Sky on Fire

14 ALEX

WE SET OUT AGAIN.

Max had to be carried. He had blisters on his feet that had burst. Niko had given him his extra socks, but apparently, Max’s feet still hurt too much for him to walk.

I was sick of all the crying and whining.

I had blisters, too. Mine had burst, too. Every step was like little knives stabbing in my heels and I was hot in all the stupid layers. It occurred to me that I could just take them off. But then the little kids would whine even worse that it wasn’t fair that I didn’t have to wear layers, etc.

I had already paid the consequences of my blood type. I would never be able to have kids and I guess I would never be able to have sex. Wasn’t that enough?

I was in a bad mood.

We trudged along.

Maybe a mile an hour? Maybe?

I was in a very bad mood.

It was less dark than usual and I realized maybe it was midday. It was almost as light as a night with a full moon. Or maybe it was that our eyes had adjusted to the light. But I could actually see, sort of. Everything was greenish, but I could see.

And then we stopped.

Niko crouched down, letting Max slide off his back.

He motioned for us all to get down, and as Sahalia and Ulysses crouched down, I saw why we were stopping.

Up on the road, under one of the floodlights, there was a soldier.

He was wearing lots of gear, including a machine gun.

Some equipment hung off his belt – 2 bright-orange air masks and some vial-shaped things in a holster. Flares, maybe?

Niko was whispering to us to stay put, but Sahalia lurched to her feet and started running toward him.

‘Help us!’ Sahalia cried. ‘Hey, mister, please help us! Our friend is on a bus!’

‘Wait!’ Niko hissed, but Ulysses and Max started running toward him, too. ‘Wait!’

The soldier turned and at first I thought he was smiling at us. He took off a hat he was wearing and threw it aside, his arms open wide.

Then he brought up his gun and I was running then, too.

He fired it at Sahalia!

It just went CLICKA, CLICKA, CLICKA.

And then he roared.

The soldier was O. Definitely O.

Sahalia skidded to a stop. She tried to back up but Ulysses crashed into her and then they were all scrambling backward, away from the soldier. He swung his gun free from his shoulder and started coming at Sahalia with it like it was an ax.

He said something. It came out a dry grunt.

He lifted up his gun and brought it down again.

Said the word again.

Niko grabbed Sahalia and hauled her back. Josie grabbed Max, and Ulysses and I ran.

I ran by Batiste, who was frozen in horror, and grabbed his arm and shouted, ‘Run!’

The O soldier was right on us.

He kept grunting his word. And sometimes he would laugh this horrible, low guffaw that sounded like a cry of pain, but was his laugh all the same.

And then I understood what the word was.

He was saying, ‘Kids.’

All I had in my mind was to get away. I’m embarrassed I didn’t take more care of the younger kids, but all I did was run.

So, my mind wasn’t working in a logical way but my theory, looking back, is that the Os who had been out the whole time since the compound leak were worn-out. All that rage had drained them.

The O soldier was still vicious and strong and deranged, but he looked thin and thirsty. The bloodlust must make them stupid, is my idea. Too angry to eat or drink properly.

The O soldier stumbled on the underbrush as he chased us.

His slowness was good for us because we started to get some distance on him.

Tall, thin shapes rose up through the dark air in front of us and I realized it was an aspen grove. The skinny trunks stood white and it was very still between them.

Now we dodged away from him like rabbits, going in different directions, and he got very frustrated.

Josie grabbed me and pulled me with her behind a stand of three trees.

The little kids headed for Niko, who started boosting Ulysses up into the thin branches of one of the trees.

Good idea, I thought.

The O soldier headed toward Max.

Sahalia, who was behind a different tree, shouted, ‘Over here, dummy!’ and waved. The soldier lurched toward her.

‘Max!’ Niko hissed, calling him. Niko was now helping Batiste into another tree.

Max moved toward Niko, but his boot got stuck in a root, I think, and the boot pulled halfway off. Max screamed and I realized his blisters were worse than I’d thought. I could see blood on his socks and the O soldier headed back toward him. Max couldn’t get his foot free.

