Botanicaust (25 page)

“
Yes.
”
She loaded the empty bottles into Levi
’
s basket and stepped out of the shelter, taking a good look around for indications of people. Cannibals could be hiding anywhere. Hunting.

She hurried to the river, knife once again clutched in her hand. She thought about leaving it with Levi, but he couldn
’
t see to use it anyway. Avoiding the burned clearing, she wandered further downriver. Tamarisk trees grew thick along the banks, and she had to ease her way through the trunks to reach the water. Trapped between the river and the weeds, she filled bottles with brownish water. Across the channel, she saw a spiky stand of the weeds Levi harvested for roots, the fluff at the tips of the stalks drifting lazily to the sluggish water.

Maybe there were some of the plants on this side of the river. A water bug skated by, but she was too slow to catch it. Her stomach purred at the thought of beetles. She hadn
’
t had protein in days. If she could catch a few bugs, she and Levi could both eat.

Tucking the knife inside the basket, she searched the water around the base of the trees. The skating insects were too quick. She wondered how Mo found beetles when he was on the Burn. He said they were in the trees, and these were the only kind of trees she
’
d seen besides yuvee trees.

She studied one of the reddish trunks. A bead of dried sap clung to the scaly, purple bark. Did beetles eat sap? A flutter above her head drew her attention. A tiny brown and grey bird darted between the branches. She
’
d only ever seen birds from afar, dots in the sky at the edge of the Reaches
—
carrion creatures cleaning up after the Burn Operatives.

“
Bird,
”
she whispered. Could a bird be dangerous? Like the scorpion Levi had named for her? This animal looked harmless.
Maybe even friendly.
The Protectorate taught that the world past the Burn was devoid of anything but toxic plants and cannibals. But that wasn
’
t true. She thought about the beetles Mo brought back. The agave pines the candy maker rendered into sugar. The muskrat Levi had cooked over the fire. There was more diversity out here than she
’
d been led to believe.

The tiny bird landed in the crotch of a branch. Tilting its head, it turned a bright eye on her. Then it plucked something in its beak before flitting away. A shower of fuzzy seeds floated down around her head.

Poison!
Her brain shouted like the children in Albert
’
s class.

She batted at seeds as they lodged in her hair. Some went up her nose and in her mouth as she sucked in panicked breaths. She choked, swallowing granules in the process. Retching, she leaned forward, grasping a trunk for support. Sticky resin coated her palm and she jerked her hand away in terror to wipe it on her skirt, but the stuff wouldn
’
t come off. More seeds drifted down around her, surrounding her like the cannibals who
’
d attacked Levi.

Water bottles forgotten, she crashed through the trees. Before, she
’
d done her best not to touch the trunks, but now she shoved them aside in terror.
All her years of being warned about plants crowded into her brain at once.
She couldn
’
t get away. The floating seeds followed her. Showers of fluff rained everywhere. Sap stuck to her hands and skin as she blindly lurched from trunk to trunk, panting in dread. She finally cleared the trees and collapsed on the dry red soil, chest heaving until her vision spun out from under her.

L
evi woke, his right shoulder throbbing in time with his heartbeat. Unable to open his eyelids enough to see anything but a slim crack of fuzzy light, he sat up. His left wrist shot bolts of pain up his arm and he fell back in agony.

“
Tula.
”
His voice creaked from his throat like a rusty door hinge.

No answer. She
’
d gone for water
—
how long ago? Everything since the flying machine felt like a bad dream. Forcing one eye open a tiny bit more, he spotted the open emergency kit holding a few meager packages of gauze and a spray bottle of antiseptic. Outside the blanket tent, something moved on the rocky ground. His heart lurched. Cannibals? What if they
’
d already gotten Tula? Her ploy last night had worked brilliantly, but if they caught her unaware, she
’
d be skewered.

He rocked forward without using his hand. Hot blood trickled across the cracked burn on his shoulder blade, tracing trails of fire along his spine. He held his breath against the agony of the bruises on his lower back as it wrapped a fist around his kidneys and clamped his belly in a vice. His heart seemed to stop and he once again collapsed. They had to get out of here, but he could barely blink without pain, let alone travel.
Be a man, Levi. Get up
. He trembled, building his courage to try again, but failed. He released his breath and slumped on the hard ground.

Hadn
’
t he seen pills in the emergency kit? Maybe they were painkillers. He cracked an eye and managed to shuffle through the kit. No pills.

