Chapter twenty-two
V I V I A N
We can't see anything ten feet in front of us.
Welds calls it mist. I call it dust.
“Should we hold hands?” Fox asks, a smirk in his voice. His attempt at improving the mood is not working, at least not for me.
“Stay close to each other,” an unfamiliar voice says from my radio.
Fox clears his throat and starts forward, pushing the cube with him.
His feet touch the earth's ground.
I brace myself, anticipating him to fall through the floor, or even to collapse on the ground in a pile of ashes. But he remains standing, his head turning to look at us.
The wheels underneath the machine slide across the dirt easier than expected. The dirt must be completely solid.
Rian walks out before I do. He seems okay too.
Now it's my turn. I take a step forward, then another, then another, and one more.
Thud.
My foot touches the dirt and the dead grass attached to it. I can feel the sharp form of the grass through my shoe. It's frozen solid.
A small shrub is close enough to be visible through the floating dust. I don't want to wander far from Rian and Fox.
Slowly, I set my foot down on the small shrub, curious to see how hard it is. Frozen solid, just like the thin blades of grass surrounding it.
Everything is completely still. The dust. The wind.
Rian’s voice comes from the radio as he walks up to stand beside me. “We're still alive. The hearts work, then?”
Or maybe the air is not dangerous at all. Maybe everything that was recorded about the air will not harm a single human being.
All three of us look around. There isn't much to look at, but I want to get as much of this in my head as I can.
A tingling starts in the area around my fingernails. The feeling moves up my hands until it reaches both of my arms.
I shake it away, sure that this feeling is just my nerves. Nothing I should worry myself with.
Rian pulls the GPS out of his pocket and lifts it to his face to read the screen. He points forward. “It’s telling us to go that way.”
Mr. Welds’ voice suddenly sounds in my ear. “You’re all still alive, right? You’re okay?”
All three of us answer at the same time. “Yes.”
“Just follow your path.” This is someone else's voice.
And we do, slowly at first. Then our pace speeds up. Fox continues to push the machine with him.
The next time Mr. Welds' speaks up, his voice shakes. “Okay.” He breathes out. “You’re all still alive. Just continue moving toward the proper location. Everyone’s still all right?”
Rian and Fox both say yes. But I change my answer, thinking that what I'm feeling is no big deal while at the same time wondering if something is wrong. “I’m a little cold,” I say.
But I know a little isn't the right word. My hands are already turning stiff. My feet feel soaked when I know I have not stepped in any water recently. There is no water here.
Rian looks at me. “You're cold?” his voice says from the radio. “I feel fine.”
“Same with me. Could be your nerves, Vivian,” Fox says. “You’re not feeling dizzy or anything?”
“No.” Maybe I’m just overreacting. I look down at my hands, trying to clench my frozen fingers. They barely move. I shudder.
Mr. Welds finally says, “Our screen reads that nothing is wrong.”
Then it might be from the nerves.
“Won’t the machine freeze?” Fox asks. He stops, helps the machine's wheels battle a frozen shrub, then starts forward again.
We have not walked far; however, I can't help but wonder if this dust ever spreads out the farther we go.
“No,” a female voice says, replying to Fox's question. “It's been designed to withstand freezing temperatures, just like your hearts are supposed to keep your human body powered up. The heart is programmed with a shield that helps it fight the cold. As we speak, the shield of the heart is going down. Each of you only have one. We cannot recharge it while you're out there.”
Rian is in front of us with the GPS. Fox does not abandon the machine. I pat my pocket, trying to make sure the green chip is still in there. But I have no idea if it is or not, because my hand is almost numb. Although there is barely any pain running across it.
The amount of dead small shrubs increase as we head deeper into the dust. White frost is starting to line the solid grass.
The material around my arms and hands are starting to receive frost. Even Rian's and Fox's backs have the white flakes gathering together.
No one else speaks into the radio to check up on us as we walk.
My teeth chatter, but I try to keep them as still as possible. Fox and Rian seem more than fine. Why am like this?
The frost on the panel of glass covering my face is starting to accumulate. I reach a hand to wipe it.
“Oh, watch out.” Rian steps to the side abruptly and I can see why.
Right in front of him, appearing like it's stationary in the air, is an uneven but small chunk of ice.
“What is that?” Fox asks, noticing it too. He lets go of the cube for the first time since we got here and brings a finger to the small chunk of ice. He pokes it, but it doesn't fall.
“Uh, Jack?” Fox asks through the radio.
Mr. Welds' voice speaks up moments later. “Is there a problem?”
Fox nods, but it's not like Mr. Welds can see him. “There's a floating ice cube here. Not sure if that means anything?”
Mr. Welds clears his throat. “Pardon? Floating ice cube?”
“Yeah.” Fox pokes it again, and just like last time, it remains in the air. “It's floating.”
I squint ahead of me, trying to see if I can locate another one.
And I can. It's almost invisible, but I can see it through the stationary dust particles. I bring my foot forward and nearly stumble. No one seems to notice.
My toes are starting to turn numb. If this keeps up, I don't think I'll be able to take anymore steps.
“T-there's,” I start, my voice trembling. “A-another one in front of us.”
