dragons breath 01 - stalked by flames

by Susan Illene

  “Hey, Mom,” I answered, walking away from the others to talk to her in private.

  The basement was huge. I headed toward the back section passing row upon row of bookcases. It smelled familiar and musty in this part of the library, sort of comforting.

  “Bailey, thank God. I tried calling about twenty times, but the lines have been busy.” The relief in my mother’s voice was apparent. “Are you okay?”

  I brushed my hair out of my face. There was something about hearing my mother’s voice after going through one of the scariest of events in my life—a poignant reminder that said she cared what happened to me and worried. Since leaving home, I’d enjoyed getting out from under her watchful gaze and working to become an independent woman. Yet there’d always be a small part of me that saw her as a symbol of love and safety.

  It had been too long since I’d last seen her—Christmas break five months ago, in fact. She’d wanted to come to my graduation, but she’d been ill and couldn’t make it. Mom had been sick a lot lately. I worried about her and couldn’t wait to get home to see her.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Some of us are holed up at the university library right now.”

  “Have any of those dragons come near there?” she asked.

  “Um, yeah, but they went away when the storm started.”

  A few seconds of silence passed. “Then you need to come home. It’s safer down here.”

  “Don’t worry, Mom, I’m planning on it,” I reassured her. “As soon as the storm clears.”

  “If the storm is keeping them away, then don’t wait,” she urged. “Grady thinks more of them are going to come. Dragons keep showing up all over the world. Even China and Russia are having problems with them. Germany, too!”

  That wasn’t reassuring at all. Hadn’t Aidan said something about the barrier between our worlds weakening? If that was the case, there could very well be more arriving in the coming days and weeks. Other than Trish, I didn’t have any reason to stay in Norman and she had Justin. They’d be fine without me.

  I really needed to be home with my family. Plus, my stepfather—Grady—was the doomsday type who was fully prepared for an apocalypse. Along with my brothers, we could hole up on his ranch for a long time.

  “Alright. I’ll be there as soon as I can, Mom. I love you.”

  “Baby, I love you, too. Just be careful and drive safely!”

  A crack of thunder shook the building. A second later the lights flickered out and the room went dark. I couldn’t see anything.

  “I will. Just have dinner waiting for me when I get there,” I said, hiding my nervousness.

  “Of course.” I could almost hear the smile in her voice. “Fried chicken and mashed potatoes—your favorite.”

  “Sounds great. See you soon.” I hung up.

  Now I just had to keep my promise.

  Chapter 5

  Bailey

  Using the light from my cell phone, I made my way back to the coffee shop. Everyone was packing up and moving toward the learning center. I followed them and went to stand by the windows where rain pelted against them.

  The trees in the lower courtyard made me a little nervous. They were tall enough to reach up to ground level and swayed back and forth against the high winds. When I’d checked the weather this morning, there’d only been a thirty percent chance of rain. Now we were being hit with our second storm for the day—typical for Oklahoma weather predictions.

  The windows had wide couches underneath them. Trish and I took our seats there near a guy who tapped furiously at his laptop with a frustrated expression on his face.

  “The internet just went down. I can’t get an internet connection from anywhere,” he announced. “Not even through my cell phone network.”

  Everyone looked at each other, the tension ratcheting up another notch. We were heading into an information blackout. Every time I thought it couldn’t get worse, it did.

  “Let us know if it comes back up,” Justin replied, nodding toward the computer guy.

  He stood next to a high, circular desk set in the middle of the room across from us. A couple of guys who worked in the library leaned in to whisper something to him. It looked serious, but even with him only about fifteen feet away I couldn’t hear anything over the other people chatting nervously around us. As soon as Justin finished his discussion he came over to Trish and me.

  “Do you think it’s the storm or the dragons causing the power outage?” she asked him.

  “Probably the storm,” he replied. “The last news reports we got said the dragons were wreaking havoc up in Oklahoma City. None of them are down here right now.”

