Hope and Undead Elvis - By Ian Thomas Healy Page 0,63

sat beside her and rolled down the window; Nur may have been clean, but she and Rae both reeked of sweat, fish, and the stink of river mud.

"Nice to meet you," said Nur to Rae. When she didn't respond, he looked her up and down. "Is she deaf?"

"And blind," said Hope. "I don't know if she lost her sight when she hit her head or… or if she saw something horrible."

"There are some horrible things to be seen these days," said Nur. "But God is merciful, and with His blessing I have avoided the worst of it." He shifted the truck into Drive and they rolled down the roaad.

"Are you a pious man, Nur?"

"I am. Does that bother you?"

"No."

"Do you have beliefs of your own?"

Hope hesitated before replying, "No." She didn't know if her dogma had changed over the past few months or not. She felt lost most of the time, and had so little to guide her. She couldn't hand her destiny over to some deity.

"I believe that in these end times, we must cling to whatever beliefs we can. Not because we have been told to by our spiritual leaders, but because belief in that which is greater than ourselves is one of the things which defines us as human."

Hope rolled that around her mind for awhile. "So if I don't believe in God, I'm not human?"

Nur smiled. "I said it was one of the things which defines us as human. Not the sole reason. That's fundamentalist thinking. But if you aspire toward something greater than yourself, isn't that a highly spiritual philosophy, even if it's not based on religion?"

"You're making my brain hurt. I'm so hungry I can't even think straight."

Nur reached over toward the glove compartment. The motion startled Hope and she reached for her pistol before she saw he wasn't doing anything to threaten or harm. He pulled a small aluminum pot from the compartment and offered it to her. "It's not much," he said. "Just some rice with curry and tomatoes. I have more back at my shop, but I wasn't expecting to find anyone on the road. Please eat it. I hate to see you suffering."

"Thank you." Hope opened the pot and let the scents waft through the cabin. Rae's nose wrinkled and she gasped in pleasure. The two women ate with their fingers, making short work of the rice and tomatoes. The curry was mild enough that in better times, Hope would have turned up her nose at it as flavorless, but after starving for days, she couldn't remember a meal which had tasted better to her.

Nur reached up to look at a watch which was wrapped around his rear view mirror. "Excuse me a moment, please." He braked and pulled the truck to the side of the road. Without further explanation, he removed a bundle from behind the seat and went out to the edge of the treeline with it.

As Hope watched, Nur unrolled a small carpet atop the dark loam. He unfolded a contraption of cloth and wood and set it in front of him. He knelt, recited words of prayer, and prostrated himself.

Hope looked at Rae and a great sadness came over her. The young nun's God hadn't listened to Rae's prayers.

Would Nur's God even listen to his?

Chapter Twenty-Five

Hope and the Homestead

After his prayer, Nur drove Hope and Rae to his shop, well past the borders of the forest. The woodland became replaced with gentle rolling hills covered in a yellow-green sward that waved and flowed like the tide in the swirling breezes. The two-lane blacktop cut through it, an unnatural scar in the Earth's pelt. Hope had drifted in and out of sleep, lulled by the drone of the Diesel and the whispers of highway markers as they passed.

Besides the road and marker posts, she saw no evidence of people. "Are you the only one out here, Nur?"

A muscle in his jaw twitched. "I am now."

"What happened?"

"The grass swallowed up the people and buildings, although there never were that many along this road. They're all gone now except for their cars."

"Their cars?"

"They were wrecked all up and down the road, like the drivers and passengers were taken into the Earth. Everyone but me and I don't know why." He shot a tight glance at Hope past Rae's sleeping head. "The road isn't even the same as what it was before."

"The world is broken," said Hope. "Things changed."

"I'm a mechanic. Fixing broken things is what I do, but the