Break The Ice (15 page)

“What happened to you guys?” Kaitlyn says.

“Long story,” Ted says.

I look at the clock.
12:46pm
. “We have the time.”

“Wait a second. You’re telling me he wasn’t involved?” I say, trying to piece together Ted and Mel’s story.

“The kidnappers were eating with him,” Kaitlyn says.

“That’s what we thought,” Mel says. “But after we got off the phone with you, the truck stopped. We waited around for a few minutes. They dragged Dan out from the backseat, tied his hands together, and threw a bag over his head. I thought they were going to kill him because of how loud the one kept yelling.”

“And they just walked off into the woods after that?” I say.

Ted, who had lain down halfway through the story, finally sits back up. “All the way until it got too dark for us to keep a safe distance and we lost them. Then who knows what they did.”

“How’d you end up here?” Kaitlyn says.

Mel pulls out her phone. “I used the last of my battery to search for nearby businesses. This was the only one. We had to walk another ten miles, but it seemed smarter than camping.”

“It’s not like we had any risk of freezing to death,” Ted says. “It only took a few hours, anyway.”

“And your phone?” Kaitlyn says. “I called it a dozen times.”

Ted tugs on his shirt collar. “Yeah. I kind of left it in the cab on accident. I still have this,” he pulls a charger from his pocket. “But Mel doesn’t have an iPhone.”

“No, but we do,” Kaitlyn says, grabbing the charger from him. She holds her hand out until I drop my phone in it. Plugging it into the wall, she says, “With one of our phones working, we might be able to figure out where those coordinates take us.”

“What happened to yours?” Ted says.

“It died trying to call you so much,” she says.

The others chuckle, but I’m too busy trying to open up my maps. After waiting for the phone to finally turn on, I bring up the app. I have to retry the numbers a few times until I finally get something to show up.

Except it doesn’t make any sense.

“That face doesn’t look good,” Mel says. “What is it?”

“I have no idea. It’s just an arrow in the middle of nowhere.”

“Type them in Google,” Ted says. “What? That usually works.”

I open my browser and paste the numbers into the search bar. A few results show up suggesting different websites about longitude and latitude. Halfway down the page, I stop scrolling and read the header out loud.

“Recent stories regarding Yellowstone National Park’s super volcano.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Ted says, trying to clear it up for the third time. Half a sausage hangs from his mouth.

“No,” Mel and Kaitlyn say at the same time.

“Why would I make that up?” I say, pushing a piece of chicken around my plate.

“Why make your headquarters inside of a dormant volcano?” he says.

Nobody wants to talk about the recent development except for Ted. At least his questions pass the time. “I don’t know. They like it hot?” I say.

He waves his fork at me, chewing his food before saying anything. “The heat wave. You think the Sunjin did that?”

The timeline doesn’t add up. The heat wave started weeks ago. As far as I know, the Sunjin crossed over at the same time as the Dinmani. Assuming I believe everything that Tinjo tells me, and, as of lately, I’m not sure I do. “It’s possible,” I finally say. “Who knows how long they’ve been here. Or how strong their grip is before they cross. But they’re definitely crazy and seem capable of doing something like that.”

Mel leans back in the bed, sinking into the stack of pillows. “The Dinmani we’ve met give me hypothermia whenever they enter a room. Does that make them responsible for the ice ages?”

For the first time that night, everybody laughs together. It’s a weird sound. Something about dealing with Tinjo takes away everybody’s ease. I don’t blame them. I get uncomfortable around him, too, but I can’t afford to question him. Not with mom’s life on the line.

“What do you think is happening back home?” Mel says. “I hope the hospital is alright.”

“They’re probably better off than Lake Shore,” Ted says. “I doubt anybody even swept the streets yet. Not with how much rubble there was when we left.”

“I think my parents were supposed to come back today,” Kaitlyn says.

“Wonder if they noticed you weren’t there,” Ted says.

Mel kicks him, shoving him off the bed. “Why would you say that?” she says.

“It’s true,” Kaitlyn says. “Not the best relationship between us.”

“Still, somebody needs to teach him not to say those things,” Mel says.

Ted hasn’t gotten up from the floor yet. “You just did. And broke my wrist.”

“You’ll be fine,” Mel says, throwing one of the pillows after him.

