Burn

by G E Hathaway

  Now Liam was yelling. “Because I have nothing else to go off of! If we have any hope of finding them, you need to tell me everything. Did he say where he was taking you?”

  Noah deflated,. “No.”

  Liam felt another twinge of guilt. He should have been awake. Something didnt’ seem right.

  Then Noah spoke up. “Did you see what happened to Talisa this morning?”

  “No.”

  “Did she say anything to you last night about where she wanted to go?”

  “Same thing you heard. East. To the dark place.”

  Noah grabbed Liam’s arm, his eyes wide. “To darkness,” he corrected.

  “Yes.”

  Noah’s features hardened in realization and he jerked away. Before Liam could say anything else, Noah pounded his hands against his own head, hunched over, and began wailing loudly. It was a guttural sound, starting low in his throat before reaching a loud pitch and echoing off the train station walls. The sound was angry and mournful, like an animal.

  Liam couldn’t find the words to respond. He watched in shock as Noah writhed as if in agony, his hands clenched tightly and his face twisted before he finally straightened up to face him with puffy red eyes.

  “Whoa, are you ok-”

  “I know where they’re going,” Noah said.

  Liam let out a long breath. “Where?”

  He pointed toward the mountains. “The caves. He’s taking them to the caves.”

  Liam followed his gaze. “Colossal Cave?”

  Until twenty years ago, Colossal Cave had been a popular attraction for tourists interested in learning more about Arizona’s geological history. Guided tours led enthused explorers deep underground, walking past bottomless pits and winding around massive stalactites and obstructive stalagmites. It had been a local staple for generations until it was forced to close when someone died inside.

  “Are you sure?”

  “The darkness. That has to be where they’re going.” He turned and started walking out of the station. Liam followed him, not quite convinced.

  “You realize if we go there now we miss out on finding them anywhere else,” he said. “You better be absolutely sure.”

  “I’m positive.”

  Liam’s stomach growled and he glanced up at the sky. Not a cloud in sight. “If we don’t get food or water, we won’t last long,” he warned.

  “Then we better hurry.”

  * * *

  5:35 AM

  Ellie should have stolen the car and left town when she had the chance.

  She had stayed up late to wait for the battery to finish charging so she could quietly sneak the car back onto Interstate-10. She had watched the blinking red light against the blackness of night for over an hour before unintentionally drifting off to sleep.

  She did feel guilty at the thought of abandoning them. Noah seemed really nice and she felt really bad for Talisa. But they hadn’t asked permission before dragging her all the way to Vail, so she figured she didn’t really owe them anything. But then she woke up to Noah’s knocking at the window, and her plan dissipated into the dry desert air. She had overslept. Now she sat in the back of the car with Noah in the driver seat and her arm locked in their captor’s vice-like grip. Fingers dug painfully into her skin, her own hand slowly losing feeling the longer he clung to her. She could smell him, a putrid combination of body odor and something else. Something feral.

  Noah hunched over the wheel, desperately trying to find purchase in the rocky terrain. Wheels spun in the sand. Ellie screamed as the car shifted, and the man’s weight pressed against her. She shoved him off as hard as she could. He was bony beneath his tattered clothes.

  “Toward the mountains,” he snarled at Noah. “The edge of the mountains.” He pointed, and Noah turned the wheel north.

  Ellie’s mind raced. She could reach for the door handle and push herself out of the car, but she wouldn’t be able to fight the man in order to break free and jump out. Her medicine bag lay overturned at her feet with bandages, bottles, and syringes strewn across the floor. The car tipped again as Noah drove down a shallow ravine and she pitched forward, hitting her head on the back of the passenger seat. While hunched forward, her fingers closed around the closest medical packaging she could find and she quickly shoved it under her thigh.

  “I’m sorry!” Noah shouted. The car made a terrible scraping noise under the compartment. This car wouldn’t last much longer in the untamed desert. Their captor muttered wildly, spitting words in flecks of spit and froth. She saw his eyes dart rapidly around the vehicle.

