Talen

by Shay Savage

  Aerin, Jennifer, and the two remaining guards stand on the side of a gravel road. Aerin struggles as one of the guards holds her bound hands behind her, and Jennifer yells at him to be careful with her daughter.

  “Mom, you can’t do this!” Aerin yells.

  “I’m so sorry, Aerin, but I have to get you out of here. If we just have a little more time, I’m sure you’ll come to understand.”

  Aerin wrenches her arm, ducks sideways, and elbows one of the guards in the gut. He doubles over with a grunt but quickly regains himself and smacks her across the face.

  Both Aerin and Jennifer begin to yell, but my focus is solely on the guard as I draw out my knives. I walk briskly and with purpose, not bothering to hide myself or my intentions as I brandish the knives and close the gap between us.

  Aerin sees me first, and her bright eyes drive me forward. I’m on the first guard before he even notices my approach.

  Jennifer screams as I stab the man in the kidney, and he drops to the ground. The other guard goes for his weapon, but I’m far too close for his gun to be effective. I swing at him, and he uses his arm to block me, dropping the gun in the process. Aerin stumbles backward and falls on her ass as the guard and I dance around each other.

  I swing again, then jab. I nick his arm, but he’s faster than I expect. His fist comes out in a wide arc, and I don’t duck fast enough. His punch lands on my cheek, and I reel backward.

  The transport looms into view. It’s a huge machine with caterpillar tracks instead of wheels, rolling over the gravel road and spewing ash everywhere. Jennifer holds her hands up in the air, waving it down.

  The guard jumps into the air, tackling me to the ground. He punches me again and again before I manage to get my feet up against his sides and throw him off of me. I stand unsteadily as he looks at me with wild, violent eyes.

  The guard dives at me, assuming he has the upper hand. I spin and duck, thrusting my knife into his side. He screams, and I use the other knife to penetrate his neck. Blood pulses out of his carotid, covering his shoulder and my arm. I withdraw the knife, and he drops to the ground.

  Jennifer screams again before running toward the transport. As I pull Aerin to her feet, her mother jumps on the side of the vehicle and hangs onto the edge as it crawls farther down the road.

  I cut the bindings off Aerin’s wrists, and she reaches up to wrap her arms around my neck.

  “You have no idea how glad I am to see you!” she says.

  “Likewise.”

  A second later, gunfire erupts from the transport. I grab Aerin’s arm and pull her to the ground with me, diving behind a few rocks that offer very little shelter. I pull Ford’s gun from my pocket and fire back.

  “Talen, no!” Aerin grabs for the weapon. “My mother!”

  “What do you want me to do?” I yell back.

  “We need to just run!” She takes my face in her hands and looks deeply into my eyes. “We need to leave. She’s my mother, Talen. Just let her go.”

  I nod, and we keep low to the ground as we scamper away, shots ringing out behind us. One of them hits the back of my leg, and I stumble, but it doesn’t penetrate my skin. A moment later, we drop out of sight of the transport and return to the shaft entrance just as the ground starts to rumble.

  “Did the generator blow?” I ask.

  “If it did, you would know it,” Aerin says. “But I think Mom was right. The build-up of pressure is putting more strain on the plates, and it’s probably going to cause a massive quake.”

  “We need to get out of here,” I say. “Now.”

  “I’m with you,” Aerin says.

  “We need to take the travois. This will all have been for nothing if we don’t return with the supplies.”

  We throw our packs onto the tarp between the poles, and then Aerin grabs the end.

  “We can move faster if you carry the back part,” she says.

  Another quake knocks the end of the travois right out of my hands.

  “If we don’t return at all, it won’t mean much, either,” Aerin says.

  “We have to try.”

  “Let’s move, then!”

  We hurry as fast as we can down the mountainside, carrying the travois and trying not to slide right down the slope. Rocks tumble around us as the earth begins to shake beneath our feet. As we reach the base of the mountain, a loud explosion rocks the landscape and sends us flying forward.

  The travois tumbles, spilling half the supplies all over the ground, and I land on a pile of rocks, striking my jaw and cutting my cheek. Aerin lands a few feet ahead of me.

