The Life Beyond (8 page)

“Sorry,” I whispered, feeling stupid for ruining our kiss with crying.

Joshua kissed the tip of my nose. “Don’t be.” He smiled then, a flicker of mischief in his eyes. “Anyway, it’s my turn,” he said as he pulled his shirt over his head. “I don’t mind if you look, you know.”

My cheeks burned. “I hope the water’s still cold,” I said.

He chuckled. “I think you need to rinse off again.” I glanced down and realized he’d left traces of dirt all over me with his embrace.

He raised the bucket over our heads and water splashed over us. I squealed again, causing Joshua to chuckle.

We laughed under our makeshift shower, a slice of happiness, fleeting and precious. It was those moments, the kisses and glances, the gentle touches and loving words that made this life bearable. It was Joshua at my side that gave me hope that we had a chance of a happy ending; of a life beyond this one.

Chapter 7

Alexis walked ahead of us. Deserted motels and faded signs, promising shrimp cocktails for two dollars or mega buffets for ten bucks lined our path. She’d rolled her jeans to her knees, revealing black leather boots and angry red scars all over her skin. She glanced over her shoulder and our eyes met. Embarrassment flooded through me. She’d noticed me staring.

“They’re burns,” she said and slowed until we were level with her.

“How?” Joshua asked, wiping the sweat from his brows. The sun hadn’t even risen but it was already sweltering.

Something dark crossed her face but it was gone in a moment. “Before I joined the Undergrounders, I lived with a few other kids in an abandoned motel just outside the city. This one boy, Jack, wasn’t careful enough and a military patrol noticed him in the city looking for food. He was only nine. It wasn’t his fault.” Her voice was shaky and somehow I knew Jack hadn’t reached his tenth birthday. “They followed him and burned down the motel. I don’t think they planned to kill us. But they didn’t care if they did. They wanted to drive us out like rats. I was the only one who got out. I don’t even remember how. When I woke, I was in a tunnel with the Undergrounders.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

Her eyes were distant as she nodded. “For weeks after that day, I wished I was dead. I’ve never been in so much pain.”

I felt sicker than I’d had in a while. “Is it like this everywhere?”

“I’ve heard the east coast is doing pretty well, especially the areas around Washington, New York and Boston. That’s where the rich and powerful are now. But you don’t get access to those areas unless you have permission. Rumours say that’s where the majority of our electricity and water go to keep the rich clean and cosy.”

Though I didn’t know these people I hated them. If my family had been stinking rich, would Bobby and Dad be alive now? A sudden worry for Mia and Mom overcame me. They were all I had left now. I wondered how they were doing.

How was I ever going to tell them about Bobby?

After a few miles a grey building with several chimneys rose up in the distance. Dark smoke billowed into the sky.

“We think they produce new weapons there. But nobody knows for sure,” Alexis said.

“What kind of Weapons?”

“I don’t know,” Alexis replied.

The sun was over our heads now. Our breaths sounded in the silence and slowly my thoughts drifted back to Bobby’s shoe … the bloody car seat. Alexis’s words echoed in my head. Could Bobby really be alive? I shoved my hope aside. No, it was impossible.

A group of mobile homes nestled against a road to our right. We marched toward them and settled in the welcome shade of a caravan. The windows were broken and a thick layer of dust covered everything. Nobody had lived here in years.

Joshua handed me a bottle. I drank the last gulp of warm water and sagged against the hot cladding of one of the homes. Tyler stood beside us, his eyes distant as he scanned the horizon. I touched his leg. He turned to me and his expression was puzzled.

“You should drink some water,” I said.

He nodded and took his bottle from the backpack at his feet. It was still half full. He hadn’t drunk in hours.

“What happened to the people in this area?” Joshua asked.

Alexis leaned back on her arms, squinting at us. “The military relocated them. Some moved to Vegas but most people tried their luck in the east. I’ve never been there but I heard Chicago and Philadelphia are crammed with fugitives – the unlucky ones who weren’t allowed into the rich cities.”

“If so many people died from rabies, how come the cities are so crammed?” I asked.

“Many people died but mostly on the west coast. There’s been a rural exodus ever since resources were rationed. People think they’ll be better off in the cities. The media doesn’t report it but I’ve heard the situation in Philadelphia and Chicago is a nightmare. Too many people and not enough food and electricity. There’ve been riots.”

“I hate this side the more I hear about it,” Joshua said.

