Joe patted Devin’s cheeks. “I need you to say something so I know you’re okay.”
“I can’t see.”
Thank God. Joe could deal with that. Anything worse, he didn’t want to think about. “The drone used a dazzler. That green light you saw? Causes temporary blindness and disorientation. You’ll be fine.”
Devin groaned and sat up. “That was information I could have used before I ran out there like an ass. Sure doesn’t feel like I’m gonna be fine.”
Joe swallowed a testy retort. He would’ve warned Devin if he’d gotten the chance, but it didn’t matter now. “We need to figure out how Boggs is tracking us. It won’t do us any good to run if the drone follows us.”
“That’s why I was going to shoot it down.”
“He’d send another one.” Joe retrieved Devin’s shoes from the hearth of the elaborate white granite fireplace and couldn’t hold back his snort. Even in the decades before The Change shot temperatures so sky-high that people fled north, this part of Texas had been way too hot for fireplaces to be practical. “Did you have a fireplace in your house?”
He knelt next to Devin’s feet and straightened out the socks that Devin had left in his shoes. Joe slipped one over Devin’s toes, only to have Devin jerk away.
“I can do that. Just hand them to me. Fucking blisters. You’d think we wouldn’t have blisters after one lousy day.”
Leaving Devin to it was easier than arguing. Accompanied by the drone’s whirring and the sound of it battering the house, Joe hustled about the spacious room, retrieving their few belongings and folding the ultra-thin polytherm sleeping bags until they were the size of rolled-up socks. He stuffed them both into a small black sack, then shoved the sack into the backpack on Devin’s back.
In the darkening kitchen, Joe placed their water jug under the tap.
The rusty water hit the filter at the top of the jug and dropped into the container, clear and inviting.
He filled the entire gallon, took a drink, offered some to Devin, and topped it off again. He tucked the filter into a side pocket of his own backpack and wrestled the jug into the main pouch. The walk would be harder carrying the extra weight, but he wasn’t sure when they’d find water again. This exurb still had some, but for all they knew, the land to the north might be barren desert. They could die of thirst before they even reached another town. Judging by the mile markers on the highway, they were already fifty miles north of where they’d started. The Austin metro area might end soon. Better to take with them whatever water they could carry.
“We had three fireplaces,” Devin said, finally answering Joe’s question. He’d managed to clumsily put on both his socks and one shoe. “Worthless junk.”
Joe had to force himself not to try to help. Instead, he peered out the window to check for trouble. Still deserted. Luckily, the front of the house faced Interstate 35, the highway that led north away from Austin, so any threats approaching from home would be easy enough to spot. “We only had one, but we never used it.”
Devin thrust his shoe in Joe’s general direction. “Get this goddamned knot out, will you?”
Joe reached for the shoe and froze. “My timepiece.”
Devin jiggled his shoe. “My knot.”
“That’s how he’s tracking us.”
It had to be. The slim black band and silver face had been a friend to Joe, helped him stay on time and feel in control when he worked. It also sent a GPS signal. He should have thought to dump it, but he’d been too preoccupied with their escape and thinking over what had happened their last night in Austin: the deaths of both his old lover, Victor, and Candy, the boss’s wife; Devin’s fury over Joe’s dishonesty.
“You mean the way your timepiece could let dear old Fucks of Fantasy know where to pick us up if we were stuck after a client was through with us?” Devin whacked his shoe against Joe’s leg.
Joe grabbed the shoe and chuckled at Devin’s colorful nickname for their old employer. The place had never been a fantasy for any of them, unless Joe counted the time he had spent with Devin. He untangled the laces and laid the shoe in Devin’s lap.
After Devin put on the shoe, he rolled away and tried to stand. He made it to his feet before he swayed.
Joe caught him by throwing a shoulder into his chest, though he staggered under Devin’s weight. Even though they were in a hurry, he reveled in the heat and power of Devin’s body. He stood still and let Devin use his shoulders as a handhold.
“This dazzler shit has me messed up. Help me to a wall.”
Joe shifted so Devin’s chest pressed against his back. He guided Devin to a garishly red wall, then slipped from his grasp. Less painful to move away on his own than to have Devin spurn his touch. Joe leaned against the wall, close enough that he could catch Devin if he started to fall. “What do you think of this plan? We’ll leave the timepiece here and sneak out the back door. The drone should stay fixated on the GPS signal, so as long as we don’t get caught in the view of its camera, we should be able to sneak away.”
Devin grunted. “Fine.”
Joe nodded, even though Devin couldn’t see him, and glanced toward the window again.
The sun had set more fully. Only a little light made its way between the slanted window shades.
They had decided to travel by night to avoid the threat of heat stroke, even now in the dead of winter, but Joe worried about other people who might be out when the sun went down. He was distracted from his thoughts when he saw Devin cradle his head in shaky hands.
For the first time, Joe worried that Devin might not