  Maybe my mother had the right idea to take advantage of their absence while I still could. “How long until the weather clears?”

  Justin shrugged. “Maybe half an hour.”

  “If I’m going to get home I’ve got to try for it now.” I stood.

  Conrad walked up. “Where are you going?”

  “To a ranch outside Granbury, Texas.”

  “That’s near Dallas, right?” he asked.

  “Southwest of it.”

  “Cool.” He adjusted his backpack. “Can you drop me off at my grandma’s house in Dallas? Better than sticking around this crazy place.”

  “Yeah, sure.” It was probably better to take someone with me, anyway. “Anyone else want to ride along?”

  Trish gave me a concerned look. “Are you sure leaving now is such a good idea? We don’t even know if the roads are clear.”

  “And visibility is going to be low in this storm,” Justin added.

  “Yeah, but that’s what makes it the best time to go,” I pointed out. “It’ll be harder for the dragons to see us.”

  Conrad nodded. “And they have no problem burning up cars. I can vouch for that.”

  “Okay,” Trish said, embracing me more carefully than last time. “But call me as soon as the lines are back up and be careful.”

  “I will,” I promised.

  Conrad and I headed for the stairwell. When we opened the doors, I was surprised to find the lights on. I glanced back, but it was still dark in the corridor we’d just left.

  “What the heck?” I frowned at the lights.

  “They’ve got backup generators. Only works for the stairwells, though,” Conrad explained.

  “How do you know that?”

  He took the steps two at a time. “Heard one of the librarians say something about it.”

  We stopped when we reached the doors at the west entrance. Conrad pulled an umbrella from his backpack and got it ready while I stared outside. The ashes of the students had been washed away. I blinked. There was no sign of them left.

  “Where’s your car?” Conrad asked.

  He didn’t know what had happened out there a short time ago.

  I cleared my throat. “In the garage down the street.”

  “Good. Then the dragons probably left it alone.” He put his hand on the door. “You ready?”

  I shook myself out of my dark thoughts.

  “Yeah. Let’s do this.”

  He went out first and lifted the umbrella for us to get under. With the rain being blown in sideways, it wasn’t going to help much, but it was better than nothing. I just wished I had some shoes to protect my feet.

  We took off, winding our way through campus grounds and following the sidewalks until we got to Elm Avenue. Then we ran along it until reaching the garage on the opposite side of the street. It wasn’t until we got under cover that we slowed down.

  “I parked on the first level toward the back,” I said, stopping to pull a pebble from between my toes. At least there were no cuts or scrapes.

  “You got enough gas?” he asked.

  “Full tank.” I wiped my hair from my face. “I was planning to leave town this afternoon anyway.”

  “Cool.”

  As we walked toward my truck, I dug my keys out of my pocket. It was a miracle I hadn’t lost them while fighting with the dragons earli
er. I hit the unlock button and the lights flashed on my black four-door Chevy Silverado.

  “This is yours?” Conrad gave me an incredulous look.

  “I grew up on a ranch. Trucks are pretty much all we drive.”

  “But you’re so tiny. Shouldn’t you be driving a toy car or something?” He climbed into the passenger seat.

  I dug out a pair of sandals from the back where I’d loaded my bags that morning and slid them on. It was nice to finally have footwear again.

  “Very funny,” I said, starting the engine. “You’re just saying that because of my looks.”

  People were always guessing I was from one Asian country or another.

  He grinned. “You can’t blame me.”

  “You shouldn’t stereotype.” I glanced at him reprovingly before backing up the truck.

  “What race are you, anyway?” he asked.

  “I’m sort of a mix. My mom was born here, but she’s half-white and half-Malaysian.” I paused, my shoulders tensing. “And according to her my dad was part-Cherokee, but I never met him.”

  That was a rather sore point with me. I didn’t like talking about my real father—not that I had much to say about him. My mother only knew him for six months before he ran off.

