Chương 120: 116: Rest Stops

Things shook out pretty quickly after that. Jeff, Javi, Leon, and Bobby headed off with the Sovereign Ridge Patriots to their "compound." According to Jeff, it was more of a hunting camp than a compound, but Dale had apparently bragged in town about having a hundred-year supply of MREs for his "army." (Gang. They were really just a gang.) Losing three people made it a hundred and some years, so they could afford to share. They took the… remains… with them. Not the truck.

It would probably stay in the clearing as a monument to bad decision-making for a good long time. But they loaded what they could collect of the bodies into the back of one of the other trucks before they drove away. I considered suggesting the rift as an alternative, but I kept my mouth closed. The Sovereign Ridge guys had been throwing people into rifts, which implied that they knew the rifts would destroy the evidence. But if that knowledge had died with Dale, I wasn't going to resurrect it.

Mike and Tracy took Missy's SUV, the pizzas, and the Bottomless Gulp Cups back to the school. They'd feed some kids, then gather up the people who were ready to level and return. Tessa stayed with us. She was delightfully pragmatic about it.

"If I have to fight those toys another 989 times before I can travel the way you do, I'd just as soon get started." As we killed mannequins, sentient clothing, and evil toys together, I explained the other ways she could get points toward becoming a Rift Keeper. Harvests, clears, reports, and the schedule for completing them. As for how to submit reports, as soon as she expressed interest, the System gave her a rift pane. Jack and Pen got them, too.

It sounded as if they lacked a lot of the options mine had, but they also seemed much less complicated. Instead of an IRS form, they had a straightforward Q&A format about their rift experiences. It took us three instances to get the rift's tier progression down to zero so that I could claim it, but it was so satisfying to finally check the lock box. I let Tessa suggest names to add to the approved list, granting access to everyone she listed. Art teachers in small towns know a lot of people.

But I was willing to accept her judgment on who should and shouldn't be allowed to enter, and the rift could save lives. Take lives, too, of course, but I trusted her to be careful. She knew exactly how dangerous those spitting dolls were to someone who hadn't yet entered the System. Finally done, we loaded up on pizzas, said goodbye for the moment to Tessa, and returned to the enclave.

No one was waiting for us this time, but entering the enclave with a stack of pizza boxes, three dogs, and a cat turned us into the Pied Pipers of the pre-teen crowd. I immediately started worrying about how we were going to fairly distribute the pizza. No one was going hungry in Team Fellow Survivors, but of course the kids wanted pizza. Who wouldn't? Fortunately for my peace of mind, Nat was still standing guard at the core building.

We handed the pizza boxes to her to let her deal with the inevitable ensuing misery. And joy, too, of course. Missy was waiting in the third-floor room that Emma had let us use before. I collapsed into one of the fancy chairs as Jack, Pen, and the animals followed me in. The dogs did much the same; Zelda at my feet under the table, Bear and Riley curling up together in the nearest corner. I was going to need to find them some dog beds if we spent too much time hanging out here.

"Welcome back," Missy said.

"How did it go?" I waggled my hand in the air. Missy's expression changed, and I quickly said, "But fine for us and the middle school. No teachers were harmed in the making of our chaos." Her expression softened as she raised her eyebrows.

"Chaos?"

"An exaggeration. But the Sovereign Ridge Patriots…" I hesitated, not sure how I wanted to describe what happened.

"Blew themselves up," Jack finished for me, dropping into one of the other chairs and spinning it a little.

"Where are Megan and Dad?"

"Out buying bikes. We hope, anyway," Missy said.

"There's a bike shop in town that should have all the gear Megan thinks we're going to need: bikes, repair kits, a pump, spare tubes, the bags to carry it all in. If they can find the owner, Emma's offering to let him and his family into the enclave in exchange."

"Why? Shouldn't we just go home and get our stuff? Bikes are gonna be worth a lot with cars dying," Jack said. Missy grimaced.

"We got rid of the old bikes, so all we have are ebikes now. Megan argued, quite persuasively, that touring bikes would be better for this, since we don't know whether we'll find a way to charge the batteries in Texas."

"Ugh." Jack thought for a moment, then sighed.

"She's right, of course." He swung his chair toward me and Pen.

