Water Shaper (World Aflame) (9 page)

“Are you two okay?” he asked again.

Sean shivered uncontrollably but managed a soft smile. “At least I’m not wet anymore. Any chance you can turn up the heat?”

Xander almost opened his mouth to apologize but immediately stopped. He was a part of the ocean and could feel its ebbs and flows surrounding him. Now, far from where they stood, a thermal vent released volcanic-heated water into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Gently, Xander created a water current that pulled the superheated liquid closer to the ruined city.

As the hot water passed along the wall of the whirlpool, Xander turned the water current until the warm water swirled in an endless loop around the perimeter of their dry patch of land. Immediately, the temperature began rising on the hilltop.

Though it took a while, Sean and Jessica both eventually stopped shivering and color returned to their faces. Despite feeling better, neither got up from their awkward position on the damp sand on the hillside, instead choosing to stare at the distant sunlight barely visible far above their heads.

“Are you sure you two are going to be okay?” Xander asked.

“You’re like a pestering mother hen,” Sean said without making eye contact.

Xander smiled at his friend. He let his eyes drift to the still-glowing pool just beyond where they laid. He could feel the Water Elemental’s scrutinizing gaze on him, watching and judging him as they wasted time lying down and recuperating.

“If you guys are feeling up to it, we need to get going.”

“Just five more minutes, Mom,” Jessica complained as she covered her eyes with her hand.

“Where do we go from here?” Sean asked as he propped himself up.

Xander looked above him at the faint light. “London.”

Sean shrugged as he reached out. Xander took his hand and pulled him to his feet. “Sure. I hear London is lovely this time of year.”

“I could go for some fish and chips,” Jessica said as she reached out as well.

Before Xander could take her hand, Sean stepped in his way and pulled Jessica to her feet.

“You two don’t have to come with me on this one,” Xander said. “I won’t blame you if you opt out.”

Sean chuckled, but his eyes never left Jessica. “How many times do we need to go through this with you?”

Xander smiled, knowing his friends would always be watching his back. His smile widened as he noticed Sean and Jessica hadn’t released hands after she stood.

“I’m going to check and make sure everything’s still good with the Water Elemental,” he said with a knowing laugh. “You two let me know when you’re ready to go.”

“Sure,” Sean said.

When Xander was out of hearing range, he turned his attention back to Jessica. To his surprise, the blond blushed at his gaze.

“So, about earlier,” he began. “It was… I mean…”

“I thought we were going to die, you know,” Jessica said.

“Yeah, no, of course. It’s just darn silly of us to ruin the moment by not actually dying.”

“Silly of us, really,” she said with a smile.

Sean flushed with embarrassment, knowing he was out of his element. “Well, we should probably be going then. The world isn’t going to save itself, right?”

Jessica smiled and leaned forward, kissing him gently on the cheek. “Yeah, we should probably get going.”

She slipped out of Sean’s grip and waved to Xander.

“Everything good?” Xander asked, noticing his best friend’s deep red blush. “Seems like you’re getting your color back, Sean.”

“Yeah,” Sean said. He cleared his throat loudly. “Can we just skip all the ridicule I’m sure you have planned and just get back to fighting for our lives?”

Xander laughed as he kicked off the ground, the other two carried aloft in his wake.

Fire Warriors poured from the recesses of rock outcropping and chasms in the stone like ants exiting a mound. The black-clad men and women scowled at the bright sunlight as they flexed exposed arms, letting gentle flames lick their skin as it sheathed their hands.

The Elemental marched at the front of the line. They walked across the sand as they approached the dilapidated highway. Where the Elemental stepped, the sand melted and fused into glass.

The marching army was forced to avoid large spears of rock that had broken through the ground during the most violent of the earthquakes. The same stone outcroppings had shattered much of the road nearby, creating a labyrinth of rock that they traversed as they marched toward the city.

For miles, they marched through the desert, unfazed by the intense midday sun. The road they were on merged with others, though they were equally abandoned. Cars sat in the road, some destroyed by fire but most ruined by vehicular accidents. Sammy’s memories bled through the Fire Elemental’s mind, and it envisioned streets like these filled to capacity with speeding cars. It could easily conceive that the shaking ground had caused numerous accidents along the way. At first, people would have stood outside their cars and argued with one another angrily, expecting aid to come when the earth stopped shaking. Except the earth never really did stop shaking. Instead, the shaking grew in intensity until the ground split open and shards of stone exploded across the highway. The people would have turned and ran in a panic, hurrying back to their homes on foot.

The Elemental savored the image in its mind. Despite Sammy’s eventual betrayal, she was a Fire Warrior at heart. Her imagination for destruction seemed boundless.

As they marched closer to the city, the destruction became less obvious. Ruined cars had been moved aside, allowing for a fluid flow of traffic.

The Fire Elemental walked down the center of the wide highway, standing at the pinnacle of the sloped road. Its warriors spread out behind it, covering both directions of traffic as they marched toward Los Angeles.

