Jeremy Chikalto and the Demon Trace (Book III of The Hazy Souls) (14 page)

Maren knitted her brows. “A flying bear? Are
you sure?”

“Yes
—
and there were other animals too.”
The boy sobbed.

Maren looked at Frisky. “I sent Lyrna to
find Jeremy for me. He should have been here by now.”

Just then the compound's alarm system
activated, and there was shouting from outside. Machine guns
rattled and the rooftop artillery boomed. They ran to the window
and looked in horror as the compound's defenses were routed by a
swarm of animals descending from the gray sky, seemingly impervious
to all weapons. It was like an entire zoo was revolting against the
humans.

A rhinoceros landed on a soldier shooting at
it, and crushed him into the ground. A lion roared and pounced on a
fleeing woman. She held her hands up, but he mauled her and tore
her apart.

Maren gasped and fell back, but Ren was
there to catch her.

“I thought Jeremy said the animal spirits
were good?” Ren set Maren upright.

“They were,” said Maren.

Chapter 28

Mountain of Ash

Wantoro finished boarding up his window. His
small, clean room seemed more claustrophobic than usual.

Raaychila waited in the hallway to hear from
Maren. “Any word from Jeremy?”

Maren rounded the bend and jogged towards
Raaychila. “Not yet. I'm telling you, Lyrna was sane when I last
saw her. Those are not Jeremy's animals.”

Wantoro huffed by Maren with purpose. “I
need more nails.” He disappeared down the staircase.

Tina slid around the corner and rapped her
acrylic nails on the wall. “If Jeremy doesn't get here soon, we
have to move without him.”

“But he'll know what to do about the
animals,” said Raaychila.

“My dad said a camp further inland is
getting overrun by refugees. These animals are scattering people
everywhere. We have to move soon.”

“And where will we go?” asked Raaychila
indignantly.

“We'll go to where Jeremy
will go
—
to
Mantel's Maze,” said Tina.

The moment felt pregnant, about to burst,
and then reality started to slow like a record winding down.
Everything felt heavier. They groped at the air, and then
everything began to warble. Their eyes rocked back and forth as if
they were in REM, and visions began to stream in. Then, as suddenly
as it began, it ended, and sound and sight returned to normal, but
the world was altered.

Maren lay crumpled on the floor,
dreaming.

She was floating in the sky and the sun was
on her back. She cast a great shadow over the Earth. In her hands,
she held an ancient book of poetry. She held it up to decipher the
title and it crumbled into dust and blew away. Another book
appeared in its place. It was Milraan, the religious text of the
Vhasper Clan, natives of Failrun. Then it too crumbled in her
hands. Another book, the Bible, appeared, and it too turned to dust
when she brought it to her nose. The scene repeated over and over
again, until a mountain of ash rose beneath her and met her feet.
She sank into the dust, stretching her arms up overhead.

“What the hell was that?” said Tina. She
helped Maren to her feet and brushed Maren's long blonde hair from
her face. “Hey!” Tina slapped at Maren's cheeks.

“Am I...?” Maren wiped her forehead. She had
scraped it on the edge of a desk when she fell. Blood was on her
hand. She wiped it on her black yoga pants.

Just then, something bashed against the
boarded window, splintering the wood. And again. The boards and
glass parted, and a raccoon with wild eyes burst through,
screeching and clawing at the air. Wantoro grabbed a lamp and
smashed it on the raccoon, but the raccoon simply fluffed up and
hissed, unaffected by the blow. Everyone backed up, and the critter
scurried down the hallway.

“Follow me!” Tina ran in the direction of
the raccoon “We'll load everyone into the tanks!”

General Forero and
Anna
—
Tina's
mother
—
met with
Tina, Maren, Frisky, Ren, Wantoro, Raaychila, and Mateo outside. A
flock of spirit animals were circling overhead. A couple of dead
shrubs had caught on fire and smoke began to fill the air, adding
to the chaos. As a man was running back towards the Victorian home,
a swarm of spirit animals dove downwards in formation, led by a
horse. They descended on him in a frenzy like piranhas.

Tina took advantage of the distraction and
ran to the front gate of the perimeter fence to a large gray tank.
“Get in!” Tina jumped into the hatch just as a huge gust of wind
sent debris flying across the yard.

