Ocean waves lapped at the sand. A cool breeze blew in from the north, carying with it the smell of the city. Vance sighed, even being so far away from the city he could still sense it. He sat on the beach and continued to bandage his leg. The burns didn't seem to be as bad as they could have been.
"Damn it! Why me!" he questioned the air carying the smell of the city. He put his head in his hands, and exhaled. "Why? Three fires! Twice my own family, and now my grandparents? Why do I curse those I live with?"
The air simply blew on by, no answers, no acknowledgement. Vance stood up, he had twisted his ankle when he pulled his grandmother from the fire. They thought he was a hero, among the flashing lights and smoke. His grandfather had run up to him carying his grandmother over his shoulder, and hugged them both, their savior. But he knew better, disaster seemed to follow him like a plague. He was no longer afraid of fire like he had been after the first.
That first time he had pulled his little sister, and her best friend from the fire. For weeks he hadn't been able to sleep, images of the roaring heat, and glowing flame kept him awake. He saw someone for a few years after that, a doctor who had helped him overcome his fear of fire. Then the second fire came, he pulled his dad from the fire that time. As with the first time, Vance had been the hero. Again he couldn't sleep, the fire didn't scare him as much as the thought that somehow his being there was bringing the fires. After a week of barely sleeping he had left, at sixteen he walked the streets for a week until ths cops had picked him up and took him home. He refused to live with his parents and ran off again. His grandfather had found him within an hour.
His grandfather had called his parents to let him know that Vance was found. He remembered his grandfather's words as he hung the phone up. "You've had bad luck, that's all. Let's you and I run away for the weekend, that seems to be where you were heading. We'll gas this old pickup truck up and see how far we can drive on a tank of gas."
His grandfather and he had driven all night, stopping as promised as the first tank of gas ran out. They found a hotel and got a room. The next day they had explored the sleepy little town of BeverDam. It was a quiet town, all 600 inhabitants. They ate in the one restaurant the town had to offer, they went boating down the river. It was a wonderfull weekend, and took Vance's mind off his curse. For the weekend he almost felt like a normal kid again.
When it came time for him to go home again, he protested, he yelled and he cried. His grandfather offered to take him in for a while, and did. He lived with his grandparents for nearly two years before the next fire. Enough, he told himself. He'd left them a letter.
Three times in six years. I can't stand to watch those I love loose everything because of me. I'm leaving, this time don't follow. I'm 18 now, and I can take care of myself. I can stay with friends on and off until I have a place of my own. Don't worry about me, I'm tough.
At the bottom of the note he had scribbled his name, and a P.S. with an email address, stating he didn't know when he'd be able to check it, but he'd find a way to check it when he could.
Now he was sitting on the beach, sore ankle, and some blisters on his arm. He threw a stone into the ocean, it bounced three times on the waves, and sank. He smiled, he knew just how it felt.
That night he slept in his friend's basement, huddled in the corner under some blankets. For breakfast he spent some of his limited money on a ten for a buck noodles special at the local supermarket. Two packs and steaming water, and he had breakfast, the remaining noodles he stuffed into his backpack. He was on his own, alone. It would have been an adventure if not for the circumstances.
He walked further from the city, his burns a raw throbbing pain. "At least everyone got out, I'm glad I left before someone was killed. Three times I was lucky, no one died. I can't take a chance that it won't turn out differently next time. I'll get my own place, and then it's just me at risk."
He was not so much talking to himself, as he was explaining his actions to the universe in general. He was pretty sure that God existed, but not sure what form. Somehow apparently he had gotten God's attention and pissed him off.
He sat down on a short brick wall, he rustled through his pack for a bottle of water, three left. He was just an hour's walk from Bill's place, he could refill his bottles there. He would crash for a few days at Bills house, and then John was going on a roadtrip, he could catch a ride from him, and find somewhere nice and quiet along the way, something small and quiet that would remind him of BeverDam where his grandfather had taken him to make him feel safe.
The hour walk seemed to take much longer, Vance's feet throbbed as he walked through the neighborhoods. How simple it was to drive a car, each block meer seconds instead of minutes, each turn effortless. But the car was his parents, he had been saving up to buy one for himself, now it seemed that money might get him a place for a month or two, hopefully long enough to find a job to support himself.
Bill thought he was insane, but agreed 3 fires was a bit much of a coincidence. He joked about making Vance sleep outside on the driveway, it wasn't flamable. Vance wasn't much in the mood for Bill's humor. Bill apologized when he saw the sick look on Vances face. Vance settled in for the night on Bill's couch, Bill's mom tucking him in on the couch as if she were his own mom. He hoped the universe didn't think she was.
Vance jumped awake in his sleep, he had been having once of his usual nightmares about fire. Long ago his doctor had explained lucid dreaming, and normally he was able to wake up just enough to take control of his dreams, and stop the fire. Tonight he woke up, but was unable to control his dream. A voice was crying his name, a voice he'd never heard. He ran as he was drawn towards the voice, around him burning embers fell, and flames flared. She was just in the next room, he pulled the door open, fire flared up and engulfed him as he woke up.
He wiped the sweat off of his brow, and lay back in the bed. "Great, now I can't even control my dreams anymore. With all I've been talking to myself, I wonder if I'm going insane." The cool air around him did not answer.
He tossed and turned for another hour before he fell back asleep. He just couldn't get the vision of his family out of his mind. First his sister and her friend, then his dad, and now his grandmother. He had rescued them all, he saw their terrified faces as he jumped through the flaming house, and pulled them to safety. In all of the fires, no one had been killed. He and others had been burned, but not a single person, or even pet had died. Why? He had saved four of them, he had reacted out of instinct, reaching them throught the burning haze. How? Now in his dreams he couldn't rescue this stranger in the burning house! Who? He finally forced his mind to clear as he imagined a desert island, all of sand, surrounded by water where the fire couldn't find him.
Morning came quickly, and Vance was unexpectedly refreshed from his night's sleep. He re-bandaged his burns, and looked at himself in a mirror. Curriously he looked at the redness of his face, had he gotten a sunburn from the long walk yesterday, or a real burn from the fire? He sighed and splashed some water on his face, it seemed cool on his face, even though his hands told him it was slightly warm.
Bill's mom had breakfast ready, she had cooked up a varitable feast, as Bill had been unable to tell her Vances favorite. Vance smiled, he felt at ease for a moment. She noticed his smile, and smiled back. He ate breakfast slowly, trying to eat as much as he could, it was all very good, and he didn't know when he would have a meal this big again.
He checked his email, everyone in his family and the local pastor had sent him long emails, he read briefly over each, fighting back tears. His grandparents corespondance had been appended to the end of his parents emails. They all wanted him to come back, but he wasn't going back, third time and he was out.
He sent them back a bulk email, as they were all concerned about how he was doing.
Dear everyone,
I realize you want me back home. During my long walking over the last few days I have thought about home very much. I wish I could be home, with the people who care about me, but I am afraid of loosing any of you to the flames. My friends think I'm overreacting, 3 fires in 6 years, it's a lot, but they don't think it's my fault. I know the fire isn't my fault, but it follows me, I don't know why. If I came home now, I'd settle back in, eventually forget the fires, and relax. Somehow they'd burn again, I can't risk it. I am doing well, some of my old friends have taken me in and fed me well. In two days I will be leaving on a trip. I'd like to find a small town like BeaverDam where I feel that same safety that grandpa showed me all those years ago, there maybe I can avoid the fires. Pastor, pray for me, I would hope that somehow the universe would stop chasing me with flame, maybe it would help. Sis, I will miss you most of all, I see in you great things, don't disappoint me. Know that I will be safe, I have my car money I can use for housing until I'm on my own feet. I may be out of email contact for a while while I travel and find a safe place, but I will contact you again. I have a message in my wallet, should anthing happen to me you will find out. Somehow I feel this is where I belong, like the fires have chased me out on my own. Perhaps there's a reason.
Love you all,
Vance.
He hit send, and the email began it's long light speed race into the internet, going to where he longed to go, to all those places that could be home to him.
(Updated 11-5-2003)
Lea sat up, she had dozed off watching late night TV. Wow, the wind was strong today, the gusting had woken her as branches slapped against the side of the trailer home she lived in.
She shook her head awake, and stumbled to her feet. The trailer swayed as the wind gusted again. She stumbled to the window, and looked out. It was almost completely dark, yet there was a sound just on the edge of perception she though she heard. Lightning flashed, as the wind blew, she couldn't see the tree was blown in the way of where she was looking. She wrinkled her brow, and stared at the black again. Flash, a shape, in the distance through the rain, did she really see it? The sky lit up again, lighting the world as bright as the sun. In the distance she saw it again, got a really good look.
"Damn, not again." She picked up her cell phone, and called her roomate at work. "Jen? It's Lea."
"Yeah, I'm still at home."
"I didn't see the weather report, but I saw it. Yes, heading this way."
"I'm heading out the door right now. Don't wait up on me, I probably won't be home."
"Ever."
"Tornado's seem to follow me, maybe if I leave quick enough the trailer won't blow away."
She pressed end, without saying goodby. She put the duffel she'd been packing over her shoulder, and stepped through the doorway outside.
The wind was really whipping, and she almost lost her ballance in a gust as she walked to her car. The engine started hesitantly, and ran rough. Reverse, squeal, forward, squeal, a few turns and she was on the main road.
Every time the lightning flashed she could see it, the funnel shape beneith the clouds, she could almost feel it searching for her. If she could make it a few more miles she'd be ok.
A treebranch, down in the road, she turned sharply, and the car slid around the branch, and off the edge of the road. She turned back, and found enought traction on the grass to guide herself back onto the road. She turned the next corner too fast, and slid into the oncoming lane. Fortunately in this weather no one was on the road. Pushing her busted Geo Metro to it's maximum speed of 53 she attempted to blaze down the road. Ahead of her, little more than a half mile away, a gaping black mouth opened to swallow her whole. Behind her the funnel followed, cutting across a field, towards her.
She slowed a little as the blackness approached. She bounded into the dark hole, continued on for a few hundred feet, turned on her hazard lights, and stopped the car. After a moment she got out of the car, opened the trunk, and set up her roadflares, 3 in front of the car, and 3 behind. The wind racing through the tunnel she was now in danced with the flames of the flares, but they remained lit. She settled back down in her car, and as the tornado raced over the hill she was inside, she fell asleep.
Tap. Tap. She pulled her eyes open. A policeman was standing by the window of her car tapping on her window. She rolled down the window and asked "Storm over?"
"Yes, still cloudy, but not a spec of rain. You ok miss?"
"Yeah," she said blinking, "Saw the tornado coming, and figured this was the safest place. I didn't think the Mobile home would hold up to a tornado."
"Grassy Meadows park?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Got a report of someone driving like a bat out of hell around those parts last night."
"Guilty as charged, this is my fourth tornado, getting pretty routine for me by now." she shrugged.
"Glad to hear you got away safely." he paused for a second, "um ... try to keep the speed down in the future or something."
"As long as I'm not begin chased by a tornado." she smiled.
"That's fair." he grinned. "She still going to start?"
Lea turned the key, and the motor sputtered, and coughed and started. "Good as she ever does."
"Ok, you have a safe day, and watch out for tornados." he joked, and walked back to his car.
As he left, Lea thought about turning back, heading towards the trailer. No, she though, one too many times. She checked her watch, Jen wouldn't be home for another hour. She picked up her cell and dialed the trailer. After four rings she heard Jen and her own voice answer Relieved she thought, "At least the trailer didn't get hit" She listened, "Jen and Lea can't come to the phone, please leave a message.". She heard the beep and said "I made it through the storm, I can't stay here anymore, I'll be in contact later. Sorry Jen." and hung up.
Late that night Lea pulled into a 24 hour truck stop. After a bit, a waitress brought a warm bowl of soup, and a plate of something resembling lasagna. She barely remembered placing the order. Not bad, the food was tolerable, filled her aching stomach, and relaxed her. As she was leaving the diner on her way to fill up her tank, she noticed a rack of bumper stickers, one of them caught her eye. "Blow me" it proclaimed proudly. She smirked and took it with her.
Highway passed under the worn tires of the even more ragged Geo Metro. Without an idea of where she was going Lea drove well into the morning before she parked in a rest area and slept for a few hours.
She woke about noon when her bladder screamed at her to stop ignoring it, she groaned, and got out of the car. The cool noon air chilled her, she wished she'd had more time to pack warmer cloathes. Stretching she surveyed the area, bathrooms a little to the south, some picnic tables, and an area to walk dogs to the north. The sky above was threatening to rain, but hadn't quite decided if it would or not.
She used the facilities, whole reflecting on her life. When she was eight her family's farm had been distroyed when a tornado had swept through. Both barns, and nearly all the farm equipment had been ruined. The farm house, less than an eighth of a mile from the barn was untouched. Her mother had been working part time in town for a law firm, and with the distruction of their farm took the job on full time. With the money her mom was making, insurance and the sale of the farm, they were able to buy a small house on the outskirts of town.
How she missed the farm, the animals, and the outdoors, wide open spaces. Her father worked for several more years on rented land, and then for a while longer worked for other farmers. Meanwhile her mom went to college and progressed up the ladder at the law firm.
As the economy and technology changed, her father had less and less work, while her mom brought in more and more money. Finally he retired from the farm life. Retired in his mind meant he had no fixed schedule, and would go out and help his farmer friends, whenever he felt like he wanted to, rather than when he was paid to. It turned out retirement actually ammounted too working about a month less during the year, when he stayed home and worked on his own garden.
Four years later, on her twelvth birthday, a blowing snowstorm caved their garage and house roof, they were in one of the few undamaged rooms of the house when the roof fell, and were able to escape unharmed. Cold and scared, they spent the night sleeping in the semi-warmth of the car, unable to escape beyond that because the roads were snowed under. In the morning, the light glowed through the snow covering the car. Her father had to kick the door several times before the ice holding the door shut shattered. Snow fell in on him as he pushed his way into the snow beyond. He came back five minutes later after climbing through the snow. The road beyond had been plowed in the night, and was passable. He carried Lea on his back,
Still she remembered the scenery, the snow had rounded out all the shapes of the landscape. Those trees that hadn't cracked under the weight of the snow sagged, almost tested to the limits. While she sat on her father's shoulders she watched the road, the only real sign that the entire wold hadn't been shut down. A stipe of refuge through nature's fury.
Her father pushed his way throught the snow surrounding the car, and pulled open the trunk, unlocked it dug through the snow that had fallen in, and pulled a flare from the confines.
Her father lifted her off his shoulders, for a brief moment she was scared, but as he set her down in the cleared road she gained strength. She set her feet upon the road, her father holding her left hand, her mother holding her right. The road to town was little over a mile, but by the time they had trudged away even a tenth of that distance they were tired. The effort of walking on the slippery ice had lent them a warmth that fought with the cold that battered their face.
She was the first to see the movement, out of the corner of her eye, on the intersecting road, there was a car. They might have missed it except for her having caught a brief glimpse of itbetween the trees as they walked. "Daddy! The flare!" she encouraged. He pulled
(Updated 11-6-2003)
the flare from inside his jacket. Several strikes later, and the road flare sputtered to life. Lea coughed as the smoke billowed in her face. Her father held the flare further away, and waved it in the air. At the intersection ahead of them a car drove past, until they saw the brake lights on, they thought they'd been missed. Instead the car had been unable to stop on the slick roads.
The driver slowed, and came to a stop when his bumper slid into the snow bank, he put the car in reverse, and drove back to the intersection as Lea and her family trudged up.
"Hop in, I'll drive you to town!" the driver puffed in cloudy breaths out the car window.
"Thank you so much!" Lea's mother said.
The family hurried into the warmth of the car.
"Had a bit of a mishap?" the driver asked?
"To say the least!", Lea's dad replied, "House roof caved in during the storm, so we spent the night in the car, this morning there was too much snow to move the car so we made it to the road, and were on our way to town."
"It was quite a storm, sorry to hear about your place, but glad you made it out ok. Power in town is out, but they have a generator hooked up over at the diner, lots of folks there already, but should be room for 3 more."
"Thank you."
Towards town they drove, surrounded in brilliant white. With the white clouds above, Lea wondered if this is how it would feel in space, just a differenc color. The car was their capsule, and it almost felt like they were floating in nothingness.
The diner was packed, at least 60 people were hanging out in the small dining room that normaly seated 30. There was still standing room, and Lea was glad to be out of the small car. She took off her gloves, and held her hands over a coffee pot on the warmer. After a while she began to smile, the atmosphere in the diner almost had the feel of a big family christmas dinner. In the middle of the cold and blowing snow, these people had come together in a place of safety and warmth. People were arguing, and food was passed around, the were people talking, and people sulking just like her uncle at Christmas dinner.
After a few hours, when tempers were starting to heat, the Pastor of the church across the street, and several large men triumphantly walked up to the diner. "Folks..." he paused "Folks!" he said louder. "These fine fellows here have worked long and hard, and we now have generators running over at the church . It's still a bit chilly over there now, but it's not nearly as crowded."
A cheer rose from the crowd at that news. Within an hour the diner was cleared of all but those people who were there for dinner.
It took almost four days for the town to be freed of the snowy bonds. Power was restored within two days, and on the fourth day the final sidestreet was being plowed. Lea's family lived for six months in the attic loft of a good family friend while their house was rebuilt.
It was another 4 years until their next disaster. On a sunny afternoon, the family and close friends set sail on the ocean, twelve passengers, and a crew of five. The boat, named The Calm Sea was a large boat, with a brightly decorated deck, where later in the evening, a 7 course dinner would be served. The cruise was to be a weekend excursion of food, music and fishing. The boat set sail on the gently rippling ocean, just slightly bumpier than the name of the vessel.
The air was perfect, the sun warming them to a perfect cozy temperature. Lea fed bread to the seagulls that followed the boat. Watched them as they dove out of the sky to catch the bread in mid air, then fly to a distance to avoid the food being taken. It was a peacefully happy day, of eating, and music, and continued on into the evening.
As the sun set the wind picked up, within an hour the ocean was bouncing the boat roughlt. Those who weren't crew were hurried below deck to the small sleeping rooms. Still the wind picked up, and lightning could be seen on the horizon. The small boat was tossed on the waves, splashes of water leaping over the railing and soaking the deck. As the waves rose, the small boat's engines roared, trying to close in on the shore as quickly as possible. Lightning flashed overhead, as the boat swayed too and fro on the water. A lighthouse was visable in the distance, and the boat slowed, not daring to go too close to the shoreline in this weather and be smashed upon the rocks and sand.
As the passengers were wide eyed staring out the portholes bobbing at the edge of the water, Lea was walking around below deck, she'd seen wind like this before, and it no longer scared her, somehow she'd become imune to the fear. She stood at the bottom of one stairway, watching as small trickles of water cascaded down the roughened steps.
Sudently, there was a treamendous crash, a lurch, the boat felt like it would tip over sideways. Lea jumped back from the door as it's hinges sighed, creaked and broke. Above her the door was held on by one hinge. The trickle of water on the stairs was joined by a hiss of water from the room below the stairs.
Lea watched as the hallway filled with surprised faces, all asking "What was that?"
She frowned, and pointed to the door knocked off it's hinges "Something hit us, and we're leaking."
Her parents panicked, and began to push towards the damaged door. She shouted "Wait, not that way, that's where we were hit, use the other stairs in the back." She had to shout that two more times before people started to move towards the rear stairs.
Her mom grabbed her and pulled her along towards the rear stairs, shaking from fear the entire way. When they reached the deck, the crew directed them to the rear of the boat. Lightning and remaining unbroken lights revealed what had hit the side of the ship. Another vessel, smaller, with no crew or lights possibly drifting that way for many hours had plowed into the side of their much larger boat.
As they stood on shore, watching as the crew fired flare after flare into the sky above, the boat began to lean. A worried glance from the crew confirmed their fears, the boat was taking on water, and would sink.
Lea having slipped from her mother's grip walked over to one of the crewmembers holding a hose running up from below deck. She asked "You guys do have lifeboats don't you? I know I could swim back to shore, but I don't know about my folks."
The crew member looked back at Lea, who stood on the deck as easily as she would have stood on unmoving ground. "Swim back in this crap? You are a tough one. But don't worry, we have enough life rafts and vests on board for fourty people. If you want, start handing out vests, just inside door to the stairs you came up."
Lea walked over to the doorway, popped open a hatch and pulled out the life vests. The orange color of safety attracted the grownups like moths to a flame, and quickly, everyone had a vest on. Lea pulled open another compartment and from inside pulled out a box labled "Inflatable 10 person raft" idly she noted it was 1 of 5. She counted in her mind, 17 people, would fit into 2 rafts if 3 were left as spares. She carried two of the boxes to the deck, and unboxed them. She glanced at the instructions and walked back over to the crewman with the hose.
"Everyone's got a vest on now. I pulled two rafts and unboxed them, they're secured by the people in the back and ready to be inflated whenever they're needed. How's the pumping going?"
"Already? You're a quick one. We're holding our own for now, hopefully we won't need the rafts. The storm computer said this was a small isolated storm just before it went out, hopefully we can just wait it out."
"Well, I'll keep an eye on things back there. Just let me know."
"Sure thing." the crewman saluted.
Lea saluted back, smiling and went to guard the rafts. It was about fifteen minutes of waiting and watching, before the waves calmed down. The crew was making headway on the pumps, and the boat was leveling. Things were not to be that easy though. As the boat leveled, the dark boat pulled away, and floated off back into the darkness. The hole left as it left began to leak water faster, and soon the pumps couldn't keep up. Lea kept an eye on the crewman holding the hose. He caught her eye and made a pulling motion with one hand, to indicate she should open the rafts. She attached their leader roper to the deck of the ship, pulled the inflate lever and tossed them overboard. They hit the water right side up, inflated and ready for people. She opened the gate in the side of the railing, and kicked the emergency rope ladder out of it's restraints. It unfolded neatly down the side of the boat. The crew member tied the hose to the railing, and bounded over to help people down the ladder into the boat. In little less than two minutes everyone else was in the two boats. Lea picked up the three spare life rafts and lowered them on a rope, into the waiting boats. Finally she and the crewman climbed down the ladder as the captain ran out from below deck. "Pumps just ceased, everyone in the rafts." He glanced around, panicked to begin with, and then smiled, he gave his boat a salute, and climbed down the ladder into the waiting rafts.
