Storm of Locusts

Chapter 40

We head to the parking lot at a run, Ben doing her best to keep up. Sure enough, the big black SUVs that stood sentinel at the entrance earlier are gone. But there’s a dune buggy, a little two-seater meant for doing maintenance work or gardening around the compound grounds. It’s not much more than an engine and a chassis on four massive wheels with a roll bar across the top. A quick search of the key box by the front door reveals several sets of keys, and Ben and I grab the handful that are left still hanging on tiny hooks. I pick a key that looks like it might fit, but no luck. I keep going, moving through the likely suspects until I find the right one. One turn and the engine growls to life. Ben dumps our packs in the back and starts to hop in the passenger’s side.

“I want you to drive,” I tell her, stepping out of from behind the wheel.

“You do?” Her face lights up.

“I may need to move quickly, and I don’t want to be stuck. Besides, the sword doesn’t fit, and I’m not taking it off. I’ll sit in the back and scout for trouble.” I position myself along the open back wall of the vehicle as Ben slides into the driver’s seat. “Give me the shotgun too,” I tell her. “Just in case.”

She does as she’s told. Puts the vehicle in drive with only the slightest grinding of gears.

“Sorry,” she says, but she’s smiling, damn close to happy. I find myself smiling too, glad I could distract her from having the relive the horrors of her life. But my smile vanishes when she hits the accelerator. I lunge for the roll bar to keep from falling out the back.

“Slowly, Ben!” I shout. “Won’t do us any good if you kill me first.”

Her next try has us pulling out of the driveway smoothly and then gaining speed as we head down the narrow road away from the Amangiri and down the road toward Page. At the top of a rise, I think I can see the lights of the dam in the distance, and farther east than that, the sky starting to lighten from black to indigo, a thin band of white signaling that dawn is close. Way I figure it, we’ve got an hour tops before sunrise. Not a lot of time.

I tap on Ben’s shoulder. She looks back at me.

“Go ahead and open her up. Let’s see what she can do.”

She laughs and gives me a thumbs-up. I grab the roll bar with both hands as the buggy lurches forward. We take a sand dune at speed, and for a moment we’re airborne. I grit my teeth as my ass lifts off my already precarious perch and I come down hard enough to rattle my bones. Ben laughs, a wild joy, and I find myself grinning again as we go flying across the desert like a shotgun blast straight out of hell.