The Long Fall of Night: The Long Fall of Night Book 1 (22 page)

“Sure, kid. I’ll pick a different playlist. It makes me sleepy, too. That’s why I named it my sleep list.”

“Yawn,” Riley said with an exaggerated roll of his eyes.

“Be nice,” Charlotte chastised.

“Wish I had my ball glove,” Riley groused, unperturbed. “Could play catch for a few minutes.”

“I meant to grab it, buddy.” Ash joined them. “I’m sorry.”

Riley shrugged. “Maybe I can find a rock or something,” he said and hopped off the van to search for a suitable projectile.

Charlotte squinted at her brother. “You tired? Maybe you should let me drive for a while. I’m kind of going stir crazy with nothing to do but think.”

Ash hesitated. “Getting ready to pass through a more populated area. I think maybe you should let me or Brian drive that part.”

Charlotte stiffened, her face going hard. “Why, because a woman can’t drive through a big city?”

“That’s not what—”

“May I remind you who it was that ferried your genius ass down to New York for school?”

“Charlotte, I—”

“And who practically shit himself the whole time we were in the Holland Tunnel because we were underwater? It wasn’t Riley, in case you have a selective memory.”

Ash pinched the bridge of his nose while Elliot looked on in amusement. Man, Charlotte didn’t let her brother get away with thinking she couldn’t handle whatever life threw at her. He found himself silently applauding her.

“If you want to drive, fine.”

“Good,” she said, satisfied. “Seeing as how it’s
my fucking van
we’re in.” She studied him with shrewd eyes. “You know, I love you to death, Asher, but you have got to stop underestimating me. We’re a team, and you can either find me a high horse that matches yours, or crawl your scrawny ass off the one you’re riding. Mom and Dad didn’t raise me any different than you, and you’re forgetting who got you through the rest of the way.”

“Fine,” Ash ground out, his jaw clenched. “Forgive me for trying to make things easier for you, considering you’ve had a pretty shitty hand dealt to you.”

Charlotte rose and got in his personal space. “If you mean Riley, I will smack you,” she said fiercely.

Elliot stepped in, wedging his arms between them. “This isn’t helping.”

Ash glared at her, ignoring Elliot. “I meant the last few days. And I’ll get off my high horse when you ditch the fucking chip on your shoulder,
teammate.
” He dropped the van keys at her feet and stalked off down the road, his shoulders bunched up beneath his t-shirt. Elliot watched him go with consternation, not knowing which sibling to try and smooth things over with.

Charlotte pushed her hair from her face and blew out a tense breath. “Shit,” she muttered.

“You
might
want to cut him a little slack,” Brian said quietly from where he’d been standing three feet away, watching the entire exchange. “He’s doing the best he can, and he’s what, twenty-two?”

“Twenty-one,” Charlotte answered automatically.

“Taking on more than most his age would, I expect,” Brian said gently.

Elliot looked between them. “More than I could, and I’m only a year younger.” He felt no shame admitting he was the weakest link in their group, even if he’d just gotten upset at Ash possibly thinking the same thing. Well, it was one thing to feel that way about himself, but to think someone he cared about as much as he did Ash would have agreed didn’t sit well.

Frustrated, Charlotte scooped up and pocketed her keys before walking after her brother. Elliot and Brian exchanged a look, marginally amused but mostly interested. Elliot turned to watch the siblings, despite not being able to hear them.

“Makes me glad I’m an only child,” he murmured as Ash let his sister catch up.

“Nah,” Brian said. “They just love each other enough to be able to take their fears out on one another. They know no matter what they say, they’ve still got each other’s backs. It’s kind of freeing, knowing even if you’re flawed, someone loves you anyway.”

A pang of sadness squeezed Elliot’s lungs, making it difficult to breathe. He’d never had that level of trust with anyone. Sure, he knew his family loved him, but to be knock-down, drag-out pissed at one of them and know it would be forgiven… he wanted that. When Charlotte yanked Ash close for an embrace, Elliot swallowed a lump rising in his throat, jealousy flaring. He wanted to lean on someone that hard and know he wouldn’t fall. Brian was in his corner and he knew it, but it wasn’t quite the same.

