Rage of Winter

by Sam Herrera

  We pulled up alongside the main entrance to the Great Hall, just outside the smaller of the openings in the wrought iron gates. On any other day I would have loved to get a closer look at the site of the greatest migration the world had ever seen. I had been here once before but had seen it from far away. It looked, with its border trees, barred windows and beige and dark-red towers, topped by ornate gray stone spires, a little like a cross between the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel and the Old Bailey place in England. We couldn’t get off the jetty and under the dark-yellow canopy, overshadowing the metal and glass awning leading up to the wide-open doorway, fast enough. Our heels squeaking on the reflective, red stone floor, we raced for the stairs. My eyes scanned the sandstone balconies for snipers. Where were they? Cale wouldn’t quit so easy. Were they peering down long-range weapons through the criss-crossed windows? I caught a glimpse of the strange flags hanging from both of the rails, facing each other. The Star-Spangled Banner had been replaced by the OWO symbol: a raven with emerald eyes, holding the globe in its talons The two helicopters I had requested, with tinted windows and everything, were there; one perched on the roof of the ferry office, the other behind the glass oblong with no one and nothing else in sight. All the hostages and our squad were split, again five to each group with five hostages. To our bird it was Mara, me, Sam, Snow and Richard. I sat at the controls and we took off, the bottom dropping out of my stomach as we did so. Our three aircraft flew in a neat little row. I could see the Mojave coming closer and closer. BOOM! Fuck, I knew it! Gunships were swooping down on us from the direction of the city. That bastard Cale. This was his revenge: allowing us to think, for a short while, that we were getting away and then squashing us like bugs. And to hell with your friends and supporters, right? What were we going to do? Where were we going? How would we get out of here?

  “Fuck, noooo!” Mara yelled. I looked up to see the chopper just beside us go down in a ball of flame, hitting the ocean with a huge splash. Ron, Chloe, Caleb, David and Andy were dead. They had to be; no one could survive that. Ah, Jesus. Mara sat back, stunned, tears falling out of her eyes.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Fuck,” she whispered, a dullness in her eyes.

  MARA

  No! I opened my mouth to scream only nothing came out but a strangled sob. The fire burning my husband to ashes seemed to burn me as well, roaring all through my insides.

  They were dead. He was dead. I slumped in my seat, clutching at my broken heart, hot tears spilling over as we flew full speed, racing hard to beat them, leaving Caleb behind. I sagged, bent over, both hands over my chest and my heart broken into a million pieces. Oh, Caleb. God help me.

  Looking over my shoulder, I saw smoke billowing out of our engine and a hostage lean forward, groaning, a round in his arm. I didn’t care who died. I didn’t care if I died. I felt dead already. Kyle twisted and turned, flying like a man possessed, trying to dodge the rounds that whizzed all around us like stinging hornets. I watched all this from a million miles away.

  KYLE

  We didn’t have prayer. I knew it the second I’d seen the gunships swooping back. We couldn’t run. We couldn’t hide. We couldn’t do anything. Where the hell was the Winter? I’d asked Ethan to keep watch over the desert if we made it out. I looked across at the lifeless doll that had once been Mara and thought of poor Kristen, waiting for a lover who would never come back. Even though Chloe had assured her she would in that usual, maddeningly cool way of hers. I closed my eyes as Richard placed his hand on my shoulder, praying for me. I saw a flash of fire behind my closed lids, but I didn’t feel it. I opened my eyes just in time to see the first gunship go down, spiralling out of control. The others quickly followed suit, hit by missiles from an invisible enemy. Thank. God. I threw back my head, gasping in relief and Richard began to laugh out loud as we watched the shimmering in the air heading for the gunships with the velocity of a speeding bullet. They returned fire but the Winter toyed with them, breaking off and flying in among them. Instead of hitting their intended target, the following missiles flew among the enemy sometimes hitting the very choppers that had fired them. I didn’t know it could do that. After two more fell this way, the others knew they were in over their heads and retreated. I beamed as I followed Ethan home.

