Some surrendered. Others appeared all too eager to fight.
I weaved through the crowd, trying not to make eye contact or get too close to anyone. I was sure they could tell I had a better chance of surviving all this. I had a map to a top-secret bunker
and money strapped to me like a bulletproof vest. I couldn’t tell if they were infected with some bio-sickness or if their pained expressions were just fear.
I decided to try another mode of transportation. I had to get out of here. By the time I hiked out to Avis and Hertz, their parking lots were empty. I meandered back via the parking garage. I
heard people bartering to be the sixth man in a Ford Fiesta bound for Flagstaff.
Back in the terminal, I told myself to think short-term, not long-term. It was the opposite of what my mum was always trying to convince me to do. I couldn’t sit here and wait for the
airport to re-open. I was itching to be on the road – away from all these people who now felt like nothing more than conduits of disease and death.
I focused on what I needed to do and not on what was going on all around me. It was a gift. The Isis Ann Murray action figure came with built-in blinkers. I’d refused to see the impending
break-up with Tristan, even when Lola had told me she’d seen him kissing Molly ‘Ho’ Andersen. I wouldn’t consider that my parents might divorce even though they’d had
separate bedrooms for nearly a year. But it was hard, even for me, to overlook the fact that something ginormously horrific was going on.
The only way I was ever going to get through this was to pretend it wasn’t happening. The world wouldn’t end on some random Friday night. I mean, we were only a few weeks away from
the
American Idol
finale. I had to graduate and have sex – at the very minimum.
Just get to Vegas
, I told myself, and it will all be OK. My parents will come and get me and tell me this has been an extreme misunderstanding and my life will get back to normal.
I didn’t know it then but
OK
and
normal
were already long gone.
Chapter Six
‘Everything happens for a reason. You just may never know what it is.’
– Just Saying 76
BECKETT
W hen Beckett wakes the next day, his first thought is of the mysterious girl. Before his eyes open, he can see her there as if she is waiting for
him. Like the sun, he travels a daily unalterable path from morning to night. Breakfast. Walk the Mountain with Harper. Sayings for the rockstars. Lunch. Meditation and counselling. Sayings for the
sick. Dinner. Storytime. Patrol the Mountain with Harper and Finch. Every day he lives for others. But today, for the first time in his life, he is doing something for himself.
‘I’m going to meditate near the Crown,’ he tells Harper, who always sleeps between him and Finch.
‘I’ll come with you.’ Harper is fully awake and wrapping a scarf around her neck.
‘I want to be alone.’ He sees the hurt in her eyes. Recently he’s found Harper’s desire to protect him stifling.
‘Do you think that’s safe?’ she whispers.
He glares at her, sending the message not to give away their secrets – the lights and the girl. ‘I want to be alone,’ he says again, a little too vehemently.
‘I’ve received a message from the Great I AM.’ And it’s not a complete lie. This desire to see the girl again could be a message from the Great I AM. He has asked for
guidance and understanding. An urge this powerful must be from the Great I AM.
Harper pokes Finch’s blankets with her toe. ‘Finch, let’s you and me . . .’ He’s not there. ‘Finch must be on patrol already.’
Beckett grits his teeth. Will he ever be alone?
‘See,’ he says, softening the angry edges of his voice, ‘I’ll be perfectly safe.’ As he stands, he gives Harper a kiss on the forehead.
The cave air is sour with sleep, warm bodies and stale smoke. Farther back in the cave, he can hear the rockstars beginning to wake. Atti is
I weaved through the crowd, trying not to make eye contact or get too close to anyone. I was sure they could tell I had a better chance of surviving all this. I had a map to a top-secret bunker
and money strapped to me like a bulletproof vest. I couldn’t tell if they were infected with some bio-sickness or if their pained expressions were just fear.
I decided to try another mode of transportation. I had to get out of here. By the time I hiked out to Avis and Hertz, their parking lots were empty. I meandered back via the parking garage. I
heard people bartering to be the sixth man in a Ford Fiesta bound for Flagstaff.
Back in the terminal, I told myself to think short-term, not long-term. It was the opposite of what my mum was always trying to convince me to do. I couldn’t sit here and wait for the
airport to re-open. I was itching to be on the road – away from all these people who now felt like nothing more than conduits of disease and death.
I focused on what I needed to do and not on what was going on all around me. It was a gift. The Isis Ann Murray action figure came with built-in blinkers. I’d refused to see the impending
break-up with Tristan, even when Lola had told me she’d seen him kissing Molly ‘Ho’ Andersen. I wouldn’t consider that my parents might divorce even though they’d had
separate bedrooms for nearly a year. But it was hard, even for me, to overlook the fact that something ginormously horrific was going on.
The only way I was ever going to get through this was to pretend it wasn’t happening. The world wouldn’t end on some random Friday night. I mean, we were only a few weeks away from
the
American Idol
finale. I had to graduate and have sex – at the very minimum.
Just get to Vegas
, I told myself, and it will all be OK. My parents will come and get me and tell me this has been an extreme misunderstanding and my life will get back to normal.
I didn’t know it then but
OK
and
normal
were already long gone.
Chapter Six
‘Everything happens for a reason. You just may never know what it is.’
– Just Saying 76
BECKETT
W hen Beckett wakes the next day, his first thought is of the mysterious girl. Before his eyes open, he can see her there as if she is waiting for
him. Like the sun, he travels a daily unalterable path from morning to night. Breakfast. Walk the Mountain with Harper. Sayings for the rockstars. Lunch. Meditation and counselling. Sayings for the
sick. Dinner. Storytime. Patrol the Mountain with Harper and Finch. Every day he lives for others. But today, for the first time in his life, he is doing something for himself.
‘I’m going to meditate near the Crown,’ he tells Harper, who always sleeps between him and Finch.
‘I’ll come with you.’ Harper is fully awake and wrapping a scarf around her neck.
‘I want to be alone.’ He sees the hurt in her eyes. Recently he’s found Harper’s desire to protect him stifling.
‘Do you think that’s safe?’ she whispers.
He glares at her, sending the message not to give away their secrets – the lights and the girl. ‘I want to be alone,’ he says again, a little too vehemently.
‘I’ve received a message from the Great I AM.’ And it’s not a complete lie. This desire to see the girl again could be a message from the Great I AM. He has asked for
guidance and understanding. An urge this powerful must be from the Great I AM.
Harper pokes Finch’s blankets with her toe. ‘Finch, let’s you and me . . .’ He’s not there. ‘Finch must be on patrol already.’
Beckett grits his teeth. Will he ever be alone?
‘See,’ he says, softening the angry edges of his voice, ‘I’ll be perfectly safe.’ As he stands, he gives Harper a kiss on the forehead.
The cave air is sour with sleep, warm bodies and stale smoke. Farther back in the cave, he can hear the rockstars beginning to wake. Atti is
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