Recovering Charles by Wright Jason F
Author:Wright, Jason F. [Wright, Jason F.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 1606416774
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2009-10-22T04:00:00+00:00
Chapter
17
Bela’s bronze legs moved faster than mine did.
“Wait up, you’re killing me.”
“Sorry, Luke,” she said as we turned onto Canal. “Used to walking fast, I guess.”
I picked up the pace and walked at her side.
“Tell me again where you’re parked?”
I was beginning to lose my breath; I calculated in my head the last time I’d been to the gym. “A mile from the Superdome. Garden District, I think.”
“You didn’t write it down? Or take a picture?”
That would have been an excellent idea, I thought. “No, no, I’ll remember it.”
“Uh-huh.”
Is she walking even faster?
We walked, mostly in silence, until we neared the area where I remembered parking the car. In the gray light of the September evening, I saw the two men still sleeping under a bridge and accepted that their sleep was eternal. I hoped they weren’t too far from the main streets to be noticed and recovered by the Red Cross, FEMA, or anyone else with body bags. I also wondered if they had worried children somewhere.
A moment later we reached my car. I removed my duffel and laptop bags from the trunk. I slung my camera bag over my shoulder.
“Is that everything?” Bela asked.
“Think so.”
“I don’t want to stress you out, Luke, but there aren’t many dry cars down here. So make sure there’s nothing valuable here, because it’s a pretty attractive target.”
“For looters? Really? A cheap rental car?”
“It’s survival. That backseat would be a welcome place for someone to sleep.”
“True enough.”
“You got the rental insurance, right?”
Whoops. “Of course.”
Bela’s eyebrows drew together and she reached out for a handwritten note that had been slipped under one of the wiper blades. She read it out loud in the fading light.
“Whoever you are, you’re brave (or stupid) to leave a FEMA car unattended because you aren’t the most popular four-letters in town right now. We wanted to leave you a not-so-friendly spray-painted message telling you where to go but then we noticed the pass is for FEMA Construction—the good guys. So . . . thanks for coming. Thanks for staying. Thank you for helping us recover.”
She gently folded the note and handed it to me. Then she tapped the window above the FEMA Construction pass. “Looks like this is better than rental insurance.”
I swallowed past a sudden lump in my throat and carefully slipped the note into my wallet, grateful that small miracles were still happening in the Big Easy.
Bela reached over and took the laptop bag from me. “Here, I got that.”
We began to follow our route back to Verses, each block bringing darker shades of gray and a faster pace.
“So it’s really unsafe down here after dark?”
“Not exactly unsafe, not like the wrong-side-of-town unsafe. There’s just a lot of desperation down here, everywhere really. Not many people left in the city, but the ones who stayed are trying to survive.”
“What about the evacuation? Why aren’t they forcing you out?”
“We’ve held out pretty well because they have more important things to do right now than chase out locals.”
“Especially locals trying to assist.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
The Cross and the Curse (The Bernicia Chronicles Book 2) by Harffy Matthew(69529)
Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson(55577)
Sita - Warrior of Mithila (Book 2 of the Ram Chandra Series) by Amish(53861)
Crystal Cove by Lisa Kleypas(38496)
The Conquerors (The Winning of America Series Book 3) by Eckert Allan W(36705)
The Crystal Crypt by Dick Philip K(36455)
In Control (The City Series) by Crystal Serowka(35804)
The Crystal Egg by Wells H.G(35440)
The Wolf Sea (The Oathsworn Series, Book 2) by Low Robert(34732)
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry(34029)
Crowbone (The Oathsworn Series, Book 5) by Low Robert(33085)
The Book of Dreams (Saxon Series) by Severin Tim(32936)
Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 1 by Fanny Burney(32078)
Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 3 by Fanny Burney(31470)
Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 2 by Fanny Burney(31420)
Evelina by Fanny Burney(26528)
Fanny Burney by Claire Harman(26254)
Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney(26105)
Beautiful Disaster by McGuire Jamie(25016)
