The Girl Who Found the Sun

by Matthew S. Cox

  “You never told me about that notebook…” Sienna bit her lip, seeming hurt.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just…” Raven’s lip quivered. Tears ran down her face. “The apology letter’s only like two pages. The rest of it is him writing stories about stuff I did as a little kid. Way little, before I can remember. I haven’t been able to read any of it yet… just makes me miss him too damn much.”

  Sienna hugged her. “I understand. Some things are too painful to talk about.”

  After another long period of everyone sitting there staring at each other in silence, Josh stood. He jumped up, grabbed the underside of the hole, and pulled himself up to look outside. “I think the cats are gone.”

  “They could be hiding. Stick your butt out there and moon them, see if they come running,” said Xan.

  Josh hauled himself the rest of the way out to the road.

  “Do not moon the cougars,” said Raven.

  “Duh.” Josh laughed. “He wasn’t being literal… and yeah, they’re gone. I don’t see them. Should I yell ‘here kitty’ or stay quiet?”

  Everyone said ‘stay quiet’ at the same time.

  “Stand there for a bit and keep looking, in case they smell you,” said Xan.

  “We are not using Josh as bait.” Sienna let out an exasperated sigh.

  “I’m not bait. I’m a scout.”

  “What’s the difference?” asked Cheyenne.

  “A scout doesn’t want to be seen.” Four or five minutes later, Josh crouched and peered in. “Pretty sure they’re gone.”

  Raven got up, wincing at a faint jab of pain in her shoulder. “At least now we know what killed that deer. Okay. Let’s get out of here before we lose too much more daylight.”

  33

  Silver

  Half of succeeding is acting like you know what you’re doing. – Ellis Wilder.

  Katana drawn, Raven led the group away from the storm drain.

  The lopsidedness got on her nerves within minutes of leaving the storm drain, resulting in her remaining boot and the scraps of the other one going into the tool satchel. None of the cougars had any interest in the torn-off sole. They’d left it on the road. Perhaps enough tape could fix it, so she nabbed it on the way back to the street that cut clear across the ruins to the eastern side.

  Once—if—they got back to the Arc, she’d probably make sandals out of the boot soles. For now, she went barefoot like everyone else except Tinsley. Plastic shoes held on by fabric scraps might have been slippery on paved surfaces, but they proved remarkably sturdy. The small rip in her poncho would be easy to fix as well. However, between the boots and that rip, she started to wonder if enough time spent outside would leave her as naked as the wild man.

  Nothing existed out here to make new clothing from, except possibly deer skin. Problem being, she had no idea how to turn slimy gore into leather. An imaginary scenario unfolded in her head where the kids outgrew their stuff, hers and Sienna’s clothes fell apart in a few years, and they all wound up wild savages with only berry juice smeared on their bodies for clothing.

  At least I won’t have to worry about growing old and looking all wrinkly… We’re probably not going to last out here much past forty.

  Somewhere, she’d read that forty or fifty had been considered elderly a long, long time ago, back when people still blamed demons for health problems. Though, understanding that biology, not supernatural forces, made people sick didn’t much matter when she had no medical supplies or knowledge.

  Catching herself assuming the doc and everyone else in the Arc had already died, Raven squeezed the katana handle until her hand hurt. Dad would want me to stay optimistic. Giving up hope is a sure way to fail.

  She glanced at the sword while stepping around bits of concrete rubble and metal scraps. Taking the weapon had been a spontaneous reaction, like a little kid finding a giant knife they thought looked cool. The same way Xan played with the femur pretending he had a sword, she felt silly.

  I couldn’t even hit a cat with it.

  True, her father used to say no one came out of the womb knowing everything. If the people at this other place—provided they existed at all—turned out to be bad, they wouldn’t know she had so little skill using a sword. Of course, they also might not even know what a sword is. Then again, the feral sure seemed to. In the storage place by the filters, he’d run away as soon as she pulled it out.

