Fierce Flight

by R. A. Rock

  His words, of course, held a double meaning that did not escape me.

  Gideon and Audrey were a ways behind us — we all had known that they wanted one last tryst before they had to say goodbye, so nobody had said anything when they disappeared to look at a waterfall that Gideon knew about.

  But now they appeared out of the forest and came over to where we were standing. Gideon seemed well pleased with himself. Audrey’s hair was mussed and her cheeks had a rosy glow.

  She took one look at the four of us — Chad, like a pot about to boil over, Grace and Shiv, looking exhausted, and me, well, I imagined that I looked contrite and sorry — and knew something had happened.

  “What the hell have you four been doing in the hour that I’ve been gone?” she said, directing most of her annoyance at me. “Can’t you even manage without me for sixty damn minutes?”

  “Chad’s powers went out of control,” I said, biting my lip as I felt the tears coming into my eyes. “I had to fuse the bricks.”

  She knew what I was talking about.

  “You fused them?” she said, her eyes getting wide.

  “Yes,” I said, feeling desperate as I had to justify my actions yet again. “It was the only thing I could think of. He was going insane again, Audrey. He couldn’t have survived it another time.”

  She stared at me for a long moment, and then burst out laughing. She laughed and laughed, until tears ran down her cheeks and she was bent over holding her stomach.

  The rest of us watched her until she got a hold of herself.

  Nobody really felt like laughing.

  “That’s too good,” she said, wiping her eyes and standing up straight. “Now you’ve been forced to do to him, what he did to you, in some sort of terrible poetic justice, so that you’ll finally understand what a bitch you’ve been. Oh boy, Yumi. You sure never do things by halves, do you?”

  She started laughing again. I swallowed hard and a metallic chemical taste filled my mouth, probably from The Wastelands.

  I felt like crying because she was so right.

  I did finally understand. But there was nothing that I could think of that I could do to make it right.

  The Wastelands

  Chad

  Incredibly angry.

  Furious.

  Incensed.

  Fuming.

  Seething.

  All of these described how I felt but only if you combined them all and multiplied it by a hundred. I could hear my blood pounding in my ears, as if my rage was beating a thousand drums inside my head.

  I was beside myself with frustration at Yumi for what she had done to me. It was as though I had had blood poisoning and she had cut off my leg. Sure, I was grateful — sort of — to be alive. But I was also livid that she had made me a cripple.

  And now, when it was impossible for us to ever salvage what we had had, now when the love we had once felt for each other had turned into hatred, now that all hope was gone, now she finally understood what I had done — and why.

  Now that it was too goddamned fucking late.

  The thought sent flames of fury burning through my body. And I tried to get control of myself but it was becoming more difficult with every minute that passed.

  I wanted to be consumed in a fiery inferno of my anger and impotence. I wanted to be incinerated. Because maybe then I could forget my pain.

  But I knew it wasn’t to be.

  That was the coward’s way out.

  And I was no coward.

  But for a long long moment, I wished I was dead.

  The sun had come up while we were dealing with my emergency but endless depressing grey clouds filled the sky, blocking its light. There was a keening wind blowing that might clear the clouds away, but I wasn’t sure that would be a blessing.

  Surely it was better if it was cloudy when we were going to cross a desert?

  I turned to stare at The Wastelands before us and thought that maybe I would soon get my deathwish. The Wastelands were as terrifying as Gideon’s reaction to the very word had promised. I wasn’t sure what exactly made them strike fear into my heart.

  Maybe it was the stench of chemicals. Maybe it was the expanse of desert that stretched as far as the eye could see. Maybe it was the turkey vultures circling ominously in the sky above us, as if waiting for our carcasses to fall so that they could feast — their silence more threatening than their noisy squawks would be. Or maybe it was the sense of impending doom that threatened to suffocate me.

  Without warning, I felt myself taken by a vision. There was water everywhere and Grace, Shiv, and Audrey had disappeared. The despair I felt went bone deep and I cried out for the pain of it.

  I shook my head and the vision disappeared. Shiv was beside me, shaking my shoulder.

  “Chad, Chad!” He was shouting at me. “What’s wrong?”

  “A vision,” I gasped, trying to catch my breath. “I saw a flood. And you were gone.”

  “A flood,” Shiv repeated, with a flick of his eyes towards the desert. He calmed down immediately. “Well, I’d say that you don’t have to worry about that vision any time soon.”

  I blinked. He had a point. There was no possibility of a raging river that would flood and carry us away. Not here in this place. My throat felt dusty already and we hadn’t even started to cross yet.

  There was no water here. So there couldn’t be a flood.

  I felt better.

  “Everything okay?” Grace said, coming nearer. Yumi seemed to be creeping along behind her, peeking around Grace, a concerned expression on her face.

  “Chad had a vision,” Shiv said. “But it couldn’t possibly come true. It was of a flood and us disappearing. There’s no way that could come true, here.”

  He swept his arm widely, showing the desert.

  Yumi scowled.

  “Chad’s visions always come true, one way or another,” she said. “We shouldn’t discount it.”

