by CC Solomon
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I owe you a makeover,” Lisa stated, looking at my hair. It was in a high bun, and I could only imagine by her concerned face that she didn’t care for it.
“Hey, I have a guy I want you to meet,” I said, turning to her.
Charles, who up until that moment had his face buried in a burger and fries, perked up. “Guy? What guy?” he asked with a frown.
I ignored him. “I think he might be Fae like you. He doesn’t know what he is. Probably hasn’t even tapped into all his powers.”
“Is he cute?” Lisa asked, her green eyes sparkling.
I opened my mouth and raised my eyebrows. “If I said he was ugly, would you not want to meet him?”
Lisa gave a light shrug. “Of course, I’d want to meet him. My people are my people. Plus, he can just glamour himself if he’s ugly.”
“Dear God,” I stood up. “Okay, I’m going to go get another drink. Erik, I got your next one like it or not.”
“I kid, I kid!” Lisa cried, getting up, and following me. “You’ll learn to love me, Amina. I’m telling you now.”
I chuckled and shook my head, walking through the increasingly crowded space to the bar counter. Lisa stood next to me.
“I swear I have to slow down. My tolerance isn’t what it was,” I stated. “Unsurprisingly, they didn’t give us alcohol in the lockup, and we didn’t have a lot of it in my town before then.”
“It’s the weekend, sweetie, live a little. For once, we are both somewhere safe. Let’s enjoy it for the time that we’re here. We deserve it.”
“Planning to leave already?” asked one of the bartenders. I hadn’t seen her earlier. She had a deep voice that commanded attention. She was white, fair in skin tone, with dirty-blonde, purple-streaked hair cut in a pixie style. She looked around my age, average height, with an athletic figure. Her eyes were deep blue beneath thick, well-shaped, dark eyebrows and adorned with a thin, black eyeliner which was winged out at the edges. The only other makeup she had on was a bright red lipstick. She was mesmerizingly gorgeous.
She rolled up her right sleeve, and I saw a fully tattooed arm and hand. In fact, both her arms and hands were tatted, and more tattoos peeked out of her black collared shirt. “Didn’t you just get here yesterday?” she questioned.
“Wow, word spreads fast in a small town,” Lisa replied.
“We tend to run through faces quick nowadays.” She threw out her hand to Lisa. “I’m Faith Thomas, by the way.”
Lisa shook it, and I noticed Faith hold on to her hand, just a beat too long. “Lisa Xu and this is Amina Langston.”
“Well, welcome girls,” she said, with a slight grin as she shook my hand. “A welcome drink on me. What can I get you?”
“Vodka tonics for us both. And she’s getting a whiskey for another friend,” Lisa replied.
“Sure thing, sweetie,” Faith turned and went to fix our drinks.
Lisa leaned towards me. “She’s beautiful. I hate her.”
I laughed.
“Amina?”
I turned to my left to see Felix standing there.
“Hey, Felix, glad you could make it.” I smiled and gave him a quick hug.
He shrugged. “I didn’t have anything to do but feed Dexter.”
“So, you said.”
“She was pissed that I was heading out. I don’t really go out much at night.” He leaned his massive frame against the bar.
Lisa leaned into me. “Who’s the cute but creepy weirdo?” she whispered.
“Felix,” he said, clearly having overheard Lisa’s not-so-whispery whisper. Good-natured, as I was beginning to think he was, he leaned over and offered his hand.
Lisa shook it and offered him her most pageant-like smile. “Sorry, I’m Lisa.”
Faith appeared again with our drinks. “Here you are, lovelies.” She looked over at Felix and gave a look of shock, her eyebrows raised. “I must be seeing a mirage because that couldn’t possibly be my Felix out at a bar.”
He grinned. “Hey, Faith. Amina invited me out.”
“I’ve been trying to get you out forever. All it took was a cute girl to get you out of the house. I should be offended.” She leaned over the bar and playfully punched him in the arm.
