Hell's Fortress by Daniel Wallace, Michael Wallace Read Free Book Online

a little compassion,” Eliza urged. “He just lost his brother.”
    “There will be time to mourn later. Right now, we’ve got to get off the road. For all we know, that thing is still up there. This is a crappy place to hide.”
    Miriam was right. They’d lost elevation as the bus tore south, and were now in the heart of the desert. Whatever crazy weather patterns had sent the monsoonal clouds spilling over the mountains the past year and a half hadn’t greened this stretch of desert. Cover was spotty—sagebrush and spiny plants, with sandstone boulders dropped here and there like a giant’s marbles.
    A sea of sand dunes lay to the south, with clumps of grass and brush struggling to anchor the edges. Snowcapped mountains of the Paunsaugunt Plateau glimmered twenty or thirty miles to the east, with white and coral sandstone bluffs and mesas like a broken tabletop between the mountains and the highway. West lay the mountains of the Markagunt Plateau, the highest peaks of the Grand Staircase that led all the way south to the Grand Canyon. Cedar City lay on the other side of those mountains. A bent speed limit sign hummed in the wind.
    They traveled west from the highway for several minutes until they found a sandstone outcrop to take shelter and assess their situation. A brown and tan gopher snake, resting in the shade, puffed itself, hissed, and vibrated its tail. Eliza started, then, seeing it wasn’t a rattler, ignored it until it slithered off.
    Trost touched the lump on his forehead. He looked stronger. “Sonofabitch pistol-whipped me.” He looked at Eliza, his eyes clearer than they’d been. “So what, wait here until dark and then make for home?”
    “The drones have infrared,” Miriam said. “Daylight, darkness, it doesn’t matter. If they’re watching the highway, it won’t matter how or when we return.”
    “So why did you tell us to leave the road?” Eliza asked.
    “Because you have a decision to make.”
    Trost’s scowl spread as he kept rubbing the lump. Grover also frowned, but his expression spoke of confusion.
    Eliza met Miriam’s gaze. “You have a baby waiting for you.”
    “There’s no shortage of wet nurses in the valley. She’ll be okay.” Miriam said it casually, but her voice was tight and Eliza knew she’d struck a nerve.
    “And Diego too,” Eliza added. Miriam and David’s adopted son had just turned twelve, young enough that he’d miss his mother when she was gone, but old enough to suffer grownup worries about her safety. “That’s two kids who need their mother. And what about David? He must be sick with worry.”
    “Getting murdered by a drone won’t help anyone feel any better. Heading west is safer.”
    “You know what you’re saying, right? Is this what you want?”
    “Doesn’t matter what I want or not. We can’t get home right now. So how do we make the best of it?”
    “That’s crazy,” Grover said. “We have to find a way back. What choice do we have?”
    “A big choice,” Trost said. He leaned back against the eroded sandstone. “We can take our chances walking home, or we can help Eliza.”
    “You mean go to California to look for her boyfriend? That’s crazy. The Lord is raining destruction upon the wicked. I’m not going out there. No way.”
    “If you go back, you do it alone,” Miriam told him. “The rest of us are sticking with Eliza. Right, Brother Trost?”
    “Don’t answer that,” Eliza told the man. “Miriam, that isn’t fair. To any of you and least of all to Grover.”
    “If you have objections,” Miriam said, “take them up with the Lord. It was His decision. He chose this company. Jacob made his vote, and God overrode him.”
    “That’s nonsense, and you know it. Trost, tell her.”
    “Oh, now you want him to speak up. Yes, Trost, tell me. Tell us all.”
    “I’m not telling anyone anything,” he said. “I’ve had one pistol-whipping and I don’t need another.”
    Miriam turned back to Eliza. “You don’t