Sky on Fire

16 ALEX

EVENTUALLY, WE SAW A development. Most of the houses were dark, but there were lights in a few.

‘Can’t we try one?’ Sahalia asked. ‘Maybe they have food.’

Niko didn’t answer. He started to skirt the complex.

‘Niko, please, can we rest?’ Max said, starting to cry.

‘Please?’

‘Okay, okay. Let’s try that one,’ Niko whispered to us, pointing to a unit at the side of the development. Two windows had lights on in the first floor. The light was diffuse, like it was coming through sheets of clear plastic.

‘Stay close,’ Niko said.

So we all came in close up behind him.

And that was actually a mistake. Because it looked like a stretch of lawn ahead of us. A manicured lawn with some leaves and debris scattered around. But it wasn’t.

I was right behind Niko, and suddenly he fell forward and the ground was jerked away from under my feet and I fell backward and I was falling back on Sahalia who was behind me and then we hit the bottom.

We were in a pit and above me I saw Ulysses holding on to some roots or rocks or something.

But he couldn’t hold on very long and he tumbled down and landed with us at the bottom.

It was a trap.

Dean, we fell into a pit trap.

They had laid a tarp on top of part of the foundation for a new house.

Because it was dark, we didn’t see the tarp and now were in a pit.

The walls were cut by an excavator. They had that pressed-in texture, with rocks and roots sticking out in places. The floor was just deep, sludgy mud. It was wet with water on top of the clay and with lots of putrid-smelling, rotting leaves and there was some of that white mold growing against the wall.

We were in one corner of an L-shaped pit.

If Niko had walked 2 feet to the side, we would have missed it entirely.

We were crying, screaming, I don’t know, making the sounds of terror and surprise you make when you find yourself fallen into a dark pit.

‘Calm down, everyone,’ Niko commanded. ‘Calm down!’

Everyone tried to stop crying. I tried to stop crying.

‘We can get out,’ Niko said. ‘We can get out if we keep calm and work together.’

And then there was the light-swipe of a flashlight at the rim of the pit.

Yes, it was a flashlight and it was bopping around.

‘Hello?’ Niko called.

We all joined in calling hello, help, etc.

‘Oh my God, Dad! We did it!’ came the voice of a kid. ‘I knew we’d catch someone! I knew it!’

‘Settle down, Eddie, we don’t know who all’s in there.’

‘Help us!’ Batiste screamed.

Then the flashlight flashed down on all of us.

‘Jesus,’ the man said. ‘It’s a bunch of kids.’

‘We’re just trying to get to Denver. We’re not trying to rob anyone or anything,’ Niko said.

‘Oh yeah? Well, we’re not going to Denver. We’re waiting this thing out, right, Dad?’ the kid named Eddie said.

I hated this Eddie, sight unseen.

He’s the worst person I ever met.

1. He had laid a trap for us.

2. We had fallen into the trap.

3. He still had a dad.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ said the dad. ‘Well…’

‘Give us your food and water and we’ll let you go!’ the boy shouted.

‘We can’t!’ Sahalia shouted. ‘We’ll die without it!’

‘Give it up or you can’t get out,’ the kid repeated.

‘Now, Eddie, I don’t know…’ mumbled the dad.

We couldn’t see them at all. Not with the flashlights shining right in our eyes.

Max started to whimper. ‘The water’s getting in my boots,’ he whined.

‘Look,’ Niko said, his clear, digitalized voice going up to them. ‘Maybe this seems like a game to you. Trying to trap people and take things from them. But we’re going to die if you take our supplies. Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of six kids? Max and Ulysses are 7 years old, for God’s sake!’

They had to let us up.

The lights went out of our eyes and we heard them arguing.

‘Dad, we need the water!’

‘But I didn’t think they’d be kids—’

‘What about Mom? She needs the water! Dad! I’m so thirsty!’

It was clear who the boss was in their family – Eddie. The meanest kid in the world. We couldn’t hear the argument as well then because Max started crying hard. The water was burning his ankles and feet. Then a light shined back down and the man said, ‘I see your point, son. The thing is, if we don’t get your food and water, we’re gonna die.’

Max’s cries turned into wails, but then I heard a vicious shriek. It made me feel elated and sick to the stomach at the same time.

Josie’s war cry.

And the lights went off us and we heard the fight.

She attacked the dad first and had him down and I guess was pounding on him. Then I think the son tried to hit her with something. There was a thwack and then the kid was crying, ‘No, please, don’t.’

