Zillow Stone and the Unholy One

by Brindi Quinn

  I raised my arm to see the swirling red glow coming from the back of my hand. It swirled and swirled before lifting into the air and dancing with the sky.

  Chapter 10: Theo’s Impossibly Unfortunate Timing

  “You are so dead,” said my garbled voice, as Theo pulled my garbled body along after him.

  “I mean, what are the chances of that happening?” Theo replied with a nervous chuckle.

  With every step, I fumbled. My feet went through the earth before rebounding into space. On either side of my head, colorful bouts of air rushed past.

  “I mean, for real, you must have awful luck! I’ve gotten high loads of times out here and never once has my tracker gone off in the middle!”

  From deep within, I scowled. Not just my mouth but my fingers and toes, too.

  “S-so what’s your Marker like, anyway?” Theo diverted. “Think we can take him on if he finds us?”

  “He’s . . .” I hadn’t really formed an opinion on him yet. All that I could think of was, “I’ll never let him beat me.”

  “Well, that’s good, at least. I’m glad you didn’t say something like, ‘Oh, he’s big and scary and if he ever finds me, I’m dead meat.’”

  “You are dead meat, Theo,” I said, confused.

  “Yes, yes, I get it. You’re going to kill me for putting you in a dangerous position. But I was talking about you, trippy pants. Never mind. For now, focus. You said this is the second time your tracker’s gone off since you left the city. Do you think there’s any way he’s even close enough to come after us? I’m just trying to decide if we should waste a gambit or not. I don’t have a ton of extras on me at the moment, though I do have a few. I’ve been trying to save them for our task.”

  I wasn’t in any position to make strategic estimations. It was taking all I could muster to keep up with Theo.

  “Okay, let’s think about this. If you snuck out the west side of the city, that means he was probably way off course by the time your tracker went off the first time. You had hours of a lead on him already. Then you said you fell asleep, so who knows how much he gained, but you couldn’t have been asleep with the tracker on for that long. Even if he had your crazy stamina, he still had to be somewhat far off. Then, he’d have seen you disappear into the waystation, but even if he went straight to it, he had no way of knowing where we went from there. Unless he just so happened to travel this way, he’s still got a lot of ground to cover.” Theo’s pace slowed. “You know, I bet we’re fine.”

  “I hate you,” I said flatly.

  “I’m sure, but I really think we’ll be fine. Let’s just take it easy for now. We’ll run straight south, and then after the tracker turns off, we’ll cut west. Sound good?”

  “I really hate you,” I said.

  “You’re kind of a mean person, aren’t you?”

  No, I wasn’t usually. I was usually indifferent. Theo pulled me after him. If he didn’t maintain a firm hold on me, I’d sink into the barren earth. I would melt and become one with the ash and ruin.

  “I need water,” I said, after a lapse of what seemed like weeks.

  “Just wait.”

  “I really need water,” I insisted. “My tongue is dry.”

  “Ugh. Great.” Theo stopped. “Turn around, Zillipino.” He undid the latch on my backpack and pulled out a canteen. “Don’t drink too fast or it won’t help your cottonmouth at all.” But my thirst was strong. I glugged down enough to make Theo cry out, “Hey! Not so much! The waterwheel’s still a ways out!” He glanced at the back of my hand. “Fuck. How long is that thing going to stay on? Your Marker couldn’t have gotten his hands on a prolonged tracking gambit yet, could he?” Theo returned the canteen to my backpack, and then spun me around. “And how long do you plan on staying like that? I guess it must be lasting longer because it’s your first time.” He let out a long swear under his breath.

  I swore back at him internally. “It’s your fault.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on!”

  We were off again, through the haze, but I realized this time that my footsteps upon the ground were more solid. I realized that my eyesight was a little clearer, too. Good, I thought. The drug was wearing off.

  That was when the sky started to growl.

