A wind blew through the trees. Or maybe it was something else—a predator moving.
Sam stared at the dead man. He had killed two others. Why? The man was clearly crazy. He had probably been a killer before he got here—and certainly was after. Maybe the time alone had driven him insane, or maybe he had been out of his mind before he arrived. If Sam didn’t get home, was that his fate? Or worse?
He was sure of one thing: the dead body would soon be a homing beacon for hungry animals. He couldn’t leave it on his doorstep.
He considered removing the man’s clothes, but they were soaked in blood. Too dangerous to keep.
And looting his corpse felt wrong. The man had tried to kill him, but he was still a human being. He should be buried. Or at least burned so vultures couldn’t pick him clean.
But propriety was a luxury. Survival wasn’t.
Sam gripped the man beneath his armpits and lifted him, the strain bringing pain to the cut on his upper back. The blood oozing there was another problem. It would attract hungry carnivores too, but he couldn’t exactly get rid of his own body.
Breathing heavily, Sam dragged the dead man away from the cave, into the woods, and dropped him with a thud. It was indecent. Shameful. And necessary.
He ran back to the cave, watching for predators. But he didn’t see any. In fact, the forest was eerily quiet.
Sam knew he should build the fire back. But the wood at the rock outcropping was still wet from the rain. Scavenging for dry wood in the forest felt like a bad idea—especially at night, with a cut on his back and a dead body nearby.
He took the sweater from his waist and tied it around the wound, hoping it would help stop the bleeding.
At the cave, he stacked the firewood vertically across the mouth, put a pile of sticks inside, and crawled in. Once settled, he erected the remaining logs until the mouth of the cave was completely covered up. He could see through the narrow gaps, but he hoped it would be enough to hide him from predators passing by. Assuming they didn’t smell his blood.
Sam thought sleep would be elusive.
But it wasn’t. He was dead tired.
*
He woke to the sound of thunder. Or what he thought was thunder. One by one, the sticks in front of the cave entrance toppled like dominoes falling over.
The ground shook, punching up at him.
An earthquake.
It was an earthquake.
Sam scrambled to his feet and cleared the cave just as the rock above him came loose.
THIRTY-TWO
Adeline didn’t take an autocar to Death Valley.
She walked the three blocks to her home and stood outside for a long time. The last time she had been inside, her father had been alive. Or at least, he had been alive in this universe.
Staffers from Absolom Sciences had packed up her things and Ryan’s things and brought them to Daniele’s house. They had been thorough. There had been no need for her to return home. Until now.
At the side door to the garage, she keyed in the code and turned the handle. Inside, she mounted her electric bike, donned her helmet, and rode out into the street.
At Walmart, she bought a few Visa gift cards, then went back into the store and used them to buy what she really needed: a burner phone. She selected a model with a good camera. That would be important.
She downloaded the BuddyLoc app to the burner and keyed in the code to check Hiro’s location. He was still in Death Valley.
She reached his location that afternoon, and by then he had moved into the California section of Death Valley, where most of the national park spread out along the Nevada border.
She turned off the state road and rode the bike across the dusty, rocky terrain. There was no defined trail here, but she could see the wide tire tracks left by a convoy that had come through. Mountains loomed in the distance, the sun shining behind them, casting the peaks in dark shadows like sharp, rotten teeth, the mouth of a world about to take a bite out of the sky.
Adeline stopped the bike at the next ridge. She was about to take the phone out to check Hiro’s location but realized she didn’t need to. She could see him from where she stood.
In the valley below, two white tents had been set up. The wind blew across them, whipping sand across the sides as the sun baked their tops.
Hiro stood near one of the tents. In his hand was a large remote with a silver antenna extended like a fencing sword.
About a hundred feet away, a box truck was parked, and beyond it a mini excavator was digging into the rock at the base of a mountain. Hiro seemed to be directing the excavator.
A tent flap opened, and a figure marched out carrying a duffel bag. Adeline recognized Daniele at once. Elliott strode out after her.