Daugher of Ash

by Matthew S. Cox

  The fridge door flipped up like a casket lid. Alejandra sat up and peered around at the destruction. Every ounce of strength left in Kate’s body went toward the act of breathing. When the sensation of cold reached her brain, her teeth chattered, and she laughed.

  Alejandra climbed out of the fridge, rubbing a bloody nose. She stepped around small, lingering flames on her way to Kate’s side.

  “Are you still alive?” she whispered.

  “I’m not sure.” Kate raised her left arm, breathing a sigh of relief at the sight of the bracelet still functioning. Perhaps her attachment to the thing had subconsciously protected it. “So tired…”

  Alejandra mumbled in Spanish, something that sounded like a prayer, as she tiptoed around the burned slab. The only sign nibblers had even been there were a few bones and too many loose metal claws to count.

  “W-what did you do?” Alejandra’s next question stalled at the sight of the warped steel fridge door; several blade-fingers had stuck in it from the force of the explosion.

  “I got scared.” Kate propped herself up, sitting. “I have no idea where the shotgun went.”

  “Everything is gone…” Alejandra moved to the edge of the concrete slab foundation where the door had been. “There is just a big black circle.”

  Kate rubbed her face. “I’m freezing.” She blinked. “I’m fucking freezing!”

  Alejandra scurried over, reaching a nervous hand out. Sensing no heat, she touched Kate’s shoulder. “You feel hot like fever, but is no burning.”

  After the woman helped her up, Kate wrapped her arms around her and squeezed. Emotion got the better of her and she bawled like a scared child.

  “Why are you crying? We are safe.”

  “I’ve never been able to touch someone before…” Kate wiped her face. Sobbing gave way to manic giggling. “I…”

  “Need some real clothes,” said Alejandra.

  “I’m so damn hungry.” Kate swooned to the ground. “I… remember this feeling. The time I tried to swim. I need to eat or I’m going to die.” She cried again. “It won’t last; I’m too weak to make myself hot. The curse will keep trying until it kills me.”

  Alejandra unwrapped some of the Squealer steaks, which had been fortunate enough to be with her in the fridge. Kate ate three of them too fast to taste, and gnawed on the fourth, despite having no room in her stomach. The gentle hand brushing her hair and rubbing her shoulder kept quiet tears flowing the entire time.

  “I’m going to heat up again soon,” Kate muttered.

  “I’m sorry. It is not fair.” Alejandra picked at the blistering patch on her side. “You are frightening in this power you have.”

  “I’ve only blown up like that once before.” Kate took another bite of steak four. “When I was outside the lab, there were so many soldiers. I was so little, but they were all terrified of me. They would have shot me except for this man in a dark coat. He lied and said they wouldn’t kill me, but I didn’t trust him.” She took another bite. “I’m not sure how I did it, just like this time. I was so scared… and then I got angry.”

  “You are warming up.” Alejandra scooted away.

  “Yeah,” muttered Kate, staring down. “I shouldn’t have hoped.”

  “Hoped?”

  She stood and stretched. “I wanted to believe I might’ve used up all my power at once.”

  “Then you would be defenseless. That is not a good thing to be out here.”

  Kate stumbled to the edge of the concrete slab, curling her toes over. A circular patch of burned ground extended almost thirty meters in all directions; thin trails of white smoke wisped upward from several spots.

  “Madre de Dios,” muttered Kate.

  Alejandra let off a stifled laugh. “Si.”

  Kate exhaled. No, I’m pretty sure I’m playing for the other side. “I get the feeling we should move.”

  “Yes.” Alejandra kept her one remaining pistol at the ready. “Things will have seen that flash.”

  Yeah, like people on Mars. Kate glanced at the sky.

  The strange but welcome chill in the air had ceased; the ever-present shroud of warmth had returned. She stepped among the ashes of nibblers and scrub grass, keeping her eyes aimed down in search of sharp things. Minutes later, Kate reached the paving they had first followed. Her mind ran in circles around memories of the older scientist trying to get her to ‘switch it off.’ All of his mental exercises had failed. The only effect any of it had was for her to singe her eyebrows off once. It made the old man think she could control it, if only they could understand the subconscious mechanism that protected her hair.

