Ike and I spoke even less on the way back than we had on the way out. When I got back, Kylie was waiting for me with open arms. I pushed her away—gently—because I didn’t want to be with her with the stink of Indianapolis still on my clothes and hair. “We can go around, to the north,” I told Luke and Macky. “The ring roads are clear enough. I want to get as far past the city as I can, though, before we make camp again, so we’ll start first thing in the morning.” They must have seen something in my eyes, because they asked a lot of questions. I didn’t want to talk about what we’d seen. Eventually they stopped trying to pry it out of me. I didn’t want them to know. I didn’t want any of my people to see what I’d seen. I did go and find the death cultists in my own camp. They weren’t doing anything objectionable that night. There were no sick people nearing death for them to pray over, no bargains to be made at that particular moment.
