“I mean, you’re a freak, right? Bug wasn’t too clear.”
Bug looked up at the sound of his nickname. Then, as if in response, he faded from view.
“I can see dreams. I told you,” Orsay said, and looked out of the window.
“Yeah? You wouldn’t want to see my dreams. They’re kind of boring.”
“I know,” the girl said.
That got Edilio’s full attention. “Say what?”
“Long time back. You and Sam and Quinn and a girl named Astrid. And the other one. I saw you hiking through the woods.”
“You were there, huh?” Edilio said. He pursed his lips, not at all happy with the idea that some girl could see his dreams. He’d said his dreams were boring. Mostly they were. But sometimes, well, sometimes they weren’t something he wanted a stranger sitting in on. Especially a girl.
He squirmed in his seat.
“Don’t worry,” Orsay said with a trace of a smile. “I’m used to . . . you know. Whatever.”
“Uh-huh,” Edilio muttered.
The Jeep bounced and rattled as they went though a rocky patch. They had the top up and buttoned tight. It was dusty and Edilio didn’t trust Bug not to drop off and simply disappear.
Then, too, there were the coyotes. Edilio kept an eye out for them.
They were closing in on the hills. There was the fold formed by a spur, just like Caine had shown on the map he’d drawn for Bug.
There was a bad look about the place. The shadows seemed deeper than they should be for the middle of the day.
“I’m not crazy about this,” he said to no one.
“Do you have family?” Orsay asked.
The question surprised Edilio. People tended to avoid talking about family. No one knew what had happened to the
families. “Sure.”
“When I’m scared I try to think about my dad,” Orsay said.
“Not me,” Bug said.
“Not your mom?” Edilio asked.
“No.”
“Because me, I think about my mom. In my mind, you know, she’s like beautiful. I mean, I don’t know if she was . . . is . . . in reality? Right? But in here,” Edilio tapped his head. “In here she’s beautiful.” He tapped his chest. “In here, too.”
They rounded the end of the rocky spur and there, in pitiless sunlight, a ghost town lay revealed.
Edilio put on the brakes.
“That look like what Caine told you?” he asked Bug.
Bug nodded.
“Okay.”
“Caine said go through the town. Past a building that’s still standing. Up a path. Mine shaft.”
“Uh-huh,” Edilio said. He knew what he was supposed to do. But he didn’t like it. Not at all. Less, now that he was here. He was not a superstitious person, at least he didn’t think so, but there was something very wrong about this ghost town.
He put the Jeep into gear and crept ahead, no more than ten miles an hour. The last thing he wanted to do was have to figure out how to change a tire.
“I don’t like this place,” Orsay said.
“Yeah. Let’s not go here for spring break,” Edilio said.
Through the town.
Past the ramshackle building.
The path was narrow, but the Jeep managed it at a crawl.
“Stop!” Orsay cried.
Edilio slammed on the brakes. They came to rest beside a high outcropping of rock. If this had been an old Western, Edilio thought, this is where the ambush would take place.
He lifted the gun. It was a reassuring weight in his hand. He checked to make sure it was cocked. Thumb on the safety. Finger resting on the trigger guard, just like he taught his recruits.
He listened but didn’t hear anything.
“Why did we stop?” Edilio asked Orsay.
“Close enough,” she whispered. “I . . .”
Edilio twisted in his seat. “What is it?”
What he saw shocked him. Orsay’s eyes were wide, glittering whites showing all around.
“What’s with her?” Bug asked in a quivering voice.
“Orsay. Are you okay?” Edilio asked.
Her only answer was a moaning sound so unearthly that at first Edilio didn’t realize it was coming from her. It seemed to generate from her chest, a sound too deep for this frail girl. It was something closer to an animal growl.
“Girl’s crazy,” Bug moaned.
Orsay began to tremble. The trembling escalated until she was shaking, in spasm, like a person being electrocuted. Her tongue protruded from her mouth, gagging her.
She was biting her tongue. Like she was trying to bite it off.
“Hey!” Edilio slammed the glove compartment open and yanked everything out with frantic fingers, screwdriver, flashlight, a thick digital tire gauge. He grabbed the tire gauge and pushed his way into the backseat. He yelled, “Grab her, hold her!” to Bug, who instead shrank away.
Edilio grabbed her by the hair, there was nothing else he could hold with one hand, twisted his fist into her hair until he had a firm purchase, yanked her head forward, and shoved the tire gauge between her teeth.
Her jaws clamped hard, so hard, they cracked the plastic of the tire gauge. Blood flowed from her mouth, but her teeth no longer closed on her tongue.
“Hold that in her mouth!” Edilio yelled at Bug.
Bug just stared, paralyzed.
Edilio yelled a curse and said, “Do it or I swear I will shoot you!”
Bug snapped out of his trance and grabbed Orsay’s head with his hands.