“Where are you going?” shouted General
Forero. He chased after her, and dodged a torn sign post that
whipped past his head.

“I know of somewhere safe! Somewhere the
animals can't go!” She didn't know if that was true, but she knew
that that was the only other place where they might reunite with
Jeremy.

A spirit animal dove towards Frisky, and
Maren yanked her forward. The spirit animal turned and swooped
towards an old woman, who was fleeing in the opposite direction.
Maren and Frisky ran a few more feet, than climbed in the tank
next, followed by Ren.

“We'll get in this one!” shouted Wantoro,
and he threw open the hatch of the second tank.

“Wait, you're going too?” General Forero
turned and looked at his fortress, now in ruin. The left wall of
his beautiful Victorian was on fire and spirit animals were
dragging bodies out by the dozen.

“Yes!” said Wantoro, as he helped Raaychila
into the tank. “Get as many as you can to follow us. Or they can
stay here and die.”

Each tank could fit roughly five to six
people. The tanks had been stripped of everything non-essential.
Even the original plush seating had been ripped up and replaced
with wooden planks. General Forero had been worried about defending
a base, not escaping one. “This is suicide,” said Frisky as the
tank rolled forward. She gripped the metal in front of her for
support.

“Ren, you've driven this thing, help me
navigate!” Tina turned around from the cockpit. “And Frisky, if
you're going to continue to be all doom and gloom, you can walk if
you want to.”

“Watch the road!” yelled Ren. The tank hit a
tall, withered tree; it teetered.

“Reverse!” cried Maren. But another tank was
tailgating them. The dead tree fell and crumbled under the treads.
Then there was a clap like thunder.

“What was that?” said Frisky.

All the trees around them began to teeter
and crash. The tank rolled onward, bulldozing through the debris.
Then beetles emerged from the rotten cores of the trees and covered
the outside of the tanks. The walls of the tank vibrated under the
beating of a million wings, until at last the beetles took to the
sky in search of some new carcass host.

Chapter 29

We're Here

The tank rumbled to a stop in front of what
was left of the Donegall Estate. The privacy fence was long gone.
The grass was replaced with blotches of dried yellow weeds and
dirt. The streets were empty and spirit animals soared ominously in
the darkening sky.

“We're here,” said Tina. “How many tanks do
we have?”

Ren lifted the hatch and popped his head
out. “I'm counting seven, no eight. One's coming around the
corner.” Another tank rolled into sight, its wheels crushing sheets
of metal and rotten plywood.

“Close it!” Frisky grabbed Ren's legs and
pulled him down. The hatch locked back into place.

The other tanks pulled up
onto the Donegall property, and were positioned around the hot
spring
—
a small
pool of water surrounded by a neat stone formation. A plume of
water vapor billowed up from the ground.

“So now what?” asked Frisky. “We're all
that's left?”

“We'll wait for Jeremy,” said Maren. “Maybe
the others will find... other ways to escape?”

Frisky sighed. “We're safe in here. I bet
people are hiding out in the jets.” She leaned forward and tapped
at a peephole. “I don't think the animals can get in here.”

The sky lit up and a lightning bolt
splintered a dead, gnarled tree just left of the tank. It fell on
its side with a great thud and caught fire. More thunder.

Maren closed her eyes and exhaled.

And then there was a knock on the hatch.

“Let him in!” shouted Tina, and Ren jumped
up and threw open the hatch. “Jeremy!”

Frisky smiled despite herself.

Maren looked down at her lap.

Jeremy hopped into the tank and scooched
beside Maren. “Hey,” he said. “Hey!” He reached for her belly and
pressed his hand against it. “Look at me.”

Maren covered her hands over her face.

“What's going on with the animals, Jeremy?”
blurted Frisky.

Jeremy paused, annoyed that his moment was
interrupted by business. “The border between the Haze and Earth's
atmosphere collapsed. I can't hide in the Haze anymore, and the
spirit animals are in some kind of frenzy. And there was this
eagle, and this wind. I just wanted to see Maren.” Jeremy turned to
her, leaned in, and tried to gently pry her hands from her face.
“Talk to me, Maren.”

