End of the Road (16 page)

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~*~

L.S. Burton lives in St. John's,
Newfoundland, where he works as a writer and freelance editor.
Though his stories are diverse, they all revel in the music and
harmony of words, and celebrate imagination. In 2011, Burton was
awarded the Percy Janes Award for Best Unpublished First Novel in
the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competition for his
novel Raw Flesh in the Rising.

To learn more about L.S.
Burton, please visit his
home
page
.

Chapter 14

Sherdan’s Road

By Jess Mountifield

A smile crept across Sherdan's face, adding
some life to the haggard look that had plagued it for the last few
months. Elizabeth waved at him from outside and then went back to
playing tag with Alice.

Her resilience surprised him. Less than a
day after being back in her normal home and she was rushing around
and playing as if she hadn't spent over eight weeks shut up with
him and his small security team in their bunker.

He rubbed his hands over his eyes. The
sunlight made them hurt.

After watching the two girls play a little
longer he went back to his work. Ever since they'd got out he'd
been busy with security concerns. Now that he was alone he had time
to plan for the future again.

He went over to his desk and re-positioned
his chair so he could glance through the window to the kids
whenever he needed to. The paper sitting there had a small list on
it of the things he needed to get to restock the supplies in the
underground bunker. So far it was only the obvious things like
water and canned food but the list would grow much longer.

***

“
Tag, you're
it!”

Alice squealed and switched direction to
chase after Elizabeth as she ran off. They raced around the apple
tree a couple of times before Elizabeth darted off towards the
road, past the rusting, burnt out car.

When both of them grew too puffed out and
tired to continue they fell into a heap of giggles on the picnic
blanket Alice’s father had laid out for them earlier. In the corner
of the blanket sat their two patchwork dolls, with plastic teacups,
a teapot, and little plates with plastic sandwiches.

The dolls had seen better days; one’s button
eyes were missing, replaced with stitched crosses and Elizabeth had
spilt jam on hers a few days ago. The stain could still be seen on
its floral dress. Neither girl seemed to mind.

“
We have to ration the
tea,” Elizabeth said as she wrinkled up her button nose. “Daddy
says there has to be enough to last.”

“
Can they have one small
cup now? We don’t want them to get thirsty.”

Elizabeth nodded and picked up the teapot.
She held it over each cup and paused for a few seconds. When each
cup was full they lifted them to their dolls mouths and poured.
They then repeated the action for themselves.

As soon as everyone had drunk they got up
again and went over to the rubble of what once was the garden wall.
Elizabeth directed them both as they piled the chunks of sandstone
up into new shapes.

They alternated between this task and
feeding their dolls their rations of imaginary tea for several
minutes. Just as they were putting the final stone in place in
their new structure Elizabeth stopped and stared down the cracked
street towards the barricade at the end.

“
Someone’s coming,” she
said as she grabbed Alice’s hand. She concentrated all her effort
on her ability, just as her father had taught her and the two girls
disappeared.

“
Who is it?” Alice
whispered a moment later

“
I don’t know. They’re
using an ability though. Let’s go see.”

“
What if we get told
off?”

“
It’s okay, no one will see
us. It will be an adventure.”

“
Like your mummy’s
on?”

“
Just like mummy’s
on.”

Elizabeth led her friend towards the person
she sensed, right up until they got to the giant barriers at the
end of the road.

“
They’re not far on the
other side,” Elizabeth said as quietly as she could. They snuck
around the barrier, going slower now and still holding hands.
Picking carefully through the debris they went towards the tumbled
down house building. Daddy said it was an old University where he
worked before people got abilities and the war started. He’d told
her no one was meant to be in it anymore and that it wasn’t safe.
Whoever was inside would need warning.

Alice tugged on her hand as she went to push
through the front door, but it didn’t stop her going through and
Alice knew better than to let go of her and lose the safety of
Elizabeth’s ability.

The inside of the building was gloomy and
the smell made Elizabeth wrinkle her nose. She led them off towards
the left, unsure exactly where the other people were in the maze of
corridors and rooms.

When they reached a doorway they peered
inside. The room was even darker than the corridor and some part of
it had collapsed, strewing rubble and bits of metal all over the
floor. They moved on without exploring further.

They passed by a few more doorways and
stopped to peak into each one, but they were all similar, empty and
dark or buried under the debris from the collapsed floors above.
Right at the end of the corridor one of the green wooden doors
still hung on its hinges, ajar and obscuring the inside of the
room.

As Elizabeth went to push the door Alice
tugged on her hand again.

“
Are they in there?” Alice
whispered.

“
No, they’re not that
close. We’re exploring.”

“
Is this what your mummy
does?”

“
Don’t know. Daddy just
said she’d gone off on an adventure and we’d all get to see her
soon. Maybe she’ll be back by the time we’ve finished.” Elizabeth
rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. Adventuring was fun, but she
missed her mum lots. She knew daddy did too.

The wooden door scraped the floor as
Elizabeth tugged on it, so she only opened it far enough for the
two of them to squeeze inside. Very little light made its way into
the room from the corridor outside but they could see the outline
of a desk and some bulky objects behind that.

Once inside and away from any possible
prying eyes Elizabeth let them go back to being visible and gave
her ability a rest. Mummy had warned her that it would only last so
long.

They shuffled up to the desk and peered over
the edge to see if anything had been left on top. Alice reached up
and touched the side of a plastic telephone, activating one of her
abilities as she did. Her finger cleared away the layer of dust and
dirt and glowed to light a small area around it.