“So people want change?” I asked.
Maybe we could use that to our advantage
, I thought, remembering the cameras in our backpacks. If we could record enough evidence – of the Undergrounders, in the labs, in the Void – maybe it really
could
have an impact. It could be the start of something new … something revolutionary.

Alexis spoke, interrupting my thoughts. “What about the Void? Are there many survivors?”

9 hours and 13 minutes since Rachel had died. More than 709 minutes since Bobby had gone.

I ran my fingers through the dust. “We lived with a few people in a place we called Safe-haven. But there aren’t many of us left. We do have water and electricity, though. Not much, but we found ways to produce electricity and use rainwater. Enough to get by.”

Alexis stood and brushed her shorts off. “Come on, let’s get going. I want to be in Vegas by sunset.”

Reluctantly, we gathered our empty bottles and followed her out of the cluster of caravans, back onto the sun-beaten plains that lay ahead.

After a few hours, Alexis pointed at a spot ahead. Perched beside the road was a run-down, abandoned motel – one of the hundreds in the area around Vegas. Alexis led us into a parking lot filled with rusty, dust-covered cars with flat tyres and smashed windows. One car stood out. Its windows were dirty but intact and its tyres weren’t as flat as the others. A guy sat beside the car.

Joshua’s hand immediately went to his gun.

“Easy,” Alexis said, smirking. “That’s our second scout, Marty”.

The boy had a shaved head and there was something elfish about his face. He couldn’t have been much older than Bobby. He got up, eyes darting between Joshua, Tyler and me.

“Found them near the fence,” Alexis explained. “What about you?”

Marty stared at Joshua whose hand remained close to his gun. “They almost got me twice.”

Alexis clicked her tongue. “They’ve upped their flights.” She opened the car. “Did you fill up the tank?”

“I stole gas from a few other cars. Took me a while,” replied Marty.

“Good,” Alexis said firmly. “Now let’s go before someone notices us.”

The sun disappeared behind the horizon and darkness fell. A sign that once read “Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas” had been crossed out so it now read “Welcome to Lost Vegas”.

“Lost Vegas?”

Alexis nodded. “That’s what people call Vegas. You’ll see why.”

I stared out of the windshield, wanting to see the familiar silhouette of the city in the distance.

But everything was dark.

The last time I’d been there with my parents the neon advertisements had turned the city into a wonderland of colors, with thousands of tourists mingling around. Now only a few people with gaunt faces and worn-out clothes survived. The extravagant hotels looked derelict. This Vegas had nothing of its former self.

“That used to be the Bellagio.” Alexis pointed ahead.

I pressed my face against the window to get a good view. I’d loved the water shows, with the beautiful fountains moving in rhythm to the music. My face fell. The lake in front of the Bellagio was empty – parched. Water shows hadn’t happened here in a very long time.

“I guess the rationing of water and electricity was the deathblow for Vegas,” I said.

“Nah, it started before the rationing. People didn’t want to stay close to the fence. The government encouraged the hotel owners to move their business elsewhere, so they did.”

“Then who’s left?”

“People who didn’t want to leave their home town or didn’t have the money to do so. Criminals and outcasts. And the families of the employees at the military base or one of the weapon mills around here.”

We pulled into an even darker road and soon concrete gave way to gravel. Alexis parked the car on what looked like a huge car dump. “This is where we keep our vehicles. Nobody comes here. It’s just an old junk yard,” she explained.

As soon as we got out of the car, my eyes began tearing. Something burned in my throat and nose – sulphur. Alexis and Marty had wrapped pieces of cloth around their head, so it covered their mouths and ears. Tyler, Joshua and I could only use our sleeves as protection.

We crossed the junk yard toward a chain-link fence. Behind it the ground dropped. Marty and Alexis climbed over the fence and we followed. There was barely any room to stand on the other side, the tips of my sneakers sticking out over the edge. In the moonlight I could see that the fall would be at least nine feet.

“That’s the entrance to the drains,” Alexis explained.

“We have to go down there?” Joshua asked.

“Yep,” Alexis said bluntly, leading us to a series of rusty rungs that led down the wall.

My heart pounded as we began our descent into the sewers. The memory of the tunnel beneath the fence was still vivid in my mind, the dread settled in me as we moved further along. Once we entered the drains, I couldn’t make out where I was going in the darkness or where the others were. I fumbled for the camcorder in my backpack, turned it on and focused on the little screen. My surroundings seemed much less frightening that way.

