The Sands of Borrowed Time (30 page)

The Bright Eyes of Life

Cain watched the end of the cigarette blaze to a bright orange glow in the evening twilight as Carla inhaled.  He was always amazed how long and hard she took each drag as if there was some deep-seated need to do so.  It was beyond mere addiction he thought.

“So?” she said, feeling uncomfortable in Cain’s stare. 
Who knows what goes on in this mad man’s head as I doubt he does,
she thought.

Cain shrugged his shoulders, “You’ll choke on one of those, one day,” he said with a smile, pointing at her cigarette with a sharp jab of his finger.

“The sooner, the better,” she replied, throwing the cigarette over the rails of the ship, not caring where it ended up.  Cain turned his head, following the stub as small embers broke free from it, drifting in the air until they extinguished one by one, leaving small trails of smoke.  He turned again to look at Carla, walking towards her until she could smell his rancid sweat. She hid her repulsion, pretending to wipe her nose several times, the smell of nicotine on her fingers masking his ungodly scent.

“So, what is one to do when one is stranded in the middle of nowhere,” he said with a wry rise of an eyebrow as he ran his finger down her sunburnt face.

“Think of a plan to get to the middle of somewhere, I guess?” she said, pushing his hand away.  She smiled, turning to walk towards the ship’s bow, looking out deep into the desert and out towards the dark horizon.  The sky, a dark navy blue, was quickly fading to black as the stars began to wink into their nocturnal presence.

Bayliss came out from the living quarters, yawning, “It's well cosy in there, guys. They have kitted it out quite well.  There’re even pillows for one to rest their weary head among."

“Good to hear, as it looks like we may be sailing on this, well beauty, for some time,” Carla said sarcastically, still looking out deep into the twilight.  Bayliss laughed, looking across to Cain, who began to laugh also.

“And I’m sure she sails
beautifully
,” Bayliss replied, rubbing his hands as he looked up high towards the limp sails.

“But not till morning,” Cain said.

“Charming,” Carla said as she lit another cigarette, turning to look at the guys smirking faces, wishing she hadn’t let Kyla take their buggy.  Carla suddenly looked to the North, past the ships bow. 
Is there something there?
she thought.  She had sensed a shadow flitter across the road, near the horizon.

“You look startled,” Bayliss said, turning to follow her gaze.

“It's nothing,” she said as she sharpened her focus.

“Nothing?” Cain added, turning to walk to the edge of the ship.  “You look spooked?”

“I thought I saw something, but I guess it was just shadows flirting in the twilight.”

“Let's take a little look. One can't be too careful now. It is the post-apocalyptic World, after all, full of thieves, beggars, and all sorts,” Cain replied as he leant over the rails of the ship, checking that no one was hiding down its side.  Bayliss quickly did likewise, on its opposite side.

“Nothing?” Cain said as he looked to Bayliss, who simply pursed his lips while shaking his head, looking even less convinced than Carla was of herself. 

“It was further away than that, out towards the horizon, by the road,” Carla said.  “I suspect somewhere near there,” pointing into the distance.

“So you did see something?” Cain asked, starting to feel a bit spooked himself.  Carla shrugged.

“Either you did or didn't?” Bayliss added, looking over his shoulder, paranoid that every glimmer of the retreating evening light was something vibrant and alive.

“Okay, just to be on the safe side, let's say I did,” Carla replied, folding her arms, wishing she hadn’t said anything.  She dropped her cigarette to the floor before kicking it through the rails, this time in a blaze of sparks that left charcoal skid marks on the deck.

The atmosphere suddenly felt static as a peculiar drone vibrated through the air.  It was loud and powerful, pulsating through their bodies but barely audible, just out of range, too deep for human ears.

“You feel that?” Carla asked, her blood draining from her face with fright.  Cain nodded as he ran to the bow, looking north along the road to the horizon.

