the air, hit in the petunias, and didn’t bounce. The face, expressionless, stared. Even as this was happening, a flash of black and steel appeared under the right arm, which flew up as if in surprise, then tumbled out into the grass. Slowly, the fingers closed.
The body buckled, and as it did, he could see a shadowy form just inside the house, wielding an axe.
Not Mack, though, not that humped figure.
Whoever was in there was long past rescue, hiding in psychotic rage and despair, in the state of savagery that would be emerging now in all the judged.
The survivors poured gunfire into the house, creating a cataract of noise and a fury of flashes.
David grabbed Caroline’s arm. “Come on,” he said
Together, they leaped through the glass wall of the greenhouse. As they dashed down the driveway, passing the two survivors just ten feet away, one of them shouted and wheeled his gun toward them, and David saw a red laser telltale bouncing on Caroline’s back, and the bullets passed so close they felt surges of air.
But then there was another cry, this one choked with horror, then dropping to wet gabble as one of the two remaining men looked down at the axe handle protruding from his stomach. Somehow, the defender of the house had survived their fusillade and once again used his ferocious weapon.
The last of the soldiers ran so frantically that he lost control of himself and fell in the driveway. Screaming again and again, he went off down the street, his cries echoing away into the distance.
“Let’s move,” David said. There had been too much shooting here not to attract more of the soldiers.
“Not so fast.”
Whirling, David saw Mack standing in the middle of the street.
“Quick,” he said, and leaped a low rock wall, Caroline close behind.
They ran into a thin woods behind the house. David had no idea where they were or where they might be going, just that they had to get out of here.
He could hear Mack moving fast to close the distance.
Then the woods ended. They came out on a two-lane highway, one that he recognized immediately. It was Maryland 1440, the road that passed the small private airfield that the clinic had used.
It was suicide to stay exposed like this, so they went to the far shoulder—and saw here a field just sprouting young shoots of some sort, the life of the past still unfolding. Beyond it, perhaps half a mile away, was the roofline of a condo complex—shelter, certainly, but they could not survive an attempt to cross that field.
For a few moments, David ran down the middle of the road, looking for something that would afford them more shelter than the field. All he found was a concrete bus stop plastered with Celebrex and McDonald’s ads. He drew Caroline to it and crouched beside her, shielding her with his body.
Not hurrying now—not needing to—Mack came toward them. As he walked, he moved first into the center of the highway, then angled to the far side. As David and Caroline tried to keep the bulk of the shelter in front of them, Mack tried to widen the angle.
“We can make a deal,” he said. “I bring the portal and you take me through. That’s all I need now. Forget the rest of them.”
Behind Mack, David saw an unlikely sight—headlights. A vehicle was coming. Mack kept moving closer to the two of them. Either he didn’t see it or he didn’t care. David watched, trying to see what it was, waiting for it to overtake Mack.
What the hell was that thing? It was big, not a car or an SUV, or even a military vehicle, which had been David’s initial fear. A big truck, perhaps. No, he saw more lights. A marquee. But—holy God, it was a Greyhound bus. A
Mack stepped easily aside as it passed him, but David ran out into the middle of the road, waving his arms frantically. Caroline joined him.
On the marquee, David saw the word “Baltimore.” Inside, there was a driver, there were passengers, and it all looked astonishingly, impossibly normal.
Now the bus was a hundred feet from them. Fifty feet. They could see the face of the driver. Behind it, David was aware that Mack had started running.
The loud
It stood there, engine rattling. With a quiet hiss and a click, the door opened. He went around it—and saw Mack not fifty feet away, coming up beside the back of the bus. A huge knife brought from the kitchen left his hand like a lightning bolt.
As David and Caroline threw themselves onto the steps, it slammed into the door, embedding itself in the vinyl and insulation. They scrambled into the cabin, David shouting, “Close the door!”
The driver didn’t need to be told.
Outside, Mack commenced hammering on it with a fury unbound, the sound of his assault filling the bus, the power of it making the big vehicle shake like a leaf.
“Jesus!” the driver said.
“Get moving!”
He threw the bus into gear and pulled out onto the road. As they drew away from Mack, he emitted an inhuman roar of anger.
But now, very suddenly, David and Caroline were in a different world. Other passengers filled the seats, people with bundles, people with kids. Some seats empty, most not.
“Hey,” the driver called.
“Yes. Thank you.”
“How far?”
“Excuse me?”
“This is a bus, buddy. You buy a ticket. That’s the way we do it.”
“Oh, Baltimore. Baltimore…” He gave the driver a twenty and got back a dollar and change. Stuffing the money in his pocket, looking down at his receipt, he almost wanted to cry.
How had they ever kept buses running? But of course, they were old vehicles, many of them forty and fifty years old. They didn’t contain the kind of electronics that would be fried. So, even this deep in death, life went on.
“Behind the white line,” the driver said, “thank you.”
They went down the aisle, finding seats across from an older woman, prim, her eyes keen with a light he hoped was not madness.
“May we sit here?”
“I don’t own it.”
When they sat, David realized just how deeply, deeply tired he was. The star having set, it was full dark now, and the windows reflected the interior of the bus. Distantly, he could see blood in the east, getting brighter. The old woman saw it, too, and began to chew her gums.
“I will not taste of the bitter water,” she said.
He knew the reference, of course, to the water ruined by the star Wormwood in Revelation.
It would happen that way, too. There would be deuterium in the debris of the supernova, and the water of the world would be absorbing it, turning it into heavy water. It wasn’t in itself radioactive, but when half the water content of a larger animal’s body was replaced with heavy water, the animal died. Or the man.
She said, “I am saved, hallelujah.”
The bus would pass the Acton Clinic in a few minutes, and it was there that they must get off. David squeezed Caroline’s hand, then returned to the front.
“Do you know the Acton Clinic?” he asked the driver.
“Yeah, it’s a couple of miles on. I pass it four times a day.”
“We want to get off there.”
The driver glanced at him. “It’s been burning for hours.”
His heart heaved in his chest. He forced his voice to a calm he did not feel.
“You can make a stop, though?”
“Sure. But there ain’t no refund. No refund here.”
“Fair enough.”
