She dug around in her pants pocket for a few moments; she knew she still had a few left-over from the night before. She retrieved a few bottle caps, huddled up close to the small entrance to the store and tossed them inside. She heard them slide along the ice and fade away. That didn't tell her as much as she'd hoped, but she was still going to risk it.
She slipped her pack off the outer layer of her jacket and slid her feet into the hole. She held her breath and let inertia do its thing with her body. Next thing she knew, she’d turned sideways and impacted with an empty shelf.
Ira groaned, lifted herself off the floor, and sat for a moment; she'd move again when the agony left her side.
There wasn't much light inside the department store, save for a small amount coming through the hole she’d slid in through. The pain finally subsided, and she decided nothing important was broken. Her pack was about five feet away from where she’d hit the shelf. She retrieved it and pulled out her flashlight.
She shined a circle of light up at the ceiling. The supports looked rusted in some parts, tiny icy stalactites forming in several sections of the ceiling, pointing down at her—ready to turn her into a kebab. A large portion of the northern section of the store had suffered a cave-in, which was probably relieving weight from the rest of the structure. She moved her circle of light down to the shelf she'd crashed into. It was on its side, and it seemed that the impact had caused a domino effect on a number of other shelves, ending with a support beam—which was bent inward.
She sighed. That had been a close call.
"Ira, come in." Eddy's digitized voice made her jump.
"I'm shopping," she said. "Go away."
"No, goddamn it, there's a storm coming in from the west. You don't want to be stuck in there when it does, any added weight could cause that building to come down over your head!"
"I'm almost done, just give me a few more minutes."
"I'm coming to get you."
"Still won't stop me."
"Stubborn woman!" Eddy's final shout echoed through the dust and grime as Ira made her way down one of the aisles.
She scanned her flashlight over aisle signs; some were completely missing, probably destroyed or buried; some had ice growing on them, making them completely illegible; and others had just enough ice that they were still legible. She passed several aisles: water (which was empty, no duh), electronics (also empty, probably looted since the early days of the ice age), hardware (also useless to her this time), and finally, hygiene, the aisle she needed.
The shelves were empty, probably picked clean by panicked women, or their significant others, in the early days. She cursed, but couldn't give up just yet. She decided to check the back room, and the loading dock, to see if there might be a misplaced package somewhere. She found herself climbing over collapsed shelves and carefully sliding over patches of thick ice to get there.
Two plastic doors separated the shopping area from the backroom, and they were frozen shut by a waterfall of ice. She gave them a few kicks; shards of ice flaked and scattered as the doors swung open. The corridor beyond was a darkened mess of metal and frosted concrete.
Click, click, click.
The clicking haunted the darkness above; she shined her flashlight up into the rafters and saw twisting frozen pipes that ran the length of the long corridor's ceiling, with numerous areas that opened to black nothingness. Her lunch twisted in her stomach; maybe coming here hadn't been so wise after all?
Her steps tapped and echoed through the corridor, masking the clicks. Rusted back stock-carts cascaded into the darkness, some frozen solid and others toppled on their sides. She scanned her light over them; there were a few that still had product on them. She tore through them, tossing frozen packages and boxes to the floor until, finally, she found what she was looking for.
Click, click, click.
She quickly secured the precious package inside her pack and made her way back down the corridor and through the plastic doors.
The clicking turned into a constant scraping, and Ira’s heart threatened at the walls of her chest. She quickly made her way from aisle to aisle, climbing over debris and chunks of ice, and skating, sometimes gracefully, back to where she entered.
The scraping had become an ever-present rumbling; Ira pointed her flashlight at the support beam she'd inadvertently bent earlier and tried not to panic when she noticed it was beginning to give. She assessed the hill of ice leading up to the hole she’d entered from. She tried darting up the hill, but only managed to slide back down to where she started from.
"Okay, maybe Eddy was right," she said to herself. "This was a stupid idea."
"What was that?" Eddy's voice came from the light above the hill.
Her eyes found his silhouette, crouched low. "Don't be an ass, just help me get out of here. The ceiling's going to give any minute now."
"Told you so."
She tried running up the hill diagonally this time, but her efforts only resulted in her sliding back down the hill again. She heard Eddy chuckle and resisted the urge to throw a rock at his head.
"Here." His voice echoed, and she heard a light scuttling sound. "Grab onto that and climb up, quickly."
She shined her flashlight on the rope, resting halfway up the slope. The rumbling was getting louder. She took a deep breath and forced her fatigued limbs to rush up the slope. Once she had the rope in her grasp, she began climbing. Eddy pulled as she climbed; she felt small pieces of ice and frozen plaster flake from the ceiling and come to rest on her coat.
Then, the rumbling stopped. Her heart rate quickened; she had to hurry.
The ceiling finally gave with a deafening CRACK! and Ira leapt out to grab Eddy’s hand, letting the rope fall. She felt his hands clamp down on her arm, yanking her forward, embracing her—then she was surrounded by blinding light. She felt a tremor in the ice, a gust of air frosted her back, and she turned her head to see part of the snow canopy give way and collapse.
"Eddy," she said.
"Yeah?"
