Night Beyond The Night (14 page)

But, that made it doubly important to find him quickly, for if he was able to hack into the Strangers’ communication system, he might be able to find out more about the cargo that was to be delivered on Friday.

Today was already Monday. They only had four days.

Jade curled her fingers deeply into her palms and organized her whirlwind thoughts. One step at a time. Get through the Tunnel, get to Greenside to get the disks from Luke, and see if Theo had been there. Maybe by the time they got back to Envy tonight, there’d be another message from him with more updates.

Suddenly, Elliott spoke, breaking their silence and bringing Jade back to the damp, creepy Tunnel. “Why do we have to sneak out of Envy? Is there a law against leaving?” His voice sounded a little . . . strained.

“No, of course there’s no law,” she replied, casting a speculating glance at him. Something seemed to have changed since they left Lou’s presence to pack up. He seemed to be moving differently, and he’d stopped giving her the sidelong looks that made her belly feel warm and squishy.

“It’s just that we prefer to keep our comings and goings as unobtrusive as possible. It’s safer that way.”

He didn’t ask the obvious follow-up question. In fact, he hadn’t asked a lot of questions she thought he might after they left Lou. Instead, he moved along in silence, holding the dangling roots and cobwebs out of her way, and seemed to be focusing on . . . something.

And, to Jade’s strangely acute disappointment, it wasn’t her.

The fact that he was Lou and Theo’s age was just beginning to sink in. He’d been alive fifty years ago when the Change happened. That made him probably eighty years old.
And he’d been in a cave, in some sort of stasis, all this time?

Elliott was tall enough that the ceiling nearly brushed his head in some areas where the top had caved a bit or where a large tree trunk had sent out thick roots that broke through. He wore a dark shirt that appeared to be damp with water or stained on the front of his shoulder, and rugged jeans that hung just right over his hips. His shoulders were broad, his hair thick and dark, brushed back from his forehead and temples. He had a solid, square chin and dark blue eyes the color of the ocean on a hot day. And a mouth that kissed like an angel. Or a devil.

Jade wasn’t certain which one she’d prefer, but she was leaning toward the devilish side. After all, her knees had still been trembling and her palms damp during their meeting with Lou. And every time Elliott looked at her, she felt a flush of warmth.

When was the last time she’d felt that way about a man?

How about . . . never?

Not even with Daniel. With him it had always been so harsh and overwhelming, even at the beginning, when she thought that was how love was supposed to be.

“What’s that?” Elliott hissed suddenly, his voice deep and eerie in the round space. He stopped abruptly, catching her off guard. His powerful arm swung out, as if to hold her back and behind him.

Jade listened, but she didn’t hear anything but the constant dripping. She was about to open her mouth when he raised his hand. He took the torch from her and, edging forward, brandished it in front of him like a weapon.

Then she heard it. A soft sloshing sound. An irregular movement in the water. Too large to be another rat or even a snake. She hoped. Oh God, she hated snakes. She resisted the urge to grab on to his arm in case one erupted from the water.

“Take this, and stay back,” he said, handing her the torch again. “Hold it here.”

She took it and watched as he crept forward, something silvery suddenly gleaming in his hand. A knife?

Then everything happened all at once. A loud splash, a shadow rearing high up. The glint of his weapon and the slap of flesh against . . . something. Crazed, turbulent splashing. Jade tried to hold the torch level, but with the slick footing and slimy wall, she found it difficult to keep her balance in the suddenly turbulent water.

Whatever it was had no intention of being easily subdued, and she heard Elliott grunt and more violent splashing. She lunged forward, brandishing the torch and had the impression of gleaming golden green eyes and glistening body.

Oh, God, it
was
a snake. A huge, thigh-thick snake.

Elliott gave a loud cry as he lunged. The gleaming snake twisted around, pulling him off balance, and Jade yelled, brandishing the torch at the creature, reaching to pull Elliott up.

The basilisk’s tail whipped out, snapping into Elliott’s shoulder and arm. She heard him cry out and saw the knife flip into the air as he lost his grip.
No!

