Ruins of Ember (Wall of Fire Book 3) Read online

  RUINS OF EMBER

  MELANIE TAYS

  Copyright © 2020 by Melanie Tays

  MelanieTays.com

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without express written permission, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Published by Goldlight Enterprises LLC

  Published in Queen Creek, Arizona, USA

  ISBN: 978-1-952141-05-8 (paperback)

  ISBN: 978-1-952141-04-1 (ebook)

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  SANCTUARY

  A Wall of Fire Companion Novella

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  Tech-savvy and independent, Mara has never felt like she belongs in the perfect utopia of Sanctuary. When the opportunity arises to leave and explore the treacherous, unknown world beyond, she volunteers. But in training she discovers that success could be the ultimate failure.

  Chapter 1

  Waves of heat radiate from the blazing inferno behind us—the wall of fire that has just been lit to keep the five of us from ever coming near The City again. The air is so hot it’s painful just to breathe. The sky is dark, the fire our only source of light. Together we flee, running as fast as our legs can carry us, fueled by adrenaline and a desperate desire to survive.

  But even as we escape the danger at our backs, the roaring sound of an airplane’s engine announces that we’re not alone out here. I don’t know who’s on that plane or why they’ve been bombing The City—or attempting to, at least—for the past few days. I have no way of knowing if they’re here to help us or inflict new tortures, and I’m not ready to find out.

  I’m the fastest runner among us—even with my injured leg, festering with infection—and I lead us toward a small cave carved into an enormous rock. It’s only another fifty yards away. If we hurry, we can probably make it before we’re spotted by the airplane, and we should be safe from the fire there, too.

  There’s an ear-piercing scream, and I turn back to see Kamella’s head encompassed in angry, biting flames.

  Vander is at her side, and he throws her to the ground, using the dirt to smother her hair and sustaining burns of his own in the process.

  “Get in the cave,” I yell to Ty as I sprint back for the others. I want us all out of sight as soon as possible. Once there, we can rest and figure out what our next move should be.

  Shawny hobbles along, barely outpacing the fire that bounds from tree to tree as though stalking us.

  “Keep moving!” I command. “You’re almost past the trees.”

  Kamella tries to stand, but before she can, Vander picks her up, slings her over his shoulder, and takes off running.

  “This way,” I yell to be heard over the crackling of the fire. I lead them back toward the cave where Ty stands waving to us.

  Shawny reaches us moments later and collapses to the cold stone ground, clutching her hugely pregnant belly.

  When we’re all inside, I heave a sigh of relief and stand at the entrance looking out, assessing our situation. I’m counting on the open, barren dirt surrounding the cave’s entrance to protect us from the fire, but it turns out to be unnecessary. In astonishment, I watch as the fire, unnaturally ignited by a thick fog, holds its position twenty feet away, not spreading to the other trees easily within its reach. However this is possible, it explains the stark contrast between the lush forest and the ashen plain surrounding The City’s border—or what was The City’s outer border until moments ago, when the barrier field shifted to swallow the Ash and expel the five of us.

  Even though the night sky is black, I shield my eyes against the brightness of the menacing flames. The airplane has passed over, seemingly unaware of our presence. It hovers over The City, dropping what appears in the distance to be small, black balls. A few pass straight through the barrier field; most of them are repelled and bounce and roll off to be consumed in the fire.

  I place a hand on my chest to calm my racing heart, and I inhale deeply. For the moment, we’re safe. We can stay here tonight, giving sleep a chance to help us make sense of all that just happened. In the morning, we can decide what to do next.

  I hear the plane circle around and come back toward us, but there’s no way they’ll spot us tucked away in the crevice of this rock under the cover of darkness.

  Suddenly, an agonizing scream slices through the night air, rising above the roar of the airplane and the crackling flames. I turn to find Shawny writhing on the ground, breathing hard and clutching her stomach. I drop to her side and reach for her hand. Her skin is cold and damp. I don’t know much about these things, but something must be terribly wrong.

  “Can you sit up?” I ask, for some reason believing if she can at least just pull herself upright then she’ll recover.

  She makes a weak effort, and then cries out and collapses back.

  “No, don’t move,” Kamella says, dropping to her knees and gently touching Shawny’s stomach. I don’t know what she’s doing, but whatever it is, her actions appear purposeful. “She needs help,” Kamella proclaims, “or she’s going to lose the baby.”

  Another scream reverberates off of the cave walls, half-physical and half-mental anguish.

  I look around for anything that can help us, but there’s nothing here. And though Kamella seems to know a thing or two about how to care for injured people, I highly doubt she knows how to deliver a baby under these circumstances. Besides, Kamella looks like she should be the one writhing in pain right now, with her hair scorched and her face and neck splotched with red and purple blisters.

  Ty takes a seat by the wall, looking bewildered but not truly concerned. He won’t be any help. He wouldn’t even be here if I hadn’t held onto him as the barrier shifted and expelled the rest of us who had received the Mind Mist antidote. I’m not sure I did him a favor by bringing him along, since he’s still under the influence of the Mind Mist.

