Ashes (10 page)

When she woke, the light was gone, the darkness was heavy and hot, and her head was splitting. She couldn't move, couldn't see, and she thought,
This is it; I've stroked out and I'm going to die.
She let out a long, low moan.

“Alex?” A metallic snick, a spear of white light, and then she felt the girl's arms thread around her throat. “Alex?”

“Ellie,” she breathed in relief. Her own arms were snarled in a tangle of oversize flannel shirt, and she had to work to shuck free of the sleeping bag. The movement made her head ache, but she didn't care. “Hey,” she said, hugging the girl close. “You okay?”

“I'm f-fine.” Ellie's head moved against her neck and then Alex felt the splash of tears. “I was so … so sc-scared that maybe you were d-dead….”

“Hey, it's okay, we're okay.” Right about then she realized that other than the shirt and panties, she was naked and her skin was slick with sweat. The dull red eye of a catalytic heater glowed in one corner, and she thought,
Tent. I'm in a tent.

Everything came back then: the pack of wild dogs, the river, that choking stink of death, Jim, and … “Ellie, where are we?”

“In Tom's tent. Don't you remember?”

“No. Well, I remember the guy with the gun—”

“That's Tom.”

“Tom.”

“Yeah, Tom Eden. He carried you back and fixed up your head. He said in the army, you learn how to do a lot of stuff.”

“My—” Her hand crept over her hair to a rough square of gauze bandage, with something prickly beneath: stitches. She must've been really out not to have felt
those
. “How long have I been asleep? What day is it?”

“Thursday. You were asleep for all of yesterday and today.”

“Two
days
?”

“Uh-huh. Tom said you had a concussion. He said it was a wonder you hadn't passed out way before you did. He's outside, making dinner. I came in to see if maybe you were awake.”

“Where are my clothes?”

“Right here.” Ellie aimed the light to the right. The hiking pants and underwear were Alex's, but the rest—a forest green turtleneck, a set of long black underwear, a pair of wool socks draped over her hiking boots—was not. The flannel shirt she wore was probably Tom's, too, which meant a whole bunch of other things—all of them boiling down to his having undressed her, like, completely. Which she just didn't want to think about, much less try to remember.

“Okay,” she said. “Tell him I'll be right out.”

Mina spotted her first. Her tail thumped, and then she was heaving to a stand. Her left leg was splinted, but she pranced over to Alex, who dropped to her knees and wrapped the dog up in a hug. “Good girl,” she said. “You are such a good girl.”

“Welcome back.” Alex looked up to see Tom by the fire, poking at something sizzling in a cast-iron skillet. “How are you feeling?”

The questions were in her mouth, but then she caught a whiff of frying meat and sputtering fat that made the words drown as her mouth watered. “Oh my God, that smells great. What is it?”

“Raccoon and white beans, and there's tea.”

“Raccoon.” She saw Ellie put a hand to her mouth to cover the giggles and then looked back at Tom. “Like, you caught it?”

“Well, it sure didn't get Fed-Exed. Besides, the dog needs the meat … Look, sit before you fall down.”

“Ellie said you think I have … had a concussion. Aren't you not supposed to sleep if you've had a concussion?”

“Well, I guess you had other ideas,” he said, and she decided Tom Eden had a very nice smile, especially that dimple on the left. He wasn't that much older either. Maybe … nineteen? Twenty? She wondered if there was a graceful way to figure that out, and then wondered why she was wondering.

Tom said, “How
does
your head feel?”

“Like someone bashed it with a brick.”

“I'll bet. I've got some ibuprofen, but you should get something in your stomach.” He aimed a knife. “Med's in that canvas bag over there, and you can use that jacket. It'll be a little big, but it's better than nothing. Sorry about your sweatshirt, but it was pretty badly ripped and I used it for the dog's splint.”

The coat was a
lot
better than nothing: charcoal gray and long enough to fall midway between her butt and knees. The fabric gave off a musky scent that smelled of safety, like being wrapped up in strong arms that you knew would never let go.

Tom held up a mug and an aluminum camp plate heaped high. “I know you're hungry, but take it slow, okay? Be nice if that stayed down.”

Ellie was already gobbling and Alex's stomach was screaming with hunger, but she made no move to take the food. “Look, I don't mean to sound ungrateful, and I know you shot that guy …”

“That
guy's
name was Jim, he was a really good friend of mine, and you're welcome.”

“Oh. I'm sorry. And thank you. For saving us, I mean.” She wouldn't back down. “But I don't know you, and I don't remember what happened after you … after you shot your friend.”

“Well, you passed out. Any closer to the river, and I'd have had to go in after you. After I made sure you were still breathing … Ellie, what happened next?”

“You helped me get off the tree, Tom,” Ellie said. Her chin glistened with grease. She beamed at Alex. “Tom let me carry his gun.”

“Which you did very well,” said Tom.

“Because you had to carry Alex and her head was bleeding like stink.”

“Which it was.” Tom looked back at Alex. “Then I stitched you up and set up camp, got Ellie out of her wet clothes, and then Ellie and I got
you
out of your wet clothes, and then … Do you really want me to go on?”

“No … yes.” She hugged herself. “Are you a, I don't know, a nurse? Or, like, in medical school? How do you know so much?”

“You learn basic battlefield medicine in the army, and then some, if you hang around the medics and care to learn.”

“Okay. So, if you're in the army, how come you're here?”

“I'm on leave from Afghanistan. We were camping—me; Jim; his uncle, Stan; and Jim's dad, Earl. Jim was my team leader, and no, I can't tell you exactly where we were, because then I'd have to kill you.”

She tried not to smile. “That's not very funny.”

“No, I guess it isn't.”

