The Burn Zone

by James K. Decker

  He paused, and for a second I was afraid, really afraid that he was going to take me up on that and walk out the door.

  “Hey, I—”

  “Dragan’s my problem, not yours. I don’t need your help, so if you want to go, then—”

  “Hey,” he snapped. “If I wasn’t in, believe me, I’d already be gone.”

  I chewed my lip. My face burned.

  “And you do need help,” Vamp said, “no matter what you say.”

  I shrugged.

  “I care about you, okay?” he said, lowering his voice. “I don’t want you to get killed.”

  “I know.”

  Nix had been watching off to the side, like he wasn’t sure what exactly he’d just witnessed. Vamp rubbed the bridge of his nose, and sighed.

  “I might have something,” he said. “I’ve been grinding on the eyebot data. I’ve got a few more leads for you.”

  “If he’s behind a gate, though—”

  “He had to stash those kids somewhere. Find the kid, and find the twistkey, right?”

  I nodded. “So you’re going to help me?”

  “It’s going to take more than us to get Dragan out of there,” he said, “but I’m with you, Sam.”

  I hugged him, and kissed his neck when he wrapped his arms around me.

  “So, which one do you want to hit first?” I asked him, bringing up the eyebot images. The original trails he’d come up with had grown, but one had also branched and there was a lot of blank space between them.

  “It’s still not real clear,” Vamp said. “But it’s got to be somewhere around there. I’ve got a script trying to close the gap. Give it a little more time.”

  “It has to be one of them. We should—”

  “We can’t just go bouncing around Hangfei half-cocked. We have to have some idea where we’re going.”

  I followed the two ends of the trail, noting the parts of town he’d passed through. There were no gate hubs near the points where they went cold, so I didn’t think he jumped, but nothing in the area stood out, at least, no place you’d leave a couple of kids. There was no way to even know at what points he had the kids with him and when he was alone.

  “We can’t just stay here.”

  “Security is crazy out there right now. You’re not going to be any good to Dragan in a detention center.”

  “How long will your thing take?”

  “By tonight I’ll have a better idea where the missing pieces are, and it’ll be easier to move too.”

  I didn’t like the idea of leaving Dragan hanging, just stewing in a hotel room waiting while he could be in trouble. For all we knew, the burn of Hangfei had already started, but Vamp was right. I wasn’t leaving without Dragan one way or the other, and right now all I had was a stab in the dark, if that. Either lead would be over an hour away on foot, with blocks full of strangers by the thousands. He’d been branded a dissident, so I couldn’t just advertise I was looking for him, or someone would ID me and I’d get picked up for sure. Running off wouldn’t get me anything but arrested.

  “Okay,” I said. “Fine.”

  “Okay?”

  “I said okay.”

  I looked at the trails on the map, willing them, needing them to lead somewhere I recognized, somewhere that made sense.

  Hours passed, though. The nervous conversation dried up until I couldn’t even respond to Vamp’s reassurances while I stared at the screen ready to jump out of my skin. The whiskey was long gone and I was on my third cigarillo, but even the alcohol and the Zen-oil-infused tobacco combined couldn’t calm my jitters. Vamp finally took to chatting with Nix in a low voice, hovering near the door, guarding it so I wouldn’t run off into the night. I tried not to resent him for it, but I couldn’t help it as I climbed into the creaky bed and tried my best to sleep.

  ~ * ~

  Chapter Eleven

  11:07:03 BC

  “No!” a voice shrieked, the terrorized alto of a little boy. I never learned his name, but I came to know his screams like the sound of my own voice. “No! No!”

  I opened my eyes to see that two men had entered the holding pit. Between them, a scrawny little figure thrashed while they held his twiggy wrists. They dragged him away toward the blood trough while a third man lifted the rendering vat cover and released a billowing cloud of steam. I breathed in through my nose, and smelled cooking meat.

  “No!”

  I managed to turn my head, rolling it against the concrete wall behind me until I could see the old man. He leaned back against the wall, his eyes closed and his hands over his ears.

  “Please! Do—”

  A loud bang of electricity cut the boy off, and I looked back in time to see him crumple onto the damp concrete floor. One of the men grabbed his leg and dragged him over to the winch. Then he looped the cable in a figure eight around both ankles and secured the hook.

  The first man pushed the button of a control box that hung from the ceiling. A motor whined as the cable lifted the boy up off the floor, and they guided him over until his wet hair dangled down over the trough.

