Glistening Haven: A Shape Shifting Dystopian Boxset

by Jill Cooper

  Winter was coming. Already, the mild autumn air was replaced with the tempest intensity of cold.

  Dirk came to a kid’s red and black backpack splashed with blood. Inside the backpack wasn’t much; a small, stuffed, old, brown bear and a crinkled photograph of a smiling mother and her young daughter. The world changed and the hits just kept on coming. It was hard to look at things like that, the photos of life before the change, even for Dirk, who had police training. He could turn part of himself off, ignore the sentiments that tugged at his heart, but there were other parts, that felt it.

  Even if he did his best to ignore it.

  Try as he might, Dirk couldn’t toss the photograph aside. He stuffed it along with the bear in his bag as they crossed the street. The sun gleamed in his eyes and Dirk shielded them as he made his way toward the pharmacy.

  The Open sign hung on the cracked window and the shattered door wasn’t latched shut. There was a trail of blood, which led from the threshold further into the pharmacy, begging to be followed.

  Dirk stepped inside, his boots crunching on glass. The smell of minty medicine for stomach problems hit him first and the decay of flesh hit him second. Inside, was the old world, frozen in time: Aisles of licorice and chocolate, rainbow stuffed unicorns and dime store toys in the clearance bin, a brown, faded sign talking about some Memorial Day cookout hung by the cash register.

  Frozen in time, this place resembled a museum, except now; Dirk and his team disturbed it. Like a tomb, Dirk was an unwelcome guest on hallowed ground.

  His party of two followed inside and they scattered in search of supplies. Each of them carried large empty backpacks and a wish list they needed to fill. You could never have enough food and water, but what they needed now was medical supplies.

  “Why’d you keep that photo?” Chase asked.

  Dirk never thought of himself as someone’s mentor, but since he saved Chase and another teen named Ginny, Chase looked to him for guidance, understanding. He was the last person anyone should look to, but Dirk had to admit he liked Chase.

  He sighed and raised his eyebrows. “Seems wrong to let a memento like that, just decay out here; on the fringes of the sand dunes.”

  The sand dunes were once the mid-west of the country. Nuclear war had reduced it to a wasteland almost a hundred years ago. Only a year ago, small encampments, like this city, sprung up—new settlements. Now that the glistenings had struck, the land had fallen into ruin again.

  They walked through the aisles. Dirk grabbed bottles of water, aspirin, and cold compresses. When he looked over Chase had his hands on a pile of blankets on the lower shelf. Dirk shook his head. “Medical supplies; Chase.”

  “The kids need blankets.” Chase’s answer was curt and his jaw clenched. “They’re freezing.”

  “Just a couple.” Dirk turned his attention toward the checkout desk. It wasn’t state of the art—just a cash register with a credit machine. It was a single mom-and-pop pharmacy, instead of a giant chain. A regular family trying to make a living and filling a need the small town had.

  Now, the owner was lying behind the counter—his mouth frozen open in horror. His eye sockets were torn out and his stomach was a gaping hole, the size of Texas—what was once Texas.

  Dirk tried not to flinch, and then grabbed handfuls of chocolate and gummy candy. The kids hadn’t had a real treat in weeks. It might lift their spirits and make it easier for them to fight off whatever virus it was they had.

  It took only a few minutes to fill his bag as his team did the same. Dirk zipped up his bag as he heard footsteps approach. Dirk glanced and saw Melissa already wearing her backpack. Her shoulders rounded from the heavy load she carried. “I grabbed the antibiotics and anything else I could get that seemed useful; pain killers and anti-bacterial lotion.”

  “Good.” Dirk slipped his bag on. “I’m ready to head out . . .” His eyes glanced around the pharmacy, “Where’s Chase?”

  “Damn,” Melissa whispered, “Not again.”

  Dirk shook his head. “That kid is going to get himself killed one of these days.” He pushed past Melissa and started for the back door.

  “And us along with him, if he’s not careful.” Melissa took long, wide steps to keep up with Dirk as they rounded to the stocking room.

  He pushed past the double doors into the back. Cold and drafty, the place towered with boxes of stock that never made it out to the shelves. Some were open like they would be put out the next day and Dirk walked around them toward the back loading bay door.