  Behind us, we hear and feel another massive explosion. As I look toward where the mountain should be, I see only a thick cloud of smoke and ash.

  “Are you okay?” I crawl over to Aerin and place my hand on her shoulder.

  “Mostly,” she replies. She rolls over with a groan. There’s a gash on her temple, but it doesn’t look too deep.

  “Can you walk?” I ask.

  Aerin stands, wobbling a bit, and then nods.

  “Look over there,” I say, nodding toward the mountain.

  “I can barely see anything,” she says. “There’s too much smoke.”

  “I don’t think there’s anything left to see. The blast destroyed the mountaintop.”

  “If that much rock fell, it would have covered Plastictown, Hilltop, and practically the whole valley. We barely escaped the blast range.”

  We gather up the supplies as rocks continue to fall. The earth shakes again as we each take one of the poles and start dragging the travois along the bank of the river.

  As we get farther away from the mountain, the ground vibrates less and less. We hear two more explosions in the distance before the sun disappears behind the pillar of smoke, and we stop to camp for the night.

  “The river is slowing,” Aerin says.

  “Why?” I look over to the trickling water. She’s right. The current has slowed to a trickle.

  “Best guess, the debris created a dam. Whatever is left will flood.”

  “The whole mountain and valley…” I shake my head, trying to picture in my mind what the devastation must look like. “Would anyone make it out alive?”

  “In the valley, no. The transport might have been fast enough though.”

  I wonder if she’s sure of that or just wants to believe it for her mother’s sake.

  “He’s dead, isn’t he?” Aerin says quietly as she gets a fire going. “I mean, I saw him on the ground, but I didn’t check.

  “Yes, he is.”

  “Did you use that poison?”

  “Yes.”

  Aerin stares into the flames. I reach out and touch the back of her hand, relieved when she turns it palm up and entwines her fingers with mine.

  “Do you think someone will come after us?” she asks.

  “I don’t know,” I say with a shrug. “Maybe they’ll decide the president died from a virus.”

  Chapter 25

  Every single part of my body hurts.

  My shoulder throbs from the rock that hit it. My leg stings from the bullet that hit it. My arms, legs, and back ache with fatigue from the running, the fighting, and the dragging of the heavy travois through the mountain terrain.

  Aerin isn’t in much better shape.

  The punch she received from the guard has left her dizzy, and I’m pretty sure she has a concussion. Her cheek is bruised; there is a gash on her temple and a cut on her lip.

  “You look awful,” Aerin says.

  “Me? If only there were a mirror around.” I shuffle through the first aid supplies we found.

  “That bad, huh?”

  “I’ve seen worse.” I place a bandage over the cut on her head. “That’s better.”

  The small act of reaching up to her head makes my shoulder hurt more. With a moan, I lie down next to the fire and try to stretch out a little.

  “What hurts?” Aerin asks as she sits down next to me.

  “Everything.”<
br />
  She runs her fingers over the side of my face, and I cringe. She pulls her hand back quickly and scowls at me.

  “Where doesn’t it hurt?”

  Recalling an old movie in the genre Aerin seems to like the best, I bend my arm up over my head and present my elbow to her. I point at it with my index finger.

  “Here,” I say, trying to contain a smile.

  Aerin’s eyes sparkle as she gives me a wide grin, clearly understanding the Raiders of the Lost Ark reference.

  “All right, Dr. Jones.” Aerin grins down at me and then leans over to place her lips against my elbow. She quickly pulls back. “Ow.”

  Aerin rubs her cut lip.

  “Well, this scene isn’t working out for me as well as it did for Indiana.”

  “Maybe you should have learned to use a whip instead of knives.”

  She curls up next to me, gingerly wrapping her arm around my chest. She stays quiet and still, but I know she isn’t sleeping.

  “Are you okay?” I ask.

  Aerin just shrugs.

  “What is it?” I turn toward her and place my hand on her unbruised cheek.

  “Just thinking about my mom.”

  “She made her choice.”

  “I know, but I don’t have to like it.”

  “I don’t know her like you do, obviously. I can only go by what I saw, which was yet another one of the Thaves who has been manipulated and brainwashed by my father. I can tell you from experience that they don’t tend to change once he has his claws into them.”