  Her father always seemed to know everything about everything and only rarely showed doubt. She’d caught him being wrong once, and when she asked about it, he explained that people tended to respect confidence more than accuracy. Someone who acted without hesitation could convince people far more than a brain like the doc who appeared nervously unsure even when correct.

  She spent a few minutes pretending to be a character from a fantasy book, imagining how they’d carry a sword—never mind that if she got into an actual fight, she’d probably step on a rock within twenty seconds, cut her foot open, and look like a fool.

  As if by some wordless mutual knowing, none of the kids or Sienna spoke a word after leaving the storm drain. Xan did occasionally grunt or gasp whenever he put too much weight on his clawed leg. Josh took the backpack without prompting or protest. Cheyenne held Xan’s arm across her shoulders. Ariana clung to Sienna, clearly terrified the cougars would come back for them.

  The occasional pigeon or darting rat caused a few small gasps, but typically ended in the kids enthralled by watching the animals. At least, until Tinsley said, “Ooh, kitty.”

  Ariana froze statue still. Pee spread out in a puddle around her feet.

  Xan held up the femur, all his weight on one leg, looking ready to bash anything that came near him.

  Cheyenne didn’t seem to know if she should let go of him or raise her club.

  Raven spun to face the direction her daughter pointed… and stared in stunned silence at a relatively large housecat trotting off with a mouse in its teeth. Gradually, everyone realized the nearby cat wasn’t any threat to them. Xan sighed at the clouds and bowed his head, muttering something that sounded like words he’d get in trouble for using.

  Ariana broke down crying.

  Sienna comforted her. None of the other kids picked on her for wetting herself, and all stood around patiently for a moment while Sienna cleaned her up. A minor debate ensued as to whether it would be worth it to use up water washing her stained inside pants, or leave them on the ground.

  “We’re going to run out no matter what and end up either going two days without drinking or risking the stream.” Raven shrugged. “Probably doesn’t matter either way.”

  Head down, face red, Ariana whispered, “We need to drink more than I need inside pants. I’m sorry for messing them.”

  “It’s okay.” Sienna brushed a hand over the girl’s hair. “I almost ruined mine, too.”

  Raven picked up a plastic jar from the hundreds scattered around, the only relatively intact trash left. She plucked the stained garment from the road and dropped it into the jar before screwing the lid on. “Here. This will keep it from contaminating anything else. We can wash it in the stream later.”

  Crisis averted, she resumed walking, a little faster and less careful about where she stepped.

  Tinsley brushing off almost becoming cougar dinner worried her. Maybe the girl didn’t comprehend what might have happened to her, but as Dad sometimes said, the difference between foolishness and bravery depended on the outcome. Having a fearless child in the outside world scared the heck out of her. Ariana had only been chased by the cougars, not touched, and she’d probably never be able to look at one again without screaming.

  What’s worse… coping with nightmares or worrying my kid’s going to jump headfirst into danger?

  Seven blocks from the storm drain, they reached another large intersection where a six-lane road ran sideways across their path. A stone pedestal stood at the center, about as tall as her, surrounded by an island of overgrown grass that split the nort
hbound and southbound lanes apart for about twenty yards. An unrecognizable lump of metal atop the pedestal somewhat resembled a human shape. It looked like a statue of a person left in an acid bath. A plaque on the base had blurry squiggles slightly less brown than the rest of it where raised lettering long ago eroded.

  No one paid much attention to the monument as the group filed around it and kept going.

  This place is so huge. There had to be ten thousand people or more here.

  A thought struck her. The Arc basically amounted to eight people getting on a lifeboat and surviving the sinking of a ship that killed a few thousand. The giant cruise ship in the book had a bunch of lifeboats, though. Having only one for so many people would be stupid and pointless. There have to be more arcologies.

  The ferals might have come from another arcology that experienced a catastrophic failure like the one hers faced. If people had been forced to the surface and cut off from their hydroponic farm, water source, and power, they might have devolved over generations into that. No. They’d still have language. Could the ferals have somehow survived on the surface, mutated by the toxins?

