Burn Page 6

  “Her name is Talisa,” Liam answered, “she’s...new in town.”

  “From where?”

  Liam hesitated. “I don’t know. Not from here.”

  Ellie watched Talisa. Talisa looked back at her unabashedly, and Ellie had the distinct feeling of being disected. She blinked uncomfortably and looked away. Noah’s eyes were visibly watering now. The pain had set in as his adrenaline faded. Ellie ripped off the packaging for an antiseptic wipe and began dabbing lightly along the wound. He hissed and clenched his fists. The veins popped in his forearms.

  “How is he doing?” Liam called over his shoulder.

  “Second degree,” she answered, trying to soften her touch against his skin. “You’re lucky it wasn't worse. I saw that inferno back there.”

  Noah sucked in air through gritted teeth, his chest rising and falling with each breath. She squeezed a small amount of burn cream on her finger, then dabbed gently on his skin. His throat bobbed as he swallowed. She was suddenly aware of how close they were, could feel the heat from his body against her skin. She was used to being in close proximity to others, but something about him made her flush.

  “Noah,” Liam called back. “Tell Talisa about the Grid.”

  Noah couldn’t think of a worse thing to talk about. “What about it?”

  “Talisa doesn’t know what it is.”

  “What do you mean she doesn’t know what it is?”

  “Just do it. It will distract you.”

  Noah’s mind raced. Ellie’s fingers were very distracting. “The Grid was created over a hundred years ago by Utopian Industries,” he recited, picturing the pamphlet all employees were given at their orientation. “Its name is meant to be ironic, it actually liberated all powered devices from the constraints of a traditional grid network, harnessed power directly from the atmosphere and eliminated the need for outlets, power lines, power plants, you name it. It changed the way we did everything. Digital integration with the environment, projections, seamless transportation, responsive design for infrastructure-”

  “State-of-the-art health monitoring,” Ellie put in, her fingers moving delicately over his skin. “I studied archaic medicine practices from the twenty-first century. Did you know that wellness checks were only done by appointment, and people had to come to a physical location to get their examination? Seems so inefficient.”

  “That does seem inefficient,” Noah agreed.

  “The Grid was the best thing for scientific advancement. Cancer rates dropped within ten years of the first Grid city.”

  He tried to nod, but she held his head in place. “It was a game changer. The food industry, agriculture, public services, transportation, politics- how much does Talisa need to know?”

  “This Grid,” Talisa said carefully. “What made it fall?”

  “No one really knows,” Liam said carefully. “There was an update right before the crash-”

  “The update was successful,” Noah interrupted.

  “It was a virus,” Ellie offered. “Someone hacked into the system, took it down.”

  “But why?” Talisa asked.

  Ellie shrugged. “Warfare? What better way to disable a country than to cut its power supply?”

  “Who?”

  “Russians? China? Who knows. I imagine any country that didn’t join the Utopian Alliance had plenty of reasons to hate us.”

  “Robots,” Liam joked.

  “Fire gods,” Noah offered, and the car went silent again.

  “Let the cream sit for a bit, then I’ll bandage it up,” Ellie cleared her throat. “It will need to be checked periodically for infections, but I’ll leave some supplies with you before you drop me off.” She turned to Liam. “Where are you stopping?”

  “Vail,” Liam responded.

  Ellie’s fingers slipped and she nearly dropped her bag. “I’m going to California.”

  “That’s in the opposite direction.”

  Noah said “in that trash heap?”

  She glared at him. “It’s not a trash heap, that Charger is a classic.”

  “It’s probably been rotting for years. You can’t depend on that thing to get you anywhere safely.”

  “That’s for me to decide,” Ellie said irritably. “Turn around.”

  “We can’t go back,” Noah said quickly, his voice undeniably full of fear.

  “Okay, what is going on?” Her voice was loud in the small compartment of the car. “What happened? Why are you going to Vail?”

  “Yeah, why are we going to Vail?” Noah echoed.

  “East,” Talisa said softly.

  “But why?”

  “She’s looking for something,” Liam offered.

