Free The Night Market by Zachary Rawlins

have to sleep to be sure – leaving the chest and its
spilled contents behind her, too angry to bother with collecting any of the
contents. She didn’t look back, and set as demanding a pace as possible, given
the dust and the wind that impeded her progress. She barely managed to make it
down the ridge before Fenrir caught up to her, the rusted chain around his neck
jingling and his black eyes sparkling with what looked like amusement.
    The dog loped casually past Yael, and then settled in
the middle of the road ahead of her, laying peacefully down on its massive
forepaws, as if he expected to be petted. Not that Yael would put her hand
anywhere near that savage mouth. Gradually she slowed her pace to a walk,
waiting for Jenny to catch up. She didn’t have to wait long before Jenny
rounded a pile of rubble behind her, whistling casually with her hands in her
pockets.
    “You know, it’s hard to keep track of you when you run
ahead…”
    “Miss Frost,” Yael said, her voice quavering with
anger she meant to suppress. “Get your dog out of my way.”
    “Fenrir? Okay, but I have to warn you…”
    Jenny said, bending over momentarily to grab a rock
about the size of her hand.
    “…heading down this road…”
    Jenny threw the rock, and Yael flinched automatically.
The stone went far over her head, however, coming down behind a collapsed
building ten yards from where Fenrir sprawled. Impossibly, when the rock hit
the ground the area detonated with a tremendous noise, the explosion hurling soil
and rock in all directions as if Jenny had thrown a grenade.
    “…might be a bad idea. If you wanna go running through
a minefield, though, then suit yourself.”
    “How… how did you know?”
    Jenny grinned, and then paused to spit her wad of
chewing gum to the ground, quickly replacing it with a new piece from one of
the bright yellow packs with Chinese lettering that she had salvaged.
    “Because I’ve been camping in the middle of it,” Jenny
explained gleefully. “C’mon. It’s too late to go any further today and the moon
tonight will...”
    Yael glanced behind them, nervously surveying the
broken landscape and the empty road.
    “Are you sure we can’t keep going? Won’t those men
come after us?”
    “I thought you blinded them. I heard that speech you
made about the neurotoxins in the spray…”
    Yael was glad she had the mask, because she was
certain that she was blushing.
    “Not true,” Yael admitted. “That was a bluff. It’s not
all the much worse than mace. They will be alright in a few hours if they wash
their eyes out.”
    To Yael’s surprise, Jenny grinned and ruffled her hair
affectionately.
    “Really? Not bad, kiddo. You might survive after all. I
don’t think those idiots are dumb enough to try and walk through a minefield.
And if they do, we’ll be sure to hear ‘em coming.”

 
5.  Theoretical
Inedita
     
    Tracking movement in a dark room, warm breath on the
back of her neck. Drawing on a frosted window with her finger, tracing the
contours of the Yellow Sign, by which dreams are remembered and the corruption
of the King in Yellow is invited. Lemon tea and exposed ribs under taut skin,
like the fuselage of a contoured aircraft.
     
    The dusty ground ahead
was threatening to Yael, but Jenny strolled through the area as though she had
nothing to worry about, trailing behind Fenrir. Yael was careful to follow in
Jenny’s footprints. She scanned the dirt in front of her for any signs of
disturbance, any indicator of explosives buried beneath, but there was nothing
out of the ordinary besides a meter-wide crater at the edge of the field where
Jenny had tossed her stone.
    “How old do you think the mines are?”
    “Pretty damn old,” Jenny said, popping her gum. “They
only go off about half the time.”
    Yael preferred not to know how Jenny had made that
particular discovery. She wasn’t aware of how badly her legs were shaking until
they made it to the center of the field, a shallow