by Melanie Tays
But my giddiness is fleeting because, whatever I see or do today, I’ll do it alone. The smothering blanket of hopelessness descends and threatens to strangle me.
But this isn’t just about me—not by a long shot.
More important than what awaits me is what will happen to my family. Liam said that the sickness reemerges several weeks after receiving the Curosene. I have to free them before that, but I have no idea how Eason intended to accomplish that feat.
There is a car waiting for us. It’s the first time I’ve ever ridden in a car, if I don’t count my stolen ride on the courier truck that brought me into the Flame just five days ago. Just five days and everything has changed, and changed again, like a pendulum swinging, and now it’s coming down for a final descent that will seal the nail in my coffin.
Mieka is yelling obscenities and stretching her limbs out to make it impossible for all three Enforcers together to stuff her inside the vehicle. She should have seen it coming, because I’m not one bit surprised when the stout female Enforcer pulls out her blaster and stuns Mieka a second time. Unconscious, they have no trouble heaping her in the seat next to me.
I watch the sparkling buildings of the Flame pass by and think that this was almost my home. After a lifetime of fearing the Burning, it turns out that I could have passed after all. I wonder how many others from the Smoke could do every bit as well as I did, and maybe better, if they weren’t so terrified to try. They would need a better education, though. The books I studied in secret were essential. But if Eason could be assigned to the Council despite achieving the lowest ranks, then maybe the scores don’t mean that much, anyway.
If things were different, I might be planning my new life here. For the briefest time, I did think that was the path my life might actually take. But I don’t know that I ever could have truly belonged.
And maybe that’s why the Refinement perplexes me so much—I don’t understand this place and these people because I didn’t grow up here and was never really meant to be here. After all, Eason’s assignment didn’t surprise everyone.
“Vander,” I say, breaking the silence. He’s staring out the window too, probably bidding goodbye to all he’s ever known.
“Huh?” He doesn’t look at me.
“Vander, what did you mean back there when you said ‘it figures’ about Eason?”
He shrugs. “It can’t really be a surprise that he would end up on the Council.”
“But why?” I demand, unable to venture a guess as to what he means. All the evidence points to a very different outcome. “He’s from the Smoke. He had terrible rankings on most of the trials. It makes no sense at all.”
“Maybe not if it were you or me, but with his dad being who he is…” Vander lets the words hang, as though the rest is self-explanatory.
“What do you mean? Eason grew up in the Smoke with just his mom. His dad has been dead since he was a baby. He can’t have been anyone important.”
Vander laughs. “Wow, you don’t know anything about him, do you? I have no idea why he grew up in the Smoke, but his daddy is Breton Crandell, a member of the Council and very much alive.”
What?
No.
He’s the son of a councilman!
I have to mull that over and try to reconcile it with everything I know—which I’m starting to realize isn’t much at all.
Then a few disparate comments click and finally make some sense. That’s why he was so sure that his dad wished for him to join the Burning the first time around. That also has to be where he got the intercuff key, which he said was a ‘gift.’
If Eason really did rejoin the Burning in order to make a bid for the Council with his father’s approval, then everything that Terrance had me doing was meaningless.
Unless Eason wasn’t really my test at all.
Maybe I was his test—and he passed, and I failed.
The icy sting of betrayal stabs at my gut in an attempt to eviscerate me.
I was right to not trust Eason, but he fooled me so completely. He must have had help all along the way. He knew exactly where to find me in the maze, exactly what to say to make me trust him. I wonder if it was actually him who gave me that map to the tunnels and not Jessamine.
I remember the guilt and pain I felt thinking of all the times he switched off our intercuffs and endured the punishing sting of activation to keep me safe, but that wasn’t necessary at all, was it? He probably spent the time I was gone laughing at my stupidity. His story about being interrogated by Terrance just before me was certainly a lie as well.
He even knew my shoe size. I scowl at my feet now and move to rip his treacherous gift off. But the practical part of me that wants to survive the Ash wins out, and I manage restraint.
All the pieces start to fit nicely in one sickening picture. All except why anyone would go to all this trouble over me. And also why Eason grew up in the Smoke with only his mother—that still doesn’t make any sense at all.
My face burns with anger and hurt and embarrassment, and I’m so glad no one is looking at me. I wipe away hot tears with the back of my hand.
Eason really is a good actor. I truly believed he cared about me, fell for his words when he said he needed me, melted into his embrace when he held me and kissed me as though we belonged together.
But that was all foolishness, and I deserve exactly what I’m getting for letting my heart cloud my judgment and prevent me from seeing what was so clearly right in front of me. I suppose the riddle had it right after all: hope is a plague that drives us to disregard what is right in front of our eyes in a futile attempt to change reality.
Hope burns and leaves scars.
We cross the Wall of Fire, and the familiar gloom of the Smoke envelops us. There’s nothing I wouldn’t give to undo the last few days and go back to the simple life I had before, when everything was a predictable struggle. But even knowing everything I know now, I would do it again, even if all it bought was a few more weeks of life for Whyle.
I’ll just have to pray that Liam was wrong about the sickness.
