Vessel, Book I: The Advent

by Tominda Adkins

  * * * * *

  "Jesse! Jesse?!" I blurted, doing my best not to scream with maddened relief at the sound of his voice―of any voice―on the other end of the line. "It's Jordan."

  "It's Jordan," he echoed blankly.

  Other voices erupted around him at once.

  "Where is she?"

  "Who is she with?"

  "Is she a Hollow now?"

  "What? Give me that phone. Don't tell her anything."

  There were definite hushing, swatting sounds from Jesse.

  "Jordan, honey, are you okay?" he asked, coveting the phone close. His voice was crystal clear. "Where are you?"

  "I'm not okay!" I answered, surprising myself with my own level of hysteria. "I don't know where I am!"

  "Slow down. What's happening?"

  "They're going to eat me," I sobbed shamelessly. "They're going to hang me upside down and throw my shoes in a box!"

  "But where are you?" he pleaded. "How are you calling me? Are you still in that truck? Are you with the Luna Latum?"

  "The what? Maybe?" I heaved, trying to maintain a sense of calm and finding it impossible. I could only fit a limited number of syllables into one breath. "Not the truck. I'm inside. Some huge building. Really old."

  "But whose phone are you on?"

  "Guy in the corner. His."

  "What?"

  There was massive confusion in the background. Stella was trying to dictate the things Jesse should ask me, while at the same time attempting to communicate with the other hunters. Corin was demanding that everyone be quiet, and creating more noise in the process. And yet somehow one of Jackson's loud, drawn-out snores made it through to me.

  I closed my eyes while they argued, concentrating. I tried to think of what would be the most important details to give. It also occurred to me to list some final wishes while I still had someone on the line. All my savings go to Mom and Dad. The memoir manuscript is in the L.A. beach house, in the upstairs linen closet. And please: dispose of my Gilmore Girls complete series deluxe box set, before anyone ever knows―

  "Jordan? Are you still there?"

  My eyes snapped open, zeroing in on the dust-encrusted hard hats that had been laying in a pile by my feet. Each one had a dull metal tag on the back, too filthy to read. Of course! I snatched one onto my lap and scratched away at the brittle gray dirt until I could make out the words engraved underneath:

  PROPERTY OF THE WHALEN QUARRY

  BEARD'S FORK, WV

  "Jordan?"

  "Whalen Quarry," I said.

  "Wailing what?"

  "That's where I am," I spouted hastily. "I'm at the Whalen Quarry. In some town called Beard's Fork."

  I listened impatiently while Jesse relayed this information, frantically correcting his many botched pronunciations. I gave him all the details I could about the building, what I'd seen of it from the inside, and warned him that the Hollows were likely still around.

  It was at this point that Stella made a very uncharacteristic mistake. It had of course dawned on her that I was not in the U-Haul. Which meant that the other hunters were nowhere near me. Her mistake was getting out of the ambulance to call them.

  What followed was another explosion of voices and sounds. Corin, ranting about rural areas and the "bloody slow" internet service. Abe, asking whether I had been bitten, breathed into, or otherwise mouthed by any Hollows. Jesse, very sweetly asking Khan to lock the ambulance's front doors.

  The phone beeped into my ear, and my stomach plunged. Low battery.

  "Jesse!" I warned, trying to pull him back from the garble of voices.

  A scuffling sound answered me.

  "Hello," said a polite voice―not Jesse's. I had been handed over.

  "Ghi?"

  "Yes?"

  "Listen! My batteries are dying!"

  "Oh," he said. "Um."

  "Got it!" Corin practically screamed, no doubt waving around his beloved Sabre phone. "Whalen Quarry. End of Beard's Fork Road―"

  "How far is that?" Jesse asked, just before slapping Jackson's cheeks. The ones on his face, I feel the need to clarify. "Look alive, soldier!"

  "The hell?!" Jackson barked.

  "―less than thirty minutes," Corin was saying. "It's on this side of the bridge. Middle of nowhere."

  Beep. Battery. Fuck.

  "Hello?" I begged.

  "Yes?" Still Ghi.

  "Will you please tell me what's happening?"

  "Um. I guess we're coming to get you."

  Jesse's prattling in the background quickly confirmed that guess.

  "―we just need you to drive again, darling."

  "Yeah, what else is new?" Jackson asked groggily. "Where's that blonde broad? Won't she be mad?"

  "Oh, yes," answered Abe's unfamiliar but merry voice. "Very."

  Banging noises followed, and yelling. Although no words could be made out over the sudden revving of the engine, the general outrage conveyed in the yelling itself was loud and clear, even to me.

  "She'll get over it!" Jesse called brightly. I heard another ominous beep when he took the phone from Ghi.

  "Save your batteries, girlfriend," he said to me. "See you in thirty!"

  Jesse ended the call.

  And I was alone again.

  Alone. Freezing. Bleeding. Doomed to die. See you in thirty! Thirty minutes. The room's general gloom closed in around me at once. Cold rain continued to scour over the plastic roof, dripping down the concrete walls in dirty brown rivulets and pooling around the hard hats at my feet. In the corner, a second suspended body bag started thrashing, screaming.

  I hugged my knees and hoped to god that no one ever found that Gilmore Girls box set.