Sunscorched

by Jen Crane

  “Oh, and you know so much?” he said sarcastically. “Did you know an entire population of people lived underground?”

  Her face scrunched into a scowl. “Point taken.”

  “Anyway,” he went on, “the tunnels I’ve seen in Mexico aren’t as…structured. There are main arteries to and from important areas, but they’re patrolled by pirates or militants. The tunnels we’ll have to take are sometimes no more than mud-caked wormholes. We’ll be lucky if we’re able to ride the bike the whole way.”

  Nori banged her head on Cooper’s back at the thought of walking—or crawling—the rest of the way to the 25th Parallel.

  He twisted in his seat. “For what it’s worth,” he said, “I think you’ve been a champ.” Nori risked a look up at his face. “I’m serious.” His green-gold eyes were intent on hers even when a chunk of his dark hair blew in his face. “This is a hard trek. There’s a reason not everyone makes it.”

  She closed her eyes and mumbled “thanks,” but then sat up. “Cooper?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Thank you for bringing me all this way. I don’t think I’ve ever said that. Thank you for helping me find my parents.”

  “That’s it.” Cooper downshifted. “We’re stopping.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I think you’ve got a fever.”

  “Ha ha.” She punched him again, but playfully, and though he faced forward, she could tell he was smiling by the crinkles at the corner of his eye.

  “Damn.” Cooper squeezed the brakes, bringing the bike to a too-quick stop. Nori braced her arms to keep her body from slamming into his, but avoiding contact was as futile as searching for the sun.

  After so many days of riding tandem, Cooper and Nori had developed a rhythm. When he leaned into a turn, she leaned with him. At accelerations, she reached for the waist of his jeans and the solid hip bones beneath it.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Road’s blocked.” Cooper dismounted and strode toward a pile of rocks, which bordered some sort of cave-in.

  Nori stretched her aching back before running to catch up with him. “Could we get through if we moved the rocks?”

  “You and I together couldn’t move that one.” Cooper motioned to a boulder the size of a chair before massaging his temples. “And there are probably bigger ones behind it. The tunnel’s collapsed.”

  They’d encountered several challenges since entering Mexico, but this was the worst one. A surge of frustration shot through Nori, and she tossed aside some of the smaller rocks in the front of the pile. Bigger ones awaited just behind them. She wanted to scream, to jump up and down and have a full-on fit, throwing handfuls of rock and dirt. She allowed herself one angry, low-pitched growl then slid to the floor and stared at the opposing wall.

  After a while, Cooper sat down beside her, sliding his hand to her knee and giving an encouraging pat. He left his hand there, but she didn’t mind. Touching Cooper had become second nature. A comfort. Maybe it was to him, too.

  “All right,” he finally said and squeezed her leg. “Let’s get back on the bike.”

  Nori leaned her head back and groaned. “How far do we have to backtrack? How far to one of the towns we passed before?”

  “We’re not going to a town. Not that far.” He stood and offered a hand to help her up.

  “Where, then? Did I miss a turnoff? I haven’t seen anything since…” Nori’s voice trailed off as she pieced together Cooper’s plan. “We’re not going to the Surface, are we?” She shook her head. “Cooper? We’re not going to the Surface?”

  His eyes softened as he considered her fear, but his voice was confident. “It’s our only choice. Anything else will set us back days, Nori. Days.”

  Cooper slowed the bike some time later and Nori caught a glimpse of a painted symbol someone had wiped free of grime. “I saw that on the way through,” she said, “but it didn’t click.” She sat up straighter on the bike. “I recognize it now.” The stamped symbol was a bleeding red. Simple but aggressive. “That’s the symbol for biohazard. Right?”

  “Basically, yeah. Only this one has that sunburst in the middle.”

  “You’re right.” She dismounted and crept closer to inspect it. “What does it stand fo— No!” She traced three “C”s whose stems met in the middle. Does that mean what I think it means?”