  Chase’s back was to the group as he stared out the cargo bay door. Dirk pushed his lips together and put his hand on Chase’s shoulder. He started to lecture him again on disappearing, but instead, Chase put a finger to his mouth.

  There was someone outside. There had to be.

  The hairs on the back of Dirk’s neck stood up. He followed Chase’s gaze out the small window to where a truck idled. Not a big semi, but big enough for a cargo compartment. A man in a baseball cap sat in the driver’s seat, his hands on the steering wheel like he was waiting for orders to move out.

  Up above, something cast a shadow on the truck—wings. Glistenings.

  Dirk’s eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed. He threw a glance back at Melissa, who had her back against the shelving unit. Her face looked more confused than anything and Dirk signaled her to hang on.

  “It’s time to move,” Dirk whispered at Chase, but the boy’s eyes never deviated from the scene outside.

  Then, Dirk saw why. The glistening dragon marched kids toward the back of the truck. Its snout was low to the ground and it huffed. The slow ones in the back were nudged with a thrust of its head, ramming the last boy in the back. The boy fell with a cry and the glistening roared. The kids scrambled to get on the truck, away from the glistening, as the strong jaws of the dragon hefted the boy up.

  A ball of anger rumbled in Dirk’s stomach, but against two glistening dragons that he could see, what options did they have? They’d be powerless. They’d be dead. For a second, Dirk’s eyes flickered to the truck. Something about the driver made his stomach turn.

  Fishing out his binoculars, Dirk held his breath. He zoomed in with the old fashioned lenses and his worse suspicions were confirmed. The driver was just a teenage girl and her arm was handcuffed to the wheel. She was crying and her face was bruised, battered.

  She wasn’t a glistening. She was a captive just like the rest and tears streaked her face. The girl, who wasn’t older than a high school student, was sobbing and her chin quaked.

  Dirk’s jaw tensed and he grappled with the obvious question floating within their group. Did they risk certain death to save these kids or did they escape before they were noticed, to save the kids that were already counting on them.

  There was no easy choice, but only one choice he could make.

  “Come on.” His voice lowered and he gestured toward the front of the store with his head, but the answer didn’t sit well with Chase.

  Chase grabbed his arm. “You can’t be serious. We can’t just walk away.”

  Dirk ignored the fact that Chase had his hand on him and instead gave him a serious, steady stare. “Look, I want to help as much as you, especially the kids. But we have to get these supplies and medicine back. They’re counting on us.”

  “If we die trying to save these kids, how is that going to help anyone?” Melissa asked and when Chase shot a glower at her, she snorted. “What?”

  “Your ability to think about yourself never fails to amaze me,” Chase said with narrow eyes.

  Melissa’s cheeks flamed red and her eyes narrowed. Dirk had seen enough fights between the hotheaded teen and the equally headstrong journalist to see where this was headed. He held up one of his hands to each of them. “There’s no time for a fight. If we don’t move out, we might be spotted and then we’ll be no good to anyone.”

  When Chase’s hand loosened, Dirk shrugged him free. He slung his backpack onto his shoulder. “Move out first
,” Dirk ordered.

  But Chase didn’t. He glanced back at the window and his eyes were vacant as his mind spun with ideas. Dirk knew how hard it was for him. Chase had lost his parents, his friends—everyone he knew, but to act so impetuous all the time . . .

  “You’ll get yourself killed,” Dirk warned.

  “The dragons always fly ahead to make sure the area is clear. I saw it when I left Boston and when I barely made it alive to Connecticut. They have a plan, a system. If we wait for the dragons to get far enough ahead—.”

  “No,” Dirk said with force. He grabbed the scruff of Chase’s shirt, ready to drag him through the store if he had to.

  “Where would I be if you hadn’t come for me?” Chase demanded, growing red under the collar. “Or Ginny, if I hadn’t come for her? We have to help each other, right?”

  Fighting was useless. Chase was convincing, but what he suggested would hurt the rest back at base. Dirk couldn’t let their actions damn the rest of the camp and Chase should’ve known that.

