Another door melted
to the ground and Joan stepped over the pool of molten slag. All
around her, the corridor shone in the flicker of firelight and very
once in a while, the ground shook, making her have to steady herself
against the wall. She passed another sign pointing her toward the
exit and she hurried her steps. Whatever was causing the ground to
shake was getting stronger, and judging from the way the walls were
cracking with each tremor, she guessed they were not figments of her
imagination.
Joan reached what
she thought was the end of the hallway only to find that it turned to
the right and continued on in an equally long stretch of bare
corridor. A great shuddering boom sounded above and she broke into a
run. Behind her she heard sections of the hallway collapse and a
large plume of dust shot up after her.
The firelight danced
all around and in its shadows Joan saw all of her greatest fears.
Terrors from her time trapped inside the Heat Machine. Days, weeks,
months...Joan had no idea how much time had passed inside of that
terrible place. She yearned to blaze like she did inside the Heat
Machine, push back the shadows entirely, but she knew these walls
were not sufficiently strong to handle such a blaze.
“Joan,”
called Tom's voice from the shadows.
“Go
away,” Joan ordered the voice. She didn't have time to waste on her
hallucinations, not with the building collapsing all around her.
“Joan,
I want to come with you.”
“Like
I could stop you.”
“I
miss you Joan.”
Her vision blurred
and she realized that she was crying. As she reached up to wipe away
her tears she ran headlong into a security door. The impact was so
great that for a moment she just lay there on the floor in a daze and
it took another crash from behind to prod her back to her feet.
Pieces of ceiling continued to collapse behind her and a few pebbles
hit her on her head.
“Melt,”
Joan said as she pelted the door with her fire. “Come on.”
The door warped and
began to glow red hot but the collapsing corridor was catching up and
she began to panic. She had to burn hotter.
The walls crumbled
and the floor bubbled and still Joan burned hotter. All around her,
the air began to pop and burst as the extreme heat threatened to
ignite all of the oxygen in the air.
The ground shook and
the hallway collapsed right behind her. Joan shrieked and in a great
surge of concentration, her fire turned white hot. The door all but
vaporized, filling the air with the acrid stench of metal, and Joan
started to run.
“DON'T
LEAVE ME!” Tom screamed from behind with such anguish that Joan was
forced to stop fleeing and turn around.
There, just visible
through the shifting clouds of dust and shadows stood a man with
blonde hair. He pointed to the floor where a parcel of folded letters
lay on the floor; her fire didn't seem to have its usual effect on
the papers, though their edges were beginning to brown and crinkle.
“Please
Joan,” Tom pleaded in a quieter tone, “Don't leave me.”
Tom's plea was so
heartfelt that Joan wanted to go and take the letters and before she
knew what she was doing, she had already walked over to them and
picked one of them up. However, her instincts for self preservation
returned as another section of corridor collapsed and she scuttled
backwards on her hands and knees.
“Please,”
Tom said, and Joan was torn between what to do.
While the debate
raged furiously inside Joan's, the ceiling above her head cracked as
another quake tore through the complex. There wasn't time to think
anymore and Joan threw herself back as concrete rubble fell where
she'd been crouched moments before.
“RUN!”
Tom shouted and Joan obeyed, stuffing the single letter she'd managed
to grab into her shirt pocket.
Joan's fire burned
so hot as she ran that she hardly had to slow down for the next
security door, it melted so fast. The intense heat did nothing to
slow the collapse of the building, if anything it sped it up, but
Joan ran on, staying just ahead of the collapse.
Door after door,
turn after turn, Joan ran on while behind her the building fell,
until, all at once, she found herself standing outside in the
sunlight.
“No,”
Joan muttered. She didn't have time for another of her waking dreams.
The building was going to fall on top of her at any moment and she'd
be crushed. She smacked herself across the face, pinched her arm, and
still the corridor did not return. A loud crash behind her made her
spin around just in time to see the last remnants of the front doors
of the compound collapse.
She was out.
A light breeze blew
through her hair and, judging from the sweet flowery warmth in the
air, it was summer time. A high mound of earth had been built up all
around the compound, recently from the looks of it, and the compound
itself was in ruins. The parts of it that were still standing were
pocked and scarred. In the distance Joan could hear the distant
rumble of machinery and the occasional cracking of gunfire.
“Read
it,” Tom said, walking into view from behind her. “There isn't
much time.”
Joan withdrew the
letter that she'd saved.
However, the wind
shifted before Joan could begin reading and a very different scent
accosted her nostrils, distracting her. Smoke and sulfur tinged with
rot and decay so strong that it almost made Joan retch. A high
pitched whistle sounded behind her, growing louder. Joan looked
around, wondering what it could be until it climaxed in a thunderous
boom that shattered the far side wall of the compound. Joan covered
her ears and her fire blazed, feeding from and intensifying her fears
once more.
Another whistle and
this time Joan didn't wait around. She ran as fast as she could
toward the hill surrounding the compound.
“Read
it,” Tom said as he ran along beside her.
“Now's
not a great time, you know?” Joan informed him as a blast from
behind almost knocked Joan to the ground.
“It'll
only get worse,” Tom said. “Read it.”
Joan did the best
she could, running and trying to read the paper while at the same
time keeping a look out for debris that could trip her.
Dear Joan,
she read, I
hope this finds you well. Or at least better than last week. Things
here are going well. I got a cat...
Joan paused in both
her reading and her running. She'd read this before, but when or
where she couldn't remember.
Tom drew closer to
Joan. “Remember me.” It wasn't a question.
Joan looked at Tom,
puzzled, and then back to the letter. This was from him, she realized
but before she could question him about it another distant whistle
spurred her onward again. This time, as she ran, she gave the letter
more attention than before.