And then Josie roared at him, ‘GO ON THEN!’ Her voice sounded like a monster but she let him go. ‘GO!!!’

As much as I hated the kid, I didn’t want him to die. And more than that, I didn’t want Josie to be the one to kill him.

And the dad? Was he… ?

I heard sobbing then. Josie’s voice, ragged and desperate

And then the sound of her standing up in the mud.

‘Josie! Josie, it’s not your fault!’ Niko shouted. ‘You can stay, Jojo. You can stay with us!’

‘I can’t,’ said Josie, dark and tortured above us.

‘Josie!’ Niko cried. ‘I love you, don’t go!’

And then nothing.

She was gone.

After a few minutes, the boy came back.

‘Dad?’ he said. ‘Daddy… Daddy?’

Then the light shined down again on us.

‘You give me an air mask!’ he shrieked. ‘You throw it up right now!’

He started pelting us with rocks and clumps of mud. ‘You give it now!’

The thing is, we did have an extra. We had three extra.

Niko wasn’t speaking or moving or anything.

‘Hold on!’ I shouted. ‘Hold on a minute!’

‘I won’t hold on! You throw one up now so me and my mom can get out of here or I’ll bury you alive!’

That just didn’t seem like a credible threat, actually. He couldn’t have been more than 11 years old and where was he going to get the dirt? But I didn’t blame him for thinking illogically. His father was dead.

‘We will throw one up if you let us out!’ I shouted.

‘What?’

I tried to think like Niko.

‘We will throw up an air mask if you put down a rope for us.’

‘Fine,’ he spat. ‘Throw up two, then.’

‘Okay,’ I bargained. ‘But first the rope.’

‘No way. First, the masks.’

‘How about I throw one mask, you put down the rope, then I’ll throw the second?’

The boy hesitated. ‘Okay,’ he agreed reluctantly.

‘He won’t throw down a rope,’ Sahalia scoffed.

‘The mask is an extra,’ I said with a shrug.

‘We’re going to die down here,’ she said.

Niko just stood there.

I took Niko’s old mask, the one he’d used before he got the good Army one, and pitched it up.

‘Now give us the rope,’ I yelled.

The boy, Eddie, leaned over the edge, shining his own flashlight onto his face so we could see him.

‘I hope you all rot in hell!’ the kid said, his face covered with tears and snot. ‘Your friend killed my dad!’

And he left, sobbing.

Niko took the gun out from his backpack.

‘Niko?’ I asked.

He looked at me blankly.

‘Niko?’ I asked again. He was acting scary.

He aimed the gun in the air.

‘HELP!’ he shouted. And fired BANG.

‘Stop!’ I yelled. He was scaring me. He was scaring everyone.

‘HELP!’ BANG.

The kids were screaming.

‘HELP!’ BANG. BANG. BANG.

‘Niko, don’t!’ I screamed.

But he didn’t listen. He fired our last shot and then he pitched the gun out of the pit and up onto the slimy grass above.

During all this, Sahalia had just lain down in the dank mud and was weeping.

‘Get up,’ Niko told her.

‘It’s no use. We’re going to die.’

‘No, we’re not. Get up,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘I’m going to give you a boost and you’re going to go get a ladder.’

‘I can’t,’ she moaned.

But he did get her up.

First, he tried that thing where one person steps into the other person’s hands. But she was still 4–5 feet short of the edge.

Then he tried putting her on his back. Still way short.

So then they tried that again, but then I was supposed to climb up their bodies somehow and get on top of Sahalia’s shoulders, but that didn’t work. I couldn’t climb up Niko. I just grabbed fistfuls of his clothing and pulled him backward until Sahalia fell backward.

‘It’s no use!’ she screamed. ‘We’re going to die!’

‘What about the flares!’ I shouted. ‘We can shoot up some flares and maybe someone will come and rescue us.’

‘Or kill us!’ Sahalia spat.

‘It’s worth a try,’ Niko said after a moment.

I wiggled one of the flares out of the belt. It was sealed in a plastic wrapper with a white string hanging off. I pulled the string, and a scored middle section ripped open.

The flare was cardboard and there was a cap with a sandy surface on it.

I studied the flare. It was essentially a large, fat match, complete with a sandpaper striker attached to the cap.

But before I could light it, Sahalia gestured for me to hand it to her.

‘I’ll do it,’ Sahalia said. ‘I’ve done it before. And if you do it wrong too many times, it won’t light.’

I handed her the flare. I had wanted to light it, but if she was showing an interest in our survival again, I thought I should encourage it.

