by David Holley
Now it was Mia’s turn to lose focus. During her brother’s rant, her attention had been drawn to someone else, someone with perfectly synchronized waving arms reminiscent of her favorite maestro, Gustavo Dudamel. Her eyes drift back to Max and she flashes a devilish smile, ignoring his tantrum, and slowly backing away, saying nothing more.
This only infuriates Max further. “Oh, so now you’re leaving? No goodbye? Good luck? Nothing?” He shakes his head in loathing. “Fuck me.”
Mia turns her back on her brother. “You’ll be just fine you big baby!” she says to herself.
*************
Walking alongside Noah, Max is overjoyed that he is no longer in the company of his sister. He is barely able to contain his excitement. “So do you think this is it?”
Noah shrugs. “I can’t be certain, but whoever shot that flare is human.” His tone grows more serious. “Now, I want you to listen to me carefully Max. Since we have no idea who these people may be, I want you to hold back upon our arrival and wait for my signal. Do not come forward until you see me give you the go ahead. That will be after I determine that these people pose no threat to us. Understood?”
“Yes, I understand,” he replies tersely.
Noah shoots him a puzzled look, and Max is quick to apologize. “I’m sorry, it’s not you. You just reminded me of something my sister said earlier. She drives me nuts!”
“So I’ve noticed. You two make quite an odd pair.”
“Yeah, no shit. She’s a mystery that one.”
Noah nods. “That’s a fair assessment.”
Max’s eyes light up. “Speaking of my sister. I have to ask you something.” He pauses awkwardly, searching for the right words before finally blurting, “You know what she can do, don’t you?”
Noah tilts his head at Max and smiles thinly. “Has she told you what we talked about?”
“No.” He laughs humorlessly. “She doesn’t tell me anything and when she does I have no idea what the hell she is talking about anyway. I just figured you did when you made her your scout.” His tone has an envious edge. “And then I knew for sure, yesterday.”
“Yesterday?”
“Yeah, you alerted us to run before the landslide actually happened, remember?”
“Ah, of course. Well, we should be thankful she warned me when she did; I’m not sure if any of us would have made it if she hadn’t.”
Max lets out a long sigh. “I don’t know… I guess.”
“You and your sister have been through a lot these past few days, and I understand the anger you feel about the loss of your parents, but misdirecting it at your sister would be a mistake. She is devastated about what happened to your family and she’s more fragile than you think.”
“Wow! She got to you, didn’t she?” Max laughs aloud and looks to the sky, incredulously. “You of all people.... Look, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, because honestly, I think you’re awesome, but don’t let my sister’s Jedi mind tricks get inside your head. She’s a good actress, believe me.”
“I am under no spell, I can assure you; and yes, I realize that she is not as innocent as she likes to portray herself. But what I am certain of is that she has a remarkable ability. And because of that, we need to protect her. You must never tell anyone of her secret. Are we clear?”
Protection? Max thinks, that’s a laugh. If anyone needs protection it’s us. “Yeah, okay, I won’t say a word,” he promises, raising his right hand to God, mockingly.
“Good. So has anyone else noticed what you did before the landslide?”
“Not that I know of. It happened so fast and with all the chaos, I don’t think it registered with anyone. The only person who could have noticed would have been Alice, but she’s a little oblivious, if you hadn’t noticed.”
Noah shakes his head no. “I hadn’t, but I trust you would know better than I.”
They ascend an elevated pitch of large slate tiles that appear remarkably like an ancient staircase. When they reach the top, Noah again inspects the surrounding area. “There!” He points, handing Max the binoculars. “Take a look, do you see the smoke?”
Max scans the horizon. “I do! What do you think?”
“I don’t know, but let’s go find out.”
They descend the hillside and enter a dense patch of forest. The light barely pokes through the canopy, making visibility poor and slowing their pace.
“Tell me something else, Max. The day of the tsunami. How exactly did that play out between you and Mia?”