  “Really?” Theo spat at the darkening clouds with loathing. “NOW?” Again, he halted and began fishing around in his pack, while I tried to make sense of what was going on. He pulled out a stretch of plastic. “I only have one poncho, so I guess you can have it. The rain out here won’t hurt you like the rain in the city. It just sucks to run through the mud all soaked.” He held the plastic sheet out to me, but I ignored it.

  “Rain?”

  The first drops wet the ground around my feet. Arms over my head, I fell into a squat. It was an impulsive response, one I could blame on years of fearing the rain. Out here, there was no place to hide, nowhere under which to take shelter. In no time at all, my arms were speckled with rainwater.

  Plop! Plop!

  Small beads of water pattered the top of my hair. Theo tossed the sheet over me, but I swatted it away. “Suit yourself,” he grumbled, before settling it over his own wetting head.

  I struggled to my feet and inspected the droplets upon my skin. There was no hissing or burning to accompany the rain. My flesh remained intact. My hair stayed attached. I stretched my arms out at my sides, tipped my head backward, and looked into the heavens as they released more and more drops.

  “You’re gonna be stinky,” Theo warned.

  I didn’t care. With the blue tablet’s influence moving through me, I felt each drop as it slid down my skin. The water poured down, mixed with the dirty earth, and transformed into mud that swallowed our shoes. I kicked at it.

  Theo shook his head at me, in the corner of his mouth a grin. “Come on.”

  We moved south through the rain, and when at last, my mark turned from red to green, we cut west. As the rain slowed, I regained full control over my senses and self. The world was solid and real, and the fogginess of the blue tablet no longer moved through my veins. Theo had been right: Moving through the mud while sopping wet was no good at all.

  With the last of the raindrops settled, Theo removed his poncho and glanced at me sidelong. “How are you feeling now?” he asked.

  “. . . Better. I think it’s out of my system.”

  “And do you still hate me?” he said.

  “No.”

  “Aw, well that’s a reli–”

  “But drug me again and I’ll strangle you.”

  Theo’s face fell. I didn’t want him to think I was all brute, though, so I rolled my eyes at him and gave him a complacent punch to the shoulder.

  I was strong, strong enough to make me hard, but . . . the fact that I was now soaking wet, the truth of Theo’s impossibly unfortunate timing, the way that his ‘helpfulness’ had backfired so assuredly . . . I let out one suppressed laugh.

  Theo blinked at me a few times and then took it and ran with it, letting out a series of longer chuckles.

  I shook my head. “This is never going to work, this partnership,” I said.

  “You never know,” he replied.

  From there, we kept on in silence for a time, until we came to a place where the land dropped suddenly into a deep ravine. At the bottom, I was surprised to see plantlife. Bristly thorns and grim-looking stalks jutted from the side of the slope.

  Theo pointed into the fray. “There,” he said. “That’s where our mission is.”

  Chapter 11: Scars

  I stood at the edge of the ravine and peered down into it. The gorge stretched deep, and at its core were the remains of some large metal structure that had been torn asunder. Pieces stuck out from it oddly, most of which were partially embedded into the surrounding landscape. Down the ravine’s slope, which was not so steep that it was impossible to descend, other pieces of metal debris stuck out amongst the meager trees.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  Theo s
et his bag onto the dusty ground and wiped his brow. “It used to be a plant.”

  “Plant?”

  “I don’t know what for, but I’m guessing we’ll figure it out once we find the retrect,” he said.

  I wondered if he was being intentionally vague to make me feel dependent on him. “And what’s a retrect?” I said through my teeth, fighting to hold back my annoyance.

  Theo perked up at the thought of being in the know. “Well, you know how some of the missions are for gathering stuff?”

  “Yes,” I said, still through my teeth.

  “Sometimes, it’s just something generic they want us to find, like uh . . . a certain type of rock; but other times, there’s one specific thing within a ruin that the Directors want – a retrect. A retrect’s a one-of-a-kind, special artifact or document or anything, really; and since it’s a unique item, finding one rewards more SPs than the generic fetch quests do.”

