31
I’m proud that I danced when all I wanted was to fall.
“Isn’t this great?” Winnie exclaimed, throwing her arms up as she leaned back in the truck bed, her long purple dress fluttering around her legs. The silver pendant she always wore around her neck—even in the Braderhelm library—gleamed in the sunlight.
The truck suddenly swerved, and Khalani unintentionally fell face-first into Takeshi’s lap. She quickly scrambled up, her cheeks flushing, but not before she noticed the dark glint in his eyes.
He sat with one arm draped over the truck bed as he casually twirled a blade in his left hand. He looked oddly at ease, as if they weren’t driving through foreign territory and death wasn’t on the horizon.
But his calmness didn’t fool her.
One moment, Takeshi looked like a man hopelessly devoted, who’d kill anyone who tried to hurt her. But in the next second, a shift of violence and resentment flickered in his eyes.
Toward her. Toward the whole world.
The truck jerked again, and he effortlessly caught the heavy gas barrel that nearly toppled over.
“Sorry!” Derek yelled from the front of the vehicle. “It’s a lot easier driving a transport than this thing.”
“Pull over and let me drive.” Brock seethed next to him.
“I’m good. It’s steadier now.”
“You should just let me take over,” Serene argued.
“No!” they yelled simultaneously.
They continued to argue as Khalani scanned the horizon.
Surprisingly, California wasn’t that different from the Death-Zone. The dry desert appeared endless as Derek weaved around abandoned vehicles all pointed in the direction leading away from the state.
It didn’t make her feel good.
“Winnie, did the Archives mention how many bombs were dropped here?” she shouted over the howling wind.
“Huh?!” Winnie cupped her ear, straining to hear.
Khalani scooted to the other side of the truck bed and sat beside Winnie, but the move put her directly across from Takeshi, with his full gaze fixed upon her.
Her throat bobbed, and Takeshi tilted his head, catching the nervous movement. She switched her focus back to Winnie, where it was safer, and repeated her question.
“If Winnie remembers correctly, California was a nuclear catastrophe. Bombs dropped on top of the major cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. And the wind carried radioactive fallout across the entire state.”
“Did they have any warning?”
“Not enough for everyone to get out. Imagine millions and millions of people trying to escape all at the same time. The chaos that must have ensued as they packed on the roads.” Winnie’s voice trailed off as Derek veered the truck off-road, avoiding the astronomical number of abandoned vehicles that stood in their way.
The farther they drove, the more dilapidated buildings they encountered.
Some looked like rest stops littered with massive trucks ten times the size of the one they rode in, but the cars were all covered in scorch marks.
She stared at smaller structures with all the windows blown out and strange-looking signs out front—one with an upside-down W and the other depicting a cartoonish figure of a girl with red pigtails.
“Fast-food restaurants,” Winnie called them, though Khalani hardly knew what that meant.
She just nodded, imagining what the world may have looked like before it was ruined. If she closed her eyes and concentrated hard enough, people smiled as they drove their cars with the windows down, heading to a beach she’d never seen and an ocean she’d never swam in.
Khalani was able to see everything, in near-perfect detail, as if she’d lived it. She told herself it was Winnie’s books that had fed her imagination.
But after the Chief’s revelation, she wasn’t sure anymore.
When the truck suddenly swerved again and came to an abrupt stop, her head nearly smacked into one of the metal bins. But Takeshi lurched across the space with unfathomable speed, blocking the hit.
His other arm wrapped around Winnie’s waist, fastening them both to him as the truck settled, dust lifting into the air behind them.
She lost sense of where she was or what Winnie and her were talking about. All she could focus on was the tension in Takeshi’s jaw when he didn’t immediately shift away. Their chests were a few inches apart, both breathing heavily, waiting for the other person to make a move.
“Goodness, Takeshi. Thank heavens for your speed!” Winnie exclaimed. “Winnie might have flown clear out of the truck if you hadn’t grabbed her with those large muscles of yours. Very handy. Makes you want to grab on and never let go. Don’t you agree, Khalani?” Winnie waggled her eyebrows.
The truck doors slammed shut as the others exited from the front. Khalani remembered herself and scrambled to her feet, awkwardly dismounting the vehicle. Something unreadable flared in Takeshi’s eyes. He slowly rose to his feet, jumping over the edge of the truck like he owned it.
“Why’d we stop?” she asked.
They’d only been on the road for a few hours. She looked around for a sign that said Prometheus, but all that lay before them was a torn-down sign that read Edwards AFB—50 miles.
