Hope and Undead Elvis - By Ian Thomas Healy Page 0,18

was approaching, and they needed to leave the desert oasis before it arrived to devour them.

Carrying water would be more difficult. Besides the gallon jug Gabe had carried in The Way, Hope found no other containers. She drank her fill, then topped off the jug. "I hope we find more."

"Let's hope, Hope," said Undead Elvis with a smile.

"Too much to hope for a car with air conditioning."

"It wouldn't be much good with that broken window, Li'l lady."

"True."

They looked at the pile of fruit in the bed of the car. It didn't seem like much at all. Hope wondered how long it would last. Then on the heels of that thought, she wondered how she would manage to eat enough of the right foods to grow a baby. She knew nothing about motherhood or pregnancy except that she'd planned to avoid it at all costs. So much for that.

In spite of the hot sun, she shivered. "I wish Gabe was still with us."

Undead Elvis touched her breastbone in an intimate but nonsexual way, the touch of a friend. "He's still with you in here. That was a hell of a shot to avenge him, Li'l lady. Where'd you learn to shoot like that?"

"You taught me."

"How many bullets you got left?"

"Five." She stared back at the patch of flowers where Gabe had fallen, and the blackening crimson stain where the man-bird-thing had crumpled. "What is that?"

"The enemy."

"Is it a bird or a man?"

"Neither, I'd guess."

"You didn't see it fly or walk in?"

"No, Li'l lady. I wasn't payin' attention. Got lost in my songwriting. I'm awful sorry about that."

"Two fewer eyes without Gabe around," she said. "If we're going to survive a trip all the way to Graceland, however far that actually is, you're going to have to work harder."

He nodded. "I'm not afraid of a little hard work. Never was."

"Do you think he was an angel?"

"I don't know, but he was a good person. He came to your aid when you needed it."

Hope sat in the driver's seat of The Way and adjusted the bench as best she could. The car wasn't comfortable, but at least that should help her stay awake. She yawned. "I wish I could take a nap. That short one didn't get me rested at all. Do you want to drive?"

"I don't think so, Li'l lady."

"Are you sure?" Hope wiggled the shifter. "I've never driven a stick before. Don't even know how, honestly."

"It's not hard. And you're right. I don't think we should stick around here any longer." He pointed toward the trees. Hope followed the line of sight from his finger.

A black bird perched on a low branch, watching them with its beady little eyes.

With Undead Elvis coaching her, Hope managed to let out the clutch slow enough not to stall the car. She turned around on the gravel patch and ran The Way down the road in first gear until remembering to shift up. Paradise faded away behind them, swallowed up by the sea of sand dunes as if it had never existed. As she looked in her rear view mirror, the gravel track seemed to vanish. She suspected that if they stopped, the disappearing road would overtake them and leave them stranded in the middle of the desert. That fear made her hammer down the accelerator until The Way fishtailed around a corner like a skittish wild mare. She panicked, jammed both feet on the brake, and stalled the engine.

"Easy, Li'l lady," said Undead Elvis into the silence marred by the ticking of hot oil in the motor. "We don't have to get there tonight."

Hope made herself relax her hands, which were wrapped white-knuckled around the dirty white plastic steering wheel. "I'm sorry," she said. "I was afraid of this road disappearing and then we'd be stuck in the sand again."

"It is disappearing, but it's waiting to advance until we move again."

Hope looked behind again and couldn't see the gravel track any longer. She opened the door and leaned out to look back. The gravel stopped under The Way's rear bumper.

"God," she said. "I don't understand anything about how the world is supposed to be now."

Undead Elvis leaned back and laced his blue fingers behind his head behind his head. "I wouldn't even try too hard, Li'l lady. Otherwise, I might up and disappear on you too. And I'm pretty sure neither of us wants that. Uh-huh."

"Will it ever make sense again?"

"I dunno." He turned his head a little. "Don't forget the clutch when you