by Simon Curtis
At the bottom I stand next to V as she assesses the surroundings. She’s looking for something specific.
A moment later she dashes out into the open, in between the trailers, to an old, windowless, white van. As she touches the back door, the lock clicks and she opens it. A nod of the head tells us all to get in. I climb into the back. Bare, plastic floor, with no seats, and assorted power tools surround me.
V nods to Azure and then climbs into the back behind me, along with JB and Tace. Up front, Azure climbs into the passenger seat and brushes her finger along the ignition as Kamea sits behind the wheel.
The van rumbles to life.
We peal through the gravel, between the trailers, until we come to a paved road. “Take a right,” V says. Kamea swerves accordingly and pushes the engine even harder once we make it to the pavement.
The transmission protests at the abuse, but she doesn’t relent.
“Fucking traitor,” Azure says, almost under her breath, as she stares out the windshield.
Everyone is silent.
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“Griselle,” Azure continues. She doesn’t turn around to face me. “She sold us out. She’s one of them.”
I thumb the outline of black stone in my pocket and see the flashing red light in my head, blinking on and off in the darkness.
I refuse to believe it.
• • •
The sun is starting to rise as we turn to take a different highway in Kingman, Arizona. Not much later, Kamea stops to get gas. Azure hops out of the car before she even puts it into park and doesn’t bother paying. She touches the pump, and it begins churning out gas at her command. After the tank is full, she scrambles back into the van with an intensity I’m not used to seeing from her.
We are back on the new highway in mere moments, this time heading north, toward Vegas. I lean back against the metal and close my eyes, hoping to get some more sleep.
I feel a nudge and open my eyes again to find JB beside me. He gives a small nod, beckoning me closer to him, and I give in. I’m too tired, too deprived of any sort of human contact.
Human.
His arm wraps around me, and I relax into his chest. It’s firm and warm and bringing me a kind of comfort I didn’t realize I so desperately needed. The vibrations of the road underneath us rock me into him as he lets this thumb gently caress my forearm.
I close my eyes and try to quiet my mind.
• • •
Almost an hour passes before I wake up to the feeling of the van slowing.
“Shit,” Kamea says under her breath.
I stir from JB’s chest and lean to peer through the windshield. A long line of red taillights stretches out into the road ahead.
“What’s going on?”
“The signs say construction,” Azure says, watching the road, “but I’m betting it’s something else.”
We come to a halt as we enter the traffic jam.
Tace and V sit up and peer out the windshield as well.
“This isn’t good,” V says.
“What do we do?” I ask.
Kamea looks back to me in the rearview mirror. “Just be alert. Everyone be ready to move in case something happens.”
We crawl forward slowly, all of us peering over the seats from the back, trying in vain to spot some sort of warning ahead of us.
HOOVER DAM—VISITORS CENTER
EXIT 3 MILES
As we pass the sign, two highway patrol cars speed by us in the opposite lane, heading south. The traffic begins to move again.
“There must’ve been a wreck up ahead,” I say hopefully.
No one responds.
We speed up as the bottleneck releases in front of us and cars return to their normal paces.
The road slopes upward as traffic picks up. I release my grip from the back of Kamea’s headrest and sit back down.
Crisis averted.
“Damn it,” Kamea says, alarm in her voice.
I shoot back up and peer out the window again. Near the top of the hill, about a half mile ahead of us, is an access road that merges into our lane. A long row of more than a dozen black SUVs sit right at the crest of the hill—waiting.
Our speed picks up as we keep pace with the other cars around us.
“Just keep going,” Azure says. “Don’t do anything conspicuous.”
Tace, V, and JB all sit up and crouch on their feet in the back, ready to move at a moment’s notice.
“What do we do?” I look to Azure, my heartbeat rising.
“Just drive,” she says to Kamea. “If we can get by them quickly enough, we won’t have anything to worry about. Their scanners aren’t sensitive enough to pick up targets moving faster than one of us could run. Not unless one of us is manifesting.”
I grip the back of the headrest and watch the SUVs come into view as we approach. Kamea pushes the van faster as we charge up the hill. As we get closer, I realize there must be twenty or thirty of them parked in the access road.
The engine groans as we go faster.
The road begins to curve to the left as we near the top of the hill.
“The bridge is right up here. If we can make it across, we should be good. There aren’t any access roads for them to wait on above the canyon,” Kamea says, eyes fixed on the road and the Sheriffs we’re quickly racing toward.
She begins to turn the wheel left as we come up to the top of the hill and follow the bend. The Sheriffs are on our right. I duck slightly behind the headrest and try to peer into their tinted windows as we pass, but I can’t make anything out. I hold my breath.
Azure watches them as we pass from her side-view mirror. “They’re not moving. We’re good.”
I inhale deeply and let my heartbeat catch up with itself.
“No,” V says from the back as we round the corner completely. “No, we’re not.”
She points to the bridge up ahead of us and the rows of what appear to be cell towers lining both sides.
“Those aren’t supposed to be there. Those are the scanners.”
