Chapter 24
Our progress had been pitiful, but we were tired enough that nobody protested when Brian and Hollis started setting up camp. Ilya’s illusions on Ralph and Adelaide held strong. Hanging around civilians in a social capacity was like taking a break from being a variant. Like a vacation within a quest within a nightmare. I had come farther than my Prince George home than I had ever been, in both miles and memories.
Hollis built a makeshift fire pit with bricks from the adjacent street and he had a roaring fire going shortly afterwards. A few cars crept by in both directions, but for the most part, the ball field and surrounding neighborhood were deserted. I wondered how many people were hiding at home, how many had already left, and how many were injured, waiting for help which seemed less likely to arrive with every passing minute.
Sam and Alex distributed beer to each of us. I accepted reluctantly. I hadn’t developed a taste for beer, but I did think it was a good idea to lubricate an evening of socializing with relative strangers.
“So what will you guys do this year, now that you can’t go back to Berkeley?” I settled into a camp chair.
“After we get the hell out of this city? I guess I’ll go home to Louisiana and work for a year. Probably not the worst idea, money-wise,” said Hollis. The novelty of his accent still hadn’t gotten old.
“This is going to sound stupid, but I have to say it. Your accent is awesome! We don’t have many accents in Canada, apart from Newfoundlanders and English-speaking Francophones. Where I’m from in Northern BC, you don’t hear much other than plain vanilla Canadian,” I said.
“You sound different to us too,” said Brian.
“What? Get out,” said Faith.
“They don’t sound so different to us. But we’re from Oregon,” said Ralph.
“She’s not from Oregon.” Meadow gestured at Adelaide.
“I’m originally from Denmark.” Adelaide cracked her can of beer and crossed her legs, looking extremely odd in contrast to the woman I’d first met in Washington State. I tried to picture how she actually sat that made us see a pair of crossed human legs.
“But the rest of you are all Canadian?” asked Brian.
“Nellie and I are from Oregon too,” said Bruno.
“And I’m from Seattle,” said Josh.
“How is it y’all work for the same company?” said Hollis.
“We worked at different offices, in Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle,” I said quickly.
“Some of us were thinking about transferring to San Francisco, well, Alameda technically. Our Oregon friends are former employees.” Ilya made a much more convincing con artist than me.
“So what will y’all do now that you can’t stay either?” said Hollis.
“I’ve always wanted to see the Mojave Desert.” I tried to shoot a knowing look at Ilya. I tried thinking at him, but he wasn’t paying attention.
“Maybe we’ll just keep going where the road takes us,” said Faith.
“Spoken like a true hippie.” Ilya nudged her arm playfully. She slapped his arm in return.
“Easy, you two.” Jonah grinned.
I felt the now familiar sensation of longing. I admired his features. In spite of his condition, I allowed myself to savor knowing he felt the same desire for me.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a hippie,” said Meadow.
“We know your parents are–or were–pretty free thinkers. Dear, sweetie, light of my life,” said Brian.
“I like my name. It’s unusual,” said Meadow.
“I think your name is pretty. Take Irina for example. People know I’m part Russian, but that’s it.”
“Try having a name that makes people assume you’re religious,” said Faith.
Firelight and the warm late day sun made Faith’s purple dreadlocks look bright pink above orange-hued skin. Ralph and Adelaide sat next to each other, hands clasped with fingers interlocked where the arms of their camp chairs came together. Everyone looked warm and happy in spite of the chaos and ruin around us. Not being able to talk about our Compendium worries forced us to be normal, even if only for an afternoon.
Ralph got up and walked to the public bathroom behind the dugout. The structure’s simple cinderblock construction had survived the earthquake. It made our campsite on the ball field an even better choice. I seized my opportunity to talk to him and followed. As Ralph came out of the building, still his professor self, I met him. He looked startled at first.
“I need to talk to you about something, away from the others.”
“Look, I think we said everything we had to say. Adelaide and I are on your side.”
“That’s not it. I need to ask you about a man named Rubin.”
Ralph’s face fell. “How do you know Rubin?”
