Jason carried more than the woman as they marched across the Wasteland.  It wasn’t because he was a man, nor because he was two feet taller.  Instead, Jason carried the extra weight because he was getting paid and paying customers expected it. That was just part of the business.

 

Katrina had paid in cash, three-quarters in advance and a promise for the rest when they returned safely. It was a good deal, better than most. People had been traveling less since the end of the Copper War a decade earlier, and on the occasions when they did venture out, most folks were wary.  However, Katrina had paid up front with good money, so he carried her bags without complaint as they crossed the shattered earth.

 

Occasionally, they passed what remained of the old buildings: smooth-stone columns, twisted rods of metal, or bricks that hadn’t fully melted. Jason had passed this way enough times to be accustomed to the sight.  Katrina’s eyes lit up as they passed the ruins. The wreckage of the past may really be nothing more than rubble; but to the soul, it was still powerful.

 

Katrina was only carrying a single bag, but she kept it close at all times.  When she’d first come to him, Jason had assumed that was where she kept her money. However, he’d seen her secret her coin purse in the satchel that was slung over his shoulder, a stupid mistake. There was nothing but his honor to keep him from taking it and leaving her stranded.

 

She was lucky he gave a damn.

 

At dusk, he held up his hand. She stopped as Jason surveyed their surroundings. It was flat enough, and the wind was not so bad. With the sun going down, night would be here soon, and this was as good a place as any to get some rest.

 

“We’ll camp here,” he said.

 

Katrina nodded wordlessly.  She waited for him to spread a blanket on the ground before sitting down.  As they slumped over, they both let out a long sigh.  They’d come a long way.

 

Katrina looked at the land over her shoulder.  If the stories were to be believed, it’d been a thousand years since the Old Ones brought down fire from the sky, and still nothing grew here.  Just walking in the wrong place could make a person sick.

 

Jason was smarter than most. His charges never got sick. He had a set of strict rules, and he followed them.  Those rules were the only thing between his clients and a horrible death.  They were rules he didn’t share with anyone. After all, knowledge was power, power enough to get a person killed.

Rule One was to never sleep with bare skin touching the ground. His first time out, when he’d come to the Wastelands out of desperation, he’d laid a bit of meat on the ground to dry. It was a technique that he’d used many times in his old home. In the Wasteland, it had almost killed him. The next day, even after cooking it, the meat had tasted strange. Later, Jason had been sick for two days. He’d learned his lesson; In the Wasteland, even the ground itself was a poison.

 

“So,” Katrina said, “How long will it take us to reach the Pillar?”

 

“It’s Just a couple of days from here,” he said, “If we keep pace, we’ll make it easily.”

 

“Tell me about it,” she said, “What’s it like?”

 

Jason closed his eyes. He wanted to remember the Pillar without thinking about the reasons he’d come this way. Within moments, he shook his head, “It’s just a place. You’ll see it soon enough.”

Katrina pulled her backpack closer to herself, “You have been there, though…right? You said you’d guided people through. You said you’ve been to the Pillar.”

 

Jason nodded, “Both are true, but they’re not the same.”

 

Katrina’s eyes narrowed as she tried to read him.

 

“Thing is,” Jason continued, “Most people don’t want to go there. In fact, nobody does. The people I take, they want to cut through to the North without being seen or followed. You’re the first one who’s ever wanted to go to the center.”

 

Katrina seemed to relax a bit. Jason couldn’t help but smile at her anxiety. She was a nervous one.  But then, so were a lot of his customers. That was how he made his living, guiding the desperate through the land of the damned and the dead.

​

“What’s it like?” she asked, “I want to know what to expect.”

 

Jason pulled out a canteen. Rule Two was just as vital as Rule One: Don’t eat or drink anything that you didn’t bring in with you from the outside. It wasn’t such a leap from Rule One, and it had been validated a dozen times over when he’d seen others who’d come out of the Wasteland. Their skin would be pale and they threw up anything they swallowed.

 

Jason finished drinking from the canteen and took a deep breath. She was a paying customer, and customers expected him to be willing to talk. Jason pushed away his jitters, tried to suppress the shakes. Then, he began to speak.

