The shepherd climbed onto one tree trunk and then another, growling as it came. Emma pushed and Lilli pulled Jade until they reached the top of the pile. Who knew dogs could climb? Emma kept the dog in her sight. The pile shifted, and the shepherd lost its footing and slid back to the road. Emma glanced at Lilli, who had wrapped her arms around Jade.
“This pile isn’t safe. We gotta get out of here.” Lilli hugged Jade who had curled up under her. “Just give us a moment to untangle.”
Dogs, wind, looters, Jade had cowered at them all, and she had the gun. The dog barked and growled, pacing the spot where the ramp log had shifted. It rose at a steeper angle, which kept the dog off.
She froze as the dog sniffed around the bottom of the pile. It tried the ramp again, but it rolled off after a couple steps.
The squeak of the screen door stopped the dog. The shepherd jerked its head in that direction, then lifted its nose and sniffed the air. Emma glanced at the screen door. It squeaked again, but it was just the wind. The dog turned and raced away.
“Thank all the goddesses,” Lilli said, and Jade giggled.
Emma giggled, too, but she wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t funny. Jade’s shoulders shook with laughter that turned to sobs, and the pile shifted again.
Emma clung to a branch. Why had she led them up this deathtrap? She wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. Lilli glanced at Emma with red eyes.
“It should be clear on the other side by now. I’ll look.” Emma began to climb. It was the least she could do for leading them into this mess. She climbed to the top and spotted the boutique where Mom bought Sarah’s ballet slippers. The cross street was Jefferson. They’d gone two whole blocks since Market in the last hour, but it was two blocks closer to home. She scanned 16th Street for dogs, men in bathrobes with rifles, and looters.
“The coast looks clear. Let’s go,” she said.
Lilli helped Jade climb off the pile of trees, and Emma led them down 16th Street. Jade’s movements grew more relaxed and graceful. Lilli pretended to take a selfie of them, the pile of trees in the background, and Jade laughed. The sound tinkled like snowdrops, and Emma sighed. They could do this.
“You know where we are now, right?” Jade’s drawl was back.
“Jefferson and 16th. When we hit Bradley, we’ll be in the alphabet district. All the streets there go A, B, C, all the way to W for Wils—” Emma stopped. Of course, they knew that. Jade stepped on a branch, and it broke with a crack. A chip of wood hit Emma’s cheek.
“Oww.” She put her hand to her cheek. Lifting her fingers, she stared at her blood then at Jade. Maybe they could do this?
“Sorry.” Jade lifted a shaking hand to her mouth.
Emma’s cheek throbbed. She searched the sky for the sun and found it farther to the west than she expected. She’d spent one night in Bomber Burger. She didn’t want to spend another in some other greasy dive. They had to make it home before nightfall. Time dragged on with each step. It shouldn’t be taking this long to get home, but all the piles of trees, feral dogs, men with rifles, and people fighting over water…
She kicked her way through sheets of roofing, metal panels, and tons of paper scraps. How had those dogs gone from pets to wild animals in just five days? A twig snapped, and she spun around.
Emma’s foot slipped on the twisted metal of a wrought iron fence. Intertwined with tree branches and folded between the trunks of at least two fallen evergreens, the fence was twisted beyond repair. The filigree design was from a house that she passed every day on the way to school. The storm ruined everything.
She took a swig of water and held the bottle out for Lilli.
“Thanks, Emm.” Lilli guzzled half then handed it to Jade.
“Closer?” Jade’s face sagged with fatigue, her eyes sinking into her face.
“Closer.” Emma stepped back. “Your leg?”
“Oh, that old thing? I hardly notice it anymore.” Jade rubbed her hand on her thigh, smearing blood on her jeans.
Emma bit her lip. Jade was not fine. She was bleeding through her bandage again. “Maybe we should stop for a minute.”
“This place is too open. We can’t stop here, hon,” Lilli said. “Dogs.”
