Chapter Fifteen: The Need to Flee

I stared at Clara, not really comprehending what she was saying. Telilro? As in, the defunct tower, some six hundred miles away in Southern Texas? The one April was always dreaming about exploring?

“Clara!” Thelma exclaimed as she embraced the girl. “You’re well. I… I’m so glad.”

I blinked at the unexpected emotion from the woman. When I’d first met her in the hospital she had hardly seemed to care about Clara. For her part, Clara seemed equally surprised at the outburst. She awkwardly patted the normally stern woman on the back as she settled into the hug. “Y-Yeah. Sorry. I… It took me back. I’ll be alright. I’ve been listening. Telilro? Is… is that really the only way?”

She sounded like a scared little child. Perhaps she hadn’t recovered as much as she said. Then again, she had a right to be scared. Nobody could just go to Telilro, and only crazy Indiana Jones types – like April ironically enough – would ever want to try.

“I don’t understand. Why would we go there? Telilro failed. Everyone knows that. If anything is left it’s probably just a melted husk by now,” I said.

“Well, do you want the girl to live, or not?” Scarlatte said simply.

“She… she might still die!? I thought the flower stabilized her!” I shouted, horrified.

“Her body, yes. Her power is… erratic. In flux. She might die, or she might never wake up. Without a regulation chamber though… those are the only options,” said the old woman. She wandered over to April and stared down at her, before suddenly slapping the girl.

“H-hey! What the fuck!” I shouted just as she slapped the girl’s other cheek.

“See? Nothing,” she said as April remained limp. Lifeless.

“Okay I get it! Just stop that!” I insisted, stepping between myself and the borderline abusive doctor.

Scarlatte gave a shrug and returned to her spot in the hallway leading back towards the offices. “Telilro is the only viable option.”

“No, no. I remember the debates on television. The catastrophe. They were talking about ending funding to Tellanex after Telilro got all those people killed!”

Clara flinched like she’d been slapped but I didn’t know why.

“Ah. It was on the television. Well, I suppose we’ll just go back to the drawing board, shall we?” Scarlatte sneered, distracting me from Clara.

I winced but conceded the point.

“Telilro did fail, but in its case, we know exactly why,” Thelma said while sparing a glance for Clara. “The first tower’s shielding wasn’t destroyed and it still has a successful conduit. Its regulation chambers are likely still in perfect condition. Never mind the world, or even the activation of Tellroan. The only way to make sure April survives is to get her to the regulation chambers at Telilro.”

I sighed, staring between the two scientists and Clara. This all seemed so… sudden.

“Telilro is still functional. That can be seen merely from satellite surveillance. Its barrier even flickers to life sporadically, though god only knows how. I can’t think of any reason why it would be doing that, but it is enough to prove it still functions. We don’t dare send anyone down into that wretched heat though. No one could ever make it that far without burning up or being eaten by the new fauna. Not even Violette could make it, with all her vaunted power. However… Clara, April, and You. You all have a chance,” Scarlatte said with conviction.

“That’s…! I… You’ve got to know how dumb that sounds, right?” I asked, appealing to their common sense. I turned to Clara for confirmation but she was staring down into her hands again, fists clenched tight. No help coming from her.

Darrin stood up and wandered over to the hallway, passing by Scarlatte and heading back into his office. Was he bored or something? I didn’t know.

“And yet, it is the only option. If Telilro, or Tellroan aren’t activated before that mission gets to the Sunsoul wrapper encasing our star, then we will all die. Every last one of us,” Thelma said.

I gulped.

“Okay. Okay. So explain to the idiot why April, Clara, and I can go there when nobody else can,” I said hesitantly.

“Told you he hadn’t figured it out yet,” Clara murmured. She glared at me, and I blanched.

What the heck is your problem? I’m pretty sure I just risked my life for you! A little appreciation would be nice!

“We don’t have time for this!” Scarlatte insisted. “April and Clara need to be gone. It isn’t safe for either of them here anymore. You all needed to be gone twenty minutes ago. Ciara can’t have been their only method of attack, and someone else must’ve planted that bomb!”

“We should reconsider sending them north. Tellvera is an option,” Thelma said to Scarlatte.

“We already discussed this. They’d be dead before they hit the tarmac! They have to–!”

The same as before, a sudden boom rocked the tower. The columns of light did not flicker this time but the floor did shake, sending us all off balance.

