by Gabby Fawkes
A grassy taste (Grade Four truth or dare, don’t ask) sprang up in my mouth. I swallowed with difficulty then held out the remaining stalk to my friends. “Could be worse.”
Kian accepted it. Demi regarded me aghast, like I was a child murderer. “Never.”
“Suit yourself,” I said.
“Yeah, alis volat propriis,” Kian said snarkily.
While Demi was distracted arguing with her how yes, she did ‘fly with her own wings’ and that killing plants was pure evil, I ripped out the other grass-like plant and put it in my pocket for later. If things got dire enough, Kian and I could force-feed it to Demi. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
The next few hours were walking, walking and more walking. The landscape was static, the craggy and bush-spotted desert plains seeming to repeat themselves continually. It was like some kind of desert purgatory, where the only passage of time was the burning heat.
As I took in the repeating landscape ahead of us, my thoughts threaded back to themselves, like a jammed tape. Desert plain. Desert plain. Yep, desert plain. And oh, what do you know, desert plain. Followed by, surprise, surprise, another desert plain and more desert plains.
Until I saw something that was – I don’t know what – but wasn’t just another desert plain.
“No way,” I breathed.
“Yes way!” Kian said, taking off at a run. “That’s a goose station.”
“You mean gas,” I called after her, hurrying to catch up.
Kian’s mistake wasn’t really her fault. Most of what we’d learned about the outside world was through crappy PowerPoint presentations and ‘90s movies when we were kids.
“Think it has food?” Demi asked.
A few minutes later, one look in the window, and we had our answer.
“Mi dio,” Kian gasped.
“Blessed mother of all that is holy…” I murmured, leaning so far forward my forehead hit the glass. My stomach was doing premature triumphant flips.
There in the gas station, wasn’t just a few haphazard bags and bars of junk food, no – there were two whole aisles of the things! And not just Mint Aeros either, there was a whole rainbow of drool-worthy chocolates and chips.
Demi’s voice broke the reverie. “Guys? We don’t have any money.”
“So?” I said, all ready to go in and help myself.
Demi sighed, and, in a patient voice, explained. “Grade Five Outside Affairs class. In order to get things from stores – which this is – you have to pay for them.”
“Think Tala was sick for that one,” Kian said helpfully.
Although I’d probably just forgotten.
“How do you even remember all that stuff…” I trailed off, getting it as I looked at her shining face. “You never stopped hoping.”
“Nope.” Demi was already gliding in. “Now come on. You guys sneak some chocolates while I talk to the cashier.”
Kian and I exchanged a grin. We had experience at this game. Since the school had perpetually underfed us, we’d often sneak extra cookies while Demi talked to the nice chef, Harvey, about his prolific stamp collection.
As Demi chatted up the big-bearded cashier man, Kian and I got our hands on as many chocolates as we could and shoved them in our pockets and elsewhere.
Minutes later, we were wobbling outside to the road nearby.
One glance our way and Demi’s brows rose. “Seriously?”
Kian pulled four Reese’s peanut butter cups from her top and shook them high. “We gonna have a munchies feast tonight!”
“That was stealing,” Demi said, with a wary look back, although she still accepted the proffered Smarties. “Which is illegal and could get us into a lot of trouble.”
“It was your idea,” I pointed out.
Demi smiled sadly. “Beats eating my plant.”
“We’ll send the guy money as soon as we have it,” I said, turning to make a mental note of the name of the place – Red Ranch Highway Convenience.
“How are we even supposed to get money anyway?” Kian wondered, inhaling half a Coffee Crisp in one bite. “Don’t we need a job?”
“Let’s just get out of here,” I said, pulling out a Mars bar from my ponytail. “The further we get from the school, the better our odds of not getting caught.”
Demi was staring at me. Finally, she said, “Your ponytail?”
I grinned, procuring chocolate bars from my thankfully tight-ish jeans, the backs of my shoes, my pockets, and a few more from my bra.