  “Darkness-more life-more energy-must listen-cannot fight-cannot resist-cannot go-no other way-must do this-no other way-have to listen-have to stay-”

  He held the knife in his opposite hand, its blade rusted with age. Dark red stains coated the edges and she felt her blood run cold. As his muttering intensified, his grip loosened on the hilt and he began to wave his arm around as if battling an invisible assailant.

  “Please-stop!” Ellie dodged his swings. “You’re hurting me.”

  “Oh am I?” he snapped at her with startling clarity, eyes bulging from his face like black spheres. She cringed away, but dirty fingers wrapped around her chin and held her in place. The blade hilt pressed painfully against her jaw. Flecks of spit rained down on her as he said, “it’s been so long since I saw another human around, it’s been mostly jackrabbits and quail. I almost forgot what humans looked like, what they tasted like-” To her utter horror, he opened his mouth and pressed his hot, wet tongue against her cheek. She shrieked.

  Noah stomped on the brake and the car lurched. The man’s head slammed against the front headrest and he released her. Noah turned around with his fist raised, but the man moved with inhuman speed and pressed the knife against the side of Noah’s face.

  “You stopped the car,” he snarled, raising his face, blood now trickling down his forehead. “Keep driving or I stick this in your ear.”

  Noah hesitated. He looked at Ellie.

  “Drive, Noah,” she said.

  Noah turned back around, and the car rolled forward.

  The man was irritable now. He sat back, knife still in his hand. Ellie tried not to draw his attention, but it was hard not to as they bounced along in the car. “Must get there,” the man mumbled. “Must keep going.” he started swinging his head side to side, then lifted his arms, the blade slicing air. “Take them there...darkness...pleased...then I leave this...it hurts-nowhere else-must escape-but first-must kill-”

  Ellie slammed her fist with all her strength against his flailing hand, and the knife clattered across the floor. Quick as a flash, she plunged her syringe needle deep into his arm and twisted hard. He howled in pain and released her. She gripped the handle and pushed the door open, clipping passing tree branches and shrubs.

  “No!” he grabbed for her. She twisted away, but grubby fingers closed around her ankle. She kicked him as hard as she could, her foot landing squarely at his nose. He jerked back, and his face changed. His matted brown hair turned blonde and then black, shifting between long and curly to short and straight. His nose, eyes, and mouth flickered, and his bone structure stretched and contorted. He was a middle-aged man, then a elderly woman, then a teenager.

  Ellie screamed.

  “Hold on!” Noah slammed the brakes. Ellie hit the back of the seat again, and she felt the man release her leg. “Go!” Noah yelled. “Go now!”

  She looked around in a daze, her vision oddly blurry in the dusty air. She saw Noah open his own door and climb out, wires trailing behind him. He had pulled the battery loose. He was escaping. A desperate fervor exploded within her and she dove out of the car, slipping on loose sand and rock. She expected to be pulled back in, but nothing touched her. She scrambled to her feet and ran.

  “Ellie, here!” Noah emerged beside her and grabbed her hand. He had longer legs than she did, and he pulled her through the desert. Neither dared to
look back.

  Chapter Twelve

  6:05 AM

  Noah’s lungs wanted to burst out of his chest. He dodged overgrown brush and cacti, fingers wrapped firmly around Ellie’s hand. Ahead, he could see piles of boulder formations gradually grew into a small mountain range. He steered them in that direction. No use hiding in the open desert.

  He ran for what felt like hours but he knew was only a few minutes. They reached the cluster of boulders before he dared to slow down, and only then did Ellie stumble.

  “We can’t stop yet,” he said, then noticed the bloody footprints dotting the ground. Ellie was barefoot.

  “I couldn’t get my shoes on in time,” she sobbed.

  He looked back at the car, now a small gleam of metal in the distance, enveloped by a sea of green and brown. The man was nowhere to be seen. “I think you may have hit him good,” he said.

