Chapter XVIII

      1

Heather

HEATHER WAS JOLTED AWAKE as something slammed into her hip, not enough to cause pain but enough to send her mind into alarm. Bolting upright in a scramble, she flung her head from side to side to see why she had been awakened, but as her fuzzy vision cleared she noticed nothing of importance. Her hand ran across a hard surface, finding a boot beside her thigh. She turned her head upward, her eyes following the figure towering over her and blocking the early rising sun.

"Get up! Time to go!"

Heather's eyes widened in a mixture of shock and fear at the tone of the voice, although she couldn't see their face. "Michelle?"

Michelle crouched to meet Heather eye to eye, and she gave a wink and a smile. "Surprised to see me?"

Caught off guard by Michelle's words, Heather's mouth fell agape and her words fumbled over her tongue. "Uh ... I ju— ... it's tha—"

Michelle cut her off when she placed her pointer finger over her lips in a hushing manner. She puckered as if telling her to "shush," but the sound never came from her mouth. "It'll be our little secret," she whispered. She stood and stepped over Heather's legs before marching past the others and out into the sand.

"We'll head this way," Michelle stated, staring out into the flat, bouldery side of the desert.

"What makes you think the others are that way?" Brutus asked, leaning back on his hands from his seat on the ground.

"Joey was injured," Michelle explained. "She either wouldn't have been able to walk good or none at all. The boys wouldn't have carried her through the dunes."

"Smart observation," Nathan grumbled, clambering to his feet. He staggered briefly before getting his bearings, and Heather's eyes darted from him to Michelle quizzically as she wondered why his loving girlfriend hadn't come to his aid.

Her attention was drawn to Brianna, who cried out as she stood and wobbled. The twins quickly grabbed her—one on each side—to help keep her on her feet. Brianna gritted her teeth but put on a brave face as the twins helped her hobble through the sand.

Just like that, the others were ready to go, ready to obey her every command, but Heather was still trying to wrap her mind around where she had gone wrong. Michelle had swallowed the Larkspur. Heather saw it with her own eyes. Even if it wasn't strong enough to kill her immediately, Michelle should at least be showing some symptoms, but if anything, Michelle seemed more energized and focused than she had in a long while.

Clenching her jaw and furrowing her brow angrily, Heather pushed herself off the grassy ground and marched into the sand with the others.

"Alright!" Michelle said, gleefully clapping her hands together. "Time to finish what we started!"

2

THE DAY DRAGGED ON, and the heat grew in intensity with the sun. Heather gripped her collar and pulled it up and down, trying to get even the smallest airflow. She flinched when Brianna suddenly dropped to the sand on her hands and knees, crying out as she twisted to her bottom and stretched out her leg. She grasped at her thigh, and Nathan swiftly knelt beside her.

Heather eyed Brianna's mouth and winced at the blood-soaked bandage. She didn't know much about anything medical, but she could tell by Brianna's pale skin that she was losing too much blood.

Nathan unwrapped her thigh, and Heather was thankful that he left it covered enough to not expose them to what lay underneath the bandage. He shook his head and looked up at Michelle. "This doesn't look so good. I think it's getting infected." He turned his head to face Michelle. "We need to bandage this somehow."

Brianna's head quickly flew from grimacing at her wound to staring worriedly into Nathan's disturbed gaze. "Think? You think it's infected?" her voice heightened in her fear.

"Well, I'm no doctor, but I think I've been around enough wounds to kinda guess," he argued, seeming offended.

"What are we going to do?!" she whimpered. "We have no medicine, no water, and we're almost out of bandages." Her breathing quickened and she slammed her fists into the sand. "I didn't survive the first Dome to die from infection!"

"Brianna, calm down!" Nathan said gently. "We'll figure out something."

"How?" Brianna questioned, tears filling her bottom eyelids.

Heather waited for Nathan's response only he didn't have one. She glanced between Michelle, who didn't bother watching their distress, and Nathan before finally speaking up. With a roll of her eyes, she said, "I can help."

Her words piqued Michelle's interest as the woman twisted to eye her with a brow raised in curiosity. "How?" she repeated.