 

“I found it on my first visit out here,” he said, “But I haven’t been back since. Too many memories, I suppose. The first time I passed through, I was desperate. I feared for my life.

 

“So much was happening, I was just glad to make it out alive. It wasn’t until later that I appreciated what I had seen.”

 

“What was it like?” she asked.

 

As he began, Jason had a brief flash of the Northern Men bursting in through the door of his old house, of his daughter screaming.

 

“It stands so tall it’s impossible to forget. The peak of it seems to pierce the sky.”

 

“What else?” she asked.

 

Jason shook his head, “You’ll just have to see it for yourself. You won’t believe it. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

 

Katrina nodded as if he were preaching some kind of gospel. Well, if that was what she wanted, she’d hired the wrong guide. Jason didn’t care for the spiritualists who proclaimed that people’s souls would last forever. He’d never seen anything to make him think that there was anything beyond this world, and that was fine by him. He’d suffered enough in his lifetime not to pine for life everlasting.

​

“You sure you really want to go through with this?” he asked.

​

#

​

Katrina smiled, trying to be polite. However, Jason’s eyes never stopped their wandering. Whenever they fell on her backpack, she felt the tight cord of panic clenching in her gut. He seemed like a nice-enough guy, but she knew better than to trust one of these people. After all, look at what happened to them.

 

The two of them talked for a little while. It wasn’t very engrossing; she had trouble relating to a person who had lived as he had. It was only when the Pillar came up that she showed any interest.

 

When they stopped for the night, Katrina found herself pressing for information, trying to learn as much as she could. She had already come so far. She wanted, needed, validation that she was making the right choice. There was part of her that was terrified that she’d gotten it wrong…

 

She’d spent her first few weeks down here trying to avoid anyone she’d seen. When she had heard approaching carts, Katrina would run off of the road, huddling in the limited safety of the leafy brush. After coming to New Bristol, she’d hoped to find help in a matter of hours. Those hours had grown into weeks.

 

How long would it be before she slipped up and the people figured out that she wasn’t one of them? How long before they caught wise? She wasn’t sure what they would do to her once they figured out the truth, but it wasn’t likely to be pleasant.

 

And then she had heard about Jason, the guide who had been through the Wasteland. He claimed to have seen the legendary Pillar of Glass. At last, Katrina had found a way out. She’d done her best to ask questions without drawing attention to herself, and she had acted more on a hunch than on facts. Now, as she realized how alone she really was, Katrina began to worry that she might have trusted the wrong man.

 

“It stands so tall it’s impossible to forget. The peak of it seems to pierce the sky.”

 

Damn it, did he have to be so vague?

 

“What else?” she asked. Instead of answers, he proceeded to give her some bland nonsense. She started to think of home. Staring forward, her face stuck in a dumb smile, she remembered the feel of her own bed. Would she ever see it again?

 

Already, she had been trapped for almost two months. The problem was the fires. The towns all seemed to burn their fires during every hour of the day. It made walking into any square unpleasant, and it had given the air an ashen hue. If she had her ship’s communications gear, it wouldn’t matter.  But the portable sat-com? There was just no way for it to penetrate the perpetual haze of interference. She needed to find a way out, a way to reach above the smog.

 

She had thought about walking far enough away from the towns to cut through the static, but that would take her into territory even more dangerous than the Wasteland. The people in town all spoke of the South and the West in hushed tones. Katrina didn’t know exactly what was out there, but it was enough to convince her that following Jason was safer.

 

“So,” he said, snapping her back to the present, “You sure you really want to go through with this? It’s still a long way to the center, and you’re liable to see some things that are unpleasant.”

 

He stared at her, and she wondered if he knew that she was an outsider. She’d lied, saying she was from one of the other small towns. It was good enough to convince the people in town to keep from asking too many questions of her, but was it enough to keep her safe out in the middle of the Wasteland? Did he know she was lying? And if he did know, what would he do?