Fox glances at my pointing finger. He grabs the cube-shaped machine and steers it in the direction I'm pointing.
“All right, hold on...” He trails off when he reaches the other floating small chunk of ice. “Yep, it's another one. What if we keep going? There might be more. Come on.”
Fox's stride is faster now, almost as if he's excited to see where this will take us.
“Jeez, this is surreal,” I hear him mutter. “There are more here.”
Sure enough, as Rian and I catch up to Fox, we see that ahead us, the small chunks of ice are here too. And there are more of them.
“Keep going and watch out,” Fox warns us.
We continue moving. I step to the side, duck, turn sideways, to avoid the chunks of ice. Fox is right. This is bizarre.
Fox tries to push another chunk of ice to clear the air, but it refuses to move. Even Mr. Welds doesn't know what's going on. His explanation is because of the low temperature and the chemicals mixed in with the air around us. Both of those have been combined to form this.
Enlarged particles of air that defy the laws of gravity.
“How much longer?” Fox asks, grunting with every push of the machine.
We’re moving slower than when we started.
“It doesn’t say the distance,” Rian answers, eyes on the GPS's screen.
A voice that sounds like Mr. Welds’ says from the radio, “Vivian, your heart shield just decreased by fifteen percent.”
I concentrate on speaking as well as walking. My frozen chin has trouble moving up and down as I try to say, “W-what's...?” I let out a large breath of air, fogging up the glass in my face.
Will I ever run out of oxygen—?
My foot catches a frozen root of a tree I cannot see. I stumble, hands stretched out in front
of me. A sharp pang of cold strikes through my chest and I fall to one knee, grunting. With a frozen hand over my chest, I cough.
Fox and Rian notice what happens to me immediately.
“What's going on?” Rian asks right around the same time Fox manages to say, “You okay?”
Mr. Welds' voice sounds hurried as he says his next words. “Vivian, your percentage just dropped by twenty. Something is not right.”
I cringe and clench my hands into fists as another wave of cold blasts through my chest.
Rian looks down at the screen of his GPS and whispers, “I have an exact distance now. Seventy-five yards. We’re almost there.” He steps up beside me and wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me to my feet.
Fox runs forward, dragging the machine with him. “We’re almost there,” he echoes Rian. “We can make it. Come on! Hang in there, Clancy.”
I stumble forward and nearly collapse. Rian's grip on me tightens. He grabs my arm and rights me. “What are you feeling like?”
“C-cold.” I inch forward, trying to walk in the direction Fox is heading.
“Vivian,” Mr. Welds' voice says. “Percent decreased by five.”
The shield is decreasing quickly. Like Mr. Welds said before, the shield is assisting my mechanical heart. It's keeping alive in this cold weather. But something seems to be wrong. It's not working properly. This isn't what they were planning. What happens if the shield reaches zero? What then?
This is expected to happen, isn't it? This is what I thought would happen to me. I'll die right here. Right where I am now.
Mr. Welds' voice says, “Stop. This is obviously a disaster. I suggest you head back.”
Another voice fills my ear. “No!” It’s not familiar but it's low. “They’ve gotten this far! They can’t stop now.”
A woman’s voice argues. “But she’s dying. Look at her percentage!”
What’s my percentage? My lips move but no sound comes out. I close my eyes briefly. When I open them, I swallow and try again. “W-what’s m-my p-p-percent...?”
“Fifty-four. It started with seventy-nine,” another woman’s voice says. “Return back to the complex. Fox and Rian stay.”
“She won’t be able to make it on her own!” Another voice yells. “Fox’s percent is fine. It’s an eighty-four. That more than enough. Rian’s is dropping as well, but at a safe rate. Eighty-two percent right now.”
My head spins from all of these voices.
Rian and I both remember Fox right around the same time. We look up, only to see Fox isn't anywhere near us. He has disappeared in the mist.
“Fox!” Rian calls.
Moments later, Fox’s radio voice answers. “I’m here.”
“Why did you—” Rian starts.
Mr. Welds voice interrupts from the radio. “Fox, you’re too far from them. You won’t be able to accomplish anything without the chip!”
“Rian, Vivian! Head back, now!” A male voice commands from the radio. “Her percent is dropping! 43...42...41. I repeat, head back!”
Good idea. But...I can’t move.
My legs finally give out and I go limp, slipping from Rian’s grasp. I can’t feel my hands. I can’t feel my face. I can’t feel my legs.
I can’t feel anything.
My skin stings.
I can’t do this...no…
It’s so hard to keep my eyes open. Everything is so blurry.
The glass in front of my face has fogged up from my ragged breathing. Or maybe it’s the frost that has piled up. The whole world is spinning and I have no idea where I am right now. I think Rian is trying to wipe my glass.
The voices in the radio are not very clear anymore. Whatever they are saying doesn’t make sense to me. I hear, “Save...back up...no...die.”
Oh. They want me to die?
My head is spinning and I can’t feel anything anymore.
I am only a floating head.
Sirens are going off inside my head. There is a hard pounding starts in my chest, burning me alive.
I can see dark walls closing in on me.
Beep, beep, beep.
I don’t want to die.
But...I can’t help it. I can’t fight it.
There's a dark shadow reaching for me.