The Last Revenant (Book 1): The Crash

by J. S. Carter

  He must have noticed. “I’d rather you have it and not need it, than the other way around.”

  “Yeah...” I gently rolled the cylinder in-between the pads of my fingers and watched the brass casings of unfired bullets spin in front of me, still unsure as he put a hand on my shoulder. Given the veiled sense of danger, it was already nothing like target practice.

  “Jessica, I’ve never had to use it before and I don’t think either one of us ever will. Does that make you feel any better?”

  Actually, for some reason it did. I nodded silently.

  “Good, because your mother would kill me if you tried to find an exception.”

  We both smiled, but I could suddenly feel the missing words slip past my tongue. “Then I might as well just kill you now to get it over with.”

  The muscles on his face quickly faded away as his brain struggled to reprocess what I had just said. “I'm sorry?”

  You should be.

  I kept it up and gave him my best grin. “You’re gonna die, just like the rest of us.” I lifted the revolver up and pressed it against the middle of his forehead, my sharp painted black nails crawling around the grip and ever slightly pressing against the trigger, but they weren't my hands anymore, they were Emma's.

  You don't deserve to live.

  I squeezed and watched as the hammer tilted back and then flew forward in a flash of light.

  *

  I woke up to a prod on my shoulder and immediately tensed up as Olivia stood over my cot. I had trouble remembering where I was and it took a second for the disorientation to pass.

  Her brow fell in on me. “Bad dream?”

  Something like that.

  I ran a hand over my sweaty forehead. I might as well have run a mile in the middle of a fever. It had never occurred to me that Emma could pervert my memories the way she just had. It was like she knew I was trying to resist and wouldn't be going down without a fight, nor was anything off limits. I just hoped that it wouldn't get worse anytime soon.

  “Come on. You can think about it later. We gotta go.”

  I sat up in my cot to see Olivia fully dressed, armed, and ready. I could barely make out through the darkness that the inside of her tent was swaying back and forth yet subtly illuminated by a soft blue light. It must have still been early. I rubbed an eye with the ball of my hand in an effort to wipe it all away. “What's going on?”

  “Let's go. Sleep when you're dead.”

  Wait—wah?

  I barely brought my hands up in time to catch a half-filled canteen that she tossed at me and she walked outside. I could only assume that she had been kidding, but it didn't matter. The fear of the unknown and sudden threat of immediate death—no matter how small—had already done its damage. I slipped my feet into my boots and began lacing them up as fast as I could, fumbling over the small strings and cursing the bruises that continued to sting under my newly wrapped knuckles.

  I made it outside half clothed with an overshirt over my head and struggled not to fall down the side of the hill. By the time I managed to reorient myself and get my face out to feel the cool air splash against my face, I realized I should have asked a different set of questions all together.

  The view of the field was a stark contrast to what it had been only a few hours earlier. Where before I had gone to bed with the last sight of Tent City before me, now about a quarter of the mass of sprawling tents had dwindled down to crowds of shifting bodies. Everywhere I looked, signs of movement pervaded the ground while shelters were being disassembled and loaded onto trucks that had previously been hidden from view, all amidst the soft, pale glow of twilight.

  A sudden gust of wind rolled over the remaining pieces of cloth and pressed against my back hard enough to prompt me to change my footing. I glanced over at Olivia and matched her gaze, turning around to see the source of it all in an unmistakable view. Just as a soft purple hue bled up into the sky from the horizon, a thin solid line of orange crested against the coming sunrise as far as I could see.

  At first I didn't understand what I was looking at, but the shifting clouds in the darkened sky in the distance made me realize it had nothing to do with the angle of the light passing through it; it was smoke. All of it. A massive wildfire stretching itself like an ocean raged on in the distance, another sudden gust of wind against my face forcing me to understand how it had come to life so quickly. I had never seen such a huge show of force in my life before, and it was all heading towards us in unyielding strength. “Holy shit...”

  “It's not as bad as it looks,” said Olivia.

  I couldn't help but slowly turn to look at her with complete disbelief. If I had not fully awoken before the sight, I definitely was then.

  “It's still a few miles off, but if we're quick, we can cut off to the side and get out of the way.”

  I glanced back at the thin, glowing bar on the horizon that looked like molten metal. I wondered if it had evolved from the same fire that Chris and I had seen before. It would be a lot harder to judge the distance during the day, at least until the smoke would start covering us directly, but by then it would be way too late to outrun it. The vegetation that surrounded us for miles was drier than anything I had ever seen before. The wind would no doubt exasperate the matter. The burning plains looked large now. I could only guess how much ground would be covered with the whole thing up close and personal.

  “Come on.” Olivia went on ahead and I had to jog to catch up. She was somehow a lot faster than me at walking without even having to put in the effort. “Hayes sent out a team as soon as one of our sentries spotted the fire last night. We should have heard back from 'em by now.”

  I had trouble keeping my focus on her while the flames continued to silently blaze away at our flank. I had to convince myself it wasn't an immediate threat no matter how counter intuitive it seemed. We still had time to think things through before the coming shitstorm would hit us directly at full blast, and we would have to use every last second of it to get everyone out alive.