Max’s eyes double in size. “What, she didn’t tell you?”
“We discussed it, but it was all rather vague.”
“Vague? Yeah, get used to that.” He scratches his chin, grown thick with dark stubble. “Where do I begin? It was like a dream. After I saw you charging up the hill carrying Jeremy, and that massive wave about to crush you both, I hightailed it back around the bend, and as I was running, I saw this rope come down from out of nowhere. That’s when I heard Mia yelling for me to grab on to the rope and climb up. I just did what she said, and after I scaled about forty feet or so, there she was, just standing there. Which totally reminds me of this one time, when she...”
“Max,” Noah interjects. “Finish this story first, please.”
“Right, sorry. So then she led me down this gnarly path through the trees, until we reached the other side of the hill in this small clearing. That’s when she told me to anchor the rope, which I did. Oh, and this whole time, Mia was talking to herself, and I kept being like who are you talking to? and she just ignored me, which is typical I guess, unless she was giving me an order.” Max ends his story with a shrug. “It was weird man.”
“Fascinating… so did you throw out the line?”
“No, Mia did. That was strange, too. She kept looking back at me and taking a couple steps one way and then a couple of steps the opposite way. And I asked her, Why are you looking at me? And that’s when she said, I’m not looking at you dipshit. Those were her words. But I’m telling you dude, she was looking right at me. Anyways, she finally threw the line down and she didn’t even say goodbye. All she said was, I was never here, play the hero. And the next thing I knew, you were standing in front of me.”
“I see. Well. That is very interesting indeed.”
“Interesting? I don’t know… I think it’s weird, personally. I’m just glad you’ve seen it for yourself, because honestly I thought I was losing my shit.” Max twirls his index finger in a circular motion at the side of his head for effect.
Noah chuckles. “Yes, I could see how this all seems a little crazy to you. I’m curious — has she told you about the vision she has had about you?”
“Yeah, I mean, she tried anyway. When we were by the lake today during our break she started telling me about it, but the second I heard it was snowing, I was like, why are you telling me this now? So I blew it off and caught some righteous rays. I’ll talk to her about it later when we get home.”
Noah hears a sound behind them and realizes they are not alone. He slyly signals to Max, directing him to hide behind a massive Pohutukawa tree, as he does the same. With their backs pressed against the wall of wood, they wait patiently for the intruder to reach them. At the soft shuffle of feet and a branch cracking underfoot, Noah peeks around the giant trunk. When he does, he is relieved but certainly not surprised, to see who is walking toward them.
Following Noah’s lead Max turns away from the tree and is immediately annoyed. “Mia?” his voice booms through the forest. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Initially startled, Mia quickly shifts to defiance, putting her hands on her hips. “You guys are going the wrong way. Follow me.”
Max turns to Noah, hoping for disapproval, but only gets a shrug in return. He watches in contempt as Noah falls in line behind his sister, who has already started blazing a new trail. The two of them disappear into the forest. Dejected, he shuffles after them, following several paces behind. They cut through the woods, a
nd after a short while, they reach a clearing. When Max emerges, he sees a wide expanse of black peaks and sloped grasslands that feel spongy underfoot. Patches of trees lay between piles of stacked rock, a landscape of stark beauty.
When they reach the top of a long meandering hill, Mia announces, “Okay, we’re close now. They should be just over there,” she points, “beyond those patches of trees.”
“Who’s they?” questions Max, appearing more devil than saint, his hair poking out from the sides of his red and white knitted cap.
“I dunno… them?” she replies, refusing to make eye contact.
“Wait. You don’t know? Bullshit.”
“No. I don’t.” She shoots him a look that could kill.
Max doesn’t flinch and glares back at her before Noah diffuses them. “Here take these.” He hands Max the binoculars. “I need you to climb up to that landing,” he says, motioning to a squat ragged hill as black as coal off to their right. “Don’t reveal your location and wait for my signal. Mia will be coming with me.”
