He was fatigued from the transfer of power, but he would recover. Their gifts were but a small fraction of the might he wielded. Rising, he raised his arms out to either side and drew his brother and sister into the air as though marionettes controlled by invisible strings. They hung in midair, limp forms betraying a level of unconsciousness a shade this side of the grave. Death lowered his hands and they started to twirl, slowly at first, then faster and faster until they were blurs of wind, human tornadoes. Their momentum slowly petered until they hovered in place again. Motionless. Though now their eyes were open, blood trailing from them in ochre tears.
Death sat in his throne and lowered them to the ground. They alighted silently on the calcified shards that had fractured beneath their knees and shredded the skin. A shift of Death’s gaze dismissed them. They returned to the shadows to either side of the doorway, though now they didn’t blend with the darkness, but stood apart from it, pulsating with their new power like beating black hearts. Soon he would send them out into the world to flex their newfound muscle, Pestilence with the ferocious diseases breeding unchecked within her, and Famine with cellular decay at his command.
All was in place now.
Death retreated into himself, wallowing in the anticipated screams of his prey that were soon to come and the ultimate victory they signified. God thundered His rage and assaulted the great black tower with hailstones, but they only added a counterpoint to the chorus of agony Death conducted in his mind.
VII
Highway 40, Utah
NONE OF THEM HAD BEEN ABLE TO FALL BACK ASLEEP AFTER JILL WOKE THEM with her shrill scream. Being roused in such a fashion sent a rush of adrenaline coursing through the body, and as such, all were wide awake. They needed to take advantage of the energy while it lasted. As it was, they were all accustomed to grabbing a few hours of sleep here and there when the opportunity presented itself, for who knew when their next chance might be. Maybe the last few days following the Swarm’s siege had spoiled them, but it was easy enough to slip back into their old patterns. Besides, in the time it had taken Jill to recuperate from her vision, Adam had readied the motorcycles.
Ray rode behind Mare on his bike. The feeling of wrapping his arms around another guy and clinging to him from behind was unsettling. Not because of the inherent sexual connotations, for such thoughts had never crossed his mind, but because without his sight, a shift on the seat at the wrong moment, heading into a curve or preparing to skirt a stalled car, could kill them both. He knew it was hard for Mare to try to balance them both. All he could hope to do was stay low and follow Mare’s subtle lead when he leaned to the right or left. He felt like an invalid, at the mercy of the generosity of the others, the cross they collectively bore. So long as they stayed on the cycles, the impact would be minimal, but what if they had to walk for any stretch? On a flat level road, he could place one foot in front of the other and keep from falling, but even then he knew he would impede their progress. And if they were forced to travel off-road, or even on a gravel drive, he would quickly become a liability. Repetition had taught him to traverse the paths form the cavern back home to the beach, but he had fallen more times than he cared to admit. Stumbling blindly down an unknown path would be next to impossible without someone at either shoulder to guide the placement of his steps and to keep him from tripping over every small stone and ambitious tree root that broke the surface. None of them would ever say so, but they would be better off without him. Ray wasn’t so blind that he couldn’t see that undeniable truth.
His sockets burned. They always did when his body wanted to cry, but he was denied the release.
He thought about Tina, and how he should have died with her. He should have been holding her hand when she passed. She shouldn’t have been alone on the dirty floor of a truck stop bathroom. It should have been him. It should have been his head that bounded away from his body with an arterial fountain—
Enough. Enough self-pity. These were the cards that he’d been dealt, and he had to play his hand regardless. Mother Nature had a way of thinning the herd, besides. If he straggled or fell, he was certain there would be something waiting to make short work of him. Best not to tempt her though, he thought, a smile spreading his wind-chapped lips.
Spots formed from his darkened vision, not the slowly migrating amoebae of a blow to the head, but stationary gray dots, almost like—
Ray’s heartbeat accelerated and his breath lodged in his chest. He straightened his back and lifted his head so he could see over Mare’s shoulder. An ill-defined black line divided his vision like the serrated edge of a buck knife, though not as sharp or evenly spaced. The tops of trees. Holy Mary Mother of God, they were treetops! And above…above were the muted gray pinpricks of stars. He was seeing the stars in the night sky. There was the handle of the Big Dipper. And Orion’s belt. A larger one, the waxing moon. He was seeing them! Honest to God, he was actually seeing the—
“No, no, no!” he said, the images beginning to fade as though being swallowed by a black mist. The wind in his face tugged at his cheeks, his long bangs slapping his vacant sockets. The harder he raged against it, the faster the vision faded until again he was alone in the smothering darkness in his head. He wanted to punch something, pound his fists and stomp his feet in frustration. Instead, he settled for screaming at the top of his lungs.
The bike wobbled and he squeezed Mare’s gut.
“What’s wrong?” Mare shouted over his shoulder. His whole body tensed as he fought to straighten the tires on the gravel shoulder.
“Nothing,” Ray said, leaning forward to speak into Mare’s ear. “I must have been clipped by a rock from the bike ahead.”
It was an improbable lie, he knew. With Mare’s body as a shield, he stood little chance of being struck by anything, but Mare seemed pacified, or more likely, content not to press the issue.
