Authors: L.M. McCleary
As I
gradually recovered, a sickened thought crossed my mind. “…something in the
air?” Could there be an airborne sickness permeating the town? Is that why it’s
abandoned?
My
stomach dropped at the thought and I suddenly felt like the whole town was
against me – like I had to get out, fast. I ended up not really having a choice
in the matter. The wind had kicked up considerably as I rested – dangerously
so. Its sound was almost deafening now and I struggled to tie my bandana around
my face in the wind’s onslaught. As I brought myself to my feet I glanced
casually towards the entrance to Salvation and realized I could no longer see
it. Sand obscured my vision of the path and only small specks of the blackened
buildings could be seen between bouts of the voracious wind that was ripping
through the town. This wasn’t an ordinary wind; it was a sandstorm coming in,
and coming in fast.
I hopped
onto
Ponika’s
back, much to his distaste, and prodded
him onwards as fast as my legs could kick. My fingers wrapped around his mane in
a tight entanglement, my lips pursed as I hoped to outrun the storm that now
seemed to be giving chase. I wasn’t about to get caught in that thing; fairy
tale or not, I wasn’t planning on finding out what truly lay inside them today.
Ponika
and I continued on, past more and more dilapidated homes that
looked even less sturdy than the houses I had already travelled past. My horse
drudged drearily onwards, still tired from the days of work I had put him
through. I constantly peered over my shoulder at the thick swirling sands that
had already engulfed most of Salvation. My breath caught in my throat as the
wind raced towards us, the town seeming to cease to exist as the storm took
over. I may have enjoyed the view of a sandy vortex from afar back home but being
lost in one put me on edge; who knows what could appear in the cover of a
storm? I tried to charge forward even faster but was met with resistance from
Ponika
, who shook his head in apparent anger at my goading.
I patted his neck and whispered into his ear as we continued on. I felt for
him, I truly did; we had to rest soon but a sandstorm was no place to do it in.
“Sorry
boy…we’ll stop soon, I promise.” I had hugged him briefly as I remembered the
multiple times I had said that to him before.
I glanced
around again, my stomach still churning at the thought of being exposed in the
vortex…until I saw hope in a cliff face on my right; what appeared to be an
abandoned mine. Summoning the last of my energy I bolted towards it, calling
Ponika
after me as I went. The winds were swirling into my
eyes and nose now and I struggled to keep my bandana in place as I urged my
horse onwards; he was charging after me now but he limped slightly in his
gallop and I could hear his breath heavy on the wind. Even through his
exhaustion he must have seen the same hope that I did in that dark earthen
entrance before us. As soon as I found myself under the small wooden awning of
the mineshaft I collapsed on the cold dirt floor, landing inside just as the
storm overtook the total of Salvation. We reached the mine with nary seconds to
spare and the wind seemed to howl in defeat. We made it; we were safe, and for
the first time on our journey we were protected from the elements for the
night. The winds danced sand and dirt around my face as I lay for a moment
inside the mine’s entrance but I didn’t care at the time; all I wanted was
rest. I eventually had hauled myself up and made myself comfortable on a spot
where the sands and the earth intermingled beneath me.
Ponika
had immediately sat himself down opposite me and watched the sands with a
steady gaze for a few moments before he lowered his head to the ground and
finally slept. I wanted to join him, but my heart was still racing and the
storm whisked by our sides; we may have been safe now, but who knows for how
long? What if something in the winds…found us?
I sighed
and stared with an aimless ambition at the wall across from me, my eyes
following the cracks and jutting earth that ran along its face. It was broken,
yet sturdy;
Ponika
leaned against it as he slept and
the wall behind me was stiff against my head. We would be protected in here for
sure and I tried to focus my thoughts on that; it had been a long time since I
could sleep without sand resting in every orifice when I woke. My heart calmed
as the minutes ticked past. The blowing storm was screaming outside but nothing
came for us, nothing attacked us or moved within it. Perhaps it really
is
all a fairy tale. My eyes rested on my horse, watching his chest rise and fall
with each deep breath he made. He was sleeping so peacefully and I couldn’t
help but be somewhat jealous.
“Once
Ponika
is done…”I mumbled to myself. He always watched over
me; the least I could do is the same for him.
It was a
long time before I remembered my journal. I had to rummage through my backpack
for a few minutes to find it, but when I did I grew excited; I had never
written in a book before – now was the perfect chance! I never had much to
write about back home, but at least now I can keep track of my progress. I held
the unopened book in my lap for a while, running my fingers across its hard
surface. The kids I grew up with had never seen a book before, let alone own
one. My family was the only one that seemed to cherish what little pages they had
left from the Reckoning.
I shook
my head. “It’s not like they cared,” I whispered as I slowly opened my journal,
“our library sat empty and dark for too many years.” I laughed in spite of
myself. “Dark until I got in there, anyway.”
As much
as I hated to think on it, I was reminded of my first – and last – venture into
the library (with Kay’s goading, of course). That may have been the last
bastion of knowledge in the wasteland, and now no one will ever know what the
world used to be like; all because of me.
I still
remember that day so vividly…the day Kay and I broke into the library through a
rattled window in the hopes of finding a book that actually had all its pages.
The library had very little lighting as its windows were always covered in dark
curtains; we were never really sure why the adults kept this place so
secretive. What’s so bad about being able to see the books from the outside?
There were a surprising number of books in the library; more so than our
Provider could have possibly given us. I assume it was around long before the
Reckoning, though no one would ever answer that question. There were rows of
bookshelves throughout and a small desk near the door and there was a circular
object of blues and greens on that desk that I was immediately drawn to.
