“I know whose idea it was,” she said, looking blackly at Joss, who cowered under her glare. Lynn sighed and looked back at Lucy.
“Don’t kill him,” Lucy said. “What good would it do?”
“They know you can dowse.”
“I won’t tell nobody, honest.” The rider moved to cross his heart, but Lynn trained her gun on him.
“I really think I should shoot him,” Lynn said.
Lucy glanced down at Joss, who was sitting up and cradling an obviously broken ankle. “Save your bullets,” Lucy said.
Lynn looked between the rider and the man with the broken leg, who was still trying to crawl east. “I’m taking your horses,” she said. “Pick your buddy up off the ground. I see any of your people following us, you’re the first person I shoot.”
“Understood,” the man said curtly, sliding down off his horse and handing the reins over to Lynn. He motioned to Joss. “What about her?”
Lynn looked at Joss with a hardness in her eyes Lucy had never seen before. “She’s staying here. Just like that.”
Joss moaned and tried to grab Lucy’s leg, but she stepped out of reach. Lynn walked away from the fallen riders without another glance, handed the reins of one horse to Lucy, and gathered the two remaining, walking past Joss as if she wasn’t there.
“Please, Lynn, listen to me,” Joss pleaded, as Lynn walked by. “Don’t leave me here. I can’t walk.”
Lynn didn’t answer and motioned to Lucy to get on her horse as she mounted her own, draping the reins of the riderless horse around her pommel. Lucy bit down against the pain as she pulled herself awkwardly into the saddle. Fresh blood broke through the honey coating her wound, the bitter metallic smell mixing with the sweet tang of honey. As they rode past Joss, Lucy glanced down to see a bloody streak of bone sticking out above her foot, already attracting flies.
“Lynn? Lynn!” Joss’ voice cracked as she pleaded. “Leave me the horse, at least. You’ve got an extra horse—just leave me the goddamn horse!”
Lucy dug her heels into her horse, and it moved faster, Lynn’s picking up the pace beside her. A cry of rage ripped the air, and a shower of dirt and pebbles rained down on them as they rode away. Joss kept screaming Lynn’s name, but the next fistful of rocks didn’t reach them.
“Lucy! LUCY!!!”
Lucy jammed her fingers into her ears and began humming the only song Lynn had ever taught her, but Joss’s next scream was so strong she could feel the vibrations of it. They were well past the chance of her hearing anything when Lucy finally uncovered her ears.
“Don’t look back, little one,” Lynn said. “Don’t look back, and don’t think on it.”
Fourteen
Riding jostled Lucy’s shoulder less than walking, and the burn of injury faded to the itch of healing before they crossed into Illinois. Lynn’s badly sewn stitches had been replaced with much apology and more awkward stitches, but they did the trick. The horses ate up the miles with ease, jauntily switching their tails to keep the flies away as they walked. They acclimated to their new riders much easier than Lucy and Lynn did to riding. Muscles they hadn’t known existed were sore after only a day in the saddle.
Heat and humidity fell on them like a blanket, wringing the sweat from their bodies and soaking their clothing through before mid morning. They rested the horses more often, taking the heavy saddles from their backs and nestling under shade trees until the horses wandered back to them, tired of grazing and ready to move once more.
The steady clip-clop of their hooves hypnotized Lucy in the heat of the afternoons, causing her thoughts to stray. Carter weighed heavily on her mind, his illness and the possibility that he wouldn’t carry it forever tucked away in a secret spot in her heart. Lulled by the road, she let herself imagine a future where she and Carter sat side by side on a beach. The feeling of hope that blossomed was always stifled by the midday heat, and the heavy air made breathing feel like work.
The heat was their enemy as much as the men with guns had been. The water left their bodies in streams of sweat, evaporating from their hot flesh so quickly Lucy swore she saw Lynn steaming at one point. Lucy’s mind wandered toward home, where the heat wave undoubtedly stretched, giving the polio that lingered a fresh gasp of life in the hot, heavy air.
She saw bodies in her mind as she rode westward; memories of real ones, friends from home whose corpses she’d helped burn. There were imagined ones too. Her mind played with the possibility of death touching everyone she’d known, leaving Stebbs and Vera alone. They were inoculated from the virus, but not the guns of strangers.