Devin’s hair was plastered to his head. Sweat dripped from the tip of his nose. He’d stopped crying, but those horrible shudders still gripped his body. He didn’t even seem to be aware of their conversation.
Joe nodded. “Then I’ll go and bring it back.”
Aria laughed without humor. “Absolutely not. You’re barely fit to travel as it is. You’re making shitty decisions. You’re not eating. You passed out for over an hour just because I rubbed your feet.”
“You don’t get a vote. You —”
“I do.” Devin’s strained voice made everyone jump. “She’s right. No one goes it alone.”
“Papi” — Joe went back to Devin and cupped his face in his hands — “I have to. We have no choices.”
“Stay with me.”
Joe wished he could. Forever. Not just right now. He kissed the top of Devin’s head. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“No!” Devin shouted, then the dry heaves started again. “Damn you, asshole.”
“Don’t do this, Joe,” Aria said.
Peter brushed Joe’s arm. “Boss, I don’t think —”
“Ames is on the highway,” Flix said. “I’ll give you the map and three days. If you aren’t back, we’ll come after you.” He hesitated. “Sound all right?”
“I’ll take Peter with me.” It was a peace offering. Joe brushed his lips over Devin’s cheek. He tried for Devin’s lips, but Devin turned away at the touch. “I’ll be back for you.”
Joe grabbed his gear and let Devin’s angry curses follow him out the door
.
***
Peter’s pizazz with rain and snow had worn off quickly. He estimated he’d gone from enchantment to disinterest to hatred between his first clumsy, clomping step in the snow and his fifth. That was the step where a freezing trickle of liquid had penetrated his trousers and socks. By the time they’d made it to that partially collapsed building where they’d spent the night, Peter didn’t want to experience any weather-related wetness ever again. He certainly hadn’t wanted to tromp out into melting snow and rain showers first thing in the morning. But here he was.
They’d left the others around three hours ago, but they couldn’t be more than ten kilometers away. Without Devin there to slow them down, Peter had expected Joe to urge him to pick up the pace, but if anything, Peter had been the one to encourage Joe to move faster.
Peter had a sneaking suspicion Joe hadn’t slept the night before, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Joe eat since leaving that farmer family. Every once in a while, Joe’s unsteady steps faltered, and he stumbled along as though a hard gust of the strengthening wind at his back would knock him off his feet.
And that may be another problem. The air had grown warm and sticky, and rain fell in fat, heavy drops. Peter knew nothing about natural weather, the kind that wasn’t programmed into a dome, but in all the time they’d been traveling, no other day had felt so...potent. The air hung ripe with tension, like the atmosphere was warding off an explosion. It made Peter’s skin crawl, and it kept him from trying to convince Joe to stop so they could eat.
Besides, Peter had learned a while back that Joe wouldn’t take food if he was given a choice to turn it down where Devin wouldn’t notice. So instead, Peter pulled one of those revolting Insta-food bars from his backpack, broke it in half, and thrust one half in front of Joe, who took it and began to eat without a word. Peter bit down on his own half of the tasteless piece of tree bark and chewed it quickly so he could offer Joe another half. What he wouldn’t give for an apple. Or meat. His stomach rumbled, and Joe glanced his way.
“You should eat.”
Peter swallowed his mouthful. “Good idea.” He pulled out a second bar, broke it in half again, and when Joe turned his face back to their path, Peter maneuvered half of the second bar into Joe’s hand.
Joe took a bite. Before he swallowed, he mumbled, “I don’t like the sky.”
“It’s sort of yellow.”
“That’s what I don’t like.”
A bright bolt of light illuminated the sky, quick as a whip, there and gone. Lightning. Peter had seen it before, when he’d been safe in the belly of the dome. Lightning had been a curiosity when he was a boy, a pleasant break from the mundane. Out here, it was scary, striking the earth like a punch from the sky.
The sky rumbled around them, dark and deep.
Peter jumped and grabbed Joe’s arm and held on tight while the noise rolled over them. The sound seemed alive — moving, threatening. Some primal part of Peter wanted to drop to his knees and cower. When the rumbling stopped, he asked, “What was that?”
“It’s thunder. The sound of the lightning, which was that discharge of electricity that lit up the sky.”
Peter normally hated it when the others acted like he was an ignorant child. Right now, he couldn’t spare the distraction of indignation. “So it’s harmless? It’s just a sound?”
“Totally harmless —”
Peter sighed and relaxed his shoulders.
“— it’s the lightning that’ll kill you.”
“What the fuck, boss?”
“Peter!” Joe stopped walking and scowled. “No swearing.”
Peter meant the choked noise that came out of his mouth to be a laugh. The sky was about to electrocute them and Joe was worried about bad language? “You don’t tell Flix not to curse.”
“Flix had a foul mouth before he became my responsibility.”
“Why do you even care? Your boyfriend has the dirtiest —” The sky opened, and rain poured down in torrents so thick the world turned gray. Sharp lightning split the clouds to Peter’s left. He jumped even before the thunder roared overhead. “We need to go back.”
Joe grabbed Peter’s arm and hauled him forward. “We’re closer to Ames than to where we started. Anyway, we can’t outrun a storm.”
They slogged forward. Under their feet, the melting snow gave way to big, murky
