Night of Never

by Megan O'Russell

  Jeremy chewed his lips. “We keep an apple for each of us and give them one bottle of water.”

  “Deal.” Nola let go of the tree branch and dropped to the ground, her legs holding steady as she landed.

  The group looked toward her as Jeremy landed by her side.

  From twenty feet away, the fleers looked even more pitiful than they had at a distance. Dark bags marred the skin under their eyes, and fatigue from years of survival marked their faces.

  One of the children twisted to look at Nola. His tiny frame was no bigger than a toddler’s, but his face made him appear at least seven.

  “Stay away from us.” One of the women pulled a rusted kitchen knife from her belt.

  “We don’t want to hurt you,” Nola said. “We just want to know what happened in the city.”

  “How could you not know?” the man being supported by two others croaked.

  “We were far away when the ground started shaking,” Jeremy said. “We saw the explosions, but we don’t know why they’re happening.”

  “The fire came down from above,” the youngest of the women said. “I was inside when the windows shattered.”

  “I heard buzzing overhead,” one of the men said. “I looked up to see where it was coming from. A black and silver thing fell from the sky, then the street exploded.”

  “Do you know who was doing it?” Jeremy asked.

  “I didn’t bother trying to find out,” the young woman said. “I saw Outer Guard though, swarms of them. They’ll know.”

  “Do you think it was them?” Cold rushed through Nola’s veins. “Do you think the domes did this?”

  “Does it matter?” the wounded man asked.

  “Where are you heading?” Jeremy asked.

  “Away,” one of the women said. “There’s no place left to go but away.”

  “Here.” Nola dug in Jeremy’s backpack, pulling out the loaf of bread, apples, and a bottle of water. “It’s not a lot. But maybe it can help until you find a place to rest.”

  The man who leaned heavily on the woman reached into his pocket, pulling out an old fashioned revolver, cocking it with a click.

  “We’re trying to give you something.” Jeremy stepped sideways, planting himself in front of Nola. “Take the food and water and go.”

  “Your pack isn’t empty,” the man said. “You’ve got more in there and guns on your hips besides. Take off the belts and toss them over. Then drop the pack and food and walk away.”

  The man’s hand didn’t shake as he pointed the revolver at them. Nola wished it would. Wished he would show some hesitance at threatening their lives.

  “Don’t do this.” Jeremy inched forward. “I’m asking you to walk away.”

  “We’ll walk away once you’ve given us your supplies,” the man said. “You can hand them over yourselves, or I can take them off your corpses. I don’t care either way.”

  “I’m giving you one last chance to leave,” Jeremy said.

  “I’m the one with the gun drawn, and you’re out of chances to listen.”

  Too many things happened at once.

  Jeremy launched himself at the man, knocking his gun aside with one hand, and punching him in the face full force with the other. At the same moment, a bang shook Nola’s lungs.

  “Jeremy!” the scream tore from Nola’s throat.

  Her fingers fumbled as she pulled the gun from her belt, aiming it at the rest of the group, while Jeremy rolled off the man, revolver in hand.

  Jeremy was on his feet a moment later. Blood dripped from his thigh, but his hands held steady as he pointed the revolver at the nearest man.

  “We wanted to help you,” Jeremy growled. “He shouldn’t have had to die.”

  Nola glanced at the ground. The man who’d shot Jeremy lay still, his eyes wide, his neck twisted at an unnatural angle.

  “You’re going to run up the road,” Jeremy said. “I’m going to give you one minute to get as far away from here as you can. If any of you are still in range after that minute, I shoot.”

  All six adults stared at him, a mix of horror and anger staining each of their faces.

  “Go!”

  At Jeremy’s shout they ran. After ten seconds, the two supporting the injured man dropped him on the ground, picking up their pace to run in front of the women.

  “No!” the man shouted. “Don’t leave me, please!”

  “Put the food back in the bag,” Jeremy said.

  “You’re hurt.” Nola tossed the supplies into the pack, pulling the top tightly shut. “You need help.”