She struck the cap against the tip of the flare.

Then the red light sparked up and molten light spewed out of the end. Sahalia held the flare as far away from her body as she could.

Neon orange light lit her up. I will never forget the sight of her there, her balaclava pushed away from her face, her long hair peeking through. Wearing a yellow slicker over her five layers. Ulysses and Max cowered behind her, each hugging the other for dear life, faces obscured by their air masks. Batiste’s form just behind them, bent over and sobbing. Mud and grime all over them, and her, and roots and rocks jutting out from the sides of the pit.

‘Should I just, like, throw it?’ she asked.

Niko took it from her and hurled it up, over the side of the pit and out onto the grass.

Niko wrapped Max up in the tarp to try to keep any more water from getting to him. The wet was burning his legs and feet now and he kept making this low, animal kind of moaning.

Then Ulysses started praying in Spanish and Batiste started praying in English.

And then it started to rain.

That’s when Sahalia asked me for my book.

Here is what she wrote:

Here’s what everyone else wanted to say:

Niko wouldn’t tell me anything to write.

‘Stop writing in that book!’ he yelled. ‘We’re going to get out of here. Let’s light more flares. Someone must be out there.’

He lit and threw a red, another red, and a white.

We waited and the rain started seeping in through our layers.

A little while later, Max threw up.

He threw up inside his air mask and there was a lot of blood.

‘Help us!’ Sahalia started to scream. ‘Somebody help us!’

We still had his old air mask and so now we had to try to switch it out.

Niko didn’t need to call me over. I knelt next to Max and prepared to help.

Sahalia was still screaming her head off and her voice was going raw and hoarse.

‘Hold your breath, buddy,’ Niko told Max, but he was gasping and choking.

Niko took the air mask off. Max’s face was a mess. Red, splotchy blisters all over the area around his mouth and nose and eyes and blood dripping from his chin.

I pressed the new air mask over his face and he gasped in.

The sound was muffled.

It was a horrible sound.

Max was going to die.

Niko gave an anguished, frustrated cry. Then he jumped up, like he’d been stung into action.

He turned to me.

‘Here’s what we’re going to do. I am going to throw you up and you’ll grab on to the edge and scramble out.’

‘Okay.’ I shrugged. I was crying.

Max was going to die.

Niko made that cradle with his hands and I put my foot in and he tried to heave me up. It took a couple tries to get the angle right.

I got up pretty far on the fifth or sixth try.

Grabbed some grass out over the edge, but it was so slick.

I wanted to keep trying, but a root scratched me in the face and I was bleeding.

Niko started to pray.

I didn’t want to see that.

‘Oh God,’ he said. ‘Please, God, please send us some help because I can’t do it alone!’

Sahalia leaned forward and hugged Niko, her body pressing down on his, and I went too and there were two groups then: Sahalia, Niko, and I; and Batiste, Ulysses, and Max.

And then… then came a tiny ‘Hey!’

An old voice. But mad.

‘Who set off these flares? Hello?’

Then we were clamouring. I jumped up.

We all hollered and yelled but Niko yelled at us, ‘Be quiet! BE QUIET! IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, SHUT UP!’

Then, Niko shouted up. ‘We’ve fallen in a pit. Don’t come too close or you might fall in!’

‘I won’t fall in! I’m not stupid,’ came the voice.

Then a blinding light flashed down on us, going from one kid to the next.

‘Jesus Christ,’ the voice cursed. ‘You went and fell in the foundation?’

‘This family made it into a trap!’ Sahalia snarled. ‘They laid a cloth over it and trapped us!’

Niko shushed her.

‘Please, if you could just help us out. We’re a bunch of kids and one of us is really hurt.’

‘The Mandrys. That’s who set the trap. Looks like one of them got the tar beat out of him, too, by the look of it up here.’

‘Yes, a girl named Josie did that,’ Niko said.

‘She’s O,’ I shouted.

‘Looks like Tad Mandry’s dead, here.’

‘Please, mister, can you help us out?’ Niko called.

‘Well, I’m not a savage!’ he shouted. ‘Of course I’ll help you. There’s a ladder right here, for heaven’s sake.’

There was a ladder up there? Right there?

‘I’ll help you out. But that’s all. Now you all shut up and give me a moment,’ the man said. ‘We don’t want to be attracting attention these days. Could be any number of nutballs out here.’

We huddled together, excited and relieved and still terrified of everything. The only sound was Max moaning and crying. And Ulysses and Batiste sniffling, I guess.

