Rage of Winter

by Sam Herrera

  *

  A few hours later, she, Cuffy and I were airborne, racing to get them. I smiled to find myself back in the co-pilot’s chair. It had been a while since I had flown the Winter. I looked across at the actual pilot as she handled the joystick as if she had been doing it all her life. I believed her now. I believed what I had seen. I threw the phone down, scowling. I’d called fifteen times already. Nothing.

  “Where are we going?” I frowned, looking out over the blood-red landscape of America as it flashed by me.

  “My job here is done.”

  “What?”

  “It’s on you now. You need to get Mara’s family, and Caleb’s, and get them to safety.”

  “They’re here?”

  “Yep, Ron Hale’s running a business in Georgia. Right now I, five years younger, and Ethan, and a bunch of others are parading up the Appalachian Trail. In,” she checked her watch, “about ten minutes I will get these.” She traced the awful, scars that were all across her face. “A bear,” she explained. “Ethan saved my life that day. If he hadn’t been there I would be dead.”

  “What was he doing there in the first place? What is this business?”

  “Tour guides.”

  “Tour guides?” I scoffed, wide-eyed. “People actually let that thing take them hiking?”

  “Yes, all the time.” I shook my head in disbelief. I had known businesses were in trouble, but shit!

  *

  I looked through the window as the thousands of red, forested acres passed us by at lightning speed. At the fringes of the trees was some sort of cabin. A kind of travel lodge maybe.

  “They’ve already left,” Chloe said, looking over at the rows of parked cars in the lot. “Lower the ramp,” she told me.

  “Are we landing?”

  “Just low enough to let me off,” she nodded.

  “Where are you going?” I frowned.

  “Forget about me,” she scowled. “Mara’s in danger. Get her family and take them…here.” She handed me a map. I stared after her as she got up, jumped off the ramp and vanished into the trees. What the hell?

  “Goddamn, boy, what’s she playing at?” I sighed, shaking my head at Cuffy and at the location highlighted on the map: a spot in Utah. I’d never been to Utah in my life. When I’d landed at the travel lodge, the Hales didn’t look very happy to see me but had gone along when I’d told Mara was in danger.

  “Where are we going?” Ron asked, from the co-pilot’s seat. Cuffy looked up at him and gave a low growl. Don’t like him, huh? Well, nor do I.

  “Well, there, I guess.”

  “You guess? You told me my daughter was in danger?”

  “She is.”

  “Says who, though?”

  “Chloe?”

  “Who’s Chloe?” the Andy kid frowned.

  “That weird girl who just showed up in the woods that one time?”

  “I don’t get any of this,” the boy scowled. “Look, what about my sister? What danger?”

  I shook my head and shrugged.

  Ron took another look around the Winter’s interior with an impressed hum. “How long have you two been flying this thing again?”

  “Since I was twenty-nine and she was ten.”

  “Eight years?” he stared. “God! And I had no idea.”

  “You never bothered to find out anything about her, did ya?” I accused. “We’re here.”

  I pointed to the hotel that was just coming into view. I tried to ignore the heavy dread settling inexplicably in my gut. Something was wrong, I just knew it. Caleb had assured me he would be here, waiting in the room, but he wasn’t. I stood in the doorway, looking down at the churned-up carpet. Then, walking in, I looked around, calling out their names.

  “What the hell?” I muttered. This place was, beyond doubt, empty.

  “What is this place?” Ron asked, eyeing the full suitcases on top of the bed.

  “We were supposed to meet here.” My eyes suddenly fell again on the carpet. It looked scuffed and kicked as though someone had been rolling around on it. It reminded me of something, but what? I thought, long and hard, and suddenly it came to me: an asshole had gotten wild once at Cielo and Dave and I had had to take him down hard. We’d tazered him and everything. And that was just how the carpet had looked once he had stopped writhing on it.

  “Shit, they’ve been grabbed.”

  “What do we do?”Ron snapped. “What the hell do we do?”

