clearly unusable, but that was not the problem. Not in
the least.
A wall of fire approached across the endless
obsidian plain, perhaps half a mile out. It came as a sheer smooth
curtain of flame, horizon to horizon, cast down from the sky itself
by glowing little glints in what looked like low earth orbit.
Satellites? For what purpose? Why would this planet be… I looked
down at the obsidian beneath my feet.
Continually cleansed…
Fuck logic. Fuck explanations, my
brain screamed. A wall of fire is coming for you! Run!
Even in panic, I turned and looked for the
children, quickly finding several multi-colored dots against black
glass in the distance. I was already tired, but… not like this. I
couldn't let them die like this.
Go!
Foot down, push , foot down, push , breathe, faster, faster,
fasterfasterfaster fasterfaster -
Breathe, breathe, breathe… come on…
The kids were moving away at a pace fueled by
fear, but I had to catch them. They were running directly from the
wall of fire, but the portal manned by Suzie's crew was down an
offset vector.
I felt my personal top speed hovering back
and forth before me; my legs pumped numbly, my feet crunched and
bled, and my arms cut the seared air, but that intangible wall of
speed danced just out of reach. I knew I could go slightly faster,
I knew it , but I just…
I stumbled and fell, falling onto a
surprisingly whole plate of volcanic glass. My right wrist roared
fire, and my entire body tingled with relentless weakness, but I
stumbled right back to my feet. "Wait!"
The shout rang out in clear air, barely
audible over the low roar of oncoming flame.
"Wait!" I screamed again, going for a high
note.
As I kept staggering forward, I saw the kids
slow and turn. Exhausted themselves, they could only wait for me to
catch up.
I entered a circle of sweaty, fearful,
drained, and smiling faces.
"I knew you'd come to save us," said Danny,
the eldest.
I took a pained breath and tried to stand
tall. "I don't know if I can save us, but… I couldn't let you face
this alone."
He gave a tired nod. "What's the plan?"
"I ordered Thomas to run to Suzie's crew and
tell them to unbury their portal."
"That one's only -"
"I know," I said, cutting him off before he
told the other kids. "Come on, calculate the direction. I estimate
we've gone two miles directly east of the main portal. Suzie's
portal will be our escape, and it's four point nine miles southeast
of the main portal, offset by twenty-two degrees from the line
we've been traveling. Which direction should we head, exactly?"
Faced by surprise math homework, the kids
huddled in a massive circle and debated the numbers. I had an
answer in mind, but it was important that they felt it by
getting it themselves - and a second check never hurt.
Finally, they all looked up and pointed.
"That way?" I asked, slowly recovering my
breath.
Thirty-two children nodded in unison.
"Alright," I prompted them. "How long have
you been here? The wall of fire crossed the main portal when I was
a half-mile away. I estimate it's still a half-mile away. How fast
do you think it's moving? How fast do we have to move?"
They huddled again, and the answer came
forty-four seconds later. Danny stood tall above the others. "Best
guess - we have to move four point one miles an hour toward Suzie's
portal to outrun it."
Another darkly ironic number. "Alright, we've
trained for this," I announced, sloughing off the worst of my
exhaustion. "Exactly this scenario, although it was a hypothetical
gas creature then. It's possible , and you know that, right?
We can survive this."
Thirty-two grim faces nodded in response.
"Then let's set out!"
I took up the lead, walking slightly faster
than the four-miles-an-hour rate that I simply knew by muscle
memory. That gas creature had been anything but hypothetical, once,
and I'd spent four days in Louisiana backcountry escaping it. I'd
been sixteen then, in my first encounter with the supernatural, but
that
the least.
A wall of fire approached across the endless
obsidian plain, perhaps half a mile out. It came as a sheer smooth
curtain of flame, horizon to horizon, cast down from the sky itself
by glowing little glints in what looked like low earth orbit.
Satellites? For what purpose? Why would this planet be… I looked
down at the obsidian beneath my feet.
Continually cleansed…
Fuck logic. Fuck explanations, my
brain screamed. A wall of fire is coming for you! Run!
Even in panic, I turned and looked for the
children, quickly finding several multi-colored dots against black
glass in the distance. I was already tired, but… not like this. I
couldn't let them die like this.
Go!
Foot down, push , foot down, push , breathe, faster, faster,
fasterfasterfaster fasterfaster -
Breathe, breathe, breathe… come on…
The kids were moving away at a pace fueled by
fear, but I had to catch them. They were running directly from the
wall of fire, but the portal manned by Suzie's crew was down an
offset vector.
I felt my personal top speed hovering back
and forth before me; my legs pumped numbly, my feet crunched and
bled, and my arms cut the seared air, but that intangible wall of
speed danced just out of reach. I knew I could go slightly faster,
I knew it , but I just…
I stumbled and fell, falling onto a
surprisingly whole plate of volcanic glass. My right wrist roared
fire, and my entire body tingled with relentless weakness, but I
stumbled right back to my feet. "Wait!"
The shout rang out in clear air, barely
audible over the low roar of oncoming flame.
"Wait!" I screamed again, going for a high
note.
As I kept staggering forward, I saw the kids
slow and turn. Exhausted themselves, they could only wait for me to
catch up.
I entered a circle of sweaty, fearful,
drained, and smiling faces.
"I knew you'd come to save us," said Danny,
the eldest.
I took a pained breath and tried to stand
tall. "I don't know if I can save us, but… I couldn't let you face
this alone."
He gave a tired nod. "What's the plan?"
"I ordered Thomas to run to Suzie's crew and
tell them to unbury their portal."
"That one's only -"
"I know," I said, cutting him off before he
told the other kids. "Come on, calculate the direction. I estimate
we've gone two miles directly east of the main portal. Suzie's
portal will be our escape, and it's four point nine miles southeast
of the main portal, offset by twenty-two degrees from the line
we've been traveling. Which direction should we head, exactly?"
Faced by surprise math homework, the kids
huddled in a massive circle and debated the numbers. I had an
answer in mind, but it was important that they felt it by
getting it themselves - and a second check never hurt.
Finally, they all looked up and pointed.
"That way?" I asked, slowly recovering my
breath.
Thirty-two children nodded in unison.
"Alright," I prompted them. "How long have
you been here? The wall of fire crossed the main portal when I was
a half-mile away. I estimate it's still a half-mile away. How fast
do you think it's moving? How fast do we have to move?"
They huddled again, and the answer came
forty-four seconds later. Danny stood tall above the others. "Best
guess - we have to move four point one miles an hour toward Suzie's
portal to outrun it."
Another darkly ironic number. "Alright, we've
trained for this," I announced, sloughing off the worst of my
exhaustion. "Exactly this scenario, although it was a hypothetical
gas creature then. It's possible , and you know that, right?
We can survive this."
Thirty-two grim faces nodded in response.
"Then let's set out!"
I took up the lead, walking slightly faster
than the four-miles-an-hour rate that I simply knew by muscle
memory. That gas creature had been anything but hypothetical, once,
and I'd spent four days in Louisiana backcountry escaping it. I'd
been sixteen then, in my first encounter with the supernatural, but
that
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