“What the fuck!?” Clara cried. “Where is all the goddamn security!?”

“Someone is still here. The northern elevator was just taken out,” Thelma said, staring at a holo screen. It looked like something straight out of a movie, showing a schematic of the huge tower, with red areas indicating points of failure. “What do you want to bet our Security teams were in that elevator coming up here?”

Scarlatte stared over Thelma’s shoulder, her aged face even more pale than usual. “I was in that elevator…”

“Perhaps going north would be better but I don’t think there’s any time. Clara can explain most of this on the way. Go! Take April. She should be safe to move. Get to your car. You have one of those new models right? That should get you safely into the Scorched Lands. At least there you’ll only have to worry about big animals. Get to your car in the parking garage and drive south. As far as you can go. You’ll have to walk the rest of the way. You must reach San Marcos. Get to Telilro!” Thelma ordered. “God be with you.”

Clara was already up and moving, waiting at the door with a hurried expression on her face.

“W-wait that’s it!? We’re just… just going into the Scorched lands?” I shouted.

Rather than wait and debate with me, Clara came back and dragged me over to where April lay and pointed at her.

“Buddy, we don’t have much of a choice. Sirahn has been trying to shut down Tellanex for as long as I can remember. I never thought they’d actually go this far though. Fucking Bombs?” she hissed, incredulously. “I trust Thelma. Callous bitch that she is Scarlatte knows what she’s talking about too. I’ve known her most of my life and if they say we have to do this, then there isn’t a better option. So what are you gonna do, Noonday? Jump into the Sun for the girl again, or let her die?”

Ahhh god dammit!

I recognized the manipulation for what it was but I didn’t have much of a choice. Adrenaline kicked in once again and I bent down and grabbed my not-quite girlfriend around the waist, before hoisting her limp body over my shoulder.

“Get to the South elevator. It’s that one!” Clara shouted. “I’ll meet you there!”

The Scientists had all scrambled. Rhodes looked panicked, staring at the floor as if just waiting for it to shake again. Scarlatte was gone, back in one of the offices somewhere, and Thelma had put on a headset. She was shouting at someone on the other line.

“Wait, where are you going?” I screamed at her.

“There’s no way in hell I’m going to make it to Telilro in these fucking flip flops! I need shoes!” the girl screamed before dashing off towards one of the buildings lining the interior of the tower.

I… could not argue with that. I set off at a small angle away from where Clara was running, dashing as best I could. Regretting all the missed opportunities to lift weights and make this task easier, I made my way at as brisk of a walk as I could towards the row of elevators. A distant part of my mind remembered warnings taught to me in old classes about never using elevators during a fire, but most of those warnings didn’t have ninety floors to travel as an alternative. If all of the elevators were taken out, then there was no way I’d be able to get April out of here anyway.

It felt like it took an eternity for me to reach the elevators. Despite the relatively flat ground, I decided to stay on the meandering paths rather than cut through the gardens. The last thing I needed was to drop April.

I spotted Clara coming out of a different building than the one she had entered, but she dashed with agile runner's legs. The girl had taken the time to change into shorts and a tank top. I didn’t begrudge her that. I wished I could change into something more comfortable too.

Am I really about to drive into the scorched lands?

“Here! Let me help you!” came a sudden voice from behind me.

Darrin. One of the scientists. The one who’d grabbed me a soda before.

“No, don’t worry about it. I’ve got her!” I shouted. “Are you coming down too?”

“Yeah! Scarlatte sent me to get you kids to the garage, and help you carry the girl!” he breathed panting with exertion. He honestly didn’t look like he could help carry his own weight, let alone help me with April, but I wasn’t complaining.

“She doesn’t feel heavy for now, but we’d be glad to have some help down below. I don’t know how far my car is from the elevator!” I shouted as we all arrived. Clara had already pressed the button.

Darrin was a pot-bellied man with round glasses and an equally round face. He had thin dirty blond hair that hung to his cheeks. He’d discarded his lab coat and beneath it, he now wore a polo and a pair of black shorts.

“Where did you park? Lot?”

“Uhh. It’s… Tiger. Er. The Lot is TI,” I said as I came to a stop in front of the elevators. Clara was already waiting there, the button, a relatively normal-looking down arrow already pressed and lit. As if it were waiting for my arrival, the light above chimed as soon I stopped.