  “I’ll take the supplies back,” Chase said quickly. “I’ll take all the bags and you can go after the truck. You can do it right, big, bad New Haven police guy? It wouldn’t be the first group of kids you saved.”

  But he barely got out alive the last time and Dirk’s mission, though delayed, was to find and save Jenna. His kid. This? Dirk had to keep himself alive.

  “Come on.” Chase gritted his teeth, “Before we lose them.”

  Dirk glanced at Melissa and her arms were crossed, but the resolve on her face had weakened. Her eyes were moist and Dirk’s mind flashed back to Jenna. If she were there, God if she was there, leading the resistance, what would she do?

  There was only one answer to that question. Dirk could see even now how her face would be set, as she charged in; their guns blazing with no plan, no intent to do anything, but save those kids. It was who she was, and if he betrayed all of what they stood for, just to find her?

  Who was Dirk kidding? He had to go after those kids.

  He handed Chase his bag and Melissa did the same. “You run,” Dirk ordered. “Keep your head down and don’t stop until you reach the compound. You get me? Tell Jake we’re going to have a few more mouths to feed.”

  As he said it, Dirk took a deep breath. They barely had enough food and water as it was. What were they going to do with a more kids taxing an already strained system? Right now they were barely surviving, fighting a plague that was wiping out kids faster than it should. It kept them pinned down.

  But Dirk glanced at the truck and saw their silhouettes; the children trapped by the glistenings, and being carted off to God knows where. They’d find a way to feed them. Somehow, they always found a way.

  “When we get back, we’re going to have a talk.” Dirk’s temper fumed. “Talk about how you handle orders.”

  Chase laughed. “Come back in one piece and we can talk about whatever you want.” Chase ran from the store, the door flapping behind him.

  The sound of an engine reeving stole Dirk’s attention. The glistening wings flapped in thunderous applause. One cast through the sky and just like Chase said, it took off toward the main road.

  The one that remained would be the trucks guard and escort. Its wings fluttered and it hovered above the truck as it slowly inched forward.

  There was a lot left unsaid between Dirk and Melissa, but as he glanced at her, he could only say, “we’re going to need a truck.”

  Chapter Two Dirk

  They found a working truck at the dingy mechanic shop across the way. The old door hinges groaned when pulled open and Dirk, worried it would draw the attention of a lingering enemy. Wasting no time, he pulled open the old glove box and found an equally old map—and a set of tarnished keys.

  Melissa sat behind the wheel and the engine idled. Her hands gripped the steering column like a woman grips her lover, but her eyes transfixed on the sky, the silhouette of the glistenings far enough ahead to give them some distance. Still close enough, though, for them to use as a homing beacon.

  At least they had the element of surprise on their hands. That at least, was something.

  “You sure about this?” Dirk asked.

  “You’re a better shot than I am,” Melissa answered, short and sweet.

  “That’s not what I meant. If you don’t want to go after this truck, we’ll tell Chase we tried but they got away. He never has to know.”

  Melissa shifted the truck into drive. She didn’t answer him with words, but instead the truck turned out of the mechanic’s lot. Her hand flicked down to signal right and Dirk couldn’t help a sly smirk. Some things, no matter how crazy they were, you just couldn’t stop yourself from doing. Signaling in a ghost town was one of those things.

  “Just don’t stop at any stop signs,” Dirk said with a snap of his gum.

  Melissa tensed. “Do you have any idea how annoying it is when you snap your gum?”

  “I’m pretty sure Jenna never minded.”

  “Oh, I’m sure she did,” Melissa answered.

  Dirk let the sound of the truck’s aging engine fill the void and the tires kicked up dust as they cruised out of town. The sun’s glow illuminated the glistenings wings against the sun’s horizon. The faster they drove, the closer the wings in the day’s sky grew, but still, there was no sign of the truck.

  Where had those kids come from anyway? Dirk was sure the town was a ghost town, that everyone had either been killed or taken to concentration camps. So how were twenty kids suddenly holed up with no protection and no adults to take care of them?

  Dirk sat up straighter.

  “Sorry about that. I’m just nervous.” Melissa swallowed hard. “I’m sure we’ll find her. We’ll find Jenna.”

