Page 24 of The End of the World As We Know It

Pensive, he scanned the sun-sickened street outside. “She doesn’t know about me. Thinks it’s just you two. Keep that in mind.”

The hum of a motorized scooter drew their attention.

Eleanor was cruising up the center of the Strip, hauling a shopping trolley stuffed with $100,000 chips from Circus Circus. Wearing a full-length mink, a leopard-print tube top, and four-inch purple platforms. A sun umbrella topped the scooter.

Dani waved from the shadows. Casually, almost discreetly—theumbrella was traffic-cone orange, with Christmas lights—Eleanor veered into the garage. She braked and lit a Winston.

Jesse crossed his arms. “You got ahead of the parade.”

“I been ridin’ in everybody’s wake. My whole life. Now…” She shrugged as if a burr had lodged beneath her tube top, goading her. “… think I might get upwind.”

Mollie hopped off the tailgate and walked over. Eleanor eagle-eyed the three of them.

“Y’all tried to leave?”

Jesse brusquely nodded. “You aren’t scared to go?”

She squinted through curling smoke. “I ain’t nobody to them. They’d take cash and let me pass. And I got enough to shower it like cupcake sprinkles. I’m off, and they won’t stop me.” She turned to Mollie. “You follow the local news, pumpkin?”

Mollie shrugged. “Kinda.”

“You know about them tunnels?”

After a second, Mollie’s face cleared.

“Push comes to shove, surface streets may not be the way out.” Eleanor flicked her cigarette butt. “And no way the riffraff down there got by better than the rest of us. It’ll likely be cleared out.”

Her eyes cut to Dani. “Not what you wanted, but it’s what you got. You understand that?”

Dani nodded, throat tight.

Eleanor put on her cat-eye shades. “Be good, babies. I’m off. Viva Las Vegas.” Nudging the throttle, she buzzed forward and tenderly set a hand against Mollie’s cheek. “Stay safe, angel.”

She rode away.

“What did she mean, tunnels?” Jesse said.

He got maps from City Hall.

“Flood-control tunnels.” He unrolled them on the hood of a turquoise Impala.

“Oh, yeah,” Mollie said. “Ididsee the news. The mayor cut a ribbon with giant scissors.”

Dani bit her thumbnail. “?‘Riffraff.’?”

Jesse slid a glance at her. “Homeless. And people who don’t want to be found.”

He tapped the maps. “I think we can do it.”

Mollie led them to the entrance, near sunset, as mirages shimmered and clouds boiled in the heat, riding up a concrete drainage channel behind Caesars Palace.

She stood on the pedals, excited. “I rode bikes up here once with my friends—”

Friends. Her face scrunched and her lip trembled.

Thunder rumbled, reverberating off dead hotels.

Jesse tented a hand over his eyes. “Jesus, those clouds are black.” A shiver ran across his shoulders. “Like they’re more than thunderheads.”