The People of No Name Pt.1

Preface

Crouched behind the shattered and flickering body of a giant neon wiener dog, Toni gaped in horror at the giant black spire that rose above the dunes and debris of Central Avenue like some dreadful, inky black being. The cylindrical body was perfectly pointed at the top and three metal-like rings encircled its middle. The rings were suspended in mid-air, held in place by a force that could only be felt, not seen. Waves of it emanated from the oily-black hull, causing every hair on Toni’s body to rise. A thousand pieces of sand slammed against the helmet of the woman’s Surface suit, assaulting her ears like shards of glass whirling in a blender. The sky boiled over with thunderheads threatening to add to the chaotic storm trapping their party against adobe rubble, buckled concrete, taco truck carcasses and sand. Always so much sand. The spire was unaffected by the extreme winds, adding to its otherworldly presence. Through slashing sheets of quartz, silt and the red tint of her Surface goggles, Toni noticed lights flashing in two parallel lines down the center of the tower-like structure. Beginning at the top and leading to the bottom, they drew the eye to what she predicted was a way in and out of the structure.

In and out of the craft. The spacecraft.

As the runway of lights redrew her focus to the base of the ship, a sudden sliver of bright light fractured its solid black surface. She focused on it- transfixed - as it slowly and steadily grew from a horizontal white line to a rectangle twice as tall is it was wide. Although her entire vision was tinted in red, the doorway shown perfectly and brilliantly white; as if the filter of her Surface goggles could not douse its purity. The longer she looked, the more the white seemed to shimmer and dance into other…colors? The shades of light that shone before her where nothing like she could ever remember seeing; a brand-new color. How was she seeing a color that had never existed before?

Her reverie was broken when two silhouettes appeared in the doorway. All of the light lost its brilliance as dread flooded her body. She was heavy with it. Not even the angry desert wind could knock her over.

They were no longer alone. Something very not them had arrived.

Chapter 1

Queen was barking somewhere on the other side of the stone walls. With a cheap flashlight in one hand and a packet of instructions in the other, Toni crossed her eyes and growled in frustration, “Rraahhh!”

“Queen, hush! Banks! Are you alright,” a concerned voice asked from the other side of the wall, muffled by the stone barrier.

“Yeah! I just can’t make sense of this garbage. And it’s hot as balls in here!” She barked back.

Armande, the young man she yelled at through the walls, was helping her reset the breaker system for the living quarters of the caves they called home. Set underground, the caves were quite cooler than the currently scorching desert above, but the breaker room was just under the surface and very poorly ventilated, making it just as hot as a sweaty ball sack in the middle of summer. Not that she had a ball sack, but the idea of one seemed just as repulsive as she felt in her soaked, canvas jumpsuit at the moment.

“What does it say to do?” Armande asked. His voice was closer to the wall; softer and soothing. Queen had stopped barking. She moved the flashlight to her mouth, gripping the handle between her teeth as she used two hands to bring the instructions close to her face. Beads of sweat dripped off the tip of her nose and onto the paper as she read, “Ofen da door of breaker box fife.” She removed the flashlight from her teeth. “OK, I’ve done that. If any switches are tripped, turn them to the off position. That’s done. OK, this is the dumb part,” she seethed in annoyance.

“Let me hear it,” Armande encouraged.

“Switches need to remain off for a minimum of thirty seconds before attempting to reboot. After thirty seconds, flip the switch back on,” Toni read for the millionth time. “I’ve freaking done that you stupid piece of-”

“Why don’t I count for you,” Armande suggested.

“Fine! You can try. But I know how to count to thirty,” she defended.

“I know. But we might as well try one more time,” he consoled.

She sighed, licking the sweat from her upper lip. “Fine. Let’s go. Are you ready?”

“Yes.” A tone of assurance and positivity.

“OK. I’m flipping it off in three, two, one.” Her thumb slicked across the hot metal switch as she pushed it to the left. An echoing click sounded in her ears. Armande was close enough on the other side of the stone wall that he heard it, too.

“Okay. One…two…three,” he began.

Toni closed her eyes and sighed in annoyance. Armande had always been sickeningly helpful. Since she had moved to the caves and began this terrifying new life, he had hardly left her side. But even though his comments and checks on her temper could feel patronizing, he was her anchor. This hell hole would have killed her by now without him.

“Twenty-eight… twenty-nine… thirty,” Armande finished. “Alright. Let’s give it a try.”

With a stubborn grimace, she used her thumb to flip the metal switch back to the right, knowing full well it wouldn’t work. Just like the seven hundred times before.

A hum sounded somewhere deep in the caverns under her feet-and from a half mile below, dozens of voices rang out in celebration.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she whispered. She slammed the breaker box door shut. There was a thick, smug silence seeping through the stone from the other side of the wall in front of her face. She smacked the smooth rock with the palm of her hand.

“Shut up Army!” She screamed.

“I didn’t say anything!” He defended with a laugh.

Toni Banks swore with relief as she waddled through the last few feet of crawl space leading away from the breaker room. She could finally feel the rush of cool air pushing through the cramped tunnel from the better ventilated space beyond. With a grunt she awkwardly pushed through the tunnel’s opening, falling onto her side in a bright, open cavern.

