In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis Read Free Book Online Page B

inevitable.
    Lucy cleared her throat. “Lynn told me about your mom, that she . . . she . . .”
    “Sold out on me?” Carter tossed a stick into the stream, and they heard the splash without seeing it. “Big surprise there.”
    “I’m sorry about it.”
    Carter shrugged. “Vera said you and Lynn are leaving.”
    “Yeah, she thinks . . .” She paused, measuring her words. “Did she tell you it might be me?”
    “She said so, but I don’t believe it.”
    “Why not?”
    Carter looked at her across the space dividing them, his gaze so intense she felt her pulse jump. “I can feel it in me, Lucy,” he said, his voice barely audible over the swaying tree branches. “Sick or not, I feel it. And I feel the weight of all those dead little kids on me.”
    Lucy thought of Lynn, who had held her and sworn she had nothing to feel guilty about, her own conviction burning bright enough for the two of them. Carter had no one, and she was forbidden from comforting him. The silence between them had grown thick, and she didn’t know how to break it.
    “So what are you going to do?” Carter asked. “Where are you going? South?”
    Lucy shook her head. “Lynn said the only thing we’d get away from in the south is the winters, and we’d be giving up more than that by leaving the pond. I guess a long time ago my uncle Eli told her California is still, you know . . . normal.”
    “Normal, huh?” Carter smiled and threw another stick into the creek. “What’s that mean?”
    “Eli told her because they’d built a bunch of desalinization plants to make ocean water drinkable, so they weren’t hurt bad by the Shortage.”
    “A drinkable ocean? That’s a lot of water.”
    “And no winters, from what Stebbs and Grandma say.”
    “Sounds like heaven.”
    “It could be,” Lucy said. “But getting there’ll be hell. There’s a lot between me and it.”
    “And I’ve never known you to back down,” Carter said. “The only thing bigger than the world is fear, Lucy. Don’t let it get the best of you.”
    “What about you ? What are you going to do?”
    Carter stood up and stretched, his long arm muscles gleaming in the white moonlight. “Oh, I figured I’d find some old ugly hermit somewhere, spit in his mouth, and see if he gets sick.”
    “That’s a great plan, buddy,” Lucy said.
    “I had real plans once, you know?” Carter said. “I was starting to think maybe you and me, we could have a little place of our own, someday.”
    “Yeah. I was starting to think that too,” Lucy said, tears catching in her throat.
    They looked at each across the void they could not bridge, their silent, saltwater good-byes streaming down their faces.
    “You should go,” Carter said abruptly, turning away from her. “Stay safe, stay with Lynn. Name a baby after me.”
    “Shit,” Lucy choked. “I’ll name two.”
    “Now that’s just stupid.”
    Lucy laughed through her tears, and he turned around. “Go on now, Lucy. It’s not going to get any easier.”
    She turned and ran through the woods, crashing through the underbrush and into the wet grass that whipped at her legs. The cold night air felt like it would burst her lungs but she kept running, sprinting past the still bodies of the sick.
    The four of them stood in an awkward circle as the sun came up. Stebbs and Vera with their arms around each other, Lucy and Lynn weighed down by their packs.
    “You’ve got everything, now? You double-checked your bullets?” Stebbs asked Lynn. She had her rifle strapped to her back, a handgun at her side.
    “You gave me enough ammunition to kill every stranger between here and the West Coast,” Lynn said, hunching her shoulders against the weight of her pack.
    “Good Lord, don’t shoot everyone you meet,” Vera said.
    “Not right away, anyway,” Stebbs added.
    Lynn looked over at Lucy. “You ready?”
    “I am,” Lucy said. She almost wished Stebbs and Vera had not come. Good-bye had been hard enough