EMP Catastrophe , Hamilton, Grace [phonics readers txt] 📗

table and dipped the washcloths in, handing one to Kathleen. The two women set to washing his open wounds.

“I can do that myself,” Max said.

“When you stop passing out, you can,” Kathleen huffed and started bandaging his ribs.

Ruth chuckled. “Sibling rivalry, I see.”

“There’s no rivalry,” Max said. “Only victory.”

“Sometimes I wished Matthew had a brother or sister,” Ruth said, “but we were only ever just blessed with one.”

“They’re not worth it,” Kathleen said as she helped ease Max back down.

“I second that,” Max said, even as he let out a sigh of relief. His ribs felt tightly bandaged and secured, his face was clean of blood, and the cold compress Ruth handed him seemed to help with the swelling.

“Thank you for your honesty,” Ruth said as if suppressing a laugh. She stood and headed to the door. “I’ll give the two of you a moment alone.”

Kathleen sat on the edge of the bed and took Max’s hand. She squeezed hard. “What happened? How did you get out of prison? What happened to you?”

Max ached to tell her the truth. He wanted to tell her everything he’d been through. He wanted to whisper a confession to her that he’d been terrified for his life, terrified of her finding out someday that he’d wound up dead at the hands of Colin’s goons, left on the side of the road. Stupid Max, the pretty singing bird who bumbled through life and never got anywhere. He wanted to tell her all of this like they were kids sharing a secret in their pillow fort in the middle of the living room. He wanted to hold his flashlight under his chin and make her scoot closer in anticipation, wanted to tell her the things he barely admitted to himself most of the time.

But then he remembered Jade and her conversation with Matthew.

“The guards released us,” he said and hated that the lie came out so easily. “They pretty much abandoned the prison, so one day, they just opened all the cells up and gave us a fighting chance to survive on the outside. I walked most of the way here, but I look so crappy because I broke into a car. I managed to get it working, but the wheel locked up and I coasted off a bridge. Rolled the thing, even.”

There was, at least, some truth mixed in.

Kathleen looked aghast. “Oh my god.”

“Yeah. It was bad. That’s why I have a concussion.”

“I can’t believe they just let you out.”

Max swallowed hard as the truth welled up his throat. He couldn’t let it out, especially now that the lie had been spoken. It was a small one, anyway. Just a slip of the truth. He wouldn’t tell any other lies but that one. “Me either. But at least I’m here now. I found you, Kathy, even after the world ended.”

Kathleen’s eyes grew soft with tears. She let out a shuddering breath and held his hand as though it were precious. “Get some sleep,” she said, standing up and giving him a wobbly smile. “You look like you need it. We can talk tomorrow. I’ll probably come and check on you in a couple hours, anyway.”

She eased toward the door and turned back around. “Hey Max? I’m really glad you’re here.”

“Me too, Kathy,” Max whispered. “Me too.”

23

Everyone in the hotel felt divided, the awful feeling increasing throughout the day and into the night, as if everything had taken a side. It suffocated the room, transformed it into something otherworldly. Like…vampires and werewolves, or aliens and astronauts. While Patton generally liked that kind of stuff, he hated the tension because it just wouldn’t go away. His dad and Jade, for example. He couldn’t figure out why everyone was being so mean to her. Sure, she messed up—she’d killed someone!—but she’d taught Patton how to hold a gun, and she gave him these kind smiles that made him feel like he could do anything, and he knew she could teach him loads of stuff.

He liked people who knew stuff. He liked learning new things and bonding over that knowledge, and Jade seemed like one of those people who could teach him how to fight and shoot and build one mean compost toilet. Disappointment had washed over him when he found out Jade was leaving for good this time. He thought about asking her to stay, wanted to swear to her up and down that he thought she was swell, but Allison had shot him one of those don’t-you-dare looks which shut Patton down. Usually, he liked to make Allison give him those looks. She spent too much time on her phone anyway, but ever since the Apocalypse (and that’s how Patton liked to refer to it in his head, capital letter and all), she’d become a lot more serious. She felt like the paladin of their group.

Patton? Well, he was the warrior, obviously. A warrior still in his apprenticeship, but strong of heart nonetheless. Ever since Samuel West had been kicked out of their hotel, Patton swore he wouldn’t be weak again.

Warriors didn’t sit around and wait for things to happen. Warriors acted. Warriors protected their grandmothers and sisters and strangers on the side of the road because it was the right thing to do. Patton wanted to slay his fear, which lay curled inside of him like a restlessly sleeping dragon, just on the verge of waking.

For warriors, things were supposed to be black and white, but Patton was beginning to discover the appeal of shades of gray. He liked Jade, even though she’d hurt people. He liked his sister better since the Apocalypse, even though she slept way too much. He liked his dad acting all ruthless and kicking Samuel West’s butt. He wanted to be like that. Tough. No nonsense.

When he woke up the next morning and still felt the tension thick in the air, he decided enough was enough. He couldn’t sit around and marinate like meatballs in spaghetti sauce (as delicious as