  I folded my arms and studied the mess of metal. A unique item lay within that ruined plant? And we were to retrieve it? “Are others in there searching for it now?” I asked.

  Theo shook his head. “Nope, once a group’s taken on a retrect quest, it’s off limits to everyone else for three days.”

  “Three days?”

  “There’s a time limit. So if we don’t return the retrect to a waystation within three days of accepting the quest, it’ll be forfeited, and another prag will have a chance to get in on the action.”

  “I see.”

  Theo went on, “This particular quest’s been up for over two months, and every time someone attempts it, it goes dim on the screen to show it’s currently being pursued, but so far no one’s been able to bring back the retrect. I’ve been waiting for the chance to take it on, and when I saw it was available at Zelpha, I knew I had to jump on it before someone else did. The bulletin system’s connected across all of the waystations, so it was just a matter of time before someone else noticed it’d gone online again. I had to act quick.” Theo wrinkled his lip idiotically. “That’s why I was so happy to find a mondo badass loner like you hanging around.”

  Mondo badass loner? I rolled my eyes at him. “What happens if we retrieve the retrect but don’t make it back to the waystation with it? If lots of people have already tried to get it, how do we know that hasn’t already happened to someone else? How do we even know it’s still in the ruin?”

  Theo was taken aback by the question. “Hm, I never really thought about that,” he said. “I guess I’ve never gone after a retrect and had it NOT be there, you know?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “And how many retrects have you recovered before today?”

  Theo muttered his answer with an undertone that dangerously resembled shame.

  “Come again?” I prodded.

  “Two,” he admitted reluctantly.

  Great, I thought. My source of intel might not have so much intel after all.

  “Then how about this,” I continued, assessing the situation. “Why not gather a large group of prags to take on the mission? If many have tried and none have succeeded, obviously there’s some large obstacle within that ruin. A larger group would have a better chance of combating it.”

  “True.” Theo stuck up his finger. “BUT, Zillpedo, more people means splitting the SP more ways.”

  So that was how it was. “And the obnoxious nicknames have started up again,” I said flatly. Happy to escape them, I made a start down the edge of the ravine, but Theo grabbed the strap of my bag to hold me back.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?” I said, hand to hip.

  “ONE: We don’t just go charging in. This is our only chance to do this. If we fail a mission, we can’t ever take on that mission again. TWO: We need to go stock up first.”

  I felt my jaw spasm with impatience. “Then why are we even here?”

  “I want you to get a sense for the place and start letting that tactical mind of yours get to work. There’s a waterwheel an hour south of here. We go there, load up, rest up, and then head back out in the morning. Kapeesh?”

  Waterwheel? He’d said that once before and had yet to explain it, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of prying. I waited silently for him to tell me the rest on his own.

  Theo gave a great sigh. “I guess you wouldn’t know. Waterwheels are havens by prags, for prags, totally hidden from the Markers. There, you can make trades, take cover, and they’ve even got water purification systems set in place. That’s probably the most important aspect of a waterwheel. Out here, there aren’t many other ways to get clean water.”

  Clean water – never before in my life had those two words held such importance.

  “So we go to this waterwheel place, then. Fine,” I concluded. I wasn’t keen on wasting time. I turned from the ravine and started due south. After a few steps, though, I paused. “What about our Markers?”

  Theo gave the ravine one hardy look before turning away. “Your tracker just went off, so unless your Marker’s managed to earn mondo amounts of SP in a super short time and picked up a tracker gambit, it won’t be going on again for a while. I mean, usually the dang thing only goes off once a day naturally. Sometimes twice.”

  “What about yours?”

  “Mine?” Theo looked down at the back of his hand with an odd expression. “Who knows if she’ll even . . .” His voice trailed.

  I cocked my head to the side and he shook his.

  “Don’t worry about Chloe,” he said decisively.

  I left it to myself to start the southward trek, as Theo seemed to be thinking hard about something – something that I didn’t feel like prying into, at any rate.