Lea fell asleep as the waves rocked the boat, it was well into morning when she awoke. Her dad was shaking her awake saying "Coastguard is here, we're rescued." She blinked into the early morning sunrise, and smiled.
As she climbed on board the coastguard's boat, she looked back, two neatly lashed together rafts, three spares in tow, and behind them, low in the water, but not quite sunken yet was the Calm Sea.
Wusaak kicked the door open screaming "Damn you!". Klunk, the door fell out of it's shattered frame. He looked around, it had been a big quake, several of the houses in his neighborhood had cracked bricks, down the block further fire crews were working on a blaze, probably a ruptured gas line. He ducked back into the house to throw his cigarettes into his backpack, he pulled his savings from under his matress, and took his pda. The rest the landloard could have, he sighed. It was a nice place, not too expensive for California. Oh well, he'd lost his job last month and was late on the rent anyways, his landlord wouldn't miss him greatly.
Walking down the street he pulled out his fingerless gloves and put them on. He bumed a light off of a stranger walking the street. Handing back the lightere he reassured the stranger that was all he was after, even if it was columbia's finest. He pulled his sunglasses out of the pocket of his vest, and put them on. Damn lense was scratched, but they cut down on the glare. How come earthquakes always hit when the sun was the brightest, when you wanted to be inside in the quiet dark cool, and wait for the night.
Up ahead Wusaak heard a scream, he reached to his hip and with one motion pulled and opened his knife. Three inches of titanium steel, and he wouldn't have to fight, intimidation might save him the effort. Effortlessly his feet moved him down the road, barely aware that they were touching the pavement at all.
A pretty blond girl, was lying on the ground, two rough looking people standing over her. One was rooting through her purse, while the other looked on. Wusaak thought she must be about 4 years older than he was, which put her at about 22. He breathed deaply, slowed down and clawed a handfull of rocks as he ran past an ornamental flower garden.
Loud incoherant swearing echoed from the distance. At a distance of about 400 feet, Wusaak had hit his mark. The guy dropped the purse, and rubbed just behind his ear where the sharp stone had drawn blood.
He turned, anger and surprise on his face. "You're going to die whoever you are!"
"I'm Wusaak." he smiled, and threw a second rock, blazing into the forehead of the other man.
"Kill him Flame!" the target yelled, stepping back and wiping blood from his forehead.
"I intend to dipshit, shut up."
Wusaak grinned, in rapid succession two more rocks bounced off the leader of this team of imbicils. Stopping at 50 feet, Wusaak flashed sunlight off of the golden blade he held near his hip.
"Fucker's got a knife" cautioned the other guy, who stepped back another five feet.
"3 inch titanium blade, I can stick wherever I want from this distance. I'd suggest you both back off like your smart friend is doing right now."
Flame pulled a gun from inside his pants, and pointed it directly at Wusaak's head. "Why do't you just drop your knife, and walk the other direction, this girl's not your concern. I can tell you've walked the streets before, I'm sure you've done the same before."
Wusaak sighed, his wrist flicked, the blade cutting a slice down Flame's arm before it burried itself in the tree behind him. "I never needed to. I wasn't afraid to do some real work when I needed money or food." Wusaak replied as the gun fell from the bleeding arm of his adversary.
Flame looked around for backup, but his cohort was nowhere to be found. He cradled his arm to his shirt, screaming, while he stooped down to pick up the gun with his other hand. As his hand closed on the grip of the gun, a larger rock caught him in the to of his head. He staggered back, blood trickled down his face, and he made some sort of deep noise halfway betern a scream and a belch. He staggered back, and ran, almost falling over as he tried to regain his balance.
Wusaak walked over to the girl. He held out his hand to help her up. She hesitated and took his hand, and was pulled gently to her feet. Hooking his foot in the strap of the purse he lifted it up and grabbed it with his hand, then handed it back.
"You alright?" he said quietly.
"Almost wasn't, hadn't been for you showing up."
"Right place, right time, I guess." he shrugged. "Take the gun, they might come back."
"Don't do guns," she mumbled, looking through her purse. She pulled a mace sprayer from her purse and gestured to it.
"Spray's good. Sometimes just pisses em off though. A hole will make them think twice. Still, sometimes twice isn't enough thinking."
"You're funny. I'll be ok without the gun." she spoke slightly stuttering.
"You have somewhere safe to go, I'll go with you. I don't have anywhere I need to be." Wusaak confided.
"Sure, just a few block, over there." she pointed.
"Ok."
Wusaak pulled the knife out, and folded it back in half. They walked quietly, and quickly, and Wusaak left as she entered her destination.
(Updated 11-7-2003)
He whistled as he walked down the street, the road had been his companion for many years. It seemed every time he got comfortable he was back on the street. He wasn't surprised, he was tough now, the first time it had been more of an adjustment.
At 8 years old, Wusaak was living with a cousin, his parents had both died years earlier in a traffic accident, so that he barely remembered them. His cousin Jane reminded him that she was his cousin routinely, so that Wusaak never forgot the 'kindness she was offering'. This kindness was limited to a roof, food, some handed down clothes, and the occasional reminder that he wasn't hers. Wusaak wished and wished for his parents to come home, but they were dead, they never would. Three months before his 9th birthday, Wussaak was outside playing. Suddenly the ground shook, the world around him seemed to slow as he watched the vibration knock down houses and trees. This was his first earthquake.
After the shaking, he stood in awe at the devistation the quake had caused. Just three houses down the street, a large crack split the pavement, one side elevated more than 5 inches. Wusaak found out later that the quake's epicenter was less than a quarter mile from his house. He ran to his house, but the door wouldn't open, he cried for someone to come help, but no one came. His cousin Jane had been out at the store when the quake hit.
Wusaak waited at home, but his cousin didn't come home. Apparently she had felt no need to leave work to check on him home alone. He started walking down the block after it became apparent she was not going to come home until her shift was over. Several miles away he arrived at the forest preserve. Quietly he sat and watched the geese floating in the lake. He soon tired of this and walked on.
He explored the forest for the day, pretending to be an explorer in Africa like he had read about in class. As it grew darker, he piled wood together for a fire. He unsuccessfully tried to light the fire rubbing two sticks together. Fortunately the night wasn't chilly, and Wusaak only needed to pretend there was a fire to stay warm. He fell asleep in the V of a tree trunk, arms hugged around the cool wood.
He awakened to the soft glow of the sky just before sunrise. Higher into the tree he climbed, straining to see the sun as it rose over the hills. The glow slowly brightened, the sky became bluer as the horizon glowed red. For his entire life Wusaak would remember that sunrise, it was his, and his alone, no one woke him, no one to tell him to look at it. He was there, by his own choice, and it was his.
He watched until the light hurt his eyes, and then he climbed back to the ground. Finding that the unburning campfire he had made the night before was as cold as before. He left his campsite, and wandeded back towards town.
Rubble still littered the street, people were sitting quietly on the curbs, tears in their eyes. Crews were working feverishly to restore power and utilities to the quake ravenged town.
While wandering aimlessly around watching the chaos, Wusaak ran into a group of older, maybe 14 year old boys. He walked up to them and asked "Want to play?"
It turned out they did, not like Wusaak was used to playing though. The boys hit him, and knocked him down. Spurred on by his cries they took a rope and tied his arms behind his back. Wusaak cried more, and they laughed. One of the oldest boys picked Wusaak up, and held him against a pipe protruding about 5 feet from the side of a building. Another boy tied the ropes around Wusaak's arms, and bound him to the pipe. Wusaak howled a cry of terror, and the boys just laughed harder. Soon they discovered they could run, grab Wusaak's feet as they ran beneith him, and spin him around the pole. He screamed, the rope bit into his arms, the friction from the pole burned his back and slapepd him when he came to a stop. The boys found this ammusing for about half an hour, and then cut him down. They laughed as his face smashed into the rocky ground. Finding Wusaak no longer amusing, they wandered off.
Wusaak out of tears lay on the cool ground, he could feel a small trickle of blood from just above his eye where he had struck a rock. After he was sure the boys were gone, he struggled with the rope. The rope tying his arms had been cut by the knife as well and he soon had one hand free. Being able to get his hand around in front of him he could see the knot to untie the rest. His arms were an angry red from the tight ropes, and his back stung when he rubbed it. The cut over his eye soon stopped bleeding, as he wandered far away from the yard where he had found the boys. He stopped by a fire hydrant that leaked slightly, and washed the blood off of his face the best he could.
He wandered for another day and a half before a police officer noticed him. He was dirty, and bruised, and sore. He had spent each night in his tree in the forest, around his fire that didn't burn.
"Are you lost?"
"No, Jane wasn't home, so I took a walk."
"How long ago was that?"
Wusaak considered telling the officer it was days ago, but was sure he wasn't supposed to be outside at night. "Just a little while." he greatly stretched the truth.
"Let's get you home then. What's your name?"
"I'm Wusaak." he smiled.
They discussed Wusaak's address, and hit the road. He was excited riding in the police car, it had so many lights and knobs to look at. The ride home was only five minutes to Wusaak's disappointment. The officer walked him to his front door and knocked. His cousin opened the door, and said. "Wusaak, where have you been? I've had the police looking for you for days!"
"This your son mam?" the police officer questioned.
"I'm his guardian, his folks died years ago." she answered, picking up Wusaak and hugging him to her.
She put Wusaak down and motioned him inside. He heard her and the officer talking for a few minutes, then she came in and sat down in front of the TV.
When the comercial finally aired, she asked him "Where you been for days, could have gotten me arrested for abandonment. Had to fill out a report on you and everything."
"I went to the forest. I was an explorer."
"That's nice." she pouted. "I was worried about you."
"I'm sorry." he sighed.
"And a sorry mess too. Go wash up and change your clothes." she commanded.
He lived with his cousin 7 more years until his 15th birthday. After the earthquake they moved north, to a small house way outside town, they had a large yard, acres to run and play in. Wusaak commonly slept outside under the stars during the warm summer months. Jane had a boyfriend of 6 months, and since had stopped reminding Wusaak he was just a cousin.
Wusaak felt at home wandering the trees of the hills the house butted up against. They were steep, and he could climb up almost to the sky, and look out across the plain below. Wusaak loved climbing to the top of the highest tree and watching the hawks flying below him, and the animals in the forest.
One morning he woke up, it was raining lightly, and the sound of the droplets on the window soothed him. He bounded out of bed, he loved the rain, it had been a very hot night, and he tossed and turned throughout.
He dressed in a light T-shirt and shorts, and went outside, and up the hill. There wasn't any lightning so he sat down under the tree to enjoy the cooling mist in the hot morning air. The rain began picking up, and soon turned into a torrential downpour, Wusaak could barely see three feet in front of him. Water cascaded down the hill from above, and washed over his legs. He climbed up into the tree, keeping a cautious eye out for the telltale flash of lightning. The water rushing down the hill became a roar, as if a river was flowing past him. He'd seen heavy summer rains, but none quite this heavy. Suddenly the tree shook, out beyond the whitness of the falling rain he heard a sound like none he'd ever heard before. It was as if the river had suddenly become gravel, and was raining stones, yet just water was falling. He waited in the tree as the storm slowed, and disappeared almost as quickly as it had come. He hopped down out of the tree, and ran towards home.
Home wasn't there anymore, in front of him there was a stripe of brown as if the mountain had been spread like frosting. Below he could see the house, it had been crumbled and out across the road by the force of the mudslide. He ran down the hill, sliding more of the way then he ran. He walked into the house, it's walls were cracked, and the ceiling was dangling in some places. He went into his his room, it too was filled with mud that had poured in through the wall that had been a window. He ran into his cousin's room, she wasn't there. Then he heard a noise, a rasping sound from under the dresser. He pulled on the dresser, and it squished through the mud, behind it was Jane. She had been washed away by the mud, the dresser blocking her head from the flow of the mud and creating a pocket of air. He dug frantically at the mud and noticed her breath easier as the weight decreased. Finally he had her out of the mud, and pulled her from the mud. She came to as he dragged her from the house, out of the field of mud.
"What the hell was that?" she caughed and sputtered.
"Rain brought the hill down, mudslide."
"I woke up. Rain sounded like horses. Then the door busted in, and the whole house moved."
She was hurt, her leg was broken and bent unnaturally, and she couldn't move her right arm. Beyond that she looked like she would be ok.
"I'll go down to the highway and flag someone down." He went out to the road, a portion of which was invisable between the swatch of brown mud. He walked nearly three miles down the road until he reached the highway.
(Updated 11-10-2003)
Finally at the highway, his feet aching, he flagged down a passing car. Luckily the driver had a cell phone, and he called emergency crews. The driver also drove Wusaak back to the house, where he took a look at Jane. He had been in the Army for a few years, and determined she wasn't in imediate trouble.
The ambulance, two cops, and a bulldozer on a flatbed soon arrived. The police asked questions, and took down information, while the paramedics took Jane to the hospital. Wusaak rode with Police to the hospital, and made sure Jane was going to be ok. He then snuck out a back door, and went to the park. The old tree was still there, but his unburning fire wasn't. He thought about setting up a new fire pit, this time he knew how to start a fire, he'd read and practiced. But he thought better, and continued on out of town.
He never did see Jane again, he sent her a few letters, but she never returned them. He didn't know, nor care, if this was because of his frequent moves and homelessness.
While he was homeless Wusaak spent most of his time in public libraries, staying warm and dry, while he learned. He completed his schooling with a GED, and fought for scholarships to obtain an associates degree in business adminstration. He may have been homeless, but he was still schooling himself, providing what he though must be a better education than the public schools provided. He took odd jobs, and frequented truckstops for showers. Most of the time he had enough money to take care of himself, without the costs of being tied down in one spot, no rent or utilities. He bought what he absolutely needed, when it was needed.
When he turned 16, he moved in with a guy, Edward, he had met at the library. They lived together for 7 months until Edward got married and moved out. Wusaak had the appartment changed to his name. He had saved up enough money while he lived with Edward, that he was able to pay the deposit on the appartment in spite of his lack of credit.
Wusaak emailed Jane about his new appartment several times, but she never contacted him. He was almost glad of this.
As Wusaak recalled his previous experiances, he smiled. All in all it had been to his advantage. He had a tough life, but he himself was tougher. He knew the value of each and everything he owned, every item in his backpack, everything he carried with him, everything he left behind.
He was a modern Nomad, stopping, and settling, long enough to do what he must, then he moved on. The universe was apparently just telling him it was time to move on again.
He walked.
It smelled like a damp cave, no worse, like a sewer emptying into a cave. Ginger stretched, the air seemed damp, a smell that brought her adrenaline to full. She jumped out of bed, into the two feet of dank water that surrounded her. "Just great!" she exclaimed, last night she breaks up with her boyfriend, and today the sewer line of the house breaks. She swooshed throught the darkness, avoiding the light switch, it might still be live. She squished across her bedroom, yelling "Mom, Dad! I think we having a pluming problem." She walked up the three steps to the living room, the carpet was only damp here, and her pajama's clung to her like seaweed.
Where was all this water coming from she wondered, it wasn't leaking down the stairs, it might be the plumming in the basement. She opened the front door, it was still dark out, no cars or lights could be seen. Odd she thought as she stepped off the doorsill into the waiting water below. For a moment she stopped and frowned, she and her parents lived at the top of a gentle grade. She stared out the door at the darkness, her eyes straining to pick up any speck of light. It was as dark as a cave. From upstairs she heard her dad stumbling out of bed, a beam of light lit the hallway, and flicked down the stairs.
"Blast it! Ginger, you said the pipes broke?"
From the front porch she called out. "I thought so, but I was wrong. Whole town's flooded I think."
"That's impossible, if we're under this much, it would almost cover most of the houses in town."
"Then I think they're swimming. Bring the light"
He followed her to the door, and flashed the light out into the lawn. It used to be a lawn, now it was a lake. Neighbors houses sunk into the water into the distance, some up almost to their roof. The beam flashed and skittered off the rippling water.
"Son of a ..." he stopped himself. He splashed across the living room and woke Ginger's mom, who was equally surprised about the situation.
Ginger wasn't, she seemed to have a problem with water.
Ginger was born at sea, her mother went into labor nearly a month earlier that the doctors predicted. Her Mother and Father had rented an elecric motor boat for a quiet day on nearby lake.
They were about 2 miles from shore when the boat motor died, almost half way across the lake. As her dad untangled the birds nest of fishing line her Mom's water broke. It was a mere 40 minutes until Ginger was born. Her mom cradled and nursed her while her dad finished untangling the motor. Now the lines seemed to slip off, and the motor was quickly in the water, and they were under full power back to the shore. Her Dad drove them to the hospital, where they were examined, and proclamed "Perfect miracles of God" by the doctor. A few days later Ginger and her mom returned home.
Ginger grew up quickly, she learned to speak at an early age. Her head became a flaming red as her hair grew in, and her mischeviousness reflected her hair color. She was slow to walk, but was gracefull and quick, very quick, once she was on her feet.
When she was 7 her parents took her on a week cruise. There were a few children on board, and Ginger, made friends with many of them, often leading them around the ship on secret adventures. They played on, and below deck, and frequented the pool. There was plenty of supervision on the ship, so their parents wern't worried.
One night as Ginger was leading a group of five kids around the deck, one of them, Kevin, squeezed around the fence into the pool area. He jumped into the water, and splashed around. Ginger laughed at him, and squeezed through the fence, with several other of the children. When she had suqeezed past the fence she realized she couldn't hear him splashing anymore. She ran to the edge of the pool, he was under water, floating, not moving. "Get someone!" she cried to the kids still on the other side of the fence. Two ran off, while the others stared on, unsure of what she ment. With her cloathes still on, she lept into the pool, the water soaked her cloathing, and pulled her under. She let it carry her down until she wrapped her arms around Kevin. She kicked, and kicked, and slowly pulled her soaking cloathes, and Keving towards the shallow end. Slowly the lights in the shallows came into view in the fuzziness of the underwater world. Her eyes stung from the chlorine, and her lungs felt like they would burst as her feet touched bottom. Just a little further, and she'd be above. With her shoes pushing on the ground, she gained speed, she could see above her the shimmering mirror of the water surface.
Air! Her head broke the surface, and she jumped, gasping a great breath into her lungs. Suddenly she had strength again, and pulled Kevin to the edge. Holding on to the side of the pool she pulled his head above water. He wasn't breathing. She screamed, as loud as she could, louder than she ever had. Nothing. She pulled Kevin harder, and dragged him up the stairs. Now her wet cloathing seeming even heavier, as she stepped out of the water. She dragged him up onto the deck, looking around for help. Three kids were still staring awestruck through the fence to the pool. She gasped for air, and sat on the ground, fire racing through her lungs.
Finally, footsteps, a lot of them, running towards the pool. Someone grabbed Kevin, and began mouth to mouth. Someone else grabbed her, asked her if she was ok. She nodded, as she struggled to catch her breather, and finally said "Yup." she smiling proudly. "Will he be ok?"
As she asked, she heard "He's breathing!" from the croud surrounding Kevin. She smiled, and pushed through the crowd to see him sputtering, gasping for breath. He looked at her and smiled.
Ginger spent the next ten years, learning survival. She was tough, and frequently fought boys at school, and won. Not a school year went buy where she didn't at least have a detention, possibly a suspension. She didn't start fights, but she wouldn't sit by idly as someone else was picked on. "It's not your business" many said to her as she butted in. She would always come up with a quick sassy reply, before she stepped in.
In highschool, she got mostly A's, and a couple B's, but her proudest acomplishment was taking on Steve Hower, the captain of the football team. He had slapped his girlfriend Amy, in the caffiteria, the red mark still glaring from her cheek, the echo still reverberating in the air. As Amy's sunglasses fell to the floor, Ginger noticed her right eye was black and blue, and old injury. Ginger sized him up, about one hundred fifty pounds bigger than her, but her fist to the side of his head got his attention. She jumped at him, and he pushed her out of the way, they fought on the floor, punches flying. As the cafateria cleared, someone set off a fire sensor with a lighter. Water rained down from the cieling, as she kicked at Steve, he threw her into the table behind her, and she slumped to the floor. He made the mistake of turning his back as she bounced back to her feet, she jumped into the air, slamming her fist into the back of his head. He staggered, and fell to the floor, indoor rain soaking into his school jacket. She pulled a chair behind her and slumped down into it as the teachers closed in to 'end the fight'.
She was suspended for a week, a week where she contemplated proudly her victory. She had found out later, that the night before the fight Steve beat Amy regularly, and had possibly tried to rape her at one time. Amy thanked Ginger for sticking up for her in a letter that was passed to her when she came back. School was over two weeks after the fight, and Steve never returned. The police had spoken to her, there were threats, and lawyers, but no charges had been pressed. Once Amy's parents had found out about the attempted rape, things quieted down fast.
The radio announced that the damn upstream of their town had burst from an earlier torential downpour in the northern part of the state. The water receeded fast, but the house was ruined, most of the town re-located to higher ground, living in a makeshift camp in the school gym.
The water was an omen, Ginger thought. She sighed as she packed her remaining possessions into her oversized purse, she had all she would need in her head. She left her parents a note on the cot she had spent two nights on, dreaming about water, and disasters, waking up with a jolt as people she didn't knew slipped below the waves, and disappeared. "Something tells me I need to leave, to walk a road I haven't travled. I don't know where I'm going, but I'll be in touch along the way. It's something I need to do."
It was several hours before the note was discovered, in that time Ginger had hopped a train, and was heading north east. She didn't know when if ever she would see her parents again.
