Resonance

by Dianne J Wilson

  “Wait! We didn’t even vote! That’s not right. Come back here.” The thought of being left behind must have gotten the better of Ruaan. He followed them, muttering under his breath.

  ~*~

  Evazee lost track of how long they’d been jogging. In a moment, the darkness around them felt different, and she knew they’d cleared the forest. They stopped to catch their breaths and figure out what to do now. As far as she could tell, whatever had been rustling in the trees had stayed put and decided not to follow them.

  A low rumble passed underneath their feet and the rock began to glow in gentle, broken light. Evazee knelt down for a closer look.

  They stood on a flat stone surface, pock-marked and rough, shot through with random sparkling patterns that glowed and pulsed. Raised bumps the size of bowling balls dotted the ground at regular intervals like miniature volcanos, complete with a hole at the centre. The light given off by the rock barely reached their knees, but after being sightless for so long, Evazee drank in the sight gratefully. Peta stared off into the distance. She may as well have been blind. Evazee was losing the girl.

  “Come on. Let’s see if we can find the boys.” Evazee aimed right and followed the line of the trees.

  If the boys kept walking along the right fork of the path, they would soon be out of the forest as well. Unlike the silence of the graveyard, this place hummed in a way that was almost musical. Evazee kept her eyes on the ground as she walked, fascinated by the tiny sparkles in the rock. Must be minerals, though not any she’d learnt about in school. Whatever they were, they made her heart happy…and that was more than she could say for anything else they’d come across in this grim place.

  “So, Peta, I was just thinking that we don’t know much each other. How about we pick out some things to chat about?” Evazee didn’t wait for the girl to respond. “What about happiest memories?”

  Peta trudged along next to her and didn’t answer.

  “I’ll go first. I was home sick from school one day, and my mom had to work, so she brought my gran over to keep an eye on me. Gran moved all the lounge couches and made the lounge into an aeroplane. She pretended to be the air hostess and brought me snacks and let me choose the in-flight movie. She nearly set the carpet alight with the tiny candles she used to mark the runway. We had to put it all back before Mom came home, but Gran giggled and told me that it would be our little secret. I’m sure Mom knew what we’d got up to, but she didn’t mind and never let on.” The memory warmed Evazee. “How about you?”

  Peta continued her walk in silence. Evazee’s usual response would be to fill the awkward dead air with a stream of chatter, but she bit her tongue and waited. Suddenly, with no warning, Peta began wringing her hands, her face crunched up, and she shut her eyes. “I don’t remember good. The sun has gone down in my brain. There is only night and memories of darKounds, LightSuckers, and the man who fixed my ankle.” A sigh shuddered through her, and her face went slack as she turned away from Evazee.

  Evazee watched helplessly as the window of opportunity slammed shut in her face. Her hand on Peta’s back seemed like cold comfort. She’d seen Shasta bring a dead LightSucker back to life, only to watch it die a few minutes later. Shasta led the OS training school and even though Evazee hadn’t had much to do with him, she’d seen enough to know that his miracles were a sham that came at a high price. With the grim reality of Shasta’s failed LightSucker healing fresh in her brain, she’d watched him go to work on Peta’s broken ankle. Her bones may have knit back together, but something else had been let loose in her body that made Evazee’s skin crawl.

  There was nothing else to do but find the boys, and maybe together, they could find the Healing Stream.

  ~*~

  “You know, maybe this wasn’t our best idea. We’ve been walking this forest forever. We’re not getting through.” Zap cleared his throat. There was a quiver to his voice that Kai knew well. He was terrified. “Maybe we should just go back.”

  Ruaan patted his growling stomach wistfully. “Can I just remind you both that I was against all this in the first place? Maybe next time you should consider listening to me.”

  “Look! There’s the path.” Kai couldn’t stop a tinge of I-told-you-so coloring his voice. They stepped clear of the trees, and Kai clicked his neck left and right, stretching his arms overhead to ease out the muscles of his back.

  “Well done, genius. We’re back where we started.” Ruaan pointed to a mark they’d carved into the bark of a tree.