Then we heard a wet, sliding sound. It was the man sliding the ladder across the ground.

‘That’s it,’ Niko called softly.

‘I know!’ the man grouched.

Inch by inch, we watched the ladder poke farther and farther into our air space.

‘It’s taking long because I’m old,’ the man said. ‘I’m too damn old for this nonsense.’

The ladder started to tip.

‘It’s going to fall, now. Watch out.’

‘We’re clear,’ Niko called.

The ladder wobbled for a moment and then came crashing down.

The man was tiny. He was maybe the same height as Ulysses.

I couldn’t see his face because he had a red-and-black-checkered scarf wrapped around it. By the way he moved, you could tell he was very old.

He helped Sahalia out first and then she turned and helped us one by one.

Niko came up last, carrying Max.

He slung Max onto the wet, muddy ground.

There was the body of the dad. He was lying on top of a rock. He’d fallen on it during his fight with Josie and he must have broken his neck, because his head was cocked to the side and he was looking up at the sky with an open mouth, like he was stargazing.

But, no, he was not looking at the sky. He was dead.

The earth was torn up in places, mishmashed with footprints and some dark brown-black slicks that were most likely blood.

‘All right,’ the man said. ‘Good luck to you then.’

And he started to shuffle away.

‘Please,’ Niko said. ‘We need to get somewhere safe so we can take care of our friend. And we need somewhere safe to rest.’

‘Well, I can’t help you!’ he spat.

‘But we’re so thirsty,’ whined Batiste.

‘And Max is so sick,’ Sahalia added. ‘Please, mister. Please.’

And we all started in, begging him. ‘Please, please, please.’

‘I knew I shouldn’t have come over!’ he growled. ‘I just came up to take out the trash, see? And then I saw the flares and I thought to myself, “Ignore it, Mario. You’re gonna get sucked into helping someone and it will be a strain on your resources.” But here I am.’

We must have looked a pitiful sight to him. All of us wearing filthy, matted layers of grimy sweatsuits. Me, Sahalia, and Batiste with our faces uncovered, coated with mud, the only clean parts being the trails made by crying. Niko standing with his head hung. Max lying, moaning, on the ground, wearing a bloody air mask. Ulysses clutching Max in the mud.

‘I’ll give you a day and a night. That’s it!’ he snarled. ‘Some basic medical to fix you up the best I can. 3 meals and 1 night’s sleep. But that’s it. You have to swear you go after that.’

Niko stuck out his hand and said, ‘We swear.’ They shook.

Everyone started thanking him and Sahalia hugged him.

‘Follow me then, and keep quiet about it,’ he grouched.

He led us across the street, toward a smaller development we had already passed.

‘What’s he got now? Burns?’ the man asked Niko, who was carrying Max.

Max was whimpering with Niko’s every jostle.

‘Blisters,’ Niko answered.

The old man was hurrying as fast as he could. But old people walk slow. He led us toward a house. It was that pretend-English style, with the wooden beams. Trying to look like a Shakespearean house.

I thought we were going inside, but instead, he kept on going.

He went across his back lawn to a little building. It looked like a garden shed. A little too big for a garden shed, but that’s what it looked like.

We went in and there were tools hanging all along the walls.

‘Come in,’ he crabbed at us. ‘Shut the door behind you, for God’s sake. This is a secret place.’

I couldn’t read Niko’s expression through his air mask, but I was worried. Did the old guy think we would be safe in a garden shed?

Then Mario bent over and picked at the edge of a rubber mat on the floor. It looked like a welcome mat, sort of, but old and scuffed up.

He lifted it and there, underneath it, was a metal handle sunk into the floor and a seam.

He pulled up on it but he was winded.

Sahalia and I stepped in to help.

‘Hold on, hold on a minute,’ he said. He addressed us. ‘When the door opens, go right on down the stairs. They’re steep, so mind you don’t fall. Keep going so you’re out of the way for the next person. All right. Go,’ he told Sahalia and me.

We pulled up on the handle.

It was really heavy for the first moment, then a hydraulic lift kicked in and it rose up by itself.

Up above, everything was grimy and dirty and dark, but pure white poured up from below that door.

It was blinding, so used to the dark were our eyes.

‘Go on now!’ Mario ordered. ‘Get below.’

We did not worry for a second that he might be tricking us or trapping us. He had so clearly not wanted to help us. Why would he be tricking us now?

And he wasn’t.

As crabby and crotchety as he was, I trusted him right away. I think everyone did.

And we were right to.

He saved our lives and his name was Mario Scietto.