“Where is Stan? Where's Earl?”

“Look, I'll be happy to answer all your questions after we eat.” When she remained on her feet, he placed the mug and plate on the ground. “At least sit down.”

“Why?”

“Because when you pass out again and fall into the fire, I don't want to have to put out your hair, and I'm kind of partial to that turtleneck.”

Now she did smile. She lowered herself to a cross-legged sit. “Better?”

“Much.” His dimple showed. In the firelight, his skin glowed orange. “Ellie said you were kind of stubborn.”

“Oh yeah?” Alex shot Ellie a look of mock outrage. “She say anything about herself?”

“She said you used to think she was a pain.”

“Well,” said Alex, fishing up her plate, “she was.”

“Hello, I'm right here,” said Ellie, sounding very pleased.

“I think, given everything that's happened, we're all entitled to a couple bad days,” said Tom.

Alex spooned a mouthful of beans and meat. The smell was so good she thought she was going to faint. “Do you know what's going on?”

“Food first,” said Tom. “Then we'll talk.”

Despite Tom's warning, taking it slow with the food was hard, what with her stomach clawing a hole right through her gut. The raccoon was tough and a little gamey, but she was too starved to care. She shoveled down mouthful after mouthful, chasing the food with gulps of tea until her spoon clicked metal and her mug was empty. To her right, Mina let out a plaintive whine, and Alex put her plate on the ground for the dog to lick clean. “There. Don't say I never gave you anything.”

“That dog eats like a horse.” Tom refilled her mug. “If you're up to it, we can hit the trail again tomorrow morning. Ellie said you were headed for the ranger station?”

Nodding, she sucked back a mouthful of tea, let it roll around her tongue, tasted the sweetness and an edge of char.
Russian something or other
, she thought. Her mother had been the tea drinker. “It was the only thing I could think of. I mean, other than going back to my car, but I don't think my car will start.”

“Yeah, I'd say that's a safe bet.”

“Do you know what happened?”

“You mean to Jim, or to everything?”

“Yes?” She tried to make it a joke and then thought there really wasn't anything about the situation that was remotely funny. Ellie came to snuggle, and she hugged the girl close as Mina finished with the plate and came to lie against Alex's left thigh.

She saw Tom's eyes flick to Ellie, as if he were debating what to say. “Look, I only have a couple ideas, and not all of them make sense, especially about …” He gestured at his own head. “You know. What happened to Jim or his dad.”

In the firelight, his eyes—she suddenly remembered that they were a strange smoky blue in daylight—were black. For a disquieting moment, she thought of the dead woman with her glasses on a keeper chain and nothing but empty sockets. She wanted to ask about Jim, but she had so many questions, she didn't know where to start. “Did you feel it? The Zap?”

“Is that what you're calling it?”

She nodded. “Did it happen down here in the valley?”

“Oh yeah. I thought my head was going to explode.”

Okay, that wasn't good. The mountain was about twenty miles away. She pushed through the ache in her head to do the math and then wished she hadn't. Assuming the Zap spread in a circle, that meant it had hit the entire Waucamaw, and beyond. “Are your electronics dead, too?”

“All the solid-state stuff, yeah.”

“So what could do that?”

“Well.” Tom's eyes dropped to the fire and then rose to meet hers again. “I don't know for sure. I mean, we're in the middle of the woods, and we've got no way of getting information, you know? But I know the military, and we're testing out stuff all the time. So, based on that and some other things I know—just putting it together—I think it was an EMP, an electromagnetic pulse. Probably more than one, too. A single EMP's not supposed to fry people. Actually, I don't think that's supposed to happen if you set off
twenty
. That's the theory, at least. No one's ever tested it out before.”

“So, what's an EMP supposed to do?”

“You ever see
Ocean's Eleven
?”

She thought back. “Is that the one with Brad Pitt and Clooney? That's, like,
ancient
.”

“My mom likes it. Well, she likes George Clooney. Anyway, this is like that movie. You remember the pinch? What they used to knock out the power?”

Alex recalled Don Cheadle covering his crotch. “I remember something about X-rays.”

“Yeah, that's what a real pinch would do: release this big burst of X-rays. It takes a lot more power than what they showed in the movie, and a real pinch is way too big to fit into a van. But the X-rays aren't what caused the blackout they showed in the movie. That was an EMP: electromagnetic pulse.”

“You mean, like a big power surge?
That's
what happened to us?”

“I think so. It's the only thing that makes sense. Take a bunch of EMPs, set them off high enough, and let them spread along the earth's magnetic field, and you'd fry anything that relies on solid-state electronics. You'd also kill power grids, communications arrays … just
zap
, like you said. People say there are ways to protect their gear, but again, that's all theory. Sort of like building a fallout shelter, hoping that the design will get you through the next nuclear war without ever testing whether that's true.”

“Is that what made my iPod get hot?” asked Ellie.

“Probably. That's also why the LEDs don't work but those flashlights with old-fashioned bulbs do. Even if we could find an old tube radio—or a vintage truck or car with a radio—I'll bet there's no one broadcasting, at least not around here. If it was a bunch of EMPs, there's no power, and all the computers would be fried anyway. Low-orbit satellites might get toasted, too.”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute.” Alex pressed a finger to the drillbit of an ache in her right temple. “Why does it have to be everything? Maybe it's like you said: just over the Waucamaw. That's still a lot of territory, but—”

“Have you seen any airplanes since this”—Tom waved a hand—“this Zap?”

Alex's jaw tightened. “No. That doesn't mean anything.” A lie: the Waucamaw was isolated, but she'd seen plenty of lacy, white contrails stitched against blue sky from high-altitude planes before the Zap.