“How do you two know each other?” I asked before taking a sip of my drink. It was dangerously strong, and the tingle from the alcohol threatened to burn my nose hairs. I would be drunk soon.
“We met each other off base, as I call this place, almost three years ago. Helped each other survive. Well, I wasn’t so friendly in the beginning,” Faith explained.
“She tried to steal my energy,” Felix explained as if saying she cut him off in traffic.
“Say what now?” Lisa asked in confusion.
“I’m a succubus,” Faith explained with a sheepish grin. “It’s what I do.”
“A suck you what?”
I turned to Lisa with a blank face. “I feel like you heard what she said.”
Lisa leaned into me. “I think she forgot to put the tonic in this drink.”
Faith chuckled. “I’m like a vampire, except I don’t need blood. I need life force or energy. I was a bit suspect back in the day, but now I only take from willing men and women. And animals I don’t like. Anyway, something about this big guy here set me on the straight and narrow, and I don’t steal energy anymore. Now we’re like brother and sister. He keeps my control in check, and I make sure he doesn’t get too lost.”
I shook my head. “I’ve never run into a succubus before. Awesome.”
She winked at me. “Glad you think that, sweetheart. All right, Felix, I’m getting you a whiskey, no objections,” she announced and spun away.
“Well, that explains why she’s such a flirt. That’s how she pulls suckers in and gets their energy,” Lisa stated.
“I just wanted a beer,” Felix muttered, looking down. For a man built like he lifted trucks as hand weights, he sure was shy.
I clapped my hands. “So, Felix, I invited you out because I think you might be,” I looked to Lisa for drama. “A fairy.”
She frowned.
“Before you say anything, Lisa. He said he can heal people, but he’s not a witch or a mage. What else could he be?”
Lisa shook her head. “I don’t know but he’s not a fairy. No offense, Felix. You just don’t give me fairy vibes. If there is a fairy in the same room as me, I would feel it. We can’t hide from each other. It’s like a ringing in the ear until we finally meet. I hear no ringing. I’ve only felt it a couple times before. You could be an elf, maybe?”
Felix’s shoulders dropped. “I’m not an elf.”
Faith reappeared with two whiskeys and frowned when she saw Felix’s hanging head. “Well, what happened?”
“I found out I’m not a fairy,” he replied in a gloomy voice, taking his drink.
She looked to Lisa and me, confused. “I don’t know how to respond to that.”
I explained. “I thought he might be a fairy because Lisa’s one, but he’s not.”
“Erik said not to tell everyone,” Lisa loudly whispered. She was drunk already.
Faith stuck out her lower lip and turned to Felix. “It’s all right, honey. We’ll find out what you are. Don’t give up.”
Felix took a large gulp of his drink and then looked at Faith. With the way Faith poured drinks, I’d half expected him to breathe out fire, but he was a big guy, so I guessed he could handle it.
“I’m not giving up. I just know more than ever now that we have to leave and go to Silver Spring,” he stated with determination in his voice.
“No, he didn’t,” Lisa said, mouth hanging open.
Faith sighed and leaned back from the countertop. “Not this again. You know I’ll go anywhere with you but come on, sweetie, we can’t skip a good thing we got here for a dream you’ve been having.”
“I’m blown away. Felix, do you know anyone named Phillip?” I asked.
“
Or Ms. Annie Mae?” Lisa added.
He shook his head quickly. “I’ve seen Annie Mae. People talk about Phillip here, and there but I haven’t seen him.”
“What people? We both have been dreaming about people from a town in Silver Spring. Actually, communicating with them in repeated dreams,” I explained.
“No way,” Faith said, leaning on the counter. I heard someone call her name, but she ignored them.
“In my dreams, I see a town. I don’t talk to anybody. I just visit like a ghost.” Felix looked beyond the bar as if thinking.
“I’ve never actually seen the town in my dreams,” Lisa stated. “What’s it like?”
“What’s what like?” Felix asked, turning to us.
“Faith!” called a male voice.