I drop my plate on the cart left by room service and settle into my chair as the two of them toss things back and forth. Kaitlyn tumbles against the headboard, laughing. I’m almost at peace until Ted throws a pillow my way.

“Don’t sit over there and pretend you don’t have to answer,” he says.

“He’s right,” Kaitlyn says, wiping a tear from her eye. “And I don’t say that often.”

I scratch at my wrist, trying to avoid the question, but there’s nowhere for me to go. “I haven’t given it much thought.”

“Oh, come on,” Ted says, his head popping up from behind the bed. “You have something better than that.”

Shrugging, I say, “The school probably issued a warrant for my truancy.”

I look at the small clock on the nightstand.
10:24pm
. I’ve checked the time every minute for the last twenty-four minutes, the same thought swimming around my mind. I couldn’t get myself to say it, but I’m out of time.

Mel and Ted talk about something, I don’t know what. They’ve been going on for the better part of an hour. As soon as there’s a small dip in the conversation, I force myself to say, “I should go alone.”

Whatever conversation they were in the middle of doesn’t seem important to them anymore. They both stare at me, taken off guard. Confused.

Mel rolls her eyes and turns back to Ted. “So the guy thought he stole that much without anyone noticing?”

“I’m serious,” I say.

She sighs. “Look, we’re not letting you go alone.”

“I don’t know how to explain it, but Tinjo gave me something. Some sort of power. I can fight them. You guys will only get hurt.”

“You’re right, we’re probably all going to get hurt. Or worse. But we’re doing it together.”

“She’s right,” Ted says. “Everybody knew what the end of this road trip had in store for us. But going in alone, that’s suicide, man.”

“If I can sneak in, I might be able to catch the leader off guard,” I say. It’s the only plan I can come up with that doesn’t involve charging in. Then again, I don’t even know where I’m charging to.

The door behind me opens, and Kaitlyn walks in, keys in her hand. “The manager is willing to rent out the shuttle if we’re quick. You guys ready?”

“Sam wants to go alone,” Ted says

Kaitlyn scoffs, a single syllable and nothing more. “Good one. Let’s get moving.”

The other two jump off their bed and grab the makeshift go bags they prepared. Nothing helpful. Soap, towels. Anything else in the room that fit inside a pillow case. They meet at the door and, before walking out, all three turn to face me.

“You can’t change our minds,” Mel says. “We’re coming and the four of us are going to do whatever it takes to save your mom.”

I blink away a tear that swells up in the corner of my eye. My bag sits at the base of the desk. I sling it over my shoulder and hurry after them without a word.

“So the plan,” Ted says after twenty minutes along the bumpiest road I’ve ever seen. “Any improvements to it?”

I wish. “The first step is still the same. Find out where we need to go. After that, we should focus on slow and stealthy.”

“Any idea who the leader is? Did Tinjo show you a picture?” Kaitlyn says, not removing her eyes from the dark road. She follows the bend around a bunch of trees.

“Nothing,” I say. Lighting up the screen on my phone, I find the coordinates again. The recommended route goes straight a few more miles before looping back. “Stop up ahead,” I say. “It’d be faster to walk from here.”

Kaitlyn pulls over into a small opening of trees on the side of the road. She shuts the van off, leaving the headlights on.

“Last chance,” I say. “You can all leave now.”

Mel flicks the back of my head.

“Okay. Grab your stuff.”

I step out of the car and lose my breath for a second. The heat, which hasn’t been too bad out here yet, kicks in at full force. Nothing back east compares to what I’m feeling right now.

“Did you drive us into the volcano?” Ted says. “My legs are melting together.”

“Keep moving,” I say, trying to ignore how hard it is to breathe. “We only have an hour to midnight.”

Every step towards the small blue arrow on my phone gets worse and worse. The skin on my arms glows a light pink. I’ve been around open flames that felt cooler.

When there’s a small window in the treetop, and the stars shine through, I catch a glimpse of something unusual. It looks like a shooting star, except it’s travelling up into the sky instead. It reaches a height that will most likely put it through the atmosphere when it explodes, fiery bits raining back down.

“Holy shit,” Ted says. “Did you guys–”

“Keep moving,” I say, interrupting him. “We know which way to go now.”

Another thirty minutes go by before anything new happens. I step around a cluster of trees and pass through the tree line. Stepping out on the other side, I find myself staring into a vast openness. The full moon lights up enough around me to make some details clear. As far as I can tell, there’s a lake glistening to the east and a lot of nothing west.

