Sixth - Prequel to Oleander: One of Us Series

by Faulks, Kim

  A white haze sat heavy against the blue sky in the distance. I glanced at the signs as we whipped past and caught the name Valiant City, and somehow the name spoke to me…urging me to hurry.

  I punched the accelerator, moving up on the early morning traffic, and as the towering peaks of city skyscrapers peeked out up ahead Tex slept soundly.

  We’re coming Purple...I cast the words into the darkness of my mind and waited for an answer…

  I slowed the Mustang as cars merged from on-ramps, and others speared off. Silver sparkled from the towering buildings up ahead, so very different from the Afghan dessert.

  Home. The word tried to find resonance but the sound fell flat. I had no home—not as far back as I could remember—not in Jackknife—not Sangin…

  Not anywhere, and that ache of loneliness flared a little deeper.

  A car horn blared in front of us jerking Tex awake. He cast a glance toward me, and then around the car… “Jesus, thought I was dreaming.”

  “Nope. Not a dream. More like a damn nightmare in this traffic,” I muttered, hit the indicator and cut out around the truck in front of us.

  He yawned, and glanced at the backseat. “Holy shit, a purple heart.”

  I stared straight ahead…

  “Where the Hell did you just come from?”

  “Afghanistan.”

  There was silence…and then a slow nod of his head. “Respect.”

  Cars were crammed end to end. I stared at the clean, crisp city and felt a flinch inside. This image I saw wasn’t the one I felt. “I think we need to turn off here.”

  “Careful here, Valiant City’s a dangerous place, if you don’t keep to the right streets.”

  I downshifted, hit the indicator and turned the wheel at the next off ramp. “Why?”

  “Gangs…gangs rule half of the damn city and the corporate sharks run the other. Not a fun place to hang around, if you get what I mean.”

  The crack of live fire filled my head. Brown mudbrick houses shot to Hell. IED’s half buried in the ground because the dirt was so fucking hard.

  And Insurgents waiting for you, ready to draw you out into the open to get one more crack at American scum. My entire life had been a fucking war zone.

  What made this place any different?

  The shining city was quickly replaced with another, darker version. Gang tags marred closed down shops…and there were many. As I drove deeper into West Valiant I realized there were all different kinds of war zones…and this one was fucking brutal.

  Cars slowed at the red and blue flashing lights on both sides of the street. I tapped the brakes and eased into the crawl catching bright yellow through the gaps in the cars.

  “Gang wars,” Tex muttered. “Hear it all over the news.”

  I stared at the temporary yellow tents as we rolled past. Sheets were draped over bodies...I counted four, and then glanced across the other side. A blue tarpaulin obscured the view as crime scene detectives worked to gather evidence. Gang wars indeed…

  And still that draw pulled me deeper and we left behind the main streets and headed west. Traffic thinned, until we were the only one driving in this part of the city.

  Houses turned brown and ugly. There were no gardens out here…nothing but thorny brushes and eight-foot high fences…some crowned with razor wire.

  “Heads up,” Tex muttered and sat a little higher as a man strolled slowly across the street, checking us out. The thin white singlet bulged over the waistband of his low-riders. Tex never took his eyes off the thug and muttered. “You carrying?”

  “No,” I growled, now wishing I was. “You?”

  “I’m Texan, what the Hell do you think?” He reached for his bag, and pulled out a semi-auto. “Maybe you should have this, looks like you’d be a better shot anyways.”

  He handed the grip of the nine toward me. Slow motions, that’s what it came to here as we crawled past plaster-board houses and gang marked streets.

  “Jesus,” Tex muttered as another crossed the street in front of us.

  And then one became two…two became four, four became ten…forcing us to stop in the middle of the road.

  Two approached the sides, not talking, just watching, scanning the Mustang. The throbbing engine filled the space as we sat there and idled.

  “You sure this is the place, brother?” Tex whispered as one broke out from the crowd and headed our way.

  He was different to the others. Gang tattoos crawled along his arms to wrap around his neck. I caught black tear drops under his eye…four…

  Four kills, right?

