Chapter Twenty-Five
Dad and Parker returned with little news.
“What’s it like out there?” Sunny asked eagerly.
“The same, Granddad.” Parker sounded weary.
“Did you check the bus station yet?” I asked.
“No,” Dad said. “We heard a car, and we hid.”
“Who…?” Sunny looked anxious.
“Just travellers,” Dad said. “But not our kind. They kept moving. Eventually.” Dad glanced at Parker who looked away. What had happened out there?
We spent some time preparing what we would take with us. Dad and I hadn’t had much in the first place, but our time at the detention centre had depleted our storage, and we had used up most of the food that Bruce had sent with us. I thought longingly of the detention centre, but it would have been too hard to stay there afterward even if Dad were willing. Too many bad memories because of Dace.
That evening, the four of us ate in relative silence. We sat around the neverending fire of Parker’s, and I shivered as night crept closer.
“It’s almost time,” I whispered, opening and closing my fists. I didn’t feel safe, not at all. I was used to us preparing. Sitting around a fire didn’t feel right.
“I’ll go start the fire,” Parker said, his voice tight.
“Can I come?” I asked.
“No,” Dad said. “You stay with Sunny. I’ll go with Parker.” He cleared his voice. “Just in case.”
Parker shrugged and left, followed by Dad. I moved to the window and strained my neck trying to see them. Flames licked the walls outside, even before the monsters came.
When they arrived, they gathered outside in their strange little pack, howling and screaming as if in pain.
I gasped as one leapt up the wall, but the fire spread quickly, and the monster dropped to the ground and lay there for a moment. When it rose to its feet again, it stalked the building, desperate to find a way in. I wrapped my arms around myself.
“I can’t wait to get out of this place,” I said, half-forgetting Sunny was there.
“Come away from the window,” he said. “You torment yourself if you keep seeing what’s out there.” He patted the place next to him. “In here, we can imagine a better world outside.”
“Aren’t you scared?” I moved next to him. “You seem so calm all the time. Doesn’t it freak you out?”
“Maybe it’s because I’m so old,” he teased. “I still have hope. Perhaps us luring those monsters in is a good thing. Perhaps it keeps them from killing a weaker group of people.”
I pulled my knees close to my chest. “What do you think will happen next? In this country, in this world. Do you think this will change everything?”
“Change is good,” he said. “But it could be a struggle for a long time. Nothing can ever be the same again. That is for sure.”
The screaming changed, and I rushed to the window. The fire had pushed outward, and Parker stood behind it, throwing his arms out. Flames shot out at the beasts, hurting them, but not killing them. One monster leapt onto a building farther along the street. It came closer and closer, higher and higher, trying to find a way past the flames. Neither Dad nor Parker seemed to notice.
I banged on the window. Parker flinched and flung his arms out, sending larger flames in every direction. One shot up toward me. With a yelp, I stepped back, but the flame never reached the window. When I looked out again, the body of a burning monster was keeping the rest of the pack away from the building, Parker and Dad were both gone, and the fire was back the way it started, except it burned a little brighter.
Dad and Parker returned, and Parker immediately went to bed. Nobody spoke for the rest of the evening.
***
Sunny and I were playing cards together when the others returned the following afternoon. I had been getting restless, ready to move, but Dad had made me stay behind yet again. I could tell Sunny and Parker thought he didn’t trust Parker, but really, he didn’t trust me.
Dad’s eyes were brighter than usual, his cheeks flushed. “We’re leaving.”
I stared at my dad, wondering if he was actually serious.
“Now?” I asked.
“Yes, we leave now. We found a little minibus, and it has enough petrol to get us out of here, maybe even take us all the way. The old man can lay in the backseat, I can drive, and we’ll be on the road and safe for a while. We can get away from the feral pack.”
He sounded so excited that I couldn’t help laughing. “Okay, then. We should start moving things.”
He glanced at Parker who looked sullen. “Jess, we’ve decided to move you and Sunny first. That way nobody can take the bus and leave.”
“You are so paranoid.” I rolled my eyes. “Fine, we’ll sit in the bus and watch you two work.”
Sunny winked at me. “You won’t find any complaints from us.”
Dad patted my shoulder. “Get your things. I’m going to grab some bags while Parker helps Sunny down the stairs. You scout around outside in case anyone’s out there. The bus is right outside.”
I grabbed my bag, shoving the book inside, and ran downstairs. The bus was an old, rickity looking thing. “No wonder nobody else has stolen it,” I said, shaking my head.