 

What did he think of her asking him to take her on this crazy trip? The money had been good enough to get him to lead her out, but was it enough for him not to kill her? Would the people in town notice if he returned empty-handed? Would they even care if he murdered her? If they knew the truth about her, would they murder Katrina themselves?

 

“I’ll be fine,” she said, doing her best to seem calm. “You just show me the way, I’ll be fine.”

If this Pillar of Glass really did exist, if it turned out to be what she suspected it was, than she could get a message to the others. They could come for her and then she would be safe. She would never have to go to New Bristol again.

 

“Suit yourself,” Jason said, poking the campfire with a stick. Tiny embers caught the updraft and spiraled into the air like miniature stars. Within moments, they’d faded into the smoke, but their image remained.

 

Katrina felt so lost down here, but there were moments when the simplest things could amaze her. Back home, they did everything they could to avoid a fire. Down on the surface, the flames seemed to be the people’s best friend. The wood came from the old huerza trees, the mutated Maples that had somehow adapted to the radiation. When it burned, the flame took on the color of amber like flickering glass.

 

Her eyes felt heavy and she struggled to stay awake. She didn’t want Jason to be up while she was asleep. However, sitting next to the warm fire after so many nights without rest meant that there was little that Katrina could do. She pulled her pack close as the darkness seemed to surround her.

 

In her dreams, Katrina was floating in a column of ember stars.

​

#

 

When Katrina was asleep, Jason let himself relax. She was curled-up on one of his heavy blankets.  For right now, they were safe, but even that protection was only good for a short while. When they returned to New Bristol, the blankets would be destroyed. Rule Eight was to burn anything that he’d worn in the Wasteland. That included any fabrics that touched the ground. It was a hard-earned lesson, one that had almost killed him.

 

Jason watched Katrina sleep. She was pretty; she had a young face that was pleasing to look at. She reminded him of his wife when they’d first married. Of course, Pamela’s hair was golden-blonde while Katrina’s was a rich brown. His feeling was based more on a feeling than physical resemblance.

 

He rolled over and opened his satchel. Inside, Jason had a small book he’d bound himself. Flipping it open, he looked up one last time to make certain that Katrina was sleeping soundly.

 

Pamela kept telling him not to obsess over the pictures. She said that they did more harm than good. However, Jason felt a sense of peace come over him when he looked at them. They reminded him of a happier time, a time when he’d had almost everything a man could ask for.

 

Chrys was looking out at him with a wide grin, an infectious smile that forced him to match it, even now. She was only five in the first photograph, standing outside their small house in the North. There were still some regions where snow fell. Chrys would go out and make small shapes in it while Jason and Pamela watched.

 

He turned the page. There, the entire family posed together. A neighbor had taken the picture.

Jason looked at his own face. It was different in the photo; it had yet to be creased with lines of worry and age. He grinned like the fool he had been, thinking that he could live a life without consequence on the borders of the Northern Land.

 

The Northern Lands were not a safe place to live, to raise a family. He should have known that, but he’d been young and stupid. It had been another lesson that had been hard-learned.

Jason was no longer smiling. He closed the book and tucked it carefully into his pack. He and Katrina would have a long day tomorrow, and he needed his rest.

 

As he drifted to sleep, Jason comforted himself by thinking of Pamela, who was waiting for him back home. He would miss her for the next few nights, but then he would have her arms around him and he could be happy again.

 

After a job like this, they wouldn’t need to worry about money for a while. That was some comfort, at least.

 

#

 

Katrina felt a hand touch her shoulder, and she nearly leapt out of her skin. She opened her eyes and found that it was morning. The sun burned brightly in the East, and Jason was wearing a different set of clothes than he’d had on the day before.

 

Somehow, Katrina had managed to sleep through the whole night. It felt good, but she hadn’t expected it. It was the first time she’d managed to get more than three or four hours since she’d been stranded here.

 

“Sorry,” Jason said, “I didn’t want to wake you before you were ready, but we need to go if we’re going to reach the Pillar. We only have enough food to last us the next two days and the journey back.”