(Updated 11-11-2003)
(Author's note. Things have been busy lately. Other projects which have priority have recently begged for some of my time.) So, I might not make it to 50,000 by the 30th. But, I will keep writing until I reach that number, even it it takes longer.)
Morning light woke Vance, today was the day that John would pick him up. They had nearly 270 miles on th e road together, and then Vance would pick which ever direction looked best to him. Breakfast, the light had woken him, but the smell of toast and pancakes, and bacon pulled him out of bed.
He dressed hurridly and stumbled up the stairs. The table was set for one more, John would be here for breakfast it appeared. Vance sat down, thanked Bill's mom for the breakfast, and dug in. The food was better, if possible than yesterday. It wasn't as plentiful though, as she had caught on to Vances favorites, and narrowed the selection. Vance was really gratefull for the food.
John arrived shortly, and Bill's mom put on more bacon for him. "It's not good unless it's hot!" she smiled.
John, Vance and Bill talked while the bacon cooked. John had just fixed up his car, new tires, it had been detailed, and he couldn't stop talking about how happy he was his uncle had sold it to him.
Bill's mom spilled some juice, and left the room to take the dripping kitchen towels downstairs to the laundry. She was gone only a moment, but as she walked back into the kitchen the bacon popped, and burst into flames. She jumped back from the intense heat, and shouted "Fire!"
Vance stood up calmly, grabbed a dirty cake pan from the cake pan. As he turned off the burner, he set the pan gently on top of the flames. The flames roared for a second, and mothered, smoke rising from the heated cake pan, and the extinguished flames.
Vance turned to John and Bill and sighed. "I guess it's time to leave."
Bill's mom hugged Vance. "You think you're cursed, I think you're blessed, always in the right place at the right time." He smiled, but did not feel it, hugged her back, and left with John.
In no time at all they were on the highway, the blaze of the sun crept overhead, and soon it was noon. They stopped at a truck stop for lunch, John paid for it.
"Why you running away Vance" John questioned.
"Too many coincidences. Too many fires. It just seems to follow me. Better for everyone, if I'm not around."
"You really think you're causing these fires?" John again queried.
"No. I know I'm not causing them. Somehow they're connected to me, I'm just not sure how. I need to find out before anyone else gets hurt." Bill sighed, glad to talk about it a bit.
"Maybe Bill's mom was right, maybe you're saving people, not hurting them"
"I can save people along the way then. Better if they're not my own family. You have to protect your family, they're, you know, your family. They're the ones who protect you, you have to do the same."
"I guess, how many fires has it been?"
"Major fires? My parents house twice, my grand parents house. A couple minor fires along the way, like that bacon. No specific cause, faulty wiring, or a loose gas connection, lightning, don't even know the cause for some of them."
"Wow, that's a lot. You were so cool the way you just stood up and put that bacon out. No fear, you didn't even flinch."
"It gets sort of routine, after the second fire, I took every oportunity to test fire I could. Bondfires, cookouts, you name it. My doctor said I should confront my fears, and I did. Now nothing, it's just fire to me, I'll walk through it and put out my clothes, I can turn that fear off."
"Fear is what protects us from dangers." John commented.
"I know, but it's not a danger to me, I understand it. I'm carefull, more carefull than most I'd bet. I'm not some mental case unafraid of everything. Knives, snakes, spiders, they all scare me. Fire, I know, I understand it's limits, and respect it."
"Just be carefull man, you can still burn. You can still die in the fire."
Vance pulled back his shirtsleve. The burns were still fresh, raw, they were healing, but not gone. "Believe me, I know it can hurt me. But I'll be smart, I won't let it kill me, no matter how it tries."
John winced "Ouch, you need to be more carefull."
"Was carefull, but my grandma was still in there. Ever run back into a building on fire, knowing you could die to rescue someone?"
"No, never have" John admitted.
"Three times, and every time I got them out. I just hope my luck holds."
"You got balls, I'll give you that." he paused, "Let's get back on the road."
They drove off again, as the sun moved silently overhead, clouds momentarily obscuring it from their view, but never hiding it for long. Before long they had reached their destination.
Vance put his pack over his shoulder, wincing as the strap caught his burn. The sun was low in the sky, but still bright, it was about 4:30 he guessed.
He looked around the the college town around him. John had a night of drinking and driving ahead of him. Vance, however, would spend the night at the first hotel he located, even if that ment walking all night. Fire didn't scare him, that was sure. How he would survive on the streets, how he would find an appartment, that scared him. It scared him too, thinking if he went back, what might happen if the fire came again.
He walked down the street, a backpack over his shoulder. While he was in town, he fit in, was just another student, was just another college guy. He stopped in at a local chinesse restaurant, the food was tolerable, the soup was thin, but tasty. He ate quickly, hopefully he would find a hotel before it was too late.
He walked, miles passed beneith his sneakers, he watched as the busy town faded into drunken frat houses. The frat houses faded into rented appartments and houses. As the houses began to fade into fields, he stopped, it was an ugly hotel, but it would do. He walked towards the neon sky-blue hotel, and pulled open the aging, overpainted screen door. An older lady sat behind the counter, eying him as he walked up to the counter.
"How many?" she scowled.
"Just one, me." he smiled.
"Got a lady out in the car?" she inquired.
"No. I walked this far, heading out of town in the morning."
She smiled. "Oh!" suddenly understanding. "You're leaving college. Life got too tough?"
She wasn't technically incorrect so Vance hung his head, "That about sums it up."
She held out her aged hand, and smiled "College got me too that way, funny how I never quite left. 38 dollars even."
He pulled 40 from his pocket, and handed it over. She passed back a key, room 11, and two dolars. "Whatever path life takes you on, make the best of it." she offered
"I'll do the best I can." Vance said, pushing out the door.
(Updated 11-12-2003)
Vance fell asleep almost imadiately upon entering the room. He vaguely recalled undressing, and a falling sensation as his body hit the bed. He slept as sound as a rock, and did not dream.
When he awoke in the morning, he stretched, easing the aches from his muscles. He rolled out of bed, it was still made, he had never covered himself. His watch said 7:09am, the bedside clock read 8:09am. Either he was in a different time zone, or the clock was wrong, he would need to look into that.
A packet of soup in a coffee cup, and an unheated toaster pastry were his breakfast. He took a shower, and re-dressed. He had 3 changes of cloathes, in his backpack, 3 t-shirts, jeans, shorts and sweat pants, and 3 sets of underwear and socks. He finished up in the hotel room, leaving things almost as he had gotten them. As he was leaving he took the spare roll of toilet paper, a bar of soap, and the sample shampoo; he might need them down the road.
He quietly turned his keys in in the office, an older gentleman was minding the desk, and like Vance wasn't much in the conversation mood.
Vance stepped out the door, and started walking. Today, he was on his own, responsible for himself and no one else. It was a liberating and sobering at the same time.
"Funny,", he though to himself, "the road ahead doesn't seem to be so long if you don't have a destination."
The pavement echoed beneith his feet, he watched the houses as he passed. Families were coming and going, doing their own things. His family would no doubt be doing the same, he missed them, but wouldn't go back.
The miles added up beneith the pounding of his shoes. He passed beyond the city, and proceded into the countryside. Clouds grew overhead, and it began to drizzle lightly about 10 o'clock. By 10:30 it was over, and the clouds started clearing. By noon, the hot heat of the sun made Vance wish for the cool of the drizzle. Vance stopped and rested in the shade of a large tree for lunch, he drank water, and ate some cold noodles. The noodles tasted normal, but the cold noodles refused to soak up enough water to loose their crunch. It was an interesting meal, but not a very satisfying meal.
Before long the road was beneith his feet again, and he walked. Someone pulled up next to him, and asked directions. He barely even knew where he was, and apoligized for his inability to guide them. Otherwise the afternoon was quiet, he listened to the chirp of birds, wishing he'd brought his radio along with him.
By the time night had fallen, he had walked about fifty miles, he saw a glow up ahead, maybe two miles, a town. Now, the walk seemed long, he had a destination, a goal, and it seemed to take forever for him to reach town. Street lamps, and closed shops was all he saw as he entered town, he continued on, down the main street of the town. Old storefronts and sidewalks watched him quietly as he walked down the sidewalk. It was late, maybe 11 o'clock, and nobody was out, he heard dogs in the distance. A few cars passed on their way to a bar or home, he assumed.
He continued on down the street, watching the stores thin out. Up ahead there was a police car, he ran ahead, and waved down the officer.
"May I help you?" he asked, rolling down his window.
"I'm looking for a place to sleep, a hotel or something." Vance panted.
"Church down on Oak street has some space if all you want is a bed, otherwise 3 miles further down the road there's a small hotel. If you continue on 10 miles to the next town, they have a few more hotels there."
"Church have showers? I need one."
"Yes sir." the officer nodded, "What are you doing out so late at night?"
"Left home, long story. Trying to find a place where I feel safe. Got enough money saved up for an appartment when I find it."
"Oh, I see. Be carefull to keep money with you, otherwise some other officers might pick you up on vagrancy charges. If you continue on in the morning to Brownsville, there take RT 53 to Deerwalk. If you continue on north from there on RT 16, you'll be on a road that passed through a town every 40 or so miles. This road doesn't pass through a lot of towns."
"Thank you, that's very helpfull information. I appreciate it."
"Want a ride to the church?" the officer offered?
"Sure, why not."
It was only a few blocks to the church, but the ride was much appreciated by Vance's aching feet. He thanked the officer, and run the bell on the church shelter.
It was a few minutes until someone came to the door. As the middleaged man came to the door, he could see the officer driving off in the reflection of the glass, and waved goodbye.
"Looking for a place to stay?" the man asked.
"Yes sir. Somewhere to sleep, and shower." Vance answered.
"It's been a quiet month so far, you're welcome to come in. We ask that you leave what you can afford in the box by the door. Ten is the suggested ammount, but a penny will do fine if it's all you've got."
"Ten sounds perfect. Thank you." Vance smiled, taking out his wallet. He was down to 60 dollars on him, but he had more if he needed it in the bank. He took the 10 out of his wallet, folded it in half, and slid it into the slot on the top of the wooden box.
"Thank you much. Name's Paul, you?" the man, Paul, said.
"Vance. Nice to meet you."
"Same here." Paul smiled. "What brings you to our church?"
"An odd story, probably think I'm just paranoid."
"Got time to tell me? I collect odd stories."
"Sure."
Paul motioned him downstairs. The room was spotlessly clean, tile floors, seperated into sections by thick curtains hanging from the cieling. Each cube contained a cot with brilliant white linens, in all there were 12 beds. Paul continued across the room and into the next room, where tables and chairs filled the floor. Paul motioned Vance to a table, and went over to a refrigerator. He came back with two sandwitches and a glass of milk, which he set in front of Vance.
"Tuna and Balogna, if you're hungry."
"Very, thank you!" Vance said, picking up the first sandwitch, it was a Tuna sandwitch.
After Vance finished the first of the sandwitch halves he began telling Paul about his life, about the fires at home, and his family. As he washed down the first sandwitch and started on the second, he began the story about his grandparents house, and his discision to leave, the bacon fire, the ride to the college, and finally his walk to the town.
"Tough decision that was. To leave the people you care to protect them. Even though it might not be a real danger. Very tough descision indeed."
"Better to find my own way, then to let them get hurt again." Vance shrugged.
"Sounds like you at least have an idea of what you want, you might not know where you'll end up, but you have an idea of what you want."
"Just somewhere quiet, and safe. I'll know it when I get there."
"Well, you've had a long day, and I'm getting sleepy. Let's get you settled for the night." He took Vance to the cot room, pointed out the shower, and a bed, and left for the evening.
After a hot shower Vance slept, this time he drempt, but barely remembered anything from the dream. He remembered hearing a crashing noise before he awoke, after he shook himself fully awake he realized it had been in his dream.
Paul was back by the time Vance woke up. He had made some breakfast, toast and scrambled eggs, and orange juice. He dressed in different clothes, and packed his belongings up safely in his pack.
"Good morning!" Paul smiled, too happy for the time of day. "Sleep well?"
"Wierd dreams, can't remember anything other than a crashing sound. But, yes, I did sleep well."
"Dream will come back if it's important. Glad to hear you slept well."
"Guess it will." Vance shrugged.
"Breakfast!" Paul exclaimed, pointing. "It's not much, I'm a single guy, and cook accordingly."
"It looks perfect! Thank you." Vance nodded.
Vance dug in, and finished his breakfast quickly while idly chitchatting with Paul.
"Looks like it's time to get back on the road." Vance offered.
"You take care of yourself." Paul offered. "God has a plan for everyone."
"If you talk to him sometime, please tell him to lay off with the fire."
"I'll put in a good word for you when I pray." Paul replied.
"Thanks." Vance replied, standing up from the table.
"Anything I can do to help."
Vance gathered his stuff, and Paul led him back upstairs to the door.
"If you're ever back in town again, drop by, was nice talking to you."
Vance smiled, "Always nice to know where you're welcome. Maybe someday. Thank you."
He waved goodbye, and started out on his treck down the road again.
For a week he wandered following the road the officer had recomended. He maded 40 to 50 miles a day. It got cold, and warm, it rained, and blew, yet he kept on. He seemed to find at least one helpfull person in each town, and his 60 dollars remained in his pocket, far longer than he though they would. It was now twelve days since he had left home, almost two weeks. It was starting to seem natural to him, to wake up, and walk all day. His feet stopped being sore as he walked, his feet were getting used to the pounding of the ground underneith him.
He woke up one morning on a small matt on the floor of someone's living room. He looked around, trying to remember where he was. Oh yes, he had met an old man on his walk yesterday, carying his groceries home. Vance offered to help the man carry home his groceries, and offer that was readily accepted. The man lived just outside of town at a small farm. He walked twice a week to town for groceries to keep in shape, and enjoy the outdoors. Vance shared some of his stories with the man, who smiled and nodded, listening patiently.
When Vance finished the man said through his shaky voice. "Hell of a life you've had. A person doesn't go through that kind of thing without a reason."
"What do you mean?"
"Just the thoughts of an old man. Seems like if you went through all that, there's a reason for it." the man ventured.
"Reason is my house keeps catching fire. I don't want my family burnt, so hopefully I'll take it with me."
"That's you're reason, why you left. Why did it happen to begin with, why to you?" he prodded.
"No idea. Never been that bad of a kid, much worse than me on the street."
"I agree, not many people walking the streets that would help and old man take home his groceries."
"Still, I've wondered, is there a reson?"
"There's always a reason."
"I sure don't see it." Vance dejectedly said.
"Of course not, you're in it, you won't see the forest until you're out of it. When you understand why, it will be over. Hell of a trick this old world plays on us."
"Then, I guess I just have to keep walking until I'm where I need to be."
"Yup. That's about it, one foot in front of the other. Eventually you get somewhere."
Vance smiled, "Hope it's soon."
Vance had helped the old man put away his groceries, then helped with some odd chores around the farm, lifting things the man was't able to anymore. As the sky darkened, the man's wife prepaired dinner, a plate was set for Vance. It was good food, and he ate his fill as the lady tried to force more upon him. They chatted for a while longer, nothing as insightfull to Vance as the long walk from town, but he learned a lot about the couple. As he was about the leave, the old lady spoke up.
"Bring home our groceries, help out around the yard. Stay here for the night. We'll feed you up in the morning, and I'll throw your clothes into the laundry tonight."
Vance tried to rember the last time he'd washed his clothes, it was the day after staying at that church he thought. "I don't want to get in the way."
"You won't be in the way, helped us out as much as you did, we should do more."
"Thank you, I'd love to stay here tonight."
That night he slept well.
The next morning his clothes were clean and neatly folded, he dressed.
As much as he wanted to stay, Vance knew he needed to get going again. He ate breakfast and thanked the old couple, and was back on his way. The fields passed uneventfully, and he passed through a small town. Population 253 the sign proclaimed. Even walking he though he might miss the town if he blinked. It grew windy, and Vance was afraid it would rain again, the coulds were darkening above. He stopped for a moment in the local cafe, it was late afternoon, and there was only one other customer. He hopped up on the stool, and ordered a cola and a sandwitch. As the order was placed, he asked the waitress.
"Heard anything about the weather today?"
"Sure hon." she smiled, "Nice all day, wind picking up in the afternoon."
"Going to rain?" he nodded.
"Not that I remember. Maybe a mist here and there."
"Feels like rain." Vance offered.
"Sure does." she peered out the window.
As Vance got his sandwich the rain picked up, it hammered against the roof, and in the distance Vance heard a sound, all too familliar. The sound echoed through his brain, playing again and again, too many mornings he had woken up to that sound. He left his pack on the floor, and sandwitch on the counter, "I'll be right back", he yelled as he jumped out of the chair and out the door. Through the slowing rain he ran, towards the sound he had heard at the edge of his consiousness. Had he really heard it, or was it his imagination.
He soon found out, ahead was a car, slid off the road, and rolled in the ditch. A small flame flickered from the overturned engine. Faster, Vance ran, someone was still inside, they had to be, there was no way out. He finally reached the car, someone was inside, they weren't moving. The flame flickered larger above the upturned engine.
No time to waste, Vance kicked out the shattered front window, he crawled in. A girl hung upside down from the seatbelt, she was breathing, but not consious. He forced the button in on the seatbelt as he held her in place. Aroudn him he could see the fire growing, relfected in the drenched grass around the car. He eased her to the cieling of the car below her, and pulled her gently, but quickly from the car.
"I hope she doesn't have a broken back. Gotta get her our, or it will be much worse than that."
He lifted her onto his sholder as he stood, the blaze under the hood was hot enough that he stepped back. He watched it for a second, mesmirized, and climbed out of the ditch. He carried her across the street to a store with an awning, and lay her down on the pavement. Suddenly the fire burned brighter, it had reached the gas tank, and the tank burst, raining fire down through the car. The blaze became a full inferno as the police arrived. The officer yelling frantically on his radio as he stepped from his car to survey the burning.
"No one in there. I got her out. Come help." Vance yelled.
The officer dashed over to the storefront, where he checked the young girl out. Her pulse was steady, and she was breathing easily.
"Looks like she's ok. She reacts when I poke her foot, good sign. You pulled her out?"
"Yeah, wasn't like that, just a little fire by the engine."
"You went up to a car fire?"
"I had time, I could tell it wasn't going to go up right away, we were back over here before the gas tank caught."
"Never seen anything that gutsy before in this quiet town. I'm impressed. You're a brave guy."
"Just in the right place at the right time I guess."
Vance exchanged information with the officer, and they watched the girl until the firedepartment arrived, and put out the blaze. Paramedics arrived almost simutaneously, as they were lifting the girl up onto the stretcher she stirred. They stopped moving, her and asked her her name. She mumbled something, and they waited, asking her to speak up.
She said quietly, but with force, "I'm Lea ... Lea Allen."
"Do you know what happened to you?" they asked.
"Car slid, I blacked out."
"Your car flipped into the ditch. It caught fire, would have been bad if it wasn't for Vance over there." He pulled you from the car just before it went up."
She twisted her head, and looked at Vance, a little bit louder she spoke, coming out of the haze. "Thanks. I owe you my life."
"You're welcome." he said feeling like he was 12 again, saving his sister and friend from the fire.
(Updated 11-13-2003)
Vance walked back to the cafeteria as the Ambulance drove off with Lea. He couldn't shake the odd feeling that he felt, the sound, an exact echo from his brain, the fire, the rescue. Why had he heard that exact crash before in his dreams.
As he stepped back into the Cafe, the waitress and the large man at the end of the bar started clapping. He smiled slightly, and sat back at the counter to finish his sandwitch. The waitress pumped him for details, wasn't he scared of the fire, how did he hear the crash. He answered her questions politely and quickly as he ate his sandwitch.
"So, 3 times you pulled people from the fire?" she asked.
"Four now." he said between bites.
"The way Ralph cooks in the back, you might just be handy to keep around. Need a job?" she smirked.
"I don't think so. I've been trying to find a place where I feel safe from the fire, I think I'll know the right place once I'm there."
"I understand, everyone needs to find their own way in the world. I hope you find yours."
"Me too. Just the other day someone told me things like this happen for a reason. I hope he's right, it would be terrible if it was just some cosmic joke."
She smiled, "Have faith, in whatever you believe. As my aunt always said 'Things are meant.".
"I like that." he smiled.
"Any good hotels in town? He asked. "Don't think I'm getting much further today in this rain. Besides, I want to see her once she's out of the hospital."
"Sure, just a half mile on down the street. Three rooms in the back of a big white house, not fancy, but it fits our town. Just knock on the front door, and Elizabeth come out and show you a room. You could see it if it wern't for the rain."
"Thanks."
He finished off his sandwitch, his mind wandered far from the conversation.
After he was done, he went to the counter to pay. "No. Ralph says anyone who pulls someone out of a burning car, eats free. House rule."
"Thank you." Vance smiled. Leaving a large tip. "I'll be back before I go."
"Make sure you do Hon."
The rain fell just as hard, but didn't seem quite so heavy, less of an obstacle, more of a gesture. He walked to the hotel, it was barely a hotel. However, in the rain, after a long walk, in a place he was not imediately walking through, it was beautiful.
Elizabeth was younger than he expected, she was medium height, a little shorter than Vance, and about 27 years old by looks. She welcomed him into the 'Inn' and showed him a room. When he inquired about cost for the room, she waved her hand. "Diner already called, told me Ralph would burn my toast for the rest of my life if I made you pay. Said he'd cook me something special for dinner for a week in exchange. You made quite an impression."
"I don't try to. Things just seem to happen, and I'm there."
"Good thing you were there today."
"Maybe. Maybe it wouldn't have happened it I wern't there."
"You'll never know."
He sighed, "That's what I'm afraid off."
He sat down and watched TV for a while. Nothing on was really intersting, but it gave him something to do, and he lost himself in the unbelievability of the reality shows.
