Campbell (16 page)

Connor had drained all of his parents bank accounts after they’d died and bought things like cars and diamonds with a lot of the money. Things people wanted. Thought were important. Tal thought it was pretty stupid. It was better to have food than that stuff, and sometimes kids with very little gave Connor their food for gold, or other things they needed, and then couldn’t eat. He didn’t give a shit about making sure they had enough to survive.

“And I suppose he’s going to make you go along with it. All of us go along with it.”

“Probably. Someone’s got to be in charge. You see all those dead kids on Sunset? That can’t keep up.”

“Everyone’s got a gun,” Leah shook her head with disgust. “And they all think they’re so cool and gangster with them.”

“We should get rid of the guns,” Tal said. “That would be a good start.”

“And the cars,” Leah giggled. “Until we’re tall enough to drive. I almost got hit last week taking Rachel to the park. Twice!”

“And we should all have to wear clothes!” Tal exclaimed. “I’ve seen way too many naked dudes lately. Just because there aren’t any adults doesn’t mean no clothes.” He cleared his throat as his voice cracked. That was happening a lot lately, he thought to himself. Other stuff too. Hair seemed to sprout overnight. Everywhere.
 

“I’m so sick of candy, Tal,” Leah admitted. “I mean, it’s fun eating chips and stuff, but I really wanted something fresh yesterday so I went out and ate an avocado, right off the tree.”

“Me too!” Tal said, laughing. “I thought you’d make fun of me.”

She shook her head, beaming. “It felt like I was being bad or something. Hey, you want to start a garden?”

“Yeah,” Tal nodded. “I think Mom had a book somewhere that she kept meaning to read.”

“Cool,” Leah said brightly. “We’ll find it, and then start tomorrow?”

“Nothing else to do,” Tal countered. “Rach, what do you think?”

She looked up from her TV show. “Can we go to the beach?”

Tal thought about it. “Yeah, we can do whatever you want.”

“Can we find some apples?” she asked, standing up, a look of excitement on her face. “Mom used to cut up apples after school.”

“I don’t see why not,” Tal answered with a shrug.

“Apples are lame,” Connor interrupted appearing in the kitchen. He put down a box of Mars bars. “These are where it’s at.”

Leah blinked at him. “You’re the problem. If you were trading kids for apples—”
 

“Oh blow me, Leah,” Connor taunted. “What do you think? You’re playing house here? That you’re everyone’s mom?”

Leah took one look at him and stormed off, stomping her feet and slamming doors all the way.

“Dude, be nice to her. And take those chocolate bars somewhere else. I can’t eat another fucking chocolate bar,” Tal said, shaking his head. “She’s right. We’re all going to have heart attacks and get fat.”

“Don’t be so fucking serious,” Connor replied, taking Leah’s seat on the couch. “Hey, so I found this studio that hasn’t been looted. Want to go check it out?”

“Sure.” Tal reached for his sweater. “Bikes?”

Connor shook his head, a devilish grin on his face. “No, man. I want to take the Jag.”

September 2012

Somewhere south of Campbell

Lucy poked her head over the intact pillow wall to see the second boy she’d spent the night with in the last decade, spread eagle on the bed, the blankets pushed over entirely on her side, dead to the world. He was hairier than she’d noticed when he’d been shirtless in the woods, she thought with disdain. He was also sporting an awkward bulge in his newly acquired, ill-fitting boxer shorts as he gently snored away.

She had never been happier to know girls existed and were perfectly delightful bedmates.
 

If she’d been more with it the night before, she would have made him sleep on the floor, or in the bathtub, or at least made a bigger fuss about sharing a bed. Lucy knew he’d never dare touch her because he thought she was crazy, and regardless, he didn’t seem like the type to take advantage. She could smell one of those a mile away, she thought to herself, as he rolled over towards her, eyes still closed, and curled up in ball.

“Cover yourself up,” she chirped, pulling the housecoat around her. "I never would have let you sleep on the bed if I thought I'd have to see you like that."

He opened his eyes and blinked the sleep away. "Let me sleep on the bed? You're nuts. Look where all the blankets are."

She raised her eyebrows critically. "If I'd asked you to sleep on the floor, you would have done it."
 