  Alejandra followed, making no noise other than jingling.

  The thin dirt trail ended at a T intersection by a sign bearing the words ‘County Line Road.’ Kate glanced left and right. Up ahead past a guardrail, a square concrete culvert offered the promise of shelter for the night beneath a large east-west roadway. Kate squinted at the old highway; the ephemeral tug pulled her from deep within. She would follow the highway; the inexplicable urge called to her. She moved to the edge of the paving, bracing her hands on the guardrail for a moment before climbing it. Alejandra followed her across dry, waving grass on the far side. Smoke peeled around her feet as she crept to the waiting tunnel.

  “Why are you moving so slow?” whispered Alejandra.

  “I don’t want to start a brush fire.” Kate stepped onto a patch of dirt by the opening and relaxed. “This road overhead… I want to follow it west. But, I’m about to pass out.”

  The culvert was tall enough that neither of them had to stoop. Someone, no telling how long ago, had made a home of the place by adding a cot as well as several crates and boxes serving as storage shelves. Kate ignored everything, curling up on the hard concrete. It was far from comfortable, but she couldn’t burn it.

  Alejandra crouched nearby, holding her hands over Kate as if she were a campfire. They made eye contact; the woman seemed ashamed of herself.

  “It’s okay.” Kate laughed, and turned off the bracelet to save power. “I’ve never felt so useful before.”

  Kate awoke with the feeling of cloth against her skin. Alejandra must have wrapped her like a burrito in the night with a scavenged blanket. She sat up fast, swatting at the fabric to get it away before her consciousness kicked in. Despite her attempt at speed, it burned in several places. Alejandra slept on the cot, undisturbed by her flailing. Kate picked through the various boxes and items stashed in the tunnel, using a conveniently abandoned crowbar as an intermediary. Little of interest remained; most of the items were trash or too old to be of use. A few shirts and pairs of jeans looked usable, but filled her with jealous anger. Among a cluster of tools, one object, a hacksaw, caught her eye. She hooked it on the end of the crowbar and moved to the cot.

  “Alejandra, wake up.” Kate poked her until she moved.

  The woman sat up, wiping her eyes. “Good morning.”

  “Look what I found.” She dangled the saw in front of the woman’s eyes.

  Alejandra took it, turning it around in her hands to examine it. “A saw?”

  “It’s made to cut metal.” Kate tapped the welded bolt in the broken restraint. “Cut the bolt, not the band, it’s too thick.”

  “Oh!” Alejandra took it with an eager glint in her eye. She hooked her heel on the edge of the cot and got to work.

  Serenaded by feverish scraping, Kate crept to the opposite end of the culvert tunnel, shielding her eyes from the oppressive early-morning sun. She squinted at a few ancient trucks parked by a teal-green building with three white rolling doors. The land was quiet, devoid of life. A heavy metal object hit the ground behind her. Kate smiled as the rapid back-and-forth scrape resumed.

  “Slow down, you don’t want to break the blade.” Kate took a few steps out into the light.

  Over the course of several minutes, Alejandra cut the manacle from her left ankle, and hurled it contemptuously against the wall, spitting after it. Kate glanced back at
the sound of whimpering, cringing while the woman rubbed at red marks and dried blood.

  “If you want me to kill the bastard that sold you, I will.” Kate folded her arms.

  “He was my husband,” whispered Alejandra. “I wish never to see him again, but I have more anger for the raiders who force our people to behave like animals.”

  “Okay. I’ll kill the raiders then.”

  Alejandra sat for a moment in silence. “I think you have more than enough blood on your hands already. I do not wish to add more.”

  Kate left Alejandra to rub her wounds and proceeded to search the rest of some long-dead person’s possessions. A twist of jealousy at the reminder she could not touch anything without burning it made her look away. Alejandra appeared out of nowhere next to her holding a large red and white axe. Kate jumped, which startled Alejandra.

  “Sorry,” they both said at the same instant.

