Witch World (23 page)

“Were they all built to determine what a certain-strength bomb would do to a certain-size city?”

“Yeah. But from what I’ve read, the army also stocked them with plenty of pigs. They put pigs in the houses, pigs in the barns, pigs in the basements—and they left a bunch of pigs outside.”

“Why pigs?” I asked, not really wanting to know.

“Because pigskin resembles our skin the most closely. So does their cardiovascular system. That’s why pigs’ valves are still used in heart surgery. Plus pigs are one of the smartest animals in the world. The scientists probably wanted to see what kind of effect the radiation had on their whole bodies, their brains, and their skin.”

“It disgusts me we could treat animals so cruelly,” I said.

“Just think, we dropped two of these bombs on Japan. On real live people.”

“That’s a scary thought.”

“Hey, you’re the one who wanted to come out here. You know you still haven’t told me why.”

“My dad made a remark about how the Lapras experiment on human beings using the radiation left over from atomic tests. I want to see if it’s true.”

“Can’t we just believe your dad and call it a day?”

“No.” I was trying to avoid Jimmy’s question and I think he sensed it. The real reason I had driven us to these towns was beyond reason. I had come here because I felt I had to come here. The name Inferno drew me the strongest. I asked Jimmy where it was located.

“It’s to the right, east of here,” he said. “It’s pretty close to ground zero.”

“That’s our destination,” I said, making a sharp right, kicking up more dust. Ironically, it seemed the faster I drove, the easier it was to keep in front of the dirt. But the potholes and bumps made the road painful on our butts.

Twenty minutes later we were forced to halt. A thirty-foot steel gate, topped with three feet of barbed wire, blocked our way. Jimmy quickly gave me a suspicious look but I just nodded and climbed out.

“Scoot over, get behind the wheel,” I said.

We were in the hills far east of Las Vegas. We couldn’t see
the city, nor much of anything else except sand and tumbleweeds. The sun was straight overhead. I had forgotten to put on sunscreen that morning and I could literally feel the moisture being sucked out of my pores. It appeared witches were not impervious to everything.

A heavy-duty chain, along with a lock the size of a book, held the gate shut. Grabbing hold of the chain, I tested its strength.

“What do I get if I break this chain with my bare hands?” I called to Jimmy.

“Break it and I’ll kiss your ass!” he shouted back.

“How about my breasts! I’m an old-fashioned girl!”

“Jessie! Give it up! There’s nothing out here . . .”

I shut him up by snapping the chain in two pieces. Even through the dust and the SUV’s tinted window, I could see his incredulous expression. I kicked open the gate and gestured for him to drive through.

“Amazing stuff, that STP,” I said as I climbed in beside him.

He stared at me. “How do I know you’re a good witch? You never told me how I could be sure.”

“The only way to be absolutely sure is to make love to me. If you die when you come, I’m a bad witch. Now drive. I want to get to Inferno before I melt.”

We kept the windows rolled up and the air conditioner on full and still the heat penetrated the SUV. Fortunately, we didn’t have to drive far before we reached Inferno.

The makeshift town stood with low, sloping hills on one side and a barren plain on the other. I assumed the open area led in the direction of ground zero. In the distance, in a straight line toward the spot where the bombs ignited, I saw two smaller towns that looked as if they had absorbed far more damage.

I understood in an instant why the government had staggered the towns. It was trying to gauge the degree of destruction each bomb caused relative to how far it was from the target. Since Inferno was at least three miles away from ground zero, it was still largely intact.

Yet that was not saying much. It looked like a ghost town that had been ravaged by locusts. The structures that had been made of wood were sagging skeletons of soot and ash. The cement-and-brick buildings had fared better, although the paint had peeled away, probably from a combination of the blasts and dust storms. More than half the windows had shattered and the bulk of the tar-based roof shingles had melted through to the ceilings.

However, in a strange way, Inferno was impressive. It had been pulverized by dozens of nuclear weapons, yet it had survived to tell its tale.

