Three

formed across his face. Though it was dry and felt like straw, it was comforting. Ives remembered how Julia would never let him grow a beard. “It's been a while.” The two other men felt their new beards. James's was thicker than Wallace's patchy mess. In a shard of the Catalina, Ives looked at his reflection. For a moment, it seemed like he was in a fun house. Hair fell down to his shoulders. It was ragged and unkempt. Dust and white dandruff fell from it when he shook it.

  “Good news,” Wallace said from inside the charred wreckage. “The powdered food survived.”

  “Of course,” James said.

  “And this,” Wallace said. He held up a small metal cube. Sun light ricocheted into Ives's eyes.

  “The mapping device,” James said. “Use it!”

  “Can't,” Wallace said. “This wreckage would obscure the terrain. We need head a few miles away. Let the device get a feel for the land. That way, it meets this mess, it'll know, generally, what kind of terrain there is underneath.”

  “Well, get some powders,” Ives said, brushing his hair back and walking towards the wreckage. He could feel the dirt in his boots. “And lets get a move on.”

 

  The three men walked and walked. The hot sun above dehydrated them. They saw basins, but they were bone dry. Occasionally one of them would rip open a package of dehydrated food and choke down the dry powdered foot. Salisbury steak, ice cream, it all tasted the same with the absence of water. Not much changed during their walk. The landscapes remained a sick orange red. It made Wallace think of the bloody vomit that would occasionally pour from his father's mouth. Each step made his miss his parents more and more.

  Meanwhile, Ives fiddled his fingers around his wedding band. As he spun it around his ring finger, he could feel the inscription gently scrape the tender flesh underneath.

  “We're gonna die if we don't get to water soon,” James said. The sentence was followed by a deep breath. The two other men could hear the wheeze echoing through his esophagus. “Is this far enough?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I think so,” Wallace said, rummaging through his pockets. “Oh no.”

  Jame's neck snapped towards Wallace. “Oh no?”

  “Oh no,” Wallace repeated. He was patting all along his legs. Dust pillowed out into the air.

  James walked slowly towards Wallace. Ives could hear the dirt crunching underneath James's weight. Ives tried to look into James's eyes, but they were just sunken dark circles embedded in his skull like cursed black jewels. “What the fuck do you mean, 'oh no?'”

  “I... I may have left the mapping device back at the Catalina.”

  James stalked like a desert viper. His neck that whipped wildly after his crash landing was now stone solid. “You daft motherfucker,” he said nodding.

  There was a moment where something stopped Ives. He just stood there watching. The sun coursed through his body. His head was pounding, thundering his entire frame. He could even feel it in his flared nostrils and wrinkled brow. Ives's eyes soften once James had gotten within reach of Wallace. By the time Ives started running, James had already descended onto Wallace. He had slipped behind the cartographer and had his thick arms wrapped around his neck. Ives grabbed James's constricting arms in an unproductive attempt to dislodge Wallace's neck. Jame's jumped onto Wallace's back, dragging them both down to the ground. Wallace flailed his arms in every direction, even accidentally slapping Ives across the temple. Ives was disoriented, but regained his composure just in time to see Wallace's face. Just in time to hear Wallace's neck snap. It sounded just like the dirt crunching underneath James's feet.

  “Oh... Oh God, James.”

  James's eyes widened. In a haste, he swung Wallace's lifeless body off of his and stood up in a dervish of dirt. The corners of his eyes drooped as he fell back to his knees over Wallace. James screamed and wept into the deep red.

  It was only because of the normal absence of movement that Ives noticed it. Rummaging on the cliff side to the West. The glaring sun light obscured his view. He shielded his eyes again and could only make out large dark shadows flailing about the cliffs. Then they disappeared.. He brought his eyes back to James, still weeping into the deep red in front of him. Wallace remained still and lifeless on the ground. Ives slowly approached James and gently grabbed his collar, pulling him slightly backwards. James stood up as he was pulled like a puppet.

  “James,” Ives whispered. He was eying the cliff side. “James, there is something here. I don't like it.”

