Chapter 21
Concrete dust permeated the air. I remembered my stepdad, Darryl telling me about the danger of concrete dust, so I pulled my shirt up over my nose. White noise rang in my ears.
“Don’t breathe in the dust! Concrete dust is like asbestos or something!” I yelled to Faith and Jonah who were huddled next to me. I waved furiously at everyone else, trying to get their attention, alternately pointing to my shirt between waves.
I looked through the dust at each of my companions in a clumsy cluster against the wall. I heard coughing and the light taps of small concrete particles crumbling and settling. I wanted to get away from the dust so badly my muscles ached from head to toe. Claustrophobia started to crush my chest.
A gust of air suddenly passed through our group, screening the dust out of the air completely like a fine invisible fabric. I could breathe. Slowly each of my friends uncurled from their positions.
“Where the hell did
that
come from?” said Faith.
“I think it was me,” I said.
“Well done!” said Ilya.
“Don’t get excited yet. That was a long earthquake,” said Cole.
“We need to dig our way out of here now,” said Josh.
“No, what Cole’s saying is that we don’t want to be on the surface right now,” said Jonah.
“We need to get out of the Bay Area NOW!” I said. I felt panic coursing through me.
“Irina, listen. In the next ten to fifteen minutes, a tsunami will likely hit this city. If you and Jonah together can keep the water out of this pocket, we might survive,” said Cole.
“What about the rest of the San Francisco?” shrieked Faith. “Does anybody have a wireless connection?” asked Bruno.
“You know better than that,” said Nellie. Faith and I checked our phones anyway.
“Nothing. So we sit here assuming flash flood is going to hit above,” I said.
“It won’t be a flash flood. It’ll be a raging wall of cars, concrete, street lights, mail boxes . . .” Cole trailed off looking at the ceiling.
“Anything that was loose above is ammunition for the wave as it scrapes the surface of the coast,” said Ilya, eyeing Cole, prying through his thoughts.
“We can’t seriously just sit here while millions of people die! We have to do something!” shouted Faith.
“Even if we do manage to dig ourselves out before the wave hits, we can’t survive it. No combination of telekinesis and aquakinesis will keep a tsunami at bay,” said Adelaide.
Our concrete cave grew silent. White noise and the crackling of loose pebbles gave way to a rumbling sound that raced towards us, getting louder as the rumbling intensified. I grabbed Jonah’s hand. His eyes were as full of fear as mine.
“Are you strong enough?”
“I’ll have to be. We’ll do it together.”
Jonah kissed me and I let him. He pulled away quickly and closed his eyes to concentrate. I did the same.
I pictured our disaster-made cave as an impenetrable bubble. I focused on keeping the air where it was, holding the walls in place with sheer willpower. I felt the crushing weight of the ocean overhead.
Chunks of rubble popped off the ceiling and out from the cave-in beside us. Water hissed in through cracks. But our pocket held.
The rumbling finally stopped and the sense of suffocating weight above us released slightly.
“It’s gone,” said Jonah.
“Along with most of San Francisco,” said Nellie.
“Cole. With me,” said Josh as he gestured at the rubble wall.
Josh and Cole began to dig quickly and carefully picking through the concrete chunks. As they hit the surface, bathtub’s worth of water rushed in. Then silence.
“Where do we go from here?” said Bruno. “Should we still try to find the Innoviro office?” said Faith.
“There won’t be anything left at Innoviro worth digging up, even if we still could,” said Nellie.
“We won’t know unless we try. Besides, we might get out of this parking garage today, but I seriously doubt we’ll get out of the city quickly. Not in our cars,” I said.
“If we can get the van out, Adelaide and I could leave from here and meet you in the desert. You don’t need us for salvage at Innoviro,” said Ralph.
“There’s no point in discussing this until we know what the rest of San Francisco looks like,” said Josh.
“We’ll keep digging, but we have to be careful. For now, we only need enough room for bodies to crawl through safely. We have to wait on the vehicles.” Cole walked over to the wall of rubble and beckoned for Josh to join him.
“What are Ralph and I going to do if we leave on foot? If the terrain is bad out there, my chair will be useless,” said Adelaide.