Besides normal buildings, on our side of town there was a kids’ park that had a few swings and slides that would have been serviceable if not for the thick layers of rust. Plus, of all things, in the center of town there was a stone fountain that
was bubbling with a modest amount of underground water. I assumed that was where the water was coming from. I doubted there was any electricity in place to pump the liquid from a nearby pond or stream.

I sensed instantly that the town was inhabited. Yet the mind, or minds, I picked up felt alien. And I couldn’t help noticing how Jimmy stared at the town. He was not connected yet but he was no dummy. He studied the town closely before he suddenly turned to me.

“We’re being watched,” he said.

I nodded. “You’re right. Are they good witches or bad witches?”

He hesitated. “There’s danger here but also something else.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. Why did you bring us here?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Well, we make a fine pair.” Jimmy opened his door. “You stay here, keep the engine running, be ready to bolt at a moment’s notice.”

I grabbed his arm gently. “You must realize by now that I can take care of myself.”

He shook his head. “Don’t get cocky. If someone shot you through the heart, I doubt it would matter how many witch genes you have.”

“Good advice.” I let go of his arm. “But I’m still coming with you.”

We walked together toward the town. Jimmy was smart, he brought along two Evian water bottles. He also had a white baseball cap, to shade his head from the sun, but he put it on top of my head.

“If you knew we were coming out here, why didn’t you buy a Geiger counter in town?” he asked.

“Because the thing would probably be beeping so loudly by now you would have driven off and left me no matter how much you say you love me.”

“Not funny. I was serious when I said radioactive elements can hang around for thousands of years. The fact the government stopped nuclear testing in the sixties means nothing.”

“It especially means nothing because they haven’t really stopped.”

“Who told you that?”

“My father,” I said.

“Wonderful. If we ever get married and have kids, they’re probably going to be born with two heads.”

I had told Jimmy about everything in witch world except Lara. Somehow, after Huck, I didn’t think he could take any more.

I suddenly held up my hand. “Did you hear that?”

“What?”

“Footsteps. Someone running.”

“Toward us or away from us?”

I listened closely. “They’re near. They’re watching us.”

Jimmy spoke seriously. “Every minute we stay here increases our danger. You could inhale a stray particle of plutonium. Just one particle could give you breast cancer like Debbie’s mom.”

His remark sobered me. But it was right then I noticed a trail of muddy liquid leading from the central fountain toward what was labeled a drugstore. It was the best-kept building in town and I suspected someone was using it as their home.

“Somebody just had themselves a little drink,” I said.

Jimmy knelt and studied the trail. “They’ve got small feet.”

“Yes.” I stopped and shut my eyes. The sensation of being watched intensified, and on top of that, I began to sense the mind behind the person who studied us. He or she felt young. I opened my eyes. “We’re being watched by a kid.”

“Are you sure?”

“He’s alone and he’s curious about us.”

“How many eyes does he have?”

It was supposed to be a joke but I didn’t smile.

“I don’t know,” I said softly.

We found him in the drugstore munching on a protein bar and a bag of barbecue potato chips, drinking water from a jug he had filled at the fountain. He was not naked but close. He wore a torn piece of canvas that was held to his waist by a piece of dirty rope. He was maybe six, filthy, and extraordinarily tan—either burned by the sun or other forms of the radiation. He had ten fingers and ten toes, and seemed okay in that respect, although he had a dry cough and his skin was badly
marked. Lesions, maybe. His cobalt-blue eyes seemed to glow.

I gave him a warm smile. “Hi, my name’s Jessie and this is Jimmy. What’s your name?”

He heard me, definitely, he went still at my question. But he didn’t open his mouth to reply. Instead, he reached for a notepad and picked up a blue marking pen and wrote out four letters. He struggled to form them, like a right-handed person being forced to write left-handed.

WHIP.

“Your name is Whip?” Jimmy asked.

The boy nodded and smiled shyly at Jimmy. He stood and offered him a protein bar and some of his potato chips. The food was all fresh; I could only assume someone was bringing it in from the outside.

Jimmy accepted the food graciously. I assumed he would be worried the kid had some kind of infection or disease—his cough appeared chronic—but Jimmy showed no such concern. His behavior made no sense, especially after the lecture he had just given me. Of course the food looked fine, like it had been recently delivered. For sure, Whip had not scavenged it from the local buildings. But then I realized that Jimmy’s desire to accept the kid’s food went deeper. Jimmy was thinking of Huck while he was with Whip. I don’t know how I knew this, but I was sure it was true. And he wanted the boy to like him.

