by Ruby Ryan
I considered making a half-joke, half-complaint, but Sam gave me a look. I needed to keep up appearances if I was going to stay here. And I certainly didn't want to get Sam in trouble.
"I'll get right on it," I said, stretching.
"I'll help you." Sam rose from his chair, but Thomas shook his head.
"I need you here to start working on the array calibration," Thomas said. "We need to get that right before we set up the other three dishes."
Sam gave me an apologetic look as I left the tent.
*
I didn't mind being a grunt. At least, not at first.
The sun made things significantly warmer, once it began rising into the sky. And I actually enjoyed the trek back down to the van. The wind had died down, leaving the mountain peaceful and quiet. Just me, the crunch of my boots, and the fresh air.
But once I'd grabbed the next pack of supplies, the return trip wasn't as fun. It seemed harder today than it had last night when I'd been following Sam. I even began to sweat underneath all my layers, and my core muscles ached from the weight of the pack. Sleeping on the ground made for an achy back. So did getting pounded against the ground.
I dropped off the pack with an exasperated groan, then sat down on the cold ground next to it. Sam was inside the tent, but Thomas was out working on the second radio array, which currently looked like three metal crates stacked on top of one another.
"Oh good!" He came crunching over and looked in the pack, and his smile waned. "Drats. I was hoping this was the pack with the extra bolts we needed. Need those to finish the array base..."
He trailed off with an expectant look at me. I groaned as I got back to my feet and began the second trip.
It took me longer to retrieve the final pack of supplies; I took a long break at the van to catch my breath, and the climb back to camp was significantly tougher. I'd always thought I was in reasonably good shape, but the lack of oxygen up here had me winded within seconds. I constantly had to stop along the path, drop my pack, and rest.
Thomas grumbled about it when I finally did get back to camp, but then he was too busy focusing on his work.
I retreated into the work tent, but then it was Sam's turn to put me to work. The crates that were already up here had been loaded randomly, and they needed them unloaded and sorted. Spools of electrical wire in one pile. Batteries the size of my head in another. Circuit boards and network cards and all sorts of other stuff I didn't recognize after that. It was slow, menial work, but at least I was inside where it was warm.
And every now and then I tip-toed across the tent to give Sam a kiss. I deserved a reward.
Then I was back out in the cold bringing the previous equipment to Thomas by the radio array. He didn't even acknowledge me as he focused on the array, which was slowly beginning to look like an actual radio dish instead of a random hunk of metal parts. But something was frustrating him, and he grumbled to himself in the cold.
"Having a problem?" I asked.
He took a moment to notice me, then frowned in confusion. "Where are the two-by-three batteries? I thought I told you to bring them first."
You didn't tell me shit, I wanted to snap, but thoughts of Sam's career held me back as I retrieved what he needed.
When I came back with batteries in both hands, Thomas had moved over to the first array to check something. I dropped the batteries next to the half-constructed one and took a look. A panel was open in the side to reveal the circuitry within, where Thomas had been grumbling. I knelt and stuck my head in, and immediately saw what the issue was.
"What are you doing!" Thomas came running over, which in the snow was more of a waddle. "Get out of there!"
I pulled my head out. "Board on the left has a short."
"Interns should not be--what?"
I pointed. "This board shorted out. At the top, near the capacitors. See the black mark?"
Thomas leaned inside. "No..."
I leaned in with him to point, keeping my finger a few millimeters from touching the board. "Right here. That black smudge is from a short."
"I... huh," he said. "I never would have seen that with these old eyes."
"Happy to help," I muttered, standing and walking back to the work tent.
"Wait!" He rose and joined me. "We have a voltmeter and multimeter in the tent. With those, you should be able to test all the other circuits before we install them."
It didn't seem like much, but I could tell it was a promotion of sorts. Thomas giving me a little more responsibility. "Yeah, no problem," I said casually.
Sam arched an eyebrow at me inside the work tent. "So you do know electronics? Or was that a lucky guess out there?"