  He casually walked up to the driver’s side, rested a hand on the roof and leaned down, glancing at Tex and then the nine in my hand. “On the wrong side of the park, bro.”

  I turned my head slowly. “I’m looking for someone.”

  He stilled for a second, and the glint in his eyes turned that little bit sharper. “Anyone in particular?”

  I could still feel him—the other one of us. His pull was rising, lapping at the edges like an incoming tide as the crowd before us swelled. We picked a bad neighborhood…no…he picked a bad neighborhood.

  Another thug broke free of the pack and sauntered closer. Power rippled when he moved. He was just like I saw inside my head. Tough, wary, with quick eyes that saw everything. He glanced at me, and then Tex while he kept on moving, coming up to my door.

  “Go back, Shadow,” the alpha standing outside my window growled.

  Metal glinted as one by one his crew gripped their pistols and drew down.

  “It’s him,” Tex growled. “That’s who we came for.”

  “Shadow,” the leader warned.

  Still he stepped closer, casting a nervous gaze from me to his brother. “They came for me.”

  The alpha reached for his waist two seconds too slow. I aimed the pistol at him and murmured. “Easy now, we’re not here to hurt him.”

  “They’re here for me, bro, not to kill me,” Shadow urged and then glanced to me through the window. “Show him.”

  The alpha stilled, his hand wrapped around the grip of the nine as I slowly tilted my pistol revealing the numbers on my wrist.

  There was a flinch as the leader looked at the numbers, and then looked at me. “Wait, you’re like my brother? You’re…special?”

  I flinched at the word. All my life I’d been labelled a freak by those supposed to love me, and yet here in this savage place was the kind of acceptance I’d searched my entire life for. “Yeah, we’re like him.”

  “Prove it,” he growled.

  “Nico,” Shadow growled, and then quietened as his brother raised his hand.

  “You’re not going anywhere until I get my proof.”

  The wall of gangsters moved, hands tightened around pistols…they were not messing around.

  “Tex,” I muttered.

  The redhead slowly reached for the door handle. “Easy now, I’m just getting out of the car.”

  Tex stepped out and made for the front of the car, staring at the wall of hostility. “Just don’t freak out, okay?”

  The flame was small, just a tiny flicker dancing at the end of his fingers. The leader beside me sniggered. “Really? Is that it? My fucking brother man, he can—”

  Hungry tongues reached higher, dancing a foot into the air before the tips curled into an arc.

  The wall of gangsters were mesmerized as the Texan drew his other hand into the air beside the fire and cupped the ball, making it move faster, and tighter…and with it came intensity.

  Yellow turned orange, and then blood red. The ball was ravenous, chasing its own tail until in the middle of the fireball came iridescent blue.

  “Holy fucking shit,” the alpha muttered and took a step forward. He glanced to the others. “Are you seeing this?”

  They all nodded. They all paled.

  The leader turned his head and looked through the windshield at me. “And you? What can you do?”

  I gripped the handle and shoved. The
re was no flinching now, no reaching to their waist as I stepped out of the car and answered. “I see things.”

  The future flashed in front of me…brighter than ever before. Shadow moved closer, and it changed, swelling until it was all I could see.

  A field of tall grass…us standing there…and the girl with the purple hair.

  “You see things, huh? Well, my brother can bring night to day, Flame here is a walking inferno, and you can just see things…not that impressive, bro.”

  He sniggered then, and turned to his fan club.

  “I can see when and how your brother will die…I can see how we’ll all die,” he stiffened then and slowly turned his head, but the future gripped me with bloodstained claws. “I travelled halfway across the world to track Tex, and now your brother…and I know, that if we don’t leave right now and head west that a woman is going to die…a woman your brother has dreamed about for as long as he can remember, and that if she dies…then what we are, won’t matter at all. We’re dead without her…all of us.”

  The smirk died away as he turned to Shadow.

  “We have to go,” Shadow murmured, desperation flaring in brown eyes. “Please, Nico. I’ve been telling you this for years.”

