The Queen Jade by Yxta Maya Murray

Author:Yxta Maya Murray [Murray, Maya, Yxta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-203028-3
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2005-11-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 30

On the outskirts of Rio Hondo sat five olive green army flatbed trucks covered with tarps and filled with provisions and stoic uniformed men. Because of the last day’s violent wind, it had been difficult for helicopter pilots to transfer supplies to the north, where thousands had been left homeless by the storm. The army sent out these caravans in their stead. Traveling across the Carretera al Atlantico, the soldiers were not deterred by the washouts on the highway, as they employed pontoon bridges made of durable buoys that could be thrown up over the landslides and gullies that now pocked the country’s roads. About twenty men sat in the back of each truck, half obscured from our view by the tarps, though we could see their knees nudging up on the boxes and sacks of water, meat jerky, medical supplies, and tinned vegetables. One of the soldiers standing about told us to take our seats in the last van. The three of us approached it, and its tarp was partially lifted by an unseen hand. We gazed up at the dark interior of the truck and its huddle of soldiers; the men at the very back remained indistinct in the shadows, but those we could discern had rifles leaned up against their thighs as protection against any bandits or looters.

Next to me, Yolanda stood upright and still. I could hear her breathing.

“I can’t go up there,” she said.

Erik had already begun climbing into the truck’s hold—but he, too, had gone quiet and tight-mouthed. He turned around and reached his hand out to me. Two of the other soldiers also extended their hands to help lift us up.

“Come on, Yolanda,”he said, in a calm and unhappy voice.”We have to get out of here.”

She stayed rooted, staring up at the men. About thirty seconds passed like this. Then thirty more. A minute. Two.

“We have to leave,” Erik said.

“What’s the hold-up?” one of the soldiers asked.

“Oh, they’re just scared,” another voice said from the back of the truck, where we couldn’t see.

“Scared of what?”

“Go get my right hand, Rivas,” the voice said. “Tell him to come over here.”

One of the soldiers came leaping out of the truck, and splashed back toward the rest of the caravan.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Rivas said.

We made way for him, then I put my arm around Yolanda’s.

“We have to go,” I said. “Erik’s right.”

“These people are assassins,” she murmured to me. “My father used to tell me that the world would be better if they were all dead.”

“Come on, girls,” said one of the soldiers; he was small and dark, with a bilevel haircut.

In the same low voice, she said, “I’d rather ride with the devil.”

I just stood there and let her think it through.

“Plus there’s also the fact that if these boys knew who I am, they might not seem so friendly,” she continued. “Which wouldn’t be the safest thing for you, either.”

Erik still had his arm outstretched, and he opened his eyes just about as far as his eyelids would allow.

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