There was a soft knock on the door, Vance looked. Was he just hearing things. Again, a knock, louder this time.
"Hello?" he called.
"Are you Vance, the guy who pulled me out?" a voice replied.
Vance bolted from the chair, and with a fluid motion he wasn't aware he was capable of, unlocked and opened the door. "I'm Vance. You're ok?"
The damp girl, about his age stood in the doorway. Her black shoulder length hair clung tightly to her head. Her green eyes caught his, and she smiled. "Thanks to you. A little bruised, and my head still hurts, but yeah, I'm fine." She paused, looking at the floor. "I hope you don't mind that I came by to see you.
"I was hoping for it actually." he smiled. He hadn't realized it before, in the rain, but she was really cute. He smiled again.
She walked up to him, and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you."
He gave her a gentle hug back, smiling to himself.
After a moment, Vance asked "Where were you heading?"
She laughed, "As odd as it sounds, nowhere. Just getting away."
"Away from what?" he asked curiously.
"Tornado, a curse, I'm not sure." she shrugged.
"A tornado?" he asked.
She told him about her previous experiances, the farm destroyed when she was 8, the snowstorm at 12, the storm on the boat at 16, and her recent encounter with the tornado at the trailed park.
He smiled. With a story, he knew he wasn't alone, here was someone, who had lived through different, but strikingly similar situations. He hugged her tighter, suddenly aware, he had never let go of her after their brief hug earlier.
"I know you'll think it was all coincidence, but somehow I feel it was more."
"As a matter of fact, I think you're probably right one the money."
"Really?" she asked, believing that he was teasing her.
"Really. When I was 12, I pulled my sister and her friend from a fire." He began, he told his story again, of the 3 fires, and the bacon. She never let go of him while he told the story, shaking less and less as she realized the similarities herself. When he finished his story with his description of the days events, Lea smiled at him.
"Who would have thought such an odd set of events would bring someone as cute as you into my life." She pulled him closer, and hugged him tighter. As the hug ended, Lea and Vance relaxed their arms, still holding each other. She smiled and gave him a simple, quick kiss.
(Updated 11-14-2003)
Wusaak continued walking, his feet felt the pavement, it echoed through his body. This was his element, he though, as he walked the long dirt roads between towns. Each night he slept in groves of trees, usually he found a crook in the branches, and slept there, with his backpack behind him as a pillow.
Mile after mile melted off under his feet, and he felt at home again. He passed through several towns, he would only stop as long as he needed to, for supplies, batteries, or occasionally to spend the night at a hotel with a shower.
As he walked, he kept a journal in his PDA.
Earthquake shook the ground today. Funny, but I didn't think anything of leaving my appartment. I left little behind in the appartment, and I do not miss any of it. Those material things which help me survive I value, the rest just occupies my idle time, I do not need them.
After I left my appartment, two punks were trying to rob (or worse) a pretty girl. One of the guys almost had balls, but I soon changed his mind. His friend was content to watch and gape, and then run.
Took the girl home, she wasn't too bright, but seemed nice enough. Hope she stays away from people like those.
Long walk, earthquake was small, almost think it was meant just for me, it was so close. Oh well, couldn't really afford an appartment in that neighborhood anyways. A jackasses tried to start a fight with me when I got dinner. Drunk at 4 in the afternoon no less. Just walked off, but he grabbed my collar. Started walking again as he fell to the floor. I hate stupud people.
First campfire I've had in about a year. I love the smell. Almost didn't light it, just left the pile there, felt so much like that first night when I was younger. The can of soup I had tasted like crap cold, so I warmed it. Still tasted like crap, but at least it was warm.
Nothing like sleeping out under the stars, watching the stars in the sky above. No earthquake will change them. Realized there haven't been too many aftershocks, really odd quake.
Morning, no alarm clock. Funny how you can wake up so refreshed so early in the morning. Humans were meant to live this way, waking up with nature, not to an alarm.
Guy offered me a ride as I got back on the road. No idea where I'm going I told him. He shrugged, asked if I wanted to ride with him for a little while. Took up his offer, but he was anoying, some bible thumper. God needs better PR people. Two hours later we stopped at a diner, I stayed there and he went on. Glad to be rid of him. My feet don't talk endlessly like his mouth.
Afternoon was cloudy, it's nice, takes a little of the heat off of the day. Looked like it might rain. Three hours later, still looks like it might rain. Time for bed, can't see the sky, expect it looks like it still might rain. Found a place to tie up my tarp, pain to setup, but it keeps me dry.
Damn sky still looks like it might rain, still hasn't. Back on the road again.
Looked like the sky was clearing, and then it rained. Got my poncho on quick enoug, and didn't get too wet. Thought this crap only happened in Chicago. Found a bridge to sit under during the worst of the rain. Sky further north looks like it really opened up, glad it's dry under the bridge.
Long walk, damp ground, almost took a pee on a snake, otherwise nothing to note.
Slept in a small thicket, had a small fire going, out of sight of the road. Same brand soup, tasts like crap again. Next time I'll spend the full dollar on a can of something with good taste.
Yup, it really rained up north, came across a town that was flooded out, the whole damn thing. Oh well, not going anywhere in particular, so I'll follow the river north.
"Eighty feet tall, spanning 200 feet across the river. The Smithstown Dam #3 holds back nearly 3 million gallons of water, creating the Smithstown lake." Laughed my ass off over that, dam was busted, big chunk fell out of the middle.
Kept picturing some rich uppity person out on his sailboat in the middle of this huge lake, when it started to rain. "Oh dear, my bree and crackers will get damp" then a few minutes later. "Oh, dear, what's that sound, did something crack?" Would have paid money to see a sight like that, the moment God pulled the lever, and flushed. Couldn't stop laughing. Got some odd looks from the repair crew fixing the dam.
Batteries getting low, picked up the 'power pack' 42 AAA batteries, won't have a problem with powering my PDA again. Got a flashlight, one of those new LED flashlights, doesn't fully turn off, supposed to glow slightly for years. When you give it a squeeze, it lights up like the sun. Takes the same batteries as my PDA, so I should be ok for a few hundred years.
Rained again, nasty and wet, I spent the worst of it in a small cafe. These people know how to make soup! They don't can the soup of course. 3 more cans of the crappy soup left. I need to learn how to can things for myself.
Rained all afternoon, slow cold walk. Some trucker hit a puddle, and splashed me, turned my back in time so I only have wet shoes, which were almost wet to begin with.
Dropped my stylus for my PDA. Now I'm writing this with a twig I sharpened with my knife. Turning out to be a hell of a day.
Things happen in three they say, guess they do. Shoelace broke on me, now my boot is ducttaped to my foot because the flopping around was driving me nuts.
Got a hotel room tonight, need a shower. They have a pool, and a laundry room, all my clothes will be clean again.
Sat in the hottub for almost an hour, the pool felt like ice, but was great. Washed jammed, but I got it going again. Free doughnuts in the morning. Starting to get spoiled.
Not spoiled anymore, those were the worst doughnuts. I had soup instead.
Still following the river today, it's bright and sunny again, making good time, still don't know to where.
Beautiful day, making up for yesterday. Found some twine on the side of the road. Cut it to length, and melted the ends, now I have shoelaces. Other shoelace was looking pretty rough, replaced it, twine looks much nicer.
Found my stylus in the bottom of my pack, and I'm dry today. Feel like the universe it setting me up for something.
Wusak backed his PDA up to a memory card, and powered it off. Turning it on again, he erased the line about the universe setting him up. It's best not to tempt fate.
He put his PDA back into his bag, and continued on down the river.
The bank of the river grew steeper here, and he walked along a path cut into the crest of the bank. He listened to the animals, how they would quiet down as he approached, and return to their activity as he passed. There were fish in the river, and he suddenly wished for a pole, or some fishing line to catch one. Fresh fish would be great.
Up ahead the path moved away from the river, he followed it for a while, and it met back up with the crest of the shore again. The rippling of the water was soothing, and Wusaak was relaxed. He continued on down the path. Trees started growing along the bank, as Wusaak entered a forest. The woods on this side became denser, and the path closer to the river. Wusaak, stopped, as did the path he was following. He looked around, a path started on the other side of the river, and continued on. Crossing the river was a log, broken in half. It appeared the log used to cross the river forming a bridge, but had since broken.
Wusaak climbed down to the shore, the water ran quickly here. He kicked the log, which responded by staying exactly where it was. 40 feet across the river, the other side of the log was deeply embeded in he shore. Exactly what Wusaak was hoping. He stepped onto the log, and one foot in front of the other climbed out on the log. As he reached the middle, where the log rested on a pile of boulders, Wusaak looked down. The water was clear and swift, and probably five feet deep at this point. He caught his breath, and walked further along natures balance beam, the log swayed, and jumped, and Wusaak caught his balance. Wiping his brow he finished crossing the log.
Seeing the area as a good place for lunch, Wusaak took out his second to last can of vile soup, and popped it open. He choked down the soup flavour he had tired of after the first can. This was almost the end of the sixpack he had picked up at the begining of his trip. He would be glad when it was all gone. He rinsed the can, and packed it back in his pack. Standing up, and walking, Wusaak bounded on down the trail. A patch of mud hidden under leaves caught him off guard, he slipped, and fell, he slid down the steep bank, and fell into the water.
"Just great!" he yelled underwater, as he surfaced he swore loudly to noone. He swam towards the shore, but the current pulled him further out. He kept swimming, was finally making headway back towards the shore. He remembered the log crossing the river just seconds before it slammed into his head. Everything went black.
Wusaak caughed, as he was being pulled back towards the shore. A strong arm was wrapped around his chest, keeping him above water. He coughed again, and blacked out for a moment. When the fog cleared, from his head he was being pulled onto the shore by the back of his shirt.
He stopped moving, and a freckled face appeared, looking at him with water blue eyes. "I heard you caughing, you ok?"
He nodded, gasping to catch his breath.
"You take in much water? Can be problems down the road if you did?"
Wusaak caughed loudly, and turned on his side. Nothing came out, and he breathed deaply. "Don't think so." he gasped, "Just hit my head."
"Good thing you made a lot of noise, I heard you from upstream. My name's Ginger." she smiled.
"Wus.." he caughed. "Wusaak is mine. Thanks for pulling me out. You a lifeguard?"
Ginger smiled "Not officially, read up on it, but never took the test."
Wusaak, suddenly realized "My pack, did you see it?"
"You dropped it on the shore when I pulled you out." she stood and got his pack, bringing it over. "You had it wrapped around your arm."
"All my stuff is in there." he said as he pulled himself up to a sitting position against a tree.
Ginger set the pack down in Wusaak's lap. He quickly unpacked, laying his things out to dry. He sighed as he pulled his PDA out of his pack, water trickled out of it.
"Pull the batteries out. It'll probably be ok, don't turn it on." she suggested.
"Really? After being soaked."
"I've seen worse come back to life." she answered.
"As long as the card is good, I have a backup."
"That'd good." she smiled. "You hungry?"
"Just ate. You hungry?" he asked.
"Yeah, got a sandwich, if it's still good."
Wusaak smiled, and passed over the can of soup, the last one. "It's soup. After I catch my breath I'll help you build a fire to warm it."
"That's my favorite soup!" she smiled, "And a fire would be nice, been cold at night lately."
"You on a hike?" Wusaak asked, shaking his head at her taste in soup.
"Sort of. Town flooded, and I set out on my own." she frowned.
"Mine shook, so I left. Time to set off along the road again."
"Again?" she asked.
Wusaak told her about the two Earthquakes and the mudslide. How he'd lived his life as a nomad, wandering from place to place when trouble came.
She smiled, "I was born in trouble, and it keeps following me. My mom gave birth to me in a boat when the motor died in the middle of a lake. Pulled a kid out of a pool when I was 7, and now the town floods." she sighed, "Seemed like maybe I should head out on my own, the shelter was horrible."
"What would you say," Wusaak asked, "if I said let's camp here, and walk this path together tomorrow."
"Sounds like an idea. I've got nowhere to go, you've got nowhere to go, might as well get there together."
They setup a minimal camp, and talked long into the night around the roaring fire. For once the night wasn't a lonely place for either of them.
(Updated 11-16-2003)
The sun was well above the horizon when they both woke. Wusaak stretched, althought the fire had gone out during the night, the air was comfortabley warm, and he wasn't cold. He stretched his arm out and bumped something.
Lea felt something hit her and looked around, it was Wusaak. She caught his hand in hers, and playfully said "Hey, watch it." with a smile in her voice.
"Oh, not used to waking up with anyone around. Sorry."
"It's kind of nice." she admitted, "Morning was always the most lonely part of the day."
"Sure was." he chuckled.
They burried the remaining glowing embers of the fire, and packed up their belongings. Wusaak's watch told him it was almost 10:00, they had stayed up late, and woken up even later.
"Let's hit the road." Ginger offered.
"Alright." said Wusaak, pulling the straps on his pack tighter on his shoulder.
The morning seemed to go quickly, and although the path was long and rough, the two traveling companions weren't bothered . Soon the trees of the forest thined out, and farmland surrounded the river. They pased several farmhouses, talking like old friends.
Soon the river came across a bridge, a road. They crossed the road beneith the bridge, listening to the echo of the lone car that drove above them. The path ended on the far side of the bridge, sloping up the path and paralelling the road to the east. There was evidence that the underneith of the bridge was a hangout for local teens, judging by the littered bottles and cans.
Wusaak guessed that if there were parties here, they couldn't be too far from town.
"Let's follow to town." he suggested, "I need to pick up some supplies and find a laundromat to dry out the rest of my pack."
"We need to pick up some rubbing alcohol to try to dry out that PDA of yours." Ginger added.
"Rubbing alcohol?" Wusaak asked.
"Water causes rust, the alcohol washes out the water, and doesn't make things rust."
"Oh really?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Been throught enough trouble with water, you kind of pick these things up." she smirked.
Town was a bit further than Wusaak had guessed, the cops here must be strict. After about two miles of walking, they started seeing buildings, it was another half mile to the center of town. Ginger pointed out the laundromat, and they went inside. Wusaak exchanged soaked bills for dry ones, and impatiently fed them into the change machine.
He pulled his bag appart, tossing everything washable into a washing machine. "Still plenty of room if you have anything to add." he offered to Ginger.
"Oh, ok." she smiled, pulling her pack off of her shoulder. She dug out a plastic bag of dirty clothes, and tossed them in as well. "Everything looks like it's been washed enough that it shouldn't run." she smiled.
Clink, went the quarters, and Wusaak shoved the tray into the washer. A Light lit up acknowledging it was activated. He added a box of soap from a vending machine. Wusaak threw his pack in the washer for good measure, and stuffed the rest of his belongings into a plastic bag that was lying on the counter.
"So, now that the wash is going, can you show me your trick with the alcohol?"
"Sure. I think there's a hardware store just down the street."
Wusaak confirmed.
They walked down the street to the light, and crossed. The hardware store was old, but well kept. It's plateglass windows were puttied into smooth wooden frames. They pushed open the oak glassed door, and a bell rang softly.
"May I help you?" a voice asked from behind one of the shelves, and was quickly followed by middle adged man wearing overalls.
"We need some rubbing alcohol for drying out some electronics."
"Over here." he gestured leading them to the chemicals section.
Ginger picked up a medium sized bottle, and handed it to Wusaak. "Here you go, this should do."
Wusaak took the bottle to the counter. Ginger followed behind him with a pack of hiking socks. Wusaak looked at the thick padded socks, and went back for a pair of his own. He took Ginger's socks, and paid for everything.
"I've got my own money!" she protested.
"You fix my PDA, and we'll call it even." Wusaak smirked.
They went back across the street to the Laundromat. It was noon now, and they barely saw anyone in town. Wusaak's watch confirmed his suspicion that it was Sunday, everyone must be in church. How odd it was on the road, the days seemed to blend together, and unless he needed to know what day it was, he was ignorant of it.
Ginger took out the Alcohol and a plastic freezer bag from her pack. "Let me see your PDA"
He handed it over. She turned it around in her hands, looking at how it was put together. Then she pulled a pocket knife from her pack, flipped open the screwdriver, and as if she was gutting a fish, took out the screws, and popped open the case of the PDA, gently unhooking the internal wires. As she continued her arcane rights, Wusaak gulped.
"Don't worry, I've done this before. Last patient survived."
"Still, it's meant to be all one piece." Wusaak advised.
"It will be again, we need to get it dried out first though." she smiled, pulling open a freezer bag, and pouring in half of the alcohol. She slowly dipped each piece of the PDA into the alcohol, let it drain, and set it out on top of a warm dryer. As she finished, she glanced at the remaining dirty alcohol in the bag. "Do you ever clean this thing?"
"Just the screen when I can't read it."
"Ick." she said, echoing her sentiment with her face.
As she finished with the alcohol, the washer stopped. Wusaak transfered the contents to a dryer, he quickly hand washed thier new socks, and threw them in as an afterthough.
The dryer rumbled, drying their clothes, and Ginger turned her attention to the gutted PDA. She checked each piece, and as they finished drying she set them aside, assembling the matchin pieces as gently as she'd taken them appart. Finally she had it back together, and twisted the last screw. "Batteries." she asked, holding out her hand.
Wusaak pulled two new batteries from his supplies, and gave them to Ginger. She inserted them, and set the PDA back on the counter. "You want the honors?" she asked.
"Why not." Wusaak replied, picking up the PDA, and flicking the power button. It was blank, he sighed, ruined. Then as if to spite him, the screen pulsed, and the familliar interface appeared, asking for the tine and date. Wusaak entered the required information. "Wow." was all he could say.
"Load your backup and you should be good as new." she smiled.
Wusaak did just that, and clicked open the notepad application. He read the last words on the screen and smiled.
Found my stylus in the bottom of my pack, and I'm dry today. Feel like the universe it setting me up for something.
The line he had erased was back, he had backed up before he erased it. This time he left it in, and added an entry.
Erased that last line, but it apparently wants to stay around. As it turns out the universe was setting me up. I crossed a log across a river, it was broken in the middle. Made it across that safely, but caught my foot in some mud, and into the river I fell. Remembered the log just as it knocked me out.
Was pulled to the shore by a stranger out of nowhere. She heard me swearing when I fell in.
Coughed the river out of my throat, and was fine.
Looks like I have a new traveling buddy, Ginger. She loved that damned soup, and fixed this PDA after my pack soaked in the river.
Although it seems so odd, that Ginger came out of nowhere, we share similar experiances. Throughout our lives we've shared similar disasters, and both felt it was time to head out on our own. A once in a lifetime chance meeting.
Stopped in town and did cloathes, soon they will be clean and dry. Time to pick up supplies, as I'm now out of soup (Thank God!).
The dryer buzzed, their laundry would be dry. Ginger checked, No, it wasn't, another round in the dryer and it should be finished.
Finally the buzzer sounded again, and their warm cloathes came out of the dryer. They packed them tightly into the bottom of their packs. Ginger gave Wusaak a freezer bag to pack his socks and underwear in. "Keeps em dry, if you ever fall into the river again. He packed a pair of shorts, and his thin T-shirt into the bag as well, a complete outfit, water proffed.
"So, what supplies do we need for the road?" Ginger asked. "I've been stopping and picking up sandwiches. One of them I kept too long, and I threw it back up."
"Yeah, fresh stuff goes bad pretty quick. I always have plenty of water, and at least a days worth of food. Anything canned works well, it keeps. Usually you can just cut the lid off, and set a can in the embers and it will heat up enough to be good. Occasionally you can kill something along the road. I just throw it in a soup can with water and boil it."
"I think I'll stick to canned food." Ginger said sticking her tongue out.
"What you kill is free, it saves money. On the road you have to keep as much of your money as you can, never know when you'll get more."
Ginger nodded. They had left the laundromat while they talked, and were headed down the street, towards a small grocery store. As they stepped on the automatic opening door, Wusaak noticed something that caught his eye.
"We'll come back here later, there's something better." he pulled Ginger down the street.
He pulled her towards almost blank storefront, wood paneled, with a front window filled with cardboard boxed. A hand painted sign above the door read "Military Surplus".
He pushed in through the door. Racks of cloathing lined the walls. He stepped up to the counter, where the salesman was picking his nails with a knife similar to Wusaaks. "Do you have any MRE's?" questioned Wusaak.
"Sure, back right corner of the store." he salt and pepper bearded man said pointing with his knife. He went back to cleaning his nails.
Almost hidden beneith a table full of old military manuals, was a sign that read "MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) - $7 each"
Wusaak winced at the price, the meals were good, and kept for years, but $7 wasn't a great price.
(Updated 11-17-2003)
He picked up two, for emergencies, and took them to the counter.
"Only two?" the clerk asked.
"We're hiking," he stretched, "on a budget. They're good to have, but too expensive."
"Hold on, just a second." The clerk stuck a finger into the air, for the first time showed some activity. He walked into the back room, and came out with a cardboard box. "These are a little old, just past the date we pull them at. They might not taste as good, but they're still food. If you're interested, Twenty for the whole box, 12 packs in here."
Wusaak smiled and nodded. "I'll take the box, now I need to get a second pack to put them into."
Wusaak bought two small nylon packs, each would hold 6 MRE's, and could be wadded up tighltly when not in use. He paid for his purchases, and stuffed each of the nylon packs full. One he handed over to Ginger. "There, 6 days of food, for 30 dollars."
Ginger pulled 15 dollars from her pocket, and gave it Wusaak. "You can't keep paying for me."
"Just making sure you're stocked up, if we get onto a long stretch of trail, it could be a couple days."
"A likely excuse." Ginger smiled at Wusaak.
As they were leaving, Ginger spotted a camp cooking kit, it was small and compact, and she ran back to pay for it and two sets of camp silverware. The clerk talked her into a pastic canteen, and she picked up a second for Wusaak.
Before they left town, they stopped and picked up some more soup from the grocery store, re-stocked their water supply. Now they were begining to look less like runaways, and much more like hikers.