  Within minutes of leaving the intersection, the end of the city came into view. The road they’d been following continued away from the ruins into dense forest after crossing a bridge over a giant trench.

  Raven cautiously approached the bridge, eyeing dozens of cracks and small holes in the pavement. The concrete walls on either side, in addition to being engulfed in green leaves, had numerous missing hunks exposing metal rods embedded in the stone. Despite that, the bridge did consist of reinforced concrete and steel. It didn’t appear anywhere near as likely as the metal patios to collapse.

  Cautiously, she advanced a few feet onto the bridge and approached the edge, peering over it down at a river of opaque brownish-green water. The surface, smooth as glass, appeared calm. No doubt the water flowed, but at a gradual speed. Large grey rocks covered in moss lined the banks, extending several feet from the water’s edge. Waist high grass covered the rest of the slope from street level down the hill. It looked too steep to be an easy climb, but not impossible. The sharp-edged head-sized rocks at the bottom made it scarier. Tumbling into those would hurt.

  She estimated the river to be about four stories below the bridge, give or take a few feet. A fall directly into the water most likely wouldn’t kill, but would probably result in broken bones.

  “So…” Sienna walked up next to her. “Do we cross or climb down and swim?”

  “Ugh. We just dried off.” Josh pointed at the bridge. “I don’t wanna get my clothes all soaked again.”

  “Take them off and hold them over our heads?” asked Cheyenne.

  Josh shrugged in a ‘sure why not’ sort of way. “Yeah, but I’m not strong enough to swim and hold this backpack out of the water.”

  Sienna crept up to the right side wall and leaned over. “The river looks calm, but that doesn’t prove it is. There could be a current we can’t see that’ll drag us under. Rivers can be dangerous.”

  If there are people at the silver ball, and they made the footprints we found, they probably walk across this.

  “Okay.” Raven started out onto the bridge. “This looks less dangerous than swimming in a river we don’t know anything about.”

  The group stretched out into a single file line, except for Tinsley who still held her mother’s left hand. Sienna brought up the rear. Xan occasionally made a pained gasp, but managed to keep a pace close to normal walking.

  A loud crack came from behind along with Sienna screaming.

  Raven whirled, staring in horror at Sienna’s poncho flattened out on the road, the center drawn down into a hole.

  “Mom!” shouted Ariana.

  Cheyenne dashed toward where Sienna went down. Her foot hit a weak spot that collapsed out from under her. In an instant, she vanished entirely, poncho and all. Raven about screamed, but noticed a human femur spanning the hole that ate the girl, one small hand tenaciously clinging to it. For seconds, Cheyenne dangled by one arm from the femur braced sideways across the hole. Her left hand came up and gripped the bone.

  “Sienna!” shouted Raven. She wanted to run to her ‘sister’ with every fiber of her being, but forced herself not to. Stomping too hard on the bridge surface could send her plummeting.

  “I’m holding on,” yelled Sienna.

  “Ow!” whined Cheyenne. “Help!”

  “Don’t run!” Raven padded toward the hole where Cheyenne dangled.

  Josh and Xan hurried past her.

  “We got her. Get Mom,” said Josh. “She’s too heavy for us.”

  “I heard that!” yelled Sienna.

  Xan took a knee by the hole and reached down to grasp Cheyenne’s arm. “Don’t let go.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t,” shouted the girl. “But I’m slipping!”

  Josh grabbed her other arm.

  Raven jogged to the deflated, empty poncho, draped across the road surface as though someone tried to make a trap out of the hole by covering it. She grabbed the fabric and yanked it aside. Sienna clung to an angled steel girder five feet down and maybe twelve feet away, arms and legs wrapped around it. She’d evidently landed on it and slid downhill toward the start of the bridge. Raven’s gut churned. Staring down a hole in the road at the river below made the fall appear much scarier. The slab of pavement beneath her could give out at any second.