"Hot-wiring cars," I said simply. Sam mouthed, ahh in understanding.
That work was just as dull as sorting equipment, but it was infinitely more satisfying knowing I was being trusted with greater responsibility. The rest of the morning flew by as I touched the multimeter points to the inputs on the circuit board and verified the output on the screen. By the time we were breaking for lunch I felt satisfied with my work, and my contributions to the campsite. We were focused, and didn't expect a thing.
I can't believe we were so stupid to let our guard down.
18
SAM
I had worried about Ezra when we were driving up here, but that was clearly a mistake. That girl knew how to take care of herself.
Which was good, because it allowed me to stop worrying and focus on my work all morning.
Lunch wasn't anything fancy: canned spaghetti cooked over a small alcohol stove in the cold. But the smell made my mouth water, and I stared at the bubbling pot with growing hunger.
"Why can't we cook it inside the tent?" Ezra asked.
"The fumes!" Thomas exclaimed. "Ethanol stoves give off fumes which are toxic when inhaled. We need ventilation."
I considered telling Ezra that she could wait inside until it was ready, but I could tell by the stubborn look on her face that she wouldn't have done so even if I ordered it. I grinned to myself, and suppressed the urge to move my chair closer so I could huddle against her.
Thomas ladled out the pasta and I took a moment to savor the smell, holding the mug in both hands.
"Okay, now can we go inside?" Ezra teased.
Thomas said, "An excellent idea!"
The CRACK of gunfire caught us all off guard.
One shot by itself, down the path. My first instinct was that it was hunters, which made no sense since game never came this high.
"What the..." Thomas muttered.
My eyes widened in realization.
It was him. I could feel him nearby.
The dragon.
SAPPHIRE, I heard him laughing in my head. YOU DID NOT FLEE FAR ENOUGH.
"Run!" I screamed just as the gunfire returned tenfold. The first shot had been a test, gauging his distance and aim, but now the bullets hissed through the air everywhere. I tackled Ezra to the snow, covering her with my body. I didn't know anything about guns, but hoped if any bullets hit us they would be stopped by my body.
Behind us Thomas cried out with surprise, then I felt him fall to the snow.
"What..." Ezra said underneath me.
"It's him," I whispered. "I don't know how I didn't feel him coming. The wind, and the sound of the generators, I guess. I don't know."
"Oh my God," she mumbled, eyes wide and white as the snow.
The gunfire cut off.
I rolled off Ezra to take stock of the situation. Flat in the snow we were safe, protected by the curve of the ground between us and the shooter farther down the trail. Thomas groaned and writhed on the ground in pain. He was 20 feet away, and I could see red on the snow next to him.
"Fuck," I said, wondering what to do.
Ezra decided for me. She crawled toward Thomas on hands and knees, sliding a path through the snow. She reached him and put a hand on his chest, then untied the scarf that was around her neck.
I shook myself into
action and followed, staying as low as I could.
"...you're okay," Ezra was saying to Thomas as she tied the scarf tight around his knee. "Didn't hit anything major. Just gunna tie this here to slow the blood flow."
He hissed and said, "I just don't understand. What kind of hunter has an automatic..."
"That's not a hunter," I said, keeping my eyes at the trail. I could sense that the dragon wasn't moving, but I expected him to come charging in at any moment. "Thomas, we have to get out of here."
"That's ridiculous. If it's not a hunter then who..."
CRACK. The single bullet seemed to strike the radio dish at the same instant we heard the shot, sparking off the side and sending bits of metal into the air.
I heard the dragon laughing in my head again, a wordless taunt of mirth.
"Where can we go?" Ezra said.
It was an obvious question without an obvious answer. The trail we'd come up was out of the question. The north and south ends of our little plateau quickly dropped off into nothing. Which left the east, higher up the mountain toward the peak. But the small trail I saw going in that direction looked like it would be difficult hiking.
I felt the dragon drawing closer. He was coming.
