Flare (21 page)

The voice was panicked, but genuine, so they proceeded through the dark tunnel and arrived at another room, and it looked like it was the main chamber of the tent. An old man came through a flap in the wall, panicked and sobbing. He looked as if he had been awake for five days, and tears mixed with sweat to give his cheeks a greasy shine. The man was handsome, with a full head of grey hair and smooth, ruddy skin, but he was a mess now as he stared at them with watery, bloodshot eyes.

Those tears are real,
thought Ash.
He might be unkempt, but he’s not insane.

“Chris is in the back,” said the man, still sobbing. “B-b …”

The man couldn’t get the words out, so Heather stepped up and took on the role of the doctor in the ER, calming the delirious patient.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” said Heather. “Tell me what’s wrong with Chris.”

“B-b-b …
burned.
”

The old man collapsed into inconsolable tears, and Ash wondered if Chris was the man’s child. Heather knelt down and patted his shoulder, but she was unfazed. She looked down at the man to make sure he was okay and then looked up at Ash and Courtney.

“I’ll take a look at Chris,” she said before nodding towards the old man. “Take care of him.”

“Can you help?” asked the man.

“I’m a doctor,” said Heather. “I’ll … I’ll see what I can do.”

/***/

Heather came out ten minutes later, and the old man had calmed down. He was still sad and in shock, but he had quieted. Heather knelt down and looked at him calmly. She had given this talk many times before.

“First of all, what’s your name, sir?” she asked.

“Leo,” said the old man. “Leo Wilcott.”

“Leo,” said Heather, “I’ve examined your friend Chris, and he’s in very serious trouble. Burns over his entire—”

“
Her
,” corrected Leo. “It’s a she. Chris is my wife.”

Heather nodded, both shamed by the misstep and sorry for the situation that had abetted it.

“I apologize,” said Heather. “Your wife is alive, but she doesn’t have much time remaining. I gave her sedatives so that she’s no longer in pain, but she won’t be alive much longer.”

“No … no,” said Leo. “She can be helped.”

“I don’t believe she can, Leo.”

Leo paced around the tent in denial, muttering that his wife would live. Ash shot Heather a glance that asked
should we be worried?
Heather put up her hands to say
this could get out of hand, but it’s okay now, so give it a moment.
Leo kept denying that his wife was sick, so Heather tried a different tactic.

“Care to explain what happened?” asked Heather nonconfrontationally. “Could you tell us the events leading up to your wife’s … injury?”

Leo gathered himself and then spoke.

“We were approaching you. We have these tents and we can travel. They gave us tents, a double tent with a connector, because there are two of us. My wife was inspecting your vehicle when the sun came up. It blinded her, and then she fell before I was able to drag her back in.”

Leo rolled up his sleeve with a wince, and he showed a burnt right arm.

“She can’t die, not out here, not like this,” said Leo. “I don’t care if she looks bad, she’s alive … and she’s my wife.”

“Leo, she …” said Heather, but she was at a loss for words.

“You guys have a vehicle, a big one that works,” said Leo. “You can take us to town, take us to the hospital.”

“Leo, no,” said Heather, incredulous. “That’s not the right thing to do—”

“You’re a doctor,” said Leo, getting angry. “You gotta do this. You signed that Hippocratic oath.”

“But I can’t do this,” said Heather. “
We
can’t do this.”

Heather looked at the group for support, and Courtney spoke up.

“We’re headed another way, Leo,” said Courtney. “And there are no hospitals.”

“There are hospitals,” said Leo.

“There are no hospitals anywhere,” said Courtney.

Leo looked at the group and then back at the room where his wife lay. The burnt woman moaned twice, and Ash wondered if Heather had any more pain pills to give her.

“Then take us with you,” said Leo.

There was a pause, and then Heather spoke up.

“We don’t think we should do that,” said Heather. “We’re headed in a …
unique
direction.”

“You’re headed to the Salvation,” said Leo.

Everyone was caught unaware by Leo’s assertion. Ash didn’t want to bring this unstable, sweaty man and his wife along for the ride, and guessed that Heather and Courtney didn’t either.

“Perhaps,” said Heather.

“Bullshit,” said Leo, taking on a dark, steady tone. “You’re headed there and I know, because I’ve been there.”

The group was surprised, and they looked at Leo in silence, not knowing what to make of him.

“You’ve been there?” asked Ash, breaking the quiet.

“Yeah,” said Leo. “We’ve
both
been there, and that’s how we got this tent and …”

Leo looked around and then his face straightened.

“I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the Salvation,” said Leo. “You just gotta deliver my wife to a hospital.”

The group paused to think, and then Heather spoke.

“We can’t promise that, Leo,” said Heather. “We can’t promise that because there are no hospitals—”

“Then take us somewhere!” yelled Leo, shaking. “You’re a doctor, you can’t just leave us here!”

“Leo, I have seen victims of this flare, and I can say with one hundred percent certainty that your wife is beyond repair,” said Heather. “She cannot be saved. If you need medication to help ease her pain—”

“Bullshit!” yelled Leo.

Leo bent down to a bag on the ground, pulled out a knife and pointed it at the group while blocking their exit. Ash cursed himself for not bringing the weapons they had collected in the warden’s house, but Courtney had brought hers and was now pointing a pistol along with her flashlight at Leo. Leo noticed the gun, and while breathing heavily put his knife up to the roof of the tent.

“You’re gonna take us,” said Leo. “Shoot me if you want, but I’ll rip a hole in this tent and we’ll all die.”

The group paused. Courtney’s hands were quivering, but she continued pointing her gun at Leo.

