“And me,” he agreed.
The sky grew darker, and a swirl of ash and wind whipped branches. He told her he’d gotten through to Gideon before Nico’s arrival, watched her shoulders sag as she wrapped her mind around the situation.
“And now we’ve left the pickup spot.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. Hear me out.” He took a deep breath. “I could drive around, be real obvious about it. If Nico’s close, he’ll follow me. You and Tot stay back at the trailers and wait for Gideon. It’s the best option.”
A wild idea formed in her brain. “I have another plan.”
“Why do I think I’m not going to like it?”
“Wait and see.” She drove the bus back down the way they’d come, stopping at the spot she’d noted earlier, a precarious bend in the road with a precipitous drop on one side. She parked. They walked to the edge and peered over into the chasm below.
“Yeah, my bad feeling’s getting worse.” Cullen nestled Tot in his jacket as she finished explaining.
“It’ll buy us time, if nothing else. We’re almost out of gas, anyway. The bus goes over the side, maybe we set it on fire first. If Nico’s nearby, he’ll hear the crash, see the smoke. He’ll assume we’re dead or he’ll have to hike down to the bottom to check, which will take hours if not a full day with his leg. Gideon will reach us by then. We’ll have to reimburse the district for a new vehicle, but hopefully they’ll take installments.”
“My plan’s better.”
She crossed her arms. “You’re a big galoot, so your plans are not even close to being better.”
He paused for a moment, then laughed heartily. “Okay, but we’re racking up quite a bill in this region.”
“We’ll split the tab. Small price if it saves our lives.”
When he wiped his eyes, she could not ignore the delight in them, the tenderness. For Tot. For her. And her heart lurched in response. He moved as if he would kiss her, then hesitated, backed up. She was glad, wasn’t she?
It’s what you wanted,Kit. There’s nothingreal between you. Go set something else on fire,whydon’t you?
“All right,” she said brightly. “Let’s get to work then.”
They tore pages of the bus’s emergency manuals to use as fuel and put them in an empty cardboard box they’d found. Since he’d eaten all the corn chips, they used hand sanitizer from Tot’s duffel as an accelerant. When the papers caught, Cullen added sticks until they had a respectable fire ... in the back seat of the bus.
This had to be the craziest thing she’d ever been party to.
Cullen insisted on being the one to position the bus a few feet from the precipice. She found a suitable log to wedge down the gas pedal.
She touched the cheerful yellow vehicle that had saved their lives. “Sorry, my friend,” she said, blinking back tears. Silly. But she thought of her truck, crushed and ruined, and knew that in a strange way that vehicle had saved her life too.
And here she was, without the future she’d planned on, vulnerable and in danger ... but somehow not alone. Strangest of all, it felt the tiniest bit comfortable to be that way. Scary, but comfortable too.
For now.
Cullen put the bus into gear, jammed the log in place, and once the vehicle began to lumber toward the drop-off, he jumped out. The wheels churned as the flames crackled inside. With a screech, the bus catapulted out over the lip and plunged down the slope, picking up speed.
Her fear had been that it would get caught on a hidden obstacle, too close to the road, but it continued on, faster and faster until they heard a faraway crash, saw a faint streak of different-colored smoke in the clouded air.
They remained quiet for a moment, Cullen’s arm draped around her shoulders. The gesture felt warm and right, and for the briefest of moments, she leaned into him. He was just as banged up and depleted as she was, but together they were strong. Soon her brain reminded her. Another day, maybe hours, and that would be the end of things. Of their partnership.
She cleared her throat and pulled out the blanket that had finally dried from their tunnel excursion. “Who wants to be horsey first?”
He did, so she tied Tot onto his back. With his backpack and the duffel, they began the long trudge to the trailers.
The air was foul and thick, stinging their skin and eyes in spite of the medical masks they pulled on. There was no way to get one to stay in position on Tot. Though they’d taken a spare jacket and tied it over the top of the blanket sling, Kit worried that the stench was permeating Tot’s improvised bubble. The baby did not help the situation, crying on and off, batting at the fabric from the inside.
Kit kept up with Cullen, but her feet were sore, her lungs burning. Her bones ached with a deep and penetrating exhaustion. Only one thought kept her trudging on.
Almost over.
