The Blue (The Complete Novel) by Joseph Turkot Page B

That this is the real spot to sacrifice yourself for. Come out from wherever the hell you’re hiding. And haul us on again. You can’t leave us here, I tell him. And then I think of Dusty. And how much I loved him. I tell him as loud as I can that he shouldn’t have come after us from Blue City. He shouldn’t have done it. Are you happy? I yell. And I apologize because I don’t mean to yell at him, but I yell at him anyway. Is this how you wanted to end up? I yell at him like he’s dying right in front of me again. And when I catch myself from my tantrum, I look back toward the tent, sure that Russell will be glaring at me. Awake and watching me lose my mind. With Voley next to him, baffled. But I’ve walked too far away. They don’t hear me.   
     
    I reach into my pocket and take out the metal box. The red powder tin. I push it into my mouth and lick it. Nothing but cold steel. And then I roar into the wind and throw it. As far as I can. And watching me, like I’m some sort of curious attraction, is the seal. He stares at me, wide awake and alert, about fifty feet away. I tell him not to move, because we need him. Need your body so that we can live. Yours for ours. I tell him it’s just the way it goes, and finally, when I’m crazed enough that I forget that it’s the seal that chased me last time, I charge at him. Right on with everything I’ve got, not even worrying about the cracks and the ocean gaps and the splitting ice beneath me. Far from the sight of Russell or Voley or anyone in the whole world. Just me and the seal. And just when I’m picking up real speed, and I think I can take a shot with the pistol, I trip, bang my elbow hard against the ice, and sink up to my waist in a pool of frigid water. When the daze clears, and I look up, I already know what I’ll see. The seal will be crashing down on me. Ready to devour me. It’s body winning out over mine. And why not. Isn’t that the way it goes anyway? Aren’t the face eaters the ones who really understand how the world works? But when I raise my head from shock and look at him, he hasn’t moved. But then I realize that I’m wrong—he is moving, only very slowly. He’s coming to get me because he knows I’m down. But he can’t run anymore. And when I claw out onto firm ice again and get to my feet, and he sees that I’m not dead or paralyzed like he thought, he turns around. I start my mad chase again, but then he rolls over, right into a crack of the sea.
                I don’t even make a sound. Just turn and head back toward the tent.
     
    When I get back, and Russell and Voley are still sound asleep, completely ignorant of the mania that’s taking over my head like a virus, I lie down quietly. Just lie with them. And listen to the rain, and feel it slip through the tarp onto me, and let it all go. I don’t even remember to wake Russell up for a watch. The wind whips up and dies back down, whistling against the poles. I squeeze my body against theirs but all of us together hardly produce any more warmth. It’s only a single, stretched out moment that I remain awake, and then everything fades away into a deep sleep, until I hear Russell screaming. I have no idea why he’s screaming, or where he is, but all I know is I’m awake again. Like it’s only been a minute. And that I’m falling. The tarp coils in around me, and I see Voley shoveling away, feel him kicking off of my legs, trying to climb away from the collapsing tent. And before the chaos makes any sense, a cold wave of ocean falls over everything. And in one shuddering moment of terror, I know: The ice cracked apart right beneath the tent, and the sea is taking us at last.
     

   Part 2
     

Chapter 8
     
    A cold stabbing wash of foam stings my eyes as I try to open my lids. Darkness tumbles in on me, concealing strange light and the sound of yelling. I throw out my arms against the tangling mass of the tarp, trying desperately to escape suffocation. But the