by Shay Savage
“Fuck reason.” I feel bad about snapping at her, but I can’t seem to help myself.
Aerin sighs loudly and hugs me closer to her. She coaxes me to lay my head down in her lap and runs her fingers through my hair. My eyes and lungs ache. I’m mentally and physically spent, and I have no idea what I should do, so I close my eyes and focus on the sensation.
We stay like that for a while, and I even drift in and out of consciousness a bit. Every time I open my eyes, I can still see trails of smoke coming from the piles of burned plastic, and Aerin is still there, caressing my head with her long, warm fingers.
“We probably shouldn’t stay out here in the woods,” Aerin says, stroking my hair again. “The Thaves may be out here looking for survivors. We need somewhere to hide.”
“Back to the mountain.”
“I’m not sure that’s the safest bet,” she says. “They’ll be looking for us. They might have even tracked us out of the northern shaft by now. I think Hilltop is safer, at least for one night.”
“Hilltop will be on guard tonight,” I say. “With Plastictown gone, they’ll be watching for people, even on the walls. We’ll never get in without being seen.”
“Where then?” she asks.
“Higher up the mountain slope,” I say, “but away from Hilltop. There are a few sheltered places. I need to stop by one of them anyway.”
“For what?”
“My stash.” I stand up and take a few steps toward the trail.
Aerin raises an eyebrow, and I roll my eyes.
“Coins. Supplies. I have a feeling I may not be back here for a while, and I might as well get them.”
“How many coins?” She hands me my pack, which I had completely forgotten about.
“Not telling.” I give her a half smile as I sling the pack over my shoulder. “Don’t want you finding out how much I have and then stealing it from me, thief.”
“Pot, kettle.” Aerin points to me and then to herself and back again. “Kettle, pot.”
“Head of lost and found.”
We both laugh, and I feel instantly guilty. I look away, trying to keep the images of burned Naughts out of my head. Aerin reaches over and runs her fingers over my arm.
“I’m so sorry about your friends,” Aerin says. “I know how much you cared about them, and I can’t even imagine what you’re feeling right now. I want to help. I really do, but we have to take a step back and think first.”
“I can’t think,” I tell her. “The only thing I want right now is revenge.”
“And that sounds very desirable, but it’s not going to bring them back.”
“I know that.”
We head up the hill and over to the pile of rocks where I’ve hidden my valuables. I shove the rock to one side and add my bag of coins to my pack.
“Up the trail, there’s a flat place with some trees around it,” I say. “It’s a decent place to camp for the night.”
“Let’s go.”
Aerin follows me as we dodge rocks and trees, staying just above the trail itself. She impresses me with her stealth yet again, barely making a sound as we move through the woods. Night falls just as we reach the camping spot, and we decide against a fire though the night has brought bitter cold.
“Huddling together works a lot better than trying to stay warm on your own,” Aerin says softly, wrapping the blanket around us both.
“Yeah.” I know she’s trying to make small talk just to keep my mind off of the destruction of Plastictown. I appreciate her efforts, but I’m not much in the mood for talking.
I wonder if Ava was worried about my disappearance. I’d asked Jonny to watch out for her, but it was only supposed to be for that night, and I’d been gone for weeks. What did they think happened to me? In their final moments, did they blame me for not being there?
I want to beg Ava for her forgiveness, but she isn’t here.
I lay my head down in Aerin’s lap and wrap my arms around her waist. I shake with quiet sobs as she rubs my back and tries to reassure me.
For the first time in a long time, I think about the vials on my belt and their contents. I realize that if Aerin weren’t here right now, I’d likely be using one of them.
Chapter 19
We return to the edge of Plastictown once the rubble has cooled.
“Talen, wait.” Aerin grabs my arm and pulls me down to a crouch and speaks in a hurried whisper. “Look over there!”
Through the hazy air, I can make out several moving shapes in the distance. As I listen closely, I can hear them speaking. I glance at Aerin and tilt my head to the half-burned firebreak in the middle of town. Staying low to the ground, we make our way to the firebreak and listen closely to the two women on the other side.