Could the dogs smell the blood? Emma shivered and made her way through the maze of evergreen boughs and wrought iron fencing, one step at a time. All she needed was a sprained ankle or a broken leg. Then she’d be worse off than Jade, tripping and cursing all the goddesses, most of whom Emma had never heard of before.
****
Lilli lifted Jade’s leg helping her climb a log. Emma waited, her thighs aching. The journey had been twice as hard for Jade, but she never complained. She just looked like she was going to pass out all the time.
Pushing through more branches, Emma stepped into a yard filled with low shrubbery, no tall trees to topple. She stretched her arms to the sky then touched her toes, her muscles loosening as she stretched. She checked out the damage as she waited for Lilli and Jade.
The torn-up roofs, dented cars under trees, and telephone poles snapped in two had become an all too familiar backdrop to her walk home. The Gilford Street sign leaned against a fence. Inch by inch, she was getting closer to home. She rubbed the palm of one hand with the thumb of her other and tried to slow her heart rate.
Emma let the sun warm her face. “Please, no more storms.” Emma pursed her lips and blew her plea to the universe with a kiss.
Lilli and Jade pushed their way through the branches and plopped on the grass. Emma welcomed their closeness, ignored the body odor. At least she had her saviors. She shivered. She never would have survived unconscious out in the storm.
A streetcar rolled to a stop on the next block, Hillman and 16th. It had a branch sticking out of a window, and other windows were broken or missing. Emma stared. This was a normal occurrence before the storm, but today it was like the Martians had landed.
“What the hell?” Lilli blurted and stood with her mouth open.
“Well, that’s weird.” Jade rose with Lilli’s help. The streetcar stopped, and the doors screeched open.
Emma crouched, ready to run. Lilli was eyeing the doors like she wanted to hop on, but Emma wasn’t so sure. This car appeared to be empty, but what about the others?
“Must be the new solar powered system. Cool.” Lilli stood and brushed off her pants.
Emma reached for her phone out of habit. She wanted to snap a photo and send it to Mom to let her know she was on her way, but the black screen brought her back to reality, and she slipped it back into her pocket.
Lilli pointed at the solar panels on the roof of the streetcar. “Maybe we can charge our phones.”
“No charger cord, right?” Jade gave Lilli a lopsided grin. “I didn’t think of them.”
“Damn.” Lilli wiped her nose on her sleeve and nodded at the streetcar. “Emm, should we go for it?”
Emma took a step toward the streetcar. “Is this the Red Line?”
“Red Line. Yeah, that makes sense.” Jade leaned on her crutch.
“The Red Line will take us two blocks from my house.” Emma’s voice got louder with each word. This was the break they needed, thanks to all the goddesses.
The streetcar doors stood open. Emma took off at a run. She leapt over a pile of insulation and aimed for the doors in the middle of the car. Tumbling through, she grabbed the metal handle then leaned her whole body on the door to hold it for Lilli and Jade.
She scanned the car. Empty. Emma was elated and disappointed at the same time. Who had she expected to meet? Lilli and Jade tumbled into the car, and Emma plopped down on a seat across from them. The door slid closed.
They sat hunched on benches, peering out the dirty windows as the streetcar carried them toward Emma’s house. Emma closed her eyes. Could she imagine this was a normal day and pretend nothing had happened?
The streetcar stopped, and Emma opened her eyes. They were at Jamison Street, but the doors didn’t open. Emma didn’t think fast enough to push the button on the door. The streetcar jerked. She didn’t want off. She wanted to go home. She was going home. The streetcar started rolling, but it was headed back the way they’d come.
No, no, no. Only two blocks? Emma sat and watched the landscape reverse. She couldn’t speak. Lilli hadn’t noticed the change of direction yet. She focused on Jade’s leg, pressing a handkerchief to stop the blood. Jade sat her eyes clamped shut.
Lilli glanced out the window. Her head jerked up, and she stood. “Hey. We’re going the wrong way.”
“What?” Jade rose from the bench and pressed her hands on the metal frame of the broken window.
Emma’s eyes ached as tears streaked her cheeks. “Sorry, guys,” Emma said as the streetcar rolled toward town. It wobbled over branches and debris on the tracks. “I screwed up.”