He yawned, looking at her unimpressed, and shook his head. “If you don't want to share a bed with me, you can sleep on the floor. You're the boss of thousands of kids. Don't pull that neo-feminist shit on me. It’s a big bed, and we both had a hell of a day yesterday, and we’re probably going to have another one today.”

“I’m not the boss. I'm the leader.”

“What a distinction,” he said as he rolled his eyes, tugging the sheet over him. “Anyway, we should get moving, I guess. Soon.”

“We don't even know where we’re going.”

“North. I’m sure we can figure it out. There's this thing called the sun….”

Lucy cocked her head at him, unimpressed. “Can we just talk like adults? Just for a while?”

Tal sat up and pooled the sheet in his lap, clearly aware of his very obvious and exposed morning hard on, and spoke while simultaneously wincing, in what Lucy assumed was an attempt to force himself soft. “Okay. So we figure out which way is north, and we go that way, as far as we can with the money we have.”

“We’ll ask around. Some older kid will know where we are.”

“Agreed,” she said with a nod. “I’m going to shower again, and then we’ll get moving?”

“Sure,” Tal said, smiling at her. “You’re a blanket hog.”

“I know,” she replied, glaring at him playfully before closing the bathroom door.

***

While she was gone, Tal rummaged through the drawers in their hotel room for some indication of where they were and found it, he hoped, in an old faded tourism brochure for Conway, Arkansas. The climate fit, as far as Tal could remember from his limited geography classes. He thought about the accents he’d heard the day before, and decided that that was likely where they’d found themselves. His father had been a big Clinton supporter and he’d spent enough time listening to the man’s southern accent over the last few years to notice that the dialect there matched pretty closely. Arkansas was a hell of a long way from West and Campbell.

They checked out after Tal showered, opting to leave out the back again just in case anyone was looking for them. It was a sunny, clear day, and when they got back to the car they’d commandeered from their would-be killers, they were pleased to see it was still there, and intact, save for a wiper blade, which seemed to have been carefully removed.

“Maybe we never had a wiper blade?” Lucy said, examining the windshield. “Who cares. We’ll just pull over if it rains.”

They’d driven for about an hour in relative silence, before Tal finally thought to ask a very obvious question. “What happens when we get back to Campbell?”

Lucy pulled over on the side of the road, turning in her seat, and admitted something embarrassing. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t think you can trust anyone enough to call?”

She glanced up into the bright blue sky. “Do you have anyone you can call?”

“I can call Connor, or my cousin.” He shrugged. “I guess they might know what’s going on in your territory.”

Lucy thought about it, then shook her head. “No. There’s a good chance Connor takes this opportunity and fucks me. You shouldn’t call.”

“So we just wander around the heartland until something comes to mind?” Tal narrowed his eyes at a road sign ahead that mentioned some place he’d never heard of being twenty miles away. “He’s not going to fuck—”
 

“No, he’s not,” Lucy interrupted, shaking her head firmly. “Because you’re not going to call him. Not until I figure out what I’m doing.”

“If I want to call him, I’ll call him.”

Lucy’s expression chilled Tal to the bone. “No, you won’t. Listen. Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll get as far north as we can today, and then reevaluate. I do have some people I can call.”

Tal didn’t trust what she was suggesting. It was all a little skewed. The realization that Lucy had no idea what she was doing sank in, and he knew that was probably terrifying for her. “But you won’t call them now?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Let’s let it settle for a day.”

“We were kidnapped. It’s probably good to let someone know we’re okay. I have to let Connor know about Juan.”

“I’m sure someone on my end has let them know that we were taken, and I’m sure that information was passed on as well.”

“Unless your rat has ruined everything, and East is burning down your house as we speak and turning your precious Cambellites into a prepackaged workforce.”

Lucy took a deep breath and smacked him in the arm. Hard. “Do you really think all those kids would stand for that? Really?”

Tal knew they wouldn’t. They may have in West, if East had pitched it properly, but not in Campbell. “No.”

“Then let me wait a day and I’ll call my friend in Calgary.” She pulled back onto the road. “We’ll play it safe for a day.”

