Rage of Winter

by Sam Herrera

  “It is now, yes. But once we’ve cleaned it, you’ll see it’s not so bad.”

  “I am not living here and that’s that. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna hide in some hole like a fugitive, living with lunatics. Why should I? I’ve done nothing wrong.” Ron, of course.

  “I have,” David said suddenly. He had been very quiet until now. I suspected the loss of his wife was still hitting him hard. “I didn’t support Matthew Karden in his insane schemes. I left my job and tried to take my family with me. That’s why my wife’s dead and that is why you are all in danger now.”

  “What are you talking about, your wife’s dead?”

  “She’s dead. Karden had her killed same as he would Caleb and I if we hadn’t escaped. Thanks for that by the way,” he said to Chloe. She smiled and nodded.

  “What are we doing now?” Mara asked.

  “Waiting for dark,” Ethan replied. “It is then that we will be under cover and can throw out those rocks without anyone seeing us.” I looked down at the dirt and rubble that coated the floor of the cave. Some of the boulders looked very heavy. I unbuckled my belt and leaned back in my seat, wishing it would recline. It looked as though we would have a long wait.

  MARA

  “I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with P.” I looked over at Ethan in surprise. You know I Spy?

  “Peephole?” Caleb guessed, lying beside me on the cold, metal floor.

  “No.”

  “Pillow?” the Richard guy guessed as he swayed slightly from side to side on the co-pilot’s chair.

  “No.” He frowned as he looked around for something less obvious. Faith, it seemed wasn’t playing. I thought I recognized the tune she was humming: ‘Thick Black Mark’ by… someone.

  “People?” I guessed.

  “No,” he grinned.

  “We’ll be at this for. Ever,” Ron groaned. Ethan grinned and nodded. I looked between the two of them curiously as he shook his head, smiling wryly. It’s like they know each other.

  “Give us a hint,” Andy said.

  “It is one of the easiest things to make and most females make them a lot.” I blinked and stared. Huh? We continued the game and, like Father had said, got nowhere. Towards the end everyone looked, and I felt, ready to strangle Ethan. What the hell is it?

  *

  “Shit, this is heavy,” I panted as Kyle and I rolled one of the last stones towards the hole. I had, at first, been glad of the distraction and the freedom of getting out and doing this. We had been cooped up in that fucking ship all fucking day, listening to Faith’s inane fucking babbling, trying to guess Ethan’s fucking I Spy. One more meaningless comment from her, about her grandfather or whatever, or smug, secretive smile from him and I would have lost it.

  “Heavy was a commonly used word in Back to the Future.”

  I sighed and shot Richard a loaded look, moving aside for Faith as she continued her blah, blah, blah while throwing out her rock and brushing dust off her arms.

  “Marty McFly was a very popular character. In fact he was my favorite. I really liked his hoverboard and often imagined what it would be like to own one, to just step off and fly on one of my very own.” Ethan’s fucking I Spy was bad enough without this. We still hadn’t got it. P? P?

  “Look, I give up,” I told him as he watched us move the rocks, not lifting a finger to help us.

  “You have to guess.”

  “Fu-cking. Hellllll!” Caleb groaned as he wiped the sweat away. The labor was beginning to tell on everyone. I just thanked God it was nearly over. I envied Cuffy, allowed to sleep on the ship. We watched as the last rock fell to Earth, miles below, and was lost in shadow.

  “Is it ponytail?” Richard suddenly asked.

  “Yes. Well done.”

  “You bastard. How the hell was I supposed to get that?” I squinted, pawing at my tied-back do. “I can’t even see it, can I? It’s at the back of my head.” He grinned and walked away.

  “One of these days I’m gonna shoot him,” I smiled then took a moment to survey the red crescent moon, just visible through the hole. We were done clearing out the boulders but the floor was still dirty and sandy.

  “What do we do now?” David gasped as he collapsed on the floor, sweaty and filthy just like the rest of us.