“What in fucks hell, was that?” she continued, looking to Bayliss before running to the end of the bow.  She looked along the road with Cain, again pointing to where she thought she saw the shadows.  All they saw was a darkening horizon, the road and desert now barely visible.  Again the drone pulsated through their bodies.

“I do not like that,” Carla said.  “Any ideas guys?”  Carla held her hands to her face, watching Bayliss shake his head, a look of bewilderment on his face she had never seen before.  She thought he looked like a kid who had lost his mum in the shopping mall.  Cain said nothing, still staring north along the road. 

She tapped Cain on the shoulders, “Any ideas, I asked.  Did you not hear me?”

“I heard you,” Cain replied, without changing his gaze. “Loud and clear, as always.”

“And?” Carla demanded as the drone grew more powerful, the boards of the ship beginning to vibrate.  Carla looked down at the deck, watching the brittle boards rattle up and down.

“I don't suppose you remember my travelling friends from the north,” Cain said calmly.

Carla nodded her head, “Of course; I was afraid you were going to say that.”

“What, whose travelling friends from the North?” Bayliss asked, his bewildered face beginning to look cast in stone.

“His blue-eyed circus freaks,” Carla said, stabbing her finger into Cain’s shoulder as she said each word.  Cain slowly turned to face them.

“Has to be them,” Cain said slowly.

“
Them
, who are
them
?” Bayliss asked confused.

“
The Others
,” Cain replied as the droning sound appeared to creep nearer. 

“Why, of course,” Bayliss said sarcastically, throwing his arms up into the air, “
The Others
!”  There was a brief silence.  “Who the fuck are
The Others
?  Bayliss suddenly demanded, looking out to where the sound was coming from.

“No one knows who they are,” Cain said, “but they sound like trouble, and they sure as hell look like trouble.”

Bayliss pointed his finger to the road, travelling south was an army of torches bobbing up and down, their flames flickering in the cold evening air.

“Get down!” he pleaded to Carla and Cain as he ducked below the rails, peering out between them through binoculars at the advancing group of strange figures.  He watched with unease as they slowly advanced down the road, looking oddly dead and alive at the same time.  He thought their skin looked old and withered, ruined before their time, perhaps by the blazing Sun.  He saw that their eyes were bright blue, not just for some, but for all, burning intensely like small pools of cold fire, their machine like intelligence radiating out into the dusk.  They all watched, saying nothing to each other as the figures continued to walk down the road towards them. The drone grew more powerful, vibrating through the ground and up into their bodies; the source, white bony horns that the figures blew into, shaped like primitive trumpets.  The sound was hypnotic, not in the usual sense but because it drowned out everything else.  Carla looked towards Cain.  He didn’t catch her stare, so she crawled over towards him, grabbing his shoulder.  He looked startled at her presence.

“She what now?” she asked, barely audible above the drone.

“Hope they pass us peacefully by?” he replied.  Just as he said that a figure appeared to stare right into Carla's eyes as if to acknowledge that it knew she was there. 

Carla turned to Cain opening her eyes up wide, and said, “And what if they don’t?  They obviously know we are here.”

“They won’t do fuck all, looks like they are in a hurry to be elsewhere,” he replied in an uncertain tone.

“Elsewhere!  What elsewhere?  There is nowhere else,” she replied nervously.  “Where the fuck can they go!” Carla said as the figure suddenly smiled at her.  It was a mocking smile, a knowing smile, like that of a clown, almost breaking into laughter before it turned its head to look down the road again.  “I don’t think they approve of us,” she continued, spooked by its mischievous grin.

“Approve of us!” Cain exclaimed.  “No one approves of us.  What difference does that make!”  Bayliss looked over, laughing nervously as if agreeing with what Cain had said.

“No one approves, no one likes, and no one cares,” Bayliss chuckled, Carla uncertain if he cared whether people did or not.

Is it true, no one cares?
Carla asked herself,
If only there was somebody, anybody that could.