  Then, rumbling below their feet. Ives noticed more quickly than James, but they both started backing away, slowly. Then, streams of shadows poured from the cliff slides. Down narrow paths they raged, pushing pebbles and boulders down. Ives ran, still holding James by the collar. He felt a stumble, but let go once he noticed James had picked up the pace. They ran, each firm step sinking into the thick dirt underneath them. Underneath the rumble of the raging shadows, Ives could hear James's wheeze grow louder.

  Ives turned around to first see Jame's clutching his side on his knees. He could hear his wheeze echoing through the empty basins. Then, he saw in the distance a dark cloud tumbling all around where Wallace's body was laid. Ives could slightly hear sound that resembled a rodent gnawing. The cloud was dense and huge with many individual moving parts. Then, in the forefront of the cloud, he saw a lumbering creature charging towards them. Through the clouds of dust, he could see it standing on two taloned feet. It had claws that blurred in their alacrity. It stood some seven to eight feet tall and its head concluded in a three pronged crown.

  He saw it gore James with it's thorned crown. It kept running.

  Ives, of course, turned tail and ran as fast as he could. The gnawing sound of the dark cloud disappeared. The only sounds he could hear now was that familiar crunch beneath his feet and the thundering footsteps of this monstrosity behind him. In the distance, he saw the Catalina wreckage. Air had long left it's home in Ives's lungs. Each heavy breath he took was a combination of dry pain and dust. Finally, he reached the Catalina wreckage. He fell into the dust. Through the dense cloud, he saw the massive black creature rampaging towards him. The dust flew into his eyes. In a blind panic, he grabbed what felt like a piece of wreckage and swung blindly. To his right, he heard a loud thud and the thundering stopped.

  Ives got up quickly and wiped the dust out of his eyes. He turned his sight first to the horizon and noticed that the black cloud had dissipated. Then, he looked down. This scaly creature lay dead at his feet. Blood, specked with black flakes poured out over the dust, forming a strange clay. Finally, on the creature's left claw, he saw something. A golden ring. Careful not to slash his own hands. He removed the ring from one of the claws. On the inside rim, he felt a familiar inscription.

  Due to his confusion, the next set of miles he walked felt like nothing. It was as if his feet were running as fast as his mind was. Why was this here? He took the ring and inspected the inside closely. It definitely matched his.

  Ives and Julia

  Finally, he was outside of sight of the Catalina's wreckage. Ives dropped the ring back into his jumpsuit pocket. From the same pocket, he pulled the small metal box he had retrieved from the wreckage after slaying that beast. He inspected the box, but only saw a plaid metal cube. He ran his hands all over it, until he heard a beep. In the dead desert of the deep red, it scared him. He dropped it and saw a circular laser pulsate in a radius around the box. The visible waves went out into the horizon. From there, Ives did not know where they were at. Ives waited, looking for some kind of feedback from the device, but found nothing. Until one of the waves of light came behind him and ran through him. Back to the box. The cube lit up and a hologram display was projected above it.

  It was the United States.

  It was Earth. Or what appeared to be Earth. Chunks of Europe and Asia were missing. The southern half of Africa was non existent. Ives looked closer. It said there was a cove close to here. Maybe if he died there, those clouds of beasts would not pour down upon him.
br />   Ives climbed up to the cove to die. Though the air around him was hot, it felt as if he was inhaling ice. It hurt his lungs. Ives toppled over the lip of the cove and rolled deep into it. Into water. Brisk, clear water. Ives opened his eyes to see bubbles rising in front of his face as he began to wave on instinct. He came to the surface of the water and took in a large mouthful. And another and another. He rolled onto the dry ground by the water and pulled the box and the ring from his pocket. Not knowing fully how it worked, he rubbed his hands across the box until the hologram popped up.

  He was in Houston.

  Ives ran his fingers across the inside of the ring he found on Julia's claw.

  A Silver Ring

  “Size nine, right?”

  Roger nodded. He looked down at the fine carpet under him. He noticed a small nugget of gray matter clinging to the fine leather stitching of his dress shoes. As he turned his head back upwards to the jeweler, he flicked his ankle. The traffic tumbling through the city behind him masked the sound of the wet glob of gray matter clashing with the glass cabinet.

  Five years ago, Roger was just a child of thirteen. Although his family was very affluent, they lived in the musty part of Oldtown for as long as he could remember. Something his father said about not losing roots. Although Roger was a