 

Katrina nodded, rubbing her eyes as she sat upright. Her joints moved easily, even if it was a bit slow in the morning. She felt none of the aches that she’d suffered through for the last few weeks. It was amazing, she thought, what good a full night’s sleep could do.

 

She changed her clothes quickly, throwing yesterday’s things into her large duffel, the one that Jason was carrying. Inside were a med-kit and the coins she’d brought with her, as well as other assorted belongings. The coins were simple, without any engravings. They were made of real gold. The townspeople didn’t seem to care about any markings as long as the coins were the right metal.

 

Katrina let Jason carry the money and the med-kit. The only things she needed were the clothes on her back and the small pack that she carried herself. If he was going to rob her, he could keep the cash as long as he left the backpack. Everything else could be replaced.

 

She lifted her pack and slid her arms through the straps. As the weight settled, Katrina looked up and saw Jason standing, watching her with a strange intensity. She brushed her hand over her face, hiding her eyes for a moment. When her hand passed by, he was still looking at her. His face now wore a strange expression. For a moment, Katrina was afraid that he was going to attack her. But she did not respond with fear.

 

“Are we going?” she said forcefully.

 

Jason nodded. His eyes left her, though his movements were slower than they had been before. Even as he walked in front of her, Katrina could still feel the tightness in his motions. Earlier in her life, she might have tried to run away or confront him, to force his hand. But she was older now. She knew that it would be pointless, there wasn’t anything she could do if he was planning something.  She was alone in the Wasteland and he was her guide. Like it or not, she needed Jason to survive.  If anything happened, Katrina would deal with it then.

 

The pair moved further into the Wasteland haze. Katrina was trying to track their movements on her own. They were heading east, but it was hard for her to be more specific than that. The emptiness seemed to go on forever.

 

#

 

Just after waking, Jason waited as Katrina changed. He looked back towards the horizon, his line of sight falling on their path. The ground would grow gradually smoother as they ventured further into the Wasteland. For a time, there would be almost nothing between them and the Pillar. Only the weight of the dead.

 

When he turned back to see if she was dressed, Jason caught a glimpse of flesh out of the corner of his eye. He did not stop himself from looking at her nakedness. He was tired and he had missed the warmth of his wife last night. He would be discrete.

 

That was when he saw the long black mark on her back. His head snapped up, forgetting any form of subtlety. Katrina was still facing away from him, and Jason had a long moment in which to take in the intricate detail of the marks that covered her entire back.

 

The tattoo had been done by an expert hand; the lines were smooth and sharp. But it was not the quality of the markings that amazed him. From her skin, a great bird stared out at him. Its body was dark but its head was almost white. In its claws, it clenched a great orb of blue and brown shapes.  The orb transfixed him. Why did it seem so familiar?

​

It took him a moment to place the memory.  After a long moment of staring, Jason recognized the brown shape on the orb.  It was exactly like the shape on the map.

 

The map of Merical.

 

Jason took a step back, not believing what he saw. He lowered his eyes to his feet, unsure of how to react. The legends of Merical were old, and there were few who believed them to be anything more than old folk stories.

 

However, Jason had traveled far. In a village in the North, they had artifacts from the old days. They cherished the artifacts dearly: broken shapes, scraps of strange materials, and the Map.

 

Among the treasury had been a series of coins that had survived for almost a thousand years. They were well-worn, but some of the markings were still legible. As Jason thought back to that time, he recalled that one of the coins had been marked with a vengeful bird like the one on Katrina’s back.  Even though it had been many years, he remembered.

 

Why did Katrina have a Map to Merical on her back? And how was it so clear, clearer than the old map in the North? For the first time, Jason was more than idly curious as to Katrina’s origin. Where the hell had this woman come from?

 

He knew of wanderers who tattooed maps of places they’d traveled on their bodies. If the orb was come kind of spherical map, it could be of her home. The Legends told of a land of people who had destroyed themselves.

 

Merical was a civilization that had discovered the power of the Gods and built themselves a paradise, only to bring down ruin upon them.  Merical. It was a name he had heard a hundred times as a child.

