It took Joe a moment to see it. Even once he’d found it, he didn’t know what it was. A white line stretched out at the edge of the horizon, extending as far as he could see. Despite his worry for Marcus, his concern for all of them, really, a thrill rushed through him. “I think it’s the New American border.”
Flix inhaled sharply. “It’s in Oklahoma?”
Joe nodded. He raised his voice. “Peter? Is that the border?”
Peter, his head perched on Devin’s shoulder, looked back at them. His glassy, distant eyes didn’t focus. He twisted a little, wedging his hand against Devin’s upper arm. Devin lost his balance and fell to his knees, dragging Peter and worse, Marcus’s broken body, down with him.
Marcus whimpered but didn’t cry out. He should have howled.
Joe and Flix lowered the rest of the stretcher to the ground. Leaving Marcus to Flix, Joe rushed to Devin, who staggered to regain his footing.
“Stay down.” Joe pushed at Devin’s broad shoulders until Devin sat heavily. “Rest.”
Dirt crusted Devin’s eyelashes, turning them reddish. He squinted up at Joe. “We have to keep moving.”
“Not like this. You’ve been carrying half of Marcus and half of Peter for hours. Besides, look at Peter.”
Peter lay to the side, curled into a ball on the highway, his eyes closed, his legs trembling.
Devin sighed and didn’t reply.
Joe patted Devin’s shoulder and walked back to where Flix squatted next to his brother. Joe helped him up, and they walked away from the others, into a shallow ditch beside the road.
Flix pulled the vision shields off his face and shook his head. “He’s getting worse. No bullshit, Joe.”
God, how hard this was. “I think so. We need to keep going, but Devin can’t keep carrying both of them, and you and I aren’t strong enough.”
Flix rested his forehead on Joe’s shoulder. He drew a shaky breath. “I can’t lose my brother.”
“We’re going to do everything we can to keep him alive.”
“We have to get to Purcell, find your friend. There’s nothing else to do. We wait, I lose him.”
Joe wrapped his arms around Flix, tried to give him comfort. Anything reassuring Joe might say would be a lie, so he didn’t speak.
Flix stood rigid. He raised his head off Joe’s shoulder and looked past him to the rest of the group, then returned his gaze to Joe. He started to speak. Stopped. Tried again. “If we left Peter —”
“No.” Joe shook his head, dropped his arms, and walked away. Non-negotiable. He didn’t leave his responsibilities behind. He’d gotten halfway back to Devin when Flix blocked his path.
“We’d come back. I need you to help me —”
“No.” Joe stepped around Flix and addressed Devin. “Have Peter help you get Marcus out of the road. Sit in the ditch. Eat something and take turns on watch. Flix and I are going to find water.” He turned his back on Devin and marched off the highway, not bothering to see if Flix was following.
“What are you doing?” Flix hissed from behind.
“Finding water.”
“You’re wasting time.”
Joe sped up. The baked clay earth felt almost as hard as the highway. “See that building?” A metal roof glinted in the sunlight. The place had to have its own water supply, as isolated as it was.
Flix pulled alongside. “I see it. It’s at least a mile away. By the time we get there and back we could be two miles closer to Purcell.”
“Devin and Peter can’t walk right now. They have to rest.”
“You’re going to let my brother die so you can baby your idiot boyfriend?”
Joe gritted his teeth. He understood Flix’s desperation, but he was tired and hungry and scared, too. He didn’t want to answer stupid questions. “I’m going to take care of Devin so he can carry your brother.”
“If you and I carried Marcus, we could get him to Purcell. Once we’ve found your friend, you could come back for Devin and Peter.”
“You and I can’t carry Marcus several miles.” Joe bit off each syllable, timed them with the collision of his feet and the ground. “We aren’t strong enough.”
Flix wheeled around and punched Joe in the jaw.
The impact jarred Joe’s teeth and split his cracked lips but didn’t knock him off his feet. He put his hand to his mouth, then looked at his fingers and found them bloody.
Flix’s eyes had gone wide, but he stood his ground. “I am strong enough.”
Joe wiped the blood on his jeans and resumed course. “Well I’m not. And as soon as we have some down time, I’m teaching you how to hit. You’re not that much smaller than me. You should’ve been able to knock me on my ass.”
Something hard rammed Joe’s back and sent him forward a few paces. It hit him in the shoulder and knocked him sideways.
“You son of a bitch!” Flix lunged at him and kicked.
Joe grabbed Flix’s foot and yanked him to the ground. “Knock it off. You’re wasting your energy. And mine.”
Flix growled and got to his feet. This time, he shoved Joe in the chest. When Joe didn’t react, he did it again. “God damn it! Why are you so cold? How can you not care?”
Again Flix rushed in. He cocked his fist, and Joe blocked the punch with his forearm. Flix hauled back and tried again. Joe blocked that one, too, but Flix followed fast and landed a blow to Joe’s stomach.
It hurt. And it pissed Joe off. He didn’t stop to think, just swung, and the solid crack of his fist against Flix’s face stung so good.
Flix landed hard in the dirt. Joe followed, straddled Flix’s stomach, pinned his arms, and held him down while he struggled and cursed. Flix kicked and bucked with surprising strength, but Joe refused to be thrown. It went on until blood from Joe’s busted lip dropped onto Flix’s face. It hovered, held together by surface tension, on the ripe apple of Flix’s cheek, until Flix shuddered. Then it fell, streaking a slow line
