all god's orphans
Chapter 46

Grey felt his entire being relax as he watched the other vehicle drive away. It only lasted a moment before he realized he was going to have to face even more of them to get the letter back.

“Fuck me.” Said Millie’s robot. Kite and Grey gave her a look as though she meant it literally. “It’s an expression.” She clarified, or so she thought but their faces were still bent at the brow. “It means that was close. Never mind.” She finally said. Grey retrieved the trucker’s atlas they had found at one of the truck stops and laid it on the hood.

“Millie do you know where we are?” He asked since every page in the thick atlas looked the same to him. There were different color strands that meandered across each page and the shapes weren’t the same, but that was all the sense it made to him. Millie took a minute to flip through the book and finally opened it to a specific page.

“We are here.” She said, placing her finger on a seemingly random spot. “According to that guy, the camp is here, about forty miles away.” She moved her finger across the page to a spot where there were only a few strands and they were all surrounded by green blotches on the page. “It’s in a national park.” She told them. “That’s not good news.”

“Why not?” Asked Kite who was picturing rolling fields of green like the park near her house in Alexandria.

“Because it means there are only a few roads in or out. They do that so they can control access and have fewer routes to defend.” Grey glanced back down at the map. He knew that this was a scale picture of the world, but the scale meant nothing to him. Even still, the squiggly line that Millie had traced led into a forest so big that he could tell this would not be easy. “We won’t be able to just drive right up to it like the last one.” Millie said, her face broadcasting the fear that was lost with her robotic voice.

“So what will we have to do?” Grey asked. Millie studied the map again.

“We will have to ditch the car here.” She pointed to a spot just outside of where the big, green section began, near a small convergence of lines. “We’ll replace a spot to hide it in this little town and then we will have to make our way on foot through the forest to here.”

“How long will it take to get there?” Kite asked as Millie took a minute to calculate it.

“I’m not sure.” She finally admitted. “It depends on the terrain, but we should be prepared to spend at least one night in the woods just to get there and one more on the way back. I’d say plan on three days total.” She started to put the atlas away. “We’ll need to replace enough supplies for all of us. Once we replace Sarah, we can go check it out.” Kite and Grey both stopped. They exchanged a look and silently agreed that Kite should do the talking.

“Millie?” She said as gently as she could. “I don’t think we are going to replace Sarah.” Millie stopped in her tracks and leveled a steely gaze at Kite.

“Nobody asked you.” She said. “We aren’t going to stop looking for her.” Grey stepped towards her.

“Millie we have no idea where she is. No clue where to start looking for her.” Millie didn’t want to hear it.

“I don’t care.” She typed forcefully. “We aren’t just giving up on her.”

“We’ve been looking for hours and we haven’t found a single sign of her. For all we know, she doesn’t want us to replace her.” Grey hadn’t meant it to, but those words hit Millie hard.

“That’s bullshit.” Said her machine and she almost threw it to the ground in frustration. She wanted it to scream so loudly that the trees would shake but all it did was flatly pronounce whatever she typed. She gripped it tightly and shook it like a mad woman. She wished she could do the same to both Kite and Grey. “She didn’t leave us. She’s out there and we need to replace her.” Tears stacked up in her eyes and she could feel herself dangerously close to breaking down, but she pushed it back, letting anger flood into the open spaces. “You are both cowards.” She declared and opened the driver’s door. “But guess what. I’m the only one who can read the map. I’m the only one who knows where we are and I’m the only one who can drive. So fuck you. I’m going to look for Sarah. I’ll come back for you when I replace her.” With that, she started the engine and backed away.

“Millie, wait!” Called Grey after her, but she whipped the SUV around and sped towards the exit. She stomped on the brake just before the parking lot became the road and sat idling. She looked left then right and honestly couldn’t remember from which direction they had come. Had they already searched those streets? She couldn’t tell them apart.

In the rear view mirror she could see Kite and Grey standing together with the giant Wal-Mart sign behind them. They were holding hands and simply staring at her. She realized they were right. She had no idea how to replace Sarah or even be certain of the places she had already looked. For all she knew, Sarah was at the camp. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, she told herself. If there as an AGO nearby, it was entirely plausible that one of their foraging parties had found Sarah and brought her back there. She felt a little better at that thought. At least they would treat her well. She hadn’t seen them do otherwise while she’d been with them.

Slowly she pulled out into the empty street, but only so she could turn around. She crossed the parking lot to where Kite and Grey stood smiling.

“It feels like a betrayal.” Said Millie. Kite stepped to the open window of the SUV and put her hand on Milllie’s shoulder.

“Don’t lose hope.” She said. “We may still replace her.” Millie nodded and inhaled sharply.

“We are going to need supplies.” She finally said.

They had gone about the job of gathering supplies in stony silence, like they were preparing for a funeral. It was as though giving up the search meant that Sarah was dead and gone. Millie tried to ignore that thought, but it kept creeping in despite her best efforts. Instead, she focused on what they might need when they found the camp.

By her reckoning, the camp was in the middle of a national park and the closest they could safely get without someone seeing their vehicle was about fifteen miles. On the edge of the park, just where the forest began it seemed, was a small town. It didn’t even have a Wal-Mart, just a dilapidated Dollar general store, some off-brand grocery store, a hunting shop, and a Sonic drive-in. Everyone in this hamlet had seemingly disappeared just after they realized their entire food supply was able to sustain the entire population for about three days. The grocery store had been ransacked, but for some reason, nobody had thought to go into the hunting store for anything other than guns. The racks were empty, but there were numerous other useful items. Millie found a good military grade compass, as well as some dehydrated food and hefty backpacks. They loaded the packs with ponchos, matches, a knife, and a topographical map of the park, which was hung in a frame beside the door.

Millie pulled their SUV behind the grocery store and tried to hide it beside a large dumpster. Beside the parking lot ran one of the roads that could have taken them into the heart of the park within minutes under normal circumstances. They had seen no traffic while they had been gathering their gear and Millie was happy to see that she had chosen their point of entry well. This little town was on the opposite side of the park from the highway and she suspected that most of the people from the AGO were heading that way and ignoring anything this far from the main thoroughfare.

The three of them stood shoulder to shoulder hazing into the forest. On either side of the narrow road that led into the park, pine trees rose up into the sky and seemed to almost touch the clouds.

“We can’t use the road.” Typed Millie. “So we will have to move through the forest. Try to stay as quiet as possible. Some times there are patrols around the camps.” Grey and Kite suddenly felt dread coil up in their bowels. They remembered all to well what happened the last time they were in a camp run by the general Joe. They were in no hurry to repeat that experience, but they had no choice. For a moment, Grey thought about suggesting they wait until morning, but there was no use delaying this. They had to get the letter.

Millie sighed and stepped off the asphalt, hopped over the ditch, and walked into the forest. She looked up at the trees and silently prayed for their help. Then, she pushed everything out of her mind and started walking. Grey and Kite watched her go for a few steps and then followed her. When they were only a few dozen yards from the road, Grey took a moment to look around. Even so close to civilization, nature could swallow you whole, he realized. From here, you wouldn’t know there was a road or even a town just a stone’s throw away. Now it was just the woods and night would be here soon. He stayed close to Millie as she led them further away from safety and deeper into the forest.