by Adam Steel
Wills’s laughter changed into a hideous ‘gargle’ as he was thrown backwards. A hole had been blasted through his neck, by an invisible force. Cooper doubled over and blood poured from his stomach and he fell to the ground with a thump. Metal doors, with windows in them appeared on either side of the parade ground and they were closing in on Max fast. The sky became black with padded, leather, clouds, and it crashed down towards him. Something pulled on his arm. When he looked, the skin was bloodied and broken. It had been bandaged up by someone.
Samson grinned in his face, not noticing the two fallen comrades whose bodies were fading from sight. Samson’s lips were gone. They were blackened and burnt down to the bone. His face pooled down his leering skull. It bubbled and melted. His hair caught fire. Empty eye-ball sockets glared back at Max, as the flaming skull began to collapse.
“You’re dead soldier...””
Max awoke with a start.
Aya was sobbing into his chest, (pressing on his bandaged shoulder) which he felt sure would have hurt like hell if it hadn’t been for the Apexir he was riding on. The nightmare faded and Max adjusted himself in the seat. He checked the scene outside the window. Sector Five rolled past in the gloomy darkness. He realised that he had only been asleep for a few minutes, but he still cursed himself.
Jon Li hadn’t moved. He drove in silence still ignoring Ellie’s questions that she continued to direct at him.
Max watched him through half-closed eyes. He was thinking that he wasn’t about to let Jon Li, or the CURE, or TALOS take him, or Aya, anywhere. Not after what he had found out. He told himself that Ellie might have trusted Jon Li, but he did not! He would be watching Jon Li very closely indeed.
The rain clouds closed in on them and it started to pour down. There were very few lights on in the residential area of Sector Five. Most Utopians had gone to bed long ago. Ellie gazed through the rain streaked windows and thought about them sleeping peacefully in their beds. She would have given anything to have her old life back again. The good life, where everything was ordered, happy and rich. Not this life, where they were running in the middle of the night like a tattered group of exiles, who did not know where they were heading, only that they had to flee for their lives, because of the dark secrets they had each uncovered.
Jon Li was deathly quiet. His eyes were concentrating on the newly wet roads. He clutched at the wheel of his car, as though if he were to let go, it would take them somewhere else: somewhere they did not want to go. His knuckles stood out, like white, lifeless bones on the steering wheel. Ellie wanted to talk to him, but she could see from the look in his eyes, that it was pointless. She couldn’t work out if he was angry or frightened and it worried her that she did not understand him. He had become, like a stranger to her.
Aya had fallen asleep on Max’s chest by the time that they left the lights of the residential sectors behind them. They drove through the thrashing rain for miles, down the unlit roads of the agriculture area of Sector Eight. Max was thinking about Jon Li’s behaviour and what had happened at the Deer Lodge. An ambush soldier. An ambush. Perfect terrain, a far off voice told him. He tried to ignore it. He realised that they had been in this area a few nights ago and that somewhere out there in the pitch black of the forest, was Deer Lodge. Missing one truck and a lot of knives, he thought. He wondered if anyone had discovered Ajit lying underneath a sink, with his brains leaking out of his skull, and missing one eye.
The torrential rain hammered against the window-screen. Jon Li switched the wipers to “fast” and they sloshed back and forth madly. It was a soothing noise. Ellie closed her eyes and sunk back into the soft leather seat. She pressed a button and slowly reclined the seat, until she was lying comfortably. She tuned into the sound of the wipers sloshing back and forth, as though by listening to them, would wipe out all the fear that was inside of her.
SWISH, CLUNK, SWISH, CLUNK, SWISH
Exhaustion took over her body and she drifted into sleep.
“Ellie dreamed that she was thirteen years old and back home again where she had grown up. Her parent’s house was a rustic cottage. The grounds sloped down to the muddy shores of a tidal river. By the river, there was a boat-house and slip-way, where Ellie kept her white rowing boat.
The boat had the words “Miss Ellie” painted on the sides in bright red.
