Chapter 92

In a few moments, she was back with a metal box. She set it down beside him and flipped it open. Her medical supplies were rudimentary, like Mary’s had been, but he didn’t think he needed much care. She opened a bottle and poured a liquid over his knee, which stung. “Sorry,” she muttered, wiping it off and cleaning up the wound. “It’s not too deep. That’s good,” she said before affixing a large bandage over the skinned section. She also washed his hands, which stung, but not as sharply as his knee, and then she placed smaller bandages on his hands. She cleaned up his shoulder as well.
“Thank you,” Adam said, once she was done. “I think I should move out of the middle of the road now.”
“I’d say you don’t need to worry because no one ever comes down it, but it shows what I know,” she replied. “What’s your name?”
“Adam,” he said quickly. She continued to look at him, and he realized people were supposed to have last names. “Adam… Blue.” He figured since Seth’s last name was Green and Daniel’s was Redd, everyone here must have a color name.
She smiled and a little giggle escaped her lips. “That’s an interesting name.”
He tipped his head to the side, not sure what to think that she would question the legitimacy of his name. “What’s your name?”
“Naomi Little,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you, but I’m sorry we had to cross paths this way. Literally.”
“Me, too,” he said, pushing up off of the ground. Naomi hopped up quickly and helped him. Adam thanked her and then tested out his knee. It hurt, but he thought it would hold. “Now… do you have anything in that box for my bike?”
“No, sorry,” Naomi said, studying the wreckage with him. “It doesn’t look like it’s in too horrible of shape, though.”
Adam’s eyes widened as he took in the sight. “You must be seeing something I’m not,” he replied. Slowly, he walked over to what was left of Seth’s motorcycle, his leg aching with each step.
Naomi went along with him. Together, they managed to lift the bike, along with the twisted cart, and sit it upright. Once it was off the ground, it did look like it was in a little better condition than Adam had thought, but the front tire was no longer in alignment, and there were bits and pieces of metal all over the road.
“The kickstand still works,” Naomi said, putting down the piece of metal that was used to support it and taking her eyes off of the bike.
“Kickstand,” Adam muttered. He’d had no idea what that was called. It was good to know the name.
“Well, it’s a start,” she replied, as if she’d assumed he was just saying that the kickstand wasn’t much of anything. Naomi walked around the bike and inspected it. “I think I can fix it. But I’ll have to take it back to the shop. I’m really sorry. I hope you weren’t in a huge hurry to get somewhere. Or… I can give you a ride to where you were going, if it’s close by.”
“I don’t think it’s close by,” Adam said, shaking his head.
“Where are you headed?”
“Louis City.”
“Oh, no. That’s not close at all. Besides, if I went there, my dad would kill me.” Her eyes widened, and Adam got the impression Louis City wasn’t a safe place to be. Yet, Rain was likely headed there right now, without him.
“How long will it take you to fix the bike?” he asked, a little surprised that she knew how to fix machines. He’d been under the impression that the men in Oklasaw did that sort of thing while women mostly did house chores. Clearly, Naomi was different, though, or else she wouldn’t be out driving this truck. Maybe he’d gotten the wrong idea about gender roles altogether. He felt a little bad about that since everyone was constantly judging him for the part he’d played in the place where he’d come from, a place he did not intend to tell Naomi about.
“Fixing it shouldn’t take too long. Maybe an hour or two. But… I live three hours north of here, which means you’ll be about six hours in the wrong direction from where you need to go. Louis City is almost dead east from here.”
Adam’s face fell as he thought about how off schedule that would make him. He didn’t have a choice, though. He’d have to get the bike fixed if he was going to go anywhere at all. Remembering the phone, he felt for his pocket. He could always call Seth and let him know that he was going to be late.
The phone wasn’t there, though. Adam spun around, surveying the area where the bike’s debris cluttered the ground. There was quite a field of it, but he didn’t see the phone anywhere.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
“My phone,” he replied, walking over to where his revolver lay on the ground. No phone, but when he picked up his weapon, it looked as if it had survived the wreck. He put it in his holster and continued searching for the phone.
Naomi was helping, checking the ditch along the far side of the road. “Why do you have a gun? Does it have anything to do with what’s going on down south?”
“No,” he said quickly, assuming she had either heard the battle raging with the Mothers or had heard about it. “Just in case I run into someone dangerous. Don’t worry. I’m not a threat.” He knew it was one thing to tell her that and something else for her to accept it.
“I didn’t think you were,” she said. “Or else I wouldn’t have stopped to see if you were okay.”
He wondered how in the world she could tell that from seeing him lying on the road next to a wrecked bike but didn’t ask. A few seconds later, he spotted his phone in a pile of grass by the side of the road and scooped it up.
The screen was cracked. His stomach turned over as he said, “Found it,” and tried to turn it on. Nothing happened. Naomi was at his shoulder now. He turned it over and saw much of the plastic in the back busted as well. “Got something that will fix this?”
“I’m afraid not,” she said. “That sucker looks beyond repair.”
Adam muttered a curse word under his breath and shoved the device in his pocket. “Now what?”
“You can use my phone,” Naomi offered. “Do you know the number you need to reach?”
Adam shook his head. “No idea. All I know is that they’re from Judea and their names.”
“Judea?” Naomi repeated. “That’s a long way off. Why in the world are you over here?”
Shrugging, Adam went back to retrieve the contents of the cart and his backpack, which had somehow come off in the wreck. “It’s a long story.”
“Maybe you can fill me in on our long ride to my house,” she suggested.
“Maybe,” Adam replied, but he wouldn’t be telling her the truth, that was for sure. For one thing, he didn’t want to have to relive his life story, and for the other, he knew, if the Mothers ever found out Naomi was helping him, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, her family, and possibly everyone else in her town. It was bad enough that they’d endangered Seth’s family and the others in Judea, not to mention the Oklasaw militia, but it seemed like Naomi’s family lived far enough north that they were trying to avoid any potential conflict with the Mothers. And he was delivering it right to her front door.
The two of them loaded the bike, cart, and contents into the back of Naomi’s truck, and Adam put his backpack on, finding that most of the contents were okay, save a few of Esther’s goodies she’d packed for the ride. He climbed into the passenger side of the truck and with one last glance around, headed off on his next adventure.