The Bleed: Book 2: RAPTURE by David Moody (best selling autobiographies .txt) 📕

lightning, and possibly sulphuric acid rain? What’s not good about it? Got any ideas on how we’re going to survive this?” She’d been using sarcasm as a defensive measure since she was a child, but she was hoping that Kalandar actually did have something up his considerable sleeve. When she looked over at him and his eyebrows were furrowed in a worried expression, she realized just how fucked they were. She now had to lean into the driving wind to keep from being pushed back; soon she would have to sit and possibly lie prostrate to keep from being blown away like so much chaff. “Any chance you can make one of those little bubbles?”

“Yes, but you wouldn’t like how I achieved the energy to do so.” He was looking at her intently.

“I’ll take my chances with the storm, thank you very much.”

“It would be quick and painless. Ever eaten a crawfish?”

“You’d pop my head off and suck?”

“There’d be some intense squeezing as well, but by then, you would be beyond caring.”

“Again, no thank you.”

“That’s being a little selfish on your end, don’t you think?”

“Is that a joke?”

“Was it not grand? The human I was around for a while taught me that the best way to deal with intense fear is through humor.”

“Sort of wish I’d met him.”

Another strike less than a mile away. Maddie fell on her backside as dirt pellets pelted the area. “It’s not lightning; it can’t be. It’s too uniform!” Maddie had to scream over the howling wind.

“It does not matter what it is, it is sure to kill you and maybe even me.”

The black wall was less than a half-mile away, and it was impenetrable to light. The ground was steaming where the liquid made contact. Maddie didn’t smell the tell-tale stink of rotten eggs, hinting that it may, indeed, be sulphuric acid, but that didn’t mean whatever it was wasn’t toxic.

“I thought of a hundred different situations where I could have died during my time on the moon, none of them were even remotely close to this.” Maddie had resigned herself to the fate fast approaching. She was to the point she was about to tell Kalandar that he should live, but to please turn her decapitated head to the side, so her final sight did not need to be her upturned body held high as he drained her dry, but “Do it,” was all she said as she turned her back to the storm.

Kalandar had not yet looked at her. “As you wish.” He reached down and wrapped his hand nearly around the entirety of her torso.

Maddie closed her eyes and gritted her teeth in preparation to, hopefully, go to a place she did not believe in. Kalandar lifted her up and gently turned her around before plopping her back on the ground. Maddie kept her eyes closed, figuring that he would not give her a countdown but would instead surprise her. He tapped the top of her head three times before she swatted his finger away.

“What!?” she yelled. “Why haven’t you done it yet!?”

“I’ve not met one so ready to die, that did not already plan to bring the end upon themselves. No matter…it has stopped.”

At fifty yards, it had indeed stopped. The wall was still present, but the blue streaks had halted, as had the wind and the rain.

“Just like that?”

“It would appear so.”

“Now what?”

“Whatever is controlling it, is most likely deciding our outcome at this very moment.”

An extremely high-pitched whistle came from seemingly everywhere. Kalandar and Maddie looked around for the source but could not see anything. The tone would occasionally drop in pitch and intensity, and seemingly random patterns were inserted.

“What is going on?”

“It would appear that whoever owns that weaponry is attempting to communicate,” Kalandar replied.

“How are we going to respond? That’s nothing even remotely similar to a human language.”

“Nor demon,” he added. “We must do our best to look like non-combatives.” He dropped to his knees and raised his hands over his head.

Maddie followed suit. “You realize that we have no idea what they might think of this gesture, right? We could have just told them to go fuck themselves,” she said.

“Hmm…let us hope that is not the case.”

Another series of whistling, this punctuated by clicks and pops, right before the wall began its march toward them.

“If you pray, Maddie, now may be the time to do so.” Kalandar bent forward and placed his outstretched arms on the ground before speaking softly. Maddie stood, deciding she wanted to die on her feet. She thought about praying, but it seemed so hypocritical, then she decided, what could it hurt? With death marching head-on, it never hurt to put feelers out there for a savior.

Maddie dropped to her knees, placed her hands in the classic steeple before bowing her head. “Lord…this feels strange…like I am talking to my damn self. Yeah, Maddie, that’s how you get an all-powerful deity on your side; deny his or her existence. No, you must be a him, because you never listen! How many times, growing up, did I cry out to you for your help? I watched so many family members and friends die from war, from disease, but not once did you intercede!”

“Praying is generally done in solitude or performed quietly,” Kalandar told her.

“I’m mad, wait, no. I’m livid! We’re about to die on this shit turd of a planet and my last act will not be to beg to be saved by someone or something that could not care less for either of us.”

“Please do not make your diatribe inclusive. My deity is more likely to make a show. Of course, salvation comes with concessions on my part, but more times than not, it is not completely unreasonable.” Kalandar stood. “Are you done?”

“Maybe, why!?” she yelled.

“We are not dead.” The wall had, at some point, split, then reformed when it was past them. They were in a deliberately created eye within the storm. Ten minutes later, the wall had gone completely