Destroyed

by Madeline Dyer

  “The storm’s getting worse again?” Corin’s breath is hot against my neck. “Oh shit, that building.”

  He points at the building by the pile of rubble. One edge of it is partly hidden in a thick fog of dust and dirt and debris. The wall nearest to us sways, gaining momentum. Just when it looks like it might somehow avoid falling, it crashes down in a deafening cacophony, blocks jumping everywhere. The glass panes of our window clatter in their frame as clouds of dust plume up, create a floating field of wreckage.

  “Bloody hell.”

  Our building moves again.

  A whine-like creak cracks the air.

  Too close. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

  No.

  “We’ve got to get out of here!” I yell. “This building’s next!”

  My heart pounds. Is that why Raleigh hasn’t come for us? Are they evacuating?

  “Why’d you bring us here?” one of the reindeer herders yells at me. “She’s trying to kill us!”

  “Get out!” I scream, and I turn, grab Corin’s hand, and Viktoriya’s, try to pull them with me. A flash of dark hair—either Siora or Quinn. But I don’t know where I’m going, can’t remember which way is out. Every part of the corridor looks the same.

  Esther. And the others—which way are they? My eyes narrow, I can’t think, and, suddenly, the air in here is bad. Thick, scratchy, grainy. My throat squeezes. We need to get Esther and the others, get them out too, and—

  The Untamed man shrieks a shriek that grabs me, twists my heart. He’s closer—suddenly so close. But we haven’t moved far, have we?

  My chest tightens, and every part of me tells me to turn and go for the man. The opposite direction to Esther, is that right? But I can’t tell, I’m too disorientated, lost all sense of direction. The Untamed man, his screaming, it’s the only compass I have.

  “Come on!” Corin grabs me, yanks me back, just as a section of the corridor falls away.

  I scream. Viktoriya yells something, and then everyone’s shouting, words that tangle and create a mesh in my mind that I view the destruction through. I can see the sky, the mess of moods, flashes of color. Blinding lights.

  Beyond, I can see the other end of the corridor. It’s still standing, the building cut in half. Ragged, cold air blasts over us. Dust coats my arms. An uprooted tree flies toward us, through the gap, into the corridor and—

  “Run!”

  I turn, sprint, see a left turning—another corridor—and take it. More dust. We push through it. My heart pounds, and I try to count everyone as we move. Corin and Viktoriya. Siora and Quinn. Two of the reindeer herders are behind us—where are the others?

  “We need to get out!” someone else yells.

  Something hits the floor behind us, sends shock waves through the structure, and we fall. Hit the wooden panels hard.

  I jump up, pull Viktoriya with me. Energy buzzes through me, and I look back. Rocks. Hurtling through the air.

  My hand shoots out, automatic. Energy pulses from me, my hand, through the air. The rock splinters into thousands of fragments, and the shards fall.

  “What the hell?”

  “Keep running!”

  “Stairs! That way!”

  I look up, see an old, battered sign for a stairwell. The corridor has widened, a square-like space.

  “But we’ve got to get Esther,” Corin yells. “Is that the way to—”

  “We don’t know the way!”

  “They’re in the other half of the building, aren’t they?” Quinn shouts.

  Everyone’s shouting, and their voices are like metal grating metal, and I can’t think. My head spins.

  “We need to just get out!” My words seem to smash against the walls. “If this building falls, it—”

  Something creaks. Loud and heavy and—

  The top of the wall—the wall ahead—moves. Seems to move in slow-motion, individual bricks coming alive, pushing away from us and—

  It crashes down. I blanch, turn my back, try to cover my head with my arms. Things hit me, push me back. A hand yanks me to the side, and my eyes spring open—I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them and—

  The bison skitters into view, far below, on the ground.

  I can see the ground. It was an outer wall—the wall that fell, the wall that’s just gone and….

  It’s the actual bison. It’s him. I know it is. The Dream Land bison.

  He wasn’t trapped in the Dark Void? He got out?

  Yes, he faded….

  “What?” someone yells, but I can’t tell who. “This isn’t real? This is a Seeing dream?”