  “What do you mean?” Noah joined in. “Looking for what?”

  Talisa sat in silence. Ellie and Noah exchanged looks.

  Ellie said, “I want no part of this.”

  “Me neither,” Noah added. “On second thought, I think I’ll just get out when Ellie gets out-”

  “Please stop!” Liam said firmly. “It’s late and it’s raining. That thing followed her from the Circle K to our house. It’s not safe back there.”

  “And you think we’ll be safe in Vail? You think that thing won’t travel twenty-five miles to fucking kill us?” Noah shouted back. Ellie was impressed.

  “I don’t know,” Liam said, defeated. “Maybe he will.”

  * * *

  No one spoke during the remaining hour it took to reach Vail.

  By the time the headlamps illuminated the exit signs, Noah’s adrenaline was long gone and he just hurt. He felt Ellie’s gaze on him as he tried to hide the pain, but then she reached out and touched him lightly on the hand. When he opened his fingers, she placed two tylenol tablets in his palm. He swallowed them gratefully.

  Vail was formerly a small community of ten-thousand people. Unlike larger Arizona cities, Vail had retained most of its cowboy heritage. Riding trails snaked through clusters of white stucco houses. Those who had lived before the Fall commuted to Tucson for work, or worked on the nearby ranches. Now, all that was gone. The once peaceful town was a shell of crumbling buildings and deteriorating roads. Liam drove slowly through the streets, searching for a place to park for the night. Most of the commercial buildings were located near the interstate, and they slowly made their way to a vacant grocery store. The parking lot was riddled with overgrown weeds that had pushed up through cracks in the asphalt. The rain had stopped again, but the clouds continued to hang low in the sky.

  Liam parked the car outside the entrance. The front doors hung loosely from their hinges. There was nothing but darkness beyond. They sat there for a moment in silence, staring at the building.

  “You good to go in?” Liam finally asked.

  Despite his anger, Noah nodded. He understood the protocol. They both opened their car doors and slid out into the night, his body aching with every movement.

  “Wait,” Ellie’s voice carried from inside the car. “You’re both going?”

  Liam opened the trunk. Noah bent down to look at her through the open door frame, hair dangling in his eyes. “It’s okay, stay here with the girl.”

  Ellie looked apprehensively at Talisa.

  Liam walked into view with his gun in one hand and his flashlight and trash bag in the other. He bent down to address Ellie, and she eyed the gun nervously. “We’ll be right back. Stay here, please.” Noah rolled his eyes and straightened up. He took the flashlight from Liam, and together they crossed the parking lot to the front doors. With every step forward, Noah longed to take two more in the opposite direction.

  “Beams up, work fast, right?” Liam said as they stood in the entrance. Noah didn’t answer him, but he felt the spike of adrenaline as he worked through the different scenarios in his head. This wasn’t their first rodeo. They had partnered up to go inside abandoned buildings plenty of times before, but in Vail there was no telling what they’d come across. Already
the stench of something foul had reached his nose, and he prayed it was the dairy aisle. He took one last look back at the car. The overhead light was still on, and Ellie stared back at them. He swallowed hard and went inside.

  * * *

  “This is a dark place,” Talisa said.

  “It’s night time.” Ellie said irritably.

  Talisa turned toward her, and Ellie felt an undeniable chill run down her spine again. The woman was beautiful in a way that humans normally were not. Even in the dull overhead light, her skin gave off a soft glow and showed no sign of pores, her features perfectly symmetrical. Her hair was sleek and glossy. Ellie immediately felt self-conscious, years of repressed insecurities slowly floating to the surface. Since the Fall, she hadn’t had to worry about unrealistic beauty standards. Seeing Talisa gave her a painful reminder of that pressure. The woman was a walking makeup advertisement. Except she wore none.

  But there was something else off-putting about this woman. Ellie was used to reading people, assessing body language and behaviors to aid diagnosis, but Talisa’s face was blank, her eyes unreadable.

  “No,” Talisa said. “The darkness. What is near?”