“Maybe this is the way,” said Leo with a slight smile. “Maybe this is the way we go out. Maybe this—”

Boom!
Heather dove into Leo’s midsection and he made a wheezing sound as he hit the floor.

“Go!” she yelled.

Courtney went and grabbed hold of Ash, pulling him towards the RV. She pulled him through the dark tunnel and opened the door to the vehicle, and he crawled in. She then went back into the tent and came back with Heather.

“Now give me the keys,” said Courtney. “We’re driving blind.”

Heather gave her the keys and Courtney closed the door. Courtney jumped into the driver’s seat and started the ignition. She gently pressed the gas and the car lurched forward ten feet. She looked back at the group.

“We’re safe,” said Courtney. “I’m gonna get the pipe out so we can get some more distance from them, maybe a mile or two if possible. But we’re safe.”

Ash looked at Heather, who was sweating and looked dazed. He looked down and saw that she had a cut in her abdomen where Leo had knifed her.

I hope Leo turns out to be right … we might need a hospital after all.

/***/

Courtney anticipated the sunset, and they left again at dusk while the light was still in the air. Ash drove this time, speeding away at first and then slowing down to a reasonable pace. They had made distance between themselves and Leo, and there was no way that he’d ever catch up on foot. Heather’s condition was stable, but she needed attention.

“It’s not deep,” she said, grimacing. “But I need to pack the wound, and that takes a lot of gauze, more than we have here, and I also need some other supplies. We have to stop by a town, maybe find an abandoned pharmacy.”

They looked at the map, and there was nothing directly on the road. Courtney pointed to a town up ahead and east of them.

“I know this area pretty well, and I know this place here,” she said. “It should have a pharmacy. Probably a few.”

They analyzed the map and realized they couldn’t get to the town, at least not in the RV. It was on a road parallel to them, perhaps ten miles away. In order for them to drive there, they’d have to add hundreds of miles to their journey. The roads were adjacent, but not connected.

“Drive up here, and then park,” said Courtney. “We’ll walk the ten miles, get what we need and come back.”

/***/

Heather pulled Ash aside while Courtney was preparing her backpack. Heather spoke in secrecy, or at least as close to secrecy as she could.

“I’ll be fine by myself,” said Heather. “I need you to go with her, and to take the lead.”

Heather looked at Courtney and then at Ash once more.

“I want my life in
your
hands,” said Heather. “Not just hers.”

“You can trust her—”

“I know I can, but I want to trust you first,” said Heather. “I’ve written a list of what I need, and I’m giving it to you. You keep the pace up, you stay alive for me. I like her, and I know she’s good, but it’s …”

Heather was at a loss for words and trailed off.

“I don’t mean this as a slight to your friend. Tell me what I mean to say,” said Heather. “Start me off, at least.”

Ash gathered his thoughts, and then spoke.

“In times of severe stress, people often bond together,” said Ash. “We happen to have bonded with Courtney. But there’s another level deeper than that, one that transcends simply facing adversity together
,
and it’s something that you and I share. Whatever it is, it’s deep enough that you can rely on it now when you’re wounded.”

“That’s it,” said Heather with a small laugh. “That’s what I meant to say.”

Ash nodded in return and thought about his words for a moment. He thought about how Heather had spent her life working under stress in hospitals, and she had bonded with the wrong men because of it, time and time again. He also thought of all the times that he had relied on Heather, and how she had never asked for anything in return. Perhaps their connection came from sharing an entire life together; perhaps it came from sharing a womb together too. But he knew what she meant, and he knew what was at stake.

“We’ll get you what you need,” said Ash. “Courtney and I will do this for you together, and I’ll make sure it happens. We should be back before the sunrise, but if not we’ll be there the following evening. I promise this, so wait for me.”

Ash hugged Heather and then began to pack.

/***/

Ash carried water and food in his backpack, while Courtney carried a suite of lead curtains and navigational equipment. If they got stuck out there Ash knew they’d need to wrap themselves in the thick drapes, so they brought more than they needed, despite the added weight.

They walked across the dry chaparral, and though Ash kept the pace up, he was no match for Courtney. She bounded over the land like a gazelle, traversing the terrain as effortlessly as a kid running across a lawn. Ash wanted to match her speed but knew it was best to keep his own pace.
Taking the lead
wasn’t always about getting there first.

Courtney paid no mind to him and whenever she skipped on ahead, she’d be waiting with something in her hand, squatting down and focused completely on whatever she was holding. After an hour of walking, Ash found her holding a dry, dusty green leaf. It was attached to a flat plant rooted into the ground that shot its stalks upward for an inch and then let them flop over the earth and mingle with the dirt.

“I can’t quite make sense of how nature rebounds from this, even in a small way,” said Courtney.

Ash continued to walk because he wanted to keep the pace up for Heather. Courtney detached one leaf from its base and followed his momentum forward.

“This is an extinction event,” said Courtney. “Maybe it’s man-made, maybe it’s just bad luck, could be aliens for all we know.”

True,
thought Ash.
After seeing what we’ve seen we can’t discount anything, not even aliens.

“But wherever it came from, I don’t quite get it,” said Courtney. “I mean, it’s the equivalent of a thousand nuclear bombs scouring the surface every day. Some plants still survive, but I don’t understand how.”

“We’ve had extinction events throughout history,” said Ash. “Something always finds a way to survive.”

“This is different,” said Courtney. “It’s like we’re being sterilized, and yet … things live through it. More than just plants and insects, too. Sometimes I go out at dusk and see animals in the distance, and not only the ones that can hide in homes, like rats and cats.”