Robert was going to pay for this. “Rheinman, keep the stones away from the SUV,” I said. “Fiona, you come with me. Gilling—stay here and help the others. I’ll be back.”
Gilling nodded and I headed out into the desert with the bloodthirsty girl at my side. We had a flashlight and found tracks to follow, but they were sketchy. I wasn’t even sure they were Robert’s. A hundred yards out, I stopped. We’d lost him.
“There,” Fiona said, panting.
I followed her gesture. Something glimmered and twisted nearby. I ran to it, seeing a figure standing in front of a rip as it opened up. It was a small, dim whirlwind. But I was sure it led to another place.
“Stick him,” I told Fiona. “Aim for his legs. We need to slow him down.”
With an infernal grin on her face, she did as I asked. I heard a shout echo back to us. Then Robert stepped out. I ran faster. The rip, unlike those I’d seen Gilling or the Gray Men create, faded quickly. I ran to the spot and stepped out of my existence, blindly walking into another place.
Fiona hadn’t followed me. I figured she hadn’t been able to run fast enough. I was alone in a new place.
Crossing into another existence didn’t happen all at once. It was rather like tuning in an old analog radio signal. It didn’t come in without some fine-tuning. At first, some elements were hazy while others sharpened. As I stepped out of the dying rip into this new place, the first thing I noticed was the ground. It wasn’t sand and spiky plants. Instead, it was comprised of hot, shifting mounds of slag and ash.
Heat. That was the next sensation I felt. All the sweat on my brow began to evaporate. It was dark, just as it had been back home, but there was a dim red glow coming from the ground here and there. I looked at the hottest spots and my mind knew what they had to be: lakes of lava.
My mind panicked for a second. I had fully expected, for some silly reason, to step into the place of the Gray Men. Compared to this strange environment, stacks of alien cubes and multiple moons would have been comforting.
I spotted Robert then, and my mind thawed. I realized with a shock that the rip behind me had faded and the way ahead was full of obstacles. If he vanished again, I might be stuck here until one of the hot little slugs swimming about found me and turned me to ash.
I ran for him as I’d never run in my life. My footing was uneven, and I stumbled over loose stones. I went down at one point, sinking my knees into a black ridge of ash between two smoldering pools. I howled as my knees and hands burned.
I was close enough now for Robert to hear me. He whirled and lifted a gun. The muzzle flashed orange. I threw myself down on the painfully hot ground and fired back with scorched fingers. At a range of around a hundred feet, our pistols were not terribly accurate. I had the advantage of hugging the ground. My arms were steadied by the ridge of hot ash. Unfortunately, I was also in pain, and the ash made my eyes blur.
Two of his rounds came uncomfortably close. He fired a spray of bullets, emptying his pistol fast. Stones jumped behind me and then a block of obsidian sparked and split apart in front of my face. I returned fire. We both missed. I heard him dry-click then drop the gun with a curse. He turned back to his growing rip, but it wasn’t ready yet. He couldn’t step out.
I stood up and charged after him, reloading and holding my fire until I got closer. I’d made it halfway when he tried to enter the rip again. It was ready now, brighter and stronger. His fingers pushed against the surface of it like a giant bubble. Soon, I knew the bubble would pop and allow him through.
I fired. I couldn’t take the chance he would get away and leave me here. I snapped off round after round. This time, as I got closer, I hit him.
He went down on one knee. He crawled into the rip, but before he could make it all the way inside, I grabbed him and pulled him back. I threw him down on the ground and stood over him.
He was a mess. Two rounds in the chest, one in the leg. His breath whistled in his lungs. Blood was already frothing in his mouth. I lowered my pistol to my side.
“You shouldn’t have ambushed us,” I said.
“You should have left well enough alone. Why couldn’t you be happy winning at the slots with my wife?”
I felt a sting of guilt, even though I knew I shouldn’t. This guy had abandoned Jenna. He’d been part of a number of murders. But it was still hard to watch him die at my feet.
“I’m hurting,” he said. “Take me out of here before the slugs come. You can fix me up.”
I shook my head. “Give me some quick answers first.”
“OK, just heal me enough to breathe.”
I blinked at him. “Heal you?”
“Yeah, you idiot. Use the picture.”
I stared, then rummaged in my pockets. I pulled out the photo I’d been carrying since awakening in the sanatorium.
“This?” I asked.