“You didn’t know. Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Lilli sighed as Vandby Elementary School grew closer. Jade sat pressing the handkerchief to her wound.
A scream rose in Emma’s throat, but she choked it back. Where had all the goddesses gone? Jade never should have put her in charge.
Jade wobbled as the car stopped at Hillman, again. The doors opened, and the sound of birds filled the air. Jade gasped, searching the street.
“No dogs, hon,” Lilli embraced her and ran her hand over her hair.
Emma stared at the garbage bin on its side, the pile of trees they’d just climbed. She rubbed her face, unable to meet Lilli or Jade’s gaze.
“We can just ride it back. It’s two blocks we don’t have to walk, right?” Lilli plopped down on the bench, drawing Jade with her, the decision made.
Emma sat back. Of course, they’d just ride it back then get off and continue the journey. No harm no foul, as Papa always said. She crossed her fingers. The doors closed, and the streetcar headed back toward Jamison Street.
“One pretty long ride for only two blocks.” Lilli started chuckling, and Jade snorted. Emma watched as Lilli and Jade held each other and laughed.
“Its solar power keeps it running between logjams.” Lilli wiped tears from her eyes.
Sending a silent thanks to all the goddesses, a surge of something filled Emma—happiness maybe? Relief? Yes, relief. It flowed through her veins the closer she got to home.
The streetcar creaked to a stop. The doors swished open, startling a tall black dog. Jade screamed, and it ran away.
Emma stepped off and scanned the street. Two boys stood on the corner, and she froze. They were on the corner of Keller Street.
Lilli and Jade stepped off the streetcar, and it rattled away as one of the boys walked toward them. Emma looked from the boy to her friends and stepped out to intercept him.
“Hey, Emma?”
“Mark?” He’d been her neighbor since third grade, but still she tightened her ratty ponytail and smoothed her rumpled clothes. Mark didn’t look much better. A yellow stain the shape of Ohio covered the front of his blue T-shirt.
“Have you guys been by my house? Is my mom home?”
“Heard she was super ticked. You’ll probably get grounded for life.” Mark shoved his hands in his pockets. “Did you just get off that streetcar?” He glanced from Emma to Lilli’s boots, to Jade’s bomber jacket, to the streetcar. His friend joined them. “Tom, it’s Emma, my neighbor two doors down.”
Tom lived out on Perimeter Road with his mom and sister. Since when were Mark and Tom friends? They never hung out at school. The storm had changed more than the roads and bus routes.
“Did you just get off that streetcar?” Tom asked.
“I just asked that, man.” Mark shoved Tom’s shoulder.
“Bless all the goddesses.” Jade clanked her crutch on the sidewalk. “We don’t have all day, guys. Is her mom home or not?”
Matt’s hazel eyes had never seemed so bottomless as he scanned Emma’s face. “She’s probably home, waiting for this renegade.” Mark nudged against Emma, and she was back in the halls of their school. Was he trying to memorize her face or just trying to find the girl he’d known before the storm? She wanted to him to look away and devour her with his eyes at the same time. Heat rose to her neck then to her cheeks.
“What are you guys doing out here?” Lilli chewed her pen as she adjusted Jade’s bandage.
“We’re walking to Cedarville with some friends. They said there’s plenty of food and water, generators, you know, survivor stuff. You guys should come with us.” He nodded to a group of people congregating on the corner of Jamison Street. They all wore backpacks stuffed full.
“Thanks, but I’m already in enough trouble with Mom.” A chill shook her. When did Mom leave the note at the Bomber Burger, before or after the storm? What if she’d already left with Sarah?
“So, you’re walking all the way to Cedarville? I guess it’s not that far, maybe a twenty-five-minute drive on a good day, but with all this devastation and you’re walking…”
Lilli’s words didn’t affect Mark, but then he’d always acted like nothing mattered, not even failing pre-calc. Tom, good influence that he was, shrugged and grinned.