“My dad calls it a globe,” Kay had said as I turned the device in my hands, “he
has one in his study. Apparently it shows the world.”
My eyes lit up. “Where are we on it?” I asked but he just shrugged and walked
away. “Is there really that much water in the world?” I called after him.
“There must be if my dad is right.”
“Wow…maybe our world really does exist…” I muttered to myself, thinking of the
place Kay and I would find someday.
“I thought you wanted to read some books?” Kay finally called after me as I was
transfixed on the globe before me.
“I do…” It was hard to pull myself away from a world so inviting, a world so
different from my own, but eventually I trailed after Kay.
“Grab a couple books and I’ll light the lantern at the desk,” he had said as he
walked past me with a large stack of books in his hands, “There’s not enough
light in here to read otherwise.”
“I thought we were taking some home with us?”
“Maybe one or two…but why not read a few while we’re here?”
“Because we’ll get in trouble?”
I had said but I
didn’t really care; I was already looking for books to read.
“You know your dad is the only one who comes in here anymore; he won’t mind.”
Kay replied, already taking a seat at the desk.
“If you really think my dad wouldn’t care then why wouldn’t you have just asked
for the key to the door?” I asked as I piled my own books next to his on the
table. “Just face it, you know the adults don’t want us in here, my dad
included, and yet here we are; you know what will happen if we’re found out.”
Kay ignored me, absorbed in the first book he pulled from his pile. Following
his lead, I picked up a book and started reading. It was silence for a while; I
guess we both managed to find some pretty interesting novels. Hell, I still
have the charred remains of one in my backpack; some of the pages are still
good. We had eventually gotten into a heated discussion as the night wore on
over a book Kay had found peeking out under a dusty pile of novels on an
end-table.
“This is crazy,” he had said, absorbed in its pages, “apparently there are
gigantic worms out in the wasteland.”
“No way,” I replied, “that can’t be right; I’m sure we would have seen one by
now or at least have heard of one before…that sounds fake.”
“According to this, there are. It even specifies the wasteland so it isn’t a
journal from the before-time. This guy must have seen one in person if I’m
reading this right; it sounds pretty real. I mean, do you have any proof that
it isn’t?”
“Well, no…I guess anything is possible. I wonder what else is out there…” I had
barely finished my sentence when Kay interrupted me.
“Apparently there are even elite ones out there; he claims he saw one
travelling through the earth for days…it was still going when he was rescued.”
“Rescued?
Elite?
That all sounds
like hogwash to me.”
“Well I don’t know what to tell you; this is some guy’s personal journal.”
“He was probably hallucinating from lack of water when he wrote that. Does it
say who rescued him?”
“No, the journal stops here; kind of abrupt, actually.”
“See? Either he couldn’t think of something to make up afterwards or he must
have blacked out before his mind could conjure something up. Who wrote that,
anyway?” I had asked as I stood up to find another book.
“
Uhm
…some Nathaniel guy; Nathaniel
Torin
.
I’ve never heard of him.”
“Me either. Maybe you should try another book; if what that guy says is true
then there should be other references out there.”
Kay stood up and walked with me, both of us unaware of the fallen lamp that had
somehow gotten knocked off the table as we discussed the legitimacy of
Nathaniel’s journal. We were bickering next to an old filing cabinet in the
corner when we smelt the flames, long before we saw them. Kay and I rushed to
put it out but it had already leapt at the drapes and the faded, unintelligible
papers that littered the floor. It was out of control within seconds. Kay
quickly grabbed our things as he headed back to the open window we came in
from, but I remember standing there and looking around in horror. The
bookshelves were ablaze and large tomes fell to the floor, their precious pages
crumbling to dust before my eyes. I wanted to cry.
“We have to save them!” I had said to Kay as I suddenly jumped into action,
trying to battle the flames nearby with the dusty rug beneath me.
“We can’t,” Kay had come back and grabbed frantically at my arm, “it’s out of
control; we have to go!”
I stared around me, the flames licking my heels. In one desperate attempt I
grabbed the journal that Kay had been reading previously from off the desk and
succumbed to Kay’s strength as he pulled me away from the fire and up to the
window he had thrown our belongings through.
Kay jumped from the window first, hitting the ground hard and he gazed up at me
expectantly. “Come on!” He urged me forward as I glanced at the ground below,
the heat already searing my backside.
The boxes outside that we had originally used to climb up had stumbled over one
another in Kay’s escape and the ground seemed farther away than I had
remembered. I was vaguely aware of Kay’s voice still calling out to me as I
braced myself. With the heat becoming almost too much to bear I leapt from the
window, crashing right into Kay as he tried to catch me. He had wasted no time
in getting up and grabbing our gear while he dragged me to my feet and we took
off running behind the library. We snuck our way into the backyards of the
nearby houses as we rushed back to my place, doing our best not to be seen. By
the time we reached my house the library was engulfed and people had gathered
near it to watch. Kay and I hid in the shadows of my home, watching as my
parents eventually left to investigate the commotion. They were one of the last
few to reach the site and we slowly followed them.
Kay and I made our way up beside my parents, acting as though we had been at
the Dunes all night. My dad put his arm around me tight and we all watched the
flames dance across the night sky. I had looked up to my father’s face and
noticed that there were tears in his eyes at the sight; our only link to the
world of the past was now up in smoke. I had wanted to say something, but what
really could I do? What words would make this right? Instead, I hugged my
father hard and we watched the blaze together, with Kay’s supporting hand on my
shoulder.