smokeSCREEN: bookONE

"Are you finding ammo?"

"Yes."

"Two barks is she's trying to give away her location to us – like an SOS. It means she's staying put, but she needs help. She'll repeat the barks at most every thirty but not less than thirteen minutes apart at random, unless she escapes the situation herself. Then she'll give the one-bark. That means we're cool, but pull back to where we last saw each other towards home."

"Ach – what the fuck is that? A needle?"

"Yes – shut up – I'm sewing you up."

"I don't need to be sewn up, I – augh."

"Be quiet, the thread's already in."

I can feel it scratching through my flesh. It burns.

"You got booze?"

"Smoke this." She hands me a hand-rolled cigarette. "Careful not to cough – only two puffs – it'll help the pain."

"I know how to smoke a smoke," I say, covering the Bic as I quickly light it. It tastes like smoking a maple leaf, and I do indeed want to cough.

"Don't cough," she says behind me.

"Shut up," I say. "I know how to smoke a smoke." I take another puff – it must be some kind of herbal cigarette. "Are you almost done?"

"How do you feel?"

"…better." She snatches the smoke from my hands and puts it out, dropping it into a small tin box which she places in one of the pockets on her belt.

"Turn around – I'm not done," she says, pushing my face away with a gloved hand.

"Fine – ow. …what does three barks mean?"

"Three barks means she's fucked – come back later for the body."

"You always go back for the bodies?"

"If we don't, one of us dies - Rule Three," she says. "Three barks." The pain really isn't so bad any more. In fact, I feel pretty good. Crow's voice sounds gorgeous.

"What's Rule Two?" I ask, starting the search for more shotgun shells in my pack.

"Stay true to your floor."

I can feel the thread going through my skin, but it doesn't feel all that terrible.

"Rule One?"

"Never touch a boy."

We don't talk much after that.

* * *

We make our way around to the west side of the mansion – still no sentries, and no one else has gone to investigate the garage. Crow now moves deftly before me, the shotgun redoubling her confidence.

Unlike the other girls, Crow, claws and all, is the only one on the floor who wears a skirt. It's plaid – blue and white – and comes to just above her knees. At the back of her thighs are the straps to her kneepads – two black pieces of heavy rubber. She wears a pair of old black leather boots, broken in to the point of being soft as fabric.

I've been staring.

I nearly trip over her when she comes to a stop and crouches, but I take a knee at her right and look out over the back yard.

Here, two old ones are smoking cigars – one of them has an assault rifle – and they're keeping an eye on the large shed, on the other side of the yard.

"Game plan?" I ask. She strokes the barrel of the shotgun against her forehead in thought.

"Rush them both – we're faster than they are – they took us by surprise last time."

"You sure we can get that close with knives?" She shakes her head.

"Fuck knives – I say a gun in each hand."

"That would alert the whole lot of them – we need to deal with these two silently."

"Then we wait a few hours – they'll fall asleep."

"No they won't."

"Yours do."

Two barks – coming from the shed.

"Okay, so we know where they are…" I begin.

"We know where Cat is," she corrects.

Suddenly, the two sentries leap to their feet. Crow and I shrink deeper into the shadows and wait. Soon a tall man wearing a leather mask strides around the far corner of the house and approaches the shed, shouting to the sentries.

One of them jumps forward and hurries to the shed, opening the door for the man in the leather mask. As the door opens, we can plainly see Lisa, Michelle, Sophie and Cat inside the lit shed. The door stays open for a moment as the tall man walks in, points to Lisa and heaves her up. Quickly, I rip off my pack and pull out a nine millimeter beretta, double-checking that it's loaded.

"What are you doing?" Crow hisses. I hand her a decent-sized blade.

"Helping Lisa," I say strapping the staff firmly to my back. "Once the other two leave, slit the guard's throat quickly and release the others – then get to the front yard – I'll find a car."

The man in the mask and the sentry come out of the shed – Lisa is led behind the two on a chain attached to a collar at her throat. Her legs are free, but her hands are bound at the wrist.

"What are you doing?"

"We can't do anything once she's inside that house," I say, and jump up. I leap to the trunk of one of the old elm trees the rich had trucked in and grapple my way up to the first branch. I vault to the second and third, then tiptoe across another to the roof.

Far on the other side of the yard, they haven't heard me, and the tree only shook enough to suggest some wind. I bend low and slip across the roof as quickly as I can without causing noise on the floor beneath. Soon I'm at the far side, and just as Lisa is led around the corner to the east side of the house, I look to see Crow lunge at the sentry and slit his throat.