  “We’re not ignoring it,” Shiv said. “I’m just pointing out that it’s probably further into the future than crossing The Wastelands. I think we have enough to worry about, without having his vision on our minds, as well.”

  He stared across the sand with a grim look on his face.

  Gideon and Audrey approached us. We all pretended not to notice the tear tracks on Audrey’s cheeks.

  “Well, this is where we part company,” Gideon said, looking nervous. He held out his hand and shook mine and then Shiv’s. “And I can’t say that I’ll be sorry to see the last of this place. But I wish you all well and I hope you make it to Winnipeg and back. You’re good folks and it’s been a privilege to travel with you.”

  He hugged Grace and then Yumi.

  “You keep yourself safe and don’t go kicking too much butt without me,” he said, making a little joke.

  “I won’t,” Yumi said, with a warm smile for him. I felt a shot of jealousy go through me. She didn’t smile at me like that anymore. And there was absolutely no reason why she should give me a sunny smile — goodness knows her smiles were rare enough that I shouldn’t expect to see any aimed at me. Also, with the shit storm that was likely coming our way, there really was no reason for her to smile at anyone.

  But especially not me.

  Nor should she smile at me, I reminded myself. Nor did I want her to smile at me.

  Right. We were broken up. And I was furious with her for what she had done. I was not jealous. That would be completely ridiculous.

  He gave us all one last wave, then turned and walked away. Everyone stood and watched as Gideon’s form got smaller and smaller until it disappeared into the forest. Then we turned as one to face The Wastelands, all of us starting to cough as a stinging gust of wind blew into our faces. Its acrid taste made me want to spit and spit to get it out. I had a feeling that wouldn’t help, though.

  Yumi put on her quiver and picked up her bow, slinging it over her shoulder. Then she took out her hand gun and checked it. I took out the rifle Matt had given us and
put it over my head so that it hung down my back. Then I glanced around at the others. We were all wearing backpacks with supplies, Shiv had a bow and arrows, Gracie a staff, and Audrey a knife strapped to her leg and a staff like Grace.

  I supposed we were ready.

  “Well,” Shiv said. “We’d best get this over with. It isn’t going to get any easier standing here looking at it.”

  And with that statement he set off across the rough sand.

  The rest of us followed.

  Not knowing what the day might bring.

  But certain that it wasn’t likely to be good.

  The Terrors of the Wastelands

  Yumi

  I decided that The Wastelands had some weird microclimate that made it as hot as summer, even though it was morning in the middle of fall. Or maybe it was because we were in the south now. It was always warmer in the south, wasn’t it? Also, the climate up north seemed to be considerably warmer than in our time so maybe the whole province was warmer in general?

  Or maybe it was all of the above.

  All I knew was that it was fucking hot and I was already sick of it.

  The clouds had blown away and the mid-morning sun beat down on our unprotected heads like an overzealous heating lamp. I guessed that the temperature was already at least thirty-five degrees Celsius. My skin felt like paper and there was dust in my eyes and dust in my mouth, dust in my nose and dust in my throat.

  The walking was difficult because the sand was soft, not hard packed and every step we sank in. By the end of the second hour, my leg muscles and hip joints were aching and I felt more exhausted than I had in a long time.

  Every breath was torture because we were breathing in toxic fumes. Whatever had caused The Wastelands had been chemical in nature, either a spill or a bomb or something.

  It was nasty.

  My throat was sore and my nose felt itchy. And my lungs were starting to burn painfully from whatever we were inhaling.

  After another hour, Chad called a halt. I dropped down to the sand like the others, though that probably wasn’t a good idea because of whatever chemicals were in it. But standing any longer wasn’t an option either, considering how tired I was.

  But even though I was completely wiped already, I checked to see that everyone was holding their mental shields in place. I wasn’t so tired I would forget to do that.

  “Does anyone have any water left?” Audrey said, her voice husky. Her creamy white skin was bright red with sunburn and already looked painful. Grace and Chad also looked burnt to a crisp after only a couple hours.

  I had slightly more pigment in my skin and Shiv’s was even darker. But the two of us would likely be next, already the skin of my face felt like it was stretched too tight.

  Heads shook all around the group.

  I squinted up at the sun.

  If I guessed correctly, it was midmorning. How were we going to make it any farther across this miserable place without water?

  “I really thought that the water would last at least through the morning,” Chad said, looking as though he would give in to despair if he thought it would do any good.

  “Well, it hasn’t,” I said, my own voice as rough as if I had spent the past few days screaming at the top of my lungs. “And you all need to make sure you’re maintaining your shields. Right? Even though you’re tired.”

  With my own physical energy dipping lower and lower, it would be more difficult to control my mental energy.

  “Yes, Mother,” Grace said, her face sullen. She hated discomfort, though she wouldn’t ever complain. It did make her sarcastic, though.

  We sat in silence, trying to rest but not really feeling as though we could let our guards down enough to actually recuperate and regain some energy.

  “Ow!” Shiv said, jumping suddenly to his feet.

  “What?” Grace said, surprised.

  “Ow,” he yelled again, bending to inspect his shin which was showing through the hole he now had in his pants. I could see a large pink patch against the usual brown of his skin. “Oh God, get up, you guys, get up! Get up!”