“This is good, thank you,” Jimmy said, as he chewed on the protein bar and potato chips. But he hesitated when Whip
offered him a drink from his water.
That
I could understand.

“Whip, do you live here alone?” Jimmy asked.

Whip nodded, then reached out and squeezed Jimmy’s arm.

“Do you know where Las Vegas is?” I asked.

The boy’s eyes grew brighter, if that were possible. He nodded vigorously.

“Have you ever been to Las Vegas?” Jimmy asked.

Whip stopped nodding, he fell silent, just stood there, not even eating. The light in his eyes faded. Seeing how the question had stung, Jimmy quickly added, “Would you like to go to Las Vegas with us?”

Whip got so excited he jumped up and down. The response made Jimmy smile but it worried me. I leaned over and whispered in Jimmy’s ear.

“We’ve known this child only a minute and we’re talking about taking him out of his natural environment. We should discuss this. It’s obvious that someone’s bringing him food on a regular basis. How are they going to feel the next time they come here and Whip’s gone?”

Jimmy shrugged. “We can take him for a visit, we don’t have to keep him there.”

“You might end up freaking out his caregiver.”

“We’ll leave a note saying we took him.”

“Great. Will you leave your cell number?”

Jimmy hesitated. “That would probably be a mistake.”

“Duh. We can’t leave our names or our numbers.” I paused.
“The Lapras use these towns because of their high levels of background radiation. They use them to mutate people. For all we know, Whip is one of their experiments.”

“He looks like a discarded experiment, if you ask me,” Jimmy said. “Look, I agree we have to keep an eye out for these evil guys you told me about. But even if they are feeding this child, they’re abusing him. He needs a bath and he needs a doctor to check him out. Didn’t you say your father was flying in today? Your father in this world?”

“That’s what he told me last night. But . . .”

“I understand. You haven’t seen this version of your dad in years. You don’t know if he’s going to show.”

“Exactly.”

“Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s coming. He can give Whip a thorough physical without us having to take the boy to an official clinic.”

“I have never seen this paternal side of you before.”

Jimmy rubbed the boy’s head. “There’s a lot of things about me you don’t know.”

I sighed. “All right, we’ll take the boy with us. But on the trip back to Vegas, please try to make it clear to him that he’s only coming with us to visit the city. Neither of us is in a position to adopt this child.”

Jimmy nodded. “I agree. Anything else?”

“I definitely want to leave a note for whoever brings his food.”

Tearing a page from Whip’s notepad, and borrowing one of his pens, I came up with a note that stated the basics but which I hoped would not place us in danger.

WE HAVE WHIP AND ARE TAKING

GOOD CARE OF HIM. DON’T WORRY,

HE WILL BE RETURNED SOON.

“What do you think?” I asked Jimmy.

He frowned. “It wouldn’t reassure me if I was a parent.”

“What kind of parent would leave him all alone out here?”

“An asshole.” Jimmy stood and offered Whip his hand. “Let’s load him in the Expedition and get out of here.”

“Why are you suddenly in such a hurry to leave?”

Jimmy turned and looked me straight in the eye, and in that moment I felt he was every bit as connected as I was. “Because I just realized we have found exactly what it is you came out here to find. And he’s more important than either of us realizes.”

Jimmy’s words touched me deeply. Silly, I know, but I had a warm glow in my chest as I watched the two of them walking hand in hand to the SUV.

ON THE DRIVE BACK TO LAS VEGAS, JIMMY CHALLENGED
me to call my father and see if he was flying into Las Vegas as promised. I don’t know if Jimmy was testing the validity of my story or my father’s word or both. In this world, the man had not sent me a birthday card in years.

I had to go through Dr. Michael Major’s emergency service to get his cell number. Even then they handed it out reluctantly. I have to admit I felt nervous dialing the number. The previous night, I had spent hours talking to him, but that had been in witch world, and the rules were different there.