I looked to her, and she continued to stare at us, listening to the conversation as if she hadn’t heard her name.
Lisa rolled her eyes. “What’s Moscow like? Silver Spring, silly!”
Recognition entered Felix’s eyes. “It’s a bit like here. Big, but more of a city feel. Things are closer together. They live in houses and high-rise apartments. It’s like a government town, but they have only supernatural people there.”
I heard Faith’s name again. She was unmoved.
“High rises,” I pondered. “The town has to be in downtown Silver Spring. I know exactly where they are!”
“Faith!” a balding, middle-aged, white man shouted. He was now standing beside Faith. “I’ve been calling you. Get your deaf ass to the other side of the bar and help people!”
I think I saw literal fire in Faith’s eyes as she spun to look at him. The older man, who I was now assuming ran the place, paled and took a step back. Felix reached out and grabbed Faith’s arm.
“Chill, mama,” he said in a soothing voice.
The scary fire died out in Faith’s eyes, and she let out a deep sigh.
“Give me one minute, please, Stan,” she said through gritted teeth.
The man huffed and walked away, muttering about how hard it was to find good help. Clearly, he had missed the whole apocalypse, where bartending probably wasn’t a high priority.
Felix straightened up with excitement. “Let’s go to this town!”
Lisa and I looked at each other. “We can’t. At least not right now,” I said.
“Why not?” Faith asked, crossing her tattooed arms.
“Well, that’s why we’re here…” I began.
Chapter 12
I had been in the town for a week before we got in motion to return to the prison for scouting. Colonel Robinson wanted to send out scouts, and we were to go with them as guides. Erik would join. Charles and I gave our perspectives, along with drawing a detailed layout of the facility that we tried to put together from memory. Once Colonel Robinson and his people were comfortable that it wasn’t all a set-up, he agreed that they would help us rescue our friends.
Needless to say, I was not looking forward to returning. The very thought of it gave me heart palpitations. Every horrible outcome of our getting to the hospital entered my mind. We get back there, get ambushed and recaptured. We get back there and they have moved. We get back there and see our friends are being treated to worse conditions as a result of our escape. I was ready for this part of my life to be over.
“Doesn’t look like anyone is there,” observed a soldier, riding in the front passenger seat of the SUV.
The truck, along with several other vehicles, was parked on top of a hill a quarter of a mile away from the hospital. It was after 10 p.m., and the hospital sat below us, un-lit. We didn’t even see any lights from guards posted on the roofs.
“They could all be asleep,” I explained from the back seat.
The soldier, a young white guy with a bald head, pulled out goggles from the glove compartment. “Stay here,” he ordered and got out of the car, disappearing down the street to a staircase, spilling on to the road in front of the hospital.
We waited in silence for about fifteen minutes. The soldier returned, getting in the truck. “No ones there. Several of us circled the entire perimeter and no heat signatures registered on our equipment,” he announced to the driver, a woman with short, curly black hair.
Colonel Robinson, who had been listening in from a speaker, ordered them to go in and search for any clues regarding where David and the others were going next.
We drove up to the gate, which was open, and onto the grounds. Our driver parked near the closest door we came to, and the rest of the trucks parked at other entrances. Charles and I got out from the back and followed the soldiers inside. The doors were unlocked and it was eerily quiet. We never filled up the whole hospital before, but there were enough people there, between the prisoners and the workers and their families, that we should have heard voices and sounds of life no matter what part of the hospital we were in. However, the soldiers ran through the building, kicking open doors, encountering no one.
We did find remnants of recent life. Clothing, partially eaten food, trash, used cigarettes, the garden with most of its produce gone, blood spills…
“The blood is fairly fresh,” said a soldier. He wore glasses and had a buzz cut. He shone his flashlight on a spot of red on the floor. He crouched down and sniffed the blood spill, then stood up. He must have been were. “They probably left only yesterday.”
I wanted to vomit. While I’d been messing around in Hagerstown for over a week, David and crew had been making their escape. Turns out, my ward wasn’t that strong.