Gazing into Michelle's eyes, Heather felt her heart skip a beat. It wasn't the way she asked her question, but rather the change in her deep blue eyes and the subtle smirk on her lips. Keeping her eyes focused on Michelle, Heather slowly knelt beside Brianna, but addressed her leader, "A-aloe vera," she stuttered. "Its gel contains antibacterial ointment and should help with the infection. Even if it doesn't heal it, it'll help with the pain until we can ... find a better solution."

"Have you ever even seen an aloe vera plant, Heather?" Michelle mocked, her eyes narrowing skeptically. "They would've all burned long before you were born."

"Well ..." Heather was at a loss of words. "No. But my ability does help me see and know the capability of a specific plant."

"And you're just gonna, what?" Michelle shrugged. "Form some kind of plant in all this sand?" Heather's lips dipped into a frown as she glanced around. "There are no trees or grass to draw your source from. You're powerless here."

Heather narrowed her eyes and was determined to prove Michelle wrong. She clenched her jaw, focusing her eyes on the sand to her left, and she buried her hands deep into its grain. She felt a small surge of energy as her fingertips tingled, but in her mind, she couldn't find anything to latch onto to form what she needed.

She stole a side glance towards Michelle, who crossed her arms and shifted her weight on her feet.

Readjusting herself, Heather closed her eyes and pushed her hands in deeper, slithering them through the harder grain as she dug further down. She tried again, and there, amongst all the rock and mineral fragments, she felt a spark. Her eyes shot open and a smile grew on her face as she clung to that spark, and pushed her ability to its limit. Slowly pulling her hands from the now-glowing sand, particles of yellow dust trickled from her sparkly fingernails into the granulated ground. She continued moving her hands upward until a tiny bud formed on the surface of the sand. Dancing her hands through the air, she quickly formed the aloe vera plant to everyone's surprise. When it was done, she thrust her hands on her hips and smirked at Michelle with a, "Told ya!"

Michelle continued to stare at Heather in a way that made her uncomfortable. "So ... You are useful after all."

Heather felt her skin crawl and she quickly averted her gaze. With a shaky hand, she grabbed a stem of the plant and snapped it off. She looked at the twins and asked, "Anybody got a knife?"

Rufus quickly pulled out a pocket knife from his boot, tossed it in the air, giving a few twirls, and caught it before passing it to her. She accepted it, flipped open the blade, and cut the stem in her hand in half. She peeled the top half away from the bottom and a thick layer of clear goo kept the pieces strung together. It wasn't until she pulled them farther apart that they finally separated.

"That looks sick!" Brutus said, making a disgusted look.

"Doesn't matter what it looks like," Heather retorted, scraping the gel off the bottom piece with the knife. "What matters is how well it works."

Brianna grimaced as she clenched her thigh tighter and removed the completely red bandage. "I don't care what it looks like, smells like, or tastes like. Just put it on!"

Sliding her finger along the blade, the gel transitioned to her finger smoothly. She looked down at Brianna's wound, but the sudden urge to vomit rumbled through her stomach and she froze.

"Will you hurry it up?" Brianna shouted.

"Uh, yeah ..." Heather mumbled. "It's just that—"

Brianna growled with a roll of her eyes. "Just drop it on and I'll spread it."

Without a verbal response, Heather nodded and used her opposite hand to push the gel from her pointer finger into a plop on Brianna's thigh. Brianna winced as it hit, but pushed past the pain and gently spread it. Seeing how big the wound was, Heather knew Brianna would need a lot of this gel, and Nathan had already pulled out the roll of thinning bandages.

With one last plop of ointment from the aloe plant, she sighed, "There. That should be enough for now." She broke off the few remaining stems and handed them to Nathan who traded her for the roll of bandages. She then gave the roll to Brianna who panted and leaned back on her hands; her leg shaking from the pain.

Releasing a long sigh, Brianna nodded, clearly having no energy to say another word, and she reached for the bandages with a trembling hand.

3

TWISTING HER HEAD FROM side to side, Heather noticed that she wasn't the only one wearing down. Brianna and Nathan were also clearly struggling, and the twins looked like walking zombies: half asleep and half awake, with their red eyes bulging from their skulls. She looked straight ahead into the orange sky as the sun met the sand on the horizontal horizon. They had been walking all day without food or water.

"Maybe we should rest for the night?" Rufus suggested through his dry, raspy voice.

Michelle ignored him completely as she kept her steady trudge through the softened sand.