  We had won, no question. And we had got clean away with it. Transferring the hostages and ourselves from the chopper to the Winter, we had let the bird crash and burn far from the San Gabriel range. By the time they figured out there were no bodies, we’d be well on our way. I smiled as we flew in, sorry for every harsh word I had ever spoken against Ethan or resentful thought between us. Especially when I saw Sam, Alison and Steven joyously reunited. But victory came at a high price. Mara wasn’t with us, I noticed. She seemed to have disappeared the moment we’d landed. I walked away, trying to find her.

  *

  I found her sitting on the floor of the pool room…with a gun beside her.

  “Mara.”

  “This was where we spent our wedding night,” she whispered to no one in particular. “He told me he loved me and I could see it in his eyes.”

  “Mara.”

  “What?” she whispered, looking up at me with an awful, dead gaze.

  “Mara, listen to me.”

  “No, I don’t want to hear it.”

  “Mara, please.”

  “Stay back,” she warned, her hand straying to the gun beside her. “Do. Not. Touch. Me!” she hissed viciously as I knelt beside her and reached for her. I reared back. “You could have saved him.”

  “No. I. Couldn’t.”

  “You told Ethan to wait at the fucking desert. He should have been watching us. Now…I have lost everything.”

  “You saved me once when I lost everything. Do you remember?”

  She nodded slowly. “The Rapture?”

  “You said I had you. You have me as well. Please.” I reached out to take the gun from her, wrapping my hand around the barrel. At first her hand clenched around it then she just let it go.

  “Ah, God, it hurts,” she groaned, tears beginning to leak out of her eyes. I took her in my arms and held her as it all came out in great, wracking sobs.

  “I know. I know.”

  “Chloe! Chloe! Chloe!” We both looked up in the direction of the cheering.

  “That’s Caleb,” Mara whispered, listening.

  “What?” Bullshit!

  “It’s Caleb,” she grinned, her eyes shining with renewed hope. She was racing out of the cave like a bolt of lightning.

  I grinned uncontrollably in awe and amazement. The friends I had, only a few moments earlier, thought dead and gone: Caleb, David and Chloe, were bounding down the Winter’s ramp to be welcomed with hugs, kisses and thunderous applause. I assumed it was Caleb anyway; it was hard to see his face around Mara’s head.

  “Don’t suffocate him now,” I called out, grinning. Mara flipped me off over her shoulder.

  “How?” I breathed.

  “Ask her,” he grinned, indicating Chloe. She was having a speech impediment of her own: Kristen’s tongue.

  “Ah hem,” I smirked.

  “Go away,” Kristen mumbled around her lover’s head.

  “Chloe, what did you do?”

  “You remember what I said about taking people with me if I am touching them,” she asked, coming up for air, “especially when they are in danger?”

  “My God. Like you did with Mara?”

  “Yeah, but that was an accident. When I’m in danger it happens every time. We ended up in Florida a couple of weeks ago.” I squinted over at Caleb who nodded, smiling and shrugging.

  “They were driving up the desert in a Mercedes,” Ethan admitted.

  “A convertible,” David smiled. “Cool, huh?”

  Mara, in floods of tears, was spun around and around, laughing like a child. Caleb put her down
and gave his wife another long, lingering kiss.

  The whoops and joyous reunions went on all around us and I cheered with the best of them.

  *

  “I’m sorry,” I said to Ethan later, following him as he left to his own private corner. During the party, he hadn’t noticed we had been the sole survivors of the raid. But as soon as the hostages were secured we’d given those that stayed behind the tragic news.

  “About your friend,” I explained. He nodded and looked across to where Mara sat in the crook of Caleb’s arm, smiling like a kid at Christmas.

  “Such love. Such joy.”

  “I know,” I smiled. “I remember.”

  “You experienced it? You are most fortunate. I will never have that. The closest I ever came was my father and…my brother.” I nodded, putting a hand on his scaly shoulder, seeing his jaw tighten under the beak and his blue eyes fill with pain. You couldn’t be more human.