  “I’ll heal,” Jeremy said.

  Nola crouched by his leg. A hole dripped red on the front of his thigh. “There’s no exit wound.”

  “The bullet’s still in there.”

  “We have to get it out,” Nola said. “How do I get it out?”

  “You don’t.” Jeremy winced as he put his weight on his leg. “We have to keep moving.”

  “But it’ll be awful.” Nola glanced up the road.

  The group had disappeared, leaving the injured man to crawl after them.

  “You said healing with something stuck inside you is terrible. We have to get the bullet out.”

  “We need to move.” Jeremy took Nola’s elbow, leading her down the road at a run. “I don’t know if any of the others have guns, and I really don’t want to fight them. We need to get away from here.”

  They wove back into the trees at the side of the road.

  Jeremy’s gait had become uneven, but still his strides were longer than Nola’s as they ran.

  “Promise me you’re going to be okay.” Nola took Jeremy’s hand.

  “I promise,” Jeremy said. “I can take a bullet in the leg.”

  He held her hand as they ran toward the highway.

  Others passed on the main road, moving in the opposite direction. Toward the land of vampires they didn’t know existed.

  Some moved on their own, others in pairs or groups.

  Nola cringed every time they were spotted. Her fingers itched to reach for her gun. Jeremy still held the revolver in his hand.

  The revolver had scratches on the barrel and could hold only six bullets. A relic of another time.

  “How do people still have guns like this?” Nola said. “Why didn’t the Outer Guard take them all away years ago?”

  “Officially, they did.” Sweat trickled down Jeremy’s brow. “But my dad runs into a few every year. Most of the time, the fools who held onto them for protection ended up dead.”

  “Like the man you killed,” Nola said.

  “I didn’t want to kill him.” Jeremy’s face turned an unnaturally pale shade. “But he was pointing a gun at us. He would have hurt you.”

  “Jeremy.” Nola tugged on his hand, stopping his limping run. “I don’t blame you. We tried to help them, and he threatened to kill us. He had a gun.”

  Jeremy’s eyes slipped down to the revolver in his grip.

  Nola took his face in her hands. “Jeremy, he shot you. He could have killed you. If somebody had to die, I’m grateful it was him and not you.”

  Unshed tears pooled in Jeremy’s eyes.

  “You can’t feel guilty for defending yourself. You kept us safe.”

  Jeremy nodded. In a moment, all trace of tears had vanished from his eyes, replaced with the determination of an Outer Guard.

  “We’ve only got about a quarter mile until we reach the city limits,” he said. “We need to see if whatever dropped the bombs is still in the air.”

  “Wolves don’t have planes or helicopters.” Nola took Jeremy’s hand, leading him through the trees. “Neither do vampires. Something like that is beyond everyone’s power. I don’t even think the domes could pull that off.”

  “They couldn’t.” Jeremy tightened his grip on Nola’s hand. “We’ve only got the skeleton helicopter, and that can barely lift two people.”

  They reached the edge of the woods.

  The highway in front of them had b
een built for six cars to be able to travel down at once. The crumbling river of concrete separated the houses on the tree-lined street from the edge of the city.

  Fires burned in the apartment buildings across the way. The tallest structure reached up seven stories, and flames danced high above the roof. Cutting between the buildings, a road four lanes wide with faded white dashes running in parallel lines provided the exit from the inferno of the city.

  Evacuees funneled onto the path between the flames, all heading toward the six-lane road beyond.

  Some stopped when they reached the old highway, turning back to gape in horror at the destruction of their city. Others, like the group they had met before, kept moving up between the tumbledown houses, heading into the wild unknown.

  “There should be more coming out this way.” Nola stepped out onto the wide road, craning her neck to see in either direction. The sweeping bend of the river that surrounded three-quarters of the city trundled downstream, caring nothing for the fires that torched the city its banks caressed.

  “There’s no other way out. The survivors need to come this way,” Nola said. “Where is everyone else?”

