Unknown Location

It was the heat that woke her. She had felt heat before, known hot summer days, but this was something completely different. There was a weight to the dry heat that seemed almost smothering as it pressed down upon her. The sunlight seemed alien and almost hostile. There was a fierceness to it that felt completely out of place. When she opened her eyes and stared up into the flat white-blue sky it too felt wrong. As though it were especially small and confining.

She squinted against the brightness and took a moment to survey her condition. She felt no pain, which in itself felt shocking. The last thing she remembered was an impossible battle with a dull brown wyvern. The red desert that surrounded her was nothing like the verdant grasslands she had been traveling with the Strangers. She couldn’t hear any movement around her, no one was speaking, no one nearby was even breathing. She sat up slowly, leaning heavily on her arm once she was upright. Her head swam, sending a sense of vertigo sweeping through her.

“You’re awake.” The voice was hollow, like it was speaking across a vast and echoing distance.

“Mm-hum.” She answered. It was more of a grunt than a response, but she didn’t quite feel able to form coherent words.

“Where are we?” Sophie’s voice still sounded distant, but the echo was fading.

Salidda could only shrug and shake her head.

“Well, shit.” Sophie said. “We were hoping you knew.”

“I have never even heard tell of a place like this.” She finally managed, after a dreadfully long silence. “Where’s everyone?”

Sophie only pointed. One of the brightly colored tents stood in the lee of a tall rock formation. Silence reigned again.

“Kat…” Sophie trailed off, gulping a swallow. “Kat’s hurt pretty bad.”

Salidda’s shoulders hunched in on themselves, as though she were trying to make herself small enough to vanish. “I wish I could help.” She admitted at last.

“Me too.” Sophie admitted. “Me too.”

That hot and oppressive silence descended upon them again, smothering their conversation.

The barren red rock landscape was engulfed by that hot silence, even inside the tent, no one spoke.

Music.

It came from nowhere, unexpected. A fast and heavy guitar, sharp drums, and a humming bassline.

Cora fumbled the canteen of water she was drinking from and almost spilled the precious resource. Jet jerked sharply enough that he jostled Kat. The injured woman groaned. From outside the tent, Sophie yelped. There was a fumbling sound out there and the sharp sound of a phone hitting the rocks. “Well, fuck me.” Sophie murmured. Jet was the first to leave the tent.

“Did your phone just ring?” He asked the obvious question even as he saw Sophie sitting there staring at the offending object.

“Last chance to extend my car’s warranty.” She said, still staring down at the phone.

“Does that mean we’re back?” Cora said coming out of the tent behind Jet.

Sophie ran one hand through her dark hair as she thought about it. The thumb of her other hand flicking through apps on her phone. Suddenly she squealed and leapt to her feet. “I know where we are!” She held the phone out toward Jet and Cora. “Maps working!” She bounced up and down in place. “I know where we are!” She hugged the phone tightly to her chest.

Soon enough all three of the Strangers that were awake were hunched over their phones like they were a lifeline to reality. The sickly blue-white glow of them washed over the Strangers’ faces, making all three of them look manic, but it was especially stark against Jet’s dark skin. None of them were speaking to one another, instead they were swiping through things on the little screens and sending message after message to other Strangers.

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“I never thought I’d be so happy to be in the Middle of Nowhere, Utah.” Cora finally said.

“Me either.” Sophie admitted. “We’ll head for civilization in the morning.”

“Couldn’t we just call some sort of rescue in tonight?” Cora asked.

Sophie shook her head sharply. “If whatever finally brought us back works both ways, we don’t want to risk anyone else ending up over there.”

“But Kat still needs medical attention.” Jet protested.

“Let’s rig up a travois then and get a few miles behind us before we call them in then. I think it’s a really bad idea to let others find this place. Who knows how long the damn wyvern will linger near the other side.”

Jet only grunted. “Where the hell are we going to find sticks for the travois? Look around, Soph.”

“We’ll strap her to a couple of the pack frames and carry her that way. Shouldn’t be too hard.” Cora offered.

“Let’s get it done then. Daylight’s burning.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Sophie muttered.