“Over there,” Mel says, pointing where I see nothing. “Look really close.”

A small fire burns in the distance.

“Good eye,” Ted says. “We should go for that.”

One by one, we descend the hill until we’re all on another trail leading straight towards the fire. Not many trees follow this path. If anybody tries attacking us, we’re out of luck. My stomach tenses up. Think of anything different. “I don’t know what I expected, but this wasn’t it,” I say.

“It’s a lot flatter,” Ted says, finishing my thoughts. “Where are they all hiding at?”

“More importantly,” I say, trying to find any sign of the Sunjin. “Where are the fires that we’re supposed to cast them in?”

“He speaks in riddles a lot,” Ted says. “Maybe they’re not literal fires.”

“I think he’d be clear about destroying the threat trying to end both of our worlds.”

“Both of you, shut up,” Mel says. She’s in the front but stopped walking. “I hear something.”

“There’s nothing around us,” Ted says. “What are you hearing?”

She points at the dark shadow of a rock up ahead. “It’s blocking our entire view of that side.”

I take the lead and hurry over to the massive rock, half buried in the ground. Using it as cover, I sneak around until I can see something. It doesn’t take long for me to take in the scene, and I jump back.

“It’s the fire you saw,” I say in a hushed whisper.

“And?”

“I see at least four people, but twice as many tents set up.”

“We can take them,” Ted says.

I shake my head. “That’s not all.”

Everybody stares at me, waiting. I swallow the lump in my throat. “There’s a cage. It’s hard to tell with the fire so small, but it looks like somebody’s inside of it.”

“What are you saying?” Mel says.

“I’m pretty sure it’s Dan.”

“Did you hear something?” one of the Sunjin around the fire says.

I push the others back against the rock and signal for them to wait.

“It’s just the wind, calm down.”

“When does the wind sound like whispers?”

“How long have you been out here? That’s all it ever sounds like.”

“Will you two stop talking? You’re giving me a headache.” That new voice, it’s unmistakably Dan.

I pull out my phone and bring up my texts. Shielding the screen from shining too bright, I type out the message.

Me:
Keep everyone back. I’m going to sneak around to get a better view of Dan. If you hear anything, get out.

Without waiting for her to respond, I dash across the opening. On the opposite hill, a few bushes line the ascent. Once I’m at where Dan’s cage should be, a weak vibration shakes my pocket. Lying flat on my stomach, I pull the phone out.

Kaitlyn
: we’re distracting them. get him out. meet you at the top

The second I finish reading the message, a high pitched howl cuts through the night air. If I didn’t know any better, which I do, I’d guess it was an actual coyote. A second howl, this one even higher. What do they think they’re doing? They can’t take on the Sunjin alone.

Even though I don’t want them to continue, it works. All four of the men stand up from their logs placed around the fire.

“Damn animals are back,” one says. “I’m not letting them get away this time.” He reaches down, pushing the log to the side, and pulls out a four foot long pole. In seconds, the metal shines white hot.

The other three grab their weapons and run over to where I left everyone. They better have ran already.

Don’t waste time, Sam. Get down there.

I swallow hard and push my way through the thick shrubs. There’s a drop on the other side. Not far, maybe seven or eight feet. I slide down the hill as long as I’m able before falling the rest. I land on my feet but my ankle twists weird. I bite my tongue. If I scream now, the distraction was for nothing.

“Who’s there?” Dan says. “I told nobody to bother me.”

Sneaking up behind the only blind spot on the cage, I say, “I thought of it more as rescuing you.”

There’s silence for a few seconds before he says, “Sam?”

“You alright?” I say.

“What are you doing here?”

“I told you, I’m getting you out of here.”

“You have to go,” he says. “If the others come back, they’re going to kill you.”

“I can handle a couple of Sunjin. Where’s the latch on this thing?”

“Damn it. You’re not listening. I don’t need your help.”

I walk around the cage to where I can see him. He looks the same as the night we met. “What are you talking about?” I say.

“You don’t understand. These guys, they’re protecting me.”

“From themselves?” I shake the cage a little but it doesn’t move at all.

Dan sighs. He looks around to make sure nobody came back yet. “It’s a long story.”

“Well you can tell me once I figure out how to break these bars.”