My pulse lurches back to a frantic pounding as Azure gets up from the passenger seat and climbs into the back.
“What’re you doing?” I ask as I make room for her to pass by.
She reaches into one of her pockets. “I’m blowing the bridge.”
She retrieves a handful of her glass orbs and reaches for the back door.
“You keep plasma grenades in your pocket? Are you crazy?” V is horrified as she backs away from Azure’s palm full of death.
My horror is because of something else entirely.
“Azure, you can’t do this. There are too many people.” I get up onto my feet. I will fight her if necessary.
“Isaak, you know nothing. Every one of these people would sacrifice your life in a second if it meant saving theirs. We have no other choice.”
She throws the back doors open. There they are. The entire fleet of SUVs racing toward us from the access road.
“Aren’t you guys going to do anything?” I scream to the others in the van.
We can’t let this happen. I can’t let this happen. This isn’t life preservation; this is terrorism.
I spare a split second to see that everyone is silent, all in tacit compliance with Azure’s monstrous plan.
Her hand reaches out over the road behind us.
I grab her other arm and force her to look at me. “Please don’t do this, Azure.” I stare into her eyes, pleading, begging for another alternative. Anything but this.
She turns, her hand dangling over the road and lets the glass orbs fall to the pavement below. I watch them shatter on the road and quickly fade into the distance.
My legs react involuntarily.
I launch myself out of the van, out into the air behind us. I hear the screams and shouts from the others fade almost immediately as the van leaves me in its wake. My eyes lock on to the cracked glass and the violet gel inside, glowing softly on the conc
rete. My feet land with surety before the shards and the gel, and I lean over.
I let the sensation of the light flow through me once again, envisioning a barrier around me and around the grenades. A dome of purple light ignites as the world erupts into fire. A cataclysm of light and fire burns the vision from my eyes and swirls into a maelstrom of pain. I wait for the world to go black, for death, but the fire only seems to fuel the light inside of me. I feel it pound into me in waves, blast after blast that churns more and more energy into me.
The fire goes out, but the light blazes inside every fiber of every muscle and nerve in my body. I release the dome, and everything about me burns with a radiant golden light. The entire world has slowed to a halt, and a power unlike anything I’ve ever imagined courses through my fingertips.
There is no friction, no inertia, no gravity—the laws of physics are mere illusions. I watch as the SUVs appear, crawling to me as ants before a god. I reach for the first as it approaches and lift it as a child would a toy. I toss it over the edge of the bridge into the gleaming blue lake below. More of the toys approach now. I reach for one of the scanning towers looming over this place as sentinels of death. The mere sight of them fills me with rage.
I pluck it from the bridge like a daisy and use it to brush away the ants creeping toward me. Off they go, into the lake.
I’m no longer afraid of death. I am death.
The rage fuels the burning light inside as I dispose of them all.
I throw the last into the air above the water and look at the towers lining the rest of the bridge.
A final surge of rage rips open the last of my barriers. The burning light pours out of my skin as I raise my hands toward the towers. It blasts out from my hands, burning the towers to ash when it touches them.
I smite them from the Earth. All of them.
As the last tower disintegrates, I feel the light sap out of my bones. Depletion pulls at my core like a black hole, and I am now powerless in its grasp.
The last ray leaves me and I slide into the abyss.
The life inside of me is gone.
• • •
A soft glow flits on the other side of my eyelids. I want to move, but I can’t. My body feels weighted to the ground beneath me. My limbs are heavy, immovable lead.
Only I’m not on the ground. This is soft, cushioned. My eyes try to open, but they refuse.
The sound of air-conditioning surrounds me. A zipper opens and the noise of hands shuffling through cloth stirs me even further.
Open your eyes.
Everything aches. I notice it now. My consciousness is returning to my body and, with it, pain. I’m so thirsty. And hungry. A door opens and I hear a voice say “thank you” before it closes again. Another shuffling sound and then the scent of hot food fills my nostrils.
Someone has fries.
My eyes open slowly. A row of buildings, twinkling with an endless array of neon lights, lies on the other side of a wall of glass. I’m high above everything outside. If I focus, I can hear the din of traffic and people far below. In the distance, desert and purple mountains.
I toss my head to the other side of the pillow and take in the room around me. Everything is white.
Azure hears my movement and looks at me from her perch in an armchair at the foot of my bed. She looks over to my left.
“He’s awake.”
I lift my eyes and find Kamea sitting on a white couch across from me. She must’ve been watching over me as well.
Her cheeks rise into a small smile, and I realize it’s the first time I’ve ever seen her show any sign of happiness. She’s so beautiful. I wonder about the things in her life that led her to this moment as I drift in my semi-dreamlike state.
“Hey you,” she says softly, deep brown eyes sparkling in contrast with the white-washed room around her.
Images of explosions and death flicker in my head.
I strain and use my arms to finally push myself into a sitting position in the soft white bed.
“What happened?” My throat is dry and aches.
Before anyone can answer, a door on the far side of the room opens and JB walks in, dressed in only a towel, which is wrapped around his waist. His lean, muscled body glistens like wet marble. I can’t help but stare.
