Day One

“Because,” Jay replied, “secrets are the only things I have left.”

Elle pressed her lips together.

“You know,” she said, “my family was rich. Before all of this. Before Day Zero, when everything went insane.” She shook her head. “Didn’t do us any good. When the EMP hit, our bank account just stopped existing. There was nothing my parents could do to stop it. My dad and my older brother. They died in the first two weeks, trying to get food from a grocery store that was overrun with looters.” Elle leaned her chin against her knees, staring at the fire. “All of it — civilization, I mean. It took five thousand years to build it and two weeks to tear it apart. It’s depressing when you think about it.”

Jay turned his gaze from the fire, looking at Elle.

“It didn’t surprise me,” he said. “That’s what man is. We’re just as feral as any wild animal out in the forest. We just like to pretend we’re not. And when something happens to shatter the illusion, everyone acts so shocked.”

“So you believe people are inherently evil?”

“Basically.”

“But what about us? We’re not evil. We’re just trying to stay alive.”

Jay shook his head. He lowered his voice.

“But look at what we have to do to survive,” he whispered. “We kill.”

“In self-defense. You said yourself that there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Of course there’s something wrong with it!” Jay’s voice went up a notch, and Elle flinched. “It’s not right. To have to kill someone so that you can stay alive? To keep them from killing you for the same reason? It’s chaos. It’s…” He trailed off, rubbing his temples with his fingers. He looked tired, weary. “It’s mankind,” he said at last. “But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

They said nothing for a few moments, until the unearthly howl of coyotes broke the silence. “We’re all going to die in the end, aren’t we?” Elle whispered.

Jay looked in her eyes.

“In the end,” he replied, “everybody dies.”

It was late. Elle sat with her back against the wall in the corner of the general store, watching Sie

Elle wondered who the siblings had been before the EMP.

She wondered if they’d had family. If they’d been married.

Elle shook herself. She had to focus. She looked at the map. She’d spread it out on the floor, marked her route with a red pen from her backpack. From where she was, the San Jacinto Mountains were over two hundred miles south. It was an intimidating length to travel, especially since she had no car. Not even a skateboard. There were many ways to reach the mountains, but even if she did, the Slavers could be anywhere in those hills. It would be a wild goose chase. A ghost hunt.

And then there was the possibility that Elle would find the Slavers, but Jay, Georgia and Flash would already be dead. That was her worst fear. To go all that way… and be too late.

Stupid EMP. If I had a car, all of this time I would spend walking to the desert would be completely out of the picture.

Something hit Elle in the chest.

Her heart raced and she leaped to her feet, whipping the katana out of the scabbard. It slid out and flashed through the air. She held it steady, inches from Sie

Elle flicked her gaze down. A protein bar lay on the ground.

“For you,” Sie

Elle’s paused, gripping the handle of the katana. She slowly lowered the sword. She didn’t know what to say. She’d expected an assassination attempt. Not food.

“Thanks,” she said quietly. And then, “Sorry.”

Sie

“If you… well, if you make it back alive,” she said, “well, make sure you’ve got better stuff to trade.”

Elle didn’t move.

“Okay.”

Sie

“I might not make it alive anywhere.”

“But two hundred miles or more. On foot. It’ll take weeks.”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“You don’t have the supplies for it.”

Elle sat down, never taking her eyes off Sie

“What else have I got to live for?” Elle whispered under her breath.

If Sie

“You can take what you need this time,” Sie

Sie

Elle waited until Sie

Elle moved silently. She stuffed her backpack with a pile of protein bars from the shelves, shoving as many water bottles as she could into the rest of the space. She took a box of Band-Aids and a small bottle of antiseptic. There was nothing else she needed. Nothing that she could find here, anyway.

She cinched her backpack tight around her shoulders.

She held her breath, pausing at corner of the general store. She felt a twinge of guilt. She was, after all, taking off into the night without saying goodbye. Elle curled her fingers into fists.

Why do I have to suddenly have a conscience about this?

Behind her, a row of glass-paneled refrigerator doors lined the wall. Elle bit her lip. Hmm. This might work. She dragged her finger through the thick layer of dust over each door, concentrating. She stood back and admired her handiwork.

HAD TO GO. TOOK SOME STUFF. WILL COME BACK WITH A PROPER TRADE FOR YOU AND BOB. I PROMISE.

Yes. That was fine.

She glanced one more time at Bob and Sie

“See you,” she whispered.

She slipped through the hallway in the back of the building, pushing an emergency exit door open. The cold, biting air slapped her cheeks. She pulled her hood over her head and quietly shut the door. The flat landscape of the Central Valley lay around her. The safety of Sacramento was north. The warring gangland of Los Angeles was due south. And the Slavers… well, they were southeast, bringing their prisoners to the San Jacinto Mountains. Elle would have to travel through the smaller highways to reach the mountains. Her supplies wouldn’t last long. She would have to catch rainwater and eat whatever she could find; rats, lizards, bugs. She might perish in the desert. Her body might be left in the desolate wasteland, dissolving into the nothingness of the plain.

Elle sighed.

She knew what she had to do. It wasn’t going to be easy.

Chapter Four

The highway stretched on endlessly, curving southeast out of the Bakersfield area of California. What might have taken an hour to reach in a car would take an entire day on foot. The fog had finally lifted, and the golden brown of the grassy land was illuminated. Elle just stood there, in the center of the southbound lane of Highway 58, taking it all in.

It looks like velvet, she thought. Miles and miles of golden velvet.

It was beautiful, but daunting. The road was completely deserted. Unlike the roads in and out of Los Angeles, this highway was empty. There was no sea of cars, no evidence of catastrophic vehicle collisions. It was just… abandoned. It was wide and lonely. A strong, cold wind whipped across the valley floor and tossed Elle’s short black hair.