 

“Can you imagine,” his father had once said, “A land so wondrous that its people called it a miracle?”

 

For years, Jason had only thought of the Legends in passing. Now, he wished dearly that he’d paid more attention. He remembered vaguely that there was talk of towers, glimmering spires that cut into the sky.

 

Here he was, taking this strange girl to the Pillar of Glass, a relic of the Old Ones. Jason felt a shiver go through him. Who was it that he had offered to lead into the Wasteland?

 

When he looked up again, Katrina was almost fully dressed. As she turned around, he found himself staring deeply into her eyes, curious if he could see some evidence of her true nature. She seemed suddenly self-conscious and covered her face, but it only made him want to look closer.

 

When she raised her eyes again, her gaze was a challenge. He suddenly felt his knees wobble, as if there was some greater strength within her voice.

 

“Are we going?”

 

Jason managed to stammer some kind of reply, but it was hard for him to speak. He turned and led her deeper into the Wasteland. Now, as he walked, his mind was elsewhere.

 

The ground began to slope gently downward. The pair soon arrived at the gentle banks of a river. It was likely the Serpent, which came down from the North. They would need to cross it to get into the center of the Wasteland.

 

They made slow progress. The sun was heavy in the sky and it was difficult to keep going. Jason rationed their water carefully. Out in the Wasteland, the thirst could come so hard and so suddenly that it was easy to drink too much all at once. That was an easy way to die.

 

Jason found himself turning back to look at Katrina from time to time. There had been small things he’d noticed, oddities about her. He’d overlooked the abnormalities for the sake of a job, but now they were harder for him to ignore.

 

Katrina’s hair ended just above her shoulders. That was strangely short for the women from the West, who were known for their long-woven hair. Further, her words had a strange lilt to them, one that was unlike any he’d ever heard. He’d assumed that she was from further West than he knew, but now he wondered if there was more to her than that. Was this even her native language? There was a lot about Katrina that didn’t add up.

 

But if she didn’t come from the West Farthing, than where did she come from? His mind continued to return to the tales of the Old Ones. His father had told him hundreds of bedtime stories about them, and he was glad for it now.

 

It was said that the people of Merical had a great Lord, one who watched over all of them. This Lord, who was kind and gentle, had many servants hidden throughout the land who reported to him what His people did. These servants had a special name.

 

Jason strained to recall servants’ name, but the memory was cloudy. He thought of the later tales, of the Lord abandoning the people and of the age of Merical ending in a rainstorm of fire. Through the flames of death, the people of Merical had looked for some sign of their Lord. He had always kept them safe before. In the final days of Merical, their Lord had simply disappeared, and even his servants were nowhere to be found.

 

Jason struggled, but he could not remember the word he was looking for.

 

#

 

They camped for the night on the southwestern bank of the Serpent. As he made a fire, Jason said that they were close to a crossing point. Tomorrow, he said, they would venture into the center of the Wasteland.

 

Katrina ate her share of food, which was a dry meat jerky that Jason had flavored with spices. It was tough and arid, and it soaked up the moisture in her mouth as soon as it hit her tongue. Katrina desperately wanted more water, but she knew that they only had the small supply they’d carried with them. She dared not take any from the river.

 

The night passed quickly, but she noticed that his eyes seemed to linger on her more and more. As she curled up to sleep, she clutched her backpack tightly. If he took it from her…she didn’t even want to think about what would happen. She wrapped her fingers into the netting on its side. If he was going to take it, he might as well kill her right then and there.

 

For the next few hours, she drifted in and out of sleep. Katrina woke up fully in the middle of the night and heard Jason snoring. She stood and looked up to the sky.

 

Despite the land they were in, the sky in the Wasteland was clearer than anywhere else. Here, some of the stars were still visible. Katrina thought of home. A breeze came down from the West, and she shivered in the darkness. By tomorrow, she hoped, they would reach the Pillar of Glass.

