The three Zaditorians in the lead stumbled and fell, rolling back, then regained their feet and continued following at the distance we were all more comfortable with.
I looked away from their frightening spider heads to the exhausted singers slumped across from me, sweating and breathing hard. Rhonaya, who was as much their handler as their leader, put the art supplies in a case and gave her spent soldiers each a thermos. Steam rose from the contents as the singers drank, and new worries added to my list. How long could the barbershop squad keep this up? What would happen to us when their voices failed? The Zaditorians didn’t seem to be tired at all.
The excitement dying down, I noticed Em/Suzanne was no longer keeping my left side warm. She was in the far corner by the cab, sandwiched between Bruce and Pam, who whispered to her.
“Hey,” I said. “Get away from her.”
Bruce and Pam turned and gave me their best who-me faces.
“They have a body for me,” Em/Suzanne said with a youthful and excited smile that was jarring to see on such a weathered face. “Suzanne’s daughter is with Naomi. She’s my age. Naomi can put me in her.”
“What?” I said. “No. We’re going to get your old body back.”—I hoped we would anyway—“Don’t talk to these mummers anymore. They’re parasites.”
Em/Suzanne stomped her foot. “They are not. And they don’t call themselves mummers either. They’re Terwer.”
“We are definitely not parasites,” Bruce said in a huff. “What an extremely racist remark. You’re really showing your true colors, sir.”
“Shut the hell up, Bruce,” I said. “Go eat some guacamole.”
“I’m not going back to my old body,” Em/Suzanne said, more forlorn than indignant now. “I don’t want to have the nightmares anymore.”
“You’re not having them now are you?” I wished Kaliah was awake to help me with this.
“Suzanne protects me from them.”
I didn’t know how to feel about that. I was glad Em was no longer experiencing the unbidden and unfiltered memories of our ancestors, but I didn’t know Suzanne. How could I trust her? She voluntarily, as far as I could tell, took a backseat to my niece in a mind they shared. What if Suzanne decided to take the front seat? Would Em be trapped behind her without a voice?
As I tried to think of what May would do or say here, the truck lurched to a sudden stop. We all slid a foot or so along the bench seats toward the cab. Poor Zelda, lighter and with less traction, hit the cab wall, but not too hard. There was a brief hiccup in the singing but the barbershop squad recovered nicely.
The Zaditorians paced in the road fifty yards behind us, their multicolored bubbles bright against the mountainside.
“What’s going on?” Kaliah said, sitting up, squinting.
“You’re okay,” I said, surprised to hear her voice. “We were worried.”
“Keep singing,” Rhonaya said to her squad with a booming voice.
Zelda darted outside. After telling Kaliah to rest and Em/Suzanne to stay put, I followed, jumping down from the back of the truck and scampering around the side as fast as I could to get away from the blaring speakers pointing outward.
The culverts were overflowing. Sheets of water ran across the road. I jogged ahead, around a bend. Beyond the lead school bus, the road had been consumed by a mudslide four stories tall with regolith and trees poking out like bones, and some trees still standing on the top.
I heard someone behind me yell, “Noooooo,” and I turned to see Hugo crouch and put his face in his hands. For a moment, I shared his sentiment, but then Zelda said, Go get your typewriter, and I remembered I had one more rekulak spell. I patted Hugo on the shoulder and told him we weren’t dead yet, then jogged back to the truck.
Chapter 33
THE ZADITORIANS WERE STILL pacing. They’d been waiting for something like this. We were like castaways on a leaky raft, in the open ocean, and they were the circling sharks.
“What’s going on?” Kaliah said when I climbed in out of the rain.
“Mudslide. We need to get on the lead bus.” I went to Em/Suzanne and put my hands on her shoulders, looked her in the eyes. “I don’t know if we’re going to make it.” My voice faltered a little. “But we have to try. We can’t stay here. The world ends if we stay here.” I turned to Rhonaya and told her what I was planning, that she would have to stay behind and hold off the Zaditorians as long as she could. She had an intimidating stare that made me feel a little uneasy telling her how things were going to be, but she listened and nodded and said, “Good luck.”
Em/Suzanne, Kaliah, Bruce, and Pam jumped out of the truck. I grabbed the signature 510 and followed. Hugo was still crouched where I’d left him. I told him what I’d told Rhonaya, and he stood and raised an eyebrow at my typewriter. Then he hugged Kaliah, who ordered him not to die. A solemn smile dimpled his cheeks before he turned and headed back to the truck.
The doors to the lead bus opened with a hiss. Em/Suzanne, Kaliah, Zelda, Bruce, Pam, and I climbed inside. The engine was off, and all the windows were fogged up. The mummer passengers silently stared at us from their seats. Water dripped from our rain ponchos and pooled on the floor. I gave a brief speech explaining what was about to happen, during which I felt oddly at home, like I was back on a tour bus, pointing out the sites.
I took the driver’s seat, fired the engine, and blasted the defrost. As the condensation cleared, I summoned Craig by creating a gap in my choices, which I accomplished by transcribing the user manual for a vacuum cleaner I’d found under the
