Apophis: A Love Story for the End of the World

Chapter Fourteen: Make Plans, God Laughs

"Cute. Real cute," I deadpanned.

I stuffed as many food items that would fit into my pack. I thought about throwing away the bottle of moonshine Ryan had given me to make more room in my bag, but I eventually decided to hold onto it a little longer. I even found a pair of sunglasses that didn't look too horrible on me.

I set a few food cans next to where Nora sat. "Fit as much of this into your pack," I told her.

She looked up long enough from the map to see what I'd set beside her. "You really think we'll need sloppy joe sauce?"

"Hey, you never know. It might be good with squirrel."

Nora wrinkled her nose. "God, I really have changed. I actually want to try that."

When she saw the meat stick in my hand, she arched an eyebrow at me. "You eat a lot."

"I'm a growing girl," I said around the mouthful of dried meat. "You should eat more, too. We need calories."

Nora sighed. "Packing on the calories. Yup, I really have changed."

I squatted beside her, peering at the map she had unfolded on the floor. "Any luck?" I didn't want to frazzle her by being overly anxious, but the longer we stayed in this Ranger Station, the more likely it was that we'd run into bandits.

"I think so." She patted the space beside her, so I sat down Indian-style. "Our goal is to get to Idaho. Eden is located somewhere on this little peninsula over here," she said, pointing to a spot on the map. "But we've got a pesky mountain range in the way. I don't know about you," she commented, "but I'd rather avoid the Rocky Mountains if we can help it."

I nodded. Her words made sense. I had been both dreading and looking forward to seeing the mountains up close. North Dakota was just about the flattest place on Earth besides the Badlands. But if we could get to Eden without having to climb a mountain, I was all for that strategy.

She traced her pointer finger along a topographical map. "That giant mountain to the north seems to be Baldy Mountain. If we take a slight southwestern detour, we can miss it entirely." She tapped her finger on what looked like a major highway. "Highway 200 will take us to Eden. It follows this river which seems to cut right through the mountains. It's probably a little elevated, but if we stick to this route, we'll avoid any serious climbing."

I studied the map. "We should stay away from highways for any long stretches, though," I countered. "We're more likely to run into bandits."

"Then we'll follow the river instead of walking on the highway itself," Nora said. "Which would you rather face, Sam? The uncertainty of running into bandits or the certainty that the Rocky Mountains are going to slow us down?"

I chewed on my bottom lip. "How far away is Eden from here?"

"A hundred miles. We're close," she encouraged.

Following a river and a major highway through the Rocky Mountains seemed to be exactly the kind of thing my father would have avoided. Chances are, if he had gotten safely away from Hot Springs, he would be taking an alternate route to Eden. But between the choice of 100 miles of rock climbing and 100 miles of level terrain, the latter certainly sounded more appealing.

"Okay," I hesitatingly agreed. "We'll go your way." As to signal the finality of our decision, I folded up the road map and tucked it into the front zipper of my pack.

"Why do you get to hold onto the map?" Nora complained.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, but I kept the unnecessary and probably mean comments to myself. Instead I plucked another road map from its kiosk and thrust it in her direction. "Here," I said, shaking the map a little until she took it from me. "Now we each have one in case we get split up."