The Calling of Time

Shotgun Loyalty

New Canada? The first thought I had was that this must be some kind of ridiculous joke. What the hell was “New Canada” anyways? Without really thinking I picked up the paper and crumpled it up in my palm, shoving it into the pocket of my jeans.

 My thoughts were racing frantically.  This was bad. This was really really bad. I was wanted. Like some type of common criminal. That meant Thanatos knew about me. He knew what I looked like. That meant Bruce knew who I was…or at least, that I was worth money to him. For a moment I had to brace myself with my palms on the dresser, wondering if I was going to be sick. The flashlight beam wobbled as the dresser shook. I couldn’t stop shaking.

The beam of light was resting on a framed picture. A snap shot of a younger, less haggard Bruce and his family. They were smiling at the camera, kneeling on a checkered blanket surrounded by green grass. The woman beside him was beautiful. Blonde curls spilled over both shoulders, and the little girl she was holding had the same huge blue eyes. A pang of sadness joined the terror.

That didn’t change things. It just made it worse.

Somewhere down the hall a door slammed, and I jumped. The flashlight dropped out of my numb fingers and hit the ground with a “crack”. The light flickered and then went out, and I felt myself freeze in panic.

Low voice were coming this way, and I darted out into the hall, slamming the door behind me, stopping when I came face to face with two hulking figures. It was too dark to really see their faces, but it had to be Horace and Bruce. The man nearest to me said, “Kali? Is that you?”

“Oh here,” Bruce said. A click, and then light flooded the hallway. He flicked the pen light over my face, making me squint against the sudden light. “Oops, sorry. You okay, girl?”

Girl? You know my name. You know all about me. I tried to keep my face blank, even though it felt like my heart had leapt up and crammed itself into my throat. “I’m just looking for the bathroom. You got one that still works?”

He laughed. “Yeah, that door there. There’s a bucket to pour in after.”

Not really wanting the details, I simply nodded and turned to the other door opposite the bedroom. It was a good thing I’d slammed the bedroom door shut instinctively, because Bruce shone the thin beam of light around the hallway, like he was checking that nothing was out of place.

“We got the carburetor,” Horace told me. “We’ll be leaving in a couple minutes.”

“Okay great,” I muttered. “I’ll be out in a sec.”

I slammed the door behind me, bracing my back against the wood, trying to breathe evenly so I could hear their footsteps recede. It was almost pitch black in the bathroom, except for a thin beam of light that slid in from the crack in the frosted glass of the window. I climbed up onto the toilet seat and wrenched the window open as much as I could, until I had more light. Then I dug into my pocket and pulled the paper out with shaking hands.

Crap. That’s so obviously me. Why did Bruce have this? The only explanation was that he was keeping an eye open for me because he wanted the reward. I squinted at the poster. New Canada, it was ridiculous, but it must be what Thanatos was calling his “government”. So he was setting himself up as ruler, that was obvious. He already had most of the army, and now he was putting up wanted posters and people were going to try to turn me in every time we stopped. Great, this kept getting better and better.

Bruce was probably going to try to call them when he had a spare second to turn me in. We hadn’t left him alone yet though. What the hell did I do now? I had to think of way to tell one of the guardians. I jammed the paper back into my pocket and hopped off the lid of the toilet, banging my elbow on the counter as I did.