“…several weeks to clear everything out.”
“We don’t have weeks. We have days.” The woman’s high-pitched voice makes me cringe.
“Someone better be sending us more workers, then. We don’t have the numbers to get it done that quickly.”
I peek over the top of the firebreak and see a larger group of people approaching. I duck down quickly and hold up my fingers to indicate to Aerin that there are at least twelve of them.
“We’ll start with the area closest to the river,” a male voice says. “Once we clear that out, one group can start building while the other clears the rest of it away.”
“We don’t have the manpower,” the high-pitched voice says. “How do you think we’ll get all that done in time?”
“Reinforcements are arriving from the capital the day after tomorrow,” the man says. “Do you really think the president hasn’t thought all this through?”
“What are we supposed to do in the meantime?”
“Check for survivors and get the materials needed from Hilltop to here. Get your people ready to transport everything down the mountainside starting tomorrow morning. I want most of it here before they arrive so we aren’t wasting time.”
I hear people moving away and quickly peek over the edge again. The women are gone, and just two men remain. I recognize one of the men—it’s Harley Junes, the man who owns the now burned down plastic factory across the river. I don’t know the other man, but by his clothing, I assume he’s from the capital.
“Did you know that the epicenter of the Great Eruption was once a tourist site?” he asks.
“Why would tourists go anywhere near there?” Junes replies.
“It was a national park,” he says. “People came from all over the world to see it. Lots of scientists said it was about to happen, but the government refused to listen. They didn’t want to put people in a panic. And then, one day…”
“Bang.” Junes chuckles.
“Very large bang, yes. A hundred million died within a few hours, and half of the continent became a giant crater. Even though it was over a hundred years ago, eruptions continue, and ash still covers the whole world.”
“How do you know all of this?” Junes asks.
“Because we in the East understand a lot more than you realize.” The man’s voice deepens with self-proclaimed authority. “We know the state of the continent, and we understand why this must be done.”
“As long as I’m compensated the way you all promised, it doesn’t matter to me.”
The two men move away and out of earshot. I glance over at Aerin, and we stay put for several minutes before we dare to stand again.
“We should leave,” she says.
“I have to do something first.”
“They could come back.”
“Not today. They have a lot of work to do up the hill, and they said they wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.”
“You can’t be sure.”
“Don’t really care right now.”
Aerin follows me slowly as I dig through the ash until I find a suitable piece of hardened plastic to use as a shovel. Mindlessly, I dig a pit near the rubble that was once Ava’s tent. As much as I want to provide every resident with their own gra
ve, it would take days to complete. The least I can do is to get Ava, Jonny, and Milo buried.
“I’m going to scout around the edge of town.” Aerin’s voice is soft. “Are you all right for a bit?”
“Yeah.”
She rests her hand on my shoulder for a moment before she trots off to the south side of town. I continue to dig, counting each scoop of ashy dirt as I go. After some time, Aerin returns.
“Let me do that for a while.” Aerin gives me water and then looks at my hands. “You’re getting blisters.”
I shrug.
“I found part of a tarp that didn’t burn up,” she says. “I thought it would help to…to gather the remains on it. I’ll keep digging while you rest a bit, okay?”
I don’t have the energy to argue with her.
Digging the grave in the rough ground, collecting the bones and wrapping them carefully in the tarp, and then burying them takes the entire day. When we’re finished, I place the clay cup I found near Ava’s tent on top of the mound.
“I’m sorry, Ava.”
Aerin takes my hand, and I take a deep breath before I speak.
“I wish I had perfect words to say, but I don’t. I can only promise you that I’m going to make the people responsible pay for this.”
“We’ll figure it all out, Talen.” Aerin wraps her arms around me, and for a long moment, we just stand there in silence.
As the sky darkens, we head back into the woods and our small camp up the hill.
“When is your mother expecting you to return?” I ask as we walk.
“She knew it would take a while to get over the mountains,” Aerin says. “I only arrived in the area a few days before we first met, and it will still take time to get back to the city.”
“How long have you been gone?”
“I left in May, so about six months. It took me a little longer than expected to reach the complex, and I was there for a while before I came down to Hilltop.”