Tina smacked the back of Jeremy's head, “So
just to clarify, you know that your cute spirit pets are eating
people, right?”

Jeremy winced. “What?”

Maren withdrew her hands from her wet face,
but still wouldn't look at Jeremy. “We should go into Mantel's
Maze.”

Chapter 30

Get Down

Jeremy scrambled up
through the hatch. The last of the clouds dispersed overhead and
starlight pierced the hazy sky, which had taken on a soft purple
hue. The spirit animals were far above the tanks, flying like
shooting stars across the sky. “Maren, you
will
talk to me. Just let me see the
animals. I don't think they've spotted us here yet. Oh, hey!
There's my dad.”

Frisky shook her head, exasperated, as
Jeremy's shoe kicked her in the cheek on his way up. Frisky snapped
the hatch shut behind him. “He's not taking this seriously.”

Maren opened the hatch again and poked her
head out. “Get us into Mantel's Maze and then find Lyrna. I don't
feel safe with these animals around.” Maren pointed to the hot
spring and it sprayed steam in response. “Jeremy, it's active. We
should go down now.”

“You really want to go down there again?”
Jeremy frowned at the bubbling pool. “Hold on a second. Let me see
if it's working.” Jeremy jumped into the hot spring and the
membrane parted for him. He floated down the familiar shoot and
after the thick clouds of water vapor cleared, he could see the
sides of the tunnel lit up by otherworldly torches. He drifted for
a time, stretching out his awareness, and when he felt reasonably
assured, he glided back up and landed on the scorched grass. “Well,
I don't sense any spirit animals down there,” said Jeremy. “Maybe
they can't go in for some reason. I don't know if it's going to be
any better.”

Wantoro climbed out of his tank. “I'll go
down first with Raaychila. Just guide us down nice and steady, if
you will, and we'll wait at the bottom.”

Jeremy nodded at his father, proud to be of
brave stock.

“Folks,” Jeremy rose slightly in the air and
emanated a blue aura. “Everyone lift up your hatch and listen!” he
yelled. “Now, you've seen what I'm capable of at this point. I can
fly,” he took to the sky and then landed gently on the ground, “I
can zap,” he shot a lightning bolt behind him, “and I look good
doing it.”

Tina snickered.

“So here's the plan,” he
used his diaphragm to project the words. “We're all going to jump
into that hot spring,” he pointed. “We'll do this in an orderly
fashion. The descent is safe
—
you'll float down. Trust me. My
parents are going in first.”

He had to dislodge some of the surrounding
stones to make room for his mother's wheelchair. The portal to the
Maze widened for her, and Jeremy helped his parents down the
passageway. The chute opened up to the underground Maze—the
graveyard chamber. Jeremy set his parents down and scanned the rows
of headstones.

Meanwhile, on the surface, everyone sat in
their tanks and waited. The seconds ticked by.

Maren pressed her eye to a slit and peered
out. The air outside looked still. “Think we should line people
up?”

“Let's wait for Jeremy,” said Frisky. “I'd
just... feel more comfortable.”

“It's really easy to go down, it just takes
a leap of faith,” said Maren.

“Better than getting sucked into an ocean
vortex, I hope?” Tina laughed, but when she met Frisky's eyes,
added, “that's how I got to Mantel's Maze. I'm sure going through
boiling water is much better.”

Maren took a deep breath and then opened the
tank's hatch. “As soon as Jeremy comes up from the hot spring,
we'll begin emptying the tanks,” she called out. “Our tank will go
first, and we'll work clockwise.”

The hatch on the tank opposite the hot
spring opened up and the head of a man popped out. “We've been
talking in here and we think we should just stay in the tanks.
We'll have runners forage for food and water. The tanks are safe.
Makes no sense to go underground.”

“What about the earthquakes?” A woman's head
poked out of the next tank over. “We'll be buried alive! I'm sorry,
but I'm not going to put my faith in 'Chippendale.'”

“Everyone, get down!” Mateo was looking out
from the tank beside Maren's, and he pointed behind her. “A swarm's
coming!” In the distance, a cloud of spirit animals approached like
a nest of angry wasps, flying close to the ground. In the wake of
the swarm, dirt and dust swirled like tornadoes. Everyone closed
their hatches and bunkered down.