It was a gorgeous spring day, when Ellie pushed her rowing boat down the slipway and into the water. She disturbed some curlews that were foraging in the mud flats, they took off emitting their haunting calls.
The air smelled of mud and seaweed. Clumps of bladder-wrack clung to the walls around the slip-way.
Ellie climbed into the rowing boat with her fishing gear and a picnic.
Today, she had decided that she was going fishing.
The little white boat was rocking gently from side to side, with the slight swell of the water. Ellie took the oars, and rowed away from the boathouse. The tide was slack. She took the boat, bobbing and rocking out to the middle of the river, where the breeze was stronger, and the air was fresh and salty. She let the boat drift towards the shallow saltmarshes, where the Herons were standing along the banks of tall reeds. It was quieter out on the river. The only sounds were that of the birds and the lapping water.
Ellie folded the oars back into the boat, and prepared her fishing rod and line. Sea Trout and Salmon, cruised the river at this time of year, but she was after something simpler to catch like Dabs, or Flatties as the locals called them. She set the rig and bait and plopped it over the side; allowing it to sink to the muddy bottom. Then she tightened the line. When the line was set, she tied a silver bell to the end of the fishing rod and settled back into the boat to wait for the bell to tinkle. That would signal a bite.
Ellie leaned back against the seat and allowing the warm, spring sun, to settle on her face. Her skin was pale from the long cold winter. A feeling of intense pleasure and warmth spread all over her body. She loved the spring time, and, especially being out on the boat alone, taking in the sights and sounds of the river. It was a magical place to be and she had it all to herself, today.
She closed her eyes and enjoyed the gentle rocking of the boat. The water lapped and sloshed around her in a mesmerising way. As she lay back in the boat, she could sense the boat suddenly drifting. It was starting to take the boat further towards the saltmarshes. It started to move faster and began to rock a little more than before. She sat up and noticed that the river was swelling a lot faster than usual. She looked down the length of the estuary to the sea. In the far distance she could see a line of white surf.
It puzzled her.
She took the oars out of the stays in the boat which was now rocking in an unsafe manner and pulled up the fishing line.
Clouds were passing in front of the sun, and the wind was getting much stronger. The weather was changing rapidly, and she worried that perhaps she should forget the fishing and get straight back home.
Suddenly the boat dipped so hard that it almost touched the bottom of the river. She looked over the side, and her weight moved the boat sideways. The water was so low that she could almost touch the river bed.
Everything went very quiet. The birds had stopped calling, and the air felt still. The sky had turned thunderous. It had gone so dark, that it blotted out the sun. Fear gripped her, and she grabbed the oars, and tried to row the boat back to the boathouse (which was far off in the distance). She pulled hard on the oars, but the boat wasn’t moving from its spot.
The line of white froth in the distance, had increased in height, and was rushing closer. It was a wave of sea water and froth, which was increasing in height, and pushing cold air before it. It got closer, and closer, increasing in size and noise. Ellie was terrified, when she realised that it was no ordinary wave, but a devastating tidal wave, that was about to take her, with it.
She used all her strength to turn the boat around, so that when it hit the boat, it would be pushed up on the wave, and towards the saltmarshes.
She was too scared to look, but she could feel the water rising, fast and hard.
The rushing sound of the water deafened her and her arms and chest throbbed with pain, from the effort to move the boat. She was so exhausted that her muscles refused to work anymore. She clung to the seat for dear life, as it was catapulted up on the wave. It soared along the surf: debris swirling all around and crashing into its wooden hull. The sky turned jet black, and the water splashed all over her body: soaking her in a salty spray. She prayed that she wouldn’t be drowned. The boat moved with lighting speed, as it was carried up the river. The noise of the water was deafening and everything seemed to be ‘crashing’ around in the darkness. She covered her head, and hid in the bottom of the boat, as things scratched, crashed and thumped on the sides. Suddenly, the boat thundered into something solid, and threw her forwards with tremendous force.”