  “That depends,” Cooper said and walked the bike through a narrow entrance and behind a camouflaged wall she hadn’t seen until that moment. “If you think it’s a symbol for your friends at the CCC then yeah.”

  “Why a biohazard warning, though” she wondered.

  “Oh, it’s all very calculated. See how the sunburst looms ominously behind the circle of “C”s?” he asked, and Nori nodded. “It’s not just their symbol, but a warning, a way to perpetuate the “Surface is poisonous” hysteria.”

  Nori chased after him, fear creeping into her bones. “You don’t think those psychos are up there watching this exit, do you?”

  Cooper pushed the bike past a series of rusty doors. “No,” he said, his voice overly-light. “They’re just the ones who built the exit. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  As they ascended a muddy path far narrower than the main tunnel, she could’ve sworn she heard a garbled, “Probably.”

  41

  El Gran Desconocido

  “Cooper?” Nori asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “What if it’s not dark out?”

  Someone had put a thick padlock on the door leading outside. Cooper used the gun he’d taken from the last run-in with Sarge as a lever to dislodge the lock from the latch. It didn’t work.

  “Can’t you smell it?” he asked.

  “Smell what?”

  “The night air.”

  “I smell something,” she said. “Burning—no, burned.”

  “That’s just everything left after the scorch. Try, though,” he said. “Picture the night sky as you breathe, see if you can tell the sun’s gone.”

  Nori cocked an eyebrow at him, but tried anyway. It had been so long since she’d inhaled anything besides exhaust fumes. Maybe her chemoreceptors were fried.

  Cooper’s vicious kicks at the door only minimally distracted her. “You’re right,” she said, eyes popping open as a gust of night air hit her. “I can totally tell.”

  He laughed out loud, and for a moment her heart expanded almost painfully. “I’m just messing’ with ya,” he said. “I looked at my watch.” Cooper stopped his laughing and met her gaze. You slug, she said. “You slimy, septic slug. I hate you. You know that?”

  “You do not.” His words held more meaning than she was comfortable with.

  “What are you banging on?” she finally asked.

  “See,” he said proudly. “Stick with me, and you’ll learn something.”

  “I’ve learned a lot already, actually,” she said, and then finally looked at him. “What are you banging on?”

  Cooper’s guilty grin turned wolf-like when her gaze snagged on the metal squares in his hand. “The lock was new and wouldn’t budge. Glad I snagged those tools from the lodge. I dismantled the hinges.”

  “Oh. My God.” Nori covered her mouth with shaking hands, horrified by what lay just behind the metal door. Her watery eyes turned to real tears as she took in the husk-like remains of bodies piled around the door. “People,” she whispered. “These are people.” She turned to Cooper, whose face had gone white. “There must be a hundred of them.” She shook her head, and her voice rose with each word. “Oh. My God. My God, my God, my God.”

  “That new padlock.” Cooper’s whispered voice was savage. “Someone locked them out of the tunnel. Someone murdered all these people.”

  “Who would do that?” she bleated. “Why?” Nori’s heart physically hurt, and she rubbed her chest.

  Cooper didn’t speak again as he mounted the bike. He looked straight into the night. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “But there’s nothing we can do
for them now.”

  “Shouldn’t we bury them or something?” Nori asked. She couldn’t bring herself to get on the bike, to leave the tortured, soulless bodies.

  “If we bury them, no one will see. No one will know.” Cooper gripped the handlebars so tight his knuckles turned white.

  “You think these people knew about the Subterranean?” Nori asked. “You think they were locked out? That this was intentional?”

  “I can’t see how it’s not,” Cooper said. “They’ll pay for this. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “Who? Who’ll pay? The CCC? Guys like Sarge and Wallace?”

  “All of them. Every single one of them.”

  Nori had never heard Cooper’s voice so violent before. She was beginning to suspect a well of barely-leashed rage bubbled just below the surface of his playful facade. Nauseous, furious, they left the victims behind. But Nori’s horror stayed with her for a very long time.

