Half a minute later another reaper appeared. He stepped out of a pocket of dense shadows where no one had apparently noticed him. He was a tough, unsmiling young man with intense dark eyes. He walked to the spot where Mother Rose and Brother Alexi had stood. Even from all the way up in the plane, Benny could see the muscles bunch at the corners of his jaw and the rigid lines of muscle definition that stood out on his arms as he clenched his fists. Benny wasn’t sure if he had ever seen anyone that totally and utterly furious.

The man spat on the ground where Mother Rose had stood, then turned and melted like the specter of murder into the forest.

Benny and Nix stared for a long time at the empty clearing.

“What the hell was that all about?” breathed Nix.

Benny shook his head. “I don’t have the slightest idea.”

Chapter 58

58

BEFORE THEY SET OUT TO FIND THE OTHERS, JOE WENT OVER THE FUNCTIONS of the quad with Lilah. She didn’t ask why. It was practical information shared from one fighter to another. It was what Tom would have done.

“This thing will go all day long without much fuel,” he explained. “Runs on ethanol, and the reapers had a tanker of the stuff.”

“Had?”

“I, um, borrowed it from them,” he explained. “Got it hid in an arroyo a few miles from here. When we find your friends, we’ll see about borrowing a few more quads. Beats the heck out of walking everywhere.”

“How come these machines work? I thought the EMPs . . . ?”

“They blew out a lot of stuff, but not everything. I’ve been to places where people have cars—well, had cars. Gasoline wasn’t made to last more than a year or two, and by now it’s all bad. Only things still running are vehicles that used to run on ethanol. There are plenty of cornfields left. Saw a couple of junkers powered by hand-crank generators, solar panels, and even a few with little mini wind turbines. They only get up to about ten miles an hour, but that still beats walking.”

Lilah drove the machine around the big boulders a few times while Joe watched, nodding his approval. Grimm gave a single deep bark to show that he, too, was impressed.

Joe waved her to a stop and switched off the machine. “Okay, you’re good to go, and your bandages aren’t leaking, so that’s good too. I won’t ask if you feel fit enough to pull a trigger. Already know that answer.”

She nodded. “I don’t want to have to fight these people,” she said. “I want to find my friends and continue on our way.”

“Yeah, about that,” Joe said. “You never really told me why four teenagers are way the heck out in the Ruin. It’s not the place for a class trip.”