  Kate started to smile, but kept her expression blank. Such a moment of levity served only to remind her of normal people having normal friendships. She got up and jogged from the tunnel, crossing a barren lot toward the road. An old chain link fence surrounded the teal building and ran for some distance along the highway up ahead. Not wanting a rusty scratch, Kate avoided it and diverted along a dirt access road that curved up to the highway about thirty yards west. At the top, two lanes ran in either direction with a strip of earth between them. She glanced over her shoulder at the building. White letters spelled out ‘East Mountain Pumping’ on the road-facing side of the teal garage. Kate pondered whether it might hold anything useful. Smaller white letters below it read ‘septic systems.’

  Alejandra followed, gasping as her foot hit the baking pavement. “What is it?”

  Kate used up a little battery power to check a dictionary app. “Probably a bunch of crap we can’t use.”

  “Oh,” said Alejandra, moving back to the dirt.

  “I want to follow this road.” Kate went west, stepping through a full three-sixty turn to survey the land. “Something is pulling me this way.”

  Alejandra adjusted the pistol tucked into her skirt and balanced the axe over one shoulder. “Is that good?”

  “No damn idea.” Kate walked forward with a determined stride. “But, it’s all I’ve got.”

  ate stopped and glared at a large, black raven perched on a peeling metal sign. Whatever ‘40 Interstate’ meant, this ancient paved road seemed to align with the phantom pull. She squinted at the bird, which fluffed its feathers and met her stare with cold, unblinking eyes. It leaned into an upsurge in the wind, head low, wings hunched. Something about its presence felt like more than a simple bird watched her.

  Unable to pull her gaze off the animal, she clenched her hands into fists. She hated the feeling of the breeze on her unprotected body, the texture of the paving under her feet, and that she could not be with Esteban. Images flashed across her thoughts: lifted into a hug and spun around, kissing him, being held, maybe even making love.

  The bird’s ebon beak parted as if it were about to squawk, but it made no sound. For a moment, the world ceased to exist save for the soft howl of the wind, and the black feathers rippling like the anger in her heart. Talons scraped aluminum; the bird’s wings stretched to full length, but it didn’t break its piercing stare. A strange warbling noise came from behind, chipping at the shell of rage and loathing.

  Kate blinked, and the bird vanished from its perch; far off in the sky, a speck of black sailed north. The warble occurred again, morphing into a voice, behind and to the left.

  “Kate?” asked Alejandra. “What’s wrong? Why have you stopped?”

  The urge to silence the nattering sound with fire opened her right fist and heated the air around it near to the point of combustion.

  Alejandra crept into view, her face covered in perspiration. “You’re frightening me.”

  Guilt stole the fire from her hand. That was weird. I was so angry I didn’t even know her. “I…” She looked down. “We’re close.”

  Memory of this woman flooded back to her, a slave she had freed. Despite the sun, the bartered-for flannel shirt remained on, and closed. Kate glanced at the bracelet, the battery meter flashed. The sense of proximity and hope grew strong, and she dialed her outfit up from a bathing suit to a plain white t-shirt, blue shorts, and sneakers.

  “You have a glint in your eye.” Alejandra gathered long strings of black hair away from her face. “Like you want to kill someone.”

  “That’s because I do.” Kate glanced sideways at the fluttering fabric; jealousy rose up unbidden. If she could wear it, she would have already killed the woman to steal it. “I…”

  “You are not acting right.”

  “Not a real child. It made its body look like one to protect itself.” Kate walked past the sign, not looking at it. “Not a real child. It made its body look like one to protect itself.”

  Alejandra seemed spooked by the repeated muttering and faded back a few paces. The air cooled as the road climbed. Kate walked for hours, conversing only with the heartbeat in her mind and the whistling wind. Her companion had become dangerous in her silence; she no longer made soft jingling noises with each step.

  Kate shot Alejandra a glare that made her put a hand on the pistol. The woman’s brown eyes reminded her of that first deer. Anger at her friend turned inward, and she hated herself even more. Whispered prayers behind her made her feel even worse.

  “Sorry. I don’t know why I’m feeling so much anger. It’s not you.”