  “Have you ever seen anything like that before?” she asked after a while, her head stuffy and voice nasal.

  “No.” Cooper cleared his throat. “No, I haven’t.”

  Nori nodded and changed the subject. “Any idea how much night we have left?”

  “We’ll be okay,” he said, though his voice was more hopeful than confident. “The road is at least passable. Keep an eye out for that symbol on any old road signs or utility boxes. The scarlet eye. Hell, watch for any graffiti. It’s our best shot at getting back Subterranean.”

  It was blissfully dark out, at least for the time being. The wind in Nori’s face as they raced down the old highway tried its best to scrub away the horrific scene she’d witnessed. But each time she closed her eyes, she saw them, the charred husks of people seeking shelter underground and finding none.

  Who had put that lock on the door? What kind of monsters could sentence people to die like that?

  Though the temperature was mild, sweat rolled down Nori’s neck and soaked into her t-shirt. She hadn’t seen a single graffiti mark since going to the Surface, which she guessed was over an hour before. If the sun caught her unprotected, she wouldn’t survive—simple as that. Any part of her body that came in direct contact, and sometimes even indirect contact, with the sun would burn like she’d waded into fire. Infection followed, and in the conditions she faced…well, an infection like that was a death sentence.

  “I’m getting worried, Cooper.”

  He nodded once, but didn’t speak. She kept her eyes peeled for markings, for signs, for graffiti of any sort—the key to getting back underground where she would be safe. With her night vision, it was she who had the best shot of seeing them.

  “How long you think until the sun rises?” she asked.

  He shrugged tight shoulders.

  “I’m just… I’m worried. We’ve been riding at least an hour, and I don’t know when darkness fell before we got aboveground. The sun could rise any minute, and I’ll fry, Cooper. I’ll fry like those people, but it won’t take a sunscorch.”

  “I know that.” His voice was rough. “Don’t you think I know that? I took a risk going aboveground, all right. I risked running into people, though we haven’t seen any, and I risked the sun—”

  “Cooper?” Nori tapped his shoulder, but his words didn’t slow.

  “I risked you, and I’m so sorry. I hoped the detour would work out, that we’d find a way back down before now.”

  “Cooper?” she repeated.

  “God, this was so stupid.”

  “Cooper!” She squeezed his waist and shook him, and he finally turned to her.

  “What?”

  “I found the scarlet eye.” Nori pointed to an omniscient red eye painted on a rusted water tower.

  He closed his eyes and exhaled a quiet, “Thank God,” as he turned toward the bike.

  When they neared the water tower, Cooper thrust his legs out, and ground the bike to a stop.

  “How will we know where to find the entrance?” Nori scanned the landscape around them for secret hatches.

  “It’s supposed to be within fifty yards of a sign,” he said.

  “But that’s pretty big. Maybe we should split up. You take the bike and start at the outside of a fifty-yard circumference. I’ll start from the tower and work my way out. We meet in the middle and whoever finds the entrance first will whistle.”

  Cooper grinned at her. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

  “A little,” she admitted.

  “It’s a great plan,” Cooper said and went in for a fist bump.

  “‘It’s mine, isn’t it?” She met his fist and dropped an imaginary mic.

  “Okay,” Nori said to herself as she stalked through debris just off the highway. “The entrance has to lead down. That much is obvious. The first was by the dam outside Ralston then the one we came out of…” She stopped to look up at the night sky that she could swear was lightening with every passing second. “…nearly two hours ago, was beneath an old bypass, and this one has to go beneath that mountain.”

  Cooper’s motorcycle whined on the other side of the peak. He’d had the same idea. Or, she acknowledged with a groan, he’d suspected it was near the mountain the entire time, but let her think it was her idea. Didn’t matter. She would find the entrance first.