Charles let out an expletive and punched the wall hard enough to cause a bruise on his hand. I walked over to him to pat his back, but Charles moved away. “We’ll find them, Charles,” I said with confidence, although I didn’t feel that certain.
He spun around and looked at me with pained eyes. “How, Amina? How? It’s not like they left a trail of bread crumbs. In this world, how are we finding anyone? They moved because we escaped. They can go anywhere in this country. They can cloak themselves, so we can’t see them.”
“We could sense that magic.”
“Sense it where?!” He threw out his arms in frustration. “They could have gone north, south, west. We have no idea.”
“We can tell our other towns to be on the lookout,” said one soldier, looking around as he spoke.
“Half of this country is still uninhabited or with no access to tech. It could be another five years before we are in a place to be able to find them. All our friends could be drained dry and dead by then,” Charles said, leaning against a wall, holding his now bruised hand.
“It won’t be that long. Things will get back to normal before then. If we have to scout by foot and search this whole damn country, we will.” I walked over to him again, intending to heal his bruise.
He moved his hand away from me. “Stop mothering me,” he grumbled.
I threw up my hands in surrender and walked away, seeing Erik and a couple of soldiers coming down the hallway.
He looked over at Charles then at me. “You okay?” he asked me.
I shrugged. “I don’t know what to do.” I crossed my arms, feeling lost.
“Well, we think that these guys didn’t operate just here,” Erik began. “They have other bases just like this. We saw some names and states on a paper in an office. The closest sites are in New York and one in North Carolina. That helps to narrow down the search.”
“Assuming those places don’t move too,” I grumbled.
A soldier called out that we were leaving.
“We left some cameras around the building, just in case anyone comes back. We’re going to do some scouting, settle in a couple of houses for the night, and then head out early morning,” the soldier with a buzz cut announced as we headed back to the trucks. “We already pressed our luck being out this late.”
He was right. Night wasn’t the safest time to travel. Scary monsters seemed to prefer the cover of night to search for food, usually people. Our four trucks ended our scouting in a town outsid
e of Pittsburg and made a stop at an abandoned shopping center to search for supplies.
We broke into groups to check the area with Charles, two soldiers, and myself searching a pharmacy. There was a low chance of finding anything to scavenge, but unless the place looked broken into, we couldn’t just ignore the possibility that there might be something worth collecting.
“We shouldn’t have left them,” Charles muttered as he and I walked down an aisle with shopping baskets. The pharmacy was locked when we got to it, which was a good sign that there may be something inside worth getting. Thanks to Charles’ tech magic, we entered without any damage. We kept the lights off to avoid outside attention. Since the store was locked, we could only assume someone had kept it going for a while. There wasn’t a full variety of stuff, but there was still more than the usual leftovers we’d normally find. Whoever left the store probably planned to come back, but everything was covered in dust, so…they weren’t returning.
I knocked packages of tampons and sanitary napkins into my basket. Reusable menstruation cups were becoming more popular but were very hard to find.
“What good would we be if we had stayed? We’d we dead, maybe. I’d be raped. Here, we have a chance to set them free,” I said.
I stopped walking and turned to Charles, who was staring blankly at several baby items. Diapers were probably needed. New life was still happening around us. I always got amazed when I thought about the children who would grow up in a world like this as their normal. Perhaps the mundane, slice-of-life world that I grew up in would be their new fairy tales.
“You can’t feel guilty. Feel blessed. God has a plan for us. That’s what mom said, and I believe her. We’re going to help them. That’s what we do.”
“There was a lot of blood splattered,” Charles said.
“They were rushing to get out. Maybe they spilled blood bags. There were a lot of people there. And we didn’t find any bodies, that’s what’s important,” I replied. I handed him my basket and began to fill his empty basket with various baby items. “Perhaps this is for the best. They’re with another one of their operations now. So, when we find them, we have a chance to shut the whole operation down with help from the government. We will help more people.”
