Meridian by Josin L. McQuein

Author:Josin L. McQuein [McQuein, Josin L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062130198
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

I refuse to believe people traveled like this in the time before the Fade. Normal trucks could not have been this loud or this full of fumes, and they couldn’t have run with the people inside bump, bump, bumping along so violently that I have to hold my lunch in my stomach while holding the rest of my body in my seat.

The way Trey keeps swallowing and digging his fingers deeper into the back of the front seat tells me I’m not alone in my discomfort. He shifts, gripping the edge of our shared bench seat and leaning back on the headrest, eyes closed, like he’s in pain.

Honoria’s oblivious, swaying along with every bounce and rumble while hanging on to a ceiling-mounted handle above the door.

We run over something large enough to tilt the truck up on one side, and the momentum throws me to the floor, half leaning on Trey.

“Sorry,” I mumble.

“If we’d gone up another inch, I’d have been down there with you,” he whispers as I retake my seat. “At least we didn’t go the other way.”

He twitches his head toward Honoria to say he’d rather not have her land in his lap.

Trey’s as easy to talk to as Anne-Marie. He’s calmer, and he doesn’t speak nearly as fast as his sister, but they have the same presence, and they sound strangely alike.

“I hate trucks,” I say when we hit another bump that bounces me high enough to hit my head on the ceiling.

“Agreed.”

There’s no handle over the window on my side, only a space where one broke off a long time ago. I find a cold, metal buckle set into the cushions, but the button on it doesn’t seem to do anything. I was hoping it would get longer so I could tie myself in.

“That’s the release for the belt buckle.” Honoria’s watching me again. This time she’s amused. “It won’t work without the other piece, but you don’t want to use it.”

I completely disagree and start digging for the rest.

“If we have to bail out of here, you don’t want to be tied down.”

I find the strap but have to admit she’s right. I don’t want anything slowing me down if we have to run. I make do with hanging on to the pieces to stabilize myself.

“Is that the lake?” Trey asks, kind enough not to call it the marina. He rises up in his seat for a better view. “Annie never said it looked so depressing.”

“That’s where we started the fire that burned the Grey,” Honoria says, unprompted. She angles toward the window, fingers against the glass. “When we got here, someone had broken the boats.”

Her voice turns distant, and somehow heavier.

“As the sun sank, people started crying, screaming out because we didn’t know how far we had left to go. Without light, we were as good as dead.”

I bet she’s never shared this with the mid-year classes. It’s in her book, though, told in five pages of detail, back and front.

“There were these iridescent patches of oil and gasoline dancing across the water.

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