"Megan's always right. It's her worst character flaw." I thought about mentioning Bryce, but I didn't. Instead, I said, "I hope she's right about finding Jules." It took him a heartbeat. I could see his desire to complain about his sister fighting with his manners. But finally he said, "I hope so, too. So—" He swung back to Missy.

"What's the plan? What can we do?"

"It depends on the bike situation. But at the bare minimum, Olivia takes me and Megan to her friend's last known location in Texas and we start cycling from there."

"You and Megan? Alone?" Jack shook his head.

"Why? No. That's a lousy plan. What if you run into something you can't handle? No." I was so charmed by his firmness that I wanted to cry, which even to me felt like a really weird reaction. I took a breath, giving myself a second for some self-analysis. What was that about? Well, obviously, I was looking at a mother-child relationship I didn't have. My mother needed help, and I'd barely thought about her. In fact, I'd spent most of my afternoon helping total strangers instead of my mom.

And then, of course, there were Toby and Jules. Would Toby want to defend his mom the same way? Was he scared? Was he trying to tell his mom what to do? This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Water, hon." Missy spread her hands.

"I chose to be a water mage so I could provide people with clean water. If your sister's going to bike across Texas, she's going to need plenty of water, and the easiest way to get it is to bring me along. Your dad's not happy about it either, which is why they're bike shopping. He's hoping to get three, maybe four bikes."

"Four," Jack said grimly.

"I'm coming with." He glanced at Pen.

"Five? Do you want to come, too? It's always good to have a healer in the party."

"Oh, um…" Pen's laugh was faint.

"I've never ridden a bike, so, um…"

"So you're definitely not starting with a three-hundred-mile ride across Texas," Missy said.

"But yes, Jack, it would be great to have you with us if we can find a bike for you." Gus lifted his head from Pen's lap and hissed at Jack across the table. No. She is not coming with you. Heathen. Pen bit her lip, then stroked Gus's back.

"Of course, I'd bring you along, too, Gus. If I went. But…"

"Yeah, no, my mom's right. Do you want to learn to ride a bike, though? It would be good to know, even if it's not for right now." Pen's cheeks did that peony thing.

"Oh, yes, I'd like that. Later, though." Jack nodded.

"We'll find a bike for you. Too bad the mall doesn't have a bike shop." I was 100% not going to comment. But my gaze did—entirely inadvertently—meet Missy's for a moment of shared communion. My wordless "uh-oh" met her wordless "oh, dear" and we both shared the wordless "They're so cute! I hope they don't break each other's hearts."

"Anyway." Missy looked a little pink herself, but I was pretty sure it was just from suppressed amusement.

"For the rest of the plan, Olivia takes some other people, maybe you and your dad if there aren't enough bikes, as close to El Paso as she can get. Those people wait there, watching the road for any sign of a woman on a tandem ebike. It might be a long wait, so whoever is there will need supplies. Maybe even camping gear. But definitely plenty of water."

"I could do that," Pen said.

"Wait in Texas for you. Gus and I could." Not alone, she couldn't. Bear lifted her head, tail beating the ground twice. Monsters? I fight. Maybe Bear, Riley, Gus, Pen, and one other person could wait. Probably not Jack. Expecting the two of them not to get distracted for a stay that might last days—yeah, no. We would not be doing that. And not Joey, either. I was hoping he'd agree to give me a couple of days of his time, but I was not leaving Pen alone with a guy I'd met exactly once. Even if I had saved his life.

"I think you should come with me," I said.

"Because someone might get injured at any gate, and it would be good to have a healer on hand." Yeah, I had an entire pouch of healing potions. That was kinda not the point.

"I'd be happy to," Pen said eagerly.

"Can we maybe… oh, that's probably a bad idea. Never mind." She dropped her gaze to Gus.

"What is it?" I asked before Jack could. (His mouth was already opening.)"Well, I was thinking…" Pen pinched the neck of her shirt closed, wrapping her hand in the fabric.

"Um, if we could harvest those rifts? The ones we're using to travel? Maybe not clear 'em, 'cause I know that takes a while, but at least check 'em out the once?

'Cause, you know, that's ten points for each of 'em, and I only got 19 points so far."

"Points?" Missy asked. Jack's expression was a study in conflict, but he and Pen between them explained what we'd learned about becoming a Rift Keeper to Missy.

"Oh, my God," Missy breathed.