  “I don’t know.” I sighed as I sat on the bed, looking out the window. Mara was out there, abducted and probably dead and there was nothing any of us could do, not even Cuffy. He was a good tracker but they would be in a car, miles away by now. I felt like the most useless asshole in the world.

  “We need to find them,” Ron told me. I nodded, then I had an idea.

  *

  “I’m really sorry about this,” I said, once again, to the terrified, tied-up landlord as he struggled vainly, looking down the barrel of my gun.

  Ron shook his head, aghast. I sympathized. This guy had been running his desk with one eye, watching sports with the other, normal day, normal life. Now we were sticking a gun in his face.

  “There,” I said, pointing to the screen. Ron joined me in watching. On the surveillance recordings two men were getting back into their black van, almost in sync, carrying bags that now required both hands and a lot of dragging to carry whereas before, when the two had arrived, they had carried them one-handed very easily.

  “That’s them, I’m sure.”

  “How can you be sure?” Ron asked. As soon as we were distracted, the landlord started struggling in the duct tape, pushing his wheelie chair, inch by inch, away from Cuffy who was trying to piss on it.

  “Pardon me a moment,” I said as I bent down to pull him back and smack him one. God almighty, I thought, rolling my eyes. I’m kidnapping people and letting my dog piss on them. We watched as the van pulled out of the driveway, squinting at the number plate. The images on the black-and-white screen were utter shit.

  “C’mon,” Ron sighed in defeat.

  “We’re leaving? What about Mara?”

  “We can’t make that out, can we?”

  “36FX2,” I smiled.

  “You can tell that?” he blinked.

  “Of course, my vision is way better than yours.” We left the terrified landlord where he was. I was only too happy to be shot of him as the guy had pissed himself without any help from Cuffy.

  MARA

  When I opened my eyes it made no difference to keeping them closed. Everything was pitch-black. When I moved my hand it brushed against some kind of fabric lining. I was curled into a small ball. Whenever I tried to straighten, the small bag I was in stopped me. I could breathe, barely, but it was stuffy and the air was hot.

  “Caleb. Caleb,” I called, punching the bag. I took deep breaths through my nose, forcing myself not to panic as the memories came flooding back: the two men, Caleb twitching and writhing on the floor, the searing pain in my chest as the tazer hit me as well. I could hear traffic nearby and feel the motion of constantly going forward. I was in the trunk of some car.

  “I’ve been kidnapped,” I whispered, swallowing hard. The next thing I knew the whole world was spinning like a spinning top. It span until it came to a halt with a sickening, thudding jolt that sent me jumping up, banging my head on the roof. The next thing I knew, light was streaming in as the fabric was quickly unzipped and one of the faces I’d been longing to see filled my vision. Kyle and I smiled at each other as he helped me out of the trunk.

  *

  Soon enough the face I’d been longing the most to see was filling my vision as well. Caleb was no sooner helped out of the bag next to mine than in my arms. We kissed, long and deep, as the Winter took off. I swallowed hard, seeing what had been done to that face;
they had clearly beaten him. He’s still beautiful. There’s nothing they can do about that. And his lips were as luscious and soft as ever.

  “You two are disgusting,” Andy smirked, shaking his head as we sank into the couch and I rested my head on my old pillow: his shoulder. “Seriously, get a room.” I sniggered as Caleb kissed my forehead and held me close.

  “Hey, Cuffy,” I smiled as the handsome, black Lab jumped up beside us and licked the hand I used to pet him. I looked over at the blond head just visible above the back of the chair. Kyle was truly our savior. I’d heard about how his incredible eyesight had identified which number plate to chase. Caleb was breathing hard and seemed to be in pain.

  “What’s wrong, babe?” I asked, pulling back to look at him.

  “My ribs,” he gasped, nursing his side.

  “Lie still and don’t touch it,” I ordered as I got up and went to the first aid fridge, coming back with a small glass bottle.