Max fumes quietly, and gives his sister a parting glare before turning his back on both of them and sprinting away. He tries to focus on the task at hand, but is preoccupied with annoyance at his sister’s meddling. This is uncharted territory for Max, who has always been the one at front and center, while his sister gladly hid in his shadow; but now it seems the whole world has been flipped and he struggles to find his place in it. He takes out his mounting frustration on the hillside, running briskly up the rocky slope. He finds an easy path through a narrow corridor, and when he reaches the top, he hunches over and finds cover in a series of boulders stacked on top of each other like a prehistoric dung heap. With darkness less than an hour away, Max looks through the binoculars to see Noah and Mia walking toward the fire.
Max looks beyond them to where the fire burns pale yellow against a bold magenta sky. It smolders on a flat clearing the size of a football field, bookended by shallow patches of evergreen forests. He pans to the right, and that’s when he sees her.
His first human sighting — aside from his fellow survivors — in over a hundred years, or so it seems. Her hair is raven, long and kinky, as wild as the countryside itself and her skin is a dark caramel. She is dressed in a pair of faded jeans, red cowboy boots, and a white tank top, exposing long sculpted arms. He watches as she drags a scraggly tree trunk as long as she is toward the waning fire. When he turns his attention back to his companions, he realizes he has a unique view of the scene unfolding. Max watches with great anticipation, the encounter just seconds away.
As he finally catches sight of the young woman, Noah begins waving his arms, crossing them back and forth over and over. Through his binoculars, Max witnesses the shock of the girl as she catches sight of Noah and Mia. Her initial fright turns to enthusiasm, as she begins jumping up and down waving back at them. Then she turns back to the woods from which she had emerged and seems to yell something. Within moments, a man comes into view from the thickets.
“Of course,” Max sulks.
He’s a veritable mountain of a human, with arms and legs as thick as tree trunks and a barrel chest to go along with it. He zooms in for a closer look. The man is completely bald, dressed entirely in black from head to heel. His face along with both arms is covered in tattoos and his skin tone is similar to the woman’s. To Max, it appears that the two strangers share a common ethnicity and may even be related, but he can’t be sure.
What he is certain of, though, is that these people are as lost as they are; just like them, they are in need of rescue. He averts his gaze momentarily as he comes to grips with the fact that their struggle is far from over.
When the two parties meet, Max watches them shake hands and exchange greetings. At first, the conversation involves everyone with lots of back and forth, followed by a series of pointing in various directions, but soon it’s limited to Noah and the other man while the girls stare at one another. Then, rather than signaling the all-clear to Max, they begin to walk back to the fire.
“Come on,” Max groans.
When they reach the campfire, Mia continues to walk aimlessly, which immediately strikes Max as odd. He glances toward Noah, still deep in conversation with the two strangers, and apparently unaware that Mia is no longer near him.
“What is she doing?” Max asks aloud, again, to no one.
Suddenly, he sees the large man waving to someone else and, as Max pans to the right, he spots two more men. One appears to be closer to Max’s age; his long curly black hair is similar to the girl’s, although his coif may be even wilder. He wears a green nylon jacket with white sleeves and dark grey cargo pants. His companion is dressed all in black, similar to the giant, with slicked black hair ending in a series of thick curls. His face is hidden behind a thick black beard and a cigarette rests leisurely in his mouth. Both carry bundles of twigs for the fire, and when they see the new arrivals they begin to jog toward them.
Max pans back to where he last saw his sister and nearly loses it when he can’t find her. He anxiously lowers the binoculars to take in a wider view and eventually finds her near the edge of a cliff, staring out across the verdant valleys below. Max shakes his head in relief and continues his vigil. This time, he keeps his eyes glued to Mia, and he is dismayed when she takes a few steps forward, moving even closer to the edge. She peers over the cliff, standing precariously close, as if she’s preparing to take a flying leap. What the fuck is she doing?
