Page Turners - Chapter 9 [Page 34] - Snap
Scarlett was standing only a few inches from Charlize and the girl as she sprayed the crops to keep the butterflies at bay. As they approached, they noticed the area they had identified earlier was becoming more active every minute. What Scarlett noticed that others didn't, was that when they were only 1 km away, the pack of butterflies briefly split into two. A smaller pack trailed off a few meters, then quickly returned to join the original group. She didn't think much of it. Besides, she had no intention of giving Kelri any more help than was mandated.
“Don't see anything, boss,” she called out.
“That's 'cause you haven't started looking yet! You think whatever it is, is gonna just jump out at you? It's probably a corpse. Some poor sap thought they could cut through the hollow-grass, save a couple of years. Bugs are picking their bones most likely,” Kelri responded, her voice dripping with arrogance.
“So what do you want us to do?”
“I want you to do your fucking job. Get on your hands and knees and find it!”
Charlize's grip on the girl tightened as she twisted the girl's head to face her. With the butterflies all around them in a drunken stupor, she was finally free to use her other hand and did so to press a finger to her lips. She looked the girl deep in her eyes and held her gaze. The poachers were still arguing, and she needed every possible second to think through her next move.
I can't check the position of the other two. I can only make two useful Strings, and I need to keep at least one ready for the poacher next to me. Better to focus on one at a time. I'll use both Strings to sever her feet. Once she's on the ground, I'll end her. Then I can use both Strings to find the other two while moving the girl. Worst case, stand up, draw their attention away from the girl, and end them quickly before she gets swarmed. But that's a risky play. I don't like it. Once they're finished, I'm going to find Od. And I'm going to hurt him, Charlize thought at breakneck speed and with vicious intent.
Just as Charlize let her Strings hit the floor and work their way toward the poacher, a butterfly wobbled through the sky and landed on the girl’s cheek. It gracefully let its wings fall and press to her skin, catching the tips of Charlize's fingers still wrapped around her mouth. Still looking deep into her eyes, Charlize saw the girl's pupils shrink to the size of a pinprick. She struggled, but Charlize’s hand gripped tighter as she gently shook her head. The girl stopped, following her wordless instruction. The thousands of micro-suckers on the butterfly’s wings activated, each plucking the tiniest amount of skin from the young girl's face. Tears began to well in her eyes, but she didn’t struggle or scream. Charlize was astounded by the determination in the girl’s eyes and her ability to endure pain.
“Fine, fine! I'll take a look. Make sure Chur's crawling around in the mud too. I ain't doing this shit alone!” Scarlett yelled.
It was too late. Charlize's Strings were still snaking towards Scarlett—there wasn't enough time to execute the plan. Worry gleamed across her eyes, and she felt the girl shudder in reaction to her panic.
Scarlett's head dipped below the grass as she slowly crouched down. Beneath the glassy jade tubes of hollow-grass, a woman holding a small girl looked back at her, eyes dripping with bloodlust. Her heart stopped.
Charlize's rage was burning, but her body was paralyzed. She wanted to lash her Strings across Scarlett's face and leap to her feet to take out the others—but she couldn't. Prioritize and execute, flashed into her mind. But that was the problem. She couldn't execute because she was too busy prioritizing. She was holding something precious.
Scarlett's lips started to form a word, jolting Charlize back to her senses. Charlize tore her hand from the girl's mouth and ripped the butterfly off with one motion, causing the girl to let out a scream. Before they could move, or Scarlett could finish that word, a bag came swooping down overhead, swallowing her whole.
“Happy to see me?” Od said as he clasped his bag shut.
“Take the girl! Go!” Charlize yelled as she sprang to her feet.
The two poachers stood there gormless as Charlize popped her head out of the hollow-grass and eyed them both. They had a triangular formation, 200 m away from Charlize and each other. She leered at them both, analyzing their visage, looking for something specific—the Seamshot. The grass was too high, too disorienting; she couldn’t get a clear view.
“Which one of you has the Seamshot?” she called out.
“What? You think we’re that stupid?” answered Kelri.
She started across the sky toward Kelri at a violent pace. Launching into the air off one String, Charlize landed on another, 2 m above the hollow-grass. Creating a String to step on, then instantly dissolving it one step at a time, was an advanced skill—Stride. She skated across the sky with such grace and fluidity that it was impossible to imagine she was creating each String the moment before she stepped on it.
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Chur turned on a dime and started running, his arms flailing. Kelri took out her Seamshot and fired a single shot of String, missing Charlize by several feet. She waited for the String to dissolve after a second, then took another shot—same result.
Charlize was closing the distance fast. Moving through the sky was much more efficient than wading through the hollow-grass. She was getting close, but she was waiting for a specific moment—the moment after a shot. That would be her clearest opening for an instant kill.