  “It'll probably take a few hours before we're all ready to move. If it ends up taking too long, we'll need to find a way to get you ahead of this thing.”

  I sidestepped away from her and glanced back as a trio of fully geared up soldiers carried crates past us and out of the military encampment of Tent City. Everywhere I looked, the young, relaxed and shaven faces that I had seen before were now working in a serious overdrive to tear down their shelters and pack up their supplies. My attention bounced from person to person amidst the flurry of activity as commanders struggled to make themselves heard over the rest, Olivia faring no better than any other.

  “Hey, are you paying attention?”

  “Yeah...” I answered without even looking at her and I should have realized it wasn't so.

  “Tess, stop.” She grabbed me by the shoulders and got in close, staring me down until I could focus enough to make out the movement of her eyes. “Listen to me. You're our top priority right now. If something happens, I need to be able to get you somewhere safe.”

  It took a second for me to shut out all the voices that surrounded us and then another for the idea to finally process itself through my brain. She wanted me to put myself first before anyone else. “You wanna run...”

  “If we have to.” She took her hands off of me. “This is about Knox. We don't know if she's alive or not. We don't even know what she is, but we need you to find out. If we have to go, I need to know that you'll be ready for it but for the right reasons. Do you understand?”

  The words hurt. It was an obvious jab at my attempt to run away before. I stared away at a solider as he donned a vest and slung an assault rifle over his body. The sight of him screamed the epitome of war at me, of combat, of the very idea of putting up a fight. After spending way too much time wallowing in my own self-pity and learning that running wouldn't benefit anyone except myself, I wanted nothing more than to join him and stand up for those that had helped me through it, but the idea that Ol
ivia had introduced would completely annihilate the notion.

  I looked back up at her and she waited for my response. She was playing the long game. She had thought things through and understood what was at stake. It was straining to go along, especially since I knew I'd be hurting Emma in the process, yet I had promised myself I would rid the witch's control over me, no matter the cost. “Yeah...”

  She seemed to ease up at the sound of it. “Good, because we can still help in the meantime.”

  I followed her into Hayes' tent, surprised to see it packed to the brim with a mixture of personnel at the heart of a commotion even louder than the one I had seen outside.

  Hayes pulled off from her own heated argument as soon as she saw Olivia. She brought a hand up into the air and put another against her mouth to force a sharp whistle that quickly shut everyone up to get their attention. “Listen up! If you're not an acting commanding officer, please clear the room.”

  I glanced over at Olivia to see what that meant and she gave me a faint turn of the head. I stepped off to the side as a small mob of civilians and soldiers alike slowly made their way out. The last two to leave seemed a step up above the rest, with full on beards that hung from their faces while they carried their muscular bodies underneath dirty camouflaged clothing, especially when one glared at me and knocked into my shoulder on the way out. I had never seen them before. I had no idea what I had done to warrant it.

  I didn't get much time to think about it as the last handful stepped in around Hayes to give her the lead again. I watched her take a moment to collect herself and I wondered how she had managed to put up with all the stress when the sun had not even risen yet.

  “Is this everyone?”

  I glanced around at what was left and felt out of place as the others did the same. I really didn't belong there and I knew it. I was just Olivia's plus one.

  “Alright...” Hayes forced a grin out that disappeared as soon as she put her hands together. “I'm only gonna say this once, so pay attention. I think we all know the situation has taken a turn for the worse. Obviously, a wild fire is bad news, especially considering the severe drought in the area. I've already advised the locals to pack up and get ready to move as soon as possible, but we have to plan for the worst case scenario.” She hesitated for a moment, unsure how to proceed until it ended in another short lived smile. “So I'll just get right to the point. We may not be able to get everyone out in time.”

  A soft chorus of mumbles was quickly shut off as soon as it started while Hayes held a hand up only to plop it back down onto a map splayed out on her desk. “Listen. The plan stays the same. We're stilling moving West. We're keeping our distance from the public. There should be a difference in terrain a few miles from here, past a river. It's a natural incline that should give us a good enough place to stop and catch our breath while still offering some protection. That'll be the rendezvous. The problem is we don't have enough seats to roll everyone out on one go—or three, for that matter—which will take time. We'll have to load as many as we can on the buses that we have and shuttle them before coming back for the next group. That means they'll need protection and coordination during every trip and at the stop. I'll let you all decide on how to do that in whatever way you think is best. The idea here is to keep your men organized so that we waste as little time as possible.”

  The room stood motionless to think it over except for a hand that rose up from in front of me. “How much time do we even have?”

  She let the question settle for a moment and it didn't bode well. “We have a two man team riding the front to give us an estimate and we've double checked their math... We're coming up on the twelve hour mark. And that's assuming it doesn't pick up.”

  The mumbles resurfaced and another hand shot up to ask a question while I turned back to find Olivia. I saw her pull on the end of a sleeve to set an alarm on a wrist watch, but if she was at all worried by the information, she didn't show it. I kept my voice hushed and got close to make sure nobody else heard except for her. “How exactly are we supposed to help if we're leaving?”