  I watched. I couldn’t look away, even though I knew I should. I watched as one of the men yanked the machete from out of the stained butcher block and then swung it.

  It wasn’t dramatic, like in the movies. The boy’s head didn’t fly off or anything. It didn’t even look like he hit him that hard, just a little whack to the side of the neck that made the body wobble at the end of the cable, but it was enough. Blood began to glug out of the black, eye-shaped hole that appeared, until a thick stream splattered down into the trough. One little tap was the difference between being alive and being dead.

  When it was done, the man thumped the machete back into the block and lit a cigarillo so he could smoke while he waited for the blood to drain out. He offered one to the other man, who took it.

  Then they talked about some game they’d seen on TV, bonding like two schoolboys while the tiny figure turned slowly at the end of the cable.

  He froze midspin, like someone hit pause or something. The two butchers froze too, one with a cloud of smoke hanging motionless in front of him where he’d exhaled it.

  “... what you are experiencing is not a dream,” the heavily accented voice said. “You will find this difficult to accept, but you are receiving an allied transmission from outside the—“

  Static whined, and the voice cut out. The frozen figures flickered in front of me.

  “... hidden inside several native transmissions where we hope it will not be detected by your authorities, who we believe have been compromised ...in an attempt to get the truth to you...”

  The cloud of smoke billowed and the men’s voices continued while the little boy’s face turned slowly back around.

  “... the world is in grave danger. You have to...”

  The boy’s face turned toward me, his eyes wide and staring through the lines of red that bled down into his hair, and I screamed.

  I jerked awake with a gasp and felt a big arm around me. I panicked, and began to thrash.

  “Sam,” a voice said huskily in my ear. “Hey ...”

  A man lay behind me, holding me fast against him with one arm. I tried to kick the sheet away, to get free of the guy who had me, but I was stuck.

  “Sam,” the voice said again. “Take it easy.”

  I flipped around, and pushed against a muscular chest. I was staring directly into a man’s face, and a spike of adrenaline shot through me even as I realized it was Vamp. He’d pulled his hand away, holding it up where I could see it. He looked stunned.

  “Sam, it’s me. It’s just me.”

  I let out a pent-up breath, feeling the drool-damp pillow against my face. The air smelled like boozy sweat and bad breath, along with a strong-smelling musk that made my nose wrinkle. A soft green light did a mellow strobe against the wall as Vamp’s phone flashed on the nightstand.

  “Vamp,” I whispered.

  “Yeah,” he said. “It’s me.”

/>   “Shit.” My heart was still going a mile a minute.

  “Are you okay?”

  I wiped my face. It was slick with sweat.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Yeah ... I’m fine.”

  “You don’t look fine.”

  I shook my head.

  “I’m out of meds,” I mumbled. “I’m fine. It happens all the time.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. Just... a bad dream.”

  “What about?”

  I tried to focus on the phone’s flashing light, but it kept reeling away, then snapping back in an infinite loop. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down, when a second jolt hit me.

  “Shit, I fell asleep!” I hissed.

  “Sam, it’s okay—”

  “It’s not okay.... Damn it, I have to—”

  “Calm down,” he said quietly. “You’ve been in overdrive since yesterday. You were ready to hit the floor.”

  “I don’t care!”

  Vamp glanced over at Nix, but he didn’t shush me. I could feel my anxiety start to spike when a flicker on the 3i tray made it fizzle. A notification flashed there.

  “What?” Vamp asked.

  I flicked it into the foreground and saw little lines of Pan-Slav.

  “It’s him,” I said.

  “Who?”

  “The shit, the Pan-Slav shit.” I checked his icon. It was pink. “He’s still on.”

  I sat up, running his chat window through the translator and going down the lines of text.

  I need help.

  Help me, please. I’m scared. I want to go home.

  I don’t know where I am.

  “He doesn’t know where he is,” I said, leaning back onto the pillow. The chat window floated between me and Vamp as he leaned over me.

  Alexei, are you there?

  I sent the message through the translator, hoping it would turn it into something that made sense to the kid. His little pink heart pulsed, ticking off the seconds.

  “What’s he saying?” Vamp asked.

  “Shh.”

  Are you Sam?

  I smiled. Yes.

  Is Dragan with you?

  No, hut I’m going to help you. Tell me where you are.

  I don’t know.

  “Sam, what’s he saying?”

  “He doesn’t know where he is. Hang on.”

  Tell me about where you are. Are you inside?

  Yes. I’m in a small box. Like a closet.

