by Simon Curtis
She sends the concave wall of blue light up as the entire building shakes in the blast of the grenade. She lets the shield down again once the explosion subsides, and we walk into the smoke.
The narrow hallway opens up into a wide lobby. Two metal staircases stand on opposite sides of the room. Everything else that was in the room two minutes ago is obliterated, and fragments of charred bodies line the walls.
My stomach lurches at the sight of so much carnage.
Footsteps rumble from the stairs at both ends of the lobby.
“Cover my back.” Azure’s eyes dart back and forth across the room. They are radiating blue light—sapphire beacons through the smoke and dust.
The Sheriffs pour in from every door. A few of the guns fire, but her shield appears just in time with every shot, deflecting every bullet. They charge us.
The first few run toward us wielding staffs that flicker with violet light at the tips. Azure bends backward impossibly as the first swipes out toward her with the electric spear. Her body arches under the flickering tip as she grabs it from the middle, pulling it from the Sheriff’s grasp. She spins it around to face him as her body lurches forward once again, using her momentum to thrust it through his throat. She kicks his chest to pull it free and jabs it into the noses of the next two. The sound of the bones in their faces cracking sends chills down my spine.
Everything happens so quickly, I don’t know what to make of any of it. Azure spins and slashes and kills every single one of them as quickly as they can approach, but there are more pouring in every second, coming at us from every angle now. I watch in horror as they pile in around us. She moves faster than any of them are physically capable, but they’re crowding in. She won’t be able to handle them all.
A row of them form at the landing above us and take aim with Taserifles.
“Isaak!” Azure shouts above the clamor, and spares a millisecond to give me a reprimanding look for my ineptitude. In that single, brief moment, a Sheriff grasps her neck with a thick black glove. It isn’t an ordinary glove. The light beaming from Azure’s eyes goes out, and her body goes limp.
I feel their eyes lock on to me now as the woman with the glove draws a thin, metal rod from her belt.
My stomach lurches and my head spins. Just as I’m on the verge of hyperventilating, I feel the weight of the metallic rod in my hand, and I squeeze the handle as hard as I can. The gong sensation throbs to life and fills my bones with vibrating energy. The power connects to the fibers of my body, the tissues, the nerves, my mind. I point it at the woman holding Azure by the neck. In a split second, my hand is numb, the vibration is so powerful.
I release.
The air between us ripples, like waves of heat rising on the horizon. She thrusts the silver stake in her hand down toward Azure’s temple, but before it can reach Azure’s skin, the ripples reach the Sheriff’s chest.
I feel the tremendous energy leave my arm through the rod and make contact as her body launches back toward the wall like a cannonball. The sound of her skull cracking against the cement reverberates above the din and makes me wince. I look to Azure as her eyes flare back to life, and she regains her balance. If anything, she looks even more fearsome than before. Now they’ve pissed her off.
Before anyone in the room can move, the stairs above the Sheriff’s splattered body blast up toward the ceiling. Other Sheriffs start to rocket off toward the walls like dolls being thrown haphazardly around a playroom. Azure grabs my wrist and shields us once again.
As each body makes impact, it creates another wave of ripples in the air, which sprays out in every direction. The Sheriffs are helpless as they go flying about the room. My breath heaves loudly in the silence of Azure’s shield. Bodies bend at horrifying angles and break against the walls around us.
“Let go of your fear, Isaak.”
She watches the room as the ripples begin to die down.
“Fear is a useless emotion. It makes you weak and clouds your judgment.”
A Sheriff slams against the shield, face-first. The snapping of his neck should’ve sounded like a gunshot, but we can’t hear anything inside the dome of light.
“Now let’s kill the rest of these fuckers and get out of here.”
The last of the bodies slides slowly across the floor, and the ripples fade away.
The shield blinks out and we march toward the door on the far end of the room, stepping over bodies and crooked, contorted limbs along the way.
We step into another hallway lined with doors. Azure pulses out her blue shields from both hands, crunching the doors back into the frames. If anyone is waiting behind any of them, they won’t be much of a threat after these impacts.
We take a right at the end of the hall and approach a landing of stairs. More footsteps thud down to meet us.
But it’s not another horde of Sheriffs.
“Look who finally showed up.”
How JB can muster a grin in a situation like this is beyond me. I’m sweaty and panicked and about to vomit on the floor, but his eyes are sparkling and confident and he’s cracking jokes.
“Get going. We’ll take the rear,” Azure says, giving a slight nod to Kamea as she reaches the last step behind JB. “Go!”
They break into a run and race toward a door at the far end of the hall.
I’m a few feet behind Azure as she bursts out into the sunlight before me. I’m about to make it over the threshold myself when a black glove reaches from an open door near the end of the hallway and takes hold of my neck.
Everything shuts down. My body goes completely slack, but I can hear and see everything around me. Strong fingers wrap around my throat, and I see the man holding me.
