Of Cinder and Bone

by Kyoko M

  She examined his face, concluding that he was telling the truth. “I still think it was a bad plan.”

  “Everybody’s a critic.”

  Jack’s phone rang. “That can’t be good.”

  He answered it. “Yeah?”

  “We’ve got company,” Kamala said in a tight voice. “I just saw Aisaka Tomoda walk in with two other guys. She’s heading your way.”

  “Shit,” Jack hissed, glancing at Fujioka. “Okegawa’s henchmen are here. We need to get moving.”

  Fujioka motioned for the phone and he handed it to her. “Dr. Anjali, I want you to keep the pistol handy and head towards that big red sign at the entrance. There is a road that runs past it. My driver will meet you there. He’ll be in a dark blue SUV. His name is Toshiro. Get in the car and wait for us. If we’re not there in ten minutes, head back to my apartment alone.”

  “Wait, where are you two going?”

  “We’re going to try to lose them in the crowd.”

  She hung up and dragged Jack from out of the alley, quickly darting into the surrounding swarm of people. “Keep your head down. They’re not going to just open fire in the middle of all these people, but if they catch up to us, things will get nasty.”

  “How the hell did they find us?”

  Fujioka grimaced. “I don’t like the way Yuzuki was looking at us. My guess is she tipped them off.”

  “Can’t trust anyone these days.”

  “Can’t trust anyone period.” She shoved him into the clothing shop and snatched a pair of socks off of a shelf, handing it to him. “Here, clean yourself as much as you can. The blood will make you even more noticeable and we don’t need vendors telling them where we are.”

  He mopped up as much blood as he could and followed her as she walked through the shop, randomly grabbing things like a skull cap and a grey jacket. “They’ll do a quick sweep at first to see if we made a run for it and then check the shops, so you need to change. We should be able to lose them, but we can’t hide out for long.”

  Jack slipped into one of the dressing rooms and changed out of his old jacket and into the new one, pulling the cap down over his ears to hide his hair. Fujioka swapped out her own jacket for a hoodie and they paid for them before heading towards the store front to see if Aisaka and her men were nearby.

  “Coast’s clear for now,” Fujioka said. “Move with purpose, but don’t run. If I spot them, try to keep up.”

  “Got it.” They stayed low and wove through the masses towards the front entrance. There was an SUV idling nearby with Kamala in the backseat. She opened the rear door for them as they crossed the street. A second later, her eyes went wide and she pointed behind them.

  “Look out!”

  Aisaka broke through the crowd with a .38 Heckler & Koch pointed at the SUV and opened fire.

  Fujioka swore and pulled a gun from what looked like thin air, shoving Jack’s head down as she returned fire. The crowd immediately scattered into chaos in all directions.

  “Get in!” Fujioka yelled over the rabble, trying to shield him with most of her body. He climbed in and she slid in backwards, laying down cover fire after Aisaka had taken cover behind one of the stone columns holding up the entrance sign.

  The SUV lurched into motion and peeled off down the street, honking madly as it swerved between cars to find a clear path.

  “Everybody okay?” Fujioka asked, crawling into the passenger’s front seat and peering out the window as she reloaded her gun.

  “Yeah, about that,” Jack said through clenched teeth, clutching his right arm. Blood drenched his fingers and soaked through the grey cotton.

  “He’s hit!” Kamala cried, reaching for him as he leaned back against the leather seat, groaning as fiery pain spread from the wound. She peeled off the jacket to find that the bullet had gone through his bicep, and had taken nearly an entire chunk of flesh with it. Blood spilled thick and fast down his arm and showed no signs of stopping.

  “Jack, hold still,” she ordered, tearing the sleeve into a thick strip. “I have to put pressure on it.”

  “How bad?” Fujioka asked.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Kamala said tightly.

  “I’ve got an emergency med-kit at the apartment. Keep your heads down. Once we’re out front, I’m dropping you off and then going after our trigger-happy friend.”

  “Hey, Kam,” Jack rasped between clenched teeth. “Remember that time I stubbed my toe on your bed frame and I said it’s the worst pain I’ve ever felt? I’ve changed my mind.”

  “Stop joking, you imbecile,” she snapped, one hand on the wound, the other sweeping over his torso in a brief check. “Did they get you anywhere else?”

  “No. I guess she graduated top marksman at Storm Trooper Academy.”

  “Heads down!” Fujioka yelled.

  She rolled down the window and took aim, never even flinching as she heard the shots echo from the pursuing vehicle. Cars honked and swerved aside as the two zipped down the street, and the distance closed between them. Fujioka exhaled, stared down the sights of her gun, and shot twice.

  The front tires of the SUV exploded. It veered to one side and then slammed into the wall of a corner store on the left hand side of the road. Fujioka flipped the safety back on her gun and rolled up the window, her voice empty.