“Look what I found!” Riley hollered, running from where he’d been scouring the ditch several feet back the way they’d come. He held up a worn tennis ball, so sun faded it was nearly white. “Wanna play catch with me, Elliot?”

Glancing one more time at the other two in their group, Elliot nodded. It would take his mind off the hole that had widened in the pit of his stomach. Maybe he could pretend he didn’t know how loneliness filled the hole and yet made it seem so empty.

Shaking off his melancholy, he held up his hands with a brittle grin. “Gimme what’cha got, sport.” They played catch until Charlotte called time to leave and climbed into the driver’s seat.

T
hey made
it between Akron and Canton, Ohio, with little trouble, despite having to drive around several accidents with abandoned wreckage. Charlotte had done well staying cool while they passed through the more populated areas, keeping almost tunnel-vision while around them, people on the roads pled for help with smashed or stalled cars, or shook gas cans at them. That was a worrisome sign.

Ash, navigating for Charlotte from the passenger seat, fell silent. The last smash-up they passed had unsettled him; he’d spotted a child’s car seat through the open back door of one of the vehicles. There had been blood. He’d quickly pointed to the other car involved, remarking on the spiderwebbed windshield so Charlotte wouldn’t see what he’d seen. He trusted her more than anyone else in their group, but he didn’t think she had to be the one to live
all
the possible horrors they could potentially run across.

He’d settled down after they left the masses behind, beginning to enjoy the scenery and looking forward to reaching Charles Mill Lake, where they would set up camp for the night. They were making such good time, he even wondered if he’d be able to get in an afternoon snooze. Hell, if he wanted, he could have cat-napped then, since they were already on Highway 30 and would run straight into the lake. Charlotte could find them a decent spot.

The rumble strips on the side of the road jerked him out of his semi-conscious state.

“Another accident,” Charlotte said calmly. “You can go back to sleep if you want.”

He wouldn’t be able to, though, so he watched as she drove into the median and around the debris of three mangled cars. There was no way to tell who’d hit whom first, but one of them appeared to have rolled, the vehicle’s smashed top gleaming a dull red in the sun and its tires flattened where it had landed upright. Ash did his best not to peer into any of the seats.

“You said the military was coming, right?” Charlotte asked, her grip tight on the wheel. She’d slowed way down but winced once or twice at the clang of something hitting the undercarriage. There was no getting around the accident otherwise. Ash hoped they made it without punctured tires. He knew she had a donut for a spare, in decent shape, but it was all she had.

“That’s what Elliot’s dad said the first time we called. Wait for the military.”

“Where are they, then?” she pondered, pulling back onto the highway with a sigh of relief. “Guh, that sucked,” she muttered.

“I don’t know.” Ash frowned in answer to her question. “I’d have thought they’d be rolling in by now.”

“Probably hitting the bigger cities first, don’t you think?” Brian asked worriedly, as if a caravan of camouflage-painted vehicles would crest the horizon in front of them that very moment.

“I suppose, but tell that to Akron,” Ash conceded. “Cities would be the areas with the biggest damage and the biggest threat of anarchy in the wake of the attack. Plus, they’d be able to help the most people. Maybe it’ll take a few days for the troops to drive out of the West to the smaller areas. With the big cities, they can probably use the airports. Not like anyone else is.” He scowled at the idea there weren’t more soldiers from area bases setting up, though. They’d have to begin evading them at some point.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Charlotte said. “I’m kind of glad we haven’t seen them yet. The farther we get, the fewer miles we have to go before they try to stop us. They will try to stop us from getting into the West, right?” She nervously flicked a glance at him, then returned her attention to the road.

“Yes,” he muttered. “I don’t think they’re going to just let people waltz into the part of the country that still has power and claim a piece. There’ll be a border, probably before we get to the mountains.”