  “It’s killing me,” he groaned as I lifted up his shirt. He had a nasty bruise on his side. “Ahhh! What the hell’s that?”

  “Iodine,” I explained as I poured more on. “It will help, believe me.”

  “How does it look?” Kyle asked.

  “How does it feel?” he groaned.

  Kyle got up and, coming forward, crouched beside Caleb and, lifting his shirt, began to gently probe his injury.

  “Oh, my God,” he whimpered.

  “At least three of his ribs are broken,” Kyle told me, standing up. “He needs to get them set and bandaged immediately.”

  “Can you do it?”

  “Forget me. We need to find Mum and Dad,” Caleb said.

  “And what about you?” I argued. “You need help and I can’t do three things at once.”

  “You and I will take care of the Greys,” Kyle assured me after thinking a moment.

  “Why can’t we just go home?” Andy asked. “My sister’s fine. We can report her abduction to the cops.” Kyle shook his head.

  “I have a better idea: a settlement in the Utah Desert.”

  “What are you talking about, settlement?”

  “Karden is the one behind these abductions and, as we’ve seen, he is already above the law. There are those who saw this coming and went into hiding.”

  “This is insane,” Ron protested.

  “Is it? You saw what happened to your daughter.”

  “Two punks in suits, not a conspiracy.”

  “Rather well-equipped punks wouldn’t you say?”

  “Enough bullshit,” I snapped. “Caleb needs a doctor.”

  “Alright, alright.”

  KYLE

  “Hold on,” I warned, twisting the throttle. I sucked in a breath at our first sight of Monument Valley. When I was a little kid I had been a big fan of nature shows. I’d used to love the stories of island formations. I would sit, glued to the screen, as volcanic eruptions poured out their magma and fire high into the sky. Watching all that on TV from the safety of my living room, though, was a million miles away from this. The desert was a lake of fire; red and orange flames shooting up from great cracks in the ground, reaching high into the matching yellow sky. The only stretches of land unaffected were the tallest of the tall pillars of rock, looking like charred logs standing upright in the midst of a bonfire. I had come here on a vacation, and I’d thought, viewing them as even bigger then, that they were so tall they were endless. Mittens, they were called. I’d thought that was hilarious at the time. I mean mittens?

  “What the fuck happened?” Mara whispered.

  “I’ve no idea. What the hell is this?” I whispered, still trying to get over the fact that the entire desert looked like a furnace. I pulled us up high and looked out over the range of smoking Mittens. Cuffy whined, looking terrified, and curled up under my seat. Now what?

  “Base calling Winter, identify over,” a familiar voice with a posh accent, similar to Caleb’s, called. I looked up, with a start, at the radio above the cockpit window. I’d almost forgotten it existed. We looked at each other, brows raised.

  “Ethan?” Ron said, coming forward. Oh, yeah.

  “Ron?”

  “Long time, huh?” he grinned, sounding almost happy to hear from that freak.

  “Yeah, we have a casualty onboard. Can you help us?”

  “We have a doctor onsite. Where are you?”

  “Right above you,” I told him.

  “Lower your casualty into the hole. There are gym mats at the bottom.” The hole?

  I swung us around so that we were hovering over some kind of hole or cavity in the rocky side of one of the tallest Mittens, pretty near the top, clear of the fire. I frowned curiously. It looked almost like a manhole, perfectly round, bored into the rock. How could anyone survive in there?

  “Preparing now.” I spun us around so that the ramp’s opening was right in front of the hole.

  “Are you sure about this?” Mara asked.

  “No,” I sighed, “I’m not.”

  “It’s alright, the hole you see is the entrance to the caves.” Either my passengers didn’t hear him or they just weren’t comforted, but they stayed put.

  “Lead by example?” I offered Ron. He swallowed as he unbuckled his belt and, getting up, stepped onto the edge of the ramp, squinting down at the hole in the rock. It looked very black, very ominous and very easily missed.

  “You want me to jump down there?” he called over his shoulder.

