Free Heckel Casey by James Hoch

makes all this difficult?" Sela asked.
    "What?"
    "Not knowing what's happening in the rest of the world. I mean…I just wonder what's going on. Is everyone dead? How many people are in hiding? Can we fix this mess?"
    I sat in silence as she asked question after question. It seemed suffocating. Finally, I assured her that something or someone would turn things around, bring humanity back.
    "Like a savior?" she asked.
    "I suppose so. I mean…um…we know, at least you and me figured it out, that evil by the name of Madeline instigated this collapse, so there must be someone who can destroy her. There's got to be a leader out there who can bring her down and send her back to hell."
    Sela nodded her head and replied, "Well, I for one want to find that person and join up."
    "You make it sound like we have a coming battle."
    "Yup. It's got to get to that."
    Her last comment got me to thinking about Madeline with an army of evil soldiers, ready to eradicate the rest of humanity. If that were so, how in the world did we stand a chance? Just look at the state of our present condition. "How do we fight a demon army?" I asked timidly.
    "With all our might. I mean maybe that's why you are drawn to the West Coast. Maybe that's why we found each other. Maybe there are more people migrating to some preordained spot."
    "And maybe that's why you and I weren't poisoned by Madeline years ago when she was planting those diabolical seeds in kids. We must have been immune."
    "Maybe so."
    We each finished our jerky, mounted our horses and rode off. Jerky decided to run ahead of us. I thought for the longest time about what Sela had said. Maybe there was someone who could bring us out of these dark times. Is that why I felt compelled to make it to the West Coast? All I knew was that Sela made me feel safe.
     
    Later that afternoon, the skies got preternaturally dark. A slight tinge of green edged its way into the color of the nearly jet-black clouds. We decided that we needed to find shelter. The weather was looking more and more like it was posed to throw down some serious tornadoes. We rode faster. The weird thing was that there was no wind or rain. Usually, when weather looked like this, there was at least some wind starting to stir things up.
    "Something's not right," I said shouting over to Sela.
    "I know what you mean. The sky is so threatening, but there's no pre-storm wind or any signs of an approaching—" Before she could finish, a bolt of lightning hit the ground in front of Tempest, causing the horse to rear backward. Sela remained on the horse and quieted him down. There was no thunder, another sign that something didn't add up.
    We rode faster. Unfortunately, the direction we raced was smack dab in the middle of the dark. The pitch-black, menacing sky felt like it was swallowing us.
    Fear was pushed aside in favor of survival. The horses knew something wasn't right and galloped for all their might.
    "There," I shouted, pointing to a large cinder-block-looking rest stop. My horse didn't even wait for me to move her in that direction. She just knew where to go. Tempest followed. Lightning hit on both sides of the horses. They didn't flinch. As soon as we got to the building, we dismounted. Jerky came running up alongside me. I found a door to the women's room hanging by one hinge.
    "In here," Sela shouted, leading Tempest into the men's room. Just as we entered the building, the wind slammed into the front with a force that was overwhelming. The assault nearly made Hope fall on top of me. Sela took the reins from me and got the horse inside. I pushed the door closed and turned the dead bolt. Now the rain started, lightning flashed and the storm attacked us mercilessly and violently. At least that's what it felt like—as if it were waiting for us. We comforted the horses. Jerky perched herself on one of the sinks. Her hair was all bushy as though charged from all the lightning. The enveloping darkness from the storm made it feel like