I let out a small bark, and drop the handgun. Lisa looks up – the other's don't. She opens her hands – and from my point of view it resembles a butterfly for a moment – then the heavy steel slides into them. She grips the pistol by it's barrel – flips it and catches it, cocks the hammer, and kills the sentry before her.

He drops the chain as his body falls, and the man in the mask ducks into the house, slamming the door. Lisa heaves up her chain and runs back for the others.

Suddenly, there are calls to arms, and screams coming from everywhere. I run to the north side of the house, my boots drumming the roof.

I drop from the third floor to a balcony on the second – then jump to a first floor roof before dropping into the overgrown flower beds and dashing towards an early-2000s model wagon – it looks reliable and fast.

I tear open the driver's door and, finding no keys, hotwire the engine, peeling around to the back yard. The Floor meets me halfway, and they pile into the wagon just as a wave of old ones pour out of the house. Cat's got her hands on the molatov cocktails, and throws three. Michelle has the assault rifle from the senty, and Crow takes out one of the women before the wagon crashes through the back fence and into the tall grasses beyond. Lisa is just whispering to herself, over and over;

"They were gonna'… they were gonna'…"

I turn on the interior light and open my compass.

* * *

For a few minutes, everyone is silent – just catching our breath.

Then the question of our destination begins. I suggest we navigate by compass for a while – try to end up at the far east of the city. That way, if they try to track us by following our trail through the grass we can loose them as far away from the Tower as possible.

Everyone thinks this is a good plan, and cigarettes are passed out.

After twenty minutes of bouncing through the fields we hit an old service road and head further south on it before going east again for a half an hour.

Sophie and Cat have fallen sleep in the very back of the wagon – Michelle dozes in the back seat. Beside me, Lisa stares silently ahead, while Crow's eyes are fixed on me in the rearview.

"Maybe you two should sleep," I say. "In another four hours it'll be dawn."

"I'm not tired," she says, examining the assault rifle for the hundredth time.

"Are you?" Lisa asks. It takes me a moment to realize she's talking about me.

"A little," I nod.

"When was the last time you slept?" she says.

"Uh… two days ago."

"Shit – and I got him stoned, too," Crow says. "Pull over, Cypress." Lisa nods.

"Pull over – I'll drive."

Cat crawls over the seat to tumble into the driver's side, and I slip in beside Michelle behind her. Lisa guns the engine and we start off again – though as soon as I close my eyes, I'm out.

* * *

* * *

my friend assures me / it's all or nothing / i am not worried / i am not overly concerned / my friend emplored me / make an exception // i am not worried / i am not overly concerned with the status of my emotions // oh, she says / you're changing / but you were always changing

* * *

* * *

When I wake up, I'm on a couch in a living room. Crow sits on a leather recliner, staring at the pictures in a magazine. Sophie and Cat lean against each other, silently sleeping on a love seat on the other side of the room.

"Fuck… how long was I out?"

"Three hours," Crow says, not looking up. "You woke up when we brought you in."

"I don't remember that." She glances up for a moment, blinding me with those eyes.

"If it makes you feel any better, you still look like shit."

"Then I look how I feel – where are we?"

"A safehouse just outside the north end – Lisa took us all the way around the perimiter."

"Where's Lisa and Michelle?"

"Making breakfast." She's back in the magazine now, but pointing off towards what smells like the kitchen. My boots are beside the couch, and I pull them on before padding past the sleeping twins towards the smell of food. "Cypress," Crow says. I turn, and her huge, cracked-ice eyes are holding me. "We won't forget this – how you did good. You're solid now." I smile.

"Thanks," I say.

"Well, I think Sophie might have slept through most of it, but the rest of us are solid," she grins. I nod and go to the kitchen. It must be a gas stove on an independent line. Lisa flips pancakes while Michelle pours over a map at the table, though both have a cigarette between their lips. I lean against a wall and light one for myself, and they both notice me.

"You should be sleeping," Lisa says quickly.

"Shouldn't you?" I ask.

"Go sleep, Beta!" she barks at me.

"Are you fryin' up some apples with that or what?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well," I count on my fingers, "you got pancake mix, I've eaten apples with you, and I'm sure there's cinnamon and sugar around here somewhere, right?"

"I… think so…"

I step off the wall and come forward.

"Well, whip out another pan, let's get some apple cinnamon flapjacks going."