  “What do we do?” Vander asks, frantic. After spending days with Vander in the Ash, I know he’s tough, but he’s also the one who passed out when it was time to cauterize the wound on my leg. I don’t think he’s up for a challenge like this. He’s also holding his hands out gingerly, and I can tell he’s trying to not to exacerbate his painfully burned palms.

  No amount of sleep and perspective is going to fix this by morning. In fact, by morning one or more of us may be dead. There’s only one possible hope I can see, and I don’t give myself time to debate it for fear I’ll lose my nerve.

  “Ty, come with me,” I yell, and I take off running out of the cave.

  Ty follows without question or argument.

  The airplane is still overhead, but moving fast. I wave my arms frantically in the air and instruct Ty to do the same. He really gets into this, as though this is all a fun game. But the plane keeps moving, passing over and flying away.

  “No,” I scream, and take off running after it.

  In order to follow the airplane, we’re forced to travel up a steep incline. Every step sends a jolt of pain through my injured leg, but I refuse to let that slow me.

  We holler and jump and wave our arms around like crazed animals until the airplane has flown so far ahead of us that there’s no hope they’ll see or hear us, and we finally stop.

  I collapse to the ground, my leg cramping and seething with pain, my throat dry and sore from screaming.

  Ty takes a seat next to me. “I guess they didn’t hear us.”

  I don’t respond. My head rests on the cool dirt, and I’m too stunned and tired and terrified to cry, so I just lay there. Soon, I’ll have enough strength to walk again. Soon, I’ll follow t
he orange glow back down this hill to the cave where Vander, Kamella, and Shawny are waiting for me to bring help—help that isn’t coming. But right now, I just lay there trying to remember how to breathe.

  “Oh, I guess they heard us,” says Ty.

  I sit up and turn my gaze to the sky, but the tiny lights of the plane are far in the distance now, the sound receding. “What do you mean?” I ask. “The airplane is still flying away.”

  “Not the airplane,” Ty says, pointing behind me. “Him.”

  Startled, I turn and find myself face-to-face with the most hideous creature imaginable. Half-human, half-beast, it stares at me with deeply sunken eyes too aware to be animal, but its form is too mangled to be a human. It wears a soiled robe that doesn’t hide the way its flesh droops from its bones, as though it’s wearing the skin of something two or three times its size. Long, stringy, white hair hangs in thin, uneven patches from the top of its head. I can’t even venture a guess at its gender or age.

  This is a Roamer—a horrid, deteriorating, deadly survivor of the Withers plague. I’m sure of it. What else could it be? This is the very definition of terror that made the threat of being sent to the Ash a fate worse than death.

  For a moment we just stare at each other, neither daring to move. Its expression is impossible to read. Slowly, I slide my legs up under me and get to my feet, careful not to startle it.

  Suddenly the silence is broken, and I jump with a start.

  “I’m Ty, what’s your name?”

  The Roamer’s head snaps from me to Ty and it opens its mouth, its lips enormous and flopping wildly, revealing a toothless jaw. At least it can’t bite us. It looks like maybe it’s trying to speak, but all that comes out are incomprehensible growls and groans.

  “Ty, get behind me,” I whisper, feeling the need to protect him. It’s my fault he’s out here.

  “Okay,” Ty says with a shrug, and moves into my shadow.

  The Roamer grunts again, a low, gurgling sound, and points off in the opposite direction from where we came.

  “We’re going to leave now,” I say in a slow, measured tone.

  When the Roamer doesn’t react, I reach behind me, grip Ty’s hand, and take a few slow steps sideways, moving away without turning my back on the creature.

  This seems to agitate it, and it lunges for me. Grunting and growling, it latches onto my arm. I try to fight it off, but it’s stronger than it looks, and it knocks me to the ground. My head smacks hard against a jagged rock, and my vision goes black for a moment. My ears start to ring, and the sound grows louder with every passing moment.

  “Ty, help!” I yell.

  “Here,” he says, holding out a handful of flowers to the Roamer. He’s clearly not going to be any help. It will be up to me to get us out of this.

  The withered creature ignores him and grapples to keep me down and get a grasp on me. I twist and catch sight of a second, equally gruesome Roamer crouching just behind a nearby boulder.

  “Run!” I yell to Ty. I may not be able to fight them off, but at least I can save one of us. “Just run!”

  And he takes off back down the hill.

  My head pounds, and warm blood runs down the side of my face. The Roamer has me by my injured leg and is dragging me off the way it was pointing before. I scream and kick it with my free leg, but my foot connects with nothing but flabs of skin and has no effect on the Roamer.

  The second Roamer ambles forward and takes hold of my other leg, effectively cutting off any possible chance I had of breaking free.

  I fight the impulse to cry out, to yell and beg for Vander to come save me. It would only put him and all the others in more danger, so I bite my tongue and do my best to fight against these demons alone.

  They drag me farther away, turning behind a large rock and moving toward the black, ominous mouth of the hidden cave. I try not to imagine what they’ll do to me once we’re inside.

