D-39 by Irene Latham

Author:Irene Latham [Latham, Irene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Published: 2021-05-18T00:00:00+00:00

The Road

Empty yet full of garbage. Like we’re the only people in our town, in the Worselands, in the whole bigsky world. I want to call out, Papa!

He must be close. He must be. But there might be another lion-man on the road or a robopatrol or worse.

Worse

We walk until the sky turns dark. Not black like in the burrow, not the shadowy black backlit by distant fires, or black cut by streaking boomblasts.

Instead, gray-black. Just enough light to see how alone we are, how small. It’s creepy in a what-will-happen-next kind of way, and goose bumps rise on my arms.

I can’t believe a desperado claimed our burrow, Jopa says. Mother’s not going to like that. I lift the pack with my arms to ease the pressure of the straps digging into my shoulders. I can’t believe it either. Sure, we were leaving, but what if we hadn’t been? What if we’d been forced out without any supplies? He had a gun—the lion-man easily could’ve killed us.

I suck in my breath. What will happen when Papa or Dr. Tannin and Tiev come back? They won’t know it’s not us in there. They’ll walk into a trap! Which is way worse than what happened to us.

I shake my head. So stupid! Why didn’t I leave some sign? Some sort of signal? Something to let them know to be careful? Because I’m still not sure if the lion-man was just scary looking or if he really meant to hurt us.

As D-39 skirts around another pile of rubble and we follow, I pray out loud for the first time in my life: Please, God, let Papa and the others be okay when they come back. And please, please, please let us walk in the correct direction.

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