  Ethan, smirking, stepped forward and took a great lungful of air. With a mighty whoosh he let rip, exhaling with the force of a leaf blower. We coughed and gasped, shielding our eyes, as all the dust, dirt and brass casings on the floor were swept towards the hole. I didn’t know how he did it: blowing out as steadily as a vacuum sucks in for so long. But by the time he was done, every speck of dust and every shell was gone, blown out into the atmosphere.

  *

  It was hard to see all our faces by torchlight, but I was willing to bet we were covered in cave dust from head to foot. I noticed that two of the buckets of water Kyle brought along were beside Ethan. He picked them up and moved towards one of the larger craters in the floor.

  “What did you bring them for?” I asked Kyle.

  “For washing,” he replied. “But I don’t know what he’s up to.” Ethan emptied them both into the hole and then went back aboard the ship for the other buckets. We glanced at each other, baffled, as he came back, carrying them. He emptied them as well and then turned to face us.

  “Do you wish to sleep in your own filth?” he asked after a while. Oh, boy. Kyle and I glanced at each other, wide-eyed. We both felt embarrassed and judging from their murmuring and fidgeting, the others did too.

  “Did you check it?” I asked, I was just balking really, but we still had to.

  “I’ll check it,” Chloe grinned, stepping forward and whipping off her shirt. “A nice hot bath,” she grinned as dropped her pants and speared the water in a perfect dive. She surfaced, scraping her hair back from her eyes. I swallowed hard as I looked down at her. She was standing, buck naked, with the water up to her waist with her hands by her sides. God!

  “It’s fine. C’mon in, it’s great and there’s room for everyone,” she gushed as she splashed on her back, stroking up and down with a big broad grin on her face. I looked longingly at the water. It did look great, but… Andy was the first to get over it. His eyes were like saucers and he had a huge grin all over his pimply face as he began to undress.

  “Jesus, Andy.” I shook my head and winced as my brother dove in, creating a great splash with his cannonball. One by one we undressed. I couldn’t believe I was doing this in front of my family. At least we could turn off our torches. I’d quickly turned off mine the moment Andy started taking his pants down, having no desire to see my brother’s bare ass and…other things. Once I was in the water, though, I forgot all my inhibitions. It was warm and soothed all my aching muscles. Caleb suddenly swam up beside me. I could tell it was him. I didn’t know how, in the pitch dark, but I could. I held his hand tight.

  “Richard,” Ethan stepped to the rim of the pool, his footfall well measured as though he could see perfectly, “hand these around.” I waited until Richard’s hand found mine. In it was a bar of soap.

  “Give me that,” Caleb whispered in my ear.

  “I wanna get clean,” I told him. Why are we whispering?

  “I’ll get you clean.”Oh. Oooohhh. I grinned as I eagerly handed it over and slid onto his lap, enjoying the effect I clearly had on him even if it did make sitting a little uncomfortable. This was crazy; my family and other people were only a millimeter away. But it was pitch dark. I bit my lip until it almost bled as his skilled hands began to roam my body, soaping me thoroughly. I couldn’t help the occasional moan breaking out.

  “You okay, Mara?”

  “Fine,” I squeaked, gasping and panting as he massaged my hips, and inner thighs. I reached up, grabbed a handful of his thick curls and, pulling his head back, thrust my tongue deep into his warm, soft mouth
as I felt him stiffen even more against my aching rear entrance, loving that he wanted me just as much as I wanted him. I parted my legs, letting him move in deeper.

  “Let’s stop this now,” I whispered, reluctantly breaking off the kiss. “They’re getting suspicious.”

  “Awww.”

  “Knock it off, you two. I want pleasant dreams tonight and you’re making me wanna puke.” Thank you, Kyle.

  “Really? Mara, really?!” Andy protested. “We’re right next to you. Christ!”

  “Sexually transmitted infections spreading fast,” Chloe added in a hushed whisper, “and you can’t always tell who’s got one, so put your knob away.” I scowled in her direction, blushing, as Kyle started sniggering. Thanks as well.

  “It looks like we’ve been found out, honey.”

  “Yeah,” I said, grinning, sensing his smirk in the dark.