Over the crest of a hill, a large semi-truck sped down the eastbound lane of Interstate 10. The road was concealed beyond the lip of the hill, so it wasn’t until he began his downward slope that he saw the hundreds of blond, leather-clad men and women spread out across the road. Reaching forward, he pressed a button on the dash that sounded the horn. Air blew through the large stacks mounted behind the cab, blasting the air with an ear-splitting honk.

The Fire Elemental flinched at the noise. Though it didn’t realize it, it had been savoring the silence of the desert. Only the sound of their booted feet on the asphalt had disturbed the illusion of endless seas of sand and shrubbery.

The Elemental turned its red eyes sharply on the semi as it sped down the road. The driver honked again, and the Elemental scowled at the sound. It could hear the air brakes engaging on the large truck as it tried to stop in front of the army.

The Fire Elemental raised both hands and flames erupted from beneath the truck. The pressure from the flames lifted the cab and trailer high into the air. The force of the fire split the fuel tank mounted beneath the semi, and the whole contraption exploded in a massive shower of gas, flames, and concussive might.

Steel showered down around the warriors, clattering onto the asphalt. The Fire Elemental smiled wickedly at its work. The Elemental returned its eyes to nearby Los Angeles as the husk of the truck slammed back down onto the road. It walked forward, casually bypassing the burning wreckage, and started down the hill. The senseless destruction of the truck was a release of its frustrations, and it secretly hoped they would encounter more cars before they reached the city proper.

The Elemental was not disappointed.

Many cars tried to flee Los Angeles. Not far outside the city, a car trying to aggressively merge lanes got tangled up with another vehicle that refused to yield his lane. The resulting accident had included another car that had been driving too closely behind the unyielding vehicle. A three-car pileup was enough to block all the eastbound lanes for miles, stretching all the way back into the city itself.

People stood beside their cars, yelling angrily at one another, while their air conditions ran full blast within. They cupped their hands to their eyes as they tried to see the accident, or they fidgeted with the luggage racks strapped to the tops of their minivans.

“What can you see?” a wife asked as she rolled down the window to their sedan.

Their children complained endlessly in the backseat, asking how much longer it would be before traffic started moving again and they’d get to Colorado Springs.

The husband bent at the waist and rested his forearms on the windowsill. He immediately withdrew them as the metal seared his exposed skin.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I can kind of see the accident up ahead, but I don’t really see any cars sliding by.”

Cars to their left turned onto the soft sand of the median and drove to the empty westbound lanes. They bounced back onto the asphalt and drove back toward Los Angeles.

“Maybe we should just go back,” his wife said, noticing the cars making U-turns.

The husband shook his head. He lowered his voice so he could talk only to his wife, despite the silence in the car. “Go back where? Our house might as well be condemned, and there isn’t a single hotel with vacancies in the entire city. We need to go stay with your parents for a while, until the insurance company starts sending out checks.”

He heard the sound of sirens and turned in time to see a police car driving along the shoulder, with one set of wheels on the asphalt and the passenger side pushing through the packed dirt. The rumble strip sounded in a dull hum as the police car tried to pass vehicles that, like it, had decided driving on the shoulder sounded like a quick escape from the traffic. It sounded its siren again briefly and cars merged back into regular traffic, allowing it past.

The husband smiled. “See, there’s a police car. They’ll figure out what’s going on and get traffic moving here in a little bit.”

“Knock on the glass when they figure it out,” the wife said as she pressed the automatic button for the window. The glass on the driver’s side of the Audi rolled up and closed, trapping the soothing air conditioning inside.

The man’s smile faded, and he stood upright. The sun was intense and blinding. He could see waves dancing over the surface of the road in the distance, making the shape of people walking on the highway.
It was the curse of living in the desert
, he told himself. There was always a mirage appearing before your vision.

He raised a hand to his brow, blocking out the glaring light, though it did little to block out the sunlight reflecting off the hundreds of mirrors in front of him.

Though he was trying to see the accident ahead, his eyes found the mirage of black-clad people walking on the highway once more. He furrowed his brow and looked on confusedly.

A man climbed from his car beside him, and the husband pointed to the distance.

“Are you seeing this?”

The man shrugged. “The accident?”

The husband looked beyond the car wreck blocking the road. The shape of people walking through the desert was still present.

“No, beyond it.”

The other driver shaded his eyes and stared beyond. He frowned and looked back at the husband. “Are those people out there?”

“That’s what I thought.”

“There must be a couple hundred of them out there.”

The husband nodded. He heard the whir of the car window rolling down beside him.

“What’s going on, honey?” his wife asked.

The husband didn’t look over but motioned toward her with his free hand. “I don’t know. Keep the kids in the car and roll up the windows.”

The other driver pointed toward the accident. “Looks like the cops see them, too. They’re driving over to check it out.”

The police car pulled onto the asphalt and cruised down the open road, advancing on the army of Fire Warriors. The two men watched it coast forward, growing closer and closer to the strange men and women. With a flash of light, the police car exploded. It pinwheeled into the air, landing on its roof with a crash of twisting metal.

They flinched and nearly fell over. Specks of flame spread across the strange people, as though they were catching fire. Near the accident, people climbed out of their cars and turned away from the scene, forcing their way between the stalled traffic.