Growing anxious, and so far away from the scene, Max stands from his crouch, no longer trying to hide, as he observes Noah meeting the two new men and shaking their hands. He turns his attention back to Mia, still standing along the edge of the cliff, everyone else apparently oblivious to her theatrics. She seems preoccupied and unaware of the two new men. The young man with the wild hair has left the group and walks toward her, much to Max’s relief.
“Thank God,” he sighs.
As the man approaches Mia, he apparently says something, causing her to turn abruptly. At that very moment, a rumbling tremor rattles the ground and sends her falling backward, her arms flailing in the air.
Helpless, Max can do nothing but watch in horror and scream to the top of his lungs.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Chapter 16
The wind tosses her hair back and forth as the sky glows a deep red. Her hand flutters past before disappearing, as her back dips then arcs beyond her control. She plunges to a certain death — but before she falls out of reach she is grabbed around the waist and catapulted into the arms of a man she has never seen before, except in a recurring dream. Her silky black locks fall onto the man’s chest as they crash to earth together in a tumultuous thud. She gazes into his eyes, this man that she is on top of and entangled with, gazing into deep hazel pools that drown out the periphery.
“Am I dreaming?” she whispers.
The man lies frozen, like an angel in the snow, his face wreathed in a mane of jet-black hair. After a long silence, he asks, “Are you okay?” His eyes probe hers, searching, causing her to look away from him nervously.
At the sight of the others approaching, Mia looks back at the man she is straddled on top of and smiles radiantly. “Thank you Atua, for saving my life.”
“What…? Do we know each other?” He is caught off guard and his eyes grow wide.
Mia pulls herself up then and offers a hand to her newfound hero. He smiles warmly as his hand swallows hers and rises to his feet. “My name is Mia, and how could we know each other if we just met?” She dusts herself off, in a series of pats and swipes.
Noah is the first to reach them and before he can ask, Mia responds, “I’m fine, thank you,” and casually walks away.
Noah looks at her inquisitively before turning to Atua and extending his hand. “Well, that was heroic,” says Noah, as they shake on it.
Still puzzled by the mysterious girl, Atua watches her as she walks away. “Uh, thanks,” he says, finally turning to face Noah. They are of
the same height and build, though Atua is younger by at least a decade, probably more.
“You must have terrific balance,” Noah says. “That little maneuver was pretty risky and I had your chances at less than fifty-fifty.”
Atua nods and points to his massive quads. “Sea legs… I’ve been on a boat my whole life.” He still carries the smile he’s had since meeting Mia
Noah beams at the striking fellow. “Outstanding!”
Mia is out of earshot of Noah and Atua when Kaewa touches her arm gently. “Are you alright?” she asks.
“Yes. Thank you.”
“That was a close call. I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?”
“It’s Mia, you’re Kaewa right?”
Kaewa shakes her head. “That’s right, mate.” The rush of adrenaline causes her to bounce slightly as she walks. “Crikey Mia, you could have died! What were you doing over there anyway?” She peers into Mia’s eyes, but Mia avoids making any eye contact whatsoever.
Mia doesn’t answer her question and continues to walk, leaving the other girl behind. She can feel Kaewa’s stare like a dagger in her back. Her attention is focused on the two men smoking cigarettes down the hill from the fire. She has already met the larger of the two, but the other, a shadowy figure, causes her to pause in her steps. The stranger looks at her coolly as he continues to puff away. She is immediately put off by the man’s creepy leer, as he refuses to break eye contact with her.
The standoff comes to an end when, from out of nowhere, Max charges into the frame like a tornado, arms and legs swinging wildly. His violent entrance comes to a grinding halt when he is met by the towering Pango, who stops him in his tracks with one hand while casually flicking his cigarette with the other.
“Let him go!” Mia screams, running toward them. “He’s with us!”
