-7-

 

THEY WALKED THROUGH THE WOODS FOR HOURS. As they walked, the smell of salt became fuller. It wasn't an inviting smell anymore. It was thick and toxic and made Hannah's nostrils burn. Hannah staggered a little, her body still overcome with what she'd experienced. She followed Sable. She kept going because of him. If she was alone, she would have laid down. She would have quit. But Sable kept moving. She kept moving, too.

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They approached a place where the trees thinned. Hannah's stomach churned with an anxious fear. Visions of gray water and sludge and Shrikes consumed her. The coast didn't exist the way she remembered it. It couldn't. It was impossible.

 

She fell. She tripped over something and went face-first into the dust. The hard landing broke her from her emotionless trance. She lifted her head and screamed. She screamed out of anger and pain. Her body hurt. Her heart hurt. There's no water beyond the trees. No food. No coast. She was being tormented by her own memories. Memories of vacations with her parents. Memories of sitting on the shore after sunset to watch the stars. Memories of a life that was comfortable and whole.

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Hannah wept bitterly, her respirator filling with spit and snot. She pulled it off and kicked it so hard that it nearly broke her toe. The mask disappeared into the sludge behind them. Hannah held her toe and buried her face in her knees. She threw dust into the air and screamed so hard that the muscles in her throat strained. It hurt to scream like that. Then it was over.

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She quieted. She'd expelled those emotions from her soul. She returned to being calculative. She returned to that logical part of herself that somehow managed to keep her alive. Sable stood at a distance and watched in silence. After assessing her, he walked on. A sort of guilt trickled down Hannah's being like liquid cement. It stuck between her broken pieces and reminded her that she couldn't stop. Hannah retrieved her respirator. She'd busted it. She wore it anyway.

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Hannah passed through the trees and came face-to-face with the old soldier's coast. The water was gray and black. The ocean was in turmoil. Massive dark waves crashed against the shore and brought forth coral and the skeletons of dead fish. The sand was buried deep beneath the falling dust like an ashen pit. The salt smell merged with a foul, dead smell which permeated everything. What she'd thought was the smell of the coast was the distant stench of rotting marine life. Hannah's knees grew weak. She sat down and just took it in. She took in the whole sight. The whole damned sight. It was exactly as she feared.

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Sable nudged her. Hannah shrank away from him. She'd failed him. She brought him all the way here and there was nothing. No food. No water. No sunlight or clean white sand. Sable nudged her again. This time Hannah looked up to him. He stared at her, as though trying to communicate silently. Then he started walking again. She followed. Where is he going?

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Sable led her through the dunes. Hannah followed slowly. She was consumed with paralyzing despair and could barely function. She wasn't rational anymore and she knew it. As they went on, the coastal breeze became stronger... And stronger...

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Sable stopped walking.

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They were faced with a wall of wind just below the dunes. It was a giant whirlwind which stretched for miles to her left or her right. It was a vertical vortex--a hedge of darkness that blotched out the horizon. It caused the waves to grow and the ocean to rage. Hannah stared at the churning dust that was being sucked into the vortex and spewed back into the atmosphere. It was a massive storm. Sable tugged at her arm and pointed.

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"In there?" Hannah asked. "But... it could kill us."

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Sable took her arm and led her forward. Hannah regretted kicking her respirator. She needed it now. She hoped that its cracks wouldn't let in too much dust. Maybe she could hold her breath for part of the way.

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They neared the wall of wind carefully. It whipped at Hannah's face, stinging her. She instinctively took off her glasses and held them in her hand so she wouldn't lose them. She followed Sable into the raging wind. He was the only one she could see clearly: everything else was a violent, black blur. When they entered the worst of the wind, she cupped a hand over her eyes for protection. The tumultuous vortex slashed at her, the dust consumed her vision. The wind roared all around her like thunder that never faded. Hannah was pushed and shoved and nearly knocked her from her feet. She hadn't been in a storm like this since Advent... since the day her parents died.

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Hannah held onto Sable's shoulder as he led her through it all. Minutes passed and Hannah stole quick breaths in the storm. And they kept walking, and walking, and walking. They went on for an hour. Maybe more. The massive vortex was thicker than Hannah could have imagined. She grasped onto Sable as tightly as she could. Her eyes stung. She shut them. She waited for death to find her in the middle of the whirlwind. With Sable guiding her, she continued to walk steadily on. Hannah felt like she was asleep. She hoped this was some nightmare from which they'd wake. Maybe she was still huddled in the sludge by the old gas station. It was almost morning. She would wake up anytime now.