  Kai rubbed his eyes and held the light bottle up close, “What? That’s not even possible! We should be able to cut straight across. We walked straight, didn’t we?”

  Zap had his hands on his hips and a philosophical slant to his eyebrows. “Makes sense, really. Think of the graveyard. There is nothing natural about this place. Back home, you could assume walking in a straight line would get you where you wanted to go. Here? Not so much.”

  Kai frowned. “That makes sense. When did you get so smart?” He slapped Zap on the back, “So what now, smartypants? We have to get to the girls.”

  Zap crossed his arms. There was just a hint of swagger in the lift of his chin. “Well, if you must ask me...” Moments in the spotlight were not to be taken lightly.

  Ruaan slapped him on the belly with the back of his hand. “There’s a path. We follow it. It’s not that hard. They’ll probably be waiting for us when we get through.” With that, he turned and headed into the darkness, leaving the other two gaping in the pool of bottle light.

  ~*~

  A low rumble groaned through the rock beneath their feet, building to a shudder that made Peta stumble. Evazee reached out to steady her, but Peta pulled away as if Evazee’s skin scorched her. The shaking settled, and one line of glowing pattern brightened. It started at their feet and sparked a bright path away from the trees, cutting across the vast expanse of rock. The intensity of the glow was so bright that it lifted the reach of the brightness from their knees, to hips, up past their shoulders.

  Evazee felt the light dance on her skin, tingling and sparking, a Jacuzzi of radiance. It washed over Peta, and the muscles in her face visibly relaxed.

  “Should we follow it?” Evazee asked.

  Peta met her eyes and nodded.

  Evazee grinned. It was a hint of the old Peta. This had to be right.

  Starting slow, they followed the glowing line as it weaved around the mini volcanoes. Each step they took echoed through the rock. Laughter bubbled up inside Evazee, and she grabbed Peta’s hand as they started to walk faster. Wherever this led was going to be glorious. Maybe it would even take away the gloom that had settled into the girl’s soul.

  It began as a slight tremble. A shudder beneath their feet. Evazee looked ahead and saw one of the mini volcanoes in their way. The glowing line they were following went straight across and carried on to the other side. Evazee hesitated. Another tremble shuddered through the rock, this one nearly shaking them off their feet.

  “Get off! Get off! It’s going to blow!” Footfall slapped the ground behind them like gunshots.

  Dazed and blinded, Evazee squinted. Who was it? In a moment, a tall figure burst through the brightness and threw an arm around each of them, shoving them to the side. They landed hard.

  The bubbles left her skin, and she felt cold and empty. “What are you doing? Who do you think you are?”

  It was Elden. He was an Affinity trainer, and one that she may or may not be able to trust, but that didn’t stop her heart from double-thumping.

  “We’ve got to get off this rock. Haven’t you felt the tremors?” Elden helped them both to their feet. With a hand on each of their backs, he pushed them along.

  Evazee let herself be shoved along, still stunned at his sudden appearance, “When did you get here? Were you in the graveyard? Why didn’t we see you? Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Good grief, girl! All these whys. Can we get to safety first, please?”

  Evazee pulled away f
rom his hand and folded her arms across her chest. “How do I even know I can trust you?”

  “Look at it this way. If you are torched by one of these jets, you’ll never know, now will you?” A faint whoosh sounded behind them. Elden spun and peered through the gloom. “It’s started. Run, run now!”

  Evazee glanced past Elden. What had him spooked? One of the mini volcanoes shot out a steaming stream of sparks and fire taller than both Elden and Kai balanced on top of each other. As she watched, it spread to the next one and the next, as if it were fed by some underground stream of flame inching relentlessly towards them.

  “Running is good. Let’s do that.” Tearing her eyes away from the jets closing in, she grabbed Peta’s hand, but the girl stood rooted, sparks and flames reflecting in her unblinking eyes.

  “Elden, help!”

  Elden scooped Peta up in his arms, just as the jet at her feet blew. He turned away and hunched over her, using his body as a shield against the rain of liquid flame.

