Cry For Tomorrow (35 page)

“Hey sis, where do you think we are?” Kelly asked as she slowed to a walk at my side.

“It’s hard to say,” I said as I studied the landscape surrounding us. The pier and some of the closer buildings appeared to be in use by the fishermen, but everything not immediately in the vicinity of the dock had the look of abandonment. Rows of small cottages and even three stories of a ruined condominium had been tumbled from their foundations by a jagged ledge of earth that looked like it had been ripped up and folded back again. Years of wind and rain had softened the edges and melted the earth and rocks, but the scars left behind by the earthquakes that had ravaged this coastline would never completely heal.

“Do you know what I think?” I asked Kelly as I turned in place, studying the area again. “I think we really aren’t all that far from home.” I pointed to the tops of the high rises of ‘Vanta’s old city, visible on the western horizon.

“Great,” Kelly said in relief. “That means we can always hike home if we don’t like what’s going on here.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I tried to get a look at her face to see what she was really thinking, but Kelly had wandered off to the edge of the path to collect a couple of stray sea shells from the sand. I heard the murmur of the men’s voices behind us and decided that it might be a good idea to keep an eye on those two. I did not like all these secret little talks they’d begun having when they thought no one was paying attention. “Hey, Kelly, why don’t you go on ahead with Jake and Jennie? I’ll catch up to you in a bit.”

Ben was already on shore, leaning against the side of a boathouse at the junction of the dock and land. He had a small cell phone jammed against his ear and was obviously deep in conversation with someone. Rainor was likewise occupied, grasping a phone with one hand while securing the nose of the flitter to the dock with the other. Deciding to join Rainor, I took up a line at the rear of the flitter and secured it as well.

“Thanks, that should take care of it,” he said as he dropped the phone into his pack. “That was Pete, he and Karol are expecting us.” He fell in beside me as we headed for shore.

“Great.” I noted the tenseness in the lines of his face and that the muscles in his shoulders were bunched and tight. “How much time do you think we have before the two worlds begin the final stages of merging?”

“Not long.” He held out his hand, offering to help me walk across the swaying dock. I hesitated for a moment, half wondering if he thought I’d somehow become physically incompetent in the last couple of days, but decided that he was just being gallant.

“There have already been a lot of changes just in the last couple of days that most people probably aren’t aware of,” he said when I took his offered hand. He nodded at the horizon and the odd silver and gold hues seeping around the thick cloud layer. “Those color changes in the sky are being caused by the increased seepage of heavy metals into your atmosphere and—”

Whatever he was going to say was forgotten when the world around us suddenly lurched and the air was filled with the snap of electrical current.

“Quake!” someone shouted.

Racing ahead of the waves sloshing over the planks, Rainor and I hit the ground running. We joined the rest of our party where they had gathered between a pair of large dunes. Dusty eagerly greeted me, wiggling and licking my face as I worked my way into the middle of the humans huddled close together for protection against the leaves and small debris blowing on the wind.

This time we were lucky and the tremors lasted only minutes. I looked back to the docks where the flitter and assorted boats were rocking on the churning water but neither they nor the surrounding buildings seemed to have been damaged.

“We need to get moving, we’re running out of time.” Hefting his pack to one shoulder, Rainor made his way back to the narrow lane. We were nearly to the end of the row of warehouses when we heard a loud ruckus of screaming gulls and a terrified shrieking that seemed to be coming from the flock of phantoms that had remained to frolic along the beachfront.

I couldn’t remember having ever heard the phantoms scream like that before.
Something must be terribly wrong!
Exchanging worried glances with Jennie and Jake, I dropped my pack to the ground and drew the sword I was still wearing strapped across my back. I didn’t have to look back to know that my friends had done the same.

“Kelly, stay behind me,” I called to my sister when her long-legged stride brought her even with me. She didn’t answer but I could hear her breathing behind my back as we raced towards the beachfront.

Determined to get there faster than the rambling path through the dunes had been taking us, I followed Jake’s lead, cutting around the sand-scoured nose of a half-submerged automobile and between two towering sand dunes. I couldn’t see the cause of the ruckus until we’d cleared the dunes.

