Corrosion: Terminal Horizon (The Portal Arcane Series - Book III)

by J. Thorn

  He blinked new tears away and looked around the warehouse until he realized it was Deva’s voice inside of his head.

  “Lindsay. You have to believe me. He wanted to kill me. He wanted revenge.”

  “Revenge for what?” Lindsay asked.

  “For killing him.”

  Lindsay stood and secured her backpack and her bow. She took a last look at Tommy and walked to within three paces of Samuel.

  “This is insanity. You’ve lost your mind. I’m leaving and I’ll take my chances with the cloud or even the zombies. I can’t trust you and I don’t believe you. Goodbye, Samuel.”

  He watched her walk through the warehouse and out the front door. Samuel wanted to scream, to plead with her to stay. He knew he could explain everything. But she was gone before he could and even if Samuel had tried, the wind would have drowned out his words. The reversion wanted him right where he was.

  ***

  Lindsay broke into a run once she was a block from the warehouse. She sprinted down the middle of the roadway toward the empty horizon with the city at her back. The wind changed directions and pushed her from behind and she felt as though she was running on air. The cloud hung low and dark but a new source of light appeared in the west. At first, Lindsay could not understand exactly what she was seeing. But within a few minutes, she recognized the warm, yellow rays of a desert sunrise.

  It did not matter that it was rising out of the west or beneath a cloud in a dead world. Lindsay closed her eyes for a second and felt the warmth on her face. She opened her eyes and ran faster towards it, each step feeling lighter and each moment in the sun filling her soul with comfort. She did not think of Samuel, Tommy or the cauldron. She forgot about Mr. Brown and the threat Jack posed somewhere in the reversion. Lindsay only wanted to reach the horizon, to touch the sun. The wind whispered in her ear. Go child. Run to the Mother, the caregiver. She will keep you warm and safe.

  “Yes,” Lindsay said. “I will.”

  She ran faster than she ever had before. The dead city fell deeper behind her as the roadway widened. The asphalt softened, cushioning her feet with every stride. Then she had a flash of memory.

  “Samuel.”

  She spoke his name and for a single moment, worry creased her face. But the wind pushed a dry, warm breeze at her and made her forget him.

  “I’m going home,” she said.

  The wind sighed like a proud parent. She kept her stride and felt the exhilaration of a runner’s high. Lindsay pushed onward toward the horizon, her smile widening with her progress. She looked at the mountains on each side of the highway. They stood like sentinels, protecting her in the pass between them. She did not think of the reversion or the threats any longer. Lindsay dropped the bow from her back first, followed by the backpack. She removed the knife she took from Tommy and let it fall to the road as well.

  She was as happy as she could ever be, until her eye detected motion in the distance. Several hundred yards ahead and to the right stood a figure. Lindsay could not tell if it was a man or a woman, a member of the horde or a reflection of someone from her past. But she could see this person approached the roadway from behind the guardrail and Lindsay would meet whoever it was soon.

  The reversion shook and the sunset flickered as Mr. Brown climbed over the guardrail. The cloud did a marvelous job of drawing Lindsay away from the cauldron, away from Samuel, keeping her from her duty. And now Mr. Brown was about to fuck it all up.

  ***

  Samuel ripped a strip of cloth from Tommy’s pants and tied it tightly around his calf. The cut was shallow but wide and he was lucky his muscle wasn’t damaged. He would have preferred stitches, but finding an emergency room in the reversion would prove impossible, so he decided to bandage the wound on his own. His leg stung where the cloth touched the cut and a dull ache began to blossom in the lower half of his leg, but it would not be enough to keep him off his feet. He would need to move soon if he had any chance of beating the cloud to the peak.

  He stood and looked at the boy’s body. Samuel knew how fragile life could be. He remembered stories of abuse, children dying from being struck in the head. Samuel turned his head and spewed bitter vomit to the floor.

