Burn

by G E Hathaway

  “How is that possible?” Ellie looked back at Talisa. “Are you an animal too?”

  “The old gods are waking,” Talisa said. “We are many forms.”

  “Why did you go down into the cave?” Liam asked. “Why risk everything with Darkness if you knew what It could do to you?”

  “Because Darkness holds the key to stopping him.” She reached up to touch the rock hanging around her neck, an amulet of Darkness itself. “This can stop the man who is coming after me.”

  “Who is this man supposed to be?”

  “You have given him many names. Helios. Apollo. Tonatiuh. Surya. Horus. Ra. Summer. All those names mean different things to different people and cultures. I do not know him by a name, but by what he simply is.”

  Realization slowly dawned on Liam, and he slammed on the brakes. The car came to a full stop in the middle of the freeway, a solitary speck on a endless black ribbon. Both Noah and Ellie jerked forward against their seatbelts. Ignoring their protests, Liam turned in his seat to look Talisa in the eyes.

  “Are you telling me this man is the sun?”

  Noah and Ellie gaped at him, then at Talisa.

  “Then who are you?” Liam demanded.

  Talisa flinched. Ellie was leaning as far away from her as she could, her back pressed against her door. She could see the fear in Noah’s eyes.

  They were all scared of her.

  “I will show you,” she said, and she opened her door.

  The rain had stopped a while ago, leaving a light layer of grey clouds across the sky. A cool breeze drifted through the valley. There were only a few hours of light left in the day. She looked back and waited for them. After a few moments, the doors opened and Liam, Ellie, and Noah climbed out of the car.

  They had stopped just south of Tucson. The city loomed ahead, the skyline an eclectic mixture of modern and spanish revival architecture. The unrelenting heat had weathered the asphalt beneath them. Weeds pushed through the cracks, creating unexpected obstacles in the middle of the road.

  “You ask me what I am as if you haven’t seen me this entire time,” Talisa said. “My presence has been all around you. I lifted the roof to protect your people. I put out the fire that torched your home. I covered the sky so you he could not find you. And I nourished your lands, so you may live.”

  The cold breeze tickled Ellie’s ears. She shivered at the sudden drop in temperature, and looked up at the sky. A storm was developing, the clouds turning deep shades of blue and purple.

  But hadn’t it been sunny a few seconds ago?

  Liam called over the wind. “We should get inside before the storm hits.”

  “Wait a minute,” Noah said. He was watching Talisa with an odd expression on his face, remembering the rain he’d felt before waking up outside the cave. Talisa remained motionless, her eyes cast upward.

  The sky moved above them, the clouds thickening and turning black. Ellie felt a primal stab of fear as the sky swirled into a violent mixture of greys, blacks, and purples. Light burst from deep within. Thunder rumbled, an animal preparing to strike.

  Talisa’s eyes flashed with the same electric currents, sparking in rhythm with the sky.

  “Wait,” Liam held up his hand, “what are you doing-”

  A spiderweb of lightning shot down out of the clouds, spread across the sky, and hit the ground with an ear splitting crack. Ellie crouched down, her hands over her ears. More lightning came out of the sky, wrapping around them and leaving craters in the earth. Noah stumbled backwards, tripped over his feet, and fell back against the car.

  “Stop!” Liam’s voice vanished in the wind. He could feel the hair on his body stand on end, feel a strange vibration through his body. He looked up at the sky, watched the clouds overhead sparkle with energy.

  “Talisa, we’re going to die, you can’t do this!” he shouted. He grabbed his gun.

  “Are you going to shoot me?” Talisa asked him. “It did not stop the sun, and the longer we spend on this earth, the stronger we become.”

  Liam’s hands trembled. Talisa had no eyes behind the sparks of lightning. She held up her hands and, like a faucet had been turned on in the sky, sheets of water began pouring over them. They were drenched immediately.

  Lightning cracked. The ground shook. The sky had become a wild animal.

  “Stop!” Liam shouted. “Stop!” His voice was faint against the wailing storm. Rainwater filled his mouth and he choked. They were going to drown on land.

  Then, almost immediately, the rain ceased.

  The clouds stopped roiling and the lightning vanished. The air went still.

  Liam wiped his eyes and looked around. Noah lay crouched against the back of the car. Ellie had somehow made it back inside the car, the wiper blades furiously scraping across the windshield.

  Talisa looked at them calmly.

  Liam wiped water off his face and marched angrily towards her. “What was that about?”

  “I am the rain that put out the fire in your home. I am the clouds that block the burning sun. My water gives life to the valley. I am the reason the plants and animals can live in this wasteland. I offer a reprieve from the unrelenting summer. But he is much stronger.”

  Noah stood up and shook the rain out of his hair. “Monsoon,” he said. “You’re the monsoon.”

  Talisa looked at him sadly.

  “I’m right, aren’t I? Whenever you’re here, the clouds and rains come. When you left to go into the cave, the sun came back out.”

  “I come when I can, and when I’m here the valley grows. But I never had this human form before, and neither did the sun. Something happened, and we are now awake. Soon, as always, he will overpower me again. In this new form I don’t know what that will mean. For me and for all of you.”