  “My father always poured a lot of honey on his cereal. My mother was constantly chiding him for it, telling him that sooner or later he would get a throat rash from all the sugar. But he died of lung cancer instead.” Thanks to you too, Faith. What. The. Fuck?

  *

  Chloe, out of all of us, was the first to get out. Drying off, she threw away her towel, turned on her torch and bent to pick up her clothes.

  “Must you?” I grimaced, turning away from her naked ass as she bent for her jeans.

  She smiled as she stood and struck a pose, model-style.

  “So modest,” I muttered, my eyes bugging. Caleb, I noticed, didn’t seem as upset by this as me.

  KYLE

  I was glad of the bath, despite what may or may not have happened in it, and of the sleeping arrangements; there were worse things than lying next to a hottie who didn’t mind giving a bit of a show. Plus we had a change of clothes, courtesy of Richard, and our bedrolls back. I curled up on mine, on the hard earth, missing the Mitten’s soft sand, and looked over at “Ethan” curled up on his rock like some kind of weird, green cat. And cats have claws. I didn’t know what this thing was going to do to us, but he wouldn’t catch me unawares. I considered the past few hours. He, it was true, had had plenty of chances to kill us all. But, then there were many of us and only one of him. What would happen when we were asleep and vulnerable? I stayed awake as long as I could, gazing up at the sky, at the red moon, while keeping an ear out for the click, click, click of claws on the rock. Where are you, Sarah and Michael? Are you up there, looking over us? Is heaven even real? I sighed deeply. It hurt, thinking of them. The feeling was comparable to having the core of my being torn out and thrown away. I smiled as I heard a splash and a few joyful barks: Cuffy enjoying the last of our bath water. I would have preferred it if he didn’t shake himself all over me, but hey. I was almost nodding off when…

  “Dad? Dad?” It was Andy Hale.

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you believe this crap, the Bible and all that?”

  “No, I believe Ethan. Is Mara asleep?”

  “Yeah, why?” This is gonna be awkward.

  “He’s never lied to me before.”

  “Why the hell did you hire that thing in the first place?”

  “Because…” He sighed. “Because I knew him when I was a kid.” I tuned them, and thoughts of what I had lost, out as I closed my eyes and surrendered gratefully to sleep.

  *

  When I woke, it was to screaming. My first instinct was to reach for Sarah and pull her protectively into my larger form while drawing my gun. She wasn’t there. I whipped my face towards the hole, where the chorus of bloodcurdling screams was coming from.

  “What the fuck’s going on?” David asked, looking horrified. They all did as they reached up to cover their ears. Christ! It sounded like people were being flayed alive.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I yelled over the wailing.

  “My people are hard at work,” Ethan said during a short lull. The basking snake on the rock uncurled itself and grew arms and legs, standing up to its impressive height. “They were told not to harm the plants and the lands but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were told not to kill them, but to torture them for five months. In those days people will long to die but death shall flee them.” I recalled him quoting the same passage to us over a year ago, the second time I had ever met him. But now I was actually hearing it.

  “You’re a cheerful fucker this morning, aren’t ya?”

  I smiled at Chloe, the gang’s irrepressible sense of humor. Then the screaming sounded again, growing in pitch.

  “Making it fucking stop,” Mara begged as we all, again, stuck our fingers in our ears.

  I saw Ethan mouth, “I can’t.”

  “Get away from us,” I scowled at him. He’s evil. They all are.

  MARA

  At one point the screaming stopped for a long time and we all exhaled in relief. I’d thought it would go on forever. I gratefully took Ethan’s hankie and wiped away tears of horror.

  “I said, get away from her,” Kyle ordered, scowling.

  “No,” he said quietly, his icy eyes challenging Kyle.

  Fuming, he backed down. “We need food and what water we can find.”

  “Water will soon be regarded as more valuable than gold. You will have to fight for your lives.”

  “So, how we gonna get breakfast?” the Andy kid asked, getting up, still looking a little freaked by Ethan. Breakfast? After that?

  “We shall have to raid. That will require guns and crowd control.”

