Juan dropped the orange in his own hand when the smoke began to leak from Patrick’s mouth. When the black mark began to show between his sausage fingers on his even fatter throat, Juan began to rapidly climb down. By the time he’d reached the ground, Patrick was already lying in the grass, rolling around like a pig in the dirt.
Juan and the others rushed over, horrified at the smell of singeing flesh. Patrick’s neck was opening up, burning from the inside out.
“Help me,” he gasped, unable to stop the widening hole. They saw a flash of the trachea, and for a moment, a bit of flame from inside his throat. His eyes bulging, Patrick thrashed to his side, and then stopped moving.
They all scooted back as a small, completely burnt orange rolled from the gaping hole in the dead man’s throat.
For several moments, they stood in silent astonishment. Then Mateo was moving, yelling for the others to help move Patrick’s body into the back of the truck. “We dump him,” Mateo ordered. “Close to where the fires are burning! No one will ever know!”
Juan could only watch them carry the body, his hand struggling to make the sign of the cross. His heart was heavier than the untouched pistol in his pocket.
The cable networks were clearly struggling to keep up. CNN, FOX, MSNBC, their beleaguered anchors repeatedly trying to stay on top of each unfolding disaster.
Quincy repeatedly flipped between the channels on the large-screen television mounted in the front of the plane.
FOX branded their coverage “Crisis on the Coasts.” Their blond anchorwoman stood in front of a wall of monitors, each highlighting a different disaster. “The Pope is calling for worldwide prayer in the wake of what you’re seeing here—”
Flip.
“Our Mumbai bureau is reporting the president of India is calling for a mass evacuation of the southern tip of the nation in the wake of the wildfires there,” read a CNN anchor. “I’m sorry folks, I know it seems like we’re moving minute by minute to new developments, but that’s how quickly this is unfolding. We have to go now LIVE to Rome where the Pope is prepared to speak to the masses flooding the Vatican—”
Flip.
The MSNBC anchor team sat in front of a panel of gathered journalists. “Kimberly, we’re hearing from the White House the same message, aren’t we? The president is urging calm, repeating what he’s said often in the last twenty-four hours, that the hurricanes have stopped—”
“Except for that freak storm just outside Washington,” the reporter said. “He also points out the violence that has sprung up in other countries has been largely avoided here in the last few weeks here. But he can’t say the same for the wildfires out west or—”
Flip.
“Quincy, can you at least mute it for a minute?” William said, standing up from where the two sat.
“Good idea. I don’t know much more I can watch.”
“I can’t stop thinking about Steven. And my Aunt Kate. Did they make it out of that warehouse before the storm tore it apart? And my grandmother, my aunt Stella, and Roxy… did they get away safely in time from that protest?”
“I wish I had the answers, Will. I can only imagine once that storm was spotted, that building cleared fast. Your aunt is an important person, and Steven is valuable to the SSA, they’ll want to keep them alive. I know the plan was for your grandmother and the rest to bust out once they lit the fire of that protest. They knew they had to get away to avoid being captured again. I know you want to reach out to her to know for sure.”
“I do. But… I have to talk to Jane first.”
“OK. I better make sure there’s going to be a place for us to even land in all that smoke.”
While Quincy went to talk to the pilot, William turned to slowly walk down the aisle.
He could feel Jane’s simmering anger as he approached. She sat in the back, in between Lily and Ryan, her hands moving protectively to land on both their knees.
“You don’t need to be afraid of me,” William said.
“You’ll understand I’m having a hard time believing that, knowing at any moment you can just choose to activate us. Even without telling us.”
“I swear to you, back there in the warehouse is the only time I’ve ever purposely triggered you. All the other times… in those dreams… I wasn’t in control.”
“I believed you. I really did, William. But for all that talk in the hospital about stopping the storms, you brought it. You used me to do it. I’m already completely torn up about all the deaths I’ve caused in New Orleans—”
“That wasn’t your fault, Jane—”
“But you knowingly just did it back there. How many other people died?”
William shook his head. “I had to get us out. I have to show them.”
“Show them what? All you’ve done is demonstrate you can use us to cause complete destruction. What do you think this looks like now? We’re on our way to California. I know it. It’s where the wildfires are burning—”
“I have to show them that I can stop it,” William said. “I’m sorry, Jane. I really am, making you bring that storm. I put my own family in danger. They were nearby after that protest, even if Quincy said the plan was for my grandmother to drive far away. But don’t you get it? If I can find the man causing the fires, find a way to touch him and stop him, then we’ll all be together. And we can show them that I can stop it all. At least in the US. Then, if there’s a way, I’ll go all over the world to stop the others.”
Jane sat forward. “I want to believe you. I really do. But it’s just hard after what you did. You should have warned me.”
He approached them, kneeling down. “I need you, Jane. I need you to wake me up.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have to find the man causing the fires. Like I did to find you… I have to go in. To the dreams. If I’m successful, I want to then try and find my grandmother too. But if it gets me first, you have to wake me up. If it truly takes hold of me, it will not let me go. This wasn’t in their plans. I was only supposed to connect with you through the dreams, that was it. They never intended us to actually find each other.”
“How do you know that?” Jane asked.
“The anger. I feel it every time I defy them, whether it be reaching out to you on my own or stopping the disasters. They obviously intended me only to control you under their direction. I don’t think they ever anticipated how much control I actually have.”
Jane shook her head. “How am I supposed to know if it takes you?”
“He screams,” Lily said softly.
“Can you do it? You’ll have to force me awake. It might take… the connection between us to do it. We know… when we’re together, it can’t reach me.”
“Earl isn’t going to like that,” Ryan said.
“Earl?” Jane raised an eyebrow.
“One of the bastards up there,” Ryan pointed up. “He spent a lot of time in my head, and vice versa. So I know they see us as lower than rats in a maze, and they’re just watching to see how successful we are on our world in destroying each other. Whatever works, they’ll just duplicate it elsewhere. We’re just a testing site. If they didn’t count on William having this much control, once they have him, they won’t let him go.”
William stood and walked over to one of the seats. He sighed, hearing Jane rise and come and sit beside him.
“It comes at me all the time now,” he said. “It will be quick.”
She nodded.
He slowed his breath. Before he shut his eyes, he thought of the flames, and the eyes.
Before he could even begin to venture into the dark, it had him.