On cue, Kelri looked up at her, tried to aim her Seamshot as the barrel trembled, and fired. Charlize leaped from her String-step and tilted her head, letting the String narrowly miss her and pierce right through her coat collar, leaving a perfect circle in it. As she fell toward Kelri, she made another String, wrapped it around the step, and yanked it out of the sky. Just before she landed, she pulled the String down with force, causing the step to follow like the tip of a flail, and thrust into the roof of Kelri’s head.
Kelri’s eyes rolled back, and her mouth flopped open as the Seamshot fell from her lifeless hands.
Charlize wanted to Stride after Chur, but she calculated that by the time she caught up, she would be too far separated from the other two. There was a quicker solution. She dissolved her String and watched Kelri crumple to the floor, before darting off towards Chur.
As she sprinted through the hollow-grass, she kept her hands in front of her, at waist height. Her fingers interweaved and entangled at a hypnotizing speed, attempting to weave the strongest String she could with a measly 3.86% access. With the String ready, she began to fold it, again and again, and again. Over and over, until it became brittle and volatile.
She glanced up at Chur one last time, estimating his position, logging it in her mind before she gave 100% of her focus to the next move. Her palms pressed together as hard as they could. Then she ripped them apart in one violent motion. The brittle String snapped, instantly exploding with a tremendous shockwave launched toward Chur. In less than a moment, he, along with the hollow-grass between him and Charlize, was completely vaporized.
The Page rippled after the blast like the air had become water. The wind swirled and rushed all around, sweeping between the hollow-grass, and shaking them furiously. The song of glass that rang out was deafening, a cacophony of unharmonized music echoing over itself.
Od looked out at the devastation, holding the girl close with one arm, the bag in the other. What was once an all-consuming view of jagged jade fields was now something incomplete. A huge chunk was missing, from where they were, leading all the way beyond the horizon. Not a single blade of grass stood in the long crater Charlize had created. All signs of life were gone, erased. Only soil remained, perfectly smoothed over.
“How 'bout a little warning next time? You can't just go using Snap like that without at least making sure we're safe first,” Od shouted across the crater.
“I made sure. And where were you?” Charlize practically spat back.
“I was saving the day, love. Ain't that right, little one?”
“Yeah, I think so,” the girl answered, only just beginning to stop trembling.
“You and I need to have a serious talk, Od. A serious talk. But we need to turn the Page first. I don't like this clock hanging over us. How long is left?”
“8 months.”
“Damn. Crawling slowed us more than I would've wanted. At least it looks like I made a path—we should make back time. The other poachers will be coming, so we shouldn't stand around. Your legs might be rusty from crawling, but the pace remains as before. Nothing’s changed.”
“We still got, what, another 6 months of field left? That only gives us a 2-month margin. It's not much,” said Od.
“Then we better get moving.”
“Wait, what happened to your hand?”
“Oh, this?” Charlize said as she raised her hand. The top third of her two middle fingers and the tip of her pinky were showing bone. Tiny perforations were dotted around the skin where the wounds started—signs of the micro-suckers at work. Not a drop of blood could be seen, and the bones were pristine, sucked clean. “This is the price of your absence. You're lucky the girl still has some fat on her face, otherwise she'd have a butterfly-shaped hole in it right now.”
“I'm not fat!” the girl decried, stretching her wound, which caused her to wince.
“I'm so sorry,” Od said to the girl.
“You're lucky—wounds don't get much smaller or cleaner. She'll heal quickly. Will leave an interesting scar though. Stasis will be enough for me. Hopefully, we can find a healer as we go. I know a few people.”
Charlize lifted her left hand and spread her mangled fingers as she pointed them up. With her right hand, she held one finger over the wounded ones and began to swirl it. A String wrapped around her bony finger as she swirled and repeated the same motion for the other two fingers.
“What did you do? Nothing changed,” the girl asked as she inspected Charlize's broken fingers.
“They are covered in String. Now they are in Stasis. They will neither heal nor deteriorate. As the name implies, they are in Stasis. Let’s stop wasting time,” said Charlize as she started walking.
Charlize forced Od to take point while she walked with the girl. She wasn't letting him out of her sight again. The girl asked her to recap the battle, as she couldn't see a thing below the grass. Initially reluctant, the girl's relentless excitement made her give in. She told her about Stride and Snap and even let her finger the hole in her collar left by the Seamshot. The girl was enamored by the Seam and frustrated at her own blindness to it.
“I'll explain it all soon, little one. You already have keen senses. You were right that someone was watching,” Charlize said as she gave the girl a gentle nudge with her hip.
“That’s what I was trying to say before. They weren't the ones watching us,” said the girl.
“What do you mean? Then who was it?” Charlize asked, so startled she stopped in her tracks.
“I don't know. They just felt, I dunno, powerful. Like you. Except much, much more!”