“He worked security for Innoviro back in Victoria. He wiped my sister’s memory as part of my boss’s plans to rope me into long term commitment,” I said. As I spoke, Ralph looked down at the ground. “Do you remember taking a girl from a dorm room in Vancouver?”
“Rubin told me she needed rehabilitation and wasn’t cooperating. We were only supposed to wipe her memory temporarily, so she could get the treatment she needed.”
“Did you help Rubin with any other memory wipes? Did you go up to Prince George?” I felt grief wrapping its cold fingers around my throat. I swallowed again and again to push the feeling away, down into my stomach.
“No, most of the work I did for Rubin was in Seattle. It wasn’t much. Nellie connected us. I take it the girl from Vancouver is your sister?”
I nodded. I felt tears welling in my eyes.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know,” said Ralph.
I nodded again and waved him away.
While Ralph made his way back to the fire pit, I took a moment to collect myself. I wiped my face and retied my ponytail. When I got back to the group, everyone was laughing.
Adelaide focused intently on her phone. Whether she had picked one up or borrowed it from someone at camp, I couldn’t say. When Adelaide and I had traveled in her van, she didn’t have a phone. It made me uneasy watching her. I wanted to ask what she was doing or how she even had service, but I bit my tongue.
Hours passed with more beers and more stories. I watched more than I talked. The unease of Adelaide’s surfing wore off as time passed and I finished my third beer. Sirens wailed again in the distance. Closer to us a
CRAAACK
,
SLAP
, and rumble signaled another collapse. I shuddered and rubbed my sleeves.
“Ow, hey! Uuuuuh,” cried Ilya.
I whipped around to see my brother slumped in his camp chair. Faith had sprung up.
“AAAAAA! What is it?” shrieked Faith.
A familiar giant spider skittered across Ilya’s lap and jumped across to Bruno.
“What the–” spat Bruno before he, too, slumped in his chair.
“AIIIIIIEEEEE!” screamed Meadow.
The shrill sound pierced my eardrums.
“Get in the truck!” yelled Brian.
“Damn it!” shouted Faith as shot a stream of fire at the spider mid-air. She missed and the spider landed on her face, muffling her scream. A moment later Faith fell silently to the ground.
“Holy shit, man!” said Hollis. He looked at a spot behind my head. I turned to see Thorn, mouth open, shooting his thick sticky webbing at me. The noxious threads I thought I’d never see again wrapped around and around cocooning me.
“NOOOOO!” shouted Jonah. Thorn punched Jonah in the face with a loud
THOCK
and sprayed him with webbing as well.
I fought against the wrapping around my body as I heard the sound of Thorn clearing his throat behind me. Jonah lurched to the ground, and laid not moving, covered by webbing from head to toe. All our training in Washington had been useless in an ambush at night.
A sticky dart shot over my head and hit Hollis in the chest. Alex picked up a section of pipe he had propped up against his chair. He’d been the only one of us to think of arming himself.
“Hit him!” shouted Becky. Alex shifted from one foot to the other, holding the pipe like a baseball bat, ready to swing, but hesitating. My head snapped up at the flapping of giant leather wings.
Rose snatched the pipe from Alex’s hands and hit him over the head in two smooth movements. Becky let out a near sonic squeal. A gust from wings over my own head knocked me down as a metal thunk silenced Becky’s scream.
“What the hell ARE you?” shouted Sam. I saw Adelaide’s legs flicking and twirling on the ground ahead. Ralph’s green legs crossed in front of me. Adelaide stepped in front of Sam and he dropped to the ground.
“Noel, they’re all secure,” said Adelaide.
“Ivan wants his kids,” said Sage.
“Leave the variants alive. Make sure all the humans are dead,” said the voice of the tattooed girl who must be Noel. I heard Thorn’s throat a few more times.
“There isn’t room for us in your van. We’ll meet you at the farm,” said Rose. I heard the twins’ wings as they took flight.
“You assured Adelaide nobody would be harmed! We had no reason to kill these college kids. They were on their way back home!” yelled Ralph.