Kian was grinning too as she patted the large hoodie pocket on her belly. “What, thought I got preggers in the convenience store?”
Demi just shook her head, chuckling, as she stashed some of my awkwardly placed bars in her pockets. We headed down a long stretch of road.
“I’m done with walking,” I said after a few tiring minutes of this, sticking my thumb up and out.
“Put that down!” Kian said sharply, slapping my hand down.
I looked to her, surprised. “Okay?”
“Hitching is dangerous,” she said. “That ‘Hitcher’ movie, don’t you remember?”
I had a vague childhood memory of some slasher film, but since it was long-repressed, I made the prudent decision to keep it that way.
“It’s hitchhiking,” Demi corrected her. “And you know they only showed us those horror movies when we were little to scare us.”
“Well, it worked.” Kian’s arms were crossed across her chest stubbornly. “I am not getting stabbed in the gut seven times and left for dead. No gracias.”
Clearly, someone’s repression hadn’t been successful.
“What’s your idea then?” I said.
“I don’t know,” Kian admitted. “Just not that.”
Already there was a promising-looking gray minivan zipping past that we’d missed our chance with.
“Ok,” I said, and stuck my stuck-up thumb out again.
“Tala!” she exclaimed, grabbing me.
I ripped myself free as a truck rumbled near. It was slowing, slowing, and… hell yeah, it had stopped!
“I swear to John, Tala!” Kian was shrilling, while Demi tried to calm her down.
“Let’s just see what he’s like and then decide.”
Two heads swam into view of the truck’s front windshield– a jowly stubble-dusted one, and a lower fluffy fat one – as it shrieked to a stop.
“I’m in,” I said, walking up as the door swung open.
“But what if he’s a weirdo murderer?” Kian hissed. “And locks us in and stabs us ten times and hides pieces of our bodies in different states and…”
I replied with more assurance than I truly felt. “He’s got a cat, Kian. Killers don’t keep cats.” Except, I wondered, what about the Headmistress?
It was only about ten minutes later (after we’d crammed in the front seat and the trucker got driving and told us his name was Ferdinand, but we could call him Bob, and the fat ball of white fluff was Bob Jr. and we could call him so), that Demi finally raised an eyebrow and said, “Technically, no one keeps cats. They keep us.”
Our shared grins were short-lived, though.
“Uh, where exactly are we going?” Kian pointed out.
“Oregon,” Bob said.
I dipped my fingers absently into Bob Jr’s fur, although he was firmly parked on Kian’s lap.
Who knew that geography class would turn out to actually be useful? I was fairly certain Oregon was on the part of the map close-ish to Canada, but that was where my non-expertise ended.
“Where exactly in Oregon?” I asked Bob, hoping that would jog my memory.
“Portland,” he said, eyes on the road. “Nice naturey place. Damn good beer. Good for jacuzzi business too.”
That explained what he was transporting, at least. As for if we actually wanted to go to Portland… My friends and I hadn’t discussed where we were going. The don’t-die-in-the-desert plan had been so all-encompassing, we hadn’t thought past it.
The only plac
e I could think of going was where we’d seen the fire. Damn my crap memory – though the others probably remembered. Especially since it was the only clue we had to whatever may or may not have been crazy/ magical about us.
“Can drop y’all along the way, though,” Bob was saying, glancing my way.
“Thanks,” I said. “I think we….”
I shot a look to Demi, who was the geography whiz, then lowered my voice. “Is Portland, Oregon near where we saw the fire…”
“Hell yeah, we gonna be passing through some wildfire spots.” Bob let loose a low whistle, apparently having heard my quiet voice anyway. “’Round Sacramento, then Redding. News said Chico’s was real bad, fire like they never seen, though it just burned right out, like-” He snapped.
“Chico,” I said, trying out the word.
Kian and Demi, catching my eye, nodded. That was the place from our news broadcast, all right.
Its burning right out, since it wasn’t a natural wildfire, made sense in that case too. If dead dragons causing a fire made any sense at all.