  Ellie hadn’t been to Vail since she was a teenager. “I don’t know, ranches, a couple mines, Colossal Cave. Probably the one reason people traveled here before was to explore the cave. I remember when they had to close the tours because-”

  “Where?”

  Ellie peered through the window into the darkness. “Um...a few miles out, opposite side of the freeway in the mountain range.”

  Talisa followed her gaze into nothingness. “And is it deep?”

  Ellie shrugged. “I don’t know, as deep as a normal cave? Why? Are we going there?”

  Talisa’s eyes widened. “No, you cannot stay.”

  “Oh.” Ellie flinched, surprised at the sudden intensity. “Okay. I mean, I need to go back home anyway-”

  Talisa reached forward and wrapped her fingers tightly around Ellie’s wrist before Ellie could have a chance to pull away.

  “Hey-”

  “You cannot stay here,” Talisa’s grip was strong, but not with mal intent. Finally, a flash of emotion registered on Talisa’s face. A look of extreme sadness. “It will find you,” she said, “and it will kill you.”

  “The thing from the house?” Ellie said, remembering what Noah had said earlier.

  “No,” Talisa said gravely. “Darkness.”

  * * *

  “Remember that one time we found a pack of coyotes in the Safeway on Campbell and Broadway right in the middle of a kill?”

  Liam’s voice echoed through the cavernous industrial building along with the sounds of their clicking footsteps on the tile floor. The flashlight illuminated the freezer aisles in front of them, their shelves still fully stocked but not worth salvaging. Since losing power, the food had long defrosted and turned rotten. They passed the crumbling Starbucks kiosk and walked toward the non-perishable food aisles. Something small crunched beneath their feet, and Noah looked down to see tiny brown and red kernels. He kicked at it curiously, then picked up a piece and examined it closely under the light. Dog food. He looked over to see a freshly torn bag of food pulled halfway from the bottom shelf.

  “Keep an eye out for the coyotes,” Noah commented, tossing the kernel aside.

  The store was in shambles. Shelving had been pulled down, their contents emptied or left scattered across the floor. Two years had passed since the Grid failed. All produce, dairy, frozen food and meat products were hands-off. Most trips to the grocery store consisted of foraging through canned foods, dried pasta, and the snacks aisle, but even after two years, the expiration dates were running out. The smell of decayed meat and produce hung in the air. No nose-pinching could keep out the stench. They could taste it. And they couldn’t be sure it was just food they were smelling.

  They reached the canned food aisle and Noah lifted the flashlight to illuminate mostly empty shelves. They worked quickly, scooping the remaining cans of sweet corn, black beans, and chicken noodle soup. Feeling confident that they weren’t going to come across any predators in the aisles, Liam split apart from Noah to grab a couple bags of potato chips. They met again in the paper produce section, scooping paper plates and utensils into the trash bag. Liam doubled back to grab a cast iron skillet.

  “Got it all?” Noah said. “How long is this road trip expected to last?”

  If Liam noticed the irritable tone in Noah’s voice, he didn’t acknowledge it. “We should be good for now. Let’s go.”

  Noah slung the trash bag over his shoulder, and together they walked back toward the front entrance. They were just about leave when Liam doubled back. Noah waited impatiently, keeping an eye on the lone car parked in the lot. When Liam came jogging out of the darkness, he clutched a pair of moccasins in his hands.

  “Fashionable choice,” Noah commented.

  Liam rolled his eyes. “They’re for Talisa. These were the only kind left in the clothing aisle.”

  Noah gave him a meaningful look. “Thoughtful of you.”

  “Shut up, man.”

  They walked out through the front doors, grateful to be back in the open air. They didn’t notice the glowing yellow eyes watching them leave from the back of the store, nor did they hear the sound of padded feet softly scamper after them.

  Chapter Nine

  Ellie was relieved when Noah and Liam emerged from the building, trash bag in tow. She climbed out of the car, eager to get away from Talisa. “How did it go?” she called out. “Are those moccasins?”