When Ellie opened her eyes from the nightmare, another was in before her. They had been travelling for hours: picking their way along the worn out remains of roads which had long since been abandoned. While she had slept, they had travelled over a hundred miles north of Coney City. They had entered the remains of one of the derelict cities of the old world. The car had careered up a ramp at speed and crashed down into a pile of rubble, wood and twisted metal.
They were surrounded by darkness and the car was buried nose-deep in a smoking mess of debris. The windscreen was smashed to a million glass fragments some of which were sticking in Jon Li’s face. Bricks and wood were being hurled at the car from all directions and were crashing on the roof and windows. A large brick hit one of the rear side windows and the glass splintered all over Aya.
Aya was hysterical. Her terrified screams were amplified by the confined space in the car. Jon Li was hunched over the wheel. He wasn’t moving and blood was pouring from his face. Outside in the darkness, uncertain shapes moved and surrounded the wreck of the limo. A deafening ‘bang’ went off from the back seat as Max shot the rifle at the black figures.
Ellie couldn’t work out if she was still in her nightmare, or if it was real. She hoped it was the former.
There were strange figures all around them and they were shouting and throwing objects at the car. The landscape was dark and unfamiliar. They could make out the shapes of jagged buildings, which seemed to loom out of the darkness to be lit only by the naked-flamed torches that the ragged figures were carrying. Smoke was pouring from the bonnet of the car. It was choking them inside of the car.
Ellie crouched down in her seat. She pulled, and shouted, at Jon Li’s lifeless body. She could see through the fractured windscreen that the ragged figures were closing in on them. The noise of hard objects hitting the roof, and Max letting off another blast from the rifle hurt her ears and temporarily deafening her.
Max kicked the door of the car open and jumped out swearing incoherently. He threatened the ragged group of shapes with the rifle. Max shouted something to her, but her numbed hearing couldn’t interpret his words and everything seemed to go in slow motion. She heard faint snatches of chatter, but they were filtered out by the chaos that was erupting around her. She caught only brief exchanges, between the ragged people. The sound was distorted, and seemed to be coming from far away.
‘They’re fuckin' armed!’ yelled one.
‘Don’t matter. Get 'em!’ shouted another.
Ellie’s eyes widened, as a black shape broke cover and charged towards Max. She caught the glint of light, reflecting off something sharp, in the figure’s hand. Max lowered the rifle expertly, and fired. The dirty figure in front of him was thrown backwards, and the knife went flying from his hands. He crashed down, a few feet away from Max.
‘Holy Jeezus! They shot Mac!’ a shocked voice called out from the darkness.
‘There’s a TALOS in the back! Watch it!’ shouted another disembodied voice.
Max dodged a retaliation-brick that came whizzing out of the darkness. He prepared to lower the smoking rifle, again and the avalanche of missiles stopped. The ragged figures melted back into the darkness and the clatter of objects (that had been hitting the car) stopped. Some of the torchlights fell, as the figures retreated.
Ellie caught one final comment, before the lights faded away. It echoed, in her ringing ears.
‘Bastards. Get Drago. He’ll fix 'em.’
Max dragged Aya out of their smouldering wreck, before he wrenched the buckled door at the front of the car and pulled out Ellie. Ellie stood shaking against the wreck of the car. There was a faint light coming from the inside of the car. Aya was in a state of shock. She had stopped screaming but was holding her face and looking at her hands in the dim light. They were covered with blood. Ellie watched, while Max tried to unbuckle Jon Li’s seatbelt which had got trapped. He pulled out a long, hunting knife and cut the straps loose. Jon Li slumped further against the wheel (which minutes before), he had clutched so vigorously on the white-knuckle-ride.
The raggedy figures had hijacked them using a ramp.
Ellie ran around the car to help Max drag Jon Li from the driver’s seat.
‘What the hell was that? Who were they?’ she shouted breathlessly.
Max grunted when he heaved Jon Li from the seat and replied, ‘I don’t know and I don’t care. We need to get outta here fast.’