  We all scrambled to our feet and that’s when I felt it.

  I twisted around to peer at my calf and saw that my pants had been eaten away and there was an oozing burn on my skin.

  “Oh, Jesus,” I said. “That’s horrible.”

  “Chemical burns,” Gracie said. “We can’t sit down again.”

  “No, shit,” Audrey said, looking in distaste at her hand, which she had been leaning on as she sat.

  “We just have to keep going,” I said, feeling the stoicism that I am so famous for arising in me and putting a protective wall between me and the discomfort and pain. “There’s nothing else to be done. We just have to go until we get there. No rests. No water. No nothing, except putting one foot in front of the other. We have to do it. We have no other choice.”

  They all looked at me as if they wished I had told them that they could go back. Clearly they wanted permission to give in to their weakness. But they would never get that from me. They ought to know better than to expect it.

  “Let’s move out,” I said, setting one foot in front of the other and keeping the sun on my left, which meant that we were heading south, straight for Winnipeg.

  “She’s right,” Chad said, following me. “We don’t have a choice anymore. We’ve come too far to turn back now. Remember, this is how we get home.”

  And with that, we all moved out, trying to forget the discomfort and focus on getting back to our own time. There was no way out but forward — across The Wastelands — no matter how much we wished it were otherwise.

  Noah's Flood

  Chad

  We had been plodding straight across The Wastelands for six hours straight with no breaks and no rests. And I didn’t see how we could keep walking any longer. I was starting to see things. For example, I had been sure that I had seen human silhouettes far away on the horizon several times but I knew it was just the dehydration. Nobody would come here voluntarily. There was no way.

  I hated to admit that Gideon was right.

  But he was so damn right.

  I wished we had listened and figured out some other way to get to Winnipeg. But I couldn’t get lost in my thoughts. That would lead to mistakes and one mistake could mean death in this place. And in spite of my earlier wish to die, I found that when actually faced with the prospect, I didn’t really want to after all.

  I made every attempt to keep my mind focused.

  One foot in front of the other.

  That’s all I had to do.

  Pick up one foot, put it down in front of the other foot.

  Repeat.

  And just keep doing that until it was safe to collapse and pass out.

  “Wait,” Shiv’s rough voice said to my right.

  I ignored him and picked up my foot, putting it down in front of the other one. I stared at the beige desert rising to meet the irritatingly cheerful blue sky, keeping my eyes on the horizon. Staying focused.

  “Chad, wait,” he said, again. And I wondered why he was talking when it sounded so painful for him to do so.

  “Can’t. Stop.” I managed to croak out, picking up the other foot and putting it down again. Just those two words made my throat feel as though the vultures, that never stopped circling above us, were clawing my vocal cords out through my neck.

  “You guys aren’t going to want to hear this but I think it’s our only chance of surviving. If we don’t get water soon we’ll pass out and then we really will die out here.”

  I stopped, swaying on legs that were so far past exhausted I was worried they might buckle under me. The others were staring at Shiv, too, waiting for him to explain himself.

  “Just keeping on keeping on, isn’t going to help us once we’ve gone unconscious,” he went on, his voice sounding like the harsh grinding noise of a wormhole collapsing. “Then we’ll die of dehydration or the chemical burns or the vultures will kill us before we’re even
dead. Do vultures do that?”

  He appeared to be thinking about vultures for a long moment as we all stared at him with bleary eyes.

  “Do you have a point?” Audrey asked, her voice barely a whisper.

  “I’m going to manifest water,” he announced. “A small amount. Enough to keep us going.”

  “In what?” I said. “And what if your powers are uncontrollable, too?”

  “I don’t think they will be,” he said, sounding confident. “Besides if I don’t do it, we’re going to die. I hate to admit it but Gideon was right. There’s a reason no one crosses The Wastelands.”

  “Just do it,” Yumi said, her voice rasping. “I’d rather die from your power misfiring than listen to you anymore.”

  He nodded not at all offended and stood up straighter, closing his eyes.

  We all waited for ages. But I knew that Shiv’s power required very precise preparations in order to work properly and he was probably being extra careful this time.

  I sniffed as the scent of ozone suddenly filled the air around us. Without warning, clouds rolled in faster than mother nature had ever intended and a bolt of lightning split the sky, followed by a crack of thunder that was directly overhead and so loud that I felt deafened afterwards. Dark clouds gathered directly above us and the heavens opened up.

  It was raining.

  No, scratch that, it was pouring.

  We danced in the rain. I tipped my face to the sky, catching the desperately needed water in my mouth. It quenched my thirst, soothed my burns, and cooled my hot body. It was so refreshing that I felt like a completely new person. I slapped Shiv on the back in congratulations as we continued celebrating. Obviously, his power was working just fine.

  In the end it was Yumi who pointed in the direction of Winnipeg. Her black hair was plastered to her head and her soaking wet clothes molded to her sexy body — not that I had noticed. She indicated that we should continue on our way. I guess, the rain was too loud or maybe her throat was still too sore for her to want to talk.

  We were glad to have the cover of the clouds and the cooling effect of the rain as we headed towards the city, filled with renewed energy.