He doesn’t acknowledge that I said anything. “Everything you told me about the Sunjin. The Dinmani. The war. I believe it all.”

“Then why are we still waiting here, talking?”

“You don’t know certain things. Important things. Whether someone lied to you or left out the details…you have to believe me when I tell you, the Sunjin are the good guys.”

I can’t hold back my laughter. “Did these guys brainwash you? What are you talking about? I’ve seen the Sunjin kill so many people already. Innocent people who knew nothing about this.
You
helped me kill one.”

“Casualties of war, they’re not so uncommon.”

The comment tugs at my stomach, making sick. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m not laughing, am I? The Dinmani, they’re manipulating you. You have to trust me.”

“Trust you? You just said you don’t care about sacrificing people.”

“That’s not what I said. Don’t you think the few lives that have been lost are worth it to save the entire planet? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

“That’s not logical. The few are equally important, and if you don’t believe that…” I can’t finish my sentence. Disgust replaces the nausea. I back away from the cage, unsure what to do next.

“Leave. Get out of here while you still can. Let the Sunjin finish what we started and you’ll see that I’m right.”

The fire burns at my back, but that’s not what stops me from moving away. I look at Dan as he presses his forehead against the bars. The only thing I can think to say is, “What
we
started?”

“Who the hell is this?” a voice says behind me.

I turn around and find the men who guarded Dan returning. All four of them line up, blocking the path out. Cornered. The men march forward, weapons in hand.

Tinwel’s voice plays in my mind.
Your Dinmow is stronger than before. You cannot do what you will not attempt
.

“Don’t hurt him,” Dan says.

“There’s only one thing worse than one of those blue bastards,” the biggest Sunjin says.

“What’s that?” I say, trying to buy myself more time.

“A human pretending to be one.”

The Sunjin swings his pole. A whip of fire unleashes from the tip, cracking in the darkness. He strikes again, almost hitting me.

What have I seen the Dinmani do? If I can get close enough, I can get rid of them in a single attack. But I can barely banish one without passing out. Or maybe I have another option…
Striker
.

“Don’t worry,” I say, planning the attack out in my head. I note where the men are standing, their weapons, and how quick they might be. “I’m not pretending.”

Without giving it more thought, I let my instincts take over. One at a time, large ice spikes grow in my hands. I toss one in the air and step to the side. Catching it at shoulder level, I put all of my force into a single throw.

The spike soars across the small valley and stabs a Sunjin in the chest. Before the one behind him can move, it pierces all the way through and pins the two together. They drop like two puppets whose strings were cut. When the Sunjin in the back falls to his side, a pair of sunglasses slide out from his front pocket.

A third Sunjin charges. He runs around the big guy, holding a club above his head. Before he can dodge, I plunge the second spike through his stomach. He falls forward, onto his knees, the ice holding him in a prayer position.

I lock eyes with the last standing Sunjin. He hasn’t moved, pole still at the ready. I place a hand on the Sunjin by my side. I don’t even need to say the words this time. It moves from my chest to my fingertips, so I release the light. It crushes him and then blinks out, taking the skewer along.

“You were saying,” I say, cracking my knuckles.

The Sunjin heats his weapon and steps forward. He rolls his shoulders back, analyzing my every muscle, before he lunges. His aim is spot on as he jabs the pole at my chest.

I roll to the side, dodging the short attack, but the whip follows me, wrapping around my ankle. It burns the clothing in its way and eats away at my skin. It doesn’t leave burns, it’s melting the flesh.

Using my other leg, I kick the tip of the pole. It snaps the whip and leaves me free to crawl backwards. I try to stand but the pain is too much. I fall back even farther until I’m leaning against the hill.

“Not as strong as you thought,” the Sunjin says.

“Rico, let him go,” Dan says. He’s pounding against his cage.

“Orders are orders,” the Sunjin says. He charges, pole positioned and ready to spear me.

He’s moving too fast to stop. Perfect. At the last second, I slide to the side and let the burning metal bury into the dirt. Unsure of what will happen, I stare the Sunjin down and grab hold of the pole.

My hand absorbs the heat immediately, but I don’t feel any pain this time. It keeps going until the pole is no longer white. It glows red, then orange, before disappearing into a dull gray in the night.

“What are you doing?” the Sunjin says. “Why can’t I let go?”