  Running over the rough terrain, she found a cliff cut into the side of the mountain. A barely visible path started at the side of the cliff and led to an outcropping above her head. She struggled, pulling herself up and onto the rocky ledge. Her hands were scraped and bloodied by the time she made it up, but it was worth it. There was a small landing just outside the mouth of a cave. Has to be it, she thought, and whistled for Cooper, but not before doing a little victory dance that sent rocks and dust skidding down the cliff.

  The sound of the motorcycle engine grew louder as Cooper approached. He didn’t see her at first, so she stepped onto the ledge and waved down at him.

  “How did you get up there?” he asked.

  “There’s an old trail,” she yelled back and pointed. “See? Better walk the bike. It’s pretty steep.”

  Cooper’s cocky smile was visible even from a distance.

  “Cooper?”

  He revved the engine.

  “You are not going to ride that thing up here.” Nori’s hands fisted at her hips, but flew in the air when he sped recklessly toward her.

  “You could’ve killed yourself,” she said as he skidded to a stop beside her. “And what would I do then?”

  His eyes danced above a wide grin. “Oh, I imagine you’d manage just fine.” He patted the seat behind him. “Hop on. Not much dark left.”

  “Well,” she said and mounted, “while I could live without you, I wouldn’t get far without the bike, which would probably be damaged in the process.”

  Cooper barked a laugh. “You’re right. I’m sorry. In the future, when I try to kill myself, I’ll make sure to leave the bike behind.”

  “Thank yo—” Her words cut off as Cooper goosed the throttle. She grabbed for his waist as her head flew back, and out of the corner of her eye, she caught the flash of a headlamp. Nori’s grin died on her face. “There’s another motorcycle. Close. Too close.”

  Without another word, Cooper killed the ignition. He turned his head and listened for a while before propping the bike just inside the cave entrance. Backing into the wall, he made his body as invisible as possible and pulled Nori with him. There were no doors this time, no padlocks. Just a rock-hewn corridor leading down. They didn’t dare speak. Didn’t move.

  When the motorcycle engine stopped, Nori’s gaze shot to Cooper’s. They sagged with relief, and he nodded to her to get back on. That was when they heard the voices. Two male voices. Their words were unintelligible, but the tone was sharp, argumentative. The voices stopped, and an engine roared to life, but so much closer.

  “Get on!” Cooper yelled.

  Nori scrambled toward the bike, her butt hitting the seat a fraction of a second before Cooper thrust them into the t
unnel. She held on to Cooper for dear life when the bike slid to a stop.

  “Which way?” she asked as he eyed a fork in the road.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “What?”

  “I haven’t been here before,” he said.

  “What do you mean you haven’t been here? I thought you’d made this trip before.”

  “I have. But with a big group of badasses, and we didn’t have to avoid towns and take these crappy little offroads.”

  Nori groaned and closed her eyes. They were finished. Maybe the Sword of Yahweh had finally caught up with them. Maybe the CCC had found out about Sarge and his men and sent more cronies after her and Cooper. Maybe it was some new foe altogether, this one worse than the last.

  “Left,” Cooper said and kicked the bike into gear.

  “Why did you choose left?” Nori asked once they were on their way again.

  “Just a guess,” he said.

  “Well, is it right?”

  “What, left?”

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “Let’s hope.”

  Every few seconds, Nori turned to see if they were being followed. When a swath of light cut through the darkness, her heart seized in her chest. They were in trouble.

  “Somebody’s coming, Cooper. I see headlights.”

  He growled and surged forward.

  “They’re gaining on us!” she said. “How are they gaining on us?”

  “Faster bike?”

  The headlamp was blinding as the pursuers closed in. Nori turned her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “They’re yelling at us.”

  “What?”

  “They’re yelling something at us, but I can’t tell what.”

  “Well, I’m not gonna stop and find out.” Cooper leaned forward, as if he could move the motorcycle faster by sheer force of will.

  “I can only make out stop,” she said. “Two riders. Back one is waving his hands.”

  “Yeah, no chance of that,” he scoffed and leaned toward the handlebars.

  “Hey, Cooper?” Nori said after a minute.