Air (6 page)

A strong wind on our right caught me off guard and blew over me with malicious force.

“What are you doing?” I yelled at Vayu.

“Not me – when a fire gets too hot it creates weather of its own.”

Despite the heat, chills crawled up my back. We were no longer fighting just a fire. It was a living, breathing monster, and a crafty one, at that. The fire’s weather pushed quickly through Vayu’s net on our right and we angled our bodies to combat it. We had to move backwards into the burnt terrain to avoid being singed ourselves. Now we were on the losing side of the battle.  

Something caught us from behind and we both ended up on the ground.

Vayu recovered faster. “Damn log.” He got up quickly and rebuilt his net.

“Vayu.” I swallowed hard, not moving. “It’s not a log.”

“What?” He shouted down at me without looking.

“It’s a person.” I sat, frozen for a moment, then finally shuffled around the charred body and looked for signs of life. The hair was mostly burned off, leaving only sporadic patches of fuzz, but judging by the size of the body and width of the shoulders, it was a man. He was lying on his stomach, his head turned toward me. Finally his back rose slightly, a shallow, somewhat regular breathing pattern.

“Is it Shawn?” Vayu asked, not able to spare a glance down at the body.

I looked at his face, and shook my head. “No.”

The man’s eyes, probably the only unscathed part of his body, were a light brown, not Shawn’s icy blue stare. I couldn't look away; there was too much white in his eyes. His lids were almost completely burned off. Bile rose in my throat.

He began to gurgle in an effort to say something.

I whispered back though he probably couldn’t hear me, “Shhh…..don’t say anything. I’ll get you help.” I touched his shoulder gently and bits of something flaked off. I couldn’t tell if it was skin or clothing. The entire body was either black or red; he wasn’t going to make it no matter what I did. I didn’t feel the same sense of pity as I did with the koala bears; I felt physically ill. I looked at him again and mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry’.

Recognition flashed in his eyes. I believe I had just been so kind as to help him realize his own death was close at hand. I lay down next to him, oblivious of the fire around us. The least I could do was stay with him until the end. Vayu was yelling something, but my priorities were clear. I wasn’t a Gaia right then, nor was I Kaitlyn. I was simply the last connection this man would have in his life.

Vayu, still yelling, rustled around in the pack on my back for something. My body jerked as his search became more frantic.

The man resumed his attempts to speak, despite my insistence that he lay still. I leaned in closer, trying to interpret a phrase he said over and over. Only two words in the garbling were comprehensible, and they were enough to freeze me in place. “One less, one less.”

He began shifting his body and grunting; I couldn’t subdue him with my hands for fear of causing more damage. Finally he leaned away from me, pulling out a bag from underneath the blanket. It was shiny; possibly fireproof. Inside the bag was a thick, neatly bound document. He must have been protecting the document while sacrificing his own body. The white pages were a stark contrast to the blackened earth below and his charred hand. He pushed the document feebly toward me, leaving streaks of ash behind on the pristine paper as he pulled his hand away. On the cover was one simple symbol, the same symbol worn on my shoulder as a permanent scar of Shawn’s doing.

Suspicions confirmed, my body went numb. The charred man smiled, his white teeth in stark contrast to his blackened lips. “I was chosen to be one less.” Triumph and self-importance emanated from him. His smile, no matter how much it anguished him to do so, was the last thing I saw.

Vayu threw himself over me holding the fire blanket around both of us. It was only big enough for two. He pinned down as many sides of the blanket as he could. The temperature inside spiked, the fire a deafening roar around us. Despite being smothered by Vayu’s weight, the air inside the blanket was breathable. No smoke seeped in under the blankets edges. Vayu had to have been using a trick to put oxygen in the air under the blanket. We could do nothing but lay there and wait for the fire to pass. The image of the symbol, clear and foreboding underneath streaks of ashes, was seared into my brain. Half hoping the document was now burning in the fire, I reached out gingerly to search for it. My fingers made contact and I quickly retracted my hand. Vayu had to have shuffled it closer while trying to get the blanket down, probably not even realizing what it was.

I tried to force my mind to more pleasant images and immediately thought of Micah.
Oh, God – Micah!
He was out there, left to face this quick-moving monster with a sick sister to slow him down. I thought about reaching out to him, mentally, but no, distracting him for my own selfish knowledge wouldn’t help him. Agitated, I could no longer lay still under Vayu’s weight. I heaved him off to the side. He struggled to keep the blanket pinned down under my sudden movement. I took control of one side to help him. It was surprisingly difficult as the fiery wind constantly tried to work its way underneath, ripping and pulling at the blanket.

“Don’t fight it,” Vayu yelled at me. “Work with it.”

