Storm Season (9 page)

He caught up with Tobias on the porch, loosely grabbing his fingers to stop him. “What are you doing?”

Tobias flinched when Jasper touched him, but didn’t move away.
I’m going to Shaleton. I have to find Sam.

Jasper looked him up and down, not believing his eyes. Tobias was dressed in the clothes he’d been wearing when Jasper first found him―pants that had holes at nearly every seam, a too-thin torn shirt, and shoes held together with more hope than stitches or glue. He would be lucky to last a night dressed like that, particularly not after the experience he’d just had, and he would never make it all the way to Shaleton. “You can’t.”

I have to.

“Why now? You seemed happy to have shelter before those men came.”

Because they came!
Tobias moved forward, pulling his fingers free of Jasper’s hand.

“Do you even know where Shaleton is?”

Tobias shook his head, but didn’t stop inching along the porch, though each step clearly caused him great agony. Both his hands were clenched into fists, with his fingernails digging into his palms, and Jasper had the feeling that if he could speak, Tobias would be screaming. He couldn’t let Tobias continue, no matter how determined―or delusional―he was.

“You can’t walk there. You wouldn’t make it, even if you knew the way, not with the storms just starting and those men looking for you.”

That got Tobias’s attention. He stopped, his spine straight and his expression pained, and held a hand out toward Jasper. Desperation and pain flooded Jasper’s mind as he took it.

I have to find her! They’ll be mad I got away and if she can’t do what they want her to do this year they’ll hurt her, I know they will! I have to find her and figure out how to stop them or she’ll never come home!
Tobias sank to the ground, still babbling, and wrapped his free arm around his knees, but made no effort to free himself from Jasper.

It was impossible to know what to say. Jasper sat as well, rubbing Tobias’s back until the sense of desperation slowly receded from his mind. “Better?”

Tobias nodded again, but kept rocking.
I have to find her.

“I know.” And he did. He’d felt Tobias’s frantic need and knew it would not be assuaged by platitudes or logic. It was a burning need Jasper knew he would feel the ghostly echoes of until it was filled. “But not like this, okay?”

How, then?
He turned wide brown eyes toward Jasper and at that moment Jasper remembered why he’d originally thought Tobias was just a boy. He looked so lost and innocent, Jasper wanted to gather him in his arms and protect him from the world.

“There are trains that will run to Shaleton in the dry season.” Even as he said it, Jasper knew it wouldn’t be acceptable.

No.
Tobias shook his head violently, sending his curls bouncing and making Jasper wonder if his head was going to stay attached.
We have to go now.

“We’ll figure something out, then, but we can’t walk. It’s too far, and your feet―” He broke off as he really looked at Tobias’s shoes and noticed the red tinge slowly spreading up Tobias’s socks. “Sleet! You’re bleeding!”

I am?
Tobias’s gaze followed Jasper’s and with trembling fingers, he touched the bloody fabric.
Oh. I am.

“Let’s go inside and take care of that.”

But―

“We’ll figure something out,” Jasper promised as he helped Tobias to his feet and put an arm around his waist to help him limp inside. He just wasn’t sure what.

D
ARIUS
was a true country driver, speeding along single lane roads, swinging the car over the middle line every time they rounded a curve. Jasper had never ridden with Darius before, and would have been quite happy to keep it that way, except Tobias was slumped against him, his breathing shallow and his expression oscillating between terror and confusion.

Where are we going?

“Into town.” Jasper kept his voice low and his answer vague. The idea of meeting new people had already sent Tobias into a panic once, and Jasper didn’t want it to happen again while they were in the car. They all still had headaches from the backlash of his first outburst.

Tobias blinked and shook his head.
Why?

“To take care of your feet, remember?”

When Jasper had gotten Tobias inside, they discovered that it wasn’t just one cut that had re-opened, but all of them. Tobias’s feet were a bloody mess, and the cuts were too numerous and deep to be handled using the first aid kit. Tobias had cooperated as they’d slowed the bleeding with towels, but the moment Darius had mentioned taking him to the doctor, Tobias had flipped, emitting a wordless scream that had driven the others to their knees.