If Alice activated her ability fully it
would be enough to light the whole room but she had restrained it
and only made enough light to see that the plastic casing on the
telephone had once been a deep blue.

Elizabeth walked over to the other side of
the desk to see what else there was and Alice followed, bringing
her little light with her. A big metal cupboard stood across almost
the entire back wall with three sliding doors.

She reached out a hand and pushed the
nearest door over towards the middle. It squealed in protest,
having rusted and warped since it was last used.

When the door was almost opened the contents
came rushing forward, falling on both of them. They screamed and
tried to rush back towards the desk, but got tangled and fell
backwards. Elizabeth landed on her bottom and the pain sent the air
in her lungs out, rushing through her gritted teeth with a
whistle.

Alice’s light had gone out in the commotion
but she reactivated it again and both girls burst into giggles. A
rubber skeleton of an adult lay jumbled in a heap over their feet.
Elizabeth stood up and lifted the skull to stretch it out.

Before Alice could join her she dropped it
again.

“They’re coming,” she said and grabbed
Alice’s hand. Less than a second later the pair were invisible
again and plunged back into darkness. Elizabeth led them back out
into the corridor and they hurried away from the people she could
sense, further into the building.

***

With a sigh of relief Sherdan put his pen
back down. The list was complete and wasn’t as long as he’d
expected it to be. He glanced up at the window as he had been doing
every few minutes and had to glance again. The two kids were
gone.

He scrambled up and rushed over to the
window, glancing as far down the street as he could each way. Still
no sight of them.

He tried not to think about what might have
happened as he ran from his study through to the front of the house
and out the door. He went over to the blanket and their dolls,
picking both the abandoned toys up and pulling them tight against
his chest.

As his heart raced he spun on the spot,
trying to see where they’d gone before he thought to try and sense
Elizabeth or Alice using their abilities. He closed his eyes and
tried to clear his mind, no way near as good at this as his
daughter.

He almost screamed his frustration as it
didn’t work. Too many thoughts and feelings were crashing around
inside him to allow clear thinking. Every person and organisation
who might have a reason to snatch the girls flew through his
thoughts, let alone the fall out from the natural disasters lately.
Anything could have happened.

Not knowing what else to do he started
running towards the end of the road. As he reached the barrier he
felt a flicker of someone using an ability nearby but it was just a
fleeting sensation. Before he could pinpoint the location it was
gone again.

He jumped the metal obstruction and scanned
down the next road for signs of the kids. There were only more
battered houses and abandoned cars.

“
Elizabeth! Alice!” he
yelled. If anyone else was out there, he needed to find the girls
before they did and he didn’t have time to be cautious.

Realising he’d left his hand gun in the desk
drawer he started running down the road, calling their names every
minute or so.

Suddenly he ground to a halt, his ability
finally picking up something definite back in the old university
area of the compound. With his heart pounding he sprinted towards
the building.

***

The two girls had relaxed since their scare
and started chatting about their adventure again as they walked
along the deserted hallways.

“
Sshhh,” Elizabeth said. “I
heard something.”

Down a corridor to the right came the noise
of footsteps. Both girls froze to the spot, allowing the intruder
to move towards them.

“
Daddy! Mummy!” Alice
yanked herself out of Elizabeth’s grasp, making herself visible,
and went charging towards the two people who came around a corner
and finally showed themselves. Elizabeth laughed and deactivated
her invisibility as well.

Nathan, the burly security guard swept Alice
up into his arms while his wife, Julie, came towards Elizabeth and
took hold of her hand.

“
What are you two doing
down here?” Nathan said into her head. Something she was very used
to by now.

“
I felt you using your
ability. We came to have an adventure too,” she thought and grinned
at him.

“
An adventure? Well I’m
afraid today’s adventure is over. Let’s go back to the
house.”

Elizabeth allowed herself to be led back the
way they’d come, chattering to Julie the whole way and telling her
what they had got up to. As they reached the entrance Sherdan came
rushing up to them and scooped Elizabeth into his arms, handing her
the doll at the same time.

“
Where have you been?” he
said, as she wrapped her skinny arms around his neck.

“
They were having an
adventure
,” Nathan said
out loud.

“
I wanted to go on one like
mummy is.”

“
Sweetheart, now’s not the
time for adventures, and what did I say when you asked me if you
could play outside?”

“
Put my shoes
on?”

“
Not to go past the end of
the road,” Alice chimed in from her father’s arms.

“Exactly. When you play outside you can’t go
any further than the barrier, there, at the end of the road.”

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For more information about
Jess Mountifield and her books check out her
website
.

Chapter 15

Living Ink

By Shirley Bourget

As the needle pushed through my skin and
left a blue line, it was every bit as vibrant as Baine said it
would be. Brilliant and energetic. I immediately knew that I’d be
buying his tattoo ink.

He pulled at my skin with his left hand,
unconscious of his thumb placement as he stretched the curve of my
left breast flat for his work.

My blood boiled from the heat of his touch,
pulsing hard at my temples and I tried to ignore the sting of
pleasure he was inflicting on me.

He made a few more passes with the tattoo
gun and then wiped my skin with an absorbent, disposable towel. The
disinfectant on the towel caused me to wince and an involuntary
hiss escaped my lips.

“
Sorry.” He apologized
without needing to. I knew that it was unavoidable. Everything
about Baine Finlayson hurt. Even that one word stabbed at my chest
with the pressure of a sharp knife about to release something
primal and unyielding.