CHAPTER 6
“Elysia’s father—President Kane—had a shelter built in California before he got elected,” Daedric continues. “My mom was a clerk in his campaign. He took her there sometimes. A love nest or somethin’. She said it’s got enough food, power, and watuh to last for years. It’s right next to a lake.”
“Those kinds of places don’t exist anymore,” Mary says as she slides chunks of rabbit meat onto skewers made from sharpened twigs. “Everything’s destroyed, dried up, or ransacked.”
“That’s what I thought, too,” he replies. “But my mom described it in so much detail. She was kind of sick, but I don’t think she was that sick. She remembered everything as if she was staring at a picture right in front of her. She said those were… They were the happiest days of her life.”
I try to recall the president’s face in my mind. It’s been almost three years since I’ve watched a news broadcast and even longer since I’ve seen President Kane. I was fourteen then, but I remember my mother saying he was handsome.
“If you know where this bomb shelter is, why did you even go to the Salton Sea?” Mary says, as she hands us each a skewer of meat and sets aside an extra skewer with the most meat for Isaac. I know she’s done this because Isaac is sick and he needs it more than we do, but it doesn’t stop me from imagining she’s favoring him.
We move to the mouth of the cave and sit around the fire to roast our skewers.
“Elysia didn’t like the idea of being alone, just me and her, for all those years,” Daedric says, as he throws a small bunch of twigs onto the fire. “She wanted to see if we could get into Salton Sea or at least make a few friends first. She’s pissed at Kane for not bein’ around for her. The shelter was a last resort for her.”
“What kind of proof do you have for any of this?” I say. “We can’t risk our lives on the word of a stranger.”
“Yeah, Stranger. Where’s your proof?” Isaac’s voice calls from the back of the cave startling Mary so much she drops her skewer of meat into the fire.
I snatch it up quickly and hand it back to her.
“Sorry,” she says.
Isaac is sitting up and appears more alert than ever.
“You hungry?” I ask him and he nods.
I grab the extra skewer and hold it over the fire with my free hand as Mary wipes the black ashes off her meat.
“You heard everything?” Daedric asks though he doesn’t look at Isaac.
“I heard enough,” Isaac replies. “Where’s this secret shelter you’re talking about?”
“Well, if I told you then—”
“Yeah, that line’s not going to work with me. Where is it?” Isaac demands.
Daedric bites off a chunk of rabbit meat and chews it slowly. “A couple hundred miles north of Yosemite. The volcanoes haven’t touched it.”
I take a bite of my meat as I wait for Isaac’s to finish cooking. Rabbit is my favorite game meat. I haven’t had chicken since Whitmore, and even then it was canned chicken. Rabbit is the closest thing to what I remember chicken tasting like. I finish my skewer and crawl to Isaac to hand him his.
He stares into my eyes as I hand him the meat. He wants to say something but he’s holding back because we’re not alone—probably something about Daedric.
I turn around and crawl back to the fire.
“Nada?” he calls.
“I’ll be right back,” I say, as I stand and leave the cave in a hurry.
Daedric follows me into the forest. “You shouldn’t be out here this late.”
He sounds like me whenever Isaac storms off in the middle of the night. “I’ll be fine. I’m good at hiding. Go back to the cave.”
“If it’s all right with you, I’ll tag along,” he says. “The atmosphere in there is a little intense for me right now.”
We walk in silence for a few moments with Daedric following one step behind me. Somehow, we end up at the cliff. Me and Isaac’s spot. Isaac once told me we stopped going to the spot once Mary came along because he didn’t trust her enough to stand next to a cliff with her.
I step closer to the edge and Daedric grabs my arm.
“What are you doing?” he says.
The smell of the ocean carries on the wind and lifts the hair away from my face. I close my eyes and breathe it in.
“I’m just taking it in,” I say. “Do you mind?”
He releases my arm and I take my usual seat on the edge of the cliff. Daedric hesitates for a moment before he sits next to me.
“My cousins and I used to jump off the cliffs in Maine in the summah,” he says. “I mean, summer.”
The reflection of the Moon on the ocean is dim. The water must be really choppy tonight. I gaze below me. The water crashes and explodes against what used to be another level on the side of the cliff. Now the rising sea has claimed this cliff and transformed it into ocean rocks.
“How do we know we can trust you?” I say.
Daedric stares at me and I hold his gaze. “Because I need you more than you need me.”
Something about the way he says this makes me uneasy. I’ve never been comfortable needing anyone until Isaac and I became a team. After my dad left, I became my own father figure. I learned to fix my own bicycle and I became an expert at repairing leaky faucets. The idea that someone other than Isaac could need me feels strange.
“So… Are you and that Isaac dude together, or somethin’?”
“Something,” I correct him, though it’s really a stall tactic. “No, we’re not. He’s my best friend.”
At least I think that’s what he is.
“Good,” he says.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothin’, I just… I think you’re pretty… nice.”
“Pretty nice?” I reply. “Is that supposed to impress me?”
He chuckles. “Nah, I just like you. You seem like you got a good heart. That’s all.”
I can’t help but smile. After my dad left, my grades started dropping. Whenever my aunts and uncles asked how I was coping, my mom never told them I was failing, but she always made a point of telling everyone I had a good heart.
“Thanks,” I say.
He stands and holds out a hand to help me up. When I rise, we come face to face and I can’t help but stare at the way the moonlight reflects off his green eyes. He leans forward and his lips touch mine ever so softly. I taste charred meat and back away instantly.
I turn to leave and notice Eve standing at the top of the hillside staring at us.