Sammy and General Abraxas emerged from the chasm in the rock face and looked out on the barren landscape. The glaring desert sun beat down on them but neither Fire Warrior minded the intense heat.
Abraxas raised a hand to block the sunlight as he scanned the horizon. The California desert was empty as far as he could see.
“This is what they’re willing to die to defend?” the General grumbled. “It doesn’t look like much.”
Sammy looked toward the General. His clean-shaven head was marred by a series of clan tattoos. His beady dark eyes looked down the length of a hawk-like nose. The point of his nose was mirrored in the downturned points of his mouth, perpetually frozen in a disapproving frown.
“This is the desert,” Sammy tried to explain. “The residential areas look quite a bit different.”
General Abraxas huffed in displeasure. “Let’s complete our mission and be done with this place. The next time I look on the surface, it should be at the head of a conquering army.”
Sammy nodded but didn’t reply. Her mind spun with her memories of the horrifying eye deep in the cavern. She tried to rationalize what she had seen, that it had been part of her paranoia as she searched the hidden passage, but she couldn’t get the memory of that roaring voice out of her mind.
“Find us a mode of transportation,” Abraxas demanded.
“Excuse me?” Sammy said as she tried to brush aside the disturbing memory.
“I told you to find us a mode of transportation.”
Sammy looked around the empty desert and sighed. It would be a long walk before she could find a car but at least it would give her a chance to think in peace. Aside from the monster in the cavern, she still had a maddening swirl of thoughts about Xander bouncing around in her mind. She almost welcomed the chance to be left with her thoughts, far away from General Abraxas.
With a sigh, she began jogging out into the empty desert.
When she was far out of sight, Abraxas motioned back into the cavern and a squad of masked Fire Warriors emerged.
“You know your mission,” he said to the lead warrior. “Find the rest of the Wind Warriors and kill them all.”
The Fire Warriors nodded in unison before turning the opposite direction Sammy ran and disappearing quickly into the expansive desert.
A few hours later, the pair was driving down Interstate 40 on their way out of California. Sammy sat behind the wheel and let the wind from the open window whip through her long blonde braid that hung over her shoulder. She set her arm on the windowsill and let her hand catch the wind as it blew past the car. The metal on the windowsill was incredibly hot and she heard the sizzle on her skin but she didn’t remove her arm. Fire Warriors were incredibly resistant to the heat but they were far from immune to the flames that they wielded. She just taught her mind to ignore the pain until it became unbearable.
“This was the best vehicle you could get?” Abraxas asked. He frowned as he looked around the interior of the 1985 Buick.
“Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“And you killed the owner so we couldn’t be traced?”
Sammy’s frown matched that of Abraxas. She could have told him the truth—that she had merely stolen the car when it was left unattended—but he wouldn’t have approved of leaving potential witnesses.
“Where are we going?” she asked, avoiding his question altogether.
“Don’t concern yourself with that.”
“I am concerned and you should be too. Unless you suddenly learned how to drive in that cave of yours, I’m going to be driving us the whole way. I’d like to know where we’re going.”
General Abraxas turned toward her and smiled. His pointed teeth made his smile look more like a predatory sneer.
“East,” he said finally.
Sammy sighed and turned her attention back to the road. In the distance, between the wavering heat lines coming off the road, she could see a few small structures and some cars parked along the interstate. Abraxas noticed them immediately after she did and he turned sharply toward her.
“What is this? Did you betray me?”
“It’s nothing,” Sammy replied. “Just a highway patrol checkpoint. They’re normal when you leave California.”
“If you or they try anything,” he said, leaving the threat hanging in the air.
“That won’t be necessary. Just let me do the talking.”
She slowed the car to a decelerating coast as they approached the checkpoint. California Highway Patrol officers stood beside the road, asking questions of the drivers as they passed out of the state.
When waved forward, Sammy drove up beside the officer.
“Good morning, ma’am, sir. We just need to ask you a couple questions before you go on your way.”
“No problem, Officer,” Sammy said with a confident smile.
“Are you transporting any fruit?”
“No.”
“Are you transporting any live animals?”
“Nope.”
The officer tilted his hat back as he looked at the low-cut half-shirt that Sammy was wearing. “Where are you heading?”
Sammy smiled but her gut twisted. “East.”
She was relieved when the officer smiled, thinking her answer was a joke.
“Really, now? What are you and your father heading East for?”
General Abraxas leaned across the seat and smiled his sharpened teeth at the officer. “The end of times, Officer.”
Wind Warrior Page 14