Jade surged toward the weapon, but it plopped into the mud at the base of the wall. Desperately, she scrabbled around in the sludge, her fingers sliding through putrid, cold muck as Elliott wrestled with the massive snake. Still clinging to her torch, she caught glimpses of his hands, grasping the trunk-thick body of the snake, pale and small against its scales. He was fairly hugging the beast, rolling and roiling about in the water and slamming against the stone wall.

Then suddenly, the creature began to thrash harder, whipping about frantically, and Elliott gave a loud gruntlike shout, as if expending some great exertion. Just then, Jade’s fingers closed around the hard metal knife. She yanked it up out of the water and whirled toward the writhing snake.

But before she could strike its dull green scales, the creature whipped and twisted and then flopped down. Jade glimpsed deep, bloody gashes on its pale belly before it sank below the water.

And then all was quiet but for Elliott’s heavy breathing and the ever-present trickle of water. “That,” he said, staggering to his feet, “was not my idea of a good time.”

He leaned against the wall, illuminated by the torch she still held. Water and the bloody insides of the snake dripped from his hair and streaked his handsome face. His cheek was red from a scrape that must have happened against the wall, or even the ground, but the expression in his eyes was one of fierceness and triumph.

He bent to splash some of the water—which was only marginally cleaner than the junk all over him—over his face. And then he took off his shirt, wadding it up to wipe his face and . . . that chest. Look at his buff chest . . . those wide, square shoulders, the right amount of dark hair, the ridges of his belly. Jade swallowed.

Jade’s own heart was racing, and it wasn’t just from fear. Elliott had moved so fast, and with such strength. He’d battled a massive snake with nothing but a knife. A knife that he’d lost halfway through the battle.

She frowned and looked down at the blade. There wasn’t a trace of blood on it, and although it had fallen into the water, it still wouldn’t be completely clean.
Would it?

“I mean,” he said, his voice steadier and his breathing evening out, “if I’m going to be playing around in the water, I’d rather it be with something that doesn’t have scales.” He smiled a devilish smile that made Jade’s heart do an extra little bump. “Or fangs.”

“That was a wixy big-ass snake,” she said, trying to keep her own breathing under control. He was very close to her, and the torch made everything soft and muted.
Deep breath
.

“A
wixy
big-ass snake?” he said, his eyes crinkling at the corners. They were dark and penetrating in the flickering light.

“Yeah. I don’t like snakes, so when I say thank you, I really mean it.”

He gave a light laugh as their eyes caught. Then he sobered and pulled away from the wall, standing upright. “You and Indiana Jones.” Then he frowned, looking back at her. “Do you even know who that is?”

“Of course I know who Indiana Jones is. Who doesn’t?”

In the flickering torchlight, she could see Elliott raise his brows as if in surprise, then lowered them. “I guess if people’re watching Jason Bourne, they’re also watching
Raiders of the Lost Ark
. Glad to know that at least some pop culture survived.” Then he frowned, looking at the shirt wadded up in his hand. “This is the third shirt I’ve ruined in the three days since I’ve met you. Considering the fact that I’ve only got two more, I’m not sure that’s a very good track record.” He cast a quick look at her, a flash of humor in his eyes. Then, holding the ruined shirt, he started sloshing through the water.

Jade allowed him to lead—in case there were any more big-ass snakes—and lifted the torch high as she watched for a sign of rippling water. “You need to take better care of your shirts, then,” she said archly, giving him the same sidelong look. “I don’t see how you can blame me for the
gangas
and a snake attack. What happened to the third shirt?”

“I got some blood on it,” he said. “So where do Envyites get clothes?”

“Some are scavenged from stores—but those are few and far between nowadays. In the older times, there were a lot more of them. But we can still find some new ones, if they’re well wrapped in plastic. Or in car trunks or anything metal that wouldn’t have begun to rot away or break. Once a friend of mine found a car trunk with three intact suitcases in it—a treasure trove of shoes and clothes.”

“Fascinating,” he replied, slowing so they could walk side by side.

“And then there are people like my friend Flo, who takes old clothing or pieces of fabric and redesigns them. Like my jacket,” she said, lifting her arm to show him the sleeve that had been built by scraps of cloth. “And then there’s the wool and cotton cloth that can be used. Leather too. Even some silk. It’s not that different from the way your world was, only on a much smaller scale.”

