Authors: Kassy Tayler
My vision is returning. It is not my imagination as I kept telling myself over and
over again before. I can clearly see the outlines of people in front of me and know
that Adam, James, and Pace are leading the way and they carry some sort of weapons.
I cannot tell what they are for sure, but I imagine they are stout pieces of wood.
All three of them have small knives, as do Peter, Alcide, George, and Eddie. The shiner
men always had a knife in their belts and handy things in their pockets, such as twine
and scraps of metal. You never knew in the tunnels when such things would come in
handy.
“Has anyone thought about what we’re going to do if there isn’t any shelter above?”
Freddy asks. Freddy is leading Ghost while I keep my hand wrapped in his halter. Pip’s
cage is tied to the bundle on his back and he contributes an occasional chirp to the
trip, as if he’s offering directions to Ghost. Jonah and a dozen or more cats scamper
with us, running up the trail, and then waiting for us to catch up with questioning
meows before they take off again on the next leg of the journey.
“There has to be,” I say. I cannot fathom there not being any shelter. The dome is
up there, somewhere close by. My sense of direction, so much a part of me, tells me
that the dome is above us.
“What if they don’t let us in?” Freddy asks.
“Do you want to go back in the dome?”
“It depends,” he replies. “On what else is out here.”
I have no response for that, nothing to allay his fears, since he is only voicing
what I have thought and said over and over again since our escape.
The wind is rougher now, swirling around us like a demon and bringing back memories
of the way it roared up from the pit. It tugs at my hair and my clothes and brings
a damp chill with it that is familiar and strange at the same time. My eyes feel dry,
so I pull my goggles up from my neck to protect them. I don’t want to take any chances
with my eyes now. Every time I blink my vision seems better to me, as if the fabric
over my eyes is becoming more sheer as the moments pass.
“The sky looks strange,” Freddy says.
I automatically look up but cannot see well enough to see what he is talking about.
“In what way?” I ask.
“There are things in it. Like piles of feathers.”
“Clouds,” I say, as I remember another painting in the library.
“Except these aren’t white,” Freddy continues. “They are gray, like the fur on your
cat.”
“Jonah,” I say. “His name is Jonah.”
“Like the story with the whale?” he asks.
“Yes, Jonah and the whale.” I have no idea what it means to have clouds in the sky,
especially gray ones, but I have heard of a thing called rain, when water comes out
of the sky, and I wonder if perhaps we will see it. I also hope I am right and there
is shelter above. A low rumble sounds in the distance, much like the explosion that
caused the flood, and everyone stops in their tracks. Ghost tosses his head in distress,
jerking my hand, and I quickly comfort him.
“Did you see that?” James says.
“What was it?” Alcide calls out from behind me.
“A light flashed across the sky over there,” James replies and I can actually see
his arm extended against the sky. I turn in the direction that he is pointing and
to my surprise I see another flash of light, followed a few seconds later by another
rumble.
“We need to move faster,” Pace says. “We don’t want to be on this cliff when that
gets here.”
“What is it?” Adam asks as we start forward once again at a quicker pace.
“I think it’s a storm,” Pace says. “Rain, lightning, thunder, and wind.”
“Something else from your books?” James asks.
“Yes and no,” Pace says. “I’ve heard thunder before,” he explains. “When I was on
the catwalk at the top of the dome. I saw the flashes of light too. I didn’t know
what it was until I looked in a book. Someone told me at the time that it was caused
by the flames. But when I looked in a book it talked about a storm.”
“Does he mean rain like the flood in the Bible?” Freddy asks.
“Yes,” I say. “But not for forty days and nights. The Bible says he promised never
to send a flood like that again.”
“God destroyed the world by flood and then he destroyed it by fire,” Rosalyn says
behind me. “I wonder what he will use the next time we displease him.”
“The world is not destroyed,” I say. “It was just hidden from us.”
“For two hundred years,” George calls out. He huffs with exertion as he speaks. “So
far I’m not impressed with what I’ve seen.”
“And you think others don’t think the same about you?” Rosalyn calls back to him.
