Strangelets by Michelle Gagnon

Author:Michelle Gagnon [Gagnon, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-61695-138-2
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2013-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

Anat was pleased with their progress. Yosh wasn’t very talkative, but that suited her. And she didn’t complain about the pace, although at times she was clearly struggling to keep up, short legs churning double-time to match her long strides.

The night had passed uneventfully. She’d insisted they take turns keeping watch, although she’d caught Declan dead asleep when she went to relieve him. It annoyed her, but fortunately they hadn’t seen any sign of the “monsters” mentioned in the journal.

She’d spent her shift sharpening the end of a long stick with a knife. She’d found it in the backyard yesterday afternoon, a section of branch that must have fallen in the last storm. It wasn’t as good as a gun but would be more useful than the iron rod she’d lugged around yesterday, and lighter, too. She had some experience in fighting with sticks, thanks to her Krav Maga instruction. She felt moderately better having it, although the drawback of getting saddled with Yosh was that she wouldn’t be much help in a fight.

Unless she provided a distraction if Anat was forced to flee during an attack.

Not a nice thought, but there it was. Anat intended to survive and get back to Hazim, and nothing and no one was going to stop her.

Ryan had been true to his word; this road had definitely been cleared. Most of the cars they passed had either been totaled, or were stuck in a ditch. She was unable to find keys for the only one that was potentially drivable, and hotwiring cars wasn’t one of her talents. Declan could probably have managed it, she thought with a pang. It had been a shame that Nico had been so insistent on finding his father. He’d tried to talk to her last night during her shift, but she’d told him in no uncertain terms to go back to bed. Part of her was relieved that she wouldn’t feel his eyes on her all day.

By noon, they’d probably made it three kilometers. Not what she’d hoped for, but all things considered not bad. Anat stopped in the shade of a stand of trees by the side of the road. Yosh sank to the ground, plainly exhausted. Anat dug food out of the backpack she’d found in an upstairs closet and passed her a few stale crackers slathered with peanut butter, a handful of shriveled raisins, and a cookie.

They ate in silence. It was cooler today, the air carried a whiff of rotting leaves and something else—salt, maybe?

“How much farther?” Yosh asked.

Anat repressed a twinge of annoyance. She’d outlined the trip in its entirety last night. She’d expected Yosh to be delighted that they were taking the shorter, more direct, and likely safest route. But the girl had barely paid attention. Her gaze remained locked on the middle distance, so focused that Anat was tempted to glance over her shoulder to see if something was there. Either she was having a harder time handling the situation than the rest of them, or she was always like this.

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