  Samuel did not think much of Kole since they parted ways, yet he knew in the back of his mind he would face his brother again. Like Cain and Abel, their story would not end until one brother triumphed over the other. He did not know why Kole wanted to remain lord of the reversion any more than he understood why the Great Cycle sent Tommy here. He only knew that to be released from his duty, he would have to destroy the cauldron, the same one his brother was sworn to defend. He felt Shallna and the orb and many unknowable forces stacking up against him as he attempted his final approach to the cauldron. He walked away from Tommy’s body and stood in the doorway of the warehouse.

  The highway stretched in both directions. The asphalt path led to the horizon in one direction and the city in another. Barring any further obstacles, he could be there in less than an hour, ready to face Kole and whatever forces the reversion lined up. He could beat the cloud there. To the left, the roadway stretched to the horizon where an incredible sunrise appeared out of the west. Golden rays stabbed at the dark cloud, holding it off and providing a glimmer of hope through its beauty.

  Samuel began to cry, standing in the doorway and looking back and forth. Lindsay was gone, he was alone and it would be so easy to sit down and let the cloud swallow him into nothingness. Samuel was tired of the running and fighting. He wanted to be at peace. He wanted to go to sleep and never wake up. Samuel felt remorse for the mistakes he made in his life and he was willing to pay any price to rectify them but he only had so much energy left. He felt hope slipping away, the inner drive to get him to the cauldron was scattered and thin, like the sand in this wasteland.

  He collapsed to the ground, half of his body on the sidewalk and the other half in the warehouse. He looked up and saw the cloud overhead, even closer to the city than hours before. He laid his head down on his arms and cried until his body fell into an unconscious state that might have been called sleep if it occurred in a previous lifetime.

  ***

  “You can’t quit.”

  Samuel sat at his desk, staring out the window at the frozen, white landscape below. The window in his third floor attic looked down upon the turn-of-the-century neighborhood. The sun was bright and dominant in the blue sky, uncharacteristic of a January day in Cleveland. Samuel was accustomed to the heavy, grey skies of northeast Ohio that sat upon the land like an unforgiving lord. This day was different. He smelled the coffee grounds left in the French press carafe to his right and the propane heater blew hot, dry air into his home office. Samuel spun on the chair away from his oak desk to face the couch on the right wall where Mara sat.

  “I’m tired, Mara,” he said. “I just want it all to be over.”

  “I know. But you can’t quit. Do you remember our last moments, in the cave?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “I was tired too but I had to hold on to get you to where you needed to be. If you want a rest, you’re going to have to do the same now.”

  Samuel rocked back in the chair and looked into his sister’s face. He saw the beauty in her dark hair and piercing blue eyes, much like a father sees it in his daughter. Mara had on black jeans and a black T-shirt tied at the waist with a knot sitting on her right hip. She wore maroon lipstick and her hair glistened with vibrant life. Mara looked like an actress on a movie set.

  “You look great.”

  “I look however you project me, Samuel. You’re being distracted by the reversion.”

  He nodded and looked out the window again. He saw a woman walking a dog on a leash. The beagle hopped into a snow bank where the plow pushed the icy sludge up on the sidewalk. The woman yanked the leash and the dog climbed back down.

  “Samuel,” Mara said.

  “Yeah.”

  “You have to decide if you want salvation or not. Everythin
g you’ve been through, before coming through the suicide forest and everything after—it all comes down to this moment. If you don’t act now, none of that matters. You’ll be casting your fate away.”

  “Like I have any control anyway,” he said.

  “But you do. You can fight or surrender.”

  “Either way, the outcome could be the same.”

  “You’re right,” she said. “But how is that any different than any other sentient being in the multiverse? Nobody gets a guarantee, Samuel. Why should you be any different?”

  He thought about what she said, but the dogs in the snow and the smell of a Sumatran coffee blend distracted him until he realized it was supposed to. He could feel the reversion creeping into the dream, the vision, whatever this happened to be. It was trying to keep him from hearing Mara.

  “I guess I’m not,” he said.

  “Right. So shake it off, get on the road and get your ass to the cauldron. Kole has his reasons for defending it and you have yours for destroying it. Nothing personal.”