I’ve always admired Rosalyn because she isn’t afraid to say what she’s thinking, which
is why she was chosen for the council. Since there are only two members left, that
we know of, another will have to be elected. James was removed from the council for
his rash actions in blowing up the fans, but only a few of us know that. Hopefully
we will find more shiners who have survived. Hopefully
we
will all survive.
The wind picks up, violently, and pushes against us as if it wants to throw us off
the cliff. I hear Stella crying behind me and Rosalyn trying to comfort her. The goats,
which trail after us, baa their distress. The cats yowl their displeasure and Jonah
slinks under Ghost for what little bit of shelter he provides. Ghost tosses his head
once more. How can I explain to him something that he’s never known and cannot see?
Lightning streaks the sky again and more thunder rumbles. With every burst of light
I can see better, and I realize that my sight really has returned. I could almost
sigh in relief but I do not because now my biggest fear is of being blown off the
cliff. We are more than halfway to the top and I pray that the storm stays out to
sea until we find some sort of shelter.
My prayer goes unanswered as lightning streaks again right above our heads. A strange
tingling goes down my back and my ears pop. Ghost rears and jerks both Freddy and
me in his effort to get away from the strange sensations around him.
“I’ve got him,” I say to Freddy. “Help Rosalyn.”
“But you can’t see,” Freddy says.
“I’ll be fine,” I assure him as I calm Ghost. I rub his neck and talk to him, assuring
him that I will protect him, although I don’t know how. The rest of the ponies are
just as spooked as Ghost and dance around in an effort to escape the unknown. “Hold
on to them!” I yell. “They’ll go right over the side if you don’t!” Right over the
side with the children on their backs, if they hang on. Getting off isn’t much better,
not where we stand. Freddy goes back and grabs the halter of the pony behind us and
Rosalyn takes Stella from its back.
“Come on!” James yells at us. The trail has doubled back on its self, the last turn
before we reach the top.
“Wren?” Pace calls out.
“I’m fine! Just keep going.” There’s no time. The storm is upon us. There is another
clap of thunder, so loud that I can’t help but jump, and then the sky opens up and
we are soaked before I can take a breath. Pip squawks angrily in his cage but there
is nothing I can do for him. I put my head down and yank hard at Ghost’s halter. “Keep
them close!” I yell back. “As long as they know another is in front of them they should
keep on walking!”
“Just go!” Peter yells from the back.
“That’s easy for you to say,” George adds.
“Come on boy,” I encourage Ghost. I can see well enough to watch his milky eye roll
back as he tosses his head but he moves, thankfully, in the right direction.
I have never imagined anything like this. It is almost like being under water. I wipe
the water from my goggles as I move on and up. The rain pelts against me like rocks
and the wind swirls so that I feel like it will pick me up and blow me away. Stella’s
cries have stopped, but I do not turn around to see why. I can only trust that they
are still behind me as we make the turn to the top. My head is down so that I can
only see the next few steps in front of me so I jump when Pace grabs my arm.
“You can see?” He has to yell because the rain pounds so loud.
“Yes.” Lightning flashes again and thunder rolls right over our heads. Pace grabs
my shoulders and pulls me close enough to kiss, hard and fast, on my mouth. Then he
grabs Pip from his cage and carefully places him inside his coat.
“Keep going,” he says and I move past him, his kiss still burning on my lips. It wasn’t
a placating kiss, it was wonderful and full of emotion and I can’t help but grin a
little as I trudge on through the rain.
“Come on! We’re almost there!” Adam turns around and calls out. I look up and see
the metal catwalk right behind Adam. A contraption hangs from it, perilously twisted
and broken. The wind rattles it and it bangs and clanks as if it might let go of its
hold and go crashing down the cliff side. The cats slink by me, crying their distress
and searching for a dry place.
James is at the top. He stops and puts a hand up to stop the rest of us. I don’t know
what he expects us to do. We can’t turn away and go back. The storm has pushed the
sea onto our little beach and there is no place for us to go. I quickly catch up to
Adam and I stop Ghost while everyone else piles up behind me. Pace runs back up to
where we stand and moves forward to join Adam and James with Alcide and Peter right
behind them.
“What’s going on?” George asks.
