Rootless by Chris Howard Read Free Book Online Page A

was a half of myself that had always been there. And I’d become stretched and faded with that other half gone.
    “You reckon that place is Zion,” I said. “But the way my dad’s chained up in that picture sure don’t make it look like paradise.”
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    “It matters to me.”
    “But if people have been there,” Zee said. “If they’ve found it, then we can get there, too.”
    “Or Frost can,” I said, thinking about that room of his, full of maps and books. “Man must have a plan.”
    “Crow’s got him convinced Zion’s out there.” She pointed behind us. “Across the water. But they’re waiting on something before they set off.”
    “What they waiting on?”
    “Beats me. It’s only because Frost thinks I’m stupid I know anything at all.”
    “And what do they aim to do if they get there?”
    “You kidding? People will pay a whole lot for a little slice of Zion.”
    “Is that what you want? Find the Promised Land so you can sell it off?”
    “I just want to breathe clean air.” She jabbed a thumb at her wheezy chest. “Find a place to be free.”
    “With that bastard Frost?”
    “Not if I find a way to get rid of him.”
    “Maybe you should just keep running.”
    “With nowhere to go and nothing to eat?”
    “Then maybe you’re as free as you’re ever gonna get.”
    “What?” Zee sneered. “You think you’re free? Roaming around in your rusty wagon and scraping for something to eat. You’re not free. No one is. Not as long as GenTech’s the only ones who can grow anything.”
    “There could be fruit trees,” I said. “They could be fruit trees in that picture.”
    “And who knows what else might be growing?”
    “Well, wherever there is, you’d have to stay put. Locusts keep to the cornfields, but they might make an exception, you give them a new place to nest.”
    “Find Zion and I’d never leave. Never.”
    “Not if they chain you to the damn trees.” I thought about Pop. And then I stared across at Zee. “I need you to tell me about the coordinates.”
    She smiled, but not at me. It was like she’d gotten something she wanted, and she sank back into her seat. “I’m not telling you anything else, tree builder. But if you want my help, then you can do what I say.”
    “What the hell’s that mean?”
    “It means we’re a team. We work together as long as it makes sense. One of us needs to do our own thing, the team’s over. Right then.”
    “Sure,” I said. “Works fine for me.”
    “Then step on it. Crow will be in shantytown this morning.”
    I slammed on the brakes, though the shacks were still a good ways in the distance. “Crow?”
    “Yeah. Today’s when he drops my mother off with the Tripnotyst.” She stifled a cough. “Her weekly appointment.”
    “You want to talk to Crow?”
    “No.” Zee shook her head. “I want to get my mother back.”
    “We can come back for her later,” I said, thinking about my dad and the old Rasta’s warning. “Race this crowded, we need all the head start we can get.”
    “We’re not leaving her behind, tree builder. Frost’s got her shattered and strung out on crystal, but she’s still my mother.” Zee glared at me. “And we’re gonna need her if we’re gonna find us those trees.”

The tattoo. That’s what Zee said we needed. But that’s about all she would say about it.
    I left the wagon stashed at the scrap farm and the guy there told me he’d keep his eye on it. I didn’t tell him I had a freaky old Rasta buried in the back of the car. Didn’t tell him I was planning to go kidnap me someone else, neither.
    Zee was dressed in one of Pop’s old shirts, my extra goggles hiding a good part of her face and an old rag wound around the rest of it. I padded an extra bit of cloth against her nose and mouth, doing what I could for her busted lungs.
    I’d never walked that stretch of shantytown before, and it wasn’t so much that it looked different than it did through the car