They stopped around lunchtime at a town two hours past the Arkansas-Missouri border after passing a tiny, decrepit airfield, which reminded Tal of Juan all over again. He had a wife, and kids. They deserved to know. “I need to call Connor, if you’re calling your guy tomorrow. He’ll be worried.”

Lucy shrugged. “Fine, but I’m calling first. If things on my end are chaos, I might need you to tell him otherwise.”

“Why would I do that?”

She ignored him and nodded at a small building with a sandwich board out front. “Let’s eat.”

They got out of the car and Tal followed her into the diner, which had a faded sign announcing that it had, at least one time, served the best hamburgers in Springfield. And Coke.

They were seated by a girl who was probably twelve, with bright green eyes, brown hair and a t-shirt that stated that she was a Leo.
 

“Just two?” she said, glancing around the sparsely filled restaurant.
 

“Yep, and we’d like to sit by the window,” Lucy replied, nodding at a booth. “And I’d like a Coke.”

“Two Cokes,” Tal countered.
 

When the waitress left, Lucy leaned across the table and smiled coyly. “You can’t call home because if you do, and Connor gets the advantage, then things won’t go good for me.”

“I don’t want things to go good for you,” Tal said, almost as a reminder to himself that they weren’t on the same team, not really. “I want things to go good for West. Don’t forget that.”

Lucy raised her eyebrows at him, stood up, and looked around the restaurant. “Who’s in charge around here? In this town?”

“Cindy Parker,” a stocky boy, maybe seventeen, with one of the biggest noses Lucy had ever seen, replied. “Who’s askin’?”

“We’re just passing through,” Lucy said. “From the north. Thought we might see about a meeting.”

“She’s at Missouri State. Got a place up there. Where north?”

“Campbell,” Lucy said nonchalantly. “Old Canada.”

The kid nodded, a smile on his face. “You guys got all that oil up there. She’ll want to see you.”

“What’s good here?” Lucy asked him, her eyes lighting up. “Hamburgers?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “And the fries are the best in the area.”

“Cool,” she said with a grin. “I’ll have a burger and fries. You got bacon?”

Leo nodded, writing down her order on a scratchpad after setting their Cokes down. “What do you want, Mister?”

“I’ll have the same,” Tal said, trying to figure out what was going on, because it was obvious to him that Lucy had something in mind. “With bacon.”

“Comin’ right up.”

“Thanks,” he nodded, turning back to Lucy. “We’re going to meet their mayor?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “See if she’s heard anything. Tyler, you got something better to do?”

It took him a few seconds to realize that that was the name they’d checked in under at the hotel the night before. “No, Laura, I guess I don’t.”

“Good then.”

Tal relished every bite of the bacon. Lucy didn’t eat like some of the girls he knew, who would rather people didn’t think they ate. She dug in just the same as him, and he found himself watching her enjoy every morsel with almost engrossing interest.
 

Missouri State University was within walking distance, according to the waitress, so Tal and Lucy left the car and headed over. It didn’t take long for Tal to notice something interesting. Kids were happy there. They smiled and nodded in acknowledgement when Lucy and Tal passed them. Everyone looked well-fed too.
 

“What did you see when we walked into that restaurant?” Lucy whispered, as they approached the building where they’d been directed.

“I don’t know,” Tal replied honestly. “What did you notice?”

“They’re doing something right here.” Her shoulder bumped his. “It’s exciting. Kids are working, they have Coke, their leader is accessible. This is a good place.”

“You knew that as soon as you walked in?”

“Look at the streets here. What do you see?”

Tal looked around. It was clean. Really clean. Hedges were trimmed, and the leaves on the ground were at a minimum, even though it was early fall. “It’s well-maintained.”

“They have pride. This isn’t in line with what I’ve heard about the Midwest.”

That was true, Tal thought. “So what? You’re going to come in here and try and pull them to your side?”

She shook her head. “Why would I need to do that, if they’re like this? I don’t need any more mouths to feed.”

Tal frowned at her. “If you could get them to join you, you’d have more power—”
 

“Why do I need any more power, Tal?” Lucy said quietly. “Maintaining it is a hell of a lot of work. I’d rather have like-minded allies.”

He stopped and looked at her critically. “If you’re trying to talk me out of calling Connor—”