“What did you think was going to happen? We’d shake their hands and ask them nicely not to mention this to anyone?” said Noel.
“We would have been long gone by the time these kids could get to anyone who’d care!” said Ralph.
“Haven’t you learned not to trust humans? If we want to stop hiding, this is how it had to go,” said Adelaide quietly to Ralph.
I felt the sharp sting of Noel’s favorite hairy-legged tattoo. The voices faded and sleep took me.
I woke up across from my unconscious brother who lay crumpled on the floor of a rumbling van. It was dark, still night. Streetlights flashed intermittently through the windows in the back doors of the van. Noel sat next to Ilya. She noticed me awake and flexed her forearm releasing her spider. I took a breath to scream and I felt a stab in my ankle. The world went black.
When I woke the next time, I was in a field, lying on a quilt. The grass beneath my blanket felt soft and mossy. The sky beamed bright blue with a scattering of fluffy white clouds. My Mom sat on the other side of the quilt. Plates of fried chicken, fries, salad, and a giant bowl of fruit were laid out between us.
“Mom, you’re alive! Are you alive? Are you real?” I sat up. My bonds were gone. I hugged Mom. Her muscle and bone and hair felt real. She smelled like the apple perfume she always used to wear. I felt tears coming and I let them roll down my cheeks as I held Mom.
“What happened to Ilya? Where are Jonah and Faith and the others?”
Mom smiled. She picked up a paper plate and filled it with food. She set the plate down in front of me.
“You’ve had a long day, sweetie. You need to eat,” said Mom.
“Where is this place?” I said.
“This is a place, a plane of existence, which only people like us can use. Think of it as a visiting room. A place between our worlds,” Mom explained as though she were showing me a photo in a book.
“It was the spider venom this time.” I grabbed my head as a sharp pain intruded.
“It’s unfortunate you had to get here through trauma the first time, but you can train yourself to come back.” Mom reached out and put her hand on my arm. Her touch felt so real. And then the visiting room went black.
I opened my eyes, this time with daylight illuminating the van. Ilya slept on. They must know they need to keep him out cold to stop him from creating an illusion or listening to their thoughts. I blinked and risked a look around the back of the van. We were alone. A thick brown canvas curtain hung between us and the front seats. Panic energized me in spite of my splitting headache.
I cursed myself for letting my guard down at the ball field campsite. I cursed each of my friends in turn. The only two of us with the instincts of fighters were digging our cars out of a parking garage. What were the chances Cole and Josh could find us now?
Chapter 25
Outside the van window, faint blue sky filled the view from where I lay on the floor. Occasionally we passed a tree. I gauged we weren’t anywhere urban. Clear sky and uninterrupted driving suggested we were well away from San Francisco.
“Time to stop for food,” said a deep male voice from behind the curtain.
“I’ll text the others,” said Noel.
About ten minutes later, the van slowed to a stop.
“Make sure they’re still asleep,” said the deep voice.
“Ralph and Adelaide want to talk to them,” said Noel.
“The girl, fine. The boy stays asleep. Five minutes,” said the deep voice.
Another handful of minutes passed and I heard the click-cluck of the back door being opened. I sat up and squinted into the bright light.
“Talk fast. Irina only. Thorn’s orders,” said Noel. I wasn’t surprised to identify Thorn as the deep voice rumbling from the driver’s seat. I wished with all my might for Ilya to wake up in spite of however much extra toxin Noel had pumped into his body.
“Irina?” Adelaide’s figure resolved in front of me as my eyes adjusted to the sun. Gravel crunched as Noel walked away.
“We wanted to tell you we’re sorry and that this is all going to turn out well,” said Ralph.
“What he means is that you’re being taken to your father. You’re safe,” said Adelaide.
“Why would I want to see my father?” I said.
“Hopefully you’ll soon understand how important family can be,” said Ralph.
“So, I was right about the two of you. Tell me, when did you meet with Thorn? Give me that much at least.”
“He found us at the Sutro Bath ruins and we slipped away to talk while you were down in the cave. Didn’t you realize such a sensitive site would be under surveillance?” said Adelaide.