“Shit,” she sighed, rolling onto her back and releasing the equipment that burdened her.

She took two huge breaths before rolling her head to the side. A straight-laced boot had just stopped the cheap flashlight from rolling across the room. Meticulous fingers were making quick work of reorganizing the instructional papers she had allowed to scatter about the stone floor.

Annoying as ever.

“You know you could let a mess exist for more than a second without cleaning it up,” she teased, squinting through the sun filled room towards Army’s figure.

Armande walked closer, his head conveniently blocking the sun from her eyes. Her face cooled in the welcome shade and she watched his thick, dark eyebrows furrow, double checking the page numbers of the instructional packet, ensuring they were all in order.

“I let you exist, don’t I?” Armande deadpanned once he was satisfied with the pages.

“Gasp! Betrayal.”

“Sigh. Joke.”

Toni was grateful Army put up with her. He was her exact opposite, and she guessed the universe needed to balance out her swearing, disheveled self with the meticulous square standing above her. She was offered a strong and sure hand, which she took with a laugh.

“Where’s Queen?” She asked once she was upright. Before Armande could answer, a bark echoed from one of the many dark tunnels attached to the sunny room. She heard the staccato of claws on stone, knowing Queen raced closer by the growing volume of her barks. A black and white figure flashed into the sunlight and bolted around the room’s perimeter over and over again.

“Whose got the zoomies?” She crooned in a high-pitched voice, racing over to intercept the dog on her next crazed lap around the cave.

Tongue, teeth and fur assaulted her face as she knelt to catch Queen mid-stride. The dog whined excitedly, licking the sweat from her exposed skin and nibbling on her chin. Toni dug her fingers into long, soft fur and let Queen do her worst. She needed a bath anyways.

“Okay you two, get a room,” Armande quipped.

Toni dramatically whispered to the dog, “Don’t listen to him, baby girl. He’s just jealous. Isn’t that right?” She was rewarded with a final lick on her nose.

“I’m starving. Let’s go eat,” she declared.

At the word “eat,” Queen ears perked, her striking blue eyes going wide. Before Toni could straighten up the animal had disappeared down another tunnel. Armande gestured for her to lead the way after the dog. She led the pair towards the Mess Hall, stripping the top half of her sweaty jumpsuit as they walked. The thick material peeled off of her bronze arms, allowing them to be blasted with cool air. Her now exposed pits reeked with sweat. Deodorant was not a luxury here in No Name. As they continued walking, she used the dangling arms of her jumpsuit to dab under her arms and tried to remember the last time she’d smelt an artificial fragrance.

She had lived in the caverns for two years now. The day she arrived; covered in blood from a wound in her abdomen, skin raw from the baking sun, the last thought on her brain was comfort at finding a safe refuge. Most cried tears of joy at finding No Name. Her tears were streaks of dried salt caked on her face for fear of death. Surely she was going to die. How can someone live after being stabbed with a knife and left to stumble through a blazing desert?

Pain lanced through her body with every raspy breath. Her feet wouldn’t move another step. All she could do was focus her last ounce of strength on holding her blood inside. Her mind was incinerated.

The Surface was hardly ever braved in the full swing of summer. Ever since Earth’s ozone had burned away, humans had fled to space or moved underground. No sane human walked in the light of day without protection from the Sun. But who was sane after being stabbed by their mother and left for dead?

With that thought her will to live evaporated. She moved her hand. Red blood hissed as it met hot sand.

Armande had been the one to find her. He was on a Surface Run with others from the caves. Dressed in a Cool Suit, eyes covered in thick, red reflective goggles-Toni assumed the figure blocking out the light was a demon born from the blistering sun baking her corpse. Her last memory of that day was opening her mouth to scream, but no sound came out; just a sputter of blood.

Her hand brushed the twisted skin on her stomach, fingers tracing the ragged scar.

“YES! Dr. Pepper, baby!” Her friend crowed.

Army’s grip was like a vise as he hauled her over to a group of people cracking open red cans of fizzy soda.

“How? HOW?” Armande demanded as he grabbed a can with both hands, cradling it like a baby bird. The only time Toni saw Army’s orderliness melt away was in the presence of sweets and snacks; another luxury scarce in No Name.

“Hemma’s back. She brought it from her Run,” a young man named Robby answered; purposely directing his response at Toni.

“Twenty-three flavors of perfection…“ Army whispered. His black eyes glistening with tears of joy.

“Hemma’s back?” Toni asked excitedly.

“Yeah. Showers,” Robby informed her as he took a sip of soda, eyeing her knowingly over the rim of the can.

“I need to go. Watch Queen, would you?” She asked Army.

He didn’t break his stare from the carbonated miracle cupped in his hands.

“Oh just open it already!” She grabbed the can and used her fingers to crack open the tab. Thrusting the can back into his hands, she turned and ran towards the cavern that housed the “showers.”

“Watch Queen!” She shouted back.

“You ruined it Banks! You’ll regret this!” He shouted after her, taking a sip of Dr. Pepper as he watched the distracted woman run away.

Slurrrp.

“Oh, Jesus. That’s good stuff,” he murmured to the fizzing can, immediately forgetting Toni’s breach of Dr. Pepper conduct...