They left town at 3 int he afternoon, and continued following the road out of town.
Together, they walked.
Vance awoke in the morning, afraid that the previous night had been a dream. But no, he really was sleeping on the floor, there was a quiet whispering snoring coming from the bed above his head. He crept out of bed quietly, gathering the rest of his clothing, and went into the bathroom. Blinking through the morning fog in his eyes, he where he brushed his teeth and used the toilet. He stretched, trying to unkink his back from sleeping on the floor. After a long hot shower, he dressed, and stepped out of the bathroom.
"Good morning." Lea said.
"Did I wake you?" Vance asked.
"No sooner than I needed to be up." she replied.
"So ..." Vance began, unsure of how to ask, direct he decide. "Without your car, what were you planning on doing?"
"I don't know, the car was uninsured, wasn't worth anything. I don't know where I was heading to begin with, now apparently I'm on foot." Lea said, Wondering just what she was going to do.
"That's how I got here, 50 miles a day. Don't know where I'm heading either. Looking for someplace where I can be safe from the fires. My grandfather took me to a town called Beaverdam after on of the fires, I felt safe there, don't know why. I was hoping if I walked far enough, that I would find a safe place."
"I don't know what I was looking for, just trying to avoid more tornados." she sighed.
"Come with me, one room's cheaper than two, perhaps we can find an answer to both of our problems."
"Sure, why not." She didn't know if she was in love with Vance, maybe it was just heartfelt gratitude. Maybe it was more, he was attractive.
Vance went out into town to pick up breakfast for both of them, while Lea showered and dressed.
Lea finished the day filling out paperwork from the accident, while Vance went shopping. He picked up some dried fruits and some canned meat that reminded him to email his parents again soon. Lea joined Vance in the early afternoon, and he helped her replace the essentials she had lost in the car. She had a brand new pack, and new cloathing from a second hand store. By the time the day's chores were done, it was late enough they didn't want to leave, so they spent the night again in town, and kept the same room.
Morning came again, Lea awoke on the floor this time, insisting they swap places for the night. She stretched feeling the cramped muscles in her back. In the future she would remember to diligently maintain their rotation, which meant she got a bed next time.
They packed up their stuff quickly, making sure not to forget anything. Before their eyes were fully open, they were on the road, walking side by side.
By noon they came to another town, a larger town. Lunch was sandwiches they put together themselves. Instead of bread, they chose hard rolls, they wouldn't crush as easily in Vances backpack. Vance stopped in the library, they had internet access, so he checked email. As before, he read through his parents and relatives plea to come home, he wished he could, but he couldn't, he'd made up his mind.
He then typed up a message to everyone on his mailig list.
Hello everyone. I miss you all so much, but I've made up my mind to continue on my journey. Being out in the open air, walking mile after mile has cleared my mind. There's something about being closer to nature that will put your soul at ease, I am tired, and sometimes cold, I miss you all, but in a way I am happy to be here.
Two days ago I was sitting in a diner, waiting for the rain to stop. I heard a crash, and ran, a car had crashed and flipped, and was on fire. It seems even on the road I'm not entirely free from that curse or whatever it is. I pulled the driver from the car, wasn't in any real danger, the fire was far enough from the gastank. Waited for the police to come, you know the routine.
This girl is in the same shoes as me, she's on the run from tornados. We took to the road together this morning, and it was instant friendship. I think I will have a traveling partner for some time to come.
He clicked send, and the email raced to his relatives. He found Lea in the periodicals section, reading through some newspapers. She pointed out an article on the Tornado that had followed her. It had cut through some fields, heading towards town, then suddenly turned and moved away. Lea explained that it turned in her direction and followed the road she was on.
"Pet tornado. What do you feed it?" Vance joked.
"According to the article, it was fond of power lines, and fences. Not as funny when it's following you in a car."
"I can imagine." Vance shuddered.
"Look at this paper here, whole town flooded when a dam broke."
"Did your tornado eat the dam?" Vance joked.
"Nope silly, it's way too far away. Dam burst due to age and significantly higher than average rainfall. Probably the same rain we've been getting here now. Same storm system the Tornado came out of."
"Bad luck hitting everyone it looks like." Vance shrugged.
They finished reading through the papers, nothing else of note caught their eye. Before long they were back on the road.
As the sky darkened, and the sun set, Lea suggested they shouldn't have left the last town, it might be quite a while before the next one. Vance agreed, looked like they might have to spend the night outdoors, and it was getting cold. Vance suggested that if they didn't find a town by 10, they would search out somewhere safe to spend the night.
Vances watch beeped, 10 o'clock. No town lights in sight anywhere, no suitable shelter either. On they walked until they found some trees and bushes in a small dry ravine. It protected them from the cool breze, and they huddled together for warmth beneith the one blanket Lea had been smart enough to buy at the thrift store.
Dsipite the cold, and the wind, they both managed to fall asleep, nestled into a space between two trees, laying their heads on their packs. They didn't sleep comfortably, and they woke up as the sun rose. But they had made it through the night.
After they split a can of meat and some hard rolls for breakfast, they were on their way, slowly at first as they walked the stiffness out of their joints.
(Updated 11-18-2003)
The day warmed as they walked, the clouds thinned, and sun snuck out from above. Vance and Lea walked side by side, and admired the golden fields. They took turns pointing outscenery to each other, they chatted about their friends they'd left behind, and their families. The day went by in a blur, and they covered many miles, before just before dusk they reached the next town.
This town was almost a ghost town, population of just under 200, it looked like it had once been home to hundreds more. They stopped in at a local grocery store that was also a cafe. They replenished what supplies they could, and asked about a local hotel.
The thin woman, missing a tooth, behind the counter replied, "There was a hotel just down the street, but it closed up a few years ago. Might be able to find someone in town willing to put you up for the night."
Lea replied, "How far is the next town to the west?"
The clerk thought for a moment, puzzling it over in her head. She shook her head and said "Next town is about an hour drive west of here."
"My car broke down, and we're walking for now." Lea answered.
"That's a long walk. To the north there's a town, it's small, but I think the hotel there is still in business. Though it's more of an hourly rate kind of place."
Lea stuck out here tongue. "Just need a place to spend the night. How far is it?"
"Not more than 15 miles." she shruged.
"We can make that, it'll be very late when we get in though." Vance smiled.
They started off quickly, it was already dark, with just a hint of light on the very far horizon. The darkness surrounded them, and they walked a path lit only by a small flashlight that Vance had. They're eyes adjusted to the darkness once the flashlight failed, and they could barely see their path by the light of a sliver moon. Occasionally a car would pass, the lights temporarily killing their night vision. While their eyes reajusted they would simply stand on the side of the road, holding each other's hand. The trip was long, they walked quickly, and their muscles hurt when they finally reached town.
The town was slightly bigger, and looked much less like a ghost town than the previous stop. The hotel was on the far side of the town, and they finally reached it around midnight. It was as seedy as they had expected, Vance had even predicted that one of the neon letters would be burned out. As if he could see the future, the hotel proclaimed itself "HO EL". It sure looks like a hole, he though to himself.
They paid for a night, recieving not a look of surprise from the attendant. The hearded man in his thirties stood almost motionless behind the counter, he broke his statue like stance, only to hand the keys and change over to Vance. They thanked him, his lips possibly moved towards a smile for a brief flicker. Silently they left the office, and took their room. It had a king sized, bed, and neither Vance nor Lea had to sleep on the floor. Judging by the noises from the open windows of the hotel, they were the only room where people were here to sleep.
They awoke to the sound of the alarm clock, which had been set to Ten, an hour before checkout. They took turns showering and washing up, and were back on the road quickly.
As they were leaving town, Vance spotted a sign. "Runs good! $500 OBO. Ask inside." behind the sign was technically a car, but it looked like it might be more rust than metal. The upholstry inside was ripped and the material of the cieling hung down, blocking the mirror. The tires had respectable, thought not good, tread.
"Think we should ask about it? I've got the money in the bank for it." Vance asked.
"See if they'll take $400 for it." Lea suggested.
Vance climbed the rickity front steps, to the equally rickity front door. The whole house looked like a good rain might wash it away. Pulling open the screen door, he knocked on the frontdoor.
He listened, and heard no movement in the house. He knocked again, louder. A dog barked, then several. Finally he heard the click of the lock, and a man, dressed apparently only in overalls stepped to the front door. "Can I help you?" he spoke slowly as if he'd just awakened from a nap.
"We're interested in the car you have up front."
The man turned, without saying a word, and yelled into the house "Brad! There's a guy here to ask about the car."
"Be right out." the man said and closed the door.
A teenaged boy, apparently Brad, came to the door. "You interested in the car?" he asked.
"Possibly, would you mind letting us see how it runs?"
"It's a good engine, my buddy rebuilt it himself. Shocks were new a year ago too." he smiled. "I'll show you."
He stepped out of the house, door slamming behind him, and the dogs barked again.
He put the key into the door, wiggled it around a bit, and it finally turned. He pushed the tall grass aside as he sat in the drivers seat. Betraying the car's rickity exterior, the engine roared to life, it ran very smoothly, and sounded good. The muffler rumbled only a little bit, still intact.
"It's not much to look at, but it'll get you where you're going. Wanna take her for a drive?"
"Sure." Vance said as Brad got out of the car, and moved to the backseat. Ouch! he yelped. "Watch out for this spring on the back seat."
Vance smiled, and climbed in. Lea got into the passenger side.
The shift lever stuck a bit, but Vance finally got it into drive. The car pulled forward, sticking momentarily in the depressions it's tires had formed in the soft soil. Once it reached the road it gripped, and accelerated nicely. The ride was rough, but it had no hesitation accelerating. Vance drove it down the street, it cornered well with the stiff suspension. He drove it for ten minutes, and returned to Brad's house. They poked around under the hood, belts were slightly worn, but were still fine, didn't look like it leaked much of anything. The battery terminals were horribly corroded. When he mentioned the corrision, Brad went into the house, returned with a cola, and poured a sip in the contact. The corrosion melted off.
"Not bad." he smiled. "Will you take Threen hundred fifty for it?"
"That's a little low for what I wanted. Trying to save up for college to get out of this place. How about four twenty five."
"If you can show me where there's an ATM in town to get some money out, it's a deal."
Brad gave Vance directions from the backseat, and they stopped at a bar just outside town. Vance and Lea went inside, while Brad waited in the car.
"Damn." Said Vance walking up to the ATM, 4 dollars to take money out. He repeated his comment when his bank would only let him take three hundred out of the account. "Daily limit of 300" he pouted. Lea put her card in, and took out another 200. "We'll split it." she smiled. They broke a twenty at the bar, and walked back out to the car.
"Where can we get the title changed?" asked Vance.
Again Brad directed them, this time to a dealership where his uncle worked. They filled out the forms, and paid Brad the four twenty five. The remainder of the money went to the dealership for title transfer costs. They took their license-applied-for tag out to the car, and replaced the plates.
By 4 o'clock the car was theirs, in both their names. They drove out of town, heading west, as they drove the sun set. Only then did they realize the headlights didn't work. They pulled over to the side of the road, and Vance pulled open the fuse panel. After clearing out the spider webs, he looked at barely readable lables for the fuses. Squeezing his fingers into the box, he pulled the fuse for the headlights, it was burnt. He looked, and couldn't find a new fuse. He pulled the fuse from the cigarette lighter, and put it in, it was the same number. Still no headlights, the lighter fuse was blown too. He swore, and looked for fuses he could borrow. Finally he decided that he could get along without the radio, and put in the slighttly lower numbered fuse from the radio. The lights came on as he plugged the fuse in.
They drove on, as it got darker, Vance noticed deer near the side of the road. He flicked on the highbeams for more light, and they blinked out. He slowed quickly, and with the blinking pulse of the hazard lights pulled off the side of the road safely. A deer a couple feet further down the road blinked at the hazards, and bolted away. Lea was still stomping the imaginary brake on the passenger side.
After Vance caught his breath he pulled open the fuse panel, the fuse for the lights was again burnt, and this time he stole the fuse from the heater. When he flicked on the brights they glowed, and flicked back out. His head slumped into his hands, now he had another blown fuse. He looked through the fuses, not much more he could swap. Wipers were less important than lights, and he again swapped fuses. Not to chance another blown fuse, he didn't turn the highbeams on again.
At midnight they pulled the car into a hotel, it wasn't much, but it was clean, and nice. After they awoke refreshed, they filled the gas tank, and bought several packs of replacement fuses. With the correct fuse in the socket, the highbeams would turn on and stay on. Vance wrote down the milage on the car, it was 167,563.2, ran very nicely for it's milage.
Vance realized that over the night they had driven a distance that would have taken them a week on foot. That would have made him feel better, if he knew where they, were driving to. West seemed like a good direction, the sun went that way, it was good enough.
Two more days passed uneventfully, they drove slowly on backroads, stopping in small towns along the way. Vance and Lea swapped places every four or five hours, taking turns watching the scenery, looking for answers. They met nice people, and mean people, yet nowhere they stopped, seemed like somewhere either of them would want to stay. Until they found the perfect place, they would keep driving. Maybe they would travel forever, together on the road, both Vance and Lea felt safe.
As they drove almost a mile over water they realized they had reached the Mississippi.
They drove further, through fields, and over small hills. That evening they stopped, it was a large college campus somewhere in Iowa. They got cheap student hotel rates, and Vance borrowed internet from the library. He repied to a few individual emails of advice from his family, and read an email from his sister.
It's been so long since I've seen you. I miss you. I hope you find your way, I know you will. I'm doing really well in school, working hard like you asked me to. Mom and I got into an argument over you last night, I was being stubborn, but you know how I am. She said you belonged at home, with your family. I told her you were old enough to make your own descisions. She complained you were ruining your chances to go to college. I kind of let slip what you told me, that you wern't planning on going anyways. She called me a liar, I yelled at her. She said I can't go to the city with my friends this weekend. So I wrote her a long letter, in pen, I explained myself, apologized for yelling, poured it on real thick. I also explained why you were on the road. She cried when she read it, and told me I was probably right. She actually said I might be right. Anyways, after we talked again, she's accepted why you left, but she's still upset about it.
I think she'll let me go to the city if I ask her nicely friday.
Vance wrote back
I wish my situation were simple enough to me where I could just turn back, and come home. I still don't know why I really left, what convinced me so fully that the fire followed me. When I met Lea a shiver ran up my spine, she'd had similar experiances, left because she was chased. It can't just be coincidence can it?
Got that car I always wanted, it was $500, but runs well, we've put over 1000 miles on it already. Beats walking.
Anyways, be good to mom, don't make her cry. Give her, and Dad, and Grandpa, and Grandma a hug from me. And make Grandpa give you a hug from me :)
Love Vance.
He penned another quick update to his mailing list, and returned to the hotel for a good night of sleep.
The next morning they drove on, the road was becoming a blur. Late that evening the land was flat and grassy, and they could see for miles. They watched the sunset as they drove into it. Two more days, and they could see the horizon change, the rockies like clouds on the horizon took over the horizon, and slowly the sky. Soon they couldn't look at the horizon without noticing the everpresent mountains. It was beautiful, the blues and whites, and purples, the sun setting through the peaks. Still, it wasn't the right place, maybe nowhere would be.
Sloping upward, the road looked as if they could drive it up to the sky. They followed the winding path up the side of the rockies, the car's temperature rose slightly, and they frequented the graveled lots on the way to the top to ensure it didn't overheat. Finally the ground peaked, and they could see the whole world. They parked the car, and set out on a walk along the peak of the rockies, enjoying the beautiful scenery, which was like nothing they'd seen before. The car went down hill quite well, they stopped frequently to make sure the breaks didn't overheat as the signs suggested. The signs here read 'Watch for falling rocks' as the road cut near steep rocky slopes.
A load bang, and the car leaned hard to the left. Lea grabbed the wheel, and held on, pulling against the dragging flat tire. She nudged the side of the hill, and large gravel skittered across the road, the car drifted to a stop on the side of the road.
Lea sat there white knuckled, while Vance rubbed his head where he bumped it against the window.
"Flat tire, in the middle of the rockies. Great." he frowned.
"Do we have a spare?" Lea asked.
"Yeah, I checked when we got the car. Doughnut of course, but it looked solid." Vance said, opening the door. He looked at the tatered remains of the once mediocre tire. He kicked it and asked Lea to pop the trunk. As she got out of the car, she pulled the trunk lever, with a click the trunk rose three inches and Vance lifted it, he dug the floor of the trunk up, and removed the spare tire. Into the air, the car rose as he cranked the handle on the rusty jack, it creaked, but held. Soon he had the tire off the side of the car, he carried it behind the car, and threw it onto the ground. He pulled the spare out of the trunk and dropped it. Being a good tire, it continued rolling down the hill. Vance followed it as it gained speed, rolling faster and faster until it came to rest against a guard rail where the steep slope fell away to a grassy flat area, which dropped into a valley below.
As he walked back up the hill he heard the sound of tires squeeling, big tires. He heard the sound of a semitruck horn echoing through the hills.
"Get away from the car!" Vance yelled. Lea scrambled up the side of the hill, gravel sliding down as she climbed. Vance likewise climbed the hill, away from the road. A truck rounded the corner, wheels squealing, smoke blowing in the air as rubber burned. Vance watched in slow motion as the truck pased the car with less than a foot of clearance. The back wheel of the trailer caught the blown tire, and threw it into the air, it landed up hill of Vance, and continued to roll through the gravel slope. Rock began to pour down the hill, gathering speed. Vance ran towards the grassy flat area as the rocks fell, he dropped the tire and pumped his feet, the tire rolled after him, knocking him to the ground. The rocks fell around him, and covered his body, leaving the top of his chest, left arm and head uncovered.
Vance groaned, the rocks were heavy, he felt the weight on his chest as he took a breath. Slowly, he started to pull rocks from around him, digging himself out. He pulled his 0413556
He heard Lea yell to him to hurry, as a man jumped the railing, grabbed his arm, and almost dislocating his shoulder pulled him from the rocks. He winched in pain as he was pulled forcefully over the guard rail. He didn't have time to complain about the rough rescue as he watched a large boulder roll over where he had been trapped, smash into the railing, and continue on down the hill.
Vance stared at the solid steel railing which had been smashed in, and whistled.
He struggled to his feet and looked at the oriental man who had saved his life. The man held out his hand and said with a concerned look on his face, "The name's Wusaak. You ok?"
Vance rotated his shoulder, it was sore, but nothing damaged. He took Wusaak's hand. "Very, very pleased to meet you. Thank you." he smiled.
"You're welcome." Wusaak shook back, "You ok?"
"Feel like I've been run over by a rock slide, but other than that, I think I'm just fine."
Lea arrived walking carefully over the spilled rock. "Vance, you ok?"
"Wusaak here pulled me out before that thing rolled on through. It was close."
She shook Wusaak's hand, and thanked him. "It's a good thing you were here. Been a lot of close calls lately."
Wusaak smiled and nodded "There have indeed."
(Updated 11-19-2003)
"Vance pulled me from a car fire a few days ago." Lea added.
"And I pulled him from the rubble. Ginger pulled me from the river."
"Ginger?" Lea puzzled.
"She's got my stuff, I dropped everything to run here. Come on, follow me and I'll get my pack, and we can talk."
"No need." Ginger said, carying both Wusaak's pack and hers.
"This is Ginger." Wusaak announced, "Ginger pulled me out of a river."
"Vance pulled me from a car fire." Lea stated.
Ginger with an enlightened look on her face asked "Has everyone been in disasters, and rescued people all their life?"
Wusaak said "Guilty."
Lea put in a "That's me."
and Vance just said "Wow."
Ginger continued, "This is too much of a coincidence, us meeting like this. The way I met Wusaak."
"The way I met Vance." Lea added.
"It can't be coincidence." Vance smiled.
"How about the four of us travel together." Lea suggested.
Everyone was in agreeance, as tingles ran up their spines.
"Great, let's find the spare tire under all this crap, and we can drive to the nearest town and talk over a hot lunch." Lea smiled.
If they wern't in the middle of the rockies, with a 3 wheeled car; if they wern't tired, and sore, the hunt for the tire would have been just hunting for easter eggs.
It took almost an hour of poking throught the rubble, guessing where the tire finally rolled to when the rocks came down, and pure dumb luck before Wusaak pulled the tire from it's tomb. The original tire was also found, but from the truck impact, was warped and dented.
Several cars skidded to a stop nearby the rubble, they asked if people were ok and were back on their way. Finally one turned around, drove back up the mountain, and set out warning flares on the less steep section of road to alert drivers. After that drivers were more cautious.
After they found the tire, two officers in a SUV pulled up, lights flashing. One got out, and started asking questions, while the other drove the car further up the mountain.
"We got a radio'd report from a trucker, said he'd hit a tire on the road near a stranded car. He couldn't stop on the slope."
"That would be us." Vance replied. "I'm not surprised he didn't stop, his wheels were really smoking."
"This route is off limits to trucks, it's posted. They're taking care of him in town."
"Is everyone alright here?" the officer asked.
"I got stuck in the rockslide, but I got out ok. A couple scrapes and bruises from the rockslide. No broken bones, or anything important."
"Do you want to go to a hospital just to be sure?" the officer offered.
"No, I'm ok." Vance replied.
The other officer came walking back, having left the SUS with lights, and siren running further up the Mountain as a warning.
"The highway department is sending someone out to shovel this mess away. Everyone ok?"
"Everything seems ok here."
The officers took down the information for all 4 travelers, detailed information on the truck, the collision, and the resulting rockslide.
"Trucker hit the guardrail there?" one asked.
"No, big bolder came bouncing down the hill and smashed it." Wusaak explained.
The officer walked over to the rail, kicked it, it didn't budge. He whistled, and walked to the edge of the grassy flat. "Get a load of this." he yelled, motioning for the other officer.
They both stood at the edge of the flat looking at the bolder down below. Finally their amazement ceased, and they returned to the group.
