Damage & Decay

Chapter 49

Part Four: Family Business

"Fear is only as deep as the mind allows."

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By late afternoon the sun was completely covered by a sheet of thick gray clouds. The temperature fell but the humidity thickened the air to a hot soup. Eren drowsed against the trunk of one of the pines, and in his dreams he heard a sound that was like the roar of Mikasa's waterfall. The sound started small and far away, and Eren's dreaming mind made it be  the noise of the waterfall, which was a perfect backdrop for his dream of running through the woods, being chased by Charlie and the Hammer, both of who were now zoms but who also somehow managed to keep their personalities. They yelled to him in mocking voices, calling him "Little Eren" and promising to do terrible things to him. In his dream Eren ran as fast as the wind, and somehow the surrounding landscape barely moved, as if he was almost running in place. The zombie bounty hunters shuffled along behind him, almost close enough to grab him.

The roaring sound grew steadily louder, and Eren thought that maybe he was making some distance, that he was nearing the waterfall, but when he looked around, all he saw was the plateau on which the bounty hunters had their camp. Something brushed him, and he turned to see that Nix was running next to him. She was screaming, but Eren could not hear her voice. The roar of the waterfall kept getting louder and louder. And it was deeper in tone now, more of a loud drone than the splash of the water.

"Eren!" Nix called his name, but it didn't match the shape her mouth made.

The roar was huge.

"EREN!"

With a start, Eren realized that Nix's voice was not coming from the girl running beside him, and just as quickly he realized he understood that he was dreaming and that the real-world Nix was yelling at him. He snapped his eyes open. The camp and the zombies vanished. The roar, however, was still there.

Deep and loud, and getting louder.

"Eren!" Nix yelled.

"What . . . what is it?"

"You have to come and look!"

Nix grabbed his hands and fairly hauled him to his feet and then pulled him out from under the shelter of the trees. Not toward the promontory that looked down on the camp. Instead, she pulled him toward the trail that led back into the woods. She was running, and her grip was so tight and insistent that Eren ran too.

"What is it? What's that sound?"

"You have to come see!"

They raced along the path to a clearing, and there, Nix stopped and pointed. She need not have bothered, because Eren saw it. His eyes bugged wide, and his mouth fell open as he stared up at the roaring thing.

It was silver and white, with vast wings that lifted it high above the mountains. Eren raised his hand, as if he could touch it. The thing appeared to move slowly, but that was an illusion. It was just so far away. Higher than the tallest of the surrounding mountains, skimming just below the ceiling of gray storm clouds. In another hour there wouldn't have been enough light to see it. If the storm had started, it would have been both invisible and unheard.

But they stood there, holding hands, staring up as it roared above them, soaring with alien majesty from one horizon to the other. Coming from the west, heading east; far, far above the Ruins.

"I don't understand," he said.

Nix just shook her head.

"Where did it come from?"

"From the east."

"No, it's heading east," he said, but Nix shook her head.

"It came from the east and turned around. I saw it and ran to get you."

They watched it go, diminishing in size from a giant to a gnat and then to nothing, taking its roar with it. When it was gone, there was at least five minutes of silence before the birds began to sing again. They stood in the clearing for ten minutes more, hoping it would come back. Willing  it to come back.

Eren said, "Nix . . . did we just see that? I mean, tell me we actually saw that."

Nix's green eyes were filled with magic, and her smile was bright enough to hold back the storm. "It's real, Eren. We saw it."

"But how?  It doesn't make sense."

She just shook her head, and they stared off to the east. The thing they had just seen belonged to another age, to the days before First Night. They knew about them from the history books, but neither had ever seen one. Never expected to. They just kept looking into the distance.

But the slow, lumbering jumbo jet did not return.