Rufus rolled his eyes, stopped with his hands on his knees, and panted for a good few seconds. Heather stopped beside him and glanced from the boy to Michelle.

"Michelle," Nathan tried. "Rufus is right. We can't keep going like this. We're all exhausted, and some of us are injured. Without water, we're going to have to take it slow."

Michelle stopped briefly and glared at the young man. "You mean Brianna is injured. You insisted that you were fine." She twirled around and picked up her speed again, calling back, "If Brianna can't keep up, let her get left behind."

Heather grunted and her shoulders sagged. She didn't know if she could continue walking in this wasteland without water to quench her thirst.

"No, Michelle," Nathan argued, tiredly. "We're not leaving her behind." He bent over, copying Rufus's position. "And you were right. I'm not doing so hot either, okay? My vision keeps spinning. I can't look at anything straight, and there are these ..." He waved his fingers in the air, "sparkles dancing in my eyes."

"It's probably from the lack of food and water," Michelle explained. "You'll be fine."

"Please, Michelle," Brianna begged with a whine. "My leg is killing me! Can we please rest?"

Michelle finally stopped walking. She spun around on her heels in the sand and raised her hand holding up her palm with all five fingers extended. "You have five hours," she told them sternly. "I suggest you use those hours wisely."

When Michelle finished her sentence, the twins fell over in the sand with their eyes closed. Heather noticed Nathan sit on his bottom, and Brianna sat down gently trying to keep her leg still as she lay down on her back in the sand.

"What about you?" Nathan asked, drawing Heather's attention, but he wasn't talking to her. Instead, his ocean-blue eyes remained fixated on the back of Michelle's brown hair.

"I'll keep watch," she stated plainly.

Without arguing a second time, Nathan laid flat on his side using his elbow as his pillow.

4

"GET UP!"

The loud, stern voice jolted Heather from her sleep. Her eyes met the warm sand through the dark, and she released her grip on the collar of her jacket which she had been holding tightly around her throughout the chilly night. She pushed herself up on her elbow and noticed the rest of the crew also beginning their slow rise.

"Five hours is up already?" Nathan asked with a chuckle, his arms shaking under his weight, but Michelle never responded.

"Oh, Nathan!" Heather found Brianna pulling herself into a sitting position. "Your head's bleeding again."

Instinctively, a hand flew to the bandage above Nathan's temple, but he grinned and waved it off. "It'll be fine. It's just a scratch." He clambered to his feet, but instantly staggered and nearly met the sand with his face.

"Okay, that is not a scratch," Rufus said, and his brother chimed in by nodding his head.

Nathan waved him off. "It's nothing! I'm serious. I can handle it."

"If you guys are done bickering, I'd like to keep moving," Michelle said, gazing around at the others with a hand on her hip.

Heather heard the tiniest hiss fill her ears, and she turned to find Brianna cringing and holding her thigh as she struggled to gain her feet. Instantly, the twins wrapped an arm around hers and helped her stand, even though Brianna was a good four inches taller than them.

"It's still dark and cold," Brutus complained, eyeing Michelle who arched a brow. "We couldn't have slept for just a few more hours?"

"You actually got some sleep?" Rufus asked astonished with his brother. "I was too freezing to even close my eyes."

Michelle grunted and turned on her heels. "If you want more sleep then stay behind, but you knew what you were getting yourself into when you agreed to the mission." She twisted around to stare at the boys but kept herself positioned forward. "So, you can either stay behind and freeze or get eaten, or come with me so I can protect you. But I won't sit around while the others are still out there." Michelle began her walk, and the twins were quick to stay at her side.

5

SEVERAL MORE HOURS OF walking passed by, and another hot day came swiftly bringing back the cool sunset breeze. The waves of sand that kicked into the air with every drop of her heavy boot had disappeared hours ago and were replaced with dry, scorched, cracked earth that stretched on for many more miles. 

Heather's feet ached, and she was sure the bottom of her feet had to have gotten blisters from the sand getting in her socks and rubbing against her skin and boots. All she wanted was to take another break, but she didn't foresee that happening anytime soon.

Her stomach grumbled loudly and along with it came a twinge of pain. She grabbed at her stomach with a wince and begged for the hunger to pass. They had yet to see any source of food, water, or even a backpack full of new supplies. Heather's mind lingered on starvation, but it quickly left her mind as Michelle looked to the right and threw up a hand.

