The Nightworld - Jack Blaine [58]
“I just want to see if we can make this harder to get through, at least for tonight.” I point at the swinging front door.
“I think a couple of benches should do the trick.” Lara gestures toward the booths in the eating area.
“Sounds good to me.” I don’t say anything about blocking our own exit if we need to use the front. At this point I just want her to feel safe, and I can tell she is barely hanging on in her exhaustion. We tug and push until we have three of the red pleather benches moved to the front and the door doesn’t swing in anymore.
“That should do it,” says Lara. “Now let’s go eat, and then let’s sleep for a long time.” She smiles at me, but she looks pretty tired.
We head for the back rooms, Tank at our heels, sniffing every corner.
“I’ll get the bed ready if you want to pick some dinner,” I say. Lara nods. I unpack the sleeping bags and make a little nest for us in the office. It has a door that we can close—one more barrier that might help Lara sleep well. When I’m done, I join her in the pantry. She’s staring at the cans.
“Any favorites?” I watch her face as she considers the shelves.
“I don’t know.”
She’s trying, but she’s just about out of fuel. I take a can of peaches and one of beans. “Let’s try these.” I take her hand and lead her to the office. While she settles in on our sleeping bags, I take the cans to the kitchen and open them. Grabbing two plates and a bowl, and a couple of spoons, I dish up the food. When I get back to the office, Lara is almost asleep. I’m tempted to let her go, but I know getting some food into her will be important.
“I’m probably going to regret this later, Tank, but here you go.” I set the bowl of beans down in front of him, imagining the scents he’ll be gifting us with in the middle of the night.
“Lara.” I touch her shoulder gently. She opens her eyes and looks up at me with an expression like she wishes she could deck me. “Here’s some beans.” I hold her plate in front of her and the smell must revive her a bit, because she sits up.
We’re both asleep before we finish.
Chapter 32
The rest of the trip seems almost like a dream. We don’t see anybody—just husks of dead vehicles and scraps of garbage. We stop a couple of times to siphon gas from cars, and we get lucky both times. I don’t even know if it’s the right kind of gas for the bike, but it seems to work. Lara is quiet, so quiet I start to get really worried.
We mapped out the route off the freeway using Gus’s roads atlas. He was right—this thing has come in handy now that our phones and GPS no longer work. Geothermal Systems, Inc., is located on Grand Avenue, which looks deserted. It seems like a normal storefront type of building. ROBERT LANGLEY, CEO is stenciled beneath the company name on the door in gold-foil lettering.
I shake my head at the smashed window. “That doesn’t look good.”
Lara puts her hand on my shoulder. “Let’s check it out anyway.”
We find a gas station on the next corner with an attached service center. There’s a banged-up car parked in the first bay, but the second is empty, and I pull the bike in. We cover it with some car covers that we find folded on a metal shelf. We carry our stuff with us—if someone steals the bike, at least we’ll still have the contents of our backpacks. Tank is relieved to get out of the sidecar, and he lifts his leg on every signpost and fire hydrant we pass on the way back to the storefront.
The door is unlocked. Inside, the place has been looted of most everything. Even the desks and chairs are gone, most likely burned for warmth in some trash can. There’s a huge illustration on one wall about how geothermal energy works. A gray metal file cabinet has been knocked over on its side. Tank is running around sniffing everything.
“Don’t you pee in here, Tank.” I try to sound like I mean it. I don’t really know why it would matter, though.
So much for safe haven. I don’t know what I expected to find, but at least there had been a goal, and a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. I know I’d hoped to find Charlie here, hoped