She fell silent then, letting Ash ponder how they were going to evade armed soldiers to get through the Rockies. Every road would likely be watched.

When she pulled off the highway into Charles Mill Lake Park, Ash breathed in relief. They chose a campsite close to the lake but farther into the trees so if anyone got any brilliant ideas about exploring, they’d have a little cover, especially once the sun set.

Camp setup was a quick affair and in short order, Brian and Riley were down at the water, casting fishing line. Riley scouted the damp mud of the beach for bait worms. Elliot was in the trees getting sticks and small branches for kindling, and Charlotte was setting up the cookware supplies. Ash stood beside her and watched their little party, lost in thought.

“Remember Dad trying to show you how to fish?” she asked, setting a couple cans of green beans on the picnic table.

He snorted. “Yeah. First one I caught was a catfish. Fucker’s fins cut my hand when I tried to get the hook out of its mouth.”

“You’ve hated fishing ever since,” she said with a smile.

“Since I’m not a fan of how it tastes, it seemed dumb to keep trying.” He wished now he’d been less stubborn about it, but in his defense, he’d been only seven.

“Do you know where the can opener is?” Charlotte asked, looking through the backpack near her feet.

“It’s not in there?”

She frowned. “If it is, I’m not seeing it. Never mind.” She crouched beside the picnic table and took a can of green beans, vigorously rubbing the top of it flat on the concrete pad on which the table sat. After a minute, she moved on to the next can and gave it the same treatment. When she was done, she set them on the table, and using both hands, squeezed. To Ash’s amazement, the can lid separated from the sides, and she was able to pry it off.

“Let me try,” he said, reaching for the second can. Enough pressure to bend the sides a little was all it took for the edges of the lid to become visible and a hole big enough to pry open appeared. “I’ll be damned.” His voice was tinged with a bit of wonder.

“You’re not the only one with a few survival skills, little brother,” she quipped, ruffling his hair. “Daddy showed me. Long as there’s a bit of concrete around, you don’t need an opener.”

She dumped the contents of the cans into a pot and set it aside, waiting until there was a fire on which to heat the beans and if there would be fish for dinner or they’d need to dig into their other supplies. Dusting her hands off, she sat at the table and looked toward the lake, her expression taking on a sadness Ash hadn’t seen since they were teenagers.

He sat across from her, picking at a jagged edge on his thumbnail. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“What for?” She turned to him, surprise registering in her eyes.

“Not taking you seriously. Underestimating you. I keep telling you I need your help, but then I’m not letting you give it.”
And about Russ,
he didn’t say. They hadn’t talked about it since she’d yelled at him for not taking her boyfriend for treatment, but it was there, a tension between them like a guitar string at the end of its tensile strength and about to snap.

“Well,” she sniffed. “Thank you for recognizing your chauvinism. But I haven’t made it easy for you to get my opinion on the plan, since I seem to disagree with everything you want to do.”

He smiled ruefully. “I know.”

“Maybe you should let me in on the rest of the plan now, since I’m not fighting you anymore.”

He sat straighter, stretching his back. “Basically, do whatever we have to do to get to Seattle. Or at least to a place with power. Once we get that far, it’ll be just like any other trip.”

She chuckled. “First stop is a laundromat. I’m sure by the time we get to civilization, our clothes will be walking on their own.” Her expression turned somber. “You could probably wear Russ’s things,” she said softly. “They’d fit you, I think. No reason to waste them.”

He squinted into the trees, looking for Elliot. “Okay.”

She followed his gaze. “What’s the story with you two? Your lab partner? You expect me to believe you’d trust someone you only know from classes to come up to my house with you?”

He shrugged, knowing she was changing an uncomfortable subject, but he wouldn’t put it past her to realize the new topic would be uncomfortable for him. Poking at him was one of her favorite pastimes, especially in high school when she’d found out he was banging the captain of the baseball team. That hadn’t ended well.