"We don't have time for apple-cinnamon anything," she says, guarding the stove with her spatula, but smiling. "We were supposed to be back at the tower an hour ago."

"No, we'll stay here tonight," Michelle says, still not looking up from her map.

"We can't, Phoebe-"

"We were captured – hello?" She finally looks up from the map. "That's like a leave of absence until we magically escape and decide to show up again. Fuck, maybe we shouldn't even go back – we finally have a car, Lis! Us – Unlucky Thirteen finally has a car. We could leave the Tower."

Lisa is silent, but not surprised. Perhaps this is an old plan of thiers. Finally, Lisa shakes her head no.

"No, we have to go back," she says. I nod.

"What – you agree with her?" Michelle snaps at me.

"You have to tell the others about the old ones," I shrug. "You have to. I mean, they didn't just grab us, they captured you guys with some purpose."

Lisa nods.

"They were gonna'… eat us or do something, Michelle, I'm sure of it."

"And what's with that shit all over their faces?" I ask. "It's like they all slipped and skinned everything."

"Maybe they've got it," Lisa says suddenly, looking at Michelle wide-eyed. "Maybe – did you see the men and women together? Maybe they've all got the disease!"

"I don't think that's it," I say.

"It's something else, Lis." Michelle flips a pancake onto a plate.

"Who's hungry?" she barks to the living room. Crow pads in, peeking her head around the corner and curiously smiling at the pancake.

"Ah ah," I say, taking it from Lisa. "Don't waste your stomach on this – wait 'till you taste mine."

"Why?" Crow narrows her eyes, pointing a finger at me and looking to Michelle. "What's he doing?" Michelle shugs and looks back to the map.

"Cooking, I guess."

"Like Hell he is," Lisa snaps, grabbing the pancake away. Michelle looks up and sighs.

"Lisa, Crow, you guys make sure the bedrooms are set for tonight – windows are all blocked up, everything." Lisa gapes.

"We don't have time for another batch," she says.

"Lisa – I'm telling you – we spend the night here – got to have a Floor meeting, and it can't be in the Tower."

Crow does a tiny jump and grins. "Floor meeting! Can I find the candles? I'll find some old candelabras – we'll do the mantle on the fireplace and-"

"First the windows, then the candles."

"And smokes – we're running low," I say as I start frying an apple. Crow looks up.

"Do you even know what a Floor meeting is?" she asks.

"No, but I suppose I will by tonight. Now tell me honestly," I say, turning and giving her a scruitinizing look. "Do you have a sweet tooth, or a sweet-sweet tooth?"

Crow rolls her glittering eyes and pulls Lisa away.

I throw in extra sugar.

* * *

Just before noon, Crow returns, her packy heavy with choice food and items from scavenged houses nearby. She's exhausted and overheated, and she wipes sweat from her brow as she drops her pack in the centre of the living room and without looking, plops onto the couch. While the others finish eating their pancakes in the kitchen, I walk in and sit beside her, handing her a plate with apple-cinnamon pancakes.

"Find smokes?" I ask. She nods – but she looks like she's about to pass out.

"Is it good?" she says, finally noticing the pancakes.

"I dunno – I haven't tried it."

"I'm really… …are you really tired?"

"So tired."

"Let's try it on three," she says. I nod. We both prepare a piece of pancake. "One, two, three," she says. I take my bite and set the plate down – it is pretty good – but I'm tired.

I close my eyes, and I can hear Crow say,

"Better than Lisa's…"

Then I feel her gentle weight collapse against me, and her breathing becomes deep and steady.

I think I hear Lisa asking if we should move Crow.

Michelle tells her it's okay – we'll talk about it tonight.

* * *

When Michelle finally shakes me awake it's dark outside and candles burn throughout the living room. I've never seen a room so brightly lit by candles – Crow must have found over two hundred. Michelle leaves to get Lisa, and I become aware of my surroundings.

As I sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes, I notice Crow doing the same beside me. She gives me a quick glance and slides over a half-foot on the couch, finding her cigarettes.

I do the same, and most of us are happily puffing by the time Michelle comes in with Lisa.

"Are you sure?" Lisa says for the third time.

"I'll show you all – would you come on?" Michelle walks in and stares at us expectantly. "Let's go. Not you, Cypress, you wait outside. We'll grab you in a minute." she says. Sophie, Cat and Crow all slip to the floor. Crow leans back against the couch – Sophie and Cat cross their legs.

I go out onto the front step and light a cigarette.

I've smokes two more by the time Sophie calls me in. When I come back into the living room, everyone is staring at me, and Michelle is standing in the centre of the room.