  5

  Elden wouldn’t let them stop until there was dirt, not rock, beneath their feet. He eased Peta out of his arms, and she sank down, almost hugging her legs but stopping short of touching. Her breathing was too fast.

  The jets burned all across the rocky surface behind them, casting an eerie glow where they huddled. Evazee knelt next to Peta. “Are you hurt? Or just shaken up?” Evazee moved in close and lifted Peta’s hands away. All down the front of her legs, from the knees down, were raised blisters, the skin an angry red. Elden had shielded her body with his, but he hadn’t managed to protect all of her.

  He sat next to Peta, his arms resting on his knees, head down.

  “Elden are you hurt?”

  “A bit. My back. I’ll be fine.” He spoke through gritted teeth.

  “Let me see.” Evazee hobbled closer. The eruption had burnt holes in his T-shirt, and each fabric hole surrounded a blister. “I don’t know what to do. We need the Healing Stream.” Evazee thought back to when Kai’s LightSucker bites had been healed just by her touch. He’d been so insistent that it was the LifeLight inside that carried healing power, and he’d been right, even though she’d thought him crazy at the time. But now? Everything was different. There was no evidence that she was filled with LifeLight—no means of staying safe in the messed-up place. Maybe she was burnt out beyond recovery.

  Peta cried softly. Tremors wracked her body in response to the pain.

  Jesus, I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know what to ask You. I can’t help these people. I need you.

  Elden gently eased his arms under Peta and lifted her. She folded herself into his neck and hung on. “I think we should get away from this place.”

  Evazee rubbed the back of her neck as they walked away from the burning rock. She wished her sense of direction were better. “We split up from the others. I don’t know how we’re ever going to find them. Do you know your way around this place?”

  “Not this section. Things work differently here. You can’t expect things to be predictable or logical. Where were you aiming to go before you split up?”

  “From the graveyard, we could see lights in the distance. We aimed ourselves at those, and we would have been fine if the Grave Keepers hadn’t shown up.”

  “How do you know that would have been safe?”

  Evazee shrugged. “Can one ever be sure?” Her feet schlurped with each step she took. The ground was becoming soggy, making walking hard. “How do we know any of this is safe? None of it is. Even the beautiful things are apparently lethal.” She waved her hand behind her and toward the fiery field. “We’re here to find Bree, and that’s about all I know. We have to start somewhere. What about you? Where do you think we should start looking? Maybe the fact that I’ve just asked you four questions in a row is a fat clue to how freaked out I’m feeling. None of this feels safe. Your question is stupid.”

  Elden shook his head. This semi-gloom seemed to weigh him down even more than the girl he carried. “I guess so. Let’s keep going until we find someone.”

  Evazee shook her head as they walked, turning over the same question lurking in the back of her mind since she’d woken up here. “What I’d really like to know is how we got back here. Last time, Kai was unconscious, and he was stuck here sort of permanently.”

  “Yeah, I know. Hit by a bus. So he kept telling me.”

  She ignored his comment. “As for me, I kept fading in and out. It seemed like every time I prayed, I found myself here. But in between, I went back to normal life. It doesn’t make sense. What could have happened to get a bunch of us here—stuck like Kai—but all at the same time?”

  Elden didn’t say a word. He grunted under Peta’s weight and the pain of his blistered back.

  “And then there’s you. When did you say you came across?”

  “I didn’t.” His breathing came in short gasps, and his footsteps slowed in the sticky mud that seemed to be getting deeper. It was over their feet now, with a layer of liquid sludge lapping their ankles. They were back in deep shadow, far enough away from the burning field that it was merely a glow on the horizon.

  “But we were all together in the graveyard. If you came back with us, why weren’t you there? Or were you, but you didn’t say anything?”

  Elden stood still, the sudden stop in movement causing a mini-wave that sloshed up Evazee’s legs. “Is it just me, or is this watery stuff getting deeper?”

  Evazee clicked her tongue. “Are you avoiding my questions?”

  “You ask so many, if they were bullets, I’d be bleeding. Can we not do this now, please? Also, we’re up to our knees, and it is getting deeper.”

