Page 3 of Ablaze

I reach the bathroom and turn the knob to find a dark room. The room is empty, and I step inside. The smell hits me, and it’s a mixture of barf, piss and feces. I reflexively gag and start to breathe through my mouth. I lock the door behind me. I’ve gotten used to doing a lot in the dark. I take the water out of my backpack as fast as I can and swig the liquid into my body. The smell and the heat in the room start to make me feel sick so I know I have to go back out. I hide my water back in my bag, unlock the door and step back into the hallway. I breathe fresher air and wipe the sweat from my forehead.

I make my way back into the store and find a place to sit down in an aisle. I can’t stare at the mom and daughter duo all day. I have things to do that I don’t want others to see, but I must do this in daylight hours. I sit in my aisle and wait for the others to fall asleep. When I can’t hear any movement or talking, I take the map out of my bag and carefully unfold it to the section I need. I’m careful not to make much noise because this item is almost as valuable as water. When I bartered for it outside of Reno, it cost me the high price of 10 diamonds. Not many people had paper maps available before the disaster, so they became a high-demand item.

People with cash couldn’t even trade for them. What does anyone have use for paper money? Paper money is useless now. I’ve literally wiped my ass with it in the woods. It’s all about bartering for goods, food and clean water now. My parents were right about that in their letter. They knew that money would do no good; they knew that people would want items. They knew that giving me a giant sack of diamonds would get me things I needed and hopefully, keep me safe at the same time.

I look around the room to make sure no one can see me in the aisle. If my math is correct, I’m about 45 miles from the border and another 100 miles from my destination. I quickly fold the map back up and get it into my backpack before anyone sees. My diamond supply is getting low, and I can’t risk having nothing to trade. I’m going to have to walk the rest of the way there or at least a large portion. I divide the miles into days and try to decide how many miles I can cover in a day.

The most I’ve ever been able to cover before sunrise is twenty-eight. I’ve heard talk of others walking up to fifty which is insane to me. I don’t know how they can do it or if it’s even true. If I can keep the pace up of my personal record, I’ll be there in five days. I don’t know if I can do it, but I’m going to have to try. I’ve got to mentally psych myself up. I’m really going to have to walk it. I’m going to have to get a lot of rest during the days to be up for 10 hours in the darkness each night. I loop my arms through the straps of my backpack and hold it on my chest. I curl up on the dirty, white tile floor and close my eyes in the hopes of getting some rest. I have no idea when I’ll have a roof over my head again.

Sadie

A loud noise startles me awake. I sit up and look around the room. I don’t know how long I’ve been asleep, but darkness has fallen, and my aisle in the store is empty. My shirt clings to my body from sweat. I rub my eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them. I stand up and can see the two men at the front door letting people out. It hasn’t been dark for long then, so I haven’t lost too much time. When I walk, I try to start moving as dusk is falling.

I can overhear the two guards talking about the town I’m in and try not to get caught ear hustling as I get my bag together. I take a better look at my surroundings, and it looks like I’m one of the last people inside. I hear the guards again talking about a gas leak and a countdown but can’t make out the whole conversation. I wonder what they know, how they know and what it means. I try to pick up everything, but with the noise inside and outside it’s hard to make out what they are saying.

I move my sleeve and check the time; it’s 7:30 p.m. That means I’ve got about ten hours to move. I flip my backpack to my back and head for the doors. I take one last look around me and notice the mother and daughter duo have left. I don’t know why, but the sight of them earlier stirred an emotion I didn’t want to identify. I think about my own mother and wonder if she’s alive, safe and thinking about me too. I wonder if I’ll see her again. I have to hang on to the dream that she’s okay and that I’ll see her one day again soon. If not, I don’t know what else I would do because I don’t have too much else to live for in the world.

As I walk out the door, one of the guards reaches out for me. He grabs my arm, stopping me in my tracks. His grip on my arm is firm and tight. I have no doubt I’ll have a bruise there from his fingers. He looks me straight in the eye and says, “If you want to see past sunrise, you’ll need to get off flat land.”

I take his warning as a threat and get out the door as fast as I can once he releases my arm. I’ve heard warnings before in other towns and whispers of things going on in other parts of the country. I’ve heard of towns testing weapons and odd occurrences. No one has gotten any confirmed information, so it could all be lies. I keep my mouth shut but always listen to what they have to say. When I was making my way out of California, I kept hearing news that the Dome was destroyed, no one survived and it’s miles and miles of flat wasteland now.

