8 Gone is the Witch (44 page)

“Are you
okay?” I asked Tony, after taking a seat next to him.

“Never bette
r. I don’t know what Jerome bandaged me in last night, but it worked. Look.” He pulled his robe all the way up to his crotch. His legs were clear of all but the smallest bite marks. “My chest and arms look just as good. Even my ankle doesn’t hurt so much.”

“That’s great.” I stood and stretched like a cat welcoming
a new day. And it was a new day. Gone were the fractured lines, veining a dark sky like so many cosmic blood vessels. Morning, it seemed, had truly come to the ES, cloaked in a pale orange glow, harking a new dawn and evicting the shadows of the long black night.

Carlos asked
me, “Like something to eat?”

“Sure
. What have you got?”

“Catfish.
At least I think that’s what they are.”

I leaned over and took a closer look
at the fish on a stick. Two tiny black fish eyes stared back at me. I turned the stick over and saw two more.

“
Hmmm, Anything else?”

“Nope.”

“Then sure. Catfish sounds good.”

“Come and get it.”

I pointed to the pile of fish on the ground between them. “What’s all that?”

“
More fish.”

“I see that. How did you catch
so many?”

“We didn’t
. They came to us.”

“
No way.”

“Sure,” said
Tony. “Haven’t you ever heard of walking catfish?”

“No.”

He pointed behind me. I turned around and laughed at what I saw. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of fish were swishing along the ground in a mass migration heading into the woods.

“I don’t believe it
. Where are they all going?”

“Don’t know
. Maybe they’re disoriented because of the Decussate.”

“Guess it answers an age-old question,
doesn’t it?” said Carlos, smirking suspiciously.

I
took the bait. “What’s that?”

“Does a fish shit in the woods?”

Tony laughed at that, which made Carlos feel good. His humor is often a bit dry for most. To get Tony laughing usually takes a comedic coup d`état on his part.

Carlos
rolled a fish stick out of the fire and handed it to me. I squatted next to Tony and took a bite, peeling off a juicy chunk of fillet. I wasn’t sure what the hell I was eating, but it was damn good, I’ll tell you that.

Soon, t
he others joined us, and by the time we all finished eating, we found the morning mist had completely lifted. Everything seemed brighter. We could even make out both suns, which now looked like twin black holes set against a pale orange sky. Carlos mentioned as much and suggested we should get things moving again before the night returned. That got Tony’s engines fired up, too.

“
He’s right. We need to giddy up. Pack your things, everyone.”

Carlos
questioned aloud something that had been bothering him since the fish first walked up on shore.

“What do you mean?”
I asked.

“It’s like the Alaskan salmon runs. Every year the grizzlies show up at the streams before the salmon, sometimes weeks ahead of the run.”

“Yeah?”

“They’ve been doing it for tens of thousands of years. It’s just something they know to do.”

“Sure. The young learn it from the elders; they in turn grow up and teach it to their young and so on.”

“Exactly.”

“Carlos. I assume there is a point to all this?”

“
The point is that if these catfish have been doing the same thing under the discussant sky for thousands of years, and they probably have, then where are all the grizzlies?”

Tony gave the question considerable thought. “
Well, maybe there aren’t any grizzlies in the ES.”

Seemed simple enough for Carlos. “Yeah. That makes sense. I guess.”

“Guys?” I said.

Tony expounded. “You know, Carlos, you can’t necessarily draw parallels between
everything in the ES and Earth.”

“Guy
yys?”

“I know that.”

“Guy–yyys.”

“Sometime
s, things back home can seem––”

“GUYS!”

“Lilith, please. Can’t you see we’re talking?”

“And can’t you hear what sounds like a f
reakin` grizzly out there in the woods? It’s coming this way.”

Oh no
,” said Carlos. “See, we already determined they don’t live here because––”

“Carlos!” Tony hiked his thumb up over his shoulder. “RUN!”

The six of us took off running, staying close to the riverbank where the trees and vegetation were sparse.

“There!” I
yelled, directing everyone’s attention to the base of the waterfall ahead of us.

We dove into the river and swam to it, seeking shelter behind
the curtain of cascading water. A natural rock platform under the falls served as a stage in which to wait out the danger.

“Hey look
!” Carlos yelled, his voice booming above the crash of falling water. “There’s a cave back here!”

“Forget it
!” Tony hollered back. “We’re staying here until the danger passes!”

“Maybe it
has,” I said.

“What?”

“Maybe it already has!”

“I can’t hear you
!”

Jerome pointed into
the cave. “Ooh, shiny!” He started in without a second thought.

Carlos
lunged for Jerome’s tail but missed. “I’m going in to get him!”

“What?”

He disappeared into the void.

I turned to the others and shouted.
“I’m going, too!”

Ursula
immediately followed. Leona and Tony waited all of ten seconds before joining us.

“Nice how you all listen,” Tony complained
.

I snapped back
, “Stow it, Killjoy. It was too noisy out there. We couldn’t hear you.” I waved the others on. “Come on. I think Jerome went this way.”

As caves go, the one we stumbled upon seemed unusually bright. The source of illumination came from the
far end, which was only a few hundred feet away. But the really unusual thing was in the way the light reflected off the walls.

