JanePtinum

  Cassie collects her stuff, and I follow her out the door with Corax on my shoulder. Ivy and Vince are just finishing loading the others into the car. They’re all looking better than I st saw, but that doesn’t mean they look good.

  The man I stitched up is able to move on his own at least, even if he does have to be very careful about his every movement.

  The man whose lungs were damaged by the smoke is trying to walk on his own, but has to lean against a metal pole he’s using to walk every few steps. He takes a few gulps of air, and tries to move again.

  The healthy man helps the woman whose leg I removed around, and she keeps the baby held close to her chest. The child still looks awful. Just a lumpy potato with artificial skin grafted on. I can tell he’s alive, but I can’t discern anything else with the small glimpses I get of him.

  The five of them are helped into the car by Vince and Ivy, and Vince then takes the driver’s seat. Ivy digs out the sled that was buried in the storm and sits down on it with her rifle resting in her p. Cassie and I sit next to her.

  “Check.” Corax says seriously into my ear, and then takes off. He shoots out of the thin exit, and pulls high into the air, disappearing above the roof. Vince waits until he returns to start driving. Only a minute ter Corax nds on Vince’s open window.

  “Safe.” He reports, and returns to my shoulder with two strong fps of his wings.

  “Thank you.” I reach up and give him a small scratch on his head.

  Vince starts up the car and pulls us into the main part of the canyon, driving us ever downwards.

  Cassie looks anxious, bouncing her leg nearly as fast as it will go and checking her pistols.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  “People are always most active after a storm.” She answers.

  “And we have no cover.” I finish the thought for her. A single shot breaking a coont line and I’m dead.

  Fear threatens to take hold of my mind, but I’m prepared. Acknowledge, I’m afraid. Rationalize, is there anything I can do to help this situation? Building cover out of stuff in the car might work, but equally might take too long or slow us down. We’re on a potentially tight schedule to reach Mara, we don’t have the time to spare.

  “Safe.” Corax reassures us, and then takes off into the sky again to watch.

  I can trust Corax. I kill the thoughts, and they stay gone. A little bit of the fear does remain, but it’s manageable. I’d be dumb to not be a little scared.

  Ivy doesn’t move, I’m certain she’s already made sure her rifle is in a perfect shape and ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

  “Between Corax and I, nothing can take us by surprise.” Ivy says confidently.

  That settles down Cassie a little bit. I can put my life in Corax’s wings, and Cassie can put hers in Ivy’s eye.

  Cassie was right, the canyon is alive with people. Corax always reports a car coming our way, or a cave entrance with guards posted in it a few turns before we reach them. Ivy can then guess their intentions the moment they turn the corner, and even those who are looking for trouble aren’t brave enough to do anything while staring down Ivy’s barrel.

  I keep my pistols drawn just in case, and so does Cassie. Luckily they’re never needed, and after hours of driving, the canyon eventually levels out, blending into what used to be the ocean floor.

  Beyond the higher air pressure, there’s almost no difference between here and where we were. It’s still just an endless, barren wastend. Countless sand dunes rise and fall off into the horizon.

  Vince turns the car a few degrees south the moment we’re out of the canyon. I’m gd he knows where he’s going, because it would be so easy to get lost out here.

  Being out of the canyon doesn’t settle Cassie down completely, she’s still anxiously checking her gun and looking for anything to take her attention.

  I pull a book out of my backpack and pce it gently beside Cassie.

  “Reading might help.”

  She looks at me with a confused expression for just a moment before a small smile finds its way to her face.

  “Shut up.” She pushes the book back towards me. “I’m fine.”

  Ivy gives her a look that makes it clear she knows Cassie is lying.

  “I’m just anxious to finally shoot the Bitch in the face.” She relents under Ivy’s gaze.

  “You better be fast then. I’m not sure how much of her I’m leaving behind.” Ivy jokes.

  “At least leave her torso.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “What are we going to do when we reach the trench?” I ask.

  “Ideally? I find a nice hiding spot on the ridge, put a bullet through her skull the second she steps outside, and we go home.” Ivy says. “More likely though, we’re going to have to enter the ravine. When we stop at one of the towns on the way and see what they look like, we’ll be able to make a better pn.”

  “We came all the way out here with no pn?” There’s no way. Vince must have some pn he just hasn’t shared.