They continued watching as the figures walked past the ship, their torches blazing high, not hiding from their view anymore.  Each party was keenly aware of the other, looking back and forth through the cool twilight air; those on the ship with suspicious fear, and those on the road without care, their bright blue eyes the colour of eternity.  Suddenly the figures stopped, all on the deck frozen with fear as they stared at their ghostly pale faces.  It went serenely quiet as they lowered their horns, one figure pointing directly at them with his bony, withered finger, his face devoid of emotion.  Carla shivered, feeling the chill of their cold burning eyes.  She felt immobilised as the figure came towards her, her eyes unable to escape its piercing stare.  She could see images form in its gaze, deep within its eyes, twisting and morphing quickly from one scene to the next. 

There she was as a child again, the images getting more vivid, the bright blueness of its eyes fading.  She saw herself playing and laughing, running through wild summer grass, picking flowers and holding them high in her hand, wanting her mum to see how beautiful they were.   
Her emotions stirred from one extreme to another as she watched breathless as more scenes from her life cascaded quickly across its eyes, getting faster and faster with each image. 
She saw her mum smiling down at her, her long, golden locks falling down in front of her face.  Then, she herself  appeared, smiling down at her first puppy; it's big innocent eyes full of joy.  Then it was gone in a burst of colours, and she was falling off her bike, grazing her arms.  A boy who later introduced himself as George came to rescue her.  He wanted to be her boyfriend but...
She heard herself laugh, even though she was terrified, and quickly covered her mouth.  The images were changing, faster and faster, swirling together in a messy kaleidoscope of colours, her whole life streaming by in seconds. 
She caught a fleeting glimpse of her dad’s deep, brown eyes before there was a painful flash of bright white light, followed by burning fires and screams, terrible and agonising cries of confusion and pain. 
Then as fast as the images came, there was empty space.  She found herself floating in a deep and meaningless void; not even black, not even nothing.

“Hey, hey, what's with you!” Cain shouted as he slapped her bony cheeks several times.  “They’re gone dizzy bitch!  I told you they would do fuck all,” as he clutched her cheeks tight in his hand, staring deep into her eyes.  “All they wanted was a bit of a stroll, and a little blow on their horns, that's all,” Cain continued as Carla stared into his blue eyes, knowing instantly they were his and not those of
the Others
.  Bayliss laughed, more from relief than from Cain’s humour, Cain himself acting a bit stressed, she thought.”

“You were away with the little pixies there,” Cain said, Bayliss still laughing in the background.

“Maybe I was,” Carla panted with relief, trying to hide her confusion as she looked down the road, surprised that there was no sign of the figure, the one that was so close moments ago, deep within her mind.  Cain and Bayliss looked oblivious to what had gone on, even though it was so intense, at least for her.

“Gone?” she finally said, trying to act like nothing had happened. “How rude, they didn’t even introduce themselves.  I thought we could’ve all gotten to know each other a little bit better, instead of staring suspiciously at each other across the road like feuding neighbours,” she pretended to rant.

“Next time babe!  Maybe next time!” Cain laughed.

“For sure,” she whispered to herself, looking south down the road.

Reflections in the Sky

“Up, up and away!”  Mysti shouted as she released the tether from the cage, the airship rising quickly into the air.  The dawn air felt cold as they both shivered underneath their coats, but the Sun had already breached the horizon, its unforgiving rays beginning to burn their skin.

“Here we go again; it's a keen southerly so that should push us along nicely,” Mysti said.

“Cool,” Luke replied, “let's hope they can keep up on the ground.”  They both looked down to see Ariel’s car cruise along below, the wheels leaving fine meandering tracks behind them as they whipped up a fine cloud of dust.  Mysti put on her shades and powered more heat into the canopy, the flames roaring with passion as they rose eagerly upwards.

“You see that?”  Mystic suddenly said as the ship quickly rose in the strengthening wind, streaming north.  Luke turned to see Mysti peering over the basket, concerned by the worry in her voice.

“Huh?” he uttered.