‘Where are we?’ she panted.
‘Fuck knows. Somewhere out in The Wastelands I guess,’ he grunted.
The rain was hammering down, and some of the torches hissed and died near the car. Steam rose from the hot bonnet. It mixed with the smoke which was coming from the smouldering engine. Ellie bent over the still body of Jon Li.
‘Please don’t let him be dead. Please. Please,’ she begged.
She felt for a pulse in his blood soaked neck. Her ears were painful and ringing from the gun shots.
‘He’s alive!’ she cried, cradling his head in her chest.
Aya calmed down and knelt down beside her. She was holding a small torch light.
‘What? Is he dead? she shouted.
She was also suffering from the deafening shots that Max had been firing off. Ellie could hear her, but it sounded as though it was coming from down a long tunnel. She shook her head.
‘No,’ she said, and cried into his matted, wet hair.
Her hands felt his face and the fragments of glass that were still sticking out of his cheek. She hadn’t thought to check herself over to see if she had been injured. It had all happened so fast, that she hadn’t had time to think.
It had gone quiet save for a few distant shouts. Max inched his way toward the three of them, who were crouched down behind the car. The torches had gone and they were alone in the darkness and the rain. They could make out the shapes of buildings through the gloom. It appeared to them that they were in a large, ruined and deserted city.
‘We’ve got to get under cover,’ Max ordered. ‘The buildings…over there. Head for those,’ he instructed. He dragged Jon Li up from the ground, and put one arm over his good shoulder. ‘Get his other side,’ he said to Ellie.
Aya gathered some of their belongings from the smoking car.
‘What is th-this place Max?’ Aya stuttered.
‘How should I know? Looks like one of the old cities,’ he answered, exasperated.
Max had fought over enough of them following The Reckoning. We could be anywhere, he thought.
Aya used a torch to light the way and the three of them stumbled away from the wreckage. Ellie and Max dragged Jon Li across the open space of what looked to her like the remains of a supermarket car park and up a deserted street. In the distance, they could see sporadic lights in the buildings, which glowed orange in the gloom of the night. The lights were different from the manic torches that the raggedy figures had been carrying. They dragged Jon Li’s unconscious body, towards the shelter of some buildings.
Ellie glimpsed the lights and thought. How’s it possible for people to live here? Who were those raggedy figures, and why did they set a trap to kill us?
Where are we? Why did he bring us here to this terrible place? Why did he put us in such danger?’
Max kicked in the door of an old building and they dragged Jon Li inside. The building stank of mildew and dust. It appeared to be an abandoned shop. Max and Ellie dragged Jon Li through into what they supposed was a former storeroom, and sat him on the floor. Then, Max took another torch from the bag, and scoped out the rest of the building. He left Aya and Ellie while he checked out the rooms. When he came back down the stairs, he shoved a large piece of shop furniture across the broken door to hold it shut. He heaved Jon Li up again with Ellie’s help.
‘Upstairs,’ Max panted.
Aya lit the way with the torch, while Max and Ellie struggled to carry Jon Li up the narrow stairway and into a bedroom, where they dropped him down on a dusty mattress. Ellie knelt down by his side and Aya stamped down on the side of the bed. Max left them in the bedroom and went into a room at the front of the property to look out over the street. He sat on guard by the window watching the orange fires that flickered in the deserted buildings. He was looking down into the cold, empty streets, below.
‘We need to get out of these soaking wet clothes and tend to your hands, Aya,’ Ellie said, unzipping her bag, and setting the torch up, so that it gave them some light to work with.
They scrambled out of their clothes, and quickly pulled on dry ones. Ellie hurried into a pair of light blue, cotton trousers and a blue, long-sleeved shirt. She took a pair of canvas shoes out of the bag and slipped them on. Aya pulled on a long white blouse and black leggings. They were too large for her.
‘We need to get that glass out of your hands. When we’re done, we’ve got to get the glass out of him, and stop the bleeding. Okay?’ Ellie prompted.