  Can you get out? Is the door locked?

  No door.

  There has to be a door. Is it dark? Can you see?

  I can see. Four walls. No door.

  I curled my fist in frustration. That didn’t make any sense.

  Maybe it’s hidden. Try—

  Metal walls and floor. No windows. No doors.

  What else is there?

  A lamp. Water. A metal tank. No more rations.

  What else?

  Nothing else.

  “He says he’s in a metal box,” I whispered. “He’s got a light, rations, water, and maybe an air tank or something.”

  Are you alone? Is a girl with you?

  She was, but he only put me in here.

  Who? Who put you there?

  Dragon.

  I struggled to think it through. Dragan stashed him somewhere, hid him so no one would find him, then ... what?

  “…I have to take care of a few things, but I’ll be back for you. I will find help for you. I promise I’ll be back for you—”

  Dragan meant to go back for him, but he never got the chance.

  “Why keep him in a place like that?” I wondered out loud. Why lock him up in a box like that? Why him, and not the girl?

  “A place like what?” Vamp asked.

  “It sounds like he’s in some kind of cage or something.” I checked the message info again, hoping to get lucky.

  Out of Range.

  Can you remember anything you saw before he put you in the room? I asked. Any street names? Signs?

  I can’t read them.

  “Damn it.”

  Did you see anything that might—

  Dragons. Paper monsters.

  Festival stuff. He could have seen that anywhere.

  Don’t let them burn my country.

  The words hung there.

  Please, he said.

  I started to answer, but I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to tell him I wouldn’t, but I wasn’t sure I could do anything about it. If the weapon was still in Hangfei, which it probably was, I probably wouldn’t even be able to do anything to save myself.

  We don’t hate you, he said. Please. My family is there. My friends. My school.

  Alexei—

  I don’t want them to die. Please. We don’t hate you. Please don’t burn us.

  I couldn’t think of anything to tell him. I just lay there and stared at the words while Vamp leaned over me to grab his flashing phone. Before I could come up with anything, a new message popped up.

  It’s happening again. They’re coming.

  Who?

  He didn’t answer.

  Alexei, who’s coming?

  His icon went gray.

  “He signed off,” I said, rubbing my eyes. Vamp leaned back into bed with me. “What’s up with your phone?” I asked him.

  “Eyebot’s done,” he said, squinting at the little screen.

  “Anything?”

  “I’m not sure. What about the kid, he have anything useful?”

  “Not really,” I said. “He can’t read anything, and Hangfei must have seemed like a maze to him. I don’t think he knows where the hell he is. He’s just stuck in some metal box somewhere with nothing but water and ...”

  Vamp looked up from his phone. “What?”

  “Rations,” I whispered.

  “Didn’t they pay you a new ration sheet?”

  “It’s gone.”

  “What?”

  “It’s gone....”

  Vamp nudged me. “You okay?”

  “After an assignment, Dragan always comes home with a fresh ration sheet,” I said.

  Dragan didn’t come back alone this time, though; he came back with two mouths to feed, and he had to ditch them somewhere. Wherever that was, they had to eat. He’d cashed in the ration sheet.

  “Give me your phone.”

  He handed it over and I flipped it around so I could see the screen. My head throbbed with each heartbeat as I traced the route Dragan had taken but when I saw it, I smiled.

  “There,” I said, snapping my fingers. “Render’s Strip.”

  “Where the bomb went off?”

  “Yeah.” Along with the government centers, all the private ration distributers worked out of there. That’s where Dragan had gone. It was after hours, and locked down because of the bombing, but he was a soldier and could get through.

  I pointed to the screen. “That’s where he took them. The place is called Fang’s Café.”

  “Maybe ...”

  “It is, I’m sure of it.”

  “No place was open to—”

  “He knows the guy who runs it. They fought together. They’re tight. If it was an emergency, he’d help him no matter what time it was.” I tapped the screen again. “It’s him. I know it is. What time is it?”

  I checked the phone.

  “The redemption centers will start opening in a few hours,” I said. “We can head out in two and be there before the rush.”

  “Sam—”

  “I’m going,” I said. “Are you coming with me?”

  “Yeah. I’m in. I’ll go, Sam. Just don’t get too—”

  I kissed him. I didn’t think about it; I was just so happy that I kissed him full on the mouth. When I broke away, he looked a little surprised. I hadn’t meant to do it exactly; I was just so excited. For the first time since the whole thing started, I felt like I had a lead, a plan, something I could do to set everything straight again.