  “More or less.” Ivy shrugs. “I never met the woman, but apparently she lives to show how superior she is. We’re relying on her to make a mistake.”

  “The fucker sure does.” Cassie mumbles in agreement.

  Vince really did drag us all the way out here without a pn. Why would he take that risk?

  “We’re going to be fine.” Ivy reassures me, trying to settle my worries before they can grow inside my mind. “Like I said, we’ll get information at the next ravine and make a better pn.”

  “Ok.” That’s better than nothing, but far from good. “And what if we don’t have any ideas after the next town?”

  “Then things get fun.” Ivy jokes.

  How can she be so calm right now? I guess her panicking wouldn’t help anything. Or maybe she’s faking it? Trying to be a rock for Cassie to tch on to, to help her calm down? It’s impossible to tell behind that neutral mask she always keeps on her face.

  Things stay mostly quiet through the rest of the day. I’m not sure Ivy or Cassie have the energy to talk beneath the beating sun. I end up reading poetry, while Corax spends his time enjoying the empty skies.

  Cassie joins me in burning the daylight away inside a good book. Ivy, on the other hand, just enjoys the sights. Occasionally she interrupts our reading to point out something interesting.

  Lava bubbles up through the sand where thermal vents once existed. Everything the va touches turns to an opaque gss. The sand has been washed away in storms, leading to rge, slowly expanding hills with alternating yers of rock and gss.

  Large patches of sand churn like water, the surface constantly shifting under some unseen force. Luckily they’re easy to avoid, but I don’t want to imagine what would happen if we tried to drive over one.

  Mountains of barren rock occasionally rise up in the distance, far taller than the Rocky Mountains visible at the junkyard. It’s insane to think that they were once swallowed up entirely by the oceans. Just how far below what was once sea level are we?

  The sun eventually sets over the horizon, and all the interesting sights disappear with it.

  “You should get some sleep.” Ivy tells Cassie.

  “I’m not going to be able to.” The second she’s brought out of her book, her foot begins bouncing anxiously once again.

  I can help with that, but I’m not sure how to start reading out loud without it being obvious that I’m doing it for her.

  “I was pnning on reading to Corax now that he can’t see anything from the sky. I can wait if it’ll keep you up though.” I hope that’s subtle enough.

  “Do whatever you want.” Cassie returns to her book.

  “You really should try.” Ivy reiterates.

  “Fine,” Cassie relents after literally any pressure. “I’ll give it a try.” She slides a bookmark into her book, pces it back in her backpack, and gets her sleeping bag out. It takes her a few minutes to get both comfortable and secure, but soon enough she stops fidgeting, and I resume the book I’ve been reading to her for the past few nights.

  It only takes a few minutes of reading for her breathing to slow, and she begins to softly snore. I know from experience that if I stop she’ll probably wake up though, so I keep reading.

  Thanks. Ivy signs to me.

  I just offer a smile in return. She can know why I’m reading, the only important thing is that Cassie thinks she doesn’t know.

  Ivy also settles down for some rest, but only a few hours ter, she gets up and signals for Vince to stop the car. Once he does, she gets up and opens his door.

  “I’ll finish the drive, go get some sleep.” She says quietly.

  “I can drive a little longer.” Vince responds.

  “You're not going to be able to stand when we get there if you do. Get some sleep.”

  “Fine.” Vince eventually relents and lets Ivy cim the driver’s seat.

  He walks back to the sled, and Cassie’s calm, slow breathing catches in her throat. The sound must have woken her up.

  “I’m reading to Corax, if you need me to stop so you can sleep I can.” I say to Vince.

  He takes one gnce at Cassie and shakes his head with a smile on his face.

  “It’s alright Little Blue. Heck, it might even help me sleep.”

  “Alright.”

  I return to my book while Vince gets settled into Ivy’s sleeping bag. He’s asleep nearly the same moment his head hits the ground, and Cassie follows him back to sleep only a few minutes ter.

  I keep one eye on the book, and the other on the stars above. I could spend a hundred years staring upwards and still not know everything there is to see. A billion stars twinkle in the moonless sky. A shooting star streaks across the universe for just a moment, before disappearing, never to be seen again.

  “When all of this is done,” I whisper to Corax. “I’m asking Silver for our pay, and buying a telescope.”

  JanePtinum