by May, W. J.
Radium Halos
(Senseless Series Part II)
By W.J. May
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2014 W.J. May
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
The Senseless Series:
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Radium Halos part 2
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Book II
Chapter 1
Zoe
“The water tower?” Brent scratched at the shadow of stubble on his chin. “How we going to race—?”
“Without killing yourselves?” Heidi shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “Uh-uh. Dumb idea.”
“Wait a minute. It’s a great idea.” Seth began pacing with excitement. “The tower’s easily triple the height of this thing in here. The city’s repainting it right now so it’s got all that scaffolding up.”
Kieran pointed north in the direction of the old water tower. It stood more as tourist billboard off the highway than as an actual storage tank. It still carried rain water but who knew if farmers or anyone actually used it. “I drove by yesterday and noticed some slanted trough bits set up.” He shrugged. “Maybe they plan to drain it or something. Thought it would be perfect to race down.”
Heidi sighed. “I don’t–”
“I’m game.” I cut Heidi off before her reasoning would convince me to change my mind. I wanted—no, needed—something more challenging. To beat Brent or impress Kieran?
Seth grabbed his sweatshirt and shoved it on over his head. “Let’s go. We can discuss it on the way.”
Dusk turned dark by the time we got there and walked around the tower. At least the air was warm. The engines from the cars zooming by on the nearby highway buzzed by my ears like mosquitoes. Even with the sound barrier bricks, the noise penetrated through.
Seth tossed a pebble into the nearby trees. “It might be hard to see but it means we won’t get caught. The lights from the highway are giving it a decent glow but the scaffolding’s on the other side.”
“It’s too dark and too stupid to even consider this.” Heidi trailed a few feet behind us.
Rylee stopped walking and put her hands on her hips. “You stay on the ground then. Grow some cojones and stop bein’ such a freakin’ wimp.”
My mouth fell open. “Rylee!” We were all nervous, but Rylee didn’t need to be a bitch.
Kieran moved to Heidi and slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry, lass. You stay by me. They’ll be fine. Watch and see.” He pointed at all of us. “You all have the skills. Just believe. It’s easy for me to see watching you, but they’re there. I know it.”
Silent, we walked to the other side of the tower. The tall grass had become dry and crackled under our feet. Paranoid, I kept staring at the ground, positive some slinking animal would come scurrying out. I knew I’d hear it beforehand, but it still gave me the heebie-jeebies. I think we were all paranoid someone would drive by or a cop would show up. No way was getting caught part of the plan.
The scaffolding went about halfway up the ball, and like Kieran had said earlier, there were two long, tube-like structures emptying into large disposal bins.
Brent jogged over to one of the bins and spread his fingers on the side metal. “Garbage, paint chips, cans, and other junk. They probably use the tubes instead of taking stuff down the ladders.”
Seth stood under one of the troughs, jumped up, and hung on. Using his large frame, he shook his weight to see if it would hold. “It’s strong enough.” He let go and dropped back down to the ground.
I chewed my lower lip and tried to calculate how high up the scaffolding stood. Six stories? Maybe seven? Eight? It looked pretty high. “Is it just Brent and me racing?”
Rylee climbed a few rungs of the scaffolding and hugged it tight when it lurched slightly from the wind. “How about you guys go first?” She quickly crawled back down. “Then maybe Seth and me.”
I inhaled a deep breath. Cars racing down the highway roared in my ears, the wind swirling through the trees and slapping against the tower distracted me, but I wanted to do this. Adrenaline rushed through my veins and wouldn’t leave till I pushed it. I reached for the cold metal and started climbing.
A minute later I glanced down to see my friends. I couldn’t tell if their eyes or opened mouths were bigger. “Brent! You coming… or you chicken?” I grinned. I had one up on him, on all of them, if no one else did it. I heard Heidi whisper to Rylee.
“You do know I can totally hear you. And I am not going psycho,” I interrupted her. “For the record, I’m completely clear in the head.” I reached inside my back pocket and tossed them my phone. “Don’t drop it.” I started climbing again, intentionally not looking down.
I heard Brent mumble, “Ah shit” under his breath and the ladder shifted and shook slightly from his weight. His increased heart rate and breathing echoed inside my ears. It didn’t take him long to catch up to me.
Five minutes later we reached the flat boards of the scaffolding. I crawled through the small gap and sat down to catch my breath… and my courage. Brent slid beside me a moment later. I hugged my knees. He hung his legs over the edge and leaned into the lower railing. There were two railings and the boards under us were sturdy. It felt safe up here on the scaffold. The minute we stepped off would be another story.
He grinned. “You’re fearless now, aren’t you?”
I swallowed and rested my elbows on the railing. “Not at the moment.”
“We don’t have to do this.”
“Trying to make me look like the wimp?” I teased. “No way. I will race you in the dark, or at a park, down the pole, or in a hole. I will not lose this race, I will not lose, Brent-I-am.”
