“I know,” Don whispered.
It was almost time.
Rodney said, “Do you feel that?”
“What?”
“I don’t know. I feel… lighter, somehow. My back doesn’t hurt as much as it did before. Shoulders and neck too. They feel better than they have in years.” He huffed out an amused breath. “Not that it’ll matter for long.”
Don paused, turning inward. He hadn’t noticed it before when he’d stepped out of the truck, too distracted by the ball lightning. Rodney was right: Hedidfeel lighter. Not as if the weight of all of life had suddenly lifted from his shoulders, but something close to it. For a moment, he felt younger than he had in years, all the earthly aches and pains seemingly melting away.
“Strange,” Don murmured.
It seemed as if the universe itself wasn’t done fucking with Rodney and Don. They took it slow down the roads, keeping an eye out for more weird things that they could not explain. As they continued on, that feeling of lightness only intensified. Don wondered what it would feel like to just… float away.
Hours left in their trip. Mere hours. So close Don could almost taste it. He did not look at the precious box sitting back on the shelf. He didn’t need to. He knew it was still there, safe and sound. Their surroundings weren’t yet familiar, but with any luck, they soon would be.
But then, near twilight, the RV began to shudder and shake. Smoke streamed from underneath the hood, filling the interior of the RV with a noxious stench. Rodney pulled off to the side of the road. The engine growled and snarled. Then it hitched once, twice, three times. A moment later, it died a groaning death, clicking and ticking until there was nothing but silence.
Rodney turned the key to the off position. Waited a moment. Tried to start the RV. The engine chugged but didn’t catch. He tried again. And again. And again. By the last time he tried, the engine didn’t make a sound.
“Gas?” Don asked, knowing that wasn’t the case.
Rodney shook his head in frustration. “Still have half a tank. It’s not that.”
“It’s the black hole.”
“Or we bought a shitty, decades-old RV that finally gave up the ghost.” Rodney scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t know. It feels like I don’t know anything anymore.” Without another word, he opened the door and got out. He moved around to the front of the RV and lifted the hood. More smoke bloomed upward and outward, Rodney waving his hand through it to try and make it dissipate. Don heard him digging around, cursing underneath his breath.
He was out there for a good fifteen minutes before he slammed the hood down. Looking at Don through the windshield, he shook his head. He looked exhausted.
Don got out of the RV and joined Rodney at the front. He was surprised when it felt like his foot took longer than it should have done to reach the ground. When he stood, he stretched, arms over his head. His back popped in ways it hadn’t since he was in his fifties, not young, but not quite old, either. He didn’t know why, but physically, he felt right as rain. The same couldn’t be said for the RV. “It’s dead?”
Rodney’s hands were balled into fists at his sides. “Think so. Even if I knew how to fix it, I don’t have any tools.”
Don gripped Rodney’s elbow, comfort for them both. “We still have a ways to go.”
Rodney hung his head. “Even if we started walking, we wouldn’t make it in time. I don’t even know what the nearest town is.”
“Brief, Washington,” Don said. “It’s a ghost town. Nothing there.”
“And the tower is… what. A hundred miles away?”
“A little over, yes.”
Rodney jerked his arm out of Don’s grip, spinning around. He slammed his hands on the hood of the RV over and over, teeth bared. Don could handle this. He’d rather Rodney be angry than dead in the eyes and heart like Amelia. He wondered where she was, what she was doing. Was she even still alive, or did she take Rodney’s advice and go to the barn herself? After all, she’d had two bullets left, or so she’d said.
Don let his husband have his anger, his rage. It would be unfair to try and take that from him. All of this was unfair. Every bit of it. They were close, so close, andthiswas how it ended? In failure. On the side of a forgotten road in Washington. Maybe if they’d gone faster. Maybe if they hadn’t stopped as much as they had, allowed themselves to become distracted by people. Good people. Bad people. All diversions, and for what? Yes, they’d seen little pockets of humanity, but what about whattheywanted? What about the reason they’d undertaken this journey in the first place?
“He wouldn’t blame us,” Don finally said. “Not because of this. We tried.”
Rodney scoffed. “Did we? Because it sure as shit feels like we waited until the end of the world to get our asses in gear. We could have done this last year. Or the year before. But no. We waited and waited and waited until we didn’t have a choice.”
“We’re here, aren’t we? Because we chose to be.”
“And it’s still not good enough. We’ve come up short, once again. Aren’t you tired of that feeling? That, no matter what you do, it won’t change a goddamn thing?” Spat out through gritted teeth. Not angry with Don, just… angry.
Don said, “We just need to think. There must be a house around here. Multiple houses. If we can find one, we can find a car. Andif we can find a car, we can make it. I know we can. It’ll take time we don’t have but we have to try.”