dragons breath 01 - stalked by flames (6 page)

The sound of metal crunching into metal came from behind us. Conrad and I turned, watching in gaping horror as vehicles piled into each other. Then a billboard on the side of the interstate fell to the ground, sending a herd of running cows in a nearby pasture in another direction.

“This is bad,” I said, gripping my seat to keep from swaying too hard.

Conrad snorted. “No shit.”

By the time the shaking stopped, so had the traffic. It had lasted for a couple of minutes—longer than any of the previous quakes we’d experienced.

The first thing I noticed after I got my heartbeat under control was that the radio had gone out. Then shouting from where the pileup had happened behind us. A couple of guys rushed over to help a woman get out of her crumpled car. Traffic had been going pretty slow so at least it didn’t look like there was anything too severe, mostly fender benders.

“Should we go back there and help?” I asked.

A gunshot went off. We both jumped in our seats. I couldn’t be sure where it came from, but the angry shouts rising from a few cars back told me it wasn’t far. People scattered as they raced to return to their vehicles.

“Hell, no.” Conrad shook his head. “Let’s get out of here.”

He was right, though it felt wrong to leave injured people behind. I put the truck into drive and got back on the road, following others who were doing the same. A few mangled cars blocked the lanes ahead of us, but we were able to veer around them.

For the next three hours, we slowly made our way south. We passed the occasional wreck and avoided cracks in the pavement where the earthquake had torn it up. There were people walking alongside the interstate as well. They held their thumbs out, hoping for a ride, but I kept going past them. That gunshot had been a stark reminder that in a situation like this I couldn’t take any risks and end up stranded.

A trickle of cars started appearing on the other side of the interstate, heading north. They flashed their lights at us and some even waved their arms out their windows.

“Why would they be going that way?” I asked.

“No idea,” Conrad replied, his tone just as baffled as mine.

We’d passed Pauls Valley a few miles back and were getting close to the Arbuckle Mountains. Maybe some rocks fell onto the interstate during the earthquake? Even if they had, there were smaller highways people could use to go around.

Traffic slowed even further as we continued driving. More cars passed us going the opposite direction also flashing warnings at us. A cold pit grew in my stomach. We tried the radio to see what could be going on, but none of the stations worked.

“This is beginning to freak me out,” Conrad said, watching the other side of the interstate.

“Me, too.”

He heaved a sigh. “There’s an exit ahead. Maybe we should take it.”

“We need to get to Texas. It’ll be safer there.” I wanted to get home to my family and put all this behind me. Whatever was up ahead, we’d find a way around it.

“Okaay,” he said, drawing the word out. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

About half the cars in front of us took the exit when we reached it. Traffic moved a little faster after that so the next few miles passed quicker than before. I kept looking for the Arbuckle Mountains ahead. Millions of years ago they’d stood tall and proud, but now they weren’t much more than jagged hills. Still, I should have seen some sort of rise by now.

Traffic slowed again. Conrad rolled down his window and peered out.

“There’s a bunch of cars stopped up there,” he said, ducking back inside. “Couldn’t see anything else.”

After going about another quarter mile, traffic came to a standstill. The flashing lights of a police car reflected through windows, though I couldn’t see the cop from our vantage point. A steady flow of vehicles drove onto the median, using a gap in the highway divider to turn around.

Then I noticed people walking along the interstate with shocked expressions on their faces. Others were hugging each other and crying. What the heck had happened up there?

Someone pounded on my window. I jerked in my seat.

“You’ve got to turn back,” a wild-eyed man said.

“Why?” I asked, not rolling down the glass.

“The road…it’s—there’s no way around it.” A woman yelled at him and he ran off toward her.

I considered what to do. My curiosity burned too much for me to leave without at least checking on what had people this upset, and we couldn’t go anywhere yet anyway. We’d have to wait until some of the cars ahead cleared out before we could get far enough up to turn around. I pulled the keys from the ignition and opened the door.

