Page 30 of Up in Smoke

I would never escape that one critical slip.

Saturday, June 13, 2043.

Antlers, Oklahoma.

The Alley.

With Alondra’skitten wearing a harness I’d scavenged together, Alondra’s favorite stuffed animal, which we’d rescued from the ruins of her home, and her mother’s jewelry box, we made the slow and painful walk from Blossom to Antlers. Without as many choirs driving the bad weather, we were able to almost predict Mother Nature’s fury.

An hour or so after sundown, she’d let rip, deluging the area with rain, thunderstorms, and the occasional twister. Two hours before sundown, we’d seek out shelter, usually in the form of a marked cellar along Old 271. As expected, no one lived along the route. We stumbled across the occasional skeletal remains of those who’d braved the Alley and had died trying, but beyond that, only a few animals thrived so far from the safety of Tulsa.

Within a day of leaving the boundary, Sandro bounced back to his usual, vibrant self, and he shared hauling duties with me. Whenever Alondra walked on her own, I took care to praise her. When she cried, I held her and did what I could to comfort her.

When she couldn’t walk any more but resisted the idea of being pulled in the wagon, Sandro and I took turns carrying her.

It had only taken three days for my fox to fall helplessly in love with the little girl, and I dreaded what we’d find in Antlers. The presence of intact buildings on the horizon implied people still lived in the area, and when we strolled down the road leading into the town, movement in the buildings did far more than imply life. Fighting the urge to just keep Alondra all to myself, I set the girl down and rubbed her shoulder. “All right, baby. You know these folks better than we do, so why don’t you see about your Unca Devons?”

Alondra inhaled, cupped her mouth, and screamed, “Unca Devons!”

I should have guessed the child would take the route of efficiency, putting her healthy lungs to use. Pepperoni woke up from her nap and stood up from her perch on the wagon.

A nearby door banged open, and a thin woman in mended clothes hurried out. “Alondra!”

Without missing a beat, the little girl ran forward and raised her arms to be picked up, a request the woman obeyed.

“Miss Jade and Mr. Sandro brought me here because a storm got Mama and Papa,” Alondra said, and in the waver of her voice, I understood the little girl fought to put on a brave face. “They helped me and Pepperoni, and when I said Unca Devons lived here, they brought us here. Miss Jade’s a fox, and Mr. Sandro is going to have to work very hard to convince miss Jade to be his wife.”

Yep. I would never escape that one critical slip. Sandro chuckled, and I gave up worrying about what I’d said, shrugging my acceptance of the inevitable. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”

“Bless your sweet hearts for bringing her here,” the woman replied. “I’m Ruby, and I’m one of the mommas of Antlers. Devons is at the cave making sure all the animals will have food and water for the night and doing the cleaning. You’ve come a long way to bring her here, and we don’t have much to repay you for your kindness.”

I waved my hand to dismiss the matter. “No repayment is needed. We were coming this way anyway. We’re headed to Tulsa.”

“Only bad news comes out of Tulsa now,” Ruby warned.

“I know, but it’s home.” I glanced at Sandro, who sighed and untied Pepperoni from the wagon, picking the kitten up and taking her over to Ruby and Alondra. Once Ruby had the kitten’s leash in her hand, Sandro set the animal down and retreated to my side. “We probably won’t stay long before heading to another quadrant, but I wanted to make sure Alondra made it here, and at that point, we decided to head on up to Tulsa.”

By painting our trip as an elaborate detour, I figured we’d dodge most suspicion.

Ruby relaxed, and she bobbed her head. “May as well at that point, then. Just be careful. The storms have been getting worse as of late, though we’ve gotten a respite. We don’t know how long it’ll last, but we’re doing the best we can with the time we have.”

“Smart,” I complimented, checking the sky. “Are there open cellars up the way?”

“Two hours down Old 3 in Darwin, you’ll find plenty of open cellars. That’s our stop when we do head north, and we make a point of marking them and checking them after bad blows. Right pity about Blossom, though. I reckon most either died in their beds or got trapped in their cellars. Bless your sweet, sweet hearts for doing what you could and at least bringing two out of there alive. Word from along the road had Blossom been flattened from a swarm once the boundary hopped, and we’d lost hope for everyone. Just no time to get anybody out, and you know how it is when the boundaries hop. Devons was heartbroken, fearin’ the worst about his brother and family. He’ll still have plenty of reason to mourn, but we’ve enough to take her in and make her at home.”

As I made certain to avoid unstable boundary crossings, I wasn’t all that clear on what happened to the places caught in the chaotic surge of magic, although I could make an educated guess. I also regretted I hadn’t been able to investigate every last place in Blossom, although we had done what we could to knock, peek inside the accessible cellars, and check for survivors.

I wondered if someone had said some prayer for little Alondra and her kitten, because the way I viewed it, her survival was a matter of miracles.

My fox whined over the idea of leaving the little girl behind, but she limited her discontent to that.

She understood the importance of family, and she wouldn’t steal someone else’s child, no matter how much she wanted to be the one to nurture Alondra. I forced myself to smile. “We’ll just be headed on through, then. Take good care of that sweet little girl.”

“You don’t want to stay for supper?” Ruby asked, her eyes widening in surprise.

“You’ve got two new mouths to feed without needing to worry about us, too. We’ve plenty, and the sooner we’re in Tulsa, the better off we’ll be.”

“God bless and watch over you,” Ruby said, bowing her head.