Elephant Rider

Sky

Sky died, today.

The moisture evaporated from her tongue. Heat like this reminded Sky of her childhood in Costa Rica. Days were spent parrot spotting, playing with friends and running through waterfalls; that was all gone now. And the people, probably.

She remembered the time herself and Nellie had gone up to her dorm one night at college and found flames licking a pair of expensive hair straighteners. Now, Earth had the same fate: humans would depart the world forgetting to switch everything off, leaving the place a ticking time bomb. She didn't have time to wait for The Ember to stop her heart.

The wind whistled, sending garbage into the air. A plastic bottle rolled. Sky booted it away.

"Hey!"

She froze. The voice came again— an angry male. She fell into a jog towards the sound. Metal crashed and scraped on the ground. "Unlucky." The man clicked his tongue.

Sky gasped inwardly. She scuttled under the belly of a parked airplane and curled into a ball, watching as two pairs of feet padded about. Their faces came into view when she lowered her eyes: two unmasked males. One younger than Sky, blonde and fragile, the other one a few years older with a black, growing beard. Her eyes popped. He had a gun too.

Sky's heart sank when he powered away; the gun hidden under a squeaking brown leather jacket. The other stood glum, empty-handed. How selfish; he could've at least killed the other one.

"Hey." Sky crawled out from under the aircraft, startling the boy. "You know, it's likely we've both already got The Ember in our systems already. The symptoms just take-"

"A few days to show, yes I know." Irritation quivered his lip. "That's too long.'" Sky stepped back. The attitude on him. "If everyone's offing themselves, they'll be guns freeing up everywhere."

"Yeah." The boy gestured his eyes to the underneath of the next parked plane. "I know."

Sky peered under the plane and trembled back, stunned. Flies buzzed over the carcass of a dead human; their chest covered in drying blood. Death held their eyes wide open; she almost made out the colour of them. "Christ." Her mouth fell open. Their hand was outstretched, the palm peeled open. It seemed everyone had the same idea. "C'mon. We're not gonna get anywhere stood here like a pair of tits. I'll kill you first. Promise?"

The ground rattled underfoot. An engine roared, stirring a flock of birds. They flapped away, screaming. That's when Sky saw it: the manmade beak of Flight Future, darting into the air at a forty-five-degree angle. Her heart tensed as the flock of birds plummeted to their deaths. Only four escaped. The aircraft vanished in seconds, but its deep mechanized groan remained for a time.

Tears fell from the boy's eyes. Sky spun round on her heel and retraced her steps.

"Wait." He lifted his shirt to wipe away the tears, exposing a white stomach.

Sky quickened her pace. "We're best off in the city."

The sun arched in the sky and a mask blew silent in the wind. Sky charged past the terminal, stifling her tears. Yes, the death of Nellie's parents was tragic, but it didn't mean she was alone. They could've quarantined together, spent their final days watching Netflix, gossiping and indulging. Instead, Nellie jetted off to her suicide, leaving her best friend alone. For that, Sky hoped Flight Future would succeed. Landing a hundred years into the future after the virus wiped out civilisation had to be lonely. That would make her realise...

The boy caught her up. "Your family dead?"

Sky stopped. "I dunno..."

"My mom is." He turned to the sky.

Sky grabbed his shoulders. "She might not be."

But the boy's attention was elsewhere. He gazed over her, frowned, then pushed past.

He dropped to his knees beside another dead body and sniffed for a weapon like a police dog. The boy grinned at her, wide-eyed. Tight around his fingers shone a shard of glass painted in fresh blood.

Sky swallowed the lump of bile in her throat. The smell of death certainly was unique.  "You think we should...clean it?"

Sky scoffed. "What does that matter? We'll be dead in a few. Go on, you first."

Grimacing, the boy unbuttoned his cuffs and rested the point against his wrist. His breath shallowed.      

She didn't have all day. "Give it here."

The boy swung away. He held the shard like a pencil and pierced his skin. Blood splat to the floor and mixed with the dead woman's. It surged out, gallons of it, over his clothes, skin and hair; some squirted Sky's way. He cried out, startled a nearby bird, and began to wobble. His eyes grew foggy and his head lolled forwards. The glass hit the concrete with a clang and he collapsed.

Sky shifted the blonde curls from his staring eyes. She dug an ear into his neck, fumbled over his chest for a pulse. Nothing. She ran a palm down his eyes, shutting the lids, then retrieved the glass and wiped it clean with his shirt.

One, two, three. Exhaling, she jabbed the glass into her own wrist, anticipating the worse. Blood gushed and air entered the wound ...what she didn't feel was the pain.

"Huh?" She dug the shard into the other wrist with brute force, her grip clammy. Not even a tingle. It didn't make sense. She inspected the other wrist.

"WHAT?!" She stumbled back with a heaving chest. Her body zipped up the wound; the gouge was now merely a scratch. Wounds that deep needed urgent medical attention. Somehow, they'd healed themselves.

Her insides boiled with jealousy at the sight of the two dead bodies before her.

"It's no use," yelled a voice. Sky whirled round: it was him, the one who'd ran off with the gun, except now he stood empty-handed. A bruise purpled his temple and scratches lined his neck. The leather jacket creaked as he approached her.

"No." Sky shook her head, wiping her tears.

"Yes." His voice broke in half. "Tried that. And a gunshot, here and here." He gestured to his chest and temple. "Just now, I stood in front of a train. It knocked me down and I bled a couple places but nothing more." He smelled of mint.

"We must be doing it wrong."

"There's a right way to stand in front of a train?"

Sky searched the dead woman's eyes for an answer but she had a smug look about her, safe in death's arms.

The wind howled across the empty airfield. She rolled her tongue, pondering her next moves. Weirdly, the surface was wet. Like the healing wounds, it seemed her body had rehydrated itself. She hadn't even drunk anything today.

"So..." Sky folded her arms and looked out into the city. "Now what?"