  “So whose ranch are you going to?”

  “My stepfather, Grady, owns it. He married my mom when I was two years old. They had a son together after that and I’ve got two older stepbrothers. So it’s like one big happy family when we’re together.”

  Conrad snickered. “So, a lot of fightin’ and shit?”

  “Oh, yeah. That’s why I’m so thin. The boys always ate all the food.”

  We reached the garage exit. I thrummed my fingers on the steering wheel, debating which route to take. If Lindsey Street had been hit by the dragons that probably wasn’t the best way to go. The pouring rain wasn’t helping matters, either.

  “Stay in the neighborhoods as long as you can,” Conrad suggested. “Those seemed pretty clear when I was running through them.”

  “Good idea.” I turned south, heading for Highway 9.

  We only had to go a couple of miles until we’d reach the interstate. As we passed through the neighborhoods, there didn’t appear to be any burned houses or major damage along the way. No people out, either. At least, not from what I could see through the pouring rain.

  It wasn’t until we reached the I-35 onramp that we ran into problems. A huge pile-up of vehicles blocked most of the bridge, all of them burned with only parts of their shells remaining. A tire here, a truck bed there, and in one case the front engine compartment of a car.

  “Damn,” Conrad swore under his breath.

  I didn’t say anything. The sight of what must have been dozens of cars was horrifying, yet I couldn’t afford to get emotional right now. I didn’t have the time or the luxury. If we managed to get to safety, I could think about it then.

  I guided the truck around the graveyard of cars, eventually reaching the ramp. As we made our way down, we came upon the shell piece of another car—the trunk and back tires. It blocked most of the lane.

  “I’m going to nudge it out of the way,” I said.

  Conrad nodded. “Go for it.”

  I inched forward until my bumper connected with the trunk piece, then steered it to the side. The sound of metal grating on cement had Conrad and me wincing. Once it was out of the way, I continued on and joined a line of cars heading out of town. Guess we weren’t the only ones trying to leave here. The driving rain kept movement to about forty miles per hour, but some of the tension in me eased just by knowing we were finally making progress.

  Conrad put his hands behind his head. “Ain’t this some shit out of some b-rated movie?”

  I passed a car with several kids in the backseat. Oddly, they were playing on their tablets and smiling like nothing major had happened. Had they missed the carnage or had video games dulled the effect for them? And was that a good or bad thing?

  “If it’s a movie, I’d like to press pause now,” I replied. “Or better yet, rewind.”

  “Gotta find the remote first.” He looked around like it might have slipped between the seats.

  “Yeah, right.”

  We drove for a while in silence, the windshield wipers and beating rain making the only noise. Traffic jammed about five miles out of town where a collision had taken place. Not one caused by dragons, but probably road conditions. Everyone had to move to the left lane to go around it. There weren’t any cops or emergency vehicles there yet. Would they come?

  “The rain’s letting up,” Conrad said after we got clear of it.

  “Check your cell phone and see if you can get a signal,” I suggested.

  He glanced at it and frowned. “I got one bar.”

  “That’s better than nothing. See if you can reach your grandma.”

  He dialed and pressed the phone to his ear. “Hey, Grams, this is Conrad. You doin’ okay?”

  I caught the sound of an older woman’s voice on the other end of the line, but couldn’t make out her reply.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Conrad said, frowning. “Hey, you’re breaking up.”

  He checked the screen and put his phone back to his ear. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but just wanted to let you know I’m trying to get back that way. Hope to see you soon.”

  “Bad connection?” I glanced at him.

  “Yeah.” He stuffed his phone in his pocket.

  “Try turning on the radio. Maybe they’ve got some news.” I should have thought of that before, but I didn’t use it much since I had Bluetooth and music playlists on my phone.

  Conrad switched it on and scanned the stations. We couldn’t get anything on FM, but one of the AM channels worked. For a few minutes we listened, the tension between us mounting.