Ray relaxed his grasp around Mare, and again lowered his head. There was no denying what he had seen. Perhaps he had been able to rationalize the ambiguous shape of the fire back in the cavern, but this was different. He had seen constellations with unerring clarity. Granted, they were familiar patterns, but not to the extent that he could recreate them in his mind. There was no doubt that he had seen them, but what did that mean? If he had truly envisioned them, then why could he not see them now? Why had they disappeared when he focused on them?
There had to be some logic to it. He had to think about the instances when he had actually seen. Surely there was some sort of pattern. The first time had been when Jake had taken him gently by the head, the second in the hazy moments following waking. He had seen the outline of the boxes and blankets when he fell in the cave, and now he had seen the stars. Tonight, he had been lost in thought and hadn’t noticed the sights until they were already there, surprising him as though he had been unconscious and had only awakened with the constellations. Maybe…maybe there was a thread he could grasp. The first night he attributed to Jake, but could it have been the relaxing effect of the small cold hands on his temples? The second instance was in a state just this side of a dream. When he fell, surely all conscious thought had been thrust aside in the weightless moment before impact, and now, tonight, he had been zoned out, perhaps still fuzzy from the short nap and the droning of the motor. He tugged at the thread, unraveling it the slightest bit more. Relaxation. Dream state. Weightlessness. Zoned out. They were four sides of the same square. Each time the vision had faded when his rational mind asserted itself to try to make sense of the impossibility of being able to see without eyes, and focused too intently on what he was seeing.
The motorcycle shivered between his legs and the wind abated. Mare leaned slightly to the right, the ground sloping away beneath them. He sat more erect, noticeably relaxing, as the bike slowed and finally came to a halt. The putter of the engine echoed tinnily, as though from an overhead metal awning, before Mare abruptly silenced it.
Ray climbed off and heard Mare snap down the kickstand.
&nbs
p; Someone yawned noisily over the sound of the other motors shutting off. He heard the clatter of metal on metal, a gas nozzle being removed from a car’s tank. The cranking of a metal cap being opened. Then another. He walked away to stretch his legs, absorbed by his thoughts, and banged his knee into the fender of the car parked at the pump. The driver, whose stink was unmistakable, must have been overwhelmed by the mosquitoes mid-fill.
“Why don’t you see if there’s something to drink in there,” Adam said.
“Any requests?” Evelyn asked.
“Anything liquid.”
Ray needed space. Their voices were distracting. He was sure he was on the cusp of the revelation he sought and needed to follow the progression of his thoughts before they dissipated like the stars. He wandered away in a straight line until their voices remained, but their words were indistinguishable.
Warmth caressed his face, the rising sun chasing away the chill of night and the unseen denizens of the dark. He tilted his face toward the source, breathed out a long sigh, and tried to relax his body and force the deluge of seemingly unanswerable questions from his mind. Just feel the warmth, smell the sappy scent of pines. Ray paid no mind to the subtle scent of burning wood. He existed only in the here and now, where the golden celestial being kissed his face and the wind stood back in awe of its magnificence.
Ray smiled as the ominous darkness peeled back in his mind. The ragged skyline stretched before him, against which the treetops swayed gently. A gray aura diffused into the sky above, in the center of which bloomed a stark white corona above the leading crescent of the rising sun.
He breathed it all in, reveling in every moment. The secret had been unlocked, but he couldn’t ponder that now, couldn’t stand the prospect of analyzing it away. He simply needed to enjoy it, even if it only lasted for a moment.
Ray savored the sun, in awe of its majesty. No thoughts. No sounds. Only that divine orb rising gracefully over the forest to the east.
“Hey, Ray!” Mare called. “You coming or what?”
“Just a minute,” Ray said, taking a mental snapshot that he carried back with him to where the others were already beside their freshly fueled motorcycles, waiting for him.
VIII
PHOENIX DIDN’T KNOW PRECISELY WHAT HE WAS LOOKING FOR, BUT HE WAS certain he would know it when he saw it. It wouldn’t be clearly marked with a big neon sign, but at the same time, he was sure there would be no mistaking the Trail of Blood. The name lent false expectations. There was no way that there could literally be a path lined with blood. He imagined a dark opening between overgrown trees, shielding it like teeth around a mouth, a cold breath blowing from it, carrying the reek of death. Maybe there would be a marker along the side of the highway announcing it, some scenic detour, possibly with some sort of historical significance, or perhaps it was an unkempt stretch that had once been a railway, the tracks removed, leaving only the occasional rusted spike or rotted railroad tie. He hated to speculate as the Blizzard of Souls had been precisely that and he feared the trail they were looking for would soon be laid not just with blood, but their blood.
The thought sent a shiver through his body, forcing him to cling more tightly to Missy, his chest merging with her back.