  “Why are you here?” Liam said.

  “I don’t know.”

  Noah stood next to Liam. “She’s a god.”

  “That’s impossible,” Liam said.

  “No I’m serious. That man in our house, I saw what he did. He made fire.”

  “But that was at night, the sun was down-” Liam trailed off, remembering how Talisa had reacted when she realized the moon had risen in the sky.

  “The moon reflects sunlight,” he realized.

  Noah nodded. “And when I saw him, he was just a shadow. A glowing aura. He’s a god too. And Darkness...that’s another god. Am I right?” Talisa nodded. “Liam, do you understand what this means?”

  Ellie had climbed out of the car while they were talking and slowly advancing on them, her wet hair pressed against her neck and shoulders. Water pooled at her feet. “And that man in the desert? Coyote? He’s a god too.”

  “She is the mother of all children, and we are nothing but her offspring.”

  Liam suddenly had an overwhelming urge to throw up. He turned away and began walking toward the car.

  “Liam, wait a second,” Noah jogged after him. “This is something else, we can’t leave-”

  “Now you want to stick around? A minute ago you were eager to dump her on the side of the road and go back to your projects.”

  “Don’t you understand? This is related to all of that! Don’t you think it’s strange that these guys are here on earth with us right now after the Grid fell?”

  Liam looked at him in disbelief. “You think they caused the Fall?”

  “Or maybe the Fall caused them.”

  Liam stopped walking and looked back at him. “What?”

  Noah shrugged broadly. “I don’t know. I can only guess. But right now we are working to sustain our city until the Grid comes back on, and now we have the very forces of nature at our beck and call.”

  “Not necessarily,” Ellie put in.

  They all looked back at Talisa, who watched them like a feral animal from the side of the road.

  “Okay true. But if we can keep her safe from this guy, maybe she can help us. The heat is the biggest enemy
out here. We could use her help too.”

  Liam studied Noah’s face carefully, searching for any signs of temporary psychosis, but his friend only looked back at him and waited. Liam sighed. “So what are we supposed to do now?” He walked back to her. “How are we supposed to help you? You don’t even really need us. You’re a god. We’re just your lowly subjects. Or servants. Take your pick, I guess.”

  Talisa’s gaze was piercing. He blinked uncomfortably. She raised her hand and he flinched, but her touch was gentle on his arm.

  “I cannot beat him alone, that is why I have this,” Talisa said, using her free hand to grab the Darkness amulet dangling around her neck. “I’m afraid of what he can do. I have to stop him before it’s too late.”

  “And what happens if it’s too late?”

  “The rains won’t come. Your plants and animals will die. The sun will dry up the region.” She took a deep breath. “And I will be gone forever.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Ellie wanted no part of it.

  The house was a charred carcass of its former self, a grave of blackened timber and twisted metal. A layer of rainwater had soaked into the wood and pooled between mounds of drywall. The fire hadn’t spread far. Scorch marks covered the sidewalk and the road, but ended before reaching her Dodge Charger.

  Ellie surveyed the damage. Debris lay scattered across the top and hood of the vehicle, leaving deep scratches in the aged paint. She opened the driver’s side door and peered inside. Her clothes were still there.

  She straightened up and looked over her shoulder. Apprehensive faces stared back at her from inside the idling Grid car. Liam had respected Ellie’s request to be dropped off, but he didn’t like leaving her alone at the scene of the attack. Talisa had been the one to assure him that the sun god was no longer there.

  “Where is he, then?” Liam had asked.

  Talisa had looked up at the overcast sky. “He is behind the clouds now.”

  Ellie threw her medical bag into her car and looked back one last time. Liam gave her a small smile. Talisa stared with unblinking curiosity. Noah didn’t look at Ellie, his face turned the opposite direction out his window. She waited to see if he’d turn around, but he didn’t.

  She scowled and dropped behind the steering wheel of her car. Liam didn’t move. He was watching her, waiting to make sure she could start the car safely. She suddenly felt self conscious.

  “You can go,” she called out, hoping the sound of her voice would inspire Noah to look at her.

  But he didn’t. Liam looked back at her with some reluctance, but decided not to argue. He drove slowly past her and down the street, gradually fading into the distance. Then they turned the corner and were gone. They would pick up some things from Noah’s lab, then find a new place to stay.

  Her car keys still hung from the ignition. By now, most living in the city had resigned themselves to a pedestrian lifestyle. She held her breath and turned the key. It sputtered, then died.

  She laid her head against the headrest. She didn’t know what she had expected. Somehow she had fooled herself into thinking this was going to be easy. She looked down the street where Noah, Liam, and Talisa had driven away, considering her options.

  She slipped the keys into her pocket, pulled her bags out of the car, and locked the doors.

  * * *

  For the next three days, Ellie lived in constant fear.

  Not sure if anyone would show up in her house, she kept watch on the front door while she was home. She slept on the couch, her back to the wall and a knife under her pillow. She didn’t go in the back rooms except to shower. She collected water from the communal well only when others from the neighborhood were out there too, and she tried not to look at the sloshing water in her bucket as she carried it back to the house.