 

She was able to get a few more hours of sleep before waking with the rising of the sun. Jason was up already, though he didn’t look more than a couple minutes out of bed; his hair was ruffled and his eyes weren’t fully open. He nodded warmly, a wide grin on his face. But even as he tried to be friendly, there was a tension within him. Katrina reminded herself that she only had to get through today. After that, it wouldn’t matter.

 

#

 

Jason had forgotten exactly where the crossing was, but it turned out that they were even closer to it than he thought. They reached it within a few hours.

 

The remains of an ancient bridge were collapsed in the water, and it was easy to step from one broken piece to another. Jason spoke to Katrina for a few moments about the ‘smooth-stone,’ and she seemed to smile for a moment before suppressing it. Why was she trying so hard to be serious? What was it that she knew but would not share?

 

Once on the other side, there was no more time to wonder.  As they walked into the center of the Wasteland, any momentary questions faded away. Spreading out in every direction, they looked down on a rippled sea of black glass and rubble. The vestiges of long-toppled buildings were mostly broken walls, but there were some that were almost intact. The entire expanse of land was a smooth bowl carved into the Earth, and resting at the center was a small hill that was barely visible through the haze. Jason looked over to see Katrina stare out at the wreckage with her mouth agape.

 

“I felt that way the first time I saw it, too,” Jason said to her, “Some of these broken walls are still taller than any building in New Bristol. Just thinking about what it must have been like…”

 

Katrina’s hand shook as she spoke, “I can’t stop seeing it…the people who lived here…”

 

Jason nodded, “The legends talk about a rain of fire. I’ve never been much to believe in old stories, but it’s hard to think of any other explanation.” He had never doubted the fact that something horrible had cursed this place, but it was not until now that Jason fully believed the legends.  Looking out over the desolation, he could imagine the cleansing fire bursting through the clouds above, a swath of flames to purge this land of its wickedness.

 

“We should continue moving,” Jason said, “We’re behind schedule.  We need to reach the Pillar by nightfall.”

 

Katrina agreed, but said nothing more.

 

#

 

The concrete bridge that had once spanned the river had collapsed, and she was careful not to let her legs dip into the water as he led her across. She laughed as Jason referred to the concrete as ‘smooth-stone.’

 

However, when they reached the other side, Katrina’s laughter left her. She couldn;’t help but shudder as she finally witnessed the devastation of this place.

 

The skeletons of skyscrapers seemed to have sunken into a sea of ash and blackened glass. Bricks were fused together, and the freestanding walls that remained had been melted. It must have been a low burst.  The shockwaves directly below the blast had been weaker than those that had flattened out the more distant buildings. What it had lacked in sheer violence, the explosion had made up for in molten fury.

 

She couldn’t help but imagine the people inside the buildings being cooked alive, their bodies bursting into flames. She had seen pictures of this place before the fall. Crowds filled the bustling streets. It had been a whole other world. Men, women, and children had lived here; they had called this place home. Now it was a cemetery without markers on the graves.

 

Staring over the landscape, Katrina didn’t even realize that her mouth had fallen open. When she finally heard Jason speak, his words were distant.

 

“…the broken walls are still taller than any building in New Bristol,” he said, “Just thinking about what it must have been like…”

 

Katrina struggled to find the words. She thought again of the pictures she’d seen, “I can’t stop seeing it…the people who lived here…”

 

Jason tried to connect with her, but his words rang false. He could see the rubble, but he’d never seen what this place once was. He had never learned the history of the world, only its myths. As interesting as myths could be, they didn’t have the heft of cold facts. Five million people had once lived here. Now, not even weeds would grow in the wreckage.

 

She had trouble walking as they continued forward. Each building they passed, each shattered ruin; it only seemed to remind her of what had been lost. She’d lived her entire life apart from this. Seeing it up close was more horrific than anything she could have ever learned from afar. The other scouts had told her to avoid passing by this place. Now, she knew why.

 

The day passed quickly as Katrina became lost in her own thoughts. She kept thinking of her family back home, and how worried they must be. She looked around and imagined what it would be like for them to live here in the place that once was. There had been apartment buildings that stretched hundreds of feet into the sky.