  “I don’t know.” Jeremy moved slowly across the road, weaving through the clumps of people who had stalled on the concrete.

  “Mama!” a little girl cried, tugging on the sleeve of a weathered old man. “We have to go back and find mama!”

  “She’ll find us here.” The old man didn’t look away from the flames. “We have to wait here, and she’ll come.”

  Nola looked back, willing herself to be strong enough to see the desperate child’s eyes.

  The girl had sores on her cheeks. Some illness had taken hold of her tiny body.

  “We should have taken the food.” A woman leaned against her husband’s shoulder, tears coursing down her cheeks.

  “What food did we have?” The husband pressed his lips to his wife’s hair.

  “We had six cans of beans, two cans of corn, meat stew,” the woman said, ticking the list off on her fingers, “a filter for water, and one Nightland apple. We should have taken it all with us.”

  “The walls fell down, Dora.” He held her tight. “We couldn’t have gotten to the food even if we thought about it before we ran. All our supplies were destroyed before we left the doorstep.”

  “But I worked so hard—”

  “We’ve got each other. Let’s just be grateful for that.”

  Nola threaded her fingers through Jeremy’s, pressing his palm close to hers.

  “How could this happen?” A young man Nola’s age turned his back on the city to rage at the crowd. “Years of complacency and servitude. Working for the domes for money, for the Vampers to keep them from stealing the blood from our veins. Working for the wolves who promised us riches of food. But none have ever cared for us. None have ever wanted to keep the people who struggle everyday to have food and a place to sleep at night healthy. They only wanted us alive for their own benefit. This is what happens when our use is gone.” The boy spread his arms wide. The flames of the city danced behind him like a cape of fire. “They’ve left us to burn with their trash. Our time of usefulness has ended. There is nothing left but fire.”

  The boy dropped his arms. He scanned the crowd, though what he was searching for Nola didn’t know.

  With a nod, he turned and ran back toward the city, not down the lane where the survivors drifted out, but straight toward the tallest building. With a crash the boy threw himself through the front door, disappearing into the flames.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “We have to help him!” Nola dove forward.

  Jeremy caught her around the middle, lifting her off her feet. “There’s nothing we can do, Nola. He’s gone.”

  “But—”

  “He’s gone.” He set her down, holding her tight.

  Nola buried her face in Jeremy’s chest. Tears streamed down her cheeks. A sob burst from her throat. “How?”

  “I don’t know.” Jeremy pressed his lips to the top of her head. “But we’re going to find out.”

  “We have to go in there.” Her words came out between coughed sobs. “There have to be more people alive. We have to lead them to the way out.”

  “We can’t,” Jeremy whispered. “Going into the city is suicide.”

  “We can do it.” Nola tipped her head up, looking into Jeremy’s eyes. “How far away is Bellevue? That’s where Raina’s sister lives. If we can get to the street, we might be able to find her.”

  Jeremy shook his head, his arms tightening around Nola. “If I say no, will you listen to me?”

  “No.” Nola glanced toward the flames. The top floor of one of the buildings collapsed. Sparks shot into the air, cascading down in a rain of deadly fire. “I don’t think I can live with myself if we don’t try.”

  “If I say it’s time to head back, you can’t argue.” Jeremy took Nola by the shoulders. “No matter how close we are, or who you want to help. If I say run, you run, and you don’t stop till you’re back in Nightland.”

  She nodded, wrapping her arms around Jeremy’s waist and pressing her cheek to his chest for one more moment.

  “How far to Bellevue?”

  “Not far.” He took Nola’s hand, holding on tight as he started for the flames. “Only about ten blocks. We should be able to get in and out in a few minutes.”

  They reached the far side of the road. The heat from the flames pulsed against Nola’s face. Her skin ached in protest, warning her to back away from the fire.

  “Get out your gun.” Jeremy let go of her hand. He pulled out his own guard weapon, keeping the revolver held tight in his other hand.