  Alejandra’s whisper barely surpassed the faint howl in the air. “There is evil here. The raven is a bad omen. We should turn back.”

  “I know. It’s what I’ve come to destroy. It knows I’m coming for it.” Kate looked to her right, at a smattering of old houses abandoned on the ground between the six-lane road and more distant peaks. Her shadow stretched long over pale brown rocks and clumps of green scrub. “I’m almost free.”

  “Please, guard yourself.” Alejandra let her arm fall away from her handgun.

  Kate left the mountains behind, following the highway into the shattered outskirts of a once-massive city. To the south, in the shadow of a cluster of large, commercial-looking buildings, a primitive wall sectioned off a small region. To the southeast, the decaying skeletons of several skyscrapers clustered together. Malice flowed from them, as if the dead city watched her approach. An odd sense of kinship radiated from the ruin. The same anger flowing through her pulsed from the bones of a dead civilization. Kate grinned, though Alejandra slowed.

  She climbed down over the side of the highway that had carried her most of the day to a north-south road that followed the eastern wall of the settled area. One old street sign, albeit upside down, marked it as 6th Street NW. Closer to the barricade, the charred remains of dozens of raider buggies and prewar vehicles littered the area. Wind sent whorls of dust into the air in sporadic gusts that caused several bones and a handful of skulls to shift across the pavement.

  A glint at the corner of the wall brought her attention to a woman in armor, dark skinned like her friend, raising binoculars to her head, no doubt to check out the two approaching figures. Kate ignored her, but Alejandra waved.

  Five blocks later, she hooked right by a sign bearing the words ‘Aspen Street’ and a warped bullet hole. A block west, a gate in the primitive wall stood below several armed guards. She cocked an eyebrow at their rifles―modern weapons. The last thing she’d expected to see out here. Damn. That’ll hurt. She rubbed her chest, remembering the last time she felt a rifle bullet. Even melted, the hit had broken a rib. For a moment, she grumbled at her brain, scolding it for being willing to melt bullets but not metal claws.

  I guess I’m more afraid of bullets.

  Without waiting for anyone to speak, Kate slipped through the narrow gap between two enormous slabs of metal. Inside the wall, a crew to her left paused in their work to cast appraising glances at her. Their efforts looked like an attempt to connect some manner of present
day machinery to the gate. Long loops of dangling chains on one end hinted at the barrier’s former mode of manual operation. Modern electric motors had been installed to the crude barrier. She squinted at the marriage of high tech and apocalyptic.

  What the hell is going on here?

  Boots clanked down metal stairs. Kate tossed her hair with a sharp twist of her head, attracting several impolite whistles from the guards and a few phrases in Spanish that went over her head but made Alejandra blush and gasp. Already at the brim of boiling into unchecked rage, she narrowed her eyes. Only the grandfatherly smile radiating from the armored figure ambling toward her prevented a fiery death atop the wall.

  Kate lowered her glare from the loudest catcaller. “I am here to see the child with glowing eyes.”

  The guards fell silent.

  “Are ya now?” asked the older man. “You don’t seem hurt.”

  A number of lies swirled around in her brain. Being this close to her goal muddied her thoughts; mixed with building hatred, it kept them out of reach of her tongue. If not for almost twenty armed people above and to either side, fiery murder would have been easier.

  “It’s not a real child,” she muttered.

  Alejandra crept up behind Kate, unnoticed by the guards. She remained quiet.

  Kate glanced at her for an instant, further enraged by jealousy. Never in her life had she been inconspicuous, always the center of attention. Only when she had been in the wilderness as a child did she know peace, but the loneliness had been too great.

  “You must’ve been out in the desert too long. You’ve stopped sweating.” The old man raised a hand as if to put it around her shoulders. “Come, child. Let’s get you some water.”

  She edged away. “You shouldn’t touch me.” Esteban appeared in her mind, riding a wave of sorrow that crashed into the urge to kill. “No one can.”

  “You’re safe here, girl. I’m sorry if you was mistreated out there.” He hesitated, too far away to feel her radiant heat. “No one here’ll make you do anything.”