He’s not wearing a visor like the others, like every Sheriff I’ve ever seen. His dark eyes scan my face, and I see something almost like sorrow behind them. A long scar runs down his cheek. He holds his thin metal spike near my temple but doesn’t thrust it in. I take in the lines of his face and in that moment I no longer feel afraid. A sense of sadness washes over me as I notice the tears welling up in his eyes. He nods and starts to release my neck. The metal rod falls to the floor as he begins to let go.
In a flash Azure’s hands wrap around his jaw from behind. She snaps his neck in one powerful thrust, and his dark, sorrowful eyes go blank.
The nerves in my face reactivate as his glove loses contact with my skin.
“He wasn’t going to kill me.” My tongue and lips feel foreign as they come back to life.
“Come!”
She yanks me out the door, and I stumble behind, barely able to fumble for the weapon I dropped before she pulls me out. I look back and spare the dead Sheriff a glance as we run into the fading orange light.
Turning forward once more, I see JB and Kamea sprinting across the open desert a few hundred feet ahead. I push my body to keep up with Azure as she begins to close the distance between us.
We’re only a few hundred yards away from the building when I hear something loud and turn back to see hangar doors begin to open. The groaning of the metal echoes out in the valley before us like a death knell. I don’t know what’s coming, and I can’t bring myself to watch.
“Run!” Azure screams to the others as she grabs my wrist and pulls me to keep up.
Engines roar to life behind us.
I squeeze the handle and aim the stick blindly behind me. I release it once my hand goes numb and turn to see what happens. In the daylight, I can see an orb of rippled light jettison off from the end of the rod and flow through the air. It slows and dissipates into nothing just as a fleet of black SUVs tear out into the valley.
I’m out of range.
I watch in horror as they race toward us. There’s no way we will be able to outrun them.
My foot catches a rock and I crash to the desert ground beneath me.
I catch myself with my shoulder and hands, tiny rocks and dirt ripping into my skin as I make impact. Before I can get back to my feet, a line of bullets
fires into the sand near my head.
I lie still, paralyzed in fear as the vehicles close in. The sound of bullets fills my head.
A blinding beam of white light shoots out from above me and hits the vehicle in the lead. It explodes upon contact, sending the rest of the fleet careening to avoid damage. Tires swerve and one of the vehicles flips and rolls, crumpling against an outcropping of red rocks.
Azure yanks me up from the ground by my collar, and I notice her fingers are held like a child playing guns, the silver rings glowing. Her face is unreadable, but I know she must be furious with my incompetence. I just cost us our escape with my carelessness.
She pulls me forward again with her right hand and sends up a shield behind us with her left as bullets begin to fly.
JB and Kamea are far enough ahead that they might make it. If they can reach the ridge, they have a chance of hiding and making it to safety.
Azure and I won’t be able to reach it before the Sheriffs catch up, and it’s all my fault.
Another round of bullets pelts the ground, and Azure flings her shield up behind us. I’m running so hard I no longer feel the sensation of my feet connecting with the ground.
Another round of bullets.
And another.
Then I hear a different sound emerge from the hangars and I can’t help but look.
Drones.
Massive black drones, the size of large helicopters, fly out of the hangar doors and over the valley. They’re moving faster than the SUVs, and something tells me their artillery is way more powerful than the Taserifles firing at us now. Six of the gigantic flying war machines speed toward us like monstrous ravens, bringing death on their wings. JB and Kamea won’t be able to make it after all.
None of us will.
“Run!” Azure screams again, desperation finally cracking her steely veneer.
Bullets shower down all around us now. Azure flares her shields up in every direction, but they’re dimming and flickering with every step.
I realize that she can’t make these things forever, and she’s about to run out of power.
The vehicles are only fifty feet behind us now. The drones approach even faster overhead, their propellers buzzing in a horrifying wail as they fly.
Azure throws up her hand and nothing comes. Her energy is spent. Her shields have run out.
A large, whizzing bullet strikes the back of her neck and her body crash-lands into the dirt, her face sliding over rocks and sand. Paralyzed.
I turn and face the approaching envoy. I know I’m going to die.
They’re ten feet away, charging at full speed. They’re going to run me over.
I brace myself for death and throw my hands up in front of my face. Seconds before the grille of one of the SUVs pummels into me, I feel a charge surge through my fingertips.
Without a thought, the charge ripples out from the tips of my fingers, and my veins fill with fire. A nuclear blast erupts inside of me as a wall of blazing purple light springs to life across the entire valley floor.
Everything careering toward me crashes into the wall at full speed and explodes. The SUVs pile into one another and the drones fall from the sky like firebirds, dying in their own flames. The violet, electric light reaches up into the sky as far as I can see, spanning the entire length of the valley. A blazing wall of fire and destruction lies neatly on the other side.
I can feel light streaming out from within me, an energy unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. Currents of radiant, magnificent power churn inside me and flow out through my fingers, and my mind opens to the world around me. I can feel Azure. I know her pain. I know her sorrow. I know her power.
And I’m using it.
I let the energy flow up through my hands and look around in awe. The purple shield is ten times greater than anything I’ve seen Azure create, and I don’t even know how I’m doing it.