He shook his head and chuckled. “Sad. Very, very sad.”
I giggled but turned quiet as I stared at the night lights of Elliot Lake and listened to the massive sounds of the night. Cars driving, people partying, watching TV, someone crying, a distinctive “I love you” shouted and then followed by laughter. I sighed. It felt like I was eavesdropping on everyone.
He followed my gaze. “There’s something about being this high up… it’s… it’s…”
“I know what you mean.” Words couldn’t describe the incredible feeling.
The town shone with lights of the night in different colours and hues. Northern Lights seemed to be dancing along the edge of the sky. “I bet Rylee could see everything from up here.”
“It amazing from what I can see.” Brent cleared his throat as he looked away from me and across the county. “If her eyes are that much better, yeah, wow. As much as I want to leave here when I graduate, tonight makes me think this place ain’t so bad.”
I scanned the view and concentrated on the forest area not far from the water tower. “I plan on coming back when I’m done with university. It’s a great place. I could grow old here.”
“Like get mar
ried and have a fam—”
“Brent!” I grabbed his forearm and clenched it tight and pointed at the trees with my free hand. “Look! There toward the left.”
A weird dancing light flickered a moment, then disappeared. It happened again twenty seconds later.
“What is that?” Brent began tapping his fingers against the metal railing, the noise echoed inside my ear canal. “There it is again. It’s bigger. Wait. Now it’s not disappearing.”
A strange cracking mixed with a hissing kind of noise strained against my eardrums. I closed my eyes to focus and try to locate what the noise meant. My eyes popped open at the same moment Brent whispered, “Fire.”
I reached for my phone. “Crap! My phone’s down at ground level.”
“Mine too.”
“They can’t see it down there because of those huge garbage bins.” I tried inhaling a few deep breaths. It suddenly felt like my brain wanted to go dizzy.
Brent reacted the second before I came back to life. He pointed to the metal tube jutting out of the corner off to my right. “You go down that one. I’ll use the one by the ladder.” He rested his hand on my shoulder. “We’ll slide down on our stomachs, okay? Just hold tight like you’re going down a stair banister.” His fingers trailed down my arm. “Whatever you do, don’t let go.”
“I won’t.” I tried pushing the sudden erratic butterflies back down. “You don’t go and break anything.” My legs and arms moved with their own will toward my corner. “Brent?”
“Yeah?” He was crawling on his hands and knees but paused to look back at me.
“Let’s not tell our dads we did this.”
“Gotchya.” He chuckled. “Your dad’ll kill me before mine’s even finished yelling.” He began moving again.
I listened to Kieran, Seth, Heidi, and Rylee talking below. They were arguing who should video it on their phones. They had no idea about the flames. I glanced again at the batch of trees. The flames were definitely getting bigger.
The wood boards shifted and shook slightly as all of Brent disappeared except for his hands.
I slipped my right leg through the lower railing and then my left. My hands clung tight to the railing above and I shuffled the last few inches to the trough. I squinted at its shape and crouched down. The trough was very smooth, probably about the width of my shoe.
“Screw going on my stomach,” I mumbled. I clung to the rail on the scaffold with one hand and set both feet onto the hollow metal tube. I leaned like a sprinter in the starting blocks. The pole shook from the wind and gave me the feeling of a wider base. The noise created little ricochets that my ears translated into something for my eyes. Eerie silvery light. Freaky, but it let the butterflies stop trying to rip through my gut to break free.
“Brent,” I whispered. “Can you see?”
“A bit. Use your hearing, Zoe.” Brent swallowed. “Focus on yourself. Be careful.” From the corner of my eye I saw him start to slide.
I pushed against the scaffold as hard as I could. Feet set as if I was on a skateboard, I leaned forward as far as I could. It was impossible to see Brent now from my peripheral vision but he definitely wasn’t in front of me anymore.
He couldn’t be far behind. Our troughs were about twenty metres apart so I knew he was close, and he hadn’t fallen. Keeping my abs tight, I remembered some coach or gym teacher saying our core centre of balance lay an inch or two below our belly button. Keeping it tight seemed important to maintaining balance.
The wind whipped my hair behind me and roared against my ears, along with screams from below. My eyes watered but blinking a bunch of times helped. I focussed on staring at the trough ten meters ahead. I shifted slightly when I realized the silvery misty thing I saw against the beam had a rectangular shape in front of me.
I lost my balance when I realized it was the huge Waste Management garbage bin. My arms automatically spread wide and I regained equilibrium. That’s when I saw Brent about two feet behind me and the gang jumping up and down with Seth and Rylee pointed at us and cheering.
“Jump!” Kieran shouted. To me, or Brent, or maybe both of us.
I did, about half a second before I’d have landed into the bin. In the air I tucked into a ball, ready to roll when I hit the grass.
My feet hit first and all ability to gracefully roll turned into me jarring and flopping around until I finally stopped with a mouthful of grass and dirt.
