There’s a gale coming in, says Clemmy. He follows after Ernest. Finally, alone with Russell, I work on him.
You can’t go, let him go, I say. I plead with him. And he doesn’t say no. He knows he can’t say no that fast. But he’s decided the answer is no. That was an old recording, Tanner. Maybe a hoax to keep the face eaters away. Trust me. We’ll check it out, and then we’ll be back. And we’ll all go in together. But something in me can’t let him. I grab him. Russell they said not to go there! Let’s go south! But the old trick, the one that saved Dusty’s life, doesn’t work twice. It’s me or Leadville in my mind, but to him, I’m just panicking. A scared little girl he’s known all her life. Everything’s going to be okay, I won’t let anything happen to you, he says. Then he looks at Dusty and says, Get that thing working again, you hear me? Whatever you have to do. Dusty nods, even though he knows it’s impossible without new batteries. He starts fiddling with it again anyway. Clint starts walking down the stairs.
“What’s going on?” he asks. The room falls silent again and Clint says that it’s Russell’s turn at the motor boat. And to be careful because the waves are coming in fast and hard now. Russell nods and leaves, checking me one more time, hoping I’ve calmed down. But I haven’t. It’s not me who needs protection. It’s him. He’s the one going in there. I begin a frantic search for more batteries.
Chapter 15
In my dreams I see the snow. It’s falling like angel tears, carpeting everything in white. I haven’t seen white in forever. I’ve only seen brown and sad and gray. But this place is pure. At peace.
But there’s something dark in the distance, eating up the sky. It’s spreading too fast. Like it’s going to consume everything. And now I notice that the sky, what’s being eaten, is actually skin. The dark storm rides high. And then everything in the sky becomes skin. It turns pale, pale white skin, matching the snow beneath it.
Part of me registers that I’ve never seen snow before. How am I seeing it now? And part of me realizes I’m asleep on the bunk, rocking with waves inside the hull of the Resilience. Then the sky transforms—it’s no longer white, and it’s no longer black. It’s red. Bubbling skin. And then the snow disappears. It’s transformed too. The sky is ripping open. Bursting. Great big sores rupturing. And the rain is back. Endless rain. But it’s red. Falling from the punctured flesh. There is no healing for this sky, something in my gut tells me. No antibiotics. No cure. Just endless invisible death. It falls on me until I can’t take it anymore—it’s too hot. Hotter than anything I’ve ever known. It suffocates me, the blood. And then there’s nothing left. The white comes back. The sky is blue. I’ve never seen a blue sky, I think. The blue is gorgeous.
When I finally nudge myself out of my nightmare, there’s a face above me. Blue. But it’s not the sky of my dreams. It’s the blue of someone’s eyes. Clint. He sees that I’m awake and he presses his hand over his mouth, signaling that I should be quiet. I kick my knee up, trying to pound it into his gut, but his body’s positioned so that his weight has me pinned down. I can’t move. Then his hand moves from his own mouth to cover mine because he sees I’m going to scream. I scream into his hand, but no sound escapes. And his other hand starts to work its way down my sweater. He’s pulling it up. And then my pants. I can think of nothing but the face eaters. The madness. I bite like I’m one of them. I taste his blood but he doesn’t even flinch. He’s got my pants down and he’s finding my underwear. I can’t stop him.
Where is everyone? I scream silently. My eyes catch the room for a moment and it’s dark and empty. Not even Voley is here.
I think for a moment this is all part of the nightmare, but I know it’s not. It’s something else entirely. It’s a waking nightmare. Quiet, he says softly, groping his way inside—I bite again. Just enough to get his hand off my mouth. And I let out the scream of my life. And then, in startled confusion, his hand slams down on my face again. White light, like the snow. I’m stunned. I wait in terror for someone to save me. But maybe he’s already killed everyone else. It’s just me and him on the ship now.
I hear footsteps. Someone has heard. Clint jumps off my bunk and looks to the stairwell. It’s Ernest. What’s going on? he asks, as if he only half heard the terror in my scream. Clint begins to explain, but Ernest has figured it out all on his own by looking at our faces. I’m afraid he’s in on it, and that he’s going to come in now too to finish me off. And together they’re going to steal the last bits of my soul. He walks up, but instead of going to me he grabs Clint and slams him against the wall. Clint goes to his pocket, like he’s after a weapon, but Ernest punches him squarely in the face.
Remember that you did this to yourself, says Ernest, as he stands over top of Clint. Clint is dazed, his hand feeling his crushed jaw. And then I hear another set of footsteps. I look over, through the dim light. Clint must have turned the stove down because it’s very dark, darker than it’s ever been below deck. But I see enough to know who it is.
Russell.
Ernest just walks away. Russell walks straight for Clint, glancing at me just for a moment to confirm his suspicion. He punches Clint in the face, and then again. I see blood running down from Clint’s eye. And then Russell yanks him to his feet and throws him at the stairs. Up! screams Russell. His foot nails into Clint’s back. Clint stumbles up the stairs. The only other thing I hear is a splash. And that’s it. I lie in terror, waiting for someone to come back to me.
Russell returns. I don’t want to talk about it, and he knows this. He just sits by my bed. Finally, after almost an hour, when I think he’s starting to fall asleep, I say something, just so I know he won’t fall asleep on me. Please don’t go there tomorrow, I say. He perks up just for a moment. He wipes the tear off my cheek in time to catch the next one coming from my other eye. It all starts to come out. Then he holds me tight and says nothing. We cling to each other. The last strips of the veneer.
When I wake up in the morning, Russell’s gone. Dusty and Voley are sitting by the side of my bed, both of them asleep. They’ve been keeping me company all night. I sit up, trying to make sense of everything that happened last night, but I’m so exhausted that I can’t. And I don’t want to.
Ernest suddenly appears at the top of the stairs. But something’s wrong because he disappears back up the moment he sees I’m awake and looking at him. I rush up out of bed, because I know he’s avoiding me, and didn’t mean for me to see him. I know what he’s hiding.
I accidentally kick Voley and he yelps as I jolt out of the bed. Sorry, I mutter, and Dusty’s awake. Tanner, he says softly. Tanner, he shouts again. But I’m gone. I run up the stairs and out into the blurry gray of daytime. Freezing razors slice me. The sea is furious. All around us are mountains. They’ve got us trapped in. More land than I’ve seen since I was little. And it’s just what I feared.
The motorboat is already gone, a disappearing dot heading out into the rain sea between two tables of mountain. Russell! I yell. I do it over and over until it hurts to breathe in the cold air. Ernest walks over to me but doesn’t say anything. Russell! I keep crying. He’s too far away to hear me.
The tears all come again. They’re warm at first but the wind strips them of that in an instant. Ernest stands by me for an eternity as I watch the boat disappear altogether. I hear Dusty and Voley coming up the steps behind me. Ernest finally says something.
They’ll be back before lunchtime.
But it’s strange. It’s the most sure thing I’ve ever known all my life. They won’t be back. And I’ll never see him again.
CONTINUED IN THE SNOW – PART 1
AUTHOR’S MESSAGE TO THE READER
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Table of Contents
Part 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Part 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Part 3
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Part 4
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Part 5
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
AUTHOR’S MESSAGE TO THE READER
The Rain Page 21