“If you stay close to me, I should be able to disguise both of you,” said Ilya.
“You can do that?” said Ralph.
“It’ll only work if you stay close to me,” said Ilya.
Ilya closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He squared his shoulders, breathing deeply. I had never watched him create an illusion before, but I knew how masterful he was. The air around both Adelaide and Ralph grew hazy, but not like the concrete dust. It looked as though they themselves were starting to blur while the world around them remained crisp and clear to the naked eye.
Adelaide flickered back to reality first. She appeared to be herself, only completely human wearing a pair of faded light blue jeans. She looked down at her legs and touched them, bewildered at what she saw.
Ralph’s form blurred further, then resolved again, only to take shape as a slim man in a collared shirt and khaki slacks. He could have been one of the teachers walking around Berkeley. Was this what Ralph would have looked like if he had been human and not variant?
Ralph looked down at his hands and surveyed the rest of his body. He touched his face. He slowly read his new features with his fingertips. Then he turned to stand in front of the van’s tinted back window. Ralph took in his new face bit by bit, looking at his reflection, prodding his eyes and lips. He turned to his right and left for the profile on each side.
“And this is an illusion? I’ll be myself again if you break it or if I go too far from you?” Ralph asked Ilya. Disbelief tempered the look of wonder in his eyes.
“I would have offered this earlier, but there hasn’t been a good time. I knew we’d split up and you’d lose the illusion, possibly at a bad time,” said Ilya.
Adelaide walked over to Ralph and kissed him passionately, wrapping a single human leg around his waist. He kissed her back, but only for a moment before he gently pushed her away.
“You could have done this back in Portland, when we first met,” said Ralph.
“Yes, but keep in mind, you’re still you. And when you break the connection with me, you’ll instantly be your old self. You haven’t really changed. I’ve simply changed how you see yourself and how the world sees you. Both of you.” Ilya turned his attention to Adelaide.
The image of Ilya, tied up in the back of Adelaide’s van as the now human pair drove off into the sunset popped briefly into my mind. It wasn’t a vision, but a normal visualization. I looked at Ilya with concern and he returned the expression, mirrored perfectly on the male version of my face.
“Why don’t we dig in to some of the food we scored at the supermarket?” said Faith.
“Cole, Josh, stop working for a moment and come eat,” said Jonah.
Faith, Ilya, and I unpacked our bags while Jonah, Nellie, and Bruno reassembled our makeshift campsite. Ralph and Adelaide continued sizing each other up while the rest of us scooped handfuls of fruit and nuts and cereal and crackers onto paper plates. We ate sparingly and were even more careful with our water.
When we were done, Cole and Josh resumed work on the wall. Ralph and Adelaide retreated to the van, leaving Faith, Ilya, Jonah, Nellie, Bruno and me to sit and wait.
“So here’s what’s been eating at me, how did Thorn find us out in the woods? Has he got a sixth sense? I thought of him as a thug. A beast-man,” said Faith.
“I think he’s got a heightened sense of smell. He’s probably a brilliant tracker with so many animal senses enhanced,” said Jonah.
“It might be something else,” I said quietly.
“What are you thinking?” Nellie looked at me intently.
All I knew about her connection to Ralph was that they were like family. She might take my interpretation of my vision–which was extremely clear–as a slight on her nearest and dearest.
“Never mind. It’s probably nothing,” I said.
“Can I talk to you alone?” Ilya held up the keys to Cole’s car.
“Of course.” I got up and followed Ilya.
Once sealed in Cole’s car, Ilya said, “When I created Ralph’s illusion, I finally saw something inside his head. Well, a lot of things, but there’s only one thing worth mentioning. Rubin! Ralph knew Rubin. They worked together. I don’t know if Ralph’s lying about having nothing to do with Innoviro, but he knew Rubin, that’s for sure. You should have a look at his past, as soon as you get a chance. We can make a game out of it. ‘Irina’s going to tell your fortune to pass the time’ or something like that,” said Ilya.
A knock on the glass startled both of us.
Jonah peered in through the driver’s side window, glaring at me past Ilya. “Can I have a turn in the confession booth?”