  “What about my niece?” David scowled. “I want her safe.” Niece?

  “You have a niece?” Ethan asked. I felt guilty for having forgotten all about Abby. We’d lost touch. The last I’d heard was she was still working at Redstone Farm.

  “There’s a chance she could be dead already. I’m just saying,” Ethan added quickly as David, Caleb and I glared knives at him.

  “I won’t believe that. Na. Ah.”

  “Anyway our first priority is to find food. Any suggestions?”

  “We could go back to the lodge,” Father suggested.

  “Too risky,” Ethan shook his head.

  “Why? Karden doesn’t know about this Winter thing, does he? And if we can get there while the coast is clear, we could grab enough long-lasting food to keep us going quite a while.”

  “Karden’s no fool,” Ethan argued. “By now he will have learned that you two have disappeared at exactly the same time David Grey left him.”

  “Not the exact same time,” Ron pointed out. “The two of us have hiked and slept in the mountains before now without notifying anyone. We can just say we’ve come back from a long one if anyone asks.” Caleb and David glanced at each other and shrugged. “Let’s go eat.”

  *

  I felt a great weight in my heart that only got heavier and heavier as we had flown over the charred burning forests of the Green Mountains, seeing what had been done to them in the white light of the Winter’s high-beams. So much for not harming the plants or the lands. No one, now, would question lights coming from nowhere. There was no one left to question it. The beautiful leafy hikes and trails were gone, clogged and choked with ash and mud. As was the Connecticut River; it looked, now, more like mercury than water and its flow carried the charred corpses of animals and birds in its filthy ripples. In places the fires still burned, coughing black smoke into the sky. As we landed and stepped off, the wind whipped clouds of white ash from the black stumps of the once-golden and crimson trees in our faces, making us cough and splutter. I remembered coming here often in the Winter just to see them. Sometimes I would lie back and make leaf angels on the forest floor. In winter it would be snow angels. Now though…We looked around at what was left of Amacalola Falls Lodge. Half of it was burned to the ground. The other half still stood but was a blackened ruin with no roof. Hiking season was over for
good it would seem. This was what pushed me over the edge. I couldn’t help it: I began to cry. It was all gone, burnt to ash. The people were gone too, knowing there was no point in dying just to open for business. Caleb put a hand on my shoulder, spinning me to face him. We held each other while I wept, not caring who was watching. We all walked back onboard and Kyle turned off the beams, all of us agreeing, without saying it, that we didn’t need to see anymore ruined landscapes.

  *

  Father, Andy and I sat on the Winter’s couches, while Caleb, Ethan, Kyle and David lay on the floor, a while later, poring over maps of England, discussing possibilities for where Kristen Harper and Abby Grey might go to avoid capture. From the local bakery we were now hovering over, Kyle and Ethan had managed to scrounge together, knocking out the staff in the process, a meal of bread and stale pastries found in the storage area. As I tore off chunks with my teeth, I thought it was a great shame our cook wasn’t here. Faith and Richard had stayed behind at the caves. But I had the feeling there would be trouble ahead and one wrong word from that weirdo would have gotten us all killed.

  “Fuck’s sake,” I sighed, unable to take any more of those big, brown, begging eyes or that prodding snout. “Here, now leave me alone.” Cuffy raced after the crust I’d thrown him and then came straight back. Sigh. David and Caleb agreed wholeheartedly that there was no way either Abby or Kristen, if they were alive, would surrender to those freaks and so they were either on the run or hostages. Recalling the horrible screams, they refused to even entertain the latter possibility. While they were all discussing where aunt and niece might be, Kyle was considering options for storming whatever enemy fort they would be held in. I smiled, recalling how good he was at strategy, and combat, and all that. Ethan, though, was against this idea.

  “If your kin are in the forts of torture, you must abandon them for your own sakes,” he said. “Dying will avail them nothing.” Caleb lowered his eyes, his jaw clenched. I wanted to go over and hold him. I glanced at where whatever freeze-dried, long-lasting stuff we’d found to fill the cave was lying in a small pile.