When he’d recovered enough to stand again, Jasper had chased after Tobias, only to find him sitting on the back stoop. He’d looked at Jasper with a puzzled expression, complained that his feet hurt, and let Jasper lead him inside. They had been careful not to mention the doctor again, though that was where they were going.

No. But my feet do hurt.

Jasper was starting to wonder if Tobias had hit his head or lost a lot more blood than they’d originally thought. His short term memory seemed shot. “We’re going to take care of that.”

Okay.
Tobias looked so vulnerable that Jasper had to fight the urge to wrap him in his arms and promise he would make everything okay. It would be a lie, and he had no right to think those thoughts.

The car swerved suddenly, and Jasper found himself holding Tobias despite his resolve not to. He quickly let go, but as the car swerved again, Tobias doubled over, clutching at his stomach, and Jasper had him back in his arms without making a conscious effort to do so.
Hurts
, came the thought, but requests for elaboration were met with silent moans of pain. Jasper didn’t know if he should ask Darius to speed up so they’d get there faster or slow down so the bumpy road and quick turns didn’t hurt Tobias further.

T
HE
doctor was a good friend of Darius’s, and agreed to come out to Darius’s house on the edge of town rather than have them bring Tobias into his office and risk attracting the attention of half the townsfolk. It was a small favor for which Jasper was grateful. The doctor alone was bad enough. Tobias didn’t need to meet Mrs. Bidwell, Mrs. Haverds, or any of their numerous daughters and daughters-in-law. The two families existed simply to outdo each other with small town gossip, and in a slow time even Jasper’s semi-regular trips to the town store became a major event. A new person―a new
injured
person―would set off a week’s worth of rumors even before they discovered that he didn’t talk.

Whoever ferreted out that knowledge would have the juiciest bit of gossip for the whole wet season and would spend the next three or four months in a position of particular honor among her family. It was far better to take Tobias straight to Darius’s. Doctor Parks’ trip out would generate enough gossip on its own.

Tobias sat still and silent as he was treated, only moving when Dr. Parks asked it of him, and not sending anything, not even to Jasper when the doctor wasn’t touching him. His eyes widened and his muscles tensed when the doctor brought out needles, but he accepted the shots of antibiotic and sedative with the same pliability he’d exhibited while the doctor examined his cuts and bruises. Jasper helped him lie back, and he was asleep before the doctor had removed the suture kit from his bag.

Forty five minutes later, the doctor tied the bandage around Tobias’s left foot and began cleaning up. “He needs to stay off his feet as much as possible for at least a week or those cuts will break open again. I put twelve stitches in the biggest ones, but more of them will need stitches if they open again.”

“But he’ll be okay?” Jasper asked, glancing from the white bandages to the doctor’s face. “He was disoriented earlier.”

“His pupils dilated evenly.” The doctor picked up a penlight, lifted Tobias’s eyelids one at a time, and checked again, nodding when he got the same result. “He just needs rest and food. I could hear his stomach growling while I worked on his feet.”

“He hasn’t eaten much,” Jasper acknowledged.

“Feed him when he wakes up, and have him take one of these.” The doctor handed Jasper a packet of small, red pills. “If he won’t sleep,” the doctor continued, pressing another packet into Jasper’s hand, “there are sedatives in here. He should take one of the red pills every eight hours until they’re gone. Only give him the other if he needs them.”

“Thanks.” It wasn’t much, considering how helpful the doctor had been and how few questions he’d asked, but Jasper didn’t know what else to say. His mind had already jumped ahead to how he was going to break it to Tobias that they wouldn’t be able to go anywhere for a week. He stayed by the bed, watching Tobias sleep and contemplating the conversation they would have when he woke, while Darius saw the doctor out, thanking him much more adequately than Jasper had been able to manage.