Elliott nodded, clearly fascinated by the discussion. His face didn’t seem quite as tight as it had before the battle with the snake. Something had changed.

Just then they came to the elbow turn around which came a dim glow of light. When they finally reached the entrance, Elliott took her arm and helped her keep balanced as she climbed up and out on the crude steps.

At the top, they found themselves in a wide cement culvert that opened from the side of a small hill. Grass and trees covered the ground, with bits of concrete showing in patches where nature hadn’t quite overtaken man’s footprint. Buildings long abandoned and destroyed stood in uneven rows, with jagged brick half-walls covered by vines and moss, windows broken and bushes sprouting. Trees and bushes abounded. Birds sang, and the distant whinny of a horse reached her ears. A common scene to someone like Jade, who often ventured out from Envy’s protective walls.

They emerged into the sunshine, which was welcome and warm after the dank of the tunnel. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, and when they stopped watering, she noticed that Elliott was staring about him as if he’d never seen such a sight.

“It’s funny,” he murmured as if to himself, smoothing the toe of his boot over a small cement area.

Jade moved closer. “What is?”

He shook his head, looking down at her with a sort of bleakness in his eyes. That anguish again. “I always thought it would be like the Thunderdome. Empty, arid, cold . . . a wasteland. But it’s not. It’s . . . green and overgrown. Sort of wild. Not what I would have expected.”

Before she could reply, his mood changed abruptly. “So now we have to find a horse,” he said, looking around again, but with a sharper gaze trained toward the horizon.

“That’ll be easy,” she told him. “The mustangs run wild all over the hills out here.”

“And catch one.”

She shrugged. “I have a way with horses.”

She was right.

Elliott watched as Jade, her hair gleaming cinnamon in the sunlight, her face flushed with exertion, whistled loud and long. Once, twice, and by the third time, he heard the soft thud of hooves as a small group of mustangs trotted up from behind an old Mobil station.

“I can’t believe how tame they are,” Elliott said after choosing from one of the five horses that nuzzled Jade as she produced a handful of sugar lumps.

“They have no reason not to be,” she said, directing her mount next to a fallen tree. She stood on the trunk and vaulted onto the mustang’s back, holding its thick golden mane in her left hand.

Smooth, fluid, and whoa-baby sexy.

The good news was, he could touch her now that he’d transferred Simon’s injuries to the snake. At least, until he healed someone else.

But he really didn’t need to be thinking about that until they finished this trip and got back to Envy, where he could actually think about utilizing a real bed. For more than just sleeping.

Elliott mounted up. Not quite as smoothly as Jade, but much more easily now that his chest and shoulder had healed. “So we’re heading to a place called Greenside?”

“It’s about three hours from here,” Jade said. Elliott could have sworn she’d been checking out his ass when he threw his leg over the horse’s back, but he wasn’t certain. And, really, they had more important things to think about.

“So is that what a Runner does? Visits different places and picks up and delivers . . . what? Information? Mail? Goods?” Elliott asked as they started off. “You’re a Runner, aren’t you?”

Jade looked at him, shading her eyes against the bright sun. Not for the first time, he noticed the slender bracelets she wore on her wrist, studded with colorful beads. “Where did—oh. Lou. Yes, that’s sort of what a Runner does. I guess we’re like couriers, and we have our regular routes. Greenside is part of Theo’s area, but I’ve been there twice myself.” She pointed east and said, “That’s where we’re headed. Follow this road—what’s left of it—and we’ll get to Greenside in a few hours if we ride hard—which we will, as soon as we get past this rocky area.”

“So, a Runner. You collect and deliver computer hardware? Hard drives, disks, and so on? At least, that’s what was in your pack when we found you.”

“And you would recognize that stuff, wouldn’t you? Most people wouldn’t anymore.” She shifted, leaning forward to pat her horse. “We transport it from place to place, secretly, because we don’t want the Strangers to know about the network we’re building. See, there’s no way for any of us to communicate with any other settlement—or even among those of us who live in Envy. That’s part of the Resistance. Lou and Theo are working to build a network that can be used if . . .
when
. . . we get strong enough to make a show against the Strangers.”