  MARA

  My elation didn’t last long. I just couldn’t party, thinking of my father and brother’s bodies burning back there. Caleb, able to read me so well, took me aside to comfort me in private. We lay on our bedroll, later on, in the midst of all the others as they took their well-earned rest. The prisoners were secure in the pool room with Ethan guarding them. I smiled as my body fitted perfectly into my husband’s larger one, running my hand up and down his forearm, enjoying the feel of the fine golden hairs.

  “I never really knew him, not really. He made it so hard for me to. I was always the white sheep of the family. And Andy, well, he was a typical jock meathead,” I smiled through the tears that had begun to fall out of my lids.

  “Still your family though?”

  “Yes,” I nodded. He kissed my temple and put his hand in mine. I gripped it tight as I rolled over to look into his eyes.

  “Nothing can happen to you,” I stated flatly. “Nothing. You’re all I’ve got now.”

  “The same goes for you, beauty; you are my life.” I kissed his lips, softly and gently, and we fell asleep, entwined with each other.

  KYLE

  Cale knew we were somewhere near; the wreckage of the chopper, our last known location and the flash car abandoned in the desert proved it. But these caves and caverns didn’t officially exist and inside a mountain…Who would think of that? Still, we took precautions: the occasional raid into small towns and cities, far away, and we were gone before the dust settled. The only ones who didn’t rest easy were Chloe and Richard. Well, Richard mostly; Chloe never got worked up…except on special occasions. I smiled as I came upon the lovers, having a quiet make out in the far corner of the cavern. Since her miraculous return the two seemed unable to keep their hands, or mouths, off each other.

  “Ahem.” Chloe and Kristen flew apart, their faces going red. “Sorry to interrupt your training, Harper,” I smirked, “but I would like a word with your girl here.” Chloe, sighing, got up and followed me out.

  “What is it?” It was hard to get over just how short and petite she was. She was a tough cookie, no doubt about it though; one of my best students on the firing range and second only to Mara as a raider. My eyes traced the three deep scars running down her face. Mauled by a bear. Ouch. Your power didn’t help you there, did it? Sam’s, Caleb’s and David’s stories were all the same: she’d yelled at all of them to take her hands. The next thing they knew, they were in Florida.

  “Walker, I need you and Richard Mason to stop spreading these rumors that Karden is not dead.”

  “I’m not spreading shit, Richard is,” she frowned.

  “Okay, see if you can stop him.”

  “What are we, a dictatorship now? We’re supposed to be the last bastion of Christianity, right? Isn’t it worth listening to the only preacher we have?”

  “Karden is dead. What he’s saying is impossible.”

  “Dragons were impossible not so long ago. Yet we’ve got one living with us. Hi, Sam.” I turned to see her brother come up behind me. That these two were brother and sister was very odd; they looked nothing alike. He was tall, and blond, and in his late thirties at least. She was a short brunette in her mid-twenties. “How’s Alison?”

  “Glad to have me back,” he nodded.

  “Whassup?” Chloe asked, seeing he looked pretty awkward.

  “Umm, you’re gonna wanna see this.”

  All four of us, Ethan, Chloe, Sam and I gathered onboard the Winter, around the laptop. We were watching a YouTube clip of one of Karden’s speeches…His most recent speech, that was being televised right now from the White House.

  “Im-possible,” I whispered, squinting.

  “My fellow citizens of the One World Order,” he began, the emerald-green eyes that I had seen glazed and dead only a few days ago, shining with madness and narcissism. I didn’t listen to the rest of it. Knowing him, it would be just more bullshit and threats and I wasn’t interested. I replayed the scene in the office over and over in my head: I had watched Chloe’s arm come up. I’d recoiled in disgust as his blood and brain matter had splattered all across the far wall. I’d grabbed the body, feeling its dead weight, checked its still pulse and flung it from me out of the chair. So, what the hell was this? I closed the laptop and stood up, shaking my head.

  “This is insane,” I growled.

  “Richard did warn us.”

  “Yeah, but…” I ran my hands through my hair, wide-eyed.

