by Jim Stein
“Now that’s music I can work with!” Quinn popped up on the other side of our makeshift enclosure, cool blue magic curling around her right hand, her left on the valve to the building’s fire main.
Of course she could work with one of the A-Chord’s biggest hits and her own bass beat. The song was a crossover that worked to focus both Fire and Water elemental spells. I had no affinity for the latter, but water would drive the nasty green-brown scorpions off.
Most of the monstrosities that scurried, slithered, or flew in from the shifting sands were dull browns, dingy greens, and black, colors devoid of joy. The dune itself swelled, propelling the nasties on a wave of sand that devoured the street just behind the speeding bus. New Philadelphia was supposed to be a safe haven from the eroding world. Set in the suburbs of its decaying namesake, it had been one since I was a kid. But in recent months our oasis turned nightmare.
“Let them have it!” I said.
We’d worked out how to deal with the more mundane threats. The scorpions definitely didn’t like getting wet. Thanks to Quinn’s insane mother, she could control water, a feat that eluded me and my siblings. But we were running the girl ragged, and there were other…things that didn’t mind moisture. We needed to puzzle out where these creatures came from and how to stop them. Luckily, so far Earth, Fire, or Spirit elements took care of those not balked by water.
Quinn whipped long chestnut hair with the flip of her head to reveal brown eyes glinting with intensity as she opened the valve. Her power spiraled in my magical sight, sucking up the gushing water. The stream swirled out, shooting tighter and farther than a simple firehose would allow. The lead bugs shifted in a wave and flowed back over themselves to stay out of the stream. But rather than simply soaking the ground in front of them, the water curled up to either side blocking all directions except a direct retreat.
“I wish these little bastards burned,” Quinn said through gritted teeth. “Sending them running is just a Band-Aid.”
“You and me both.”
My hands itched to let loose with a blast of my own. Not only would the water quench my Fire spell, the damned things were resistant to the strongest element at my command. A concentrated spell would broil the poisonous critters given a second or two, but nowhere near fast enough to deal with the numbers that swarmed out of the desolate sands dividing New Philly. So for the time being herding them back to wherever they came from was our solution.
With her spell well underway, I shut down the pumping music and gathered my gear. Once they were gone, we needed to haul ass back to headquarters. All too often we’d had people linger after one of these little encounters only to find themselves cut off by the shifting sands. At first it seemed only an inconvenience, since few cars in New Philly had four wheel drive sufficient to get through soft sand. But it quickly became obvious that driving was not the only problem.
Even when the stretch of encroaching desert was whisper thin, we’d lost people—literally lost them. Witnesses would see someone tromping out across the dune, a little blowing sand, and then nothing. Mr. Conti was keeping records and communicating as best we could with the far side of town, but last I knew losses approached a hundred citizens.
“Ed?” The uncharacteristic note of panic in Quinn’s voice had me dumping my equipment into the car and sprinting the few yards back to the loading dock. “We’ve got a new one!”