"Come here, Cypress," she says. "We're going to show them."

I nod, step into the circle and Lisa closes her eyes. The others just stare. I reach up and press my hand to Michelle's cheek. Lisa slowly lowers her hands.

"You've done this before?" she exclaims.

"Back at the Tower, yesterday morning," I say. But now the thrall of it has me – I want to touch her hair – her throat – her-

I draw my hand back.

"And you feel fine?" Lisa says.

"Perfect," Michelle says, slipping back to her place. "And so does he. Whatever they told us about a disease – it was all bullshit."

"Can I-?" Cat suddenly says. Michelle shrugs, and I sit down between Crow and Lisa.

"It's not a health risk, that's all I'm saying." In a flash, Cat is at my side. Crow edges a bit away to make room, and the blond raises a shaking hand to my face. I don't stop her, and she gently draws her fingers across my forehead to my cheekbone, then to my chin. She gasps, and seems to well up.

My heart is pounding again, and I reposition my legs, hiding the bulge in my pants.

"How do you feel?" Sophie says from under her touque.

"You have to try this!" Cat says, reaching with her other hand for my hair and feeling it – stroking it.

Lisa and Sophie come over and have their turn touching me. Neither wants to stop, but Michelle instructs everyone to pull back, and the meeting moves forward. Crow hasn't looked at me since Michelle's skin touched mine.

"This is something that's true," Michelle says. "There is no disease. Not any more. Maybe there was, but we never had it and neither did they."

"But… what about the girls who did touch guys and died that day?"

"Jackie," Crow says. "Jackie must have killed them…" She still hasn't looked at me.

"Well, now we know for a fact that it's safe to have the Swordsman here around. That brings us to point number two. …Lisa?"

Lisa nods, and says,

"If you want to… escape, now, on foot – you can. We won't shoot you."

I lean back into the couch and light another smoke. Crow looks at me – too quickly for me to guess her emotion – and looks away.

"What's point three?" I ask.

"That we'd like you to stay," Crow says. She wipes something from her face, and I look to Michelle, who nods. Everyone is silent.

"…even Lisa," Michelle says. Everyone has a little laugh, but I stand. Michelle nods. "Okay," she says. Crow stands and goes into the kitchen. Sophie goes to check on her, and Michelle sees me to the door.

"Mind if I take some time to think about it?" I ask. I guess she thought my mind had been made up, because she smiles a little too much when she nods.

"But the meeting's not over – we might be leaving the city…"

"Finish without me – if I stay I'll stick with the group's decision, but if my vote counts, you have to at least go warn the others… not to mention Anze." I open the door and step onto the front porch.

"Aw, right, Anze…" Michelle says behind me. She closes the screen door and I breathe the fresh air, sitting and leaning against the steps. I look up at the stars – just starting to see the hints of Orion on the horizon.

Decisions, decisions.

* * *

I open the front door later that night to find Lisa waiting up with a pair of binoculars and the assault rifle. She smiles at me and sets the binoculars down as I walk up.

"Staying, then?" I nod. "Do you know Rule Two?"

"Stay true to your floor." She smiles.

"Alright – what was your rank back at Weswtood?"

"I guess you'd call me a Beta," I say.

"What did you do for them?"

"I spied on you guys." She narrows her eyes at me.

"Were… were you the one who blew up our police cruiser?"

I nod.

"Alright, if anyone asks, you're a Beta Sneak – that's your rank and job."

I nod.

"Cypress," she says, "can I…?" I walk over and bend down, and she raises her hand to my face, closing her eyes. Her touch sparks waves of tingles flashing through my body. I reach up and let my fingers run down her cheek – over her lips – down her throat. She gasps and falls back, catching her breath. Simple touch. "It's amazing," she says. I nod, standing up.

"Are we going back to the Tower tomorrow?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Good," I say, picking up the staff and heading for the stairs. "Which room is mine?"

"At the end of the hall – Crow's sleeping there."

"Oh. Perhaps the couch, then…"

"Wake her up – she wants to know if you're staying or not."

I smile.

"Did she say that?" I ask. Lisa shakes her head.

"Of course not."

* * *

With a gentle click, I open the door at the end of the hall. A single candle throws a half-light across the room – a dim palettes in gray fleshtones and black. Crow's sleeping form rests on the bed, above the covers. The swell of her hips and the gentle pattern of her skirt in the dark stir something, but I don't know what it is. I sit next to her on the bed and gently poke her shoulder.