  Ellie climbed to her feet. “We have to go.”

  “Are you sure-”

  “Yes.” Her voice was shaking, but she pulled ahead, gripping his hand tightly. It was hard to maintain a sprint now, and together they plodded forward. Noah glanced back every few moments. They kept going until Ellie spotted an overhang of boulders serving as a small cave. She ducked inside, pulling him in with her.

  The cave was only ten feet wide and thirty feet deep, but the overhang was so low that it hid them from sight. Ellie dropped to the ground and began inspecting her feet. Noah stood at the edge of the cave entrance, listening intently for the sounds of footsteps. Minutes ticked by as they waited in silence, their breathing echoing loudly off the surrounding rocks.

  No one came.

  He remembered the chaos in the streets when the Grid first fell. He had stayed inside for days, terrified to set foot outside where the people were raiding and overturning cars. Those with the means to escape the city, heading for salvation on the interstate. Those without battery-powered GridCars were forced to stay behind. Everyone broke into stores for food and supplies. The violent ones destroyed what was left.

  He waited fifteen minutes. Still no sign of movement. The sun was getting higher in the sky. It was probably around nine o’clock, Noah guessed, sweat dripping down his forehead. He remembered hearing stories of out-of-towners visiting Tucson who thought they could go hiking in the wilderness the same way they could in their hometowns. Every summer, he would read the same news stories. Tourist hiker found dead on the trail. Hadn’t packed enough water and food. A forty-ounce water bottle could last several hours in other parts of the country. In the desert summer sun, that could last twenty minutes.

  Noah and Ellie had nothing here.

  His stomach grumbled again.

  Ellie tore strips of cloth from the bottom of her shirt and wrapping them around her swollen feet.. He dropped down next to her. “What do you need?” he said, keeping his voice low.

  “My supplies,” she grimaced, wrapping the cloth tightly from her toes all the way up to the ankle. “If you can spare a few pieces, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

  He tore at his shirt, removing several inches from the bottom. The shirt was old and ripped easily. He made several long strips and handed them to her. He watched as she expertly wrapped her other foot, taking care to brush away as much dirt and sand as she could. Her skin was covered in small abrasions from the sharp rocks and cactus scattered in the sand.

  “I don’t see him,” he told her.

  “There’s something...wrong. With him.” Her voice shook.

  Noah thought of the haloed shadow from his house. “What do you mean?”

  “When I hit him, I saw him change. I can’t explain it, but he became something else. His face flickered and his hair changed colors.” She misread the look on his face and immediately became defensive. “I’m not making this up.”

  “I believe you.”

  “He smelled terrible too.”

  “Yeah, well I doubt there’s working showers out here.”

  “It’s not that, he didn’t smell...right.”

  Noah didn’t argue. He watched as she flexed her toes, testing mobility in the makeshift bandage. Her chin trembled. “Are you okay?” he asked softly.

  “Distract me please. Tell me a story. Anything.”

  Noah racked his brain. “I broke my leg once. When I was nine.” Then he cursed himself internally. Why would he say that? Was he trying to stress her out more?

  But she seemed genuinely interested. “How did that happen?”

  “I climbed a tree. It was one of those large oak trees in Reid Park. My mom warned me not to, but I didn’t listen. I climbed pretty high and then my foot slipped. I broke my leg, fractured a rib, and got a concussion.”

  “If I were your mom, I’d be pissed.”

  “She was. I didn’t hear the end of it for a long time. She turned off all my surfaces. Couldn’t stream content for a week.”

  “How torturous!”

  “It was! But I figured out a way around it. She had forgotten about the shower wall, so I just ended up taking a lot of long showers. My mom respected the bathroom, she never checked in.”

  Ellie laughed, and the sound was bright and colorful in the dim cave. “Well of course not, she probably thought you were doing something else.”

  Noah’s face reddened, which made her laugh even more. He liked the way it sounded.