He notices me sitting up in the bed and stops. “You’re awake.”
The sight of his immaculate body sours as I start to wonder why he wasn’t the one waiting by my bed, keeping vigil over me like Azure and Kamea.
“You must be thirsty,” Azure says as she comes closer with a bottle. She twists the cap and hands it to me.
It’s just water, but the effect on me is similar to that of the sports drinks. It must be infused with electrolytes. I feel like I’m getting a shower on the inside as the liquid immediately hits my bloodstream.
JB grabs a pile of clothes folded on the suite’s dining room table and heads back into the bathroom.
I look at Azure. “I don’t know what happened.”
Azure takes a moment to look at my face, considering something. “None of us do.”
She turns and walks over to the front door. Rows of white bags have been placed on the floor, and she begins sifting through them. I see room service trays on the dining room table when she walks by, and my stomach groans as I take notice of the scent of fries once again.
Kamea gets up from the couch and comes to the side of the bed. She places a hand on my shoulder and looks right into my eyes. “You were very brave.”
She goes to the dining room table, grabs the tray, and returns before removing the lid and setting it in front of me. It’s a sandwich and fries. I don’t even know what’s inside, but it smells divine. I tear in, and Azure comes back with two white shopping bags in hand.
“We’ve been invited to dinner by our captor,” she says as she lets the bags drop near the side of the bed.
Kamea shoots her a look.
“Sorry . . . our benevolent benefactor and ally.”
I gulp down my bite and crane my neck over to see what’s inside the bags.
“They sent someone up with new clothes for everyone. Dinner is in two hours.”
A knock on yet another door, this one off to the left of the dining room table, is followed by V stepping into the room. Her eyes land on me. “Glad to see you’re okay.”
She looks to Azure. “You wanted to speak with me.”
JB walks back into the room, now dressed in slim black trousers and a thin black sweater, pulled taut across his chest. Azure nods toward the door and starts to leave as JB approaches. Before they leave the room, Azure turns back and looks me in the eye. I can’t read her face. It’s as though she’s looking for something behind my eyes that she can’t quite find. She steps into the adjacent room with V and closes the door.
JB stands by the bed and looks at me. I can’t read him either. His blue eyes bear into me, but much more than care and concern linger behind them—confusion, trepidation, reluctance all dance around in there as well. I don’t understand.
“How are you feeling?”
I try in vain to stifle a burp as it rises up my throat. “Fine.” The word comes out as a poorly concealed puff of gas.
He smirks, but it’s halfhearted. “Good. I was worried about you.”
Kamea pretends to examine something under her nail in my periphery.
I put down the last bite of the sandwich and look him right in the eye. “Were you?”
“Of course I was.”
Kamea gives a small, nearly imperceptible shake of her head and sighs before standing up and excusing herself.
A silent moment passes while I wait for the door to close behind her.
“Why does she do that?” I ask him.
“Do what?”
“Anytime she catches you trying to get close to me, she gets . . . It upsets her.”
He sits on the bed and places his hand on my leg over the down comforter. “Isaak, look—”
“No, you look.�
�� I knock his hand off me. “Do you have any idea how confusing all of this is for me? Any idea what my life has been like this past week? What it’s been like my whole life?
“I don’t know what I am, and neither do you guys. I’m supposed to be one of them, but you all look at me like I’m . . . a puzzle, a bomb, some kind of alien. I’m in a constant state of fear, and every time I try to face it and use this”—I hold up my hands—“I almost die.”
His eyes are locked with mine. I can tell he’s trying to speak, but I don’t stop. I have too much to say. Too much eating me up from the inside out.
“And to make everything worse, the one person I keep getting tricked into feeling like I have a genuine connection with can’t decide whether or not he wants to connect with me in return . . . and it really fucking sucks. You know, I’ve never even kissed anyone before, and then the other day on the cliff . . . and now you’re looking at me like you’re afraid to talk to me, and Kamea is huffing and shaking her head and storming out of the room. I don’t need this right now, JB. I need to feel like a person. I need a friend.”
His eyes turn down and several agonizing moments of silence pass. I think I’ve said too much, but I don’t care.
“You have a friend, Isaak,” he says, examining his hands. “And for what it’s worth, you’re not the only one who’s confused.”
He tries to give a faint smile, gets up from the bed, and leaves.
Alone, I pick up the last couple of fries from the plate in front of me and immediately drop them. I’m still hungry, but I don’t want to eat anything more. I set the plate to the side, lie back on the pillow, and watch the sun continue to set in the reflections of the buildings across the street.
My eyes close and I silently promise myself I’ll get up and start getting ready in ten minutes.
• • •
I finish getting dressed in the bathroom after I shower, choosing a new pair of black jeans, a simple white T-shirt, a black blazer that feels like it was tailored, and a pair of black leather boots with a name inside that I can’t pronounce. Our host sent up much fancier stuff, but I don’t feel like impressing anyone, and honestly, given the week I’ve had, I want to be comfortable more than anything. Who knows when I’ll need to start running again.
