One Step at a Time
Jessica came to lying down. She was on Cole’s bed in his underground shelter. As she sat up, she put her left hand to her head in and attempt to ease the throbbing. She looked and saw Cole was sitting on a folding chair with his long sleeve tied around his waist. He had a knife in his right hand, its blade popping up only to be pushed back down by Cole’s thumb.
“Thanks a-” Jessica began.
“Don’t.” Cole quickly interrupted. The two of them stared at each other for a while. Finally, Cole broke the silence. “Leave.” he ordered.
“What? You’re kicking me out just like that?” she asked.
“I can sense the trouble on you. First, you lead a pack of Wraiths to my territory, and I can feel something else is gonna happen if you stick around.” Cole answered. Jessica turned toward him a little bit.
“But… But I have no idea where I am. And… And I don’t have any water.” she tried.
“You can take that canteen. I even filled it up for you.” he replied, pointing at the circular jug on the nightstand. “And you can have one of my maps.” he added. Jessica looked around Cole’s lair of sorts. It was dusty and dirty, littered with clothes, plates, empty alcohol bottles, and garbage. Then, she spotted the revolver sitting on the stand next to his bed. After that, she looked around more and noted that there were several bullet holes in the ceiling directly above his bed.
“Before I go, what’s with the bullet holes?” she asked. Cole didn’t answer. “Were you trying to scare off some Wraiths?” she questioned. Again, Cole ignored her. She gazed at the gun and where the bullet holes were. She noticed that they were above his bed and got a random theory. “Were you… shooting at yourself?” Jessica tried. Cole glared over at her.
“Stop asking questions.” he spoke in a sharp tone.
“I’m sorry.” she apologized. Then, Jessica stood up and grabbed the canteen. She walked to the other end of the shelter and picked up a map. Just as she was about to start climbing up the ladder, she stopped and looked down at Cole, who was sitting on her left. “You could come with me, ya know? My friends, I’m sure they’d be glad to have you around. They would care about you, and it seems like you need that.” Jessica spoke. After getting no response, she made her way up and out of Cole’s bunker. For a few moments, he just stared at the wall in front of him. Finally, he looked over at the picture on his nightstand. The last person that cared about him was Rose. That was two years ago, a very long two years at that. Deep down inside, Cole missed that. He grabbed the photo before folding it into four squares and sliding it into his left pocket.
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At the surface, Jessica was staring at the map, twisting and turning it as she tried to figure it out.
“You’re holding it upside-down.” Cole called. Jessica turned and looked at him in surprise before a smile spread across her face. He held out his hand, signaling that he wanted the map. After Jessica gave it to him, Cole flipped it the right way and held it out so that they could both see it. “Now, we are here.” Cole informed as he pointed at a large, black dot in the middle, but slightly off to the right, labelled by small text as Quinton City. “So, where did you and your friends get separated?” he asked. Jessica looked around the map for a little while.
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“It was just some spot in the desert. I do know I was heading north after I got separated, but the Wraiths pushed me west.” Jessica answered. “But I was heading here. It was a rendezvous point.” she added, pointing at another large, dark dot that was northwest of Quinton City. Cole squinted and looked at the small, printed name of the town. Ellington City. Then, he looked off into the horizon, toward the west. He started folding the map up again.
“Alright.” he simply spoke as he put it in his back pocket. Then, he started walking in the direction they needed to go and Jessica quickly caught up to him.
“How long do you think this’ll take?” she questioned.
“Well, we’re about two hundred miles from Ellington City, so that’s two, maybe three days depending on some stuff. We could use our speed, but that and the heat would exhaust us. I’ve been there before so I know a good way. ” Cole answered. Jessica considered what Cole said. She figured he was right since she passed out after becoming dehydrated from using her super speed even for a short period of time. With that, she glanced at Cole and smiled again before looking forward.
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By now, Cole and Jessica had been walking for a few hours. The Sun was starting to set, giving an orange glow to the sand, but a purple shade to its shadows. Even though they’d been walking for a while, they hadn’t said much of anything to each other. Jessica had been meaning to ask Cole something, but she could tell he wasn’t somebody who liked to talk. Still, the curiosity was starting to overwhelm her.
“So, you control darkness, right?” she asked.
“Yeah.” he simply answered.
“Do you… like your powers?” Jessica questioned.
“No.” Cole stated. Jessica frowned a little. She was trying to befriend Cole, but she could tell from his tone and his short replies that he wasn’t interested. Still, she had one last thing she wanted to know. She leaned forward and peered at Cole’s hands.
“Your hands were claws earlier. When you do that… does it hurt?” Jessica inquired. Cole held out his right hand and stared into his palm. He had a quick flashback to the first time his hands were overtaken and transformed by the darkness. He even remembered how Rose’s dead body looked in all of the chaos.
“Always.” he finally spoke. With nothing else to ask, Jessica allowed them to walk in silence. There was a sound behind them, the sound of shifting sands. Then, Cole suddenly stopped and blasted at random area in the sand. Jessica paused and looked at him in surprise. It was so unexpected that staring was all she could do. Cole’s eyes darted around the desert. Jessica could see he was scanning for something, but when she looked, all she saw was sand.
“H-Hey, what’s-” she started until Cole wrapped his right arm around her waist. Then, he jumped high into the air. However, he had just barely escaped something. A huge pile of sand started rushing upward with them as soon as they left the ground. Something enormous was driving toward them. Two, large pincers reached toward them, but came just short of snapping shut on them. After that, a long, tail-like lmib hooked toward them. ‘A stinger.’ Cole noted as he pushed it away from them. Once they landed, Cole let go of Jessica as sand rained down from the sky. Through that, they could make out a huge shadow. Cole’s eyes narrowed into a scowl because he knew exactly what they were facing. It was a dark shade of purple. It’s exoskeleton was bulky like rocks. Not only that, but a few rocks seemed to be attached to its armor. Its stinger was glowing orange and its pincers were pitch black.
“Fucking Cryptid…” he groaned in irritation. More specifically, it was known as a Skorpion. Cole knew about Skorpions. He’d lived in the desert for two years, and had multiple encounters with them. ‘That’s the biggest Skorpion I’ve ever seen. This is bad. Really bad. Each time I fight one of these things… They almost kill me…’ Cole thought. He glanced back at Jessica, whose eyes were wide and focused on the Cryptid in front of them. ‘Doesn’t look like I’ll have much help…’ he added. With that, he returned his glare back to the Skorpion and let out a quiet, aggravated groan because he knew whatever was going to happen in this fight, wasn’t likely to be good.