah looked for a landmark so she'd have an idea of where the library was hidden. A landslide had blocked the original
road with a new mountain, and a pine tree grew up directly in front of the library opening. Unless someone knew the opening was there, they'd never see it. The building had a domed roof, but covered in kudzu, it looked like a hill of vegetation. She took note of the single tree. That was how she'd find this place again.

Amaryllis slid her hand into Selah's. Another father and a little sister, all in just a few days. What was next?

“Take me to the station. I need my backpack, then we head north,” Selah said.

“I've never been north,” Amaryllis said. “Is it a nice place to live?”

“I don't know. We'll find out after I save my . . . friend.” The word brought a trickle of warmth to Selah's chest. This time she didn't dismiss the thought but embraced it.

“I'm hungry.” It looked like a storm cloud was forming over Amaryllis's eyes.

Selah smiled. Dane made that same face when he was hungry. “What do you eat?”

Amaryllis shrugged. “Nuts, berries. I sometimes dig up farmers' potatoes or carrots or raid their other vegetables.”

“Do you eat meat?”

“When I can but I'm not a good cooker.” The girl scrunched up her mouth like she tasted bad medicine. She grinned. “But I know which birds are good to eat.”

Birds? Selah didn't have any birds in her Borough that were food-worthy. Most were carnivores like blue jays, crows, and hawks. “You find the birds and I'll cook them.”

Amaryllis pulled Selah by the hand. “There's quail birds by the station.”

Selah thought it would be safer if they reached the next station first or even waited until she freed Bodhi. “We need to go north before we hunt.”

As they broke from the forest at the same place they'd gone in, Selah noted the felled tree leaning against two others.

“Is that where we're going to save your friend?”

Selah opened her mouth to say yes and realized she had gained a partner. How much trouble could this lead to?

The whine of an engine. She heard it long before Amaryllis and pulled the girl back into the woods.

“What's the matter? Why are we going back?”

Selah put her fingers to her lips. “We've got company coming.”

Amaryllis craned her neck. “Who?”

Selah pulled her back again as two Sand Runs passed by. They gunned and revved their engines, lifting a spray of dust that coated the immediate area and caused Amaryllis to cough. Selah covered her nose.

“How did you know they were coming?”

Selah looked down at the sputtering child. “I've got good ears.”

When they reached the station at Hampton, Selah retrieved her backpack. She pulled some jerky and fruit from the bag and handed them to Amaryllis.

“You eat these for now, and when we get to the next station, I'll let you do the hunting.”

Amaryllis smiled and bit into the pear.

Selah checked her brothers' fire pit, running her hand over the coals. Still slightly warm. The boys must have broken
camp a short while ago. She looked at Amaryllis. “We are off to the north.”

Amaryllis started for the open road.

“No, not that way. This way.” Selah pointed to the open field on the other side of the tree line.

“That's all tall grass. What if there's snakes or animals hiding in there?” Amaryllis asked, wide-eyed.

Selah pressed her lips together to stifle a laugh. “Then your tromping through the tall grass will scare them away.”

Amaryllis didn't look like she believed her.

“This is the shortcut to get us to the next station before my brothers.”

She still didn't look convinced.

“I'll walk in front of you,” Selah offered.

The child smiled and ducked into the field behind her.

Using the sun, Selah guessed it was about an hour before noon. It took an hour longer than she'd anticipated to reach the second station. Amaryllis dawdled like most children, especially after she'd lost her fear of the tall grass. Still, they made good time. She figured the boys were still two or three hours behind. This time she wouldn't be taking any naps.

She checked the station, destroyed a poster announcing the increased bounty, then scoured the area looking for a good vantage point.

“Can I go hunt now?” Amaryllis bounced around on legs that acted more like springs than appendages.

Selah figured she couldn't get in too much trouble if she stayed near the station. She'd call her back if she heard anyone coming. “Sure, go ahead. Maybe you'll get lucky.” Selah
wasn't sure she could catch anything, but at least it would keep her busy.

Selah glanced at the sun's movement on the tree shadows. Amaryllis had been gone the better part of an hour. Her heart began to race.
Where'd that girl get to?
The boys might be coming soon.
She rose from camp and crossed to the tree line, ducking into the woods.

“Amaryllis!” she shouted. No answer. She traipsed farther in. She could smell moss and moisture. There must be a swamp nearby. She navigated through thick brush and vines as the ground turned spongy.

“Amaryllis, girl, you answer me!” Selah's breathing ramped up. Where was she? If she'd known there was swamp back here she wouldn't have let Amaryllis go alone.

Still no answer. Selah stopped to listen. Nothing.

Her steps quickened, but was she going in the right direction? She checked bushes for signs of disturbance and watched for footprints in the soft forest floor.

She stopped and screamed at the top of her lungs. At this point she didn't care who heard her. “Amaryllis!”

A faint sound. Not a forest sound. She scanned the trees and spaces between them.

“Amaryllis!”

Another sound. This time it was closer. Muffled. High-pitched.

Selah ran in the direction of the sound. It stopped. She yelled again.

The same sound. Selah sprinted through the trees, calling
the girl's name. She almost ran past it, but skidded to a stop and screamed.

The boxes on the skin were unmistakable. A Burmese python had coiled itself around Amaryllis. There was blood everywhere.

Selah jumped on the snake, pounding it with her fists. One of the girl's arms was free and thrashing about, digging at the snake, but it didn't seem to affect the python.

The snake's head hovered at the girl's feet and the tail coiled around her head. Selah pried the tail off to find Amaryllis's eyes wide with terror. Her face trembled as her mouth opened and closed, trying to gasp air. The python covered her whole body, preventing her from breathing. Her lips were turning blue.

The snake's head bit down on Selah's boot. She jumped and nearly tumbled over backward. Leaning in on the coiled snake, she stomped on the snake's head again and again with her other foot.

Amaryllis's eyes rolled back and her arm fell limp.

Tears pooled in Selah's eyes, blurring her vision. Her heart pounded her ribs. “Amaryllis, hang on!” she screamed.

The snake released Selah's boot but went back to wrapping around the girl. Selah got another coil of the tail off Amaryllis, exposing her neck, but the tail swung back around as fast as she removed it.

She dug in the side pocket of her pants for a throwing knife. With both hands, she plunged it repeatedly into the tail, stabbing and slashing until numerous wounds dripped blood. The coil flopped away.

Selah grabbed another length and forced it to unwind.
The head rose to attack her and she stabbed her knife into its right eye. The snake thrashed about and bit into her hand. Pain radiated up her arm but now she had a good opening. She stabbed the snake in the other eye.

The snake let go of her and the coils loosened as it tried to get away.

Selah, emboldened by her rage, threw herself on top of the fleeing snake and slashed it until entrails oozed from the gaping gash.