“Shhh!” James hisses. I don’t know what he expects us to do. We can be quiet, but
the cats are yowling to the heavens.
“We need to make sure if it’s safe,” Adam says.
“It cannot be any worse than this,” Rosalyn says.
“Is there shelter?” Sally asks.
“Quiet!” Adam says again.
I turn around. “Please, let them make sure there is no one about.”
“What do you mean no one about?” Rosalyn asks me in a loud whisper. Stella stares
at me with her big eyes. Raindrops cling to her lashes and she looks pale as a ghost.
She has her thumb in her mouth and she is shaking.
“I was told there are people who lived outside,” I say. “We do not know what they
are like.”
“God help us,” Sally says. She holds Sarah in her arms with her head pressed into
her neck. They both shiver from the wet. I hear Peter’s hoarse cough and once more
the order to be quiet. We cannot stay here; we must move on and face whatever it is
before us. “Can you see now?” Sally asks suddenly.
“I can,” I say. I look once more at James, Adam, and Pace, all peering cautiously
over the top. James wipes the water from his face and stares once more into the sheets
of rain. “Come on.” I tug on Ghost’s halter and we start walking, past Peter and Alcide,
past Pace, and past Adam.
“Where do you think you are going?” James hisses as we walk past him.
“I’m going to get these people out of the rain,” I retort.
There’s a steep slope the last few steps up. It is slick from the rain and I slip,
falling to my knees before sliding back a few steps. Determined, I use my hand to
leverage myself up while pulling Ghost after me until I reach the top. I need a moment
to catch my breath and there is a cramp in my side from the strange angle I had to
use to crawl up the slope. I am also covered with mud on my knees and my hands and
all I can do is wipe my hands on my pants. While I take a moment to recover, the cats,
including Jonah, bound past and disappear into the rain.
“She can see again?” Alcide’s voice shows his surprise.
“Yes she can,” Pace says. I hear him and Alcide both scrambling up behind me as I
look at the scene before me.
Grass as high as my waist swings back and forth in the swirling wind. The cats have
all taken cover within. In the distance, I see the dome, dark and gray like the clouds
that are so close above us that I feel like I can touch them. The rain would have
to sound like drumbeats on the dome, but with the constant roar of the fans, there
is no way anyone would ever hear it, unless they were right against it and that was
strictly forbidden. The fans are not running now. What do the people inside hear?
Are they frightened at the unknown noises and flashes of light? Is rain falling inside
from the hole that the smoke was coming out of?
Between the grass and the dome there are trees and the ruins of buildings that create
a dense maze of cover that could either shelter us or shelter someone who wants to
hurt us. “What do you think?” Alcide asks as James and Adam join us.
“I think I want to get in out of the rain,” Pace says.
“Me too,” I agree. “The rest will need help getting up.”
“Pace and I will help,” Alcide says. “You three go on and find us a place.”
My respect for Alcide is growing with leaps and bounds as we try to survive this disaster.
He may be younger than me by a year, but he already knows how to placate James, who
wants to prove that he is a capable leader for all of us.
James steps into the grass, Adam follows, then me with Ghost. It feels like walking
into the water where Pace and I swam with the glowfish. It surrounds us and then the
surface ripples out around us before tossing back into us, like waves. Ghost sniffs
at the grass, which tickles his nose, with his ears perked up and then stops in his
tracks to bury his head in it. He tears off a clump by its roots and chomps it down.
Jonah appears before me and with a quick meow, disappears back into it, with nothing
but his tail showing like a rudder on the wooden boats we used to sail on the stream
in our village.
“This isn’t dirt,” James says. “It’s more like rock.”
I look beneath my feet and see that the grass grows in thick tufts between cracks
in the stones. “Cobblestones,” I say. “Like the promenade.”
“Then this was part of the city before?” Adam asks.
“I think so.” I look around. “It’s just fallen into ruin.”
“It has been two hundred years,” Adam says.
“And a fiery comet,” I add. The rain is still pouring down on us while the lightning
and thunder continue, but we are so wet that it doesn’t matter what we do now. Ghost
keeps his head down now, oblivious to the rain as he continues to eat.