James Hoch - Heckel Casey

"Come on. We can make a run for it," she cried.

"No. Madeline and I are going to have it out right here and now," I yelled. The searing circle tightened. A thought suddenly edged its way into my thinking. What if this is all an illusion? She's just trying to scare me. She's using fear to try to break me. I bet Madeline isn't even here. As I stared into the bright-blue dancing flames, my courage strengthened. I could feel my insides seething, turning, and twisting.

Sela shouted again that we should make a run through the flames. As she spun around, trying to keep Tempest from bolting, both she and the horse stared at me.

Softly, she said, "Heckel, what's wrong?"

I went up to Tempest, took hold of his bridal, and whispered to Sela, "Don't worry." She looked down at me with eyes laden with concern, but with a confident loving smile. With my head held high and a huge assertive grin, I marched us straight toward the Madeline-infused inferno.

The flames heightened and swirled faster as if someone were turning up the knob on a gas oven. The heat we felt originally wasn't there. We didn't feel anything. The hairs on my neck bristled. I could feel that power inside me build to an even greater fevered pitch. At one point, I looked around me and could see what appeared to be a dome. A force field? Was that coming from me? I stifled a small grin and kept up my defiant appearance.

As we passed through the light and made it out into a clearing, I turned to see the menacing circle of fire morph into a ring of the childlike Madeline avatars. A hundred identical little girls in dirty white nightgowns stood staring at us with a mocking grin.

"Now that's pretty creepy," Sela said tentatively.

"She's not really here. It's all a ploy or…or…chimera. She's trying to scare us."

"Well, she's doing a pretty good job for me. What the hell is a chimera?" she queried.

"Basically, it's something that is just an illusion," I replied staring at the disturbing, evil-looking tableau.

Still holding onto Tempest's reins, I took a few steps forward to confront the illusion.

"Madeline, if you want to talk to me or…whatever, you do it face to face with me. I'm not afraid of you. Stop sending your annoying storms, demon dogs, and silly blue light shows. And, for the love of God, we are really getting tired of these eerie, freaky little girls, who look like they belong in a John Carpenter film or something. They're a nuisance," I yelled and waved my hand at the circle of demon images.

With a flash of bright light, the Madeline apparitions dissipated as if someone extinguished a fire with a bucket of water.

Sela gasped and then clapped her hands in appreciation. "You did it…again!"

With a grin that was part humility and part pride, I muttered, "Hmm…I guess I did."

"Now do you believe what I've been saying?" Sela said, dismounting Tempest.

Apprehensively, like a little kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, I nodded my head slowly and replied, "Yes."

She kissed me and hugged me.

Softly in her ear, I asked, "Now what?"

Sela remained silent for a long time, holding me tighter and tighter. "I don't know, but for now, we just keep going."

We decided that we would stay in the campsite that we were already in. I had a gut feeling that Madeline's threats were over for the night. As Sela got out our blankets, I started the fire again. It didn't take us long to fall asleep. The last image I had before drifting off was of one little girl, Madeline, in a dirty white nightgown. The evil demon child winked at me.

The next morning was chilly when we woke up. A few patches of frost dotted the field in low-lying areas.

"Brrr. I'm freezing," I said snuggling closer to Sela.

"Me too. We've got to find better sleeping bags, a tent, or lodging in deserted places," Sela said, pressing her body closer to mine. The closeness made my insides do flip-flops, and I felt like I was going to start hyperventilating.

After my breath returned to normal, I whispered, "Sela, you make me feel so…I…um…my feelings for you are…well…"

She smiled at me with the warmest expression I'd even seen and said, "Me, too." She leaned forward and kissed me for the longest time.

Our lovemaking kept us warm until the sun finally lifted over the tree line. As we rested, enjoying the afterglow and snuggling, Sela asked, "Since old man winter is rapidly approaching, do you think we should spend the season down in Texas? Perhaps near the coast?"

Standing up and reaching for Sela's hand, I answered, "That sounds good to me. I don't think we could make it to Arizona before we are knee-deep in snow somewhere in…um…New Mexico. Texas will be good. How long do you think it will take?"

"We are almost to the Oklahoma border. We should get there today. After that, maybe a week or so."

Breakfast was a hodgepodge of food we had found over the last several days. The biggest score was a box of unopened strawberry Pop-Tarts. We each had one along with a few Slim Jims that we found in a burned-out convenience store.

"Our food supply is getting too low. Hopefully, we'll find something today along the way," Sela said, staring into the fire.

"I gotta good feeling we will."

"Or maybe Jerky, the world's best hunter, will find us another rabbit," Sela said, petting the cat.

After washing up in the cold stream and watering the horses, we loaded everything up and rode off. The morning was slightly overcast but still unseasonably warm. I wondered if Madeline was affecting the weather in any way. No, she'd probably make it really cold and miserable. Maybe we were catching a break in the weather from the good side of the battle. Maybe it was my guardian angel? Hmm, if Madeline has demons backing her, do we good guys have…angels? Interesting.

We were following I-35 for most of the morning. Around noon, we stopped and looked south at a sign that at one time thanked people for visiting Kansas.

"See that roadblock up ahead?" Sela asked as she handed me her binoculars.

Focusing the expensive Brunton binos, I could see a large cinder-block building next to the interstate road. A heavy gate was partially blocking the lanes.

"What's that?" I asked squinting into the lens.

"Don't you remember? Madeline tried to close all the borders to each state. It was a disaster and didn't last long. Just another ploy purposely set up to cause more anarchy and deaths. People were furious and killed most of the poor guards stationed at the roadblocks."

"Oh yeah," I answered. "That was soon after she declared martial law and took over."

"Do you see anyone?" Sela asked.

"Nah. No one."

We rode in slowly and passed the guard station. A welcome sign on the Oklahoma side was shot to pieces. All that remained was homa…elco . "I could never understand why people had to shoot at road signs."

Sela shrugged and laughed as she picked up the pace and rode down I-35. A roadside mileage sign listing the upcoming towns had all the miles shot out. Braman was the first town, followed by Blackwell. When I saw that town's name, I shivered. "We are not stopping in Blackwell," I yelled over at Sela.

"Agreed. We'll stop in Braman and see if we can find anything. However, it's probably pretty small."

We rode into town and small was an understatement. Off to the right was the official sign that was not shot up; it indicated the town's population was a whopping 476 residents.

"It's looking a bit bleak here. I doubt we'll find anything," I said.

"Not necessarily. I've had good luck finding stuff in these little burgs. People usually passed them up, thinking the same thing you did. Come on. There's a gas station and a couple of shops over here," Sela said as she crossed the street. We tied the horses up. I remained as lookout. Jerky followed Sela into the convenience store. About fifteen minutes later, Sela came out with an armful of food.