humble opinion is that we’re fucked.”
Alicia rolled her eyes at Dream, a conspiratorial gleam there. Dream didn’t acknowledge the expression beyond a subtle shrug. She didn’t want to rock the boat, not when she believed steady and reliable Alicia was the crucial linchpin keeping them afloat. But she secretly sided with her other friend.
Something wasn’t right out here.
Something unnatural.
Alicia, however, was a confirmed skeptic. She was unable to keep the snide tone out of her voice when she said, “And your opinion has been duly noted, dear.” She winked at Dream. “But I think we should press on now. You up to driving, Dream?”
Dream wasn’t at all sure about that-her stomach still did a little flutter every few seconds-but she didn’t want to relinquish control of her own car to anybody else. The feel of the wheel beneath her hands was the only thing keeping her tethered to reality.
“Yes.” The word was a barely audible hiss.
Alicia squinted at her. “You sure?”
Dream answered by twisting the key in the ignition, putting the car in gear, and pulling away from the shoulder of the road. She put the accelerator to the floor for a moment and quickly achieved a good escape velocity. She eased off the pedal after the Accord screeched around a hairpin turn. Karen, who wasn’t buckled in, swayed from one side of the car to the other.
Alicia said, “Jesus Christ, girl!”
Karen groaned. “Damn, Dream, who’d you bribe at the DMV to get your license?”
Dream felt another surge of embarrassment. “Sorry, guys.” There was a plaintive tone in her voice, an unspoken plea that they not be too mad at her. “I’m just a little jumpy, I guess.”
Alicia shook her head and rubbed at red-rimmed eyes. “Ain’t we all?”
They drove on without speaking for a while. The swooping road traced the winding curve of a mountain. The air was getting thinner, making their ears pop. Dream put on the Accord’s brights each time they neared a particularly hazardous loop of road, always cutting off the high beam after just a moment or two for fear of blinding the drivers of cars coming from the opposite direction.
Dream tried not to think about how pointless the precaution was becoming.
They had the dark mountain road to themselves.
Alicia cleared her throat. “Sorry to dredge this subject up yet again, but you guys have to see my point by now.”
Her voice sounded cheerier than it had for some time. Something about Alicia’s lighthearted tone disturbed Dream, something that hinted of a growing, quiet desperation.
She was careful with her response. “What… do you mean?”
“This.” A wave of her hand made it clear she was talking about something outside the car, and her tone indicated what she meant should be obvious. “All this.”
Dream frowned. “Um …”Whatever was so apparent to Alicia remained a mystery to her. “Alicia, I don’t get it.”
Karen said, “Ditto.”
Alicia made a sound of exasperation. “Jesus, are you both blind?” She rolled her eyes. “The road. Look at it. That’s asphalt. Those yellow stripes running down the middle, one solid, one broken at regular intervals, those are paint.”
And this, Dream thought, is a study in condescension. “No kidding. Your point?”
Another roll of the eyes. “No need to be snide, Dream. I’m only trying to point out the good news all around us.”
Karen erupted. “Stop talking in goddamn circles!”
Alicia winced. “I’m not-“
“Yes, you are,” Karen continued, quieter now. “And not so long ago you were the one wanting things spelled out for you in big block letters. Please, I’m begging you, show us the same courtesy, because we don’t know what you’re babbling about.”
A look of hurt flashed across Alicia’s face. “I’m giving you something solid to focus on, something we should all find reassuring.” She nodded at the road. “This road was paved by men. A road crew working a government contract. That paint was put down by man-operated machines. Same with the guardrails.” She flashed a grin at Dream. “Can you see the state of Tennessee making room in its budget to pave the road to hell?” A laugh, vaguely derisive, stuttered out of her mouth. “I think not.”
It sounded good. Alicia’s argument was a sensible one. But the road kept unfurling before them, a faded gray ribbon walled in on both sides by dense stretches of forest, and the absence of fellow travelers out here in the mountain darkness remained ominous.
Karen said, “Shouldn’t we have run into Chad by now?”
Dream gasped. “Oh, shit. You’re right.”
She’d been so wrapped up in their immediate dilemma she’d forgotten about her suddenly estranged friend, but now awareness of his absence ratcheted up the fear consuming her yet another excruciating notch.
Alicia stiffened beside her, but she didn’t say anything. The stark fact of his disappearance seemed to disturb her into silence. Understandable. Despite everything-the betrayals and harsh words exchanged-Dream found herself worried about Chad.
She began to scan the sides of the road more closely.
Looking for a body.
Goddamn you, she thought.
Where are you, Chad?
He wouldn’t have returned to the interstate, not with the prospect of a hotel room and a bed tempting them all in the other direction. He was on foot, so they should have seen him already. Maybe whatever had gotten to Shane had gotten to him. Dream thought of the scrawny boy he’d been when she rescued him from the clutches of those jock assholes. He wasn’t much bigger now. compared to Shane, who’d been big indeed, he was a human toothpick.
The image of Shane’s ravaged body came to her again.
She tried not to cry.
She might have been sick again, but a flash of inspiration drove the unpleasant images from her head. She pressed the radio’s power button, turned up the volume, and said, “Karen, you grew up around here. In the area we think we’re in, I mean. Can you remember which radio station had the clearest, most powerful signal?”
Karen didn’t hesitate. “Rock 106, if it’s still around-106.7.”
Dream tuned the radio to the frequency, turned the volume up some more, and said, “So right about now Metallica ought to be piercing our eardrums.”
“Yeah.”
Alicia said, “Girl hasn’t lived here in ten years. The goddamn radio station probably isn’t on the air anymore.”
Dream put the radio on scan. “Watch.”
The digital display moved from one end of the spectrum to the other. Then again. And again. There was nothing to lock on. No static. No faintly heard signal. Dream turned it off. “What do you make of that, Alicia?”
Alicia shrugged. “It’s obviously defective.”
Dream groaned inwardly.
Pull your head out of the fucking sand, she thought.
She said, “It’s not defective. And the radio was on before we left the interstate.” She wasn’t arguing anymore, was just stating irrefutable facts, and her voice had grown quiet. She was scaring herself. “And we should’ve seen Chad.”
Alicia pursed her lips. Her brow furrowed. She sighed. “Look, I’m not conceding anything here. There’re reasonable explanations for everything going on.”
Karen laughed. “You bet, Scully.”
“You didn’t let me finish.” Dream, who had been slightly annoyed with her friend’s oblivious attitude, detected a return of reason in her tone now. “Yes, I’m a skeptic. That said, I think enough is enough. We should turn around