‘Here!’ Josie yelled, waving. ‘You stupid jerk!’

She threw a stick at him but the soldier didn’t turn.

‘A KID, A KID, A KID!’ the soldier repeated, his voice deranged and happy and disgusting.

He was descending on Max’s cowering form. Max screamed.

And then Josie stepped in front of me, and as she moved toward the soldier, she took off her mask.

Just pulled it off and threw it to the side, like it was nothing.

As she ran, she breathed in big, loud breaths.

She launched into the air and landed on the soldier’s back.

The sound she made as she flew at him was horrible.

It was loud and jagged and throaty. It was also joyful. Liberated. Pure rage: ‘WRAAAAAAAAAAUGH!’

It seemed like something she’d wanted to say for a long time.

Josie landed on his back and I think she sunk her teeth into the back of his neck. He made a motion to swipe her off and the motion toppled him to the side.

Max finally pushed back, away from them, scooting back through the dead leaves and dirt.

The soldier threw Josie off him. She rolled back in the leaves and hit her head on a tree.

‘You gonna kill us?’ she growled as she rose, her voice thick with hatred. ‘A bunch of kids?’

They circled each other. Meanwhile, Niko dug in his backpack for the gun. Sahalia had come around the back of my stand of trees. She grabbed me to her. She clung to me, hugging me.

Josie launched forward through the air. Almost like flying. She tackled the soldier. He took a swing at her but missed.

‘I can’t get a shot. I can’t get a shot!’ Niko shouted, trying to aim the gun at the O soldier. His hands were shaking.

Then Josie was on top of him, sitting with her legs over his shoulders. She started punching the soldier on either side of his head in alternation. She was just whaling on him.

‘Big guy?’

He was kicking, then more weakly.

‘You kill kids?’

She lifted his head and banged it down. On a rock, I think, because there was an awful sound.

‘You’re tough?’

Again she banged down his head. Again the sick thud.

Again.

Josie grabbed the soldier by the hair and screamed in his bloody face.

‘You kill kids, huh?’

Only he was already dead. His legs weren’t moving and his face was splattered with darkness. His head, actually, seemed to not be the right shape any more.

‘You gonna kill us?’ Josie asked him again.

And another thud.

‘He’s dead,’ Niko said.

She banged his head again.

‘Josie, he’s dead!’ Niko shouted.

He dropped the gun and lurched forward toward her.

‘No!’ she shrieked, backing up. ‘Get back!’

‘It’s okay, JoJo. You’re going to be okay.’ Niko tried to reassure her. He had his hands up, as if to show her he meant no harm.

Niko scrambled to the dead soldier’s body. He pushed him over, scrambling to grab one of the high-tech air masks on his belt.

‘Put a mask on!’ Niko pleaded through his own. ‘Let me get a mask for you! You’ll feel better.’

Sahalia darted forward to try to help Niko get the mask.

‘No,’ Josie sobbed, backing up.

Batiste stepped forward.

‘Josie, you saved us. It’s over now.’

‘Aaaaargh!’ Josie cried. She wiped her bloody hands over her face.

Then she turned and ran.

‘Josie!’ Niko cried. ‘Don’t go!’

‘Josie!’ we all screamed.

But she ran away.

I think she might have killed us if she’d stayed.

Niko started sobbing.

There is no other word for it.

He just crumpled down over the legs of the dead soldier and sobbed.

I didn’t know what to do. I sat down.

Sahalia went over and kind of rubbed Niko’s back.

Batiste kept screaming for Josie.

Max was whimpering. He was in pain.

Ulysses climbed down from the tree and went and got Max’s boot from where it had got stuck under the root, and for a long while, that’s all the movement there was.

Just fat Ulysses, trying to help his friend get his boot on.

Then, Niko sat up.

He very methodically stripped the gun belt off the soldier’s corpse. He took the high-tech air orange mask #1 from the belt, then took his own mask off and quickly switched, putting the better one on.