“
Tula,
”
he called again. How he wanted Tula. As much to be sure she was safe as for the comfort her presence provided. He felt horrible for treating her so badly after the duster incident. She
’
d saved him twice. And all he
’
d done was ogle her body and nearly kill her with leaves and drowning. He inhaled long and slow, remembering when he
’
d put his mouth on hers to resuscitate her at the pool.

Eyes still shut
,
Levi frowned
. Two times, now, he
’
d touched her lips with his and forgotten himself. He was prone to a woman
’
s influence, but with Tula he truly could not keep control. Like he was drugged. Hadn
’
t he even wondered that before?

The beginning of an idea took shape in Levi
’
s mind. Physical contact with Tula produced something
—
alcohol, morphine, aphrodisiac, whatever. Would simply kissing her be enough to kill pain? More importantly, would kissing her be too much to resist … the rest? He remembered the warm evergreen scent that was all Tula, the silky texture of her skin beneath his hands. The single-minded purpose her lips gave him.

Lord, forgive me.

He needed to kiss her.

After a long time lying on the hard ground near the tamarisk thicket, Tula caught her breath and acknowledged no chemical waves were poisoning her. She looked at her sap-covered arms, seeds stuck like feathers on a bird. Why wasn
’
t she sick?

Maybe the suppression pills worked better than she
’
d been told.
Or maybe not all plants are poisonous
. Had the Protectorate taught her wrong? Yuvee leaves definitely poisoned her, but that didn
’
t seem true of the tamarisk. The sap was uncomfortable, but she wasn
’
t breaking out. She wasn
’
t unconscious. She was just sticky and crusted with dirt in tacky patches impervious to water.

At a loss, she retrieved the basket of water bottles and trudged back to Levi. She didn
’
t see any sign of cannibals, but they were out there.

Falling to her knees beside him, she evaluated his purple, swollen eyes.
“
Levi?
”

He lifted his right hand and threaded his fingers through the hair at the base of her neck. With surprising strength, he pulled her down, then put his lips against hers, and her world turned upside down.

He was in no condition to have sex. She ought to tell him no. But his lips were so gentle, so hesitant and searching. And she wanted to be with him again.
To forget the world and lose herself in him and in the alkaloids rushing through her body.

She flicked her tongue into his mouth, tasting the roughness of a split on his lip. His hand left her neck to cup her cheek, his thumb scratchy against her skin. With quiet pressure he eased her away. She rocked back onto her knees, head swimming with desire.

Still obviously weak, he pushed to a sitting position and remained with his bruised eyes closed. Then he cracked them open and looked at her.
“
Medicine.
”

She stared at him through waves of desire. Her hand flew to her lips.
“
Medicine.
”
Of course.
Her alkaloids. He didn
’
t want sex.
Only the chemicals.

He nodded contentedly. Disappointment fluttered in her breast. But he was right. They had to move.

They packed up and Tula swung the basket over her shoulders. The bottles were heavy, but he couldn
’
t carry them. Every few hours, when Levi
’
s strength seemed to flag, she administered a kiss. They followed the river, looking for a place to cross.

After two days, his pain was worse, and his skin burned with fever. She changed the poultices morning and night, but the cut on his arm remained swollen, stretched and gaping between the butterfly closures.

“
Bad.
”

He nodded.
“
Infection.
”

She sprayed the wound with the last of the antiseptic and wrapped it in the last of the gauze.

They stopped at a cluster of cattails and Levi waded in. He
’
d hardly eaten anything since the cannibal attack except for one tiny fish he
’
d caught with the bent needle from the stitch kit, and a few longhorned beetles he
’
d showed her how to find in the tamarisk. Beetles were a lot harder to come by than she realized, and she
’
d let him eat them all, though her mouth watered at the thought of protein.

As he waded into the cattails, she grabbed his arm.
“
Let me. No water. Wet. Bad.
”
She pointed to his arm.

“
You can
’
t touch plants.
”
He pointed in return at her hands, blistered from applications of yuvee leaves on his burned shoulder.

Directly touching the yuvee leaves caused her blisters, but she
’
d been discreetly interacting with other plants while they travelled. The amarantox caused a minor reaction when touched, but neither the scraggly, finely haired weed nor the round, thorny tumbleweed appeared to affect her. The cattails would be another test.

She pushed past him into the water and yanked at the stalks. Getting the roots up proved tougher than she imagined, and she ended up with a large number of spiky fronds with no edible parts. Her hands became chapped and sore, but she ignored the pain. No overabundance of chemicals flooded her system, and the cuts on her hands were just cuts, not an allergic reaction. A growing sense of triumph swelled within her with every root she freed.