It was full dark by the time they had Kat’s unconscious form strapped to the packframes. Jet insisted on being one of the ones to carry the makeshift gurney and surprisingly Salidda had asked to be the other. Sophie ranged out ahead of the group, forging the trail with the help of satellite positioning. Tillie darted hither and yon, chasing fascinating scents over the red tinted dirt and Cora brought up the rear, a little behind everyone else with her eyes on a constant swivel.

It was habit as much as concern that had them moving in a loose formation and in spite of the relative safety of this sparsely populated region of Utah, Cora’s heart threatened to beat its way out of her chest. For a moment, her hands seemed to ache for the comfortable familiarity of her weapon and she rubbed the palms of her hands over her jeans, wiping the dampness away as she tried to scour the longing sensation from them.

“Jenson, Hardy, Caspian, Victor, Dubois, Allen, Patrick, Garvey, Voyt, Quincy.” She repeated the list like a mantra exactly seven times as she followed the stretcher. Seven times slowly repeating all the names in her list. The last time she added four more names, “Chance, Terance, Miller, Parker.” She repeated those four once more, slowly. By the time she was finished, Tillie had bounded up to her side, flipping one sweaty palmed hand up onto her soft head.

“Good dog.” Cora murmured as she scratched at Tillie’s ear. “Good dog.”

Traveling over the loose and rocky terrain in the pure darkness of the wilderness wasn’t likely to win them any prizes for intelligence. They kept a slow and easy pace that steadily ate the miles. Jet could barely take his eyes off of his wife’s still face. The deep punctures to her shoulders hadn’t been fully healed by the potions, but the pain it had so obviously caused her had hollowed Jet. He felt more empty than he had ever imagined possible. Losing both his parents young to an accident hadn’t scoured his soul as deeply as even the thought of losing Kat. He stared at the nearly invisible contours of her face.

Just a few miles, five should be enough. Five miles and then they could call for help. There had to be some sort of rescue organization that covered this area of the world. Sophie kept reminding herself of that as she ranged ahead of the others, breaking trail and making sure no one was in danger of walking off a cliff. Occasionally she could see the blonde dog ranging off to one side or the other, once even roaming far in front. It was a comforting reminder of her place in time. The fears that swirled through her were anchored far in the past.

Help would arrive and it would arrive in time. It would arrive in time.

It was a restless sort of mania that seemed to swirl around Salidda. Something about this place didn’t feel right and whatever it was was so subtle that she couldn’t put a name to it. Her skin felt enervated, prickling with energy that she had no outlet for. She could swear there were eyes on her, something in the deep darkness of this place with its wash of strange stars and its alien moon was watching. It drank in every step, consumed every breath she took. She could almost swear that it was seeking some weakness, so minute point of entry so that it could sweep in and overpower her from within.

The mere thought of such an attack brought every hair on her body to attention.

As they walked, slowed by both the gurney and the rough terrain, clouds began to gather, blotting out the stars. At length it was only a beggared full moon dressed in tattered clouds that shone down upon them. To say that the storm swirled out of nowhere would be disingenuous. There was plenty of warning, but none of the travelers were paying attention. There was no drizzle that precluded the deluge. Instead it seemed like the sky just opened up.

It was a cold rain, a hard rain. It felt like the sound of it filled the world, a hissing static that overpowered everything. Almost immediately, it seemed that the downpour began to gather in puddles and streams along the ground.

Just as quickly, Sophie began guiding the group to higher ground. This sort of barren, rocky landscape was the perfect storm for flash flooding in a deluge like this. Closing ranks so they could still see one another was almost automatic. Even Salidda fell into step as though she belonged with the group.

“We haven’t gone far enough to call evac!” Sophie shouted over the train.

“Fuck that, Soph.” Jet yelled back. “Get us out of here. Kat needs medical attention.”

Sophie cursed under her breath, but fumbled for her phone. She couldn’t argue with that. Kat needed help. The healing potions had healed the deepest part of the wounds, but the bleeding still wouldn’t stop. Salidda had told them that wyverns had an oil on their skin that could prevent clotting. They had washed the wounds, but it hadn’t helped much. While all of them had a basic understanding of first aid, Kat was their medic and with her out of commission…

She dialed 911.