“Why did you go there?” I ask. “It seems like the complex has everything you need.”
“I wanted new books.” Aerin grins.
“Seriously?”
“I like to read.” She shrugs one shoulder. “I’ve already read all the ones I have, some of them more than once.”
“I can’t even think of the last time I sat down to read a book.”
“Maybe you should.”
“I guess now that I don’t have a community to look after, I’ll have more time.”
“I’m sorry,” Aerin says softly. “I was trying to get you to think about something else.”
“It’s okay. I know you were. I’m pretty sure anything you say is going to make me think about it, so you might as well—”
“Shh!” Aerin suddenly places her hand over my mouth. “Do you hear that?”
I listen closely, closing my eyes and tilting my head toward the east. Shuffling sounds come from the trail in front of us.
“Footsteps.” Aerin whispers.
We move off the trail and near a small tree trunk. I step in front of Aerin, but stay close to the side of the tree. The trunk isn’t large enough to conceal me completely, and if someone were to look in this direction, they would likely see us. I pull my blades out and hold them at my sides as the footsteps approach.
Two black shapes creep down the path, walking slowly but not particularly quietly. A twig snaps, and one of them stops just a few feet from us.
“Be quiet!” A male voice hisses in the darkness as the second shape nearly runs into him.
“I don’t think there’s anyone out here,” another voice says.
“You don’t know that,” the man replies in a low whisper. “It’s dark. People can hide easily as long as they stay quiet!”
“Sorry.”
The two shapes start to move, but the man abruptly stops again. I watch his silhouette as he turns his head in our direction. He takes half a step forward, and I tense, ready to spring.
“Is someone there?” He moves off the path, closer to us. “I can see you up there! Show yourself!”
“Stay back,” I whisper to Aerin.
The man stands his ground, brandishing what appears to be a large club. In the dim light, I can’t see if the other person is armed or not, so I assume they are both carrying weapons. Knives in hand, I step away from the trees, prepared to fight.
“Talen? Is that you?”
I peer at the dark shape of the man, playing back his words in my head and listening closely to the voice.
“Samuel?” I move away from the trees and head down to the trail. When I get closer, I can make out the grey hair and beard of the potter who has made me so many items in the past in exchange for building materials. He leans heavily on a long walking stick, not a club as I had thought. “Samuel! You got out alive!”
“Just barely!” Samuel reaches out and clasps my hand. “Got my leg caught on a rock, and it’s pretty banged up. I’m so glad to see ya, Talen. It was a hell of a night.”
“Who’s this?” The young man behind Samuel looks at me suspiciously.
“This is Talen,” Samuel says. “He’s been in our area for years now. Helps out everyone, but he’s been missing a few weeks. Honestly, son, we all thought you were dead.”
“Not quite.”
“Talen, this is Will. He moved into town from Roundbottom not too long after you disappeared. He was helping me dig out clay in the river when the fires broke out.”
I offer my hand to the tall young man, but he doesn’t accept it. He glares at me and crosses his arms over his chest instead. I give him the friendliest smile I can muster under the circumstances, understanding his trepidation, but he just tosses a shock of brown hair off his forehead and continues to stare.
“Aerin, come on out!” I turn to call over my shoulder, and Aerin joins us, standing off to the side. “This is Aerin.”
Samuel nods his head and sighs deeply.
“Hello,” Aerin says with a tight-lipped smile.
“Aerin and I have been traveling together these past few weeks.” I don’t want to elaborate just yet, and if I say too much, Samuel will know Aerin isn’t from the valley.
“Oh,” Samuel says with a sly grin. “I see.”
I narrow my eyes at him, but he just keeps grinning.
“What happened down there?” I ask. “You were near the river when it started?”
“In the river, actually,” Samuel says. “That’s why we survived. The fires started on both sides at the same time, the bridges, too. The plastic burned so fast, we ended up swimming all the way down past the south bridge before we managed to get to shore. By then, there was nothing to see but flames. I thought Will was going to choke to death on the smoke before we got to shore. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Someone set those fires,” Will says.