If there’s one thing I know, knowledge is power. One rumor I heard is that it wasn’t a natural disaster but an attack, and that’s why the power has never come back on. Not many people from the Dome travelled to the west coast before the disaster, so it’s not like there’s a ton of people around to ask. Dome residents weren’t popular before the disaster, and now even less so. I never let anyone know the Dome is where I was born and raised. I’d be in even more danger if that information ever got out. When people randomly ask, I tell them I was traveling from the east when the disaster happened and was on the west coast. Luckily, not many have asked.

Now that the sun is down, it feels much cooler outside. The wind blows, and it causes a chill to run through me from my damp clothes. I comb my hair with my hands and adjust my ponytail. I take in the surroundings and realize the gas station is completely exposed with no nearby buildings or trees. It makes it an ideal place in the daylight but a sitting duck at night. I walk as fast as I can toward trees in the distance that appear to follow the mountain range out of town. The plus to being on such flat land at the moment is being able to see ahead so far, even in the dark. The negative is that I’m exposed. Getting to the trees will help hide me from trouble. I haven’t had to walk in a while, and my feet are still aching from last night. I haven’t been alone for a few weeks, and silence has become unfamiliar. There’s usually been someone chatting or at least the noises of their breathing to lay a layer of comfort to walking at night. Tonight, I won’t get any such comfort and probably not any night moving forward.

I check my watch, and the time tells me that I’ve been walking for 4 hours. My feet are throbbing now, but I’ve made it to the trees. They feel like two bloody stumps inside my shoes. I find a large rock to sit on outside the tree line to my feet. I have about 6 more hours before sunrise… before the odd threat from the locals becomes a reality. I untie the laces around my right foot to give it some relief. My foot is covered in blisters, and I can feel my pulse in it. Where’s a horse or a large animal when you need one, or better, a microbus like the one that I paid ten diamonds to ride on to get me out of California and into Nevada? Knowing that I have to get up, I tie my shoe back up, take a drink of water and plunge into the trees. I’ve got to get through this tree line and up to the summit of the mountain before sunlight.

Hours pass, and I’ve made it deep enough into the tree line that I’m protected from trouble. I should make it far enough away to avoid the local threat. It’s been a steep climb, and my hands are aching from holding on to tree branches and rocks while trying to climb. I pause to look at the sky and catch my breath. A tree branch snaps a few feet away from me, and I freeze in place. The sound came from behind me. I’m paralyzed with fear and don’t know if I should turn around to see what caused the noise or run.

I don’t have to wait long to find out what made the noise because when I turn around, I can see it was a person who broke the tree branch. They’ve acted quickly and made up their mind… they are racing toward me. Fight or flight takes hold of me, and I’m now running up the steep terrain. My feet slide on the dry leaves, and I curse myself in my mind to stay upright. I dare to look back, to get a glimpse of the person chasing me, and what I see makes me run harder.

The guy running behind me is literally a beast. He’s got to be at least six feet tall and all muscle. He’s practically foaming at the mouth he’s so enraged. His large size is the only thing keeping the distance between us. He can’t run as fast as I can. He’s breathing heavy and from the look of his disheveled clothes, he’s been tracking me in the woods for some time. He must have been hiding out, and I stumbled into his area. My legs are starting to ache, and I’m slowing down. My lungs are burning as I suck in the cool air. I scramble trying to see if there’s anywhere to hide. It’s all thick trees, fallen leaves and dried pinecones. Knowing I can’t keep this uphill chase going forever, I start to panic. This is the first real immediate threat I’ve faced all alone. I see a tree ahead that’s large enough for me to hide behind. I’ve got enough distance from the beast that he might just pass me by.

I duck behind the tree and try to get my breathing under control. I’m sucking in air so hard that people miles away can probably hear me. The fear I feel when I hear him getting closer stops me from making any noise. I can hear every step he takes as he’s making no effort to hide his presence. The noise of crushing pinecones and leaves rustling gets louder and louder as he approaches. I only have a few seconds before he’ll be right up on me. I look around for anything that I can use to defend myself.

My eyes hone in on a large rock, and I try to reach it without coming into his line of sight. The rock is heavy to lift from the ground, and I have to hold it with both hands. My arms strain to hold the rock above my head as I lean back against the tree, perched and waiting to strike.