"Can't breathe."
"Oh!" He released his bear like grip on her body, and let her roll free onto her back. "Sorry..."
She sat up and nodded, then checked to make sure the contents of her pack were all there, including her precious cargo.
"Let's see what you were willing to get us both killed for."
Eddy snatched the box out of her hand, and Ira felt her cheeks flush with warmth.
She could almost see his facial muscles twist into a grimace beneath his facemask when he scraped the ice off of the box. "Are you fucking serious?"
"Umm, yeah?"
"Tampons! You went through all of that, almost got turned into an icy pancake, for a box of tampons?"
She tossed a snowball at his face and watched him wipe his goggles clean with his gloves. "You wouldn't understand."
"Like, I get needing them." He tossed the box back to her, and she secured it in her pack as if she were handling radioactive material. She could imagine the shit-eating grin beneath his facemask. "But, couldn't you just borrow some from Lena? You women-folk are supposed to be on the same cycle when you live together, right?"
"That bitch wouldn't share her rations with me if I were the last person left on Earth. In fact, she'd probably eat them all slowly in front of me while she watched me starve."
"Come on, she can't be that bad."
"She is, she's the worst."
"Well, in any case—" Eddy stretched around, and Ira followed his gaze to the approaching wall of storm clouds casting long shadows on the city. "—we gotta get moving before that hits."
"You have my permission."
He stood up, and then helped her to her feet. There was a moment where their eyes met; Ira could feel her heart beating in her ears.
Eddy, of course, ruined it.
"Watch it, or I'll toss those back in the hole."
"You wouldn't!"
He chuckled. "Maybe not, but you get to explain to your brother why we we
re so late getting back."
"I knew you'd throw me under the bus." They began to shuffle across the frozen parking lot.
"Because it's your fault."
She stuck her tongue out at him, even though she knew he couldn't see it under her mask.
CHAPTER TWO
Before they reached downtown, the snow had already started to fall. Ira watched it descend in slow swinging arcs from the snowmobile as they made their way home. She sat behind Eddy, clutching tightly at his midsection; the constant hum from the engine was almost enough to drown out the howling of the winds cutting through the frozen and crumbling rooftops.
Riverside was a husk of its former self, frozen and withered. She was almost glad that the storm had obscured the jagged, rusted and broken city from her eyes. She always thought, maybe, the memories wouldn't come as easily that way—but they still came.
Through the falling snow, she could see bent traffic lights sticking out of hazy white hills. A swinging street sign that said COMMERCE ST dangled from beneath one such traffic light.
They weren't far from where she and Nico had grown up. By now, the snow had probably caused the roof to cave in, leaving those familiar brown walls and floors exposed to the elements. Maybe Papa was still in his favorite chair, frozen solid, staring into the eternal winter winds as they slowly destroyed the neighborhood—wiping it from the face of the Earth.
Eddy took a turn down one of the alleys, a shortcut to the warehouse. Broken chains that once held street signs clinked and clacked in the wind, snow caking atop their bent and rusting metal poles.
Ira caught the faded and flaking blue paint from the roof of a buried bus stop bench, just like the one where she'd had her first kiss. His name was Alex Ramos, and he was most likely dead now.
There was pain on every corner.
Eddy brought the snowmobile up a large slope that led to a small snow-covered warehouse. They parked in front of the garage door. Ira watched Eddy walk up and coax the door open. He waved her on in; she slid into his seat and drove the snowmobile into the building, parking it next to the other one.
Ira turned the key and shut it off, then walked over and closed the garage door. She tore her facemask off and took a deep breath, one that didn't taste like sweat and saliva.
Eddy let out a groan as he opened up the hatch that led to the place she refused to call home. They'd been living underground for so long that she could hardly recall what normal life was.
Eddy's hands and feet made plinking sounds as he made his way down the ladder; she followed after him and closed the hatch behind herself.
She remembered when it had just been Nico and her; back then they were only using a small section of the vast system of tunnels beneath downtown Riverside as shelter. Those had been lonely days. If it hadn’t been for Nico's guidance, she'd be dead—they all would. The tunnels were mainly used for city maintenance before the ice came, but some of them had been used by the Revolutionists in the Second American Civil War as well. There were still booby traps all over the place, meant to take the lives of unsuspecting Feds who came searching for the Revolutionist base. Nico told her to be very careful where she stepped, and for good reason. Sometimes they'd hear a loud pop, and days later find a cougar's corpse, body twisted and wrong.
The cougars sometimes clawed their way past the lining in some of the barricades, probably drawn by the warmth from their generators—or looking for a tasty human-flavored snack.
They were resilient animals, but they were running low on food...Ira could empathize with them. Most of the smaller animals had already died off.
Her gaze turned to Eddy, who walked as if he knew every section of the tunnel. Eddy had been a Revolutionist in the war. She could practically feel the memories sparkling to life in his eyes as they traversed each corner of these tunnels. How many friends and enemies had he seen dead down here?
Eddy caught her staring at him.
"Your brother isn't gonna be happy we're late," he said.
"Let me handle him," Ira said.
Her nose picked up the faint smell that a hot light bulb produces when it makes contact with dust, and she knew they were home.