“Are you crazy?” Conrad shouted, giving me an incredulous look. “It could be dangerous.”

“If it was dangerous people would be running around screaming. They’re not, and the police are up there so it should be safe.”

“Fine,” he said, getting out as well.

We weaved our way through the cars, trucks, and campers filling the interstate. They seemed to go on forever, but eventually we saw a thick crowd of people gathered at the top of a rise. They filled a space between police cars that had been parked sideways across the road.

Whatever was beyond that I couldn’t tell. I squeezed my way through them, working to get closer to the front. When I finally made it to the spot where police had strung yellow tape across, my body turned cold.

“Um, I don’t think we’re making it to Texas today,” Conrad said over my shoulder.

Chapter 6

Bailey

I looked down, ignoring a growing sense of vertigo.

A giant chasm stretched before us, running east and west as far as the eye could see. There was no going across it. The other side had to be about a half-mile away and it was at least a few hundred feet deep. It was like Oklahoma had just gained their own Grand Canyon.

“How could this have happened?” I breathed out.

“At this point?” Conrad muttered behind me. “Why not?”

“The ground opened up during the last earthquake,” the woman standing next to me answered. “I saw it and barely stopped my car in time. Not everyone was so lucky.”

She wiped a tear from her eye. On the other side of her she held a little girl’s hand, probably her daughter if their similar features were anything to go by.

“This shouldn’t be possible,” a middle-aged man said. “That earthquake wasn’t big enough to cause something like this.”

In my shock over the chasm, I’d avoided the usual anxiety that came from being crowded near too many people. A problem I’d had since I was a child. It was starting to creep up on me now, but a few deep breaths helped keep it at bay a little longer. I looked at the chasm again and an idea began to form in my head. It took a moment to voice it out loud.

“What if it was caused by two dimensions colliding? The dragons have been popping out of the sky from nowhere and even more keep coming. Maybe they were just the beginning and now we’re going to see a lot more of this.” I waved my hand toward the ground.

Of course, all I had to go on was what Aidan told me, but it seemed logical enough.

I turned to find Conrad rubbing his chin. “Dimensions colliding? Why not throw that in one in the mix along with time travel and, hell, magic could have done it, too.”

“Why do you assume they’re coming from another dimension?” The question came from a guy in a black suit who appeared to be in his mid-thirties. He’d been standing a few feet away, but moved closer to me. There was a vibe about him that made me think he worked for the government.

Everyone within hearing distance turned their gazes toward us.

I swallowed. “Where else would they have come from? I didn’t see any spaceships.”

No way was I going to point out that I’d had a conversation with a dragon. These people would never believe me and even if some of them did, they might react badly. Speaking my mind in front of a crowd was difficult enough. I wasn’t about to risk riling them up.

“You have a point,” the guy in the suit answered, giving me a doubtful look. “I’m not sure if that’s the answer, but one thing I do agree on is it’s going to get much worse before things settle down.”

Everyone cast their gazes at the chasm and then back at each other.

“How much worse?” the woman next to me asked.

His expression turned guarded. “Enough to reshape earth and life as we know it.”

Murmurs rose from the crowd. Seeing their attention had turned from me, I got out of there and fought my way through the throng of people.

“So where are we going?” Conrad asked, following close behind.

We reached the truck and I yanked the driver’s side door open.

“Back, I guess. Where else can we go?”

He hopped in and put on his seatbelt. “Well, definitely not Kansas. With our luck, a damned tornado would blow through and we both know how that would end.”

“At this point, Oz might be a better place to be than this.”

He snorted.

Up ahead, enough cars had moved off the shoulder to clear a path. I angled the truck around the vehicles in front of me and drove toward the highway divider, crossing through the opening. As soon as I was northbound I picked up speed. Traffic was lighter now that we didn’t have to deal with the congestion near the chasm.

“Check your cell phone,” I said after a few minutes. “Maybe it will work better this time.”