Mind your language, fool.
Bob Jr. leapt up and hissed, swiping his claws at me.
“Bob Jr., you bastard!” Bob howled, swiping his own hairy bear-like paw at the cat, who wriggled away and disappeared under the seat.
“Damn beast is off to curl up in them jacuzzis in the back.” Bob scowled, then aimed his squint my way. “You got a dog or something? Bob Jr. ain’t usually a dick.”
“No,” I said, still getting my breath.
Something told me it wasn’t a coincidence that the cat had flipped shit when my murderous head voice made an unwanted appearance.
Perhaps the feline merely noted my ability to make a nice BBQ appetizer out of it.
My stomach rebelled.
-So not cool, I responded in my head.
Suit yourself. Perhaps you can partake of the months-old moldy fries lodged in the car mat. Considering we are still starving.
-What are you even…
A glance down found that, in fact, there were some horrendous-looking fuzzy, black-spotted fries squished into the mat on the floor.
“Tala?” Kian elbowed me. To my blank gaze, she said, “We just told Bob that we’ll come along, get off at Chico.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
Bob squinted at me again. “You sure you girls all right?”
“Yes, why?” Demi said in her most innocent of innocents voice.
He rubbed at a scab on his stubbley chin. “Just, you look tired and shit. Like you’ve seen Bloody Mary or something.”
Laughter at his own joke creaked out of him.
“Nope, we’re fine,” I said.
He wagged a knowing finger at me. “Partying too much’ll do that to you, y’know.”
I giggled in a faux oh-you-know-us way. As far as I knew, partying was what normal kids did in the real world – drank some, danced, made out, laughed a bunch. At least that was what the movies made it look like.
At least we were now headed to the place where this whole mystery had started. Not that it gave me much relief. There were still too many unanswered questions.
Like how we were supposed to get back to our school or find out what the hell had been going on there if no one knew it even existed? And whether Chico would really have signs of the dragon corpses we’d seen.
As I stared glumly out the window, Kian nudged me. “Wanna sleep while I keep watch?”
A glance over found Demi’s head dipped back, her tawny curls obscuring her still clearly asleep face, draping over the rest of her like a blanket. Lucky girl.
“All right. Thanks,” I told Kian.
“Don’t thank me. Next it’s my turn,” she snapped.
“You can go first.” I patted her. “It’d be for the good of us all, really.”
I ducked Kian’s swatting hand, though she was smiling now. “Yeah, yeah – I’m Kian the Underslept Bitch right now. Go on – hurry up and sleep. Seriously, Bob was right – you look about to pass out. And no way am I getting guarded by the heaviest sleeper on Planet Earth.”
“Night,” I said, waving.
As I turned my head away, she said, “Night… And thanks. For everything.” I turned to her again, and our eyes met. Her voice lowered, although I could still hear the new serious note vibrating in it. “You were the one who kept me going when I was ready to flip shit.”
“Really?” I said. “And now?”
The way my breathing felt shallow and my hands clammy, I knew I was far from calm. But was I the only one?
“I’m still ready to flip shit,” Kian confessed. “Just waiting for that perfect time.”
She winked.
I winked back. “You and me both.”
We held each other’s gazes for a few seconds, while different, trite, yet reassuring things to say flickered in and out of my head. Like that it was all going to be okay, and we’d make it this far, blah blah blah. But I was too tired for any of that. Too tired to do anything more than give Kian a final strained smile and again say, “Night.”
When I turned back to the window, I let my head dip to it as my eyes fluttered shut. Whatever happened tomorrow, sleep would help. For what came ahead, we’d need all the rest and clear thinking we could get.
14
We each got a bit of sleep in, keeping watch and munching on the remainder of our candy bounty.
Bob, as it turned out, didn’t lock us in and stab us ten times and hide pieces of our bodies in different states as Kian had feared. Instead, he dropped us off at the edge of Chico.