  Nola pulled her gun free from her hip, checking the chamber and making sure the safety was off.

  With a nod, Jeremy ran into the flames.

  The heat lapped at them from all sides, but it was the sound Nola hadn’t expected.

  Screams echoed in the distance, far behind the crackle of flames. Before they had made it a block, a crack sounded behind them. A screech of crumpling metal sliced into Nola’s ears as the building behind them collapsed.

  Two figures ran out from the flames. A cape of fire trailed behind one. The flames consumed her body, a horrible wail carried through the blaze. Nola turned back to help.

  “No!”

  She froze at Jeremy’s shout. The other figure stopped by the girl on fire.

  For a moment, Nola thought the man would help. Stamp out the flames, find a way to heal her.

  But the man looked up at the sky, his dark matted hair falling behind his shoulders. Black eyes glinted in the faint sun fighting to break through the smoke.

  A groan poured from his mouth, but it was more than a sound. Blood followed the noise, trickling from his jaw. His shoulders shook as he dropped to his knees, raising his hands to shield his face.

  He was too late.

  Pink boils formed on his cheeks one moment only to burst the next, sending blood streaming down his face.

  A scream echoed through the street. Nola knew the sound came from her throat, but she had no power to stop it.

  The man clawed at his cheeks, as though to rip away the boils. His flesh tore free. Blood streamed freely down his chest. Blood leaked from his hands, dripping down his arms. He fell sideways, mauling his own face.

  The girl coated in flames had long since stopped moving. But the man still writhed, tearing himself to pieces without seeming to know the damage he’d done. His nails found his neck, clawing a gap in his flesh. Blood spurted from the wound, coating the street in a rain of red.

  He twitched on the ground, reaching to claw at his own legs. The plume of blood trickled out, and the man finally went still.

  Nola’s scream ended in a retch.

  Jeremy’s arm wrapped around her waist, guiding her forward though she could barely see through her tears.

  “There’s nothing we could have done for him.” Pain crackled in Jeremy’s voice. “He was dead the moment he wen
t outside.”

  “They did it on purpose.” Nola coughed, sucking more smoke into her lungs. “They’re driving all the vampires out into the sun. They’ll all end up like him.”

  “We can’t do anything to help him.” Jeremy pulled Nola to run, pushing his weight unevenly off his wounded leg. “If we can get to Raina’s sister, we might be able to save her, but there’s nothing we can do to protect vampires from the sun.”

  “Get to Nettie.” Nola wiped her tears away. “We’re going to get to Nettie.”

  Jeremy let go of her, though he kept right by her side as they ran.

  Smoke seared Nola’s lungs. The foreign ache of it in her throat was enough to tell her she shouldn’t be able to breathe. The smoke coating the street should have been enough to kill her. But the Graylock kept her lungs working, allowing her legs to pound against the cracked pavement with ease.

  The farther into the city they ran, the more bodies they found of those who hadn’t made it out of the flames in time. A scorched corpse lay in the middle of the street, splayed out as though they had jumped from a window, seeking a swifter death than fire would allow.

  Another vampire, her black eyes the only part of her not disfigured by sores, stared up at the murderous sun even in death.

  “I didn’t know that was how it would look,” Nola said.

  “You shouldn’t have to.” Jeremy turned onto another road, down a row of houses that had yet to catch fire.

  A group huddled in the middle of the street, staring at the inferno waiting on either end.

  “You need to get out of here,” Jeremy shouted to the group.

  They all spun to face him.

  “The Domers said they would come back.” An older woman shook her head. “There was a whole swarm of them, and they said they would come back.”

  “They aren’t coming. The fires are all over the city,” Jeremy said. “Get to Main and then to the old highway.”

  “But the guards said to stay.” A teenaged boy stepped in front of Jeremy, puffing his chest out though Jeremy towered five inches over him.

  “The guards lied,” Jeremy said. “You can stay here and burn or get out. If you wait much longer, there won’t be any way out at all.”