  “Get us back to the apartment. Now.”

  After they arrived, Fujioka took one of Jack’s arms and Kamala took the other and they hauled him inside. By now, he’d paled considerably and his steps dragged. Kamala lowered him to the futon and Fujioka handed her the kit.

  “Will you be alright?”

  “Yes. Go.”

  Fujioka nodded and swept out the door. Kamala read the label on the orange pill bottle tucked in one corner of the kit and popped it open.

  “What’s that?” Jack asked sluggishly.

  “Hush.” She got a glass of water and handed him two round pills. He swallowed them and drank all of the water and laid flat, breathing in shallow bursts of air as the pain seared through his arm and up into his chest.

  “Man, Fujioka’s gonna bill me for messing up her carpet,” he said, watching Kamala untie the makeshift tourniquet and use a pair scissors to cut through the rest of the sleeve from the wrist up. She folded a towel and placed it under his arm to soak up the blood, then peered into the wound.

  “The slug went straight through,” she said, grabbing the gauze and disinfectant. “I have to sew you up, so lie still.”

  Jack frowned as the ceiling seemed to melt and drip before his eyes, becoming runny tan mush like undercooked oatmeal. The hot, crackling pain felt as if someone had turned the volume down slightly, and he had trouble keeping his eyes open to watch Kamala.

  “No problem,” he mumbled. “Kam?”

  “Yes?”

  “Sorry I got shot.”

  “An apology is unnecessary. Rest.”

  “Kam?”

  “What?”

  He shut his eyes. “Love you.”

  She paused and sent him a searching look, noticing that he’d passed out cold. Then she squared her shoulders and got to work.

  ~*~

  Jack awoke feeling unrealistically good.

  It took him a few tries to open his eyes, though. He succeeded on the fourth attempt and found himself staring up at the ceiling of Fujioka’s guest room. He was warm and pleasantly numb from head to toe. Faintly, he could feel something bulky over his right shoulder and bicep. It was difficult to move, but he managed to roll his head and look around.

  “It wakes,” Kamala said, sipping a mug of green tea from where she sat at the desk. “How do you feel?”

  “Oh, my God,” Jack said. “I need to get shot more often. What the hell did you give me?”

  “Painkillers. Good ones.”

  He fumbled and gave her a brief thumbs up. “You are my hero.”

&nbs
p; She walked over, then knelt. “Sit up. Slowly.”

  He exhaled and pushed with his hands until he was completely upright, then glanced at her, his voice softer. “How many stitches?”

  “Eight.”

  He winced. “Nice. Well, guess it’s a good thing chicks dig scars.”

  Kamala rolled her eyes and carefully smoothed the gauze and medical tape back in place. “You are such a dork, Jack.”

  “Eh, s’why you like me.” He nodded towards the bedroom door. “Where’s Fujioka?”

  “Covering our tracks. She told me she’d be back before sunrise.”

  Jack went to check his watch, but it had been on the arm that got soaked in blood, so it was gone. “What time is it now?”

  “Three am.”

  His eyes widened. “Jesus Christ. Why are you still up?”

  She flicked him in the forehead. “I had a patient to check on, remember?”

  “You stayed up to watch me sleep? Gross.” She glared and he smiled. “I’m trying to cheer you up.”

  “Someone shot you, Jack.”

  He shrugged, then cringed as sharp pain ate through the numbness for a second. “Calculated risk. That’s why I’m happy you were here to save my ass. Aren’t you glad you demanded to come with me?”

  “Don’t do that,” she snarled. “You could have died, Jack.”

  He started to frown. “So, could you. You knew that when you signed on, so what are you really angry about?”

  She didn’t answer. Then it dawned on him. “You promised my mother that you’d take care of me.” He shut his eyes for a second. “Shit.” Jack looped his left arm around her, drawing her close. She resisted at first, but then just gave in, resting her forehead on his uninjured shoulder. He rubbed her back and tilted his face towards her ear. “I’m still in one piece, alright? We’ll just leave the ‘getting shot’ part out of the recap when we get back.”

  Kamala’s voice came out half-angry, half-amused. “I think she might notice.”

  “Not if I don’t wear tank tops.”

  “Stop joking. You scared me.”

  “Well, if I stop joking, then I’d have to face my own mortality, and I sure as hell ain’t about to do that.”

  “Useless pagal.” She wrapped her arms around him. Her hands were clammy. Jack held her a little tighter.

  “Yeah, pretty much.” He kissed the top of her head gently. “Come on. You need to get some rest before Fujioka gets back.”

  “Jack—”

  “No back-talk,” he said sternly, pulling away enough to give her a glare. “Doctor Jackson’s orders.”

