Carry the Flame Read Free Page B

couldn’t have been more than three feet from me and the kids.”
    â€œI thought I heard one but I wasn’t sure till I saw the tracks.”
    â€œThey could have taken Bliss and Jaya,” she said. “They’re gone.”
    He nodded. “But I doubt the tank took them. That crew couldn’t see any better than us. The electronics in those things are shot to hell. They don’t have any night vision, but they do have firepower that could blow us all to hell.” He spoke from experience: his hand had been burned decades ago after commandeering an M4 Sherman. “No, those kids are out there. That’s my thinking.”
    â€œYou been out looking?”
    â€œYup, and they could have been sucked up to the sky for the tracks I could find, except for those things.” He snorted at the tread marks. “You can bet that tank’s looking all over for us, blasting their flamethrowers every chance they get. You smell those bodies?” He glanced at the smoke above Augustus’s camp. The black missionary kept his eyes averted.
    â€œYou sure that’s what it is?” Jessie asked. The scent, like the smoke, had thinned; and she couldn’t stop herself from hoping.
    â€œAre you kidding? You never forget it.” Burned Fingers held up his scarred hand.
    She forced herself to rally: “We’re going to search for Bliss, Jaya. They would have tried to escape the storm somehow.” She looked at Augustus. “You know this area, right?”
    â€œSure, but if my people are still there,” he raised his eyes to the pall, “they’ll know who’s around.”
    â€œThat’s a big ‘if,’ ” Burned Fingers said.
    â€œWe’re not leaving here without my daughter,” Jessie asserted.
    â€œIt might be revenge,” Augustus said, as if he’d never heard her; his eyes were emptier than ever. “They saw me with you.” He meant at the battle to rescue the girls. “They couldn’t miss me, and they’re looking everywhere for us. My camp would have been a target. If they took that thing—” He stopped talking when his eyes landed on the tank tracks. Sorrow never sounded deeper.
    â€œSorry, Augustus,” Burned Fingers said, “but my guess is that they did their burning and were heading back when they passed this way. It’s the most obvious route, right? But if I were doing this . . .”
    Meaning, when you were doing this, Jessie thought, roiled by the abrupt reminder of the man he had been.
    â€œ. . . I would have left the sickest fuck I had behind, in case whatever I was looking for showed up. There are only so many places you can drive with a truck full of gas, and they know that. And I’d tell that sick fuck to get word to me right away. So the longer we stand around here, the worse it could get.” Burned Fingers leveled his eyes on Jessie. “I’d also be picking off stragglers. You can use them in all kinds of ways. Our best option is to move on, the sooner the better.”
    â€œNo way. We’re searching.”
    â€œEvery minute we stay gives them more time.”
    â€œWe don’t even know if there’s a ‘sick fuck’ out there. We might have some time.”
    â€œYou smelled it. No sick fuck? Are you kidding? I wouldn’t go betting any farm in the Arctic on that.” Burned Finger’s voice rose, and a baby in the van began to wail. “The Alliance is doing everything they can to get that tanker back. Look at that.” He pointed his sawed-off at the tracks. “They sent a tank after us. Me, you, him?” He glanced at Augustus. “They might give up on us, but not a truck full of gas. They might not see the likes of that for another year. Two. I knew we never should have stopped once we had that thing.”
    â€œAnd what? Leave my friends behind? The ones who survived your attack, so maybe they could be