Maya looked around as she jogged to the front door. She pulled on the handle, but the locked door didn’t open. She reared back, then swung the heavy end of the crowbar into the glass door, shattering it. No alarm went off in the store, which didn’t surprise her. She reached in and unlocked it, then pushed the door open.
The item she needed sat in a cradle on the front counter. She took the Kentucky map from the display, and grabbed a bottle of water from a nearby cooler and a package of beef jerky from a rack.
A small flashlight sat on the counter next to the maps, and she grabbed it also before spreading the map flat. She shined the light on what she thought was Gerald’s neighborhood, finally seeing Midnight Avenue. She circled it with a pen she found on the counter. Maya dropped a twenty dollar bill on the counter and then headed back out to the truck.
Maya stopped in front of the house and stared at the front door. The place sat cloaked in darkness, and the blinds on the windows had been drawn. Gerald’s pickup truck sat in the driveway.
He was home.
Maya took a deep breath, closing her eyes and leaning back against the headrest. She made sure her ponytail was tight, then grabbed the crowbar and stepped out of the vehicle.
Her heartbeat sped up as she walked up the driveway, around a primered Chevy Nova on cinderblocks, and past a garbage can overflowing with fast food wrappers and beer bottles. She scoffed, shook her head, and then continued to the back of the house.
Maya thought Gerald’s bedroom was on the front side of the house, so she figured she’d have a better chance of breaking in without waking him if she used the back door.
As Maya stepped over white plastic buckets and painted garden gnomes, she approached the screen door on his back porch. Her hands trembled. She still didn’t know what she was going to do when she saw him, though she was confident it involved the crowbar, which was itching for action in her sweaty hands.
She’d wedged the crowbar’s edge into the doorjamb when the back-porch light came on and the interior door rattled. Maya froze as the door opened and she found herself staring into a one-eyed beast—the barrel of a shotgun aimed at her face.
The person holding the gun lowered it and stepped forward into the light.
“Cameron?” Maya asked.
The young woman snorted, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.
“You can come on in. But he’s not here.”
11
Maya put her hands on her hips and stared at Cameron. The 29-year-old looked every bit of the hooch Maya remembered her to be. Her long, red hair cascaded around her face like she’d just jumped off a pole and she wore one of Gerald’s camo t-shirts, cut in half to expose her midriff with nothing but a pair of yoga pants below it. It was the middle of the night with aliens blowing up cities, and yet she was wearing makeup.
“What do you mean he’s not here?”
Cameron threw her arms out and to the side, shaking her head as she spoke. “What do you think it means? Now, are you coming in or not?”
“I don’t believe this,” Maya said.
A sound like a jet airplane screaming toward the ground made Maya freeze and look up. The lights of an alien ship soared overhead, the mournful wail receding as it sped to the east. She wasn’t looking when Cameron grabbed her by the arm and yanked her into the house.
“Hey!”
Cameron ignored Maya and shut the door. She went to the window and peeked outside, slamming the blinds shut with one pull of the cord. Maya grabbed the woman by the shoulders and shoved her backwards into a chair.
“You ever touch me like that again, and I swear to God…”
“Oh, cut the shit.” Cameron pushed a lock of hair from her face and smirked. “I just saved your ass from being seen by those things in the sky. You could thank me.”
Maya put her hands on her hips and balled her fingers into fists before turning around and walking to the center of the room.
“Gerald always said you were an ungrateful bitch. No wonder he left you.”
Turning around, Maya narrowed her eyes at Cameron and crossed her arms. “He’s really got you believing that he left me?” Maya laughed. “You really are as dumb as you look.”
“He’s special, you know. It’s not my fault you couldn’t see that in him. And that I do.”
“Yeah, he’s special, all right.”
“Now look, I told you he’s not here. He went off with my car, and I don’t know where he went to, okay? I haven’t talked to him since before all this shit went down.”
Maya took a deep breath, refocusing on what really mattered—finding Gerald, who had her children, and not on a verbal joust with this 2-bit skank. “What the hell are you doing up here anyway? I heard Nashville was surrounded by some sort of force field or dome or something.”
“It was. But, clearly, your pimps don’t give you the most up-to-date information. It’s down now.”
Cameron tilted her head. “No shit. How?”
Maya ignored the question because it wasn’t her responsibility to be Cameron’s source of news. But also because Maya wasn’t quite sure. She’d gotten out, but the dome had still been up at that point. And then she’d stood by her mother as it had come down completely. How? Maya wanted that answer, too.
“Look, don’t act all coy. You know why I’m here.”
“I don’t. If it’s because you’re having some kind of mid-life crisis after getting trapped in that dome and you want him back, then, honey, you might as well get your ass out of here right now.”
Maya raised an eyebrow. “If you haven’t talked to him since before the ships showed up, then how did you know I was inside the dome?”
Looking around the room, Cameron did all she could to ignore Maya’s unblinking stare before she shrugged, and then stood.
“You want a drink or something?”
Cameron walked across the living room and headed for the kitchen, but Maya grabbed her arm as she walked by.
“Hey, let me go!”
Cameron squirmed, but even though she was several years younger than Maya, she hadn’t learned the martial arts skills Maya had. In a split second, Maya had the woman’s arm pinned behind her back.
“You lied. Why?”
“I didn’t lie to you. I just assumed you were inside the dome. That whole damn city was.”
Maya pushed Cameron’s arm toward the ceiling. Gerald’s girlfriend yelped.
“You’re hurting me, you fucking bitch!”
“Keep lying to me, and I swear to God I’ll break your little arm. Now, I want you to tell me where he is.”
“Let me go and I promise I’ll tell you.”
“And if you don’t, then I’m gonna give you two black eyes to match that whorish mascara you got on.”
“My dad beat my ass when I was a little girl. You can’t threaten me into anything. Just let me go.”
Maya wanted to snap her arm, just to take out her mounting frustration on the skinny little slut. But she resisted, finally letting go and pushing Cameron away.
Cameron rubbed her arm and turned around.
“Goddamn, bitch. You got a tight grip.”
“Tell me where he is.” Maya took a step closer to Cameron. “Tell me where my kids are.”
Cameron crossed her arms. “All right, listen. He does have your kids. He took my car while I was sleeping and he split town. He left me a note, explaining everything and telling me where he went.”
“Where’s the note? Where did he go?”
“Can you stop being so selfish for a minute? I said the bastard left me!”
Maya chuckled, but it offered the sound of breaking glass instead of laughter. “I’m not being selfish, Cameron. I’m thinking about my children that he stole from me.”