"Can you move?"
Thomas tried to bend his leg and screamed. He lowered it back to the snow and sucked in air between his teeth.
Shit. We didn't have any choice.
"Stay here," I commanded. "If the man comes, tell him where we went. Don't try to do anything else."
"What man?" Thomas said.
"Just trust me! Do whatever he wants!"
Ezra said, "Sam, wait--"
I grabbed Ezra's hand and ran.
We sprinted across the camp, perilously vulnerable in the open. I chanced a glance over my shoulder and saw him: the dragon wearing a long trench coat and carrying a black assault rifle, a hundred yards away. His blue mohawk and shaved head made him stick out easily, and he paused when he saw us.
He raised the rifle to his shoulder.
Bullets smashed into the radio dish as we ran past. Ezra screamed. I led her beyond it and toward the back of camp, trying to take us in a diagonal path so the dragon wouldn't have a direct shot. The ground tilted upward as we climbed toward the path further up the mountain.
"I am coming!" the dragon bellowed, both out loud and inside my head.
"I should have brought the gun," Ezra cursed. "You should have let me bring the gun!"
"Even if we had bullets, they probably would have done more harm than good."
"What... is that... supposed to mean?" she panted.
"Gunfire's as likely to start an avalanche as anything else," I said. "And we're going toward the side of the mountain that hasn't been triggered recently."
Ezra stared up at the mountain ahead of us, a jagged claw reaching for the sky, with fear in her eyes.
The beginning of the path took us directly toward the first peak, in the middle of the open with no cover to speak of. The snow was thick and made every step a struggle, and I remained tense as I waited for the dragon to enter our camp and see us from below. Gunfire would begin again at any moment. We wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
Stop it, Sam! Panic is the worst thing you can surrender to up on the mountain.
Gunshots finally drifted from below as we reached the first peak of the ridge. A small placard was covered in snow, and we fell behind the tiny outcropping of rock and looked down behind us.
The blue mohawk and black trench coat were obvious against the white of the snow. He was at the edge of our camp staring up in our direction, trying to decide what to do. Behind him I saw another moving shape, Thomas on the ground where we'd left him. Still alive.
"Come on," I muttered. "Follow us."
"Why the hell do we want to do that?" Ezra asked.
"Because then Thomas will stay alive. If he holds him hostage and demands we surrender..." I trailed off because I didn't know what I would do in that case. Surrender wasn't an option, the gryphon beast inside me knew. There was more at stake than just Thomas's life. More at stake than even mine and Ezra's, as ridiculous as that sounded.
"And if he shapeshifts into a dragon and flies the rest of the way here to burn us to death?" Ezra said.
"That's exactly what he's considering right now." I knew it with a tingling instinct altogether similar to the connection with the totem. The dragon inside that man was raging to be let free. To drown the mountain in fire and smoke.
Yet he held back. Which was curious, and made me hesitant to shift into my gryphon form. I wondered how easily rifle bullets would tear through my gryphon wings, and decided I didn't want to find out.
But of course, fighting a dragon wasn't much better.
"There." Ezra pointed.
The dragon lowered his rifle and was beginning to make the trek up the path to follow us. His steps were slow, unaccustomed to the snow the same way Ezra was, but then again he had time on his side.
"Come on," I said, leading Ezra farther up the mountain.
The trail was marked with strips of red cloth attached to poles every thirty feet, and ran along the top of the ridge. The way had been cleared and marked by the Colorado Parks Service, but it was still barely more than a foot wide, and the slightest misstep would send us tumbling down the mountain--on the east or west side. We were well past the tree line now, giving a beautiful--and terrifying--view of everything around us. The Rockies were like the teeth of a dozen serrated blades, rows of peaks extending to the north, white on top merging into darker green along the side. Ahead of us, Mount Antero rose like a snowy pyramid against the blue sky. It looked small from this vantage, like we'd reach the top in only a few minutes of hiking, but I knew it was another thousand vertical feet. I doubted the dragon could follow us on foot.