  “Hey,” said Sienna in a breathless attempt to sound casual.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “Just some scratches. Damn ground fell as soon as I stepped on it.”

  Small nubs of rusted metal stuck out from the edges of the hole. Evidently, severely corroded reinforcing bars had been the only thing holding the chunk of pavement in place.

  “What do you think? Should I go swimming or try to climb back up?” asked Sienna.

  Cheyenne grunted.

  Raven peered back over her shoulder. The boys hauled the girl up onto the bridge. All three of them rolled onto their backs in a heap, out of breath. “You could break your leg if you fall.”

  “Yeah. I know. But I could slip if I try to climb and fall anyway. Better if I expect to jump than land at a weird angle.”

  Raven pulled her tool satchel and katana sheath off, laid them aside, then flattened herself on the road, reaching down. “Don’t risk it. C’mon up.”

  “I dunno.” Sienna held still for a moment, appearing to be equally afraid of going up or down. She eventually pulled her legs in close and sat up atop the beam. “Feels like this whole thing is going to let go.”

  “It’s not moving. All in your head. Just look up at me and not down. Don’t worry about slipping. A fall won’t kill you, just be annoying.”

  “Didn’t you say it could break my leg?”

  “Don’t think about that.”

  Sienna chuckled. “If you’re trying to calm me down, it’s not working.”

  “Could be worse. You could be dangling over a 500-foot drop.”

  Her ‘sister’ let go of the beam long enough to give her a middle finger.

  Raven grinned, trying to stretch her arm down more.

  Small hands gripped her by the ankles and legs.

  Sienna pulled her feet up onto the beam, took hold of the structure above her head, and gradually worked her way into a standing position. A few inches at a time, she crept uphill along the I-beam toward the hole. As soon as she got close enough, Raven grabbed her wrist in both hands. Sienna lifted her right foot up to a smaller bracing strut to use as a step. The thinner metal spar went flying to the side as soon as she tried to put weight on it—and the big I-beam she stood on fell straight down.

  Screaming, Sienna hung only by Raven’s hold of her arm as the ten-foot girder spun end over end on its way into the river. The sudden added weight dragged Raven forward. Josh, Xan, and Cheyenne shouted, scrambling to hold on and keep her from sliding into the hole.

  Sienna squirmed. “Let go. I’ll take my chances with the rive
r.”

  “No,” growled Raven.

  “I’m gonna drag you and the kids with me. Just let go, dammit!”

  Pain bloomed in her shoulder from the bite wound. Her hips ground into the edge of the break in the pavement. The failure of the superstructure at that spot left nothing between the hole and the water some thirty feet down. She couldn’t let go. She couldn’t trust Sienna would hit the water and not break both arms and legs, then slip under to drown in some devil current racing along below the surface.

  “Climb!” shouted Raven.

  “You’re gonna make the kids fall. Let me drop.”

  “Mom!” barked Cheyenne. “Stop being stupid and climb!”

  Though Sienna had not yet had any biological children of her own, she treated them no different. She wouldn’t risk their safety to save herself. She’s not gonna climb. Snarling, Raven strained to lift her best friend upward. The three kids kept her from slipping deeper into the hole, not quite able to pull them both up.

  After realizing Raven would never let go of her, Sienna stopped struggling to get out of her grip and tried to climb, grabbing on to her poncho. Raven lay there like a human ladder while the woman dragged herself up. Ariana and Tinsley reached for Sienna, but she didn’t take their hands, likely fearful of slipping and pulling them down. They grabbed her anyway, trying to help.

  Once Sienna’s weight pressed Raven into the road more than tried to drag her forward, Josh and Xan let go of her ankles and lugged Sienna to safety while Cheyenne helped pull Raven’s upper half out of the hole.

  Sienna lay on her side, gasping for air. “You should’ve let me drop. What if everyone fell?”

  “We didn’t.” Raven sat up, rubbing her injured shoulder. “And if you think I’m going to let my sister fall to her death, you need psychedelics.”