Pocket Apocalypse
Page 16
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“Yeah,” said Shelby. “Can I have a hug, Raina, or are you going to stand there being all pissy ‘I had to smuggle you into the country, how dare you inconvenience me so’ all day?”
The border collie woman—whose demeanor had changed completely since the door had closed, becoming dour and faintly irritated with everything around her—sighed and reached up to peel off her riotous mop of brown-and-red curls, revealing short-cut brown hair that had been rumpled by its time under the wig. She threw the wig at me, snapped, “You’re so demanding, Shelly,” and spread her arms as she stepped toward Shelby.
Any questions I might have had about how they knew each other were answered by that embrace: it was a hug between sisters, plain and simple. When they let each other go, Raina turned to look me up and down, taking her time with the gesture, so that it felt like the examination it was. Finally, she passed judgment:
“He’s short and scrawny,” she said. “I never thought you’d risk Dad’s wrath for the sake of coming home with a geek. I remember your college boyfriends. Most of them could have been used as architectural fixtures in a pinch.”
“I nearly got turned into a piece of lawn statuary, if that helps,” I said dryly, and thrust my hand out toward her. “Hello. I’m Alexander Price. It’s nice to meet you.”
Raina looked at my hand like it was a dead thing before looking back to my face and saying, “Raina Tanner. We didn’t invite you, we don’t need you, and we don’t want you here.”
“Raina!” Shelby cuffed her sister on the arm. “Be nice. Alex was willing to come with me to help, since he’s actually dealt with this sort of thing before, and we should treat him like the guest he is.”
“I am treating him like the guest he is,” Raina replied. “I didn’t shoot him on sight. Now come on. Mum’s waiting in the car, and you know how grumpy she gets when we make her wait.” She turned and stomped to the door in the opposite wall, leaving me holding her wig. She didn’t take any of the bags. Apparently, extracting us from the airport had been the whole of her service, and we could handle the rest by ourselves.
“One sister down, one to go,” said Shelby amiably, as she picked her bags back up again. “I think that went quite well, don’t you?”
“I have no words,” I said, and collected my things before following the Tanner girls out of the room.
The door opened on a short stretch of scrubland, all brown grass and stunted bushes straining their thorny limbs toward the sky. The air smelled like petrichor and growing things: I had just stepped into an Australian spring. Given that it was autumn at home, the change of seasons was almost as disconcerting as the change of scenery. Mountains ringed the far horizon. I didn’t recognize any of them. I didn’t recognize anything. For the first time, I found myself worried about just how helpful I could actually be. Sure, werewolves were from my world, but this was Shelby’s world. Could I really do anything they couldn’t have done on their own?
Shelby had known nothing about gorgons or cockatrice when she’d helped me to fight and defeat Lloyd. I couldn’t back out on her now. I took a deep breath of the spring-scented air and hurried across the empty field after her.
Raina was already almost to the street by the time I caught up with Shelby: she might have been short and irritable, but that woman could move when she wanted to. There was an SUV idling there. Raina pulled open the back driver’s-side door and disappeared into the vehicle.
“That’s not the sister who’s been away at opera school, right?” I asked, while Shelby and I had a few seconds of what could be charitably referred to as privacy. “Unless they do opera much more violently here.”
“No, Gabby’s the sister who’s been away at opera school, Raina’s the sister who got left behind with our parents and resents the rest of us for having grand adventures while she’s been stuck cleaning up after the drop bears.”
A horrifying parallel occurred to me. “Oh, God, she’s your Annie.”
“Not a bit,” said Shelby amiably. “She’s much crankier.” We were too close to the car to continue talking without being overheard; she shut her mouth, beamed, and walked faster, arriving at the SUV just as the front driver’s-side door opened and spilled an older blonde woman with Shelby’s funereal scowl out onto the curb. The newcomer looked the pair of us up and down before focusing on Shelby.
“Shelly,” she said.
“Hello, Mum,” Shelby replied. Her own smile faded, replaced by that same “the world is ending” expression. She always looked sad when she wasn’t smiling, like she hadn’t bothered to develop any of the intermediate steps between joy and despair. “Thank you for coming to collect us.”
“Did you really think I’d trust you to make it home on your own? You went out for milk and wound up in America.” The woman’s gaze flicked back to me, her look of utter despair not wavering. “This must be your guest.”
“Ma’am,” I said. It seemed like the safest thing to say.
“Mmm,” she replied, and slid back into the car. “Shell, up front with me. Your boy can ride in the back with Ray and the bags.”
“All right,” said Shelby. She leaned close to me, ostensibly to pass me her suitcase, and murmured, “Don’t taunt my sister. She’s been known to hit,” in my ear before turning and bouncing off toward the other side of the car.
I stared after her, feeling utterly in over my head, and moved to start loading the luggage into the SUV. No one helped me. After the last piece was secure, I climbed through the open passenger-side door. Shelby’s mother turned the engine back on and pulled away from the curb while I was still fastening my seat belt.
Raina was a silent lump on the other side of the backseat, her attention fixed on what looked like a Nintendo 3DS. She didn’t seem to be playing Pokémon, which was my first guess; instead, she was using the stylus to flip through screen after screen of complex diagrams and complicated schematic designs.
“We’re clear of the last cameras, and the TSA bought Gabby and her friend as Shelby and her friend,” said Raina finally, looking up from her little screen. “Mum, floor it.”
Mum floored it.
The declaration of success and the sudden acceleration of the vehicle proved to be too much for the mice, who had, after all, been very good for a very long time, especially by rodent standards. My roller bag cheered. Loudly. Raina jumped. Shelby’s mother slammed her foot down on the brakes, bringing us to a screeching halt in the middle of the road. I winced.