  “No!” I yell, my chest ragged. “It can’t be!”

  But…unless it’s still the Dark Void? And all this has been the vision?

  No. It can’t—

  The bison screams, looks up at me, and…and….

  A pure land.

  A new beginning.

  “Sev?” Corin’s cry jolts through me. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Follow the bison!” The words tear from me before I even realize I’m going to say them. “Get down there and follow him!”

  We scrabble forward, and then the stairs are here, and we’re descending. Pain grabs at my body, long fingers and nails, scratching. Then we’re at another stairwell, and I lose sight of the bison, falter, but the others are running like they know where to go. Corin and I, we’re at the back. We fly down the steps. My head pounds, I’m even more disorientated. Don’t know which way we’re going and—

  Something cold splatters over my arm. My gaze jerks up.

  A spirit. Clashing teeth, monstrous fangs.

  I duck down, feel more cold water spraying from the spirit as it turns. My feet stumble, but Corin grabs me. Then we’re at the bottom of the stairs, and an alarm is going off. High-pitched drilling in my head.

  A boom resounds from somewhere, and I flinch, stop, look up. Beads of sweat line Corin’s forehead, stick his hair to his skin.

  “We’re going to get out of here alive,” he says, determination in his voice. “We’re going to.” His gaze dips to meet mine. A moment, so pure between us—now of all times.

  We run after the others, in the direction we think they went, and get to the ground floor. My heart pounds. Down here, the air’s thicker, heavier. Water sloshes against my legs. Dominika’s boots aren’t waterproof, and the water makes the burns on my injured foot sting. The water’s warm.

  We splash through the flooded rooms. My foot catches something, and I look down, something gold. But then someone shouts. A female voice. One I don’t recognize. But Untamed—I know it.

  Other Untamed—they’re here too. My heart lifts.

  How many?

  The Enhanced, where are they? If they’re evacuating, they’re not going to be far away….

  Unless this isn’t real?

  No, it is, a voice inside me says.

  “Guns!” Corin yells, and then he yanks me to the left with him.

  It’s just the two of us. The others—they’ve gone?

  My eyes blur for a moment before I see the firearms. Glocks. Rows and rows of them. We each grab one, not that it’ll do much good against the falling buildings and—

  “Which way do we go?” Corin looks at me.

  I turn. Two exits. Left or right. No sign of the others, or the bison. My powers don’t instruct me.

  “That way.” I pick the left door. I don’t know why.

  We wade through more water to the doorway. I hold the gun out. The Enhanced, they’ve got to be around here somewhere. Got to be. This is their town. They’ll be here still. Won’t they?

  The door creaks as I open it. Cold air blasts onto me, and I stumble back, against Corin. He doesn’t let me fall, just tightens his grip on my hand.

  “Is this the outside?”

  I lean forward, eyes narrowing. “No. More walls. But….”

  But some are missing. Two walls have gone, collapsed.

  I look up, picture the we
ight of the building above us. Alarm pulses through me.

  We run, stooping, hunkering. More and more rooms, more doors. I think I hear shouting, but I’m not sure, then we’re outside. So suddenly.

  It’s dark—an eerie kind of darkness—and hot raindrops batter down on us, try to push us into the ground. Corin trips and flies forward before I can grab him. His hand lands on a rusty nail, and blood splatters. He lets out a low cry as he yanks his arm back. The nail holds onto his palm for a second. Then it lets go.

  My chest flutters as I see the wound. A hole in his hand. His face pales. I grab his hand, feel strange. My body shudders with energy, and there’s a hissing sound, and too much going on.

  White dots of light radiate out from me, and then I blink, and they’re gone. And Corin and I, we run. And—

  I stare at the animal.

  The bison.

  He’s still here.

  “There he is!”

  A strange feeling spreads across me as I watch him. My head pounds. He’s here.

  Right here.

  He stares at me. A real, actual bison. So big. Easily six feet tall at the shoulder. He looks fleshy and real. Different from the Dream Land bison? But he’d look different here…wouldn’t he? And he’s here. The strangest of feelings creeps across me.

