by Brad Munson
It was miles away, at the far south end of the Valle de los Hermanos when they were beyond the north end, and half-blocked by the crater-ridge itself, but it was huge. A massive and somehow disgusting plume of smoke, an unearthly purple and mustard, shot into the sky, spread in a tangled, almost organic shape, twisted in the wind.
“What the hell?” Private Farrel said.
She had no idea … but she had felt that explosion all the way through her body. Inside her body.
The clarity was gone. The voice, the thing, was gone.
She was simply, beautifully, Lisa Corman Mackie again. And she had never been more happy.
Forty-three
“Kerianne’s going to be okay!” Trini told her, shouting to be heard over the beating of the rotors. “They set her arm and stitched her up! Everybody’s good! No losses – no more losses!”
Lisa nodded and put a hand on the teacher’s arm. “Good. I’ll be back. We’ll get through this. But …”
Trini nodded her head. “You gotta go! You gotta do this for all of us. And please … will you look for him?”
“Well, shit, girl. Why do you think I’m going?”
Trini grinned at her – her beautiful grin, back in place again. Lisa squeezed her arm one last time and then ran, ducking, to the huge black helicopter that was waiting to make its first run over the Valle. Just as promised, the storm had broken during the night. The sun was rising in an impossible clear sky.
Danziger stood off to one side, barking at the pilot. He wasn’t going along. Big surprise, Lisa told herself. She’d taken the measure of this one the minute she’d seen him. He wasn’t likely to put himself in harm’s way. Ever. It was just going to be the pilot, two search-and-rescue types who would snag any survivors, and Lisa herself.
Good enough, she thought.
It was time to go.
***
The first two they found were Ken and Rose Mackie. They were waiting just a short distance from the site of the massive explosion, near what had been the small mountain called The Two Brothers. Lisa had no idea how they had survived the force of the blast; maybe it had translated upward, maybe they had been shielded somehow. It didn’t matter. But it was the first place the helicopter visited, and there they were, clearly visible, cringing under the force of the chopper’s gale as a rope ladder was dropped and the uniformed, helmeted men dropped down to help them climb up.
Rose came into the chopper first. Ken insisted, Lisa found out later. When he finally tumbled through the open hatch, he found himself in a surprisingly large khaki-green space with cargo netting on the walls and padding on the floor.
And he found Lisa waiting for them.
She was belted to the cargo netting. She looked completely terrified and deliriously happy. And she was already holding her daughter in her arms and crying.
She would tell them later how she had forced Danziger to bring her along. She was fairly sure Ken even believed her – though she would never be certain of truthfulness again, not as she had been for the last few days. But at the moment all she did was open her arms to him and cry and cry.
The three of them held each other for a very long time. “I knew it,” Lisa kept whispering into his ear as they wept. “I knew it.”
Almost five minutes passed before the pilot bellowed over the thunder of the rotors: “Got another one!” They separated long enough to peer out the hatch, and saw the slim muscular body of a young blonde woman, windmilling her shapely arms.
“Jennifer!” Lisa said. “How is that even possible?”
She shrugged it off. How it any of it possible? The woman she’d met at the clinic had no trouble climbing the rope ladder – Lisa doubted she’d have trouble doing anything, really – and her face blossomed with joy at the sight of a familiar face. They hugged and cried a little bit more, but Jennifer was quick to compose herself.
“I only have one question,” she shouted into Lisa’s ear, fighting the pounding of the rotors. “Are they holding us?”
Smart girl, Lisa thought. No surprise. She shook her head. “I don’t think so!” she shouted. “But you won’t be able to tell any of the best stories.”
Jennifer’s smile was strange and weary. “That’s okay,” she said in a nearly normal voice. “I think I’m done telling stories for a while. I just want to get to my daughter.” Then the smile broadened, brightened, and they hugged again. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”
I had no idea you had a daughter, Lisa thought. How about that.
It took some time for Lisa to get her bearings, but with Jennifer’s help, she was able to locate a few of the broken landmarks that would lead them across the world’s newest lake to the ruins of Dos Hermanos School. Lisa held her breath as they approached, more worried for Trini than anyone …
… and saw the tiny figure of a very big man standing on the roof of a tin shack, far below. The water had come much higher than anyone had expected, but not high enough to stop James Barrymore. His little sheet metal island, no more than five feet square, was surrounded on all sides by choppy brown water … but he was alive and well.
“Oh my God,” Lisa said, and realized she was quoting Trini. She had to laugh in spite of everything.
Barrymore was giggling like a girl when he lurched through the hatch. He and Lisa embraced, laughing, and she introduced him to her husband and her daughter. She was beaming.
“So nice to meet you!” he boomed, grinning like a huge, dumb bear and pumping Ken’s hand as if they were meeting at a Chamber of Commerce mixer. “I’ve heard so little about you!” He turned to Jennifer next – and stopped for a moment. He recognizes her, too, Lisa realized. But how could they know each other?
The hug between them was affectionate but guarded. Lisa barely heard what he whispered to Jennifer as they embraced: “Let’s pretend we don’t know each other, okay?” he said.
Jennie smiled. “You got it. Still: Nice to see you’re alive.”
“I absolutely agree!” he said, and roared with laughter.
***
The helicopter made one last grand circuit of the crater valley, but the pilot didn’t get too close to the surface of the lake or the mountain ridges. Ken and the others peered down through the open hatch as they drifted north towards the desert and the tent city and understood why.
The water level of the lake had not dropped since last night – not at all. It was effectively sealed inside the crater, and it was staying there. Ken tried to remember how many generations the Salton Sea had survived, not all that far from here, despite the desert winds and heat. He wondered how long this new formation might last.
Not that it matters, he realized with a sudden chill. Nobody’s coming back anyway.
Because the monsters were still there.
Even from the helicopter, they could see them, swarming along the water’s edge and humping under the muddy surface of the lake. Lisa could see them all: a set of brickteeth fighting with a brace of thornwheels; a dragontongue flailing out of the water as a drift of hookweeds rolled by and settled down for a long drink. Two bone spiders fighting over nothing at all, claws and talons flashing in the watery morning sunlight.
But there was something different now. In the last few days, they had moved with relentless purpose, with an eerie and deadly efficiency. Now they just … wandered. They just fought whatever they happened to encounter, and then moved on. There was still great power here, frightening power … but no purpose. No intelligence. Not like before. Now they were puppets with cut strings. Robots with damaged programs. Still energized, still moving, but … aimless now. Lost.
Lost and still horribly dangerous.
Rose and Ken were suddenly close beside her, looking down at the creatures as the helicopter pulled up and away from the Notch.
“What do you know,” Rose said into her ear. “We made it.” Lisa turned her head to look at her, and so much welled up in her, so many emotions …
She couldn’t speak at that moment, so she just
nodded.
The five survivors looked down on the tent city and the glittering new lake, and on the bone-colored creatures that danced and battled on its shore. Lisa mourned the thousands that had died, and wept with relief for the handful who had survived, as she unconsciously echoed the question that her daughter had asked her father just moments before they had been rescued:
What happens next?
There is more inside the rain ...
Secrets of the Storm is only one part of the Triptych. There are two other books, telling different stories of others who were trapped in the rain. You will see some recurring characters, ask some new questions, see many new monsters ... and perhaps discover a few of the secrets hiding inside the storm.
All three books are available now. Visit your favorite online bookseller or TandemWayPublishing.com and look for
Creatures of the Storm
The first book of the Rain Triptych
Voices of the Storm
The second book of the Rain Triptych
... and look for Brad Munson’s other work at
www.BradMunson.com