“Zoe won!” Rylee cheered.
I moaned and covered my face. “Freakin’ eh!” No blood rushed from my nose and nothing appeared broken. However, my body had landed like a train wreck.
Brent. I popped my head up. He lay on his back just behind me. He leaned up on his elbows “Holy sh—”
“Th-The f-fire!” I huffed as I tried to catch the knocked out wind. I struggled to sit up.
Seth must not have heard me. He rushed over and knelt over Brent waving his phone. “I got it all on video. I can’t believe Zoe stood up and you went down it like a pansy.”
I grimaced as I touched my elbow. A bad strawberry burn with blood oozing down my arm brought me back to reality. “We raced down ‘cause we saw a fire.” Using my fingers, I signalled Rylee to toss me my phone. “We gotta call nine-one-one again.”
“You’re jokin’!” Heidi opened her mouth and breathed in. She coughed like she’d just tasted a mouthful of smoke. Doubling over, she waved in the direction behind the bins. “Call the fire department. I mean, your dad!”
Seth sniffed and started running. He disappeared behind the large metal box. I heard him tapping the numbers on his phone. “Dad! There’s a fire not far from the water tower. No, it wasn’t us. We were just hanging out and saw it.”
Ignoring the pain radiating from my elbow, I pushed myself up and started chasing Seth.
“What’s he saying?” Heidi ran beside me.
“His dad wants to know if we saw how it started.” I continued listening to Seth, who was still at least four hundred meters away. “Now he wants to know why we were climbing the tower. He’s giving Seth crap about the dangers and stuff.”
“How bad’s the fire?” Kieran shouted. He had already passed us and ran by Seth.
“I barely see it through the trees.” Rylee sprinted to catch up to the boys. “But there’s smoke in the air. A lot. It’s moving pretty fast.”
“I hear it. It’s louder now than from the scaffold.” Sirens started far off into the distance. Too far for my liking. I glanced behind and almost stumbled. “Where’s Brent?”
A sudden gust of wind blew in our direction, full of smoke and the smell of burning. The heat of the fire heading our way suddenly made everything too real. The fire was getting incredibly close.
“What?” Seth shouted as he stopped running. He bent over with his hands on his knees. Everything inside of him was pumping and pushing and begging for more oxygen.
“Brent’s not with us.” Panic pressed against my chest. Had he hurt himself before and not owned up to it? I went over what happened when we’d landed only moments ago.
“He’s…” Kieran glanced at Rylee, who was frantically looking around. His head turned in the same direction as hers when she brought her hand to her mouth and her breath caught.
“What the heck?” She pointed to the water tower. “He’s up there.”
“Huh?” Seth straightened, plugged his nose, and tried not to cough. “What’s he doing?”
I swung around and squinted. It was hard to see but the scraping of metal and sudden banging of hollow metal couldn’t be missed. One of the troughs shifted and wobbled back and forth. Just as I realized what Brent was doing, Kieran started tearing back to the water tower.
“He’s gonna get the water to flood the ground and forest. We ’ave to help him!”
Those of us still standing burst into a sprint. We raced back to tower, the distance now seeming longer this time. Sirens grew louder and a fire truck flew by on the highway, its lights flashing. Another one followed it down the exit momen
ts later.
Brent had managed to break the top of a tube I had slid down loose from the scaffold and was rolling it.
Seth coughed and spat. “What’s he doing, Rylee?”
Rylee pressed a hand against her eyebrows and looked up at. “He’s got the top of the tube by a latch on the water tower. I think he’s trying to hammer the handle.”
To get the latch open so water would pour down. “Brent’s got an idea.”
“Let’s get the base moved.” Kieran jumped onto the bin and began kicking the base of the tube.
It took the five of us on the ground to break the trough free of the bin. It groaned in protest as it shifted a few meters. We worked without thinking or talking, all of going as fast as we could.
The noise from the fire terrified me, like it wanted to hunt us down. Heat burned against my skin and made all of us sweat. Everything was moving too fast. Ironically, the ash drifted by in a slow dance.
“Pussshhh!” Seth hollered as his muscles strained in exertion. Finally the trough broke free from a tripod stand that kept it stable near the base. The bars clamoured to the ground and the trough swung away from us toward the fire.
From above, Brent hollered, “Watch out!”
I heard the water bubble inside the tower and splash against the insides of the trough as it raced down. Brent must have managed to get the hatch open and set the trough to let the water pour down. I jumped up to try and push the base of the tube toward the forest. I could barely reach it now; only my fingers managed to make contact. It didn’t budge. “Seth! Push it again. The water’s coming!”
Seth ran and leapt in the air, both arms coming up and nailing the trough with perfect athletic timing. It swung wild and water ricocheted out of the spout, flying over the first trees and dumping into the forest. The trough swung a few meters to the right, and, because of the pressure from the water, moving back to the left like a clock pendulum.