  We stare at each other for a long moment. I break the eye-contact as a spirit shrieks. Maybe he’s just a regular bison who just happens to be here. He’s a wood bison. Wood bison aren’t native to these lands, are they? But I frown. I don’t know where we are. Still, the forest I can see around this town doesn’t look like taiga, looks more like lowland rainforest here. I search for conifers, pines, or larches, but I can’t see much. The air is thick, distorting the trees I can see so they’re paired back to just their skeletal shapes, a spreading darkness behind them.

  I turn and look the other way, see the buildings edging out of the dark fog, like they’re trying to escape it—the buildings where Corin and I were? I can’t think straight.

  Another spirit screams, and rain lashes down.

  “Esther!”

  Corin lurches forward, toward the bison. I start to call after him, but then I pick the shapes out of the shadows around the bison. The figures who are there. Marina, Elf, Taras. Other herders. Melissa supports a man who’s semi-conscious. And Esther crouches, grimacing. I rush forward, and the bison’s smiling, and he’s saying words to me that I don’t understand, can’t process.

  I reach the others, a second after Corin does. Blood trickles down the right side of Esther’s face. Elf wipes it with his sleeve, but Esther doesn’t seem to notice. She’s yelling at Corin, her voice raised above the roaring wind. She’s still pregnant, and the healer from Melissa’s group is right behind her, tells her to calm down.

  The air is muggy, hot with moisture.

  “Are we all here?” Yani shouts, and I see him, farther back.

  There’s a roof over us all. A metal sheet, supported by wooden poles on one side. A sort of lean-to against a crude, stone wall.

  “Is that the Dream Land bison?” a reindeer herder asks. “Is the Dream Land merging with the real world?”

  “This is unchartered territory.” Taras presses his hands together slowly, then he looks straight out at the storm.

  I follow his gaze. It’s still raining. Spirits are up there dancing—the more fragmentary spirits.

  “They haven’t attacked us like during a proper Turning,” Corin says.

  “Indeed. And the bison is here. It’s only the Gods and Goddesses that are missing—aside from the Dream Land itself.”

  “What do we do now?” Bea’s voice. It takes me a moment to find her. She’s behind two herders. “Where do we go? It’s too dangerous out here.”

  “Contractions are getting closer,” the healer croaks, his words are a hiss barely louder than the raging storm. “We cannot move Esther much farther. She’s already bleeding too much.”

  A hollow feeling fills me. “Is she really going to give birth again?”

  “Yes, I bloody am!” Esther’s face is red, and she glares at me. “And you’re not doing a thing to stop this!”

  The healer steps to my side. “Active labor hasn’t started yet, but it looks like….”

  The rain gets heavier, pounds on the roof in a deafening roar. The healer carries on speaking, but I can’t hear what he’s saying.

  I turn, instead, try to count everyone, but I don’t know how many we’re supposed to be. Those other Untamed—the ones we could hear—are they here? “Are we all here? Who’s missing?”

  “Viktoriya!” Taras yells. “My granddaughter! I can’t see her!”

  I turn, my heart pounding, look for her. Her face.

  “Can’t you find her by body-sharing?” Marina points at me, and Dominika’s screaming Viktoriya’s name.

  “No—I can’t.” I’m breathless, look back out at the storm. The bison’s still there. Good. “That power doesn’t work properly now,” I say. Not for Untamed, anyway.

  “We’re not safe here!” another voice yells, and I turn, see a woman I haven’t seen before. Untamed eyes and long, dangling earrings. “We need to move,” she yells. “We need proper cover! This roof ain’t going to hold much longer.”

  There’s a man behind her, cradling his arm. Yes, it was him we heard screaming. I’m certain of it.

  “We need to find Viktoriya!”

  “Kyranna said there’s a stronger building ‘round there—”

  “No. We need to get underground—buildings aren’t safe. We survive by nature’s means—”

  “Where’s that building?”

  Another man points, and I turn, try to see, but movement to my right catches me.