 

All of these places had been filled with people. In an instant, they had been wiped away. Those people were victims of a petty few who had damned the world to a fiery death and, after the fire, a winter that had lasted a decade. Even now, centuries later, the road to recovery did not exist. There would be no healing from what had happened. The Earth was scarred, humanity crippled. The survivors limped on, but only because there was nothing else to be done.  It was either that or die.

 

When the Pillar of Glass was finally visible on the horizon, Katrina didn’t even notice. It wasn’t until Jason said something that she snapped back into the moment.

 

“Hey,” he asked, “Did you hear what I said? We’re only a couple of hours away.”

 

Katrina looked up and finally saw it, a skinny line through the perpetual fog. The hill on which it had been built was mostly gone, its underground supports exposed. The Pillar rose up almost six-hundred feet, but from this distance it looked quite small.

 

Now that she could see it, Katrina felt a glimmer of hope.

 

#

 

Behind them, the sun was drifting down to the horizon. They didn’t have much time, but they could make it if they hurried. They wound their way through the few remnants of civilization that were still standing, careful to avoid getting too close to any of it. They didn’t reach the Pillar until twilight.

 

“We should camp for the night,” Jason said. “We can always inspect it tomorrow morning.”

 

“No,” Katrina said, “We’re going up. Now.”

 

He laughed, Up?”   He looked up the smooth sides.

 

The Pillar of Glass was impossibly tall, and its edges were smooth waves of darkened crystal. Bits of rock were embedded into the south side, though it wasn’t like a person could climb up those.

 

Katrina ran forward, making a quick survey of the perimeter.  A few seconds later, Jason was shocked to see her walk through the glass itself. For a moment, he thought that she had vanished. It was only when she popped her head back out that he realized that there was a gap in the structure.

 

“Are you coming?” she asked.  Her face was giddy with excitement, “Don’t you want to see what it looks like from the top?”

 

He grinned, even as he felt a twinge of fear. What were they going to find up there?

 

#

 

She climbed the stairs quickly. Even though they were broken and crooked, they were still sound enough to use. Jason followed her, with only his curiosity driving him forward. Katrina didn’t know why she was bringing him up with her. She could have left him at the base and vanished. But for some reason, she wanted to stay with him until the end.

 

They climbed the winding stairs, hidden from the outside world. Though the Pillar was covered in a thick layer of glass, its innards were still made of stone. The pair ascended, passing by some empty doorways along the way.

 

The exits didn’t lead anywhere, not anymore. At one point, there may have been different levels to this structure, but Katrina only cared about the one.

 

By the time they emerged at the top, the sun had fallen and the darkness of night was starting to seep over every corner of the sky. Above them, the stars twinkled brightly. Katrina smiled, already feeling more at home.

 

As Jason followed, he marveled at her speed. How had she known that there were stairs if she had never been here before? Reaching the highest level, he gasped for air.

 

With one sweep of his neck, he saw the world in a way that he had never imagined. They were so high in the air, Jason felt his stomach turn. Yet it wasn’t unpleasant, it was exhilarating.

 

Katrina took off her backpack and walked towards a relatively flat slab to the side. There had once been a sealed top to the structure, but it had not survived the blast.

 

Thank goodness for small miracles, she thought.

 

This was the one tower not made of steel and glass, but of stone. Somehow, in the midst of nuclear fire, the old ways had won out over the height of human technology.

 

She pulled out her laptop and the small sat-com dish. When she turned them on, they hummed to life with a gentle purr of spinning motors. She began to type, and the sat-com dish repositioned itself to find one of the hundreds of satellites still in operation.

 

Jason watched her, confused by the small devices that she had been hiding. They radiated an unearthly light, yet they had no fire that he could see. What was this strange object that she had kept from him on their journey? Why did she feel free to use it here? He found himself taking a step back, afraid of the sudden power Katrina seemed to wield.

 

As she finished typing, Katrina turned around and grinned, “They’re coming for me, Jason. They’re coming!”

 

“Who?” he asked.