Asphalt glimmered with the reflected rays of the rising sun, leading them through the mountains. A river had joined them to the left of the highway, wending its way from the Continental Divide to the awaiting Pacific. Its banks were swollen to the point that at times it threatened to spill out onto the road. It ran thick with debris that snarled into impromptu dams against the otherwise hidden boulders. The runoff from the absurd snowstorm had eroded ditches into the hillsides, channeling the water through the dirt and granite at the expense of the uprooted trees. The river flowed so cold it was palpable even from a distance. Shadows from the chiseled cliff to their right alternately hid the road and then revealed it, a cat and mouse game between light and darkness.
He didn’t know how far they had come any more than he knew how much farther they had to go, only that he could feel the beating black heart at the core of their destination, the magnetic pull becoming more irresistible with each passing mile. He could feel his adversary’s strength swelling like storm clouds on the horizon, already emanating a level of power greater than he had even imagined. And it terrified him. They would be no match for the evil master he was already beginning to think of as omnipotent. They were only children, after all! Jake couldn’t even lift one of the shotguns, let alone use it. Besides, he didn’t think the weapons would do them much good against an entity that he was sure wielded the power of a god.
Peering over Missy’s shoulder, her hair snapping against his face, he watched a bend approaching. Adam disappeared around it first, followed by Mare and Ray. It appeared as though the asphalt simply terminated at the bank of the river, like they could fire through the guardrails and launch out over the racing waves, and then they too were bending to the right and heading into a straightaway. The mountains formed a great valley around the road, the foothills ahead obscured by what at first looked to be fog, but the color was all wrong. It was too dark, too thick. It was then that the wind assaulted him with the myriad scents of forest fire.
“Oh, God,” he gasped.
The smoke reached from one side of the sky to the other, filling the entire horizon. The sun had risen above it, casting eerie slanted rays into the black mass, which almost appeared to be another range of mountains atop the first, yet the most unsettling sight of all was the hideous orange–red glow at the base of the clouds. Something stung his eye and he blinked furiously. He opened it again to see the first smattering of ash in the air like snowflakes leading a storm.
Adam slowed in the lead, causing them all to do the same. They crossed a bridge over the river, which now paralleled them to the right where flumes of water cascaded down the eroded rock wall. The forest encroached incrementally from the left now, as though trying to sneak up on them, bringing with it the shadows lurking beneath the lower canopy and slithering around the trunks.
The closer they came to the fire, the larger it appeared, the flames rising above age-old trees that themselves had to be more than fifty feet tall.
They’re in there, Phoenix thought. They’re somewhere in the fire.
The idea frightened him. It had originated in his subconscious and crept to the forefront of his mind as if spoken by someone else entirely. He didn’t know who they were, but the goose bumps had risen painfully to erection on his shoulders. Closing his eyes, he at first saw only darkness. Flashes of flames. Snapping teeth attached by strands of saliva. Eyes burning with fire. Screams. His eyes snapped open, his heart jackhammering. He was panting. Dear God, what kind of monsters are out there?
An impregnable wall of sharp-coned trees made a play for the road, which bent away and skirted them, rounding a gentle curve out of the sun’s reach and into the cool shade. Phoenix saw a flash of red, and then another. Tires screeched on asphalt and it looked for a second like Adam was going to lay the bike down, but he managed to stop just in time. Missy had a heartbeat longer to brake. Phoenix grabbed her far too hard and slammed into her from behind, but managed to relax as they coasted to a halt beside Adam, who squinted as he stared down the road ahead.
The engine rumbled beneath Phoenix. It felt as though the ground were shaking as well.
“What in the hell is that?” Adam gasped.
At first Phoenix didn’t see what Adam was talking about. All he saw were rich shadows eclipsing the highway. There was a sedan set askew across the road, the bumper crumpled against the guardrail lining the river.
Something leapt up onto the hood with the sound of crumpling metal, and then was gone, a black shape knifing through the shade. Then another.
Crashing sounds from the forest.
Another black form exploded from the foliage, blowing across the road.
Phoenix looked at the river, which was now down a short incline and had moved away from the road, makin
g room for a thin path.
Nothing.
He was just about to turn back to the forest when an enormous animal thundered up the slope and bounded over the guardrail. Its golden antlers flashed past, sparks rising from its hooves as they struck the pavement. Its flank was scorched black, its hair burned away all the way up to its face. Two more followed its lead, both smaller but no less burned. Movement caught Phoenix’s eye and he turned to look down the road.
A stampede of animals thundered their way. Herded together were prey and predator alike. A massive hairy thing like a bear bred to a wolf loped awkwardly on a moving carpet of cream-colored ground squirrels that fell quickly behind. Scarlet canines with glowing eyes darted in and out of waves of maroon creatures that were all ears and hopped like rabbits. What had once been deer bounded through their midst, trampling anything unlucky enough to be under hoof.
They all blew past so fast that Phoenix couldn’t get a good look at any of them. Other than their eyes, which all reflected a matching terror. Bodies flew by to either side, banging into them as though none of them even noticed the riders or their mechanical steeds.
Blood seeped from savage burns. Carcasses that looked cooked somehow shambled down the road, losing ground to their brethren. One deer fell mid-stride, dead before it hit the ground. Its hide tore as though made of tissue paper, spilling blood across the road.
And as quickly as it had started, the stampede ceased.
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