“How did you fool Ilya?”
“We spend our lives lying. You think we can’t keep it going in our heads?” said Adelaide.
“Why did you wait so long before turning us in?”
“Because we struggled with it!” said Ralph.
“As sweet as those college kids were, they never would have accepted Ralph or me as we truly are. You take your whole life for granted, Irina. Think of every simple little thing you can do that we can’t. You go shopping, you walk in the park, you ride the bus. You think those things are boring because you can do whatever you like, whenever you like, and nobody would scream or shoot you or lock you away. In Ivan’s world we will fit with everyone else. There is a better future for us if
The Compendium
is completed,” said Adelaide, pointing between her and Ralph and around to Ilya and me.
“You make it sound like I live the life of a spoiled brat. I don’t. My life is hard too. Even if I had it easy and your life proved near impossible, you don’t have the right to take out the rest of the human race.”
“There’s no point in debating this. The decision has been made and we all have to live with it,” said Ralph. Gravel crunched behind him.
“Time’s up,” said Noel.
She dropped a wrapped sandwich in front of me and reached behind me to untie the rag tightly bound around my wrists. Ralph and Adelaide walked away and Noel closed the van’s back doors one after the other.
I kicked at Ilya over and over until I worried I’d broken the bones in his calf. I untied his wrists as well and shook his shoulders. He flopped like a rag doll. I gave in and unwrapped my sandwich. As I ate, muffled voices rose and fell outside the van. I couldn’t make out the words, but I heard Thorn’s voice. A sudden slam against the side of the van startled me and I jumped in my seat, dropping my sandwich.
“Don’t make a mess in here. You’ll stink up the place.” Ilya sat up groggily.
“What do you mean there isn’t a spare?” roared Thorn from right outside the van.
“You’re awake! Finally! Thank God!” I hissed.
“He thinks we’ve got a flat tire,” said Ilya wearily.
“We’ve got to get out of here! They’re taking us to Ivan. They killed the Berkeley kids and left everyone else.”
“Aw, shit, really? Noel’s spider got me before I could say or do anything.”
“I’m sure that’s the reason they took you and Faith and Bruno first. Nellie could have defended herself too.”
“You keep forgetting to use your telekinesis when the need arises.”
“Damn, you’re right. Damn it!”
“Do you know where we are? I can send an image to Cole or Jonah. It’ll be hard, but I know their minds, so I can probably pick them out even from hours away.”
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, that’s where we are! On our way to Ivan, remember!” I hissed.
“Pick up your sandwich. Touch the wrapper and see if you can get a vision about where they bought it.”
“You’re a genius!” Ilya grinned, as I picked up my lunch. “Now get inside my head so you can see what I see.”
My partially unwrapped sub sandwich had a paper wrapper. I closed my eyes. The paper felt smooth and slightly waxy against my fingertips as I turned it over, passing from hand to hand as I concentrated on the sandwich being made. The blackness of my eyelids disappeared and I stood next to Noel in a sandwich parlor.
“Lettuce on all of them. No hot peppers,” said Noel. I scanned my surroundings in the shop, a standard franchise. Nothing gave away our location. I focused trying to back myself out of the shop.
I felt a light pull as my perspective drifted backwards, up and out of the sandwich shop, hovering above a sign for Sage Hills Shopping Center. I dropped the sandwich.
“They were somewhere called Sage Hills. I saw the outside of the mall, but I didn’t recognize the area. I’m sure Nellie can find the mall if you show it to Cole.”
“Good. But there’s no telling how long ago they bought these sandwiches. We need to know where we are now, and ideally, where we’re headed.” Mostly talking to himself, Ilya closed his eyes as though listening. Voices murmured angrily outside and stopped.
“Thorn is leaving. They don’t want to risk calling a tow truck and getting a third party involved. He’s angry because he has to run back to a town called Pleasanton. We’re supposed to make Bakersfield by sundown and we won’t at this rate. He mentioned the ‘I-5’ which must be this highway, but he keeps thinking of it as a ‘freeway’,” said Ilya.