The doors opened to the third elevator from the right and we all shuffled in. I took the opportunity to lay April down against the side wall. Ninety floors was a long wait even with the ridiculously fast elevators.

I sat against the wall beneath the handrails as the door chimed “Going Down!” and began our descent.

Darrin was out of breath. He was bent over, hands on his knees, panting as if he’d just run a marathon. Hell, I’d just carried an entire extra person here and I thought he might be more winded than I was. Rhodes would’ve been a lot more helpful. What had Scarlatte been thinking sending… him…?

“Jeez,” he wheezed. “That sure can take the wind out of ya. Crazy what’s going down huh? Ciara… I can’t believe Thelma just killed her. She’s been working with us for months… shit almost a year, you know?”

I narrowed my eyes. Everyone working at Tellroan could at least see Sunsoul. There were apparently a very small number of people who could use it. However, Thelma and Ciara had both clearly been able to. Could Darrin be among them too?

“She tried to murder my best friend,” I seethed, my suspicions growing by the minute. “I’m glad she’s dead.”

His eye twitched, and I knew. Darrin hadn’t been sent by Scarlatte at all. Clara noticed my glare. She hadn’t guessed what I had yet, but she began to back as far away from Darrin as she could get.

“Well,” he panted, still catching his breath. “That’s… not very–!”

He doubled over as I punched him in the stomach. I wasn’t much of a boxer. The sport wasn’t really one of my favorites, but I knew a couple of kids from the team. They’d taught me a thing or two. Extending my knees as I slammed my fist into the man’s gut, to give it extra oomph seemed to work well. I could practically feel his stomach shrinking in size under my fist.

Green light suddenly formed around him but I didn’t give him the chance to use any of it. I slammed my knee into his face which dropped him to the floor, and the lights dissipated harmlessly. Clara yelped, staring between the fat man and me, like I’d lost my mind.

“He’s the other terrorist. Think about it. Why would Scarlatte send him to help us? He could barely reach us. He’d be no help at all carrying April!” I told her.

Her eyes widened, then narrowed.

The man coughed, clutching his stomach.

“You sure?” she asked, her cold tone reminiscent of Thelma. Apparently the freakout she’d had upstairs had been a one time thing.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “If he’s innocent, then we’ll find out when we get back from Telilro!”

Darrin was groaning but still awake, so I kicked him again in the side, hard. He gave a sharp gasp before slumping down, motionless.

I remembered just a few hours ago I was holding April in her doorway. Life had been normal then. Dates, girlfriends, going off to college. Could this all be a nightmare? If I rolled over all of a sudden and woke up in bed, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. Just relieved. It was like my whole orderly world had turned on its head. One of those awful, “It was all a dream” stories. I’d always hated those.

The elevator stopped, and the automated voice chimed out, “Third Floor.” If it was all a dream, I hadn’t woken up yet.

The door opened and I saw three people wearing business suits, two men and a women, all of whom looked as panicked as I felt.

“Take the next one!” Clara shouted before creating an orb of blue light and holding it menacingly.

“Wh… what the–?” One of them said before Clara created four more orbs. They began dancing, ominously.

The three office workers, probably elected officials, yelped and ran back down the hallway while Clara mashed the ground floor button.

“Come on, come on! Fuck this thing! All we have to do is get out into the sun and we’ll be fine!” Clara said as the doors closed a second time.

Fortunately, it seemed that most people were paying attention to those old directions to never use elevators during a fire because we didn’t stop again before hitting the ground floor. I knelt down and scooped April up onto my shoulder again as gently as possible before darting out of the room. Clara leaped over Darrin’s prone form. She gave him a solid parting kick in the shoulder before she followed me but he didn’t react.

“Where’s your car?” Clara asked as we exited into the underground parking garage. There were actually four sublevels for parking but I’d actually managed to get a spot on the first floor.

There were hardly any people here. I saw a digital clock on one of the walls alongside a screen depicting an ad for a fake tanning lotion. It was still only mid-afternoon outside so none of them would be safe venturing out into the sunlight. Everyone was huddled inside the building, all of them probably hoping to god that the bombs they’d heard shaking the upper floors weren’t anywhere near them. There was nowhere for them to go.

God. It’s barely three o’clock. Was the activation really only two hours ago?