  On the way to the supposed ‘waterwheel,’ I updated my map, trying as best I could to detail the portion of the journey during which I’d been under the influence of the blue tablet. Theo had told me to let my ‘tactical mind’ get to work, but what did he expect me to do, exactly? I couldn’t formulate any sort of plan based on the little information he’d given me. Theo lagged behind, as we traveled, even slower than usual, bogged down by whatever thoughts were running through his mind. Meanwhile, I kept a sharp eye on the back of my hand, hoping he’d been right that I’d have the rest of the day to rest.

  We carried on that way, in total quiet, until Theo announced, “We’re here.”

  But the land hadn’t changed. Rock, sand, dust – that was all there was from where I stood. I allowed Theo to take the lead. “See that?” he said, pointing ahead of us. “There are two rocks, one on top of the other. See them?”

  Yes, I saw them.

  “That’s the guidepost. Follow me.” He walked to the side of the rock and stomped into the ground three times. Then, he waited, before stomping again twice. Once more, he waited, before stomping a final time. I marked down the pattern on my map.

  “You have to give the signal so that if there’s anyone here, they won’t attack you. One time, I was in one of the waterwheels, and a prag forgot to stomp. A dude jumped up and nearly ripped the girl’s head off before realizing she was one of us. SEE? Aren’t you glad you have me to show you the ropes?” Theo pointed proudly at his chest.

  I’d been right before, at Waystation Zelpha – out here, there were many rules. And we were expected to learn them all on our own. Without Theo, I would have been just like that girl, walking into the waterwheel unannounced – that is, if I ever managed to come across the waterwheel at all.

  Was this the only way to survive out here? By making friends?

  “And who showed you the ropes, Theo?” I asked.

  Theo’s face disfigured. “L-let’s just go down, okay?”

  Though I found his reaction unusual, I said nothing to question it, and Theo himself didn’t offer any further explanation.

  The suspicious boy crouched to the ground and grabbed onto something that had previously been camouflaged in the dust. It was a rusted handle. He gave the handle a swift yank and the ground came up with it.

&nbs
p; “After you, milady,” he said with a bow. I readied my katar just in case, as into the dark, we descended through the trapdoor.

  The way down was less of a staircase and more of a mess of piled rocks. Each step into the unknown made me falter and cling to the rough, rocky wall. I’d never been especially fond of the dark, even back home, where within the dimmest of rooms, the glow from the outside city still managed to creep through shutters and cracks. We were far from the city now, and the only light visible through the darkness came eerily from the backs of our hands.

  “There isn’t anyone in here,” I whispered.

  “Aha! That’s exactly what a Marker would think if they found this place,” said Theo’s voice in the dark. “Tricky, right? Here, take my arm.” His elbow swatted me in the stomach. “Oops.”

  I cleared my throat and took his arm and allowed him to pull me deeper as loose rocks scuttled out from under our feet. At the bottom of the stair that wasn’t really a stair, there wasn’t sign of anything or anyone. We were still enveloped in staunch darkness that seemed even to swallow the green glow of our hands.

  “Now what?” I said. “Should we light a flame?”

  “No, we won’t need to do anything like that.” Theo looped his arm through mine and yanked me close. Normally, I would have disapproved of intrusive behavior like that, but the dark . . .

  “Okay, remember this, Zill, because it’s the same at each waterwheel,” Theo instructed. “Here–” Taking my glowing hand in his, he pressed it to the wall directly ahead of us. It wasn’t rough rock like the wall I’d clung to on the way down; rather, it was smooth and flat. “Every waterwheel has a patch of wall like that,” he said. “And after you find it–” He started up the same knocking pattern he’d performed before. When he was finished, he slid my hand along the wall to the right side, where an unnatural notch was inlaid. “Feel that?” he said.

  “Y . . .” For some reason, the word was stuck. I swallowed and tried again. “Yes.”