Emma pushed her fingers into her cramped shoulder muscles. Mom would make that walk to Gran’s if she had to, but would she leave without Emma? She might if it meant keeping Sarah safe and fed.
“Hey, we gotta go. Hang in there.” Mark turned and left with Tom to join their group.
“Maybe I’ll see you in Cedarville,” she called after them. Mark waved his hand without turning around.
“What? Now you’re going to Cedarville?” Lilli knelt by Jade, a fist on her hip.
Emma flinched and glanced at Lilli. “No. Well, maybe? We have to hurry.”
“Getting a bad vibe from those guys?” Jade asked.
“More like an I’m-late-for-the-bus vibe.”
Lilli tucked in the end of Jade’s bandage, stood, and brushed off her knees. She bobbled the pen between her teeth. “I get it. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
“That’s my new motto.” Emma raised an eyebrow at Jade and took a swig from her bottle as they walked. Jade’s crutch tapped out each step she took, keeping a good pace.
“This is like a war zone.” Lilli’s words slipped out in a whisper. She wiped her brow with her bandana. “When the National Guard arrives, where will they begin?”
“I wish they’d get here already. I could use some pain meds.”
“Don’t worry, hon, we’re almost to Emma’s, right?”
Emma nodded and kept walking. At this rate, it would be dark before she got home.
Birds called back and forth. Their communication system still worked fine. She reached for her phone. The urge to pitch it into the branches almost winning. She gripped it in her hand, aching to hear Mom’s voice.
****
Emma crouched behind a rhododendron and sipped from her bottle. Waiting for Lilli and Jade had become a national pastime. Shouldn’t they have hit Quincy by now?
Lilli and Jade dropped beside her. Jade couldn’t go one step farther than she had to, and the street signs had disappeared under trees or been blown away. Roofing, window screens, lawn chairs, and toppled trees made progress slow, and Jade seemed to stop more often since they’d seen Mark. Should she have gone with them? At least she knew Mark. What did she really know about Lilli and Jade besides the whole saving her life thing?
Without the trees, everything was so bright. Emma paused. Nothing was where it should be. Lilli and Jade passed her, but no one spoke as they plodded on. Birds sang, and the breeze blew through the branches—no planes, cars, buses, or loud music blaring.
This was her life without technology. “Off the grid,” they’d called it at the marches. She’d never spent more than a day without her phone, and that was when she was in big trouble. What would Mom take now? She had no idea what the time was. Dad had a trick he used sometime, and she scanned the sky. The sun was a bright spot right above them, so it was close to noon.
Every muscle in Emma’s body screamed to sit down. The bottoms of her feet pounded from hours of walking. Lilli and Jade leaned into one another, unable to stand straight. They could rest at her house before heading to Franklin.
Emma stumbled over a branch, like a sleepwalker, and raised her gaze. The letters of Sprague Street glowed from the sign in front of her like a topsy-turvy scarecrow pointing down the yellow brick road.
She stopped.
“What’s up?” Lilli’s head hung and she stared at the asphalt.
“It’s only four blocks to Wilson Street.”
“We’re almost there?” Jade clanked her crutch on the pavement.
“Yes.” Emma’s vision clouded with tears. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve but didn’t mention the fourteen blocks down Wilson from 16th to 30th.
“Thank all the goddesses.” Jade sunk to the sidewalk.
“Give us ten, Emm?” Lilli searched Emma’s face.
“Sure.” Emma sank down on the curb. She would make it home before dinner if it was the last thing she did. Please, goddesses, don’t let it be my last thing.
****
Emma’s toes had grown numb by 24th street. She plodded to Mrs. Webster’s white house. The front door stood open, and Mrs. W swept, the tinkle of glass reaching the street. Emma ran up the sidewalk.
“Mrs. W.” Emma took the steps of her porch two at a time.
Mrs. Webster turned and dropped the dustpan. A smile spread across her wrinkled face. Warmth filled Emma for the first time in days. Mrs. W opened her arms, and Emma flew into them.
“Is that your mom?” Lilli called from the sidewalk.