The seconds pass and each feels like a miniature lifetime. The subtle vibrations of every single living thing in the valley flow into me as the power flows out. I’m connected to everything around us. I close my eyes and bask in the sensation.
Quickly the feeling begins to drain me from the inside. I don’t want to let this energy go, but I have to.
I release my grip on it, and the purple wall of light unceremoniously blinks out of existence. The valley goes back to the burning orange glow of the sunset and the flames of the destruction in front of me.
I collapse onto my knees in the dirt beside Azure and pull the large, dart-like bullet from her neck. She remains still.
The sound of running footsteps crunches toward us.
“Oh my God. Isaak. What was that?” JB looks as though he doesn’t recognize me.
I can barely lift my head to look him in the eyes. “I don’t know.”
Kamea crouches in the dirt next to Azure and places a black, handheld device against her neck. Azure’s body gives a single startling convulsion, and her eyes open.
She pushes herself up on her hands wearily as her eyes flick back and forth from my face to the wreckage in front of us.
Now they’re all looking at me.
“Isaak.” Kamea’s voice sounds distant. “Isaak, are you okay?”
Darkness creeps around the edges of my vision, and their faces begin to swirl together. I can’t hold myself up any longer. My body wants to lie down on the ground, so I let it.
My eyelids are too heavy to keep open. My head rolls to the side and my cheek rests in the bits of rock and sand.
The world begins to fade.
The last thing I see is the body of a hawk, lying in the dirt a few feet away from me.
Dead.
THE MUTE
Anytime I open my mouth, somebody dies.
The words rang through his head as he held his mother’s lifeless hand. She wasn’t actually his mother, not his real one at least, but she was the only mother he’d ever known and probably would ever know.
Her last breath had rattled out of her pale, blood-drained lips minutes before. The only sound left was the monotone wail of the heart monitor, alerting all who could hear that the patient had died. They all heard, but they let him be.
He said good-bye to his mother for the very last time.
The sound droned on, drilled into his head until his brain was nothing but an empty, numb void, just like it had that night years ago. The night with the sirens and the police, when he sat in the backseat of the squad car and watched them pin down his first mother as she spat and cussed and screamed and fought. Watched them press her face to the ground, the whites of her roiling eyes flashing red and blue with each passing of the spinning lights.
In that moment he knew he would never see her again, the first woman he called “Mama.” The feeling couldn’t have been more different from how he felt right now. This mother, the one who held his hand, who sang him softly to sleep on all of those endless nights filled with terrible nightmares, this one who loved him, why was she the one who had to die?
He remembered all the times he’d wished the first one would die, all the times she should’ve died. He thought of all those men, holding her facedown in the mud that night as she fought and screamed like a wild beast.
She deserved this.
He held on tighter to the dead hand in his.
Not you.
• • •
The first days of his life that he could remember were in a trailer—a beat-up brown double-wide with rust stains by a squeaky screen door. The sound it made when she would come in at night still haunted his dreams. He’d lie in the little room in the back, on Batman sheets that reeked of urine, and hope he wouldn’t hear that noise.
It meant she’d failed, that whatever she went out looking for night after night had eluded her, and she had to come home. Whenever this happened, she was always so angry. Her breath would stink as her mouth fumbled over words she could no longer pronounce. The screen door would squeak open, the sloshy, slurred yelling would start, and then the stumbling
footsteps down the tiny hallway to the room would signal it was time for him to squeeze his eyes shut as tight as they could go. Maybe she’d leave him alone if they were closed tight enough.
He never seemed to get it right. She never left him alone. Not on those nights.
“Get up, you little fucker.”
Her pungent breath was enough to cut the stench of piss.
He pretended to still be asleep as she wrenched him out of the little stinky bed by his arm. Her bony fingers dug in deep.
“Nobody wants me,” she slurred as she dragged him out into the hallway, brightly lit by a flickering yellow bulb. “Nobody fucking wants me.”
She leaned in and grabbed his face, hard. “And you wanna know why?”
The answer was the same every night. “’Cause of you.” Her makeup was smudged and smeared and gave her the appearance of a rabid raccoon. “Nobody wants a woman with a kid, and you ain’t even fucking mine!”
She was getting angrier now. “Say something, goddammit!”
She hated that he never spoke, and on these nights it only fueled her rage. He didn’t know why she was so angry, or what he’d done wrong. It didn’t matter. He never said a single word.
He knew how to speak. If he wanted to, he could’ve. But he never wanted to. Ever. The world was loud enough inside the trailer. He didn’t want to add to it.
He just wanted to go back to bed.
She started pinching him in his side, hard. “I said talk, you little shit.” She dug in harder. “Talk to your mama!”
He let out a tiny whimper and began to cry.
“Oh, you can cry, but you can’t talk? Let’s give you something to cry about.” She let go of him and stumbled to the ashtray by the door to retrieve her neglected cigarette. “Now tell Mama you love her.”
She came back with the lit cigarette, holding it like a doctor would hold a syringe. He remained silent. “I said, tell Mama you love her.” The glare in her eyes burned like the end of the cigarette she was wielding.