As we trudged down its nice streets, all low buildings with a sort of colonial style, my mind was buzzing.
In just over twenty-four hours we’d found out that:
a) Everything we’d been told was a lie, and
b) that magic was possibly real, and most importantly
c) we were possibly not crazy...
Arriving at the forest, I didn’t know what to expect. What I didn’t expect was nothing. No police tape, no firefighters – no no one.
Granted, it’d been a few weeks since the wildfire itself, but still. The fire had apparently burned big and burned out as quickly as it had come. It only took us another few minutes before we reached the outlying forest – rather, its charred remains.
We stood there for a good minute, not saying anything. Everything reeked of burnt foreboding, but that could also have been because it was here – seeing dead dragons where there was supposed to be just your typical wildfire – that had started it all. Me not taking my meds. Us going exploring. Jeremy getting taken away.
“Let’s go?” I said, taking a step forward.
“I guess,” Kian said. “Although if there was some secret dragon conspiracy, it’s probably been covered up by now.”
“Still,” Demi said. The flickering about of her cornflower blue eyes was like a nervous, yet hopeful sparrow. “We came all this way. It’s our best shot at finding out what’s going on.”
“And it’s not like we have anywhere else to go after this,” Kian pointed out.
“Hear, hear,” I said, trying to smile.
We were out of money (not that we’d ever had any), and out of promising options. Better to investigate this creepy half-burned forest than to start thinking about what our next step was.
And so, off into it we went. Everything was charred foreboding. With every crunching step, my body tensed more.
Honestly, after all the insanity lately, I wasn’t sure that I really wanted unmistakable, right-there-in-front-of-me proof that magic was real.
As we trudged along, we kept our eyes peeled, saying little. No way did I want to stumble on a dragon corpse, if they were still even here.
When we reached the place, I knew immediately. Only scorched tree stumps remained, while the ground itself was thick with black-gray ash. Here, unlike before where the odd lone sapling had survived, no trees had escaped unscathed.
Around the perimeter of this massive sp
ace I walked around, trying to mentally map it out in my head, like a weirdo version of connect-the-dots.
“It’s almost like a…” I said.
“Big old dragon corpse was here,” Kian finished for me, kicking up some ash with the toe of her sneaker.
I was just starting to wonder where Demi was, when her voice came through the trees. “Guys, over here!”
She was in another scorched tree stump, ash-ridden clearing. Judging by its outline, the way it swelled at the bottom and narrowed to a long neck at the tip, there was no doubting what it was. Its shape was just like the first one, where a dragon corpse could’ve been.
A glance through the trees found another such clearing, crossed with another. It made sense. Some of the dead burning dragons we’d seen had been piled atop each other haphazardly, as if they’d died fighting, not been laid out all nice and neat.
Suddenly, the voice in my head hissed. My arms tingled as I grew aware of a new presence.
I grabbed Kian and held a finger to my lips. We froze.
A baby chipmunk skittered by, lingering a moment to stick me with an accusing look, as if I were to blame for all this.
I opened my mouth to say something again, when Kian grabbed my arm.
“Hot guy at 2 o’clock,” she hissed.
Talk about a weird forest joke…
But then she spun my head to the side so that I saw him. The man to our left, standing between the two burnt-out forest clearings, looking at the third.
One look and I could see. Hot, he was – godly hot, even. His slightly out-of-season T-shirt clung to a drool-worthy torso, while his face was all expertly sculpted planes, right now set in seriousness.
He was walking toward us too. He stopped only a step away, heat slashing down my middle at his closeness.
Yep, even hotter close up.
“What brings you here?” he asked in a gravelly voice.
“Sightseeing,” Kian said in a voice that could’ve been coy or hostile. “You?”
As Demi joined us, his sea frost-blue eyes cut through us, one by one.
“Odd,” he said, spreading his muscled arms to indicate our burned surroundings. “Wildfire like this burning so bad and yet going out so fast. Don’t you think?”