  “Damn. They’re tearing up the city,” Conrad said.

  “No kidding. I only saw maybe ten or so in Norman, but now there're hundreds? That’s crazy.” And the dragons were on a rampage like they’d just escaped the zoo or something—except, maybe, Aidan. The jury was still out on him.

  “At least they aren’t in Dallas.” He crossed his arms. “It’s alright there.”

  So far, but who knew how long that would last.

  The ground buckled beneath the truck. As the shaking continued, I gripped the wheel and slowed down. A car ahead of us swerved into the station wagon next to it, sending both of them off the road and into a ditch. Red brake lights went up on all the cars ahead of us as drivers tried to control their vehicles. This was another big earthquake—maybe the largest yet.

  I veered the truck over to the shoulder and fought to keep it straight until I could stop. A van darted in front of me, screeching its tires. I almost slammed into it. With only a few feet to spare I managed to bring the vehicle to a halt. I was fairly certain my heart had lodged in my throat and would take a while to get back into place.

  The sound of metal crunching into metal came from behind us. Conrad and I turned, watching in gaping horror as vehicles piled into each other. Then a billboard on the side of the interstate fell to the ground, sending a herd of running cows in a nearby pasture in another direction.

  “This is bad,” I said, gripping my seat to keep from swaying too hard.

  Conrad snorted. “No shit.”

  By the time the shaking stopped, so had the traffic. It had lasted for a couple of minutes—longer than any of the previous quakes we’d experienced.

  The first thing I noticed after I got my heartbeat under control was that the radio had gone out. Then shouting from where the pileup had happened behind us. A couple of guys rushed over to help a woman get out of her crumpled car. Traffic had been going pretty slow so at least it didn’t look like there was anything too severe, mostly fender benders.

  “Should we go back there and help?” I asked.

  A gunshot went off. We both jumped in our seats. I couldn’t be sure where it came from, but the angry shouts rising from a few ca
rs back told me it wasn’t far. People scattered as they raced to return to their vehicles.

  “Hell, no.” Conrad shook his head. “Let’s get out of here.”

  He was right, though it felt wrong to leave injured people behind. I put the truck into drive and got back on the road, following others who were doing the same. A few mangled cars blocked the lanes ahead of us, but we were able to veer around them.

  For the next three hours, we slowly made our way south. We passed the occasional wreck and avoided cracks in the pavement where the earthquake had torn it up. There were people walking alongside the interstate as well. They held their thumbs out, hoping for a ride, but I kept going past them. That gunshot had been a stark reminder that in a situation like this I couldn’t take any risks and end up stranded.

  A trickle of cars started appearing on the other side of the interstate, heading north. They flashed their lights at us and some even waved their arms out their windows.

  “Why would they be going that way?” I asked.

  “No idea,” Conrad replied, his tone just as baffled as mine.

  We’d passed Pauls Valley a few miles back and were getting close to the Arbuckle Mountains. Maybe some rocks fell onto the interstate during the earthquake? Even if they had, there were smaller highways people could use to go around.

  Traffic slowed even further as we continued driving. More cars passed us going the opposite direction also flashing warnings at us. A cold pit grew in my stomach. We tried the radio to see what could be going on, but none of the stations worked.

  “This is beginning to freak me out,” Conrad said, watching the other side of the interstate.

  “Me, too.”

  He heaved a sigh. “There’s an exit ahead. Maybe we should take it.”

  “We need to get to Texas. It’ll be safer there.” I wanted to get home to my family and put all this behind me. Whatever was up ahead, we’d find a way around it.

  “Okaay,” he said, drawing the word out. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  About half the cars in front of us took the exit when we reached it. Traffic moved a little faster after that so the next few miles passed quicker than before. I kept looking for the Arbuckle Mountains ahead. Millions of years ago they’d stood tall and proud, but now they weren’t much more than jagged hills. Still, I should have seen some sort of rise by now.