  “Then go,” Nico murmured. “Save your woman, and save yourselves.”

  Tex rounded the front of the Mustang and made for the driver’s door. There was no fighting him for the wheel. I made for the passenger’s side. Sleep called me as Shadow stepped into his brother’s hug.

  “Be careful little bro,” Nico said before turning to me as I gripped the door. “You protect him, you hear me?”

  “Like my own blood,” I answered and meant every word.

  Shadow made for the rear door as Nico whistled. The thick wad of rolled money sailed through the air and was caught mid-air. “See you soon, brother.”

  Then the leader turned and walked away.

  The rear door opened and closed as two became three.

  Tex started the engine and the deep throb filled the car. “Where to?”

  “West…that’s all I know…it’s all I can feel…West.”

  “You can’t feel her, can you? You can’t feel Oleander anymore.”

  I stiffened with the name and wrenched my gaze over the seat. “What did you call her?”

  “Oleander,” Shadow muttered as Tex spun the wheel and nosed the Mustang back the way we’d come. “Her name is Oleander…The question is, brother. How the Hell are we gonna find her?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Find her…the words echoed though the darkness of my mind.

  She can’t hold on much longer…

  Goosebumps raced across my skin. My fingers trembled as I reached for my neck. Fingers slipped against the slick. Something was wrong…

  The ache in my chest spread like fire. I gripped my collar and yanked. The skin was red and swollen. I pressed my fingers to the heat and winced. “You need to find me a pharmacy.”

  Tex jerked his gaze to me and then to my shirt. “Why?”

  “Just get me to a damn pharmacy.”

  Shadow leaned forward, caught a glimpse down my shirt. “Shit man, no wonder you can’t feel her. Turn here, Torch.”

  “It’s Tex,” the redhead growled and glanced into to rear view mirror.

  Still he turned the wheel, once and then again as Shadow mumbled directions from the backseat. I closed my eyes as the burning throb moved deep.

  Please God, don’t let me be too late.

  And as always that haunting image returned. The one where she was bound…hurting…screaming…desperately holding on. Can’t hear her…can’t hear a fucking thing. A dark pit waited…just a taste of what it would feel like without her here…Fucking useless…useless…

  The Mustang took the corner hard, and merged into the traffic.

  “Up there, see it?” Shadow pointed. “Old Pop’s will help us. Get homeboy here fixed up.”

  “Homeboy? Where are you living, in the goddamn eighties?” Tex muttered and pulled the car into the alleyway beside the pharmacy.

  Cold slipped in through the open window as the car coasted into the shadows and then stopped. My stomach tightened, fingers fumbled for the latch and pushed. The damn thing barely budged.

  “You’re getting weak,” Shadow muttered as a bead of sweat dropped along my brow.

  Need roared inside me, burning hotter than an infection could spread. I gripped the handle and yanked. The door cracked opened, and the ground rushed to meet me.

  “Easy now.” Shadow grabbed me under the arms.

  I hadn’t seen him move…hadn’t seen a damn thing. I gripped his arm and lifted my head. “I need to find her.”

  Concern flared deep in his eyes. He crouched low, gripped me around the waist and lifted. “I know brother, and we will. We’ll figure it out, okay? But right now, Ese, we need to get you in to see Pops. He’ll get you all fixed up. Be right as rain in no time.”

  The side door to the pharmacy opened, and an old man with silver hair stepped out. Tex met him at the door, mumbled words I couldn’t hear and then pointed to Shadow.

  I was lost under the barrage of words I didn’t understand. But the old man moved, rushing toward me, eyes wide in panic as my knees gave way. Strong hands gripped me, holding me tight.

  So cold…so goddamn cold.

  Just a fever, my mind whispered as I forced open my eyes and fragments filtered in…the old man…and then Shadow…and finally Tex…

  Tex behind the wheel…Tex turning his head to look at me with concern.

  His lips moved…warped words filled my ears. I closed my eyes once more…I couldn’t help them…not now…not when the open field of tall grass waited.