By applying pressure in different places, I figured out what he meant. The blanket went lax and I was no longer struggling to hold on. The fire seemed to roar in agitation at our endurance. I held my focus on the gray blanket, watching it waver almost leisurely now. Finally, the fire gave up. Once the roaring died down to a dull rumble in the distance, Vayu peeked out cautiously. He waited a moment then lifted the blanket off of us slowly.

My jaw dropped, looking at the landscape. Everything was either black or still under smoldering embers. Trees were twisted or bent over in agony and thin plumes of smoke rose like spires into the sky. I turned to Vayu then followed his gaze from the skies down to our feet. The man now lay in a charred heap. I turned away quickly.

“Nature’s way of renewing the earth,” Vayu whispered.

I shook my head, “It could have been contained – we failed. I failed.”

He didn’t answer me.

We stood in shock for a few minutes longer. I snapped out of it, trying to focus on getting us back to safety. I stuffed the blanket back into my backpack and picked up the document. “Which way to the neighborhood we passed?”

Vayu, bringing himself out of his own trance, started to look around. “I’m not sure. Everything looks different.” Panic hit his face. “We don’t even have the radio – Micah took it.”

“I can find Micah…maybe.” I put a calming hand on Vayu’s arm.
If he isn’t dead.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, preparing myself for what I might find. I pictured myself, standing in the blackened landscape alone and lost. I solidified the image then sent it out, hoping Micah would receive it. He did. I felt it being absorbed and returned with an image of him helping his sister out of a large pond. I smiled in relief. They’d managed to find enough water to submerge themselves in until the fire passed. “This way!” I yelled to Vayu, barely waiting for him to follow me. The thought of Micah’s arms around me, strong and sturdy, urged me on.

It wasn’t long before he came into view, pulling his sister behind him. I broke into a sprint, oblivious to the charred shrubbery and sticks that scratched at my ankles. I tripped and landed hard on the ground.

Leave it to me to ruin a Hollywood moment
, I groaned inwardly. The document floated away, landing just out of my reach, at Micah’s feet. He stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the symbol; a painful reminder to us both of his failure to protect me. He bent down to pick it up, completely ignoring the fact that I was sprawled out beside it.

“That tells me where I stand,” I said getting up and dusting myself off. “Or lay, for that matter.” I looked around but no one got the joke. Micah, and now Susan, who had approached from behind, were staring at the symbol. And Vayu was staring at them, trying to interpret their faces.

“Where did you get this?” Micah finally looked at me.

I thought of the man and had to fight back the bile that rose in my throat. “I think it was left for me. By Shawn.”

Micah’s eyes flashed. “You saw him?”

“No.” I snatched the document out of his hands and stuffed it into my backpack. “Let’s just get out of here – we can talk about it later.”

Micah stared at me, questions coursing through his expression and his eyes willing me to explain.

“You can just stop with your eye tricks,” I said, a little more harshly than I had intended. “If I talk about it now I’m going to be sick all over the place – then you’ll really have something to stare at.”

He looked away. “Fine. Later, then.” He pulled out his handheld, calling Alex. Just static. Micah sighed, “The van is this way. Hopefully it didn’t burn up. Careful where you step. The hotspots will burn right through your shoes.”

Micah set off and Vayu followed. Susan and I looked at each other, exchanged sympathetic expressions, then held hands for support as we followed the men back to civilization.

Chapter 6

Cleaning Up

Our walk back to the van was silent. We avoided looking at the charred houses that only hours ago stood secure and strong. I hoped the owners made it out unscathed, but I had no desire to go looking for more burnt bodies. I’d seen one too many already. Even the world seemed silent, the air eerily void of the sounds of bugs, birds, or whatever other animals might be out and about in Australia on a warm spring day. Besides our footsteps, only the occasional cracking branch giving in to its injuries filled the dead space.

Alex and Cato didn’t ask any questions as we reached them, we all just shuffled to fit them in the van and headed for a hotel. There were few other guests, most having voluntarily evacuated, leaving enough space for us each to have our own room at their discounted disaster rate. I immediately holed myself up in my room, trying to avoid any further questioning from Micah. Once in the room, I went straight for the shower. I scrubbed my body from head to toe, over and over again until my skin felt raw. I only stopped once the water running off my body and down the drain was clear – not the sinister black of charred forest. I released a breath. Better raw than seeing one smudge of ash to remind me of earlier. I dried off, turned the television on max volume, not caring what channel blared through the room. Cocooning myself in the thick covers of the bed, an Australian fishing competition was just loud enough to drown out my own thoughts.

* * *

The next morning, with the smell of fire and ash still thick in the air; I emerged from my cocoon only when my bladder gave me no choice. Washing my hands, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and almost gasped out loud. The dark circles under my eyes were nothing compared to the mess of brown and gold strands hanging from my head, knotted and crinkled from the roots to the tips.