 

Her eyes lifted slowly upward, and he followed them into the nighttime sky. The stars burned brightly, and he inhaled. He didn’t often get to see the stars. Most nights, the fog was too thick. Now that he looked up, he almost thought he could see them move. Did she mean that the stars would be coming for her? It didn’t seem possible. His hand lifted, the tip of his finger shaking slightly.

 

“You’re going up there?” he asked.

 

Katrina nodded, “That’s my home, Jason. You might have guessed, I don’t come from around here.”

 

“But how?” he asked, “What are you?”

 

“I’m no different from you,” she said, taking his hand in hers. “There used to be a great city here, the entire world used to be made of cities. But then the War ruined it all. Those of us in the stations were forced to fend for ourselves, just like the people down here. Only, we had to cling to our knowledge to stay alive.”

 

Jason looked at her in wide-eyed wonder.

 

“I know this seems strange and confusing, but it’s not magic, you understand? It’s not a mystery. The answers are in the dirt, in the remains of these buildings. People built themselves up and then cut themselves down.”

 

“But what about you?”

 

“There were many of us in the Gateway Station, totally self-sufficient. Nowadays, we only come down when we’re short on something we can’t live without. We’ve been living up there, waiting for the time when we could come back down. When I crashed, I was looking for a water.

 

“But then I was trapped. I had no way to call for help, not through the haze at ground level.

 

“I could only get a message to them from here, where you brought me. Now, my friends and family are coming to take me back home.”

 

Jason didn’t understand what she was talking about.

 

Before he could ask her to explain, there was a terrible roar.  A shape emerged from the darkness.  Somehow, even in the dark, it managed to shimmer. As it came closer, the roar became a high-pitched scream unlike anything he had ever heard. It gleamed like a giant mirror. When its sides opened, two large wings spread out that seemed to envelope the sky.

 

Katrina watched the ship come down. Nearing the Pillar of Glass, the two engines on either side engaged. The warm air rushed over her face as she walked over to the edge of the platform. The doors of the ship cracked apart, and Katrina stepped into the small, dark passage that opened for her.

 

#

 

From where he stood, Jason watched the shape slow and hover next to the tip of the Pillar. Katrina walked towards it without fear. As a small hole opened in the center, she leapt inside.

 

He gasped, stepping forward. His eyes looked for any sign of her, but saw none. As the crack closed, Jason heard Katrina’s voice echo out. It was both distant and loud at the same time.

 

“Thank you for everything, Jason. I’ll be thinking of you.”

 

The hole sealed itself shut, and suddenly the two wings burned with fire. As the flames leapt out, the strange object rose higher into the air.

 

Jason covered his face, trying not to miss a moment while still protecting himself from the terrible heat. The fire was brighter than anything he had seen except for the sun itself. The flames fluttered and cackled, pushing into the sky.

 

#

 

From inside the ship, Katrina looked down at Jason and smiled. The pilot was in the cockpit, and she would go to him momentarily. However, for the time being, Katrina wanted to get one last look at her savior.

 

He was still there, standing in shock at the top of the melted ruins of the Washington Monument. What would he think of this moment?

 

It was impossible to know. Yet, as Katrina looked down, she hoped that he would remember her well. Without him, she would never have found a way home.

 

She hoped that she had understood, in his own way.

 

#

 

Back on the ground, Jason watched the rising fire. Katrina kept rising, kept moving, kept growing smaller into the night. After a few minutes, the fire that had seemed so bright was only a small point of light in the evening sky.

 

Seeing it rise, he remembered the word he had been looking for, the name for the mysterious servants who had walked among the Old Ones. They had once tried to help the normal citizens of Merical, and they had been called ‘Angel.’

 

That is what Katrina had been: an Angel. She had come here to teach him to be better, then she had ridden into the sky on massive wings of fire. He wasn’t sure why she ahd chosen him, but he knew that he didn’t want to let her down.

 

He would tell everyone he met about her. All the people in town would hear about the Angel who had come, who had dressed herself in human clothes, had spoken a human tongue.

 

The land of Merical still had power, there were still Angels walking about. One day, perhaps, this land could be healed.

 

He would spread the word.  People needed to know.