So we have to not be there.
“Meech, do you think you can lose those guys? We only have a few miles before we reach the stacks. If we get there, we might be asked to help out with whatever they’re doing. We’ve got to find my uncle, not put coal in a furnace, or build widgets.” She channeled her eighth-grade social studies teacher, who constantly talked about manufacturing widgets as part of his lessons about industrialization.
“I can lose anyone, trust me. I once had a guy hit on me at a bar. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I went to the bathroom, kicked out a boarded-up window, and got the hell out of there. Yeah, before you ask, the place was a dive.”
Kyla cracked up. “That’s not what I was going to ask. You’re a badass extraordinaire. Why didn’t you just beat him silly?”
“That was before my ass-kicking days. I was sixteen at the time.”
She waited to see if Meechum was kidding, but she remained fixed on the road. “Really? And you were at the bar?”
Taking one hand off the wheel, the Marine ran fingers through her short hair. “Yeah, my parents weren’t what you’d call overly concerned with their kids. I spent more time out of our house than in it, and often in places they never would have approved.”
Kyla didn’t know what to say. It made her complaints about not having a father around seem pretty tame. Her mom loved her and did the best she could, and they lived in a relatively safe part of New York City. More importantly, she grew up with good friends who never would have let her go off to a bar at sixteen, much less stand alone against an aggressive boy. Briefly, she wondered what happened to all her school friends, but then immediately closed the door on the thought.
Everyone she’d ever known back home was dead.
They came around a bend and the fence for their destination appeared a hundred feet ahead. She pointed to the sign. “Laramie River Station. It’s a powerplant.”
Meechum glanced over her shoulder, then she studied the creek to their right.
“Are you going to ditch the truck?” Kyla asked.
“There’s nowhere to go,” the driver replied.
Once they went through the front gate, the complex sprawled in all directions. Metal buildings stood in various places, purpose unknown. There were also numerous square ponds hundreds of yards long. She had no idea what those were for, either. The main building sat toward the back of the property. Its three tall smokestacks popped out the middle and rose hundreds of feet in the air. None of them had pollution billowing out, suggesting the power wasn’t on.
“Look, the train must have been arriving when the attack happened.” Meechum pointed to a derailed train to their left. Dozens of full coal cars had tipped over, along with three engines, but another fifty cars remained on the track behind them.
They drove past the wreck, past the ponds, and next to the giant building.
“You have a plan?” Kyla finally asked, realizing they were traveling in a straight line.
“They’re going to come in behind us and assume we’re checking the place out. It’s what I’d think, if someone was scouting ahead for us. All we have to do is make sure they don’t see us again.”
She sped past a massive pile of coal, which was probably where the train was heading before it lost its way. Once they’d cleared it, they drove down a short embankment, crossed a narrow field of dandelions and grass, then went into another tree-filled creek bed. Meechum drove the truck deep into a patch of reeds and seemed to want to keep going, but the tires lost their grip. “This is the end of the line.”
“We’re walking?” Kyla replied with surprise. “I figured we’d drive into the night.”
“I wish we could. If they put the pieces together and figure out we didn’t belong here, they’re going to be on the lookout for a black pickup truck with two hotties in it.” She flashed a wry smile. “I’d rather take my chances on foot, find a different vehicle, and avoid the inquisition.”
“Won’t they have sniffer dogs?” She really thought it would have been better to drive as far as possible.
Meechum pointed down the creek. “We’ll stay in the water. Oldest trick in the book. We’ll leave the doors open and…” She reached inside the neckline of her shirt for a moment, then brought out a bloody hand. While Kyla sat there in shock, the Marine rubbed the top of the steering wheel to bloody it up. “With a little luck, they’ll think two of their own people were in here and had an accident. Maybe it will make them less likely to break out the big guns for us.”
“Wow,” was all Kyla could say. Almost without thinking, she rubbed the bandage on her neck, wondering if she had what it took to rub her wound and add to the carnage. Since the Marine didn’t ask her to, she didn’t volunteer. Instead, she gathered the weapons and put on the heavy pack, rather than give it away.
“Carrying this is the least I can do,” she said, meeting Meechum in the shallow water. “You can carry the extra rifle, but I’ll also carry the extra shotgun.”
Meechum nodded approval. “I would have driven farther if I thought it was safe, Dudette. Night is coming. We’ll slip away. There are a billion cars free for the taking. This will delay us getting to your uncle, but it satisfies the other half of my mission, which is keeping you safe. I hope you understand.”
“I do.” She took a few steps downstream. “We’re going this way, correct?”
The Marine gave her a casual salute. “Oorah!”
Fort Collins, CO
Ted didn’t look back, though he’d never been more curious to watch something happen in his entire life. He and Emily