Nobody was around, and the sun had come out. The air smelled like freedom, like a journey almost over. We hadn’t been safe in so long, and now we were running from the people supposed to save us. It sounded ridiculous, but Dad made the rules.
I threw my bag on the bus before running around the block. The streets were clear. I made it back as Parker and Sunny stepped out onto the street.
“Almost there,” Parker said, his arm around his grandfather’s waist. He was a full head and shoulders taller than his grandfather, and they looked awkward together.
Sunny nodded, beaming as he angled his face toward the sun. For the first time, it really sunk in how frail the old man was.
“Good day for a roadtrip,” I said, reaching out to help him onto the bus.
Parker half-turned to shield him from me, but the old man patted him on the shoulder and took my hand. He spoke cheerily to me as I helped him aboard, and I couldn’t resist looking over my shoulder and sticking my tongue out at Parker.
Sunny and I lazed on the bus while the others carried stuff in and out. While they were gone, I rearranged the seats as best I could, making sure the old man wouldn’t fall. He relaxed on the back seat, and I sat opposite him, making sure I looked comfortable and relaxed whenever Dad and Parker returned. They were noticeably wheezing by the end. Served them right for being so stubborn.
Once we were sorted, it was mid-afternoon, and Dad started up the bus. It made an awful creaking noise.
“Don’t worry,” Parker said. “That stops after a few minutes.”
I started to laugh and couldn’t stop.
Parker caught my eye and grinned. “It probably won’t fall apart, but we give no guarantees.”
Feeling good, I looked out of the window, more than ready to leave the beast-ridden town behind. The radio came on and a forgotten CD began to play, some awful eighties music, but it was better than silence. “Music,” Sunny said. “Let it play.”
We rolled through the town, windows open and music blaring. Sunny and Parker sang along with the few words they knew, and it wasn’t long before Dad and I were joining in. I felt giddy. Dad was willingly travelling with other people, placing his trust in one to help the other. I pushed away the doubt that he expected Sunny to die or that he wanted to use Parker somewhere along the line.
Dad was singing. He was smiling. Maybe it was because we were back on the path, but I liked to think it was because he knew what it was like to lose me, that maybe he had realised he cared about me. Maybe this was change of a different kind.
We came closer to the edge of town, according to Sunny who was in charge of the map. I didn’t care. Reading maps gave me a headache.
Parker fell silent, staring out the window with a sick look on his face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. I had made up my mind to not speak to him unless he spoke to me, but he was around my age, and I was curious about him.
He shrugged, not looking at me. “They’re still out there, ready to attack the closest people they find. What happens when that’s not us?”
“Dad,” I called out.
He lowered the radio. “What’s wrong? Am I going the wrong way?”
“No,” I said. “But what about the monsters we left behind?”
“I don’t know where they’re hiding,” Parker said. “But they have to be out there somewhere. I can’t… aim and keep control at the same time, so what if I… what if I burned the whole town? Would they die, too?”
Dad pulled over without a word. He turned in his seat. “What if somebody else is out there?”
“I think I would know,” Parker said softly.
Dad looked at Sunny. Sunny was observing his grandson with unreadable eyes.
“The entire town though?” Dad said.
“We’ll never find out where they’re hiding,” Parker said. “The town’s too big. It would take days, weeks even, and I still couldn’t pick and choose what to burn. It doesn’t always work like that.”
“And when the people who live here come back?” Dad asked.
“LetPark decide,” Sunny said.
I looked from one to the other, feeling as though something important was happening. Parker pressed his hands against the window, a look of concentration on his face. I watched in awe as flames flew in the air in random places, all of them moving to join up into one big, controlled inferno. It pushed outward, crackling loudly as it burned along the street. I wanted to watch the town burn, but I found myself watching Parker instead. His inky black hair had stuck to his forehead, and in his dark brown eyes were flecks of flame red that deepened and burned along with the fire outside. His dark skin paled a little, making the acne scars on his cheeks stand out. His lips trembled, and a bead of sweat slid down his temple. Building a fire took from him, I realised. Containing it took so much more. Extinguishing the flames was something else entirely.
With a sigh, he drew back. I looked at the flames, surprising to see them dying.
He rubbed his hands together. “The werewolves will come soon. They’ll do the same job with less damage, probably.”
The bus filled with tense silence.
Dad cleared his throat. “Where to, Sunny?”
“Straight on until the turnoff for the motorway,” he said.
And so our road trip began.