  “I, for one, am just as surprised. When I slew enemies, they stayed dead, now though…” Ethan shook his snake-like head.

  “We keep this to ourselves for now. If the others find out it will cause a panic and they will lose hope.” I was close to losing hope myself. How the hell could we fight a resurrected enemy? We’d risked our lives and lost our friends in a mission that had achieved nothing. I walked out, needing to be alone.

  Mara found me, sitting by the edge of the pool, stirring the water with my foot. I watched her take her boots and socks off and, sitting beside me, dip her own feet. “How’s your husband?” I asked.

  “He’s good,” she smiled, nodding. “What’s wrong?” she asked, looking at my face carefully. I put on a big, broad smile and shook my head.

  “Nothing.”

  “Liar.” I looked away, disliking sometimes how intuitive she was.

  “Nothing is wrong, alright?”

  “Sure,” she scoffed. “Y’know, I recall a time, not so long ago, when you used to confide in me. But now you tell me nothing.”

  “You’re the one that needs comforting; you’ve lost everyone.”

  “Not everyone. When you next go on a raid, can you not take Caleb with you?”

  “I’m gonna need everyone I can get. Especially now when we’re as short on manpower as we are.”

  “But why him? Why bring him into danger?”

  “We’re all in danger, every second we live in hiding. If we were ever discovered—”

  “I know. I know,” she broke in, holding up a hand. “It’s just…”

  “He’s all you have? God, I envy you.”

  “You want Caleb?” she asked, the corners of her mouth tugging up.

  “Nnnnoooo,” I grinned. “I want what you have, what I once had.”

  “Sarah? Yeah, I miss her too.”

  MARA

  Fuck it. I stripped to my underwear, needing a bath.

  “What are you doing?” Kyle started, gaping at me.

  “I’m dirty,” I shrugged, plunging in. Surfacing, I found I had company.

  “Hey, honey.” Caleb jumped in, splashing me. Then Sam, rushing by Kyle, then Alison, then Steven. Kyle, with a shrug, soon followed, all of them dressed only in boxers, shirts and other underwear. I grinned and laughed as we splashed each other, seeing this rarely-shown, playful side to Kyle. Finally we tired of the game and just floated about. I got out first, looking for the nearest towel. There was
n’t one, but Ethan came in with a pile under his arm, and he offered one to me. Even after so long living with him, his appearance still alarmed me. Taking the bull by the horns, I walked forward, dripping and cold, and gingerly accepted. His head turned to look at me, reminding me of a cobra rising to a piper’s tune.

  “What is it?” he asked. From close up, I saw his pupils were like chess pieces, I’d never noticed before.

  “I never thanked you for saving us, did I?” I smiled. Feeling like a mouse faced with a hawk and trying not to think of what typically happens in horror films, I slowly offered a hand.

  “Well, thank you.” Raising one hairless brow, he took it and we shook with many curious eyes on us. It occurred to me that, though I’d ridden him as we’d flown above the Mojave, this was the first time we had ever shaken hands. His skin felt cold and smooth with an impressive grip. When I was a kid, a reptile guy had come to our school and put one of his snakes, a large boa, around my neck. It had felt just the same; I could almost hear the squeals and shrieks of my classmates all over again.

  “You have a strange odor about you,” he told me, the slitted nostrils just above his beak widening slightly.

  “Sorry,” I frowned, the corners of my mouth tugging upwards.

  “Are you with child?”

  “No,” I squinted, his bluntness putting me on the defensive. “Why would you think that?”

  “You are with a male here, are you not?”

  “I have a husband, yes.”

  “Then is it so out of the question?” Was it, I wondered. I dressed and walked back the way I’d come, looking for Richard. Of all the people here, he, with his training as an ex-army medic, would be the most qualified to tell me. But, honestly, I didn’t need him to. I wasn’t an idiot; I had been throwing up for a while now and always in the morning, my rack had swelled up and my monthly cycle was late, at least three days late. He would only be confirming what I, deep down, already knew.