Page 6 of Mistaken

The worried expression Lindsay had been wearing ever since she arrived at City Hall eased itself somewhat. “Oh, that’s good,” she replied. “Then at least it won’t be totally brand-new for you.” She paused there, because Carson had finally deigned to show up and had paused in the doorway to the conference room. Tone growing a little sharp, she added, “Nice of you to drop in.”

He’d been smiling faintly, and his expression didn’t slip even the slightest bit as he replied, “Sorry I’m a little late. Things got away from me this morning.”

Considering how perfectly styled his hair looked, Sarah guessed that his lateness had everything to do with his elaborate grooming habits and not any kind of external complications. He’d been like that the entire time they’d been together, always hogging their small home’s single bathroom, taking what felt like ungodly amounts of time to get ready for the day.

Why he’d felt the need to look so polished for their mission, she had absolutely no idea. Most days, she just pulled her long brown hair back into a ponytail because she didn’t see the need to do anything more with it…especially since she was working all the time and needed to keep it out of the way. Back in the before time, she’d taken a lot more care with her appearance, obviously, because she’d never known when she might bump into someone who was connected to a casting director or even active in local community theater. Granted, the chances of that happening in Albuquerque were a lot lower than they would have been in L.A., but still, she’d never wanted to waste an opportunity.

And it had paid off at least once, as she’d gotten a part in a local commercial just because she’d run into the producer while waiting in line at the co-op in Nob Hill.

Sometimes, you just never knew.

“It’s fine,” Lindsay said, although something in her tone let Sarah know that it actually wasn’t all that fine. “Here’s a map you can use to help you get around.”

She picked up the map that was still folded and handed it over to Carson, who didn’t even bother to open it up, but merely stuck it in the backpack he had slung over one shoulder.

Well, it wasn’t as though he was going to need the thing right away, not with Lindsay driving them to La Chuachia so they’d only have to walk for about a day before they reached their respective destinations.

“And also trail rations for five days, and some canteens,” she went on, pointing toward the supplies that had also been stacked on the table.

Carson and Sarah both moved forward to take their share, although she found herself hoping she wouldn’t need quite as much as Lindsay had provided. True, it would take one day to hike in and another to hike out, with one sandwiched in between for exploring and taking notes, but five days’ worth of supplies seemed a little excessive.

Then again, they were going into territory that, if not precisely uncharted, still hadn’t been explored for several years, and there was no way of knowing exactly what they might encounter. Better to play it safe.

“We might as well get going,” Lindsay continued after the two volunteers had stuffed their backpacks, although this time she kept her attention more on Sarah than she did on Carson, another sign that she wasn’t too thrilled with the way he’d sauntered in here so late. “Miles had to take Dylan to the lab because I couldn’t find anyone else to watch him on such short notice, and I don’t even want to think what kind of trouble those two could get into.”

Sarah managed to keep her mouth from twitching. Although she’d never been asked to watch Miles and Lindsay’s young son, she’d heard horror stories. Or rather, he seemed like a pretty typical three-year-old…well, an exceptionally smart typical three-year-old…and that was enough to convince her she wanted to stay far away. It wasn’t that she had a problem with anyone who was doing their best to repopulate the world, but rather that, as an only child, she didn’t have much experience with little kids and was just fine with keeping it that way for the time being.

And although it seemed as though Miles was a very good father — something Sarah found a little surprising, considering how focused he was on his work — she had to admit that leaving the two of them unsupervised in the lab for any length of time probably wasn’t a good idea.

Even Carson seemed to realize it was better not to comment, because he kept his mouth shut as they walked out to the parking lot, where Lindsay’s Volvo SUV was waiting for them. He went straight for the front passenger seat, and once again, Sarah found herself trying her hardest not to roll her eyes. True, he was much taller than she and therefore should have been the one to ride shotgun, but he could have at least asked.

That wasn’t really his style, though, so she allowed herself an inner sigh of resignation as she got into the back seat and buckled her seatbelt. At least she’d sat down behind Lindsay and had more legroom than she would have if she’d taken the position directly behind Carson.

With them all strapped in, Lindsay pulled out of the parking lot and headed down Highway 30 toward Española. Rather than follow the route they usually took, however, going into the heart of town, she followed 285 along its outskirts, positioning them to head roughly northwest toward Abiquiu.

Sarah hadn’t gone this way for quite a while, and she found herself scanning her surroundings with interest. True, there wasn’t a huge amount to see, only shabby houses and businesses that hadn’t improved much after five years of standing empty.

That wasn’t entirely fair, though. In empty lots, community gardens were green with young corn and squash and beans, and some of the homes had obviously been worked on, too, with fresh paint and newly mended fences. It would take years for an appreciable number of houses here to be occupied, but she could tell that the Los Alamos community was taking its expansion plans seriously.

Which made her wonder why moving out toward Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch was even that necessary, considering how many homes were available in Española. Then again, this wasn’t only about housing, but also increasing arable land so food would never be an issue…and that didn’t even take into account the fishing the Rio Chama would provide to supplement what they already caught in the Rio Grande.

Sooner than Sarah would have liked, Lindsay stopped in La Chuachia, right where the two highways diverged from one another. “I’ll be back here on Saturday morning,” she said, then reached into her vehicle’s console so she could extract a pair of walkie-talkies. “These are fully charged, and they should last for up to forty-eight hours or even more if you don’t use them too much.”

She handed one to Carson and the other to Sarah, who took it with some reluctance. While she understood the need to keep in contact with her fellow volunteer, she still didn’t like the idea of him calling and bugging her whenever he felt like it.

On the other hand, she’d probably be pretty glad to have the thing if she slipped and fell, or ran into a pack of coyotes or something.

Not that coyotes were usually too much to worry about. However, there had been a couple of wolf sightings in the area this past winter, and while the animals might have ranged farther north with the approach of summer — no one had seen any wolves for months now — that still didn’t mean she should let down her guard.

Well, she had a large hunting knife on her belt, and while she hadn’t brought a gun along…mostly because she knew she wasn’t a very good shot and had decided carrying might be inviting trouble…it also wasn’t as though she was completely defenseless.

Carson was smiling as he thanked Lindsay and put the walkie-talkie in his backpack. No doubt he was already thinking about how he could use it to bother her during her hike, and Sarah knew she’d have to resist the temptation to turn hers off entirely.

“We’ll meet you back here around ten on Saturday, then,” she said, after a glance down at her watch to double-check the time. Back in the day, she hadn’t worn a watch very much because she’d used her phone to see what time it was, but in this post-Dying world, cell phones were pretty paperweights and not much more.

“Good luck,” Lindsay said. “If you encounter anything weird, though, come back early. It’ll be more of a hike for you, but someone in Española will be able to patch a call through to City Hall. No point in using the walkie-talkies — they don’t have the range.”

Definitely not, since even Abiquiu was more than fifty miles away from Los Alamos, and Ghost Ranch farther still.

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