Cloud Country by Andy Futuro Read Free Book Online Page A

higher and higher and I started to see things. I started to have these visions, but it was more than that—like what I was seeing was real, or would be, or could be real. I saw horrible things—Philadelphia destroyed, the world burning, monsters everywhere. The girl, Ria, she had been beautiful, but she started to change, to transform, like she was turning into a monster. And I felt myself changing, like my flesh and my blood were dissolving and turning into light. And there were sounds and voices screaming at me, nothing left but screams, and they were warning me, telling me things, and I couldn’t understand. It was too much…I ran. I ran away. I jumped out of the light, into the air, trying to get back to Earth. I couldn’t handle it. I was afraid. I had to get away…and…I survived. I fell to fucking Earth and I survived! You hear me?”
    She was yelling now—when had that started? She grabbed the lapels of John’s suit and jerked his face close. Her eyes were wet. Was she crying?
    “I fucking survived! I fell to the goddamn Earth from space and I woke up and I was alive! Fucking alive! You hear me?”
    Saru kissed John on the lips, and then screamed and pushed him away. She kicked at the dash and grabbed the sword, and swung it up so the point buried itself in the woodwork. She screamed and kicked and pounded on the dash, throwing a tantrum to rival that of the mistress. Then she gasped and lay panting, pushing her chair back all the way, so it reclined into a bed. John was shooting fearful glances at her and jerking his head away when their eyes met. Haha, that’s right, asshole. That’s what you’re stuck with now. A violent, piss-stained fugitive. A good decision you made. Delightful! Enjoooy! What a pair we make! Saru was lightheaded, disembodied almost, and her vision swam more than ever.
    The racing of her heart slowed, and her panting surrendered to giggled, gasping breaths. Somehow, she calmed. She felt cleansed, as though the vast, incredible fuckedness of her situation was a relief. She was so absolutely, incredibly, astonishingly fucked that nothing she could do could possibly fuck herself more. Or anyone else. She was trapped, contained, her shit storm bottled in this tin can of a plane, unable to kill or damage anyone else—well, besides John, at least. She had reached the ultimate bottom of bad decisions, and it was impossible to do worse.
    “Anyway,” Saru said, waving her hand. “I found myself in New Jersey, which at first I assumed was hell. And I just started walking. I just wanted to get away. I found this wall and flopped over it and wound up in the ‘cottage.’ I guess I didn’t want to backtrack.” She snorted.
    John’s face was clouded.
    “I see,” he said.
    “Do ya now?”
    “Tell me more of these visions.”
    “There’s nothing more to tell. I can hardly remember. It was like a bad trip.”
    “But it frightened you. It frightened you so much you risked self-annihilation.”
    “I guess if you have to put it like that, yeah. I wasn’t really thinking too clearly at the time.”
    “I fear your visions are important.”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “As a Gaesporan, the Gods often spoke to me in ways that were beyond my ken. But they never spoke frivolously. The Blue God has acted with violence. Your visions could foretell greater violence. We must find a way for you to revisit these visions.”
    “ We’ve got more important things to deal with,” Saru said, tersely. “The Hathaways have my face and my DNA. We need to find a place where we can hide, lay low, maybe for a long time until this all blows over.”
    “These goals do not exclude one another,” John said. “I know of a place where we will be safe from the Hathaways. It will also allow you to explore your visions further. There is a complication, however. Without my connection to the Gaespora, I do not know where this place is.”
    “That’s fucking wonderful!” Saru yelled. She started slamming