Chapter 445 (2/2)
Part of Fenn had come to understand why.
”Thank you,” Fenn said. ”For... for what you did at the QuikiCharge. I couldn't believe it was happening.”
”I know,” Dambree said. She slowed down and edged past a dead combine tractor.
”Did... did it happen to you?” Fenn asked.
Dambree shook her head. ”No.”
”Did people try?” Fenn asked.
”They did,” Dambree answered, straightening the car up and speeding up slightly.
”What stopped them?” Fenn asked.
”Dying,” Dambree said. ”It's super-effective.”
Fenn frowned slightly at the Terran phrase, unsure how it applied.
Uncomfortable silence reigned for a long stretched out moment.
”It gets easier,” Tru said, peeking over the seat. She looked at Dambree, who looked at her in the rearview then flicked her right ear twice. Tru moved up further, crossing her arms on the top of the seat and resting her chin on her arms. ”It doesn't seem like it, but it gets easier.”
Fenn swallowed down the 'how would a little girl like you know' before it came out of her mouth. ”It does?” she said.
”It's like a stickyheal on an infected cut. You yank it off, it tears off the fuzz, rips off the scab,” Tru said. ”It's messy, bloody, and gross stuff gets everywhere, then you have to clean it up, but you feel better.”
”Oh,” Fenn said.
”I was so scared I peed myself,” Tru said. Her eyes moved so she could look out the window. ”Killing doesn't get easier though. In some ways, for me, it got harder.”
She's only a child, went through Fenn's mind. Fenn looked at Dambree. ”Does it?”
”No,” Dambree said. She took another long drink of the thick can with Terran writing on it.
”Killing doesn't bother you?” Fenn felt sick.
”I feel nothing,” Dambree said. ”Not one thing for them.”
”What about now?” Fenn asked in a small voice. ”Do you feel anything about what you did?”
”No,” Dambree said. She took another drink. ”Store coming up. Tru, I want you to keep watch.”
”Okilee dokilee,” Tru said.
Dambree pulled onto a two lane highway, speeding up and turning on the headlights. Thankfully, to Dambree, both of the other Hesstlan awake stayed quiet, Tru resting her chin on her folded arms and watching out the windshield, Fenn holding the babies on the floorboard.
The store was mid-sized, but the parking lot was empty. Dambree pulled up in front of the doors and put the car in park. She turned to Tru.
”Drive across the parkinglot and park next to the dumpsters, keep them between you and the highway,” Dambree said. She dug her keyring out of her pocket and checked the tiny flashlight on it. ”Two flashes, it's safe to drive up. Three flashes, you drive up and hit whoever is with me with the car. Four flashes, you drive and follow the nav-comp and never look back. Remember one flash and what to do.”
Tru nodded, biting her lip.
”You don't want me to drive?” Fenn asked as Tru awkwardly climbed into the front seat.
Dambree opened the door and looked at Aunt Fenn. ”You don't have what it takes,” she stood there, muttering.
Fenn could faintly hear her repeating ”one flash all clear one flash all clear one flash all clear” as she walked away.
Tru put the car in gear, looking between the top of the steeringwheel and the top of the dash.
”Wait, she didn't say one flash is all clear,” Fenn said.
Tru didn't say anything, just held her tongue between her teeth as she slowly crept the car up, circled wide, and parked next to the dumpsters. She turned the car off and made sure the headlights were off.
”She didn't say that one flash was all clear,” Fenn said.
Tru looked down. ”One flash means something else.”
”What?”
”Show me you love me and run me over,” Tru said, looking back at the front of the store.
”Why is she saying it?” Fenn asked.
”In case a slorpy gets her. It will come out and flash once,” Tru said. Her face got suddenly older. ”And then I'll run her over.”
”Oh,” Fenn said.
She didn't want to think of how that had come up.
There was a white flash that bounced off the clouds and lit up the sky. Fenn tensed, waiting for the heat and the pressure, but there was only a slight rumble.
The time seemed to crawl. Tru cracked the window, sniffing at the breeze now and then. Mister Mewmew sat in her lap, his nose poking out the window.
”It's going to rain in the morning,” Tru said softly. ”Yuck.”
”Why yuck?” Fenn asked.
”The flashes. It makes the rain black and sticky,” Tru said. She reached down, picked up the can of Liquid Hate, and took a drink. She wrinkled her nose. ”Yuck.”
”You shouldn't drink that,” Fenn said before she could stop herself. ”You shouldn't emulate your sister's bad habits.”
”That's what she tells me,” Tru said softly. ”I would get mad at her for drinking when it all first happened.”
”Why did you stop getting mad?” Fenn asked.
”Because I realized she hurts inside. That part of her died,” Tru said softly.
Fenn cringed at how old the girl sounded.
”I think the Slorpies killed part of her,” Tru said. ”And I think it hurts having part of you dead.”
Mister Mewmew made a noise, rubbing his whiskers against Tru. Tru sighed and started petting him, focusing on the front of the store.
Silence descended again.
”Why are we stopped?” Elu asked. He poked his head up. ”Where are we?”
”Store. Dambree said she needed supplies,” Tru said. ”Since you're up, keep watch around us.”
”You should have woken me,” Elu said, yawning.
Again silence descended. The minutes seemed to drag on and on to Fenn. At one point the baby fussed and she had to grope on the seat till Tru handed her a milky.
”One. Two,” Tru held her breath. She flashed the headlights twice and started the car. The car jerked twice, as Tru wasn't used to driving. The car jerked a few times as she stopped.
”Oh, oh,” Elu said. ”She's dressed again.”
”Shush,” Tru said.
Fenn looked out the window. All she saw was someone in heavy green coveralls walk by, pushing a cart. She heard the trunk raise, heard stuff being loaded and stuffed into the trunk. The trunk lid closed and a cart clattered away.
Tru scrambled into the middle seat.
Fenn thought she saw fear and apprehension on the girl's face.
She looked as Dambree stepped in front of the window, as if she'd suddenly sidestepped from beside the car, appearing in front of the driver's side window. Thick heavy brown gloves opened the door. The coveralls made her look bulky, the thick Terran military belt with the pistol on it was around her waist, with a long ugly looking knife in a sheath.
Mister Mewmew made an odd sound as Dambree sat down.
Fenn realized that Dambree had on a dark sweatshirt on under the coveralls, the hood pulled up over her head, hiding her hair and ears.
The car started as Fenn frowned.
Was Dambree... wearing something?
When Dambree turned and looked at her Fenn almost wet herself.
Dambree looked malevolent, uncaring, beyond all of that.
She looked like a promise of death.
She wore a white grav-skiing mask, angled pale 'eyebrows' over the polarized eye lenses and a pale blue inverted triangle in the middle of the upper forehead.
”Get some sleep,” Dambree said, pushing back the grav-skiing mask. She was grateful for the light amplification and full color night vision. It was more expensive model of her old one.
She took a long drink of Liquid Hate.
”We have a long drive ahead of us.”
Off in the distance a white flash lit the razor edge of the horizon.