I can't think of
a good name for him. I've included a picture of him so you can help
me out. He
likes being held, but not being scratched. He'll sit on my lap for
hours, purring, as long as I don't touch him. Whenever I do try to
pet him he bats my hands away. Sometimes he'll bite if I don't stop
right away, but I can't feel it.
Something wasn't
right. Why couldn't Tom feel the cat biting him? Something in her
mind was struggling to get loose, as though the missing memory was
just out of reach, hidden in shadows.
The hill exploded
and the world fell silent as her eardrums burst.
Joan tumbled head
over heels through the air and with each revolution she saw the
apparitions from her captivity, and her memories began to unlock.
Tom was lying on the
ground burning. Tom, who had written her so many letters, who loved
her. Joan still didn't now if Tom's letters had stopped because the
postal service had stopped or if the war had reached where he lived.
Melanie stepped out
of the flame and took Joan's hand to calm her fears. Melanie had
always been there, sheltered her, even knocked Mike out to help her
escape, but her visits had long since stopped, thanks to Matt and his
false promises.
Mike stood not far
behind, surrounded by bookshelves and looking nervous but not
complaining about the fire. He'd given Joan more chances than she
deserved, considering how much Mike loved his bookstore. True, it was
in part due to Melanie's influence but he had genuinely seemed
interested in helping Joan.
“NO!”
Joan screamed as the apparitions vanished at the same moment she hit
the ground. Tom's letter had been torn apart in the explosion and
only the little piece she held between her fingers remained. Pain
arched through her like electricity and put an end to the flood of
memories as it became clear that she wouldn't be going anywhere any
time soon. In fact, given how close she was to the explosion, she
doubted she would last much longer.
Through the gap in
the hill, Joan saw an approaching army. On the far side of the ruined
compound another army crested the hill. It was obvious from their
movements and hand signals that they had seen one another, as well
as Joan. Many of them had their weapons trained on her. As they drew
closer Joan did the only thing she think of; she burned.
Fueled by her fear,
her pain, and her anger, the fire exploded outward. The soldiers on
both sides were forced backward by the heat. None of them had time to
shoot their weapons. Men screamed and then fell silent as the fire
expanded faster and faster, consuming everything within. What was
left of the compound after the shelling crumbled beneath the
unrelenting heat, the parts that could melt melted and the rest
turned to dust.
Joan made no attempt
to reign in her fire. The years of holding it back, the fear and
anger at what had been done to her, finally found focus in her fire.
“YOU
BETRAYED ME!” Joan screamed at the armies, at her family, at Matt,
and even at Judge Dervin. They all should have been the ones
protecting her, helping her, and instead they'd allowed this to
happen, allowed her to be abused and driven into madness.
The fire continued
to press outward, burning through buildings, flooding through caves,
finding every crevice and hidden bunker, purging everything in its
path. Nothing escaped. And it was accelerating. Hundreds of miles had
already been engulfed in the fire and still it sped on. Joan felt
each new thing the fire touched and she knew what each object was,
whether it was plant or beast. Everything was burned. She wondered
what would happen if or when her fire found Tom, Melanie, or Mike.
Would she recognize them? Would she spare them? What would be left to
them in a world of dust and ash? Would it be more merciful to kill
them now than to leave them to suffer and die slowly?
After another couple
of minutes the oceans began to burn as her fire raced onward in every
direction. The North and South poles lost their ice and cast enormous
clouds of steam into the air.
Joan felt colder
than usual and she wasn't sure if the gathering darkness was because
of smoke clouding over the sky or if it was just her vision dimming.
Her body shivered and shook but her pain, at least, lessened
somewhat.
Flowers made from
fire blossomed around her on the ground, waving as though in a gentle
breeze. Blades of grass followed in like manner and soon Joan lay in
a golden field. Trees burst out of the ground, reaching up toward the
sky. As a final touch, Tom, Melanie, and Mike came and sat down
beside her. Joan could feel them in her fire, though that may have
been part of the hallucination. Though it didn't appear to make any
difference to her friends, she told her fire not to burn them.
Tom stroked Joan's
hair, ignoring the sticky patches where blood and dirt had matted it.
His fingers were soft on her skin and he traced her facial features
with his other hand.
The fire finished
crossing the oceans and surged across land once more. In the places
where there was nothing to burn but sand, Joan left glassy fields of
fire flowers behind.
Melanie began to
sing a lullaby and Joan was pleased that her recent deafness did not
extend to her hallucinations. Melanie's voice was clear and delicate,
something Joan had always admired about her. In high school, their
choir teacher had complained that Melanie's voice never carried very
well, but now, in this valley of fire, it carried perfectly. Joan
nestled her head on Tom's lap as Melanie's lullaby resonated through
her body, easing the last of the pain away.
“Joan,”
Mike said, “let me tell you a story.”
And he told her of a
beautiful land of peace and calm, where no one was feared, where
doors were never locked and the lights were never dimmed. A land
where her family loved her, where her fire was never outside of her
control or hurt those that she loved.
Fire met fire and
Joan sighed in relief. The world spun in her fiery grasp, cradled and
purged of all the pain and sorrow she'd endured, but at the same time
she felt sad and empty. Joan couldn't help but to weep for the loss.
The stunning cities, the wonders of nature, the loves and joys of
humankind, untold beauties never to be seen or lived now that
everything was...gone.
“Sleep,”
Mike said, and Joan's body relaxed.
“Sleep,”
Melanie said, and Joan's eyelids grew heavy.
“Sleep,”
Tom whispered, and Joan's fire went out.
She was walking hand
in hand with Tom through a wide expanse of fire lilies. Melanie and
Mike were not far off, also hand in hand. An understanding smile
showed on each of their faces, none of them blaming her for what
she'd done, and behind them, Joan left her body, and with it all her
troubles and woes.