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The roaring lessened. Sable stopped walking. Hannah opened her eyes. Blinding light met them and she had to cover her face. She blinked and set her glasses on. She looked out again.

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Sunlight. Real, true, unfiltered sunlight.

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The wind wall was at her back, still raging and angry and spewing dust about. The wind from it still whipped her hair around but the dust was all behind her. In front of her was clean sand, living trees, and blue ocean.

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Am I dead? She still felt her toe aching from where she kicked the respirator so she couldn't be dead. She looked back at the wind wall and studied it more closely. A massive, constant wind acted as a container. The wind bowled the dust inside of itself, where it was rethrown over and over and over. But out here, the dust was thin and would likely get thinner the further she went from the wall. She turned back to the ocean ahead, her mind finally grasping what she saw.

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"The coast," she murmured. She walked down to the water, entranced. She set her feet in the waves and layers of filth began dripping from her. The waves were still large here but not deadly. Whatever split the sky also split the ocean: the water was mostly clean on this side of the wind wall. She ran her hands through the water. It was temperate. She started to sweat in the warm sun. A smile crossed her face.

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She laughed. She dropped her respirator and gun and hurriedly peeled her clothes off of her body. Her coat, her shirt, her boots, her socks. She stripped down to her underwear and ran along the shoreline, splashing up water. Her feet sank into the soothing wet sand and she picked up handfuls of the pretty shells. Hannah threw them and danced. There were clean forests ahead, promising to nourish the weary travelers. She noticed a school of fish beneath the waves. An ocean full of trout.

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Hannah turned back to the wall of wind and dust. She could see a massive creature hover above the ocean. It was ovular, black, and marked like the Shrikes. Its four wings were long and in constant, sweeping motion as it hovered in the atmosphere above. The bird was the size of a city and the sound of its flapping wings melded with the sound of the rhythmic crashing waves. Its wings were the source of the winds that blew the dust into its bowl and made the world livable for the little Shrikes within. It was in perfect stasis. It never moved from its place. Hannah was no longer afraid. She was awed.

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"Sable, do you see that? My god, it's huge!"

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Hannah turned, looking for Sable. He remained at the base of the wind wall, wrapped in dark shadows. Hannah ran to him. She wanted to bring him out from the shadow of the giant bird.

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"We made it, Sable!" she cried. She pulled his arm. When she did, sunlight touched the boy's hand. His skin turned gray and cracked in the light. He slowly pulled his arm back into the shadow. Hannah stopped breathing. She looked at him... at his distant eyes and emotionless face.

 

He didn't meet her gaze. He couldn't. Hannah trembled and held her hands to herself. They stood facing each other, one in the sun, the other in shadow. One alive... the other...

 

Her body shook.

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She knew. Of course she'd known. It happened soon after they started traveling together. The boy wouldn't stop crying. She told him that he would attract the Shrikes. One morning, he stopped crying. He stopped talking. Something was wrong but Hannah didn't investigate. She wouldn't investigate. She couldn't. Her fear overwhelmed her. Her whole being shunned the possibility of... no, she wouldn't even think of it. She'd gone months without acknowledging that she'd failed. The Shrikes hadn't gotten Sable. Because, if they had, there was nothing left for Hannah to hope for. Eventually she believed her own lie. Now it faced her.

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Hannah took a long, weak breath. She knew she couldn't take him with her. She couldn't. He didn't belong out here anymore. Hannah took a step toward Sable. Then a second. She cupped his head in her hands. She kissed his forehead. Her tears ran down his face. Then she backed into the sun again, releasing him. Sable undid his coat. Hannah forced herself to watch as he revealed the slits in his ribs and the small hole below his chest. A little Shrike looked her in the eyes, its white face still stained with the blood of the other bird it had killed. It was young and small. Sable's Shrike couldn't have killed their attacker if Hannah hadn't wounded it. By themselves, the two travelers were vulnerable. Together they'd braved the Wastes. It was time for Sable to brave them alone. It was time for Hannah to see clearly.

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He backed into the windwall and vanished from view.

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. . .

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Hannah watched the sunset for the first time in two years. She hung her washed clothes from the branches of an elm. With the light just right, Hannah could see another massive black form miles and miles away, hovering above the dust-covered lands from which she came. How many were there in the world?

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Hannah watched the sun fade. Behind the giant bird was a host of stars. They put on a show, marking the return of their lost child. Hannah smiled and laid down on the warm, soothing sand. She drifted safely to sleep beneath the waltzing stars.

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She delved into a rest of deep, unwavering assurance...

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And dreamt of the coast.

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- End. -