Sand Red

43

The next day, I left. The desert flowed red all around me, and I watched its beauty, sometimes in tears, sometimes in triumph, because I was never to see it again. Driving immeasurable distances across the red sands in the grey-green truck, I made for every camp Lars had pointed out on the map. But first I went home.

'Enya!' I yelled as I saw her with her rifle trained on me. 'It's Kun!'

Her rifle fell hesitantly as I neared, and I ground to a halt before her. 'Dead.' I snapped my fingers at her ear. 'You should have ordered me to stop.'

'You're back!' she said delightedly, ignoring my words.

'Aye. Go tell a grown-up, lest they're smarter than you and shoot me.'

'A'rright!' she announced, and raced off towards the water safe, where a pillar of smoke was rising. It felt good to be home. And bringing good news, no less.

'Yul!' It was Od, running towards me at full speed, and I looked at his form in startlement. He looked strong and well fed, cutting a contrasting image with how thin Yul was in my memory. I looked down at my stomach self-consciously. It was sunken, no doubt, but were we still that starved? Three meals a day begged to differ, but I came back to the present as Od reached my door. I climbed down, moving to shut the door.

'Yul in the back?' he asked, going to check.

'No, wait!' I yelled after him. 'He didn't come. He's alright,' I said quickly. 'Safe.'

'So he made it to you.' Od came back up to me, his shoulders slumped.

'Aye. We're alright, Aida too.'

'I went out the next morning,' he said. 'I went all the way to the coast looking for him. That bastard. Why didn't he come?'

'Needed him to stay keep our hostages in line,' I replied.

Od stared at me.

'Hiya!' Madan yelled, coming our way with Charlotte beside him.

I shaded my eyes in the thick afternoon brightness and waved back at them. 'Od, we've got to leave.'

'Where is he?'

'Four hundred kilometers West.'

'Is that where we're going?' Od asked.

'Yes.'

He nodded. 'I'll pack.'

'Pack for what?' Charlotte asked.

'We're going to Yul.'

'No, you've all got to pack,' I said. 'There's a ship, a spaceship,' It was coming out all garbled. 'We're going to Cerulone.'

Charlotte stared at me. 'Do you have a fever?' She put her hand to my head and I pushed it away.

'I'm serious.'

'Where's the ship?' Nkhil asked.

'Four hundred kilometers from here. Get the children ready.' Not one of them moved.

'Is Yul there?'

I nodded. 'Aye. I'm completely serious, just pack, goddamnit.' I grinned at them. And I suppose that's when they really believed me.

***

I started forward again, this time the truck stuffed with my friends.

'sit really true, Kun?' Niger asked me excitedly. 'Madan said we're going to Cerulone.'

'Yes, Niger.'

There was silence as he digested this.

'In this truck?'

'No, on a ship.'

I breathed the air in deeply, grime and all, because these were my last few breaths on Earth.

'I leave you at the Reds,' I told Od. 'You convince them to go with you. Head due West, four hours, and you'll hit a settlement with a huge wire fence. Twenty feet tall. Don't touch the fence- it's electrified- just shout for Yul, he'll let you in.'

'Where will you go?'

I showed him the map. 'All these circled ones? I've got to bring them to the ship.'

'We hit the J.C. Company and Chota Bihar on our way there,' he said, peering into the map. 'We could do those for you.'

'No, don't. I don't want you in trouble.'

He put his hand on mine on the gear stick, and I fought the urge to pull it away. 'I'll do it, Kun,' he said firmly. 'God knows when you find another vehicle. It's far too much to do for one person.'

'Okay,' I said, taking my hand away casually and putting it on the wheel. 'Just be careful. Don't get in any fights.' This would leave four to me, two nameless raider bands, the Baxters and finally, En's camp. I shivered at the thought of going back. I considered asking Od to do it for me. Going a little out of their way, they could pass the camp on the way. But no. What if En trapped them, too?

I drove clear past the Red camp when we neared it, getting off at the other end of the settlement so as to give myself an additional kilometer before I'd have to go on foot.

'This is it,' I said to Od as I got off.

'Go safe. When will you meet us there?'

'I don't know. Depends.' I thought. 'A maximum of two weeks,' I decided. 'If I'm not back in two weeks leave without me.' He would never know what it cost me to say those words. But the entirety of the remainder of humanity depended on me, and I felt their burden of their hopes and dreams upon my shoulders. I felt a sense of wonder at how far I had come as a person in the last few months.

However, I suppose Od was sharper than I thought, because he seemed to recognize this. 'We will wait a whole month if necessary,' he said. 'You're not going to be left behind.' Then he did something he had never done before. He leaned over and put his arms around me, and I was so surprised for a second that I just stood there like a fool while he hugged me. Then I put my arms around him too, and his hair was warm in my face and I knew I was doing the right thing.

He let go of me. 'Come back alive,' he said, and I probably had tears in my eyes.

'Be safe,' Madan said, waiting behind Od.

'Bye,' called Charlotte from inside, feeding both Jay and Hellen before they entered the Red settlement.

'Bye,' I said back. 'Bye Od.' And then I turned around and began to march the sixty kilometers to the tentative location of the first raider band.