You Never Know Who to Trust

Anywhere But Home

It was still dark out when I opened my eyes.

The AC blew through the vents, batting at the little yellow cardboard tree hanging down from the rearview mirror. Its vanilla fragrance was sickeningly sweet and so overwhelming that it turned my empty stomach. Mick Jagger crooned next to my ear, singing about war and peace and shelter—those kinds of lies. I tried to turn my face away from wherever the song was escaping from, but I only managed to smack my nose against the window and strain my neck.

I sat straight up and almost hanged myself on the gray seat belt.

We weren’t in the Jeep anymore. I was sitting in the back seat, Ruby was sitting in the front talking to Dr. Begbie. Next to me curled up there in a protective little ball was another kid, about my age, or maybe a year younger. That other kid. Max—Matthew—whatever—from the Infirmary, and he was looking far better than I felt as he slept on.

The night came back like a deep breath, complete and overwhelming all at once. The glow of the street lights lit the scrubs Ruby wore, and that was enough to flood my mind with the reality of what had happened.
Smears of trees and undergrowth lined a road that was completely dark, save for the small car’s weak yellow headlights. For the first time in years, I could see the stars that Thurmond’s monstrous lights had faded into nonexistence. They were so bright, so clear that they couldn’t have been real. I didn’t know what was more shocking—the endless stretch of road or the sky. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes. 

“Don’t forget to breathe, Rose,” came the voice in front of me. It was Ruby.

I pulled the surgical mask down from over my mouth as I looked at the side mirror of the car. Dr. Begbie’s blond hair was around her face, sweeping against her shoulders. In the time it had taken us to get from Thurmond to…wherever we were, she had stripped off her scrubs and changed into a black T-shirt. 

“You haven’t been in a car for some time, huh?” She laughed, but she was right. I was more aware of the forward lurch of the car than I was of my own heartbeat.
“Dr. Begbie—” Ruby began.

“Call me Cate,” she interrupted, a bit harsher than before. I don’t know if I reacted to the abrupt change of tone or not, but she immediately followed with, “I’m sorry, it’s been a very long night and I could use a cup of coffee.”

According to the dashboard, it was 4:40 a.m. I had only had two hours of sleep, but I felt more alert than I had all day. All week. All my life.

Cate waited until the Rolling Stones had finished out their song before turning down the radio. “All they play are oldies now. I thought it was a joke at first, or something Washington wanted, but apparently that’s all that gets requested these days.” She snuck a look at me out of the rearview mirror. “I can’t imagine why.”

“Dr.—Cate,” Ruby said. “Where are we? What’s going on?”

“We just left Harvey, West Virginia,” Cate said. “That’s where we met with some friends that helped me switch cars and remove Martin back there from the medical trunk we had to smuggle him out in.”

"Wait..."

“Oh, don’t worry,” Cate said quickly. “We made sure it had air holes.”

Like that was our biggest concern? It was definitely one of them, but that answer could've waited.

“They just let you take it out to the car?” Ruby asked. “Without even checking it?”

She glanced at me again, and I was proud of the look of surprise there. “The doctors at ,Thurmond use those trunks to transport medical waste. The camp controllers started forcing the doctors to dump the waste themselves when the budget got cut. Sarah, Shelby, and I had duty for this week.”