“There was a bright flash, like the Sun reflecting off something.”  He walked across to her to get a better look at what see was gazing at, feeling the basket sway gently under his footsteps as the breeze refreshingly brushed against his face.  He looked down towards the horizon to where Mysti was pointing.

“Down there.  It was as if the Sun glinted off something,” she said.    Luke shrugged his shoulders,

“Maybe some limestone or broken glass,” he said.

“Maybe there’s water, a small pool or a lake?  Mysti replied, her worry turning to hope.

“Nah, too soon, can’t be, the desert is as dry as dead bones!”  Luke stepped back suddenly, closing his eyes as a flash of brilliant light caught his eye.  He opened them again, seeing a blurry, green after image, impeding his eager search for its cause.

“I saw it too!” Luke exclaimed, rubbing his eyes.

“Yes!”  Mysti replied, “It was from the same place as before.”

“Several of them now, look,” she said excitedly, pointing across the horizon.  They both looked down and along the skyline as a series of flashes pulsed across the prairie.

“It’s like Morse code,” Luke said.

“You really think so?”  Mysti replied, surprised.

“Yes, just look how they’re flashing; one, then another, like they are talking to each other.”  Mysti could see how the flashes were winking at each other but did not want to believe it. 

Looks sophisticated and sophistication often means trouble,
she thought.  She looked at Luke uneasily.

“So what does it mean?” she asked.” 

“You mean, what are they are doing?” he replied.

Mysti nodded, “Yes, why?”

“I don’t know, but whoever’s doing it looks organised.”  Mysti turned the flames up a bit to keep the ship high and out of sight, roaring as they guzzled the oxygen from the air.

“Let’s stay as high as possible, out of harm’s way,” she said.

“Good idea, although I fear we may already have been seen,” he said gravely, looking at the flashes dart across their ship, reflecting off the canopy above.

“What!”  Why do you say that?”

“Well, because the flashes seem to be aimed at us.”

“Yes, I see, and they’re getting more frequent.  Do you think they’re trying to communicate with us?”  Mysti asked. 

Luke shook his head and with a stern look said, “No, I think they’re aiming at us.”

“What?”  Mysti replied, wringing her wrists nervously as she turned to look at the flashes.

“They’re using the reflection of the Sun to shoot us, fry us out of the sky, their own natural laser beam!”

“No!”  They both watched, the two flashes getting quicker and quicker until they converged into a steady stream of brilliant light as blinding as the Sun itself.

“They must be using movable mirrors!”  Luke shouted.

“Fuck,” Mysti panted as she ducked down behind the wall of the basket, waving at Luke to do the same.  “Can’t you feel them; they’re burning my skin. “We need to get down!”  Luke nodded as he reached for the valve, turning it down until the flame was burning idly.    The roar of the flames ceased as they began to smell the basket burn.  Mysti touched its side, feeling how hot it was, “Shit, we need to get down,” she screamed.  Luke held his hands in the air, not knowing what to do, praying for the ship to descend quickly as it sped quickly ahead in the stream of the storm that was rising from below.  Luke quickly got onto his knees and crawled across to where Mysti had left her handbag.

“What are you doing?” she frantically asked.

“You must have one?  I saw you using one the other day,” he desperately said as he rummaged unapologetically through her bag.

“Here, got it,” he said as he held a hand mirror to Mysti.

“That, come on, it will never work!” she protested as the basket began to smoulder.   “They have mirrors the size of houses by the looks of it!”  Luke threw the mirror over his shoulder with a look of defeat, hope quickly fading from his eyes.

“And now seven years of bad luck as well,” she cried as she heard it smash on the valve above him.”

“I don’t think we will be so lucky to get seven years, more like seven minutes,” Luke replied, looking frustrated as he crossed his arms.

Grey smoke billowed behind them as the basket began to blaze like tinder.  Mysti coughed as she peered over the top of the basket, the blinding mirrors still aimed straight at them.

“We’re going down too fast!” she exclaimed, “We’ll never survive the impact!”

“But if we don’t, we will surely burn alive in the sky!”