  In an instant, my gun is in my hand. But it’s just a spirit. A flash of white light with pink edges. Peals of laughter float through the air

  “It’s the only building still standing on this side of the town.”

  “Then the Enhanced will be in there.” My breaths are too fast. “We can’t go there.”

  And the bison nods. Actually nods.

  Taras yells for Viktoriya again, and his scream reaches into my core.

  Esther lets out a loud moan. Sweat has streaked her face. “Someone, do something! Seven! Please! Stop this!”

  But I can’t, and I turn my back to her—as if doing that will block out her screams. Because I can’t be doing this. Time-manipulation. It’s Raleigh. It has to be. Using my powers?

  A sheet of rain blows in, and I brace myself.

  “We can’t go out there, can we?” someone asks me.

  No, you can’t, the bison says.

  “We’ll look for Viktoriya when the weather’s better.” I twist around, trying to see where Corin’s gone, but I can’t.

  “But if the Enhanced Ones have Viktoriya, she’ll be converted by then.” Taras’s eyes are frantic. “Or if she’s been injured by falling buildings, leaving her is a death sentence.”

  The rain gets heavier, lashing in, and we squash together more. Sparks fly in the distance. My eyes cross to the splintered wood and debris and bricks scattered around. My stomach hardens.

  “We haven’t seen any Enhanced,” I say. “If they found her, they’d be looking for the rest of us. They know we don’t raid alone. And we haven’t seen any. They’ll be preoccupied with keeping themselves safe.”

  “Aye, the storm is bad.”

  “We can’t look for her now, Taras. I’m sorry.” A lump forms in my throat, and I try to swallow it down. “If Viktoriya has been caught, we rescue her, okay? But going out now and breaking into their buildings is just asking for trouble. It’s dark and storming, and we don’t know this town, but they do. We can’t risk drawing attention to our ourselves.”

  “Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made,” Melissa says. The bison is right behind her, and he blows warm air into the lean-to from his nostrils.

  Taras shoots her a look.

  “So we stay here?” Corin asks. “Wait the storm out?
”

  I nod. “That’s what we do.”

  The bison looks at me. He’s standing out there, and his eyes burn into me, until I think I hear his voice. Until I know it’s his voice and he really is the Dream Land bison, the same one who was in the Dark Void and told us to run.

  Stay here, he says. This settlement is old. Abandoned.

  Abandoned? I stare at him. There are no Enhanced here?

  “We’re safe?” Taras’s voice makes me jump, and I turn, see him. See everyone looking. Everyone listening. They can hear him too.

  The Enhanced have not been active here for years, the bison says. But this land once thrived with people, Untamed people.

  The storm clears—a tide parting—and moonlight shines down, brushes against the rocky mountainside in front of us. Silver trees and—

  The woodland, it’s—

  I hear the laughter from the lake, and I see the people, just for a moment. Like I did before, when I saw them, and I can’t remember when, but it doesn’t matter now.

  It was the past. They showed me their past. The Sarrs inside me. Four of them. No, six—the two girls at the end, who looked like Siora and Quinn, but aren’t. Cannot be.

  But this is the place.

  The visions, they were guiding me here? But in a different way to how I was guided to the Living Rock, the Origin Cave. They showed me their land—my future. A place of safety. And this land, it…it looks different, but the same. Older, wiser. But it was theirs, and now it’s ours.

  The Lost Souls have protected this area. But only you can make this place safe again, the bison says. Embrace your past.

  We sleep. I don’t know why we sleep. But we do. In the shelter. The spirits—they must have something to do with it. They make us sleep, and, when we wake, all of us together, it is calm. The storm has gone.

  “Is this really safe? This town?” Corin asks, rubbing his eyes.

  I nod slowly before I realize I’m nodding.

  It doesn’t look much like a town. Not an Enhanced town. Most of it is in ruins. Stones scattered, walls fallen, wooden paneling broken. I look around for the bison, but I know he’s gone now.

  “It has to have been abandoned for a long time,” one of the reindeer herders says. “Just left to go to ruin.”