Heather's heart lurched as her eyes swiftly darted around to see what Michelle had noticed. Her brow drew together, and her boots dragged along the rough surface as she circled Michelle and squinted in the distance.

"What are we looking at?" Heather asked harshly in frustration. She turned and glared at Michelle. "There's nothing there!"

An odd smile met Michelle's face as she asked, "Are you that blind?" She fully turned to the right and pointed forward. Heather swung back around to find it again but still could see nothing.

"No, Michelle, we can't see it," came Nathan's equally agitated tone.

Raising her head, Michelle slowly shook her head, and Heather remained staring at her with a puzzled look. "There's a glimmer in the sky," she whispered. "One that we would've missed if it had been any brighter."

"What does that mean?" Heather asked, thinking Michelle had finally lost all her marbles.

Michelle placed her palm directly in front of her and began to walk forward. Heather and the others stayed back and stared as Michelle was now a good few paces away. Michelle suddenly stopped when her hand suddenly disappeared, and Heather, along with the others, screamed at what had happened.

"Michelle!" Nathan jogged forward, wrapped his hands around Michelle's waist, and yanked her backward; both of them falling to the ground.

"Get off!" Michelle shouted, pushing him away. She sprang to her feet and rushed forward with an unexpected glee like a child in a candy shop. "This is it!"

"What's it?" Heather shouted back, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Why can't any of us see it?"

Michelle stopped and twisted her neck to eye Heather with a malicious smile. "Because you don't know what to look for." She took one more step forward and disappeared completely.

"Michelle!" Brianna shouted this time.

"No!" Nathan scrambled to get off the floor, nearly slipping along the dried, cracked dirt until he, too, vanished.

Heather threw her hands on her head as she gripped her hair, and Rufus and Brutus clasped onto each other, both obviously terrified.

"Are they dead?" Heather asked, her voice heightening. "Did they just evaporate?"

"We can't leave them!" Brianna told the others, and she broke away from the others in a fast limp.

"What?" Heather quickly reached out and gripped Brianna's tricep holding her back. "Are you crazy? They could be dead for all we know!" She glanced up and around looking for this so-called glimmer.

Brianna tried to pull away. "No, I know Claire. Out of all the ways to kill people in the Domes ..." She shook her head. "This can't be one of them!" She yanked away from Heather and hobbled towards the last spot where she'd seen the others, until eventually, Brianna disappeared.

The world was silent. The only thing Heather could hear was the pounding of her blood in her ears and her rapid breathing.

"If they're going then so are we."

Astonished, she looked down and saw the boys unhook their arms. "What? Seriously?" She threw an arm out to the side, pointing at where the others had last been seen. "You want to die just like they did? Are you stupid?"

"Michelle has always told us to trust her!" Rufus yelled. "What kinda friends would we be if we backed out on her now?"

"You'd be alive!" Heather shouted.

Glaring at her in a mixture of fear, sadness, and determination, the boys linked arms and ran forward.

"Wait!" She reached out trying to grab a limb, but it was too late. A second later, both the boys were gone. Releasing a scream, she fell to her knees in the sand, her hands gripping the roots of her hair on her head. She collapsed into a shell with her eyes closed and banged her fists on the ground with every word that escaped her lips. "No, no, no!" Her plan was falling to ruin. With no one else alive to protect her from the Dome and the others, her mission to kill Joey would never be completed.

The scraping of something rough against the earth filled her ears, and she opened her eyes to see a pair of black shoes at her fingertips. She raised her head to see Brutus towering over her with a smile. "Brutus!" she exclaimed, with a refound sense of hope.

"Come on!" Brutus tugged on her arm until she stood. "You won't die. It ... may feel a little weird, but it's perfectly safe."

She opened her mouth but was speechless as Brutus pulled her forward. Slowly, she approached where the others had vanished only moments ago, and her heart rate spiked as she edged closer. Closer until all of Brutus except his hand disappeared and pulled her through the glimmer. Her body felt like it had hit a rubbery wall, and as she struggled to take another step, the wall wrapped itself around her.

Heather panted and staggered as she was spit out, and her jaw dropped in shock at the sight of the lush forest that surrounded her. "W-where are—" Her attention was drawn towards her right at the sound of water, and there she found a small brook with water running gently over the rocks that layered the bottom. Without another second of hesitation, Heather hurriedly approached the brook stumbling over her own feet. Her knees smacked the grass and she cupped the water in her hands before swiftly sipping it down and splashing it onto her face.