"Holy shit."

"Language," Jack teased his mom.

"Pfft," she replied to him.

"Welcome to adulthood, kid." She turned to me.

"Do you see how huge this is, Olivia? Do you understand what a—""Yep," I interrupted her. I hadn't actually mentioned the part about me getting to approve or deny applications for the class to Jack, Pen, or Tessa, because as far as I was concerned, that was just another entry on my ever-growing list of secrets. I'd tell Jules if we ever found her. Nobody else needed to know.

"We try to find Juliet first. And then I have one other thing I need to do," I added, thinking of my mother.

"After that, I'm willing to make a concentrated attempt to help as many people as possible get as many points as possible. It's a lot of points though. It's not gonna be fast. We're still talking months, not days." Missy nodded.

"I want in, of course. But I understand if it makes sense to prioritize just a couple of people." She pointed at Jack.

"As soon as you're a Rift Keeper, you're helping me become one, too. Right?"

"Done," he agreed easily.

"Megan and Dad, too, if they want." Missy slapped her hand over her heart.

"Did you just volunteer to spend time with your sister? Oh, Jack, you are a grown-up." Jack rolled his eyes.

"She'll probably take over the world. Empress Megan."

"I'm sure she'd run it very well if she did," Missy said with a laugh. Hmm, that was a good idea. How could I get Megan to be the highest-level person on the planet? She'd handle it much better than me, that was for sure. But Jack might hate it. I shelved the idea for now, as Missy said, "Back to the current plan. We thought, Olivia, it would be best if you stayed mobile. Megan said you could find all the rifts?"

"Yeah, I've got a map, although not here. But I can locate any rift."

"So we could treat each rift along the way as a checkpoint. If we can get a few more volunteers, they could wait at the gates. Then the gates become rest stops. We'll take breaks there, have some food, sleep if we need to. And that way we don't have to carry all of our supplies."

"That does sound efficient. The gates might be guarded, though. I doubt the military would be waiting for us in West Texas, but there could be more of the Sovereign Ridge types out there. Or even someone like a rancher I heard about in Briar Hill, who's selling access to his rift to the locals." Missy held up crossed fingers.

"We'll have to hope they're remote enough to be unoccupied, but that's a good point. You might need to check them out before we get started."

"As long as they're friendly, it shouldn't be a problem. And if they're unfriendly…" I glanced at the dogs, cuddled up and snoozing in the corner. I didn't want Bear to get into the habit of fighting people. But I didn't mind using her to scare them off if I had to.

"Once we find your friend and her son, we'll go to the nearest rift gate and wait for you there. Megan, of course, would be perfectly happy to bike to El Paso. She thinks it sounds like a great adventure. But I suspect your friend won't mind getting off the road sooner."

"What if she's not on the highway when you go by? If she's stopped in a town, maybe to find a charging station?" Or food. Or water. Or some semblance of safety in a world gone mad.

"We'll check in every town. There's not a lot of them once you get past Fort Stockton." I nodded.

"It sounds like a solid plan."

"And all we have to do now is wait for Dad and Megan to get back?" Jack asked. Missy shrugged.

"It's late enough that we probably can't get started today. We could start asking around in the enclave to see if anyone wants to volunteer, but I'm not sure we'll find anyone." She wobbled a hand in the air.

"It's not that they wouldn't want to help, but almost every adult here is a parent, and most of them have responsibilities to the town. Pulling away one of Emma's EMT friends to stand watch on a gate for hours feels like…" Her words trailed off.

"A poor use of her resources," I filled in for her.

"I've got ideas about some people I could ask, so maybe I'll get on with that." I pushed my chair away from the table and stood.

"I'll meet you back here first thing in the morning? It'll be earlier in Texas, so sometime after sunrise there. Say 8AM here? And we can get started then?"

"Sounds great," Missy replied.

"I'll make sure we're ready to go."

"Do you want company?" Jack said, starting to stand.

"Pen and I could come with, help out?" My instinctive response was, "Oh, hell, no," but I managed not to let the words out. I liked Jack. I liked Pen. Honestly, most of the people I'd dealt with in the past few days had their good points, even the ones I hadn't been so sure about at first. Okay, not Bryce and Dale, obviously. But I was craving some time alone, so I smiled and said, "Nah, I'm good. Get some rest. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day."