The border collie woman—whose demeanor had changed completely since the door had closed, becoming dour and faintly irritated with everything around her—sighed and reached up to peel off her riotous mop of brown-and-red curls, revealing short-cut brown hair that had been rumpled by its time under the wig. She threw the wig at me, snapped, “You’re so demanding, Shelly,” and spread her arms as she stepped toward Shelby.
Any questions I might have had about how they knew each other were answered by that embrace: it was a hug between sisters, plain and simple. When they let each other go, Raina turned to look me up and down, taking her time with the gesture, so that it felt like the examination it was. Finally, she passed judgment:
“He’s short and scrawny,” she said. “I never thought you’d risk Dad’s wrath for the sake of coming home with a geek. I remember your college boyfriends. Most of them could have been used as architectural fixtures in a pinch.”
“I nearly got turned into a piece of lawn statuary, if that helps,” I said dryly, and thrust my hand out toward her. “Hello. I’m Alexander Price. It’s nice to meet you.”
Raina looked at my hand like it was a dead thing before looking back to my face and saying, “Raina Tanner. We didn’t invite you, we don’t need you, and we don’t want you here.”
“Raina!” Shelby cuffed her sister on the arm. “Be nice. Alex was willing to come with me to help, since he’s actually dealt with this sort of thing before, and we should treat him like the guest he is.”
“I am treating him like the guest he is,” Raina replied. “I didn’t shoot him on sight. Now come on. Mum’s waiting in the car, and you know how grumpy she gets when we make her wait.” She turned and stomped to the door in the opposite wall, leaving me holding her wig. She didn’t take any of the bags. Apparently, extracting us from the airport had been the whole of her service, and we could handle the rest by ourselves.
“One sister down, one to go,” said Shelby amiably, as she picked her bags back up again. “I think that went quite well, don’t you?”
“I have no words,” I said, and collected my things before following the Tanner girls out of the room.
The door opened on a short stretch of scrubland, all brown grass and stunted bushes straining their thorny limbs toward the sky. The air smelled like petrichor and growing things: I had just stepped into an Australian spring. Given that it was autumn at home, the change of seasons was almost as disconcerting as the change of scenery. Mountains ringed the far horizon. I didn’t recognize any of them. I didn’t recognize anything. For the first time, I found myself worried about just how helpful I could actually be. Sure, werewolves were from my world, but this was Shelby’s world. Could I really do anything they couldn’t have done on their own?
Shelby had known nothing about gorgons or cockatrice when she’d helped me to fight and defeat Lloyd. I couldn’t back out on her now. I took a deep breath of the spring-scented air and hurried across the empty field after her.
Raina was already almost to the street by the time I caught up with Shelby: she might have been short and irritable, but that woman could move when she wanted to. There was an SUV idling there. Raina pulled open the back driver’s-side door and disappeared into the vehicle.
“That’s not the sister who’s been away at opera school, right?” I asked, while Shelby and I had a few seconds of what could be charitably referred to as privacy. “Unless they do opera much more violently here.”
“No, Gabby’s the sister who’s been away at opera school, Raina’s the sister who got left behind with our parents and resents the rest of us for having grand adventures while she’s been stuck cleaning up after the drop bears.”
A horrifying parallel occurred to me. “Oh, God, she’s your Annie.”
“Not a bit,” said Shelby amiably. “She’s much crankier.” We were too close to the car to continue talking without being overheard; she shut her mouth, beamed, and walked faster, arriving at the SUV just as the front driver’s-side door opened and spilled an older blonde woman with Shelby’s funereal scowl out onto the curb. The newcomer looked the pair of us up and down before focusing on Shelby.
“Shelly,” she said.
“Hello, Mum,” Shelby replied. Her own smile faded, replaced by that same “the world is ending” expression. She always looked sad when she wasn’t smiling, like she hadn’t bothered to develop any of the intermediate steps between joy and despair. “Thank you for coming to collect us.”
“Did you really think I’d trust you to make it home on your own? You went out for milk and wound up in America.” The woman’s gaze flicked back to me, her look of utter despair not wavering. “This must be your guest.”
“Ma’am,” I said. It seemed like the safest thing to say.
“Mmm,” she replied, and slid back into the car. “Shell, up front with me. Your boy can ride in the back with Ray and the bags.”
“All right,” said Shelby. She leaned close to me, ostensibly to pass me her suitcase, and murmured, “Don’t taunt my sister. She’s been known to hit,” in my ear before turning and bouncing off toward the other side of the car.
I stared after her, feeling utterly in over my head, and moved to start loading the luggage into the SUV. No one helped me. After the last piece was secure, I climbed through the open passenger-side door. Shelby’s mother turned the engine back on and pulled away from the curb while I was still fastening my seat belt.
Raina was a silent lump on the other side of the backseat, her attention fixed on what looked like a Nintendo 3DS. She didn’t seem to be playing Pokémon, which was my first guess; instead, she was using the stylus to flip through screen after screen of complex diagrams and complicated schematic designs.
“We’re clear of the last cameras, and the TSA bought Gabby and her friend as Shelby and her friend,” said Raina finally, looking up from her little screen. “Mum, floor it.”
Mum floored it.
The declaration of success and the sudden acceleration of the vehicle proved to be too much for the mice, who had, after all, been very good for a very long time, especially by rodent standards. My roller bag cheered. Loudly. Raina jumped. Shelby’s mother slammed her foot down on the brakes, bringing us to a screeching halt in the middle of the road. I winced.