When I see him out of the corner of my eye, he’s about two steps in front of me beside the tree. I know this is the best shot I’ve got at surprising him. I leap out and hit him on the head with the rock I’m holding. With a giant thud, his body hits the ground, and a silver knife falls from his grip beside his hand. I drop the rock to the ground. My emotions get the best of me, and I start to sob, I’ve got tears streaming down my face and I’m shaking uncontrollably like a leaf. I bend down to check his pulse at the neck to see if he’s still alive. He definitely is. I don’t know how long he’ll be knocked out, but I have no plans of being here when he wakes up.

I pick up his silver knife and see that its handle is carved with the Dome symbol. I haven’t seen one of these since I was living in the Dome. I close the knife and place it in my backpack. It may come in handy later in more ways than one. I can use it for protection and for bartering. I shove my hand into his jeans pocket to see if he’s carrying an identification card or anything else worth taking for trading. If this man was willing to kill me, then I’m willing to rob him and not have a guilty conscience about it.

The way his body is laying makes it hard for me to get the wallet out of his pocket. I open it, and a piece of paper falls to the ground. I bend down, pick it up and flip it over. Much to my surprise and bewilderment, my own face is staring back at me. His wallet holds a photo of me. What the hell? I look at the photo of myself, and a sinking feeling begins to set in. He knows who I am, and this encounter isn’t a coincidence. I look at the photo of myself and remember the day it was taken. It was for my adult identification card taken only a few days before I left for San Francisco. I remember my mom was so proud she even started crying at one point.

Now, when I look back at days like that one, I wonder if my mom and dad’s actions were genuine for being in the moment of their daughter growing up or because they knew what was to come. Some days when I think about certain memories, I feel angry. I feel lied to… like a fool. Was everyone in on it except me? Maybe I’ll never know, but looking back at this photo of myself sends a chill down my spine.

I search the rest of the wallet, and he isn’t carrying any identification for himself. I take the photograph and throw his wallet to the ground. I check his other pockets, but they all turn out empty. I take one last look at the man’s face and commit it to memory. When he wakes up, I want to make sure I’m long gone. I quickly start to run away. I want as much distance between us as I can get.

Once I’m far enough away, I slow down to my walking pace and try to make sense of it all. None of it makes sense. Why would this man, a man I’ve never met have my photo in his wallet? Is he from the Dome? Is that why he had a Dome knife? Maybe it was just an item that got traded and ended up in his hands? How would he know where to find me and why would he want to harm me? I can’t make sense of it, and I’m more scared than I’ve ever been. The unanswered questions swirl around my brain, and all I can do is keep walking. Walking and thinking. Paranoid, I am now constantly looking over my shoulder.

Darkness is turning to light, and the sun will rise quickly. I’ve made it to the top of the mountain range and, at the next nightfall, I’ll make my way down the other side which will put me in Utah. From this vantage point, I can see above all the treetops and the town that I walked out of. As I’m looking at the town, a large beam of light bursts out from the center and spreads out in a circle around the town. The light is so bright it makes me close my eyes. It takes a few more seconds before I hear a rumbling sound that accompanies the flash of light.

The ground beneath my feet slightly shakes. I don’t know what that was, but it was nothing good. It looked like some kind of explosion. The mother and daughter duo from the gas station come to mind. I wonder if they are down there and if they are safe. I shake the thought out of my head. I need to focus. I keep walking and start looking for shelter. I’ve got to look out for myself. I can’t be exposed to the daylight for an entire day.

I start making my way down the other side of the mountain and notice a cluster of large boulders. A massive bolder is perched on top of two others. There is a large gap of space underneath that should provide me shade. I crawl under the boulder and my body can fit in between them. This is the best I’m going to find, and my skin will be shielded from direct sunlight. Sunrise is in full swing, and I can see the light hitting the ground all around the boulder. Here I’ll be protected from the sun, but the heat will be intense. I drink my water and know that tomorrow I’ll need to find more. I close my eyes and try to find peace to sleep. I’m not going anywhere for the next ten hours. Hopefully, the man I left behind isn’t moving anywhere either.

Jesse

The sun is disappearing quickly over the Colorado horizon in front of me. I can’t help but gaze into the orange mass as I change into a cleaner t-shirt. I’ve made my way through this week and with tonight’s travel, I should make it into Utah. I have another week of traveling to go but getting closer to finding the girl in the picture fills me with anxiety and fear. I’ve been going all of these months with the sole purpose of finding her. I’ve followed my parent’s instructions exactly. I know it will be my job to keep her safe once I find her, but what else? I’m relying on her to have the answers as to what to do next.

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