  Only this time I was alone…

  A storm was brewing on the horizon…dark clouds gathered, rolling toward me.

  A bolt of lightning severed the hate-filled sky before it was gone again.

  I flinched with the sight…waiting for the deafening crack of thunder.

  But there was none.

  No sound…no snarl…not even a faint rumble, and it was like that night in the barracks all over again—the night where hunger filled the air.

  And in the distance, I saw her…a woman stood at the edge of the field, her blonde hair whipping in the wind.

  She’ll die…the woman’s words filled my head as I stared at her. Oleander will die if you don’t hurry…

  The lightning came again, like the world had split in two leaving behind a jagged wound. I lifted my hand to the glare as the bolt speared toward the ground. Only it wasn’t the earth that called it…it wasn’t the earth where it belonged.

  The blonde lifted her hand, capturing the energy in her palm, and then she was gone.

  Gone to the darkness…gone to despair and as I opened my eyes I felt her warning into the depths of my soul…Oleander will die.

  Blue lights bled into the darkness. I blinked, inhaled hard and stared through the driver’s window to the night outside. Boots crunched on gravel, heading toward me.

  I inhaled, gripped the back of the seat and shoved. The passenger’s side door cracked open. Shadow climbed in and then turned his head. “Hey there sleeping beauty. I was gonna go in for the kiss to wake you, but figured we’d better take it slow.”

  The driver’s door opened and Tex climbed in carrying a pile of wrapped burgers.

  A harsh wheeze tore free as I tried to speak. Fire lashed my chest as I coughed.

  “Here.” Tex handed me a bottle of electrolytes.

  I twisted the cap and gulped, couldn’t get it down fast enough.

  “Easy now,” Shadow warned. “Pop’s said you’d be thirsty, but for you not to push it.”

  Remnants trickled down my lip as I lowered the bottle. Blue lights flickered. I turned my head toward the diner. “Where are we?”

  “West…like you said, bud.” Shadow unwrapped a burger and bit, wolfing down mouthful after mouthful. “Figured we’d get a head start.”

  “D
ude, don’t eat with your mouth open,” Tex muttered and took a bite of his own.

  A burger sailed into the backseat. Shadow opened his mouth wide to Tex and then glanced toward me. “When you’re hungry.”

  But food was the last thing I needed. I drank again and stared out in the dark. “How long have we been driving?”

  “All damn day. You were out cold my friend. Pops fixed you up, gave you some shots, said you’d be weak for a day or two, but you were over the worst of it.”

  Oleander…her name filled me. “We need to find her.”

  “We do,” Shadow muttered and took another bite. “I’ve been thinking about this. I want to know everything you remember.”

  “Everything I remember?”

  He nodded, stuffed the last of the burger into his mouth and turned toward me. “Every little thing about everything. What she was wearing, any place you saw…anything she said.”

  “It’s not like that. I don’t just get a movie. I get fragments, snatches of conversation…voices.”

  “Names…you get names?”

  Pain cut a line across my head as I tried to think—the ache was like lightning…jagged and savage. “Sometimes…”

  I searched my memories…and once again I was back in Sangin…stealing snatches of conversations that slipped through my head. “Irish…Maddox…that ring a bell?”

  “No, how about places, street names…a city would fucking help to start off with.”

  “It was cold, I remember that…she was so cold, slept outside…under a bridge.”

  “She slept under a bridge?” Tex stopped chewing and stared. “Purple slept under a bridge?”

  And that ache of loneliness filled me once more. I knew things about her they would…private things…about her father…about her. I hated and loved that feeling, hated keeping it from them knowing they needed her as much I did, but in that moment, where it was only her and me we were almost one.

  Mr. Pryor isn’t going to wait forever... “Pryor…Mr. Pryor, that’s a name…and I had a feeling she was scared of him.”

  Shadow’s face turned ashen under the neon blue hue. “Pryor…are you sure it was Mr. Pryor?”

  “Yeah and something about Irish…an Irishman liking Italian.”