  She pursed her lips as if she was going to disagree, but then she crawled in next to him on the futon. He nearly had a heart-attack as she curled up beneath his left arm much like a cat would, resting her cheek on his bare chest. He swallowed thickly and told himself to just let the blanketing warmth from the painkillers fold over him so he could relax. She settled into deep breaths beside him, and all he could think about were her words as he drifted off again.

  You could have died.

  ~*~

  He could tell he was in a cave by the lack of sunlight and the sandstone-colored craggy slopes of the walls and ceiling, but he didn’t know how he got there. He could hear water dripping from the stalactites. He discovered he had a flashlight, so he swung the beam of light around until he gauged that the cave wasn’t a full chamber; only about twenty feet across in an almost oval shape. Up ahead, he could see a tunnel bending around to the left. Just to be sure, he glanced behind him and saw a closed off corridor. Forward it was.

  His footsteps echoed as he walked for what felt like a long while, following the winding path deeper into the cave. He stopped dead when he heard something else for the first time. Tittering, like a child’s giggle.

  “Hello?” Jack said. “Somebody there?”

  Pattering footsteps echoed somewhere up ahead. Jack kept walking after them. “You know, this isn’t exactly the place to be fooling around.”

  He turned a corner and caught a glimpse of bouncing curls and the edge of a lavender dress.

  “Hey, wait up!”

  He jogged through the tunnel, his flashlight spilling over a girl running ahead of him, no more than six years old perhaps. She ran through the end of tunnel and he came to a stop at the mouth of an even bigger cave, one that was a couple of miles in length. It was lit by several torches on long poles placed in a circle. A waterfall frothed and gurgled at the end opposite him, filling a river that surrounded a small island. There were still stalactites and stalagmites around the edges of the cave, but the center had smooth stone. He saw a little bed perched on top with sheets and a pillow.

  She scurried up the hill to her bed and hid under the covers, still giggling as if they were playing hide-and-seek. Jack hopped across the small riverbed and strode up to the bed, all on its own in the cave, pocketing the flashlight as he went. He couldn’t resist a small smile as he spotted the lump under the comforter. She’d been waiting for him, he could tell. He wasn’t sure why he knew that, but he did.

  “Alright, little monster, time to come out.” He tugged the covers off.

  The girl beamed up at him, her two front teeth missing, and burst into full laughter, as if he’d won their game. She wore a full-length nightgown that reached her ankles and had white frills around the neck and sleeves. Her skin was brown and her curls were dark, matching her large eyes with long lashes.

  She leapt to her feet on the mattress and threw her arms around his neck. “You found me!”

  Jack chuckled and hugged her. “Yeah, apparently. What are you doing in here?”

  She let go and threw her arms up, gesturing to the cave. “This is home.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “You mean you live here?”

  She nodded eagerly.

  “How’d you get here?”

  She shrugged. Jack started to frown. “Don’t you miss your family?”

  The girl tilted her head.

  “You know, your mom and dad? Brothers and sisters? Aunts and uncles? Grandmas and grandpas?”

  “I don’t have any.”

  “Of course, you do. Everyone does. They just have to find them.” He held out his hand. “Why don’t we go find them together?”

  The happy light she exuded dimmed. Her brow crinkled up. “I don’t wanna go. I’m scared.”

  He sat next to her. “Trying something new can be scary. But it can also be really fun. Besides, you don’t have to worry. I’ll protect you.”

  She curled her arms around her knees and set her chin on them, watching him. “It’s dark out there.”

  Jack reached into his pocket. “I have a flashlight.”

  “And cold.”

  “I’ll give you my jacket.”

  “I don’t wanna walk.”

  “I’ll let you ride piggy-back.”

  She perked up. “Really?”

  “Yeah. Really.”

  The bright smile returned. “Okay!”

  Jack stood and she leapt on to his back. He wrapped his arms around her knees and started down the hill towards the tunnel they’d come in through.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “What’s yours?”

  “I asked you first.”

  “I asked you first.”

  “What?”

  “What?”

  Jack sighed. “Oh. I forgot kids do that.”

  “Oh, I forgot kids do that.” She echoed cheerfully.

  He flicked on the flashlight and entered the tunnel, whistling the Andy Griffith theme song to fill the empty space and make it seem less haunting. He made a few wrong turns into dead end corridors, but the whistling helped keep him from panicking about the fact that he had no clue where they were or how to get out.

  “You’re never going to get out of here,” the girl whispered.

 
; “Oh, nonsense,” Jack said. “Just trial and error. We’ll get there.”

  She leaned closer to his ear, digging her fingers into his shoulder blades. Her childish voice went deathly cold. “No, not we. You will never get out of here.”

  Jack stopped in his tracks. Her fingers dug in harder. Sharp pain lanced through his upper body. His back bent under her weight. With a start, he realized she was getting bigger.