D
ARIUS
’
S
maps were old―he and Carla operated primarily between the west coast and Brightam’s Ford―but they were adequate for Jasper’s needs at the moment. Even if some of the roads indicated had been washed out in the years since the map had been made, it would still be possible to drive to Shaleton in the wet season. Brightam’s Ford was only one in a string of towns that crossed the continent, and based on the map it looked possible to travel from one to another between storms.

“They look like rows of ants.” Carla peered over Jasper’s shoulder. “I never noticed before how evenly spaced the towns are.”

“Probably so people
can
travel in the wet season,” Darius ventured with a sour expression. “Though why anyone would want to, I have no idea.”

Jasper ignored the last part. “When people first came here, they landed on both sides of the continent and planned to settle there. The inland was rough, hard to travel, and full of unknown creatures like the forest spirits. But they landed in the dry season, and when the wet season came, they discovered it was safer inland where the wet season was shorter. So they moved inland, fleeing the storms, but they could only go so far before they had to stop and shelter. Even in the dry season, it made sense to stop in already established camps, and gradually the towns grew up around them. Most of the inland towns are named for the first people who stayed when their companions moved on.”

“How do you know that?”

“There’s not much else to do but read in the wet season, particularly once the storms start during the day.” Jasper shrugged. “I had a friend back in Crittendon who was a history buff, and he passed on all his books to me when he finished them. I found the chronicles of how the colony was populated to be especially interesting.”

“Hmm.” Darius looked at Jasper appraisingly. “The things you don’t know about your friends.”

Jasper would have responded, but there was a noise from the other room and then he felt a pressure that made him wince.
Jasper?
It was so soft, Jasper thought he’d imagined it, but the start of a headache and another crashing sound convinced him otherwise.

“Tobias’s awake.”

Darius looked skeptical, but both he and Carla followed Jasper into the other room, where they found Tobias on the floor a few feet from the bed. The stool Doctor Parks had used to hold his tools as he worked was on its side, and a few video discs were scattered over the floor as well, scattered around Tobias.

“Sleet!” Jasper crossed the room in three long strides, crouched down, and put his hand on Tobias’s forearm. “What happened?”

I fell.
He looked at his bandage-wrapped feet, frowning.
It hurt, a lot, when I tried to get up.

“You’re not supposed to get up.”

I have to.

“Not yet, you don’t. It’s late; we’re not going anywhere right now.” The storms would soon be raging outside and Jasper wasn’t ready to face them again.

In the morning, then.

He sounded so determined and looked so pathetic that Jasper had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. “Let’s get you back in bed,” he said instead, slipping his hands under Tobias’s arms and helping Tobias to his feet.

A wail of pain invaded Jasper’s mind as soon as Tobias’s weight was on his feet. Jasper gritted his teeth against the onslaught as he guided Tobias closer to the bed, but it got worse with every shuffling step, and he was ready to fall himself when Darius slid under Tobias’s other shoulder. “Lift him up before you both fall.”

Tobias didn’t let go of either of them when they got him to the bed.
We have to go tomorrow.
His grip tightened.
I have to get to Samantha.

Jasper was ready to give in, to promise that they’d leave first thing in the morning no matter what, but Darius gave Tobias a stern look. “You need to rest and heal. You won’t do your sister any good if you kill yourself getting to her.”

I won’t! I’m fine! I have to go!

“No.” Darius took Tobias by the shoulders and pushed him down onto the bed, breaking the grip Tobias had on Jasper’s shoulder.

Tobias rolled onto his side and took Jasper’s hand.
I don’t want to wait.

“I know.” Jasper squeezed Tobias’s trembling fingers, trying to convey a certainty he did not feel. “We’ll leave as soon as we can.” It was the closest he could come to defying his friend or saying no to Tobias’s pleading look. He would do what he could to delay and let Tobias heal, but he knew he was going. He simply had to figure out when and how.