“Oh, gods,” I moaned. My feet seemed to sink into the sand and my knees felt so weak that I could hardly make my legs move. A pair of the pretty sea-serpents like the ones Rainor and I had watched dancing in the channel on our first night of this trek were frolicking in the shallow water directly in the path of the gar-shark cruising through the shallow water only a few yards from shore.

Like the one that had attacked us on under-world, this ghoul had raised its upper body clear of the waves to better stalk its prey. Sensing the imminent danger, the sea-gulls screamed continuously as they darted at the intruder’s head, trying to distract it. Even the school of phantoms that had followed the flitter into over-world remained, swooping in circles, moaning pathetically in an attempt to drive the shark back into the deep. Through all of this, the shark’s intended prey remained oblivious.

“Oh, Sissy, it’s going to kill them,” wailed Kelly.

“We’ll never get there in time,” gasped Jake as I caught up to him and stretched my legs to pass him. Running in sand like this felt like I was trapped in some horrible slow-motion movie. I could see Ben and Rainor—they were racing along the beach several yards ahead of us, but none of us were close enough to get the attention of the love-struck sea creatures.

Realizing that they were not going to reach the serpents in time, the two men stopped running and aimed weapons.

The taser blast fell short and sizzled into the waves. The bullet skimmed the surface and missed its target completely.

“Oh damn!” Out of breath and gasping, I lurched to a stop. Dropping the useless sword, I grabbed for Dusty’s collar as she tried to duck past me, afraid that she would leap into the water to reach the serpents. The weapons fire and commotion on the beach had finally penetrated their simple minds, but their long slender bodies and limbs were tangled together.

“Easy, girl, I’ve got them,” I whispered distractedly to the dog. Pointing the fingers of my free hand, I tried to concentrate, but the shark was closing in on its prey. A moment later the water surrounding the gar-shark responded to the heat of my strike, bubbling like a boiling cauldron.

Startled, the shark reared up above the low waves, trying to twist away from the heat of the water, but its dull black eyes remained focused on the helpless creatures trapped in the shallow water.

Tears were flowing down my cheeks and my arm was shaking from holding it rigid for so long, but I held on until I felt the heat radiating through my arm and out my hand recede and fade away. Sobbing, I dropped to my knees in the wet sand and let my hand fall to my side. Maybe it had been enough. No, the gar-shark was too hungry and the prey was too easy.

Ignoring the heat of the water, the shark dropped back into the waves and lunged toward the serpents that were still splashing and fluttering about in confusion. There was a mad thrashing of water and screams from shore and from the spray of water a tangle of gossamer fins and lavender scales fluttered into the air, and the waves washing ashore were red with blood.

Gulls shrieked madly as they converged on the foaming froth of water and blood, seizing bits and pieces of flesh from the waves. A lone serpent flapped wings, twisting and turning in the wind on the tip of its tail-fin, and the cry sounding on the wind broke the hearts of all who heard.

I wasn’t aware that I was sobbing until Ben’s arms were around me and my tears were soaking the soft fabric of his shirt.

“I’m sorry, baby, you did what you could,” he whispered in my ear. Ignoring the wavelets washing around our knees, he held me tight against him. When the sand finally washed away from under us, threatening to topple us into the water, Ben helped me to my feet.

“Here, let’s see if we can dry your eyes now.” He gently dabbed at the tears and salt spray on my face with a damp handkerchief he’d pulled from his pocket and began leading me back along the beach toward the others.

Tears were still running down Kelly’s cheeks when she threw her arms around me. “I don’t think I can stand it if our world is going to be as brutal as the under-world,” she hiccupped in my ear.

“Me, either,” I whispered back.

Even the dog left chasing gulls and quietly fell in behind us as we headed back to the lane. No one dared look into Rainor’s eyes when he joined us.