We came out in the OR, lot. Not nearly as far from my car as I’d feared. We dashed through the P, Q, R, and S lots, running by hundreds and hundreds of cars before finally reaching the T. Traveling up through each of the sub-sections felt like it took forever. I’d never been happier to be a runner in my entire life. When my black sexy little Chevy Meridian came into view, my vision actually blurred with tears.

“Holy shit, dude!” Clara said as we finally came to a stop before the car. “Nice…”

“Yeah yeah, open the backdoor for me!” I told her. My arms were burning from the effort of keeping April steady, and while she wasn’t a heavy girl, my back begged to differ.

Clara ran to the passenger side and opened the back door before jumping into the shotgun seat.

“Do we really think they’re going to attack again? Maybe… maybe it’s over? If Darrin was the last of them do you think we could just… wait here?” Clara asked as I strained my back to gently place my girlfriend down.

April didn’t budge. When I disengaged from her and finally got to take a good look at her, I cringed. The white dress, covered with blood looked so… wrong on her, but somehow the ponytail that she never seemed to be without had been ruined by the activation and our flight from the tower. Seeing that felt more wrong to me than the gunshot wound, somehow. It was wrong. No one should see April with her hair down unless she wanted them to.

I looked away, closing the door. Realizing I was wasting time, I dashed around to the driver's side before jumping in myself and starting the car.

“We made it… oh god, we made it,” I breathed. The only sound was the muffled roar of the engine and our breathing overshadowing it.

“Heh. Hehe,” Clara giggled a little. Slightly hysterical. “W-wouldn’t it be funny if… heh. If Darrin were completely innocent and you just beat the shit out of him for nothing?”

I glared at her. “Can you be serious!? There are fucking bombs, Clara!”

“I-I I know. I get sarcastic when I’m scared!” she said. I suddenly realized that her hand was on top of mine on the shifter, clenching with a white-knuckled grip. “We’ve got to go. Let’s get out of here Brandon.”

Despite her words, her hand did not move.

“I kinda need that to go anywhere,” I told her, eyeing the lever.

“I… Oh,” she said relenting, her hand slowly lifting off of mine. “L-lets go. To the Scorched Lands. Yeah. I’m ready. I… I’m ready.”

There was a tremor in her voice as I backed the car out of the spot. There was a lot to unpack there.

“I’ll be fine,” she whispered.

The pace I took leaving the garage felt at odds with the hurried rush we’d spent getting to the car. Somehow though, I felt safer. My windows were tinted to the point where an xray couldn’t see through them, and no one had any reason to suspect a random car driving around in the garage might hold the girl capable of starting the Tower. Hell, before today I hadn’t even known the Towers used people as conduits to function.

How did that work anyway? Was April like… some sort of cosmic sieve, filtering out the bad Sunsoul and letting the good stuff through? I didn’t know. Maybe I could ask Clara later.

I reached the exit uncomfortably quickly. The sun was still bright at three pm. It was the middle of winter, the least dangerous time of year for the sun, and yet I still stopped the car before pulling out into the driveway. I felt like one of those idiots, about to get killed playing Hotrush. There were classes on what to do in this sort of situation though. Rule number one. Don’t stop. Once you’re on the road in sunlight, you couldn’t stop. A stopped car was a melted tire, and a melted tire was a stopped car. Why someone would end up driving out in the sunlight in the middle of the day, I had no damn clue, but the lesson stuck in my brain.

“Are we… are we really sure about this?” I asked Clara, fearfully.

“Don’t worry. You’re gifted. April and I are both Conduits. The heat can’t hurt us. Trust me. I spent most of my afternoons out on the school’s roof. You can tell it’s hot, but it’ll just feel like warm sunshine,” she said.

“What… what are my parents going to think? Monroe. Shit, Abigail… I can’t just leave! We should go… we should go back to my house. Leave a note or something!” I said, turning to look at the girl. “We’re going to need food at least!”

“Shit… You’re right. I didn’t think about that. On cleared roads at night, we could actually make it the five hundred miles down there overnight no problem, but there’s not going to be any food where we’re going.”

An idea came to my mind. “The Raceway.”

“Huh?”

“My job. I work at the Raceway Truckstop. It’ll be locked up tight now. Probably filled with truckers but we can stock up on food and drinks there. Maybe some hiking clothes for me and April. You know, assuming we don’t die just driving out there.”

My hands on the wheel were shaking. The ambient sunlight would already be starting to cause minimal damage to my car just being so close to direct sunlight. For April though?

I hit the gas and drove out into the sunlight.