Her enjoyment was cut short as a stranger's voice pierced her ears, and she looked to her left to find Michelle holding a boy—probably a little older than Heather—in her fists by his collar.

"Do you know where they are or not?" Michelle shouted, shaking the boy in her grasp.

The blonde man placed a hand on Michelle's trying to get her to release him. "I already told you I don't!"

"Liar!" Michelle shouted. She planted a fist in his face, and Heather cringed.

Brutus leaned in close and whispered, "That's Caleb." She glanced up at him from her current position before going back to Michelle. "He trained with us back in Agcorp."

Heather eyed Brutus as she stood. "But ... what does Michelle want with him?"

"You will take us to the others!" Michelle's fists began to glow a soft purple, and Heather's brow furrowed. She grabbed his cheeks and squeezed them together making his lips pucker. "Or I will find your sisters and I won't hesitate to end them."

Caleb still didn't make a move to answer, and Michelle growled deeply, flinging his head to the side. In a blink, she had reared back her fist and whammed it again against his cheekbone. She dropped his shirt, and he fell on his hands and knees, squeezing his bleeding nose with his fingers.

Michelle clenched her fists tightly. "Well, then ... I'm afraid I have no use for you." A mist of bright lavender purple encircled her fists, and a transparent bow appeared in her hand, beaming with the purple glow. She twisted around, pulled back on the imaginary string, and a see-through arrow instantly formed on the bow.

Caleb threw his hands into the air and shrunk lower to the ground, "Please! Don't kill me!"

Michelle narrowed her eyes and kicked him swiftly in the abdomen which caused him to fall to his side in a hard slam, grabbed at his chest. Michelle pulled the string back further and pointed the arrow between his eyes.

"Wait!" Caleb pleaded. "I'll do it! I'll take you to the others."

A minute passed before Michelle spoke again. "First, I want you to show us to the palace." She nodded to the side gesturing. "I have some members of my crew who could use their waters."

Heather arched a brow at Michelle's demand, but Caleb's reply was a shake of his head. "It won't do them any good." By Michelle's furrowed brow, Heather could tell she was just as confused. "Look." Caleb extended a shaky hand revealing a rather large gash in the center of his palm. "Now, I know it's barely something to fuss over, but the cut's in an inconvenient spot. I went to the waters to have it healed, but there was no magic."

Michelle heaved a deep sigh before saying, "Shame. Claire must've seen us coming. Guess you'll just have to do the trick then."

"What?" Caleb asked, shocked.

"Oh, don't play dumb!" Her bow and arrow disappeared as she knelt on one knee directly in front of his face. "I've seen your ability," she said with a grin. "I know what you can do. Using a bit of that power to take away my friend's pain is nothing for an ability like yours."

Caleb snorted. "Maybe for a few minutes, but I couldn't keep it up for very long."

"You do as I ask," Michelle began softly, "and you let me worry about the timeframe."

Caleb huffed before rolling himself into a seated position. His eyes turned a deep red as he raised his hands and, with his palms open and facing his ears, placed his two pointer and middle fingers on his temples.

Heather stared in disbelief as Brianna sighed with relief and stood up straight. "That feels so much better!" she exclaimed, bending her knee back and forth, and jumping up and down to test its strength.

Standing up, Michelle never took her eyes off the young man at her feet. "Now, take me to the others so I can finish what I came here for."

"It's too late, Michelle," Caleb said, wiping some blood away from his nose with the nylon sleeve of his black jacket. "Taylor and I have already beat you to it."

Nathan reached down and grabbed Caleb by the wrists. He yanked the boy to his feet and twisted his arms behind his back, which caused Caleb to cry out. Nathan looked around until his eyes rested on Heather. "Can I get a little help here?"

"Oh, right!" Heather made her way to her feet, and with one simple swoosh of her glowing hand, vines dropped from the overhanging branches and slithered around Caleb's wrists.

The sound of a twig breaking reached Heather's ear, and she knew she wasn't the only one as Michelle flung her body to the left. Instantly, her bow appeared in hand, but this time she did not hesitate to let the arrows fly. A loud cry of pain echoed through the forest, and a smirk pulled at Michelle's lips.