The Ghost of the Hindenburg (The Tes Simms Anthology, Book 1)

The Fight

"I mean, maybe we can figure out where we are if we head back the other way," Holly suggests.

"Let's think for a second, Holly. The way to get to the diner is through the kitchen, where the angry Nazi chef is. And, on top of that, we have whatever's crying and screaming. Unless you can think of a way to get past them, it's not reasonable. It won't happen."

"It was a thought," Holly says, dejected.

"It was not a good thought."

"Why are you being like this?"

"Gee, I don't know. It can't be the fact that we were violently attacked by floating knives and have no way of protecting ourselves from anything like that! I'm stressed, Holly!"

"So am I! Please stop yelling!"

I pace the room in darkness. The last thing I want is to be caught in the middle of their drama. Trying to make myself useful, I search the room for anything that feels familiar and recognize the shape of a table and chair, both with something on top of them. Maybe boxes. Pretty heavy, too. I hunt for the top of one with my hand and reach in. It has the same texture as sand.

Great. More sand in the desert.

"I think I'm starting to like Tes more right now," Cody says, continuing their spat. "At least she's not complaining about how I'm behaving."

I laugh. It's coarse and dry and feels natural given our situation, but it's relieving to know I can still do it.

"Are you kidding me?" Holly asks rhetorically. "Tes doesn't like either of us. She's with us for the same reason you've let her tag along: we need to stick together to survive and escape."

I keep searching for anything interesting, ignoring her completely accurate interpretation of my character, and bump into a counter of sorts. Scattered on top of it are small cylindrical metal objects, and next to them is a larger metal object. It's a darn shame I can't see any of what I'm getting into.

"Whatever," Cody says. "I'm going to help Tes."

The sound of shuffling comes from their direction.

Eventually, I come across something that feels like it could be a lamp. Unfortunately, I have no way of getting Cody's attention so he can light it without walking over to him and touching him in the total darkness of the room. I do my best to be loud and obvious with my footsteps, approach the area where sounds are coming from, and grab his arm.

"Jesus Christ, Tes," he says, jumping. "What are you grabbing me for? That is you, right?"

I feel for his hand and place the possible oil lamp in it.

"Oh, hell yeah."

He reaches for his lighter and flicks it on. Its small light illuminates the room just enough to confirm what he's holding.

"Wait," Holly says, "why haven't you been using the lighter to look for the lamp?"

"I, uh, didn't think about it."

He lights the lamp, and the entire room comes into view. It's an armory.

An armory with a lot of exposed gunpowder on the floor.

"Holy shit!" Cody exclaims. He dramatically lifts the lamp and turns his lighter off. "I could've blown us sky-high right then."

"Yeah, well, thanks for not doing that," Holly says.

Now that we finally have light again, I decide to get a better glimpse of the things I've rummaged through. The box I thought was sand was, in fact, gunpowder, a substance that has dyed my hand a dusty gray. The small cylinders I felt on the counter were an array of bullets, belonging to the larger item I felt, which is some sort of machine gun.