2
Nico's fingers twisted the knob on the ham radio, switching back to the frequency that they used for communications. Ira and Ramirez were way past due to be back from their supply run; they hadn't been using another frequency, as far as he could tell. He was starting to grow worried. His hand found the hilt of his combat knife, unfastened the strap, withdrew it, and spiked it into the weathered desk's surface. The sound echoed through the chamber; he let the knife stand there, sticking out of the desk. If Ramirez got his sister killed...he shook his head.
No.
They had to be okay.
His ears perked up to the sound of shuffling feet and laughter, Ira's laughter, coming from one of the tunnels leading into the chamber.
His eyebrows twisted together.
"Where the hell have you two been?" he asked as they entered the room. "I was just about to get the others to form a search party."
Ramirez came forward and removed his facemask, causing his unkempt beard to unfurl—not much of a contrast from his dark brown skin. "My fault, boss-man, we got sidetracked."
They got sidetracked. That's it? Nico's rough, weathered hands found the hilt of the dagger while his mind ran wild with scenarios that ended with them hooking up in some abandoned tunnel near home, just far enough out of sight for anyone to notice. His fingers clawed into the arm of his chair, his hand squeezing the life out of the knife.
"Sidetracked," Nico said. "For five hours past your scheduled return time?"
"Yeah," Ramirez said. "No big deal, boss-man."
Before he knew it, he felt Ira's hand on his shoulder, keeping him from following through on the premeditated bloodshed he'd just been imagining.
"It was my fault," Ira said. "I left Eddy behind to enter an abandoned department store, and he had to catch up."
Nico’s shoulders relaxed, somewhat...but still, Ira could be lying. They weren't exactly close. "Why didn't you radio in?"
"I forgot," Ramirez said. "There was a storm rolling in, so, after I caught up with your sister, I had to make sure we got back before it hit."
Just the sort of lack of discipline he expected of a traitor. "In other words, you didn't want to get your ass chewed out for a stupid decision that could have cost both of your lives."
"Did you not hear your sister, dude?"
"I did, and it seems like if you kept better watch over her, you wouldn't have been separated in the first place. Maybe you're in need of another lesson as to why it's so damn dangerous out there? Maybe you're just too fucking stupid to get it through your thick skull that this isn't a game!"
He watched Ramirez remove his coat and toss it over a nearby couch. Its impact kicked up dust and filled the chamber with the smell of mold and decay.
Go on, asshole, he thought. Come at me. Let me end you, like I should have done when I first laid eyes on you.
Ramirez's shoulders arched, his fists tightened into balls. Ira's grip tightened on Nico's shoulder, and she shook her head at him, as if she knew what he was thinking. That look was enough to soften his boiling rage.
"Just get out of my sight," Nico said, tossing the knife onto the worn wooden table. "I'll call for you when it's time to pass out rations."
He watched Ramirez snatch up his jacket and quickly exit the chamber in the direction of his room. "Fine by me."
"Did you really have to act like that?" Ira asked.
"How the fuck was I supposed to act, Ira?" he said. "What the hell am I supposed to think when you're missing for five goddamn hours."
"He saved my life today!"
"And if I had been there, you wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place."
Her face twisted into a grimace. She looked away, squeezing her eyes shut to hold back her tears; he knew the look too damn well. She stomped off for the tunnel that led
to her room, stopped, and turned back to him.
"You know, the war's over for everyone," she said. "Everyone, except you."
Then she stormed into the tunnel, leaving him to stew in his anger.
She didn't understand. None of them understood.
3
Ira found herself sobbing into her pillow, her tears mixing with the fabric to create a smell that reminded her of glue. Her body's hormones were starting the rapid process of making her act like a psychopath. She’d allowed herself to lie there for a while, to calm herself before attempting to rejoin the rest of their less than merry group.
So far, it wasn't working.
She sat up and wiped her tears away with her jacket sleeve. She hadn't removed it since getting back, even though it felt like she was cooking inside of it. She had been too distracted by her brother's all but spoken threats toward Eddy to care.
She stripped off her layers; a loud beeping sound caused her to freeze in position. Her hands felt around for the cold sensation of acrylic, and she pulled out her thermal monitor out from her jacket pocket. The battery was low, but the charging dock was out in the hub with Nico. There was no way in hell she was going to go back out there after storming off.
There was something else, though: a small heat signature was resonating near the San Bernardino Mountains way north. She'd placed a thermal sensor near the city limits several days ago when one of their expeditions had taken them out of Riverside. She hadn’t honestly thought it would do any good; after all, it was Mathias's idea.
The heat signature she’d picked up now wasn't exactly within walking distance; she'd have to borrow one of the snowmobiles.
There was no way that Nico would let her go after what just happened, so she'd have to wait till he cooled off. She'd charge the monitor later, and stand guard to make sure no one else caught wind of her little discovery.
This was her find. And it could be a good one too. A heat source like that could mean there were other survivors, generators—hell, maybe even a bigger, better shelter than this dump they were living in.
Maybe, if she found something like that, then Nicola would stop treating her like a damned child?
Mind's Horizon Page 2