  Even though I’m held fast, I twist and writhe to get free, but the pain in my injured leg is so intense that my brain threatens to pass out. I fight for consciousness and control. I remind myself that I’ve lived through worse than this.

  My head rolls back and I see a trail of my own blood streaked across the dirt and rock. I hope Vander and the others don’t see it and try to find me. As soon as Shawny has recovered, I hope they get as far away from here as possible.

  I have no strength left to fight, and it hurts too much to try. I go limp and surrender to my fate. I lose sight of the glow that surrounds The City and am about to be forever lost to the abyss of the Roamers’ cave when, suddenly, I see people descending from the sky, drifting down like feathers and landing all around me. I can’t make sense of floating people, and I wonder if I’m already unconscious and dreaming.

  Or maybe I’m already dead.

  Chapter 2

  Three people wearing thick black masks close in on the Roamers holding me. They point blasters, and my captors scurry away. Shrill screams slice through the night air, exacerbating the ringing and throbbing in my head. I search for the source of it, wishing it would stop.

  “You’re going to be all right,” one of the men who just descended from the sky tells me, his voice muffled through the thick layers of his mask.

  It’s then that I realize the shrieks emanate from my own mouth. I clamp my jaw shut, and the sound and consequent pain are cut off.

  The man stays with me, protecting me from the Roamers while the other two men run into the cave. Slowly, the Roamers slink away into the shadows and disappear.

  The airplane we saw earlier now hovers overheard, and I realize that the growing noise wasn’t just in my head. I wonder why the plane returned. Did someone on board see us after all?

  “Who are you?” I stammer.

  “I’m General Rockshire. We’re with the SDRT.”

  “The what?”

  But before he can answer, the others return from the cave, and they’re carrying a small child—a boy, no older than five or six, with messy blond hair and dirt streaking his face and clothes. He appears perfectly normal except for the way his features contort in terror, and I wonder how he got there. He’s too young to have been sent to the Ash from The City. Besides, until today the Ash was still inside the barrier field. No, he can’t be from The City. So where did he come from?

  “Are there more of you?” the man asks.

  I hesitate. Even though I was chasing these people down not long ago, it still feels unnatural and risky to trust them. I have no idea who they are or what they intend to do with us. “It’s okay,” the man holding the child assures me. “We’re here to help.”

  My mind reels, trying to process everything. “A doctor,” I finally stammer.

  “Yes, we’ll get you to a doctor,” General Rockshire promises.

  “No, not me. Shawny. Her baby… She’s pregnant,” I say. “She needs a doctor.”

  “Where are the others?”

  “In the cave at the base of the hill,” I say, desperate to believe these people truly are here to help us. They did just save me and this little boy from Roamers. And what other choice do we have? None that I can see as I lie here on the ground, bruised and bleeding and just so tired.

  “All right, we’re going to get you two on board the hoverplane,” the general says. “Then we’ll find your friends.”

  Before I can protest—insist they find the others and help them first—the men have slipped golden bands around my wrists and ankles.

  “Here we go,” one of them says.

  Startled, I begin to rise into the air, lifted by the bands on all four limbs, pulled gently toward the aircraft above. The bands do their job well, lifting me steadily upward, but watching the ground fall away below is still a terrifying sensation.

  As I’m drawn closer to the massive flying vehicle, I can see blades spinning on its underbelly covered by circular grating. It’s so much bigger and more complex than the Wright brothers’ plane from the history books. That machine only held a
few passengers, while this is more like a hovering building that could carry hundreds. A door on the side of the plane slides open as I near, and the golden bands deposit me on the floor inside. The space is small and well lit, with yellow, metal walls. There’s another closed door across the room with a large glass window through which a woman with short, black hair wearing a white coat stands watching me.

  Moments later one of the rescuers floats into the room, holding the frightened boy. He sets him down and leaps back out into the open sky.

  I gasp and crawl to the open door to peer out after him. But he descends gently all the way back to the ground. It wasn’t just in my imagination. These people really can fly—and not just in an airplane or hoverplane. Even if it’s only because of these bracelets, it’s no less miraculous. How I wish Whyle could see this. It’s even better than the stories Dad tells.

  “Back away from the door,” a woman’s voice instructs. I scoot back and turn to the woman on the other side of the glass. “Good, now prepare for decontamination,” she says, her voice unnaturally carried and amplified through the room.

  The door slides shut, and a red gas begins to fill the room. Instinctively, I cover my mouth and nose to avoid breathing it in.

  “Don’t fight it,” she says. “It won’t hurt you. It will decontaminate your body, inside and out. It’s important to breathe normally and let it do its job.”

  For the first time in all the confusion and terror of the night, I realize I’ve just been exposed to the Withers. That I could get sick and turn into one of those hideous creatures—if I don’t die an agonizing death first. This red gas must be meant to protect me from that fate. With that in mind, I inhale deeply, willing it to permeate every cell in my body.

  The child, who had been standing rigid just where he was left, begins to cry and runs to the door, clawing for a way out. The woman watching from the other side of the door is unmoved by his pleas.