  “Where’s your mom now?” she asked. He hesitated. “I’m sorry,” she stammered, “if you don’t want to talk about her it’s ok-”

  “No, I’m fine,” he said quickly. “She left during the exodus. Took my younger sister and left in our car while it still had some battery life.”

  “Why didn’t you go with them?”

  The memory was too painful to explain. He picked absentmindedly at the ground, feeling sharp-edged pebbles and cactus needles against his fingertips.

  “I stayed behind too,” Ellie offered. “With my dad. He was a doctor. He believed that to evacuate was to abandon his responsibility as a healer to those who couldn’t get out of the city. I stayed to help him.” She glanced at him. “He died a little while ago.”

  “That’s why you’re leaving town. There’s no one left here for you.”She frowned. “N-not that leaving means you don’t care, I’m sure you care.”

  “I do,” she said sharply.

  She picked at her bandages. He sat awkwardly beside her, wishing he could redo the last few seconds. Why did their talks always turn into an argument? He wanted to fix it, but instead, their conversation faded into silence. He was too tired. His entire body throbbed and his neck ached. He didn’t want to think anymore. They sat for what felt like forever, watching the cave entrance with their backs pressed against the rock wall. The air shimmered in the sunlight as the mid-morning heat continued to rise.

  “What do we do?” she finally asked. “Was he the one you were running from?”

  He shook his head. “This is something else.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I’ve seen them. Both of them. They’re two different things.” He thought about the piercing black eyes framed in fire, the same eyes Talisa and the crazed man, and he shivered. “But maybe they come from the same place.”

  “Do you think he has Talisa too?”

  He didn’t have an answer for that either. He was used to hiding in the back room with his computer and all his gadgets. He knew how to solve problems with zeros and ones. Before the Grid fell, he could build entire city blocks. After the Fall, all he could do was power a single room on a localized power source. But what could he do against a raving homicidal lunatic? He was useless without Liam.

  “I’m sorry,” he said instead. “This is my fault. Liam’s and my fault. Well, mostly Liam but me too. We should never have dragged you into this.”

  He noticed several strands of curly hair had escaped her bun and dangled down her forehead into her lashes. He resisted the urge to move them. She probably wouldn’t like that.

&nbs
p; “We need to get back to the car,” she said. “That’s the only way we can get into town, find help.”

  Noah thought of the empty streets and storefronts and wondered if help was even possible. “Liam must have noticed we’re gone by now,” he said.

  “If we stay in here, Liam will never find us. We have to leave the cave.”

  He looked down at her feet. They were expertly wrapped, but bright red was seeping through the outside layers.

  “I don’t know how long you’ll last,” he said carefully.

  “I can get back to the car.”

  “And what if the man is between here and the car? You think you can get back to the car before he can?”

  “We go around. Walk a large circle. Even if he does see us, we’ll see him too. All he has is a knife, he can’t hurt us from a distance. We can grab a rock.”

  “Are you sure? You have no shoes! What if you get something sharp right through your foot? You won’t make it far at all.”

  She threw her hands up in frustration. “We have to do it. What else is there?”

  “He knows that we’ll go for the car. That’s why he hasn’t come yet. He’s waiting us out.” He shook his head. “He knows that it will get too hot and that we’ll get desperate.” His stomach growled again.

  “Or maybe he saw we were too much trouble for his own good and he left.”

  Noah climbed to his feet and walked back to the cave entrance. He needed air. He needed to think. The temperature was steadily rising, last night’s storms long gone. It could easily peak one hundred degrees by mid-day.

  What would Liam do? Liam was a sheriff, he was used to chasing down criminals and saving the innocent and getting out of bad situations.

  But Noah could get out of bad situations too. After all, wasn’t he the one who tapped into the downtown well? Didn’t he set up generators throughout the barrio to make it livable again? He could figure out a bad situation too, he just needed to turn the problem into something he was familiar with.

  He wasn’t the most experienced fighter, but he was smart.

  Noah turned around. “Okay Ellie, let’s work through a plan,” he said.