  “My mother isn’t that naïve.” Aerin grits her teeth and looks away.

  “You heard what she said. She could have come with us, but she chose to stay with them.”

  “Yes, I saw that.” Aerin’s tone is biting. “I wish I had more time to talk to her, time without a mountain blowing up all around us.”

  “Do you want to go after her?” I ask quietly.

  Aerin looks down at her hands, contemplating. I know my question is a terrible idea, but if Aerin wants to pursue her mother, I’m going to help her. I watch her in silence until she looks up quickly.

  “No.” Aerin squares her shoulders. “You’re right. She made her choice. I don’t know what happened to make her feel the way she does, but I have to move on.”

  “I had to do the same thing.” I take her hand and give it a squeeze. “At some point, I had to admit that there was no reasoning with my father. No matter what I said, he was never going to change his mind.”

  “But he’s dead now.”

  “Yes.”

  “How do you feel about that?”

  “I don’t know.” I lie back and stare up at the dark sky. “I’m a little numb, I guess.”

  “He didn’t leave you much of a choice,” Aerin says, placing her hand on my chest. “Once he knew you were alive, he wouldn’t have stopped looking for you.”

  “I don’t know about that,” I reply. “I don’t think he ever looked for me. As long as I was out of the way, he never cared. I don’t think he would have come after me. The important thing is that he can’t come after anyone else I care about.”

  “Do you think someone will take his place?” Aerin asks.

  “Probably.”

  “Who?”

  “Vice President Martins, I guess. Line of succession and all, but that won’t make any difference. There will be another election. After that, who knows? Everyone I ever came across in the government was just like my father, so I can only imagine the valley will never be safe for Naughts again.”

  “The plan to go north still makes the most sense to you?”

  “Yes. I really don’t see any other viable option.” I turn my head toward her and try to understand her expression. “Do you think it’s a bad idea?”

  “I don’t think there are any good ideas,” she says. “I guess that one is the only one we have.”

  “But you don’t like it?”

  “I don’t like the cold,” she says, snickering a little. “I suppose I’m going to have to get used to it.”

  “I’ll find something to trade with Luther for some of his rabbit pelts,” I tell her. “I’ll make you some nice, warm boots.”

  “Hmm. That might make it bearable.” Aerin smiles and then furrows her brow. “What are we going to tell the others about what happened?”

  “Everything,” I reply definitively. “I won’t leave anything out. I barely regained their trust, and I’m not about to jeopardize that again.”

  Aerin nods and then rests her head on my shoulder. I lean my head back, but sleep won’t come for either of us.

  “Where did you get those knives?” Aerin asks.

  “Found them.”

  “Uh huh. Found them where?”

  “One of the very first communities I came across after I left the capital,” I say. “The person who lived there had quite a collection.”

  “And you took them? Doesn’t that go against your code?”

  “I didn’t have that code before I decided to stay in Plastictown,” I tell her. “When I was traveling through places, I found a lot of useful and expensive items. It made trading with the Naughts a lot easier, and it was the only way I could feed myself between villages.”

  “And you were never caught?”

  “Never. Came close a couple of times, and I completely circumvented some areas when I heard people talking about robberies and such, but never caught, no.”

  “They are very fancy,” Aerin says. “Any idea what the carvings mean?”

  “No.” I laugh. “When I found them, I just thought they looked cool. They were the right length for fighting, and they also had the sheaths. Perfect fit.”

  Aerin raises herself up on her elbow and looks down at me.

  “Do you know how hot it is watching you fight with them?”

  “Hot?”

  “Oh, yes.” She traces her index finger over my chest. “It was rather difficult to keep myself from throwing you to the ground and taking you while the mountain fell apart all around us.”

  “You like to live dangerously.”

  “Maybe you’re just that tempting.” She rakes her fingertips through my beard, rolling slightly on top of me.

  “Well, I’m glad you managed to control yourself long enough not to be crushed.” I reach over and grab her thigh, bringing it up over my waist and pressing up against her.

  It hurt. Just moving hurt, but I don’t care at this point.

  “I can’t think of anything better than getting inside of you right now,” I say with a grin, “but I’m not sure my body is going to cooperate.”