“Adan thought he saw something—Adan?” Derek projected, but Adan was already running.
They glanced at each other, confused, before following Adan as he dashed across the sand. He stopped several feet away, and they froze at the object in front of him.
A large metal contraption jutted from the sand. It was silver with a black head, and the rest was buried into the earth. The metal object was nearly as tall as Takeshi.
Khalani’s blood chilled, her instincts screaming for them to return to the vehicle and drive off as quickly as possible.
“What is it?” Serene tepidly asked.
Adan’s eyes were wide as he took in the device, his face paling.
“It’s a bomb.”
They immediately took a step back. But Takeshi shifted closer, or maybe that was her imagination running wild again.
“It’s okay!” Adan held out his hand, but even he slowly shuffled backward in the sand. “It’s still intact, but it must’ve been a dud.”
“Why would they send a bomb all the way out here? We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Derek asked.
He was right. They were in the middle of a desert.
“They might have been aiming for a military base nearby.” Winnie quaked, her eyes filling with horror.
“We should go.” Takeshi spoke for the first time, his deep, commanding voice cutting through their bone-chilling trance.
No one argued.
Brock stayed close to Serene’s side. Takeshi prowled behind Khalani as they got back in the truck and sped off, leaving the weapon of mass destruction behind them.
* * *
The quiet was insufferable as they continued down the road, her mind locked on the harrowing object they’d stumbled upon, with Winnie mumbling to herself about the fools who’d built it. Takeshi stared off into the distance, his thoughts forever a closed door to her.
Tension was thick in the air, something Khalani had grown used to.
They had to have been close to Prometheus, but after a couple hours of prolonged silence, Winnie straightened, a renewed spark in her eyes.
“I have an idea.”
“What?”
“Since Takeshi doesn’t remember you, this is the perfect opportunity for him to get to know you better. A question challenge. But don’t worry, Khalani, you’ll get to ask him stuff too. Winnie believes in equality.” Winnie placed a fist over her heart, bowing her head solemnly.
The knot in Khalani’s throat grew tenfold as she avoided eye contact with Takeshi.
“Winnie, I don’t think he wants to play.”
“What makes you say that?” he asked.
She snapped her gaze to Takeshi as he lounged back with that probing, unreadable stare of his.
“Because you have a habit of running away when you get too close to me,” she said, her mind not letting her forget that fateful night. How his lips fastened to hers, whispering things he shouldn’t have, kissing her in ways that should be illegal. And how he closed the door and left right after.
“On the contrary, Kanes.” He spoke with a dark gleam in his eyes. “I want to know every part of you.”
“Do you still have me on your death list?”
Takeshi hesitated, furrowing his brow as if he disagreed with that question, but the cool mask slid over his features. He casually propped an elbow on his knee, his other foot nearly touching her, mocking her with its close vicinity.
“Does it make a difference?” he asked, studying her reaction.
“Exceedingly.”
“Off to a great start already, but I think we can do better,” Winnie interrupted, unable to contain her grin as they sailed across the desert at a much faster speed than before, trying to put as much distance between the bomb and them as possible.
“Winnie will start with questions for both of you so that you can get a feel for the game. Okay!” Winnie clapped her hands. “Question one. What is your favorite meal?”
She waited for Takeshi to answer, but he gestured toward her. “Ladies first.”
Khalani narrowed her gaze. “Rat stew.”
Takeshi nodded, unsurprised at her answer since rat stew was widely known as the best delicacy in the underground.
“Cloned duck broth,” he responded.
“Favorite color?”
“Blue,” she said.
“Black.”
After staring into his eyes for an eternity, it might soon become her favorite color, too.
“If you could have any superpower, what would it be?” Winnie asked, practically bouncing.
“Make him go first this time.”
“Trying to steal my answer, Kanes?”
“Hardly.” She crossed her arms, mirroring his position. “It’s probably superstrength. Or laser eyes. It’s something stupid, I can just tell.”
Takeshi simply smirked. “I would freeze time.”
Khalani blinked, the last answer she was expecting. “Why?”
“I haven’t had the best experiences in life.” His tone shifted, a hollow note ringing his voice. “But when those rare moments of happiness come, I’d like to stop and live in them just a little bit longer.”
Khalani’s heart beat a steady rhythm in her chest.
She was sure he could hear it.
A pounding that refused to fade. A wish for time to stop for her too so she could stare at him without judgment.
“Well, damn,” she whispered.
“What?”