But I doubted Ezra could handle it, either.
Soon her breathing was reduced to a gasping wheeze, each breath inadequate to her untrained lungs. Every time I glanced with concern she waved me off, insisting she was okay, but she did so without speaking. My hiking instincts kicked in and I stopped for a water break, then remembered we didn't have any gear with us, so I pretended I needed the rest.
And below us followed the dragon, a steady beacon of danger in my mind.
As we continued, I looked for something to use as a weapon. A boulder we could hide behind, and roll down the mountain at him. There was nothing suitable; the largest exposed rocks were the size of soccer balls, and we'd need to wait for the dragon to get dangerously close if we had any chance of hitting him without the boulders rolling harmlessly off the side of the mountain.
The dragon began gaining on us, and fired a test-shot every few minutes. A constant, teasing reminder of the imminent danger.
Why are you doing this? I wondered, and somehow the dragon heard me.
BECAUSE IT IS OUR PURPOSE, he boomed, voice high-pitched and nasal. YOUR PURPOSE IS TO STOP US. OUR PURPOSE IS TO END THE WORLD.
There are more of you?
He laughed as if that were a joke.
IT WILL BE A PLEASURE TO BE THE FIRST DRAGON TO KILL HIS COUNTERPART.
I wanted to think about that, to process it and give it the attention it deserved, but I was too panicked to think about anything more than the next step, and then the next.
We reached a stopping point where the path curved down and gave us temporary cover. The moment I stopped, Ezra plopped her butt down on the snow.
"We can't do this," I said, looking around.
All she could do was bob her head.
"It's time. We need to do it." I turned to her and nodded.
She immediately knew what I meant, her hand going to the pocket with the totem inside. I could almost feel her fingers tightening around the stone, a mental and emotional embrace.
"Tell. Me. When," she panted.
I took several deep breaths to prepare myself, then jerked my head in a nod.
The gryphon inside me screeched with ecstasy as Ezra p
ressed the sapphire. My limbs expanded, a muscle-flexing that never ended. My chest and neck pressed tight against my clothes, then cloth ripped loudly, then burst open and fell to the snow. I was freezing for a fraction of a second, and then my cobalt feathers fluffed into existence all along my skin, a foreign and familiar coat. My eyes refocused and sharpened as if binoculars were suddenly shoved in front of my eyes, and the sensation made me momentarily dizzy. My lion paws slipped on the icy surface, but then found purchase.
And then my wings were spreading wide, like an exhale after holding an especially long breath, eager for the air.
Ezra's face brightened at my form, and her emotion gave me a burst of hope and motivation. My transformation complete, I lowered myself so Ezra could climb on. When she was straddling my back and gripping my sapphire collar I launched us into the air.
SAPPHIRE, I could feel the dragon's rage in my head. YOUR FOOLISHNESS WILL BE YOUR UNDOING.
I flew north toward Mount Antero while the dragon screamed in transformation behind us.
19
EZRA
I was pretty sure I was going to die.
Putting aside the dragon chasing us, taking pot-shots occasionally like a bored hunter. Ignoring that at any moment my foot could slide out from under me and send me falling thousands of feet down the side of the mountain, where I'd smash into a tree and probably burst like a watermelon.
No, I was sure I would die just from my heart exploding. It pounded like I was at mile 26 of a marathon. My chest burned painfully, and the freezing air made every gasping breath feel like I was inhaling shards of glass. We would never get to safety, because I would fall over and die long before then from cardiac arrest. Another American with a poor diet and lack of exercise succumbing to heart disease.
Somehow, Sam seemed unfazed by the altitude. He put on a good show of appearing exhausted, and claimed our stops were for his own benefit, but I knew they were for me. I was slowing us down. I was allowing the dragon to gain on us.
I hated being a burden.
It was a relief when Sam stopped for good, and asked to transform into the gryphon. I probably looked like a little girl on Christmas morning when he lowered himself so I could climb up.