"That was a mighty big bolder." said the officer stating the obvious.
They filled out more paperwork, measured skid marks, and took pictures of the railing, the rockslide, everything they could possibly think of.
"Well, you're free to go." the officer told the group. He wished them better luck in the future.
With the tire in place on the car, and everyone's packs packed into the trunk, the group of four were back on their way. Vance, behind the wheel, manuvered the car around the fallen rocks. They continued towards the town below, and on the way passed a truck carying an earth mover.
They reached the town safely, and stopped at a popular looking restaurant. It was a nice sit-down restaurant, and the first really good meal they had each had in weeks.
They each took turns telling their stories, or adventures as they began to refer to them. Wusaak was amazed by the similarity of events, how each of them had rescued people.
It was Ginger that finally noticed the pattern. "Elements! Fire, water, wind and earth." she said.
There was quiet for a moment, and Vance spoke. "You're right. I'm fire, Lea's wind, Wusaak is earth, and you're water. We're together because we rescued each other from our own element."
"Except I never rescued anyone." Lea added.
"And I was never rescued." Ginger replied.
"Are there more of us to be dragged together? Or will something happen to close the chain?" Lea asked.
"I don't know." Ginger shrugged.
"Why?" asked Wusaak, "Why all of us, why were we brought together?"
"I don't know." Vance said. "I don't think we're where we're supposed to be, this isn't the right place for us. I've been looking for somewhere to settle down, away from the troubles I've had. This isn't it. I felt safe once, with my Granddad. I'll know when I find it again."
"I just left, I'm not even sure I was looking for anything at all" Wusaak added.
"I was protecting my family." Ginger added.
"I saw the tornado coming, it followed me. I felt I needed to go." Lea replied.
"So we all left for similar reasons. Somehow we were brought together, chased like hearded sheep." Vance added.
"And, we've all rescued people." Ginger noted.
"So, what do we do?" questioned Vance.
"It seems you are the only one with a goal, an idea of what they're looking for." Lea smiled.
"Somewhere safe." he smiled, "But where?"
"Let's keep doing what we've been doing, walk, or now drive, we've been guided this far, do you think it will stop?" Wusaak suggested.
"Until we know anything more, I think we should just wander." Ginger smiled, "Maybe there are more people we're meant to meet. Maybe we need to be somewhere."
"I don't think we'll get answers just sitting around." Vance said.
They became fast friends, they had similarities and differences, and by the time dinner was over they already felt a bond for each other.
The car was soon repaired, two new tires, and a new rim. An oil and fluid change topped off the list. Wusaak and Ginger pitched in for the cost of the repairs, and it was all of their car now. Wusaak stopped in a hardware store, and picked up a staple gun, and attached the cloth to the cieling of the car. A little spraypaint from a local autoshop, and the rust more or less matched the original color of the car. The seats Vance covered with thick blankets, held in place by staples, and duct tape. Lea cut out stencils, one read FIRE with flaming letters, then WIND with sideways trails. WATER in waves, and finally EARTH in stone shaped blocks. They spray painted these stencils on the very top of the car's rear window. After they added added some final touches with a paint pen, and used the remainder of the spraypaint on the hubcap-less wheels.
They spent the night in the town, they shared a two bed hotel room. An intense game of rock-paper-scisors determined who slept in the beds. Wusak won with a cunning Scissors at the right, moment, and Lea had the upperhand with a piece of paper.
In the morning they packed their belongings into the trunk of the car, and drove north. The car was alive with conversation, speculations on where they would end up, how they'd come together. They sang silly songs, and they told jokes. The day disappeared with the sun, and they picked a small grove of trees on a dirt back road as a camp.
Vance got a fire going with Wusaak's help. "Gotta learn to make a fire right." Wusaak told him, "You of all people." They sat around, and told ghost stories as the fire crackled, and then drifted off to sleep.
The next morning came too early, but the company made up for the lack of sleep. Ginger looked at the group, and shook her head, "If we had powers, and a bald guy in a wheelchair, we could be superheros."
"So what does that make us?" Lea asked.
"Thrown together, with out a manual. Reminds me of another super hero." Vance smirked.
They burried the fire, and left camp, at 11 o'clock. Driving, they passed into a larger town, population 56,000. Today was Sunday, and they decided to take the day off from traveling. A noon matine, enteretained them, they then went swiming until dusk came. The Kitchinette hotel they found had a King sized bed, a twin, and a pullout bed. Ginger dazzled them with her culinary skills, as she turned chicken, mushrooms, and garlic into 'Tasty chicken ala Ginger'. They played card games into the night, and Lea came out 47 cents ahead, after a stunning bluff.
Wusaak lay awake while the others slept. This was new to him, most of his life he had his cousin, never a real family. This, he imagined is what family felt like, people you would trust with your life, people who would risk their life for you, and peole you felt this unexplainable connection to. These were his family, his brothers and sisters, or sister-in-law, considering how Vance and Lea looked at each other. Whatever strange force led them to each other, Wusaak welcomed it. Never in his whole life had he felt that he belonged so well anywhere. After mulling these thoughts over in his mind, he slept.
Lea woke everyone in the morning when she bumped the drying pans which clattered loudly. She apologized for the noise, and continued on into the washroom. By the time she had showered, Wusaak had run to the store across the street, and had two dozen scrambled eggs cooking in the pan. Vance, they decided unanamously was in charge of the bacon.
After they packed, and stopped at a grocery store for supplies, they were on the road again. They drove for three hours, north, as the leaves changed colors around them, it was starting to become fall, the trees turning beautiful colors.
They turned eastward, and continued on back into the rockies. Again on the steep climb the car warmed, but cooled when they idled on the side of the road. Nearly an hour passed before they reached the sumit of the mountain they were passing over. Before them they could see for miles, long stretches of trees, then grassy plains. The occasional small town dotted the landscape, and a few small rivers ran through the planes, and wove together into larger rivers.
They continued down the road, the brakes squeeled as Vance slowed on the curves. Soon the car would need new breaks. As they were nearing the last turn out of the mountains, the brakes popped, the car sped around the corners, accelerating from gravity. Vance pulled the emergency brake with no change. Vance turned the key off, he strained to steer the car, as the power steering died. Straining itself, the engine roared, slowing down the wheels through it's gears and cylanders. Vance pulled the car around the corner, and out onto a straight steep stretch of road. The car growled against the gears, and they peaked 85 mph as they shot out of the mountains. As the ground leveled, the car slowed, and finally came to a rest at the feet of the rockies.
Vance shifted into neutral, and turned the key. Sputtering and coughing the engine roared to life, it rumbled for a few moments more, and then small wisps of smoke, or steam came from the engine compartment. He groaned, and turned the key back off.
They popped the hood, expecting a cloud of steam, but only saw tails of smoke from the engine. Oil and coolant were dripping out of the engine seals, onto the scalding hot engine body. Vance sighed, and closed the hood. "Looks bad, engine's leaking oil and coolant."
"What happened back there?" Ginger asked.
"Brakes died, I think a hose burst. I turned off the engine to slow us down, and we made it through the turn. The engine apparently didn't."
"So, it's on foot again." Wusaak admitted.
"It looks like it. We could pool our money to fix the engine, and the brakes, if it wasn't too expensive."
They walked to town, dejected. They spoke to a mechanic about an estimate, it wasn't hopefull. They rode out in the mechanic's car to their own dead car. The mechanic pointed out several other problems they hadn't noticed. He estimated at least fifteen hundred to make the engine run again. Together they could afford that, just barely, but there was more work that would be needed to make it road worthy. In the end, they sold the car to the mechanice for one hundred, and continued their trip on foot.
Again, they walked.
(Updated 11-20-2003)
The day was sunny, and cool, and made for excellent traveling weather. Compared to the car they were moving at a snails pace, but they had nowhere to be.
With Wusaak's experience, they shopped for supplies for the road, and set out. Like the explorers of old, they followed rivers, and camped under trees. For days they wandered, stopping brielfy in town for supplies, or overnight at a hotel to bathe. The more the wandered, the less they felt like they were going somewhere in particular. Slowly, they began to feel that they were waiting, as if they'd pressed the elevator door, and were just waiting for the doors.
One night they setup camp, they'd found a small hollow in the rocky side of a hill. It was a nasty rainy night, the wind blew the rain horizontally in small stingingly cold drops. The hollow protected them from the direct onslaught of the rain. Underneath Wusaak's tarp they huddled, the glow from their fire keeping them warm.
"Fire's getting low." Vance pointed out.
"It's my turn to get wood too." Ginger frowned.
"I'll go with you." Lea offered.
"No sense in both of us getting soaked. I think I saw some good wood earlier by that grove of trees. It'll be quick." Ginger said, hopping to her feet, and running into the rain.
Intermittant flashes of lightning lit her way, and she found the grove of trees up ahead. She started picking up the driest sticks she could find, wrapping them in a plastic garbage bag to keep them dry. Soon she had a large armfull of branches, she was shivering, but almost done. As she bent to pick up a larger branch that had fallen to the ground, she heard a creek, a crack, and heard movement. Suddenly she was hit, and pulled to the ground. Where she had been standing, a large tree crashed to the ground.
Lea helped her off the ground she had thrown her to, smiling. "The circle is complete."
Ginger hugged her, together they finished gathering wood, and returned to camp.
Wusaak and Vance's faces were concerned when Lea returned, but relieved when Ginger appeared behind her. "Were you right?" Vance asked.
"Yup, wind knocked down a tree." Lea responded.
"So, we're it, a completed circle, everyone has rescued someone else in the group." Wusaak noted.
"It looks that way." Ginger smiled.
"Now what?" Wusaak asked.
"Maybe that's it. Maybe we were just meant to be together." Vance said smiling at Lea.
"Whatever the situation, I think we'll find out soon."
Dispite the wind and the rain, and the cold, the makeshift family huddled together, waiting for the newly added wood to dry, and catch. Wusaak whistled a song he had learned many years ago. Slowly they all drifted off to sleep.
When morning came, and the landscape brightened, with the red and orange of a sunsise. Besides the damp ground, there was little evidence in the bright blue sky, that there was a massive storm the night before. The coals in the fire still crackled gently, Wusaak burried the fire, and as they had many mornings before, they set off.
For several beautiful days, they walked, barely a trace of clouds in the sky. It was cooler now,approaching fall, but not cold.
"I don't see any good places to camp, there's dry brush everywhere, we'll start the whole place on fire if we burn something." Vance sighed, frustratedly.
Vance looked across the plain they were walking through. For three days they had followed this road, they had passed rivers, and forests, and many miles of plaines, without any sign of civilization. In three days, they had maybe seen five cars drive by, no trucks, and the night sky revealed no town lights nearby on the horizon.
"There's a small valley over there, more of a depression really." Ginger said, pointing to the small bowl of land, maybe seven feet lower than they stood.
"Too brushy." Vance replied.
"Everything's too brushy. It's a little greener here." she countered.
"We can dig up some plants, a five foot wide patch. Then dig a hole in the middle, and ring it with rocks. It will keep the grass from burning." Wusaak pointed out.
"Let's do it then." Ginger suggested.
They walked into the nearly circular depression in the ground, it was about two hundred feet in each direction, the grass was brighter and greener, and the air seemed slightly warmer. In the center of the depression they worked to clear an area, while Wusaak carried over large rounde stones.
After they'd cleared about eight feet of dirt, they started digging the pit in the center. Wusaak ringed the pit with the large stones. They had to walk for quite a while to find wood. Vance had a small flame flickering in the pit, and the wood added to make a warm crackling fire.
"What day is it?" Ginger asked suddenly.
"Thursday, I think." Wusaak replied.
"No, the date." Ginger asked excitedly.
"Um." He pulled out his PDA, which had gone unused as he traveled with his companions. "23rd."
"It's my birthday!" Ginger smiled.
They wished her a happy birthday, sang to her, and dug through their packs for preseents.
"I don't need presents." Ginger shrugged, "Traveling with you guys is the greatest adventure I've ever had, I don't need more."
"How about a Birthday feast." Wusaak asked, pulling a four pound can out of his pack.
"What's that?" Ginger asked.
"Canned beef. Picked it up a couple days ago at a supermarket."
"I've got a couple junk food pies." Vance offered.
Lea had some hardrolls that were still good, and a packet of juice mix.
Ginger pulled out her camp kit, and unfolded the pan. Two burgers at a time they cooked on the small pan on top of a flat topped stone Wusaak had set in the middle of the fire. The juice mix was split between four bottles of water, and Vance rigged a lighter to stay lit, and stuck it in one of the pies. They sang quickly, and Ginger blew out the lighter.
Vance pulled the first pan of burgers out of the fire, they were served to Ginger and Lea. As he was putting the pan back into the fire, he spilled the grease into the fire and onto the stone. It flared up, and he pulled the pan back to the edge of the pit.
Ginger jumped up, and poured some juice from her bottle onto the rock, the fire sputtered and died down.
"Don't put it out!", Lea said blowing on the remaining coals to keep them hot. The oil on the stone flared up again in Lea's face, and she jumped backwards. Ginger poured the rest of her water directly on the stone.
Crack! The stone shattered, shooting shrapnel past the group. No one was hit by the small fragments, but it startled them quite a bit, and they all jumped back.
Wusaak looked at the stone in the fire. "Hey, check this out." he said fishing a piece out of the fire with two sticks. The piece looked like a normal stone, until he turned it around.
"It was a geode." Ginger smiled, admiring the sparkling blue crystals that had been hidden inside the stone.
Wusaak pulled the remaining pieces out of the fire to let them cool on the ground. "Happy birthday!" he joked, "I guess I also got you a surprise rock."
Dinner continued until everyone was well past fed, and they nodded off as the winked out past the horizon.
Wusaak awoke slowly, the sun in the sky warming his face gently. Stretching, he woke up. He staggered to his feet, and walked to the fire, adding more wood. He blew into the fire, and the coals slowly caught the wood. They had nothing else for breakfast, so he pulled open one of his MRE's and heated it up. He wiped the grease out of the pan from the night before with a piece of paper. As the paper dropped into the fire, the fire roared, the grease giving it the fuel to finally start into a blaze. He heated the pan until the remaining grease in it stopped smoking, and added some water. He opened a small pack of instant coffee, and poured it into the pan. Once it started steaming, he pulled it off the fire, and let it cool. Once it was no longer scalding, he drank the coffee directly from the pan.
"Do I smell coffeed?" Lea said blinking into the daylight.
"Just some instant crap." Wusaak replied. "Want some?"
"Sure."
"Me too!" Vance said from beneith the covers.
"Lea, you too?" Wusaak asked. She didn't respond, and he asked again "Lea?"
Sleepily she said "What?"
"Coffee?"
"Don't touch the stuff."
He heated some more water in the pan, added two packets of coffee, and let it cool on the side of the fire.
They drank, and ate whatever breakfast they had, and packed up camp. Wusaak covered in the fire pit, pocketing the four pieces of the Geode he had taken from the fire.
They walked south back to the road, out of the depression. After they'd walked for a while, they stopped.
Vance asked "Are we heading the right direction?", thinking the road should be here by now.
"Sun's to the east, we're heading south." Wusaak answered.
"Road wasn't this far off was it?" Vance asked.
"I don't think so." Ginger replied.
They walked on further, until they were sure they would have passed the road.
"Ok, where's the road?" Vance asked puzzled.
"Maybe we're heading in the wrong direction." Lea replied.
Wusaak pulled out his coumpass as a sanity check, it pointed north. "We're heading north. Did we sleep through the whole day?" he asked.
"Feels like morning." Ginger replied.
"Let's walk the other way, bet we find the road." Vance replied.
They didn't. They returned to the camp, and tried east and west, still no road within the distance they expected.
"I'm confused. It feels like morning, but the sun is in the west. There should be a road here, or equally this far in some direction. What's going on." Wusaak said accusingly to his compass.
"Sun's getting higher, in the wrong direction, according to your compas." Vance pointed out. The sun had indeed risen, shadows had shrunk, in what appeared to be the wrong direction.
"Well, we can either wait out here and wander in circles, or pick a direction, and walk until we find something." Wusaak suggested.
As they walked, they stared at the scenery, it was the same, same type of plants, same animals. But no road. For the rest of the day they walked, there was no sign of civilization as far as they could see to the horizon. The day grey hot, topping nearly eighty, as they sweatily crossed the plain. As night fell, in the east, they made camp in a clearing. That night they heard a sound to the north, a familliar rumble sound they couldn't quite place.
In the morning they started north, they walked for two hours, and came upon a road, a four lane, divided highway. Cars whooshed by occasionally, paying them no attention. The sound from last night they realized, was a truck shifting to a lower gear. They followed the road to the east for a few hours, and came upon a sign that read "Sun Ridge next 3 exits"
They continued on until the exit ramp, and followed it into town. Sun Ridge was a small town, dispite the number of exits, it was nestled half way up a hill. It looked like a rough neighborhood as they walked through, the windows and doors had bars or sliding gates. They saw few people on the streets, but those they did see seemed like decent enough people, who would nod, or say hello and smile.
They stopped in at a local store, and picked up more water, and some extra supplies. When Wusaak handed his money over to the clerk to pay, she looked at the money. Thinking for only a brief moment, she asked "Want your change in dollars?"
"Yeah." Wusaak replied, confused by the question.
"Any cheap hotels in town?" he asked, noticing it was getting dark outside.
"Down the street to 12th, go east one block."
He thanked her, and they walked down the street, turned east, by the sun, and walked down the block. There was no hotel here, and Wussak led them back two blocks west, where they found the hotel. They handed over the cost of the room to the clerk, who also paused and asked if they wanted their change in dollars.
"No, thanks." Wusaak asked curiously, it was only a few dollars anyways. The clerk handed him back blue paper money, and bright gold and black coins.
They quietly went to their room, and locked the door. The door had 3 massive locks, and the windows were steel barred.
"What's going on here." Wusaak asked loudly, holding out the blue money.
"What type of money is that?" Ginger asked.
"3 1 Zellor bills, and some odd change. This one looks like it's gold, it says quarter, different face. The penny looks like magnetite or something, another different face."
"I think we'll find out very soon now, why we're together." Vance smiled.
While there were small differences in the items around them, most looked like everything they knew. The phone had 12 keys. The doorknobs, and keys, and faucets all looked the same. Other than the sun, and the money, they might not have noticed anything different.
They slept poorly that night, the curiosity, and adventure of where they were excited and confused them. Where were they?
About four in the morning there was comotion outside the hotel, loud pops, and screaming. Vance raced to the window to watch through a slit in the curtain. Outside he saw a group of people, armed with rifles, and crossbows. They were shooting down the street further where Vance couldn't see. He asked everyone else to remain silent.
As one of the rifles fired, a faintly glowing streak of light shot out, it hit what looked like thin air. There was a flicker like lightning, and a human shape appeared out of the darkness, it howled as a person would, with an unearthly tone to the howl, then it fell to the ground. The fighting continued, a black shape passed in front of one of the people, and he yelled, and died.
Shining eyes looked out of thin air towards the window, they moved closer, and passed in front of the lighted hotel wall, walking towards the window where Vance was watching from. Vance could only describe
A glowing streak wizzed by the form, covering a patch of wall in the same lightning flash. A second shot rang out, and passed through the form. The form flickered, and fell, unmoving.
Vance stared out of the window, afraid to stop watching, and afraid to stay. Soon the fighting ended as the last shot was fired, the last shape fell out of the air.
Vance watched for a few minutes longer, and sat on the bed.
"What was all that?" Wusaak asked.
"Fighting, people shooting bullets and crossbow bolts into things in thin air."
"What kind of things?"
"Human shaped things. They were slightly transparent, like walking shadows. It was like a human made of smoked glass, but not shiny except the eyes."
They took turns looking out the window at the fallen shape. For the rest of the night, they traded watch, one would watch out the windows for 2 hours, then sleep, picking someone else to watch. None of them slept well at all.
The next morning, as Ginger was finishing her watch, Vance woke up, and peered out the window.
"Where's the body?" he asked, seeing the bare ground.
"Crew came by with a big van, picked them up with tools, and loaded them in the back. They took the people too, put them in body bags, and loaded them into a pickup truck."
"We need to get out of this town." he cautioned.
"That might be a bad idea." Wusaak added as stretched, "We don't know what's going on with these things, it might not be safe to camp in the wilderness."
"They almost looked human, the right proportions. Their eyes were larger though, and they shined like glass. The moved like humans." Vance shuddered.
"Well, things arn't the same here as where we came from. We need to learn quick, or it could be bad." Wusaak offered.
They packed their things, quickly, but hesitated leaving the room. Finally they worked the courage up, and unbolted the door. The day outside was beautifully warm, and contrasted the chilling sight of the nights activity. They stopped in the hotel office to ask about it.
"Quite some activity last night." The clerk greeted them.
"We noticed. What happened?" Ginger said.
"Hunting party came into town. I heard a lot of people died, but the hunters were stopped."
"Those black shapes?" she questioned.
The clerk looked at them, as if they'd asked "That orange ball?" to a comment about the sun. "Those were the hunters."
"Hunters?" Vance asked.
"Where are you four from that you don't know about the hunters?"
"Earth." Ginger answered.
"Oh, ok, no wonder. Though I thought all the overlays were locked closed. How long you been here?"
"Since yesterday." We went to sleep by a road, and when we woke there was no road. About ten miles west of here.
"Green bowl overlay sounds like. It's been inactive for nearly a century. How'd you get through?"
"We slept, and woke up over here. Where is here?"
"You didn't come here intentionally? Here is Sun Ridge, in the state of Worchester, in the United States of Marquez, and the answer you're probably looking for; you're on the planet called Vaerth."
"Vaerth. Zellors. The names are similar to our names for our world and our money." Vance noted.
"Of course, Vaerth is a colony of Earth." he shook his head, "You don't know thing one about here do you?"
"No, this is all a little confusing." Vance admitted.