  “Your childhood pal does,” I shrugged. Mara looked from me to him, wondering, no doubt, what I meant by that. Before I had a chance to stop her, she leapt up and, quick as lightning, shoved him off. With a startled yell, he plummeted down into the gloom, Cuffy leaning over to watch with detached interest. Shit! What if he fell into the fire? Andy leapt out of his seat and was at the ramp in a fraction of a second.

  “You killed Daaaaddddd!” I watched, shaking my head, as the kid disappeared as well.

  “There are gym mats at the bottom,” Mara shrugged.

  “Someday you and I are going to have to discuss manners,” I told the grinning girl as Cuffy gave a bark that sounded like a cheer.

  “Ethan, have you received our people?” I asked over the radio.

  “Yes.”

  “Are they…okay?”

  “Fine.”

  “Come,” I told Mara. I bent down and picked Caleb up.

  “What are you doing now?” he asked, alarmed, I carried him to the open ramp.

  “Getting you the help you need. Down there, at the very bottom of the hole are many gym mats, as much padding as you could ask for.”

  “You…sure?”

  “Yes.” Giving him no time to hesitate, I flung him out into space. Mara sighed with relief as she saw he had landed safely through the hole then turned and glared at me.

  “Oh, my God. Yes, we do have to discuss manners. Are we going down there now?”

  “No,” I told her, “we’re going to find his parents, aren’t we?” Cuffy farted. That too sounded like a whoop.

  MARA

  “How are we going to find him, keep cruising the whole of Utah?” I asked yet again as I gazed out at the fiery city in the distance. The fire was spreading to the outskirts, turning the first of the buildings into giant candles. At this rate there wouldn’t be much of Utah left. We cruised above a freeway packed with fleeing cars and panicked people, all trying to get out of this charred hell. We had dropped Caleb off, literally, in the midst of the fire and then just taken off again without even bothering to check if he had landed safely. I still had no problem letting Kyle know I resented this. But, as he’d so often told me, Caleb’s father was the priority. David Grey had not been at the rendezvous point at the airport. In fact he’d been nowhere in sight, anywhere. What we had found, as we’d gone back and strapped on our firesuits, braving the burni
ng stairwells of their airport hotel, had been the lifeless corpse of Jamie Grey, lying sprawled on the bed of one of the half-incinerated rooms with a bullet between eyes that had once been so bright and joyful and now were cloudy and dull. Caleb, I’m so sorry.

  “Damnit, Mara, I’m sick of you askin’ the same question over and over,” Kyle scowled. Cuffy froze in the act of legging his ear, looking over worriedly. “I. Don’t. Know, alright? As I have told you. Over. And. Over.” I scowled at him as he turned away from me in the pilot’s chair. Sorry for wanting to save someone I love. I couldn’t really blame him for being angry and scared though. I suspected we both were. We flew together in silence for a while, then…

  “I’m sorry about Jamie,” he said.

  “What is happening?” I begged, my vision beginning to blur. “It’s like the whole world has gone fucking mad. The red moon, the black sun, the whole county on fire—”

  He quickly unbuckled his belt and held me to him so I could cry out my panic and terror on his shoulder. Once I’d calmed, he pulled back and cupped my face in his strong, hairy hands, brushing away the lingering tears with his thumbs. I gave a deep, shuddering breath as I leaned back and Cuffy put his head in my lap.

  “David and I are all Caleb has left. I. Will. Not go back and tell him I failed him twice.” He nodded sadly.

  “Was she your friend?”

  “Yes,” I sniffed, lowering my eyes to the chocolate-brown ones, begging for a treat. I was glad of him. Kyle had told me the loyal dog had been his last comfort when Aunt Sarah had vanished.

  “Remember Chloe, the stories she told us?”

  “Yeah, I remember,” I smiled. “I remember also that she seemed to know us before we’d even met her.”

  KYLE

  The kid had a point. She’d showed up at my door, with her shades and her cocky, scarred smirk, and had come right out with the wild claim that the Winter was hers.