Ely ripped the dart from his chest, but his eyes were starting to glaze.
His lips twisted into a sneer. “You stupid bitch.”
“You want to know the sad thing? It’s not that you betrayed Carter. It’s that if you’d gone to him for help, he would have done anything for you. Whoever it is that Roberto has, Carter would have gotten them out.”
“No . . . good . . .” Ely gasped. “Wasn’t going to leave you . . . here . . . never could see the big picture.” He gasped, wincing as his hand clutched the knife. “Carter’s not the only one who wants you alive.”
Then, with another gasp, his eyes flickered closed and he was out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Lily
Lily didn’t have a lot of time to consider what the hell Ely had meant when he’d said Carter wasn’t the only one who wanted her alive. She had to get Josie and get the hell out of there.
She started out by kicking Ely soundly in the ribs a couple of times just to be sure he was really out and not faking it. Then she kicked him once in the groin for good measure. She grabbed the knife, quickly unbuckling the sheath from his boot and taking it as well. Good gear was too hard to find to leave something like that behind.
A quick search of his body uncovered the keys to the Cayenne—thank God—a flashlight, one more knife, a Glock with a full clip, and a little pistol. She emptied all but one of the bullets from the pistol and left the loaded gun a few feet away from him, where he’d be sure to see it when he woke up in an hour or so.
After that, she ran, stumbling, toward the sounds of Josie’s crying in the building. It turned out to be an old bunkhouse of some kind. A single room deep, three rooms long. The windows were long gone, the door hung on its hinges. Trash and debris littered the floor. And there, in the center room, on a disgusting old mattress lay Josie, squalling in the shadows.
The building offered her some small level of protection.
She scooped Josie up and held her to her chest as she stumbled back to the Cayenne. Josie gave an exhausted little hiccup. But by the time they were back in the Cayenne, she was crying again, and Lily’s brain was starting to clear enough to know they were in serious trouble.
She didn’t know how long she’d been out for sure, but it was dawn. Josie had been born more than six hours ago and still hadn’t had anything to eat.
She had no idea how long babies could go without eating, but she was guessing it wasn’t as long as she could. She needed to find food, and she needed to do it fast. She didn’t know where the hell they were, but she knew even if they headed back to Base Camp now they wouldn’t get there anytime today. She didn’t dare risk driving at night and attracting Ticks on the way. She needed to find food for both of them before dark.
She held Josie close to her chest with one hand as she fumbled with the keys in the other. She scrambled into the Cayenne, slamming the door behind her and jamming down on the lock button on the door’s console of controls. In the rearview mirror, she could see the dark shape of Ely’s body on the ground maybe twenty feet back.
Heart pounding in her chest, she tried to jam the keys into the ignition one-handed without ever taking her eyes off that dark lump on the ground. Finally the key engaged and the engine roared to life. As she slammed the SUV into gear and drove off, she could have sworn she saw a flicker of movement from the black mass in the mirror. Was Ely waking up or was that just a trick of the wind? Or a trick of her mind?
The road seemed to stretch for endless miles through the featureless west Texas, so flat and so broad, it seemed like she could actually see the curve of the horizon off in the distance. It was emptiness like nothing she’d ever known. She passed abandoned houses too run-down to bother searching, broken pump jacks, and more tumbleweed than she could count—if she was counting, which she wasn’t. Josie finally screamed herself to sleep, and still Lily drove, just to put distance between herself and Ely. And also because she simply didn’t know what else to do.
Finally, the houses seemed closer together, the road merged with another, and eventually she reached a town that looked as barren as the surrounding desert. Sweetwater was the town’s name, if the sign on the car dealership was any indication. Five gas stations and innumerable houses later and she’d found jack. At one of the gas stations she’d come across a map and a handful of beef jerky sticks. Standing in the parking lot, she ate one of the beef jerky sticks, scarfing down the first three bites quickly and then forcing herself to slowly gnaw on the rest while she considered her options. It almost took the edge off her hunger. She thought about offering a second piece to Josie. And, yeah, she knew babies didn’t need beef jerky, but the sucking alone might be enough to calm her. Except beef jerky was so damn salty. From what she knew about dehydration, salt would only make it worse so she dribbled a little water in Josie’s mouth instead.
Lily changed Josie’s diaper the best she could. The fact that the diaper was barely wet didn’t comfort her at all. Being snuggled in the backpack seemed to comfort Josie as much as anything, so Lily wrapped Josie back up like a burrito and carefully placed her back in the bottom of the backpack, folding down the top flap so she got plenty of air. Then she put the bag on, over her chest, so Josie rode in front. Sure, it wasn’t exactly like those sling things she’d seen parents using in the Before, but it had to be better than letting Josie roll around on the floorboard of the car.
Josie was still crying, but her cries had lost their intensity. She seemed almost to be giving up the fight and that made Lily want to weep, too.
Since it was still light, Lily opened up the back of the Cayenne to survey the last of the supplies. She had two gallons of water left—which was maybe enough for another two to three days, if she stretched it.
Other than that, there were the four remaining beef jerky sticks, the rest of the tub of peanut butter, two cans of tuna, and about a dozen big glass jars of vegetables. Ely must have found those at the farmhouse and loaded them up, because they looked homemade and she hadn’t seen them before. There were six jars of tomatoes, four of green beans, and one jar of peaches.
None of it was the case of pre-mixed formula she’d been hoping to miraculously find stashed in the back, but surely peaches were a better option than beef jerky. She would give Josie more water if it came down to that, but the baby needed nutrients, too. She needed milk.
Praying she wasn’t going to make things worse, she opened up the jar of peaches, used her knife to slice off a tiny bite, and nibbled on it herself. She hadn’t had real fruit since the Before. The sweetness of it hit her tongue in an explosion of flavor that flooded her mouth with saliva and made her taste buds burst. It was all she could do not to fish out the entire slice and gulp it down.
But she wasn’t eating it for herself. This was for Josie, and the only reason she’d even tasted it was to make sure it was okay. She let the flavors linger on her tongue, waiting for that metallic zing that would mean it had gone bad. Since it tasted fine, she fished out another slice and dropped it in the sippy cup from Wal-Mart. Then she dribbled a little juice in, too, and mashed the peach up with her knife as finely as she could before fitting the lid on. She climbed into the backseat of the Cayenne, locked her doors, and lifted Josie out of the bag. Then she stretched the baby out on her legs and tried to coax Josie into eating. Josie turned her face away from the bits of peach, pushing them out of her mouth with her tongue. But the peach juice slowly dribbled in and she drank it— thank God.
Lily had no idea how long Josie could live on canned peach juice. She was guessing not very long, but it was better than dehydration, right?
Lily sat there, coaxing Josie into eating, nearly starving herself and wondering what the hell she was going to do.
None of this—nothing—had turned out the way she’d planned. Even if these peaches kept Josie alive, how long would they last without refrigeration? A day? She had to find real food. Formula. Milk. Anything. She couldn’t keep wandering around Texas. She needed a plan. Fast. She didn’t have enough gas to drive back to Base Camp. She was exhausted from being up all night and doubted she could make it in one trip even if she did. She obviously wasn’t thinking clearly because only one solution came to mind. She could think of only one way to save baby Josie.
