Page 92 of Heart of the Sun

My heart had dropped as he’d spoken. Gangs were staking claim to homes? Whole neighborhoods?

I heard the rumble of an engine and turned toward the sound. The man stopped and looked back at us. “If you have anything of value on you, I’d hide,” he said, and then he darted between two houses and disappeared.

Anything of value.That phrase had recently taken on a whole new meaning.

I pulled Emily onto a porch on the other side of the street, and we ducked behind the railing, our eyes meeting as the rumble grew louder. She blinked, features contorted with alarm as she grabbed my hand.

The vehicle passed by slowly, the sounds of male chatter accompanying the growl of the car. I raised my head a bare inch and peeked over the wooden barrier we were kneeling behind. A red classic convertible Ferrari was just rounding the corner, men holding guns sitting on the tops of the seats on both sides, their heads turning as they surveyed the area. One of the men tossed his cigarette right before another man said, “We’ve been through here. Let’s go.” And the car made a sudden turn, tires squealing as they disappeared around a corner.

“What the hell?” Emily breathed.

“The gangs that man just mentioned. Probably out looking for food and water,” I said. Other than the cars and weapons they obviously already had, that was what was of value now.

We remained behind the railing for several more minutes, the roar of the car receding, before we left the porch. I looked over my shoulder and swore I saw the movement of a curtain.Someone had watched us as we’d taken cover on their porch. A shiver snaked down my spine. I needed to be more careful.Stay sharp, Mattice, I could hear Hosea saying, the same advice he’d given me in prison, the reminder that had helped keep me from getting regular beatdowns. And worse.

Although if what the man in the car had said was true, they’d been through here already which had to mean these homes were stripped of sustenance. And the man clutching the dead bird suddenly made much more sense.

We started walking, and Emily took my hand. “Are there gangs in your uncle’s neighborhood?” she asked. But she must have figured there were after the stories I’d told her about who I’d fallen in with when I’d moved here. I just nodded.

“Gangs will want to take over the areas that have the most resources though, right?” she asked. “Once the police aren’t an issue and alarms no longer work, they’ll target the wealthy.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “The power structure has flipped. But still, anyone who has anything at all is a target at a time like this.”

“Even that man with the bird,” Emily murmured.

On the outskirts of that neighborhood, the smell of death rose again, so strong and abhorrent that we were both forced to take an item of clothing from our backpacks and cover our faces. “It’s a hospital,” Emily said, her voice muffled. “Oh God, Tuck, I can’t. We have to go around.”

I took her arm and pulled her toward another street so that we could round the area and come out on the other side. I looked over my shoulder once when we got to the higher ground of the other block, and caught sight of a huge hole to the side of the building where bodies were piled. I swallowed down the vomit that rose in my throat and looked away, walking faster and pulling Emily with me. They’d created a mass grave beside the hospital for all the people they couldn’t save. But what else were they going to do? There was no one to pick up the bodies, certainly no one who was going to expend energy digging graves.Maybe some of the families had done that somehow, but most simply wouldn’t be able to.Jesus fucking Christ.

I had this intense urge to pull Emily somewhere and curl my body around her, to protect her from the sights and sounds and smells and anything that might threaten her in this hellscape, of which the possibilities were countless. But we only had a little ways to go, and so we moved forward, at a faster clip this time.

It was late afternoon when we finally entered the neighborhood where my uncle had taken me in when I was just a kid. The streets were trashed, corpses lying here and there. We looked at them vacantly, even if Emily still let out a small moan each time we came upon one. They no longer made us jump or cringe and that was a horror in itself.

“Hey, hello,” a man said, coming out of an alleyway and rushing toward us. I pulled Emily and jumped back, holding my hand out, demanding he halt.

He stopped, holding his hand out as well. “I don’t mean any harm. I don’t.” The last word emerged on a squeak, and he drew in a shaky breath as though holding back tears. “My wife and I got a baby, man. A six-month-old. Her formula ran out a week ago. There’s none anywhere. No milk, nothing. We… Shit. Do you know anyone who has a baby? Who nurses? Please.”

“I’m sorry. No.”

The man hung his head, tears sliding down his cheeks and my gut wrenched for this father. “Tuck,” Emily said, her voice barely more than a whisper. And I knew what she was asking, or suggesting, or giving permission for without saying more than that. I let out a slow breath, feeling both relief and the anxiety of putting someone before ourselves. It wasn’t wise, and yet, we had hope, and a plan, and this man obviously did not.

“Come on,” I muttered, gesturing for him to follow me into the privacy of the alley. “Do you have water?” I asked, because if he didn’t, what I was going to give him wouldn’t help. They’d all die anyway.

“Y-yes. We filled up our tub and all the sinks.” I swung my backpack off my shoulder and removed two cans of condensed milk Emily and I had taken from the Garcias for the protein and the fat. I moved close and slipped the cans to the man and he gasped softly and grabbed for them, his eyes meeting mine.

“Thank you, thank you so much.” More tears slid down his cheeks and he looked stricken with shock.

I leaned in closer. “Mix it with water to make it last longer. Then check veterinary offices. The pet food will be gone, but there might be some puppy or kitten formula. I’d go to the zoo as well and check there for the same. Do it quickly, tomorrow morning. And then get the hell out of LA. Bring any weapons you have. You might be able to trade a gun for some milk at a farm. It’s probably the only thing valuable enough to trade with other than food.”

The man was bobbing his head, his face wet with tears. “Thank you, thank you.” It seemed like the only thing he could manage.

“Go,” I said. “Now. Hide that and hide it well.”

He stuffed it under his jacket and then put his hands in his pockets, giving us one last look as if we were visions that might disappear any moment, and then turned and walked quickly back down the alley.

“We shouldn’t have done that,” I muttered.

Emily smiled gently. “I know,” she said. “But sometimes… I don’t know, it feels like people are sent right to you. And we received more than our fair share of goodness too.”

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