Joshua’s hand tightened around mine. “I forgot about the camera. Good thing you remembered.”

“Why are you filming?” Alexis asked.

“I’m collecting evidence, I guess,” I said. “We want to put together some sort of video once we’re back on the other side of the fence so we can show people on your side what’s really going on.”

It was too dark to see Alexis’s expression, but I could hear the scorn in her voice when she replied, “Well, good luck with that.”

The stench of mould, sewage and rot pressed against us, clogging my nose.

“Can we have some light, Marty?” Alexis called out. Suddenly a sharp beam of light illuminated the blackness. Cobwebs hung from the ceilings and walls, their whispy twines seemingly reaching for us.

“We don’t turn the flashlights on until we’re in the sewers,” Alexis said. “You really need to keep an eye on these.” She looked up at the cobwebs. “The black widows are poisonous.”

“And they’re everywhere,” Marty added.

I took a step toward Joshua. I’d never been fond of spiders, no matter the size. Before us the drain turned. Cockroaches scuttled away as we approached. We rounded the bend and the tunnel narrowed. There were only a few inches left between my head and the dingy ceiling. Joshua and Tyler had to duck.

“This part of the drainage is only about 5 and a half feet high,” Marty explained in a quiet voice as I filmed. “But some parts are even lower. Did you know that there are over 300 miles of drains below Vegas?” His eyes met mine. He reminded me of a puppy looking for approval from its owner.

I shook my head. “What did they use them for?”

His face lit up at the prospect of telling me more. “After heavy rainfall in the area, the water was guided through the drains, so it wouldn’t flood the city. But don’t worry. It hasn’t rained in a while.”

“But sometimes the factories sent down their polluted water,” Alexis added. “A few kids have got killed that way.”

We carried on, eventually having to keep to the sides as we balanced along the edge of a ditch about a metre deep. A shallow rivulet trickled through the middle, carrying with it the stink of wet cloth and garbage, and again a hint of sulphur. But I couldn’t shield my face; I needed my arms to balance and hold the camera.

Eventually the drain widened and a voice carried over to us. This part was dry and it was a relief to be able to walk in the middle since it was even. Dim light came from bulbs attached to the ceiling. Marty cast the beam of light on the head of a dirty teddy bear leaning against the moldy wall. A boy sat beside it. He couldn’t have been older than twelve, but he looked completely out of it.

“What’s he doing?” I whispered. But I needn’t have worried. He didn’t look up when we walked past him.

“Mo? He’s been sniffing glue,” Alexis replied, matter-of-factly.

I turned back to look at the boy, horrified.

Marty made a face. “Quentin hates people doing it. That’s why Mo isn’t allowed to sniff in our quarters, but some kids just can’t live without it. So they do it here.”

“Who’s Quentin?” Joshua asked, pulling me along. I couldn’t stop staring at the boy. He was younger than Bobby.

Alexis hesitated a moment before replying, like she was reluctant about every piece of information that she had to give up. “He’s our leader.”

As we turned another corner we arrived in what looked like a long chamber. Shelves and mismatched furniture lined the walls. Sofas and arm chairs filled the middle. More than two dozens kids, some my age, some as young as Mo sat around and talked. They looked up, their eyes following us. I stuffed the camcorder back into my bag, suddenly self-conscious.

A guy rose from a chair in the back of the room. He, like almost everyone, had his hair cropped short. I suddenly realized that Alexis and I were the only ones with long hair. The guy walked toward us. A scar ran across his forehead, his eyebrow and his cheek.

He looked at us like we were an alien species. “Where did you find them?”

“Near —” Alexis began, but Joshua interrupted. “We’ve just crossed the fence. We’re looking for the labs.”

“Crossed the fence?” Quentin’s eyes narrowed. “We’re looking for orphans on the run from the military. Not people from the Void. How did you even get past the fence?”

His eyes seemed to bore holes in my skull but I held his gaze. “A tunnel,” I replied. Something in his expression changed. He’d heard of the tunnel before.

“The tunnel,” he said slowly, recognition in his face.

A crowd had gathered around us, hanging on our words.

“They’re looking for someone, too,” Alexis jumped in. A look passed between them and Quentin relaxed.

“I’m Quentin.” He held out a hand. “Sorry but we have to be careful.”

We shook hands and introduced ourselves, but some of the kids kept watching us with distrust. I couldn’t blame them.

We entered a smaller chamber packed with sleeping bags resting on wooden crates to keep them off the wet floor. I counted forty-two.