  Samuel laughed. “It’s all personal.”

  “Quit stalling, Samuel. You need to decide. The longer you hang here in the attic with me, the closer you get to surrender.”

  He leaned back in the chair and took one last look out of the window. Snow covered his neighbor’s roof and icicles hung from the gutters. A few mourning doves pecked at the chimney while a squirrel leapt off the branch of a nearby tree, landing on a flagpole. He smiled and reached for his coffee mug when he felt Mara’s hand on his.

  “Samuel, please. If you don’t decide now the reversion will decide for you.”

  He looked up at her. Mara was standing to his right and he could see the love in her eyes.

  “How do I wake up?”

  “Hold your talisman and ask it to do so.”

  Samuel reached a hand inside his shirt and felt the triskele lying on his chest. As soon as his fingers touched it, Samuel felt energy pass through them. The power was awakening. Mara sat back down on the couch and sighed.

  “Good choice,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Samuel said. “After everything I’ve done to you and your fam—”

  “No. Stop. That is over and done. Go, Samuel. Get to the cauldron. Destroy it.”

  Samuel nodded and smiled at Mara. He felt the thrumming in his hand as light poured from the talisman. It engulfed the room and melted the walls. The wasteland appeared from behind them as did the city on the horizon. When the last of the light dissipated, he stood in the middle of the highway facing the city. The cloud overhead swelled in anger and inched further east ahead of Samuel. He put the triskele back beneath his shirt and took a step toward the city.

  “Thanks, Mara. I’m sorry and I love you.”

  Samuel felt a gentle wind at his back that pushed him forward.

  ***

  As Lindsay came closer to the horizon, the figure on the side of the road materialized. The sight of him made her reach for weapons she didn’t have. Although the form was hazy, transparent, Lindsay knew who it was. When she killed Alex Brown the first time, it was an instinctual move of self-preservation. This time, she’d enjoy every second of strangling the life from that grotesque bag of skin. She ran toward him fueled by anger and retribution. Lindsay had to swallow it all as she realized he was not entirely corporal.

  “Are you a ghost?” she asked. She stopped running and jogged to within five feet of Mr. Brown.

  “In a way,” he said. “I was trying to save you.”

  Lindsay huffed and looked at the horizon where the sun’s rays beckoned to her, luring her further from the city, the cauldron and her duty.

  “You were trying to rape a child, you filthy son of a bitch.”

  “No, no,” he said. “I loved you. I’ve always loved you. I came here, to this desolate place to save you.”

  Lindsay put her hands on her hips. Mr. Brown remained on the side of the road. He did not retreat or advance and she could see the guardrail while staring through his body.

  “I have things undone. I have not fulfilled my ahimsa, although part of it has to do with this conversation. Everybody here is tied together in some way. You know that, right?”

  “I don’t care what you have to do or what you have to say. You took advantage of little girls. You’re nothing but a pedophile. You’re garbage.”

  The form of Alex Brown nodded as if he expected this kind of response.

  “I never touched them. We talked. The last time, with you. It was the only time I made physical con—”

  “Shut the fuck up,” Lindsay said, interrupting him. “Just shut up right now.”

  He obliged and waited for her to speak again.

  “I shot you on the road because I thought you were attacking Samuel. I put an arrow through your chest to protect us all. If I had known it was you when I drew the bow back, I would not have fired. I would have beat you to death with my bare hands. Consider yourself lucky you died the way you did.”

  “I hanged myself over you,” Brown said.

  “You just don’t seem to get it. I. Don’t. Care. You can conjure whatever scenario you want about us, about what you think you were doing. I will forever remember you as a kiddie-rapist, a slug.”

  “Then allow me to have one moment of kindness. Can you do that?”

  Lindsay rolled her eyes, her hands still on her hips.

  “Thanks, Linds.”

  “Don’t call me that,” she said.

  Alex held his hands up as an apology.

  “Fine. Can I do something for you?”

