Blood Red Road
back the way we come from.
Jack holds the thing to his eyes. It’s made of black plastic. He looks through the narrow end an now I see there’s two big circles of glass at th’other, wider, end. He twirls a little knob in the middle.
What the hell’s that? I says.
It’s a long-looker, says Jack. Lets you see things far off in the distance.
Wrecker tech! I says.
As a matter of fact, it’s mighty useful, he says. Picked it up back in Hopetown. It’s amazin what people leave lyin around. You don’t come across these very often an them you do find ain’t usually in one piece.
He takes a good long gander, sweepin it right across the horizon.
I cain’t see nuthin untoward, Em, he says. Here, Saba, you wanna take a look?
He hands it over an I hold it to my eyes. All of a sudden, the little copse that we passed through a half hour back rushes right up close to me. I can see every leaf on every branch on every tree.
Whoa! I give Jack a big smile. That’s amazin!
He stares at me, a funny look on his face. That’s the first time I ever seen you smile, he says.
I scowl at him. Whaddya mean? I says. I smile all the time.
No you don’t, Emmi pipes up. You used to, when Lugh was around, but ever since he went, you bin all mean an cross an horrible an—
All right, I says, that’s enough.
I was only sayin—
Well, don’t!
I lift the long-looker to my eyes agin an make a good check of everywhere I can see.
Nuthin, I says at last. There ain’t nobody followin us. Next time you imagine you see somethin, Emmi, do us all a favor an keep it to yerself.
She pinches her lips together tight, wheels Joy around an pushes past me, her chin in the air.
Jack opens his mouth to say somethin, an I point my finger at him.
Don’t even think of it, I says. She’s my sister an I’ll talk to her any way I want.
He turns Ajax an walks him past me.
She’s nine years old, he says. Give her a break.
Nero caws at me. Like he’s repeatin what Jack jest said. I stare at Jack’s back. How strange. Almost the ezzack same words Lugh said me, that last day when we was fixin the roof.
She’s only nine, Saba. You might try bein nice to her fer a change .
Lugh. Jack. Emmi. I frown. It’s makin my head hurt.
I’ll think about it later.
Jack’s hand on my arm wakes me. It must be my turn on watch. He took the first half of the night an I’ll take us through till dawn. Right away, I’m wide awake, sittin up. His eyes gleam in the darkness.
You let the fire go out, I whisper.
No, I put it out, he whispers back.
What’d you do that—
Emmi was right, he says.
What?
There’s a light on the ridge.
My heart starts thumpin. I slide outta my bedroll. Show me, I says.
Tonight we’re camped on a hill at the foot of a light tower. There’s a line of ’em, marchin across a wide mountain plateau towards the ruins of a big Wrecker city, about three leagues due north of here. You can see the rusted iron skellentons of the tall buildins in the distance. Skyscrapers, they used to call ’em.
Jack scrambles up the leg of the light tower an I follow him. We go high enough to git a good view an then he hands me the long-looker.
There, he says. He points south, back the way we come from.
I look through it. Light. Faint. Flickerin on the ridge that we came over this mornin … no, yesterday mornin now.
A campfire, I says.
They lit it jest after midnight, he says. I bin watchin an it ain’t moved since.
They must be camped fer the night, I says.
Maybe, he says.
We cain’t be th’only people travelin through here, I says. It’s probly fine.
Jest then, the light goes out. Then another one appears. But this one’s movin. It bobs over the ridge an starts down. It’s headed this way.
That don’t look fine to me, says Jack.
Let’s wake Emmi an git outta here, I says.
Good plan, he says.
We ride into the dead city jest as the sun’s startin to rise up.
Sometimes Pa used to tell us about the big Wrecker cities that sprawled over leagues an leagues. Lugh an me always thought he was tellin us tall tales, but it looks like he was right. The remains of a vast city, spread out across this plateau in the mountains.
A long straight trackway, a old road covered now in grass an low shrubs, lies ahead of us as far as the eye can see. The rusted iron skellentons of skyscrapers, the ones that we seen in the distance, line both sides of the road. Other roads lead off from the main one, like branches on a tree.
You
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