Frost spreads down the pole from where my hand is, stretching across and meeting the Sunjin’s grip. It leaps onto his skin and works up his arm. In two blinks, he’s covered from head to toe, unable to move.

Dan stares at me from inside his cage. “You can stop all of this now,” he says. “If you go, I won’t let any more follow you. Go back to the east coast, and you won’t even see any changes. Your life can go back to the way it was before.”

An image of mom, lying unconscious on our kitchen floor, flashes in my mind. “It’s never going to be the same,” I say. “I’m going to make it better. And that starts by destroying the Sunjin right now.”

I pull out my phone and look at the time.
11:58pm.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have an invasion to stop.”

A message appears on the phone before I turn the screen off.

Kaitlyn
: We lost them. At the highest point. Hurry. Dinmani ready to kill him.

I read the text a few times. For some reason, the mixture of word choices and grammar confuse me. It seems weird to worry about something like that, but I can’t shake it. Either way, I need to hurry.

“Where are they hiding at?” I say, hoping Dan will make my search easier.

“I won’t tell you,” he says.

Maybe lying will help. “They have the others. You want me to leave? I’m not going anywhere without them.”

Dan groans. My lie wasn’t the most convincing, but he can’t afford to risk it. “Up the hill behind me. Keep going, you’ll see when to stop. But Sam, one more time, trust–”

I run out of the valley before he finishes. At the lowest spot on the hill, I jump and pull myself onto the grass. It’s midnight now. I don’t have any time to waste.

My ankle slows me down, and the exhaustion from the fight doesn’t help. Halfway up the hill, I have trouble breathing, but I keep going. With any luck, there will be an army of Dinmani at the top, and I won’t have to do much of anything.

A fire burns a couple hundred feet away. It’s bigger than the one near Dan and lights up a section of the mountaintop. A few shadows stand in front. I count ten, but can’t tell if any of them are Kaitlyn, Mel, or Ted. My phone vibrates again.

Kaitlyn
: Almost out of time.

Even though I don’t think it’s possible, I start running up the hill. The fire grows and grows until it looks like somebody set fire to the forest. One of the men glows blue in the dim moonlight, an extra light shining on him. He’s holding a small, rectangular light. It disappears the second he spots me.

I’m close enough to the fire now to see the full scene. “What’s going on?” I blurt out. There goes the element of surprise. I couldn’t stop myself. Not after I saw Kaitlyn kneeling next to Tinwel, her hands behind her back.

“You’re here,” Tinjo says. “Good. Before you stands the man who leads the Sunjin. Kill him and end his hold on your planet.”

“Are you alright?” I say, ignoring Tinjo.

Kaitlyn doesn’t answer, doesn’t even look at me.

“You must be Sam,” the Sunjin leader says. Unlike Tinjo, he doesn’t have an unusual aura or creepy accent. He sounds human. Hell, he looks human. No boils on his pale face. No sagging around his bright eyes. Even his hair, slicked back and greased, fits him.

I can’t more form any words at the moment, so I nod.

“I’m surprised a human fell to the level of the Dinmani. It’s…ah, what’s the word?” He looks up at the night sky. The flames lick his skin, but he doesn’t flinch. “It’s not important. Forgive my poor vernacular, but I’ve seen too many of my brethren slain by this thing tonight.”

“What’s one more to the list?” I say, finding my voice.

“Good,” Tinjo says. “Anger. You will need it.”

“On the contrary,” the Sunjin says. “We can go about this rather civil if you ask me.”

“Nobody is asking you.”

“Come now, I’ve let you go this long without even trying to fight back.”

Tinjo points to the raging fire. “Look behind you. That fire is filled with my men.”

The Sunjin only laughs, shaking his head.

I follow Tinjo’s gesture. Dinmani men, stacked layer by layer, consumed by fire. Only a fraction of their blue skin remains, the rest charred black. One body, sticking out from the others, grabs my attention. Lanky body, lighter skin. Although I’m not sure which one it is, I recognize him from outside the cafeteria.

Something inside my veins tugs to get out. I’m no longer exhausted. My Dinmow is ready for another fight.

“Your blood boils,” the Sunjin says, looking at me with a smile. “So to speak.”

I’m breathing heavier than before. Sweat drips from my nose. My right hand shakes until a heavy pressure builds against my palm. It’s ready to strike.

“Your window closes,” Tinjo says. “It must be you who strikes him down. Banish these monsters from your world.”