“I don’t know; don't look at me like that!”  Mysti cried, tears beginning to roll down her face as she knelt up to open the valve, allowing flames to roar into the canopy again.  They immediately began to feel their descent slow as the strong breeze caught them in its grip once more.

“Shit, shit, shit!” she cried as she saw flames break across to their side of the basket.  She desperately tried to kick them out with her boots, only to see more develop on the other corner of the basket.

“Do something!” she pleaded to Luke.

“What can we do?” he responded with desperation as he watched the flames grow steadily higher.  Mysti closed the valve again as she crawled to the other side of the basket.  The ship began to descend again as smoke engulfed the basket, Mysti rubbing her eyes as the acrid smoke began to irritate them.  They both began to cough as they looked up to the hazy, blue sky above, their skin slowly burning in the incessant heat.

“I can’t breathe,” Mysti whimpered as she gasped for breath, feeling herself roll across the basket floor and through the flames.  She suddenly felt free as the breeze caught her hair, falling quickly through the air as she looked at the colourful ring of the supernova above, reaching out to it with her arms.  There was a thump, sand showering up into the air as she saw the sky go black.

She could feel little hands pat her face.

“Mysti, Mysti!” a child cried out through the darkness, the blue of the sky gradually coming back into view as her back and head throbbed with pain.  The little hands pulled at her body, “Mysti, Mysti, please wake up?”

“Is she dead?” another child asked.

“Dad, Dad, is she dead?  Her hair is black, burnt by the flames.”

“Shut up, Vevila.   How can she be dead, she's breathing?”

Vevila, Serena? 
She gazed up at the worried little faces looking down upon her and reached out a hand to run her fingers through Vevila’s dishevelled, blonde hair. 
Look at their pretty little faces all smudged black, black from soot.  The airship!  Serena, where is Serena?

“Dad, Dad, she's okay, she's moving,” Vevila cried out as Airell ran across with some water.  He placed his hand under her head and lifted it up gently, letting her sip water from a flask.  She sat up, her blurry eyes slowly regaining focus as she looked across to the burning airship, its canopy crashing to the ground in a blaze of flames.

“Luke!  Luke! she screamed out, “Where is Luke?” she asked as she painfully got to her feet, Airell holding onto her arm to steady her.  Vevila was just about to speak when she stopped, looking across to the burning airship.  Mysti read Vevila’s sad face,

“Luke, no, please,” she cried out.

“You fell free Mysti, but Luke…” Airell broke off as he too looked across at the remains of the airship, the flames cackling with fervour, devouring what remained of the melting canopy.  He took a deep breath, “Luke wasn’t so lucky.”  Mysti got on her knees and cried, panting deeply as she looked at the blackened basket crumble in the raging flames.  Airell tugged at her arm, “Come, we must go, they will be here soon looking for us.”  They hurried back to the car, Mysti limping as she hung onto Airell’s arm.

“What happened up there Mysti?” Ailsa asked as they got into the car.

“I don’t know.  It happened so fast.”  She started to cry again, “There were mirrors, beaming Sunlight at us, like a kid playing, burning a spider with a magnifying glass.

“Yes, we saw them,” Vevila said as she put her arm around Mysti, Airell accelerating away as fast as possible from the burning ship, watching its smouldering ashes in his wing mirror. 

“We saw the ship burst into flames and come down,” Serena added.

“You fell out, and the sand dune broke your fall.  You’re very lucky,” Ailsa said.

I remember now; Luke, he looked so frightened.  The mirror broke, and I fell free.

“They must have mistaken you for bandits, being in one of their ships,” Airell added, “whoever they are.”  There looks like there's an organised group of people up there on the way north,” Mysti said. “I think it's best we go around them, take the coastal road and avoid them as best we can.”

“Let’s get away from here before we do find out who they are,” Ailsa quickly added as she leant across to look in the rear view mirror. She watched as the blackened, ships skeleton, clouded in thick, grey smoke grew small and distant as the car throttled towards the coast.