Conrad pulled it from his pocket.

“Nothing.” He tossed it on the floorboard.

“Then check the radio.”

He scanned the stations. This time one of them came up.

“
I’m sorry for the interruption in our broadcasting, folks. This has been one hell of a day, but we are back now
,” the announcer said. “
And we have updates I’m sure you’ll want to hear.
”

I turned the volume up.

“
More dragons have arrived and are swarming all over Oklahoma City. They have managed to burn nearly all of the buildings in downtown to ash—which shouldn’t even be possible, but that tells you how hot their flames must be. We even had a brief scare at our own station. Troops and helicopters were sighted in the city less than an hour ago
.
The last I heard, they’re gearing up for a counterattack. Stay inside, people, and let them handle this.
”

Conrad and I exchanged looks.

“Maybe they’ll take care of the dragon problem,” I said, hopefully.

“Yeah.” He rolled his eyes upward. “If they don’t get burned to death first.”

He had a point. And as far as I knew, I was the only one immune to their fire.

As if reading my thoughts, he glanced down at my legs. “How
did
you manage not to go up in smoke?”

“I got lucky, I guess.” I stared at the road.

He snorted. “Sure looks like you came close. Like, really close.”

I didn’t say anything.

“What was with that dimension theory you proposed back there?” he asked, staring at me. “You sounded sure of yourself.”

I hadn’t meant to, but it had come out that way.

“It’s just an idea that came to me.” I shrugged. “Maybe I watch too many movies, but it sounded good.”

“Wish I got farther in college before this happened. I was studying for a physics degree, but none of the basics I took my first year do me much good in this situation. No idea when I’ll finish now.” Conrad sighed.

Poor guy. I had to remember it wasn’t just my future that may have gotten ruined today.

“So I’m thinking we head back to campus,” I said, changing the subject.

“If that’s what you want. I ain’t got no place else to go.”

“Me, either.” Which left me with an unsettled feeling.

We couldn’t risk driving around for days trying to find a way to Texas. Who knew how far that chasm stretched or if another earthquake would hit? Not to mention I could only go so far before I’d run out of gas. Maybe some service stations would be open, but then again maybe not. Also, if life on a ranch had taught me anything, it was that predators were more active at night. We needed to get to safety before the sun set—which was just over an hour away.

***

It was a lot easier getting back to the city than it was leaving. Less traffic and fewer wrecked cars to get in the way. Seeing the exit for Highway 9 up ahead, I breathed a sigh of relief. The sun was going down just over the trees and it was starting to get dark. I’d worried we wouldn’t make it back to Norman in time.

“Is it me,” Conrad said, leaning forward, “or are those mountains up ahead?”

As soon as I lifted my gaze to follow his line of sight, I let out a gasp.

“Uh, yeah, those are definitely mountains. Big ones.”

If I hadn’t been watching the road so closely for cracks and buckles, I would have noticed them sooner. There was a haze over the peaks, but I estimated they started about ten miles away. Probably just south of Lake Thunderbird. They didn’t appear to be a wide range of mountains, rather just several jagged peaks. As if they’d popped out of the ground in the midst of the mostly flat landscape that made up the Southern Great Plains.

“Looks like the earthquake did more than open up a giant chasm,” Conrad observed. “If they can get rid of the dragons, this state might actually get more tourists.”

“Think the mountains are high enough for skiing?” I asked, playing along. We needed something to break up the tension.

“Maybe,” he said, then his gaze ran past me and he cursed. “Stop the truck!”

I hit the brakes and pulled over. “What?”

“Look.” He pointed to the northeast.

Dreading what I’d find, I turned my head. Though the sky was getting darker, I could make out the shape of two green dragons blowing streams of fire at a neighborhood. It was maybe a mile away. And now that I was paying attention, I heard gunshots as well. Were people there shooting at them?

A moment later an explosion rocked the area. Flames shot upward, obscuring the dragons for a moment before they flew through it.