“Dig this,” said Carlos. “I think this entire wall is one big diamond.”

“Impossible.” Tony stepped up to the wall for a closer look. Diamonds don’t form in blocks this large.”

“Maybe not on Earth.”

“Not anywhere.”

“No,
I think he’s right,” I said. “Tony, look. There’s something strange going on here.”

“Like what?”

“I can see my shadow in the diamond.”

“Yeah,” said Carlos.
“Me, too. Check it out.” He laughed. “Stupid shadow. Doesn’t even move when I do. There’s a delayed reaction.”

Tony stepped back from the wall, uninterested. “Very nice. Now what do you say we find Jerome and get
the hell out of here?”

“There!”
cried Ursula, pointing. “He stands out well against the light yonder.”

Carlos
said, “It’s another entrance.”

“Or exit,” I said, confusing Ursula.

“My,” she mused. “How shall we know which?”

I nudged her
on to get her moving. “We check it out. That’s how.”

Upon reaching Jerome at the cave’s opening, we discovered it was neither an entrance nor an exit.
At least not for humans. It was simply a perfectly round hole in the side of a sheer cliff face.

“Gotta be a
mile straight down,” Carlos remarked. He toed the edge of the drop and spat. The wind took it back in his face.

Tony
laughed. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you about spitting into the wind?”

“It’s the ES,” I said. “There was no guarantee that would happen.”

“No guarantee it wouldn’t. It’s the same reason I wouldn’t jump from here.”

“Good point.” I toed the rocky edge next to Carlos and looked out.
The view, although scary, was also amazing. From our extraordinary height, I could see the entire valley. It appeared lush, vibrant and unblemished in a primitive way.

In one direction,
I could see the tips of the great conifers marking the edge of the Dark Forest, spiraling above a bed of orange marshmallow clouds. Further, a massive volcano belched out plumes of smoke and ash that carried on the leeward wind to a single point lost on the horizon.

It all seemed so dreamlike
. Distant, yet tangible. I had always imagined the ES to be a hellish place, a barren, caustic wasteland inhabited by only the most evil creatures. Weighing the rush of experiences, absorbing the sublime magnificence of such sights as these, I resigned that beauty lies deep in every corner of nature.

“Remarkable. Isn’t it?” Tony said. He toed the rocky
ledge and put his arm around me.

“It’s a cathedral,” I
whispered. “Perhaps a place of redemption for those sent here.”

“A last chance
?”

“Yeah, more purgatory than hell.
Isn’t it?”

“Well, beauty
is
in the eyes of the beholder.”

I turned to
see him looking at me. “I love you, Tony. You know that, don’t you?”

“I
do.”

“
I don’t say it often, I know. It makes me feel...”

“Vulnerable?”

“Yeah. But you know it’s times like these that we take stock in what’s important in our lives.”

“A
m I important?”

“You
know
you are.”

He
smiled a boyish grin, his twinkling eyes arresting my heart and killing me softly inside. “Of course, I know that, Lilith. Do you think I’d put up with you otherwise?”

“Anthony Achilleo Giovanni
Marcella.” I palmed his chest and pushed him back towards the cave. “You are sooo bad.”

“Achilleo?” Carlos laughed. “That’s your name?”

“Yes, Carlos
Andrea
Rodriquez.”

Carlos’ face grew serious.
“Hey I’ll have you know that Andrea is a very macho name. It means man warrior.”

“Whatever. Just don’t get your skirt
up in a tizzy.”

“It’s not a skirt. It’s an infantry kilt. Very manly.

“Yeah, shows off your pretty legs, too.”

“Better than that robe you’re wearing.”

“Boys, come on.” I inserted myself between them. “We should get going.”

We took
one last look at the breathtaking view of the valley before heading back through the cave.

As we
passed the diamond wall, Carlos noticed the same peculiarity about his shadow again. He was right about it not mirroring his movements. A closer inspection confirmed that all the shadows were in odd misstep with our motions.

“That’s creepy,” I said. “I don’t think these are our shadows.”

“Yeah, me neither,” said Tony, and then suggested we pick up the pace.

We did, and the strange black silhouettes did the same.
So we entered into a full run.

When the
stretch of wall ran out, the phantom shadows leapt from the rock, onto our path. There, they seemed slower, encumbered by terrestrial drag, but no less determined. They continued in a languorous run, each kicking up dust and rocks in blind pursuit of their individual targets.

“Listen,” said Tony,
leading the quick parade down the narrow trail. “When we get to the waterfall, peel off to the side and hug the cliff wall. Maybe they’ll keep going and run right into the river.”

“What if they don’t?” I asked.

“Then we’ll initiate plan B.”

“Which is?”

“To think of another plan.”

“Great. I’m glad you don’t work for
NASA.”

We
exited the cave in quick succession and rolled off to the sides, alternating left to right.

As Tony predicted, the phantom
apparitions splashed through the waterfall and ran headlong into the river. They floated there, defying the strong current as if anchored to the bedrock below.

“Hey,” I said. “Is it me, or do
those guys look familiar?”

“
Sí,” said Leona. “I see they have our look.”

“The outline
s are right,” Tony observed. “You know, I believe they are our shadows.”