  Lindsay waited, tapping her foot on the pavement.

  “Okay,” Alex said taking her stance as an acceptance of his gift. “You have to turn around. You have to fight the temptation to chase the horizon. Samuel cannot fulfill his duty without you. You must help him.”

  “Fuck him and fuck you,” Lindsay said.

  “Listen,” Alex said. He raised his voice for the first time since they began talking. “The boy was going to kill him, or at least try. It doesn’t matter why he was going to and Samuel can tell you if he wants to. But I know that for a fact. Samuel defended himself and had he failed, the boy probably would have killed you too. That kid was evil.”

  “Oh, right. That’s good. You’re calling Tommy evil?”

  “You have to turnaround. You have to go back and catch up to Samuel. There isn’t any time to waste. Pick up your weapons on the way and get ahead of the cloud.”

  Lindsay looked up and saw how far the cloud had advanced. The beautiful, golden rays distracted her from the true nature of the reversion. She was both pissed at herself and grateful the ghost of the slimy monster in front of her was responsible for the revelation.

  “Ah, there,” Alex said. “You’re breaking free of its grip. Good. Now go before the cloud outraces you there.”

  Lindsay took one last look at the glowing horizon. It tried pulling at her psyche again but this time she held fast, mentally shutting the door on the temptation.

  She turned on Alex without a word, picked up her backpack and began jogging towards the city.

  “Go, Lindsay. I wish you the best of luck. I love you. I’ve always loved you.”

  “Go fuck yourself, Mr. Brown.”

  ***

  Samuel felt her presence before he could see her. The renewed hope and support provided by Mara helped him to refocus on the reversion. He turned and saw a figure in the distance. The person was nothing but a black speck in the middle of a brilliant sun bursting through the western horizon, but Samuel knew it was Lindsay. He stood still as he began to see the person’s body, first identifying that person as female and then recognizing the unmistakable flowing hair of Lindsay. Samuel could also see the fierce determination in her face.

  Lindsay’s eyes were tight and her mouth open slightly to draw air as she ran. As she moved closer, he could see the top of her bow slung across her back. Samuel smiled and looked up to the sky to thank Mara when he saw the cloud overhead.
The realization that it was closing fast dampened his enthusiasm but could not crush it. Lindsay was returning to make the final approach with him. They would fight Kole and destroy the cauldron in hopes of earning their destiny. The release from the Great Cycle would require one epic battle and Samuel was grateful to have Lindsay at his side.

  She was running at a full sprint and Samuel marveled at her. Lindsay was tall and did not have a runner’s form but she cut through the air, arms pumping. He stood on the center line facing her, his arms at his sides. Lindsay slowed to a jog until stopping in front of him, breathing heavy and with a blank expression.

  Samuel grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in. She turned her chin up to him. Samuel closed his eyes and kissed her. Lindsay pushed her body against his and wrapped both arms around his neck. After the kiss, Lindsay leaned back and looked into Samuel’s eyes.

  “If we end up wherever we’re supposed to end up, together, you can explain everything. But you don’t have to. I accept you for what you are right now, here with me.”

  “I wouldn’t even have a chance without you, Lindsay.”

  “I know,” she said before flashing him a low grin. “I’m always saving your ass.”

  Lindsay broke from his embrace and looked over her shoulder and then towards the center of the city.

  “I haven’t seen anything. No horde, no spider crabs and no Jack.”

  “Me neither,” he said. “I would not be surprised if we were ambushed on the way, but I don’t think he could keep up with us anyways.”

  “Then let’s move,” Lindsay said.

  Samuel nodded and they both took off down the highway and towards the skyscrapers where the cauldron awaited.

  Chapter 16

  “The streets are empty. Where is the horde?”

  “Kole can summon them but they’re slow. We’ll be to the building before they can climb out of their hiding places.”

  Lindsay nodded and accepted Samuel’s answer as the truth.

  Samuel’s intuition sharpened more in this reversion than in the previous one. He always seemed to be a step ahead of Lindsay.