“What does Ivan want with a psychic when he’s got access to a mind reader?” I said, smiling.
“I’ll send the images to Cole and hope for the best. You might be impressed now, but if you remember, interpreting what I send–especially over long distance–isn’t exactly conversational,” said Ilya.
I remembered seeing his apparition outside a culvert in Victoria’s Inner Harbour and my heart sank. Cole could easily misunderstand where we were and what happened to us.
“There’s not much else we can do.” I took a bite of my sandwich and passed it to my brother.
The back door of the van clacked open and Noel peered through the opening. She frowned at both of us and thrust out her forearm. Her spider tattoo swelled up and off her arm, leaping to Ilya.
“No! You don’t have to–” I stopped short to turn my head away from the repulsive arachnid as it leapt at me. Fangs pierced my neck and sleep smothered me.
We were rolling down the road again when I awoke. Ilya slept. Noel sat in the back with us, scratching away at a Sudoku book.
“You’re a stubborn one.” Noel didn’t look up from her book.
“I’m not trying to be,” I said.
A loud CRACK hit the back of the van and we all slid towards the doors.
“Sonofabitch!” Noel threw her book down and knelt in front of the back window. “Assholes,” she said to herself as she watched something pass around beside us.
The van stopped hard with a
SQUEEEEEEE
sending us all flying to the front. Noel tumbled slid halfway through the curtains. Ilya and I hit the driver and passenger seats.
“Fuckin’ hell!” Noel untangled herself from the curtains and crawled into the front passenger seat. A rumbling growl came from the driver’s seat. The door opened and shut. Noel scrambled out through the passenger side.
Somehow Ilya stayed asleep. I wriggled back out of the cloth strips binding my wrists. I untied Ilya and crept to the back door. I ventured a glance outside the window. We were stopped on the side of a highway. Jonah’s face came around the corner and I let out a cry of shock.
A surge of flame whooshed beside us as Jonah opened the door. “It’s just Thorn and the tattooed girl, but Cole and Josh have their hands full.”
I grabbed him and kissed him hard on the lips, more a gesture of gratitude than passion. “Her name is Noel. Stay with Ilya. He’s still asleep.” I pushed past Jonah and hopped out onto the road. I had to find a huge rock.
Cars veered around Faith and Noel as the former shot targeted streams of fire here and there at the bird, spider, and bobcat trio guarding the latter.
I looked farther up the road in time to see Josh deflect one of Thorn’s darts. Cole was nowhere in sight. I had to act.
The ditch along my side of the road spilled with trash and weeds in either direction. I scanned the hillside and found my target. A head-sized piece of loose bedrock.
I willed the rock up into the air, needlessly guiding it with my hands. I knew I could do it with my mind alone, but my arms helped me to focus. I flung it at Thorn’s head. He dodged effortlessly.
I retrieved the rock remotely and this time sent it into the back of Noel’s head as hard as I could. The blow knocked her forward into the air and face first onto the road. Her animals fell to the ground too. As blood pooled out of the back of Noel’s head, her animals deflated, losing all their color until they were no more than puddles of skin on the pavement.
Faith looked at me, eyes full of shock. I turned around to see Cole wielding a road sign like an axe. He struck Thorn in the gut, severing the man in two. Blood gushed out onto the road. Cars streamed past while rubbernecked passengers stared in disbelief.
“Is everyone all right?” said Cole.
“We’ve got to go. Now! We’re going to have cops on our tail fast!” I said. Jonah was suddenly next to me holding Ilya like a sleeping child.
“Put Ilya in the back of my car. Faith, go with them. Nellie and Bruno are in the Jeep,” said Cole.
“I’ll go in the Jeep,” I said to Jonah. He looked drained, but I kissed his cheek anyway.
“Double back to Pleasanton and head into that park,” Josh said to Cole as they ran for their respective vehicles.
I ran to Josh’s Jeep and hopped into the front passenger seat. I looked back at Nellie and Bruno. I smiled at them.
“You look chipper for a recent kidnapping victim, Irina,” said Nellie.
“I’m free now, so there’s a lot to celebrate.”