"Here's the quick rundown. In 0 OY, the overlays were formed, within 100 years, those persecuted minorities of your world who were attuned to the energies of the planet colonized this world. The overlays remained unlocked until the hunters appeared. Then the worlds continued seperately from each other. Most people in your world, like you, blissfully ignorant to our plight over here."
"What's an overlay?"
"It's quite technical, but the basics of it, is it's a point in common between both worlds. They're areas where Earth and Vaerth exist at the same point in space."
"So, if you sleep in one, you appear on the other world?"
"Well, yes, if the overlay is unlocked, and your sun and our sun are in the same position, you flip to the other side of the overlay."
"The sun here does move west to east!" Ginger observed.
"Yes. When the sun lights the same portion of your world, and our world, the overlays trigger. That's every 12 hours."
"So we slipped into an unlocked overlay?"
"Sounds like it, or you unlocked it somehow. I'll let the local mages know and have them go out and check things out, make sure it's sealed."
"Mages?" Wusaak asked.
"Full of questions you are. Understandable considering your situation. Mages, or wizards, or witches, or druids, or them folk. Everyone has their term to refer to them, it's regional. No doubt you've heard stories in your world vaguely refering to the."
"Can we meet them?" Ginger asked.
"Oh, yeah, they're downtown, in the building next to the library."
(Updated 11-21-2003)
The clerk gave them directions, they almost took the wrong direction until they remembered the sun here moved differently. The town was quiet this morning, few people were seen on the street, only a few cars passed.
They didn't initially recognize the building where the Mages were. They were expecting a tower, or a gleaming obsidion building, or some powerfull looking structure. Instead, the building imediately to the right of the library, was a simple brick structure. No arcane symbols surrounded the door, no wands, not even a lightning bolt. Two floors tall, the building was simply a brick and mortar structure, windows lined the walls, and a simple white sign with black letters read : "Sun Ridge Mages". A sign on the door read "Please knock." Vance knocked on the door, and waited. A man dressed in a polo shirt, and jeans came to the door.
"Can I help you?"
"We're, new here. The hotel manager told us a little bit, said we'd come through the Green Bowl overlay."
"You came through an overlay?" he said, closing his eyes, and making a gesture at them. "Good, God, you did! Come in." The mage's eyes suddenly wide as he ran back into the building screaming "Someone came through Green Bowl!"
They followed him, at less of a frantic pace. The first room was a typical office, secretaries were typing papers, answering phones, working on the computer. It seemed like any normal office setting anywhere on Earth. They followed into a back meeting room where the man had run. On a large shiny oak table, three people, including the man who had greeted him at the door, were staring at a map unrolled on the table.
"It was locked two months ago, the encryption was perfect." and older man said.
"It couldn't be unlocked by brute force, that would just destroy the overlay." said a man with a flowing beard, the most wizard looking of all of the.
"We have to go there, and check it. Think what would happen to the people on Earth if a pack of hunters got through. Once even one gets there, they can appear directly on Earth. They'd multiply and take over the whole world. We've just managed to strike a balance here. Millions died before we figured out how to kill them."
The bearded man looked up at Vance, Lea, Wusaak, and Ginger. "So, you're the four who came through the overlay?"
They answered "Yes" in unison.
"How'd you manage such a thing?"
"We setup camp near a road, and in the morning we were here, and the road wasn't."
"That's Green Bowl alright, it's listed in the logs as having been checked, it's lock was intact. How did you get through it?"
"We slept. We didn't do anything to get through it."
He held his hand up in the same gesture the other man had before, and closed his eyes. "They rode the overlay normally." he announced.
"What about the lock?" asked the first man.
"We'll have to go there and see for ourselves." then, turning to the four, "Would you care to come along? You're at the heart of the mystery."
"Sure, we have a mystery of our own to solve."
"Oh, what's that?"
They briefly explained the situations that had guided their lives, that had pulled them together, and apparently hurled them to this world.
"Earth, wind, air, and water." he shook his head, "Elemental magic, someone summoned you. A very powerfull spell to summon someone over the course of eighteen years, very powerfull."
"Who summoned us?"
"Don't know, lots of elemental mages in this world." he shrugged, "Tell me exactly what you did, the night before."
"It was Ginger's 18th birthday, we had a small party around the fire, and we went to sleep."
"Probably her birthday that triggered the unlock then." he rubbed his beard. "Let's go over there and check things out."
As the mages walked around the office, gathering up maps, and books, the four watched in silence. Finally Vance held out his hand "My name's Vance."
"Oh my goodness, forgive my manners. I'm Greg, the guy who showed you in is Chuck, and the other guy, digging into the box on the floor over there is John."
"This is Ginger, and Lea, and Wusaak." Vance pointed everyone out.
They took two SUV's over to the Green Bowl overlay, their burried campfire was still in the center.
"Overlay should have activated already today, but the campsite is still here." Greg puzzled. He gestured at the depression, and frowned. "Locked just as tight as it ever has been. No one should get through."
He walked around the outside edge of the depression, gesturing, and mumbling to himself.
"What's he doing?" Ginger asked Chuck.
"Sensing the energy in this area. The gesture activates a learned subconsious process. This allows us to see the energy in the area."
"Can anyone do it?" Ginger asked.
"Many people can. Some people are a little more mentally limited, and never pick up the trick. A rare few are born knowing how to do it to begin with. It's actually a faulty gene, over produces an enzyme that allows them to see the energy."
"Can you show me?"
He thought for a second. "It takes a while to learn to do it yourself, but I can trigger it in you briefly."
"Go ahead."
He gestured, the gesture Ginger later learned often indicated what shcool the mage had attended. Around her she saw blue whisps of glowing smoke, floating gently in the air. The wisps were thicker near the ground. Ginger bent over and touched the thicker smoke on the ground, it swirled slowly drifting towards her hand, it swirled around, and up her arm. Slowly the vision faded.
"You're a natural!" he smiled, "You should train to be a mage, you'd be good."
"I'm more of a computer wiz myself. Take things appart, and put them back together, that kind of thing."
"Really? That's rare, a tech and a mage, you could get a really good job."
"This is so odd. Our world magic doesn't exist, we read fantasy stories about wizards and witches. Everyone's got wands, and beards like Greg, and cloaks. And they have stranger names like Zormazalor, or Toliminat. And over here, it's just a job, like plumber, or acountant. It's just normal guys, doing their thing."
"We're more like police or teachers. For most of us the pay's just average, it's a job you do because you love it. It's only the rare mages that can snap their fingers and get a high paying corporate job." he nodded towards her.
Greg yelled across the depression, "Whoah, what just happened? Who did that?"
Everyone froze. Chuck yelled back "I don't know, what'd you see."
"The lock just turned, it's unlocked now."
"I helped Ginger see the energy here, she made it swirl. But that wouldn't cause it, right?" Chuck replied.
"No it wouldn't. She's a natural huh?"
"And a tech."
"Nice. Now, about that lock, what else happened?"
Vance replied "I was just sitting here with Lea."
Lea confirmed likewise.
Wusaak, standing just inside the depression answered, "I was just walking around, looking at things."
"Step away from the overlay for a minute." Greg asked Wusaak.
Wusaak backed off, and Greg shouted "It's him, he's got the key."
Wusaak puzzled for a bit, then took off his backpack, tossing it into the depression. "Did it unlock?"
"Yes, it's open now."
Wusaak jogged forward, and opened up his pack, pouring the contents onto the ground. As he sifted through the contents, he imediately realized when he put his hand on the shards of the geode. He picked up all pieces, left his pack, and walked back out of the area. "Found it."
"It's closed. Bring it here. What is it?"
"When we were cooking, we put this rock into the fire, and it cracked when we poured water on it to put a grease fire out." Wusaak replied, crossing the overlay.
"That's how you unlocked it, it's earth, you put it in fire, added water. What part did wind have?"
"I blew on the fire, the water almost put it out" Lea replied.
"Brilliant! Who do you think could cast a spell of that complexity? To bind four lives to the elements. Then to guide them from their homes at the right time. Bring them thousands of miles across the country to meet with each other. Then pull them to this spot, and bring them to this world with a uniquely hidden key."
"The list would be very small. Maybe 100 mages could handle something like that on their own. A team of mages could manage something like that better, but eighteen years ago, the spell details would have been enormous to tackle with their limited computers. Plus, they'd have to have the code keys to the Green Bowl overlay." John replied.
"If someone or some group cast such a spell, why arn't they here, they'd have put an alarm on the gate, to watch it."
"Maybe they were killed by the hunters in those 18 years, or died of old age."
Wusaak set the stones in Greg's hand, they glowed slightly. Greg turned them over, and pieced them together, he saw nothing in the stone that identified the mage who had woven the lock. He gestured at the stones with his other hand, and they glowed slightly. "Nothing, could have been cast by one of a thousand people." he sighed.
"You have the internet on Vaerth?" Ginger asked.
"Of course. We're connected to your world with it, yours has very limited connections to ours through special portals. There are still some mages in your world, watching over things, making sure the hunters don't get through. We need to contact them, email works well."
"Why don't we search it then, I'll bet we find something." Ginger smiled, hoping for a chance to work some of her own brand of magic.
They packed things up, Wusaak returned a piece of the geode to his pack, and split the remaining three between the group.
They drove back to the town, and in the mage office, Ginger sat down at the computer terminal.
(Updated 11-24-2003)
An hour later, Ginger found a site searching with the words : fire, air, earth, water, green, bowl, and overlay. It was a 25 line poem about hope lost. None of the words that actually matched the search were in that particular order, instead the poem refered to concepts like "green trees", "a bowl of sour cherries". At the bottom of the poem, was a note that read "If you enjoyed my poem, please enter your first name."
Ginger typed her name into the entry field, and hit enter.
"How many people read this with you."
Knowing where this could be going, she typed in "3"
"What are the name of your friends."
She typed in "Vance Lea Wusaak"
A short white note appeared on the screen, no fancy graphics, just text.
"Go to the source to find your answer." it read.
Ginger caught on imediately and used the browsers show source option to view the code the page was generated from. She read the message out loud.
The four of us have brought you this far. Each of us, specialized in the elemental powers, contributed our energy to bring you through the overlay to our world. We wove patterns into the forms of elemental powers to bring together and to the right place at the right time. Happy Birthday. The patterns we wove have charged you slowly over time with elemental energy, that energy might be of help, if you can learn to use it. We regret the situations that must have led you to us, it is hard to guide just one life. To create a spell as huge as we did, for four mages as young as we were to tie the spell together, is difficult on it's own. To do so in the short time we had available to us, before we were caught or worse, nearly impossible. We did the best we could, the results we fear will be rough, but maybe that too will have a benefit. You four were chosen because we determined through strenuous research, that you were the best hope to save our world, and yours. If you are reading this our spell got you this far, it is the best we could do. You're free to do as you wish, the spells will no influence you in your world, you are free to go back and live normal lives. We have brought you here to ask for your help.
We need your help. Our world has been invaded by a lifeform we know little about. They kill by draining our energy, then use that energy to breed the next generation of invaders. From the stories of vampires that are quite common, this may not be the first time we've had encounters with them. We could find no historical documents if they had ever been here or not. This is either hopefull, or horribly dreadfull.
Please, if you feel it in your heart, after we have brought you here through desperate means, help us. Please.
Four young and foolish mages, who hope they've done the right thing.
There was silence in the office, the mages, and their staff were quiet, watching the group of four for their answer.
"We'll, we're here, and we know there's trouble. It has a decent chance of boiling over into our world. So, we fight it here, and now, were we might be able to find help, or we go home, and live our lives fearing for all those we love, that the hunters will come." Wusaak stated.
"I made my choice when I pulled my sister from that first fire." Vance said, "I don't intend to stop saving my family now."
"I think we all did." Ginger nodded. "Anyone who wants to back out now? Raise your hand."
"Let's find out what we can do." Lea smiled.
"You'll need help." offered Greg, stroking his long beard. "I'll go with you."
"Do you have the time off?" Chuck asked him.
"Time off be damned!" he explaimed, "I've always wanted to say that. No, I don't care if I loose this job, not if there's a chance to save the worlds. Besides these kids will need someone to guide them in this world. They don't even know how to deal with the hunters yet."
Ginger spoke up, "I think I've traced the name of the mage who write that article. I dug through some other pages on the site, and came up with Sandi Stinebaugh, and an email address."
"Never heard of her." Greg frowned. "She must have had quite a bit of power to contribute to the spell that was woven."
"I know the name." John said. "In fact, I think I knew the four wizards."
"Where do you know them from?"
"I worked with them in Silver Tree."
"Silver tree was distroyed, huge explosion. No one survived."
"I transfered here three months early. Remember what caused the explosion?"
"The determination was a mage, or perhaps in this light mages, destroyed an unlocked overlay in town that the hunters had taken control of. It hit like a nuclear weapon, and took out everything within 5 miles." Greg recalled.
"4 mages with the power to bind 4 lives off-world to their own element; do you think they could have caused that kind of damage?" John theorized.
"Nameless heros may have found a name." Greg bowed his head.
After a moment of unprompted silence, Wusaak broke the silence, "So, the five of us, are going to save the world?"
"We've all got practice saving individual people. Maybe together we can save everyone." Lea smiled.
"I was angry at the mages that brought us here with the type of manipulation they used. How many people could have been hurt. I think we can safely assume they're the ones who stopped the invasion of our world. They sacraficed all they had to save our world, to give us a little bit of time. I don't feel angry anymore, I feel sad instead, that we never got to meet such brave souls. In their honor, I will do everything I can to save this world, and ours." Vance said proudly and held out his hand.
Wusaak placed his hand on Vance's, and offered "For my new family, I would give my life."
Ginger stood up, and added her hand, "Better part of a team with a chance, I will stand with you all."
Lea added her hand, almost at the same time Greg offered his, she said "I've never met 4 other people I would rather save the world with. Seriously, I would be honored to be part of this quest."
Greg smiled, as he added his hand "A quest it is then, like the stories of old. In the modern world we will slay our dragon with our lances. We may need to learn to ride our horses first though."
Vance then said "Together." and everyone repeated as they broke their hands appart.
"So, what do we do now?" Lea asked.
"I'm not sure. I don't feel safe here, that's for sure. We could just keep walking until we find our way." Vance answered.
"It's what brought us together, it may have been just part of a spell, but it felt right, being together, and walking. Maybe we don't know our way, but we can make our own way." Ginger added.
Greg cautioned, "Outside the city we'll be vulnerable to the hunters. With the right weapons we can fend off a few of them, but if we come upon a larger group of them we'll be dead"
"Tell us about the Hunters, where did they come from?" Ginger requested.
"The hunters arrived 70 years ago. Vaerth and Earth are the the only two worlds we've discovered. They exist essentially in different universes. These overlays are points where two universes overlap, and become the same. When you stand in an overlay you're standing in two universes at once. When you stand in one, and they activate, you can leave from a different universe than you entered. To simplify their use, they activate twice a day, rotating you into the oposite universe when the suns from each world reach the same point in the sky. You leave the overlay with the sun in the same position, but it sets or rises in the oposite direction." he paused for breath.
"We were experimenting, looking for other worlds to connect to via overlays. Well, we found one, except it was already inhabited. We were excited to learn there were other beings out there beyond us. That was until we actually met them. They can suck the energy out of our bodies, and feed on it. Not a soul, or something metaphysical, energy in terms of physics. If a hunter touches you, the molecules in your body break down, the energy released feeds them, while you die instantly of cellular starvation. Fortunately the victim only has time to scream for a moment. Our physicists think they have an idea that this works on the quantum level utilizing magical energy." he paused again.
"We're not sure just how. However, we discovered that certain magically charged bullets can release a butst of energy that can distabalize, and if we're lucky kill the hunters. We'll get you those weapons, and some bullets. I can put the magical charge on them."
"Teach me how and I'll help." Ginger smiled, eager to learn magic. She head dreamed since she was a kid of having a magical wand, and slaying dragons. Now, she had a real life chance to learn for real.
"There's a lot to learn. It would take time."
"Perfect," Vance smiled, "Then we have our first goal. Maybe you can cram a little magic into our heads as well."
Greg went to alert his boss to his sudden departure from work. They heard yelling from the office, and Greg came back out. "Quit." he said.
"As if four children and a mage can stop this invasion. My grandmother has a better chance." the boss yelled behind him, slamming the door.
"Come on, help me pack my stuff, and we can spend the night in my appartment. Then we'll be on our way."
(Updated 11-25-2003)
Greg smiled while he was packing his office, he apparently wasn't feeling too bad about quiting his job.
"Won't you miss this place?" Ginger asked him.
"The people I'll still be friends with, will still see. The work was mundane and routine, this will be an adventure. Besides if we fail, we'll all be dead, no worries. If we live through this, just think of how that would look on our resume. 'Saved 2 worlds'" he laughed heartily.
The office took quite a while to pack, Greg had been there almost fifteen years. After three paper boxes were loaded, they carried them out to his tiny car. They called a taxi and crammed it full, and drove the half mile to Greg's house. They settled in for the night, it was a small cozy appartment, in the corner Greg had a small fireplace, and he lit it for them. They slept around the fire, the crackling sound soothed them, as they drifted off to sleep.
In the morning they packed up their possessions, Greg had a large store of food, which the five of them filled their packs with. Greg was about to lock up the door when he asked for a moment, ducked into the house, and came back with a walking stick about 6 inches shorter than he was. "If this is a quest, the mage needs to have a walking stick." he grinned.
They stopped by the local firearms store, and each of them picked up a gun, and several rounds of slightly glowing amunition.
They made the edge of town by eight, by nine the town was a distant spot. They walked along the highway for hours, and made camp at night, it was peacefull and quiet. Lea awoke to a noise, it was Vance, he was dreaming, and his hands moved as he made soft noises. She put her arms around him, and he quieted.
Vance stood alone, in the middle of a clearing in the woods, in the trees surrounding him he caught an occasional gleem, and it vanished. There was shuffling around him, and he would turn to face it, but there was never anything there. Then a hand grabbed his shoulder, and he turned around, staring through darkness hanging in the air. The foggy eyes stared at him, and he felt sadness, compassion. He pulled back, and grabbed for his gun. The figure lifted his head, bearing his neck. Vance looked into the dark eyes, and couldn't shoot. Suddenly figures were appearing from the trees, towards him.
He jumped awake, Lea had an arm around him, and he nestled back against her, and after a bit fell asleep.
Morning came early, and they were off after a quick breakfast. Ginger and Greg walked together talking, while Vance, Wusaak and Lea followed a few feet back. They came upon a bridge that crossed a large river, the banks were flat and grassy, and after a moments hesitation they turned off the road and down the riverbank. It was well into the afternoon before they stopped for lunch.
Ginger looked around in amazement, the entire morning she and Greg had worked on magic, and she had finally caught on to how to see the energy in the area. She could touch the slight wisps of energy, and pull them to her, she could also push them and shape them slightly. She watched as Greg made a jesture, and cast a small spell, the wisps flew towards him, and wove a beautiful pattern in the air, the pattern extended to a small rock on the bank of the river, which was lifted into the air.
"And that, is a levitation spell." he smiled.
"I saw the spell, the bright lines of energy." she smiled back.
"Next you need to practice drawing in energy, and creating the spell in the energy."
"I can do this." she demonstrated, pulling a bit of energy into a ball in her hand."
"It's a start, but you have to learn to handle, and shape it much more finely than that. To use a poor analogy, you have a ball full of wool. It's a long way to making thread, and even further to making a hat."
"I can see it already, this is incredible, I can see the whisps flowing into and out of the trees, it reacts to everything, rocks, animals, even the grass glows. Will I see this if I go back to my world."
"We've never found a place that doesn't contain this kind of energy. We've sent people into orbit, it's there too."
"Is it a particle energy?" she asked.
"We don't know. Our physicists have never been able to design any kind of device that is capable of detecting it. Our experiance is uniquely human."
"What about the hunters, can they manipulate this, do they have mages?"
"We know little about them, they took city after city by storm, thousands appearing at one time. They can create overlays to this world now. It takes two mages to create an overlay, one in each world, standing where they want to attach the overlay."
"How did the first overlay start? This world was uninhabited wasn't it?"
"It was dead and barren, Thousands of years ago when the first mages crossed over they brought with them plants and animals. They were ancient Egyptian mages, these mages known as the Founders wove a powerfull spell, they captured tremendous energy, and created a flood of overlays that swept across the planet. The two worlds mixed, and the plants and animals distributed between the worlds. They forgot about this world for hundreds of years. Finally when their their scrolls were rediscovered, this world had grown enough that the atmosphere could support human life. Just a few hundred years ago, mages began traveling to this world routinely, and settled here. They left your world fearing of persecution, magic began to be viewed as the devils's tool, and witches and wizards were put to death for practicing. Until the hunters arrived, we maintained a huge trade between the two worlds. The cultures on each paralelled each other because of this. That's why we seem so much like normal people to you."
"How did the first overlay get created? Who came over here the first time, to create the rest of the overlays. If you have to be in both places to create an overlay, how did the first person get here?"
"That is one of the great mysteries. We know of no other way to move between worlds. Even the hunters have to have one of their own on this side to create their temporary overlays. There's always the one question that makes us think, and wonder, if there really is a God watching over us. And that's just a question of faith."
Greg eventually left Ginger to practice on her own, and began to teach Vance, Wusaak and Lea magic. They walked for days before Vance eventually learned how to see the energy surrounding him. Wusaak and Lea could never quite seem to master it, even when Greg gave them the sight, it was dim and insubstantial.
"Vance is like a typical a begining mage, it usually takes a few days to learn to even see the magic, and months to learn to cast spells. Ginger is typical of a tech-mage, the wiring of the brain that makes a good computer technician is usually contrary to using magic, most never do. The rare individual who can do both, excels in both, and can be extremely powerfull. They are rare, maybe one born out of every quarter million."
"I was hoping we all had powerfull magic to use." Vance shrugged.
