Forgive the delay. I apologize deeply. This is actually the first I've written in a very long time. My father has been sick so my focus has been very much elsewhere. Again, I apologize.
And thank you all for your continued support of this story. Your reviews, feedback and well-wishes always make my day and make me smile, so thank you.
Furious desert sun glowered down on the convoy as they rolled passed a ceaseless landscape of barren earth. The rolling dunes had given way to hard-packed earth, cracked by infrequent rains and temperatures that seesawed between scorching and freezing, given day or night. The ruin of dead trees, grey and leafless stood dismal sentry along the isolated highway. The land rose in ragged, dirty cliffs and hills in the distance, as dead and bare of life as the rest of the country they had crossed so far.
Claire spat the gummy, gritty taste of dust from her mouth out of the open window and swigged from an old thermos she had filled that morning before they had broken camp. The water was warm, and minerals gave it the coppery tang of blood, but at least it was safe to drink. The windows were down; running the air-conditioning in the vehicles gobbled up too much precious gas to ever use, but even the air that blew through the open windows was hot.
Gritting her teeth, Claire took another long swallow of water before tightening both hands on the steering wheel. They had lost several hours travel time when the main road they had taken ended up blocked by a slide of rock and boulders from a craggy hill. There was no clearing the rubble; it would take some serious machinery and hours for that. Driving around it was out of the question because of the clusterfuck of dead trees and bushes everywhere. Backtracking had been their only option, and it wasted valuable daylight and fuel.
The heat and the roadblock, combined with the previous night's frustrating and unfulfilling self-indulgence in a dusty gas station office, placed the strawberry-blond woman in a foul mood.
Alice had not been in the Hummer when Claire finally returned, thanks be to every merciful god. She had only caught a fleeting glimpse of the other woman when she performed her checks before the convoy rolled out after dawn. Alice had taken the passenger seat next to Carlos in the cab of the fuel tanker and given her only a cursory nod of acknowledgement as she passed.
However, K-mart had decided to take the passenger seat in the Hummer and thankfully had remained quiet most of the day, her nose buried in that damn book.
But now she sat silently, gazing out the window with her knees pulled to her chest, arms wrapped around them. The wind had pulled a lock of ash-blond hair free from her ponytail and toyed with it, casting it back and forth on the whim of changing wind currents. Periodically, the girl would reach up and tuck the errant lock behind her ear. But the wind always won out and whipped it free again.
"You're an idiot." K-mart said abruptly, her eyes still locked on the never-changing landscape.
Claire felt her brow furrow and her grip on the steering wheel tighten. "What?"
"You're an idiot." K-mart did look at her that time, with a stoic expression that defiant eyes betrayed.
"I heard you," Claire snapped, irritably. "Where did that come from?" K-mart usually lacked the usual sullen surliness that seemed to plague most adolescents. Unlike most teenagers Claire had dealt with, the girl revered more than resented her elders, idolized them even. She always felt a little shaky, knowing how the teenager looked up to her, like a very fragile vase perched too precariously on a wobbly pedestal. For her, the abrupt shift in attitude was unheard of.
"Alice loves you," K-mart said, and it sounded more like an accusation than a declaration.
Blood flushed her face and neck, making her feel hotter than she already was. Clenching her jaw, Claire refused to respond and kept her eyes on the road ahead.
"And you love her," K-mart persisted.
While she could hardly deny the truth of the statements, she was surprised that the teenager was quite so perceptive. Her… affection for the brooding older woman was a realization she had long since come to and even admitted to herself. That her feelings were requited was no revelation either. But the decision not to act on them was a careful, deliberate one, and Claire did not appreciate K-mart's interference in something already difficult and confusing.
All the same, Claire swallowed the rising bile of anger in her throat and forced gentleness into her tone. "Look, K—"
"Don't patronize me, Claire. Because nothing you can say will convince me that you're not an idiot," K-mart cut her off, and Claire glimpsed over at her to see her green eyes narrow. "And you saying "but you're too young to understand" or anything like that is bullshit. I might be young, but I'm not a child. No matter how old I am. All I know is, you have a chance, that no one else does that I know of right now, to escape this," The teenager held her arms our wide as if her gesture could encompass the whole world. "And you insist on being an idiot."
"If you haven't noticed, I'm a little too busy to fucking escape right now." Claire shot back angrily and slammed down the flat of her palm against the wheel. "Infection. Starvation. Disease. Death. Twenty-odd people depending on me to get them through the next week, fuck, the next day. Remember that? Not a lot of time for escaping."
But K-mart wasn't convinced, and she snorted. "Is it wrong for a prisoner to dream of escape? Shouldn't he try to escape the confines, the walls of his prison?"
Claire wanted to scream at the girl, to scream at everything until her lungs ached and burned, until her throat was raw, and her voice rasped. Her nails dug painfully into the vinyl of the steering wheel, and she bit on the inside of her cheek until she tasted iron. The pain gave her focus, gave her clarity. "And what happens when the prisoner escapes, only to be captured and thrown back into his cell? What then?"
K-mart leaned back in her seat and pulled her knees back up to her chest, her voice quiet now, no longer quite as angry despite the glare she still coolly leveled at the older woman. "Then at least he knew freedom and respite. If just for a little while."
"You don't understand, K-mart," Claire shook her head, determined, but the girl ignored her and averted her gaze back out the window.
Neither of them spoke the rest of the drive that day, and when they made camp for the night, she slept in the fuel truck with Carlos and Alice, leaving the convoy leader alone in the Hummer. And as hot as the day had been, the night was scorching cold.
A short chapter. Feedback is appreciated, but more appreciated is y'alls support. I've been amazed at how many people enjoy this story, and I'm honored that I can entertain y'all.