We could now hear his breathing. He was still having those leftover sobs. The sporadic ones. We could hear because the high-tech mask had some kind of a speaker built in.

Niko took the other mask over to Max.

He moved slowly, but purposefully, like someone chronically depressed or very, very tired.

‘Hold your breath,’ he told Max. I couldn’t get over how well I could hear his voice. Like, better than if he didn’t have a mask on at all.

He ripped Max’s mask off and put the high-tech orange mask #2 in its place.

We could hear Max draw in a big breath. It sounded wet in there.

Max sputtered, and then he said, ‘I’m sorry, Niko.’

I thought to myself that we all were.

And Niko said, ‘I know.’

Niko stripped the soldier bare. He left him in his underwear but even took his socks.

The socks he put on Max, then he put the soldier’s boots on Max, then he put the soldier’s coat on Max.

To their credit, neither Batiste nor Ulysses said a word about fair.

Niko put the soldier’s pants on over his own layers. I guess he thought they would be too long for Max.

The vials were flares and I got to wear the belt.

‘I’m hungry,’ Max said, his voice sounding small somehow. ‘Is there any food?’

‘We have to get somewhere safe,’ Niko said. ‘Then we’ll eat and drink.’

‘Like where?’ moaned Sahalia.

‘Another car?’ Niko said.

There was something so bleak about his voice, even Sahalia knew not to press him further.

He walked and we followed.

Josie was following us.

I was sure of it.

There were sounds, coming from behind us. Snaps in the brush. Twigs breaking.

I was pretty sure.

Then I saw Niko perk up, after he heard the sounds, too.

‘Niko, did you notice that Josie, even when in that enraged O-monster state, was able to form full sentences?’ I asked him quietly.

‘I didn’t notice, but yes. I think you’re right.’

‘Dean couldn’t speak that way when he attacked me,’ I continued. ‘Maybe Josie’s—’

Niko held up his hand to shush me. And he whispered, ‘Let’s not talk about her. We might scare her away.’

Then his pace picked up some.

What Niko did next was a total surprise to me.

He told us a story.

‘You know, we’re probably not going to have to walk much farther.’

‘Why not?’ said Max in a thick voice.

‘Mrs Wooly.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Sahalia.

‘She’s out looking for us, of course.’

Sahalia snorted.

‘Really?’ Batiste asked.

‘Of course,’ Niko said. ‘She’s got a new bus, I bet. Or maybe a minivan. She’s out driving around looking for us.’

‘What’s in the bus? Ulysses wants to know,’ Max said.

‘Well, it’s a really nice bus. So of course, it has a kitchen stocked with food and drinks.’

‘What kind of food and drinks?’ Batiste asked.

‘Um…’ Niko thought for a moment. I had the sense his imagination couldn’t quite keep up with his own narrative.

‘There’s a tray of sandwiches,’ I joined in. ‘With plastic wrap over it. Like from a deli. And there’s potato salad and macaroni salad and pickles. To drink there’s pop, but also fresh-squeezed orange juice.’

‘You know what’s cool about the bus?’ Sahalia added.

I thought she’d say ‘nothing.’

But instead she said, ‘It’s got beds in it. I’m serious. These white beds with clean sheets and fluffy duvets.’

‘What are duvets?’ Max asked.

‘They’re these comforters stuffed with feathers and they’re incredibly soft and warm. Like sleeping under a cloud.’

‘Well, where’s she going to take us?’ Max asked.

‘I’ll tell you where…’ Niko said.

We walked for a moment as Niko thought.

‘To Alaska,’ he said. ‘We’re just going to drive straight there.’

It was good, to talk about something real.

I know that sounds stupid because, of course, what we were talking about was totally fantasy.

But one month ago, what would have been more far-fetched: a ride in a van stocked with sandwiches and beds, or a series of environmental catastrophes that would leave us in a dark world filled with corpses and monsters?

We talked about Mrs Wooly for a good long while.

No one bothered us or attacked us.

And every once in a while I caught the sound of someone trailing us.

And I was happy, because I knew it was Josie.

And Niko did, too.