"We've had master mages fall to the hunters, the most powerfull have fallen. Magic along won't cut it. If we're the ones to stop this slaughter, it will be through something we haven't tried."
After nearly a week of walking, the river entered a large dark forest, the sight of the forest chilled Vance, it reminded him of his dreams. Besides Vance who watched carefully in the underbrush, and trees, the rest of the party was cheerfull. Wusaak took his knife out, and taught Lea how to throw it into a tree at fifty feet. In the mornings before they left camp, Greg had them practice shooting. They got 3 bullets each day, and were slowly getting better. After a two day walk, he forest thined, and a town could be seen ahead.
In the town they stopped, and replenished their supplies. Greg read the paper, looking over recent events. "Hunter raid in the town just to the east of here. Another in a neighboring town. We'd better keep a close eye out for them."
They started out again, headed east. Greg storngly objected to heading into such active areas, but the rest insisted, they needed some real world experiance with the hunters, and the sooner the better.
So, east it was, with a mage protesting the descision. When it was nearly dark, they camped in a close grove of trees, and Greg cast a spell to make them harder to see. The night was uneventfull, except for Vance, who had a similar dream again. When Vance startled awake, he looked around, his heart raced, but no eyes were seen in the trees.
They passed through the town where the raid occured, the air itself almost smelled lifeless. They came across several bodies, they lay lifeless on the ground, decaying slowly. Vance looked with horror, while Lea turned her face to avoid the sight. Ginger made a gesture at the corpse, but still was unsure what she was doing with magic, and got nothing out of her attempt to form a spell, other than seeing the energy fields around the corpse. The energy was odd, as if it was slowly dripping out of the corpse before turning to wisps of fog. Wusaak simply stared, he himself wasn't sure of his thoughts.
"This is what will happen to use if we're not carefull." Greg cautioned, hurring them through town.
Not a single person had been left alive in the town, no animals could be seen, and it was quiet all around, too quiet.
They camped that night, as far from town as they could walk before dark. They hid again in a small group of trees, within Greg's hiding spell.
The next morning was cold, they huddled together around their small fire, trying to get some warmth before they headed out into the day. As they walked down the road, the trees grew thicker, and the light less, it seemed like twilight at noon. The forest was quiet, as the town had been, and there was something else, a pricking at the back of their necks that intensified once Lea mentioned the feeling.
(Updated 11-26-2003)
Although the feeling of being watched followed them for the day, and into the evening, nothing happened. As night started falling, they had convinced themselves that they were just paranoid. They found a small cave in the nearby hills, and setup camp there. The evening was quiet, and small animal noises could be heard in the distance. When they woke in the morning, the feeling of being watched was gone.
It was noon before the feeling of being watched returned, they heard no unusual noises, and the animals around them made noises regularly. They walked on, passing a small gas station in the woods, where they restocked. As the sun began to set, around 6 o'clock, they sat down for a short rest.
Up ahead, crossing the road they spotted a shadowed figure, a hunter.
"Over there." Greg motioned.
"Just one, or are there more?" Wusaak asked.
"Looks like just one, scout perhaps."
"Then, let's get him before he tells his friends where he is."
Wusaak, Greg and Lea crept down the road, they tracked the shadow into the woods.
Ginger looked over at Vance, "Those things scare me." she admitted, shuddering.
"We'll find a way to stop them." Vance said hopefully.
"I hope so." she sighed.
Up ahead on the road, not as far away as the previous one, another shadow crossed the road.
"There's another one." Vance pointed.
"It could be following the others." Ginger suggested, "Let's make sure it doesn't sneak up on them."
Vance nodded, and together they jogged down the road, and followed the shadow into the forest. Through the trees it moved, like a cat, it's solid smoked glass form moving all to humanly. Vance pulled his gun, and turned the safety off. The shadow was making enough noise of it's own trampling through the woods, that it didn't seem to notice the two people following behind it. It walked through a clump of leaft brush, and disappeared. Vance pushed past the brush, and stumbled, in front of him was a steep slope, he grabbed a tree to keep from falling over. Ginger almost fell over as well, but he grabbed her.
"Where is it?" she whispered looking around. In the distance they heard a shot, he hoped it was Greg's group.
Vance stared into the trees, his senses trying to find any source of movement. The brush they had just walked through moved, a shadowed hand reached out for Ginger. Bang! Vance shot, lightning pulsed in the arm, and a shadowy body dropped to the ground, as the recoil pushed Vance down the slope.
Vance rolled down the hill, he grabbed at the grass, slowing his descent as it ripped from the ground. He caught a tree, and spun around it, his hand ached with fire as it was torn on the rough bark.
"You ok?" Ginger called down the slope.
Vance brushed himself off, and looked at his bleeding hand. "Nothing bad. Hand's bleeding a little bit, but it'll be fine." The slope was too high for him to climb back up, but it appeared less steep up ahead. "I'll meet you back at the road. Keep your gun out." he cautioned.
"Ok, hurry." Ginger said.
He continued on at the bottom of the slope, and as he moved, he realized it was a ravine of sorts. He could hear Ginger at the top of the hill, but couldn't see her anymore. His blood ran cold as he stepped out into a small clearing. He held his gun with a stiff arm, and turned around. Just like his dream, he felt like he was being watched.
He caught movement from the corner of his eye, and spun. A shadowed figure stood there silently.
"What do you want?" he asked, aiming the gun carefully.
Before the shadow could answer, three more stepped out from the trees. Vance turned, trying to keep them all in sight, the first shadow looked around, and lept on one of the others, pulling him to the ground. "Run." he commanded.
Vance ran, shadows crunching the ground behind him, then he stopped, turned and fired. A shadow dropped to the ground. The other one closed in, and Vance fired again. It dropped to the ground as well. He turned back to the clearing, the two shadows were wrestling on the ground. "I told you to run." the shadow on the bottom called out.
Vance leveled the gun, and shot the shadow on the top, lightning skittered across it's form, and it fell, dead weight. The one on the bottom pushed it off, and stood. Vance aimed the gun again.
The shadow bared it's neck, "Shoot if you wish, my species deserves death for what they've done."
"What about you, do you deserve death." Vance growled.
"Probably. Maybe I could have stopped it in the begining, when I realized what was happening." the unearthly voice said saddly. "It was so big to begin with, that I thought it hopeless, I just watched. Failure to stop this kind of thing is a crime almost as bad as doing such a thing."
"It's hard sometimes to act, you hesitate, and sometimes it's too late, when you realize what you should have done." Vance lowered the gun.
The shadow lowered it's head, tears of water flowed from the shiny glass eyes. When Vance looked closely, he could see saddness in the shadow face. He watched the shape carefully, making sure it wasn't going to attack him. It's emotions looked genuine, but he wasn't going to chance it. As he watched the shadow sit down on the ground, he heard noise beside him, he turned as the gun was knocked out of his hand. One of the hunter's he'd shot wasn't dead, it growled, and grabbed his arm.
It felt like every piece of his mind, of his body, maybe even his soul was being sucked out through the touch, the world started to grey out, and he screamed. Inside him anger, hatred, despiration, animal survival roared; he felt a burst of warmth run through him. The hunter howled, a howl of pain and surprise. The word sprang back into life, brighter and more solid than before. Vance ripped the hand off of his arm, and kicked the shadow to the ground, it lay still on the ground, smoking.
"You are who I thought you were!" the other shadow said kneeling to the ground. Vance turned, his adrenaline pumped, he glared.
"What do you mean?"
"Their sacrafice to keep your world locked away, it was worth it." the shadow smiled.
"Explain." Vance commanded.
"Did you find the message from the four mages that summoned you?"
"Yes, hidden in a website."
"Sandi, Paul, Charar, and I wrote that. Sandy and Paul sacrificed themselves to keep the hunters from your world."
"You cast the spell that brough us here?"
"No, Paul and Sandi cast that spell. Charar and I cast another spell on the four of you. Paul and Sandi bound the elemental energies to your fate. Charar and I bound it to your body, to your mind. And, as you can see we gave you our abilities to drain energy."
"How?"
"I thought it would be obvious. Our blood circulates in your veins, our cells intermingle with yours."
"We're not human?"
"You are, but there's a little bit of Silour in you as well. That's my species."
"What's your name?" Vance asked, his mind reeling with the revalation.
"Reila." the shadow bowed, "The Silour who planned this invasion of your world is my son. I should have stopped him, when he still thought of me as his mother."
"Your son?" Vance stared.
"Yes, he was the one who first found a path to this world. He killed the mage who opened the overlay, and as the invasions grew, so did his power and the numbers of his forces. Those who tried to stop him were killed."
"So, we're here to stop him."
"The universe already had you in mind for the job, we simply brought you together, and gave you an advantage."
Vance turned as he heard motion in the trees behind him. Ginger burst through the trees, gun raised, pointed directly at Relia.
"No Wait!" Vance jumped between them.
Ginger looked confused, then relieved. "You're alive!" she jumped and hugged Vance.
"Because of her." he said. "Her name is Reila, she says she's one of the four mages that brought us here."
Ginger said cautiously, "Don't trust her."
"Too late, I think she's for real."
"Who's for real?" Greg said, appearing from the other trees along with Lea and Wusaak. He noticed the shadow and raised his gun cautiously.
"Reila, she tried to stop the hunters from attacking me."
Greg raised his hand, and closed his eyes, he gestured. "Let me look into your mind, Reila." he asked.
Reila kneeled down on the ground, she closed her eyes, and whispered, "You may look." and gestured.
For almost five minutes, Reila and Greg sat there with their eyes closed. Ginger watched as brilliant lines of energy wove Greg's mind to Reila's mind, the energy pulsed quickly. Greg finally moved, and shook his head. He folded his hands, and put his face in between them, he sighed, and lifted his head. In his eyes, were tears.
"She's being truthfull." he said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "She let me see her whole life, I've never met someone who let me that deeply into their mind."
Reila frowned, "What my son does is wrong, many of my people know this, but our council does nothing. Our people are very much like yours, they are foolish, and easily led, they can become mindless savages at times. Yet, we care, and love our children, we live in a society where we care for each other. Yet, we never see the people we hunt and kill as ourselves. It's easier to push that thought to the back of our mind, and simply kill them like animals." She wept into her hands.
Vance put his hand on her back, re-assuring her. "We really are alike, it seems. Sometimes a small group of us can acomplish what a larger group couldn't." She looked up at him and smiled, tears still in her eyes. "You know, you could have killed me, if you'd wanted to."
"I don't want to." Vance smiled.
Greg held out his hand to Reila, "Would you do us the distinct honor of joining us on our quest?"
"I will. I've, been waiting eighteen years for it to begin." She took his hand.
They found the road in the forrest, and continued along. Vance realized that he no longer felt watched from afar. As he was walking, he told them what Reila had told him, that he and the three others were not completely human. He explained how they could drain energy from the shadows, and turn it against them. Greg stared in awe, he gestured at them for miles, looking, and mesuring, while the four of them discussed amongst themselves how they felt.
"We're half shadow, or, Silour. We were raised human, yet we were guided, or controled. We're this as well now, who are we?" Lea asked.
Wusaak smiled, "We're truely unique within this world, or any other. There's not even enough Silour in us to change our appearance, we look and feel human. Yet, Vance had the strength to kill the Silour who tried to feed on him. I think the little bit of them in us, just showed our human bodies how to drain their energy, the strength to overwelm them comes from our human sides."
"How could someone do this to us, any child, how can they pick four people, and change them irreversably, and send them on a mission that could mean certain death." Lea asked.
From behind them, from Reila said quietly, "In the face of millions of deaths, with no choice, you grasp at the impossible, risk hatred. The four of us discovered our common goal. Two Silour, and two humans, we united our dreams, two of us gave their lives for that dream. Almost all people never know why they're here, who they really are. You are welcome to hate me, us. We didn't do what we did to make friends, and good feelings. We picked 4 children who had great potential, we gave them part of ourself, and guided them to each other. We guided you as far as we could, gave you an advantage let you know what we did, and left the choice up to you. You can walk away, or continue on, it's up to you."
"No different than what any parents do." Ginger added, "It's a surprise to me, a little disconcerting to know what we are. But, we still are ourselves, as we've always been, this has always been apart of us, we're just discovering it now."
"This was done to us." Lea countred.
"Being born was done to us, our parents combined themselves into us to begin with. What difference does it make if one more parent gave a little of themselves. What parent wouldn't hope that their kid would save the world. What parent wouldn't give their child whatever advantage they could. What parent wouldn't guide their child to good people, and hope they make a difference."
Lea said nothing, but smiled gently, and nodded. She put her arms around Reila, and hugged her tight.
After a moment, she said, with her head resting against the shadowy clear head of Reila, "Thank you. Thank you for giving us part of yourself, for alerting us to danger, and giving us a chance."
Wusaak smiled, "It appears I still have one mom left." he smiled, and turned his head so that the others wouldn't see the tears in his eyes.
They camped early that night, they started a fire, around which the six of them sat down, and discussed their place in the world. Were they still being guided by some more powerfull force, by God, or were they truly on their own, free to live or die by their own choices. Either way, they decided, they would need to do their best, to use everythng they knew to end this war.
The Silour were more human than Vance had expected, they could eat the same food, and felt the same feelings. They slept, and breathed like humans. They were a lot different than humans as well, the food they ate passed through them, it was visable inside them, as it dissolved, and spread throughout their bodies. Their skin was soft and dry, it felt like rubber stretched over a thick jell. Reila explained that on their world, the Silour had evolved from single cellular organisms, instead of joining with other cells, they developed thicker cell walls, and special internal structures to shape and help move them. Many creatures on their world were multicellular, but the top of the foodchain was the Selour. In essence the had become multi-psudo celled organisms, the internals of their one cell folded, and connected into hundreds of thousands of tiny pockets. The transparency of their skin aided them in hiding, and hunting, keeping them out of sight and concealed.
It was a quiet calm night, and they fell asleep quicly, but Wusaak twitched in his sleep, as he dreampt frightening disjointed images of turning into Selour.
In the morning, Reila was up first, she lay in the sunshine, absorbing the heat of first light into her body. She said good morning to Wusaak as he awoke, and waited to be on the way again. It wasn't long until they set out again.
It was several days more until they encountered the next hunter As they continued walking along the road they talked continuously, eventually anger faded into curiosity, and curiosity into understandine. Eventually their friendship turned into belonging, and into a sense of family. "So, " Wusaak said, "My new family keeps getting bigger, now I have a mom, and an, um," he paused, trying to fit Greg into the view, "Uncle, a brother, and two sisters. And this little family is going to save the day."
They finally came upon a large town, it was fortified like Sun ridge had been, there were few people out and walking about. This time, only Greg and Wusaak went into town, the rest remained behind with Reila, they came back with packs loaded, and distributed the supplies amongst themselves. They camped outside town behind a ridge of rock. At midnight they were awakened by screaming.
They left their packs behind and ran towards the town, hundreds of hunters were running through the street feeding on anyone who came their way. Vance ran into the group of hunters yelling, he grabed one by the chest, digging his fingers into the rubbery flesh. It thrashed and yelled, it grabbed Vance's head, it screamed again, and fell limp, it's skin blistering and smoking. Vance pushed it to the ground, and grabbed the next one.
Ginger, looking at the world with a Mage's eyes, watched the energy eb and flow withing the Silour hunter, it pulled at Vance's energy, but Vance was stronger, the energy flowed into Vance, then a backwash of power shattered the internal structures as it fell limp.
Ginger stepped quietly into the crowd, a hand grabbed her from behind, terror filled her as she felt her energy being syphoned away, then as Vance had discribed there was a surge, she could see the energy being absorbed into her, she held, it, didn't let it back out, she held it inside her. The Silour twitched, and fell to the ground lifeless, all it's energy gone.
The next hunter ran at her with a large iron bar, she raised her hand and gestured at it, using her limited knowledge to focus the stolen energy into a form. The energy surged out of her body, and the Silour in front of her simply dissolved into wet nothingness.
Vance and Lea entered the battle, they screamed the first time a Silour attacked them, but like Vance and Ginger, they reversed the situation. Wusaak grabbed a Silour, and a burst of energy flowed back into it, it fell to the ground with a thunk, it's body hard as a stone. Slowly it melted like ice into a wet pile. Lea grabed a Silour and yelled at it, the force of it's energy ripping back through it turned it into a mist, that floated away on the breeze. Ginger smiled, realizing how the element that was bound to them shapped their attack against the hunters. She looked with her mages vision at the way the energy flowed into and then back out as a burst from her friends.
Greg watched, shooting the Hunters that got too near to them. Reila ran through the hoard of Hunters, she shot them with one of the special guns, and when that failed, she snuk up and drained a number of Silour herself. With the remaining population of the town watching and cheering, the group of five killed the last Silour. The town was surprised to see a hunter killing it's own kind, they eyed Reila with suspision and caution, but while she stood with the heroes of the day, they made no move to harm her.
Althought the town wanted the group to stay forever, they only stayed for a day, they wanted to protect the planet, not just a town, they wouldn't be able to do that from this town.
"How do the hunters get here?" Vance asked Reila.
"They create an overlay like your mages do, they use it to enter this world."
"We can use the same thing to enter your world then, can't we?" Vance smiled.
"Yes, you could, they have worse weapons over there. They may soon have them here. After Diral, my son, finds out about this loss."
"Then we should move quickly, we might still have surprise on our side." Vance suggested.
Well, didn't make it to 50,000 words by the 30th. No surprise, wasn't really expecting to with the other projects that took precidence. So, now, join me as I reach 50,000 words under no deadline. Didn't win NaNoWriMo this year, but I plan on winning "Get the darn thing done" GTDTD, which is my very own, one-person event. It's so exciting!
The observant of you will notice that the story now has a working title.
"You'll have to kill him to stop this, you know." Reila said, tears coming to her eyes.
"Your son?" Vance asked.
"Yes." she bowed her head, tears in her eyes.
"I suppose it's a possibility, but I hadn't even though that far ahead." Vance admitted.
"I have." she sighed, "For years I've thought it over. Certainly you have people in your world like him, bent on taking over no matter what the cost in life."
"We have our share, unfortunately."
"Do you think their mothers ever thought the world would be better they were dead?"
"I don't know. I imagine if their mothers were alive still to watch the distruction they caused, they would think the same thing."
"I don't know what I did wrong raising him. I have 3 children total, one girl, and another boy. He's the only one who's committed to genocide. My daughter Vali is a teacher, she wouldn't hurt anyone. My other sun Surla sells people places to live, the smile on his face, he really enjoys helping people. Then there's Diral, been trouble since he was born, kicked out of school many times, if he hadn't left the guards when he did, he would have been kicked out. He's been locked away by the guards several times. Finally he got a nice job in an office. Then out of the blue he's discovered a new source of energy, he started a business of his own which kept growing. He didn't admit to me where the energy was coming from at first, but I found out. Millions were already dead. How could he just open up a doorway to another world, and slaughter everyone who lived there."
"I don't know." Vance blinked his eyes. "If it weren't for the differences in appearance, I would say your people act just like ours."
"In the years I've lived here, I've noticed the same." Reila said through her tears, "Once either of our races gets it into their minds to kill, we go all out."
"It's likely a trait we pick up working our way to the top of the evolutionary ladder. We wouldn't make it there if we wern't agressive. Yet, we wouldn't form a society if we didn't have compassion. It's probably that mix, that balance, that brings a species to the top. Just like any mix, there are bound to be lumps. Those will be more agressive, or more compasionate than others, the dictators, and the saints."
"Diral defeinately got the agressive portion of the mix then." she sighed, "I don't think he has any compassion for anyone. When I last saw him, when he told I would be better off dead than in his sight again. There was no Riel left in his eyes, there was nothing I recognized. It was as if something dead had killed him, and moved into his body. I ran from him, from my own child."
Ginger put her arms around Reila, and hugged her tight, Reila wrapped her arms back around Ginger, and cried on her shoulder.
"We'll help stop this from going any further." Ginger pulled Riela to her.
"I hope so. Millions of lives it cost this world, because I let my son do this."
"There's nothing you could have done." Lea added, "There's always evil, no matter what we do to prevent it, always extremes. It's evolutions way of keeping it's options open."
"And there will always be someone there to stop it." Wusaak smiled. "Even if they're four kids, a Mage and a Silour." He put his hand on his knife.
"So, how soon can we get there?" Vance asked.
"Charar is waiting. He's the other Silour who helped give you your abilities, who's being also floats in your blood."
"Waiting? For how long?" Vance looked.
"Since Ginger's birthday. He's in my world, for 18 years he's been waiting for that day to come. For me to find you, and figure out what we're going to do."
"We're going to stop a very one sided war." Vance said determinedly.
Reila closed her eyes, she placed her four fingered hands together, and knelt on the ground. After nearly fifteen minutes of her concerntrating she began to glow, the glow spread, and the landscape within a hundreed feet of them began to slowly melt, to change. After nearly an hour, the landscape stopped glowing. Reila fell forward, catching herself as she hit the ground.
"You ok?" Greg asked her.
"Took a lot of energy, a lot of energy. The transition will happen soon. The overlay will distruct itself once you leave the other side. Charar will take our place here, he will form the other end of the overlay, when you need to return. She pushed herself over onto her side, blood, or her equivilent, was leaking out of her skin."
Vance took her hand, "Do you need energy to heal yourself?"
"No. I can get you there, but I cannot kill my own son, even if it's the best option. You five will need to go alone. Charar will have opened this in a safe place, with supplies for you, there may be more waiting to help you on the other side." She stumbled to her feet, and walked outside the changed landscape, where she fell once again. "Charar will be here soon. If I live that long he will help me, if I don't, he will bury me. Do what must be done." She lay on the ground, breathing heavily.
Vance started to walk to her as the air around them flickered like heat rising from a candle. For one moment they saw both worlds, stood there with Charar who bowed and walked to Reila. They saw two suns, and two skies, one blue, and familliar, the other bright twilight purple. The flickering stopped, and Charar and Reila vanished.