  “You know something. But you’re not telling me.” Evazee slopped closer, wishing she could look him in the eye.

  “I’m in pain. This girl needs help. Stop it.”

  “Fine. But we will pick this up when you’re better.” A wave of hot shame flushed through Evazee. She’d been so caught up in how and why that she’d forgotten that she was the only one not injured. “I’m sorr—”

  “Shh!”

  “Don’t shh me. I’m not—”

  “Keep quiet woman. Can you hear that?”

  From far off to the right came a steady sloshing noise, rhythmical and unhurried. Slosh, pause, slosh, pause. It continued, getting louder each time. Whatever was making the noise seemed to be coming directly towards them. Evazee shuffled closer to Elden. A tremor ran through her body, not entirely caused by standing in the cold mud. Soon, a light appeared, floating above the water, weaving and bobbing with each subsequent swoosh. It was a longboat. The oarsman sat up front, paddling left then right.

  “Should we run?” Evazee stood close enough to Elden that his body heat warmed her. She wished she could tuck her hands under his arms to thaw out her fingers.

  Elden shook his head. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

  They waited while the boat drew steadily closer, almost hypnotised by the beat of the strokes of the paddles through the water. As far as Evazee could make out, there were two people onboard.

  A man’s voice drifted across the surface of the marshland towards them, low and gravelly. “Can you see them yet?”

  “Yebo.” The second seemed a man of few words.

  “Uh, Shrimp...I need more info than just a yes. What are we dealing with?”

  The one called Shrimp sat closest to the front of the boat. He paused rowing to squint through the gloom, “From here it looks like two Unlit’s and a Cover-up.”

  “Safe or risky?”

  “I dunno, Beaver. Injured, I think.”

  Beaver took up a spare pair of oars and settled down toward the back of the boat. “All right. Let’s bring them in. Paddle hard left, and we’ll coast in sideways to load them up.”

  “Yebo.”

  “And stop with that foreign lingo. Have you been hanging around the Zulu again?”

  “Ye—”

  “No! Don’t say it!” Beaver aimed the back of the paddle at Shrim
p’s back and gasped with fright when cold liquid ran down the paddle and down his arm, soaking his pants. He was still spluttering and shaking his legs in turn when the boat pulled to an expert stop a hair’s breadth from bumping into Elden and Evazee.

  “You folks in need of some help, perhaps? The name’s Beaver, and this here is Shrimp.” He didn’t wait for them to respond but stood to take Peta from Elden.

  The boat rocked alarmingly, but the two onboard stayed steady. Elden hesitated for a fraction of a second before handing the small girl over. For Elden to accept help from strangers meant he was close to being done. Right now, this seemed to be their best option.

  Elden boosted Evazee from behind, steadying the boat with his other hand. Evazee almost tipped in head first. Her water-logged feet were cold and stiff from being submerged for too long. Elden climbed in after and lifted Peta onto his lap. The boat was small and the three of them huddled in the middle section, all knees and elbows.

  Elden drew Evazee closer to himself with an arm around her shoulder, “It’s a bit squishy in here.”

  Heat crept into her cheeks, and she let him tuck her closer, only because it meant he couldn’t see her blushing face. “Where are you taking us? If you don’t mind me asking.” She threw the question out, not sure which one of the men was in charge.

  “Not at all,” Shrimp answered from the front, paddling as he spoke. “You’re coming to our home so we can do something about those burns before infection sets in.”

  “How far is your home? Where do you live?”

  Shrimp paused rowing. “Not too far now.” He waved his hand over the rippling water. “In fact, you could call this our backyard.”

  “You all had a run in with the rock lava, I see?” Beaver spoke up from behind them.

  Evazee pointed. “These two did. It missed me somehow.”

  At her comment, Shrimp swung around and winked at Beaver. “Cover-up. Told you.”

  Beaver threw up a hand, his flat palm aimed straight at Shrimp. “Honestly. Did I even argue with you? No, I didn’t. So can you just shut it?” For all their arguing, the vibe between the two men was good-humoured.