When we reached the end of the lane and the top of a small rise, we all paused to catch our breath and stare at the small community laid out before us. The village was comprised of a ramshackle collection of pre-disaster homes and cottages in various stages of repair as well as rows of huts and tents that appeared to have been constructed in haste. In direct contrast to the abandoned harbor, the village square was an ant hill of activity. Everywhere we looked, we saw adults in the bright, colorful costumes favored by the inner-city freaks, running children, and swirling clusters of phantoms.

When we could all breathe again we continued on, following the lane to a large square of green-brown grass that appeared to be a park and gathering place for residents. It might even have been a pleasant place if not for the three great fingers of rock protruding through the surface like the tines of the devil’s trident.

Evidently immune to the image, the villagers swarmed about the stones, even using the shade projected by the massive tines to protect them from the sun.

“Rainor! Glad you made it out—we were worried you wouldn’t be allowed to leave once the Source got her fat hands on what she wanted,” Pete greeted him as he emerged from a group of people gathered on the edge of the square. “See that you also managed to retain the psis, which I’m sure was no small matter.”

“That I did, and more!” Rainor clasped Pete’s extended hand and hugged Karol. “We also managed to acquire Selena’s giant crystal. The rumors were true, she was planning on using it to create an energy matrix to destroy the curtain.”

“Can I see it?” Pete asked. His eyes were bright, like those of a boy that had just found his heart’s desire under the Christmas tree.

“I’ll show you all as soon as we get under some cover here,” Rainor promised as he picked up the pace. He was taking us in the direction of a cottage with a long, covered porch that wrapped around three sides and the big open-sided port at its side.

Suddenly aware of the newcomers and the air of excitement generated by our arrival, the humans, both children and adults, began migrating toward us, and the ever-curious phantoms followed.

“Where did all these phantoms come from? There’s so many of them,” complained Kelly as she pushed an especially inquisitive serpentine away from her. Dusty jumped to help her, snapping at its swinging tail and tearing the filmy fabric.

“We don’t know.” Karol shook her head in exasperation. “It’s been this way almost since Rainor took you into the under-world. We even had to put the younger children in a special area within a fence charged with a low electrical charge to keep them from being hurt by the more attentive ones.”

“Are Merry and Jon okay?” Kelly asked in concern.

“Oh yes, they’ve adjusted really well. They’re with the other children,” Karol assured her. “You can visit with them later, if you’d like.”

“Great, I think I will.”

I was a few strides behind my sister and couldn’t help overhearing her conversation. I’d also been concerned for the younger children and was relieved to hear that they were safe, but they were really not a priority right now. Lengthening my stride, I caught up to Ben at the head of the procession. I’d noticed the way he’d been watching Rainor since we’d arrived in the village. I’d also noticed when the under-worlder had signaled the frogg, warning it to stay close to him. I wasn’t sure why Ben was acting so paranoid but, hey, paranoia was an old friend of mine.

“Were you able to make contact with your headquarters?” I asked, hoping to get some kind of reaction from him.

“Yes, you might say that.” Ben’s face looked tense and his voice cracked with stress, as if the words hurt him. “They were very interested in where I am right now and even more so in how fast they can get their hot little hands on the crystal now that it’s actually on this side.” He threw a worried glance in Rainor’s direction. “Seems like we were right after all, turns out that Selena had promised to deliver an army of ghouls into the control of the Agency in exchange for certain favors, the exact nature of which they do not feel I have the
need to know
. They were already fully aware that Rainor had acquired you and were, in fact, seriously upset that you and the crystal had been removed from Agent Harris’s control.”

“I see. And did they have any further orders for you?”

“Oh yes, of course,” Ben growled. “I am to immediately give them my location and deliver you and the crystal into their hands.”

I stopped walking and stared up at him, searching his face for some clue as to whether I should turn and start running.

“Hey, don’t worry, I didn’t tell them where we are,” he assured me. “My phone is more secure than most, it’ll take them a while to get a lock on where we are—but eventually they will.”

We were nearly to the big porch of the house when the earth began to shake again. I was thrown against Ben, who quickly wrapped his arms around me and held me tight, waiting for the ground to stop moving.