“Sure, man, I’m done,” Ilya said to Jonah as he opened the car door. “Think about it,” Ilya said to me.
Jonah got into the driver’s seat and closed the door.
“Since we’re trapped here for now, I thought it would be a good time to give you shit for using Cole to push me away,” said Jonah.
I sat in stunned silence.
“He’s my best friend. We might both be in love with you, but that doesn’t mean we’ve started hating each other. We talk. And he’s furious with you, by the way,” said Jonah.
“What! . . . He’s . . . What!” I stammered, searching for an explanation that would clean up my mess.
“Okay, if you must know, I’ve started to have feelings for Cole. You and I can’t be together unless you’ve got something I don’t know about up your sleeve. It’s shitty timing. And yes, I want you to let go of me. I can’t be responsible for hurting you! What if I weakened you and then something hit us and you died because you couldn’t fight back?”
Jonah looked at me with his dimmed blue-green eyes. He looked even weaker than before after keeping the ocean at bay. His features relaxed as the anger started to fade. “Do you love me?”
“Yes.” I glanced away at the concrete garage wall outside the windshield.
“Then stop messing around with Cole, for all our sakes. I’ll leave you alone until I get better, but I
will
get better. Don’t doubt that. You might be the one who started this little war with Innoviro and Ivan, but we’re all in it now. I’m every bit as angry as you are, and just as ready to fight. And I’m not so damn fragile!” Jonah slammed his fist on the edge of the steering wheel. He seemed strong for a moment and I wanted to believe him.
“Okay. It’s a deal.” I leaned over and kissed him quickly on the cheek. I pulled away before he could kiss me back.
He paused, considered me, shook his head, and got out of the car. I followed Jonah, afraid someone else might corner me.
Josh and Cole were making progress with the wall of rubble. Ralph and Adelaide had rejoined our circle. I decided to seize my opportunity before it passed.
“Hey, I’ve got a game you guys might find fun.” I hoped my lighthearted tone sounded authentic.
“I’m in!” Faith grinned.
“Don’t you want to know the game first?” I said.
“You’re going to tell our fortunes!” blurted Ilya.
I narrowed my eyes slightly in his direction. “Now, you’ve ruined the surprise.”
“I’ll go first!” said Faith.
I opened my arms in Faith’s direction thinking,
Did you tell her the plan?
at Ilya. He shook his head casually, looking down at the ground.
“Okay, give me your hand.” I reached out toward Faith. She placed her hand in mine and I closed my eyes to concentrate. I saw her and Ilya under a three-story wall of neon advertising. It was nighttime. It looked like something from New York or Tokyo or London–I couldn’t be sure since I’d never been to any of those cities in person.
“You and Ilya go on your honeymoon somewhere with giant neon billboards.” I had no idea if they were on their honeymoon or not, but it was probably the future. So why not make it a happy one?
“Nice!” said Faith.
“Do me next,” said Adelaide coyly.
I took her hand and concentrated on the image of her and Ralph with Thorn in the alley. In a flash, I returned to the alley. Ralph was his reptilian self, with his hat and sign as a costume. Adelaide was in her chair. Nothing about the vision seemed different, but this time I looked for landmarks. Out on the streetcars rolled past the gap between the brick walls.
On the other side of the street a Shell gas station rumbled as running cars waited behind occupied pumps. I looked up. Fire escapes zigzagged up the side of the building in front of me. At the end of the alley, a grimy dumpster overflowed with trash bags. There was no sign of where they were. Thorn left the alley and I dropped Adelaide’s hand.
I stood looking at Adelaide as I frantically tried to think of a story to tell.
“You and Ralph have a happy future ahead. You go back to your home together, so we must get out of this.” I forced a laugh.
“I knew it!” Adelaide looked lustfully at Ralph.
I felt a sharp pang of remorse. They deserved to be together, both happy, for once. I was sure they’d had unimaginably hard lives. Maybe the vision hadn’t changed yet because they hadn’t had a chance to be happy and lose their motivation to turn on us. I still didn’t know at what point they would betray us. I had to hope it hadn’t happened yet. It made sense to interpret their continued presence with us, trapped in a parking garage notwithstanding as a sign they were still on our side.