  They came up over the horizon and the sun glared into Dirk’s eye, in what had originally been an overcast day. He shielded his eyes and stiffened.

  Melissa sensed the shift in him and her head jerked toward him. “Dirk?”

  “Hold on!” Dirk screamed and cranked the steering wheel. The truck’s tires squealed as they spun in a circle and rolled. Tumbling front to back, Dirk held his breath as Melissa screamed when the roof of the truck slammed down to the pavement, shattering glass into the cabin.

  Melissa shaking hands were covered in glass. “Dirk what the hell—?” Her words were drowned out by dragon’s fire.

  Their cover wouldn’t last long and the old hunk of junk was the only thing keeping them from becoming dragon food.

  Dirk struggled for air as he unsnapped his seatbelt. Melissa scurried to do the same and Dirk counted on her to keep up, as he kicked the door open. Yanking on her, they crawled from the truck. Disoriented, but alive—Dirk’s vision spun. He struggled to his feet and reached for Melissa, when a flaming fireball impacted with the truck.

  She badly limped, as they leapt down from the crumbled asphalt, into a ditch. Wading through the tall grass, Dirk kept a tight grip on Melissa’s hand and noticed how badly her chest heaved with each breath. The fall knocked the wind out of her, but it could’ve been worse.

  She could’ve been dead.

  The day’s sky came alive with a swarm of glistening dragons that readied a charge. They were coming straight for Dirk and Melissa. And the closest building was over two hundred feet away.

  “Run,” Dirk said to Melissa, as he got down on bended knee. He gripped his assault rifle and with one eye squeezed shut, fired off a warning shot.

  “Dirk!” Melissa grabbed his arm and gave it a tug. “We go together. I’ll never reach base alone. C’mon!”

  They were snared in another trap, but how did the glistenings know they were coming? How did they always seem to know?

  ****

  “Duck!” Dirk grabbed Melissa by the shoulder and pulled her behind an abandoned, jackknifed semi on the side of the road. The assault weapon in Dirk’s hand was long empty and he didn’t have another clip. The commuter tunnel was a quarter mile away. It would be a short distance, if the glistenings wer
en’t fire breathing from the sky.

  They had their location and Dirk didn’t know how he could shake them. He’d been in tough situations before, but he was tired and hungry. He also didn’t have his team; he didn’t have Jenna.

  Dirk slid his back against the truck. The gleam of fire from the sky shot out, surrounding him, drowning out all sounds. His back screamed from the intense heat, but he knew that meant soon the glistenings would be out of steam. They would need to take a breath before firing.

  He gripped Melissa’s hand. “You ready?” Dirk screamed just to hear his own voice rise loud enough against the sound of roaring fire.

  Melissa nodded and threw him a glance. Her blue eyes sparkled with defiance. “I’m not getting any younger!”

  Dirk took a deep breath and prayed he timed it right, “On three.”

  His chest rose, “One.”

  His hand squeezed around hers, “Two.”

  His leg lunged out to the side ready to move, “Three!”

  The stream of fire stopped as the glistenings in the air took a breath, needing to gather their strength. Dirk lunged from his spot, tugging Melissa from behind. His ears were ringing from the sudden silence, in them—he could still hear the assault from last week and the week before.

  They lost many of their friends and allies.

  The night he lost his wife to God knows whom.

  The flap of wings behind them pushed Dirk and Melissa on. The tunnel wasn’t getting any closer fast enough. Dirk pumped his legs and gave Melissa a tug. “Move!” His voice came deep from inside his gut. His legs burned, but he could push on.

  He wasn’t sure Melissa could say the same.

  “Don’t look back!” Dirk screamed, as the swishing sound of wings grew closer. The wind whipped up and debris churned as if a tornado had touched down. Old cigarettes, crushed soda cans, and dead leaves, churned around them.

  All the air grew hot. All the debris slammed down to the ground. The hairs on the back of Dirk’s neck began to smolder.

  The glistening readied another burst of fire. Dirk broke his own rule. He glanced back and saw the beast land with a thud. His long neck extended in the air and the glittering, blue belly of the beast glowed up toward its muzzle, readying a strong breath of fire.