Feraline

Prologue (It’s long so I don’t expect most of you to read it)

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | mini-story

The car was making Faye sick. She didn’t like the smell of the burrito that her younger brother Cameron was eating. She didn’t like the heat in the car despite the air-conditioning. Faye and her family lived in Miami Beach so heat wasn’t really a problem for Faye, but she hated the rancid hot air of the car.

Her mother was driving, whistling cheerfully. She was the one who kept insisting that they go visit Faye’s grandmother, who lived in a huge ranch in Montana, this summer. They couldn’t afford the plane tickets for everyone, so they were driving. It would take 45 hot sticky smelly hours of non-stop driving. They were on the 34^th hour now. Faye knew because she was keeping count.

Faye didn’t even know the name of the ranch. The name wasn’t on the map. To her six-year-old mind, that meant the place didn’t exist.

They had been driving all night and day. She hated being crammed in the back seat of their SUV with her four brothers. She hated that her youngest brother Angus, who usually smells so nice now smelled like baby poop. Her mother kept changing him but he still smelt like poop. And before this, she never really noticed that he screams so much.

Faye’s stomach grumbled noisily and she tasted something vile in her throat.

“Mommy!”

“You feeling ill again honey?” Her mother called from the drivers seat. Fayee nodded her head, her mouth twisted from trying not to vomit on the smell of burrito and baby poop.

Fayee’s mother stopped the car, despite the protests from her half-asleep father. Her brother Kyle, who had been peacefully snoozing a minute ago jolted awake.

“Faye feeling ill again?” He asked groggily. Kyle was 10 and the oldest in the family. He takes that to mean he’s the man of the house, and thus needs to take care of everyone else. It was actually very sweet when it’s not annoying.

“We wont be a minute. Jonathan, watch the kids!”

Faye’s mum nudged her father on the head before getting out. He mumbled something but didn’t open his eyes. He had been driving all the night before, letting her mum rest and now it was his turn to sleep.

Faye stumbled out of the car and knelt down on all fours at the edge of the gravel, trying not to vomit. There was a metal sign a little further away from her that said ROUTE 99. She stared at it and swallowed something big that was threatening to come out of her throat.

“You okay Faye?” Kyle ambled out of car and put a hand on her head. Fayee looked at him and tried to smile. Her mother was back at the car, trying to calm down Angus. He had been sleeping, but was now awake and screaming.

“I don’t feel too good, but I think I’m ok” Faye told him. She swallowed loudly again and tried to count cars. There were six cars coming towards them. She could see a big blue one, and a really fast red one.

And then for reason at all, all the hairs at the back of her neck stood still.

She shivered.

“Fayee, you sure you’re okay?” Kyle asked again. She looked at him and shivered again, despite the fact that sweat was beaded on her forehead.

“Maybe I caught a flu or something” She whispered. She looked at the ground again and then at the metal road sign next to her. ROUTE 99. Her arms erupted in gooseflesh.

She shivered and turned the other way and caught sight of the cars again. They were close enough that she could tell that the blue one was a big Van. She shivered, and suddenly, someone who’s voice sounded remarkably similar to her own was speaking in her ear

“They’ll reach us in exactly four minutes Faye…”

Faye frowned, looking around, wondering where the voice came from. She squinted at the Van again.

“3 minutes and 45 seconds now Faye!” The voice whispered again in a frightened voice.

Her entire body was convulsing now, her muscles jerking as though in some terrible pain. Something wet tickled down her face, from her nose. Faye quickly rubbed at it with her hands and saw blood. Her eyes widened at the redness she saw. And then, every nerve, every fiber in her body began screaming at her.

‘RUN FAYE, RUN!’

She hesitated for a split second. Her heart was exploding in her throat and adrenaline dominated her veins. She hardly understood anything, any of this at that moment. All she knew was she had to RUN!

Faye jumped to her feet and sprinted across the desert.

“Hey!” She heard Kyle exclaim from behind her. She thought she heard her mother screaming her name. She didn’t care. She had to run. She had to RUN. She couldn’t stop running until she reached…

Her eyes focused on a spot a few kilometers away where a large bunch of boulders were scattered on the ground. As soon as she saw the biggest boulder she knew it was SAFE. Her heart raced harder and she ran even faster than before.

“3 minutes and 5 seconds”

Something was going to happen; something that her entire body and that voice knew was BAD!

“Faye, stop, FAYE!” She heard Kyle’s voice from somewhere close behind her. But she couldn’t stop.

“1 minute and 35 seconds Faye. We need to hurry. We need to run faster. One minute and 30 seconds Faye!”

She leaped and jumped over some smaller boulders, something she knew she couldn’t really do. Not her, not clumsy Faye. Maybe it was the voice helping her. Faye didn’t really care.

She finally reached the largest boulder. She ducked behind it, resting her head on the hot rock. Sweat was pouring down her body but she didn’t care. Only one word was echoing in her head now, one soothing, and sweet word.

“SAFE! SAFE! SAFE! SAFE! SAFE! SAFE! SAFE!”

“Faye, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Kyle was suddenly there, heaving to find his breath. He had his hands on his knees was looking at her like she was insane. And her heart went crazy!

Kyle wasn’t SAFE! The voice didn’t care much but Faye did.

She didn’t exactly know what she was doing before she did it. She grabbed his ankles and pulled. With a cry, Kyle fell on his back, but before he was done falling, Faye pulled him forward. He landed with a thump next to her and she grabbed the neck of his t-shirt and jerked him into sitting position before he could so much as breath.

“Only ten seconds now!”

They were both covered behind the boulder. Faye never knew she was this strong. Kyle seemed too dazed to speak. He looked at Faye and tried but nothing really came out.

“He’s okay,” The voice assured her. “He’s safe with us”

Tears started leaking out of Faye’s eyes as she thought of her mother, her father, Angus and Cameron.

“5 seconds” The voice said soothingly.

Should she have tried to help them? She buried her face into Kyle’s shoulder.

“There was nothing you could do. Kyle is here. We are safe. Three seconds now. Lets brace ourselves”

She nodded, clenching her eyes shut, crying silently, holding onto Kyle as hard as she could.

And then they heard the explosion.

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