  She stared past me with a blank look on her face when Hayes called for us.

  I turned around to see everyone walk out except for her and another bearded, overtly-muscular soldier that reminded me of Chris. Apparently I had missed the ending.

  Hayes walked up to the three of us, the conversation inside the tent suddenly turning much more intimate. “Jessica, given the circumstances, I thought you should know that the order of the groups to leave first have already been selected ahead of time. I'm sorry, but anyone belonging to the towns of Florence or Arrino will be the last to go.”

  I let myself lose focus. The decision couldn't have been a coincidence. The vivid imagery of Amanda and Ellie and anyone else I knew facing off against a looming wall of fire urged me to yell into her face for playing into her own politics, but I kept my calm. I still didn't understand. Hayes was taking a risk just by letting me know. Leaking the information out to the public and starting a panic could jeopardize the entire effort. She had to have known that could have been a possibility. “Why are you telling me?”

  She frowned as if I had somehow taken the chance to hurt her. “Because. I know that there's only so much that I can do.” She grabbed a small map from her desk and held it out for me to take. One of the squares on it was circled with red marker. “Look...there's a town close enough for a group to make it there and back with time to spare. We haven't had a chance to scout it out because it's a little out of the way, but if they have any vehicles, then we could use them to move more people faster. They would be more than worth their weight in gold.”

  She put a finger up to emphasize the order before gesturing towards the man-beast at my side. “I'm willing to offer up one truck and the rest of Chris' team. His men have special operations experience, however they work best as a small group. I've already filled in Sheriff Dawson from Arrino. I would recommend that you supplement their effectiveness and work with him to select the best people for the job. I know you had the chance to personally work with Chris Carr. You could help fill in the gaps. Ultimately your involvement is up to you, but I would think that the people waiting outside would rather do something than walk in a straight line and hope for the best.”

  Yeah...

  I grabbed a hold of the map and pulled slowly enough to watch it slip through her fingers. It was hard to process everything I had just heard. The remaining men, women, and children of Arrino and Florence had basically just been given a death sentence, only to be shortly followed by a small sliver of hope from the same person.

  “Think about it. But don't take too long.” Hayes excused herself and walked out, leaving me to look up at the closest connection to Chris that I had seen since his death.

  He introduced himself with a simple open hand and as emotionless as a statue. “Badger.”

  I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be his real name or not, so I took a guess and gave him my own. “Carter...” I shook his hand and he promptly walked out on the two of us without bothering to say a single word. It eventually dawned on me that he had probably just shook the hand of the last person to see his best friend alive. He didn't have anything left to say to me.

  “You can't go, Tess.”

  I looked over at Olivia to see her reinforce the broken silence with crossed arms. I wanted to argue, though I knew it wouldn't help anyone. I needed to look at the big picture like her. How much good would I be in a situation like that, anyway?

  “But I will.”

  I took in the Knight in front of me, the only one had I ever known, and I realized I still didn't understand how selfless they could really be. Not only would she be putting herself out on the line for everyone else, she would also be helping the people of Arrino in particular to ease my own discomfort. “What about Hayes?” Wasn't Olivia supposed to protect her first?

  She shrugged. “What about her? I'm sure she'll take the first bus out, which is exactly where you
should be.”

  I wasn't so sure.

  “I'll be fine. I'll make sure to catch up with you.” She held her hand out for the map and I reluctantly handed it to her. “Come on, you can help me find Dawson.”

  Once I figured out who the hell Olivia was talking about, it didn't take long to find Jeremy. In retrospect, I should have realized that he was the former sheriff of Arrino without knowing his last name. It was pretty obvious. All he needed was the hat. But Dawson? Really?

  After a quick march through hurrying crowds and a half-broken down maze, we ducked inside the sheriff's tent as the wind continued to batter it from the outside. A few new faces stared back, some more familiar than others. I took a spot in the corner next to Nick while he hunched over and tried his damn best to light a cigarette with a string of curses. I was glad to see that he made it out of Arrino alive, though I couldn't help but think smoking inside was a bad idea given the last tent I had seen go up in flames without a hitch. “Should you really be doing that in here?”

  He glanced up at me, taken back at first to even see me alive, then immediately defaulted to his usual self with the thin strip bouncing between his lips. “Lady, I don't know if you noticed, but we're all gonna be inhaling some shit real soon whether you like it or not.”

  Ugh-huh...

  I didn't feel like watching him struggle, no matter how stupid it was, so I reached into my back pocket on a whim and was surprised to find what I had in mind. I pulled out the lighter Nick had given me back in Camp Maxwell and held a flame up for him to use.

  He finally lit his cigarette and took a long drag, amused. “Well you're just the gift that keeps on giving, aren't ya?”

  I wasn't sure if he had meant it to be a compliment or not, but I held the lighter out for him to take anyway. “Here. It saved my life. I guess I owe you one.”

  He nervously glanced at Murphy to his side, the pair of them as unlikely yet inseparable as I had remembered. “Yeah... Why don't you hold on to it? You can call us even.”