  The weather stayed temperate, maintaining a steady grey sky with light rain in the afternoons. Water leaked through the roof and windows. She set out bowls and buckets to catch the drips. The sound was a constant reminder of Talisa. No matter how she tried to escape her, signs of her followed her everywhere.

  But she still had a job to do.

  Unable to get to California where she had hoped to find a large array of supplies to bring back to Tucson, Ellie spent most of her time salvaging what she could from the neighborhood pharmacies. Ellie jumped the front counter and dug through their innards. Most supplies had been raided long ago. She and her father had even toured through them before. But maybe there was something they’d missed.

  By day three, Ellie was feeling hopeless. She had been through eight pharmacies in a six-mile radius and recovered two bottles of aspirin and five boxes of bandaids. She’d stuffed them in her medical bag and shoved it behind the couch.

  Every day, she walked the barrio to check on her patients. Little Miguel wasn’t getting any better. She watched him sleep, chest rattling as he breathed.

  “Bronchitis,” she diagnosed.

  Every few minutes his body shook as he coughed violently until his mother brought him water to clear his throat. She saw the light dim in his mother’s eyes when she told her she didn’t have anything to treat him.

  She finally went back to the Charger after that house visit, where it sat untouched in the middle of the street. She spent three hours digging under the hood, trying to figure out why she couldn’t get it to run. When the sun had finally gone down, leaving her without a light source, she trudged slowly back to her house, hands slick with grease and oil.

  That night, Ellie didn’t sleep. She lay wide-eyed on the couch and listened to the water drip.

  * * *

  The Tucson Kings set up their operation in the abandoned Pima County Museum. Once a historic courthouse, the pink Spanish Colonial Revival building now served as a fortress for the only gang in the city and from there they served as judge, jury, and executioner for their operations.

  Namely drug trafficking.

  They were the reason behind the empty pharmacies throughout the city. They worked covertly, staying out of sight from the neighborhood watch groups. They weren’t particularly interested in turf wars, anymore. They had a business to run.

  Ellie stared up at the building from her vantage point on Church Avenue, her hands shoved into pockets, a backpack hanging from her shoulders. The sky was pitch black. There was no moon to light her way, but she didn’t need it to find what she was looking for.

  Her stomach churned and she fought the urge to throw up. She crossed the street onto the patio, stepping lightly to soften her footfalls. Silence filled the courtyard, but she knew there would be a watch guard somewhere. She had to move fast.

  The Tucson Kings kept the medical supplies stashed in one of the rooms on the ground floor. She and her father had visited the room plenty of times during their employment. At first it was a quick way to store and organize the supplies they needed to treat their patients, both Kings and members of the community alike, but when the Kings started to limit medical supplies to the rest of the community, her father changed his mind about them. He broke into their stash room to recover the supplies and redistribute to the community, but they caught him.

  Ellie stopped under the courtyard pillars, suddenly overcome with anxiety. She crouched down, heart pounding, breath caught in her throat. She could see the image of her father lying in a puddle of his own blood just outside the city limits before the long stretch of desert, the memory emblazoned into the backs of her eyelids.

  She’d screamed and wretched, splashing hot vomit onto her shoes before they led her away.

  Five minutes passed. Then ten. She waited until her breathing had slowed before climbing to her feet. She thought of Miguel and the painful rattle in his chest when he breathed, and continued on.

  She expected someone to stop her as she crossed the courtyard to the inner rooms, but no one did. She moved quickly, not daring to push her luck as she made her way down the open corridors to the stash room. When she reached the
door, she tested the handle carefully. It opened easily, the hinges creaking as she pulled it ajar. She froze and listened. No one came.

  She ducked inside and closed the door quickly behind her. She waited for a few minutes, listening for footsteps coming down the hall. There was only silence.

  She reached into her backpack and pulled out a tiny keychain flashlight. She turned it on, and the soft beam lit up the room, illuminating rows and rows of medical supplies organized neatly on industrial shelves spanning the full length of the walls.

  She didn’t have much time. She unzipped her backpack and made her way down the room, selecting a variety of supplies and pharmaceuticals from the shelves. She struggled to zip her bulging backpack before slinging it over her shoulders.

  That was when she saw the storage stash tucked into an open closet in the back of the room.

  She crept forward to shine her light along the shelves. Her mouth hung open, not believing her luck.

  The bottom shelf was lined with gasoline cans.

  She immediately grabbed the largest one she could carry, and the liquid sloshed heavily inside. She backed carefully out of the closet and walked toward the front door.

  Ellie turned off the flashlight and carefully opened the door again. She waited in the silence for any sign of movement. Her heart raced as she slipped out quietly and shut the door behind her. She made her way quickly back down the corridor, her backpack rattling with every step. She hadn’t anticipated the sound of shaking pill bottles.

  She could see the street in the distance, just on the other side of the courtyard, and she knew she was almost safe.

  “Hey!”

  The voice was gruff and came out of nowhere, and she realized someone must have been passing by the corridors and heard her.

  She ran.

  “Stop!”

  Hands grabbed at her. She instinctively turned and swung her flashlight as hard as she could, just like she had in the cave, and connected with flesh. She heard a loud grunt, and the hands released her.