'They didn't look too bad. Really. The woman was a bit thin and tired, but the kid looked pretty fit. Considering.'
'Considering what?' Tracy asked.
'Considering the kind of animals they're traveling with. When those guys are done, I can't use some of my girls for days. They're maniacs.'
'Which way they heading?'
'They didn't tell me where they were going, but when they left here they went south.'
Eric stepped over Flex and opened the door. The others filed out ahead of him. He nodded at the whirring tape machine. 'Your batteries are dying,' he said, and left.
They had to walk all the way through town to pick up the southern road. But the sights and sounds that had delighted them when they'd entered disgusted them as they left. The laughter was drunken, the sounds of sex violent, the music cynical. And beneath it all, like the pounding bass theme in a horror film, the rumbling of unseen generators.
Once outside town, Eric scouted ahead, tracking Fallows' troops. Savvy had told the truth; they were marching south, toward Baja. He could almost feel Fallows' presence, like a thick summer heat, invisible yet cloying. Hearing about Annie and Timmy had been enough to revitalize him. Energy pulsed hungrily through his veins, looking for escape, release. Soon, he told himself. Soon.
When he got back to camp he knew something was wrong. They sat around with guilty and sullen faces, like children who have broken a family heirloom.
'Well?' Eric asked, hands on hips.
'What?' Season asked.
'Let's not waste time, okay? It looks like another speech is coming on, so let's hear it so we can get moving. I'd like to put a couple miles between us and that town before we make camp.'
Tracy stepped forward. 'We aren't going with you, Eric.'
'What?' Eric hadn't expected this.
She saw the shock on his face, hesitated.
'She's right,' Rydell jumped in. He spoke quickly as if each word burned his tongue. 'We talked it over while you were scouting and decided to go back to Savvy town.'
'Back to Savvytown? For God's sake, what for?'
'We're going to try and get that girl out, the one we gave them this morning. Roth. That Savvy character said they'd cut her other leg in the morning, we want to help her first. And if we can, her sister and mother. We owe her that.'
'What the hell are you talking about? You'll get killed. Those guys have at least one gun, probably more stashed around. And Flex and his bunch aren't nervous about using them. They won't debate the ethics of when and where to shoot. They'll blow your fucking heads off and use them as paperweights.'
'Maybe. But we're willing to take the risk.'
'You don't have the right. Because it's not your Jives you're risking, it's Annie's and Timmy's. If you get yourselves killed, you've also killed their chances of escape.'
Tracy held up her hands. 'You're right, Eric. That's what I told them too. I was against it completely. At first.' She took a deep breath. 'But maybe they're right too. Maybe this girl's life is just as important as Annie's. Or Timmy's. Even if we don't know them.'
'Oh Christ. What kind of moral garbage are you dishing up? She was your friend; took you in when you didn't have a home.'
'That's true. That's how I know if she were here, she'd be standing with us, not you.'
Eric didn't want to think about that. 'You'll all be killed. You know that?'
Molly shook her head. 'Not the way we figure it. We go in now, while it's still dark. They won't be expecting anything. We knock out the generators, create a lot of confusion. Then we steal the girl. With luck, maybe her sister and mother too.'
'How are you going to find her?'
'What?'
'The girl. How will you know where to find her?'
Molly shrugged. 'Search, I guess. Call her name.'
'Search. You're going to search through a dozen houses and trailers, not knowing who's standing behind which door with a gun or a spear or a knife? Sure, call her name. I'm sure after all you did for her this morning she'll be glad to come running, filled with trust.'
'We'll find her, don't worry,' Rydell said.
Tracy's voice was calm, a little sad. 'It doesn't sound good, but we have to, Eric. If we're going to live with ourselves, we have to try. You can come if you want.'
Eric said nothing.
'I didn't think so. In your place, I probably wouldn't either. In any event, if we make it, we'll pick up your trail and catch up later. We still want to get Annie and Timmy.'
Eric sighed. 'You can't change the world. Or destroy evil. Or win one for the Gipper. Or any of that noble shit that's polluted your brain. Even if your grandest hope came true and you leveled the town, banished wrong-doers from the kingdom, won the day for chivalry and the American way, you haven't changed anything. They'll just go somewhere else and start over. There are probably a dozen places like this right now up and down this miserable strip of land. You can't save the world.'
'We don't want to save the world, Eric,' Tracy said. 'Just our fair share.'
Eric swung his pack onto his shoulders. 'She's probably not on the street we walked down. I'd try the cross street first.' He walked out of camp, following the road south.
'Should we split up?' Season whispered.
Rydell shook his head. 'Not yet. First let's knock out the generator. Then we'll split. Molly and I will take the east end of the street, you and Tracy take the west. We'll meet in the middle. If we haven't got them, we'll head north, you two go south. We'll hook up again south of town, where we left Eric.'
The mention of Eric's name chilled them a little, as if they just realized how alone they really were. They had watched him walking ofi into the night after his wife and son, getting smaller and smaller. Disappearing into black.
'Let's do it,' Tracy said.
They all nodded, trying to generate enthusiasm like a basketball team slapping hands. But the fear was greater than they'd imagined, some many-tentacled alien lodged in their throats, wrapped around their legs, chewing on their stomachs. They went anyway.
Entering town was easy. They abandoned the road and sneaked in at an angle, dodging from brush to brush, tree to tree. The foliage was denser here, more lush than they'd been experiencing the past few days. Farther to the south they'd seen groves of green trees.
'We'll just follow the sound,' Rydell instructed. The generator hummed loudly, but with all the music and noise it was hard to gauge a direction.
'Why don't we just follow the wires?' Season suggested, pointing up at the wires running to each trailer and home.
'Some physicist I am,' Rydell said.
They crawled along the backs of trailers, behind houses, through the dark unkempt yards, their eyes fixed on the wires strung sloppily overhead. Finally they discovered the source. A small wooden shack between two trailers.
The loud rumbling inside left no doubt and Tracy put her hand against the wooden wall. 'I can feel the vibrations. This is it.'
'Okay,' Rydell said excitedly. 'Let's kill the lights.'
Suddenly a loud click echoed behind them. The unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked.
26.