We’re in an area of the Smoke I’ve never seen before. Back beyond the high towers of the water plant where I didn’t know anything existed, we reach a building that looks deserted, but as the car approaches, the wide double doors swing open and the car drives right inside. Once we’re clear of the doorway, the entrance closes once again, and I can’t help thinking of a tomb being sealed shut.
I know we’re at the edge of The City, so this must be our final destination—the gateway to the Ash, the point of no return.
I’ve been so distracted by the insane and shocking turn of events this morning that the reality of what’s about to happen hasn’t even set in. I know it hasn’t because I’m still breathing normally, my hands aren’t shaking, and I’m still thinking about my life in terms of decades rather than days. But when the car comes to a halt and an Enforcer pulls me from the lit interior to face the gloom of a dark tunnel, all of that starts to shift.
I look to Vander, but he’s just as despondent as ever.
Mieka has just started to recover, which is lucky for her, but not so much for us.
Packs on our backs, the Enforcers march us down the dim passage until we reach a solid brick wall. All three of the Enforcers hold up their intercuffs to a sensor on the wall and force the three of us to do the same. Then a large section of the wall before us transforms to a translucent haze. It isn’t like the fog we passed through to enter the Gold Trial, thank goodness, but it still prevents us from getting a clear look at what’s beyond the barrier field.
My Enforcer—the one who started and ended my time in the Burning—taps three bricks in a careful pattern and then watches with detachment as another brick slides aside, and a small black box comes out. The Enforcer takes it, and from it retrieves a jagged, silver pin that I’m now all too familiar with. He uses it to take off my intercuff, which is the one good thing that’s happened to me today. Mieka allows him to do the same, w
hich is the first thing she hasn’t fought, so maybe she’s starting to accept the situation. But when he tries to do the same to Vander, something inside him snaps.
“No! No! You can’t take it,” he yells, thrashing. “Don’t deactivate it!” He cradles his right arm against his chest, trying to protect it.
I wonder what good he thinks the intercuff will do him in the Ash.
It takes all three of the Enforcers to subdue Vander. It seems like they’re about to use a blaster on him, and I plead for him to stop fighting. What good will it do any of us to fight now? Hasn’t Mieka already demonstrated the outcome of that? One stun shot will be all it takes to knock us out long enough for them to dump us, unconscious, into the open and hostile Ash. I don’t know about Vander, but I want to be prepared to run if there are any Roamers around when we get there.
Besides, if any one of these Enforcers doesn’t bother with a stun shot and goes straight for the kill shot, who would ever know or care? I might be begging for death soon enough, but before that, I really do want to see the sky with my own eyes.
But then my Enforcer has Vander’s deactivated intercuff in his hand, and Vander gives up fighting.
“All right you three, time to go,” Scruffy-Face says with a sneer. He’s the only one who actually seems to be enjoying this situation.
I’m both surprised and a little relieved when Mieka leaps forward and disappears through the opening, leaving Vander and me behind.
I’m not sure I can face the unknown alone. I was counting on having Eason by my side at this moment, but that’s not happening for obvious reasons. Vander is all I have right now. I’m not sure what good he’ll be, but I reach over and take his hand anyway.
“Come on,” I say. “It’s our only choice.”
He inhales a deep breath, and we take the few steps that bring us to the gateway.
What has the world become in the decades that The City has sheltered us—one of the few surviving groups of healthy, civilized humanity? Will Roamers be waiting for us, hoping we’ve brought something that can help them survive and lying in wait to ambush?
If anyone is waiting, they’re going to be sadly disappointed with what our packs have to offer. It would be nice if someone would have packed us a lunch or given us a knife for protection and to help us get food. All I can do to protect myself is to throw a shoe at someone’s head, or try to strangle them with my spare pants—so really, I just need to be ready to run.
“On three,” I whisper. “One…two…three.”
I have to tug Vander a little to get him to come, and I think Scruffy-Face helps him along with a little shove. The haze envelops us in a tingling embrace, and then relinquishes us to the unknown beyond.
Sanctuary
A Wall of Fire Companion Novella
Download the FREE ebook at MelanieTays.com/book/sanctuary
Tech-savvy and independent, Mara has never felt like she belongs in the perfect utopia of Sanctuary. When the opportunity arises to leave and explore the treacherous, unknown world beyond, she volunteers. But in training she discovers that success could be the ultimate failure.
Scattered Ash
Wall of Fire Series Book 2
MelanieTays.com/book/scattered-ash
After being exiled from the protection of The City, Emery grapples with her new existence in the Ash and the aftermath of a crushing betrayal by Eason. Soon Emery discovers that the Ash isn’t what anyone thought, and the truth is more horrifying than anyone could have imagined.
About the Author
Melanie Tays is an author of young adult, speculative fiction. She loves stories with twists you don’t see coming, intriguing questions, and satisfying answers. She spends her days imagining how the world could be different and then takes readers along for a surprising and exciting ride.
Melanie lives in Arizona with her husband, Chris, and two brilliant daughters who keep life interesting.
Learn more about her and her latest books at MelanieTays.com.