  “It was simple enough,” Liam said. Noah dropped the trash bag and flashlight in the trunk and slammed the lid shut. The sound echoed into the night, and Ellie felt a sudden stab of fear of being heard.

  “Can we get out of here?”

  Liam ducked behind the driver’s seat and peered closely at the dashboard. He set the mocassins down on the floor. “Battery is at four percent. We’re not going anywhere until the morning, we have to recharge. Since it’s nighttime, we’ll use the battery.”

  Ellie’s heart sank.

  “Well, we’re looking for someplace else to sleep, then,” Noah said, eyeing the grocery store. “It smells rotten here.”

  “All right.” Liam crossed his arms and looked around. “Where do we want to spend the night then?”

  * * *

  The train depot sat abandoned in the middle of the desert just off the main highway, a central station surrounded by motionless railcars and broken tracks. Liam circled the parking lot before parking discreetly behind the main building and out of sight of the road.

  Noah hopped out of the car and pulled the battery pack from the trunk. Liam went to help him, but Noah shrugged him off. He carried the battery over to the driver’s side door. Liam had left the power cord hanging by the seat, and Noah plugged it in wordlessly. The telltale charging light turned on at the dash.

  “Thanks, man-”

  Noah pushed past him. He slung his laptop bag and trash bag over his shoulder and walked toward the train depot station, stepping carefully through overgrown weeds and cracked pavement. He carried the GridLight in one hand, its beam concentrated on the ground in front of him. Liam glanced back. Neither Ellie nor Talisa moved from the car. Talisa stared at him through the windshield. The charging light cast a red glow across her face, making her eyes look even darker. Ellie was a shadow behind her.

  “How long until it’s ready?” she asked.

  “Five hours to get a good charge,” Liam said. “We can push it at three hours, but if we want to sleep this might be the best time.”

  “Then I’m waking you all up,” Ellie said, “and we’re getting the hell out of here.”

  * * *

  “So what happened?” Noah demanded. “You bring this girl home, she throws us around a bit, and now we’re helping her while keeping Ellie as a hostage? What did I miss?”

  They stood in the middle of
the train depot station, a crumbling shell of concrete and stone where offices once stood. One wall had fallen away completely from the structure, leaving behind a view of the railcars beneath the black outlines of Colossal Cave Mountain Park.

  Noah had been busy. Already he had a small fire going on the edge of the structure by the time Liam caught up to him, the flames softly crackling from the dried wood he salvaged from under the rubble. Lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled a few seconds later. He would have to cook fast.

  “I know you’re angry,” Liam said, “but you know that thing would have gotten you if you stayed behind. Ellie too. There was no other choice.”

  Noah reached into the trash bag and pulled out the skillet and a can of beans. He placed the skillet over the fire to warm. “What are we supposed to do now? Go east. What does that even mean?”

  “I honestly don’t know, but it means away from danger for tonight.” Liam sat down across from him by the fire and pulled another can of beans from the trash bag along with a bag of potato chips. He ripped open the potato chips and sniffed carefully before crunching a chip between his teeth. “We’re supposed to work out a plan in the morning.” He watched Noah test the heat of the pan with his fingers, lightly touching the cast iron surface. It always took awhile, but once he got it to the right heat, he wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on the flame.

  Liam could sense Noah’s irritability and finally decided to take the bait. “What’s the alternative? You can’t go home, that place is an ashtray. We only stayed in the first place because-”

  “I stayed because I was going to bring the Grid back,” Noah interrupted, “and I’ve made progress.” He pulled a long utility flashlight out of his bag, and Liam recognized it from his line of GridGear he’d stored in the back room. Noah fumbled in the dark, fingers searching for the switch. Liam here a soft click, then a bright, blue light flooded his sight as Noah pointed the beam at him.

  Something jolted at Liam’s waist. He jumped and his hands flew down to grasp his GridGun. He always kept it secure in its holster next to his projectile gun, and for the first time in years he felt it hum to life. He pulled the weapon free and turned it over in his hands. The tell-tale blue lights had come to life, pulsing to indicate it was activated. He quickly checked the safety, then looked up at Noah with wide eyes.